The 728th Cadian Regiment advances through a petrified forest in the early dawn hours.

IMPERIAL VOXCAST (3 639 756.M41)—Imperial forces have retaken the Tarak Mines in a two-hour battle against light xeno resistance.

Human casualties were minimal, authorities announced today, a welcome but unexpected indication that the ork army defeated recently at the Barad Mine has yet to recover from its decisive defeat…

PRE-BATTLE SETTING

The scenario proved to be “The Emperor’s Will,” with a single objective in each deployment zone. As the Gaffer still lacks the troops to counter the GM’s powerful combined-arms collection, the battle was scaled back to allow a more competitive mix of troops–with no armor on either side. Each army consisted of 750 points.

Ork Forces

• Warboss
• 3 x Nobs
• 4 x Slugga Boyz
• 2 x Shoota Boyz
• 1 x Kommandos (never deployed)
• 3 x Lobbas
• 1 x Gretchin

The battle was led by an eccentric (ie. tactically talented) Warboss by the name of Skarug Graverippah. The name came about as Skarug always seems to come back no matter how many times he gets “killed.”

Skarug opted to go “all infantry” for this battle. He also made the unorky decision to hide behind the rocks where he could avoid being killed by snipers. (Given the scenario conditions, an early “Slay the Warlord” result could cost the game, so it was an intelligent move—just strangely insightful for an ork.)

The indirect-firing lobbas also were deployed behind the rocks, as this shielded them from human fire. The remaining orks and gretchin simply lined up, ready to charge forward.

One very large (20 ork) band of Slugga Boyz was held in reserve.

Imperial Forces

• Company Command Squad, with Ordinance Officer and auto cannon team
• 1 x Platoon Command Squad
• 1 x Veteran Squad in Chimera. Veterans equipped with heavy flamer and two flamers
• 3 x Infantry Squads, each with one flamethrower
• 3 x Special Weapons Squads, equipped with three flamers each
• 2x Scout Sentinels with auto cannons
• 2 x Armored Sentinels with heavy flamers

As the orks had deployed first, leaving their right flank slightly less defended, the Imperial commander reinforced that flank with the Veteran squad, which would advance aggressively, supported by an infantry squad, special weapons squad, and the two Armored Sentinels.

The Imperial left flank was deployed closer to the center of the battlefield, with the idea of giving ground and forcing the orks to advance into the Imperial firing line. Two Scout Sentinels were deployed near the Company Command’s auto-cannon team to provide fire across the front, as needed.

A small retinue of Ratling snipers were deployed in the petrified forest, where they would attempt to target the ork warlord (who never showed his face).

ORK TURN ONE

The orks advanced under the cover of the predawn darkness. There was little subtlety to the maneuver, although the orks on both flanks did take advantage of cover provided by nearby undulating terrain.

As noted before, the Warboss was decidedly unorthodox in his behavior and watched the advance by peeking occasionally over the rocks–never properly exposing himself to the Ratlings.

The ork lobbas targeted the Imperial Company Command Squad but, as is common with ork fire, the barrage went wide and simply raised a cloud of dust.

Click here to read the battle’s finale.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our wargaming adventures in the sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.