Desert Orkz

The Night Lords on the planet Unum is ravaged by internal strife since their lord Arcous died in a skirmish against the Tau. His former sergeant Kozine has taken command of a group of Night Lords and lead them to a small town in the Lazarus desert where three ancient golden marine statues is located. The statues might be the golden harbingers mentioned in the Strophe of Curze that should reveal the great power of Curze. If Kozine can come back with clues of where to continue the search he will probably secure the Lord title over the Night Lords on the planet.

Unfortunately the town is located in an area infested with orks. This actual area is controlled by Great Mek Hazzadduzza and his Desert Ratz. Upon learning that there is non orks in the area they take all their vehicles and speed to the spot hoping there will be a good fight. The Night Lords has just reach the town when they see a huge cloud of dust on the other side.

The game was 1500 pts per side. Before we started we decided to test to play for six rounds instead of the normal four in 40k OnePage to see if it would let the armies maneuver a bit more.

The orks consisted of:

Big Mek Hazzadduzza on his bike armed with a Powerfist and a cluster of attached weapons that worked like a Shokk Attack Gun

Two big mobz of warbikes with 5 boyz and a nob in each. The nobs were armed with a powerfist and a big choppa respectively.

A warbuggy armed with rokkits.

Two wartrakks with big shootas

Three scorchas with flamers

A tank battle waggon with a cannon and four rokkits.

A transport battle waggon with a Deffrolla loaded with a horde of 20 boys and a pain boy.

The Night Lord army were composed of:

The lord Kozine leading a 10 men warband armed with close combat weapons and one carrying a lascannon mounted in a Rhino.

Two more ten man warbands mounted in Rhinos one with a heavy bolter attached and one with a plasma gun.

Two predators. One named Lightning armed with twin lasercannons and one named Thunder armed with an autocannon.

The mission rolled was Size Ground and 3 objectives where rolled for. The three golden statues.

The Night Lord spread out on on their side while the orks had most of its units to the right since there where the only open ground. The forest to their left where only guarded by the trakks that had the strider ability.

Turn 1 Night Lords Begins

First to react on the rampaging threat is the crew of the predator Lightning. They move forward and fire their laser cannons at the advancing open topped battlewagon. The intervening  houses however give the battlewaggon plenty of protection and they only manage to scratch it (1 wound).

One of the bikerboyz roar forward and try to hide behind a pillar. Only to be target by the white rhino that moves forward. But their aim was off and they miss the bikers.

Instead a scorcha bounce out of the jungle spewing fire over the read of the rhino. However to no effect.



The Rhino on the Night Lords right pummels forward in full speed. Taking fire from one of the wartrakks but to no effect.

The warband in the Rhino unloads and fire at the exposed scorcha. Placing a few holes in it (1 wound). By disembarking they nevertheless expose them self and another scorcha speed out from the threes and burn one of them to death.

On the other flank the Thunder predator fire all its autocannons and bolters on a unlucky mob of bikerboys killing four of them in a hail of fire. The remaining two bikers gets their motors running and speed toward the Thunder. Ducking the bullets from the nearby rhino.

On the ork far right a Tank waggon lumber up the field. Fire its battlecannon on the move at the Thunder. Destroying a few trees.

The warband in the nearby rhino decides that it is to dangerous to stay in the tank and disembark. Firing their pistols and plasma gun at the other biker group. Killing two of them.

The ork rokkit buggy move forward and fire the rokkits against the white rhino but all bounce of the (relative) thick armour. It however convince lord Kozine that it is unwise to remain the the vehicle and he order his men to disembark and they fire at the biker boys again, killing another two and with their laser cannon they put a big hole in the advancing battle waggon.  (3 wounds and shaken)

This is however the target the orks has been waiting for. The remaining scorcha round the house and puts one of the marines on fire. The battle waggon speed ahead at full speed and the orks on board disembark charging lord Kozine and his warband. There is a massacre (rolling 54 dices only for the boyz) killing seven of the chaos marines and only taking 3 casualties in return.


Finally Big Mek Hazzadduzza advance with his bike fire his custom gunz at the Thunder but fail to do any damages.

Turn 2 Night Lords Begins

The Thunder try to take out the scorcha, but miss. The severely damaged battlewaggon in front of it decide that it is do or die and put the metal to the pedal and assault Thunder. The thick armour of the predator saves it from any severe damages (only one wound) but the crew is shaken by the impact.

The warband on the Night Lord left move forward and kill of the two remaining biker boyz hiding behind the pillar.

In the middle of the battlefield the orks make short work of Kozine and the remaining marines.

The remaining warband on the Night Lord right move forward and try to destroy the scorcha in front of them but fails (1 more wound).

Hazzaduzza move over to fire on the warband on the other side of the battlefield but his weapon system fails him again. Only killing a single marine.

One of the Rhinos fire at the menacing scorchas but miss the nimble vehicle. The remaining ork biker charge the Thunder with its powerfist. Manage to do a rather impressive new window on the side (2 wounds) but is killed in the next instance by the accurate bolter fire from the nearby rhino.

The rokkit buggy secure one of the objectives and fire at the Thunder but miss it again. On the other side the Lightning fail to kill the targeted wartrakk in the forest with its laser cannons. The tank commander execute the gunner for being a failure.

The Tank waggon on the ork left fire at the warband that advance in the open infront of it. The rokkits and shells however fly wide as they usually do for orks and only two marines is killed.

The Thunder tries to dispose of the battle waggon in front of it but the light weapons of the predator is not enough. The initiative is now at the orks.

The scorchas circle the warband killing another three with their hellfire and another two goes down to the fire of the war trakks.

Turn 3 Night Lords Begins.

The thunder fire at the horde of orks in the middle of the battlefield. Killing two of them and severely wounding another two that however quickly is brought back on their feets by the pain boy.

The tank waggon let go of another round of rokkits and shells at the advancing warband, this time leaving three bodies on the ground.

The Night Lord start to get desperate and the leftmost rhino decide to ram the deffrolla battle waggon. Smashing into its hull ripping it apart. This is to much for the waggon and an explosion flips it over.

A nearby scorcha speed out from the cover behind a pillar and flame three marines to ashes.



On the other side the other rhino try to redo the successful ramming of the battle waggon and ram one
of the scorchas but fail to do any damage. The scorcha instead continue to run in circles around the warband and killing another two of them.

The white rhino ram the ork horde and kill one of them under its track, but take in return some beating (1 wound)

And another of the night lord in the warband to the right is killed by the bullets from one of the wartrakks. The warband fire back and finally destroys one of the scorchas.

Hazzaduzza has been moving forward in slow speed to inspect one of the golden statues and get a clear shot of Thunder. The bullets from his marvellous inventions however only bunches of the predators armour. Irritating Hazzaduzza tremendous.

The Lightning has however some better luck with its laser cannons and reduce one of the trakks to almost scrap. But only almost as it has time to finish of the last of the marines on the chaos right.

The rokkit buggy try to do some damage on one of the rhinos and this time it succeed and make a minor dent in the hull. The horde of ork assult the white rhino but fails to do any damage on it.

Turn 4 Night Lords Begin

The rhino on the Night Lord right ram straight into the orks as a response. Killing another two but taking some damage (one wound). The orks respond by swarming the rhino but fail to do any more damage.

On the Night lords left flank only one marine with a plasma gun remains. It tries to use it to kill of the scorcha but miss.

The Tank waggon ignores it and instead try to kill the rhino that rammed the other waggon to death but fail to do any damage on it. It instead ram the scorcha and does some damge on it (1 wound)

One of the Trakks in the forest speed out and try to hide from Lightning behind some buildings. The other one is not fast enough and is blown to smithereens by the Lightning.

The rokkit buggy fire at the rhino hitting it again (another wound). But doing so it expose it self to a ram from the white rhino. It does however manage to get away with a blown drivers door and a flat wheel (one wound).

The scorcha in front of the buggy finish of the already damage rhino that just had rammed it.

In the middle the ork horde takes heavy fire from the Thunder, killing five of them and the ork morale fails and they hit the ground and try to hide effectively pinning them. The Thunder however take return fire from Hazzaduzza that make the entire tank to wobble from side to side (one wound and shaken)

Turn 5 Night lords begin.

The remaining footslogger succeed in damaging the scorcha with his plasma gun. (one wound). Making the scorcha firing into the ground instead of at the white rhino. The white rhino back up and ram the buggy again (another wound and shaken).

The boyz start to get back in order again after some yelling and beating from the nob, just to be cut down to a man by another salvo from the Thunder. Leaving just the Nob and the pain boy standing. Pinning them again.

The tank waggon pivot in place and let loose its volleys at the white rhino finally destroying it.  The other rhino continue its ramming spree try to hit the remaining scorcha but fails.

The shaken rokkit buggy needless to say could not hit a barn wall. No more a rhino. The Lightning has been forced to move forward to get an angle to the trakk hiding behind the houses. Blowing it up.

Finally Hazzaduzza has gotten his custom gunz to work proppa. (rolling 12 attacks). Turning the remaining rhino to a nice little crater.

Turn 6 Night Lords Begins

The lone footslogging chaos marine advance towards one of the golden statues and at the same time succeed to turn the rokkit buggy to a smoking wreck. Forcing the tank waggon to move forward to blow him away with its cannon.

The Thunder move forward to secure one of the statues killing the nob and the pain boy.
The only way the orks can force a draw now is to kill of Thunder. Hazzaduzza power up his weapons and a gleaming ray of power surge towards the Thunder (another 12 attacks rolled) but no damage is done on the predator.

Leaving Lightning to unhindered secure the third statue.

The battle was a victory for the Night Lords with two of three statues in their hands. Both sides had however taken a severe beating. With only the two predators left for the Night Lords and Hazzaduzza and the Tank waggon left for the orks.

The orks are driven off and the remaining Night Lord can in peace and quiet examine the strange symbols found on the statues hidden under the golden shell. They speak of a ancient temple long forgotten. Kozines climb to power however ended with the sudden impact of a choppa. However there are plenty of others willing to take his place. Hazzaduzza survey the site from a nearby hill. We needz bigga gun. Is the only though of passing through his brain.

It was a close game, if it would have ended at turn four it would possible be the orks that would be the winner since they could easy contested two objectives and controlled a third with their fast vehicles. They did not however had the staying power to last six rounds. We agreed that six rounds is a bit to long since it became more of a slugfest with to little units left in the end. Other lessons learned was that: Rhinos is most effective as tank shocker and not firing their puny guns, they are also remarkably hard to kill even thou they only have three wounds. Biker boyz are rather weak and dies fast. Ork light vehicles are tougher than the look.

Battle of the crates

The two forces, the Night Lords and the Tau has carefully avoided each other since the first bloody battle of Carcassoa. Meanwhile each force have  scavenged the city for all possible resources and they have both collected quite a few needed supplies. Lord Arcous has however come up with a cunning plan. Aware of the Tau depot spot he will attempt an assault trying to destroy the Tau supplies thereby hopefully putting them at a disadvantage in future battles. Unaware of this has the Tau leader Ul'Vain planned to assault the Night lords supplies hoping to hamper their hold of the other half of the city.

The battle was fought with 1000pts a side. The mission rolled was sabotage. Each side has one supply depot that can be destroyed in close combat by causing six wounds to it. The Tau army consisted of two units of 10 firewarriors, a Hammerhead with  a railgun and distruption pod and a squad of Crisis suites armed with two fusion blasters, one burst cannon, two plasmaguns, a missile pod and a shield drone.
The chaos army consisted of two Predators, one with lascannons and one with autocannon. Three five men squads of Chaos marines, one squad of basic Terminators and lord Arcous himself.
The Night lords decided to keep their Terminators in reserve and the Tau kept their Crisis Suites in reserve.

The Tau has hidden their supply behind some houses while the Night Lords trust in a forest as protection for the valuable supplies.

Turn 1

Lord Arcous, lacking any good target order a squad of his warriors to run forward seeking targets. Suddenly the sleek hull of a Hammerhead appear behind a house. Before anyone had time to react the railgun smatter away and almost destroy the Predator hiding in the forest. The predator respond and fire back with its laser cannons causing some damage on the Hammerhead. In the ruins opposite to lord Arcous a squad of fire warriors advance. Firing at some marines hiding behind a house along the rail track failing to do any damage. Arcous order his other Predator to start a circling manoeuvre on the right flank. Just to run in to another squad of firewarriors that advance and fire their rifles at it actually causing a damage.

Arcous order his second squad to run forward to protect the Predator while he take his own squad forward in the forest to engage the Tau in the ruins.

Turn 2
Behind him lord Arcous suddenly hear a the sound of jet engines as the Crisis Suites deeps strike just behind the now unguarded supply crates. Arcous swear and wonder where his own Terminators are?

He has however not time to react to the new threat before the Hammerhead fire its Rail gun again, destroying the Predator behind Lord Arcous. At the same time multipple rockets from the Hammerheads missile pods land in the midst of Lord Arcous own squad. Killing one of the marines. He curse  and order his marine to turn back and assault the crisis suites behind him.

With a terrifying high pitched sound the marines charge the Crisis suits through the forest. Ducking the desperate shoots from the Tau. Their wining chainswords strike again and again but the thick armour blocking almost every strike. The bulky suites does not however manage to land a single strike on his battle experienced warriors. In the end the brute force of the assault is enough and the spirit of the plasticsteel clad Taus are broken.

The marines succeeded only to do a single damage on the armoured Crisis Suites. The Tau did not do a single wound on any marine so the marines won the close combats and the Tau failed their morale test and got pinned the rest of this round.

In the other side of the battlefied the squad of tau firewarriors realise that they can not handle the predator and take cover in the nearby house.







The predator instead aim its cannon at the Hammerhead, but fail to do any damge. The Tau in the ruins run across the open field into the forest not far from the Night lords supply depot. While the remaining chaos warbands run toward the Tau supply depot.

 Turn 3
A strange swirling light appear just behind the lord Arcous, he knew what that meant. His Terminators was on the way. But by some strange coincident of the warp, the light suddenly moved quite a few meters to the Night Lords right and the Terminators appear from the warp outside the wood in a not so good position. (The deep strike scattered and the Tau player got the chance to move the terminators up to 12" in any direction which off course was as far away from the crisis suites as possible.)

Lord Arcous is not however given time to reflect over the changed tactical situation that the Terminators appearance implied as the Crisis suites had rallied. At point blank distance they fire all their guns. Lord Arcous had time to see one of his men getting deintegrated by a direct hit of a Fusion plaster before multiple plasma shots hit the Lord causing him to fall bleeding to the ground.

The Terminators moved over the rails and fire their assault guns at the running firewarriors killing two of them. The other squad of firewarriors realise that they had to do something about the squad of warriors running towards them and charge out of their safe house fire their guns, but only manage to kill one of the approaching warriors. Behind them another squad of chaos marines charge around a corner chainswords blazing in the sun. Placing a few well placed grenades under the Hammerhead, blowing the machine up sky high.





The firewarriors in the forest charge through the under foliage towards the Night lord supply depot. Smashing a few crates with their rifle buts. The now leaderless warriors of Arcous body guard had a hard choice. Kill the flying crisis suites that kill their leaders or protect the supplies. In the end they decided that the supplies was the most imported and charged the firewarriors. Without their leader the luck was no longer with them first d facing a hail of close range fire from the firewarriors. (Most Tau has a Support rule that give them an sort of overwatch shot against all assaulting enemies)  Killing one of them. A second was tripped by a Tau rifle and stab to death by multiple knife stabs. The last warrior manage to separate a Tau head from its body before retreating. The Tau holding their ground.

Unknowing their breatherns failed assault the third group of marines assaulted the other group of firewarriors. Their battle cries paralysing the Tau by fear, cutting flesh and bone from blue-skinned bodies. Killing enemies to the left and right. The tau morale break and they flee only to be cut down from behind by the Night lords. The warband consolidate to the now unguarded Tau supplies.





Turn 4
With lord Arcous now unable to lead his troop they acted on primal battle lust. Killing all that they could get into range of. Witch at this point however was not much.

The Terminators advance toward the forest fire at the crisis suites. Failing to do any damage. The firewarriors continue their task to try to destroy the Night lord supplies almost making it (only one wound left)

The lone remaining warrior of Arcous body guard try to avange his leader. Assaulting the Crisis Suites only to be gunned downed in the process. The Crisis suites make a jump onto the crates. Smashing the last of them.

On the other side however the two remaining warbands make short notice of the Tau supplies.










Both sides has accomplished their missions and the game had to be decided by points.
The Night Lords had succeeded in killing a squad of firewarriors for 190pts and a Hammerhead for 255pts making it 445pts
The Tau had killed a Predator for 270pts, A squad for 100pts and Lord Arcous for 45pts for a total of 415pts. A Night Lord victory.

With another victory like this and the Night lord will be doomed. Not only did they loose their own supplies to the treacherous Tau. They also lost a valuable Predator and the loss of Lord Arcous will probably mean an internal struggle for his spot. The destruction of the hated Tau Hammerhead will however probably stop the Tau for at least the same amount of time.

Scavangers

Hijacked by a mysterious force a Tau battlefleet has been forced to the Gota sector. With several ship in badly need of repair and and with no knowledge about the surrounding star systems they had no choice but to set course to the closest available system that happens to be the Unum system. Even though their long range scanners showed it is already occupied by humans as well as orks.

A small scout cadre is deployed in what seems to be a calm area of the planet with the orders to scout for possible supplies to repair the ships and a suitable place for a base of operations.

While searching and bombed out abandoned city one group of the cadre face and unexpected enemy. A small Night lord warband also in search for supplies. 

The battle was fought using the OnePage 40k rules. A faster less complicated rule set for 28mm 40k. It can be found here https://onepagerules.wordpress.com/.

The Tau forces was led by Ul'Vain and his squad of crisis suites and consisted of two squads of fire warriors and a Hammerhead.

The chaos forces was lead by the Lord Arcous and consisted of three five men bands of marines with hand weapons. A squad of terminators with one autocannon a Hellbrute and a Defiler.

The mission was relic hunt with five relics in form of ammo crates containing important supplied for the two stranded forces. The force controlling the most relics after four turns are the winners.

Scared terrified by the hulking beast that the Defiler impose the Ul'Vain designate it to be the prime target. The Hammerhead move up close to one of the crates, while still getting some cover from the house and fire its impressive Rail-gun at the machine-beast. Severely wounding it (2 wounds). The Defiler respond by offloading it's battlecannon and autocannon at the Hammerhead (2 wounds back).

The firewarrios run and took cover behind some crates and secure the first supply crate not noticing a warband running up behind a nearby house on the Tau left. 

Ul'Vain and his crisis suites fly forward in full speed towards one of the other crates.

In the ruins another warband led by Lord Arcous advance under some scatter fire from the fire warriors that miss their shots against the moving targets. With the Tau occupied the Chaos terminators advance and kill one fire warrior with an autocannon.

In the other ruin the hellbrute advance unopposed while the final warband hide behind the same ruin. close to two of the supply crates. A place the will remain at during almost the entire battle.

Turn 2: Tau start since they finished turn 1 first.

The Hammerhead face a tough choice and decide to retreat to get out of the assault distance of the advancing warband. While retreating it fire its Railgun against the Defiler blowing the monstrous beast to smithereens. A collective cheer rise from the Tau. (As expected the Railgun was a joy to roll for)

In the ruins on the chaos right the warband led by the lord advance and secure a crate. The take however some fire by the firewarrior squad and is decimated to only two men.

Even further on the right the terminators advance and kill one of the crisis suites. Unfortunately the
one with fusion blasters, something that would be much missed in the future.

Demoralised the The crisis suites only manage to kill one of the remaining two of the warband in the ruins.

In the other ruins on the chaos left the Hellbrute advance and fire it's multi melta, now in range, against the Hammerhead, causing another two wounds. The tank now having a more than healthy number of holes in its armour.

The firewarriors fire back and succeed to wound the beast with their small arms.













Even further to the left a warband run to get into the firewarriors rear. Causing the Tau commander some headache.

Turn 3 Tau starts

The Hammerhead try to eliminate the threat the Hellbrute pose and fire the rail gun at it killing it in a hail of metal shards and blood. 

On the Night lord right the Terminators advance and try to down some of the crisis suites but their

shield prevent almost all shots to get through. Instead the fire warriors try to kill the survivor in the ruins in front of them but fail. At least they succeed in putting a marker light on the terminators. Making them prime target of the crisis suites that kill two of them. While the few survivors in the ruins kill one of the firewarriors.

The warband on the chaos left continue the flanking manoeuvre but take some causalities by the Tau that shift cover behind the crates. The last warband continue to stay out of sight and have two of the supply crates in range for the next turn.

Turn 4

The warband charge the Tau firewarriors. And even though only two marines is not cut down in the Tau preceding fire they kill enough of Tau to pin them. Thereby claiming the supply crate. The Hammerhead fire at the Terminators killing the one with autocannon outright.

The terminators move forward and try to do some damage on the crisis suites but without the heavy weapons it is futile. The firewarriors and crisis suites finish of the warband in the ruin making the crate unclaimed.


The chaos has however no problem to claim another crate with their warband that had been waiting, in a very unchaos way, out of sight behind a ruin the entire battle. And one crate with Lord Arcous.

The game is a 3-0 win for the Night Lords.

Facing an increasing number of casualties both forces retreat from the battle. The Night lord carries with them three crates containing invaluable holorecordings from archaeological excavations that might give them a clue to where the artefacts from the heresy might be situated. Just hope it is worth the cost in manpower. The Tau has to retreat with lesser losses but nothing to bring back but the news that the planet house more enemies then they first estimated.

It was the first time with the Tau under the OnePage rules. It worked fine but the Tau was to passive to have a chance. And in a game where you alternate initiative and it is almost always a good thing to have more units than you opponent made it even worse. The fire warriors wasn't to impressive in shooting (for Tau) but the crisis suites and the Hammerhead more than made up for that. And the firewarriors did surprisingly well in the close combat that they took part in.

The warped and the Tau

A powerful energy wave swept along the entire ship, disturbing the room-time making it look as its solid alloys was bending as it went back to normal-space.
Shas'El Sa'cea Kalias watched the air caste members on the command bridge as they frenetic tried to get the communication and scanning equipment to start. To El'Kalias eyes did many of them seemed like they where broken beyond repair from the fighting. But as the mechanics started to open up the panels and rewire the control one system after another started to go online again.

El'Kalias wondered if they ever would learn what or who that had attacked them. It was shortly after they made the transfer to the other-space they lost contact with the bridge. Reports was coming in shortly after that the bridge had been blocked by an unknown alien force and the ship has been taken over. Commander O'Carasada had immediately put together an improvised attack force with soldiers  experienced in ship combat and ordered the rest to get in high alert and search the ship for additional intruders. The swift response seemed to first have taken the boarders with some surprise. But in retrospective it had swung to their favour to obviously to not been planned. O'Carasada and his troop had succeed to breach the barricades around the bridge and enter the control room. El'Kalias had not complete knowledge of what happened after that since there where no first hand survivors. Somehow it seemed like intruders had appeared near O'Carasadas rear guard and engaged. They drove the rear guard back and succeed to close the barricade again behind O'Carasada. What then happened in the control room was unknown. But when they finally fought their way in again they found the stripped bodies of O'Carasada and his men laid out in a strange pattern on the bridge floor. Fought and fought. They had tried to breach the barricade several times in what seemed like days or weeks. The time is always so difficult to measure, just as the room, when you are in the other-space. But each time they was driven back by the invaders. They often appeared without a warning from a secured corridor in their flank or rear. It seemed like they knew the ship inside and out. El'Kalias only saw them briefly a few time. Tall creatures. Entirely dressed in black armour similar to those worn by the gue'la elite warriors that he seen countless of instructions holos of how to fight. But these did not fight like in the holos. They where brutal. Rentless. Almost as they enjoyed the fight. Their vox-casters screaming high pitched unnatural sounds. But still able to break off without a trace as soon as they where overwhelmed or when their task was done.

It was during these fights that the intruders somehow succeeded to enter the Aun quarter of the ship. Somehow they seem to have slipped unnoticed halfway across the ship. Impaled the Ethereal and his bodyguards on sharp metal stakes ripped out from the hull. And retreated again without a trace. Needless to say the ship has been in anarchy since that.

And then, at what became the last assault they where all gone. El'Kalias had led this assault against the bridge. They had established a perimeter around the lower doors as they tried so many times before. But this time they weren't attacked when they unwelded the doors and when they finally entered the bridge it was empty except the bodies of the pilots and O'Carasadas assault troop.

El'Kalias' thoughts was interrupted by a crackling sound from one of the voice casters. 'This is Vas'Arluun calling! Repeating. This is Vas'Arluun calling! Anybody hearing us!' Vas'Arluun one of the frigates in the fleet that meant that they where not alone wherever they where. One by one the air caste got contact with the other ships in the fleet. All reporting similar stories. Strange black aliens taking control of the bridge shortly after the passing. The only ship still missing was their flagship the Aun'Tarda. Suddenly a communication officer reported that they had caught several unknown signals from the surrounding space. Identified by the intelcomputers as be'gel.

Chaos Rising

The planet Unum in the northern parts of the Gota Sector has been the battleground between orks and men for the last two years. It is one of the front worlds in the current Waaagh Snassthoof war. Unknown for both side it is also one of the most important battleground during the Great Crusade where the legion of the Night Lords got their first foot hold in the sector. Now ten millennia later a small warband of Night Lords will try to infiltrate Unum while the orks and Empire slug it out and search the planet for lost artefacts from the ancient war.

The warband is however soon discovered by a force of orks and an unplanned battle take place.

The battle was fought using the OnePage 40k rules. A faster less complicated rule set for 28mm 40k. It can be found here https://onepagerules.wordpress.com/. And yes. The main rules are on one page so it is not much to read. The mission was Duel which means that the winner is the one that kills most points of the opponent. Each side had 1000 pts. The Orks became the attacker and choose to set up with a strong left. The Night Lords responded with setting up their Land Raider opposing the battlewaggon and a flanking force of bikes.

The orks realizing that their battlewaggon is an easy match for the Land Raider run it behind the abandoned fortress in the middle of the field. Unfortunately the cover is not enough and one of the lasercannons of the Land Raider still has line of sight. A huge hole in the side of the battlewaggon immobilize it. The lascannon on the other side make sure to transform the poor wartrakk to a big hole in the ground. (Unlike normal 40k each side activate one unit at the time alternating activations, making it possible for the opponent to react on each move)

The Flash Gitz hiding in a forest on the orks left side try to take out the advancing Hellbrute but their gunz fail them this turn and only a few shoots get out. The Hellbrute advance and its Multi Melta fry one of the Flash Gitz. The Grotz in the center move forward and fire their puny guns. The pure mass of gunz (twenty 4+ shots) actually put a dent in the Land Raider.

On the Night lord right the bikes enter combat but miss all their shots. The ork bikes move up to a bike duel. Killing one of their chaos counterpart with their shooting.

Realizing the threat the puny grots actually is the warband disembark from the Land Raider. The orks facing a though choice. Hoping to be able to assault out of the battlwaggon next turn but now out of range of any target and in a immobilized battlewaggon decide to just disembark. The Night Lord bikes on the left begin to out flank the orks. And the Warboss join the boyz.

The centre of the battlefield start to get cluttered. Time for turn 2. Since the orks ended previous turn the Night Lords get the first move the next turn.

The Land Raider start with Destroying one bike with one of the lasercannons. Try to kill the warboss with the other but just manage to take two wounds from him and finally gun down an ork with the bolters.

The ork horde have a ponder lengthy if they want to smash Land Raider or Marines. And decide after a few seconds that marines are funnier. They charge the warband. Killing all but two, while loosing half their numbers in return. (Each unit only have one stat called quality. The efficiency of each unit is a combination between the quality it has and how many attacks it has in that situation. The orks have a quality of 5+ while the chaos marines has a quality of 3+. This give a clear edge for the marines. Unfortunately does the orks have 80 dices with success on 5+ in this assault while the marines only have 22.) 

The Chaos bikes move up and try to kill some orks but miss. On the other side of the fort the grot riggers has worked hard with the battlewaggon and with a roar and a puff it start moving. Rounding the fortress and smash into the rear of the Land Raider. Somehow it deffrolla seems to stopped working (only four attacks rolled) and the Land Raider survive without any severe damage.

The Hellbrute kill three of the bikes. While the grotz gun down the remaining marines.
The Night Lords is now out of units to activate leaving the field open for the orks.

The orks start by trying to destroy the hellbrute with the blazing gunz of the flash gitz but only causing a wound. Then assault the Land Raider with the warboss. Doing another dent in the armour. Finally move the bikes try to shoot the Hellbrute but do no do damage.

Turn 3 the Night Lords start. With the Land Raider worth 500 pts the orks realize it must be destroyed to secure victory.
The Hellbrute kills another two of the Flash Gitz but they pass their moral roll and stand firm in the forest. The Ork mob swarm the Land Raider but only causing two wounds on the mighty machine. (To successfully wound the Land raider the orks first has to roll a 5+ to hit. Then the Land Raider has a 4+ in armour save and a 3+ in quality save to shrug of the wound so a lot of dices are needed.)

The bikes circle the orks trying to kill the warboss. In vain. Not even causing a wound.
Instead the battlewaggon get another chance to grind the Land Raider to dust. But only do another wound. The Land Raider answer with a devastating shot from the laser cannon. Blowing the Battlewaggon sky high. The other laser cannon kill a flash git, pinning the remaining git. Finally it try to kill the warboss with the bolter but he just shrug it of. The ork warboss fail to cause any damage on the Land Raider with the grots continue to pour damage to the machine causing another wound on it. The two remaining bikes circle around to get to the rear of the land raider next turn.

Turn 4. The Night Lord start the turn. The ork realize that they probably won't be able to destroy the land raider after all. 
The Land Raider try again to kill the Warboss but even a lasercannon is not enough to kill the tough beast (it has to be admitted that the warboss had a lot of luck with its save this game but having both 'eavy Armour and being though did definitely improve its survivability)

The warboss instead leave the Land Raider and assault the Chaos Bikers. Killing two of them without even breaking sweat. The lone biker however pass its moral test and just move away fire some shots at the ork bikers. The ork bikers charge the chaos bikes but fail to kill it. It is now up to the remaining ork mob and the grots to try to take down the Land Raider.

They fail and the game ends with 2 wounds remaining on the land raider.

Game over. Time to calculate the final score. With the Land Raider worth half of the marines points and still standing on the table the ork was not sure that the victory was theirs even though they killed every other Night Lord. The final score was however 425 for the orks and 350 for the Night Lords. A slime victory for the Orks. 

Since the game took only just over an hour we decided to have another game. So after half an hour list building we where ready for another go.

The battered Night Lord Warband has to retreat from the orks. But their retreat just took them right into the Imperial Guard Lines. They have to break through to safety.

The rolled mission was Break Through witch means that the Night Lords (the attackers) has to get more points in the Imperial Guard deployment zone than the guard it self. Not an optimal mission against the master of gun lines. The Night Lords deploy with the Land Raider and Hellbrute as a spear in the middle and the bikes as flanking forces. The Guard answer with putting their tank killing Russ Executioner right in front of it.

The Land Raider fire all its weapons on the Leman Russ Executioner. Stripping it of all but two wounds and Immobilize it. The lascannon in the squad in the forest try to hit the Hellbrute but miss it. The Bikers on the far right run and hide behind a forward ruin. The surviving Executioner fire all its guns on the Land Raider. Not making up to its name and cause only one wound. But making the crew shaken.
The Hellbrute advance killing one guardsman and the commissar in the wood while the other squad of guardsmen fire the missile launcher at the Land Raider but it fail doing any damage. The other biker squad hide behind the fortress in the middle while the remaining Russ fire the Battlecannon at the Land Raider. Causing another wound but this time immobilize the Land Raider. The warband has no choice but to disembark from their broken vehicle, and there is a long way to walk across the battlefield. Things already start to look dark for the Night Lords. In the middle a big squad of veterans advance while the officer order the lascannon to fire another shoot at the Hellbrute causing two wounds.

Turn 2, the Night Lords start. They have to kill a lot of guardsmen to be able to win.

The Land Raider finish of the poor Executioner. At least one obstacle less. But on the other hand does the lascannon kill off the exposed Hellbrute.

The biker behind the fortress zoom forward and assault the veterans. Killing none loosing one. Not a success exactly. They are now in the open and is taking fire from the infantry squad killing another. The other bikes on the far right continue its advance and hide behind a ruin in the opponents deployment zone.

The Remaining russ reckon it has line of sight to the warband and fire its battle cannon at them but the cover of the forest make them survive the hit. They instead advance and hide behind the wrecked vehicle. The veterans climb the vehicle and gun down on the warband. Killing the lord and another marine.  Finally the commander order the lasercannon to shoot at the bikes. But they miss.

Turn 3 the Night Lords start.
The warband charge the veterans. Kill 7 and loose three them self.

The russ move to the rear of the bikes and fire the cannon killing one of them

The remaining bike in the centre move toward the edge and fire at the veterans without effect. Troops in the forest reposition to be able to fire at the warband. The immobile land raider fire at what it can see. Causing two wounds on the russ. and killing a guardsman and a commissar. The veterans pour fire in the warband killing two more marines and the officer order the other squad to fire again killing another marine with the laser cannon. The bikes flee from the russ and fire at the squad with the missile launcher without effect. Finally that squad retreat behind a hill to get out of sight from the land raider and try to secure the imperial guards edge.

Turn 4. In the grim future it is especially grim for the Chaos space marines.

The two bikes on the right charge the lone squad of guards men. But does no damge. They are then quickly gunned down by the pursuing Russ.

The other biker fire at the nearby squad of troopers killing one. While the troopers gun down the bike. The warband charge the troopers and is killed in the process. The other infantry squad fire at the Land Rider and cause a wound while the Land Raider cause another two on the russ and kill two guardsmen. There isn't anything else for the remaining veterans to fire at but the Land Raider and they cause another two wounds and the game is over.

With the Land Raider getting immobile on turn 1 the hope was more or less lost for the Night Lords. The Land Raider is a big dangerous machine but it take up to many points at this level to be useful as been proven in both games. 

Needless to say we like the OnePage rules. It takes a way all the rule fiddliness of current version of 40K but keep the feeling. It still feels like 40K when playing. The heroes still stand out and survive against odds affecting the battle. The hordes is hordes and so on. It would still need some balancing and finishing but is already more balanced then current version of 40K