Orks Drift 2

The Praetorians return victorious from Orks Drift.

Infact despite the fact it was still great fun the whole event was something of an anti-climax, there was a slight problem, obviously the local Ork Warboss is'nt trusted by his fellows (or perhaps the Orks are infact scared of the Praetorian's! ;) ), but we ended up with only the stores Ork army, so the scenario changed somewhat. The Orks objective was instead to destroy a mobile Chapel, built by the Exeter store manager Dan Luke, this piece of kit is essentially the Fortress of Arrogance minus Yarrick and with an Exorcist Launcher added as well as a transport capacity. I'll try an do a detailed post about this vehicle at some point in the future as I rather like it.

The Orks, all of which would recycle continously (including the Skullhamma, but excluding Special Characters who would later return as normal Warbosses), could attack from two ends of the battlefield, with the Praetorians covering one end and the other Guard armies the other. The Praetorians deployed in a nice thick line (yes not the most sensible of deployments, but it's a fun one, especially when the Skullhamma started it's first turn wiping out the equivilient of an entire Platoon!), ready to blunt the Ork attacks, all of which headed up my side of the table for the first few turns!

The Praetorians Infantry lines held against repeated waves of Orks, but each wave got a little closer, stripping a few more Guardsmen away until finally things reached a head with Ghazghkull and 15 Nobz reaching the lines intact while Captain Caine was jumped by Snikrot.

However Caine somehow managed to best his opponent, cutting down the Ork Kommando Boss Snikrot while the Nobz under Ghazghkulls command were first whittled down by firepower before a full squadron of Roughriders slammed home, this first wave dented them, while a second full squadron fell upon them in the following Imperial turn finishing the job, including Ghazghkull. With that turn the Orks changed ends, making an all out assault on the other Guard forces arrayed against them, the bloodied but unbroken Praetorians holding the line on their side of things in case the orks returned.

The Ork assaults made much better headway against the other side (and it is rumoured that in the later stages of the assault an Ork Warboss with a Pith helmet lead the Ork forces), however time ran out in the end just as the Guard lines om the other side began to collapse, the Imperium won this day, but as anyone who's fought the Orks knows, they'll be back, just as greeen and twice as ugly!