Playing WH40K 2nd Ed.: Perimeter defence

Heeere it is, the promised battle: Five bold and brave marines against an Ork horde.

We didn't use any special 'movie marines' rule (that will be another day, you'll see what I'm talking about...), but just regular 2nd Ed. rules, with only one single exception, the one regarding 'Squad coherency' (the distance between the Marines): they could act as individual characters, not necessarily as a Squad. We used the 'Perimeter defence' scenario from the Armageddon booklet, but with our own minis. 5 Space Marines vs. 20 Orks. The Space Marines must kill as many Orks as possible, and the Orks must kill the missile launcher (and as many Marines as possible, of course!). So this is it:

 

Entrenched heroes

Hur hur hur, come get'em, boyz!

 

The Space Marines begun their first turn by making 'rapid fire', i.e., holding steady and shooting accurately, gunning Orks down.

 

Ow! I hadn't played yet!

They suffered heavy casualties and a squad was forced to fall back.

 

Fall bak! Retreatz!

 

 But the other two squads surrounded the battlefield taking advantage of cover

 

Oh ya cunnin' Orks!

Hold the position, my brothers!

Incomiiing!

Over there too!

The missile launcher opened fire, but the shoot scattered.

 

I need to find my old templates, I know

'Ere we go, 'ere we go!

The central offensive was totally smashed down

 

Die! I command you to die, xenos scum!

 

But the Orks on the flank advanced and threw a grenade:

 

The grenade killed one Space Marine!

 

The Sergeant engaged in hand-to-hand combat, eviscerating some Orks with his huge chainblade:

 

Taste my great custom made chainsword!!

He caused 25% casualties, so the Orks had to roll a leadership check. Then a glorious forgotten rule came back to life:

 

Insane courage! The Squad immediately takes another extra turn

 

However, nothing really interesting happened. Meh.

On the flank we had another combat:

 

You can't beat me, greenskins! I'm too cool for that!

Don't fall back, you cowards! Come, come to me!

Don't fall baaaack!

On the other side of the table, the Orks charged the missile launcher Marine. Everything was at stake here!

 

Ha! Ya can't use yar weapon dis close, huh?

Die, ya hummie!

 

That's right, hindered by the heavy weapon, the Space Marine was in serious disadvantage, and he finally fell overwhelmed by the numbers.

While the Orks on the flank kept on running, the central board ones attacked the Sergeant:

 

There are quite few people left by now

 

Encouraged by the recent killing, the Orks killed the Sarge too.

 

Ork powa!

 

 That was the end of turn 4 and the battle.

 

You'r lucky, ya were goin' to be da next one

So the Space Marines got 2 victory points for their kills. The Orks got 1 point for killing 3 Marines, plus 2 other points for having killed the one with the missile launcher. Ork victory!

Once again it was terribly fun. Having a few minis on the board makes the game much more 'personal'. It looks more like an adventure than a battle. I would like to explore further both sides of that, the adventure scenario where a fistful of characters have to accomplish a mission against odds and the small battle/skirmish aspect of the game. I'll let you know whenever I play again and we'll see what we get then!

Hope you enjoyed our little battle!