Chapter Approved: Battle Report: Vadinax Campaign

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As the smoke thinned around battlefield, Regulus extended a gauntlet out to Faustus. The mission had been to strike the Ork encampment located in The Graves, recover key components looted from Valern Citadel, and destroy the rest.

Faustus took the offered grip up and lifted his powered down Tactical Dreadnought Armor up to a kneeling position, it would need a few more patches again.

"Well, that did not go to plan." Faustus lightly offered, letting his Chaplain know his mood was still good.

"Not quite as dictated by the Codex." Regulus chuckled.

All around them were the bodies of Orks, piled high at the feet of the terminators securing the area.

"Reports are that we eliminated the majority of the force, but the rest made out with their loot during the fighting."

Chief Apothecary Singa had managed to pull his mangled bionic leg out from under a dead Squig, looked like that would need repairs too. He set about triaging the wounded and collecting gene-seed from the fallen.

Faustus sighed and gripped the bridge of his nose in a wince, even genetically enhanced humans got headaches from frustration. "Two steps forward..."

Thunderhawks were already arriving, and so it was time to get to his feet and oversee the exfiltration. But just before turning is thoughts to the task at hand, Faustus decided it was time for a different approach.

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A rare second game for the week in the Vadinax Campaign for me. I faced off against some very lucky, but also well played Orks. It was a great game and fun was had by all. My opponent Paul did a great job keeping me off objectives. He plays as the "lucky" blue Deathskulls, but while he was pretty lucky this game, I think there is probably a bit more to it as he extends his quite impressive win streak.

Battle Report:

Ruleset: Core Crusade 2023 Arks of Omen Grand Tournament - Strike Force, 2023 Q1 Balance Datasheet & Points, and Goonhammer Vadinax Crusade rules
Mission: Arks of Omen GT: 12 Tear Down Their Icons
Points: 1500

My Forces:

++ Arks of Omen Detachment 1492pts ++

**Chapter Selector**: Ultramarines
Battle Size [6CP]: Strike Force(101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points) [6CP]
Game Type: 4. Chapter Approved: Arks of Omen Grand Tournament + Crusade

+ HQ +

Primus Leo Exevio Faustus - Captain in Terminator Armour: Rites of War, The Sanctic Halo, Power Fist, Wrist mounted grenade launcher, Storm Bolter, Warlord (Warleader)
Praelior Tarquinius Iulian Regulus - Chaplain in Terminator Armour: Benediction of Fury Storm bolter, Canticle of Hate, Litany of Hate, The Imperium's Sword

+ Troops +

Squad Kaiel- 5 man Tactical Squad - Chainsword, Plasma pistol, Bolt pistols, Meltagun, Bolters
Squad Vitus - 5 man Tactical Squad - Chainsword, Bolt pistols, Heavy Bolter, Bolters [Shell Shocked]

+ Elites +

Chief Apothecary Hulm Singa - Apothecary: Astartes Chainsword, Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Selfless Healer, The Armour Indomitus, Conversion Field, Custodian of the Future [Lost Leg Scar]
Venerable Brother "Fury" - Dreadnought: Dreadnought melee weapon w/ Storm bolter, Twin Lascannon
Squad Nox - 5man Terminator Assault Squad: Teleport Homer, 5x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
Squad Tourbillion - 5 man Terminator Squad: Teleport Homer, Power sword, Storm bolter, Assault cannon, 3x Chainfist, Power fist
Kill Team Rubrum - 5 man Terminator Squad: Teleport Homer, Power sword, Storm bolter, Heavy Flamer, Chainfist, 3x Power fist
Squad Velox - 5 man Vanguard Veterans Squad: Relic Blade, 3x Storm Shields, 2x Thunder Hammers, 2x Lightning Claws (pair) [Disgraced]

+ Heavy Support +

Squad Nero - Devastator Squad: Power sword, plasma pistol, 2x Lascannon, Missile Launcher, Plasma Cannon [Walking Wounded]

+ Fast Attack +

"One Charlie" - Land Speeder Tornado: Heavy flamer, Multi-melta
"Two Charlie" - Land Speeder Tornado: Heavy flamer, Multi-melta

Agendas: Quest for Atonement (Squad Velox), Reaper, Guide the Chapter

Gripstrippas Gits:

++ Arks of Omen Detachment ++

+ HQ +

Mogbul Godshredda - Warboss in Mega Armor
Gitzgash Worldrippa - Weirdboy
Red eyes Green dragon- Big Mek w/ Shokk Attack Gun

+ Troops +

Gangstas - Boyz
trukas - Boyz
smelly fings - Gretchin

+ Elites +

Burna Buttz Boyz - Burna Boyz
Da Steel Marauderz - Kommandos
Da killy gitz - Nobz
Redeyez Scrapgits - Meganobz

+ Fast Attack +

Pokistik Boyz - Squighog Boyz

+ Heavy Support +

Orkapalooza - Lootas
Red eyes mount - Deff Dreads
Stompa Stompa - Deff Dreads

+ Dedicated Transports +

Big Boyz Trukk - Trukk
Fast & Furious - Trukk

Takeaways & Analysis:

My plan was to first achieve the Quest for Atonement for Squad Velox and clear out their battle scar, and also deploy far back so that I would be able to charge the Orks first. My analysis had been that they were fast mobile infantry. I had the right plan, but my execution was really lacking. First I didn't deploy very far back, and second I threw myself off and failed to shoot at the forward deployed Kommandos on the objective in the first turn. That center objective was on an interesting elevated bit of terrain, but it meant the only unit fast enough to get there was Squad Velox. So, my own turn one mistakes really set me off on the wrong foot. I think the big takeaway here is that two games in a week is a bit much for me.

Another surprise that I didn't know ahead was that these were Deathskulls Orks, so I found out that a bit late about their clan kultur. While their re-rolls and 5+ shrug are 'lucky' and thematic - the huge one is that all of their infantry have Obsec, which I think is really, really strong. This allowed the Nobz, who had missed their charge, to steal one of my objectives.

As a consequence of deploying too far forward in some cases, and also standing on objectives rather than back a bit (I need to get the objective mats that show the full zone) I didn't screen out the back as well as I was trying to, and so some Burnaz jumped in.

In the end, we had some punishing battles, but I had managed to clear out most of his models, however, by then I had lost just too many points that I wasn't able to recover. It was a bit of a strange one though, units that usually die lived, and units that usually live died! Also, wacky dice rolls: "Orks who couldn't charge and Ultramarines who couldn't shoot!"