The Battle of Falisopolis
"I am coming" declared the Chaos Sorcerer. Turning to his trusted champions he drove his banner into the ground for emphasis:
"And no ork scum will stop me!" "The shrine world of Falisopolis must fall to us. We must possess these shrines. Only contact
with these holy vessels can cleanse the taint of the false emperor from our initiates."
Mission: capture and control
Deployment: spearhead
Orks:
x2 Big Mek/
kff
x3 29 boyz+nob w/
pk&
bp
13 gretchin + 1 runtherder
x2 9 lootas
x2 1 deff kopta,
TL rokkits, buzzsaw
x3 3 killa kans, rokkits
Choas Space Marines (from memory):
Chaos Sorcerer, lash and bike with bike squad
Demon Prince, lash & wings
Summoned Greater demon
10 marines (x3 melta) in rhino (melta)
10 marines (x2 melta) in rhino (melta)
6 marines
3 obliterators
x2 1 vindicator
Tactical considerations
The ork commander decides he must destroy the vindicators and the oblits then the lash won't matter that much.
Setup
The ork commander wins the roll and chooses the table quarter that offers the best
los for his two loota squads. The holy vessels in the center
of the table will make
lOS difficult but no matter. The ork objective is behind a piece of terrain and the
CSM objective is in the corner of their
quarter. The kan wall deploys in its standard arc with a kopta and unit of lootas on each flank.
The
CSM commander decides to reserve the Demon Prince and the Sorcerer/bike squad. Both would be vulnerable to shooting early on and the idea here isto come in from reserve on the long table edge and get around the kan wall to threaten, or at least lash the grots off, the ork objective. The two rhino squads deploy on the
CSM left flank. The six man
CSM squad goes into reserve as well to walk on later and hold their objective. The oblits go into a nice piece of area terrain on the
CSM right flank.
The two deff koptas surge forward with their scout moves to the ork right. Both will be able to shoot/charge a rhino. The
CSM fails to seize and the game commences.
TURN 1
Orks
Each kopta moves up to a rhino. The kan wall thrusts forward. The boyz squads, with blood now rushing to their heads, move up as well. Shooting sees the lootas on the left inflict one wound on an obliterator while the lootas on the right ping a rhino (it was obscured). The koptas manage to immobilize one rhino with shooting and destroy a weapon on the other. Six killa kans fire rokkits at a vindicator with no effect. The unit of kans on the ork left runs forward towards the obliterators. The assault phase leaves both rhinos immobilized and without weapons, and one is also shaken.
CSM
The cocksure
CSM commander moves his two vindicators forward. The oblits edge forward as well. Shooting is remarkably poor. The oblits hit but roll snake-eyes for penetration. One vindicator scatters off two kans and fails to penetrate at S5 while the
KFF saves another kan from the second vindicator's shooting.
Turn 2
Orks
The ork commander feels his confidence rising. The two koptas hop over the immobilized rhino so they can strike at the vindicators. The kan wall moves forward carefully picking their way around the bases of the holy vessels. The boyz move up behind the kans. The lootas on the ork left caress their deffguns, mutter a prayer to gork and mork, and manage to kill one obliterator. The lootas on the right ding off an immobilized rhino. One deff kopta targets the rear of a vindicator and immobilizes it with a rokkit. The other kopta misses with its rokkits at a rhino. Three kans do however manage to repeatedly penetrate a rhino and wreck it;the
CSM squad inside disembarks in orderly fashion. The kopta targeting the vindicator wrecks it in the assault phase.
CSM
The sorcerer/bikes come in from reserve, but the demon prince, greater demon, and six man squad do not arrive. The sorcerer and his bike squad move on opposite the mob on the ork left. The remaining vindicator backs up six inches. Miserable shooting again for the
CSM sees one
DCCW destroyed on a kan and a kan on the ork left wrecked.The two
CSM squads from the rhinos melta the two koptas to death. They had a good run.
The sorcerer and his companions shoot the ork mob a drop only two orks. The sorcerer then lashes them into a line with the big mek at the front and the
pk nob as far back as possible.
In the assault phase the sorcerer and his squad dispatch the big mek and few boys. The
pk nob is still out of combat after the pile in move.
Turn 3
Orks
The kans on the ork left continue to move towards the obliterators. The other two units of kans move up the middle. The lootas on the ork right have nothing to shoot at so they move right to potentially get
LOS on anything holding the
CSM objective. In the shooting phase the lootas manage to kill one obliterator while the kans kill the remaining one after it unluckily fails a 2+ save. The sorcerer scrum goes poorly for the
CSM and they manage to only kill two or so orks. The
pk nob piles in so he'll swing in the
CSM turn.
CSM
The demon prince, greater demon, and six man squad arrive from reserve. The demon prince flies on to join the sorcerer's scrum. This mob needs to be eliminated quickly so the lashes can get at the ork backfield. The great emerges from a champion in a
CSM squad on the ork right behind the wrecked vindicator and rhinos. Shooting is again poor for the
CSM as the remaining vindicator manages only to shake a kan. The demon prince joins the assault and about 9 orks die at a cost of 2 marines.
Turn 4
Orks
The ork commander can feel the moral of the
CSM commander sagging. A decision is made. The two remaing kans on the ork left roll
DT and get a 5". If they go left they could potentially join the sorcerer/demon prince scrum. If they go right they could possibly assault the last vindicator and be that much closer to the
CSM objective. After some deliberation the two kans move left. The center unit of kans moves up towards the vindicator while the kans on the right move paralellel to the middle kans. The center and right ork mobs continue to march foward. The right lootas need another turn of movement to get any potential
los on the
CSM squads to they shuffle off. There's little shooting for the orks--can't risk wrecking that vindicator when the orks need the extra movement from the charge to bring them closer to the
CSM objective.
Two kans on the ork right do have
LOS to the greater demon but the rokkits fail to hurt hurt it. In the assault phase the center kans explode the vindicator. The two kans on the ork left roll a 5 for their
DT and manage to get into assault with the sorcerer. They kill the sorcerer to death and the rest of the boyz manage to put a wound one the demon prince and drop another bike. The
CSMs go limp with fear, fail their morale and flee. The demon prince remains stuck in with the boyz but the kans are able to consolidate away.
CSM
Discouraged by the flaccid response of the bike squad, the
CSM commander orders a tactical withdrawal to their objective. He'll hold it with the six man squad and a second large squad. The third
CSM squad and the greater demon move up to engage. In the assault phase the great demon reams two kans and suffers no wounds. The marines trade off with the orks.
Turn 5
Orks
The lootas on the ork left have nothing to shoot at but the lootas on the ork right can see a
CSM squad now. They drop two with good shooting. The assault phase sees the demon prince die on the ork left while in the center the boyz and more kans eliminate the greater demon and the marine squad. Poor consolidation rolls leave alot of distance to the
CSM objective.
The
CSM shuffle to try to stay out of assault range and
los. They are successful at the former but not the latter.
The game continues
Turn 6
Orks
Everything moves/runs towards the
CSM corner. The lead kan immobilizes itself climbing over a wrecked vindicator. Shooting by the lootas eliminates the six man squad. Shooting from the kans kill two marines from the remainng squad.
CSM
The remaining marines grit their teeth and hold their objective.
The game continues!
Turn 7
Neither of the two remaining units of kans will be in assault range. They shoot and roll poorly, killing only 1 marine. The lootas roll poorly as well and drop 1 marine, but it's enough to force a morale check--which the marines pass.
The game ends in a draw.
Tactical reflections
Run run run. First turn the ork commander shot six of his kans at a vindicator and did nothing. Had the kans run they might have been able to
assault or otherwise interdict the marine squads that end up securing the draw for the
CSM.
We head off to get our own holy vessels