A roar went up
around Tokokai-5 as hundreds of engines roared to life. The walls defending the
Ork fortresses across the planet had been breached. The Varingyr immediately launched their
armored assault forces towards the breach.
The Flayer-kin, either due to their war cunning or desire to fight;
raced out in their crude buggies to do battle before the walls.
The Feral Orks of
Tokokai-5 had built their crude fortresses and settlements atop the old mine
heads of the Tokokai Clan. The Tokokai
Clan’s allies from Irongard had arrived in orbit to establish if their Oath
Brothers were hiding deep within their mineheads from the Ork invaders.
A swirling battle
erupted for control of the breach ensued.
Forces
Varingyr Clanguard
Overlord Airship
-
Additional Weapon Load 3
3 Strike Eagle
-
Additional Weapon Load
Iron Eagle
-
Additional Weapon Load
Feral Ork
Defenders
2 Flak Wagons
2 Waaagh! Bommaz
-
Additional Weapon Loads
2 Fighta-Bommaz
- Additional Weapon Load
Mission:
This is the Pitched Battle scenario from the Airspace Compilation. In this mission each player sets up 10
vehicles on the board, at least 18 inches in from their edge, and 6 inches away
from any other edge. Victory points are
only earned by destroying ground targets.
I thought about sculpting up some ground units for this
battle. However, but the time I sculpted
up and painted 20 ground targets, it would have been 2019! Instead, we opted to use some All Quiet on the Martian Front markers
instead.
Set-up:
This battle is using the same board as the previous
battle to represent the Varingyr armored forces trying to push through the
breach created by the Warlord. Rocks and
the wall are all Altitude 1 so collisions/crashes can happen.
The Ork ground forces are set-up as the orange blast
markers, while the orange circles are Varingyr ground forces. The Orks have cleverly placed their ground
targets where they can be protected by their ground defenses. The Varingyr are in a semi-circle beyond the
Ork forces, but close enough where we might get a few low altitude
tangles.
The Varingyr aircraft are in two packages. The north package is the Strike Eagles coming
in hot at altitude 1, ready to strafe.
The other is the Overlord escorted by the Iron Eagle. It is at mid-altitude as the Zeppelin ability
will allow it to drop easily.
The Ork Fighta-bommas are lined up to give the Strike
Eagles some issues while they attack ground targets too. They will be covered by the Falk wagons. The Waaagh! Bommaz are looking to hit the
fringes of the Varingyr ground forces.
Remember, points are scored for taking out ground
targets, and not enemy aircraft.
However, if you take out enemy strike fighters, they can not hit any
ground targets!
Turn 1:
Initiative: Varingyr
Movement:
Both sides move towards the battlespace with speed. The Orks look like they will be over the
target zone next turn.
Shooting:
None
Turn 2:
Initiative: Orks
Movement:
Waaagh! Bomma 2 overshoots the nearest Varingyr tank, but
proceeds forward towards the oncoming Varingyr forces. The rest stay in formation, and it looks like
they will go head-to-head but eh Orks are much higher.
Shooting:
Waaagh! Booma 1 strikes first and drops two bombs on an
enemy tank, causing 1 point of damage!
Not enough to destroy it.
Strike Eagle 1 fires his rockets and Mag-cannons at an
Ork truk and manages to reduce it to a single point of damage remaining as
well. Strike Eagle 2 opens fire and
destroys an ork War Wagon in a similar barrage!
While Strike Eagle 3 misses its ground targets.
The Ork flak wagons do not have the range yet.
Turn 3:
Initiative: Varingyr
Movement:
The Varingyr continues to press forward on the attack,
with the Overlord trying to provide some air cover. Meanwhile, the Orkaircraft streak over the
Varingyr lines to bomb there targets. As
Fighta-bomba 1 turns over the front lines, Iron Eagle 1 swoops in on him to
attack. Also, the Ork Ground Defenses
are now in range.
Shooting:
In a moment of self-preservation, Srike Eagle 1 opens up
on the nearest Flakwagon, and hits it for 1 damage. It is still functional!
Fighta-Bomba 1 drops his Bomb payload on a Varingyr tank
and obliterates it.
The Overlord uses a broadside of Mag-cannons to pepper
Waaagh! Bomma 2, who manages to fly through the storm of shots unharmed. He dropped a payload of bombs behind him on a
Varingyr tank as well. However, the
little tank was made of sterner stuff and survived with 1 point of damage.
Strike Eagle 2 and 3 open fire on two separate targets
with rockets and mag-cannons, but only cause 1 hit. Meanwhile, Figha-Bomba 2 and Waaagh! Bomma 1 unload
thwi paloads, and destroy 1 tank and damage a second.
Flak from Ork Ground defenses spray the Strike Eagles,
causing Strike Eagle 2 to start blowing smoke.
Finally, the Iron Eagle swoops in and fires on
Fighta-bomma 1. 2 Hits but no
damage.
Initaitive: Orks
Movement:
The Varingyr Strike Eagles continue towards the wall, but
their main armaments are out, all they have left are nose mounted mag-cannons
for strafing. The Overlord moves low to
use its strafing weapons on the ork vehicles left.
Meanwhile, the Ork Fighta-bommas wing over to get their
rokits into range. Waaagh! Bomma 2 turns
back to follow the frontlines, while Waaaagh! Bomma 1 misjudges a power dive
and crashes into the ground taking the pilot with it.
Shooting:
Ork Ground defenses spray skyward but fail to
connect. Varingyr Strike Eagles also
fail to connect with their Mag-cannons on ground targets. The Overlord’s broadside fails to damage the
war truk on the ground, and some Hearth missiles reach out and damage another
Ork vehicle but fail to destroy it.
Turn 5:
Initiative:
Varingyr
Movement:
The Varingyr strike crast try to spin around to
re-engage, however Strike Eagle 2 is too close to the wall and crashes, killing
the crew. Meanwhile, the Orks swoop down
around the battlefield and attack targets of opportunity. The iron Eagle tries to chase down Fighta-Bomma
1.
Shooting:
Fighta-Bomma 1 fires his quad big shootas and tears apart
an all ready damaged Varingyr tank.
The Strike Eagles use the last of their Mag-cannon ammo
on two ground targets but fail to damage them.
The overlord opens fire on multiple targets and manages
to send 1 Ork War Wagon to Gork N Mork.
Ork Ground Defenses are unable to harm the big ship. In addition, Fighta-Bomma 2 fails to hit
Strike Eagle 3.
Waaagh! Bomma 2 hits a ground target for 1 damage. Then, Iron Eagle 1 manages to snag
Fighta-bomma 1 with Mag-cannon shells and cause him to blow smoke.
Turn 6:
Initiative: Varingyr
Movement:
The Strike Eagles move to disengage since they are out of
ammo. The Overlord tries to turn to use
its broadsides on the Ork vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Iron Eagle tries to chase downt he Fighta-Bomma 1. Fighta-Bomma 2 half loops to get back into
the battle, and the Waaagh! Bomma comes in low to strafe more Varingyr
tanks.
Shooting:
The Overlord manages to smoke an Ork ground vehicle with
its broadsides at mid range. The Waaagh!
Bomma’s big shoota shells ping harmlessly off the side of the Varingyr
Tank.
Both sides half inflicted 3 destroyed vehicles.
Turn 7:
Initiative: Varingyr
Movement:
The Strike Eagles get to the board edge and head back to
base. Next turn will be a disengagement
turn. The Overlord drifts up and over
the Ork wall. Meanwhile, the Ork
Fighta-bomma and Waaagh! Bomma overshoot their targets as they are going way
too fast. Fighta-bomma 1 turns back
sharply and lines up on aa Varingyr tank, while the Iron Eagle stays in
pursuit.
Shooting:
Fighta-bomma 1 needs 2 hits to damage and win the game
and is lined up on target. However, Iron
Eagle 1 gets to fire first due to initiative.
He rolls 6 mag-cannon dice for 2 hits, and rolls for damage…. He gets 1
6. Fighta-Bomma 1 is knocked out of the
sky!
Turn 8-
Disengagement Turn
Initiative: Orks
Movement:
Fighta-Bomma 2 tries to do a high G-turn to strafe a
tank, but just overshoots and gets an Iron Eagle on his 6 for his efforts. The Waaagh! Bomma has better luck, and finds
a damaged tank in his sites at medium range.
Shooting:
The Waaagh! Bomma needs to get 1 damaging shot to win the
game. He lines up and rolls his
dice. 3 hits. He needs 1 5+ to damage. He succeeds and blows the Varingyr tank sky
high.
The Iron Eagle does shoot up the Fighta-bomma, but causes
1 hit. The grot in the turret misses his
return shooting.
With that, the remaining aircraft head for home.
Conclusion
That went down to the wire, but ultimately the Orks win
this scenario by dusting 4 Varingyr tanks to 3 Ork War Wagons.
Let’s talk about some of the aircraft performance. The Strike and Iron Eagles are very
underwhelming overall. They do not have
much punch. Perhaps I should have gone
with different weapon loads for them.
The Overlord did fine, but I definitely picked the wrong weapon load
here. It is not maneuverable enough for
forward firing rockets and Hearth Missiles and once I was out of the combat
zone, I could not bring it around fast enough.
On the Ork side, we are having a hard time using Ork Rokits as they were
getting way too close to the targets and then could not use them!
Meanwhile, both of us had issues flying today. We both lost a plane to bad flying. He power dived into the ground, and I crashed
into a wall! This whole mini-campaign
was characterized by some bad flying. I
guess terrain can still matter in a flying game, if it involves lots of ground
targets. That made it a bit more cinematic.
Overall this campaign was a Minor Varingyr victory. The Warlord Super Heavy was the star of the
campaign and allowed for the Varingyr to win the 2nd and 3rd
scenario. The Orks won the first and
last battle. Overall, a pretty balanced
campaign tree.
After fierce
street-to-street fighting, the Clanguard managed to batter their way into the
feral ork settlements. Once inside the
perimeter, Engineers from the Guild were able to verify which settlements were
built on Varingyr ruins. If it was a
pure Ork settlement, the Clanguard fell back and let the fleet bombard the Ork
settlements into oblivion. They were then re-routed to support their fellows
around active mineheads.
Where Engineers
found Varingyr relics they pushed forward to locate access points to the
Tokokai Clan mines. Once there, they set
up a perimeter and the Engineers began to re-active the ancestral spirits to
open the mine heads. The Clanguard of
Irongard were able to send in reconnaissance teams into the Tokokai mines to
locate their old allies. Instead, they
found nothing but abandoned and ancient tunnels.
Unable to locate
any Tokokai Clan members alive, Azoki Helmsward called off the attack. Using air cover and select orbital bombardment,
the Clanguard was recalled back to the fleet.
The War Council was saddened by the discovery that their old clan allies
were lost to them. Instead, Azoki marked
the planet for later re-conquest by the Helmsward Clan. Her fleet turned to explore the next former
Tokokai Clan stronghold. Tokokai-5 was
lost…. for now.
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