Grazgok and the Painboy charge across the town’s market square.

 The stormtroopers open fire from the alleys and second-floor windows on the western side of the main street, and several Grots and an ork fall to the ground.

The orks roar a war cry and rush forward, shooting from the hip. Their fire is incredibly inaccurate, and the stormtroopers are free to continue their punishing fire unhindered.

As Lady Serillian hurries through a courtyard to bring her weapon to bear, she hears the whoosh of Brother Deon’s jetpack as he soars upward to the roof of a nearby building.

Soon, both are in position, and they add their fire against the greenskin invaders.

—

Blades Crossed

Orks attempt to outflank the Inquisition team by circling around the eastern edge of the town.

As the stormtroopers and ork boyz trade fire on the main street, the Crusaders and Assassin work their way toward the burning Warcopta.

As they reach a tall wall that leads to the courtyard where the burning vehicle has crashed, they spot three orks enter the courtyard to their right. The Inquisition agents charge the xenos, killing two.

The other orks attempt to join the fight, but they are intimidated by the assassin’s swords, which are a blur as she chops down her opponents, and they decide to stay out of the courtyard. The one ork in melee with the assassin is struck down.

The ork’s caution is to no avail. The Crusaders climb over that wall and strike at the orks outside, while the assassin races to the Warcopta. The Crusaders kill one ork, but one Crusader, by the name of Titus, is struck down.

Brother Deon of the Deathwatch uses his jetpack to take a firing position on a nearby rooftop.

On the main street, both sides suffer casualties. One ork makes it to the Warcopta and grabs the unconscious warlord, but he is quickly shot down. Other orks advance on the wreck, hoping they’ll have better luck.

Lady Serillian and Deon find positions to fire. Serillian climbs into a small courtyard on the west side of the street and fires at Grazok with her Needle Pistol, but her poisoned shots are to no avail against his heavy armor. She starts picking off Grots.

Deon uses his jetpack to fly up to the roof of a tall building, which he uses to fire down on the orks in the street below. One ork is hit, but the Painboy revives him.

—

There! Grazgok is pleased to see an ork pick up the wounded greenskin that had been sent by Rumlar to offer him weapons. He’s even more pleased when his warrior manages to carry Rumlar’s ambassador around the corner and out of sight of the humies.

He’s not so pleased to see two of his warriors fall to humie fire. Nor is he happy when he feels a heavy blow to his armor and realizes that one of the humies—who looks to also be dressed in heavy armor—is shooting from a nearby rooftop.

“Weakling,” Grozgok mutters, sensing cowardice on the part of the humie for fighting from a distance.

Still, the humie fire is thinning out his war party. As much as he likes a good brawl, he needs more gunz. “Time to go!” he yells to his remaining warriors. “Fall back!”

—

Endgame

The orks reach the Warcopta and haul out their objective: one of Rumlar’s lieutenants.

The stormtroopers aren’t eager to charge toward the Warcopta and engage the orks in melee. Their goal is to shoot the orks until they flee.

But Drusus and the assassin are made of sterner stuff. They advance on the wreck and get within arm’s reach before they confront more orks racing forward. The assassin leaps into combat, while Drusus fires his bolt pistol.

Despite such efforts, there are too many targets, and despite heavy ork casualties, one ork manages to grab the prone warlord and carry him around the corner. No one on the Inquisition team has a line of fire, and the orks can now safely flee for the table’s edge.

The accurate Imperial gunfire causes panic among the orks, who drop the wounded greenskin and flee.

That’s exactly what Grazgok is thinking. He orders the withdrawal, as his force has suffered 25 percent casualties, and he is not feeling good about how the battle is going. All greenskins still on their feet begin to pull back.

Although Drusus and the assassin give chase, the only real hope is that the ork morale will fail (under the rules, they must make a “Bottle Test” at the start of every turn. If they fail, the orks will drop their objective and flee the battlefield).

And that is what happens. The assassin charges the ork carrying Rumlar’s ambassador, and the xeno is forced to drop the wounded greenskin and defend himself. The assassin’s blade is a blur, but the ork simply throws himself at his opponent, and his massive bulk knocks her to the ground.

At the same time, Brother Deon flies down to the courtyard to tackle Grazgok. But it is too late. Orks are running to grab the downed ork lieutenant and, given the distance Deon must cross, it will be sheer luck if the Inquisition wins.

And luck comes through. Just before they escape, the orks panic. The wounded ambassador is forgotten as the orks flee, with Grazgok roaring his outrage as he leaves the table.

The Inquisition has its prisoner.

—

Lady Serillian stands triumpant as she looks down on her new prisoner.

As she approaches the burning Warcopta, she raises her Needle Pistol and puts a shell into the skull of a blood-soaked ork who still breathes.

The blue-painted orks have fled, and her objective—one of Rumlar’s lieutenants—has been seized, bound, and dragged to the middle of the street.

“Casualties?” Serillian asks. She isn’t really interested, but the impression that she cares for her troopers can only bolster morale.

“Two, including Titus,” Drussus reports. “But all will live.”

“Then call in our ride. I want this xeno scum strapped to an interrogation chair as soon as possible. I want to know what Rumlar is up to.”

—

TheGM: This was a fun fight, particularly as I was the Inquisition. It was, however, a close-run thing. The orks had the objective, and they only needed to make two more morale checks, and it would have been impossible to stop them from winning.

A couple things stand out: The fire of the Inquisition team was deadly, and the assassin and Crusaders held their own against the orks in melee.

That said, the orks were tough. They didn’t fire well, but their weapons are powerful, and they had the physical strength to intimidate the stormtroopers from attempting to seize the objective. I decided to rely on firepower to win the day. That allowed the orks to grab objective and use the urban terrain to fleet in relative safety.

Thankfully, the orks panicked before they left the table. But let’s be honest: The orks had the game won but for a lousy morale roll.

Click here to return to Part 1 of this battle.

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