Jornath: The Battle of Sluice Processional 74 East

Thanks in large part to the successful diverting strikes of the Knightly Houses and Astra Militarum, the Orkish Hordes pouring onto the vast undeveloped plains beyond the Hive, despite the Navy's best efforts, were delayed from properly organizing a major incursion into Linces Hive before it could be prepared for defense.  Of course though, the attack eventually came, with a massive wave of clanking alien walkers, and snorting war machines hurling themselves at the walls.  Unbeknownst to the Orks, their avenue of advance had been carefully directed by Imperial diversionary attacks, airstrikes, deliberate terrain preparations, and the placement of sacrificial elements to drive a mass of Orks into a deadly trap. 

Sluice Processional 74 East, is an outflow basin a half kilometer in width that is designed to flush a slurry of industrial waste, and sewage back out into the wastelands. It was determined to be the weakest portion of the Hive's perimeter, as it presents a natural breach in the walls, and was the only Sluice Processional where perimeter void shield generator pylons were accessible from ground level. 

When 8500 Orks arrived in the Sluiceway they found themselves funneled into a deadly assault against nearly two full companies of Astartes from the Imperial Dragoons and Sons of Medusa, as well as Noble Custodian Guards from the Akhelian Shield, and a Full Detachment of Knights from House Raven. Brutal Fusilades of Boltguns and Super-Heavy Weaponry tore into an Orkish Motorized Army Group which continued to suicidally careen into the Imperial Line, tearing into the noble Astartes. At the height of the fighting, as the line bowed, the Imperial force commander, the Imperial Dragoon's Lieutenant Thade, sallied into the heart of the Greenskin tide accompanied by his chapters Assault Marines, Intercessors, and the Emperor's Own Custodes. Thade's Sally would break the Orks resolve fully, and started a cascade of disorder into the aliens advance, eventually leading to the Ork withdraw back out into the wastelands.

Ork Flyers soar overhead of the fighting, coming in low to drop high explosives into Knights, and bunkers full of Astartes.

Imperial Dragoon Intercessors, slay Ork Boyz beneath the Void Shield Pylons.

Lt. Thade leads the Defenders of Linces Hive into the heart of the Alien horde

Assault Marines and Terminators deploy amongst the aliens, closing off their line of retreat

The moments following Thade Sally

Armigers of House Raven fire Thermal Spears into Ork Trukks during Thades Sally 

Lt. Thade fearlessly confronts a Killa Kan Mob, the Litany of Hate loud upon his lips as he closes with the clanking machines

Brother Hedrastes, surveys the roadway before his squad's position, in the wake of the alien's first push into their lines.

Demi-Squad Colique struggles to hold back elite infantry and heavy support elements along the extreme left flank

Hellblasters of the Sons of Medusa hold a trench line against Blood Axe Ork Warriors

Evil Sunz Ork Boyz surge past a Battlefortress, trading fire with the Knights of House Raven

A massive melee stretches across the battlefield, as the Emperor's chosen close to deny the Ork advance

Epistolary Gideon of the Imperial Dragoons, directs his strike force's fire as the Ork tide closes

The Vitritian Interregnum: Game 3

Brother Sergeant Santius, strode over the discarded bodies of the Skitarii. The battlefield had a curiously perfumed smell, absent was the smell of blood and decay, replaced instead with the tang of hydraulic fluids and the cold stasis of long-dead flesh. It made his eye tick with the passionless nature of it, The Lamb, in particular, was despondent, as it riffled through the shattered corpses of the Mechancius footsoldiers looking for whatever its daemon addled brain judged significant enough to justify a ritual offering. He turned his attention from the possessed creature to the throng of human soldiery standing around the Cogitator Array that the Imperials had fought so hard to defend. It was an old piece of technology, a governing unit for this section of the outland promethium pipelines, it remained to be seen the significance of this seemingly innocuous terminal. 

"Report Lieutenant" Santius growled down at the leader of the Human throng. 

"My Lord, we have performed a cursory analysis of this Cogitator and noticed an abnormality. It appears this terminal is being used to mirror the signal output of a primary mainframe structure within the planet's former defense force headquarters. We are still trying to ascertain precisely why this terminal is running such a protocol, and have requested the honored Tech-Priests aboard the ship to send us specialists for this matter."  

"Very good, continue to fortify the area with reserve assets while we await the Mechanicus." Santius said to the human, mulling over the information he turned and began to walk towards the dilapidated bunker complex, when the Inter-squad vox erupted with the tectonic voice of Sergeant Ocan. 

"Santius, the 14th Rallen's pickets have reported massed Mechanicus armor moving a few kilometers away, with a speartip of specialist infantry advancing to the heights at marker 023045. I am already moving my squad to the location." 

"Affirmative Brother, we will join you shortly" retorted Santius, closing the link and grabbing the hilt of his chainsword

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This is the third game of myself and Chris' slow-grow narrative campaign, we've bumped the points up a little for this game moving up to 750pts.  The mission this time is Search and Destroy with 4 Objectives, and a classic 12" up off the long table edge deployment zone. 

The Centurions of Innocence 750pts 

Daemon Prince of Khorne, with Wings, Warp Bolter and Talisman of Burning Blood

[Warlord] Chaos Lord with the Black Axe of Ul'occa and plasma pistol - Violent Urgency Trait

Exalted Champion with Berzerkers Glaive and Plasma Pistol

3x Khorne Berzerker Squads of 5 Men, Champion has a Plasma Pistol and Power Fist, Three Berzerkers with Chainsword and Bolt Pistol and one Berzerker with Plasma Pistol and Chainsword.

3x Mutilators 

Skitarii of Metallica Forge World 750pts

Techpriest Enginseer

Techpriest Manipulus 

3x 6 man Skitarii Vanguard units, Leader has a Taser-Goad, one man has a Plasma Culverin 

2x 10 man Skitarii Titan Guard Hoplites

5 Man Sicarian Infiltrators 

3 Sydonian Dragoons

I chose to deploy as far forward as possible for obvious reasons with the Daemon Prince nestled safely inside a bunker to avoid all the nasty Plasma fire and trying to be as wily as I could to not fall into the same baiting trap with my Prince as I could. Chris' Mechanicus are vicious in close combat, Hoplites have power close combat weapons and a 4+ Invuln in close combat, that paired with Vanguard's aura of -1 Toughness can be potent, and I couldn't risk having to deal with Dragoons on top of that. 

I consolidated my right most squad to hold my Homefield objective and act as a reserve if the Hoplites proved too much for the Berzerkers and Characters. All the other units moved boldly through the tight center alley of the table. The Daemon Prince smashed into the Dragoons, killing the brutal Mechanicus cavalry before they could tear a neat hole into the middle of my forces. 

Plasma fire and the Ranged attack from the Hoplites takes a gruesome toll on the advancing Chaos Marines. The Hoplites make a charge and attempt to assault as many of the Heretics as they possibly can finishing off several and dealing many wounds to the Chaos Lord, but unfortunately for the Mechanicus, I made a truly ridiculous amount of saves and the damage was not enough. In return, the elite Skitarii were put to the sword. 

The other squad of Skitarii moved to engage the daemon prince and would attempt to kill the rampaging Chaos monster, only to be answered with a handful of casualties for their trouble

The Mutilators Deep Strike at the start of Turn three to threaten the secondary Mechanicus home Objective

The Daemon Prince, Champion, and Lord alongside the two remaining Berzerker Squad Leaders sweep into the Vanguard, Hoplites and Techpriest Manipulus, freeing the Daemon Prince from his being pinned in combat, killing the Techpriest and tearing a vanguard unit to pieces. 

With my Command Cadre and Mutilators in his deployment zone, and a fresh unit of Berzerkers in my backfield to counter the arrival of the Infiltrators the Mechanicus Concede the game.

Centurions of Innocence Victory

Jornath [The Woodcutters Due 3]: Marauder's Crossroad

The Orks hit the men of 2 Platoon, 56th Lumberman's Guildmuster hard, with critical casualties reported across all units, and large groups of greenskins funneling through the gaps in the line. Communications to Regimental Headquarters have deteriorated, and even squad level coordination has begun to breakdown, as alien big guns hammer the scattered and beleaguered guard elements. As the sun rises on a fierce battle already hours old, scattered survivors attempt to rally, and destroy what enemy they can. 

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This is the 3rd Scenario in a Solo Play Campaign, in the ongoing narrative setting of Jornath. These games were played with a live AAR in Facebook Messanger, the contents of that AAR are posted here for posterity.  In this scenario, I went with something I would consider a "Classic Normandy" style game, with two fireteams of Imperials moving along hedgerows around a rugged rural intersection, framing a farm field in which an Ork armored piece is tracked and being repaired, but making use of its forward gun to shell nearby Guard forces. The Orks are attempting to hold back the Imperials, and get their tank working once more.

Assex dans le bois. Usamiljen Foothills. Jornath.

Dawn has risen over the line, the Ork assault is grinding into Imperial lines and the PDF are suffering for it, but for all their casualties the men of the imperium are holding the line. The 2nd platoon of the 56th Lumberman's Guildmuster along with Brother Klethos of the Mortifactors 3rd company are attempting to regroup. Along the way Lieutenant Hoffens command group, encountered the walking wounded of 4th squad and Klethos, attempting to ambush the dismounted crew of an immobilized Ork battlewagon which is shelling local forces. It must be destroyed to buy the platoon breathing room

End of turn 1. Imperial forces move forward cautiously, and meet with woefully bad shooting. The orks respond with more accurate fire, stripping brother klethos of his "transhuman physiology" wound. The lone boy left working to retrack the battlewagon takes 1 point off the damage tracker leaving 11 points remaining until the vehicle is repaired

End of Turn 2:. The imperials continue to advance but again struggle to find their aim. Only knocking down one grot. The orks retaliate with lots of hits but only knocking one of Lieutenant Hoffens two wounds off. They proceed to charge the command team but surprisingly wiff in combat. Only for Lieutenant Hoffens to slay one of the orks in close combat! And for one man to render another grot 'knocked down'

End of Turn 3:. The Imperials advance rapidly and finally dial in their aim with brother klethos slaying one of the boys working on the battlewagon in a spray of bolt fire. And lasgun fire killing one grot and stunning another. The imperial luck continues into combat with Lieutenant Hoffens proving how he got his rank by hewing yet another Ork down with a mighty sweep of his chainsword. The wagon commander finally remembers how to krump things and is kills one guardsman and stuns another in each combat phase. While the lone boy left, finally begins rolling higher than a one for the repair roll, bringing the points down to 8.

Brother Klethos moves to slay the Ork leader but is stunned for his trouble. The rest of the guardsmen sweep around the tank, attempting to close in on the last Ork boy and finish the fight. Lieutenant Hoffens, moves into combat with the alien commander and nearly causes a wound to the nob, but the beasts armor proved effective.

Both Lieutenant Hoffens and the guardsman are knocked down as the nob goes ballistic. By the tank, the last boy is shredded by fully automatic lasfire.

Fully 4 lasguns, a bolt gun and a plasma gun tear into the nob. In a shower of flame and gore the beast is annihilated. The last grot is quickly dispatched as it attempts to scurry into the bocage. The alien tank is permanently disabled. Imperial victory!

As the force begins to catch their breath and see to their cuts and bruises, trooper Anek hooks the platoon vox into the communications array from the disabled Ork vehicle. A cacophony of pleas pours out from the radio in short order. Apparently in the night the Precpian Air Cavalry was deployed to stymie the alien advance, but found themselves cut off and surrounded for their trouble in the confusion of the night drop,. A squad of these brave men is nearby and requesting assistance. But also, a nearby prior and a small band of the faithful are sheltering within a chapel, being plagued by orkish siege. Splitting the force at this point would be a poor choice. But which group should the unit aid?

Popular vote of those in the Facebook chat opted to go forward to Save the Precpian's from their plight and if possible move to secure the chapel once the airmen have been secured.

-Your Favorite Madman-