Jornath: Assault on Nizajain

The second portion of the Orks Summer Offensive takes place in Kula Hive's municipalities or more specifically the coast off the Hive's Eastern shore. Where in the northern reaches,  1st Army Group was entangled in a large scale regiment scale assault on a broad front from multiple Ork forces converging on the vital Fortress Behras. In the south, the situation was different, the KCC and cohorts from Oakenzid and the South Plains had been slowly strangling the life out of the Ork Kroozer's crash site which had become a ragged Xenos city.  The green skins having taken brutal losses in their command structure during the crash, had been largely fighting amongst themselves, making the concentration easy pickings for Imperial troops.  However, a month before the Orks assaulted the Northern defensive line, much of the fighting between tribes in the southern zone had subsided and grouped behind a half-dozen warlords.  Of these warlords,  two opted to send their warriors in an all-out charge at the Imperial troops surrounding their positions,  while the other four, guided by a council of mek's from the Kroozer's engine room took their forces and descended on the city of Bolasku, a major shipwright center and port on the coast.  Bolasku was defended by 6 Reg KCC,  the 1st Royal NeoHuscarl, along with massed citizens militia, and while the J-PDF forces put up a bitter last stand to hold back the mass of aliens, it was scant few hours before the entire city was totally overrun. Barely missing a beat the Orks set about turning the massive shipyards of the city to the construction of a ramshackle scrap fleet.  Ground troops struggled to break through the outer two warbands to stop the aliens from breaking out to the open ocean, but it was sure to be a close run thing. In Orbit however, the angles of Death stirred to bring a decisive strike to the Ork plan

Missions

1. Raid on Bolasku
2. Destruction at the Pillars of Grehazin
3. On Darker Shores.
4. Last Stand of the Nizajan 100.  
5. The Fishermen and the Beast

Raid on Bolasku

Summary: The port town of Bolasku, could always have been described as important to Jornath, its shipwrights crafted expert naval vessels of all kinds,  and it was a major source of planetary trade, between the merchant guilds.  During the War for Jornath. It became much more than a vital seaside production and trade center, as the city was located inside the decimated stretch of land where the Ork Rokks, crash landed.  Its position, placed its ship crafting facilities, and miles of material warehouses in easy reach of the Ork invaders.  The threat this posed was not lost of the Imperium who stationed the 6th Kula Conservator Cohort,  and 1st Royal Neohuscarl in the city.  Both regiments were slain to a man defending the position in the first 18 hours of the Summer Invasion. With the orks in control of the dockyards, and threat of a breakout in the north a dangerously real possibility the Imperium sends its most elite forces to kill the Mek’s and destroy their workshops in the Dockyards.  

Objectives: The Imperial Forces must kill any “Mek” independant characters in the Ork army and destroy the Av 13 / HP 2  building on the board designated as the Mek Workshop,  before turn 6.  

Terrain: The Board should be divided into two sections, one filled with ruins and buildings, and the other filled with coastal obstacles, driftwood, dunes, or hills.  

Special Rules / Units:  

Raiders:  The attack represents a preemptive attack by imperial forces,  and as such are elite.  They should consist of Scions, Veterans, or Space Marines. As only these troops can be considered able bodied enough to succeed in the attack.

Surprise Attack:  The Imperial troops will attack in a sudden and ferocious surprise assault.  All Imperial Units may choose to deploy via Infiltrate,  or Deep Strike,  regardless of whether they have that special rule in their unit profile.

Destruction at the Pillars of Grehazin

Summary: Despite the best efforts of the Imperial Raiders, their efforts merely delay the inevitable, and soon the oily clouds of thousands of Ork naval vessels blackened the channel between Bolasku and Nizajain Island. Imperial Navy assets worked overtime to scuttle as many vessels as they could before the Ork armada escaped the bottleneck of the Channel. Many of the Ork vessels,  fled the slaughter towards Nizajain, eager to get to grips with an enemy and avoid the Imperial bombing craft.  With no other forces to call upon Imperial Navy ratings, and Space Marines were deployed against the breakaway Ork vessels.  Deploying directly onto the Command ships via Valkyrie, Thunderhawk, and even civilian craft,  in order to scuttle vital ship systems.

Objectives: The Imperial Forces must secure at least 2 of 3 objectives on the table, by the end of 6 turns.

Terrain: An ork naval vessel,  which could be represented by a series of building kits placed together,  or by specially created terrain.  

Special Rules / Units:  

Naval Ratings:  Navy Ratings are used to the tight confines of CQC fighting in spaceships, and as such are equally as apt to the close quarters fighting on board sea vessels as well,  Navy Ratings are 10 man Guardsmen units, equipped with Shotguns. (Range: 24”,  Str 4,  AP -,  Assault 1)  as well as offensive and defensive grenades,  they are 65 points.

Aerial Landing: The Imperial assault force must be deployed on the largest area of flat ground on the board,  the limits of this area are the limits of imperial deployment.   1 Imperial Unit may be deployed on the tallest piece of terrain on the board.

Exhaustion:  Aerial forces from both sides, have been fighting continuously for 36 hours. Units with the ‘Flyer’ and ‘Skimmer’ unit type have a -1 to their Bs for this battle.

On Darker Shores...

Summary: While the gap between the Pillars of Grehazin, has been filled with enough Ork vessels, to make sailing through it a slow and dangerous affair around three dozen Ork naval craft escaped the aerial raids to land on the Southwestern shores on Nizajain converging on the coastal village of Happjain.  The Isle Guard of Nizajain whom had been preparing their defense for the past 2 days,  stood ready to annihilate the greenskins from sandbag duggouts, and fortified cafes.  Battle was joined as the first Ork warriors hit the black sand shores.

Objectives: The Orks must move as many units from their deployment zone on one short table edge, through the Imperial Units and off the opposite short table edge.

Terrain: The board should be divided into thirds,  the ork deployment zone,  no mans land and the Imperial deployment.  The Ork deployment should be mostly devoid of cover, save for hills and light foliage. No mans land, should have loose obstacles, tank traps, minefields, and razorwire.  And the Imperial deployment should have a handful of fortified buildings and defensive structures,

Special Rules / Units:  

Naval Landing: On the 1st turn of the game  no Ork units may run, and vehicles may only move 12’’ at their furthest, to represent the effects of high tide on movement.  

Last Stand of the Nizajain 100

Summary: Fighting on the Isle of Nizajain lasted for nearly 2 weeks,  the Isle Guard killing thousands of Xenos as they fought tooth and nail for their homes.  But sadly after the days of intense fighting the 2,000 man unit numbered only 112 men. Commanded by Lt. Fary,  the “Nizajain 100”  would make their stand on the northern peak of the island at the shell hole poked ground below a lighthouse.   While the of no strategic importance,  the outcome of the battle would pervade the memories of the Imperial defenders for the duration of the War for Jornath

Objectives: Kill Points,  

Terrain: The Lighthouse sits at the end of an extended craggy bluff,  the Imperial Guard have fortified the ground beneath it,  by utilizing the artillery shell holes as fighting pits.  The area is very much a moonscape,  littered with hundreds of shell craters, destroyed bunkers and vehicle husks.

Special Rules / Units:  

Terrorizing Attrition:  The Ork assault represents the last breath of a truly massive assault on the position.  The Imperial forces may place d3 piles of Ork corpses, that measure 2’’x 2’’  any Ork unit that ends its turn within 6’’ of one of these piles must take a morale check.

Look to the Colors!  The Imperial troops here are led to their defense by the charismatic and hardy Lt. Fary.  If Fary is killed,  all Imperial troops must take a morale check, re-rolling the first success.

Exhaustion:  Forces from both sides, have been fighting continuously for nearly 2 weeks. All Units have a -1 to their Bs, Ld and I for this battle.

The Fishermen and the Beast

Summary: While the Isle Guard battled the Orks on Nizajain, and the Navy and Space Marines conducted strategic landings on board Ork vessels, heading into Open ocean.  The Imperial troops were not able to stop the Xenos vessels breaking south towards Oakenzid.  Though only a handful,  these Orks would land along the east coast in numerous seaside villages.  Where the only troops left to fight them were fishermen, bakers, and schoolteachers. The War had come into the homes of the average citizen,  and in the end it would be these citizens that would decide if the Orks would breakout into southern Kula.

Objectives: The First force to completely destroy all enemy units is the victor.

Terrain: The Board should reflect a small coastal villages, bordered on one side by a small forest, and on the other by the Ork Landing beach.    

Special Rules / Units:  

Citizen Militia: The Imperial Guard, build their force using a modified structure.    With the “Platoon Command” and “Ministorum Priest”  options being the only available HQ choices.   Platoons in turn do not have to include a Platoon Command,  and may not take special weapons teams, and have a limit of 0-1 heavy weapons 0-1 Infantry squads,  but a limit of 2-8 Conscript squads.  

OUTCOME.

Major Victory (4+ Games Won)  

Orks: Imperial troops were smashed aside, not only was Nizajain Island lost to the Xenos,  soon to become one of the largest Ork settlement and muster areas in the entire war. But much of the East coast between Kula and Oakenzid not belong to the Invaders,  Orky Forts sit where once, were sleepy fishing towns, and Battlewagonz now grind west across the heartland of Kula province...

Imperial: Imperial troops slaughtered the Xenos, though the Isle Guard were massacred, their defense wasted the aliens strength and the greenskins were swiftly purged from the Island, which would soon serve as the muster zone for Imperial offensives into the Rokk Crash-Sites.  The handful of ork vessels that made landfall in the East coast, were able to be contained, and while many towns were decimated,  an Ork breakout in the south was prevented.  

Minor Victory (3 Games Won)

Orks: A grinding slog on both sides, the Orks proved to be the stronger for the moment, securing Nizajain Island, and turning it into a mustering point for raids all along the coastline. Though a major breakthrough into the south was prevented, it was only through the loss of thousands of soldiers and civilian militia troops. The Eastern Front had opened up,  Ork naval raids and attacks even as far south as Oakenzid, spread the Jornathi PDF even thinner.

Imperial: A grinding slog on both sides, the Imperials proved to be the stronger for the moment.  A breakout in the south had been prevented, but Nizajain had been lost,  neither force being able to truly claim the position, the Isle becomes a quagmire of sporadic fighting for nearly three decades. But for the moment,  the east coast had been stabilized, with the Orks bottled back into their Rokk crashsites.

Jornath 40k: Fires on the Coast

As part of the ongoing Battle for Jornath, and in recognition of the release of Kill team, i modified the 2nd mission in the Assault on Nizajain Isle campaign, to fit into the specifications for kill teams size. 


Prelude:  The port town of Bolasku, could always have been described as important to Jornath, its shipwrights crafted expert naval vessels of all kinds,  and it was a major source of planetary trade, between the merchant guilds.  During the War for Jornath. It became much more than a vital seaside production and trade center, as the city was located inside the decimated stretch of land where the Ork Rokks made planetfall.  Its position, placed its ship crafting facilities, and miles of material warehouses in easy reach of the Ork invaders.  The threat this posed was not lost on the Imperium who stationed the 6th Kula Conservator Cohort,  and 1st Royal Neohuscarl in the city.  Both regiments were slain to a man defending the position in the first 18 hours of the Summer Invasion. With the orks in control of the dockyards, and threat of a breakout in the north a dangerously real possibility the Imperium sends its most elite forces to kill the Mek’s and destroy their workshops in the Dockyards.  

The Raid on Bolasku.

It was not long after the last PDF unit had been overrun that the Meks of Da Magistork, and Urk's Oddz-n-Boberz set to work "modifying" existing Imperial water craft, and building their own rough shod flotsam. The intent was clear to Imperial Command,  the Orks, at least a subset of the central forces that landed, were intending to find their breakout by sailing out of Bolasku. Potentially threatening every continent. A preemptive assault was planned,  to stall the Orks and potentially eliminate some of their leadership, while the whole of the Imperial arsenal could be readied to obliterate this new breakout attempt.   With the White Scars busy in the south,  and the Blood Angels and the Jornathi Special Operations Battalion tied up in the north, the only unengaged Imperial QRF belongs to the Mortifactors under Captain Vorodivio and the Dreadmare Companions, who had only just arrived in-system.  Having decided the time finally required his forces action, Captain Vorodivio struck forth

This Operation would be known as  Furori Alati

Furori Alati, was determined to be tactically inconclusive,  while the Mortifactor assault bought the defenders of Nizajain Island valuable days, it failed to successfully assassinate the Ork Mek Gubbtvurr.


The Straights of Grehazin

The delay bought the Imperial Navy the time it needed to perpare massed flight wings, ranging from marauder bombers, thunderbolts, lightings, retro fitted Aquila landers, and Jornathi Aeroscants out of Altheri Hive,  all brought to bear against the Ork fleet, and the Dockyards at Bolasku. The carnage was tremendous, thousands of Xenos vessels were sent to the sea floor; but through the sheer numbers typical of their race, some aliens still remained despite the losses, and made it into South Western Nizajain's reef structures known as the Straights of Grehazin, allowing the Ork vessels to shelter from Imperial close air support for a time and gather strength.   Knowing this could not be allowed to occur, the Space Marines of the Dreadmare Companions,  and Kill Teams of Imperial Navy Ratings made surgical strikes on board several Ork capital ships, in a bid to cripple the Ork's momentum and begin infighting amongst the alien survivors.




The fighting on board these vessels was close and messy.  Exactly the sort of fighting that Orks thrive in,   but careful tactics and low cunning saw the Imperium victorious on many ships,  though at a dear cost in manpower.  Of the 1300 Navymen deployed to the Straights only 43 returned to Orbit,  and 15 Battle Brothers of the Dreadmare Companions were rated as Epsilon Level casualties.  The Orks had not been stopped everywhere however,  but the surgical strikes had finally balanced the incredible numerical advantage bearing down on the Isle Guards of Nizajain.

It was up to the faith and fire of these brine soaked men to hold the strategically vital Isle against the Greenskin.


Until Next time.

-Your Favorite Madman-

The Tale of the West Arc (pt1)

In 4534, the nations of the world initiated the 3rd World War.  It was inevitable… though we had tried all we could to stop it.   

The great nations, and corporate states of humanity tore into each other across the cities, farms and oil fields of every continent. Anti-gravity tanks, robotics, and mechanized suits yielding casualties as high as 2 billion,  thanks to rampant overpopulation,  the supply of warm bodies was plentiful.

At first, the conflict was kept conventional,  the forbidden weapons of our past being kept locked away in their darkened silos. But it was too great a temptation, and the sins of man were made manifest in wholesale destruction and horror.   Gravitic, Ionic, and Nuclear weapons scoured the Earth into heated ash deserts. Only a handful of nations and the off world colonies were spared from the 

holocaust

.

The colonies could not hold all the survivors for long,  illness, civil unrest and anarchy threatened to exterminate us. In a final gambit,  1.5 million souls each were placed aboard “The Western Arc”  and “The Eastern Arc”   given all the technology, research and information that humanity had, they were pointed at opposite halves of the milky way, and sent to find a new home….

While the Fate of both Eastarc and the Sol. Colonies  would make bold tales in their own right.

This Is the Tale of Westarc.   

- To be Continued...



Last painting is by Reid Southen.

The Road to Orleans: A Corpse Strewn Wasteland...

Unfortunately, i've not been posting with any sort of acceptable frequency.
However, i think this might be due in large part to Excessive backlog from a massive variety of unreported hobby-ing.     To remedy this dreadful situation now (and hopefully for good),  i'm bringing you a synopsis of the battles fought in mine and JD's blood filled VSF campaign.  

The Sheer volume of content i fear might overwhelm,  so i'll be including the photos from the battles at the end (of course labelled accordingly)  with a run-down of the engagements and their tactical importance on the campaign as a whole below.

The Battle of Hyll-Grove

 In an attempt to flank around Saints Hill, troops flood into Hyll-Grove, a massive mining and manufacturing plant, that has cracked open and polluted the french countryside, and is pumping out vast arms, and war material for the French Army. It is a nightmarish hellscape of massive grinding gears and great black factories,  but the worst of all is the secret powering the facility... The sickly bloated and mutated mining foreman,  grossly bloated with sludge and poison to the size of a large town, the necromancy and vile steam engineering of the Hyll-Grove facility is plugged directly into his nervous system...

The game centered around massed infantry combat (though a few vehicles were present),  with troops trying to seize vital areas of the plant.  We determined that as the facility took damage, through tank fire, off board support fire etc.  That it upset the overall stability of the facility, and potentially kill thousands of troops should it suffer a total failure.  

Outcome:  Draw,   150 infantry KIA/WIA/MIA (estimated)   2 Heavy Vehicles,  and 2 Superheavies destroyed.    The Facility was forced to be evacuated by both sides,   the Death blow was delivered later that evening by the French Navy during a 24 hour Ceasefire, to ensure that the mutation beneath was not freed to wreak its sinister revenge. The fires ignited in the toxic marshlands adjacent are estimated to continue to burn until at least 1986....



The Duel at Saints Hill. 

With a stalemate on their hands, it was decided that two noble gentlemen from either side would met at the top of the Hill Proper, and engage in a duel of honor.  The victors side would inherit the field and the other would withdraw no less than 25 km from the site.
And so it was that Captain Teague, and Captain Bosch meet in the blood stained courtyard of a broken cathedral....

Outcome:  Teague was victorious, but only barely,  with Bosch escaping with his life.  the British overtake the French lines withing a week and the battle for Orleans proper begins...


The Battle for the Damned City.

In a foolhardy move to out pace Lee's half of the campaign army and "steal the glory"  Cromwell, leads dozens of regiments into the haunted and zombie filled ruins of Old Orleans, beneath the Floating Neo city, that the objective has been all along. With the intention being to use it as a easily accessible location to sieze the lowest sections of the city.  

The Le Bebop, made its first appearance in this battle, with it having severe limitations of course, to represent that Cromwell's  foolish rush had, made him neglect avoiding the French naval troops.

Outcome:  A Slaughter of British force,  nearly the entire assault force is obliterated.  Cromwell is captured, after the entirety of the 7th Dragoons are slain in his defense.  Teague and Matthews are both severely wounded and removed from the conflict for months at the minimum.  However in a spot of luck, Bosch is killed by Teague as the city exploded around them, leaving the RGC leaderless, and sending the French Rebels into immediate action.


The Minute that Shall Live In Infamy. 

With Cromwell captured,  British high command had no choice but to exchange Vesuvius for him, in a humiliating turn of events for the (now former) Lord General.  Left as the only major English officer in the field Lee, orders his men to secure their foothold on a "Sky Village"  that connects to Orleans' central city platform via massive bridge.     The French Rebels took the confusion and disarray of the RGC to strike at the government,  as did The Young Prince, Vesuvias's bastard son, and leader of the German Army.  Through an incredibly calculating a murderous ploy,   Vesuvias lured his son, the British main force, and the French Rebels into the clamp struts for the sky bridge, where he detonated a twisted fusion of high technology and black magic.   Protecting himself and his son,  but shattering 1/4 of Orleans' super structure and ballast rig, and killing/mutating/or wounding hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and combatants.

Outcome: With Vesuvias making the shattered and magically tainted remains of Orleans his dark capital.  He and his son preside over a massive host of bestial necrophages.  The English high command is totally shot, and those ground forces who survived are in disarray. The only hope for mankind lies with S.O.R.R.O.W.S  or the (Service for Observing Reconstruction and Reinforcement during Occult. Warfare Situations). A secret arm of the English government responsible for isolating and destroying occult threats specifically.



PICTURES

Hyll-Grove

Hyll-Grove Deployment

The Battle in the City of the Damned.

A Battle on Board the Bebop to stop the cannon firing

The Brave English boys are under all that smoke....

The Coward Cromwell surrenders

Teague and Bosch finish their rivalry started since literally the first battle, in perhaps the coolest, place in the most cinematic way possible!

The 7th Fighting to the Last.

While i don't have pictures of the duel and the rather large and apocalyptic final explosion.  Rest assured that it was terrifying and the other members of my house looked on in concerned while both of us screamed "THEY ARE ALL DEAD!!!  EVERYONE IS DEAD!" 

                                  Total Casualties in the Campaign so far...  (real ones)

                                            

                                               1500  Infantry (approx.)

                                                 30  vehicles  (approx)

                                                 -Captain Bosch [Commander of RGC, killed in Orleans]

                    - Xavier La Rouge and His Father [Commanders of the Stark Sires,  both Killed at Saints Hill

                    - Commandant Jarvis  [Commander of the 7th Dragoons,  Killed at Saints Hill] 

                                               

       

                                                  Less Real Casualties...

                                                               A mountaintop

                                              The "Hyll-Grove"  Region of france

                                                The Civilian Population of Orleans

Well i hope you enjoyed this massive titanic post o' doom.  Hopefully we play the conclusion to the Campaign soon and see if the SORROWS team will be able to kill Vesuvias once and for all. 

Fun stuff!   

Stay tuned and hopefully i'll be bringing WFB,  40k,  15mm and much more in the future

-Your Favorite Madman- 

 
                                                     

The Story of Dark Vengi: The Opening Chapter

Hey all, i finally got to play the first part of the Nuclear Renaissance Campaign against Chris from Sippin' on Paint Water the other day.

The Scene unfolds in the vicinity of a Church of the Blinding Dawn mission house on the outskirts of Roam.   The Sanctum Guard had reached the post early the previous night, and instructing the clerics and monks within to lay out all their supplies in the street, set up a ambush for Vengi's horde.  

As his host sweeps into town, Vengi spots the obvious bait lying on the ground,  eager to end the pursuit then and there and to humiliate his opponents Vengi surges forwards into the jaws of the Guard.   But he is not unprepared...


A view of the table/deployment

A shot of the sanctum guards one ranger, who took several pot shots, before being put down by the Cookman who leaped from the back of the spinder (walkers)  and booting him in the face in one action.

A view down the center of the street from the assault team of the Sanctum Guard which proved to be immensely effective for a time.

Before too long a swirling melee broke out around the main objective and a hero distinguished himself...  

Ulf the Orphan of the North lands, defeated in single combat, the Scare'davain,  and the Corpse Ogre after it regianed its sanity and went on a mad rampage destroying  part of the building and ripping up a spinder, which he took to mean that it was exceptionally dangerous and needed an axe in the head.  Yes... things looked grim for Vengi's horde until a lone lab assistant pulled out a small packaged, affixed it to the side of the mission and....

KA-BOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

needless to say most of the combatants were scattered, the supplies lost.   and with a mad laugh in the hot flailing wind Vengi's spiteful laugh could be heard by the Sanctum Guards.   

But the story does not end here...  

Ulf and Pietro, the two Sanctum not wounded made to chase Vengi through the blasted streets. Their pursuit would not be so simple however, for out of every pipe, and crawl space came the Vespa, deranged mutant inhabitants of Roam, drawn by the smell of blood and the promise of trinkets. 

Outnumbered but not outclassed Ulf speedily kills four Vespa. 

Pietro is less fortunate and is captured by the deranged mutants.

Slaughtering his way through the crowd, Ulf turns back to finally check on his limping behind squad mate, but finds himself cut off from his stricken friend. 

Later that evening....

Ulf made his way into the shattered remnants of a apartment building to plan his rescue of Pietro.

Vengi moved deeper into the city to establish his base 

The Vespa make their way to one of their many lairs to interrogate Pietro

The rest of the Sanctum Guard are taken to an aide station outside of town by the missionary clerics and monks, and nursed back to health. 

It was a fantastic game duo, and it really built a lot of background that we as players found really surprising and set the stage for a dual campaign (not that we were going to be against such a thing !) 

-Your Favorite Madman-