Throwdown: Thraka vs. Calgar 2000 points.

After a long week of work, I was able to head down to Dragon's Den Games on Sunset Boulevard and play a 2000 point game against my usual opponent Ron. I fielded my usual Ultramarines (who are looking more and more complete all the time) with a few twists. I used two Land Raiders (Normal LR and a Redeemer), a Predator Annihilator, and Marneus Calgar. I was glad I finally used the model, I bought him two years ago at Warhammer World in Nottingham, and he's been sitting in storage since. Ron fielded a mechanized Ork force consisting of about 68 Boyz, 2 mobs of Nobz, 3 Battlewagons, 3 Trukks and of course Ghazkull. There were five downed marines on the battlefield who acted as objective markers and we deployed by table halves. I knew that with Calgar and Thraka on the table, the battle was going to be bloody, and it did not disappoint.

 Turn 1: Started with night fight rules. Ron moved his battle wagons as far as he could to ram my Redeemer. Despite having five strength 10 attacks with his ram, he didn't even manage to scratch the pain.








Turn 2: Calgar and his retinue of five Assault Terminators stayed in the belly of the beast through turn two. I forgot to use Calgar's Orbital Bombardment, in hindsight, the result probably would have been devastating. However the multi-melta would start a very bloody turn of shooting by exploding the center Battle wagon.

 Turn 2: Eight Orks perished in the explosion. A further six burned when the Redeemer's Machine Spirit allowed one of the Flamestorm cannons to fire on the clustered and stunned Orks. The Battle Wagon to the left was destroyed by the second Land Raider's Lascannon.

 Turn 2 Orks: Ron decided to attempt to ram the Redeemer with the third Battle Wagon. However there was a lone tree in the way which proceeded to impale the Battle Wagon and immobilize it. The ground soon became coated in a wave of green-skins.

 ...I clearly approve of the Battle Wagon immobilizing itself.

 Turn 3 Ultramarines: Meanwhile, on the other side of the table... For some reason I decided to try to run for one of the objectives with a Rhino full of Tactical Marines. They were confronted by 2 Trukks of Boyz and Nobz. This would turn out to be a disastrous decision.

Turn 3: The Rhino was quickly destroyed, marooning the Marines in the crater of their own transport. The Marines would survive long enough to destroy the Nobz Trukk, which careened and killed two of the Nobz. Despite this, the Tactical squads fate was sealed.

 Turn 3: The Battle Wagon gap was further contested by Calgar and his Terminators. They would go on to kill off the majority of one of the marooned Boyz mobs, while only taking one casualty themselves.

Turn 3: Thraka enters the fight with his Nobz in tow. Unfortunately my Vanguard Veterans failed to come in and assist. I also accidently deployed a Tactical squad (which was meant to support Calgar's assault) on the opposite side of the table. Thraka's charge would prove to be my undoing. Calgar had already taken two wounds, and my demise was preceded by a lousy round of close combat between Calgar the Terminators and Thraka's Nobz.




All in all, a great game played on a great table with full terrain. I hadn't played on GW's Realms of Battle board before, and I have to say that I was really impressed with the quality of the board. This game turned out to be a great learning experience for me as I got to learn more about an army I have very little experience with. I walked away from the table knowing that this battle was winnable if I had made a few better tactical decisions. I also decided that I don't think that the Vanguard Veterans are worth taking as a Deep Strike Choice, this is the second time that they have failed to come in when I desperately needed them. Had I correctly deployed my Tactical squad and had the support of the Vanguard vets, I think I could have won the center of the table and I believe the game would have turned out much differently.