Over the weekend of May 19th/20th 2007, club members John Orange and Rob Cowan went to the latest Games Workshop Campaign weekend - Dark Stars: Where Angels Lie.

This took place at GW's Nottingham HQ - see this page for some information about the venue, and this page for an overview of the event. 

With seven games over the course of the weekend, it was very hectic, with limited time to complete each round. However, they were very successful: Rob won all his games , and John won five of his games with his Orks, a personal best at one of these events. 
John took his camera, and here are some pictures of his games.

The pictures here are thumbnails: click on them to see a larger picture

Day 1 - Game 1

This was a quick 400 point Combat Patrol ice-breaker against Ultramarines commanded by Tony Holton

Top Left: the whole deployment.  Rokkit-armed Killa Kans in the open, with a Slugga Boyz mob in the rocks on the left.  The Marine Devastator squad deployed behind the wood, so they couldn't be shot at if they didn't get first turn...

...Unfortunately, they didn't allow for a mob of Rokkit and Shoota-armed Kommandos infiltrating some more rocks behind their flank!

This nice Land Speeder zoomed out and shot at the Slugga Boyz, killing three over two turns, but withdrew back into the cover after discovering that the Kans and the boyz all had them on their rokkit priority target list!

Robbed of their chance to shoot at the Land Speeder, the Killa Kans charged the Devastators, who had moved through the Scouts to the front of the wood.  Here we see the aftermath of that combat: all the remaining Devastators have been killed, and the Kans have consolidated into the Scouts, who didn't survive the experience.

The Kans went on to assault the Land Speeder, and eventually killed it after several rounds of combat. 

Final result: 400 - nil to the Orks, who had lost only three boyz. 

Day 1 - Game 2

This was a 1000 point Breakout mission against Andrew McCall's Black Templars.   In this mission, one side starts in the middle of the table, the other has to split his forces between the two ends.  The player in the middle has to get half his units off the ends of the table. 

Ork Turn 1 saw the whole warband charge towards one corner.  The Templars destroyed one buggy, and stunned a Trukk, but couldn't reach anything else.

Day 1 - Game 3

A 1500 point Take and Hold mission against Tom Wimpory with Demon Hunters.
Tom's deployment included an alarming number of dreadnoughts, whose early shooting was very good - witness the destroyed vehicles and bailed-out boyz in these pictures!
I made a couple of serious mistakes in the mid-game, which ended with a lot of Tom's troops already scoring, and two trukk boyz mobs waiting on the right flank for a last turn dash to the scoring zone.  Unfortunately, Tom had very cleverly blocked all the avenues to the scoring zone with his troops, so I did the only thing I could: I drove them through the wood, and assaulted the units in the way from inside their perimeter.  It was too little, too late, but it did pull the the final score back a bit - 1106 to Tom's 1292, and a solid victory for the Demon Hunters.

Day 1 - Game 4

The last game of the day was a 1900 point Blitz Breakthrough mission against Mike McLeod's Emperor's Might Imperial Guard regiment. 

Unfortunately for Mike, the scenario allowed the defender to have Fortifications, and I just happened to have some with me.
The scenario also allowed all of the Ork Heavy Support, HQ and Troops choices to start on the field, which meant Gun wagons with Zzap guns, Killa Kans and Looted Rhinos with Rokkits, and Tank Busta mobs, all behind fortifications.  Only the Trukk Boyz and Rokkit Buggies started in Reserve.

In the end, he had only just managed to break into the Ork positions with these splendid Ogryns when the game ended, and many units were still trapped in the No-Man's land region where they scored points for the Orks.  Final score 1152 - 541 to the Orks

Day 2 - Game 5

This was scheduled as a 1000 point game, but for reasons that were never explained, I found myself partnered with Gavin Townsend in a 2000 point doubles game against Christian Falch and Simon Korfman, both with Dark Angels.  The mission was Secure and Control, and there were four loot counters spread across the centre of the table.

Gavin deployed on the left, where there was some cover for his mobs, and I took the more open right. 

The Trukk Boyz on the right were able to rush forward, assault and destroy some marine bikers, and then consolidate into an Attack Bike - which didn't last long.

Gavin's Tank, Bikes and Buggies did a bit of damage but took some losses.  However, they ended next to an objective, behind a wood so they couldn't be shot at, and with a Slugga Boyz mob moving up in support. 

The Trukk Boyz on the right, supported by the Buggies and their Trukk, were able to claim another objective. The Zzap Gun Wagons were coming into range of the Marine vehicles, which was making them nervous!

When time was called, we'd killed a few marines, and they'd killed a few more Orks, but we controlled three of the Loot markers and Christian and Simon only had one - and they were worth 500 points each!  Final score was 1670-740 to the Orks. 

Day 2 - Game 6

This was a 1900 point Cleanse mission against Ben Smith with his Angels Vermillion, a Blood Angels Successor Chapter.

At one point the Killa Kans scored three hits on a squadron with their Rokkits, but rolled three ones for armour penetration, and so failed to do any damage at all!

An HQ retinue also caused great problems, until eventually brought down in the Ork deployment zone. 

The final picture tells the tale: Marine Land Speeders and Bikes rampaging through the Ork deployment zone, which is littered with burning Ork vehicles, and hardly an Ork to be seen.  Note that every Marine that came within reach of a Choppa is also dead!  Final score was 1976-387 to the Marines 

Day 2 Game 7

The final game was 1000 point Secure and Control against Mark Turner with Eldar.  Mark's force were all on foot, not what you expect of Eldar, but he didn't expect an entirely Mechanised Ork force, either.

The Wraithlords were tough - ordinary Boyz couldn't hurt them - but they couldn't kill Orks fast enough to avoid the power claw attacks of the Ork Nobs, and they both ended below half strength.

The buggies seized one objective, and one of the Trukk mobs were deployed in control of another.  A third was held by a Gun Wagon which had charged forward to bring their passengers into assault range, rather than shoot it's Zap gun - which Mark hadn't expected. The Slugga Boy passengers had destroyed a large Guardian squad, and were rampaging through the Eldar deployment zone.  

With the fourth objective contested by a Gun Wagon full of TankBustas, the final score was 1118-154 to the Orks

This page was last updated on 19 July 2007