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Finally, time for Turn 4 of the ongoing Berephous Prime campaign. Those of you who have been following this (friendly) campaign will note that Turn 3 has disappeared. Tragically, my laptop died recently and took the photos and batreps for Turn 3 with it. To summarise those lost battles, the Imperial side weathered two major Ork assaults against Forge precinct Alpha, where they scraped a narrow victory, and the Main Star Port, where the Ork attack was virtually annihilated by a dug in Marine and Guard force.

The start of Turn 4 saw the Ork armies retreating from the victorious Imperials:

1:Starport Angelus - Main Imperial Base and reinforcement entry point
2:Forge Precinct Alpha
3:Forge Precinct Omega
4:Emperor's Shield Orbital Defence Bastion
5:Equatorial Hub
6:Oceanic Hub - Ork Planetstrike location and reinforcement entry point
7:Berephous Prime Hive

The Orks immediately used their reinforcement turn to bolster Locations 3&4. However the newly energised Imperial forces took the fight to the enemy, with aggressive attacks against both Forge Precinct Omega (Location 3) and the Emperor's Shield (Location 4).

Reinforced armies of 2860 points (Imperial) and 2,525 points (Ork) smashed together in the already heavily fought over Forge districts of Location 3....

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The Imperial side has now been joined by a mysterious 3rd Marine chapter - the Sons of Gord, bringing the number of Chapters in theatre to 3. Meanwhile, the Orks have not been idle in their time in the forges, with new battlewagons churning forth from the ruins.
The battle would be a critical one, with both sides deploying their full campaign HQ's, including the feared Warlord Iron Jaw..

The Players:
Boyd - Marines
Sandy - Marines
Julz - Marines/Guard/Inquisition
Gordy - Orks!

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Set Up:

Objectives Bottom Middle ruins, Top Middle building, middle building both deployment zones

Bottom Left - A terminator squad, tactical squad and Demolisher take cover in the ruins


Middle Left - two attack bikes, a dreadnaught, blood angel’s terminator squad and Inquisitor Julius + Ordo Xenos team.


In the next building are 6 terminators, a devastator squad and tactical squad with a dreadnaught in support along with captain Boydus Maximus

Top Left - Tactical squad, Captain Sandius and the landraider


Bottom Right - Trukk with Warboss and Nobz, 3 buggies, BW with Killkannon


Middle Right- 3 Kans, Battlewagon with Iron Jaw and 3 Meganobz, Trukk (10 Orks)


Top Right - Armoured Top Battlewagon (30 Orks), 3 wartrakks, Trukk (10 Orks)

Very Top Right - Armoured Top Battlewagon


To Battle!
The Orks get first turn and start what looks to be the usual round of appalling shooting. All that changes when the top right BW rolls a 10 on the Zzap Gun and blows the sponson off the landraider!

Ork marksmanship at its finest...


The Kans clank forward to some dubious cover

and the left flank Ork trukk speeds forward to lurk behind a ruined building

The marine turn saw the Blood angel terminators move forward and seize the closest no-man’s land objective


Dreadnaughts moved forward to bracket the Kans under cover from the Tac and Dev squads


Forgive the quality of the colour in these photos - only one bulb in the room meant all the reds washed out badly...


The marine gun line blasted one Kan to scrap whilst the Demolisher shook and stunned the Killkannon BW. The Mek on board Iron Jaws BW turned on his Kustom Force field and chuckled as marine firepower bounced harmlessly off.

The Ork kunnin' plan leapt into action with the lurking trukk boyz charging the demolisher. The stationary tank was no match for the Nob power klaw and exploded spectacularly (taking 3 Orks with it)


The gung-ho Ork mob was unceremoniously hosed away by heavy flamers and storm bolters form the Sons of Gord terminators in the building shortly afterwards..

The Kans charges the Ultramarine dred and the armoured walkers spent most of the next two turns battering each other into various states of disrepair. Eventually the dred killed one kan but was immobilised in return. The second kan moved off only to be destroyed by the Razorback


Captain Sandius led a combat squad forward to secure the second no-man’s land objective


Both neutral objectives were now in marine hands. To add insult to injury, the landraider proved why BW's should not get in a shooting match with it...
Bye bye shiny new BW...


The buggies and wartrakks moved up to try and dislodge the marine combat team. The skorcha fried two marines, but Capt Sandius and his men held firm. Meanwhile the Landraider was moving forwards...


Reserves saw the first dethkopta sqwadron move in on the left flank. This was not where I had wanted them and would have a surprising impact in the latter stages of the battle


Meanwhile Capt Sandius and his squad beat off the buggies and a nearby Ork mob


All the while the other BW's and marine gun line were exchanging shots for little gain, until a stray Killkannon round vaporised 4 blood Angels and a Sons of Gord Terminator. Suddenly the Killkannon became a magnet for every heavy weapon in range, with the Blood Angel assault cannon finally destroying the weapon (if not the BW)


Meanwhile, Inquisitor Julius and his Xenos Kill Team bravely held the rear Imperial objective...


The Imperials reinforced captain Sandius and the right objective. As the landraider moved up it looked like an objective too far for the green skins...


The Sons of Gord terminators moved up to support their Blood Angel brothers on the left objective


And a 10 man Death Company squad leapt out of the landraider to make short work of a stalled Ork trukk mob - things were looking bad for the Orks...


Now it was time for da Ork kunnin' plan part 2. The Warboss Trukk and Warlord BW surged forward. They weathered ineffective fire from the devastators (we now have a running joke about Boyd's devastators - they fail in an epic fashion each game, usually at a critical moment) and delivered their lethal cargoes into the terminator squads
Despite a desperate counter attack by Inquisitor Julius and his team, the terminators fell to a man


Inquisitor Julz and his team managed to thin the Ork nobz, but ultimately fell as well (the Imperial Medicae now know Julius by name)

Things looked better on the right flank, with the Death Company happily shooting and chopping their way through the armoured topped BW's 20 Orks passengers and another trukk. The Ultra termies moved up and finished off the BW with their Power Fists


Now it was 2 objectives each, with the marines in very strong possession of their site in no man’s land. Reserves saw the second Dethkopta skwadron come in on the left flank (not planned) and kunnin' plan part 3 was formed..

Buggies and koptas stormed forward into the marine rear. Heavy weapons blasted a few down but it was not enough - the koptas skimmed over rough terrain and assaulted the marine deployment zone objective


Capt Boydus, who up until this point had been berating the devastator squad for their incompetence moved out to try and turn the late Ork surge


But even with an attack bike in support it was too little, too late. The resilience of the koptas combined with the shocking close combat rolls of the marines saw the game end with the objective still contested


Final Tally
Orks 2 Objectives
Marines 1 Objective
1 Objective contested

Ork victory!!!

Conclusion
A very close game right up to the last turn, well played by the Imperial team, albeit with some shocking dice rolls (I’m looking at you Boyd…). It really could have gone either way.

The Imperial force will fall back to their starting location and the Orks will retain the location (and reinforcement points benefits!)

As the Imperial force fell back, one marine turned and caught a glimpse of something dark across the blasted terrain. For a moment the smoke parted to reveal a great black shape against the sky. Gantries and cranes clustered around the squat shape, the unfinished lines of its construction not dimming the menace it projected. Then the smoke closed again, leaving the marine to wonder what new devilry the Orks were planning…

Next game, the Imperials try to retake the Shield of the Emperor defence laser – fun in the jungle!

Very nice report sir, cracking read

Awesome batrep - love the paintjobs. Kunnin' plans are to be feared.

top notch paint jobs by all sides!!

Good read.

The kind of thing I'd love to do - a cool story campaign with fully painted armies and some rivalry. Hats off to you!

Sweet batrep and awesomely painted armies. Makes Fridays at work go by quicker.

Thanks guys - now we are back into the swing of the campaign I should be posting reports more often.

We're planning two games over Easter, so I should have those reports up fairly soon after that.

How is this whole thing going as far as the newbies you're trying to get into the hobby? Are they loving it? Have they started thinking about starting their own armies? How much do you design the forces that are fighting - do you try to keep the lists balanced and equal in your mind?

Very well actually! One of the players has just ordered a pretty good sized painted SM army to throw into the mix. This will no doubt grow as we try new force combos and see what else might be fun to try.

Everyone seems to be enjoying the campaign (if not some of their fairly dire dice rolls!) and having a narrative thread helps tie things together and give each game some meaning. I try to be both the Ork player and referee, offering advice on tactics and force mix (which they sometimes heed, other times they suspect it is an evil Ork plan...)

As for the armies, I let the new players choose whatever they want from the army lists and don't worry too much about force org charts. I also give them a character model each for free as their own "avatar" on the field (although they have to pay the points next game if they get themselves killed...). I also allow them to move first each campaign turn, which gives a reasonable advantage (they get to pin Ork armies before they attack and seize the initiative, which often allows them a points advantage in battles also)

For me, I get to play more 40K than I've played in years, plus have some great motivation to finish new models (everything in the campaign so far comes from my model collection). Which reminds me - I've got a LR Crusader to finish before the next game!

Very interesting. My painting is gak next to yours, but I've certainly got the multiple armies. Maybe I'll have to try something similar and see how it flies.