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...

Assassination - Battle Report

Edd managed to forget it was his Campaign turn; he had to alter his list a bit. He did remember his mission which was Assassination. A Mission based on kill points with a bonus 5 points should he kill my warboss. No other ways to score.

Due to my bonus from winning the 2nd mission – Sabotage, the Ultramarines could not take Heavy slots.

Ultramarines

HQ - Calgar and a Level 2 Librarian

Elite Choice – Land Raider

Troops – 3 units of 10 Tactical Squad. One in a Rhino, One with Calgar and one on foot. There was a s 5 man tac with a Razorback and a unit of 5 tac squad. Finally a scout unit with snipers and Telion.

Fast – Land Speeder Storm and stormtalon.

Orks

Ferotous (using rules for Wazdakka)

14 tankbustas, 6 Nob bikers

4 units of 3 bikers and 2 units of 20 boyz

2 Battlewagons.

I won the dice roll, and decided to take first turn.

Ork Deployment

I pretty much deployed everything on the right. Ferotous and the Nob bikers at the back.

Ultramarine Deployment

Edd made a line on the right as well. Lines of tactical squads on the right, Land Raider and Calgar in the centre and the Razorback/scouts and Rhino on the left.

Ork Turn 1

Since the Ultramarines had to be aggressive I decided to mostly hide. Got my tankbustas ready to strike in turn 2 whilst the bikes got into nice safepositions.

Ultramarine Turn 1

Land Raider moved forwards, whilst the rest of the army shot. Due to range and well placed bikes, not much happened. About 6-9 Tankbusters did die however.

Ork Turn 2

Unwilling to charge into the rapid fire spam the army bunkered down. A biker unit charged the land Raider and did a hull point. The wagons moved forwards to get the boyz closer to the action.

Lone ork Biker damages the Land Raider!

Ultramarine Turn 2

Storm talon didn’t arrive. The Ultramarines started to move up. Shooting was low, the Bikes took a few wounds and a wagon was immobilized.

Telion started to try and snipe Ferotous.

The Tac squads don't have many targets!

Ork Turn 3

Another unit of Bikes charged the landraider, this time blowing it up! A unit of bikes tried a charge on a tactical squad but failed. The Ork boys got out ready to fight a tactical squad. Ferotous tried to fix the wagon but failed, whilst the other wagon and bikes shot lots of things, only doing a handful of kills.

Another unit of bikes finishes off the land raider

Ladz pile out into a ruin

Ultramarine Turn 3

The Marines advanced in full and the Storm Talon arrived. The main targets were the 20 Ork boyz fresh out of the wagon, but the shooting wasn’t a huge success. However the Ork bike units now were all down to 1 or 2 boyz per unit.

Ladz prepare to charge the tac squad

Ork Turn 4

The Boyz and a single Biker charged the large tactical squad, which they wiped out. The Nob bikers shot down the Stormtalon with help from a big shoota elsewhere. The Shoota boyz unloaded their ammo into a tactical squad. Amazingly the Land speeder didn’t die to big shoota fire. 

The Scores were 4 to the Marines and 3 to the Orks. Ferotous tried and failed fixing the wagon.

Shooting success but repair failure!

Ultramarines Turn 4

Calgar and his tac squad charged the slugga boyz and killed them and advanced on the already damaged wagon. Telion continued to try and kill Ferotous but failed to target him. The Rhino moved up to try and support Calgar tac squad and shoot the nob bikers.

Ork Turn 5

Ferotous gave up trying to fix the wagon and moved up towards the centre hoping to cause some chaos in the next few turns. His biker team shot a number of Marines. The Shoota boyz continued to weaken units.

Ultramarine Turn 5

Calgar left his tac squad and charged the damaged wagon. His Power fists made short work of it. The tac squads tried to shoot the bikers and the heavy weapons failed to kill the last wagon.

At this point it was 6-3 to the Ultramarines.

The end game dice was rolled but continued.

Ork Turn 6

Ferotous was clearly in spilt minds. He wanted to kill something so badly he charged a entire tactical squad by himself. He bellowed his orders to his Nob bikers to weaken Calgar. Between the shootas and the Nob bikers shots, Calgar was wounded. The Bikers failed their charge and couldn’t bring their klaws down on Calgar who was isolated from his tac squad.

Ferotous charged the tac squad which had 6 left standing. Between crashing his bike, Thesaurus MA stabbing and Ferotous Klaw, No-one was left standing. The piles of shattered Marines lay around him in a pile.

WAAAAAAGGHH! DIE BEAKIES! (Can I hear Telion reloading?)

Ultramarine Turn 6

Calgar, was wounded, but was within sight of Ferotous. He Ignored the Nob bikers challenge and ran with all haste towards Ferotous. Meanwhile the tact squads largely failed to hurt the bikers or the very badly damaged battlewagon.

Telion however finally stepped up to the plate. After the whole battle of Telion targeting Ferotous, he double tapped and scored two hits on Ferotous, hitting him square in the face. This wounded Ferotous greatly. The final action of the turn was Calgars very far charge on Ferotous which failed.

Ferotous was saved.

The dice was rolled and the game ended.

Scores

Ultramarines scored 6 – (4 Biker units, Boys unit and a battlewagon) Did not get the bonus 5 for killing Ferotous (he only had 1 wound left thanks to Telion!)

Orks scored 4 – 2 tac squads, Land Raiderand Stormtalon.

Final Score – 6-4 to the Ultramarines.

Assassination - Target Bluddietoof

Following the Battle for Hulthinsar, the war was in the favour of the Greenskins. They had convincingly killed the Ultramarines on planetfall and after Ferotous had not been killed at Hulthinsar both battles had been victories for the Horde.

Calgar knew that the Ork Warboss needed to be killed and set upon a mission to kill ‘Doktor’ Ferotous Bluddietoof. Telion had recovered from his wounds and had been assigned by Calgar to report and track Bluddietoof.

Telion reported that the ork warboss was on the move in a highly mobile force. Calgar, with no heavy support, utilised his thunderhawk gunship to deploy an infantry heavy force to seperate Ferotous from his horde and use this opportunity to kill the warboss and cut the heart out of the WAAAGH!

Calgar met up with Telion and waited for Ferotous to appear. The mission was simple – Kill Ferotous Bluddietoof – Once and for all!

Calgar and his Ultramarines lay in wait on the cities edge.

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Ferotous (on the bike at the front) and his Speed Freak's Bike army leaving the Ork base.

The 'Doktor' was on the move again. He was at head of the army with his Bikerz. He was moving from the ork stronghold through a city that was already destroyed. Ferotous was rather tired having had to fight a number of challenges to his leadership following his loss of the challenge with the Ultramarines Boss. Anyone who even mentioned Calgars name was swiftly dealt with via Power Klaw.

With his new Bionic eye, Ferotous could see some of those blue beakies were lying in wait in the city. The Biker army prepared out to battle. As soon as the battle lines were drawn up, Ferotous could see Calgar himself.

For the first time in his entire life Ferotous had a shiver on the back of his neck. Was this fear? He didn't even feel this when he was ready to square up to Ghazghkull back in Auctorian. 

Ferotous had to make sure Calgar did not finish the job... He had to survive this onslaught...