+ inload: 40k battle report – The Battle of Alecto +

+  Battle of Alecto +

+ A Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition battle report +

The habitual frown which marred the Blood Angels Sergeant's otherworldly features was deeply etched. Alecto Township no longer belonged to the orks – but neither did it belong to the Imperial forces any more. At least, not yet.

Armageddon, it seemed, cared little of who claimed ownership. The ever-present wind seemed as ceaseless and coarse as the greenskins, driving an eternal low-lying sheet of dust ahead of it. Already, the streets were obscured in chem-laden sand, the burning rubble extinguished. 

If the town was not recaptured, Paulo mused, it would be gone in a decade or two, buried beneath the uncaring sands.

Even this early in the morning, the air was hot, and dry, and laced with contaminants. Paulo's enhancements and autosenses might, had he so wished, have been able to distinguish which originated from the chemical run-off and pollutants that dirtied the earth, and those that came from the alien stench of orkborne sweat and burning fuel. 

He did not so wish. 

Paulo continued his patrol, eyes glancing suspiciously left and right. The Steel Legion's artillery had lacked the means to truly level the settlement the orks had occupied, and there were far too many blind alleys and low walls remaining. As a result, the Guardsmen simply couldn't retake Alecto Town, and the Blood Angels had been called in to clear this staging post once and for all.

Greenskins overrun the shattered defenders; a demoralised and exhausted scratch Company of the 7th Armageddon Imperial Guard.

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Rotskab belly-crawled up the side of the dune, his shoota strapped securely to his back. Cautiously, he raised his head to see over the crest. If the scattered Goff corpses, already bleaching in the sun, were any indicator, he hadn't been the first ork to look – but he suspected he was the first to do so with any measure of subtlety. 

He might be no Blood Axe, Rotskab thought, but Ghazghkull's got the right sort of kunnin' to send us in 'ere. Never send a Goff to do a proppa job.

Seeing and hearing nothing, he reached round to his belt, unclipping his farscope and cautiously bringing it up. Tweaking a dial, it popped into life. All the while, his small, deep-set eyes never left the town's perimeter. 

At last, he wrinkled his snout and looked down at the read-ee-screen. The orange-on-black was hard for the kommando to make out in the dusty air, and he brought it closer. 

'Oomies are still there, boss,' he murmured into the radio mic – and then he paused. More excitedly, he carried on. ''Ang on – I spy... yeah! Boss, I see beakies! – Send in da boyz!

+++

+ The combatants +

+ Defenders  Blood Axe Steal Legion – Bob Hunk +

Da Steal Leejun Ladz
@chrisbuxey

Bob Hunk's awesome orks need little introduction – though since we're a long way from Antona Australis (the PCRC's little corner of the galaxy), his greenskins are standing in for part of Waa-Ghazghkull on Armageddon. 

@chrisbuxey

What beats a Kommissar like ol' Bale Eye? An even BIGGA Kommissar! Stands to reason, don't it?

– Wisdom of Waa-Ghazghkull

Unless you've created an incredibly involved theme to your force, I'm a big believer in letting armies have a second life by swapping out the personalities at the top. Orks are ideal here, and these Blood Axe models serve just as well under Kommissar Yarrork as they do under Nuzzgrond!

Bob Hunk created this model for a Dust of Armageddon painting challenge, and it seemed fitting to use him to command this force.

'Dun't yoo muck it up, ya zogger – I'm watchin' yoo!' – various incarnations of Bob Hunk's Warboss Nuzzgrond have led the army through the years – time for Yarrork to lead them into the fray.

The rest of the army consisted of three large mobs of boyz, a mob of grots and a battlewagon – a lovely classic ork force that was built to match the size of my entire Blood Angels collection.

+++

+ Attackers  Blood Angels 3rd Company – apologist +

Faction  Adeptus Astartes – Gladius Task Force
Army rule  Oath of Moment
Detachment rule  Combat Doctrines

• Captain Erasmus Tycho – 80pts 
• Enhancement: Artificer Armour – 10pts
• Warlord
• Epistolary Ureolo (Librarian) – 65pts
• Chaplain Savonarola – 60pts
• Enhancement: The Honour Vehement – 15pts
• Medic Sansavino (Apothecary) – 50pts
• Techmarine Haynes Mirandola – 55pts
• Tactical Squad Raphael – 160pts
• Combat Squad Raphael
• Combat Squad Mephisto
• Tactical Squad Lazarus – 160pts
• Combat Squad Lazarus
• Combat Squad Cleon
• Devastator Squad Castigarius (10) – 200pts
• Combat Squad Paulo
• Combat Squad Michelino
• Terminator Squad Redemptor (5) – 185pt
• Thudd Gun (Firestrike servo-turret) – 75pts
• Rhino – 75pts
• Land Speeder (Storm Speeder Hammerstrike) – 150pts
• Lieutenant – (part of the Land Speeder)

Total 1,340pts

Just what you'd expect to see in an Armageddon-themed Blood Angels army... this is a 10th edition spin on the Rogue Trader-era Blood Angels from the GW studio in the 90s. Interesting to see how the points have dropped from the original – this would have been ~1,850pts in Rogue Trader.

It was a treat to lay out the board I've painted for the Ashes of Armageddon project, and field an army themed to the setting, too!

+++

+ Terrain, mission and deployment +

Game type  Incursion

Deployment map  Dawn of War (long edges)

Primary mission  Purge the Foe

The terrain was set out to evoke the missions from the Battle for Armageddon booklet in the 2nd edition box, with a fairly even mix of scattered ruins across the middle, and leaving the deployment zones more open to encourage movement.

The bulk of the Blood Axe forces – a subsidiary warband that Ghazghkull himself had attached to support the Goff  Stormboy Mobz – massed on the hill, with Warboss Yarrork out to the west and a battlewagon on the east, stuffed to the gills with boyz.

Facing them, the Blood Angels plumped for a split deployment, with a Tactical Squad on each flank, and the rest of the army in the centre. With the objectives split evenly across the board, I was hoping to draw the mass of orks down the centre while the flanks closed in, Cannae-style.

Unlike the Carthaginians, however, the orks had tanks! A battlewagon stuffed full of angry boyz was set to roar across the board on the east flank.

Squad Redemptor were my ace up the sleeve – kept in reserve with a plan to capture a backline objective and complete the encirclement of the foe.

+ Battle lines drawn +

+++

+ Turn 1 +

With the stage set, the orks began to roar across the board towards the Blood Angels' lines.

Orks in 10th edition are terrifying – they're all T5, which meant my heavy weapons would be struggling to hurt them, let along boltguns (I'd perhaps foolishly opted for 'proper' Tactical Marines rather than counting them as Intercessors)! 

The boyz surged forward, leaving just the gretchin to hold the rear objective. Perhaps my plan would work?

Forcing the orks to charge all the way across the field seemed unsporting (not to mention that I'd be abandoning the central objectives, so the Blood Angels moved up with the aim to contest the objectives in turn 2 and stop the orks' momentum.

... alas, history repeated itself, and in an otherwise ineffective shooting phase, the orks' weirdboy managed to kill Tycho in one go with a psychic attack!

+ Grooooaaaaan +

+++

+ Turn 2 +

Things did not improve from there for the boys in red, as – true to form – the Marines' fire singularly failed to cause much of a dent. Only a handful of boyz were removed as casualties, and the trade in fire was poor for the Marines, who lost nearly as many figures as the Orks... not great for a supposedly elite force!

Buoyed by their success and the seeming inability of the Blood Angels to deal with them, this mob of sluggas captured the central objective, right out in the open.

The news was a little better on the east flank, where the Tactical squad, aided by their Rhino, had managed to capture their objective – though the battlewagon-mounted mob was having clearly unimpressed, racing up and preparing to deploy.

+++

+ Turn 3 +

This turn saw combat joined in earnest, with the Blood Angels in the west coming off badly to Yarrork and his mega-armoured bodyguard – though the Librarian did manage to gut one of the huge orks before being smashed to the floor alongside the rest of his squad.

With that objective lost, and any thoughts of flanking there out of the window, the Blood Angels frantically scrambled to claim and defend the centre. Here, a bright spot in shooting emerged, with the central mob being badly mauled. The resurgent Blood Angels charged in even as the shootas massed under Yarrork's triumphant (and laser-enhanced) gaze.

The Terminators appeared with a crack of thunder and warp-displacement mist, and all but exterminated the grots with a particularly successful round of shooting. After a shaky start, perhaps this battle wasn't beyond saving after all.

In the east, the Marines were holding out against a mob of orks, but the numbers were quickly dwindling. The Rhino erupted with a dull thump, leaving just a scattered few surviving marines at the top of the hill. Bravely they stood their ground, the terrain and their presence stopping the orks from getting enough figures close enough to contest the objective.

+++

+ Turn 4 +

A mass melee erupted around the central objective, with the shootas joining the remnants of the sluggas to fight off the two combat squads and characters who'd joined them.

The presence of the apothecary and sergeants made all the difference to keeping the Blood Angels in the fight, and though the casualties were higher on the orks' side, the Marines were dwindling fast, whereas the orks could afford the losses.

In the west, the embattled Tactical Squad finally succumbed... and the orks cackled triumphantly as they claimed the objective – only to realise that they'd lost their own home objective to the Terminators and Land Speeder. The mobs raced back towards their own lines.

The Terminators faced the approaching boyz, undaunted. Their firepower proved successful, taking out a good chunk of the angry orks.

In a reversal of the western objective earlier in the battle, in the centre the placement of the stubborn ork survivors were preventing the Marines from wresting the objective from their foe.

At the end of the turn, the bloodbath in the centre petered out, with both sides all but annihilated. The Devastator sergeant – now the ranking officer on the battlefield! – led his men and the wounded techmarine to capture the objective... even as Yarrork and his bodyguard approached to seal the deal.

+++

+ Turn 5 +

With the end of the engagement looming, both forces moved to consolidate. The Land Speeder moved to claim the other central objective, the Terminators stood their ground on the orks's home objective, and the surviving orks reluctantly retreated to the western objective – realising that the Blood Angels were within striking distance of a win.

The Devastators hoped for a miracle. If they could prevent the warboss and his mob from capturing the objective, the Blood Angels would snatch a victory – in strategic terms, at least, for almost the entire Company had been butchered!

For a moment, it looked like the hail-Mary miracle might be on the cards as first one, then the other surviving member of the ork bodyguard were laid low by the surviving Devastators and Techmarine...

...Yarrork, however, had other ideas. No beekee was going to prevent him from reporting anything but unqualified success to Ghazghkull – and after he'd got stuck in personally, the result was predictably one-sided and brutal: the warboss himself stood victorious, knee-deep in the dead.

+++

+ Turn 6 +

A last ditch effort saw the Land Speeder race forward to contest the objective – but it was too little, too late. 

Of the 120-odd models that had started the battle, barely any survived. The Blood Angels, defeated, retreated from the field with just five Space Marines remaining; while Yarrork's Steal Legion had been thinned down to just one mid-sized mob and the warboss himself.

Victory to the orks!

+++

+ Conclusion +

Firstly, my thanks to Bob Hunk, as ever the gracious victor, for indulging me in playing in the Armageddon setting. It was a treat to play on a themed board with themed models.

Perhaps the key takeaway here is that 10th edition is brutal. Despite taking pretty 'soft' lists, we were removing huge models in handfuls. This seemed counter-intuitive to us, as orks have got tougher – both through stat changes and various stratagems; and even Tactical Marines now sport two wounds. The result of this, however, simply meant that small arms proved largely pointless – the casualties came from special/heavy weapons or simply in combat.

Overall a fun game, though losing Tycho (again!) to a psychic attack (again!) early on in the game (again!) was dispiriting – albeit very funny! I wonder how the combat in the centre would have gone if he'd been available? 

On balance, I think my plan suffered from two main problems: firstly, my Blood Angels lacked both the speed and the punch to successfully outflank and encircle the orks. Secondly, I divided my forces badly – the flanking forces were not distant enough to draw the orks away from the centre successfully, but equally weren't close enough for the central forces to support them. 

I think my plan with the Terminators worked well – though they were perhaps wasted on the hopelessly outclassed runts – but I think the Land Speeder would have been better placed centrally or to support the Librarian's squad on the western flank. Grabbing that objective early might have drawn the orks that way.

The numbers and resilience of the orks meant that Yarrork's plan – sweep forward and overwhelm the Marines with target saturation – worked very well, and Bob Hunk cannily kept his eyes on the objectives throughout.

Congratulations to the orks, and commiserations to the Blood Angels, who will have to go home to lick their wounds and rethink their strategies.

+++

So much for the marines – looks like it's down to the Imperial Guard to save their world...