Compiled by: Lexmechanic Omega-248791/JAC

Segmentum: Ultima

World Designate: Norrath, Agri-world

Status: Contested.

Subject: The speed of the Ork warband has taken the Imperium by surprise. They are preparing to assault the lightly defended crossing point known as BEAR BRIDGE in an attempt to gain a foothold within Imperium controlled territory.

Introduction:

Hello and welcome to game number 2 of our Norrath campaign! Here in the comfort of our Nottingham Airbnb, we could chill out, roll some dice and have some drinks without all the noise and chaos of a gaming hall. For this one the forces of Chaos are taking a break, but the Orks are looking for revenge! Here WAAAAAGHHHH Krooteatah was piloted by my friend from Croatia, who has never played any wargame before, under the watchful eye of Norwegian mentorship. Who will win? Find out below!

1 2 3

The Mission:

For a long time I had been itching to try out the "Bridgehead" Chapter Approved scenario from the very moment I saw it featured in Citadel Journal issue 38. For this mission, the defender only begins with their two compulsory troop choices deployed on the battlefield. The rest arrive piecemeal from randomised board edges as reinforcements rushing to defend the bridge. In comparison, the attacker can deploy as much as they want. However they are restricted by the narrow board edge deployment zone on the other side of the river. Victory is determined based on a combination of kill points, and an extra 200 points for whoever has the majority control of the bridgehead zone within the centre of the battlefield.

After rolling off, the coalition leadership of players leading the WAAAAAGHHHH decided they wanted to be the attacker. They deployed as much of their force as physically possible within the deployment zone with the rest waiting in reserve. I placed my two Tactical Squads within cover so they would strike first when charged, and they were separated to force the close-combat orks to split up. If one of my sides fell, it would be a long walk for any victorious orks to strike my other side.

Round 1:

The assault began with a preliminary bombardment. Ork Fighta-Bommas screamed across the battlefield, dropping big bommz (and a few squigs) onto the space marine positions... but not a single one landed on target! Following the payload, Warbikers and the Trukk commanded by Warboss Klaw-killa Krooteatah drove at speed across the bridge, closely followed by a host of orks that gained a cover save from the copious amounts of billowing smoke kicked up by the engines. The bikers blasted away with their big shootas at the marines in the building, but they weathered the storm.

Left completely unharmed, my Tactical Squads thanked the Emperor for his protection, and did what they could while faced with overwhelming odds. The first unit, holed up behind the ruined wall and led by Sergeant Cash, shot at the collection of Warbikers rushing to the building holding the other squad of marines, killing two. The other Space Marines took aim at the Trukk with their mix of weapons, and the heavy bolter got a lucky shot on the engine block! It spluttered to a stop, forming an ad-hoc roadblock. Unfortunately there was a cost. Brother Pollux, equipped with the plasma gun, rolled snake eyes and died in a plasma accident again (fail).

Round 2:

The orks continued slogging their way across the bridge, with the reserve Slugga Boyz arriving too, happy with the knowledge that there were very few Space Marines contesting their assault. The Warboss, however, was most displeased. He was still not krumpin' skulls, and his ride wasn't going anywhere! He jumped out of the Trukk and proceeded on foot. Luckily for him and his bodyguard of Nobz, the Trukk had taken him most of the way and he was now an imminent threat to my guys. The Trukk thankfully was now somewhat blocking off the way on one side of the bridge, becoming a big nuisance to the horde of orks still wanting a piece of the action. The scenario rules actually account for this problem, as an immobilised vehicle can be pushed by another large enough one. Unfortunately, the only ones available were the Killa-Kanz, which were lagging behind.

After much discussion within the coalition, the Warbikers split up. The intact 3 man unit rushed towards Sergeant Cash and charged, killing three and losing one in the ensuing combat. The lone Nob on his warbike, armed with a power klaw, made an uncharacteristic tactical move. Rather than charging my marines (and striking last, almost guaranteeing his death), he parked up behind the ruined building. This created a couple of problems for me. One was that he could act as a one man, klaw-equipped missile ready to annihilate any vehicle of mine that arrived out of reserves. The second problem was that if I shot at him, I'd have to devote an entire unit to killing just one ork, which would have been overkill (you cannot split fire in this edition).

With this in mind, my turn began and I got lucky with my reserve rolls. My Razorback filled with marines, the Battle Robot Maniple, and the Multi-Melta Dreadnought arrived, from the north, south and east respectively. My Razorback and robots arrived right where they were needed and immediately got to work. The Tactical Squad disembarked, and I made the difficult decision to execute the ork with no name. The Razorback couldn't quite see the Killa-Kanz because of the large rock in the water, so it zapped at the Trukk. The twin-linked lascannon went wild, but the pintle storm bolter hit something important and the Trukk collapsed into a pile of junk (weird but it worked out), putting an end to the random big shoota fire it was throwing out. My robots moved up to support the southern position, and the marines in hand to hand combat finished off the last of the bikers. The squad in the building led by Veteran Sergeant Aurelius fired down at the Nobz, killing one and wounding another. There was still a big green threat situated in the centre of the board, but now I had really begun to mow the lawn.

Round 3:

Going into turn 3, the tardy Zzap Gun and crew along with the last of the boyz finally arrived. The WAAAAAGHHHH as a whole continued to trudge across the bridge, and a Killa-Kan got a lucky rokkit shot off on my Razorback, instantly destroying it! The Klaw-killa set his sights on Sergeant Cash, but couldn't quite reach with a charge. Overall, it was a fairly uneventful ork turn with all their small arms fire bouncing off power armour ineffectively. After this and the success of my last battle round, it was here that I started to feel a bit confident, but I still had to worry about the very angry mob in the middle.

My turn began and I made all of my remaining reserve rolls. The Rapier Laser Destroyers and Mortis Dreadnought followed my CCW dread by walking onto the board from the east, far from the action. Thankfully though, both units have very long range weaponry and clear line of sight to the bridge. To kick things off, my Terminators led by Chief Librarian Cogidubnus teleported in between the two ruined buildings right in front of the Warboss and his Nobz, and proceeded to blast away. Every unit I had available to fire shot at the ork leadership with everything they had, including my Librarian casting Smite. Nobz, however, are very tough, and even though their armour was thin, some survived, leaving three Nobz and the Warboss remaining.

Round 4:

The boss was out for blood, charging the Terminators along with the few surviving Nobz. The result was brutal. First a wayward slugga round headshot one Terminator, taking him out, then the ensuing combat was exceptionally violent. The WAAAAAAAGHHHH energy flowed through the orks, doubling their initiative stat, so a Nob slew Cogidubnus with two well placed choppa swings before he had a chance to strike back. Three more of the Terminator elite died to the mix of choppas and power klaws, leaving only two survivors. Those Terminators struck back, getting some revenge by punching the head clean off one Nob, leaving just two and the Warboss alive.

My Tactical Squad still holed up in the building fired down upon the squad of Shoota Boyz, killing some and triggering them to flee! The other unit behind the ruined wall, backed up by robots, shot at the Gretchin and the Slugga Boyz, but while there were casualties, the orkoids held their nerve. My heavy fire support achieved very little here, only knocking a big shoota off a Killa Kan. At this point my confidence from the last turn quickly wavered, but we still had close combat to go. Two Terminators still lived and the Power of the WAAAAGHHH! initiative bonus had now worn off. They survived the choppa attacks from the two Nobz and simultaneously struck at the Warboss. Krooteatah crushed the two of them with his power klaw, but just as they died one Terminator snuck a punch through, killing him with the Instant Death rule!

Round 5:

With Warboss Klaw-killa Krooteatah down, things were starting to fall apart for the boyz. The Killa-Kanz stomped across the bridge, and the ork leadership coalition decided that they'd had enough of the marines in the building. The Kanz fired all sorts of weapons, killing two, leaving just the heavy bolter marine and Sergeant Aurelius. Various other boyz fired their weapons to no effect, including the Zzap Gun. The little green men really needed a miracle here, and one came in the form of a SUPAH WAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!! from the two surviving Nobz. To succeed on a Power of the WAAAAGHHH! roll with only two models remaining, they needed to roll double ones, and of course they got snake-eyes! The Nobz charged the Tactical Squad that had left the Razorback, led by Veteran Sergeant Hellric, but even with the blessing of Gork (or possibly Mork) they only managed to kill one! In return, the space marines stabbed a Nob, wounding him.

Down south, the Boyz and Gretchin charged Sergeant Cash and his men hiding behind the ruined wall. Lacking stikkbombz, the marines got to swing first. Here I knew the marines were as good as dead no matter what unit I chose to attack, so I had them hit the grots as I figured I might have a chance of finishing those off before the game ended. Two grots died, leaving just the runtherd and three gretchin remaining.

Okay not much of the game left. By the scenario rules, there was still a sixth turn to go, but it looked like things would be decided here. I had to make this turn count! The Mortis Dreadnought and Rapier Laser Destroyers threw out a mega volley at the two units of Killa-Kanz, completely annihilating three and immobilising another, knocking them out for good! To add salt to the wound, one of the Killa-Kanz exploded, vaporising one of the already fleeing boyz. Speaking of boyz, the robots attacked the southern Slugga Boyz with bolter, heavy bolter, and the fire of the flamer, killing enough of them to take the unit under half strength and thus giving me half victory points for the unit. The last models remaining to fight were the Tactical Squad vs the last Nob. Lacking any remaining waaaghhh energy, Hellric struck faster and cut him with the chainsword, finally putting an end to the Nobz.

Aftermath:

By the rules of the engagement, a sixth turn was to be played, but it was at this point that the ork coalition of gamers decided to throw in the towel. The Celestial Questors had won! The Space Marine shooting was just too much for them. With all the Killa-Kanz in ashes, the leadership slain and the majority of the boyz gone, the next turn was unlikely to be anything but a mop-up procedure. Out of curiosity, I calculated the victory points as if the game had actually ended on turn five, which you can see below. As the Space Marines had majority control of the bridgehead zone at the end, they were awarded an additional 200 points.

A solid victory for the Celestial Questors! Other than my Multi-Melta Dreadnought, which arrived too far away to have an impact on the game, everything else performed extremely well. The Tactical Squads were very tough as always, and they killed a lot of orks. I don't know what the final tally was on the marine with the heavy bolter, but he really put in work. This was my first time really using cover to my advantage, which protected me from a few AP 3 rokkits, and it allowed my marines to hit first in close combat.

I enjoyed the scenario, but I think I would have found it a lot harder if I were the one doing the attacking! My army wouldn't have enjoyed marching across the bridge, but I think my better armour and long-range weapons would have helped me make progress. My Rapiers and Mortis Dreadnought could have just sat on the other side firing away freely. In our discussion after the game, we came to the conclusion that the orks really needed some Stormboyz or Deffkoptas. Anything that could just fly across the river would have been very good. Also anything long range that could have provided covering fire would have gone a long way, but the Orks army list doesn't really have anything like that (apart from the dreaded Looted Basilisk...) The Warbikers performed well again though, and their clouds of smoke and dust rule triggering as they zoomed ahead was very evocative!

I hope everyone had a good time reading through this game, I felt like it was a lot more fun than the previous one! The Celestial Questors achieved a big win here, putting an end to the Ork incursion into the Norrath system. Lastly, I want to give a big thanks to Pete Loukos, who wrote and submitted this scenario to the Citadel Journal 26 years ago!!! I bet he never expected people to still be playing it in 2026. If you enjoyed this battle report and want to read more, click the buttons below!