Guardsman Marbo

Along with the Regimental Officers, I like the idea of Guardsman Marbo, but rather than get the model I decided to convert my own. I didn't want my version of Guardsman Marbo to look like John Rambo, but rather like a more traditional Delta Force Operator or Navy SEAL.

I started with a basic cadian legs and torso, trimming it to have the torso lean forward and filling the gap with green stuff. I used a heavy weapons sprue backpack, swapping out the knife for a Space Marine's knife, which is larger. The arms are Cadian arms, with the shoulder pads trimmed off. The gun is a Space Marine bolter with scope, a sight from the IG heavy weapons sprue, and a piece of plastic rod to give it a suppressor. Various pouches and the head are forgeworld bits, and the boonie hat is green stuff.

After priming him black, I basedcoated him. Calthan Brown on the cloth, armor, and accoutrements, Chaos Black for the knife and gun, and Orkhide shade for the gloves and face (he's wearing camo facepaint--no, he's not an ork).
From here it's much like painting any of my woodland MARPAT guardsmen. Snakebite Leather on the cloth, Desert Yellow on the armor, boots, backpack and pouches. Catachan Green on the smoke grenades the backpack, and a heavy drybrush of Catachan Green on the face and the gloves.
A coat of Devlan Mud over the armor, cloth, face, and gloves.
First stage of the camouflage, with my darkened Gunship Green on all the cloth.
Remainder of the camouflage, with Chaos Black and Khemri Brown.
Almost done: I highlighted the armor, boots and accoutrements with Desert Yellow. Painted the scopes on the gun, and drybrushed the gun with Adeptus Battlegrey. Also painted the knife boltgun metal, gave it a quick wash of Badab Black, and then highlighted the edge of the knife with Chainmail and Mithril Silver with little tick marks to make it look like the knife has seen some action. Put a very light drybrush of Catachan Green mixed with a little Knarloc Green for the face, gloves, and grenades.
I had considered him done, but after looking at him for a bit I decided that his gun looked too...black. The gun was big and seemed like a big black blob, so I decided to paint up the casing. I painted it Khemri Brown with a highlight of Khemri Brown mixed with Kommando Khaki (I think--either that or a tiny amount of Skull White). I think the result looks better than the pure black gun.

I think he came out pretty good, but in retrospect, I think the facepaint didn't come out quite right. Perhaps a few stripes of a brown color would help make it look more like facepaint and less like his skin color... I'm also questioning the use of Khemri Brown for the gun casing. I think that perhaps painting it similar to his armor (Desert Yellow, washed with Devlan Mud, then highlighted with Desert Yellow) would fit the "look" of the model better. Oh well. If I get annoyed enough with it, I can always repaint the bits I don't like...

Painting ACUPAT Tutorial

As with the woodland MARPAT and the desert MARPAT, I made a swatch and compared it to a sample of the real thing in an attempt to match the colors. In this case, the colors match pretty well. The colors are Codex Grey, Fortress Grey, and Dheneb Stone.


Before I jump right into the model itself, I thought I'd go over trying to figure out how to paint a digital pattern. The simple fact is, at the scale of these models, there's no way you'll be able to match the real pattern--the pattern itself is too small and complex. The best you can do is approximate it, with the knowledge that your brush is just too big and clumsy to get the real thing down pat.

I played around with Photoshop to analyze the pattern. On the left is a photo of an ACU, and to the right is the same photo, but blurred. The blurring simplifies the image into more managable shapes.
Next I used the brush tool to paint over the dark grey areas. Due to the sheer coarseness of the brush, you lose a lot of detail, but I'm only worried about getting the basic regions of color here.
Next I used the lighter shade of grey, and painted over the areas where that color seemed to be most prominent.
Looking closely at the picture, it's clear that I missed a few spots, so I went back and touched it up a little, filling in some more areas with the two greys.
Finally, I replaced the background of the painted image with the sand color. This solidifies the image and you can see its constituent shapes.
The end result is clear: The pattern does not consist of stripes of different colors, but it's not just irregular blobs either. There are sections of the dark grey and the sand that have the appearance of stripes, but they are definitely irregular in thickness, and they are broken up by the light gray, which is very randomly distributed.

So how does one paint this? I would suggest starting off by painting irregular stripes, and specifically avoiding keeping them of uniform thickness. In fact you should actively attempt to keep the thickness random. Then paint on random dabs of the light grey color. Once this is done, hold the model at a distance and examine it--if it looks like there's too much sand, or too much dark grey, you can touch it up by randomly applying dabs of the deficient color. Do that enough times and the digital pattern will start to emerge.

Stage 1: Ok, so here I go painting my actual model. Step one was to basecoat the model. I gave the skin a coat of Tallarn Flesh, the cloth Dheneb Stone, the armor and boots Khemri Brown, the gun Chaos Black, and the gloves and accoutrements Orkhide Shade. I know what you're thinking, "Why Dheneb Stone for the basecoat?" The ACUs are mainly grey, not beige... Well, in the real ACU the sand color really does make up a significant amount of the pattern. Practically speaking, the Dheneb Stone is a foundation paint, and therefore covers the black basecoast very well--better even than Codex Grey. If I did Codex Grey, I'd probably have to do two coats to cover it the black uniformly.
Stage 2: I painted the armor and boots etc., with Desert Yellow. I agonized about what color to use for a long time. When the ACU was first fielded in the real world, the body armor of troops varied widely in colors because of what was available at the time. This included old woodland pattern, olive drab, coyote tan, to foliage green (the darker grey in the ACU pattern itself). Nowadays, body armor in the ACU pattern itself seems to be the most common. This might look cool, but the entire model would end up looking like the pattern, blending in with himself and obscuring the detail, which would detract from the appearance of the model. This picture is an example:

Seeing as I'm painting up many of my troops in the woodland MARPAT camouflage, and they are issued Coyote Tan body armor, I decided that this guy would have been issued the same thing. At this stage I also picked out a few spots in Chaos Black, and painted the scope and laser designator with Regal Blue and Mechrite Red respectively. I also did a very heavy drybrush of Catachan Green over the Orkhide Shade areas.
Stage 3: Next up was starting on the camouflage pattern itself. I painted Codex Grey over the cloth in an irregular stripe pattern, dabbing it on in places to make the stripes irregular in shape and thickness. I deliberately gave the Codex Grey a lot of coverage, so as to tone down the dominance of the Dheneb Stone.
Stage 4: This next stage was very simple--I painted in the eyes, then gave the face and all the Desert Tan areas a wash of Devlan Mud to shade them. The wash on the armor also darkens the shade a bit to make it match the color of Coyote Tan a bit better. I also gave the face another wash, this time of Ogryn Flesh.
Stage 5: Now I dabbed in Fortress Grey into the camouflage pattern, randomly and comparatively sparingly. Anyplace on the model that looked like the Codex Grey was over-dominating the Dheneb Stone or vice versa got a dab of Fortress Grey. Once that was done, I did a once over and touched up any places I thought I missed with Codex Grey and Fortress Grey. At this stage I higlighted the face with Tallarn Flesh, the armor and boots with Desert Tan, and the green areas with a 50/50 mix of Catachan Green and Knarloc Green.
Stage 6:Seeing as this guy is a sniper, I did some web-surfing to look at some sniper rifles to look for other paintjobs than simple black, and found some cool pictures of the M110.While I didn't model my sniper rifle on this design, I decided to paint it similarly. I painted the casing with Khemri Brown and highlighted it with a 50/50 mix of Khemri Brown and Kommando Khaki. I painted the imperial insignia on the gun with Desert Yellow and gave it a wash of Devlan Mud. I painted the scope Charadon Granite, and hightlighted various black bits on the gun with Charadon Granite as well. At this stage I also finished up painting the scope and laser designator, and highlighted the various black bits of the model with Adeptus Battlegrey.
Finally, for fun I also decided to give this guy some Nomex Aviator Gloves, just like the guy in this picture.Nomex Aviator Gloves are in pretty common use, based on various photos I've seen of troops in the field. They are basically green on the back of fingers/hand, with grey on the palm, inside of the fingers, and a stripe that runs between the fingers and thumb down to the wrist.

With that, this guy is good to go...

Game or Simulation?

Over the past decade, within my gaming group, we've had many pick up games, the forces and scenario being determined by a rule of "Who hasn't played each other in a while? What scenario haven't we tried in a while?" Those have been lots of fun. But with time I've been increasingly drawn to narrative scenarios/campaigns rather than unstructured "pick up games." I find that thinking about these story based scenarios is more fun than thinking about isolated games that have no larger context.

My biggest and arguably best Battle Report, The Assault on Morkandy Beach is the classic example. And yet, the victor of that battle was entirely predetermined. In designing the scenario, we decided from the beginning that the Imperial Guard were going to win the battle--the "drama", as it were, would be just how long and how many casualties it took for them to finally succeed. In many ways it was one of the most fun battles I participated in, and when I posted it, it got the most feedback of any Battle Report I ever posted (originally I had posted it on various message boards).

40k is clearly a "game" and most players view it as such, but in generating the Morkandy Beach scenario, I turned it into a "simulation." The primary difference between a war "game" and a "simulation" is that simulations frequently ignore any attempt at balance between the forces involved and/or their objectives. They address "what if" scenarios.

As I am a big history fan, this is the kind of game that interests me the most. In the real world, armies are never evenly matched, and generals have to make do with what they have. Increasingly, I find myself thinking less about trying to fit armies into specific points value (i.e., what can I make with 2000pts?) and thinking more about giving myself deliberate limitations on my army choice to fit the scenario. The game becomes less about winning, and more about what can I manage to pull off with the forces at my disposal.

Also, in the real world, opposing armies often have wildly varying objectives--beyond just "kill the other guy." 40k tries to deal with this aspect by assigning physical "objectives" to players, such that they have to take and hold specific points on the battlefield. This is a good start, but in making the game a "simulation", I like to go farther than that. Many of the more scenario based games in 40k and its supplements address than the 3 types in the main rulebook. But in general, even these scenarios are created with a view to maintain game balance--for each disadvantage one side has, it is given an advantage in another aspect to keep it fair. This is fine for the intended purpose, but think it can also be interesting to let the balance fall out the window completely if it makes sense for the scenario.

I know some players might view this perspective as madness--why on earth would you deliberately handicap yourself (or your opponent), either in terms of army selection or scenario? Isn't this the very definition of cheese (or stupidity, depending who has the advantage)? Well, for me it's not about winning, and it's not about handicapping myself with the goal of improving my skills as a player so I can kick butt in a regular, balanced game. It's about putting myself in the shoes of a "real world" commander, in order to get an understanding of the problems that one would face when dealing with a "real world" battlefield that isn't always fair.

But then, 40k is science-fiction. There ARE no "real world" commanders, dealing with "real world" problems on a "real world" 40k battlefield. But so what? I think many players would agree that games (of all kinds) are more fun if they have greater immersion. For me, I find it more fun playing a more "simulation" version of the game where I think more about achieving my objectives as an Imperial Commander (or Ork, Eldar, Tau, whatever), rather than defeating my human opponent in an abstract dice-rolling "game."

One of the beauties of 40k is that you can play it any way you want and have fun.

Regimental Advisors

The new Regimental Advisors are undoubtedly cool, but rather than buy the new miniatures, I decided that I would make my own. That is, use another miniature in one case, and do a minor conversion in another.

Lt. Varras from the Battle for Macragge boxed set would fit just fine for an Officer of Fleet.

For the Master of Ordnance (or as I call him, my Fire Support Officer), I took a standard guardsman, using some bits from the vehicle upgrade sprue and heavy weapons sprues, and whipped up this guy.

Painting Desert MARPAT Tutorial

Here's a step by step guide on how I painted up my desert camouflaged Imperial Guardsmen.

With this pattern I am trying to match up the USMC's desert digital camouflage pattern, called Desert MARPAT. I used a piece of posterboard to make a swatch, but I didn't have a real sample of the camouflage to compare it to, so the best I can do is guess on the colors. Here is a swatch I made superimposed over a digital image of the camouflage.

As you can see the match isn't perfect, but for my purposes it'll do. There may be differences in the colors due to the lighting when the digital image was taken as well, so I'll use that as an excuse for it not being perfect. The base color I used is Bleached Bone, followed by Kommando Khaki, and then smaller areas of Khemri Brown and Graveyard Earth.

Stage 1: I primed the model black, and then painted a basecoat of Khemri Brown over the armor and cloth. Desert Yellow on the base, Tallarn Flesh for the skin, Regal Blue for the glasses, and Chaos Black for the meltagun.
Stage 2: Desert Yellow on the armor and boots, Bleached Bone on the cloth, and Tin Bitz on the business end of the meltagun.
Stage 3: The difference here is subtle--I applied a wash of Devlan Mud on the armor and boots to tone down the color. The USMC uses a color called "Coyote Tan" for much of their gear. Desert Yellow is close, but too bright to match right, so toning it down with a dark brown wash brings the color more into line. I also used the wash on the face to provide shading.
Stage 4: Now onto the camouflage pattern. I painted on irregular blotches of Kommando Khaki on the cloth. I tried to get a large proportion of the cloth, so rather than it looking like Bleached Bone with splotches of Kommando Khaki on top, I wanted it to look more like a 50/50 mix, with it being difficult to tell which color is dominant. I also lightly drybrushed some Brazen Brass on the end of the meltagun.
Stage 5: I next put little dabs of Khemri Brown and Graveyard Earth randomly over the camouflage pattern. These colors are less used than the others in the pattern, so I used them both sparingly.
Stage 6: Finally I put highlights on the model. I put Desert Yellow on the edges of the armor plates & boots. The Meltagun got a drybrush of Adeptus Battlegrey, with some Chaos Black on the end of the barrel to make it look scorched. One power cable was painted Dark Angels Green with a highlight of Snot Green while the other was painted Regal Blue with a highlight of Enchanted Blue. Indicator lights on th power pack were painted Snot Green and Blood Red. For the glasses I used a mix of Regal Blue and Ice Blue to highlight the bottom edges, and then used dabs of Skull White to provide reflections, and put a coat of 'Ardcoat on them to make them shiny. And he's done!

Imperial Guard Sergeant Updates

Due to the new Imperial Guard Codex, some of the weapons options available to sergeants have been eliminated. I lamented about this development in a previous post.
My five sergeants relegated to the shelves due to their illegal armaments...
Since then I did some surgery on some of the guardsmen to bring them up to date, while others may be assuming new roles within the army.

From left to right:

• Sergeant #1, from 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, Alpha Company, loses his stormbolter and gets stuck with a teeny little laspistol.
  
• Sergeant #2, who was originally a sergeant of a hardened veteran squad, has been promoted to a company commander, and will eventually lead a command squad of four snipers.
  
• Sergeant #3, from 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, Alpha Company, loses his old school bolter and exchanges it for a laspistol.
  
• Sergeant #4, from 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, is my "Screw you new codex!" sergeant. Despite his las-carbine being illegal, he's going to carry it anyway. If my opponent raises a stink about his illegality, then they're probably not of the mindset of the kind of player I'd want to play anyway. Since I tend only to play friendly games with friends, this isn't likely to be an issue.
  
• Sergeant #5, one of my ancient hardened veteran sergeants, loses his stormbolter in favor of a bolt pistol.

Rearmed, promoted, or openly defiant of regulations, they will all continue to serve the Emperor in many battles to come.

Painting MARPAT Tutorial

Here's a step by step guide on how I'm painting up my new Imperial Guardsmen.

I was trying to match up the USMC's woodland digital camouflage pattern, but that turned out to be a tall order. I used a piece of posterboard to make a swatch, and compared it to the actual camouflage.
The black is easy--just use Chaos Black. The green was difficult, as Dark Angels Green wasn't quite it, so after lots of experimentation, I found that the best match was Vallejo Model Color Gunship Green. It had the right shade and level of saturation, but was just a little bit too light, so I darkened it with some Chaos Black. Then it looked a tad too desaturated, so I put in a few drops of Snot Green, but for some reason the Snot Green didn't mix too well with it. Regardless, the green is pretty close. The light/sand brown matches pretty well with Khemri Brown, so that worked out. Finally, the main color of them all, the brown... Now that was a pain. I made a separate swatch with nothing but shades of brown--Bestial Brown, Vermin Brown, Calthan Brown, Graveyard Earth, Snakebite Leather, Desert Yellow, Scorched Brown, etc., and none of them seemed to match right. The closest color (which is on the swatch) is Snakebite Leather, but as you can see it's not quite the right shade, and is way too bright. I messed around with mixing some colors, including Snakebite Leather and Graveyard Earth, and got pretty close, but it was a pain to do so, and since this was going to be a major color on the models, I didn't want to have to mix it up every time. So I settled on just using Snakebite Leather, and figured I'd tone down the shade with a wash of Devlan Mud.

So with the pattern down, it's on to a miniature:
After assembling and priming the model, I basecoated it with Chaos Black, Tallarn Flesh, and Calthan Brown.

I then painted the armor and boots with Desert Yellow, while I gave the cloth a coat of Snakebite Leather.

Then I gave the entire model a wash of Devlan Mud, to shade and tone down the colors.

Next started to paint the camouflage pattern. The MARPAT woodland pattern is dominated by the brown shade, followed closely by the green, with slightly less black, and a small contribution with the lighter shade of brown. As the real pattern is mainly dominated by the brown and green shades, I gave the green a significant amount of coverage.

For the next stage added the Chaos Black patches, and small dabs of Khemri Brown on the cloth to finish up the pattern.

Finally I highlighted the armor with Desert Yellow, highlighted the skin with Tallarn Flesh, painted in the eyes, and finished up the base. Voila! Now I just have to do all that a couple hundred more times! I plan on doing a similar guide for the ACUPAT in the near future.

Battle Report: The Arduen Campaign, Part Two

Introduction
The planet Arduen is a small, sparsely inhabited world in the Arcadia Sector. The people of the planet live a mostly idyllic existence, as far as such things can go in the Imperium. Due to the large expanses of wilderness on the planet, the Imperial Guard frequently uses the planet as a training ground for its newly raised regiments.

Ork Warlord Gorgash Gutmuncha saw the planet as the perfect spot to begin a massive attack on the Arcadia Sector, giving his boys some fresh meat to whet their appetites for the carnage to come. The Warlord dispatched Kommando forces to the planet's surface, all stealthy-like and "taktikul", to explore and determine the Imperial Strongpoints. One such force, under orders of Warboss Gorgrim Bighornz, wiped out an Imperial training patrol. Then, to take advantage of surprise, Warboss Bighornz planned an attack on an imperial outpost. It was a "kunnin' plan" involving attacking it from all sides simultaneously, that would require lots of coordination. Nothing too hard for the professional kommandos...or was it?

For their part, the Imperial Guard at the outpost were not expecting an attack, and were completely unaware that another company had recently been all but destroyed, the survivors scattered in the wilderness. As such they continued with their peacetime activities this bright morning. Sending out a single squad on a routine patrol the rest of the guardsmen assembled in the courtyard of the outpost for their morning formation. Little did they know, but the day was about to get much more interesting...

Scenario
The Imperial Guard forces will set up in a fenced compound in the center of the 5' x 5' table. The fences themselves do not block line of sight, and count as difficult terrain.

One Imperial Guard squad will be on patrol outside the compound, while the rest of the Imperial Guard forces will be deployed within the compound.

Due to the effects of surprise, any Imperial Guard vehicles will be inactive, and unable to move or shoot unless an activation roll is passed by each vehicle, rolled at the start of the Imperial Guard Turn. (5+ on Turn 1, 3+ on Turn 2, and automatically on Turn 3)

The Ork Kommando units arrive on turn one from any table edge. The rest of the Ork army is placed in reserve, each unit arriving as follows on a D6 roll: 1-4: random table edge, 5-6: re-roll.Imperial Guard Deployment
Imperial Guard Forces

Company Command Squad (5)	72
1st Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad (5)	52
Infantry Squad 1 (10)	60
Infantry Squad 2 (10)	60
Weapons Squad (Mortars) (6)	60
Weapons Squad (Missile Launchers) (6)	90
2nd Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad (5)	52
Infantry Squad 1 (10)	60
Infantry Squad 2 (10)	60
Weapons Squad (Mortars) (6)	60
Attached Vehicles
Leman Russ	185
Leman Russ	185
Leman Russ	185
Hellhound	130
Total	1311

Imperial Guard Briefing
Darkwing: As a raid on a small supply depot, it was pretty decided by both of us in creating the story for the campaign that the depot would be supporting a squadron of Leman Russ Battle Tanks, so they were a given for the army. After that, it was just filling the in requirements for the rest the of army. I took the standard Company HQ, and the two obligatory infantry platoons. Each platoon was relatively small, each with a pair of infantry squads, and one having two weapons squads (mortars and missile launchers), the other only having one (mortars). I was originally going to have the second platoon have a Heavy Bolter Squad as well, getting my points value to the agreed value of 1250 points, but my opponent was pushing for some more points so he could get more stuff, so I dropped the Heavy Bolters and got a Hellhound instead, bringing my total to 1311. The Hellhound's template vs. Orks was just too good to pass up, so it wasn't a hard decision to make.

As I will start out the battle with all my vehicles inactive, their rear armor facing outwards, and my infantry bunched in tight little knots in the center of the depot (aside from the patrol squad), I figure I'm in for a rough time. The Orks will be arriving mostly from reserve, so I have that advantage, but it will not be easy to guard all four board edges, since I don't know from where they will be arriving. Hopefully I can respond quickly enough, and strongly enough, to deal with the ork threats as they emerge.

Watchtower with two missile launcher teams
Ork Forces

Warboss	75
Stonejaw's Kommandos (15)	175
Headhunta's Kommandos (15)	220
Bonebreaka's Trukkboyz (12)	172
Redbonce's Trukkboyz (12)	162
Pigface's 'Ardboyz (11)	190
Shoota Boyz (10)	60
Skorcha Buggy	45
Skorcha Buggy	45
Warbikes (5)	165
Total	1309

Ork Briefing
Badelaire: For this battle, I'm creating an Ork "Raiding Party". This will consist almost entirely of "fast movers" and two units of Kommandos, one of them packing two burnas and a PK, the other commanded by Stonejaw (Choppa/Slugga Nob) with two big shootas. Aside from the kommandos, I'm sending in three units of Trukk Boyz, each led by a PK nob, one of which is wearing 'Eavy armor and is serving as the retinue for my Big Choppa-swinging warboss. Aside from the trukks, I've got two skorcha buggies, a unit of bikes with a PK nob, and a small unit of shoota boys to provide some medium-range fire support.

This is going to be a "win big or lose big" army list. Depending on how the reserves rolls go, either I'm going to swamp Darkwing's lines with mobs of boys and tear his tanks apart with Big Choppa and PKs (I've got five PKs and the Big Choppa in this list). Under the new assault rules, attacking the rear armor in assault means those heavy hitters - and even the boys on the charge - can damage the otherwise very heavily armored Russ hulls. Unfortunately, I'm also fielding small, expensive units of lightly armored Orks as well as fragile, fast vehicles that can be turned into wrecks by even the lowly bolt pistol. Once those units start to take fire, they'll quickly get whittled down to the point where they'll start to lose their effectiveness, and if I need to start taking morale checks, even with bosspoles, I know I'll start to lose units. The key will be to strike from enough directions at once, and give the guard enough units to shoot at, that they won't be able to do enough damage fast enough to stop me from getting into their lines, at which point, I'll definitely have the upper hand.

Headhunta's kommandos approach the Imperial Guard Patrol and the outpost beyond
Turn 1
It was just after dawn at the imperial outpost, and the two platoons of guardsmen had formed up for the morning formation, except for those on watch in the tower, and the squad that had just left on the morning's first patrol. Just as the inspection was about to get underway, the guards in the watchtower raised the alarm--orks had been sighted.

Stonejaw's Kommandos advanced from the north, while Headhuntas Kommandos came in from the south--right in front of the patrol squad, who stood stunned, and then quickly readied their weapons. The guardsmen in the outpost all sprinted into positions to make a perimeter, while the vehicle crews ran to their tanks to get them up and running as soon as possible. The command tank of the Leman Russes was particularly on the ball, getting the battle tank running in record time, and firing a battlecannon shell at Stonejaw's boyz, killing four, while the left sponson gunner mowed down one more with his heavy bolter.

The Missile Launcher Teams in the tower ignored the Company Commander's orders to fire on the orks to the north--couldn't he see that they were already preparing to fire at those orks to the north? They promptly fired a trio of frag missiles at Stonejaw's Kommandos (the orks to the north), and killed one of them. Command Section, 2nd Platoon (C/2), and the Company Command Section (C/HQ) also fired on them, killing 3 more boyz. 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon (the patrol squad) and one of the mortar squads fired on Headhunta's Kommandos, killing seven between them. Both mobz of boyz had taken a pounding, but refused to flee.

After the Imperial firing, Stonejaw's boyz take cover in the trees, Headhunta's boyz in the rocks
Turn 2
The Warboss and Pigface's trukk mounted 'Ardboyz arrived to the south along with one Skorcha Buggy, while the other Skorcha Buggy arrived to the north. The Warboss and the 'Ardboyz dismounted, the Warboss making a beeline for the nearest Leman Russ, while the 'Ardboyz moved to support Headhuntas' Kommandos.
The 'Ardboyz and a Skorcha arrive
Stonejaw's boyz and another skorcha close in
The Kommandos needed no support. Unleashing their burnas on the patrol squad, they burned nine guardsmen alive, leaving a sole survivor to get charged and pulped under their merciless choppas. Left without a target, the 'Ardboyz and their trukk settled for firing at the rear of the Leman Russ, but failed to damage it. The Warboss ignored their desultory fire and took on the Leman Russ himself, smashing it apart four times over with his 'Uge Choppa.
A guardsman is lost under the mass of greenskins and their bloody choppas
On the north side of the battlefield, Stonejaw's Kommandos shot dead three members of the mortar team, then chopped through the perimeter fence and charged them, kililng three more and finishing them off. Before he died, one guardsman managed to take an ork with him.
Stonejaw's kommandos smash down the fence and breach the perimeter, while the rest of the boyz close in behind the Leman Russes
Things were looking grim for the Imperial Guard, as from both the north and south, orks were closing in fast.

Command Section, First Platoon (C/1) moved to the eastern perimeter to bring their grenade launchers to bear on the southern Skorcha Buggy, an blew it up with a pair of krak grenades. In the watchtower, the missile launcher squad fired on the northern Skorcha Buggy, getting a mission kill by destroying its Skorcha and wrecking its engine with a pair of krak missiles.

One of the infantry squads lined up to take shots at the Warboss, and the Company Commander ordered them to First rank FIRE! Second rank FIRE! The barrage was enough to wound the warboss twice, but not quite enough to kill him.

The Company Command Squad and mortars did lots of damage to Headhunta's Kommandos, leaving Headhunta as the sole wounded survivor. One of the infantry squads with but a single guardsman in line of sight, picked off off Headhunta with a single lasgun shot.

The second Leman Russ came to life, promptly wheeled around and took aim with its battlecannon, landing an explosive shell smack int he middle of the 'Ardboyz, killing all except Pigface, who wisely decided that discretion was the better part of valor and fled for his life. Aside from the wounded Warboss, the threat from the south was all but eliminated.

That left Stonejaw's Kommandos still within the northern perimeter. An infantry squad killed one of the orks with lasgun fire. Then Command Squad, 2nd Platoon killed Stonejaw's remaining three kommandos with well placed krak grenades from their grenade launchers, and then charged him. Stonejaw killed a pair of guardsmen with his choppa, but the rest of the squad along with their platoon commander then struck Stonejaw down under a mass of bayonets and a chainsword. C/2 assaults Stonejaw
The guardmen swing around and form a firing line to shoot at the Warboss
Turn 3
The bubble of the Ork attack had burst. Units continued to arrive piecemeal, while the mainly intact Imperial Guard Forces continued to prepare to repel the attacks. Redbonce's Trukkboyz, and a small unit of Shoota Boyz arrived to the east, while the warbikes and Bonebreaka's Trukkboyz still failed to arrive.
The Shoota boyz take cover while Redbonce's boyz go for broke
The Shoota Boyz took cover behind some rocks, while the Trukkboyz went for broke and drove towards the eastern perimeter. Piling out of their trukk and plowing into an infantry squad just outside the fence, the trukk boyz shot one on the way in, lost a boy on the charge, and then proceeded to completely wipe out the guardsmen. Unfortunately for them, now they were exposed, wide open to massed Imperial Guard fire.

The Warboss continued his rampage, moving onto the next Leman Russ and slamming his 'Uge Choppa into it, detonating its magazine and blowing it to kingdom come. He emerged from the explosion, smoking but unharmed.

His victory wouldn't last long, as the guardsmen promptly shot him down with lasfire.

The Mortars opened fire on the sneaky Shootaboyz taking cover behind the hill, and their highly accurate fire wiped out all ten of them.

The Hellhound activated and mosied on over to the eastern perimeter, where Redbonce and his trukkboyz drooled over their recent kills. Redbonce looked up, slackjawed as a gout of flame from the Hellhound's Inferno cannon immolated the majority of his boyz, leaving him badly scorched and only three other survivors from his boyz. Before he could even raise his Power Klaw in rage, one of the boyz was killed by lasgun fire, and the other two each took a krak missile to the body, dying with wet bloody thuds. Redbonce was getting really mad now, and he roared, only to have it cut short as 1st Platoon's Commander charged and cut him down with his sword.
2nd Platoon's Commander leads his men to take on Redbonce
Turn 4
Piecemeal didn't even describe it anymore. The Warbikes arrived, but Bonebreaka's Trukkboyz were obviously off loafing somewhere, and still did not show up.The bikes arrive to the south (left), and the trukk moves to protect them from Imperial fire The 'Ardboyz' trukk moved to screen the Warbikes, who were turboboosting under the maxim of "speed is life." The trukk promptly exploded under a barrage of krak grenades, while krak missiles and mortar fire killed a pair of bikers. Seeing that no other boyz appeared to be on the battlefield, the warbikes cut their losses and ran.
Bonebreaka arrives...too little too lateTurns 5 and 6
Apparently expecting to waltz onto the scene and just bash a few 'eads, Bonebreaka and his boyz finally deigned to arrive on the battlefield. What greeted them was a scene of dead orks lying everywhere, a couple of dead guardsmen, a wrecked tank or two, and a massed horde of alerted guardsmen with fire in their eyes. As Bonebreaka surveyed the scene, he saw some fifty guardsmen all aiming their weapons at him. The trukk and the boyz inside fired their rockets at the exposed rear armor of the Hellhound, in the forlorn hope that the shot might blow up the vehicle in the midst of the guardsmen, killing some. One shot delivered a glancing blow, shaking up the crew, but that was it.
Bonebreak drives in to see lotsa IG...
The response was a massed barrage of Krak grenades from the varied launchers, wrecking the trukk and dumping out its passengers, who were promptly mowed down under a murderous barrage of lasfire. Bonebreaka was the sole survivor, and he wasn't going to give up now.His trukk wrecked, his boyz dead, Bonebreaka is still eager for a scrapWith a "Waaagh!" he charged into the nearest infantry squad, but didn't get any revenge at all, as the squad's sergeant pistol whipped him down, definitively ending the battle.
Bonebreak charges in, only to be struck down
Imperial Guard Debriefing
Darkwing: Well, that went to plan! (I know, you're asking "what plan?") While I could have wished my tanks to have woken up a turn sooner, I really have nothing to complain about because the Orks showed up so piecemeal I was able to take them out as they arrived. My half of Turn 2 was decisive. I went into the turn having lost my only active tank, and a rampaging tank-eating Warboss inside my perimeter. Two units of Kommandos and a unit of 'Ardboyz were about to charge in and tear me apart from either flank, and I didn't think I had the firepower to stop both flanks. And yet I had to stop them both, because if I didn't, the Orks would just get into assault and then it would be all over for me (or so I imagined in my pessimism) The turn started out poorly (in my eyes) with me being unable to bring down the Warboss and my Hellhound not activating (I was going to have it roast the 'Ardboyz), but then it came around, and I devastated the attack, leaving me more than able to take on any new threats as they arrived--and they did so piecemeal, which just made it easier for me.

High points included my two Platoon Command Squads each charging depleted ork units and finishing them off, my lone lasgun armed guardsman picking off the warboss (although he didn't survive the battle), and vaporizing the 'Ardboyz with a battlecannon shot.

Now that the Imperial Guard have repulsed an ork raid, it will be their turn to take the initiative and bring the fight to them!

Ork Debriefing
Badelaire: Remember what I said about "win big or lose big"? Well...yeah. I am loathe to try to "blame the rules", but I felt I got pretty shafted by my reserve rolls. Getting a "one" for my third unit of Trukk boys on turn 4 and sending my bikes out alone was just kinda embarrassing, and when Bonebreaka's unit arrived on the field on turn five, I didn't even bother trying to be clever - I just drove up the middle, gave it my best with the two rokkits, and then waited for the inevitable hellstorm to land on me.

All in all, it was still a fun game. I knew I was going to need some luck in order to pull the mission off with the list I had, and unfortunately the luck I needed quickly evaporated on the IG's turn 2. Losing the 'Ard Boys in one fell swoop, then the two units of Kommandos, then the buggies...by the end of turn 2 I had all of three models left on the table, one of which was a trukk, another was a barely-standing warboss, and the third was a fleeing nob. From that point forward, I absolutely needed to get as many units as possible on the table ASAP, and what I got instead was a confused dribble of boys who got picked apart almost as soon as they arrived. I will state for the record that my absolute MVP for this game was my Big Choppa Warboss - for 75 points, he knocked apart two Russes like they were tinfoil toys, and earned himself a "win-back" of almost five times his points value. If he had been sporting 'Eavy Armor, he might very well have survived for another turn - or at the very least, soaked some more IG firepower before going down.

One idea Darkwing graciously offered, and I considered, was to have one "wave" hide out for a turn and wait for the reinforcements to arrive. I actually considered that with my shoota boys, but sadly they got pasted by the most accurate mortar fire of the game. Losing them without them taking a shot was frustrating - the same goes for the 'Ard Boys, who bailed out just in time to get utterly pasted by a battle cannon shot. I feel that between the barrage mortars and the overhwelming template fire of massed missile launchers, grenade launchers, and of course the Russes and the Hellhound, any attempt to hide out for a turn would probably have left those units pummeled and weakened to the point of ineffectiveness, and even further away from the guard's lines.

As they say, I'll be back for anuvva go!