Last post for Orktober, and it's a big old scrap! I played another game against James P's Cadians, and this time rather than a matched play game we decided to run a narrative game with a huge infantry horde of Orks running at line upon line of Guard infantry. We played a slightly modified version of the Blitz scenario from the 8th edition rulebook, which involves the attacker running into enemy territory with recycling units, scoring points for being in their deployment zone, and the defender scoring points for units destroyed.
Plenty more oomies cut down, and now there's plenty of Orks in their deployment zone. Most of the front line infantry were gone by this stage, but the Cadians still had plenty of artillery.
The Cadians were legitimately Cadians today, taking two battalions filled with infantry squads, a smattering of characters, two big blobs of conscripts, some Sentinels, three units of mortar teams, a couple of thud guns, some snipers, a hilariously wasted Rapier laser destroyer, and CREEEED! It was 'about 2000 points'.
My army was a pair of Feral Ork battalions, with 2 Warbosses, 2 Big Meks, 2 Weirdboyz, a Painboy, a WAAAGH banner Nob and a casual 160 boyz. 2006 points, but it seemed wrong to drop a boy!
Deployment, and extensive Instagram phase! (James is jp_wh40k over there if you want to give him a follow - and I'm red_toof if you're not following me already!). With all the boyz on the table, it was on to Orks turn one!
The tide surges! Not much to say, a load of advancing, some token shooting, a bit of smite. Charge!
Boyz made it in across the board, slamming into the conscripts, removing swathes of them, with limited casualties in return. However the brave few survivors passed their morale tests, holding the boyz back.
The Guard opened up, and the fight back was on. Mortar fire rained onto the boyz, causing havoc in the dense formations. The Blast rule coming into full effect, as well as Creed causing full rerolls on the Cadian crew. The front wave was almost fully removed, just leaving some on the flanks! The snipers also found their marks, reducing Redtoof himself to a single wound!
Ouch, that's the Ork dead pile after turn one! However, there's plenty more where they came from!
The white boyz mob swarmed back on from my table edge, and the remnants of the pink squad fell back to return with more using the Unstoppable Green Tide stratagem. The rest of the boyz moved up with the characters to charge deeper into enemy territory. Disappointingly, the Weirdboyz failed to Da Jump the white boyz, so they were stuck far from the front lines.
The Painboy gave Redtoof a medi-squig and shoved him off to charge one of the sentinels as the horde surged forward. He took overwatch from a heavy flamer, dealing three wounds past his save, but the Painboy managed to keep him alive to run in and smash it apart.
Another punishing barrage smashed into the Ork lines, removing most of the forces on the right flank, but leaving a central push largely intact. Redtoof fell to a smite, but the snipers failed to take out a Weirdboy.
Turn three, and strangely, no more Orks managed to make it onto the battlefield. However, there were still a lot pushing in. The blue mob surged in over the barbed wire to make deep inroads, while the shootas on the left flank gunned down one of the sniper squads.
The rest of the snipers were still picking out their targets, and the bombs were still dropping. The Orks were deep behind the lines, but the Guard were cutting them down in huge numbers. Target priority started to shift from the mobs of boyz to the characters, trying to cut off the head. They killed one of the Weirdboyz, and forced the other to cower behind a rock. Bluetoof had outlasted Redtoof, but was taken out as well.
Turn four, and three more mobs of boyz swarmed on. Plenty more bodies, but far, far away from the action. Too little, too late?
The blue mob pushed deeper cutting down a pile more guardsmen, supported by the WAAAGH Banner and Painboy. The red shoota mob got Jumped into position to charge the Ratlings, and pile in through to the mortars, but a failed charge here was a big blow.
With the first, second and third line completely gone, the guard had clear lines of fire for their artillery. The shells fell and so did the Ork bodies. When the smoke settled, the swarm had been blunted, including the WAAAGH Banner bearer, smeared across the ground by a direct hit from the Rapier.
The Orks had several units behind the enemy front lines, but those lines were clogged with the bodies of the fallen boyz. At this stage we counted up, the Guard had removed enough units, that the Orks wouldn't be able to catch up in turn five, regardless of how many units were killed after that.
Well that was a hell of a game - and a hell of a body count! A bit different to the matched play games I've been playing recently. More of a cinematic spectacle of a game than a battle of wits - this was all about the narrative and the Instagram phase. It felt fairly close, various stages of the game seemed like it was going heavily in the favour of the Orks, then the guard shooting phase happened. Then more Orks pushed in. Repeat.
Anyway, fun time, and a fun Orktober, full of good Ork stuff. Sadly with lockdown rules it looks like it'll be the last game for a while (though I do have one more report to write up), but it was a good note to 'end' on. Hope you had fun reading and, especially with new rules likely coming into effect in the UK, stay safe out there.
