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Week zero
Intro game - Astartes strike cruiser duo with escorts tasked to root out remnants of Ork infestation in Asteroid belt.
Two 'Wolf strike cruisers and a squadron of 4 escorts warped in. Whilst the Ork Hulk was floating dead after terminator led clearance operations the previous year, sporadic reports had come in about a squadron of Raiders operating in the area and Roks being constructed in the asteroid belts.
The first pings of the surveyor led to a startled Ork captain surging out of the asteroid field, shooting wildly only to be destroyed by broadsides and bombardment cannon.
Growing in confidence and with no sight of the raider squadron, the Marines with ship and thunderhawk boldly surveyed two asteroid belts simultaneously, detecting four Roks. Three responded to the angry shouting of disturbed Meks and headed vaguely towards the strike cruisers. The forth suffered thruster malfunctions across half its surface, beginning a journey in the wrong direction that would ultimately take it off the table. A storm of gunz and torpedoes crippled one strike cruiser, while the sudden arrival of the Raider squadron brought down two escorts with shell and assault boat.
Deft manoeuvring meant the Marines were shielded by the asteroids, allowing them to finish off 3 more Roks and the Ork escorts that didn’t crash into asteroids trying to chase them, and detect the last Rok. The mission time was almost up, but the Terror cruiser finally caught up to the fighting and bracketed the damaged strike vessel in a long ranged crossfire with a nearby Rok, causing a plasma drive overload that exploded out and crippled the other Marine capital ship.
With 4 Roks destroyed, 1 last seen boosting for a different sector and the last desperately trying to change course to get to grips with the marines it moved to surviving points on the field. The Terror ship was untouched (155 points), while the crippled Marines were still trying to come to terms with their loses (1 crippled Strike Cruiser and 1 Gladius remaining – 117.5 points). Narrow Ork victory!
Lucky Orks with literally the last 2 shots in the game…
Scenario rules
Fleets
500 points of Astartes
6 Ork roks
Raider fleet of 1 terror ship and 5 escorts
Astartes move first each round
Play for 6 turns and dice for additional
Set up
4x4 table with the three asteroid belts reasonably spaced on the Ork side. Each has four blip markers. Half even and half odd, assigned randomly by the Astartes player and spread evenly through each field. They are unknown to both sides until revealed. Anytime an enemy ship gets within 15cm or a Thunderhawk does a close range run (i.e. survives entering the asteroid field and contacts a marker) the marker is revealed. If it is even it is discarded, if it is odd startled Orks notice them, light their drives and weapons systems and the counter is replaced by a Rok. By virtue of being in the asteroid field they can’t be targeted by ranged weapons until they leave. The Roks make their standard move (ignoring the asteroid field so no chance of being hit) in a random direction at the start of their turn and need to move more than 10cm on All Ahead Full to change direction as normal.
After the first Rok has been discovered, at the start of the round before the Astartes move, the Ork player rolls a dice and adds the round number to it. On a 5+ the Ork raider fleet returns on a random table edge. 1-2, 3-4 for the 2 edges furthers away from the majority of the marine fleet, 5, 6 for the two edges closest. Ork player places them anywhere they like along that edge. The turn continues as normal with the Marines and then the Orks (Roks and reinforcing raider squadron).
Play until all Roks are destroyed or forced off the table for a major Astartes victory. If less than half of the Roks are destroyed it is a major Ork victory. If ending before that condition is met, add up the remaining ship values as normal (crippled half etc.) not counting Roks and the side with the highest remaining points value wins.
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