Battle Report: The Forges of Ghorok Campaign - The Scrapyard

For this game, we used the Barren Wasteland F.A.T. Mat from Tablewar. We think it worked perfectly for an Ork Scrapyard. 

Doug Johnson, the creator of the F.A.T. Mats and President of TABLEWAR™, generously gave us 6x4 Industrial and 6x4 Underforge mats for this campaign. You'll see and learn more about those in upcoming missions. TABLEWAR™ has been developing innovative products for the hobby industry since 2010. Best known for the popular F.A.T. Mats that are now ubiquitous with tabletop gaming as the gaming surface of choice, they also carry a full range of products for the Display, Storage, and Light Transport of hobby miniatures. Check out the full line of TABLEWAR™ products at www.tablewar.com or the F.A.T. Mats at their marketing and distribution partner’s site www.frontlinegaming.org.

The denizens of the scrapyard surrounding Assembly Alpha no longer noticed the smell of iron and rust on the wind. The field of broken machines were piled high, one after the other over the centuries. It was hazardous to even walk amongst the ruined heaps because beneath your feet could lie countless other stacked wrecks waiting to shift slightly and swallow you whole.

The piles of junk had grown significantly since the Orks had taken the planet. Assembly Alpha had always been a reclamation plant where Tech Priests and their servitors had worked with tireless enthusiasm to restore damaged holy machines to life. Now, the Manufactorum was called "The Shop" and some of those servitors were slaves to the Orks along with many other humans who had survived the initial assault. Even a few Tech Priests were at the mercy of The Shop's new lord, the Big Mek named Rustbolt. He had done something to their brains, slaved their augmentations to his own and opened their minds to his. Now, the remaining Tech Priests were totally subservient to the Mek and his retinue.

Commissar Nela Holt had observed the industrious rise of the Orks in the Manufactorum district since the greenskins had taken the world. There was no stopping the creatures. It was madness to try. Her small clutch of survivors had certainly not attempted to fight against the rule of the Orks. Instead, they had turned to the only means of survival left to them: coexistence.

Nela was not a proper Commissar, but even she knew that the path they followed was unforgivable heresy by Imperial standards. They traded with the Orks, fixed things even they could not fix, and entertained them. The Orks had come to rely on the human survivors of Ghorok almost as much as they did Gretchin. What did Heresy matter anyways if you were dead?

It was this sentiment (which she had repeated several times to her followers) which caused her to give great pause when the drop pods started raining down around the perimeter of the massive scrapyard. She had a commanding view of the warren beneath her. She stood in a sodden, sooty room on the outer skin of The Shop. The huge pane window had long since shattered, so she stood on the fragments of glass, stared out, arms folded, rusty wind sighing. She growled, "Damn."

One of her aides said, "Commissar?"

"Bloody Space Marines, Jamil."

All three aides stepped back, as if expecting to be blasted with bolter shells at any minute. "Don't be ridiculous, boys and girls. However, the night is young."

Jamil swallowed, "Of course. Orders, Commissar?" Nela sometimes wondered if the rabble thought she was truly a Commissar or if they were simply deluding themselves.The looseness of the uniform was likely a dead give-away. They didn't seem to care, though. They were happy to have someone to follow.

After a pause to think, she said, "We defend our world from these invaders."

The Gretchin and Diggaz deploy on the left flank under the watchful eye of the Dread.

On the center, the Frank Da Orkstrocity is joined by some Boyz.

A small team of Kommandos lies in wait for the Blood Ravens to pass by.

Sista Bea Aarfur's squad also waits to ambush the approaching Space Marines.

Some of the Mechanicus forces were able to join up with this team of Blood Ravens to help re-take their Manufactorum.

The Diggaz seek to take better positions with their lascannons, looking for a field of fire.

They are somewhat successful, able to point their field guns down two key corridors.

Sista Bea's squad slinks from shadow to shadow.

The Ork forces converge on their right flank, ready to engage the large group moving up the road there.

Some robots skim on jetpacks, banging into the scrapped rhino, but getting a few blasts off with their weapons.

The Space Marines are cautious with their movements, wary of the multiple ambushes awaiting them.

The sounds of weapons fire begin to echo throughout the scrapyard from miles around.

The Blood Ravens move into striking position.

Although they have a clear shot, the Diggaz can't seem to find their mark. Melted slag splatters the battlefield from their errant shots, however.

The Orks and Space Marines begin to make contact on the left flank, taking pot shots at one another.

The Orks decide it is time to take some risks.

Frank's unit offers supporting fire with a bloocurtling "Get 'em Boyz! DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!

The Kommandos finally get stuck in. The Space Marines and Orks begin carving onto one-another.

The Diggaz on the left flank take horrific casualties. 

The field gun crews try to prove their worth one more time.

They manage to only slough off a little armour on the Ironclad Dreadnought.

After the Kommandos and Diggaz on the right flank are wiped out, the Orkstrocity and his Boyz attempt to assault, but are clearly weighed down with the task of keeping Frank under control.

The Space Marines and Mechanicus troops oblige the clanking monster and engage with him.

It isn't long before the overwhelming numbers become too much for Frank...

....and he is dragged down and pulled apart into pieces.

After some truly catastrophic morale issues on the part of their Digga allies, Sista Bea leaps at the chance to kill some beakies, but most of her ladz die to reactionary fire from the Space Marines and Sista Bea Arrfur is stricken down before she can deal out any punishment with her Power Klaw.

The Deff Dread and Dreadnought square off.

The Ironclad brazenly attempts to charge the Deff Dread who promptly fires off both missiles which both find the spot where the lascannon had struck earlier. With several pops and the whoosh of fire, the Space Marine walker shuts down.

The Deff Dread is hungry for blood, so he stomps towards the Blood Ravens.

In the end, there are two solitary combatants on the Ork's left flank and the right flank is overwhelmed with Mechanicus and Blood Ravens assault marines. The Imperial forces are able to penetrate the defenses of the Manufactorum!