The Battle for Helios Pass - the end of Colonel Winterborne?

Greetings everyone!

Warboss Gorblud and I have been busy laying the foundations for the big Guard v Orks battle we aim to hold this Summer. It's going to have one hell of a narrative, and what better way to get that narrative started than with a battle!

This won't be just any battle though, it will have a direct impact on the big Summer game and may well result in the death of none other than Colonel Animus Winterborne. The battle will be taking place tomorrow evening (11/3/14) so check back soon for an update! Intrigued? I sure hope so, in which case read on...

Extract from ‘Untold Tales of Valour’ by scriptor Logus Halodite
‘The Battle for Helios Pass’
624M41
Kallax III, Garelian Sub-Sector, Thurian Region, Ultima Segmentum


“When the Ork infested space hulk (designated ‘Flaming Carrion’) translated into real space in the Kallax system, it appeared to come as a 'Harbinger of Doom' for the 4 billion Imperial citizens on Kallax III. Almost all of the planet’s Imperial Guard regiments were off-world defending other Imperial systems from the Tau’s 3rd sphere expansions, and their meagre PDF was no match for an invasion of this scale.


The Ork’s made landing on the southern continent of the trade world, their Roks depositing their armies amongst the desert wastes to the east of the city of Tammerus. They began their inevitable march across the continent, laying waste to all human settlements they could find, and gradually proceeded North towards the more densely populated northern continents.


Nearly two weeks after the Ork’s arrival the first glimmer of hope reached the populace of the planet. A small Imperial relief force had reached the system, led by the Imperial Navy Warship “Dominus Eternus”. The force was far too small to engage the hulk in a space battle, but at a cost of nearly a third of their number they were able to outmanoeuvre the Ork forces and deploy troops in to the great plains to the North of the planetary capital, Mercatura Hive.


However, the relief force’s costly planetfall seemed all for nothing as at the rate of the Ork advance, the enemy would reach the hive half a day ahead of the Imperial forces. In a daring gambit to slow the Ork advance, Colonel Animus Winterborne deployed a mobile force of his Praetorian mechanised infantry via Dropship and Heavy Transport into the foothills of the Timus Mountains. If he could harry the Ork forces and draw them deeper in to the mountains he might buy the rest of the Imperial forces enough time to prepare for the Ork advance. The greenskin horde could then be met in battle on terms of their choosing.


At first the plan appeared to be working and the Praetorians were able to blunt the vanguard of the ork horde and draw them further in to the hills and valleys. Slowly the Imperial forces drew the orks further in to the mountains taking them on a much slower route to the borders of the hive city. Feeling his job had been done to the best of his ability, Colonel Winterborne began to pull his forces away and back to the Imperial lines. However, he had not fully accounted for the cunning of the orks, and in the Helios pass his forces found themselves pinned between two wings of a larger ork force.


The Colonel had not been idle during his raids of the Ork forces and he knew that the intelligence he had gathered could give the Imperial forces the initiative when they main battle came. It was imperative that enough of his forces escaped to reach the Imperial lines. The entire fate of the planet might be determined by the outcome of this one small battle . . .”



The Armies
The Ork army should be approx. 25% larger than the Imperial Guard Army. (Imp Guard ~2000pts, Orks ~2500pts).


The Battlefield
(Presumably 6’ x 4’ Board) The Ork force may deploy anywhere within 6” of either short table edge. The Imperial Force deploys anywhere within 6” of either side of the centreline (between the two long edges).
All units from both armies fall back towards the nearest short table edge.


First Turn
The Ork player deploys first. The Imperial Guard player deploys second but takes the first turn (unless the Ork player rolls successfully to seize the initiative).


Game Length
The mission uses variable game length.


Victory Conditions
The Ork player scores 1 Victory point for every Imperial Guard infantry unit destroyed or falling back at the end of the game. The Imperial Guard player scores 1 Victory point for each of his infantry units in the Ork deployment zone or that has passed off one of the short table edges.
Note: Independent Characters (such as Priests) do not award victory points – only infantry units consisting of 2 or more models.


Secondary Objectives

“Kill the Colonel!”
– The Ork player gets 2 additional Victory points for killing Colonel Winterborne in shooting or 3 additional Victory points for killing him in close combat (5 if killed in close combat by the Ork Warlord himself – “So Ize can put ‘is ‘ead on a pointy stikk!”).
– The Ork player gets 1 additional Victory point for each officer killed during the game (“dey all look da same!”)
– The Imperial Guard player gets 3 additional Victory points if the Colonel is alive and in the Ork deployment zone at the end of the game or 5 additional Victory points if the Colonel passes off one of the short table edges (escaping with the gathered intelligence).


“Shoot the Big Ones!”
– The Imperial Guard player scores 1 additional Victory point for every Warboss or Big Mek killed during the battle (3 if killed in close combat – “da umie-ilation!”)


Victory Reward
The force that has the most victory points deploys first and takes first turn in the big summer game.
If Colonel Winterborne survives the battle he gains the “Inspiring Presence” Warlord trait (in addition to his normal Warlord trait) during the big summer game. All Bad Moon Ork models gain the Hatred (Col. Winterborne) special rule.
If the Colonel is slain then the Ork who kills the Colonel gains the “Intimidating Presence” Warlord trait (in addition to any normal Warlord traits) during the big summer game. All Praetorian models gain the Hatred (specific Ork) special rule during the big summer game. If the Colonel is killed by a unit of Orks then the Nob of that unit takes the credit.

The Armies

Da Bad Moonz

HQ
Warboss (Mega Armour, Cybork Body, Bosspole, Attack Squig) - Warlord
Warboss (‘Eavy Armour, Big Choppa, Twin-linked Shoota, Cybork Body, Bosspole, Attack Squig)
Big Mek (Burna, Kustom Force Field, ‘Eavy Armour, Cybork Body, Bosspole)

Troops
30 Ork Boyz (Shootas, 3 Big Shootas, Nob, Big Choppa, ‘Eavy Armour, Bosspole)
20 Ork Boyz (2 Big Shootas, Nob, Big Choppa, ‘Eavy Armour, Bosspole)
20 Ork Boyz (Nob, Big Choppa, ‘Eavy Armour, Bosspole)
12 Ork Boyz (Big Shoota)
8 Nobz (Painboy, Bosspole, Cyborks, 2 Power Klaws, Bosspole)

Elites
4 Meganobz (Shoota/Skorcha Kombi-Weapon)
4 Meganobz (Shoota/Skorcha Kombi-Weapon)
4 Nob Bikers (2 Big Choppas, Power Klaw, Bosspole)

Fast
3 Deffkoptas (Twin-linked Big Shootas)
3 Deffkoptas (Twin-linked Big Shootas)
3 Warbuggies (Twin-linked Rokkit Launchas)

Heavy
Battlewagon (Deffrolla, 2 Big Shootas, Grot Riggers, Red Paint Job)
Battlewagon (4 Big Shootas, Grot Riggers, Red Paint Job)
Battlewagon (Kilkannon, 3 Big Shootas, Grot Riggers)

I've yet to write my Praetorian list yet but don't worry I will get on to that soon.

I don't know about you but reading that list above, that is a hell of a lot of orks!!!

Thanks for reading!

WAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Here we have another guest post from the vile malevolent Ork Warlord Gorblud! You may remember his Badmoon Ork army from a few posts last year. Well, its fair to see he has been very busy, lets see what he has been up to...

Hi All,

As our esteemed Col. Winterborne has mentioned,  we’re trying to organise a massive Guard vs. Orks game in the summer.  As the only confirmed Ork player, at this point I’m feeling a little outnumbered, so I’m writing this post in the hope of encouraging a few more Ork players along . . .

Before I get on to my army I thought I’d share a link to the Battle Report from the last big game myself and Col. Winterborne were involved in: The Siege of Magnus Hive

Four of us played the game at Warhammer World and it was pretty awesome . . . but we want to do something even bigger and better this time!

Right, on to the Orks. I’ve not long come back from a Throne of Skulls weekend at Warhammer World and managed to give my Bad Moonz a nice outing.  I came away from the tournament with very average results (2 wins, 2 losses and a draw), but I considered that to be pretty reasonable for the use of a 7 year old codex (and no super-heavies) – fingers crossed for an update later this year.

Col. Winterborne nagged me to take photos of my army while up there but in the excitement of all the games I barely remembered.  I did get nominated for the best army award though (which I was particularly chuffed about) and it gave me a chance to take some pics of them in the glass cabinets.  Most of the ones I took are attached below, but there are some even better ones on the Warhammer World Facebook page if you want to have a look there.  If you do, you’ll also see a lovely Ork Dredd army from another London gamer who we’re trying to recruit for the big game.

I have promised Colonel Winterbourne to paint my Ork Stompa for the game, plus finish the ~4000pts worth of Bad Moonz I have at my flat.  At the bottom of the page you’ll also see the dakka-jet conversion that I intend to finish aswell . . . and if I somehow find the time I might even paint-up my Skulhamma Battlefortress (Baneblade conversion).

I’ll keep sending updates as my painting work continues, and I’d love to see what other Ork armies are out there

The road to Golgotha

Greetings again everyone!

It's time to follow up, albeit briefly on my last post which got the ball rolling for a big Imperial Guard v Orks game some time in the summer. In this post I am appealing to you all for suggestions and a little help in making this game happen. 

1. Orks

I was lucky enough to get some extremely positive responses from fellow Guard bloggers, but we still need to find a Waaaagh!s worth orks to pit our brave guardsmen against. If you are an ork player and fancy stompin sum umies then let me know, or if you know an ork player who might be interested then it would be great if you could put them in touch. 

2. Guard

Thanks for the great responses to the initial idea, I'm pretty confident we can amass an army of Guard the likes of which has not been seen since the Macharian crusade!

3. Location

I've been wondering where to hold this game and wanted to ask if anyone had any experience of venues other than warhammer world which had massive beautiful boards with great scenery upon which we could play this game. Ideally 6x12 I reckon. I had the newest warhammer world board with the defence lines and bunkers in mind as a possible but seeing as most people tend to be based further south, somewhere in the south of the country might be better. Either way, if you know a great venue (anywhere in the country) then let me know!

4. Scenery

I was thinking, given the time we potentially have to organise this, that it would be great if each player involved (if possible) got involved in making a thematic piece of scenery for the game. This is of course mission and table we ultimately play on dependent but it would sure help with the story telling and ensuring the board looked phenomenal. Additionally smoke markers, we probably need about a 100 of them for the countless soon to be wrecked tanks, if people involved could make some more that would be fantastic. 

5. The Scenario

No concrete ideas just yet but I have plenty lurking somewhere in my brain. Something simple yet brilliant, possibly with a few special characters thrown in and perhaps a side table where a space hulk small objective based game could be played which affects the big game. Could be a teleporter, gun battery, missile bunker, rok, cruiser, who knows! 

6. Quality

When I picture this game in my mind it looks amazing, and I definitely want to take loads of photos. Hundreds or orks charging across the battlefield, formations of tanks, towering stompers, officers barking orders... and then a gray plastic model tank. Everything needs to be painted, no exceptions.

Right that's it for now. Once again I am relying on you all! 

Thanks!

Oh yeah and the title to this post. Perhaps you were looking for a reference to Golgotha, nope, or a road, nope. I couldn't think of a name so I just made something up. Sorry! 

Striking while the iron is hot!

Firstly a belated happy new year to you all!

Secondly my profound apologies for the utter dereliction of my blog for the past who knows how many months. No doubt a Commissar has a bolt pistol round with my name written all over it...

For the past year and a half I've been working full time and studying part time and of late things have been getting ridiculously busy. Its finally coming to a head as I have my final exams in the next few months, but after that I should hopefully have time to once again to pick up a paint brush and get back to my Praetorians!

Now, while updating you all on my continued existence and commitment to the cause are noble aims, they are not the purpose of this post. Oh no! As the title of this post suggests an iron is hot and I am striking something.

Earlier this evening I was out for drinks with a good friend of mine (Warboss Gorblud to be precise) and we got to talking about all manner of things 40k. Now if you have seen his guest posts on my blog last year you will have seen some of his ork horde (which has considerably increased in the past few months, I'm nudging him for another guest post!). We were talking about the new rules, how orks haven't had a new codex in 5 years, how necrons are beardy, all manner of things, but in particular big fluffy narrative games.

Now we've had a couple of big narrative games in the past; a great one at the Armageddon campaign, and and another at Warhammer World on the forge world imperial fort table. Both were great fun and have been undoubted gaming highlights of the last few years. Well reminiscing about these glorious battles got us thinking, and in particular thinking that it was high time for another one!

The planning so far hasn't really progressed beyond a vague idea at this point but we discussed dates and are thinking late Summer/Autumn would be the perfect time to hold the next such game. Giving both of us time to add to our armies and enough time for me to get back on the hobby horse after my exams.

So far I've only given you an insight in to our conversations down the pub, now as exciting as that may or may not be to followers of my blog I have an ulterior motive for telling you all...

Colonel Winterborne needs you!

Warboss Gorblud and I are looking to organise a big game and need you to help us make it happen. We are want to recruit some Ork and Guard players to get involved in this game and make it truly epic. Pretty much everything is on the table at the moment with regards to size, mission special rules, location etc. Our thoughts so far are very limited super heavies, we want this to be about hordes of orks, hundreds of guardsmen and enough tanks to rival kursk!

If this sounds like something you would like to get involved in then let me know, there is no date in mind just yet so all I want is an expression of interest (we can arrange date and geographical location later). Some of you out there have fantastic armies and it'd be great to have my Praetorians line up alongside (or if orks face off against) yours!

Let me know!

Wars of Armageddon Part 3 - 2k doubles

Welcome to part 3 of my Wars of Armageddon posts. In this post we will have a look at a Battle of truly epic proportions, the Praetorian IV line up alongside Tycho's 3rd Company (about 70 odd marines in this list!) and face off against the countless ork hordes of the Bad Moon warboss Nazdreg...



With 4k on each side there were a hell of a lot models to be deployed, my guard began the game mounted in their transports, I tried to spread out my high value targets across the table with while almost the entire 3rd Company of Blood Angels castled in the centre with devastators and assault marines on one flank. The ork horde (at least a few hundred) deployed across the width of the table with loads of dreads, kans, battlewagons and all sorts of other nastiness.



The Imperial centre was a fearsome sight with more boltguns than you could shake a stick at.



On the bridge my 3 chosen men infiltrated in the centre and the devastators took up firing positions. You can see my medusa and Macharius squaring up against the Bad Moon battlewagons. Within which was a big mek (5++ for the wagons and orks), Nazdreg, a huge mob of mega armoured nobz and plenty of other orks.



The devastators make ready.



The chosen men having survived the charnel house of the chimera factory now find themselves as the foremost unit facing off against the orks.

We were playing an objectives mission and there were 5 of them spread out over the battlefield, all at least 12" from a board edge or another objective. They were all quite centrally placed and meant that both sides would need to push forward to claim them.



A big unit of shoota boyz take cover in a wood, just the other side of which is one of the objectives.



The ork battlewagons roll forward, heading as fast as they can towards the imperial lines.



The kanz lumber forward eager to get to grips with the Blood Angels, shielding the orkz behind them with their bulk.



The first few turns for the orks consisted of a lot of running while the Imperial forces tried to thin their numbers.



The tank commander surveys the pretty bleak scene, no amount of armour is going to save him if the orks are allowed to close!



The medusa waits out of sight ready to strike when the orks get a little closer.



The assault marines patiently wait for the orks to come closer, planning to sacrifice themselves to buy my tanks more time to eliminate the key targets.



This photos gives a good impression of the scale of the battle. The opening exchanges whittled down the devastators, while the chosen men withstood a hail of ork shootas and big shootas, only the sergeant survived, but his survival was enough to deny the orks first blood!



The medusa with its AP rounds destroys the lead battlewagon releasing its cargo of Nobz.



The Macharius lines up the Nobz...



Fire! and reduces them from 7 to 3!



The assault marines strike, leaping into the heart of the ork assault! Facing overwhelming odds they assault the battlewagons and nobz .



Epic stuff from the Angels of death.



More orks advance on the objective in the ruined hab block.



The lone chosen man continues to pick off orks from his position on the highway.

At this point sadly my phone ran out of battery and the photos end! A massive shame as the battle got very very interesting. I'll try and fill you in on a few of the highlights.

Deff Koptas arrived on both flanks, those on the left shooting the devastators and then assaulting them. The koptas failed to kill any marines, one of the devastators took a wound of the orks who promptly fled and were caught!

Nazdreg and his boyz disembarked and charged into the Imperial lines, at the same time Guard reserves in the shape of a hellhound and a few chimeras with guardsmen turned up. Chimeras started getting destroyed but proved enough of a distraction to allow the heavy guns to continue to pound the ork advance.

The orks wisely shied away from the Blood Angels defensive position in the centre, this caused a massive  funneling of orks to where the bad moonz battlewagons had been wrecked, presenting plenty of targets for the Thudd Guns and Colossus.

Nazdreg despite failing with his attacks on the Macharius (it was a King Russ from the event rules pack, AV14 all round!) then proceeded to soak up almost two turns worth of shooting from our combined armies! Eventually he was felled by weight of fire but the distraction had proved costly as the orks sat on most of the objectives and were proving very difficult to shift.

The Guard reinforcements (with fast chimeras thanks to the victory in the chimera factory) quickly advanced on the objectives hoping to have a late smash and grab. The last turns became a real case of target priority with all our efforts focusing on shifting orks fromt he objectives. In this respect the Thudd Guns were invaluable landing barrage after barrage onto the ork positions.

As the dust settled at the end of the battle the Imperials were victorious, the orks had been denied objectives, and the late moves by the mechanised infantry and Blood Angels had secured victory. The lone chosen man who had denied the orks first blood remained alive, and both armies had managed to obtain line breaker.

An absolutely amazing game, beautiful armies, great table, fantastic opponents and team mate. The undisputed highlight of the weekend.

There will still be one more Wars of Armageddon post to come where I post a few more photos of other battles and tie up a few loose ends.

Cheers!

Tallarn new recruits and Praetorian Chosen Men

Before I post the next load of my Wars of Armageddon photos I thought I'd give you a few photos of the new Praetorian Chosen Men that you might have seen defending the Chimera Factory, and also the test model of a platoon of Tallarn Desert raiders that will be joining the Praetorians in the future.



So far only three finished Chosen Men. I wanted to get all 5 done for Armageddon but sadly 3 was all I could manage. Luckily for me 3 was the minimum unit size for Ratlings (count as) so no problem with fielding them at least.

The legs are plastic IG, there are various items on the belt which are IG and the torso, arms, epaulettes, guns and heads are Victoria Lamb. The greenstuff addition of the Rifleman plumes on the front are my own work.



Here we have the leader lighting up a cigar.







For these guys I kept the same main colours with the white belts etc and the khaki uniforms, but as denotes their special status I ventured into green for them, as colour which hasn't really featured in my army up till now with red being the preferred colour.





You can see from the photos the the Victoria Lamb epaulettes are absolutely brilliant, successfully saving me a lot of hours trying to do my own, and in particular they ensure they are a uniform size and shape.





Here is latest edition! The test Tallarn model Using the same colour for the tunic, I've used the white for the head scarf, a new gray for the trousers and then brown for the wrappings, belts and pouches etc (not least because the white is a pain to paint so much of!).





The Tallarn range have some fantastic faces which are great fun to paint.



With the armoured shoulder guards I can include squad markings. This guys here is from Squad B or possibly company B.





Another of this characterful guy and then the the squad with the Tallarn for scale and comparison. I reckon a platoon of the Tallarns will look great lined up with my Praetorians. I'll have to get a lot more chimeras I reckon, can't have all these poor buggers walking to battle.



In the next post you will once more get to see the Chosen Men in action facing down a truly immense ork horde...