Compiled by: Lexmechanic Omega-248791/JAC

Segmentum: Ultima

World Designate: Norrath, Agri-world

Status: Contested.

Subject: The TRAITOR 999th Regiment of Norrath has taken control of a ruined habitation block. Celestial Questors have been sent to cleanse the taint, but a misplaced Ork warband has intervened.

Introduction:

Hello and welcome to game number 1 of our Norrath campaign. This one was rather haphazard! It took place at Warhammer World which was a bit on the hectic side. So many people, a lot of noise, and kids running around our table all the time. To top it off, we forgot our templates, tape measures and dice! Thankfully we could buy them at the on-site store (at a rather hefty price) but all of this added up to create a rushed deployment plan which resulted in a game that could have been planned better. Overall we had fun, and I hope you enjoy reading about it!

The Mission:

For our mission we kept it simple: tally up what units were destroyed by whom, and at the end of the game calculate the victory points. What could possibly go wrong? Well we rolled off for deployment, with the players picking their corner of choice in order, from whoever lost the dice rolls to whoever won them. The deployment zone sizes we went for were rather tight, too tight! Some orks and traitors had to start the game in reserve. This was the big mistake of setting up the game: the corner deployments should have been wider, as it resulted in the orks in their far corner being rather far away from the main action. We should have planned our three-player mission in advance properly, doh! A big lesson was learnt here: make sure you actually plan your scenario!

Early turns:

I managed to roll hot and nab the first turn for myself, immediately unleashing my Rapier Laser Destroyers onto the front plate of the Leman Russ, blowing it up instantly. I felt rather bad about this, as it was his first time using it, so we rerolled the result and ended up on Crew Stunned. The first turn obliteration must have been pretty lucky, as for the entire rest of the game my Rapiers got Crew Stunned after Crew Stunned on that front plate, locking the two units up together entirely! After the orks had moved up the Basilisk took a shot and pasted a big hole in the middle of their mass, destroying the Zzap Gun and multiple Boyz. The Traitors also pulled out the Screamers quickly, which made a beeline for my Battle Robots, who were on frontline guard duty along with my multi-melta Dreadnought. To hold his flank, the traitors sent the Chaos Warhounds not held in reserve towards the orks in an attempt to slow them down, but they ended up taking many with them! The Trukk with the Warboss positioned itself in the centre, waiting for the right moment to strike, while a unit of Warbikes and the Killa-Kanz attempted to sneak through the ruins towards my uncontested left side.

The mid-game:

The remainder of the demons, along with the reserve Chaos Warhounds, rolled in, and a big conflict opened up between the forces of chaos and the orks along the top edge of the battlefield. Grots were thrown in and eaten alive by dogs. Boyz and Traitors exchanged slugga, shoota, lasgun, and doombolt fire. Said doombolt-tossing Flamers of Tzeentch were hosed down by an immense spray of twin-linked big shoota bullets from the Warbikers, extinguishing them! The Plaguebearers got stuck in and began carving up the Boyz. The kill tally I was noting down started to become quite a long list!

Away from the north side, the Warboss and Nobz continued holding their position, waiting for the right moment. The Screamers took down one of my Battle Robots and tore the heavy bolter off the other, but eventually fell to a combination of fists from both the robots and the Dreadnought, along with the Techmarine striking with a few Power Axe slashes. My Mortis Dreadnought gunned down the southern Warbiker squad along with a kan, holding off the orks. It was here that I realised just how good autocannons are! They really are very flexible, and they throw out a good amount of dice. My Tactical Squad had disembarked from the Razorback to help gun down any sneaky orks and to bait the Warboss and Nobz into charging, but they got nailed by a nasty Basilisk bombardment, killing four. My squad with the heavy bolter and plasma gun took hold of the nearby ruin and began taking shots at the traitors, but my plasma gun decided to roll ones for almost every shot it made that game, starting with snake eyes! (Must have been faulty equipment! Somehow he made every save and lived to tell the tale.)

The last few turns:

The Basilisk begins whiffing some shells, to the relief of my Terminators who gun down some Boyz and stand ready to counter charge the Warboss and his entourage if needed. Speaking of the Warboss, the fearsome Klaw-killa Krooteatah cannot wait any longer. The green mist descends but the Terminators are just out of range, so he charges the Razorback, which easily crumples under the weight of orkoid muscle. Now exposed, the Basilisk blasts two Nobz into small green pieces using not just the cannon but the heavy bolter as well, and Arch-Heretic Innoruuk casts the scary Wind of Chaos but only finishes off one extra. The Spined Chaos Beast, previously weakened by many multi-melta and lascannon shots, eventually falls to the robot and the Dreadnought, but not before crunching up the Dreadnought's multi-melta. The Plaguebearers won the battle of the north when the Boyz failed their morale test, realising "'old on bozz, 'dese guyz stink!" After the Boyz fled, the Plaguebearers turned their sight on the Bikers, which blasted two of them away in response.

The aftermath:

As the battle came to a close, there were very few models left on the side of the traitorous 999th regiment. Throughout the whole game they had been rained upon by an endless hail of bolter and shoota fire, and many a greenskin had thrown themselves that way. The few orks who had tried to move through to the Space Marines had found themselves quickly gunned down, and the traitorous minions that wanted to push south were either clogged up by walkers, or pulled back by the rapid advance of the orks. The Warboss and his Nobz were now in a shooting alley, being fired upon by the remnants of chaos, and the damaged but still effective marine shooting. With no clear winner (everyone survived with at least something), it came down to victory points. Who reaped the most souls? Well from my rough notes which hopefully didn't miss anything (which weren't entirely clear on the distinction between what Nob was what), the points tally was the following:

A close one, The 999th Regiment of Norrath just about takes it! Almost the entirety of their kills were on ork models, with a big Basilisk blow to a Tactical Squad also picking up a lot of points. It doesn't matter that the 999th were almost entirely killed off, as with every game of Warhammer, it's the objective that matters. What stood out to him was the Leman Russ surviving a laser destroyer barrage every turn until the end of the game. AV 14 is hardcore! Maybe I should get a Land Raider for my marines...

The WAAAAAAGHHHH struggled here. Starting off so far away meant that the Killa-Kanz couldn't really get involved, and the lack of good saving throws meant that the constant small arms fire really hurt the orks. Kroot-eatah moved up fast but seemed reluctant to get stuck in without the support of the rest of his forces, and although the orks as a whole killed a lot of traitor models, individually they were not worth that many points.

As the Celestial Questors, that was my first game using my new Dreadnoughts and man are they good! The multi-melta was a bit pants but the twin-linked autocannons on the Mortis Dreadnought are incredible. I think in this game my army had some good targets to take advantage of which greatly helped, and although I didn't quite win I'm really happy with the way my boys performed. I played a little cagey: one of my Tactical Squads was held back waiting to see where support was needed, while also not bunching up with my other guys so a stray Basilisk shot wouldn't completely cripple me. In retrospect I think their surviving until the end probably ended up denying my opponents more points than they would have gained me, so I suppose I made the right choice (one that could be described as accidentally beardy).

A fun day was had by all, and many Warhammer World exclusive souvenirs were bought from the on-site store. For myself I bought two of the anniversary Land Speeders to add to my marines, the models look very cool!. By this point we were quite exhausted, but the war was far from over. Across the next few days we got two more games in, which had a much more focused set of scenarios. If you enjoyed this one and want to read more, click the buttons below!