AAR: May 11, 2013 - Interupted Prayers

The Storm Heralds are here to worship - a just reward after months of intense battle.  Unfortunately, the orks are unwilling to give their hated foes even a second of rest and peace.  The vile forces of Warboss Chainsaw have followed the space marines to their religious sanctuary!  The howling drop-rocks of the orks slamming into this hallowed ground have raised the ire of the human warriors and the insult of alien feet on this previously pristine world has enraged them.  Will the Emperor grant them vengeance or will the xenos put yet another place of quiet and beauty to the torch?

Objective mission with long edges.  Three objectives in play.

5x6 table.  A lightly populated urban area, dominated by a huge central temple to the Emperor.

No buildings may be entered or embarked.  Any flat surface or roof above the battlefield is considered open ground.  No cover beyond a few metal walls and railings are available.

Objectives that both armies desire to either protect or desecrate are: A vat of thrice-blessed holy water, the temple complex itself, and a hardened, pyramidal bunker which contains many of the relics of past space marines who have died in the service of the Emperor.  Two of these objectives are quite large and holding them uncontested will prove to be a challenge!

The orks are on their way!  Can the space marines protect this holy site?

Orks versus Space Marines with 1502 point limit.

Chainsawz Ladz: 
HQ - Big Mek (Shock attack gun, Ammo runt)
Troops -18x Gretchin (Runtherd)
Troops -17x Gretchin (Runtherd)
Troops - 30x Boyz (Nob with power claw)
Troops - 30x Boyz (Nob with power claw)
Troops - 30x Boyz (Nob with power claw)
Elites -10x Flash Gitz (Blastier, More dakka, Painboy)

"Behold, the green tide!"

Dark Purifiers
HQ - Antonidus Aurelius (Chapter master, Master-crafted power sword)
HQ - Ambrose Praetorius (Chaplain, Jump pack, Master-crafted combi-flamer, Hellfire boltgun rounds)
Troops - 10x Tactical Marines (Flamer, Heavy bolter)
Troops - 9x Scouts with Sgt. Immortus (Missile launcher, Sniper rifles)
Elites - 10x Terminators (Power fists, 2 Cyclone missile racks, Sergeant)
Fast Attack - 10x Assault Marines (Jump packs, Bolt pistols, Chainswords)
Heavy Support - Predator Tank (Auto-cannon, 2x Heavy bolters, Stormbolter, Hunter-killer missile)

"Gonna' make a move to a town that's right for me!"

Dark Purist wins the initial roll and chooses the blue long edge.

Antonidus Aurelius reviews the principals of being an unyielding anvil to the terminators and the predator tank crew, making them scoring units for this battle.

The warband of orks moves into the red zone to make their play.

The Assault Marines split into two squads.  One begins on top of the apothecary whose monks do nothing but purify water for ceremonies to praise the Emperor.  The other begins next to the same building to guard the door.

The Tactical Squad settles into the center of the line, ready to move to either flank.

The Terminators form up near the pyramid bunker, with the Predator tank on the extreme edge of the battlefield.

The Snipers rally around the blessed water tank objective - securing it right from the start!

Three huge Mobs of ladz are equally distributed along the battle line.  In between these, and far from the front lines are two groups of cowering Gretchin.

A small collection of Tankbusters is hiding amidst the broken obelisks.

A Big Mek leads a mighty group of Flash Gitz who are over-charging their weapons in anticipation of wrecking wimpy-looking buildings and, "makin' the wee 'umies cry 'nd beg fur mercy.  It's glow'ious..."

Someone will be crying this day, but who will it be?

The two forces of Assault Marines leap into a single formation, lead by Ambrose Praetorius.

The Tactical Squad moves along one side of the Emperor's temple.

The Terminators move forward at a walk, taking care to draw down steadily on their enemies.

With a united battle cry of indignation, the Space Marines attack:

• Antonidus Aurelius calls down a blast from the orbital defense cannon.  Worried about striking one of the blessed locations, the crew nudges their aim slightly away, scattering the blast into the Gretchin, instead of the Flash Gitz as they were ordered.  Three grot are vaporized to a purified ash.  "A good omen, brothers!"
• The Terminators unleash a hail of stormbolter fire and krak missiles at the Flash Gitz.  One of the huge orks dies outright - a hole the size of a bowling ball right thru his chest.  Another is wounded by the heavy bolter rounds.
• The Predator tank unloads it's copious firepower into the Flash Gitz mob as well.  Another ork goes down, howling about his missing legs and mangled snazzgun.
• The Assault Marines fire at the Tank Busters - but alas!  They are out of range.
• The Snipers shoot at the Tank Busters and are gratified to see four of their heads blown off.  The remainder panic (they thought their cover would protect them) and flee to the south.

The Tank Buster's lack a nob and so the unruly and hooting orks have nothing to stop their headlong flight.  The Big Mek howls in frustration as they exit the battlefield without firing a single rokkit.

All three mobs move forward cautiously - hoping for a chance to shoot their horrid sidearms in a deafening din later.

"Ho-ho!  We iz gunna make dis place inta sum'fing intearestin'!  Like a fungus beercan recyclin' pit!  Har-har-har!"

Attacks are attempted:

• Mob3 shoots at the Terminators, but they are just out of range.
• Both Mob1 and Mob2 shoot at the Assault Marines, but their crude projectiles fail to wound a single space marine!  It is an unbelievably unlikely happenstance, but the Storm Heralds do not seem surprised in the least.  "Our hearts are pure, and the Emperor protects his own!"
• The Flash Gitz pull the hairtriggers on their fearful weapons at the Terminators.  A single suit of armor freezes as a lucky hit takes out it's power pack.
• The Big Mek laughs evilly and spins up his shokk attack gun.  GAH!  The targeting system is being thrown off by something!  Instead of attacking the Terminators, the snotlings pepper Chapter Master Aurelius!  He ducks and all of the wailing little lunatics fly overhead and splatter on the pavement behind his perch.  "Wot wrong wif dis ting?"

The Assault Marines move closer to Mob2 while Chaplain Praetorius moves away from the rest of his men to flank the group of aliens.

The Terminators charge towards Mob3 to ensure that their warty fingers do not dare even touch the pyramid bunker.

Antonidus Aurelius climbs down from his tower in order to enter the fray and assist in the defense of this site.  He has seen enough of the enemy lines and voxes his men their orders...

Severe violence occurs:

•  The Tactical Squad opens fire at Mob2, but their line of sight is poor and they inflict no injuries.
• The Snipers shoot Mob2 and kill 2 orks.
• The Assault Marines open fire into Mob2 and kill 5 more ladz.
• The Chaplain opens up with his master-crafted flamer and incinerates 4 of the alien filth.
• The Predator tank shoots at the Flash Gitz and the wounded ork is blown in half.
• Terminators sweep the forces of Mob3 with heavy sustained fire and frag missile detonations, killing a wince-inducing 18 of the ladz and wounding their nob!  The unholy carnage causes the orks to turn and flee.  The Terminators are not so sure they will allow these aliens to escape their deserved punishment...

Mob3 does not run very far.  In fact, they are close enough that the Terminators are still within range of assaulting their cowardly backsides!  The results are messy: 6 orks fall while a single Terminator falls as he slips on a dead ork's arm and broke something important in his leg servo motor.

The remaining orks, already in a panic from the butcher bill they paid from the shoot-out, are now gibbering as they streak away from blood-drenched space marines at their heels.

The Assault Marines crash into Mob2.  The foaming-at-the-mouth greenskins are too dumb to run when the Assault Marines kill 14 of them, and only manage to disable 2 of the marines.

When Ambrose Praetorius hits them in the flank, none of them are able to stop him as he sweeps thru their force and kills every vile would-be-desecrator that remains!  Mob2 ceases to be a problem.

The Chaplain and the rest of the Assault Marines form up into one unit after the aliens have been thus dealt with.

The Big Mek is getting alarmed.

"Wot'z Warboss Chainsaw gunna say when he seez how few ladz I come back home wif?  Waitasec...  Wot he gunna DO TA ME?!  *Gulp!*"

With such warm and encouraging thoughts, he screams new orders and attempts to change the lines of battle to the greenskin's advantage.

Mob1 moves to support Mob2, but quickly sees that all they can do is avenge them.  "Close 'nuff.  Letz get stuck in, ladz!"

The mobs of Gretchin are ordered forward so they can shoot at the enemy and hopefully secure an objective or two.  Doubtful.  But what can the Big Mek do?  He's lost two thirds of his warriors already!

Desperate attacks are made by the ork horde:

•  Mob3 shoots their sluggas over their shoulders in the direction of the mechanical growling without aiming at all.  Their attack is totally ineffective as you might imagine...
• The Flash Gitz shoot at the Terminators and manage to cause two of them to leave the battle in fiery blasts as the beams of radiation causes the space marines ammunition to cook off inside the suits.
• The Big Mek tries again to use his frightening weapon on the Terminators.  If he can take them out, he might have a chance...  SPLOOSH!  The snotlings exit the warp tunnel in a spray of lumpy soup.  The hot soup fails to do any damage.  The Big Mek throws his massive gun to the ground in disgust.  "Diz ting iz busted!  It canna' be dat me aim iz dat bad!  Can it?  ...  Nah!"

Heedless of their commanders doubts and fears, Mob1 assaults the marines that just wiped out Mob2.  Their attack is the best of the battle so far (from the ork perspective anyway), with only 3 orks dying for a trade of 7 of the marines falling and a wound being inflicted on the Chaplain.

It's not enough.  Not nearly enough.

The Big Mek tries to surrender, but the Storm Heralds are all out of pity this day...

At the end of turn 2, Chainsaw concedes...  This game is over!  Punish the unclean xenos!  No mercy!

Dark Purist Wins!  A humbling experience indeed for Chainsaw - and one that will not be forgotten soon either.  The one saving grace for this hapless ork mob is that they are all incinerated ritually in a rather painless way - a better result than if they had escaped back to Warboss Chainsaw's wrath...

"Unclean!  Unclean!"

"Behold, the RED tide!  Owch..."