This is the third part in the story about
Carvilia Optata, an Warhammer 40k campaign we are playing in the club. Where each game drives the narrative forward.
Part one:
https://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/40k-battle-report-imperial-guard-vs-orks.html
Part two:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2019/09/40k-aar-imperium-vs-orks-on-planet-of.html
With the added reinforcements from the Astartes to the Lord Governor Alpus Eburio forces, he felt confident and after a war council with his closest advisers he had decided that the Imperial forces under his command would try out a new tactics.
The ebb and flow of the warfare on the planet of Carvilia Optata had up until now mostly been about the extreme seasons of the planet and the flow of the orkish warbands. The extreme heat forced the Orks to move from one hemisphere to the other during the late spring or beginning of the summer. To plunder and refit and bolster their numbers on the planets winter hemisphere. Leaving a trail of destruction behind them as they travel to the greener pastures.
What Lord Governor Alpus Eburio now wanted to do was to hit the Orks before they were ready, before they were ready to move out and thus make an pre-emptive strike against one of the larger clans before the raiding seasons begin on the Imperial bastions as the Orks passed them by to the other hemisphere.
If this tactics would be successful the Lord Governor Alpus Eburios jurisdiction would be must stronger then the surrounding Governors jurisdictions and he could move in on them during the rebuilding and grab up some of their land with diplomatic persuasions...
Marshal 031.003 Baptiste Rousselot commanding the Death Korps of Krieg element in this Imperial jurisdiction and Lord Commissar Kiril Sokolov commanding the Vostroyans had been tasked with conduct the attack. To assist them a special team of Astartes from the Ultra Marines chapter had been promised.
The Ork clan chosen for the strike was a rather problematic clan that had caused much destruction as of lately. The ork clan led by none other then the mighty Warlord Doombrakah-Titan-Flippah.
For the third game we had decided it was the Imperial forces turn to attack and we tested the "Storm the line" scenario.
Some pictures from the deployment. Click on any picture to see a larger one.
Onto the battle...
Before the first turn the Grenadiers in their Centaurs scouts forward, leading the charge against the Ork lines.
The Orks won the roll for the first turn and left their trenches in an all out assault, taking the Imperial forces by surprise.
I was forced to dismount my infantry from the Crassus transport and move it backwards.
Imperial left flank advances.
The Grenadiers used up some Command Points to outflank the ork forces, the plan was to hurt the transport an force the orks to walk...
Yeah... Those melta did not hit... And the lives of the Grenadiers was wasted...
Bloody hand to hand combat...
The mighty Ork warmachine rushes forward but are met by a hail of fire...
The Conqueror cannon on my Leman Russ had to work hard here.
And in a massive exposion the Ork warmashine was no more...
Granted it was damaged before but I can still claim the last couple of wounds with my Leman Russ...
With the initial Ork assault thinning out it was time for our second wave of troops to start advancing...
My second Crassus (due to special rules of this scenario) drives forward...
Followed by more infantry.
Vostroyan conscripts engage the Grots...
Orkish vehicles charges forward on our right flank.
The Ultra marine tank lines up a shot...
Aiming at the Ork fortress..
Taking it out...
And with this the Astartes main objective was secured and they were pulled back from the warzone, having deemed their presences more important elsewhere. ( The Ultra Marine player had to go..)
Watchmaster 031.771 Břetislav Lukeš cuts down and ork "sergeant", again proving he is worthy of his name. His kill tally is starting to count up even in this conflicts deployment.
- Not so tough now huh? Not with you entrails spilling out on the ground...
Ok ok, maybe I should shut up now. The Ork got some friends close by in extremely heavy armour and fielding powerclaws and all manners of nasty close combat weapons...
The massive Orks charges forward obliteration all in its path...
I had a unit of infantrymen taking cover from all the fire in an bomb crater alongside
Marshal 031.003 Baptiste Rousselot when they got charged...
A new unit of Vostroyan levies outflanks the enemy.
Finding their favourite prey... Grots...
Granted, they are about as tough.
Next line of Orks that had advanced started to thin out.
With some exceptions that is..
It looks like the Levies got the attention from Warlord
Doombrakah-Titan-Flippah him self. Blessed be their frail soon to be dead bodies, but strong souls...
With all the riflemen dying,
Lord Commissar Kiril Sokolov and his Ogryn bodyguard had come to my assistant. Together we managed to clear out the crater from all the pesky Orks..
The new wave of infantry is seen storming forth against the Ork hordes...
A new wave of Leman Russes pushes forward, lets here a Huzza for the armoured might of the Imperium...
The Imperial forces lines up readying their riffles for a blinding discharge of lasguns and heavier weaponry...
We trew everything we got at them but could not take them all out...
It was time to finish the last wounded poor pieces of Orks in close combat,
Lord Commissar Kiril Sokolov with his Ogryn bodyguard, Marshal 031.003 Baptiste Rousselot and an Callidus assassin surrounds the Orks...
With the second line of Orks cleared it was time to advance once more...
Imperial forces starts to capture the centre lines, things starts to look good for once.
My Grenadier Watchmaster (sergeant) climbs the woundmarker dice of the weaponsteam to get to higher ground when attacking the mighty Warboss... (it will make all the difference I promise...)
The mighty Crassus is directed by
Watchmaster 031.771 Břetislav Lukeš as it crosses the line of defence...
And with that the centreline was taken, a minor victory for the Imperial forces...
Damn... That was a bloody game... Untold guardsmen paid with their life in this assault but we are pleased to report to
Lord Governor Alpus Eburio that his tactics is going according to plan.
Had we not had the resurrecting rules scenario this would have been a short assault indeed..
Granted, the Astartes forces redeployed elsewhere but still..
But in true Imperial Guard tactics... Just throw Guardsmen at the problem until it disappears.
A mighty (minor) victory for the Imperial forces.
For more pictures from the battle look at Markos excellent Instagram posts:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3EyjZmHYTr/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Ey0L1nEJm/https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Ey3oanHAP/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Ey57an7nl/
