It was a good fight. I can say that because the dice were in my favor during the mid to late game, and these are the crucial turns of most games.
First, the forces involved.
Sisters of Battle Order of Our Martyred Lady.
HQ:
- Canoness w/ powersword. That’s it.
- Celstian Command Squad w/ Heavy Bolters(3)
o Immolator
ELITE:
- Repentia Squad, 9 Repentia and Mistress
TROOPS:
- Battle Sister Squad w/ flamer, Multi-melta, Combi-flamer Superior
o Rhino (loaned to the Repentia)
- Battle Sister Squad w/ flamer, Multi-melta, Combi-flamer Superior
o Rhino
FAST ATTACK:
- Seraphim Squad, Two Bolt Pistols (4), Two Hand Flamers (2), Superior w/ bolt pistol and power sword.
HEAVY SUPPORT:
- Exorcist
- Exorcist
- Penitent Engine (3)
Green skinned xenos abomination known as Orks
HQ:
- Warboss w/ Cubork Body, Power Klaw, twin linked shota
ELITE:
- Lootas (5) and Mekboy w/ Kustom Megablaster
TROOPS
- Nobz; 4 Nobz and a painboy in a Battlewagon w/ defrolla
- Boyz (11) Nob and a Trukk
- Boyz (11) Nob and a Trukk
FAST ATTACK
- Defkopters: twinlinked big shootas(1), twinlinked rockets(2) buzzsaw(2)
- Defkopters: twinlinked big shootas(1), twinlinked rockets(2) buzzsaw(2)
- Warbuggy: twinlinked rokkit(2)
HEAVY SUPPORT:
- Big Gunz: Zzap Gun(3)
I set up a rural battle field with a few hills, trees and some overgrown brush. The brush would be much like a hedge and give a 5+ cover save but would not count as difficult terrain. Rolling for the scenario we got Capture and Control with Dawn of War deployment; the Sisters would go first. And come in on the southern table edge.
The orks chose to place their objective in the ruins on the eastern portion of their table edge. I chose to place mine across the table so that both objectives were about 24” apart near the eastern table edge. The Sisters deployed troops and the canoness into the trees on the hill at the center of the table between the two objectives. An empty rhino was deployed with the rear facing doors 7” away from the southern edge and just west of the middle of the table. I would need this for my Repentia to move into. The orks deployed Nobz, Warboss and battlewagon near their objective and looked seriously angry at the Sisters in the trees. Another Trukk with Boyz was deployed at the middle of the table 18” away from the empty rhino. The orks failed to capture the iniative so the Sisters would go first.
Turn 1: Dawn of war almost always cost you one turn of the game trying to consolidate your position, while walking on the back edge with night fight rules preventing any long ranged shooting. The Sisters failed a difficult terrain roll while bringing on an Exorcist and became immobilized, but it was on the table so was still usable. I walked the Penitent Engines on next to the repentia who then embarked in the waiting Rhino. The command squad moved straight for the middle hill’s high ground in their Immolator and disembarked followed close by the seraphim squad lending each other support. The final Battle Sister squad stayed near the back east to guard and sit on the objective. The one mobile Exorcist moved on and got off two missiles against the truck, but cover saves prevented any damage. Night fight rules failed to allow any other shooting. The Orks countered by closing on the Sisters in the woods with their Warboss and nobz. Shooting failed to cause any wounds but on the charge, the orks caused 8 unsaved wounds forcing the sisters to break and run. They were easily cut down from a sweeping advance. On the west, Trukk moved 13” and spilled its boyz near the rhino that now held the repentia. Zzap guns and lootas walked on in the back and the warbuggies zoomed on in a position to help support the truck already there. The boyz assaulted the rhino and caused so many penetrating hits it was a sure bet it would explode. And it did, but was contained to 1” distance. The boys survived the explosion which killed one Sister Repentia.
Turn2: The immobilized Exorcist managed to immobilize the battlewagon and its rolla. The other exorcist wreaked the empty truck on the west. The penitent engines and the Repentia were close to each other and both units are affected by rage sot they went after the boyz. The heavy flamers from 2 of the PE fired and caused more than twice the wounds necessary to remove the unit from the table. There would be no assault from either of the rage units. On the east, the canoness moved back away from the trees and the seraphim came over to help support her. I thought they were in a good spot, in cover and far enough away that they would be in a good position to close and flame/assault in the next turn. But that was not counting on the Waaagh! The warboss and boyz managed to assault the seraphim and win 5 wounds to none. The seraphim were then destroyed in a sweeping advance. The warboss and nobz then consolidated 6” back into the trees. The zzap guns and lootas caused few wounds, most of which were saved. One more repentia was removed as a casualty. Defkopters had zipped down each flank and were in position to start harassing me. The ork shooting was ineffective but I knew that if I were going to pull out the hole I was going down, I needed to kill that warboss.
Turn 3: The Sisters final troop choice moved towards the defkopters on the eastern edge and disembarked. The Command squad moved towards the cover in dead center of the board and fired into the warboss’s nobs with relentless heavy bolters. Killing 3 nobz. Grated they all had one wound on them already before the shooting but the results were a solid first step. The warboss was now alone. The exorcists managed to pick off a gretchin off of a zzap gun but the western exorcist destroyed both warbuggies. The troop sisters cased one single wound on the eastern copters, the Penitent engines in the west did much better. The only caused 1 unsaved wound from flamer fire and each defkopter has 2 wounds, but on the assault (and needing 6’s to hit) they caused 3, strength 10 power weapon wounds. That’s 3 Instant Death wounds. The western half was clear of orks. Then orks managed to repair the immobilized battlewagon, but it was the only good roll for them for this turn. Shooting failed to do any damage and the defkopters(which assaulted the last sisters troop) wound up stuck in combat as both sides caused only a single casualty each.
Turn 4: The Sister’s Immolator, which had been putzing around not getting into position to fire it’s flamers or suffering a stunned result for most of the game so far did managed to tank shock the warboss in exactly the right way. The warboss popped out of the treeline and into open line of sight of the immobilized Exorcist. 5 missiles later and the warboss was no more. The canoness joined the battle sisters in their close combat and managed to wipe out the eastern copters. On the west, the penitent engines and the repentia were footing it as best they could across broken terrain and broken vehicles towards the lootas. The western exorcist fired across the board at the zzap guns,managing to kill one gun. The ork lootas took out another 2 repentia and the battlewagon decided to defrolla ram the Immolator. 4, strength 10 hits from the rolla plus the ram was more than enough to crush the Immolator into tiny bits.
Turn 5: The Sisters are in a fantastic position. All 3 heavy support units are (for all intents) fully functional and full strength. One Exorcist is immobilized but really, once it is deployed how often does an Exorcist move anyway? On the east, the battle sisters fire onto the battlewagon with its multi-melta and wreak the vehicle. The eastern exorcist fired across the board at the zzapguns, taking out the final 2. The western Exorcist fired at extreme range and took out the truck sitting on the ork’s objective. It careened away (but not far enough to go off the board) and exploded, leaving the boyz without armor and on the table. The repentia made it into hand to hand thanks to being fleet but failed their Act of Faith roll. Casualties were taken on both sides, but the orks won by one point. The repentia Mistress took the fearless wound and saved easily. On the orks turn, they moved their remaining boyz back into range of the objective. The 5 gretchin crew of the zzap guns stayed put and the lootas continued the combat with the repentia. Again, both sides took casualties but the orks made their leadership check and stayed locked in combat. There were 5 lootas against 2 repentia and the mistress at the end with the penitent engines about 10” away. Unfortunately they were also on the wrong end of the table to do anything about the objectives.
Game Ends: It was getting late in the evening any way and we were about to call the game, but the die said it was final. One objective each. One more turn would not have been enough to change it. Maybe I could have caused enough shooting wounds on the boys for them to take a leadership test and maybe they would break … but it was far from certain. Sure, with 3 heavy bolters and 2 exorcists, I was going to cause some wounds and most likely make them test but the odds were against me driving them off of the objective, especially if they went to ground which they probably would have done. Turn 6 would have been an assault by the Penitent Engines that would have wiped the lootas easily, but they would still be a good 24-30” away from where they needed to be and we would still have been in a draw. I had control of the battle field but I had no way of turning a draw into a win in one turn and even with two turns it was far from certain.
