The Battle of Alecto

3/701/942.M41 0 Battle of Alecto

At bay – the Space Marines' first actions prove bloody and indecisive in the teeth of Waa-Ghazghkull.
@death_of_a_rubricist et @chrisbuxey

Between the sixth and ninth months after the invasion, Waa-Ghazghkull was chiefly concerned with making good on their initial gains. Their strategic goals included throttling Helsreach into submission and occupying Hades. While the former would come to pass in the tenth month of the war, the heroic resistance of the inhabitants of Hades would go on to obsess Ghazghkull, and ultimately lead to the orks' defeat.

Such events were yet to come to pass, however, and even as Imperial reinforcements made landfall, gloom and despondency were the order of the day for the Steel Legion during this period. With Overlord Von Strab having been relieved of command by Commander Dante of the Blood Angels, a new overall strategy – considerably more coordinated and measured – was enacted amongst the Army Groups of the Imperial Guard, and Generals and fighting men and women alike could at least look to the Angels for guidance. 

With the orks continuing to advance at a frightening rate, the Imperial forces were keen to push back wherever possible. This often meant crossing the mid-continental rivers that formed natural defensive lines. Here the tables were turned – the nature of the deep gorges and toxic contents of the rivers meant that these features could often only be practically crossed at certain strategic points. However minor, settlements near to these bridges and fords became critically important, providing shelter and barrack-room for ork and human alike, and serving as vital defensive areas.

Alecto Township stands as a typical example of the back-and-forth warfare of the mid-war period – remarkable mainly for the involvement of Blood Axe and Blood Angel forces.

***

Clashing strategies

Under Commander Dante's leadership, the Astartes were tasked with ensuring the stuttering Steel Legion advance was supported. He and his Blood Angels would anchor the north, the Salamanders would respond to ork incursions and opportunistic advances while Marneus Calgar was deputised with oversight of the area east of the Stygies – his particular area of expertise being applied to mastering the overall defence of the remaining Primary Hives.

Masters of destiny – the overall commanders of each side stood within a few hundred kilometres of one another, separated by the Taranis Plains. 

Waa-Ghazghkull, meanwhile, was borne on by its own momentum, and each victory won by the various warbands added to Warlord Ghazghkull's status. Victory bred victory, and this period saw Ghazghkull and his deputies at their height; more than a match for the Imperial counter-offensive. 

It was not merely their momentum and brute force that made the orks such a dangerous and determined foe, but their alien cunning. Endlessly inventive and creative, as capable in isolation as in overwhelming number, the danger of the orks was that few universal lessons could be applied to them. Time-proven tactics previously employed against the greenskins elsewhere proved fruitless, and the hide-bound Imperial war machine struggled to adapt.

Roving marauders like this Goff long-range recon group made the open wastelands lethal.
@too_many_epic_minis

Nowhere was this more apparent than in the genius of Ghazghkull himself – and his personal hand in the tactics of the various hordes became simultaneously easier to see and harder to counter for the Imperial forces during this period. 

***

Alecto

Taranis Province was a low-lying wasteland area that lay between the Palidus mountain range and the ash waste desert at the source of the Stylgies. Initially defended only by Ash Waste Militia irregulars, the 616th Regiment – part of the re-formed 6th Army Group then mustering in the region – was ordered to hold the township.

616th 'Lucifer's Own' Regiment.
@death_of_a_rubricist

Ghazghkull ordered a favoured deputy to claim the region: an up-and-coming Goff Warboss named Lugnutz. Leading a elite force of hardened Goffs Nobz and Skarboyz – his so-called Bully Boyz – Lugnutz opted for a predictably direct assault, which led to a bloody but successful victory for the greenskins, largely driving the humans out of Alecto Township and wrecking the place.

Bully Boyz skarboyz crash through the 6th Army defences.
@helleslager

With the habs wrecked and little shelter to be found, the Township was ill-suited to habitation. Even the orks found open-air encampment difficult, and the Goffs were forced to hunker down in what shelter could be found – much to the consternation and anger of Lugnutz. 

The surviving Steel Legion forces adopted guerilla tactics, hoping to pin and delay the ork horde for sufficient time to arrange an Imperial counter-assault. The fighting became sparse – more a case of cat--and-mouse than the stand-up fight the Goffs preferred. 

***

Droppas

For two weeks the Township saw more conflict amongst the frustrated Goff garrison than between the orks and humans. Eventually, with no established enemy presence to fight, Lugnutz elected to leave a skeleton force to garrison the ruins, and moved back to join up with Ghazghkull's march on Hades – a much juicier prospect for the ambitious warleader. With the job half-done, the surviving Steel Legion – by now much depleted and starving – began to hope that reinforcement might come soon.

All too common in Armageddon Prime, only specialist Blood Axe forces were present in Armageddon Secundus, as the horde under Genrul Straturgum was occupied in stamping out the ember of resistance – not to mention the newly-arrived forces of the Norgyr League.

Small sorties were organised by the surviving Steel Legion forces in the region, but these skirmishes had little effect beyond alerting Ghazghkull to the importance of the town to the Imperials. Perhaps intrigued, perhaps merely intending to spitefully provoke his opponent, Ghazghkull made an unusual move in ordering forces to redeploy from Armageddon Prime: a peculiar Blood Axe warboss and his curiously well-drilled army – the Steal Leejun.

These airborne forces were an example of the novel and inventive approach that Ghazghkull brought to his Waa-Ork. Termed 'Droppas' amongst the orks, forces like the Steal Leejun and Luggub's Droppas were typified by being supported by squadrons of low-flying dropships and specialist troop-carriers called 'chinorks' rather than ground vehicles. Perhaps inspired by Imperial Pioneer Regiments, these allowed Ghazghkull to send masses of ork infantry to unexpected areas quickly and effectively. The only blessings from the defenders' point of view was the lack of armoured support such forces were able to bring, and the clear contempt in which they were held by more traditionally-minded orks, who frequently neglected to support them.

Blood Axe droppas drive the depleted Steel Legion defenders out of Alecto.
@chrisbuxey et @death_of_a_rubricist

The Steal Leejun was a perfect example of the Blood Axe tendency to emulate, adopt and improve upon the characteristics of the enemy – one need only look at the name to see how quickly the orks had mirrored their opponents on this planet and made their tactics their own. It was his uncanny ability to identify and effectively direct these distinctly orkish tendencies that made Ghazghkull unique.

***

The battle of Alecto

Unbeknownst to the hapless Steel Legion still eking out survival in the ruins – now little more than scattered and depleted platoons – two opposing air forces were moving in simultaneously: the enemy Droppas, and the long-hoped-for reinforcements.

Blood Angels 3rd Company
@death_of_a_rubicist

The habitual frown which marred the Blood Angels Sergeant's otherworldly features was deeply etched. Alecto Township no longer belonged to the orks – but neither did it belong to the Imperial forces any more. At least, not yet.

Armageddon, it seemed, cared little of who claimed ownership. The ever-present wind seemed as ceaseless and coarse as the greenskins, driving an eternal low-lying sheet of dust ahead of it. Already, the streets were obscured in chem-laden sand, the burning rubble extinguished. 

If the town was not recaptured, Paulo mused, it would be gone in a decade or two, buried beneath the uncaring sands.

Even this early in the morning, the air was hot, and dry, and laced with contaminants. Paulo's enhancements and autosenses might, had he so wished, have been able to distinguish which originated from the chemical run-off and pollutants that dirtied the earth, and those that came from the alien stench of orkborne sweat and burning fuel. 

He did not so wish. 

Paulo continued his patrol, eyes glancing suspiciously left and right. The Steel Legion's remaining artillery had lacked the means to truly level the settlement the orks had occupied, and there were far too many blind alleys and low walls remaining. As a result, the Guardsmen simply couldn't retake Alecto Town, and the Blood Angels had been called in to clear this staging post once and for all.

The Blood Angels Third Company
@death_of_a_rubricist

***

Rotskab belly-crawled up the side of the dune, his shoota strapped securely to his back. Cautiously, he raised his head to see over the crest. He hadn't been the first ork to look – if the scattered Goff corpses, already bleaching in the sun, were any indicator – but he suspected he was the first to do so with any measure of subtlety. 

He might be no Blood Axe, Rotskab thought, but Ghazghkull's got the right sort of kunnin' to send us in 'ere. Never send a Goff to do a proppa job.

Seeing and hearing nothing, he reached round to his belt, unclipping his farscope and cautiously bringing it up. Tweaking a dial, it popped into life. All the while, his small, deep-set eyes never left the town's perimeter. 

At last, he wrinkled his snout and looked down at the ready-screen. The orange-on-black was hard for the kommando to make out, and he brought it closer. 

'Oomies are still there, boss,' he murmured into the radio mic – and then he paused. More excitedly, he carried on. ''Ang on – I spy... yeah! Boss, I see beakies!' Send in da boyz!

Da Steal Leejun Ladz
@chrisbuxey

***

As dawn rose, the bulk of the Blood Axe forces massed on the hill, with Warboss Yarrork out to the east and a battlewagon on the west, stuffed to the gills with boyz. Advancing towards the ruins, Tycho led his men in a phalanx anchored by squads on both wings.

A mass of ork infantry greets squads Cleon and Lazarus.

***

Both forces advanced to meet in the centre; the Blood Angels' firepower proving mostly ineffective against the toughened hides of the experienced orks. Alas for the Imperium, the same cannot be said for the return fire, as a weirdboy bolt smashed the Captain to the ground.

History repeating... the Blood Angels Captain is laid low by a psychic attack!
@death_of_a_rubricist

Shaken but undeterred, the Blood Angels made the most of what little shelter they could find in the burnt-out township, and brought their weapon-sights to their eyes.

Steal Leejun boyz let out a rowsing cheer at their Weirdboy's antics.
@chrisbuxey

***

A Terminator counter-strike teleports in to smash the orks in their rear lines, but by this point the ork battleline has crashed into the Blood Angels, throwing them back. The fighting grows thickest around the eastern flank and centre.

On the right flank, ten Blood Angels and a Rhino, led by Chaplain Savonarola, struggle to hold back a mounted mob of thirty boyz.

The Terminators butcher a mob of hapless orks – but they are left too far from the centre to affect events.

***

A general melee erupts in the centre ground, and the orks claim their key objectives, driving back the struggling Space Marines.

The fighting became close and bloody, but despite the orks' savagery, they found – for the first time in this campaign – that they were outmatched in combat. Blood Angels fell, but at a slower rate than the orks. For a few precious moments, it appeared that the centre might hold.

***

Gnashing his teeth in fury, the warboss watched his plans begin to unravel as the Marines simply refused to die in the centre. Taking matters into his own hands, Yarrork made at full speed towards the foe, determined to claim the centre.

General melee – a typical slice of the middle Armageddon War.

***

Brutal fighting swings back and forth until nearly all in the centre lay dead – but with the Warboss himself involved, the scales top back in the greenskins' favour.

Sergeant Cleon confronts the armoured might of Yarrork – but to no avail.

***

With both forces too shattered to make good on their gains, both the Blood Angels and orks fell back – but the laurels went to Yarrork, who stamped his mark on Alecto Township, and kept the vital staging post open across the Stygies.

In the aftermath of the conflict, the Blood Angels were able to recover some of their casualties – but they had suffered terrible losses. More than a quarter of the Third Company would be out of action for weeks, and their beloved Captain had been killed. He was – fatefully – to be replaced by Captain Tycho, who would lead the Third for the remainder of the Armageddon Campaign.

***

What beats a Kommissar like ol' Bale Eye? An even BIGGA Kommissar! Stands to reason, don't it?

– Wisdom of Waa-Ghazghkull

Kommissar Yarrork
@chrisbuxey