Lockdown 2.0 Day 58: Skirmish in the Slime Jungle

 Hi!

Somewhat unexpectedly, I found myself deciding to play a quick game last night and thought I'd share a quick battle report!

The Forces

The Ork force consisted of one small squad of Goff Boyz lead by the forces Warboss, Uruk the Unruly and accompanied by a pair of Gretchin sharp shooters and a trio of Grotbot gun golems.

The Inquisitorial retinue consisted of Inquisitor Fisher, Vash of the Mechanicus, Geralt the Wolfbane, Brother Blasius the Blood Angel and four security troops requisitioned from the local garrison.

The Battlefield

The game would take place amongst the ruins of an abandoned settlement deep in the slime jungle of Pesh, a hotbed for malcontents and fugitives from Imperial rule. The settlement shows recent signs of inhabitation but initial scans from orbit cannot identify where the settlers are due to the copious life signs emanating from the slime jungle.

The Objective

Inquisitor Fisher has brought her team to investigate rumours of a lost shrine that may contain valuable relics but upon arrival has discovered the settlement is being looted by the uncouth Orks and has realised that in order to secure the shrine, she must first drive off the raiders.

The Game

I was trying out some new variation on my own ruleset which is in turn bodged together from many different rulesets so there wasn't much of an objective as I wanted to see how a different activation method would work.

The Inquisitorial retinue began moving forward through the ruins at the edge of the settlement, mindful of the Orks rapidly approaching from the other side of the clearing they stuck together and prepared to lay down some fire on the greenskins.

The Orks meanwhile rushed forward as fast as they could, eager to get into combat with the Humies. Meanwhile the Gretchin sharpshooters split up in order to get a better bead on the approaching security troops and the Grotbots had a glitch which meant they failed to move during their first turn.

The initial manoeuvring done, I moved onto turn two where things began to heat up!

In a stunning show of Imperial might, the Inquisitorial squad let rip with their pistols and Brother Blasius' bolter and killed two Orks outright (I rolled a natural 10 with an attack D10 twice in a single turn!) and knocked a third off its feet. At this point things were looking promising for the Imperials but events were about to take a turn for the worse.

In an impressive and annoying (in true Gretchin style), the two sharpshooters let rip at the security trooper squad who had foolishly relinquished their secure position in cover behind the pipework to make a break for the shrine, possibly in an attempt to impress the Inquisitor with their zeal. The autogun's proved more than a match for the feeble body armour the troopers wore and two of them fell, riddled with lead.

The remaining two blazed wildly at the nearest Grot but their panic was evident when they shot wide and left bullet holes all over the facade of the shrine and left the grinning Gretchin unharmed and making rude gestures at them.

Finally, the Grotbots moved forward and opened up on the Inquisitor and her retinue but their guns were out of range. Not so for the mighty Uruk the Unruly! He barged past the prone form of his last remaining Boy and kicked him to get up and unleashed a hail of fire from his uncouth blaster and despite being well armoured, Inquisitor Fisher was wounded as a bullet found a chink in her gear.

Turn three was the deciding event in the clash as first the Grotbots closed into range and opened fire again on the Inquisitorial team, the wall of fire felling Fisher and taking her out of the fight. 

Seizing the opportunity, Uruk hurled himself into melee with Vash of the Mechanicus and bludgeoned him with his axe taking the impetuous mechanic out of the game too. The Ork Boy engaged Brother Blasius in combat and despite having superhuman combat training, Blasius got knocked over.

On the other side of the battlefield, the Gretchin once again shot up the security troopers and killed another. Seeing the rest of his squad shot to pieces around him, the last trooper fled shrieking into the slime jungle.

Seeing how things were going, Geralt slung the unconscious form of Inquisitor Fisher over his shoulder and ran for it deciding discretion was the better part of valour (the exact same thing he did last game!).

Conclusion

Inquisitor Fisher was patched up quickly by a med kit that Geralt had secreted about his person and has established contact with her ship, The Shrike and has summoned reinforcements to rescue her fallen retinue and deal some vengeance on the Orks for daring to raise their hand against Imperial law. Next time she will be leading a rescue mission to discover if Vash and Blasius are still alive!

Whee! That was a fun game! I had been tempted to give up after the first round of shooting which proved so brutal but kept going and really enjoyed the resulting chaos. Interestingly, the Imperials got a similar thrashing last time by the Orks so maybe I need to add another member to the party to even things up a bit.

The Orks will be getting a second squad and another Nob at some point but I'll need to paint them first and following their outstanding shooting, I think they will have more Gretchin soon too!

I had been a bit hesitant about playing games in 28mm on a 3'x3' table but with a decent amount of terrain to hide behind it results in a good little firefight and played out over the course of about half an hour which was an added bonus. Next time I will try and add some random events as well, be it denizens of the forest taking an interest in the game or discovering cashes of equipment that spice things up a bit.

Theres something about playing an actual game that inspires me to get more stuff painted so next time I can have a bit more options and play a slightly larger skirmish.

For a bit of retro charm, I may even use Rogue Trader next time but till then, All the best!