Assassination - Edd's Thoughts

Firstly, we were playing on Simon’s turf for the first time. This seemingly small change erupted into near disaster as I forgot that:
a) It was my turn to play a mission card 
b) Thanks to the success of the Orks in the previous mission I could not use any heavy slots.

I had to re-do my list with the models that I had with me. Thankfully Simon let me play the Land Raider in an Elite slot, so with a re-giggled list I was only 30 points or so down.

Mission wise, I remembered that I had the Assassination card, and by luck I had my Librarian in the small carry box – allowing me to field the mandatory 2 HQ choices. Calgar was going to show the Librarian how it should be done as we chased down the Warboss.

Diagonal deployment meant the marines organised themselves on one side of a road facing into the ruins of a city. Tellion and his scouts had a small ruin to bunker down in with their camo cloaks, and everything else prepared for the Ork onslaught. 

In previous battles, the orks had come at us fast and in numbers, so we were looking to gun them down with full size tactical squads as they approached, and then use some organized movement shenanigans to try to prevent heavy losses in close combat.

With the Land Raider using an Elite slot, Calgar and his bodyguard could not deploy inside it. Instead they readied themselves next to it, anticipating an embarkation. 

Only, the orks didn’t come.

Instead they skulked through the ruins on the opposite side of the road. So we shot at them, and we called down an orbital bombardment. 

We shot at their shadowsfor two turns, neutering a few threats and suffering nothing in return.

By turn three things started to heat up. Rexus, the Landraider was destroyed – it had been a primary target for the Orks, and we started to see Orks in larger numbers emerging from the ruins. Thankfully they failed an important charge range roll (through terrain), and with the tactical doctrine blaring in the ears of the marines, our overwatch fire was looking good.

The stormtalon’s late arrival was a blessing. It came in just as the Land Raider was destroyed, and provided a replacement distraction target for the Orks.

Calgar meanwhile proceeded to show the Librarian how to engage the enemy properly. In tandem with a Land Speed Storm providing Cerberus launcher cover (blinding the Orks), he charged and destroyed a load of them. The group then moved into the ruins, and the following turn Calgar separated to tear apart an immobilized Wagon (Incidentally, the resulting explosion killed Calgar’s standard bearer – meh). 

So, in a swathe of bolter fire and blue, Calgar was sweeping enemies aside. We’d had to change our planned approach due to a number of things, but by turn 5 we were up by three kill points. This was largely, I feel, down the Orks piecemeal commitment to the fight; they seemed to keep a large part of their army out of the way, allowing us to attack the smaller biker units. 

When Blooditooth finally did make a proper appearance, his prowess was evident. He took out an entire tactical squad on his own!

But it was too little, too late for the Orks – by then we were able to concentrate fire on the poor warboss. Tellion cought him well and took two of his three wounds.

Calgar, confident enough to stride around on his own now, tried a nine-inch charge. Oh how he and I would have loved to have made that charge! It wasn’t to be though. Game ended well for the marines. We learned some lessons though, and on another day the Orks could easily have torn us a new asshole, and taught us how to breathe through it.

The war thunders on...