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Today I had a battle against my friend's Imperial Guard. Please note that though he has been around for a long time, he has little experience with guardsmen. I played my counts-as ork army made for fun. I'm sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, the lighting sucked and little to nothing could be done with it.

My list included

Master shaman - Weirdboy: warphead 85
Master shaper - Big mek: powerklaw 60

Stalkers - 10 Kommandos: nob, powerklaw, bosspole, 2 big shootas 150

Master Shaper's Carnivores - 20 Boyz: shootas, nob, powerklaw, bosspole, 2 big shootas 170
Master Shaman's Carnivores - 20 Boyz: shootas, nob, powerklaw, bosspole, 'eavy armour, 2 big shootas 175
Trukk Carnivores - 10 Boyz: shootas, nob, powerklaw, bosspole, 1 big shoota, trukk 140

Vultures - 10 Stormboyz: nob, powerklaw, bosspole 160

Krootoxen and kroot hounds - 3 Kannons 60





The opposing force consisted of

CCS: Straken, heavy flamer, grenade launcher, regimental standard, vox caster 190
Primaris psyker 70

Guardsman Marbo 65

PCS: 2 meltaguns, plasma gun 65
PIS: lascannon, vox caster 70
PIS: autocannon, grenade launcher, vox caster 70
HWT: 3 missile launchers 90
Veteran squad: 3 flamers, power weapon, shotguns 125

Armoured sentinel: plasma cannon, smoke launchers 80

Leman russ battle tank: heavy bolter sponsons, hull mounted heavy bolter 170




We rolled for Seize Ground with just 3 objectives, the objectives were pretty evenly distributed but when the deployment turned out to be spearhead, one could easily force the other player into a corner that lacked objectives.

I got to choose my deployment zone on a roll of 6 and I left the guardsmen without any objectives to start with. They would have to walk and fight through the hordes of kroot before they could secure any objective. This put the footslogging army in a tough situation. Perhaps Straken could do something about the overwhelming close combat power of the kroot?


Tactical assessment before battle: I thought this could be a very easy game owing to the slowness of the enemy. They would have to come for me because, thanks to the deployment zone, I already controlled one objective and the other two were well within my grasp. However, the enemy had some pretty devastating armament with them: veteran squad sporting multiple flamers and that blasted leman russ. If they could catch me without cover and bunched up, I would lose 20 kroot very easily. So I decided to hug the ruins to gain a cover save and leave my trukk boyz in reserve to secure the lone objective to the right. There was also some pretty nice cover mid-table so I decided to also leave the vultures in reserve as they were the fastest element in my whole army, capable of striking wherever needed. Finally I outflanked my stalkers because spearhead gives them a huge edge if I get lucky with the outflank roll. So here's how we deployed:





In the foreground there were 20 kroot with the shaman. It was pretty obvious where they were going (the chips represent objectives). The other squad (hereby called "Master shaper squad") deployed to the other flank, ready to react in any move the enemy makes. Krootoxen and kroot hounds deployed high in the ruins. Yes, jungle fighters in a ruined city.

The enemy reacted by deploying most of his force to my left flank, trying to push to the nearby objective. The veterans and the sentinel vanguarded the forces while they were backed up by the autocannon infantry squad and the heavy weapon teams. The leman russ took a dominating position with many possible fire lanes. Straken oddly deployed in the middle of everything, kind of leaving the guardsmen without re-rolls to morale and pinning, CCS orders, furious charge and counter-attack. Well, at least Straken could move to reinforce any of the two contingents they had. In the back there was the PCS and one infantry squad. They seemed to have forgotten that there's a possibility of hostile infiltrators. Who could have thought that kroot can outflank?

My oppponent failed to seize the iniative and so the clash began!


Kroot Mercenaries turn 1:
Both carnivore squads moved forward, each to their own objectives. Shooting phase began with the shaman exploding two nearby kroot to smithereens with his awesome, yet fickle powers. First blood! The big shootas on the squads killed three veterans from the flamers squad, they held fine. Krootox riders failed to hit the heavy weapon teams they barely had range in





Catachans turn 1:
The enemy force on my left fell back a bit and concentrated fire on the shaman's hapless squad. Straken had moved towards his units and thus was able to order them properly. The guardsmen began shooting with rather unlucky results. The missile launchers fired on Straken's target, hit 6 kroot and promptly rolled 5 ones to wound!



The cheer from the shaman's squad was suddenly cut out when the infantry squad with the Primaris psyker attached plus the vehicles killed 11 kroot. The psyker even got maximum amount of lightning arc hits on them. The opponent now realised that Straken did not move far enough from the Master Shaper's posse. This could lose the game for him right away...


Start of turn 2 (see the trukk)


Kroot Mercenaries turn 2:
Trukk kroot came from reserves and tried to prevent the enemy from securing the ruin objective. They bailed out but were not quite sure if they could reach the enemy. The other kroot continued closing on the enemy. The Master Shaper charged his kroot towards the enemy commander while the shaman turned out to be a coward and left his kroot to hide beside the objective (in reality I chose to leave him out so that he would not force the kroot to shoot and thus be unable to run).



The kroot activated their hyperactive nymune organs and with bursts of adrenaline they rushed forwards. As the Master Shaper shouted "WAAAAR!", he stumbled and his kroot were not able to reach Straken. Other squads ran just fine. The Shaman's kroot charged the sentinel and proceeded to tear its legs and armament to bits, which was just perfect as the flamer veterans could not shoot them anymore. The trukk kroot managed to roll the required 6 for a difficult terrain test and slammed into the enemy, the enemy holds (I could only attack with, like, half the squad). Also, it is worth noting that the krootoxen instantly killed one of the missile launcher teams, the rest of them held, possibly thanks to Straken.


Straken lived to fight another turn.



The shaper was kind enough to leave the sentinel at the verge of death as he saw the three flamers pointed at his squad.

Catachans turn 2
Marbo waited in the darkness lurking the unaware kroot. Straken got ready to assault the kroot but did not remember to order his squadmates not to shoot.



The end result was that 7 kroot were killed and his squad was left dumbfounded at the devastation. The leman russ then contributed and blasted a few kroot through a tiny window. Primaris psyker's squad decided to have a break and just watch the veterans charge the assailing kroot. On the other flank, near the table edge, the platoon command squad charged the trukk kroot. This all ended in disastrous results...for the Imperial Guard. The kroot won both combats and the PCS could not save one of their platoon infantry squads as the trukk kroot chased them away. The PCS, however, held while the veterans had a similar result. The counter charge had failed!


The infantry squad only ran 3" and exchanged fearful glances with the platoon commander.


Neither of the battling forces have had enough of close combat.

Kroot Mercenaries turn 3
What was that in the sky? Could it be that the vultures had come beat Straken? With a mighty movement of 17" the ravenous vultures descended upon the battlefield, into the charred remains of their friends.


The shapers wondered if they were allowed to eat that man of metal...

The Master Shaper's posse, vultures and the trukk concentrated fire on the company command squad, reducing them to just two members. The krootoxen failed once again.


The Iron Hand drowned in the flurry of attacks

The stalkers tried not to attract any attention - or glory - and snuck behind the enemy. They trained their guns on the back of the lumbering behemoth.


They proceeded to stun the crew with lucky big shoota shots.

Beside the stalkers, the deadly fight came to an unfortunate end as the platoon commander was cut down. The kroot consolidated victoriously and prepared to secure the ruin objective.



Catachans turn 3
Suddenly, Marbo! He seemed to have a plan as he revealed himself behind some ruins in my deployment zone. I guess he tried to contest the objective at the end of turn five, after throwing his democharge of doom



The Primaris psyker led his troops towards one of the objectives and even the normally stationary missile launcher teams followed his rigorous orders.


Forget the sentinel already, it's time to charge!

Kroot Mercenaries turn 4

As of now, there was only a few enemy units left. The stalkers took care of the leman russ by shaking it while the guardsmen groaned in fear as the remaining vultures moved 18" right beside them.


Tasty catachans!


What was left when the troops died and the sentinel finally exploded.

Catachans turn 4
The lone heavy weapon team ran for his life while the unfortunate infantry squad near the stalkers continued doing the same.


Resistance was futile. The kroot forces surrounded the vehicle but failed to do anything significant.

Turn 5
Marbo assassinated the master shaper in search for glory but was blown to bits by the krootox riders. Too bad, I bet he would have tasted good.


Kroot Mercenaries won, controlling 3 objectives to the catachans' 0. The leman russ crew were the only survivors.


The game could really be summarised to this: the slow guardsmen were isolated from each other and could not shoot effectively while the kroot's fast elements surprised the enemy and eliminated most of the threats


MVP: Vultures. They got rid of straken and a huge pile of guardsmen.

Shame on the shaman. I somehow like him but every time I roll for his powers he just seems to blast himself or deepstrike his squad into dangerous positions. When he's alone, all he does is roll for +1A for himself. He did not die, but he did not contribute at all.

Nice "ork" army

That was one grate battle report! Its well writed and easy to read. Catachan player did few big mistakes that costed him a game.

Thanks for your comments, I truly appreciate feedback because this is my first battle report!

Nice report! It almost breaks my heart to read since both armies once had their own quirky army lists and Catachan was one of my favorites. Ah I remember the old ambush rules where you would draw up the grid of the table and write down where your ambushers were hidden and could just reveal them whenever they want.

Can't wait to see what the kroot do next.

Great report.

Nice battle rep,I lol-ed with kroot orks XD

Great game. This battle proves that someone really needs to find the old Kroot army list, or better yet, make a new one. Although, I must add that Kroot seem to do really well with Ork rules.

Nice to see two of the less frequently-used armies in the game (re: Catachans and Kroot) being used, and congrats on turning Straken into dinner.

Interesting armies!