After the failure
of the Varingyr’s recon attempts on Tokokai 5, Azuki Helmsward of the Highguard
reassessed her War Council’s strategy.
Her people had come from Irongard to assess if her Clan’s old allies
were still hidden deep within their buried mine heads. On arrival, the Irongard forces soon realized
that the planet’s surface was now populated by feral orks. The greenskins lacked the necessary
technology to attack the Varingyr fleet in orbit, but they could harass air
operations and be a nuisance on the ground.
Further analysis
found that the greenskin hovels had been built amongst the ruins of the Tokokai
Clans’ surface settlements. Therefore,
they could not simply be bombarded into dust as that would also potentially
ruin the only way to reach the Tokokai’s below ground strongholds.
After the failure
of the Recon forces attempt to locate hidden entrances, there was only one way
forward. Troops would need to be landed
and the Orks pushed out. The Varingyr War
Council therefore reviewed the planetary scans, the historical records, and
other data to try to locate the best way forward to reclaim the mine heads and
enter the stronghold of the Tokokai Clans.
The Clanguard began
to prepare for the inevitable ground landing.
The ranks of the Clanguard dutifully loaded into the Overlords, Warlord,
and the Strike Eagles. Then, the space
fleet dropped into low orbit and began to deploy their assault forces. Not surprisingly, Ork aircraft moved to
attack them. That was the way of the
Flayer-kin, always attack.
Forces
Varingyr Clanguard
Combat Drop
1 Warlord Super-Heavy Airship
2 Iron Eagles
-
Additional Weapon Load
Feral Ork
Defenders
1 Grot Buzza
3 Ork Fighta
2 Fighta-Bomma
1 Dakkajet
Mission:
Per the Campaign Tree, this will be a Drop Intercept
mission. The Varingyr are trying to land
their transports within a 12 by 12 square in the center of the table. The Orks are trying to stop them from
landing. Technically, the Varingyr do
not have any Orbital Landers. However,
for this mission we will use the Warlord Airship as the Lander.
Set-up:
We deployed several rocks across my brown wasteland
looking table cover. As usual, the rocks
are 1 Altitude high per level.
Therefore, if a plane comes in contact with these terrain features but isn’t
high enough up they could crash with a failed Pilot Check. Last game, terrain played a major role.
We placed the 4 markers to map out the corners of the 12
inch by 12 inch square landing/drop zone.
The Varingyr deployed on a short board edge at altitude 9
and max speed per the rules of the scenario.
They are coming in hot, with the Warlord planning to land in the Drop
Zone. The Warlord is towards the left of
the board edge, and the Iron Eagles are heading straight on.
The Orks are clumped up at low and mid altitude and
looking to swarm over the Landing Zone to stop the Varingyr from landing.
Turn 1:
Initiative: Varingyr
Movement:
The Iron Eagles turn to the right and drop altitude to
avoid going head-to-head with the incoming Ork aircraft. For their part, the Orks spread out to cover
the board at various altitudes. The
Warlord power dives right to make the approach to the drop zone.
Shooting:
None. No one is in
range.
Turn 2:
Initiative: Varingyr
Movement:
The Varingyr continue their descent. They are closing into engagement altitude at
3, where many of the Ork planes are in the same height. However, the Orks have fanned out across the
board, while the Iron Eagles are on the far right.
Shooting:
None. Everyone is
still out of range.
Turn 3:
Initiative: Varingyr
Movement:
The Warlord is lined up on target, and drops to altitude
1. Now, he just needs to slow enough to
land! Meanwhile, the Orks press in to
attack, with a few going straight at the Zeppelin. The Iron Eagles try to swoop in from the side
to engage, but the Dakkajet gets the drop on Iron Eagle 2.
Shooting:
The Warlord’s limited forward firepower fires on the
incoming Fighta 3 but fails to scratch it.
The Ork pilot returns the favor, but hits only armored plate. Fighta-Bomma 2 joins in and causes a single
hit! Only 14 more to go!
The Dakkajet also peppers Iron Eagle 2 and causes him to
blow smoke.
Turn 4:
Initiative: Varingyr
Movement:
The Warlord sets up to land next turn unless the Orks can
stop him. As a result, the Ork aircraft
swarm into the landing zone. Fighta 3
and Fighta-Bomma 2 manage to get into a tailing position on the Warlord. Iron Eagle 1 looks like he has a shot on
Fighta-Bomma 1.
Shooting:
The Warlord lights up the sky with its broadsides firing
all across the sky at the swarming Ork fightas.
Despite the Mag-cannon point defenses firing like mad, only the Dakkajet
starts smoking.
The Warlord takes a pounding from Ork Aircraft has it is
reduced from 14 hits to 9 hits. However,
it was lucky as attempts at Sustained Bursts largely failed. The Warlord only needs to weather the two
Trailing fightas barrage to land!
Iron Eagle 1 fails to find the target of Fighta-Bomma 1
due to range.
Turn 5:
Initiative: Orks
Tailing Fire:
Fighta 3 fails to Sustain Burst, but peppers the
Warlord. Three hits are knocked away by
the ships armored plates. Fighta-Bomma 2
does get a sustained Burst and fires with 12 dice at the same altitude. This is it!
2 Hits strike home, but it is not enough to down the Super-Heavy
airship.
Movement:
The ork aircraft all try desperately to wing over or
Half-loop to stay with the main target.
However, most are out of position despite swarming the landing
zone. The Iron Eagles spiral to get in
and try to get targets of opportunity.
Meanwhile, the Warlord gently lands and begins to unload her cargo.
Shooting:
Fighta-Booma 2 fires on Iron Eagle 1. The spray of bullets swats the Iron Eagle
from the sky! The Ork plane is out of
ammo and will need to return to base to re-arm.
Iron Eagle 2
misses the Dakkajet. The Dakkajet then
strafes the landed Warlord causing point of damage.
Turn 6-
Disengagement Turn
Initiative: Varingyr
Movement:
Iron Eagle 2 decides to gain altitude and bug-out.
Meanwhile, the Orks try to get in position to
strafe. In the chaos, two Ork aircraft
actually crash into the ground by choosing the wrong maneuver! They wing-over into the ground. The pilot of the Fighta-Bomma 1 walks away
feeling a bit follish, while the pilot of the Dakkajet was decapitated in the
crash. Woops!
Shooting:
Fighta 3 and the Buzza try to strafe the landed airship,
and manage to take 2 more hits off of it.
Still not enough to take out the Super-Heavy airship! Return fire from the landed airship is
ineffective.
Conclusion:
The Clanguard
quickly set-up a perimeter of Multi-launchers to dissuade additional air
attacks. A few initial bursts cause the
swarming Orks to break-off and return to base.
The unloading process continues and the skeleton of a defensive
perimeter and a forward operating base begin to take shape in minutes. The Varingyr are on the ground. Soon, follow-on forces in Drop Egles begin to
descend on the base to bulk up its strength.
Well, the slow movement of the Warlord was a big asset in
this Drop Intercept. I was not too
worried about over-shooting the target zone since the Warlord was nice and
slow. However, its own point defenses
were next to useless in this battle and the Iron Eagle support ships were too
far outnumbered to be a factor. The Orks
lost more aircraft to bad flying than anything else.
Now onto the next battle….
…. It looks like it will be a Wall breaker mission. That is one I really wanted to play! Look out for Warlord action soon!
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