With Freebooterz unsuccessfully keeping a foot hold in the asteroid belt, Valour System was not concerned about Orks. Or at least, high command had not been. While correctly believing that the Freebooterz had been routed and all bases of operations destroyed, Goff had made its way to the system after hearing about the large build up of materials for the upcoming crusade.
Rather suddenly, Goff had appeared and trashed a shrine on Valour IX. Recently cleared of multiple threats, IX had seen its imperial forces reduced to a minimal presence. Even as the first reports of the shrine falling came in, high command routed all available forces to respond with haste! A huge Ork scrap yard had been completed. The objective: Stop the Mek Boy Stompa from achieving operational status.
“Sentences” are from the point of view of the command tower in the Leviathan Regimental HQ.
Grots are hard at working around the clock getting the new titan up and running. Its hard work, but its honest. They succeeded, with its mighty reactor roaring to life for the first time as a curious cathedral on tracks rolls over the horizon. The Imperials were too late!
A mighty Gorkanaut and Morkanaut prepare to pave the way as Grots start to panic! The Orks haven’t arrived yet to take full possession of the scrap yard’s production. Hasty artillery positions are manned as Lascannons are deployed in mass.
The Imperials “move” quickly. They are already in siege mode. Their orders are to contain the scrap yard’s technical abominations until reinforcements arrive. One flank is pushed up by the commander’s Chimera and a squad of Guardsmen. The move to secure the first house to make any pushes through the flank delayed.
On the left flank, the same tactic is applied. Instead of a Chimera, they are accompanied by Commissar Severina Raine. They begin to setup their cannon on the Landing Pad as the rest of the army opens fire!
“All gunners, hit that titan! Heavy Weapon Squads to Bring it Down, Guardsmen Squads and Veterans to Move, Move, Move!”
The Grots shriek as the sun gathers in front of the belly cannon of the Leviathan. Moments later, it is lobbed at them! Smashing into the Mek Boy Stompa, its extreme blast radius also damaged both the Gorkanaut and Morkanaut. In addition, many gobos were simply erased from the impact! They start to pick themselves up off the ground, only to be sent sprawling again as the Mega Battle Cannon and secondary weapons begin hammering their mechs. Lascannons pour heavy las bolts in a steady, disciplined wave. Void Shields collapse and the titan is rocked to its core! The main engine took a direct hit and was only operating at 50% power!
“Antiair Batteries, go for air superiority!”
Their ground assault aircraft, a Wazbom Blastjet, pushed through the brutal antiair missile barrage it was hammered with and began to close on the moving cathedral! The Orks and Grots lost their fear (well, mostly, they are still Grots) upon seeing the weapon’s awesome potential and were eager to loot it! It spied a group of Veterans scaling the ridge and failed spectacularly to pick any of them off.
The Gorkanaut and Morkanaut began pushing on the flank in support, firing into the many Heavy Weapon Teams the Imperial Guard had entrenched.
On the Imperial Guard’s left flank, the command staff operating the Leviathan noted a futile push of incoming Grots. They were not of concern just yet, just something to be noted. The mighty looted Warlord Titan was their primary concern. The Orks were to be denied their new toy at all cost!
Suddenly, their Weird Boy got all glowy looking, bled a bit of brain matter from his nose, and the Mek Boy Stompa was launched high into the air! As it Da Jumped forward, it landed a bit off target and careened at the last second. Effectively Pinned, it fired sporadically but was only able to take a single Void Shield down on the Leviathan!
It was however, alarmingly on its flank!
Despite all this, the Weird Boy had another trick up its sleeve! It decided to bring down the mighty foot of Gork, but accidently summoned Mork! Mork, annoyed to have once again been called his brother’s name, stomped on the Stompa.
The mixed Nauts fired into the Lascannons, annihilating most of them and their cover! 8 Lascannon Teams were killed once the dust settled.
One charged the Chimera. It smashed it pretty well, but botched its attack and got a wee bit shot up in return! 2 Lasguns were broken and a third disabled. The Chimera still routed and was caught by the pursing Naut doing rapid happy feet to catch up!
“Driver! Hard right and engage that titan!”
“I’m trying Commander, she don’t turn on a dime!”
The Leviathan began to turn to confront the Mek Boy Stompa, but its massive bulk meant it could not pivot far enough to bring its main Doomsday Cannon to bear!
“Sir! Doomsday Cannon is cycled and ready to fire!”
“Destroy that artillery, gunner! Port, fire a broad side at preferred targets.”
So instead it dropped the power of the sun onto the artillery and accompanying Grots. The entire structure groaned as it suffered massive damage! Most of the Grots were evaporated and one of the artillery pieces was destroyed with the follow up Lascannon broadside!
“Left flank! All Heavy Weapons First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire! Bring it Down! Guardsmen, First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire! Bring it Down! Focus fire on preferred targets!”
The Grots had got quite close to the left flank’s Guardsmen. Orders were rapidly launched once again from the Leviathan and they fired with impunity. Perfectly placed frag grenades and well aimed lasguns annihilated about half of the incoming Grots! Lascannons were brought to bear on the giant Stompa to keep the pressure up. Precision shooting from the Teams and the right broadside rattled its cage pretty well and disabled some of its rockets.
“Starboard broadside, everything into that titan! Mega Battle Cannon, take the shot! Target’s Void Shields are collapsed!”
The Doomsday Cannon may not have been able to swing around, but the Mega Battle Cannon could! It got a solid punch through its Front Armour and smashed it again, wrecking the engine that Buzzgob had just fixed! It was ‘is Stompa after all!
“Enemy aircraft bearing down, eliminate that air superiority!”
Antiair missiles brough the jet low, crashing it into the Grots underneath and smushing the last of them as it Crashed and Burned!
“Sir! Chimera is no longer holding the attention of those smaller Combat Walkers! Melee unit closing in!”
The Naut finished off the Chimera, to know ones surprise, and then began Consolidating towards the Leviathan!
The Grots began to split. The first mob surged forwards to annihilate the Lascannon firing line! The second held back in the ruins to trade shots with the Guardsmen Squad.
The artillery fired another salvo. Their accuracy was still rather dismal, but they managed to inflict some casualties in the infantry.
Getting itself righted properly, the Mek Boy Stompa regained its footing and began hammering the Leviathan. It waited for any rocket or similar weapon to minimize its Void Shields first, but then followed the final volley. One of its Destroyer weapons managed to break through!
“Super Structure damage! Shields have fallen! Hull integrity at 97%!”
Grots and artillery managed to sweep the Guardsmen off the Landing Pad in retaliation!
A large variety of handguns and Big Shootas were fired out of the Firing Ports of the Stompa, but the Platoon Command Squad was able to hang in the fight!
The Mek Boy Stompa displaced the last Lascannon holding the make shift barricade with by Creating Panic as it pushed through their position. Hastily relocating on top of the Barrels, they setup the weapon again for a last stand! Boyz jumped out and began shooting the Heavy Weapon Squad out of the tower.
One of the Nauts closed in! Firing at near point blank, it collapsed the shield (allowing the Mek Boy Stompa to take its penetrating shot!). The blast from one of its cannons removed a Lascannon team.
The other Naut moved up and raked the Veteran Squad, leaving only the Lord Commissar with a mild injury after decimating his entire squad! Various other weapons were fired at Heavy Weapon Squads, decimating them!
Ork Boyz heard there was a good fight and moved onto the field! Not enough big models had died to bring them a transport, so they had to hoof it on foot.
“Sir! Incoming melee!”
“Driver, I want that rust bucket under the treads, you hear me?”
“Understood sir, diverting auxiliary power to the secondary transmission.”
The Naut crashed into the Leviathan. It managed a solid hit that inflicted a minor power fluctuation to one of its many Lascannons, but did not do any serious harm. In return, it bounced off of the hull so violently that one of the Nauts legs failed and began to drag!
“Hull Integrity at 95%!”
“Driver, repulse that contraption and engage the main titan! Doomsday gunners standby and fire as soon as the reactor is done cycling!”
The Grots closed in on the Lascannon crews and wiped them out! Eagerness set in and they made a mad dash to get to the Leviathan!
Some pot shots were taken at the Lord Commissar, but no injuries inflicted thanks to some very high quality armour!
“Reinforcements coming in! Rogal Dorn.”
“Order him into a flanking position and pincer that looted titan.”
“Rogal Dorn’s commander is in position sir!”
A mighty Rogal Dorn with a Vanquisher and many melta weapons moved up behind a set of crates for cover and began hammering the Mek Boy Stompa! Void Shields lasted but a moment before the heavy weapons started blowing holes throughout the super structure!
“Incoming drop ship with a Stormtrooper platoon!”
“Put me through to the Platoon Commander!”
“…Line is established sir!”
“Commander, both of our flanks are falling. I need a permitter established and antiarmour on that looted titan.”
“Understood sir!”
Stormtrooper Platoon Alpha dropped in a carpet effect. Squad A was armed with a pair of Meltaguns, and they put another pair of holes in the titan in addition to some indiscriminate hotshot las bolts.
Squad B and the Command Squad dropped in support of each other, catching the Grots in a nasty crossfire! Squad B drifted off course with their HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) jump and ended up getting pinned, severely dampening the effect. One Plasma Gunner in the Command Squad incinerated as his plasma weapon malfunctioned!
Riskily off course, Squad C was armed with a pair of Flamers and went after an injured enemy leader. Despite getting tangled up in the barricade, they managed to burn him out and take control of the drop pod!
Embolden by reinforcements, the Lord Commissar obliterated one Ork with a Plasma Pistol before doing a diving pile drive onto the Orks! Two more were cut down from the sudden surprise attack!
They managed to get a flesh wound on him, but the Orks held their ground despite the onslaught!
The driver of the Leviathan shifted gears into the double digits and managed to get the beast of a tank turned far enough for the Doomsday Cannon to do its work! As the enemy void shields were still fading from their surge, a new, brighter beam blasted!
“All available weapons, fire!”
Missiles, Las bolts, bolter shells, and the secondary cannons fired, reeling the titan backwards several steps!
“Enemy hull at 66% integrity sir!”
The crew cheered and began cycling the weapons with a fresh surge of confidence!
Rein and Raus continued moving to the tower for sniper superiority, firing on the move.
Secondary weapons and small arms began hammering the Stormtroopers before their boots had even hit the ground!
Rein and Rauss almost made it. But didn’t.
Squad C found themselves alone facing a horde of Ork Boyz closing in. But they had done their job well and denied the enemy Victory Points while securing their own!
The last squad of the Heavy Weapons Platoon, they were cut down to just the Sergeant as the second Naut crashed into the building, trying to shake him loose like a Salamander getting a kitty to fall out of a tree. The Sergeant held on grimly, nearly shredding an exposed hydraulic line, but the blasted thing had an energy shield.
The Lord Commissar slashed the last Boy down and then skewered the Nob! Made of sterner stuff, he didn’t die. But he did fail to hit penetrate the Lord Commissar’s Refractor Field! (Made all of the 5+ Invulnerability Saves!)
As the Leviathan’s full port broadside removed every Grot on its flank and toppled the towers holding the remaining artillery, the Mek Boy Stompa continued to hammer the Void Shields and score a few penetrations!
The Rogal Dorn moved up, continuing to fire and brutally pound the titan into a scrap heap not even the Orks could salvage!
With the Naut in retreat, dragging its broken leg behind it, the Stormtroopers moved up to the objective and continued pouring fire into anything that moved. The Lord Commissar executed the Nob with his Plasma Pistol.
“Friends” arrived suddenly! The Eldar are the swing player, changing sides as The Meat Grinder progresses, ensuring that neither the Orks or the Humans get an advantage. The Orks are doing quite well, so it appears to not be the case. Eldar are allotted 2000 points at a time.
Warp Spiders land near the forward Stormtroopers and assist in wrecking some Orks!
The vast majority of the Eldar force secured the Imperial Tower. Or what was left of it. Some Howling Banshees, Warp Spiders, a Warlock, Dark Reapers, and Maugen Ra joined the fray! In addition to their Falcon Squadron, they bring a formidable threat.
Of course, most of the Eldar weapons failed, but that’s because they are dishonest xenos scum intent on foiling the Imperium of Man!
“Gunners, the titan is buckling, maximum firepower! And someone tell me what the damned Eldar are doing here!”
With the combined onslaught and some VERY accurate Lascannon broadsides, the heavy weaponry of the Leviathan delivered the crippling blow, blasting it with the power of the sun. Its metal buckled and began to collapse in on itself. The reactor housing was not cracked, so instead of annihilating everything in a wide radius, it crumpled in a skyscraper sized heap of junk and became an obstinate roadblock.
“Engine kill!” Announced the Master of Ordnance. The crew let out a cheer as their nemesis broke down into rubble.
The second Naut stomped forward after finally removing a very difficult and stubborn Sergeant from his building!
WAAAGH!
As the first Ork Boyz continued to move up, firing weapons and annihilating the Stormtroopers, a second mob Da Jumped behind them and killed most of the Warp Spiders!
The Naut charged the tower, shattering several Eldar with its massive klaw. The fight back was futile, but they held.
Deffkoptas came in on two fronts, hammering the Void Shields in futility! Grots that remained picked off most of the Stormtroopers, but they were not done yet!
Some long range rockets fixed that issue, making them quite done.
A massive Melee blow from the returning Naut rattled the front of the Levithan brutally!
“Hull integrity down to 77 percent!”
“Tell that damn Tech Priest to stay on top of it, the Doomsday Cannon is offline!”
muted binary sounds “The couplings for the reactor, number five and seven need reseating. I-“
“Hurry it up then! We are vulnerable!”
“Mega gunner, hammer that Ork Mob, I don’t want them closing in!”
“Round, shot”
The mob was having a great time. They got to do a super cool lunar bounce across the field, shoot some Eldar, a cool titan needed looting. It was looking up for them. Until it wasn’t! They few survivors were sent sprawling and got Pinned!
“Sir! I have trickle charge on the main cannon!”
“FIRE!”
The Doomsday Cannon performed a Snapshot. Even disabled, it got enough dice to have high chances of a hit. The Naut was struck dead on, toppling over. Dazed, the Ork command staff stumbled out of it, only to be met with intense plasma fire!
“Port side, rake those choppers!”
Two were gunned down, but the rest kept buzzing around.
“Starboard, full broadside into those choppers!”
Combined with the Falcons and Stormtroopers, they shot down all but one of them!
Alex’s new dice held out decent for their first three rolls. Then, they realized they were with their new master and behaved as normal for him for the rest of the game. We had these special made for him, with his face being on the 1s side.
Twenty Grot Tanks Da Jumped into the field! Swarming like locusts, they began firing into the Falcons and Rogal Dorn. Minor damage on the Rogal Dorn, and moderate on one of the Falcons.
The second volley from the other mob finished off one Falcon and gave the Rogal Dorn a neat protection from Indirect Fire.
A mighty Battle Wagon joined the brawl! It roared through half a dozen terrain pieces and came ready to crush! Its cannon fired in futility, but could not crack the mighty Void Shields!
The Naut continued to systematically wipe out the Eldar, a few models at a time.
The game ended with Orks winning 16 to 10, a major victory!
Total carnage during the game
Infantry: 277 deaths
Non-Titanic Vehicles and Monsters: 5
Aircraft: 1
Titanics: 1
Combined Vehicle Wounds inflicted: almost 200!
We had expected to have a lot more carnage and trade outs, but with both super tough titanics on the field, it turned into an awesome slug fest instead! As suspected, the Leviathan Regimental HQ does perform better in a 4k game but really needs to be in at least a 5k game to be in its element. It still will have almost 0 support, as 2000 points of infantry is about the amount of support it is geared towards for a minimum usefulness. I really think it is best suited to a game with about 3k or 4k of guard infantry and armour support, so probably does best in a 9k or 10k game. Only one way to find out! I have 34k points of Cadians, so it’s just a matter of time and space to make happen.
Either way, had a fun game celebrating Father’s Day with my Dad (his request!). The Game mode can be found here where additional special scenarios will be added. My Dad has always been very supportive of me, encouraging me to try new things and be willing to play any game I’ve ever experienced interest in. We both started back in Warhammer Fantasy and eventually I dragged him into 40k. I hope all Dads out there had a good Father’s Day!
In addition, we got to continue testing the Eldar Pheonix Lords as Lord of War Slots! There is a lot more testing to do, but they and their special units are getting a glow up!
Alternate 40k Rules 