It was dawn, but human eyes saw only darkness as the corpse pyres of Armageddon’s ash wastes burned ever more fiercely.
The augmented eyes of the Astartes, however, could make out the different types of smoke. These pilllars, for example, might be from human cadavers – but there were also traces of machinery in the background, high octane promethium being guzzled in quantities hard for your average Guard Quartermaster to comprehend.
The lone Blood Angel sentry zoomed in on these traces and saw a looming dark shape, towering over the rabble of greenskins around it. His enhanced senses filtered out most of the visual interference and brought something as close to fear as an Astartes could feel…
That something is, of course “Big Red” – as she’s proven HILARIOUSLY oversized as an Epic Great Gargant, we chose to bodge some Stompa stats from an 8th Ed Codex we found online and stack Da Black Ork Cav up against the Blood Angels for another round of Retrohammer!
Da Kav deploy… rather thematically, we’d drawn Linebreaker as an objective while Dan’s Marines had drawn Engage And Destroy… so Da Kav would be seeking to batter their way in to the Blood Angels’ positions while the Marines sought to take down as many of the greenskin scum as they could!Ready to WAAAGH!Da Ladz win first turn and set off confidently..Dan’s Thin Red Line stands ready to greet them! LOts of guns, Devastators, Tactical squad and Terminators making their first appearance…Ork fire all over the battlefield.. unfortunately, none of it hits the bits where Space Marines are!Return fire downs some Grots and knocks a couple of guns off Big Red..
Da ladz and da Bosses get ready to pull a drive-by..The Blood Angels brace for impact!Under a barrrage of Krak and Melta missiles, the Stompa falls!Da ladz & bosses get stuck in as Big Red falls!“‘Ave it!”Ork Kommand assaults the Devastators on the hill!Turns out even Devastator Marines are pretty ‘ard..As Da Management find out!Surviving Marines enact their counterattack protocol.. it’s not pretty!But I guess it’s not supposed to be…
And with that, we hand victory very firmly to the Blood Angels – the minute the Stompa hit the ground we were on the back foot, but kudos to Dan, those Marines behaved like Marines!
So.. where do you want to see the campaign go next? Let us know in the comments!
Smoke was rising over the dawn horizon as the tired sentry swigged the last of the water in his canteen. Squinting over iron sights, he peered down into the valley below and was suddenly snapped back to wakefulness.
The horde below seemed to have multiplied during the night. The Orca warhorde they had been tracking was far larger than intelligence had led them to believe – their brute warchiefs bellowed orders in their foul tongue, and although much of the camp was wreathed in smoke, the vibrations through the ground betrayed the steps of some far larger creature.
Could it really be true? The machinations of this new warchief that had been terrorising the northern quadrant had all been to summon some abomination from beyond the veil? The possibility was to hideous to contemplate, yet in the face of such terror, the Sky Marines stood tall…
The bushes rustled behind him. The next watch was arriving. He turned and hissed the password “Thunder?”
No answer.
“Thunder?” he hissed, irritated.
With inhuman swiftness, the chittering shadow leapt upon him, it’s blade cleaving a bloody arc through the man’s battledress.
“Die-die, man thing!” hissed the Ratman, wiping the Sky Marines’ blood on its’ cloak…
Well, it’s been a long time coming but we’ve finally managed to bring the Hyperian Warsmini-sort-of-campaign to a conclusion! And now the Orca horde of Warchief Ghazhrag The Bloody have established their status as Senior Baddies by beating seven shades out of Lord Ratticus’ Virum Nascii, we figured a suitable climax would be having them team up against the combined forces of humanity, the Ancien Regime and the Grand Alliance 301st Skyborne! And in doing so, we figured we could shake down the Hyperian Wars ruleset by seeing how it coped with a battle fo this scale and complexity…
Grab a beer, this is going to be a good one 😉
The stage is set… Baddies to the left, Goodies to the right – humanity’s Thin Red Line
Baddies new toys come out to play…Virum Nascii support teams deploy in the ruins, backed up by Slave archers.. note the Assassins infiltrated forwards into the fieldWitch Colonel Alecius Murphy sets up shop in the ruins – cavalry ready for a counterattack, the Ironclad and Steam Tank make ready to spill the blood of Beasts this day!The Dauntless and Whippets deploy out of sight behind the rocks with the intent of being one of the claws of a pincer movement, the oher being the Ancien Regime cavalry & armourAncien Regime grenadiers draw a bead on the Virum Nascii Assassins that have infiltrated forward into the cornfield…..this backfires as the Assassins achieve Frenzy and pile into their lines! Some opportunistic little buggers make a beeline for the Sky Marine squad deployed in the trees on the flank…Humies put up a stiff resistance, however – resulting in a few fallen Sky Marines and Grenadiers, but a completely annihilated regiment of Assassins!Virum Nascii superheavy leads the charge toward human linesVril lightning cannons purt the hurt on the Ironclad!Seeing the sheer mass of what’s heading their way, the Dauntless crew realise there’s no time for fancy strategy – we need every gun firing, and NOW!Virum Nascii losses are appalling, but they’re carving off casualties right and left off the human forces and the Orca haven’t even been touched yet!Orca are approaching in strength, but it’s the Virum Nascii paying the price.. so far!Carnage in the centre as the Virum Nascii and Ancien Regime super heavies take each other out!Orca magic takes a toll on the DauntlessThe first wave of the Beasts have been almost wiped out, but not without cost to the brave human defenders..You didn’t think that was IT, did you?!?“CONTACT FRONT!”More Orca crash into the Ancien Regime lines!The cavalry are hit in the flanks…..and annihilated!With the Orca rolling up the left flank, peppered by fire from the surviving Virum Nascii weapon teams, humanity prepares a last stand under the rocky outcropsWhippet squadron makes a desperate counterattack…The surviving Ancien Regime grenadiers decide to die gloriously!Sky Marines desperately try to stop the approaching Orca horde!Not entirely successfully…. this is how you earn combat pay, lads…“Enemy to our front, left and rear.. they can’t get away now!”Virum Nascii weapon teams bring down the Whippets!Listing, smoking, damaged by Virum Nascii special weapons and Orca magicks, the Dauntless makes her final stand… Vrilfire missiles and cannon take a vicious toll on the Beasts!The last remnants of the Orca horde try desperately to overhwelm the few remaining human defenders..The last grenadier falls and the Orca crash into the Sky Marine rifle squadHumanity not going down without a fight!And when the smoke clears…. the last handful of human soldiers and the surviving crew of the heavily damaged Dauntless look across a sea of bodies, human, greenskin and ratman..
Phew. Well, we did it – just. Humanity held this day, despite appalling casualties and some real nailbiter moments! In fairness to Dan, this was a “beta test” style game, working out some kinks and it’s easy to see that once we’ve got the Orca magick system a bit more fleshed out the shamans will be a LOT more effective.. plus we had to bodge the initiative system a bit to account for the different Strategy Ratings of the four sides.. but overall, immense fun was had, and the system got shaken down very thoroughly! The Beasts of Hyperia will be back, you’ll see…
Warchief Ghazrag surveyed the seen and grunted. His Waaagh God Avatar had been banished back to the ether, most of his ladz and practically all the Ratmen were slaughtered – it was time to pull back while he still had enough troops to rebuild.
He shrugged. It had been a laugh, after all. And you could always come back for anuvver go. “See you soon, ‘oomie”, he grunted and gestured for his lads to follow him from the battlefield…
Winter has come to Ye Olde England, and with it the desire to shift game night from the shed to the more civilised and centrally heated realm of the kitchen table – and when one chooses to sacrifice space for warmth and ready access to the drinks cabinet, that means smaller skirmish games become the order of the day.
In anticipation of this – because, as it turns out, winter actually happens every year – Dan & I acquired a game we’d long tried to hunt down, EM4 Miniatures’ Combat Zone, and after our YouTube debut and painting the forces of the Corporate Troopers and the Ginger Ninja street gang, it was high time to get these lads out on the table top and start working our way through the mini-campaign outlined in the rulebook. And so, for your delectation, here is a run down of the first couple of games! The plot (such as it is) centres around the street gang trying to ensure their survival by acquiring some new heavy weapon-toting robots, and in the first two games the Ninjas would be trying to break into the warehouse where a damaged machine was being stored with the intent of nicking it.
Game 1: Operation Security Strike
This would involve two mobs of gang members trying to shut down the alarm system in oder to allow their comrades to get into the robot warehouse, with the Corporate Troopers of Bionetica Inc. trying to stop them:
The photos are a bit of a jumble on this one, but basically one mob tried to keep the Troopers heads down while the second made a dash for the alarm – unfortunately for the gang, the Troopers were a bit too well disciplined and devastated the first group resulting in everyone piling hell for leather into the area where the alarm was, with the surviving handful of gangers attempting a desperate and fruitless last stand… ending with a wonderfully cinematic moment when Trooper Wyler, whose mate Staples had been the first to fall to ganger fire, swooped in and shot the sole remaining ganger through the head at point blank range!
The Ginger Ninjas attempt to engage the Troopers from behind cover..Troopers hit the deck (the ones lying on their front are Dropped Down, lying prone – but poor old Staples takes one through the chest and goes down hard!)As the casualties pile up, the gang decide to hell with the plan – everybody forward!Into the warehouse – the objective is in sight…Trooper Zukovik goes up close and personal!It’s too much for Ringer, who bottles it and Routs!“Eat this!” Sergeant O’Connell brings the pain to Klingfilm (seriously X-D)An illustration of the efficacy of Ganger supporting fire….Klingfilm goes down – that double denim look just doesn’t cut it out on the streetsIt’s all over – Sergeants O’Connell and Anderson survey the scene… 3 troopers down but the Ginger Ninjas are annihilated!
Game 2: Robot Robbery
Despite the failure of their comrades to stop the alarm being sounded, there was no going back for the Ninjas, and the second game had them trying to get one of their three Techs (Nancy, Wing Nut & Hard Drive) into the warehouse where the damaged Enforcer mech was being held… we managed to do an even worse job on the photos here, suffice it to say once again it don’t go well for the Ninjas who left most of their number on the battlefield.. still managed to drop a couple of Bionetica Corporate Troopers but by the time the Techs had made it to the warehouse, they were pretty much on their own…
Having activated the Enforcer, Nancy climbs up on it’s frame for cover as her remaining gang members fall to Corporate Trooper fire…It takes the combined fire of three Troopers at close range to bring her down, but bring her down they do!
So that’s 2-0 to the Troopers and given how badly mauled the Ninjas got, I’m wondering how well playtested these scenarios were… but s till, it was great fun to play and when you’ve got your head around the mechanics, Combat Zone is a LOT of fun as a pick up and play skirmish game – so we’ll be making our way through the rest of the campaign and seeing how it all unfolds as the nights continue to draw in and get colder…
And we revisit another Great Skinflint Tradition – two really, the first being the Hallowe’en Zombie Game, the second being the six week lag in reporting it..
Last year we saw Buffalo 2-7 take to the field fighting the notorious Battle Of Yonkers from World War Z (AWESOME book, meh film) – fans of the book will know that following the catastrophic failure of the US Army to stem the tide through conventional means, it restructured, reorganised and came back to fight again at the battle of Hope, New Mexico.. now at some point we’ll fight that battle but it does call for a very different style of US Army – massed ranks, blue uniforms, no automatic weapons, no heavy armour – than we had to hand!
But the thought occurs that after Yonkers and before Hope, there must have been a fair few clashes as the Army tried to figure out new ways to fight the zombie menace.. and so we find Lt. Grant and the mysteriously resurrected Buffalo 2-7 shepherding a familiar looking crowd of civilians across a hot zone to reach shelter. We marked 8 entry points on to the table – the first turn Dan would get 1D6 groups of D6 zombies and rolled a D8 (having remembered we’ve got some – and Mantic look like they might have something interesting for us to use them with) to find where they would enter. Turn two he would get 2D6, turn 3 4D6 etc/ doubling each time – although in retrospect this was probably a miscalculation and we topped out at 8D6!
The board is set – Buffalo 2-7 looking to get their civilian charges from the right (woodland) across the left (urban) board side – you can see the markers for zombie entry points“You lot again. Can’t you ever stay out of trouble?!?”As the civilians filter through Kubica pass, the zombies start to nibble away at the flanks…Bravo 1 are charged by zombies!To add insult to injury, a rifleman is resurrected as a zombie!The first wave of zombies is despatched and the lads lead their charges into the urban half of the board…but there’s trouble brewing….Can zombies ambush? George A. Romero seems to think so!The trap is sprung! Alfa 2 fall to zombies“Run! Get to ze chopper!” yells Lt. Grant as Buffalo 2-7 engage decisively – contacts left, right & centre!A wave of zombies engulf Grant’s command element!It’s a bloodbath… but every zombie can be respawned, not so our heroic commanders!Zombies crash into the civilians!…rapidly being swamped, it’s carnage!See?
So once again the undead have triumphed, eating not just all of Buffalo 2-7 (again) but also their civilian charges! In fairness it was a really fun game, Dan was very handy at keeping his zombies out if harm’s way to build up a good sized wave to overwhelm my troops meaning that while the first couple of turns were pretty uneventful – leading me to get a bit complacent – the shit hit the fan pretty hard when we hit the urban area! Very cinematic and much like last year’s game you really felt things get out of hand quickly…
So, what can we concoct for next year’s game…. let’s see! Stay thrifty out there, see you soon!
The fan overhead beat rhythmically, echoing the antigrav pulse of the ubiquitous Silverbug engines. Alone in his bunk, Lt. Grant found it hypnotic. He’d been on this new assignment a week now – getting softer, getting weaker.. while out there, the Russians and Chinese only got stronger. He understood now why McAuliffe took solace in whisky – what else was there to do, when peace was just a dream.
The next thing he knew, he was being held under a freezing shower by two MPs. Clean shaven and with his most presentable fatigues on, he struggled not to sway as the Colonel briefed him.
Reading through his notes, Grant couldn’t believe they’d given him the right file. The officer they’d named had been a paragon of anti-Soviet resistance, even volunteering for and passing out through Foreign Legion training at age 38. Grant buried his resentment at the mission as best he could – but his platoon sergeant had no such reserve.
“We’re short and they want to take us upriver to kill a friendly? God F*CKING damn it! I thought you were going up to blow up a bridge, or some railroad lines? Ruskies and Chinese are piling in across the borders every day and we’re supposed to go kill our own goddamn allies?” Grant gritted his teeth. “This is my task force. We put this thing down where we need to and do what it takes to get the job done.”
Mac looked hard into his Lieutenant’s eyes. “Sir. Yes sir.”
Out on the landing fields, Grant watched the surf crashing against the beach, squinting against the low morning sun. Behind him the familiar pulse of antigravity boosters boomed out as the Silverbugs roared to life, the smell of ozone and cordite wafting across. In spite of himself, Grant couldn’t help but smile, he loved that smell first thing in the morning. It smelled like… victory.
Off we go again with anotherApocalypse: EarthSummerSmackdown! Hard on the heels of seeing what Dan can do with a soap dish and a biro, it’s time to put our newly reinforced League of European Nations forces to the test.. and a certain LoEN colonel, deep in the Southeast Asian jungles of an unnamed European protectorate has gone certifiably off his rocker, creating a new wonder weapon with the fruits of espionage on the secret Atlantic Alliance antigrav programs… and the Alliance need to get the situation under control! So who else but Buffalo 2-7, reconstituted after their encounters with a zombie horde and a couple of time warping, reality-bending scraps not to mention their heroic defence of Faslane naval base, to do the job?
Buffalo 2-7 deploy, armour to the fore, skimmer units and Rocketeers set up a flank manoeuvreBeen a while, hasn’t it lads?Ze Churmans, caught under Kurtz’s spell, rush to meet them!The Atlantic Alliance win the initiative, first shot from the lead Centurion demolishing the 88Gw laser as the rest of the LoEN force holds out in cover trying to weather the storm..Alliance forces push forwards at top speed across the exposed open ground, infantry taking cover wherever they canHaunebau makes its’ debit! And although the plasma cannons are laughably ineffective against the target M60 Centurion, those twin linked machine guns take a terrible toll on the Allied infantryThe state of play after Turn 1- note the burned out M60, a casualty of combined Ocelot laser cannon fire.. on the opposing side, one Ocelot destroyed and another one with a laser cannon blown off.It had to happen – boosted by a few Command Points spent on her, Silverbug shreds the Haunebau powerfields with her Avenger cannons and demolishes it with Stinger/TOW ADATS missiles! Still, at least it lasted a turn…Surviving Ocelots attempt to light up another M60…Kurtz’s HQ section manage to target the underside of the lead Silverbug and manages to penetrate it’s armour, causing a catastrophic explosion! Wingman arrives and scythes through the Jager squadron..With their armoured assets mostly stripped away by murderous Allied fire, von Hulkenburg gathers his platoon in cover preparing to counterattack the Allied infantry assaultThe surviving Ocelot prepares to go down swinging..Struggling to target von Hulkenburg’s regulars, the Allied APCs absolutely ventilate the territorials up on the hill guarding the objectiveThe jaws of the Allied trap begin to shut..Rocketeers vault up onto the clifftop and massacre the Territorials at close range, suppressing them However Territorial HQ wreaks a terrible vengeance!Despite the panzerfaust operator being unable to hit the side of a barn door, concentrated rifle and machinegun fire manages to cripple the two Humvees trying to flank von Hulkenburg’s regularsAs the Allied noose draws tighter, von Hulkenburg’s regulars knuckle up on the objective with the remains of the Territorial platoonBut they’re not quick enough as the minigun armed Humvee (bolstered by ALL my Command Points this turn) catches them out in the open, massacring a rifle squad and all Kurtz’ staff!A last ditch effort by surviving LoEN assault troopers land in by jump pack and massacre Bravo squadAn M113 draws a bead on Kurtz with a grenade launcher and two LMGs..Surviving Silverbug massacres the Territorial HQIt’s been a hell of a scrap!Surrounded by the Atlantic Alliance Command Element, and wounded by the M113, Col. Kurtz is helpless as Grant icily draws a bead and pumps three rounds at close range into his head…
The first round hit home. “For my men” The second round hit home. “For von Hulkenburg” The third round hit home. “For me”
Looking down at his foe, Grant saw him mouthing something. leaning closer, he could just faintly hear.. “The horror…. the horror..”
As the frosts of winter begin to recede and the rain gets steadily warmer, it’s time to warm up the shed once for more for some 2nd Ed 40k!
Recent terrain builds have all been of a certain retro theme and that’s been no coincidence, as we’ve been planning the next scenario in our vaguely narrative 2nd Ed 40k campaign featuring the 1991 Blood Angels against the miscellany of Da Black Ork Cav, and in their previous outing my red lads took an absolute kicking and were for the most part unable to hit the side of a barn door before their morale broke. This left Captain Tycho largely unsupported as he attempted to salvage Chapter honours by barrelling into the Warboss and his command section in a last ditch effort to deny them their objective.. and despite dishing out a beating to the various greenskin oiks around him, ultimately fell to a barrage of choppas.
Of course, Space Marines don’t die easy, and we figured it would be much more thematic for a second game if his 2ic, the Lieutenant, led a rescue party on the Black Ork Cav HQ building Jim put together some weeks back. This time, the Marine objective would be to reach the building (presumably Cap. T’s power armour has some sort of emergency distress beacon on it), while the Orks would be attempting to kill, break, or otherwise prevent them – so not quite true to the 2nd Ed Mission Cards, but should be fun.
That table is set – Black Ork Cav HQ garrisoned with Gretchin, the rest of Da Cav ready to counterattackBattlewagon with Warboss BludGuzzla and co ready to counterattackDa Dread stands ready to lead the push backGretchin stand to on the walls of the HQMarines dash forward hugging cover where they can, with missile launcher team providing cover“MOVE OUT”Closing in on the objective…Missile launcher attempts to take down the Dread.. misses.. of course!Gretchin fire patters off Marine armour.. at least they hit something, unlike the Dread!Battlewagon darts forward and drops off the Warboss and entourage.. like all sneaky Blood Axe gitz, they eschew a good honest charge forward and prefer to skulk around in cover… “taktix”, as they call itMarines gun their jump packs and leap into combat with the Warboss and his entourage Assault Marines fight a deadly brawl with Ork Warboss, Nobz, and OddboyzAssault Marines and Ork Nobz take a healthy toll of each other..Meanwhile, the second Assault Marine combat squad clears the hill in front of Black Ork Cav HQ Marines take the hill…Warboss & Bigboss take a toll on the Assault Marines..Da Black Ork Cav Don’t Quit! One lone Ork Boy disputes the hill..Marine Chaplain engages the Warboss in melee while the Bigboss barrels into the Assault Marine squadBEHIND YOU!!!!! Despite jamming it’s heavy bolter Da Dread turns it’s lascannon on the missile launcher Marine, turning him to superheated mist…With nothing but bolters to face down the Dread, support team leg it into coverMeanwhile, the assault group close in on Da Cav HQGretchin gulp down their fire and let fly with their autoguns, to little effect..The Chaplain finally batters the Warboss into submission, but the Bigboss is still well in the fight and presumably having the time of his life…A volley of frag grenades massacre the GretchinSurviving Assault Marines jump pack in onto Cav HQ roof top and go to town on the poor Gretchin!And that’s 20 Gretchin despatched without a scratch… raining Grot copses off that roof! (We figured it was quite a nice cinematic image to imagine these 7 foot behemoths hurling Gretchin off the roof with each swipe of a chainsword)That’d be Objective Secured then.. as the surviving Gretchin break and run for the hills
Right, so that’s Captain T rescued then. and the survivors of Da Cav legging it over the horizon.. a Dread, half the Gretchin, a Battlewagon and most of a Boyz Mob.. along with Da Snipa… so what shall we do for the next scenario? Jim has an idea for a “chase” scenario – stay tuned, and most importantly stay thrifty!
Apparently so.. aww, remember when we thought Donald Trump was a threat to world peace? And that Brexit was a genuine existential problem?
And so we come to 2023, having endured plague, economic catastrophe and war in Europe.. it really is true that you only realise you’re in a Golden Age after its’ gone. Still, at least it can’t get any worse, right?
RIGHT?
Anyway – we figured that a great way to wind up a pretty shitty year would be to get as far away from reality as possible, 38,000 years into the future and return once more to the world of Hazzard. Since our last scrap, we’ve added a HELL of a lot of kit to both the Ork and Imperial sides, not to mention a small contingent of Squat allies – so stay tuned, this should be a good one.
I rolled out Waagh-Bozzhog, recently reinforced with aDeath Skull clan – and of course Big Red from a few years ago – and the order of battle was thus:
Evil Sunz clan reinforced with Nobz Warbikes, Gobsmashas, Bowelburnas, Spleenrippas and Mekboy Dragster
Goff Clan reinforced with Lungburstas, Gutrippas and Skullhamma battle fortress
Bad Moon Clan reinforced with Braincrushas, Squig Catapults and Weirdboy Battletowers
Death Skull Clan reinforced with Bonebreaka and Stompas
Ork Warlord & Stompas
Slasher Gargant
“Big Red” – Great Gargant.
This lot topped out at 6,600 points, so yeah – game on!
Jim pondered and decided that after the Redeemers had taken such a kicking in their last game and it would take time to replenish their geneseed, it would be my DIY Guard and his DIY Squats taking centre stage. Standing up to the orkish horde would be:
So, with forces chosen, we rolled up a battlefield, placed objectives and had at it!
Look at all that delicious cardstockBattle lines are drawnThe Imperial coalitionMy ladz, Waagh-Bozzhog, bigger and stringer than ever!More shots of da boyzThe Hazzard 1977th prepare to roll forward on the Imperial right flank“We might need an Imperator…”With an almighty “WAAAAAAAGH!!!”, the ladz roll forwards – Goffs lead the Death Skulls with Warlord Bozzhog on the Ork left with the Slasher, Big Red anchors the centre, the Bad Moons roll into position to provide fire support and the Evil Sunz zoom off in a furious charge to take out the Squat artillery and tanksGoffs pour forward along the valley floor, Death Skulls in supportImperial armour wheels to face the Evil Sunz and protect the SquatsLeviathan faces down the Slasher as the Guard rolls into positionImperial guns open up on the charging Orks!Squat Grand Battery, Colossus and infantry all open up on the Evil Sunz, but will it be enough?
Massed fire from the Guard infantry bite into the Deathskulls and strip the power felds off the Slasher, allowing the Leviathan to administer the coup de grace!On the Imperial left, however, it’s carnage as the Breathless Vengeance falls to massed fire from the Bad MoonsEvil Sunz close assault the Squat Grand Battery, and a couple of the Guard Vindicators to bootThis ends pretty much as expectedLand Raiders & Warlord Titan combine to down Big Red, whilst the combined fire of the Bad Moons and their lethal Weirdboy Battletowers turn the town to rubble, slaughtering the Squat infantryEvil Sunz are in amongst the Imperial lines, causing havoc but taking serious losses in the processGoffs charge in as the Death Skulls retreat, whilst Warlord Bozzhog and his Stompa Mob turn their fury on to the Leviathan, destroying it utterly!Goffs assault into the woods, capturing Objective 7 from the GuardCarnage across the board! At this point Jim was keeping his Space Marines sheltered for a counterattack, having learned from previous games..Hard to say who’s winning here…
…but as it turned out, the Imperials had the good fortune to explode both the Gargants from internal fires, and had caused just enough casualties to break the remaining clans! Despite having lost a Land Raider Company, all the Squats, the Leviathan and most of the Vindicators there was still a solid core of Guard forces plus a Veteran Marine company as yet untouched… so yet again, Warlord Bozzhog’s dastardly plans have come to naught!
Jim admitted he really thought that was in the bags for the Boyz, crediting pure luck with the destruction of the Gargants, and part of me agrees woth him… ah well, all the more excuse to reset and go again! And how will the Squat community on Hazzard feel about seeing their forces massacred while the Redeemers Space Marines cowered in their Rhinos, I wonder… might have the war on Hazard taken another turn??
I wasn’t going to write this… but Jim pointed out a) it was my turn after he’d done the battle report for the other week’s Hallowe’en game, and b) the god folks who follow this blog have been waiting over two years to see my 1991 Blood Angels finally get some action in!
We did the campaignsthat came with the 2nd Edbox set a few years back, (the Dark Age Of Peace & Sanity, if you will) with my lads in their former incarnations as Deathwatch Marines, but aside from no longer being able to locate the campaign book (oops) we fancied pitching in and doing a full blown “proper” 2nd Ed game. So, the table was set – well, pretty much left as it was from Yonkers the other week – and off we went!
We picked 1000 points, Jim knocked up a list from the newly christened Black Ork Cav featuring Warboss BludGuzzla, a Nob, a Bigboss, the Dread, a Battlewagon, a Dok, a Mek, two mobs of ten Boyz each and two of twenty Gretchin each… 64/65 infantry a Dread & a Battlewagon, pretty formidable!
To oppose them, I picked a Tactical squad with flamer & missile launcher (tooled up with frag, krak, melta & plasma shells) and figuring that the best way to oppose lots of bodies (mostly T3 Grots) would be LOTS OF GUNS I backed that up with a Devastator squad packing a pair of missile launchers tooled up with the same selection of shells and a pair of heavy bolters. Captain Tycho would command the force and after picking that up I was left with 32 points so I tooled him up with a couple of bits of wargear to help him in close combat.
We drew Mission Cards, me getting Engage & Destroy, Jim getting Take And Hold, and we agreed that his objective would be the ruined church in the middle of the open countryside. Orks deployed first as was their wont with a lower Strategy Rating:
The Black Ork Cav – quite a spectacle, I must say Jim!The thin red line of heroes deploys to meet them..They do say quantity has a quality of it’s own.. and looking at that lot I couldn’t help feel a little uneasy..To everyone’s surprise, the Orks got first turn and advanced, a barrage of autogun fire reaching out and knocking out BOTH my missile launcher marines! So, a good start… Frag missiles and bolter fire lay low a few Grots, but maddeningly they keep passing their morale checksSurviving Devastators take cover and loose pot shots against the Grot mob screening the Ork boyz
..and then a technical hitch seems to have stopped us getting any more photos.. which I’m thankful for because frankly my Marines – the ones I’ve spent the last TWO AND A HALF YEARS painting – performed utterly abysmally.. aside from a few Grots downed here and there, my sole remaining missile launcher whiffed to hit the Dread THREE TIMES before being killed by a Gretchin, heavy bolters jammed left right & centre and the only time I rolled higher than a 2 was doing the morale checks, then I couldn’t roll less than 11!
As a result, Captain Tycho’s entire command was either killed or ran off, the last pictures of the man himself show him heroically charging the Ork Warboss and Nobz in a last ditch attempt to deny them their objective:
And to be fair, he did a good job, Captain T is a MONSTER in close combat.. but after finishing off the Warboss, the Bigboss and the dozen or so Orks round him simply opened up and turned the proud Captain into Peter Weller from the opening scenes of RoboCop..
Jim, in fairness, didn’t gloat too much, and even admitted that my luck with the dice was beyond appalling, so we’ve agreed that a rematch must happen… and then we figured well, why just repeat the game? Surely Captain Tycho has now been imprisoned by the Orks and it now must be critical for the Marines to rescue their leader? Plus just what was Warboss BludGuzzla IV looking for in that ruined church?
So with that in mind, I think a 2nd Ed campaign may be in the works… of course if the Marines are going to raid Da Black Ork Cav home turf, we’ll need to knock together some suitable scenery.. and because we’ll be needing some armour I’ll need to finish my Techmarines… OK, I think we’ve got a plan!
It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that our pet game “Apocalypse: Earth” has been conspicuous by it’s absence so far this year. There’s a fairly straightforward reason for that – the setting is based around a rampaging Soviet Empire under a genocidal lunatic trying to enslave the world and this year that hasn’t really been escapist fantasy, it’s just been.. well, the news. And as such, neither Dan or myself have really felt in the mood for it.
But after spending a month last yearpainting a wholeload of zombies for a specially themed Halloween game, we both rather fancied the idea of breaking out the Atlantic Alliance to fight out a scenario based on the Battle of Yonkers from the brilliant novel (and passable film) World War Z.. if you haven’t read the book – well, you definitely should… if you haven’t seen the film – well, it’ll be on telly again before long, there’s no rush!
Basically the Battle Of Yonkers saw the US military making a concerted stand at the town of Yonkers, NY against a crowd of zombies numbering in the millions. There’s some fascinating descriptions of the effects of MLRS and artillery against the undead, as well as the Land Warrior system (which correct me if I’m wrong, never did make it into service in real life) and the famed “Silver Bullet” tungsten / depleted uranium armour piercing shells.. if you haven’t read it, I won’t spoil it but let’s just say it doesn’t go too well for humanity… the US Army being a finely honed instrument of warfare honed for a completely different war than it found itself fighting.
With this in mind we set up a half urban, half rural board with a bunch of woods on the rural side and ruins on the urban side to represent Yonkers city limits, and put our big group of trusty Airfix civilians (who seem to be forever getting caught up in this sort of thing) in the middle, and with a randomly rolled up mob of zombies either side, homing in menacingly…
Civilians approach Atlantic Alliance lines with shambling hordes closing in from both sides…
We were winging the rules as we went, but the basic idea was that each zombie mob would get reinforced by (Turn Number)xD6 zombies each turn.. and behind the Alliance lines were four spawning points that would spawn (Turn Number-1)x D6 zombies each turn.. trust me, it was simpler than it sounded! At the far side of the table was a waiting APC to shuttle out the survivors.
Buffalo 2-7’s infantry component take up station on the city limitsA crowd of civilians rush toward them, hoping for sanctuary from the undead..Lt. Grant leads his men forward to link up and clear out the zombie mobs approaching from the flanksBehind you! Bravo Squad wheel around to discover zombies shambling towards them.. Keeping the rear areas secure would prove to be a major tactical problem for the Alliance in this battleOn the other side of the street, Alfa Squad are dealing with their own problems..Grant ushers the civilians under his wingAllied rifle squads sweep the rear areas clean of undeadAllied troops gun down approaching zombies, holding them off to allow the civilians to escape inside the city limitsOut of the frying pan…It’s a trap! Zombies boil from their spawning points, getting up close and personal with the civilians and soldiers..Undead to the left of them, undead to the right of them… it’s getting sticky for the Allied troops!And still they come!Beset by crowds of zombies from all sides, the undead get in amongst the living…Lt. Grant falls! We ruled a 50/50 chance of a living model being reanimated as a zombie.. which he duly was!With Platoon Sgt McAuliffe now in command, the troops blaze away at the encroaching hores of zombies but the sheer numbers are just too much…Another zombie mob appears, interposing itself between the civilians and their escape route – Alfa Squad rush to take them down!In desperation, Alfa Squad cut loose the frag grenades despite danger proximity to the civilians – they cut a swathe through the zombies, but at the cost of two civvies!HUGE numbers of zombies now on the table, homing in on Allied forces from all sides and blocking escape routes!Alfa Squad are surprised and eaten!It’s looking grim…“RUN! DON’T LOOK BACK!” McAuliffe screams as his surviving men turn to face the oncoming horde, desperate to hold just a little longer…Last stand… Mac & the boys knuckle up to sell their lives dearly“It’s been an honour, gentlemen…” Mac & the remnants of 2-7 lock & load, ready for the final actThe boys give it their all but vanish under a horde of flesh-eating ghouls.. the last civilian catches Mac’s eye as he boards the APC, just to see the sergeant mouth the words “Remember us…”
Well that was a belter! Took a little time to get going but the gradual ramping up of zombie numbers turned what initially looked like a walk in the park for the Alliance into a lethal and cinematic last stand where once again, Buffalo 2-7 died gloriously to a man in defence of freedom! Great fun and hiding out in the gaming shed kept us safe from the attentions of wandering trick or treaters.. bah humbug! X-D
So, what next? What zombie-themed scenario could we investigate for Halloween next year? There’s almost a year to figure something out… drop us a comment and we’ll see you soon!
With the Last Regiment finally finished, the end of this project is tantalisingly close… so let’s keep on!
I’d separated out the remaining figures into five “Boss” figures – one of which would be promoted to Warchief Ghazrag The Bloody himself – and ten “Shamans” (one of which played Ghaz in the battle reports). This meant there was going to be a SERIOUS amount of of Orca magic going on.. which was fair enough, it’s not like they get much in the way of heavy weapons or missile troops…
So, I based all the remaining models on 20mm washers using a mix of superglue and quick dry PVA, primed them white and then gave them a thinned black pre-wash to help pick out the detail as the eyes aren’t what they were… you might notice a little bit of greenstuff conversion work to make the figures less uniform, including the odd arm bent up or down, as well as a greenstuff cape on Ghaz himself to give him a bit of extra presence. The jester’s hat on one of the shamans was another greenstuff effort, a tip of the hat to the classic old GW Ork Weirdboy from the 90s, and in case it’s not clear, the stuff coming out from the shaman’s outstretched hands is magic, not an oversized novelty foam finger.
Next up, flags. Having failed spectacularly with my freehand attempts with the Blood Angels, I decided to take a different tack – a Google Image search for “Warhammer Fantasy Orc Banners” got me this:
So much easier when someone else has done the drawing for you..
The paint schemes were the same as thepreviousregiments, and I extended that to the banners – mostly red (Vallejo Hot Orange washed with Red Ink), craft bone paint and Vallejo German Grey for black / dark grey bits.
For banner poles I snipped some black paper clips in half, arranged them in reasonably convincing poses and superglued them in place.. and now the big reveal!
Warchief Ghazrag The Bloody, seen here at the head of his horde doing his best John Travolta impression… you can tell by the way he holds his axe, he’s a woman’s Orc, no time to talk…Orca Boss at the head of regiment of Boyz, now all flagged up and ready to rockGhaz and his Shamans at the head of his regiment of bodyguardsHead shaman rocking VERY fly hatDey’s over dere, GET EM!!!!!The Mighty Horde!!
Now admittedly, Orca strategy is largely:
But it’ll still be nice to have all these Bosses to help keep the assault rolling forward
But before all that, Warchief Ghazrag had the small matter of an Ancien Regime force to match wits with in his quest for ever-holier stones…
The battle lines are drawn…The Ancien Regime forces deploy with their flank anchored by the Steam TankGhaz leads the boys in a pincer movement around the ruined church (or at least that’s the plan)Supported by the Arrer Boyz, the Orca pile forward – Ghaz attempts to lead his bodyguard forward in the centre but is defeated by the terrain..Watching the Orca thunder toward the Ancien Regime lines, the Steam Tank takes cover for a flanking shotAncien Regime Grenadiers fall victim to Orca Arrer Boyz but the line holds… “Let them come on, lads!”Caught in the open, the Orca Warriors fall to the Steam Tank’s firepower!Rifle regiment receive the first of many Orca charges!Despite massive losses, the Rifle regiment holds, buying time for the Cuirassier cavalry to counter attack with a devastating flank chargeGrenadiers join the party, pushing home the counter-attackMeanwhile, the “elite” Black Orcs are hit with rifle fire from the regiment positioned on the cliff, and straightaway fluff their morale check..Not to be deterred, however, Ghazrag and his bodyguard are closing in on their objective!Grenadiers and Cuirassiers make short work of the Savage OrcsMaking a last gasp dive for the objective after Witch-Colonel Murphy manages to teleport him down the hill, Ghaz is felled by rifle fire as the remaining riflemen burn through their remaining command points in desperation… the last bullet hits home, felling the Warchief!
Bugger, I cocked that up royally – I tried to keep the regiments together and failed abysmally, leaving them to hit the Ancien Regime lines piecemeal.. hopefully my new cadre of Shamans and bosses will inject some flexibility to round out the army..
There’s still a couple of war machines to build, plus I’ve got a couple of conversions up my sleeve.. and then maybe make some giant spiders.. and this is why projects never really get finished! The Curse Of The Wargamer strikes again…
Stay safe and thrifty out there, we’ll be back again soon
Skinflint Games 