This time we rolled for a battle on the Eternal War table and got the Big Guns Never Tire. This might sound disastrous for a dread mob but because most of the units were taken from the IA8 list the walkers were troops or fast attack. In fact the only actual heavy support I had in there was the Morkanaut. On the other hand the Space Marine Gladius list had forced the inclusion of a lot of tasty HS targets which meant that Cheminhaler would have to focus on reducing the Orks to ashes in order to secure a victory. On the plus side the deployment was along the two short ends of the table, which herded the dredd mob into a shorter, deeper area and increased the distance some of the units would have to move to cross to the Soul Drinker lines. Cehmin also won the Dice off for first turn and selected the ruins on the high ground, providing cover and enhanced LoS. It did fit really nicely with the story though, because the Orks were on the scrapyard side. There was sparse terrain between the two lines, which meant that the walkers wouldn't get much cover from the table but they wouldn't be slowed down much either.
Chemin rolled his warlord trait from the Soul Drinker book and once again rolled Champion of Humanity.
emptyhat rolled for his from the BRB and rolled Conqueror of Cities.
Turn 1:
The Orks failed to steal the initiative so the Imperials began the game with Chemin bringing in his first drop pod, unfortunately the Orks were crowding their deployment so the pod was placed in the mid-field. Captain Zouthid mounted up in his trusty Razorback and one of the Typhoons advanced to a better firing position. The shooting phase saw the use of the Devastator Doctrine, the fist squad of Devastators killed off two Kanz with their lascannons, the Whirlwind targeted the Gretchin camping in the ruined forest with its anti-cover rockets but scattered so that it only killed one grot and the Runt Herd. The Hunter tried to make a trick shot with its missile on the kinder kan but failed and krak missiles dispatched one of the skorcha Kanz despite being protected by a mek shield. Finally the other lascannons concentrated their firepower on the Stompa, reducing it to 9 hull points.
In the Ork phase of he Orks advanced on the Soul Drinkers. The Kanz that could fire concentrated their attacks on the melta-drop squad and the Terminators, killing 2 Terminators and 2 marines. The Morkanaut managed to melt itself for 1 hull point and failed to do anything useful. But the Stompa revealed itself to be the true long range threat by killing off several lascannon marines, a Land Speeder typhoon and a typhoon Terminator.
Turn 2:
The second drop pod exploited the Ork advance by dropping in right behind the Stompa, which had moved up the target priority list but probably still jittery from their landing, thumbled their melta attack. The Whirlwind continued to squash Grots and the Razorback and Devastators poured lascannon fire into the Stompa, bringing it from 9hp down to 3 hull points. The Predator Annihilator lined its cannons up to finish the job but whiffed its rolls, sparing the mechanical beast.
The Ork dreads mostly continued the advance but the Stompa remained where it was and the Burna boyz jumped out of their trukk to challenge the Melta-drop marines. The Ork shooting was mostly preoccupied with eliminating lascannons in turn two, a Razorback lost its lascannon to a rokkit Kan while the bigshootas cleaned up another terminator and the melta from the mid field drop squad, leaving just the sergeant. The Stompa had a less impressive round of shooting, only killing off two more lascannon marines but the Morkanaut was even less impressive melting itself again for another hull point of damage, before healing itself with its Mek Tools roll. The Burna boyz had a barbeque witht he melta-drop squad behind the Stompa, unleashing a massive number of flamer hits which left behind nothing but melted, purple armour. Most importantly the Stompa failed both of its repair rolls and remained at 3 hull points!
Turn 3:
Imperial firepower was very lacking in this turn. The damage to their gun line units conspiring with poor rolling meant that the Stompa continued as a looming threat. The Whirlwind was able to kill off 3 burna boyz, and the last Terminator managed to kill of a kan with a storm bolter... somehow (it must have managed a rear armour shot or something).
The Orks were not as restrained, they were closing the distance now and eager to get stuck in. The Stompa blasted Chaplain Wang's Rhino and then killed off all of his squad, leaving the Chaplain himself alone. The Whirlwind suffered a glancing hit, 3 of the lurking assault marines were killed, a razorback was destroyed and Captain Zouthid was wounded. The Rokkit Kanz target the remaining Land Speeder and down it and the Morkanaut heals itself up to full health again. With the help of the Burna Boyz mechanic, the Big Mek inside the Stompa and its Grot riggers the Stompa managed to regain a whole hull point, bringing it back up to 4hp. (sheesh, the number of 5+ mek tools, it will not die, and kustom forcefield rolls I failed in this game was frustrating. I think Mork took all those 5s and 6s for my balistic rolls though so I can't cry too much.) Finally a squad of Kanz managed to make the first assault of the game, chopping up the unfortunate drop pod sergeant.
Turn 4:
The drop pod behind the Stompa amused itself by shooting one of the Burna Boyz that was watching his mate try to weld bits of Soul Drinker armour onto the Stompa's arse, and one of the Razorbacks penetrated the Stompa bringing it back down to 3 hull points (but happily/sadly not achieving a critical hit.) The Vindicator suddenly finding itself in range of things blasted he Skorcha dredd in its crazy face and took one of its skorcha arms out of action. Once again the Predator had performance issues and failed to K.O the Stompa (which was probably laughing at it.) and the Stalkers poured snapshots into one of the Killa Kanz until it died. Captain Zouthid also takes the time to pull back to another Razorback, which becomes his command vehicle.
In the Ork turn the Storm Kanz shoot the last Terminator and the Stompa, blasts apart two Rhinos, spilling out the tactical squads for inevitable turn 5 charges. Captain Zouthid once again loses his Razorback to a Kan Rokkit attack. Meanwhile the Skorcha Kanz charge and destroy the Vindicator and the shoota Kanz charge and destroy another Razorback. The Stompa also managed to regenerate 2 hull points, bringing it back up to 5hp.
Turn 5: We rolled again for night fighting, but the sun stayed up.
Now that the Orks were knocking in the Space Marine doors, the soul Drinker assault forces began to mobilise in a counter offensive. The Predator finally got its act together and stripped a hull point from the Stompa, taking it back down to 4 but most of the shooty elements of the Marine army are busy being dead so they can't capitalise on it. One unit of the Assault Marines (which might have been vangaurd veterans) charged the Skorcha Kanz but failed to hurt them, while losing two of their own. The other unit of Assault Marines (or van vets) charge the Shoota Kanz and wipe the scumbag grots out.
The remaining turns mostly see the Orks overrunning the Imperial lines, the Stompa get pushed back down to 3 hull points but manages to live and the game ends with plenty of Ork units left alive and lots of Space Marine heavy support choices on fire.
