Ultramarines vs Orks, but told like a battle report in the 90's...

let's take a trip to 1994 and sandwiched right between the two main events of that year the opening of Nemesis at Alton Towers in March and the release of Saturday Night by whigfield in September white dwarf magazine published Dawn raid a battle between the Orcs And ultramarines as I count leading up to this battle there have been two Rogue Trader era battle reports and four second edition 40K reports and Orcs were featured in five out of six of them sadly however Orcs had yet to win a game in white dwarf magazine however this time they had an ace up their sleeves namely a brand new orc codex fresh out of the publishing oven written by Jervis Triple J Johnson himself and a bunch of new units however even if models like the Pulsar rocket and blood X Commandos weren't paid up yet at this time would it be fifth time lucky for the Orcs as was the theme at this era the orc Army was chosen from whatever had been painted up at that time by the heavy metal team namely a huge selection of Rogue Trader era models if you look closely you will see some unusual sights such as a single metal War bike War buggy and War track and a really interesting Rogue Trader era big boss on super cyborg which holds up pretty well against the metal and plastic balls which were released this issue rather than opting for the nearly 90 model orc horde of Wah grishnak in The Witch Hunt battle four issues back Jarvis goes for more variety and quality with a mix of infantry buggies and support weapons an interesting selection is a pain boy with the War gear card vaccine Squig this 50-point War gear card's sole purpose was to make your entire Army immune to another 50-point War gear card the virus grenade the virus grenade would kill anything unprotected under its two-inch blast marker on a three or more no saves and no matter how many wounds they had then every model that died would spread the virus 1d6 inches to models who would instantly die on a four plus this cycle would continue until either the virus was no longer able to kill anything or much more likely the entire affected enemy Army was dead now if you were for instance writing a battle report to show off your New Codex it's unlikely that your opponent would purposely plan on taking a grenade and delivering it into your Army on turn one or two and then wondering how they would fill up the 16 Pages the magazine allocated to you however even if they didn't each player had a 1 in 24 Chance of just being given a virus outbreak strategy card for every thousand points or part of in their Force as the battle reports were either 1 500 or 2 000 points it meant that every six battle report would result in one side having this card so best to stay protected meanwhile the ultramarines were in a bit of a quandary themselves at this point second edition was less than a year old and the design studio were trying to replace a lot of Rogue Trader era models with shiny new sculpts to get ready for their first codex yes that's right this was before regular Space Marines had a proper codex the last official one they had was in the Rogue Trader compendium published in 1989 so Jake The Snake Thornton had to use the Army list in the second edition box set imagine waiting a year and a half after an Edition is released before you get a Space Marine codex these days you get one well every year and a half this wasn't so much of a problem as codex Army lists consisted of almost all of the key units a Space Marine player would want to take the main issue was that at that time the studio didn't really have a decent selection of models to make a 2000 Point Army now I can hear you say hold on you sexy devil that's 40 Marines I see there well first thanks the only fans is coming soon and secondly this was before Marines could purchase five-man combat squads so each unit had to be the full 10 models with all the War gear which means that Assault Squad with all those extra weapons is nearly 450 points a quarter of the list luckily the big news for the ultramarines is that they got to use a Razorback which was only released a month beforehand if you haven't seen the original model you're probably wondering what on Earth is going on with that turret to which I do not have an answer the model itself was re-released on the dawning of Third Edition in 1999 with the twin heavy Bolter or twin last gallon turret and when the Rhino chassis was remade in 2002 they got rid of the Gunner altogether now the last Cannon and twin plasma gun combo is an anomaly which we never talk about Space Marines had to take a Tech Marine to take a vehicle so that had to be proxied in yes proxies in a battle report in white dwarf what an age this was also before the newer librarian models had been painted so Jake had to sub in an older Road Trader era blood angels librarian as well as one of the adeptor psycho models which seemed to fit in almost every Imperial force during this time the ultramarines come to 2002 points but you could reduce it down to 1998 points by taking a cheaper displacer field War gear card rather than the ones from their own War gear list that's why almost every character in this report had one the Orcs come to around 1 900 points as shown but this doesn't account for things like power axes for the ball boys and the weapons for the knob the missions drawn were Dawn raid for the Orcs And assassins for the ultramarines the Orcs would need to get one Squad with less than 50 casualties or an undamaged vehicle into their opponent's deployment Zone to get a bonus 5 victory points at the end of the game meanwhile the ultramarines would get a victory point if they wounded gazca and five they killed him outright next up was psychic powers the psycho Champion gets lightning Arc and something else the chief librarian gets gate assail quickening and an unnamed fourth power fun fact you can see this model on display at war in the world the awkward boy meanwhile gets death wave and another Power the ultramarines set up first with the exception of the Tech Marine and librarian that weren't painted at this time the ultramarine Army looked as neat and uniform as a bar of Capri's dairy milk meanwhile the orc Army looked as if someone had tipped licorice all sorts into an ashtray full of Bombay mix let's get ready to rumble Orcs go first due to their new strategy rating it would have been useful to go second given that the Orcs had to achieve their Dawn rate objective but that choice is off the table in this Edition Jarvis plays the virus outbreak strategy card and kills the adapter psycho I wonder when they first thought maybe we shouldn't have published this particular strategy card death skulls and snake bites go on OverWatch and everything else moves forward Jarvis decides against running the Dreadnought forward at speed to support his flank I suspect the reason for moving at a lower speed is down to Jake's Devastators being caught out of cover in the shooting phase they are almost wiped out along with the tecmarine in the psychic phase the weird boy gained an extra warp card for being around 10 Orcs weird boys work in a really unusual way and I probably need to do a deep dive at some point on the four pages of rules they got in dark Millennium meanwhile the chief librarian used a sale to move the weird boy forward and into the open this was a bit of a gotcha since it's one of 24 different powers the librarian had access to and there was no way of Jervis knowing about it I count four big mistakes Jervis makes during his first turn number one sticking the snake bites on what is a strange move since they only have pistol weapons I have a feeling that Jarvis might have thought The Assault Squad were as fast as swooping Hawks and could have got to the death skulls in one turn secondly moving the ball boys up beyond the gretching screen rather than holding them back a turn thirdly moving the weird boy forward to try and hit a target with deathwave and lastly using the squid catapult and death wave at the librarian rather than aiming it at the heavy weapon in a tactical Squad which would have had to move out of the way and forfeit shooting if it wanted to avoid being hit now it's Jake's turn to see if he can start to blunt the orc horde first the death skulls on OverWatch fire at The Assault Squad but do nothing Devastators fire at the Dreadnought battle wagon ball boys and Gretchen killing four War boys reducing them below half strength for the mission and destroying the last cannon on the Dreadnought the Tactical Squad kill another Gretchen and riddle the weird boy full of holes immediately giving their Librarians psychic dominance the chief librarian attempts to use quickening to double his movement initiative and attacks which would have been very useful but Jervis manages to nullify it even without a psycho at this point already there is not a lot Jake can do here apart from react to the Orcs he gets quite unlucky in that the shooting at the battle wagon hit the passengers as a penetrating hit on the hull could have destroyed the entire thing and everyone riding in it in one go or turn two the battle wagon moves up and the remaining knobs charge the Razorback charging for moving Vehicles appears to be legal here although I'm not sure if an FAQ covers this the remaining bore boys use the battle wagon and cover to get closer to the remaining Devastator the snake bites move up rather than go on OverWatch again and the orc Advance continues the York field artillery all misses however the Dreadnought and all vehicles in combination only managed to kill a single Devastator armed with a heavy Bolter gas cull's custom Blaster blows up which could have scored Jacob Victory point for his mission objective haddock caused the wound the shock attack gun fires three snotling bases at the Tactical Squad and kills four of them in combat the York knobs destroyed the Razorback with a power fist to the turret now with only one D6 warp cards being dealt nothing happened in the psychic phase apart from the Librarians storing a card for next turn Jervis must have felt pretty confident at this point and with only three heavy weapons left in the ultramarine Army and five undamaged vehicles ready to move into their deployment Zone what could possibly go wrong ultramarine turn two Jake sees the game at a turning point already and decides to use both remaining characters a try and snatch Victory the Commander in the right flank and the chief librarian on the left the commander uses combat drugs to double his movement and charges the art War track the chief librarian moves towards gazgar with the idea to cast the psychic power gate but triggers the overwatching death skulls who manage to score multiple hits only a single heavy Boulder shot gets through the displacer field but it causes four wounds and the librarian instantly drops dead Jake uses The Assault Squad to take cover in the orc building rather than pushing forward then in an even stranger move the six-man tactical Squad all miss or at least fail to kill any of their targets the remaining Devastators kill the crew of the orc War bike and buggy and managed to kill one knob pushing the unit below half strength in the combat phase the commander kills both Orcs in the war Trek leaving the Orcs with just two units that could fulfill their objective in the final turn this was a really strange turn weird after Marine shooting results aside the gate strategy is unlikely to have worked as even if the librarian had cast the Orcs could have used the gate to move through and attack the Marines before The Assault Squad could charge also Gaskell had his power of the Wag that would have kept him safe in the final turn of the game there is a chance that the librarian had something like Vortex or another particularly devastating psychic power but this strategy isn't mentioned either way the death of the librarian Nets the York's three victory points going into the final turns of the game I'm scoring it as nine victory points to the Orcs and three for the ultramarines plus the Orcs have the advantage by still being able to achieve their main objective however could Jervis snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in order to keep the battle wagon safe the Dreadnought charges the ultramarine commander I'm not sure why the Goths didn't join in I'm assuming something to do with the scale of the battle and then being further away than the map suggested meanwhile the big boss and ball buys charged the remaining Devastators the orc shooting is ineffective only managing to kill a single Devastator I'm not sure that Jervis remembered that the guy carrying the multi-melter on the wall buggy could have fired maybe he was dead the big boss kills his opponent and the ball boys finish off the last Devastator Squad despite charge judging the orc Dreadnought is overwhelmed by the ultramarines commander and destroyed via a melter bomb to the leg while the combat phase is highly cinematic and the commanders Jewel with the Dreadnought is burnt into my brain literally any other course of action would have been better for the Orcs at this point if the big boss Dreadnought ball boys and maybe even Goths had charged into the commander they would have been able to tie him up if not kill him outright alternatively if the Dreadnought just stood where it was and fired at him instead it might have wounded him which would have removed the combat drugs for next turn as it was the Orcs end up losing two victory points for the destroyed Dreadnought ultramarine turn three at the start of the final turn Jake believes that Victory is within his grasp at 14 points to the Orcs and six to the ultramarines it looks bleak but if the battle wagon is destroyed it causes a swing of six points the ultramarines commander charges the battle wagon which would be easier prey than the Dreadnought the OverWatch fire from the death skulls causes no damage to the Tactical Squad denying the Orcs two victory points for pushing the squad down below half strength The Assault Squad who are now in pistol range of the Orcs cause no damn the Tactical Squad fared better killing 10 Gretchen despite having killed none the previous turn as the squad is so cheap this doesn't result in a victory Point sadly the squad doesn't break which would have picked up the bonus Point not sure how this could have happened as they moved so they couldn't rapid fire I'm gonna guess this might have been down to including the casualties they forgot to include last turn the two remaining Devastators fire at the big boss but fail to make the kill that would have netted one Victory point in the Final Act of the game the commander sticks six melter bombs on the wheel of the battle wagon and Jake managed to roll the six required to destroy the vehicle entirely the damage result causes the vehicle to flip into the air and land D6 inches away on both Devastators and the big boss dealing D6 strength 7 hits to everyone and killing all three this sequence of events takes the score from 14-6 to 9-7 and finally to 12-8 in favor of the Orcs in terms of a cinematic battle that comes down to the last turn of the game with Victory hanging in the balance in the final rolls of the dice this battle is excellent however it must have been a frustrating battle to play as expecting an org Army to get into their opponent's deployment Zone in three turns is about as likely as expecting the ultramarines to kill a muggle that has the ability to turn himself invulnerable for a turn it's telling that this is the first and last three turn battle report in the era however if the game had continued it would have probably meant an even more decisive victory for the orc as their tactical Squad could have been reduced below half strength and the commander surrounded in combat or shot to Pieces could The Assault Squad have prove decisive if it moved forward probably not although we will never know Turn 2 would have had the death skulls two heavy stubbers heavy Bolter and heavy glass begun fire go into the nine assault Marines emerging from cover rather than killing the librarian but the remainder of the squad would have to contend with casualties from possibly scattering into the buildings and then deal with 18 Orcs only a few more casualties and they might have gone below half strength or even been wiped with 40K it's commonly said that 70 of the time the game is won or lost when you build your army and deploy unfortunately for the ultramarines Jake built the Army to kill infantry and urgently needed to kill Vehicles meanwhile after his deployment the right flank looks strong however with the psycho Champion dead from a strategy card half the Devastators caught out of cover and the Razorback the focus of all the anti-tank Firepower of the Orcs it crumbles along with any chance the ultramarines have of dealing significant damage could it have been won by the ultramarines maybe if the old Marines deploy in the center he's in the Tactical scored as a shield for the Devastators then The Assault Squad can deploy in the Hills to their left with the commander and librarian ready to move up and put the large orc buildings between themselves in any incoming fire or psychic attacks they would have had a shot in this scenario the Orcs probably get the bonus point from the mission objective as the commander isn't available to deal with the vehicles but the ultramarines should have enough Firepower to deal significant damage to the York Army a Firebase to keep their characters and vehicles safe and a decent sized assault Force what surprised me while I was rereading this report is how how close the old Marines got to Victory while only using three quarters of their army the Orcs should have romped home to a resounding win the key appears to be holding the ball boys back behind the gritching screen and then using them to charge forward into the ultramarine deployment Zone in the last turn to pick up the bonus 5 victory points rather than being reduced to under half strength from the Devastators on turn one with the mission being a sure thing the vehicles could have been used to screen each other so that the Dreadnought and War buggy with multi-melter could fire into the ultramarines behind their ablative screen of the battle wagon War track and Warby but a one-sided drubbing that involved abusing the targeting rules in second edition to steal a victory on the last turn wouldn't have been as compelling as a jewel between the orc Dreadnought and ultramarine Commander besides Jarvis Johnson is a proponent of playing thematic games rather than playing to win if anyone had suggested this kind of strategy to win they would have been stoned to death on the spot the real objective of the battle is achieved the Orcs finally get a win in an issue of white dwarf meanwhile the ultramarines got a rematch of sorts in white 12 182 but that's a story for another day if you've enjoyed this retelling of a classic report and it's fired your imagination why not watch this video on how to learn to play second edition starting with the movement phase otherwise I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Olden Demon

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Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2023