Mission #1 - Delaying action

The Guard forces dug in in the ruins of an abandoned imperial watchpost, right in the path of the orkish advance. Heavy weapons teams took up positions in the ruins, while infantry squads took cover below. Empty Chimaeras, having ferried their cargo here, were used as further roadblocks. Interrogator Clotilde joined her krieger retainers, keeping a tight leash on the Eversor Assassin.

Not much later, the first fume belching contingent of xenos appeared on the horizon, with many more of the aliens trailing behind on foot. Their singular goal: get to grips with the enemy and swamp the imperial zone.

The opening round of the battle saw a couple of hunter-killer missiles streaking towards the largest ork vehicle, damaging but not destroying the trukk. 

The orks, excited by the prospect of battle, surged towards the imperial lines.

After the first ranging shots, the imperials successfully destroyed the ork trukk speeding their way. The vehicle careened even further ahead, with the nobs crash-disembarking in their haste to get to grips with their enemy. The guard focused their fire on them, killing a few more.

The orks advanced again, with reinforcements now showing up in the distance. The infantry squads suffered their first few casualties by the rokkits corkscrewing towards them.

Seeing the orks falter just ahead of the lines, the Chimaeras were ordered forward. The Eversor was unleashed as well, although his frenzon levels were carefully kept in check.

Brave bullgryns engaged the remaining nobz, ready to sell their lives dearly for the Emperor.

The orks obliged, shooting and charging but doing surprisingly little.

With the orks mostly engaged outside the guard deployment zone, the infantry squads counter-attacked. I suppose the commanders distributed all their supply of panzerschokolade, because there is no other explanation to the devastation that followed. Accurate fire laid down by the infantry and heavy weapons eliminated one squad of Deffkoptas and the remaining nob and characters. The Eversor got an overdose of frenzon and killed a squighog boy and his accompanying nob. The Dragsta was also shot down.

Beastboss Gitstompa got stuck in and knocked down the remaining bullgryn, but looked around to see no more orks around him. And so the xenos retreated, ready to fight another day.

Delaying action successful!

I was actually really worried that I put the guard in a too-vulnerable position, but that is how narrative games are and I prepared for the worst. Not to mention the list lacking any kind of real tanks, and breaking the rules with the amount of heavy weapons teams and imperial agent support, none of which are a competitive choice. 

The orks came in with twice as many points, but only half were set up in the first round, with the rest coming on piecemeal. We rolled to see which half, and unfortunately all the infantry got in the second half - this meant they never got to the real action. Beastsnaggas got a charge off in the final round, but the Flash Gitz and Deff Dreads did nothing. This meant that instead of being outnumbered 2-to-1, the guard instead fought a comparable army, but on favorable terrain.

Without actually seeing the crusade rules for 10th edition, we just noted kills and deaths on paper for each unit and we'll see where the games go further on.