The Blood Deserts of Auros IX: Battle Summaries (Battles #3 and #4)
We've included this section for those of you who might be curious as to how the the games and the campaign actually played out. For the sake of brevity, we're presenting summaries of the battles instead of turn-by-turn transcripts. Remember that each army's goal is to secure five objectives. 

Battle #3: Decapitation (2000 points per side)
Sho-T awoke to find himself miles from the Fighting Tiger base. The sun was coming up and he was lying on the red, rocky desert floor. The last thing he remembered was that Marine tank firing on his wartrukk as he and his Boyz were speeding to the attack. He supposed he been dazed by the explosion and had walked away from the battle, perhaps walked the rest of the day and part of the night before collapsing here. He wasn’t completely sure where “here” was, but he was rapidly getting his bearings.

There was a slight twinge of pain from his leg. He looked down and saw that a burned and twisted piece—about 3 feet long—of the trukk’s transmission had gone right through his leg and was stuck there. He yanked it out and a shower of green blood doused the sand beneath him. He briefly considered using a scrap of his tunic to staunch the bleeding but decided against it: what would the Boyz think of him if they saw him doing such a weedy thing? 

He walked on for a while—how long, he didn’t know—and eventually a bunch of Speed Freeks came zooming along. They took some pot shots at him, of course, but Sho-T would have been insulted if they hadn’t. He shot back, blowing up two of their buggies before the last one moved in for the kill—which was, of course, just what he had wanted all along. He leapt aboard the buggy, throttled the gunner, then forced the driver to take him to an old nearby fort he knew of. 

On the way, Sho-T decided he would get some rest at the fort, then summon some of his Boyz and find out what had happened in the scrap against the Tigers. He also decided that when he caught the Tiger’s Warboss, he was going to give him a very slow and unpleasant death—maybe being eaten alive by Gnasher squigs—and the thought of it made him chuckle.

Premise:	Fighting Tiger Scouts discover that Sho-T survived the failed Ork raid against the Marine base and retreated deep into the northern desert. Raja Khandar Madu orders a detachment to eliminate him before he recovers. This battle was fought using the "Assassin" mission from White Dwarf 232.
Tiger Strategy:	Distract Ork forces with Scouts and Whirlwind fire long enough for 6 Land Speeders with multimeltas and three squads of Fighting Tigers (two Tactical and one Veteran) to hunt down Sho-T and his bodyguard.
Ork Strategy:	Protect Sho-T by placing him atop a bunker (4+ cover save) and surrounding him with masses of troops.
Play of the Game:	Ork Stikk Bommas use burnas to take out Veterans' Rhino before they can reach Sho-T's bunker, then finish them off in hand-to-hand (the Stikk Bommas also took out a bike squad and two Land Speeders--I may start hating them as much as I hate Pat's Kommandos).
Winner:	Sho-T survives everything thrown at him for four turns before game ends; Orks win.
How the Orks won:	Stall. Pat did everything he could, sacrificed whatever units he had to, to delay my Tigers--and it worked.
How the Tigers lost:	Confident that I had plenty of time in the game, I took too long and was too cautious in closing in on Sho-T (I didn't take a shot at him until Turn 3). Time ran out, but even if it hadn't my forces were too bloodied to take out Sho-T.
Objectives Secured:	Tigers 0, Orks 0.

Battle #4: "Now yooz gettin' personal-like" (2000 points per side)
Rajas Khandar Madu and Shamshir Talatra stood by the vidscreen, watching the images from the minicams carried by their Tigers of Puchan. Night had fallen, but the lowlight lenses of the Scouts’ minicams allowed the two commanders to see as if it were late afternoon. What they saw was a huge line of Orks, still miles from the Fighting Tiger headquarters, spreading out to surround the base.

“Look there,” Raja Shamshir said, pointing out the image of Sho-T BigHed riding in a wartrukk. “Our decapitation mission failed.”

“We’ll need at least 28 more hours to finish repairing the base’s defenses,” Raja Khandar said.

“The greenskins won't get here--not today,” he replied, taking his helmet from the equipment-slave nearby. “Not while I still live.”

Premise:	Having recovered from his injuries (Battle #2) and survived the attempt on his life (Battle #3), a reinvigorated Sho-T goes on the offensive, attempting to encircle the Fighting Tiger force and, as he says, "lern 'em good." This mission uses the "Recon" mission from page 140 of the main rulebook.
Tiger Strategy:	Hold off Ork attack with two Tactical Marine Squads (defensive mode) and Heavy Support units; counterattack with Dreadnoughts, Bike Squad (led by Raja Shamshir Talatra) and Assault Marines; move Tactical Marine Squad (assault mode) into Ork deployment zone.
Ork Strategy:	Swamp Tiger lines by surging forward with Sho-T, R2Ork2, buggies, warbikes, and numerous mobs of Gretchin and boyz (including 15 Stikk Bommas in a Battlewagon). "Dey'll never stop us all..."
Play of the Game:	Raja Shamshir attacks and destroys Ork warbikes and Stormboyz threatening to wipe out Assault Marines. This halts the Ork advance on the right side of the board and Shamshir goes on to evade R2Ork2 and destroy two other Ork mobs in hand-to-hand combat.
Winner:	Tigers (by less than 200 points)
How the Tigers won:	Raja Shamshir Talatra completely changed the tone of the game. His ferocious counterattack (he killed over a dozen Orks by himself and never even had to make an armor save) kept Pat from concentrating on his strategy.
How the Orks lost:	While Pat managed to get Sho-T into the Tiger deployment zone, he was totally unable to stop Raja Shamshir from rampaging at will through most of his army.
Objectives Secured:	Tigers 0, Orks 0.

 

Previous Page: Battles #1 and #2 Next page: Battles #5 and #6

Related Pages
Fighting Tigers Glossary and Pronunciation Guide
 

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© Copyright Patrick Eibel and Kenton Kilgore, April 2000
 

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