Post by droofus on Jul 8, 2009 16:04:44 GMT -5
You all know the stakes. You know the players. Without further ado, here is the league final!
“So it has come to this.”
Chapter Master Napthal of the Hands of Vengeance looked grimly at the readouts on his auspex. The tactical marines him in the ruins of the outbuilding were maintaining good discipline, gazing stolidly out across the rest of the compound. Nevertheless, he could tell that several of them were trying to steal a glance at his auspex screen. He decided to save them the trouble.
“We have roughly 75 xeno contacts inbound, as well as a handful of their blasphemous vehicles. The orks likely have no idea of the significance of this site, or that Governor Calloway and his cabinet are hidden beneath our very feet. There are only two access points to the underground bunker, and we must protect them both! If we fail, our entire mission to bring this world into the emperor’s light will be set back, perhaps even defeated entirely. We shall not fail!”
“ ‘ey boss!” hollered Klickinklak over the revving of the battlewagon’s enginges, “Da baron says dere’s a bunch of beakies in a ‘umie fort up ahead. Dey must be guardin’ somefing boss!”
“Guardin’ something, eh?” Grubbynutz roared back, “Well dere is only one way to find out!” He turned to the rest of the boyz.
“WAAAAAAAGGGHHH!”
Orks:
Warboss
Cybork body, power klaw, bosspole, attack squig
Big Mek
Kustom Force Field
10 Lootaz
6 Nobz (count as troops)
All are cyborks, 1 big choppaz, 1 klaw, 1 waagh banner, 1 painboy
Riding in
Battlewagon
Red paint job, armor plates, reinforced ram, big shoota
30 Sluggaz
Nob with powerklaw and bosspole
30 Sluggaz
Nob with powerklaw and bosspole
Deffkopta
Buzzsaw, twin linked rokkitz
3 Killa Kanz
Rokkitz
3 Killa Kanz
Rokkitz
"Hands of Vengeance" Space Marines:
Chapter Master
Relic blade
Dreadnought
Twin-lnked lascannon, missile launcher
Dreadnought
Twin-lnked lascannon, missile launcher
Venerable Dreadnought
Multi-melta, dreadnought cc-weapon, flamer
Drop pod
10 Tactical Marines
Flamer, heavy bolter
Rhino APC
10 Tactical Marines
Flamer, plasma cannon
Rhino APC
Thunderfire Cannon
Whirlwind
10 Devastators
4 Missile launchers
We rolled for mission and got Capture and Control on Dawn of War. The board looked a little something like this.
As you can see it was dominated by the large bulding terrain piece (which I have decided to retcon into the governor’s mansion
.)
I won the roll for first turn and selected the side with the manor house on it. I figured it would be good to keep the large intact building OUT of Tom's hands as I wasn’t interested in re-enacting one of the Zulu War’s most famous battles. I put my objective behind the building. Tom responded by putting his objective behind the bunker on his side.
Deployment:
I put my standard “envelope pushing” deployment of 60 sluggaz plus Klicky (the mek) down on the center line. They were pretty bunched up, since I figured I’d be getting first turn (it doesn’t pay to be scared of “seize the initiative”). He put both his tactical squads and the chapter master in the ruined building in the northewst corner. Oddly enough, this meant that neither one of us was holding objectives at the beginning of the game.
He declared his rhinos to be in reserve (not just waiting off the table because of DOW) while I declared the baron was outflanking. He also declares that his techmarine is fortifying the ruined building – great. He fails to seize the initiative.
Ork Turn 1:
Everything except the outflanking kopta scoots onto the board, moving as far as possible forward. The kanz move at a steady clip to try and catch up with the mek while the lootaz take position in the woods. The battlewagon trundles on from the western part of my edge and makes a bee-line for the marine stronghold. The plan is to use them to kill his troops, allowing my sluggaz to win the game for me. The sluggaz themselves race forward towards the enemy objective. They also spread out a bit, knowing that enemy fire is going to be coming soon. No shooting takes place due to a combination of nearly everything running and night fight rules being in effect.
Space Marine Turn 1:
Everything except his rhinos scoots onto the board. Rather than making a play for his objective and risking a slugga charge (combined with a waagh), he consolidates his hold on his building further. The thunderfire and devestators set up outside for clear lines of fire, while the whirlwind is content to set up shop behind the building. The two dreads scuttle into position on either side of the building. The true drama, however, is the multi-melta dread that screams down from the sky right next to the battlewagon.
Firing its multi-melta, it nukes the battlewagon and even kills one of the nobz inside (I was foolish enough to put two wounds on my slugga/choppa armed models, usually I can save at least one of the two). The nobz are unpinned however and looked quite angry at the dread for nuking their ride. The rest of the marine shooting fails to accomplish much as they are either out of sight range for night fight or are unable to fire because of moving. A few sluggaz go down from the western mob, but that’s about it.
Ork Turn 2:
The black baron (my outflanking Deffkopta) arrives and scoots on from the table edge that I wish (the western edge). He moves right up behind the whirlwind.
My warboss and company will be walking from here on out, but it looks like they have a dread to kill first. They move out of the ruins of their wagon and surround it. Sluggaz advance further, with the western squad threatening to come into charge range of the marine firing line with a well-timed waaagh. The mek hangs back, endeavoring to keep both slugga squads. One of the kan mobs moves to come into range of the drop pod with their rokkitz. The other one scoots forward to try and get into KFF range (they come just short).
Shooting sees my kanz kill his pod (which he isn’t too sad about) and my lootaz kill his techmarine from the thunderfire cannon (which he is). The black baron shoots a well aimed rokkit into the whirlwind, tearing off its main gun. Hurray! Having eliminated most of the shooting threats, I decide not to risk calling a waagh so early.
In close combat, the baron wrecks the whirlwind easily, exploding the vehicle but doing no damage to himself or the marines in the area. He then prepares himself to take a lascannon bolt to the chest. Meanwhile the nobz charge the dreadnought. The dreadnought targets out the warboss – gut check time. One hit, one wound. I roll the die…. ‘5’! It’s a save! The nobz then dismantle the dreadnought piece by piece (they end up killing it with weapon destroyed and immobilized results).
Space Marine Turn 2:
Both his rhinos arrive from reserve and come on in the northeast corner (on the opposite side of the field from his other forces). The dreadnoughts shift a bit to get better firing positions, but everything else holds position. The devastators and both tactical squads open up on the western sluggaz, killing a good number of them and reducing them to around half of their starting size. Hilariously, one of the dreadnoughts completely misses in his shots against the baron, necessitating the use of the second to put him down.
His chapter master drops an orbital bombardment on top of my nobz and warboss, wounding them all. I pass my invulnerables with the banner bearer, the big choppa and (most critically) Grubbynutz himself, proving once more that it takes more than a strike from an orbiting space ship to lay low the Scourge of Monody! The nobz easily pass the ensuing leadership and pinning tests.
Ork Turn 3:
Well that hurt. But now I’m definitely in waagh+charge range with my western squad, I move them up to do just that. My nobz and warboss, enraged by the cowardly chapter master and his “big boom”, charge towards the marine building (but are still a long way out of charge distance). The kanz begin to reposition to help the sluggaz.
Lootaz open up on the frontmost of the lurking rhinos, blowing it to hell. I WAAGH with all my squads, bringing them close to the marine lines.
In close combat, my depleted slugga squad takes revenge on the devastators, by running off one combat squad and bringing the other one down to just the sergeant, who holds. I feel better now that there are 4 less missile launchers on the board.
Space Marine Turn 3:
With his heavy support gone, he commits his troops to defend his building, bringing the heavy bolter squad tac squad and the chapter master out to charge the slugga boyz who had charged the devastators.
Meanwhile, his dreads and plasma-cannon squad concentrate on my nobz, knocking them all down to one wound but failing to kill any of them (they are helped by the fact that the warboss can take a krak rokkit or a lascannon to the chest).
In close combat his tac squad and chapter master make short work of the sluggaz, who fail to inflict even a single wound. Very sad.
Ork Turn 4:
We’ve come to a bit of a stalemate and I feel I should take a moment to explain our situation. Neither one of us has troops close enough to the other for a one turn charge. But I have troops on an objective – unlike him, so I’m in the stronger position. That lurking rhino is a worry however. I’ve had wins turned to draws and draws turned to losses by a last-turn contest by a piddly little transports. Not today! My eastern kanz set off to attack it, while my sluggaz and western kanz prepare to defend the marine objective from a marine counter attack. My warboss and pals move up closer to the marine building of doom and try to take cover in some trees.
In shooting my lootaz blast the last devastator marine to hell while the kanz stun the rhino with their rokkitz.
Marine Turn 4:
He moves his chapter master and tactical squad towards my warboss, but the other tactical squad and the two dreads finish off the Mighty Ork and his pals before anything can happen. As you might imagine, turns are going a lot quicker now.
Orks Turn 5:
At this point I have my slugga mob sitting on the objective. They are in position to threaten the space marines remaining forces, but if I do so they won’t be holding the objective any more. Unwilling to settle for a draw, I stay put and resolve to have a long range firefight with the marines (hoping they’ll do the same and forget about the objectives). There’s literally no way that his remaining firepower can bring my massive slugga unit down, so I’m content to stand off.
Lootaz move up to get better firing positions, while the left hand kanz do the same. Those kanz immobilize one of the marine dreads. Right hand kanz continue to try and kill the pesky rhino. They stun it once more. This is less than ideal, but at least it won’t be contesting the objective this turn.
Space Marine 5:
The chapter master leads his squad at a run into the governor’s mansion building. With horror, I realize that he’s not going to try and contest his objective at all! He’s going after MINE! The other tactical squad moves up in support (probably in case I get any funny ideas about moving my sluggaz down to stop him). Two of my kanz is exploded by his dreadnoughts. This leaves one lonely grot (ableit one wired into a metal monstrosity) to try and stop a chapter master and ten marines... that is, if the game continues.
Ork 6:
…which it does. The remaining kan moves forward to intercept the marines, positioning himself to charge the rearmost marine and drag them back from my objective. The Lootaz vainly try and hurt the dread in the building (I roll ones for number of shots with them for 3 turns in a row, obviously they don’t take kindly to being asked to move). The kanz again stun the rhino and blow off a weapon. This is taking forever! The kanz are getting awfully close however.
In combat, the chapter master and his marines fail to hurt the kan and have one of their number snipped apart in response. They pass their morale test and stick around. With pile in moves, the marines are very far away from the objective.
Space Marine 6:
The dreadnought that the lootaz fired at returns fire. However, the trees block the worst of the damage and the lootaz only lose a couple guys.
In close combat the chapter master and his boyz kill the kan and consolidate 4 inches back into the courtyard. Uh oh… I really hope the game ends.
Ork 7
Which of course it doesn’t. Realizing that he’ll likely get my objective and that we have a victory point tie breaker, I make a desperate grab for VPs. My kanz race through the woods and destroy the rhino. Yay! 35 victory points! It’ll come down to my lootaz. Opening up on the dreadnoughts, they again roll a 1 for shots. Every now and then my luck can do something even with so few shots, but sadly this is not one of those times. The dreadnought still stands.
Space Marine 7:
The chapter master and crew embark into the manor house and hold my objective. The dreadnought opens up on the lootaz and kills 3. The remainder lose their nerve and flee off the board.
Final Result:
Objectives:
1-1 TIE!
Tiebreaker VP:
Space Marines: 1050ish
Orks: 800ish
Space Marine Victory! By the skin of their power armored asses, the marines beat the orks to take the league victory.
Postmortem:
In a weak moment after the game, I called Tom “Eli Manning” and suggested that he “caught the win on his helmet”. Given that we are both New England football fans, these were harsh words indeed – words which I now regret. ;D The bottom line is, like that infamous Superbowl, this was a great game even though my team didn’t come out on top. It's these kind of games that I play this game to take part in. I'd prefer to be the guy who pulls off the heroic comeback, but having it done against you isn't so bad if you can appreciate the bigger picture. So thanks, Tom, for the great game, and congrats on the win!
In any case, full props to Tom for not giving up, even when things looked the darkest for him (no heavy support left and his troops miles from the nearest objective – which was swarming with orks). He played smart, and lady luck, after stomping on him pretty hard in the beginning certainly came up for him in the end.
Chapter Master Napthal holstered his bolt pistol as he led his squad down the hallway towards the bunker complex entrance. Cursing he realized it was sealed from the inside. The manor house shook with the sound of ork artillery and rokkit fire. Faling masonry bounced off his armor, shaking his helmet view momentarily. He knew there wasn't much time.
He had already keyed a command to bring melta-charges up when the doors slid open and a bloodied, ragged figure staggered out. With a thrill of horror, Napthal realized that this man was the planetary governor. Without a thought, the Astartes Master moved in between the governor and the tunnel entrance. Not a moment too soon! A hail of slugga fire poured out of the tunnel mouth to impact against his Corvus-Pattern armor.
"Flamer! Front and center!" he roared. Brother Urosh moved past him and triggered his flamer down the tunnel mouth. Orkish screams were heard, followed by the stench of burning ork flesh. The governor retched and doubled over. With a smile, Napthal picked him up and began moving back down the hallway, away from the tunnel mouth. Another rokkit impacted on the building, shaking it further and causing masonry to fall. It was time to leave. Changing his commbead to the fleet frequency, he spoke calmly
"This is chapter master Napthal requesting extraction. We have the Governor, thank the Emperor."
"Thunderhawk already inbound, sir!" came the reply. Napthal sighed as he shouldered his way through a buckling and sagging wall and out into the daylight. This wasn't the victory he wanted, but he would take it.
“So it has come to this.”
Chapter Master Napthal of the Hands of Vengeance looked grimly at the readouts on his auspex. The tactical marines him in the ruins of the outbuilding were maintaining good discipline, gazing stolidly out across the rest of the compound. Nevertheless, he could tell that several of them were trying to steal a glance at his auspex screen. He decided to save them the trouble.
“We have roughly 75 xeno contacts inbound, as well as a handful of their blasphemous vehicles. The orks likely have no idea of the significance of this site, or that Governor Calloway and his cabinet are hidden beneath our very feet. There are only two access points to the underground bunker, and we must protect them both! If we fail, our entire mission to bring this world into the emperor’s light will be set back, perhaps even defeated entirely. We shall not fail!”
“ ‘ey boss!” hollered Klickinklak over the revving of the battlewagon’s enginges, “Da baron says dere’s a bunch of beakies in a ‘umie fort up ahead. Dey must be guardin’ somefing boss!”
“Guardin’ something, eh?” Grubbynutz roared back, “Well dere is only one way to find out!” He turned to the rest of the boyz.
“WAAAAAAAGGGHHH!”
Orks:
Warboss
Cybork body, power klaw, bosspole, attack squig
Big Mek
Kustom Force Field
10 Lootaz
6 Nobz (count as troops)
All are cyborks, 1 big choppaz, 1 klaw, 1 waagh banner, 1 painboy
Riding in
Battlewagon
Red paint job, armor plates, reinforced ram, big shoota
30 Sluggaz
Nob with powerklaw and bosspole
30 Sluggaz
Nob with powerklaw and bosspole
Deffkopta
Buzzsaw, twin linked rokkitz
3 Killa Kanz
Rokkitz
3 Killa Kanz
Rokkitz
"Hands of Vengeance" Space Marines:
Chapter Master
Relic blade
Dreadnought
Twin-lnked lascannon, missile launcher
Dreadnought
Twin-lnked lascannon, missile launcher
Venerable Dreadnought
Multi-melta, dreadnought cc-weapon, flamer
Drop pod
10 Tactical Marines
Flamer, heavy bolter
Rhino APC
10 Tactical Marines
Flamer, plasma cannon
Rhino APC
Thunderfire Cannon
Whirlwind
10 Devastators
4 Missile launchers
We rolled for mission and got Capture and Control on Dawn of War. The board looked a little something like this.
As you can see it was dominated by the large bulding terrain piece (which I have decided to retcon into the governor’s mansion
.) I won the roll for first turn and selected the side with the manor house on it. I figured it would be good to keep the large intact building OUT of Tom's hands as I wasn’t interested in re-enacting one of the Zulu War’s most famous battles. I put my objective behind the building. Tom responded by putting his objective behind the bunker on his side.
Deployment:
I put my standard “envelope pushing” deployment of 60 sluggaz plus Klicky (the mek) down on the center line. They were pretty bunched up, since I figured I’d be getting first turn (it doesn’t pay to be scared of “seize the initiative”). He put both his tactical squads and the chapter master in the ruined building in the northewst corner. Oddly enough, this meant that neither one of us was holding objectives at the beginning of the game.
He declared his rhinos to be in reserve (not just waiting off the table because of DOW) while I declared the baron was outflanking. He also declares that his techmarine is fortifying the ruined building – great. He fails to seize the initiative.
Ork Turn 1:
Everything except the outflanking kopta scoots onto the board, moving as far as possible forward. The kanz move at a steady clip to try and catch up with the mek while the lootaz take position in the woods. The battlewagon trundles on from the western part of my edge and makes a bee-line for the marine stronghold. The plan is to use them to kill his troops, allowing my sluggaz to win the game for me. The sluggaz themselves race forward towards the enemy objective. They also spread out a bit, knowing that enemy fire is going to be coming soon. No shooting takes place due to a combination of nearly everything running and night fight rules being in effect.
Space Marine Turn 1:
Everything except his rhinos scoots onto the board. Rather than making a play for his objective and risking a slugga charge (combined with a waagh), he consolidates his hold on his building further. The thunderfire and devestators set up outside for clear lines of fire, while the whirlwind is content to set up shop behind the building. The two dreads scuttle into position on either side of the building. The true drama, however, is the multi-melta dread that screams down from the sky right next to the battlewagon.
Firing its multi-melta, it nukes the battlewagon and even kills one of the nobz inside (I was foolish enough to put two wounds on my slugga/choppa armed models, usually I can save at least one of the two). The nobz are unpinned however and looked quite angry at the dread for nuking their ride. The rest of the marine shooting fails to accomplish much as they are either out of sight range for night fight or are unable to fire because of moving. A few sluggaz go down from the western mob, but that’s about it.
Ork Turn 2:
The black baron (my outflanking Deffkopta) arrives and scoots on from the table edge that I wish (the western edge). He moves right up behind the whirlwind.
My warboss and company will be walking from here on out, but it looks like they have a dread to kill first. They move out of the ruins of their wagon and surround it. Sluggaz advance further, with the western squad threatening to come into charge range of the marine firing line with a well-timed waaagh. The mek hangs back, endeavoring to keep both slugga squads. One of the kan mobs moves to come into range of the drop pod with their rokkitz. The other one scoots forward to try and get into KFF range (they come just short).
Shooting sees my kanz kill his pod (which he isn’t too sad about) and my lootaz kill his techmarine from the thunderfire cannon (which he is). The black baron shoots a well aimed rokkit into the whirlwind, tearing off its main gun. Hurray! Having eliminated most of the shooting threats, I decide not to risk calling a waagh so early.
In close combat, the baron wrecks the whirlwind easily, exploding the vehicle but doing no damage to himself or the marines in the area. He then prepares himself to take a lascannon bolt to the chest. Meanwhile the nobz charge the dreadnought. The dreadnought targets out the warboss – gut check time. One hit, one wound. I roll the die…. ‘5’! It’s a save! The nobz then dismantle the dreadnought piece by piece (they end up killing it with weapon destroyed and immobilized results).
Space Marine Turn 2:
Both his rhinos arrive from reserve and come on in the northeast corner (on the opposite side of the field from his other forces). The dreadnoughts shift a bit to get better firing positions, but everything else holds position. The devastators and both tactical squads open up on the western sluggaz, killing a good number of them and reducing them to around half of their starting size. Hilariously, one of the dreadnoughts completely misses in his shots against the baron, necessitating the use of the second to put him down.
His chapter master drops an orbital bombardment on top of my nobz and warboss, wounding them all. I pass my invulnerables with the banner bearer, the big choppa and (most critically) Grubbynutz himself, proving once more that it takes more than a strike from an orbiting space ship to lay low the Scourge of Monody! The nobz easily pass the ensuing leadership and pinning tests.
Ork Turn 3:
Well that hurt. But now I’m definitely in waagh+charge range with my western squad, I move them up to do just that. My nobz and warboss, enraged by the cowardly chapter master and his “big boom”, charge towards the marine building (but are still a long way out of charge distance). The kanz begin to reposition to help the sluggaz.
Lootaz open up on the frontmost of the lurking rhinos, blowing it to hell. I WAAGH with all my squads, bringing them close to the marine lines.
In close combat, my depleted slugga squad takes revenge on the devastators, by running off one combat squad and bringing the other one down to just the sergeant, who holds. I feel better now that there are 4 less missile launchers on the board.
Space Marine Turn 3:
With his heavy support gone, he commits his troops to defend his building, bringing the heavy bolter squad tac squad and the chapter master out to charge the slugga boyz who had charged the devastators.
Meanwhile, his dreads and plasma-cannon squad concentrate on my nobz, knocking them all down to one wound but failing to kill any of them (they are helped by the fact that the warboss can take a krak rokkit or a lascannon to the chest).
In close combat his tac squad and chapter master make short work of the sluggaz, who fail to inflict even a single wound. Very sad.
Ork Turn 4:
We’ve come to a bit of a stalemate and I feel I should take a moment to explain our situation. Neither one of us has troops close enough to the other for a one turn charge. But I have troops on an objective – unlike him, so I’m in the stronger position. That lurking rhino is a worry however. I’ve had wins turned to draws and draws turned to losses by a last-turn contest by a piddly little transports. Not today! My eastern kanz set off to attack it, while my sluggaz and western kanz prepare to defend the marine objective from a marine counter attack. My warboss and pals move up closer to the marine building of doom and try to take cover in some trees.
In shooting my lootaz blast the last devastator marine to hell while the kanz stun the rhino with their rokkitz.
Marine Turn 4:
He moves his chapter master and tactical squad towards my warboss, but the other tactical squad and the two dreads finish off the Mighty Ork and his pals before anything can happen. As you might imagine, turns are going a lot quicker now.
Orks Turn 5:
At this point I have my slugga mob sitting on the objective. They are in position to threaten the space marines remaining forces, but if I do so they won’t be holding the objective any more. Unwilling to settle for a draw, I stay put and resolve to have a long range firefight with the marines (hoping they’ll do the same and forget about the objectives). There’s literally no way that his remaining firepower can bring my massive slugga unit down, so I’m content to stand off.
Lootaz move up to get better firing positions, while the left hand kanz do the same. Those kanz immobilize one of the marine dreads. Right hand kanz continue to try and kill the pesky rhino. They stun it once more. This is less than ideal, but at least it won’t be contesting the objective this turn.
Space Marine 5:
The chapter master leads his squad at a run into the governor’s mansion building. With horror, I realize that he’s not going to try and contest his objective at all! He’s going after MINE! The other tactical squad moves up in support (probably in case I get any funny ideas about moving my sluggaz down to stop him). Two of my kanz is exploded by his dreadnoughts. This leaves one lonely grot (ableit one wired into a metal monstrosity) to try and stop a chapter master and ten marines... that is, if the game continues.
Ork 6:
…which it does. The remaining kan moves forward to intercept the marines, positioning himself to charge the rearmost marine and drag them back from my objective. The Lootaz vainly try and hurt the dread in the building (I roll ones for number of shots with them for 3 turns in a row, obviously they don’t take kindly to being asked to move). The kanz again stun the rhino and blow off a weapon. This is taking forever! The kanz are getting awfully close however.
In combat, the chapter master and his marines fail to hurt the kan and have one of their number snipped apart in response. They pass their morale test and stick around. With pile in moves, the marines are very far away from the objective.
Space Marine 6:
The dreadnought that the lootaz fired at returns fire. However, the trees block the worst of the damage and the lootaz only lose a couple guys.
In close combat the chapter master and his boyz kill the kan and consolidate 4 inches back into the courtyard. Uh oh… I really hope the game ends.
Ork 7
Which of course it doesn’t. Realizing that he’ll likely get my objective and that we have a victory point tie breaker, I make a desperate grab for VPs. My kanz race through the woods and destroy the rhino. Yay! 35 victory points! It’ll come down to my lootaz. Opening up on the dreadnoughts, they again roll a 1 for shots. Every now and then my luck can do something even with so few shots, but sadly this is not one of those times. The dreadnought still stands.
Space Marine 7:
The chapter master and crew embark into the manor house and hold my objective. The dreadnought opens up on the lootaz and kills 3. The remainder lose their nerve and flee off the board.
Final Result:
Objectives:
1-1 TIE!
Tiebreaker VP:
Space Marines: 1050ish
Orks: 800ish
Space Marine Victory! By the skin of their power armored asses, the marines beat the orks to take the league victory.
Postmortem:
In a weak moment after the game, I called Tom “Eli Manning” and suggested that he “caught the win on his helmet”. Given that we are both New England football fans, these were harsh words indeed – words which I now regret. ;D The bottom line is, like that infamous Superbowl, this was a great game even though my team didn’t come out on top. It's these kind of games that I play this game to take part in. I'd prefer to be the guy who pulls off the heroic comeback, but having it done against you isn't so bad if you can appreciate the bigger picture. So thanks, Tom, for the great game, and congrats on the win!
In any case, full props to Tom for not giving up, even when things looked the darkest for him (no heavy support left and his troops miles from the nearest objective – which was swarming with orks). He played smart, and lady luck, after stomping on him pretty hard in the beginning certainly came up for him in the end.
Chapter Master Napthal holstered his bolt pistol as he led his squad down the hallway towards the bunker complex entrance. Cursing he realized it was sealed from the inside. The manor house shook with the sound of ork artillery and rokkit fire. Faling masonry bounced off his armor, shaking his helmet view momentarily. He knew there wasn't much time.
He had already keyed a command to bring melta-charges up when the doors slid open and a bloodied, ragged figure staggered out. With a thrill of horror, Napthal realized that this man was the planetary governor. Without a thought, the Astartes Master moved in between the governor and the tunnel entrance. Not a moment too soon! A hail of slugga fire poured out of the tunnel mouth to impact against his Corvus-Pattern armor.
"Flamer! Front and center!" he roared. Brother Urosh moved past him and triggered his flamer down the tunnel mouth. Orkish screams were heard, followed by the stench of burning ork flesh. The governor retched and doubled over. With a smile, Napthal picked him up and began moving back down the hallway, away from the tunnel mouth. Another rokkit impacted on the building, shaking it further and causing masonry to fall. It was time to leave. Changing his commbead to the fleet frequency, he spoke calmly
"This is chapter master Napthal requesting extraction. We have the Governor, thank the Emperor."
"Thunderhawk already inbound, sir!" came the reply. Napthal sighed as he shouldered his way through a buckling and sagging wall and out into the daylight. This wasn't the victory he wanted, but he would take it.
