Rynn's World Battle 1: The Approach to Krugerport

"...Gonna burn dis burg to da ground, an' kill anyfing dat fights. Yous all gonna be slaves an' when we done ya gonna say 'thank yoo boss'..."

-Warlord Snagrod, the Arch Arsonist of Charadon

Background

Welcome to the first battle in our campaign to recreate the Rynn's World Incident, one of the oldest and most iconic stories of the 40k setting.

For an overview of the campaign and Andy Chambers' excellent lore:

Bloodied Fist: The Rynn's World Incident - Campaign Outline

For links to all the related posts in this campaign:

Rynn's World Incident Blog Index

Scenario: The Approach to Krugerport - Seek and Destroy 

This battle would represent the Crimson Fists 4th company making their way from their Thunderhawk landing sites to Krugerport and running into an ork patrol on the way. As this is an escalation campaign to allow us to build up our forces, this first clash is only 500 points and represents just a small skirmish before the marines reach their main objectives in the settlement.

This was a warmup game just to get familiar with the 4th Edition rules again so we played the Combat Patrol scenario with the simple objective of trying to destroy the other army and earn the most Kill Points. Game Length: 4 Turns

Belligerents:

Crimson Fists 4th Company [Pete]

• Brother-Captain Ashor Drakken
• 5th Tactical Squad: 7 marines, heavy bolter, melta gun, veteran sergeant with power sword and plasma pistol
• 4th Tactical Squad: 6 marines, flamer, veteran sergeant with power fist
• Rhino transport with storm bolter

Da Skulltakaz, Deathskull Warband [Phil]

• Uzrog Mag-Kull: Warboss, slugga, power klaw, cybork body, eavy armor (100 pts)
• Snagtoof's Sluggas: 21 x Ork Boyz: slugga, choppa, Nob w/ power klaw, boss pole (166 pts)
• Gargut's Bullet Boyz: 21 x Ork Boyz: shoota, 2 x big shootas, Nob w/ power klaw, boss pole (176 pts)
• Da Bonepickaz: 16 x Gretchin: blasta, 1 x Runtherds (58 pts)

Total: 500 points

Our armies consisted of all the painted models we had, except I had to leave out a few grots to get down to 500 points.

Battle:

Drakken's men picked their way through the rugged terrain, making for Kurgerport.

In the low light and dust of Badlanding, the Crimson Fists encounter an unexpectedly large ork patrol.

Gargut's Bullet Boyz catch sight of some new enemies and bellow out their war cries. 

The ork patrol has the initiative and they surge toward the marines. 

The Skulltakaz warband splits up to maneuver through the broken terrain.

Tactical Squad 4 advances cautiously in their Rhino, firing their storm bolter. 

Tactical Squad 5 takes up a defensive position on a rocky outcrop. 

Uzrog sends Da Bonepickaz ahead of his boys to soak up the incoming fire.

A few greenskins are whittled down.

The orks continue to press the advance, getting ever closer. 

The Skulltakaz warband approaches through the barren woods of Badlanding. 

Snagtoof's Sluggas push the hapless grots toward their target. 

4th Squad disembarks to face the oncoming orks. 

The thin blue line of marines launches another salvo, felling a slew of grots. But the large mob of orks remains intact. 

Orks roar out in pain as they are burned to slag by a gout of flaming promethium. 

The two squads find themselves separated and vastly outnumbered. 

Gargut's boys close in on 4th Squad.

Snagtoof's Sluggas violently shove the gretchin aside as they charge up the hill. The grots are more than happy to oblige and scamper off to the side to avoid being trampled. 

The marines fight valiantly but are overwhelmed by the aggressive savagery of orks on the charge. 

A brutal melee erupts on the outcrop!

Sergeant Werner and 5th Squad defend the hilltop against the green tide.

It quickly becomes apparent the Crimson Fists cannot hold off the ork assault as Uzrog drives his boyz forward. 

4th Squad is forced to grab their wounded and leap aboard their Rhino to escape the rampaging orks. 

Captain Drakken is forced to disengage, leaving several dead marines behind. 

Aftermath:

The Crimson Fists clearly did not expect this level of organization and aggressiveness from the orks of Badlanding. Drakken realized too late that these were not just typical ork pirates pillaging for fun that could be dispersed with some disciplined bolter fire. These greenskins were part of a much bigger ork force that was gearing up for a Waaagh! that would threaten the whole sector. This would be critical information to pass along to Chapter Master Kantor. He knew he must complete his mission to gather information on their strength and do what he could to disrupt and delay their buildup. 

Uzrog Mag-Kull was pleased with the new opponents his boyz had found. As he looked down at half a dozen dead orks, he nodded appreciatively. These beakie 'ard boyz had put up a much better fight than the human defenders of Badlanding. It must be the lucky blue color of their armor, he surmised. It was a shame there were so few. He let his Deathskulls loot the battlefield and then gathered them up to leg it back to Krugerport as quickly as they could in order to get in on what sure to be the best scrap available on this desolate rock of a planet. 

Post-Game:

That was an overwhelming victory for the orks. The marines couldn’t dish out nearly enough damage from a distance. And most of the shooting they did only thinned out the grots, leaving an unstoppable number of boyz to charge into close combat. This was only a practice game to get used to the 4th edition rules with small armies that didn’t leave a great deal of room for tactics. But I believe Pete made the classic mistake of splitting his fire between different units, weakening several but not sufficiently crippling any. He could have used his Rhino to transport 4th Squad to support 5th Squad, forcing the shoota boyz to spend an extra turn or two closing the gap to the hill. Most likely it would not have made a difference to the outcome as the ork numbers were just too overwhelming for a handful of tactical marines to tackle. The marines will have their work cut out for them in this campaign!

We both really enjoyed the 4th edition rules after playing mostly Heresy for nearly a decade and 7th edition before that. The rules are simple and intuitive, turns are quick, there are a minimal number of special tables to consult and rules to check. It feels like positioning of your units and target selection are critically important, rather than special rules and buffs. I love this version of the ork codex for its simplicity (elegant army-wide rules; minimal unit special rules to remember) while having a great versatility of army compositions possible. We also both realized we had put our characters in the rear of our units because we were conditioned to the casualty removal rules of other editions, but 4th edition allows you to remove any models in range and line of sight so it doesn't penalize leaders leading. It actually encourages you to put your characters near the front so they can participate in melee (both of our independent characters were left out of the central brawl).

Most importantly, it was amazing to see the legendary matchup of orks vs Crimson Fists! Badlanding, Rynn’s World, Captain Ashor Drakken… these names bring back nostalgic memories of our early days in the hobby and an excitement the current lore just can’t match. 

This should be a great campaign!