The Battle for Mork's Throne - Part 1

I got to do some gaming on February 21st. We played 2 linked games, my Chaos Space Marines against my friend's Orks. First was a game of Battlefleet Gothic, with the Orks attacking to try and break through a Chaos Space Marine blockade. The second, a game of Warhammer 40,000. If the Orks won the Battlefleet Gothic game, they would get the benefit of two preliminary bombardments against the Chaos Space Marines in the Warhammer 40,000 game. If the Chaos Marines won the Battlefleet Gothic game, in the second game at least half of the Ork army (in terms of points) would have to come on in reserve, due to their fleet arriving piecemeal. We came up with a basic story for the linked games.

Renegade Space Marines of the Crusaders chapter are on an unimportant world in the Sagittarius Arm to perform an arcane ritual. As their fleet patrols the outer reaches of the system, and small Ork fleet appears out of nowhere. It is a splinter force of a large Ork Krusade to reclaim important and powerful cultural artifacts of the Ork race. Finding a fleet of ships defending the system and guarding one planet in particular, the Orks assume there must be something important there, and they attack in an attempt to break through the Chaos blockade.

In the pictures below, I used blue lines to represent the movement of ships, and the red lines to show firing. The red felt areas are gas/dust clouds. The white pieces of paper are asteroid fields. Here is the layout.


The Ork fleet contained (from left to right in the first picture): A squadron with 2 Onslaughts and 2 Savages, a Kill Kroozer, a squadron of 2 Ravagers, and two squadrons each of two Brute Ram Ships. The Chaos fleet contained: A squadron of 3 Idolators, a Carnage class cruiser, a squadron of 5 Infidels, a Devastation class cruiser with a Warmaster, and two squadrons each of 4 Iconoclasts. The Chaos defenders had to be set up first, with each ship or squadron forced to be in a random third of the table. The Orks then deployed together to attack the Chaos line where it was weakest.

The Orks had the first turn and advanced at full speed. The Ravagers fired off some torpedoes to disrupt the middle group of ships as they tried to turn around.


On the Chaos turn, the squadron of Idolators moved out from behind the asteroid field and turnd to face the approaching Ork fleet. The rest of the Chaos fleet frantically tried to turn their ships around to come to the aid of the Idolators.


The Orks continued their rapid advance. A squad of Brute Ram Ships fired on the squad of Infidels but only caused on hit on their shields. The Kill Kroozer fired on the Idolators, destroying one of them. The Ravager squadron managed to run out of torpedoes.


On the Chaos turn, the squadron of Infidels got around the asteroid field and fired on the Ork Kill Kroozer, causing minimal damage. Then they fired a brutal salvo of torpedoes that destroyed two Ork Savage Gunships. The remaining two Idolators flew into an asteroid field, preparing to spring a trap in the rear of the Ork fleet. The Carnage cruiser and Iconoclast squadrons continued to move at full speed toward the bulk of the Ork fleet. They fired on a squadron of Brute Ram Ships, destroying them easily.


The Ork fleet continued to advance at full speed. The Kill Kroozer and two Onslaught gunships opened fire on the chaos Infidel squadron. All but one were destroyed, despite them bracing for impact. Their bracing for impact was completely ineffective, perhaps due to extremely close range leaving little time to prepare for the attack.


Ready to spring their trap on the Ork fleet, the two Idolators proceeded to crash spectacularly in the asteroid field and destroy themselves. The Carnage cruser advanced behind the Ravager squadron and opened fire on them, destroying them both. The one remaining Infidel got behind the Ork Onslaughts, gunning to get revenge for its former comrades, but its fire was ineffective. The two squadrons of Iconoclasts continued advancing as well. One squadron opened fire on the remaining Brute Ram Ships, but did no damage.


The Orks again advanced at full speed in an attempt to punch through the blockade. The Kill Kroozer fired on a squadron of Iconoclasts, destroying one of them.


The two squadrons of Iconoclasts moved toward the Kill Kroozer and fired on it, causing some damage, but nothing major. The Devastation class cruiser continued moving toward the battle, while some bombers it had launched in the previous turn flew towards their intended target, the Kill Kroozer. The Carnage class cruiser and the one remaining Infidel escort got behind the Ork ships and fired on the two Onslaughts, destroying one of them.


The Ork ships again continued to advance at full speed. The Kill Kroozer locked on to the menacing group of Chaos bombers that was approaching it, and incredibly managed to shoot them down. The largest threat to the Kill Kroozer was now eliminated. In addition, the two Brute Ram Ships managed to make it off the table edge, and past the blockade.


On the final Chaos turn, the squadron of three Iconoclasts and the one remaining Infidel moved towards the final Onslaught gunship. They fired, and in a small measure of revenge for it's fallen squadron mates, the final remaining Infidel destroyed the Ork ship.


In the next turn, the Ork Kill Kroozer made it off the table and past the blockade. Both sides had suffered some serious losses, but with the Kill Kroozer making it past the blockade relatively intact, it was a clear victory for the Orks. They would be able to land and support of pretty significant force on the planet they had chosen to attack, and the renegade Space Marines on the planet's surface would have their work cut out for them.