We played the first session of the in-person Wrath & Glory campaign that I'm running this winter. The campaign focuses around the crew of an Astra Militarum Leman Russ Battle Tank in a Tallarn Armoured Regiment (451st Tallarn Tank Regiment 3rd Squadron, #3 Troop). We made characters on September, but just kind of haven't been able to get together since to actually PLAY!
I forgot to take any pictures DURING the game...
The Story so Far...
4.666.013.M43 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment is founded on Tallarn and recruitment begins.
Fatima Zara, who will become the tank's Commander, is from minor nobility. Her family forces her into the Military to learn some respect. Fatima owns her new existence and is determined to be one of the few that returns a victorious commander who will raise her OWN regiment...
Farah Vasquez, that will become the tanks driver, is a dock worker that is conscripted.
Antoin "Bey-Bey" Bey is the tank's main gunner.
013-014.M42 The better part of a Terran Standard year and a half is spent training. Beginnning with basic military training, followed by specific roles within their chosen trades
4.016.015.M42 The entire regiment begins to embark for warp transit to some distant part of the galaxy to serve the Emperor in defending humanity from the scourge of Xenos or the corruption of Chaos
4.124.015.M42 The flotilla begins the first leg of Warp Transit
4.216.016.M42 One squadron of tanks from a Reserve Squadron is disembarked for all the other squadrons to participate in planetside maneuvers on an agriworld. Unfortunately, The timing of the warp passage was off and the flotilla arrived a month later than planned and instead of doing maneuvers on dry freshly harvested fields, they ended up tearing up, and getting utterly mired in, fresh tilled and seeded (and very, very WAT) fields.
It was a highlight of the journey for all involved - to set foot on a planet completely different than the one they's spent their entire lives on filled everyone with wonder! What would the next world be like!?
5.600.017.M42 Will all reembarked aboard their respective transports, the flotilla begins the second leg of its Warp Transit.
6.150.018.M42 Through the “Gaulntlet” – The portion of the warp passage through the Cicatrix Maledictum begins and things get... Weird.
5.608.018.M42 Arrive in Xoxigar System. Though only 3.5 years have passed in realspace during the regiment's warp transit, due to the vagaries of Warp Travel, the subjective time experienced by the travellers was close to FIVE years!
Once in system, the troops finally receive information about their destination and mission. The regiment is to be deployed to Xoxigar Secondus, a Forge World in the Xoxigar System. Part of the mission will be to defend it from external threats... but also to help out with a small Ork infestation that has been troubling the planet for a few generations.
There seems to be much confusion about specifics. At least every cycle there is a complete change in plan for where precisely they are to be deployed. At first the regiment was to be deployed en masse. They individual squadrons were to be parcelled out to different factorums across the planet... then just to different factorums in one region...
5.713.018.M42 3rd Squadron disembarks to Xoxigar Secondus. Chaos ensued. It was almost as if the Cult Mechanicus Council ruling the planet had no idea they were even going to be here, let alone any sort of plan for where they were to stay or, perhaps.
After a few dozen cycles of being bounced around from location to location, living in tents that provided wholly inadequate protection from the toxic wastelands that surround the factorum. to sleeping in their tanks for days, or vast empty warhouses and storage facilities. Eventually the powers that be find and assign some, at least semi-permanent, living quarters and storage for tanks and other equipment.
After that patrolling began in earnest. First they were small troop patrols, shadowing the PDF to get the lay of the land around where they were based. Then longer patrols out deeper into the wastelands to get a sense of where they would need to got to find Orks
During the briefings, it was suggested that the Ork population was very small and the raids were little more than a nuisance, raiding the occasional distant, isolated outpost. Talking to some of the PDF members (the Cult Mechanicus locals wouldn't even acknowledge the Tallarn's presence, let along speak to them) it was hinted that the Ork might be a bit bigger of a problem that the Mechanicus Council led the imperial authorities to believe... but even the local PDF was unwilling to discuss specifics.
4.860.018.M42 Squadron Fighting Patrol into the Fellbunk Wastes.
Rolling out on their first longer patrol deep into the wasteland. I laid out Epic scale miniatures I had. The spacing is not necessarily to scale, and we did now roll for what everyone else was doing. They were set out to show the relative locations of the rest of the Squadron and give a greater sense of what was going on in the bigger picture.
The entire Squadron rolled out for this
Leading the formation was #1 Troop, lead by Lt. Dalil. Immediately behind #1 Troop was the Squadron Commander, Captain Gilani in her Leman Russ Vanquisher. To the left of the formation was #2 Troop, commanded by Lt. Yousefi. On the right was #3 Troop, commanded by Lt. Arbab. On the extreme right of the formation was Leman Russ #333 (Alaintiqam), crewed by the player characters!
In the middle of the formation was a Gorgon Heavy Transporter carrying an entire platoon of the 382nd Tallarn (Desert Raider) Regiment. The 382nd were mechanized infantry... but a significant number of their Chimera armoured troop carriers were lost in transit. Luckily, one of the products of this forge world, is Gorgon Heavy Transporters... so a few of the Companies have been outfitted with them.
Taking up the rear are the tanks of the Regimenatal Sergeant Major and the Squadron Commissar (the latter being a Leman Russ Executioner armed with a Powerful Plasma Cannon (no, the model in the picture is not an actual Executioner... All I have is standard Leman Russ Battle tanks (and one or two Executioners)
There were a handful of Sentinel walkers from the regiment's Reconnaissance Squadron ahead and to the flanks of the formation (There were more than two, but I only have two models... )
The crew spent days sitting in their tank rolling through the near featureless wasteland. After the excitement of the maneuvers on the Agriworld, it was a huge letdown to be deployed to a dismal world not all that different from their own. The sand and dust and sky were tainted a different colour. The toxic wasteland was poisoned by factorum emissions rather than persistent remnants of millennia old virus bomb residue... but it was all pretty much the same.
All passed their Wil checks to avoid dozing off!
After the first 12 hours, there was a sudden squawk of "CONTACT LEFT" from the Sentinel on the left flank and then the distant sound of an explosion could be heard reverberating through the hull of their Leman Russ.
The Squadron ordered #1 and #2 Troop to turn to engage the enemy and #3 Troop was to watch the rear.
Sounds of heavy combat soon followed...
Shortly after a mob of horrifying, monstrous green beings loomed out of the smog shrouded dunes in the distance, accompanied by ridiculous-looking, giant walking cans festooned with weapons. The Troop commander had not issued any orders and clearly hadn't seen them, so Sgt Zara reported the contact and ordered her crew to engage!
While making evasive maneuvers LCpl Vasquez ran the tank over a large rock she had not seen and nearly toppled the tank over, all were shaken for a moment.
There was constant pattering of small arms fire bouncing off the hull. Occasionally a larger machine gun would trace its fire across the bow armour, which sounded like it might damage things, but didn't. Twice during the brief engagement the tank was hit by rockets with explosive warheads. Though the detonations nearly deafened all within, the hull remained unbreached (The Emperor Protects!)
It took the main gun four shots to finish off the two armoured walking cans. During that time the three Heavy Bolters in the bow and two sponsons mowed down nearly two dozen Orks that madly charged at their tank, clearly without a shred of selfpreservation and a deep, deep desire to overrun it and pull them apart with their bare hands.
Near the end of the engagement there was near blinding flash of brilliant white light, followed by a deafening explosion that physically rocked the entire tank.
Shortly after wards the "ALL CLEAR" was given and the infantry disembarked to finish off any wounded and drag all the Ork corpses into a pile to be burned.
The equally long and dreadfully boring trip back the their base was, relatively uneventful
During debriefing, they learned that most tanks of the squadron survived the engagement with only a few tanks sustaining minor damage and only a handful of crew sustaining minor injuries. So minor were these injuries and damage, that all tanks made the return journey unassisted... Except for one...
The Squadron's Commissar had insisted having his own tank to accompany the Squadron on patrols. He had somehow procured a Leman Russ Executioner tank (with it's massive plasma cannon - that could blast apart a fleeing Leman Russ battle tank, if need be...), which are normally saved for the likes of Regimental or Squadron commanders or esxtremely elite crews...
Near the end of the battle, the Commissars tank exploded in a great white ball of fire, instantly killing all within and utterly destroying the tank itself.
Few were saddened by this turn of events. Some had a really hard time suppressing their jubilation at hearing the news.
Since the 3rd Squadron was formed, FIFTEEN of their original sixty had died and been replaced. Three died in accidents. Four had died of disease (mostly during the transit through the Cicatrix Malledictum). The remaining EIGHT had been executed by the brutal Commissar Comsarius...
I had a lot of fun. I got to use all the Epic 40K stuff I've been painting up - not that I was keeping track of what ALL the tanks were doing - playing out the ENTIRE squadrons battle, but it was a helpful visual aid to set them all out in the formation of advance and explain what was going on around them.
Using the Wrath & Glory system (including the vehicle rules from Church of Steel and a few tweaks I came up with myself - including a few new actions for various crew to take, beyond the standard DRIVE and SHOOT presented in the published rules), we resolved the combat between the Leman Russ tank and Two mobs of 10 Ork Boyz and two Killa Kanz. Orion and Nic seemed like they were having fun too...? Hopefully we'll get in another game sometime in December!?
This is one of TWO, casual (once-a-month) games of Wrath & Glory going I've tried to organize this fall. To save on preparation, both were to involve tank crew of a Tallarn Armoured Regiment deployed to the Xoxigar System. The plan was to run, more or less, the same campaign for both groups - one, members of 1st Squadron, was to be run online with friends who do not live in Saskatoon, the other, members of 3rd Squadron run in-person for friends that do live in Saskatoon... Initially, both groups had four players.
There was a bit of enthusiasm in August/September. Characters were made For the first group in August. The first game was planned for a time when everyone was available in September... two showed up...
The second group got their characters made in the third week of September and we even planned to start playing the next weekend... that one had to be cancelled (because I was sick, so that one was on me...).
No games got played in October... Just could not seem find a day where anyone seemed to be available - for BOTH groups!? At least, among those that responded to messages...!? it was all pretty discouraging.
Honestly, if it weren't for the 40 Days of 40K Drawing Challenge I probably would have lost all interest.
As November drew nearer, i reached out to see if anyone was available to play in either group.
Group One (1st Squadron, Online), two people responded and both were available one day in November... and it wasn't the same day... After a bit of discussion, another player chimed in and it was decided to try on the second Saturday. Never heard from the fourth.
The other group two responded and were available the second Sunday, one of the players later admitted they were just too busy with other stuff this fall and weren't going to be able to play and officially dropped out. Never heard from the fourth..
Mid way through the second week of November I checked in to see if things were still a go. One person responded from Group One with an enthusiastic "YES!" No one else responded. This is all done through facebook messenger, so I can see who has SEEN the message (everyone!?)... Checking in on Friday... still no response, so I cancelled that game Saturday morning. Aye-yi-yi!
Sunday rolled around... Orion and Nic actually showed up and we played this game! Yay! Enthusiasm restored!
It was pretty much the same adventure I ran for the two players from the other group that showed up in September. Establishing the setting a bit more and setting the stage for some future DRAMA and then ran then through a patrol and their first contact with the Orks infesting the wastelands of the Forge World they've been tasked with defending - mostly to test out the vehicle combat system.
We might look for another player for this in person game... I'm not sure if I should give up on the online players or give it one more chance in December...?
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