Turn 2: Orks vs Hive Fleet Storm

Deep in the dark of space, a threat has lurked for thousands of years. Slowly, gradually, inexoribly moving toward this Galaxy, teeming with life and overflowing with nourishing biomass.

A sinister, all knowing consciousness exists within this threat, Its seemingly undirected path is not as random and unplanned as it may seem. It knows what it is searching for. It knows what it will find. It knows when to find it. Its pace quickens. It smells blood. It smells flesh. It smells biomass.
It smells a lot of biomass.
It smells a lot of green biomass.


Stryke was in a good mood. Another Planet fell victim to his Green Tide. Another planet laced with Green spores, and tens of thousands more orks ready to join his Waaagh across this galaxy.

For every Ork that dies, spores are release that blow through the wind and find a place to settle. Virtually indestructible, and able to mature a fully grown Ork at a frightful pace, these spores turn even a grievous loss for the Orks into a century long war…quite literally, for every ork you kill, countless more will come after you in no more than a few weeks.
This is the true power of the Green Tide, and the reason for the Orks ability to cut huge swathes through Galaxies almost without hinderance and resupply.

“So anyways Dallag, wots dis transmishun you ‘ave found in space?”

“It was Reafdaw boss – he found it, but he is too dumb to know wot to do wiv it – ava listen boss”


“What the fug is dat Dallag?!” asked Stryke

“Dunno really boss. Sounded Oomie. Not sure if it wos one of da soft red shirted shooty wuns or the silver beakie tins we normally krump…”

“I don’t care about dem Dallag! Wot de fug was killin’ em?! Now dat sounds like a proper fight!!!! Where de bludy ‘ell are dey – Get dis gay purple beakie ship over dere right now!”


Captain Alec surveyed his beleaguered battle brothers across the battlement of the main Blood Angel Fortress. He started the week with little more than a company manning this world after the main bulk of the Chapter placed here on Bhat went to the planet of Janesh to answer a summons from the increasingly suspcious Grey Knights. He has ended the week with fewer than a hundred.

After the apparent fall to Chaos of Gai Lewiz’s Raven Claw Chapter, The Grey Knight Brother Librarian in charge of this Sector viewed all chapters with mounting suspicion. The Blood Angel Librarians who went to answer this call felt outraged at the veiled accusations thrown the way of the Blood Angels on bhat. Their progress was too slow. They had not asserted themselves well enough in this region of space. That was their reasoning.

It felt to all the Blood Angels like a double hammer blow…not only were they suffering the indignity of yet another statement of distrust directed towards their legion, they were also now having their martial prowess and ability to vanqish their foes in this part of the Galaxy questioned.

This would not do. The librarians heading to Janesh would not let this slight go unanswered. Captain Alec feared for his brothers and what the Inquisition and Grey Knight brothers had in store, but at this point in time a small part of him wishes he was there answering their farce of a tribunal instead of being where he was right now. Anywhere was better than where he was right now.

But it was only a small part. He was a Blood Angels Captain. He remembered his oath of moment, and desired dearly to end the Xenos stench that threatened this planet.
In truth, the Alien swarms that assaulted this world would not be bested. Not with the forces he had to hand. Within a day the majority of the Imperial Guard army stationed here with him had been wiped out. His company of angels had resorted to guerilla tactics, against a foe so numerous, so deadly, and so stealthy.

So many brothers lost to suprise attack as the Xenos filth appeared seemingly out of nowhere. So many brothers lost to countless swarms overunning positions after ammo hoppers fell empty. Even the mighty Furioso Angelus had fallen to the hulking mass of a swarm of Carnifexes. Angelus sold his life dearly, removing the breath from 2 of the carnifexes and inumerable smaller filth, but even this warrior of legend could not hold back the tide

Small victories had been won. Brief respites, such as he was enjoying now, had been won only at the cost of countless brother Angels. But whatever victories that he won, the Tyranid forces assailing and absorbing this planet grew stonger. They grew smarter. Every tactic employed by the Angels was eventually countered, allowing more countless thousands of tyranids to overwhelm their positions and drive them back.

But there was nowhere to fall back to anymore. Here they were in their fortress, their last stand. Alec had fewer than a hundred marines left, with scarce ammunition and bodies running at the extremes of fatigue despite their superhuman metabolisms.

“This will likely be it, my Captain” said Sergeant Markus darkly.

“That it may be Markus. That it may be. But we have nothing to fear. The Angels of death will deal the xenos filth a final blow. And while the swarms we see may overun our sanctuary, they will not win this war.”

“With respect Alec…we cannot win this war”

“Indeed Markus. And it is my choice on this day is that I must stay and die here. I must do my part to drive this filth from the walls of our sanctuary. I must show my brothers that we will not fall, not without killing a lifetimes worth of Xenos on this day. We will fight with the fury of Sanguinius. But Markus, this is not your fate.”

“Alec, this planet is doomed. I wish to fight the xenos at your side, as we have done so often before. Do not deny me my chance of a vengeful end” pleaded Markus

“Markus. Brother. Your fate is not to die on this wall. It is to save us. It is to save this planet and save the rest of the Galaxy. These Xenos must not be allowed to spread. That is our mission. If we let them off this planet, then they will consume the Galaxy. Nothing will stop them. We stop them here Markus. Do you understand?”

“I……yes Alec…I understand. What do you wish me to do?”

“Our remaining mechanicum friends have been spending the duration of this short war digging. They have placed far below the surface a bomb capable of destroying this planet. Detroying this planet and taking every one of these filthy Xenos with it. Markus, you will s…”

“Captain, they come!” shouted a marine on the southern battlement, moments before he was consumed by bioplasma

“Markus, go.” With a final grip of eachothers vambraces, Markus nodded and ran to the undergound complex beneath the sanctuary. Alec unsheathed his shimmering powersword and began unloading his bolter at the onrushing swarm clambering up the battlement walls “For the Emperor!!!!!!”

“For the Emperor!!!!” choired the dozens of marines with Alec, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this was their last stand.


Markus stepped into the elevator and hit the down button. Dark liquid dripped on the elevator floor. He thought he heard a noise from the ceiling. *what was that?*

In a flash, his boltgun was pointing at the ceiling hatch, but there was nothing there. *Where’d it go?”

Markus held this pose for a few moments before standing back at ease. The elevator opened. A scene of carnage was strewn in front of him. Mechanicum Magos and Skitarii were dismembered everywhere. Numerous Lictor corpses also littered the sparking and flashing machinery and consoles. Strobe lighting flickered randomly, illuminating the horror for only a second at a time before darkness returned to hide the scene.

Markus stepped into the room, boltgun outstretched and helmet enhancing his vision to the flickering light and slowly crept towards the main console in the centre of the room *Where is it?*

“…..over….here…”

Markus twisted his boltgun to the sound, seeing a Mechanicum Magos dying in front of him. Electrical circuits shorted over his skin and head. There was precious flesh left on this servant of the mechanicum…but whatever had happened here had stripped him of most of his augments too.

“the bomb…access…code….<zzzt>…1 – 0 – 0 – 1 – zzzt…” The Magos ceased to be. Dark Liquid dripped onto the Magos’s head.

Markus shouldered his boltgun and ran over to the console. 5 digits were needed. Sht. Of course the Magos would die after only reading 4 out of 5 numbers thought markus. Typical…but the code was binary…he had a 50 50 chance.
Dark liquid dripped onto the console

Markus entered the 4 digits. Dark liquid dripped onto his helmet. Markus decided on a number. But when he went to press the button, only a bloody stump reached the console. His hand was gone, sliced so cleanly he never felt the wound. Markus sensed a form behind him. *Its after me!*

Markus deftly unshouldered his boltgun with his left hand and turned in one smooth motion. One smooth motion that impaled himself on the Xenos in front of him *killing strike*

Somehow Markus knew his name…Deathleaper…


“What the bludy hll is Markus doing?!” Shouted Alec. His boltgun was long gone, the empty weapon thrown at a xenos pinning one of his brothers to the floor. Alec was cutting a bloody swathe around him, with countless dozen xenos dead at his feet.

A break in the constant wave after wave of attackers was ahead of him, but Alec was being attacked by the hulking form of a warrior with two smaller hormagaunt underlings, fighting almost in unison, and threatening to break Alec’s defence with every broad sweep of their huge rending talons. Alec narrowly side-stepped the thrust of an onrushing gaunt, shouldering the huge warrior away, which created him an opening to hack the gaunt clean in two across its back as it rushed past where Alec used to be.

At that moment, Gai Lewiz’s purple ships broke into the atmosphere. News travelled fast though, and Alec knew that Gai Lewiz had lost his prized flotilla to the mangy Orks some time ago.

“huh. Orks” mused Alec thoughtfully inbetween exchanging ripostes with the Warriors huge deadly bonesword

“Just what we need” grunted the marine next to him as he sliced open the carapace of a genestealer.

“Your are not wrong brother…Markus may have failed in his mission… but the Orks are just what we need”

“Sir?” gasped the marine desperately fending off more gnesetealers clambering over him

“The Tyranids don’t die.” Exclaimed alec as he deflected the sweep of a bonesword. “The Orks don’t die.” He recited, splitting the other unrushing hormagant from skull through to belly
“We may be lost here brother, but the Orks will wage a war that will last for eternity!” Alec beat of the last of the Tyranids assailing him with a deep stab of his powersowrd through the chitin chest of the warrior with the bonesword.

“Angels! With me!” Shouted Alec as he bundled over the innumerable xenos corpses heading toward the stonghold. Alec saw movement in his peripheral vision *what was that?*

He dismissed it as shadows until he heard a noise behind him and twisted, swinging his powersword in a decapitating strike, yet meeting only thin air *where’d it go?*

He kept running. Something wasn’t right. He scanned the battlefield between him and the stronghold *where is it?*

“get on the vox, send out another transmission. Send it on an open signal, to our Grey Knights and our Brother Librarians on Janesh. Explain our position, explain whats happened. Explain that exterminatus is now the only way”

“yes sir” replied the trooper. Yet Alec heard no Vox message. He turned to see the marine face down over the receiver. He looked around. There was only him in the Vox room. What happened to his squad…? *its after me!*

Alec picked up the Vox transmitter, but found himself unable to use it. *killing strike*

Somehow Alec knew his name…Deathleaper…


Lists

Orks

HQ:
Warboss Stryke, on Warbike with Cybork body, attack squig and power klaw
Big Mek Dallag with Kustom Force Field, burna and bosspole

Troops
30 Boyz with nob, power klaw, 'eavy armour and bosspole
20 Boys with nob, power klaw, ‘eavy armour and bosspole, plus 1 big shoots
11 Grots and 1 runtherd

Elites
8 Burna Boyz and 2 Meks with Kustom Mega Blasters
15 Lootas

Fast attack
11 Stormboyz plus nob, power klaw, ‘eavy armour and bosspole
Dakkajet with additional super shoota and fighter ace
Dakkajet with additional super shoota and fighter ace

Heavy Support
Battlewagon with Deffrolla, big shoota and red paint
Battlewagon with Deffrolla, big shoota and red paint

Tyranids

HQ
Hive Tyrant with armoured shell, lash whip & bone sword, twin linked devourers with brain leech worms, old adversary

Troops
Tervigon with adrenal glands, cluster spines, catalyst, dominion, crushing claws
Tervigon with adrenal glands, cluster spines, catalyst, dominion, crushing claws
20 termagants with devourers
25 termagants
7 genestealers including broodlord with scything talons and adrenal glands

Elite
3 Hive guard
3 Zoanthropes
Doom of Malentai with Mycetic Spore

Heavy Support:
Biovore
Biovore
Biovore


Deployment




Deployment:
Vanguard Strike - Diagonals

Mission Type:
2: Purge the Alien

Primary Objective:
Kill points

Secondary Objective:
First Blood – 1VP
Kill the Warlord – 1VP
Line Breaker – 1VP

Warlord Traits:
Warboss Stryke - Stretegic Genius (reroll reserves)
Hive Tyrant -The dust of a thousand worlds (warlord + units in 12” move through cover)

Night Fighting:
Forgotton or didn’t happen – cant remember which!

First Turn:
Orks. Nids failed to steal initiative


Turn 1



The Ork front line thundered forwards towards the mass of Tyranids that were assaulting the Blood Angels Fortress, with Warboss Stryke taking a wide flank behind the alien scenery. Rolling a 6 for their jet pack move, The Stormboyz moved 18” and pulled in centrally behind Hagred's Hut attempting to partially flank deny the western edge. The big mob of boyz moved in to cover them and face whatever sweeps in behind the main thrust.

The lootas only managed 1 shot each, firing straight across the board at the Hive guard, scoring 5 hits and 3 wounds, none of which were saved by the hive guard, so one was removed and another took a wound

The Tyranids began the battle spawning 13 termagants each adding to the size of their horde. One of the Tervigons however had clearly emptied its innards in the fight against the Blood Angels, and could spawn no more.

The Tervigons and Biovores unleashed their barrage of death against the onrushing Ork Hordes. All 4 found targets between the big boyz and Stormboyz units killing a total of 10 boyz and 2 Stormboyz. The termagants with devourers and the main termagant squad shot against the Stormboyz, felling another 4 Stormboyz

The Hive Guard and Hive Tyrant fired their guns against the Battlewagon containing the boyz, and managed to score 2 glancing and 1 penetrating hit, reducing the wagon to a single hull point and removing its big shoota. The Zoanthropes Fired at the other battlewagon, but did not manage to land a penetrating hit.

It was a relatively uneventful turn for the Orks, but the Tyranids did manage to heavily stunt the advance of the orks attacking their swarm.

It was almost as if the Tyranids, even distracted by their assault on the blood angel fortress, knew the Orks were coming and kept a force aside just for them…

Turn 2 – Waaagh!



The Orks managed to find their footing in their new environment, and made very firm contact with the Tyranid swarm. The battlewagon boyz disembarked from their wounded battlewagon, and along with Warboss Stryke in a pincer movement completely destroyed the newly spawned termagants in the North West. The Wagon careered into the Tervigon, only hitting once with its Deffrolla scoring no wounds. The Tervigon responded by smashing it to bits with its crushing claws.



The other battlewagon meanwhile rolled toward the devourer armed termagants who had graciously walked into the burna’s threat range in very tight formation, and unleashed all there flamer templates inflicting a massive, massive 120 odd hits! That translated to over 90 wounds! Unsurprisingly these nids where too charred even for Warboss Stryke’s tastes!



Stryke’s 2 Dakkajets swept onto the board, unleashing their 36 twin linked, waaagh infused supashootas onto the central Tervigon, but only managed to inflict 2 wounds each, leaving it with 2 wounds.

The big unit of boyz shot at the open 25 man termagant swarm, killing 9, and the Stormboyz continued on into the Zoanthropes inflicting 3 wounds and killing one. Unfortunately for the orks, when the Stormboyz reached combat, the Zoanthropes inflicted a wound, but in an embarrassing conflict the Stormboyz and nob managed no wounds in return and were run down in a sweeping advance from the Zoanthropes!




The Tervigon who still could spawned another 10 gants who promptly advanced towards and killed 2 boyz. The large unit of gants returned fire to the boyz unit, killing a further 4. The pod containing the doom of Malentai landed next to the large boyz unit also, killing 4 more boyz with its psychic leech, the pod itself also killed a boy, the squad now looking rather decimated. The gants and genestealers then charged the decimated boyz squad, losing a genestealer to overwatch, but slaughtering what was left.




Doom fired its psychic blast at the lootas but it scattered safely away. The Biovores targeted the battlewagon boyz to the north next, but only managed to slay 6 between them.

Meanwhile the Zoanthropes fired at the burna boyz Battlewagon managing to explode it killing 2 burnas in the explosion. This heralded a torrent of fire at the unit in recognition of their threat after burning the devourer gants to a crisp. The hive guard and tyrant and the other unit of termagants managed to slay 4 more burnas and the big Mek scoring another VP. The gants then tried to charge the unit, but the remaining burnas killed 3 gants in overwatch, taking out its front line and denying their charge.


Turn 3



The Orks were clearly stunned at the precise and coordinated counter attack of the swarm – it’s almost as if they knew the orks were coming and had left behind a force specifically to deal with the Green threat. It affected the Greenskins more than they will admit, culminating in another woeful turn for them in turn 3.

The Orks decided to concentrate their fire on the hive guard and tyrant with their 3 victory points easy within this practiced and lethal ork army’s ability. The lootas unloaded 2 shots each, and one Dakkajet unleashed its full compliment. The Meks buried in the cover of their dead battlewagon added to the payload, but after managing 16 hits, nothing got through the hive tyrants armour!!!! It was left up to the remaining burnas to regain some dignity and his flames managed to slay the hive guard with 1 wound remaining.

The other Dakkajet continued to unleash its guns against the Tervigon from last turn, but also managed no wounds.

The battlewagon boyz charged the other Tervigon meanwhile, taking 3 wounds off the beast in exchange for 2 lost boyz. In the nid turn the boyz did manage to finish off the Tervigon and consolidated towards the Zoanthropes.

Lastly, Stryke’s bike roared around the back of the Tyranid forces, hurtling straight into a Biovore who stood no chance. The other Biovores continued their bombardment, against the gretchin this time, slaying only one thanks to scatter.

The Tervigon only managed to spawn 4 gants this turn and emptied its belly, distracted by the Dakkajets withering but useless fire. Not a bad haul for the Tervigons in this battle with a total of 40 gants being spawned! The 4 gants were immediately faced by the roaring form of Stryke but managed to somehow take a wound off him! The other nearby gant swarm and the hive guard/tyrant then continued compounding the orks misery by taking out the Warboss’s last wound scoring 2 more VP for the nids!

Doom moved over towards the lootas, who miraculously managed to pass their leadership test, but this did not save them as combined fire from the gants and Dooms power scored 13 wounds, of which the orks managed to only save 2! The remaining lootas promptly packed off and ran back to Gai Lewiz’s ship.

The middle gaunt swarm and the mycetic spore fired at the burna boyz hunkered down, taking out the reaming burnas leaving only the Meks in their wreck.

Diabolical rolling from the Orks had all but handed the game to the Nids…but then…we all have experienced how strong Stryke’s Wolverines are in the endgame…

Turns 4, 5 & 6



The Orks had an uphill struggle to pull anything out of this game now, but the remaining orks were loving the scrap they found themselves in and wanted more nid burgers for dinner than they had got already. With the genestealers setting the example of moving into cover in Linebreaker territory, the gretchin moved to go around the large forest hoping to stay out of sight and move into a solid Linebreaker position themselves. However Doom was tracking them and managed to score sufficient wounds, critically on the runtherd, to cause the gretchin to flee, where a second psychic attack from Doom in turn 6 turned the gretchin inside out before they exploded.

The Dakkajets soared over the main battleground, with fire from termagants harmlessly flying past their hulls, targeting a Biovore each and successfully taking down each target. One Dakkajet had no angle left to stay on the board, and despite manoeuvres landed back into reserve scoring the nids a victory point. The other Dakkajet managed to stay on the board in its subsequent turns, but was could not bring itself to bear on a target or stay within Linebreaker.



The battlewagon boyz, spurred on by the carnage of the termagant squad and Tervigon they had already dispatched, fired through the Zoanthropes into the hive guard, taking out the final hive guard. Charging in, the nob headed straight towards the hive tyrant, whilst the boyz multi-assaulted the Zoanthropes who inevitably found themselves in the way. Unlike against the Stormboyz, this time they did not manage to touch the boyz, who steamrolled through them, slaying them both, their huge brains burst by the big boots of a dozen orks clambering over them. The tyrant inflicted some wounds, but stripped of its 2 + armour, having no invuln, and its cover no longer helping, the powerklaw toting nob made short work of the Tyranid Leader.

The fight was not yet over for the Battlewagon boyz though, as the other Tervigon charged into them, taking down 2 boyz and the Nob, but not before the Nob’s power klaw took off the great monsters final two wounds. Only a few boyz remained as a simultaneous assault by the nearby termagants drew them to a stalemate in the final turn.

This is the destiny of this world. With the Blood Angels plans in tatters thanks to the evolving and adapting intelligence of the Hive Mind, it has come to the unlikely heroes of the orks to save this galaxy from this hive fleets invasion.

With every dead Ork laying spores to birth a new generation of burger hungry Orks, and the Tyranids consuming the biomass of the orks regenerating its own swarm, this will be a war that will rage on this planet for countless years to come, neither side able to overcome the might of the other.

Final Result

Tyranids Victory Points

Warboss Stryke
Big Mek Dallag
30 Boyz
Gretchin
Burna Boyz
Lootas
Stormboyz
Dakkajet
Battlewagon
Battlewagon
Kill the Warlord
Linebreaker


Ork Victory Points

Hive Tyrant
Tervigon
Tervigon
20 devourer gants
Hive guard
Zoanthropes
Biovore
Biovore
Biovore
Kill the Warlord
First Blood
13 spawned gants


12 -12 - The Orks pulled out a Draw!

Man of the Match Nominations

Orks: Battlewagon Boyz
These guys were a slaughterhouse in this battle, responsible for the killing blows on both Tervigons, a unit of termagants, the Zoanthropes, Hive Guard and of course the Hive Tyrant. Not only that but they were alive at the end of the fight! They were a real one man army!

Tyranids: Biovores
No unit particularly stood out in this massacre, but the Biovores probably did have the biggest kill count by the end of the fight. A good all round performance by the nids

Great batrep once again! Orks v nids is just one of those epic battles each side just seems to have the perfect counters to the other! You know it's gonna be bloody and you know it's gonna be close every time!

Good to see the orks not win for a change as well - I believe it's only nids that have every held them over the course of 2 campaigns - sort it out people!!

Gratz on your first outing in the campaign as well storm - good battle/ result!

Great batrep. Loved reading it. Not enitrley sure where the whole blood angels came in, but it was a really enjoyable intro to read. I seriously think that the or;s lose every game in turns 1 to 3 an then seem to bring it back after that.

Is there anything either of you would do differently?

And Raii Lewiz wants his ship back

He'll have to earn it back!

The blood angels bit was for two reasons, fluff wise its because i was attacking the world that the blood angels attacked richard from last turn - so this rogue world technically had blood angels on it and so i tried to find a reason why the orks and tyranids were fighting on their instead of the angels.
basically i had to kill them off to allow us both to be on that planet

Secondly i thought id mix up the story telling a bit instead of retelling the same story of Stryke being moody in his ship i thpought dabbling in a marine story would be more interesting

In terms of doing it differently, i think we'd both echo that we wish we didnt rush turns 4-6. basically we only finished turn 3 the night we played - i kipped oer and had about an hour to finish off the rest of the game the next day, so we both rushed and made loads of mistakes turns 4 -6.
Ill let storm tell his tale, but here were my critical mistakes:

• I messed up turn 1 movement really badly. i blame watching derren browns apocalypse at the same time!
  
• Turn 3 was abysmal luck for me. and i mean abysmal way beyond normal bad luck, and tbh it lost me the game as i was left with 2 dakkajets and the bw boyz only.
  
• speaking of them, i forgot at the end that they were in cover, so i would have struck first in my combats instead of last, and would have saved a lot more boyz. they were also in linebreaker which would have given me a winning VP had i realised.
  
• The dakkajet that flew off the board cost me 2 VP, basically because i was an idiot moving it.
  
• the other dakkejet was forgotten turn 5, when realistically he had free VPs directly in front of him with the genestealers, mycetic spore and perhaps gants.
  
• poor gretchin moement (again in a rush) meant i didnt move them out of l.o.s. meaning they got shot down when they shouldnt have.
  
• but most of all i should have gone to ground with my lootas and burna boyz in their cover to get 3+ saves - i aways forget this, and its especially useful for orks as our bs is pant anyway so snap shotting isnt a huge deal. if they were still alive turn 4 (which by the dice they would have) we'd have had a very differnet game!

so, moral of the story - i wish i didnt make so many school boy errors!

I do intend to try and battle you shortly. I'm sure Eldrad would see it in his heart to return Raii Lewiz's ship. I'm sure it leads to the Eldars ultimate victory somehow....

now with pics courtesy of anthony.

and yes, for those who noticed, that is a cult of raving rabbids worshiping an arse plant.

extra points for spotting kang and kodos, the toy story aliens, and the stegosaurus and my little pony tervigons!

true story!

kang and kodos are possibly THE best nid proxies I have ever seen - NEVER BUY THE REAL MODELS!!!

I'm sure Rich will be a big fan of the my little pony as well