Today we have a 900 point battle on a gravelly, barren plain.
Our returning champ Dracula led the same highly mobile force as before, supplemented with 2 wartraks.
And in this corner we have our challenger: JR with his army the... uh... "New Londo Fairy Boys".
The new maps are looking much better. This wasteland is based on a texture from a rat monster model.
I've been practicing splat blending with this system and you can't see any unsightly tiling.
JR ordered his robots forward (normally a Mekboy is needed for robots but I allow other characters to act as surrogates and carry the controller).
His tanks rolled cautiously forward alongside them.
But Drac took shrewd advantage of his designated deployment area and rolled his Leman Russ's up nearby knolls for some "pop-up" attacks.
The opening salvoe flipped one of JR's tanks, a concerning first blood drawn against his force.
Surviving crew formed up outside and dashed out of the way of the advancing bots.
But the progress of the Katafrakts was denied due to where the tank wreckage had landed.
Returning fire on the now-exposed enemy, JR managed to cripple the track of an enemy Russ.
It went out of control and halted on a raised location that was as ideal as any Drac could've parked on by choice.
Going around the ridge through the valley, the wartraks shot through the gaps in the natural barrier damaging one of the heavy bolters on JR's remaining tank.
Rather than squaring off against the rival tanks, JR instead blasted the convoy of battlewagons.
One was badly damaged when all 3 hits from the 2" battlecannon marker penetrated their targets.
The Speed Freek Kaptin inside shouted at his boyz to jump out and continue on foot.
Turn 4 saw JR score 2 perfect hull crits; one on an enemy tank and the other on his own.
Several of the orders that Ork robots can be given can result in friendly fire and the flipped tank was still blocking their way.
After trying to sidestep it once (the center 'bot just got stuck behind it after some country line dancing) it was easier to just blast it.
The tank was destroyed beautifully with a single lascannon shot and the Katafrakt only lost 1 of its 11 wounds from the explosion.
Problem was that their formation was now broken.
Robots in the 'Ere We Go book form up a LAN party where the controller gives orders to the nearest, then passes it along to the other robots in the maniple.
Since the advance of the center bot had been delayed a turn they were all now too far away from each other and would continue to follow their standing advance and fire orders.
JR's Ork Big Boss had to frantically chase after the left robot to give it commands.
Unless he managed to herd them back together he would be left instructing them one at a time based on which was closest.
Any chance he had to rectify this situation was taken away when Cornholio managed to incinerate him.
Peeling out on his Scorcher, he'd turned the maximum 45 degrees at Fast speed, moved the maximum distance and then rolled a perfect range with the flame volley without an inch to spare.
The Ork was now less of a "Big Boss" and more of a "Solidus-in-MGS4-where-his-already-mangled-dismembered-carcass-falls-into-fire".
Previously Drac's still-operational Battlewagon had refused to slow down due to Speed Freek psychology.
Digging in his heels, he accelerated them even more causing them to careen over the ridge like the Orks of Hazzard County.
They rushed JR's Leman Russ throwing their melta stikkbombs at maximum range using the indirect fire rules.
Two things to note: melta grenades were a thing in 1st Ed; they weren't satchel/magnetic charges until 2nd Ed
Secondly area of effect weapons normally aren't allowed to scatter more than half the distance to the target.
We waived this rule with grenades since it made more sense (and was more entertaining) for them to bounce all over the place.
Only a single melta bomb touched the Russ but it managed to kill 2 crew.
This made no functional difference for the moment because by now both heavy bolters had been crippled so those 2 guys had their feet up anyway.
If they were thinking it was over for them, the crew had another thing coming.
They'd lost control from track damage sustained last turn (Drac had been pouring fire into this thing from his own tanks and his lascannon-armed wartraks) and turned right into the oncoming Speed Freeks.
The Battlewagon was utterly trashed, with every location sustaining a piercing hit.
Meanwhile the Russ was completely unharmed.
Despite numerous explosions and crew casualty-causing damage table results, including corrosive gas from the ruptured Ork Fuel Tank, the Speed Freek Kaptin miraculously survived.
One of the chart results forced the crew and passengers out immediately so Drac opted to place his Kaptin behind the cover of JR's Russ, shielding him from the oncoming Kataphract robots.
Seeking revenge on the Scorcher, the tank-crew-turned-light-infantry fired on Cornholio with their laspistols.
It didn't work however as even the more sensitive wheel and control unit areas resisted damage.
Another frustrating moment saw the frontal lascannon failing to wound the Ork Kaptin despite shooting him at point blank range in the back of the head.
Again and again this guy keeps surviving.
JR turned the turret cannon around to finally get some payback on the Scorcher but failed to damage the fuel tank.
At this point Cornholio is just showing off.
Felling 4 of the guardsmen with the flames of his Scorcher and then running over and killing the last.
To his surprise, the front wheel was damaged by the impact since he was going so fast.
He was doomed to ride out of control for the rest of the battle.
However that wouldn't take long after all.
The wartracks had zipped fully behind JR's tank and shot through its vulnerable rear armor.
A blast ripped through the crew compartment, perfectly killing all 3 remaining members.
With JR's tanks gone and the robots with no controller, the fight was over.
The Katafrakts would continue to walk forward and scan for targets but Drac's boyz could easily get out of the way.
Drac had proven a regular Erwin Rommel with his expert exploitation of the terrain to limit
LOS or provide avenues of attack as the situation demanded.
What a fun battle it was. Nearly every moment saw some funny/surprising event.
Remember new players are always welcome. The channel is in my signature.
Thanks for reading.
