Barentsz surveyed the field before him, his external sensor array picking up the telltale signs of warm exhaust fumes, hot engines and the distant, muffled sounds of vehicles moving in the mist. The thick fog covering this part of the deserted streets prevented spotting the advancing enemy by eyesight alone, but then, he hadn’t relied on his eyesight for centuries now and the fog was hardly a hindrance to him. He turned to two of his trusted cadre of veterans, the Sergeants Verschueren and De Graevelaer, his booming voice sounding distinctly mechanical through his voice enhancers. The two sergeants craned their necks to look up at the sarcophagus of their commander as he issued his orders. ‘The xenos Orks are still advancing on the city in great numbers and although we might hold them off for some time, I fear we will be too outnumbered to win a protracted fight, especially without prepared defences. Sergeant Verschueren, how goes the evacuation?’ ‘The last of the bulk haulers will be taking off within the hour; we are the only humans left on this planet outside of the spaceport’ the sergeant reported.

 ‘Then we might just have to execute a fighting withdrawal towards our transports and leave this rock to the Greenskins’, said sergeant De Graevelaer. ‘Indeed’, replied the Dreadnought commander, ‘now ensure that…’ Their vox line crackled to life with the hoarse voice of Sergeant Donkervoort. ‘Captain, it appears we have some unexpected company’, the urgency in his voice was obvious, even through the crackling static of the link. ‘Go ahead sergeant, what tidings do you bring?’ Barentsz replied. Some more static and garbled sounds, before Donkervoort came back, ‘we have been tracking a small force, moving along the edge of the city. We expected them to be more Orks, perhaps a scouting party, but in a break in the fog, we caught a glimpse of them. They are Space Marines sir. We positively identified them as of the Excommunicatus Jade Chargers Chapter.’ The last part was uttered with barely contained contempt.

 ‘Hmm. Them again. This complicates matters some’ the commander boomed, ‘but we may still turn this into our advantage’. We shall engage the Orks to our front at distance and then draw the traitors into the fight, with luck, we will catch them between ourselves and the approaching Greenskins. We will use them as a buffer as we make good our withdrawal’. De Graevelaer interjected: ‘Is it not our sacred duty to the Emperor to eradicate those abominations that have turned away from His light?’ making the sight of the Aquila as he mentioned the undisputed leader of Mankind. ‘And right you are young sergeant’, the Dreadnought answered, ‘but we are also tasked with matters of great importance here. We must ensure the safe retrieval of the artefact first and we are very close to accomplishing this. With the departure of the last shuttles, it will be safely stored onboard our cruiser. We are then needed to escort it back to its shrine world. So we are sworn to do’.

Not taken aback, the sergeant replied: ‘so we leave those deviants to live and perpetuate their crimes against the Emperor?’ His older fellow sergeant smiled a predatory smile, ‘No brother, I see the simplicity of the captain’s plan; he means for the Greenskins to finish this job for us, while we can proceed with our sworn duty unabated’. ‘Sergeant Verschueren has the right of it’ boomed Barentsz, ‘the Orks that crashed onto this world are too numerous for us to hold back, let alone annihilate. If we can draw the traitors into the conflict, they will find themselves overwhelmed before they have time to regroup or fulfil whatever mission they chose for themselves. We are facing but a scouting force of Greenskins on the outskirts of the city; their main force will be naught but an hour behind them. The traitor ships will be equally swamped if they linger too long, but by then, we will be long gone ourselves’.

As his sergeants acknowledged the wisdom of his plan and began to disseminate and share with their units the new information available, Barentsz pivoted his torso to look back at the small force at his disposal. Would he still have had a functional neck, he would have nodded in approval. Their positions perfect in the light of the oncoming battle, only some slight redirection of several of his units required to face and draw in the new threat at their flank.  The Fiery Lions were ready; let the enemies of the Emperor approach and slaughter each other whilst they made good their withdrawal; Discretion can be the better part of valour after all…

This battle came to be as a spur of the moment idea one night, when several of my friends and myself convened at the house of one of us. Two of my friends wanted a 2000 points later that week, but with me there, we decided to make it a three-way, 1500 points battle instead. 

As it turned out on the night of the game, one of them would be playing Orks, the other Chaos Space Marines (or renegade loyalists as he refers to them) and I would be trying out the new Space Wolf codex for the first time.

We had a standard 8x4 (grassy) table and plenty of high buildings and even a tank factory to play over. The deployment zones were a bit of an issue but we decided on two of us starting in an L shaped deployment zone in the corners of one of the long edges, whilst the third would deploy on the opposite long edge, in the middle. Not a desired position, but as you will see, we all had potentially fast lists, so this should not have been a problem (Yes; should have... )

Army compositions were as follows:

Fiery Lions (using Codex Space Wolves (5th ed.) for the first time):

HQ - Bjorn the Fellhanded, Plasmacannon

Elites - 5 Wolf Scouts, BP&CCW, Meltabombs, Meltagun

Elites - 3 Wolf Guard    
(Blood Claws), Wolf Claw x2, Meltabombs
(Grey Hunters (1)), Combiflamer, Powerweapon
(Wolf Scouts), Combimelta, Powerfist

Troops - 5 Grey Hunters (1), Plasmagun, Powerweapon, Razorback

Troops - 10 Grey Hunters (2), Plasmagun x2, Powerweapon, Rhino

Troops - 11 Blood Claws, Powerfist, Meltagun

Heavy Support - Land Raider Redeemer 

Heavy Support - 6 Long Fangs, Lascannon, Plasmacannon, Missilelauncher, Heavy Bolter x2, Razorback 

Orks (using Codex Orks (of course). The below list is an approximation; this was the army that was most unclear in its composition to me as a non-Ork player; I never checked the list, just saw what was on the table; it was a friendly game amongst friends, so we sort of trust each other on that. So if designated a unit wrong, blame it on my lack of knowledge...)

HQ - Warboss with 20 or so Slugga Boys
 
Fast Attack - 6 Bikers
 
Troops - Truck with 8 orks, one a Nob with armour and a Powerklaw
 
Troops - Huge mob of Gretchin (30?)
 
Troops - Huge mob of Shoota Boys (30?)
 
Fast Attack - Large mob of Storm Boys (20?)
 
Heavy Support - 3 Killa Kans

Heavy Support - Battlewagon

Jade Chargers (using Codex Chaos Marines. List is also approximately; he had forgotten his own codex and we had no Chaos one available. Our assumption was that he might have been well under 1500 points though)

HQ - Deamon Prince with Lash, Flight, and some other goodies
 
Elites - Dreadnought with TLLC & ML

Elites - Dreadnought with TLLC & ML
 
Fast Attack - 8 Raptors, Powerfist on the leader
 
Troops - Squad of 10 Marines with 2 Plasmaguns, Powerweapon, in a Rhino
 
Troops - Squad of 10 Marines with 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist, in a Rhino
 

And looking back, it does appear his list came up a bit short in points. Bah; his own dang fault I’d say!

We rolled for deployment and I used Bjorn to reroll the results, so I could pick my corner, to the lower left of the table. The Orks deployed next to the lower right corner and the Chaos forces on the opposite side, smack in the middle.

Turn 1

After roll off, the Orks went first. The large mob of Gretchin surged towards the Fiery Lions’ lines, followed closely by the Shoota Boys. The Truck also roared forward, hiding behind the tall building between the Lions and Orks.

The Battlewagon scuttled (yes, scuttled; its drivetrain was changed out for the legs of a defiler. He’s got a canopy over the back, so the thing looks like an arachnid version of Baba Yaga’s place :P ) North, behind the large building in the top right corner.

The bikes zoomed forward  inbetween the buildings on the right towards the center of the board and the Storm Boys followed the Battlewagon to the North.

No shooting was possible yet, so myself and the Chaos player rolled to see who would be next. I was.

I moved the LRR forwards from behind the large building and behind some cover nearer to the Chaos Marines, hopefully out of sight of the leftmost Dreadnought. It fired its AC at the raptors, taking one out.

The Razorback with the Long Fangs fired its HB at the Chaos Rhinos, but failed to do anything. The Long Fangs, deployed next to the tall (4 stories) building in the middle, so they would be able to move into it next turn, after their first round of shooting. They immobilised the leftmost dread but did not even scratch the Rhino behind it.

Bjorn moved slightly to his right and forward towards the Orks and the other Razorback with the Grey Hunters moved up in support of Bjorn, unloading the 5 GH and their Wolf Guard right behind the ancient Dreadnough. The Rhino stayed where it was for the time being, ready to support either flank. Bjorn then fired his Plasmacannon at the Truck, destroying it, with the Orks pouring out, whilst the Grey Hunters supporting him let loose on the Gretchin downrange, killing two.

Next up were the forces of Chaos. Nothing much happened there movement-wise; the dreads took up position and fired at the Long Fang Razorback, exploding it, with the ensueing blast taking out the HB Long Fang as well. The other Dreadnought shot at the Battlewagon, but failed to do anything. The Daemon Prince swooped high and landed near the middle of the table, lashing the Bikes back 4 inches. The raptors moved forward a bit, to flank the leftmost Rhino, whilst the other Rhino moved ever so slightly, to face the oncoming Orks.

Turn 2

The Boys, thrown clear of the wrecked Trukk attack the Grey Hunters, whilst their Boss, in turn, manages to Powerklaw the venerable machine to a pulp, before consolidating towards the Building. That’s my HQ gone already! All the while, the Grey Hunters fight off the Boys at the cost of a few Grey Hunters and Boys..

The Grots meanwhile, together with the Shoota Boys, surge Northward in a great green tide, away from the field of fire of my Razorback. His bikes zoom forward again, smashing into the Daemon Prince, dealing wounds to and fro, but with neither side giving in. The boys jump out of the Battlewagon and the Storm Boys leap over the building in the North East towards the center of the Table. The Killa Kans trade fire with the Easternmost Chaos Dread, but fail to even dent it.

My turn again. Deciding to do better this turn, I surge my Redeemer further towards the Raptor Squad, unload the Blood Claws, move them forward and keep them there, not risking killing too many Raptors by first shooting them so I’d be out of charge range. The Redeemer shoots its TLAC at the immobilised Dread, but the torrent of rounds simply ping off its hull.

The Rhino moves into the cover that the Redeemer occupied in the previous turn, popping smoke for good measure. The Long Fangs make their move into the building, rolling just a 1 on their difficult terrain test, Running the rest (rolling a 5), so they are able to move 6 inches, making it to the 2^nd floor of the central building.

Subsequently, the second Razorback shoots at the lumbering Boss and wounds him. The remnants of the Trukk Boys (now numbering 4) wipe out the rest of the Grey Hunters with shooting and Chopping, leaving them right in front of the Barrels of the backing up Razorback, as their consolidation move is only 1 inch...

The Blood Claws in the meantime, charged the Raptors and managed to kill all of them but one, their leader, at the cost of a few of their number. Not a bad second turn there really…

The Chaos player replied by opening up his Westmost Rhino and letting out his Marines, who could not charge into the fray and could not shoot. In fact, they were lucky to be able to exit their vehicle at all, so close was the ongoing battle right at the rear of the Rhino. 

His Daemon Prince wiped out the rest of the bikes, whilst his Dreadnoughts (both of them) let loose at the Killa Kans, killing them dead. Not much more was done further, though I had expected him to move his second Rhino…

Turn 3 

The Boss predictably moved into the building towards the Long Fangs, charging them with only one wound left to his name. The Long Fangs Countercharged and to my surprise and chagrin of the Ork player, they are able to dispatch him before he even can bring his Powerklaw to bear. Yay!

The Grots and Shoota Boys kept their distance from the Daemon Prince, but the Storm Boys charged right in, getting smacked pretty badly in return, at the cost of another wound on the Prince. The Slugga Boys and Warboss remounted their Crab-legged Battlewagon and moved a little towards the Chaos player, firing the Zapp gun, but failing to hit anything.

Fiery Lions time again; I moved the Rhino out into the open, near the middle of the table, unloading the Grey Hunters in there, allowing them to take a few shots at the Grots (heh; that rhymes), blasting a few of the annoying little snots away. The Blood Claws squeezed themselves through the gap between the Western Rhino and the small building it was hiding behind, leaving the Squad of Marines wide open for the Redeemer to roll in at its leisure, Flamestorming the squad, and taking the Rhino with it. All but one Marine died a fiery death. Who then got TLACed to a pulp.

Finally arriving from the Chaos player’s edge, the Wolf Scout squad fired their Meltagun and Combimelta at the immobilised Dread, but failed to penetrate, so they continued to charge it, finally killing it with the Wolf Guard’s Powerfist and a handful of Meltabombs. That took long enough and the spectacular explosion cost me another couple of scouts to boot!

The Long Fangs were then able to shoot the second Rhino, instead of having to worry about a huge, panting, armoured green brute in the stairwell right behind them, making it explode spectacularly, killing yet another Scout and a Blood Claw (oops) and two of its passengers. This left eight of them, dazed and confused amids the wreckage, ready to be assaulted by the Blood Claws. They took the frothing charge bravely, but were mauled even further, even though they did take some Blood Claws with them. The Grey Hunter Razorback moved forward towards Bjorn’s remains, to hold them for future generations (and the Kill Points too of course).

Then it was the Chaos player’s last twitches; his dread fired at the oncoming Battlecrab but failed to even dent it. The Daemon Prince flailed about some more at the Storm Boys, killing a lot, but finally met with a gruesome end (and a spectacular eldritch lightshow) at their crude weapons.

The ensueing close combat between the Blood Claws and the remaining Chaos Marines went predictably bad for them, killing off some more, at the cost of another two Blood Claws. They failed their Morale Check, but then did manage to get away. Off the table edge that is...

At this point, it was well into the night on a weekday, and we decided to call it quits; we are all working men, and can ill afford (even more) bleary eyed late arrivals at our respective jobs. As we were but halfway of a straightforward Annihilation game, we simply counted what was left on the table, pointswise in good old fashioned 4^th edition style and we came up with:

Fiery Lions: 979

Orks: 963

Jade Chargers: +/- 150

And with that, I had won this closely fought (well, between the Lions and the Orks that is) battle. Yay; my first game with the new codex of choice, and one win under my belt (of Russ)!

This was a fun game amongst friends, so we were able to bend the rules at times, either because we hit snags or we had to make a ruling about something unclear, so there might have been instances where things did not go quite the way they should have. We allowed each other to take forgotten actions, sometimes well into the next player’s turn and in hindsight, the deployment meant that the Chaos player was screwed from the beginning. Still; he had the mobility, and he totally forgot to capitalise on it. Neither did the Ork player use his forces to best effect; the Warboss did not do anything, and the Battlecrab had wedged itself in a corner it couldn’t get out of, whilst the Shoota Boys and Gretchin just wavered between getting to grips with me, or the Chaos player.

Also, I did quite a few things I would have done differently in hindsight, but all in all, I’m satisfied. After all; I won…