Battle at the farm

After painting up my Space Orks a couple of months a go, I had a hankering to get the on the tabletop. So on Thursday night with nothing else arranged we decided to re fight the battle of the Farm from the original Rogue Trader rules. However we decided that a couple of amendments were needed.

Firstly their were 5 of us and 21 orks and 16 marines do not go far. Also in previous attempts at this scenario many years ago, it's a bit of a hard slog for the orks, out in the open with the marines hidden. So it was agreed to increase the forces. We gave the marines an extra five troopers, this allowed Tom to command 2 units and Neil to have the other two squads with the Captain. For the orks we also went with 2 squads per player, but increased their size to 7 figures. This meant we had 21 marines against 43 orks, more than fair I thought.

So the game began with the 3 ork players slowly advancing across the open ground towards the farm before the sound of bolter fire was heard. George saw one of his orks bite the dust, his return fire was rather pathetic.

Orks advance

As my two squads advance we also came under fire losing one ork, however my return fire killed two of the marines forcing them to retire. At this point Tom revealed a second squad of marines armed with a missile launcher. It fired and missed, though his bolter fire did kill another 2 orks. Once more my return fire was effective killing another 2 marines. Over on the right John advanced with his two squads and came under fire from the farm house killing 2 orks and forcing the squad to retire.

Marines open fire

Pressure on the marines

Orks under fire from the farm house

At this point the casualties were beginning to mount on two of the marine squads and eventually one routed from the walls. Taking advantage my 2 squads reach the wall and my Warboss crossed over to kill the 2 marines. At this point the Marine captain charged out of cover and with a blow of his powerfist slew my War boss. It a fit of revenge my 2 squads opened fire and slew the Marine captain before crossing the barrier looking for easier foe. Unfortunately the marines has other ideas as a 4Th squad emerged and destroyed one of my squads and routed the other.

Orks at the walls

Clash of titans

Last stand

With both sides trading fire the remaining marines fell back to the farm house, where despite the best efforts of the orks they grimly held on. At nights end 3 marines still remained holed up. Overall a very enjoyable game and stayed in the balance right until the end.