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To celebrate the the Finnish independence day(6.12) we decided to play special scenario with somewhat larger than usual forces. We opted for 4.5k armies(though orks ran 5 points over). Fluff for the battle was:

In the initial days after Imperial Guard reinforcements the orks were driven off with great speed. Tank legions from Minervan in particular were succesfull driving orks back. However with great success comes great dangers. Minervan XX in particular found themselves cut off support and surrounded by ork counter attack. After initial fierce strugle tank legion had to admit defeat and started retreating back to re-establish contact with rest of the Imperial forces that weren't quite as succesfull as the overambitious Minervan legion. With orks in hot pursuit they called out for reinforcements for their numbers were inadequate to hold at bay the swarm that was coming. With nearest regiments already under assault Imperial HQ had to send troops from rearguard. Nearest one was Cadian 83rd infantry regiment that was tasked with job of joining forces with Minervan legion and hold the line, least orks envelope Imperial forces on both flanks.

At dawn orks prepared for their assault, but the Cadians had also arrived. It would be race for time. Would orks overrun tanks in time or would reinforcements come in time to rescue.

So with this in mind we divided the Imperial army into two parts. 2.3k worth of Cadian 83rd and 2.2k worth of Minervan XX(using my Minervan XVII list). Against them would be entire might of 4.5k worth of orks from my own Ork army list(so no need to point out to how "incorrect" army lists are. They are quite legimate, just not made from standard tournament lists). Minervan would start in center around 2 hills, orks would start over 30cm away(so 30cm weapon ranges don't have reach at first). Infantry forces would start 45cm from Minervan forces(60cm was original plan but table was too narrow for that). Primary goal is to hold the 2 hills Minervan begins in, secondary goal #1 is to capture small hill on ork left flank(between ork and Minervan deployment zones) and secondary goal #2 is for Imperium to get non-broken formation into ork deployment zone at the end of turn and for orks prevent that. Last turn teleporting won't satisfy the condition. 4 turn game. Secondary goals worth 1 point and primary goal 2 points so way to win: Hold primary+atleast one secondary or contest primary and control more secondary goals. This means Imperial HAS to advance sooner or later for otherwise orks simply hold the small hill and tie the game. Anyway army lists(note that we rolled 2d6 for entire army, not 2d6 for both armies. Not that it really meant much when he rolled 10 anyway ):

Cadian 83rd:

Core companies:

Infantry company #1: commander+18 troops, commisar 350
Infantry company #2: commander+12 troops + fire support platoon, commisar 350
Infantry company #3: commander+12 troops, commisar 250

Support companies:

Artirelly company: 9 basilisk, commisar 650

Support formations:

Drop troopers: 8 drop troopers commisar 250
Flak battery: 3 hydras 150
Super heavy tank: shadowsword, commisar 200

total: 2200

Minervan XX:

Core formations:

Battle company: supreme commander, Leman russ vanquisher, 9 battle tanks, 3 leman russ demolisher, commisar 900
Conqueror company: 9 Minervan pattern Conquerors(as in collector section but 2xheavy bolter sponsons), commisar 600
Mechanised infantry: commander, 12 troops, 2ogryns, 9 chimeras, commisar 425
Destroyer company: 6 leman russ destroyers commisar 375

total: 2300

grand total: 4500

Orks(made from Waaa Ghazkat for reminder):

Big warband #1: 17 boyz, 2 nobz, 9 grots 400
Big warband #2: 16 boyz, 2 nobz(warlord), 8 grots, 2xkilla kan 425
Warband #3: 8 boyz, 1 nobz, 4 grots, 4xbattlewagon, gunwagon 400
Warband #4: 10 boyz, 2 nobz, 6 grots, battle fortress, gun fortress 570
Warband #5: 8 boyz, 1 nobz, 4 grots, 2 killa kan, 3 dreadnought 380

Big kult of speed: 12 buggies, 4 skorchas 350
Bliz brigade: 6 gunwagons w/supa-zzap gun upgrade 270
Big bliz brigade: 9 gunwagons w/2 soopaguns upgrades 385

Mekboy stompa mob: 4 stompas w/ammer 300
Supa-stompa mob: supa stompa w/ammer + 2 stompas w/3 big gunz 400
Big Gunz mob: 12 big gunz, 2 soopaguns upgrades 375

Fighta sqwadron: 5 fighta bommaz 250

total: 4505

For terrain we had little choise. Forrests are 150km away, new Epic sized forrest pieces need bases(need to figure thin but strong enough bases for them first). So since this wasn't supposed to be cityfight we had to settle for bunch of hills. So as per scenario conditions we had small hill on ork left, 2 big hills in around center, 2 on ork right flank(one was impassable on left-right direction) and one on both flanks of IG. Pretty thin for terrain but since hill pieces are quite big that should make up a bit.

Deployment:

Orks: From left to right:

Fortresses mob on extreme flank and behind them wagon transported warband. Then warband #1, big gunz mob "screening" small bliz brigade. Then warband #1 with stompa mob at front of them, warband #2, supa stompa, kult of speed, big bliz brigade.

IG, Minervan(orks point of view):

Conqueror company on left hill, battle company on right. Destroyer company right of battle company with mechanised infantry behind the hills.

IG, Cadian, left to right:

Basilisk, hydra, infantry company #2, infantry company #3, shadowsword, infantry company #1.

Turn 1: Strategy roll won by orks.

Boss Nagruk tells his boys: First ork top of that hill wins extra bounty! With this entire warband #1 doubles forward like madmans imagining all that squig beer and trophies they are going to get. While doing this some more sensible ones tries to shoot those big scary tanks for no effect. Regimental commander mounted top of his leman russ vanquisher isn't even impressed at this and opens his company to open fire. On sustained fire effect is nothing short of devastating and fully 3/4 of warband lies dead after 12 tanks have fired. Rest decide all that squig beer and trophies aren't worth this afterall and run back where they started...

Fighta bommaz meanwhile do suppression attack toward that big basilisk company(since I retained initiave after warband move I was forced to spend warlords supreme commander reroll on this). One plane is shot down by hydras but tank busta rokkits destroy 2 basilisk.

I should point out it's been a while since I played any miniature game. I just wanted those warbands, which were due to space problem bit dense, forward and bit more scattered before that company of basilisk opens up. Didn't remember sustain firing company of russes is even less pleasant experience.

Horrified at the effect those tanks had warlord orders big gunz to open up on nearest tank company, which is the conquerors. 3 big gunz and both soopaguns open up on sustain fire and 3 tanks are destroyed. Now that's more like it warlord figured. Right untill explosions started falling around HIM! Those basilisk decided to try to get warlord dead at once but only got 2 dozen ork boy and grot dead(4 boyz stand and 2 grot stand). From his right 2 gunwagons explode as the destroyer tanks sustain fired at them(got lucky there. 6 sustain firing destroyers and he rolled 3 1's! Saved one so "only" 2 dead gunwagons. Nasty tanks these destroyers).

With rear of Imperial army being composed of mainly infantry I wanted to get soopaguns into there ASAP. With this in mind big bliz brigade doubled forward but due to BM's soopaguns couldn't yet shoot at infantry so shot at destroyers instead. Alas shooting was orkish standard so no tanks destroyed.

"But wait a second! How come those tanks comes through that OBVIOUSLY impassable giant lap-top! They aren't ethereal tanks you know!" Imperial commander cried out.

"Aha! But if it's impassable how come your destroyers shot THROUGH that QUITE obviously laser proof lap-top" Ork warlord triumphantly pointed out.

(Sorry. Bad joke. Couldn't resist. Since I wanted to take notes I had my lap-top computer on one corner of my board and since board space was short anyway some of my units, namely kult of speed and bliz brigade, were deployed top of computer. Couldn't help myself and we did joke a bit about this during the game )
Big bliz brigade doubles into side of destroyers and shoot them. No casualties.

Supa-stompa didn't want those gunwagons have all the fun and moved forward on double speed. One destroyer was blown apart by giant soopaguns the walker was carrying.

With battle raging fiercely Conquerors decided to take a breather and regain some order in confusion. Unfortunatly confusion was REALLY great and despite order being regained in the end that was all they were able to do(tried to marshal but he failed the activation roll, common theme of game, so just regrouped blast markers out instead).

Ork warlord sends more and more of his troops forward. This time he orders stompa mob(figuring better he send of everything else first and he'll follow later) to advance forward. Stompas enthustiacly shoot at battle company(sound of big gunz is always fun to hear for orks) but, as usual, all shots miss or bounce off the tank armour(my god. How do you get rid of those tanks anyway?). Smaller bliz brigade tries to show how it's done, moving behind the stompas for safety, but even supa-zzap gun fails to hit. Bugger ork warlord thinks.

Minervan commander then calls to cadians: "Get your men here ASAP! There's WAR going on if you haven't noticed!" he yells to comm-link. Infantry company #2 responses by marching to flank the conqueror company. This comes in good time as Warband #5 doubles up and send hail of rokkits toward looming conqueror tanks. Of course, as usual, rokkits fail to blow even single tank.

Infantry company #1 meanwhile is suffering some serious communication failures, hearing something to "no need to hurry, just secure our rear" and casually walks forward(double 1 there for him).

Battle- and gunfortresses start to move and unload front of infantry company #2. They shoot everything bar kitchen sink against those seemingly invulnerable conquerors. After 8 twin-linked big shootas, 14 big shootas and 4 big gunz ONE tank has been wrecked. Somebody give me bigger gunz.

Last reinforcements arrive as infantry company #3 marches bit sideway and are now behind the conqueror company, where most serious ork push seems to be happening. With this Imperial back is pretty much emptied so crazed kult of speed marches straight into flank of infantry company #1. Chaos reigned!

"Imperial HQ to shadowsword. Get that supa-stompa out of my sight!" Colonel Krunz orders. Shadowsword tries to move forward to secure range but something goes wrong on power couplings and tank just sit there. Range is true though and ork powerfields short out as the massive beam hits giant warmachine head on.

Ork warlord is running short of options. Since everybody else is failing he decides to show how things are done. He orders his warband to surround the supa-stompa and shoot at those destroyers. One lucky ork(though he later claimed it's all to his skill) hit tank square on with his rokkit which penetrated the hull and killed crew inside.

"That's how it's done!" warlord laughes as Imperial tanks retreat hastily. "Obviously they heard I'm coming and decided to leg for it." he muses further.

However Imperial morale hasn't been damaged yet. Mechanised infantry launches counter attack. Advancing past conqueror tanks the infantry disembarks in the flank of warbands #4 and #5. Shooting however proves less than impressive with only few handfulls of grots and boyz dying(3 grot and 1 boyz stand) from warband #4. Still. They were pretty impressive threat so I sent out last of my forces in form of warband #3 which flanked his mechanised infantry in return. Since the infantry was hugging tanks for some cover I just shot at the tanks instead. By some stroke of luck 3 chimeras exploded.

"That's more like it! Give me more of THOSE tanks to face instead of those uber-tanks of we-don't-die-regardless-of-what." warlord thought at this.

Then time to see which formations could rally. For orks warbands #2, #1 and #4 all rallied. Only #1 had BM's left. Supa-stompa also rallies. Unfortunatly big bliz brigade fails. Guess those got bit scared when those destroyers opened up.

For Imperial Guard shadowsword, infantry company #1, conqueror company and destroyer company rally. Battle company, mechanised infantry and basilisk company fails.

Turn 2: Strategy roll won by orks.

Left flank is where greatest danger to disaster lies so Ork warlord sends order for warband #3 to engage that mechanised company. Combat proves costly for both side and it seems like stand off but simple ork determination pays off and Imperial nerve breaks first(2 ogryn and 2 IG trooper stand dies for IG and for orks 3 grots and 4 boyz. Modifier differende +-0 so came to roll off which orks won by 3).

Then warlord sends this message to warband #4:

"Get your boyz and engage those hummies. Nevermind their gunz or those conquerors at your flank. Tanks WILL be dealt with. Over."

What ork boss hears over orkish com-links:

"Get****************gunz***********conquerors**********deal********Over"

With this rather garbled message he figures it means he must use his gunz to deal with conquerors. Nevermind his warband lacks on rokkit launchas. His second in command disagrees: "Surely he can't mean that! We can't POSSIBLY hurt those tanks with what rokkits we have!".

"If grand warlord sez we use gunz to deal with those big scary tanks then dat's what we do because he's da boss!" boss sais.

With this formation shoots half-heartedly at conquerors and unsuprisingly fails to do any casualties. When ork warlord heard what they were doing he would have pulled his hair out if he had any.

(yes I rolled double 1 for activation there. Gee what a suprise. So instead I tried to suppress those nasty anti-infantry conquerors).

Conqueror company then decides to show what sort of firepower they pack. Range was bit high though so they try to advance. As usual for this game they failed to activate. Colonel leading the army knew things were touch&go so ensured they would advance with help of reroll. Tanks rumble toward warband #5 and opens up. 4 conqueror cannons and 12 heavy bolters let go at the warband! Only 4 stands of boyz die though. With this colonel decides to lead his battle company into assault! Break those orks or die in trying! They charge out of hill(quite an awesome sight probably) and head straight toward stompas and bliz brigade! Fierce firepower is exhanged but only one tank explodes. Neither side is willing to give up and just keep firing, blinded by the hatred they feel toward each other. This time battle cannons and lascannons start to find holes in armour and 2 stompas and 4 gunwagons explode for loss of yet another tank. Orks cannot hold up against such a carnage though and tries to flee, only to be destroyed by now backing off tanks. Center suddenly looked whole less steady from ork point of view.

Ork commander commented on this by saying: "how rude!" and ordered big gunz to return fire at battle company. Result: Zip. Nothing. Ork warlord then tries to contact kult of speed to stop reinforcements coming but hears only drunken laughter(jep. Yet another 1. Maybe I shouldn't try to retain initiave so much!).

Supa-stompa then finds itself under fusilade from not only shadowsword but destroyer company(even if later shot at confused manner due to YET another failed activation roll). Giant warmachine was nearly destroyed but not quite. Hydra's meanwhile found themselves busy as another ground attack run from fighta bommaz flew toward basilisk. Fighta bommaz flew BIT too close on earth and presented too easy target as entire flight(4 planes!) was shot down by trio of planes. Sigh. With this basilisk company is safe and tries to repay this by ordering another round of bombardment. Unfortunatly co-ordinates are lost in confusion(yep. Another failed activation roll. This was getting too hilarious).

Waaagh! Warband #5 decides to engage conquerors while they can. Trio of dreadnoughts and killa kan leads the charge, contacting the tanks with ease, but even their powerfull claws can't chink that armour(from what are these tanks made off? Void shields?). Assault turns into rout and same walkers that reached tanks were destroyed. Conquerors crew just laughed 'till it hurt and moved their tanks bit back again.

Needless to say I'm feeling less than happy at my performance at this point. Everything I do is countered with ease. So I decide to try and break the Imperial line and get rid of that battle company! They took care of stompas and gunwagons. Let's see if they can deal with warlords warband! Though grots go first...Those tanks are scary! The Imperial tanks keeps firing at approaching grot swarm untill barrels glowed white from heat but with supa-stompa joining in the fun one demolisher is destroyed and nearest orks are getting close. Imperial colonel orders hasty retreat but this saw further 2 demolishers and 3 battle tanks destroyed by hail of rokkits. All hail Gork and Mork! Let WARLORD show how things are done!

Infantry company #1 finally realises things are NOT safe and though kult of speed is on their flank they figure those drunken orks aren't going anywhere for a while. So they double forward and shoot at bliz brigade but ork vechiles are saved from worst of it. Warlord however realises path to objective hill is NOT so clear afterall!

Gunwagons were also less than happy at the prospect of huge swarm next to them and decided to back behind supa-stompa. Soopaguns however opened up on infantry company #1 and huge holes appear from weirdboyz blasts(my gunwagons with soopaguns are actually weirdboy towers). Fully 30 troopers(ie 6 stands) are dead or injured from the blast(quite lucky shot. Didn't miss single roll!).

With threat of ork planes hydras then decide to join in ork hunting. They open up on warband #4 and kills quite a lot of grots, leaving only single stand. Supa-stompa then tries to marshal(couldn't shoot due to BM's) but fail to activate, which at this point didn't come to suprise to either of us. Good thing those stompas were there so instead just regrouped, removing all BM's at once.

Infantry company #2 then decides that if orks don't come to them they come to orks. They engage warband #4! 2 conquerors and hydras join in the fun and the last grot + 5 stand of boyz are dead for loss of 2 IG stand(not good. With 2 fortresses I expected more). 9-2 modifiers and after roll off 2 more boyz and both fortresses(ouch) were dead or destroyed. Warbands boss figures out maybe shooting at conqueror's WASN'T what big boss meant afterall...

With left flank falling apart warband #1 then doubled forward and shot at conquerors. As usual, no casualties.

Finally infantry company #3 tries to double past conquerors but, as usual, 1 on dice meant they had to advance alongside them instead.

Rally phase:

Orks: Warbands #1, #3 and what's left of #4 rallies.
IG: Infantry company #1, #2 and #3 rallies. Destroyer company as well. Ditto for Conqueror company. Battle company rallies(due to commisar and SC all BM's removed!) and of course mechanised infantry rallies. Bugger.

Pistän loput kunhan on aikaa viimeistellä teksti.

Turn 3: Drop troopers land next to broken warband #5 and big gunz mob. By some stroke of luck they receive blast markers. Strategy roll won by Imperial Guard!!!

Conqueror company sustain fire at warband #3. Somehow orks managed to get some cover from SOMEWHERE and only 2 stands of boyz and 1 grot dies. This however was JUST enough to break them...The warband backs off a bit.

Drop troopers then engage the big gunz. Lasguns and meltaguns from these elite grav-chute troops destroys or kill crews from 3 big gunz while in return grot crew shoot down one stand of elite troops, their heavy carapace troops saving another. Further 3 big gunz, including super heavy missile launcher, are lost in confused retreat.

Warlord then orders bliz brigade to double up and get rid of some of that infantry on left flank. However formation is still a mess after all the fire they have and stand still, trying to smash some heads together to get their act together(yep yet another 1).

Confusion however is only added as the giant warmachine explodes from yet another direct hit from shadowsword. Supa-stompa is shredded to pieces by internal explosions that follow. Stompas decide they don't want to suffer fate of the big warmachine and back off. Further laser beams blows up 3 gunwagons from bliz brigade(soopaguns included!) and remaining 4 just ran away.

At this point, with ork assault heavily in pieces, time running short(setting the game took longer than we expected) and my headache that had lasted whole day only worsening we decided to call it a game. Orks had most of their main units lying in pieces and Imperial main units(battle company, mechanised infantry, 3 infantry companies...) weren't even activated. They could easily push toward small hill and my deployment zone and next turn take them.

Yes I might have had chances but I was losing both warbands #1 and #2 quickly but odds were slim enough that all conciderations concidered not worth the pain.

And we were worried scenario favoured the orks

Anyway so the result was astonishing victory for Imperium. Line was held and with suprisingly low casualties. Driving the orks further could resume with fresh reinforcements.