Death of a Rubricist

+ inload: Last Valkyrie Out of Grogoff + 

+ Something a little different today; I thought I'd post up a battle report. If this is something you'd like to see more of, then please let me know in the comments section below. 

+ This report is part of the Scallop Stars campaign, a series of battles set in M37, in my gaming group's (the PCRC) corner of the 40k universe, Sector Antona Australis. +

After a year of near-constant fighting to secure the gains of the Legio Validus, the order had come – from the mouth of Admiral Thrane himself – that the regiments on-planet were to fall back in good order and rejoin the Purge Fleet. 

Retreat... the word tasted bitter on Godon's tongue. This had been an excellent war. The men of Anchorpoint – his men – came from one of the strongest points of Imperial dominance in the sector. To fight aliens was a novel and rewarding experience for a regiment used to hunting down rebels, traitors and political opposition. It was clean, somehow; and pure. There was no mistaking who the enemy was here. 

He chewed thoughtfully on his cigar, then spread the chart. The waiting officers gathered closer. 'Listen here, men; if we're pulling out, we're going to give the orks something to remember us by.' The Anchorpointers, grizzled career soldiers to a man, grinned. They were fond of their firebrand Brigadier. 'We're pushing through this city here.' He indicated the site of an ancient Pique Lümen settlement; long-ago burnt and ruined by the orks. 'We're the last humans here – leastways, last true humans. Crapper; you're taking this Cathedral; I'm pushing up the Arch, and the rest of you are going to sweep whatever gets caught between us. We haven't got the Kings in Yellow helping out; but we do have artillery, air support, superheavies. We can give the greens a bloody nose to remember us by before the last lifters come.'

He looked up, eyes sweeping the room. 'We've got all the tools for the job, boys, but remember that we need to be at these coordinates before the last landers go; or we're staying here for the...'

He was interrupted by a pair of naval armsmen running into the barracks. They barged past an Anchorpoint Lieutenant before coming to a clattering halt. Both threw sharp salutes. Godon looked straight at them, and barked simply, 'Report, sailor.'
'Sir; grave news. Reports are coming in of War Engines. Titan-displacement.' The room froze.

Godon's face spread into a broad grin. As he straightened up, he pulled the cigar from the corner of his mouth.
'Hear that, boys? Looks like we'll be doing something worthwhile in this campaign after all!'

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+ The city had been sunk deep into the coral sand desert. Great structures, reminiscent of human cathedrals and cityblocks, but of alien design, threw stark shadows. +

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+ Sentinel scout walkers advanced in and claimed the approach to the Cathedral. +

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+ The two sides draw up their forces. Both sides opt for a conservative deployment, with their slower, stronger formations centrally weighted, and the flanks held by faster forces. +

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+ Kilkart waves his forces forward; the orks begin to lumber towards the centre, building up momentum. +

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+ Godon's company hold the flank; the impetuous commander eager to get to grips with the enemy. +

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+ Opening moves. The northern side of the battlefield (top of picture) sees both sides advancing cautiously. The centre erupts as the forces trade long-range fire to little destructive effect. +

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+ Four Imperial Guard infantry companies, supported by armoured elements, push forward, aiming to overwhelm the orks with numbers. +

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+ The orks have a similar idea! Artillery fire pounds a stompa formation, shearing the superstompa's head clean off. In the air, Imperial Thunderbolt fighters swoop in to attack the Kult of Speed, but are driven off by swarming fighta-bommas. The greenskins send up a whoop as an Imperial craft falls out of the sky and pinwheels across the landscape before detonating near the Cathedral. +

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+ Crapper's Company digs in by the Cathedral as an ork warband advances, supported by a kult of speed. Keen to prevent the orks outflanking or redeploying, the Guardsmen shred the Kult of Speed. +

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+ The forces trade fire. Godon holds his Vulture gunships and Valkyries in reserve, waiting for the right time to strike. he orders the Valkyries (and their Stormtrooper cargo) behind the Cathedral. +

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+ The orks strike! An ork landa braves the anti-air fire and lands near the cluster of buildings east of the Cathedral. Ork stormboyz leap out and wipe out two over-extended sentinel formations. Building on the advantage, Kilkart sends the second Stompa formation to the north under the cover of the avenue apartments. +

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+ Trading fire, Kilkart's mob is broken by the combined attacks of two guard companies. The big mek leads his orks into cover, spitting with fury, as the remaining ork forces lash back. Kilkart's mob makes it to cover, but the proto-gargant Ragnaork Mk I fails to capitalise on the damage caused to the central Guard company by the other warbands. +

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+ Crapper marshals his Company, removing the disruptive blasts but robbing the firepower of the company. Little damage is caused to the bloodthirsty orks. +

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+ The orks sweep in! The battle is bloody, and both forces retreat, broken. The orks have had the best of it, and Crapper reluctantly falls back towards the centre, trusting in the threat of the Shadowswords and Bombards to prevent the orks following. +

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+ Billowing steam and with a terrible wail, Ragnaork clatters twoards the disrupted central company. Desperately, the commander calls in Shadowsword support, but even the great guns cannot stop the War Engine. The Gargant swipes aside sufficient tanks and men to break the company, but is broken in turn by the weight of numbers and the courage of the ogryn auxilia. +

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+ Godon gives the order, and the Vultures swoop low. Eight red contrails light the sky as the formation launches its entire payload of deadly hellstrike missiles into the Gargant, leaving it reeling, aflame – but alive!

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+ Godon shows how he earned the moniker 'Guts-deep' by forcing the reeling Stompa mob into a broken retreat, claiming the objective by the Arch, and getting kilkart into the sights of his tanks in one decisive move! +

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+ The Imperial ground forces pull back from the centre and Cathedral, marshalling and reestablishing a battle line with Godon's company as the vanguard. The Vulture support pushes up as the Shadowsword advance to cover the centre. Godon is forced to commit the Hydras; pushing them forward to contest objectives. 


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+ The orks hold the Cathedral and the North, are in retreat in the South, but have pushed forward to claim most of the centre. A virtually untouched Stompa mob is rampaging down the avenue, but the buildings are proving to frustrate their lines of fire. Finally, the Valkyries strike; lifting over the Cathedral and depositing the Stormtroopers, who gun down the Stormboyz with disciplined fire. +

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+ The Imperial forces struggle to capitalise on their gains. Godon's company is over-extended, with little support – but is virtually untouched, and faces only scattered resistance. 

+ Fighta-bommas dive in to destroy the bombards with a devastating strafing run that kills them all... but ork resistance is extinguished as the Shadowswords speak again; finally reducing Ragnaork Mk I to a collapsing smoke-belching inferno. +

+ The ork gains in the north are frustrated by the Guard as the Stormtroopers and Hydras prevent claims on important objectives. +

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+ Finally, Kilkart orders the retreat. He's fairly sure he knows what went wrong with the power fields on the stompas and gargant... +

Result: Imperial Victory 2–0
(Break Their Spirit and Take & Hold)