Welcome to the final Berephouse Prime battle report. After over a year of hard fighting our campaign comes to an apocalyptic conclusion. Thanks to Sandy, Boyd and Jules for their dedication to the cause, an endless supply of snacks and drinks and their ongoing ability to roll terrible dice when it matters most…
The battle below covered two roughly equal forces of about 8,300 points using the standard
apoc rules. The force size was determined by the campaign rules and battle results to date. This report is in the narrative style with a lot of pictures and a long intro – you have been warned!
And now, onto the final report!
In the closing days of 506904.M41, the year-long campaign for Berephous Prime reached its bloody climax. The Ork hordes of Grand Warlord Ironjaw had rampaged through the southern continent, stripping bare much of one of the primary forge precincts and leaving both agricultural hubs in ruins. At one point they had even threatened the main Imperial landing zone and resupply point of Star Port Angelus before being driven back. Now, the main planetary hive was besieged and running low on supplies.
But the greenskins had been thrown back from the defence networks of the Emperors Shield and checked amongst the fallen towers of Forge Precinct Alpha. The brave defenders of Berephous Prime, though blood, steel and courage, had prevented the Orks from over-running the entire planet. Imperial tacticians and Space Marine commanders began to draw up plans to break the Ork forces and drive them from the world.
Now, as the season of shadows descended upon Berephous Prime, Ironjaw grew impatient with the lack of progress. With typical Ork bluntness, the warlord simply abandoned all the occupied territories. The great teleporta arrays raised at the initial Ork landing zone were broken down and moved to the siege lines outside Berephous Hive. The combined forces of Warlord Ironjaw were assembled into a single great army – a massive green fist with one aim above all: The breaking open of Berephous Hive.
Once the greenskins controlled the Hive and its manufacturing forges and population, they could build even more weapons of destruction. Such a great victory over the Imperium would draw more Orks hungry for conquest to Berephous Prime, plunging the world into perpetual conflict and turning it into a staging post for further Ork invasions.
But the marine commanders had fought the greenskins many times before. Seeing the Ork movements for what they were, the Imperial command ordered all forces to converge on Berephous Hive. A ring of steel would be thrown up around the besieged city that would break the Ork attack and drive it back. With Ork forces surrounding the city, reinforcements and supplies would need to be flown in past the Xenos lines. In what became known as the Miracle of Berephous Hive, every serviceable imperial airlifter, marine transport and civilian hauler was pressed into service to carry the defenders to their positions. Lumbering cargo lifters flew alongside Thunderhawk Gunships as the aerial armada transported the Imperial forces over the heads of the surprised Orks. With the element of surprise lost, heavy flak and Ork fighta attacks soon began to take their toll. Ork Meks cleared swathes of land to make primitive airstrips for their fightas and multi-barrelled flak weapons swung towards the sky. Dogfights spiralled over the soaring spires of the Hive as Imperial Lightnings and Thunderbolts duelled with swarms of Ork aircraft. Columns of smoke dotted the horizon where cargo haulers had been brought down by marauding Ork fightas.
Despite terrible losses amongst the carrier fleet, the ambitious Imperial plan had succeeded.
The defenders took up their positions on the walls just as the Ork siege weaponry began its assault. Ramshackle and exotic Mek creations of every conceivable kind began a barrage against the main curtain wall. Ravening energy beams, spiralling rokkits and other weapons too strange to categorise rained down upon the slab-like sides of the Hive. Many of these attacks failed – missiles landed harmlessly or exploded amongst the Ork lines. Plasma beams merely scorched the rockcrete or burned out their capacitors after a single shot. But for every hundred that failed, one would succeed spectacularly and within a day the curtain wall has been breached in multiple areas.
With the breaching of the wall, a great roar suddenly arose from the assembled Ork horde. The banner of Ironjaw himself was raised above the mass of green warriors and crude warmachines. The Warlord would lead the main assault personally – driving his forces against the heaviest concentration of Imperial defenders. Here would be the best fightin’ and the best place to find a few more trophies for his boss-pole…
The Imperial defenders readied their weapons and blessed their ammunition as the Ork army surged forward in a tidal wave of waving choppas and revving engines. Huge Stompas strode forward on great steel legs as dozens of buggies raced around their feet. Explosions began to mushroom across the Imperial lines as the first Ork volleys found their range. A single command crackled through the main Imperial vox net.
“Wait until you see the reds of their eyes. Fire at will”
Here then, heroes would stand or die against the alien, the Xenos, the Beast. Here then, the fate of this world would be decided.
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The respective armies meet across the field of battle. The Orks arrive from the south. The board is split into three zones – dense urban (The Hive proper), medium Urban (Hive outskirts) and open country (Hive surrounds)
View from the West
View from the South East
And Southwest
Imperial heavy armour takes up firing positions
Each side had 3 objectives – one in their own deployment zone (a supply dump) and two others – leaving four across the board. The first was a crashed lander to the West in open country (bottom left)
To the east was a shield generator for a section the Hives Void defences
In the centre was an imperial statue in Heroes Plaza – its loss would be a devastating blow to Imperial morale
To the Ork west was a generator used by the greenskins to power their teleporta arrays
And lastly in the Imperial centre was the Planetary Governor himself, who had come in person to witness what he was sure would be a great Imperial victory...
Fast moving Ork vanguard units come into view of the defenders
Super heavies line up their first targets
An Ork Dred Mob lead by a mighty Stompa hove’s into view
Stompin’ time….
The ramshackle flakk guns that took such a toll on the lander fleet are present as well
The Imperials strike first, their defensive positions giving them the advantage
A second Stompa and accompanying vehicles comes into view
Heavy Imperial fire begins to blot the swarms of screening Dethkoptas out of the sky
Marine Heavy weapons reach out and touch the Ork forces
A landraider Redeemer pushes forwards and uses its Flamestorm cannons to purge an Imperial comms building of skulking Ork Kommandos
The western Imperial flank advances
As does the centre
Heavy fire is mostly dissipated harmlessly by the Dred Mobs Kustom Force Field
So many walkers, so few lascannons…
A large Loota mob in the centre takes grievous losses from the Baneblade cannon and a variety of heavy weapons
Having weathered the initial volley of fire, the Ork attack rolls forward. A battlewagon moves up in the east
To the west a cult of speed races forward
A lone Imperial guard squad begins to question the wisdom of deploying so far forward..
A battlewagon filled with roaring Orks confirms their worst fears
Its stompin’ time boyz!
Needless to say, the guardsmen die horribly under the choppas of 20 Orks
The Ork advance in the west
In the centre scout squads occupying a tall chapel whittle down exposed Ork infantry with harassing fire
Outside the main Hive Ork armoured infantry assault the forward marine positions
The Stompa and dreds smashes through the ruins to get to grips with the ‘Umies
The huge Ork warmachine opens fire with the Dethcannon, Deff arsenal and Supa Gattler. When the smoke clears two marine squads are gone, two dreds are immobilised with weapons destroyed and a landraider is wrecked
Its Supa Skorcha incenrates the Imperial lascannon teams and wounds the nearby commissar, as well as removing the marine squad in front of the dismounted Orks squad
Looted wagons, battlewagons and Stompas move up in the centre
On the eastern flank a battlewagon shields a kult of speed with its
KFF
A stompa reaches the statue in Heroes Plaza
Looted wagons move up past the depleted lootas
Heavy marine fire strips two structure points off the leading stompa
The huge machine rampages forward to assault an Ultramarine landraider, its close combat arm swinging down….
An explosion and a shower of landraider wreckage reveals a squad of rather surprised terminators
To the east a marine dred assaults a trio of dethkoptas with melta and flamer
Imperial airpower arrives as Vendetta gunships roar in on strafing runs. Orks vehicles begin to burn
A second Vendetta deploys a Sternguard squad behind the stompa, each carrying either a meltagun or combi melta…
More marines deploy in front of the Orks. My, what a lot of guns you have…
High above, stormboyz battle the scouts for control of the chapel roof
Ork armour and deff dred to the west
Resplendent in his new armour (he uses the same tailor as Lysander) Captain Boydus Maximus and terminator retinue escapes their burning landraider and form up in front of the dred mob
Wasting no time, the marine hero advances
Fire from the Vendetta into the stompas rear armour destroys its close combat arm
More combi-melta wielding Sternguard deploy around the Stompa..
A Terminator librarian and retinue gate of infinity in front of the dred mob to support Boydus Maximus
At the edge of the Hive, Imperial heavies take turns stunning Ork battlewagons
In the west the imperial advance begins to gather momentum
Armoured roadblocks seek to corral the Orks into kill-zones
Between a rock and a hard place...
The librarian reaches into his robes and produces a baroque orb….a vortex greande!
Impressively, he manages to whiff the throw and land the device in the only place where it touches nothing. A churning orb of unreality wobbles alarmingly close to the combatants of both sides.
Boydus Maximus engages the dred mob as the librarian powers up iron arm and cleaves the deff dred in twain before it can strike
Its hammer time!
Inquisitor Julius takes the field with his Ordo Xenos Squad
The Sternguard line up the weak rear armour of the stompa with their meltas…
Inquisitor Julius deals the pain with bolter and hellfire rounds
In the west, Marnius Calgar himself leads his honour guard in an assault on the leading Ork mobs
The Ork mob in the centre is severely mauled and takes cover
The massed Sternguard meltas cause 10 penetrating hits on the Stompa. It disappears in a huge explosion that takes half a dozen marines and a terminator with it. One lonely Ork passenger survives (but not for long)
With a droning roar the Ork Megabomma appears. Bombs rain down sowing havoc amongst the defenders
The battle rages across the Hive
A looted wagon drops an Ork mob on top of the Sternguard
Calgar and co. chew the Ork mob and warboss into bite size pieces (second Ed just can’t compete with the new stuff...)
The Imperial attack in the west continues forward, destroying the leading Ork units
In the centre, the second stompa marches forward, dropping Grand Warlord Ironjaw into the thick of the fighting
Boydus Maximus finds himself and his terminators surrounded
The stompa shows a dred its close combat arm up close. Destruction ensues.
The Stompa fires the supa skorcha. 3 full marine squads disappear in a fiery blast, leaving Inquisitor Julius wondering where all his men went
The Baneblade is immobilised by the deff arsenal. It lines up the Ork walker with its main gun, but too many Imperial units are nearby. Cooler heads prevail and it fires its lascannon instead (uselessly as it turns out)
To everyone’s surprise, the Ork mob begins to chew up the Sternguard
To the east, a third warboss finally gets his units into position for a mass assault on one of the Imperial roadblocks
Waaagh!
On the western flank, a battlewagon deploys a large squad of shoota boyz to try and slow down the Imperial attack
The Ork eastern assault begins to take its toll on the stationary marine vehicles
I love the smell of burning marines in the morning..
In the title fight, Boydis Maximus turns his attention to Ironjaw and his Meganobz
The megabomma swoops in again, sending marines flying with its bomb load
Dakka dakka!
Ork fighta bommas and bommas dive in with guns blazing
But most of their shots go wide or bounce off armour
In a cunning move, the marines have been hiding the Death Company in a Sons of Gord landraider. They assault the shoota boys with the bike squad assisting. Carnage ensues.
Meanwhile, Boydus Maximus and his depleted terminators continue to battle Ironjaw
Dog fights break out above the hive as flyers from both sides exchange fire
The fast moving aircraft make difficult targets and the armour of the Vendettas proves up to the task
The dred mob starts to get the upper hand in their battle with the terminators and librarian
The terminators from the destroyed landraider in the centre take out their ire on a looted wagon
With predictable results
Chaplain Sandius finishes gutting the shoota boyz and lines up his next victim
The flakk guns throw huge volumes of fire at the vendettas for no gain
The Imperial gunships continue their strafing runs on Ork ground units or battle the Ork fightas
High above the battle, the megabomma circles
The Ork western flank is in danger of total collapse as the Death Company continues its rampage
Seeing the ladz in trouble, the Stompa fires its deth kannon across the field…
The shell lands with surprising accuracy and half the bikes and Death Company disappear in the huge blast
The Ork fighta finally gets in the perfect firing position behind one of the vendettas. A lucky rokkit hit blasts apart its engines, sending the gunship spiralling into the ground
The megabomma comes in for another bomb run, dropping its last mega bomb and two bob pylons
The resulting blasts vaporise a predator, landspeeder and wrecks Calgars landraider
Hur hur hur…
Having blown away two of his trucks and then vaporising another Ork warlord, the Shadow sword turns its big gun on the Stompa, stripping away a structure point
The surviving buggies from the kult of speed try and slow down the enraged Death Company and Chaplain Sandius
The librarian finally loses his fight with the kans and is dragged down
The stompa knocks out the Baneblades main gun and then charges in for the kill…. (also capturing the foolish planetary governor and his aides)
Boom!
Tired of waiting around, the Ork ships in orbit fire a trio of asteroids into the battle (Rokk ‘em boyz asset) . Despite their inaccuracy, they prove devastating. The first annihilates the guard veterans, the Chimera and surviving bike squad
The second wipes the bastion near the western objective off the map, tipping out the two Ork nobs who had taken shelter there to avoid the Shadowsword
The last lands in the centre, wiping out a terminator squad and lone surviving Sternguard
An enraged Inquisitor Julius empties his clip into a dismounted Big Mek (whose battle wagon had recently exploded thanks to a multi-melta), wounding the Ork
On the eastern flank the Ork assault begins to overrun the last marine defenders
In the west, tank battles continue as most infantry units have been wiped out
A venerable dred is finally dragged down after a heroic struggle against a tide of Orks
A surviving battlewagon lines up the side armour of the Shadowsword for a ramming attack
The attack is cut short as the redeemer’s multi-melta explodes the Ork tank
The last defenders in the east fall under the warbosses’ Big Choppa
And the kans take down the last terminator facing them
In the headline fight, Ironjaw and Boydus Maximus trade killer blows. The marine captain, hero of Berephous Prime and campaign veteran falls…
But his dying blow lays the Ork leader low….
Chaplain Sandius continues his blood crazed assault
Calgar exits his wrecked landraider and hews down the Ork nobz, claiming the western objective
An Ork battlewagon rams an immobilised Ironclad with its deff rolla and notices Ironjaw’s prone form..
The kans turn their attention to the remaining scouts in the chapel, wiping them out
A brave push by a damaged Blood Angels rhino contests the statue in Heroes Plaza
Chaplain Sandius wipes out the Ork big guns defending the Ork western Objective, but cannot remove the lurking buggies
In the east, the last marine units are destroyed
And the surviving battlewagon claims both Ironjaw (he became and extra objective when downed) and the shield generator
At the end, the sides hold an even number of objectives, but without their leader the Ork attack begins to fragment. Individual warbands start to break away from the Hive and make for the teleporta arrays. High above, the Ork fleet begins to break orbit as the Waaagh loses the momentum and discipline Ironjaw gave it. Sporadic fighting breaks out amongst the greenskins as nobz clamour to take control and loot whatever spoils they can take. The imperial forces consolidate their positions and pursue the retreating Orks.
It has been a bloody fight, with the Imperial side taking 75% losses in the final battle, but they have held the line. Long months of rooting out Ork stragglers and cleansing battlefields with flame remain, but the Siege of Berephous Prime is at an end.
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Epilogue
To Inquisitor Julius, Ordo Xenos
Origin Berephous Prime Command Centre
Author Chaplain Sandius
Inquisitor
Despite the fact that I bring you unwelcome tidings, I felt you should be immediately advised of disturbing information I have recently received. I enclose a pict capture from an automated recorder located in the southern reaches of Berephous Hive. It will not escape your notice that the date stamp puts this recording some hours after the conclusion of combat operations at the Hive.
I trust you will take the necessary actions to bring this foul Xenos to the Emperors Justice.
The Emperor protects
Chaplain Sandius
)
Blood Wardens - 1500 Points (41% Painted)
Doublewing DA - 3000Pts
Eldar - 1000Pts
Blood Angels - 500Pts
5000+ pts. 
I have to admit when I created the campaign map I didn't expect anyone in Southern California would be seeing it...
= 1500
= 1150 
"Wherever you tread, tread lightly. We are closer than you think and our blades are sharp" 