Incident at Promethium Plant 17

Hi!

I've just managed to play a couple of really quick little skirmishes using my Song of Blasters test rules and thought I'd post the results here!

Seething at the loss of his snazzy new lander last month at the hands of some uncouth Badmoon Orks, the Governor General has dispatched a combat team of Ultramarines of the second company under the command of Marine Veteran Harland to punish the clan responsible for the loss of his prized ride.

Having tracked the warband for some time, Harland has finally caught up with his quarry near an abandoned Promethium plant. The Orks have realised they have been followed and turn to face the numerically inferior humies...

The Battlefield

In Song of Blasters, each side rolls for initiative with a D10 with the highest getting to try and activate first. Activation requires the unit to roll over their Quality score on a D10, something the Space Marines did repeatedly early on in the battle (quite an achievement as their Quality is 2+!).

The Orks on the other hand had a better time of it in the early stages of the skirmish, rapidly closing on the Marines position in a typically forthright manner by charging forwards chanting and shooting wildly in the air.

Ere We Go!

The Marines soon regained the initiative and their better Quality began to show as they were regularly getting activations when the Orks flubbed resulting in the Marines reaching the ruins before their foe.

 The dash for the ruins

Despite reaching the cover of the ruined Promethium plant, the Orks scored a lucky hit with some wild bolter fire resulting in a Marine taking a wound having been shot in the face while peering through a ruined window.

In shooting, the shooter rolls a D10 and adds their Shooting stat, in this case a 4 for the Orkish blasters. The defending player rolls a D10 and adds their armour rating, in the case of the Marine, this was a 6 reflecting both his heavier armour and superhuman skills. The Ork hit with a 10 while the marine rolled low resulting in him taking a wound!

On the other flank, the second Ork unit approached the Promethium tank with caution, aware that the Ultramarines had a rocket launcher which had the range to hit them at a considerable distance. 

 The Promethium tank

The next turn saw the Orks luck run out with the first Marine element rapid firing their Bolters at the now exposed Ork Boyz wiping them out in a blaze of explosive shells. (I realised at this point that Rapid Fire was probably a wee bit overpowered as it allowed the Marines to shoot twice. In future, I will change this to them adding plus 1 to their shooting stat).

 Eat Bolter shells alien scum!

Meanwhile on the other flank, the Orks had taken a casualty from the second Marine element but the remaining visible Ork resisted Bolter fire and a direct hit from a rocket launcher

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA! 

The remaining Orks, enraged at the loss of their fellow, broke from cover and let rip with everything they had at the rocket launcher unit but only managed to cause a single wound. The final turn of the game saw the other Marine element close in on the Orkish position and pepper them with shot, forcing them to retire and lick their wounds.

All in all, the game went well and was lots of fun but I need to tweak a few things here and there to make it a bit less overly shooty.

I even managed to play second game using the same units but with the revised rules and stats. The result still saw the Orks vanquished and driven off but with much closer results. I think in future, I may need to bulk up my Ork units to 6-8 strong to counter the might of the Marines who waded into the battle and survived pretty much unkillable.

 'Tis but a flesh wound.

I'm trying to tweak the game so that Marines are dead hard and shooty and rather killy in close combat but are going to be badly outnumbered so will need to shepherd their resources as even a single loss will be felt badly. The Orks on the other hand will be more inclined to get stuck in quickly, using their somewhat ineffectual shooting to weaken their foes before getting into close combat.

Maybe another try with the addition of a unit of Grots might spice things up a bit...

The final Ork position

Harland glanced at the rusted yellow armoured bodies that lay scattered around the old Promethium plant. It had been a short and bloody engagement which saw the Xenos driven off with significant losses in return for only two injured. Yes the Orks had been chastised for destroying Imperial equipment and attacking the Governor Generals forces but Harland knew the warlike Orks wouldn't take this lying down. 

Still it had felt good to get back into combat following months of travel from their last deployment and his squad had operated well together and if the Orks sought to make war on the Imperial presence on Farpoint, Harland knew his troops were more than a match for the savages. 'Let them come!' he thought. The Ultramarines will drive them back to the badlands humbled and bloodied and show the rebellious frontier what Imperial might really meant.

Hopefully I'll get chance to play a larger skirmish soon but I first need to paint up more Ultramarines and finish the Power Armoured Ork Nobz and Warboss I've been sculpting!

In the meantime, All the best!