Playing Rogue Trader: Jadeberry Hill

Battle day again ;)

As the Battle at the Farm was the only fully detailed scenario on the Rogue Trader book, we soon moved onto new horizons. We decided to play the Battle at Jadeberry Hill.

Yup, that's an Ork

 This was published in White Dwarf #94 (you have already seen the Ork character for this scenario, Ulruk of Mergabenurga). The Space Marines must resist the horde of Orks approaching to them. Jadeberry Hill has a tunnel conducting to the city of New Rynn, and a bold group of Crimson Fists must contain the fleeing swarms as long as they can, at least until the defences of the city are ready. I will not tell how this is translated into the game just in case anybody there would like to play this battle (This is only Game Master information!), but as you can imagine, it depends on dice rolls.

The tunnel is mined. The mines are activated by mass-proximity fuses, so if a mini gets into it, it can activate the explosive charge. Being that the case, the tunnel would totally collapse (More special rules here that I cannot share, sorry).

Victory points work this way: Space Marines lose 1 point for each dead Marine and 5 points if their leader dies (Pedro Cantor, as he survived the Battle at the farm). They get 20 points if the defences are ready. Orks get 1 point for every greenskin getting into the tunnel and they lose 5 points if their leader is slain and 10 points if the tunnel is blown up.

However, I'll let you think about a statement made by Rick Priestley about victory in this scenario: 'Whilst it is sufficient to say that each side has scored so many points, that one player has won and the other lost, this is a bit charactless'. Oh, well, I won't say anything else.

Enough chatting! Let's battle!

Jadeberry Hill

 Nothing important happened at the beginning, the Orks just advanced shooting and yelling, killing a Space Marine, so the victory points counter after Turn One was Orks 0, Marines -1 (Oh, please, tell me that you don't love Rogue Trader!)

The tanks are just cover scenery, nothing else

 The following turns went on that way, advancing, exchanging shoots and utterly laughing at the results.

Oi! Com'on boyz!

They're into the perimeter! Shoot! Shoot!

By the end of Turn 3, Orks got 0 points and Marines -7 points.

Smash'em!

 Ulruk assaulted Pedro Cantor and was slain by the Chapter Master.

That made a -5/-7 counter by Turn 4!

But Cantor charged an Ork Squad... and was killed!

Ouch!

Ork reinforcements were arriving each turn, and the greenskins were inflicting severe casualties among the Crimson Fists. Turn 5 ended with a -5/-19 favourable to the Orks. At the end of turn 6, the score was -5/-22, only three Marines were standing.

This is looking pretty bad for us, bro

Finally at the beginning of turn 7 the Space Marines rolled the final dice result they needed for the defences of the city to be ready. They could fall back! There were some special rules that would make it easier for the Space Marine player to get his men into the tunnel, but didn't aply here.

Two marines finally make it, with the sacrifice of the third one who held the position and sacrified himself. So, -1 point for the loss, but +20 for having the defence system online again!

That makes a final score of: Orks -5 points, Space Marines -3 points!

Boyz! The hummies're gone!

As you can see, this was a totally hilarious game, with negative scores all over the battle. Crazy!

My rival acted as game master too, so I'm afraid he had some more information than I had, so he could keep in step his tactics a little bit better than I did. But hey! I was supposed to be an Ork, tactics are for hummie girlz! :D

So, on the whole I must say that I enjoyed the game a lot and this defeat tastes like victory. I seriously encourage you to play this scenario (if you want the rules just let me know!)

But the campaign is not over my friends. You'll see, you'll see... ;)