Got a chance to play a new player at my local game store, Alex, and his Custodes. Not a Crusade or Campaign game but just for fun. Here’s the write up. Mission was a Nachmund mission: Display of Spiritual Might. My secondaries were Assassinate (he had lots of characters), Domination (I had numbers so thought I might get lucky, and this was definitely a “one has three, one has one” sort of mission), and Stomp ‘Em Good (kinda tough given Custodes were elite, but thought maybe I could pull it off… spoiler alert, I didn’t hah).

Game

It was dawn on the planet, a manufacturing world in the fringe of the Segmentum Solar just past the Cicatrix Maledictum. It had been 8,000 years since Orks ravaged the planet as a part of the War of the Beast in M.32, and yet now they were back. The Cicatrix played havoc on Imperial warp travel, so it well might be even worse on the incautious Orks. Whatever the reason, they had arrived, and the landers had been pouring down from the Space Hulk and pair of Kill Kroozers since they appeared in the system. In the early dawn light, the shadows of the force–particularly a massive Morkanaut–cast long ahead as they fought their way though the shanty town.

While the Custodes were charged with defense of Holy Terra, there was a contingent of them that had been pursuing off-world aims as part of a broader defense (they’d crossed paths with some Genecults that linked back to Terra). As such, they were closest to respond. The contingent, more formal and leadership-heavy than would be ordinary, assembled as close as their lander could get them to the Ork front lines.

The Captain on the Jetbike roared ahead of the main force–which were all on foot–to scout out the battlefield and engage with the Orks as soon as he could. Unfortunately he ran right into the towering Morkanaut. The blistering hail of weapons fire from the towering beast formed such a curtain of electrical discharge, the bike’s propulsion systems caught and sputtered. The metallic beast’s crushing claws managed to swipe the bike once, and with the damage it was all the Captain could do to retreat and get himself and the precious artifact bike back to safety and a Tech adept.

The other Custodes leadership group came in two waves, Trajann and a Blade Champion with the main line, with two Shield Captains in Terminator armor using short-range teleportation strikes to join the attack alongside a group of Allarus Custodians. The Orks had some sort of battlewagon with a massive drill that moved through the earth, followed by waves of Mega-armored Nobz. Trajann stood valiantly against them, but the huge battlewagon proved to be just too sturdy (or too ramshackle) to take down easily. He found himself beset by Meganobz while trying to down the clanking behemoth of a vehicle. The Blade Champion lept into the fray, killing swathes of the heavily armored Nobz himself, but the waves were just too many. Even a single slip in coordination and the massive saws or pincers of the Ork suits could damage. With the battlewagon continuing to grind down their line of troops, they had to cede the point and make a fighting retreat. This was not Holy Terra itself, and thus tactical discretion when damage started to pile up was the order Trajann enforced. He didn’t want to lose a single brother to the odd happenstance of an Ork attack while they were responding to a different matter.

One valiant brother had fallen in the main line, while the rest had retreated in the face of considerable damage. Given a chance, the brothers could cut through the Orks’ armor easily–but the sheer numbers advantage of the Orks, plus the fire of their combi-rokkits and skorchas took a toll in terms of damage. Numerous brothers took enough damage to need to pull back to safety.

One lone Shield Captain in Terminator Armor stood firm, refusing to cede the ground while the enemy still stood. Whether he had a link to the planet, a streak of stubbornness, or a vow against the Orks it didn’t matter: he stood toe-to-toe with the massive Morkanaut and resolved to take down the giant monstrosity before he left the field.

Seconds bled into minutes as the titanic clash continued. All the other Custodes had left the field, calling to their companion over vox that he should come with them, that this was a moment for discretion. The remaining Meganobz were turning around, consolidating objectives on the battlefield, and starting to look in his direction. The Morkanaut’s attacks were being stopped by careful parries alongside the raw power of his armor’s protective field generator, but even his near-eternal strength and training started to waver. Blow after blow came closer to hurting him, and the occasional weapons shot (as the thing blazed away with all guns as well) managed to wound him. His strikes were damaging the thing, limiting its own attacks more and more. But still, it wasn’t enough. The massive claw swung and he was a little too slow, and it seized his leg. With a surprisingly quiet “snip” the leg came off entirely, and the Shield Captain fell to the ground. The mighty machine started swinging again and again down onto him, pulverizing his form further and further–the smoke and steam from the rents where his weapon had scored the metal frame of the Ork machine seeming like boiling anger at this foe.

Pict caps of the fight–gathered by data-servo skulls–were relayed to Trajann’s display. He watched his brother, veteran of a thousand fights, battle valiantly but fall to the Morkanaut. His blood boiled. The Orks needed to be stopped. This was not Terra, but it was the Segmentum Solar. This was the domain of Man, not of Orks. He vowed they would return this fight to the Orks tenfold, and that the fallen Shield Captain’s sacrifice and fervor would not be forgotten. He appended the data file to auxillary artisans, to have a new vambrace made for the Shield Captain that would replace the fallen one–to honor his legacy.

Painting Progress

Finished up three Meganobz (from a set of 12 total new ones to add to my “Deffwing” force). Super-fun to complete them as always.

Painting Challenge 2022 Progress

Warhammer 40k Orks Power Level Painted: 64/365

More planetary empires continues, and my Orks have a foothold on one of the asteroids! Now to expand forces onward (mine are the Red logo Orks on the map):

The following battle report is from a fun, but decidedly one-sided fight against Frank’s Harlequins army.

Game Three

Big Mek Ursatz was having a particularly un-Orky feeling his mega armor mob made their way through some cathedral ruins on the asteroid they had landed upon–it must have been an Imperial moon at some point that had been blasted to bits by some really big bang. It was an un-Orky feeling because it seemed like something his Grot Oiler would be feeling instead: the feeling that the signals on his git-finder detection arrays built into his armor were being deceived by something dead sneaky and kunnin’. And the fact that he couldn’t smash the feeling with his claw or shoot it with his kustoma mega-blasta, well that made it all the worse and more grot-like.

Ursatz should have felt like the Big Mek that he was: his boyz were all outfitted in some seriously heavy gear, his tunneling battlewagon invention was not only lethal in battle but could help in clearing paths through the dense terrain, and most recently he’d repaired up a ruined Morkanaut whose thunderous stride accompanied the marching blocks of Meganobz.

The Orks were there for the scrap, as Warboss Drozgurk had demanded they have a steady supply of scrap so his Nobz could always be in the best of the best armor. Even tho they weren’t Bad Moonz, Ursatz had a feeling that Drozgurk would have made a fine Bad Moon with his proclivities. The squads of Meganobz fanned out to locate the scrap piles, and swarms of Gretchin laborers moved to take them away. Maybe it was that the Beakies that were patrolling this chunk of space rock weren’t fighting them yet–they was with another off-shoot of the Waaagh over on a nearby Shrine World. But again, the odd readings on his git-finder kept registering, and the needle vibrated stronger and stronger.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, shapes started materializing from the ruined background. Images of almost pure-white light, their forms shrouded in the brightness, bipedal warriors started streaming across the courtyard toward the Ork force. The drill-equipped Bonebreaka sped forward through the loose dirt and rock mixture to come to grips with the shapes, but it was too late. Fire from spinning and shimmering flying boats started tearing the battlewagon to bits, along with the Morkanaut as well. Some of the weapons were various energy types, but the tell-tale one revealed itself when the swarm of labor grots were cut down: a hail of shuriken meant panzies. And soon enough it was clear these were those laughin’-and-dancing panzies with their camouflage-pattern clothes. “Like Blood Axes…” Ursatz thought: “dey iz still able to be dead sneaky in the middle of nothing because of da patterns.”

He finally got a good look at one of them as it appeared behind their lines, and sprinted across the open ground and into the remains of a ruined cathedral where Warboss Drozgurk was searchin’ up some teef or something. It didn’t surprise Ursatz that the foe was wearing red in his checks and dags camouflage given how fast he could run. The assault on Drozgurk was sudden, and effective. Before Drozgurk even knew what was happening he was cut up in eighteen different spots, and one of his legs was severed at the knee. All the boyz piled in that direction to get Drozgurk to safety, or maybe because that’s where the krumpin’ was happenin’. Either way, that left the rest of the force to get shot up by jets that flew around in circles. Ursatz called for the “attack in another direction” (as Orks don’t retreat), and they left whatever scavenge was there to the panzies–along with both the wrecked battlewagon and the wrecked Morkanaut which still was flaming from an explosion. Ursatz weren’t sure how he and iz boyz would stop da laughin’-and-hidin’ panzies if they met again, but he was starting to work on some hunches.

Painting Progress

Getting the process of the armor down on these guys, and really liking how it’s turning out. Finished two more groups of three Meganobz, and I’ve got 12 more to go! One squad of nine and two squads of six feels pretty epic in doing up a Deffwing sort of feel (akin to the all-terminators Deathwing army Dark Angels Space Marines can field).

The little bit of blue on power coils is just enough, and maybe my favorite part of the models. I also like the scratches and dents and how they turn out nicely with highlights and lowlights together.

In addition, I finished up a Morkanaut for our Knight Night Fight Night 2 event. Pretty pleased with how it turned out as well. The other vehicles will have less red (more balance of black panels and metal, just by the shape of the models), but this one was still really fun. The model is kinda stinky in the game: potential to kick out a ton of damage on a lucky turn, but really dependent on dice spikes. Still, the Knight Night event was a tag-team match where I paired it with a Stompa, so giving that invulnerable save seemed like the thing to do. Probably won’t field it super-often except in really big games, but was great to build and paint, and makes a cool centerpiece.

Making good progress, even tho I’m starting Orks much later in the year than I’d like. We’re 154 days into 2022, and I’m only at 58 points of painted Orks. Again, my goal is to paint 365 points of some same army. And I’ve definitely painted up a lot of Necrons and Drukhari and Eldar this year already, not to mention Genestealer Cult. But still, one army needs to be the focus and I’m getting back to my Ork roots. So time to pick up the pace for the summer.

Painting Challenge 2022 Progress

Warhammer 40k Orks Power Level Painted: 58/365