The Space Battle for Santos
A battle report from the Dark Side of the 40k Universe

- By John Tailby

The latest battle in our ongoing 40k narrative campaign proved to be a real tour de force. There was drama, peril, heroism, darkest treachery and a surprising plot twist.

By the way, I already have the movie rights.

Background

At Call to Arms the forces of The Imperium (the almost good guys) had won a great, if narrow victory and captured the planet of Santos from the forces of Chaos (the BAD guys). The resident Chaos Warlords were not about to take this lying down and so hatched their own nefarious plots to retake the planet.

Rather than a 40K battle this game was a Battle Fleet Gothic spaceship battle (on a VERY VERY BIG TABLE…Ed.)

The players involved (Starring in alphabetical order)

• Gareth Ackrill as Solar Admiral Akrael
• Alan Borthwick as Gorloth the Crazed
• Geoff Cooper as Ork Warlord Rugblott
• Richard Dagger as Chaos Warlord Samael
• Hagen Kerr as Wolf Lord Haakon Ironwolf
• Mikhail Wolf as Dark Angels Commander Libace

The Actual Battle.

The fleet of Ork Warlord Rugblott arrived first on the scene and proceeded straight toward the planet Santos. The Orks revealed their secret weapon "Da Deff Star" (rather than build space ships the orks simply fitted weapons and engines onto asteroids and use them as impromptu ships). Da Deff Star appeared to have once been a small moon but was now a mobile battle station. When placed on the table it drew immediate cries of "look at the size of that thing". However Da Deff Star was not entirely complete, some bits were still primered. A weakness that was to prove its undoing later in the battle.

Next to arrive was the fleet of Gorloth the Crazed, and he too unveiled his new superweapon. Gorloth's newly activated Blackstone fortress lurked in the middle of his fleet under his personal command. (drawing immediate cries of "Bugger!"..Ed.)

Speeding to the rescue came the Dark Angels under Commander Libace. They started a wide flanking manoeuvre to head towards Gorloth's fleet, ignoring the brave defenders on the planet below.

The Space Wolves arrived escorting a convoy of Capitolean Space Rangers to reinforce the defenders of Santos. They faced the daunting prospect of running a gauntlet of both Gorloth and Rugblott's fleets in order to get to the planet. Undaunted the great hero ordered full speed ahead.

Admiral Akrael's fleet arrived on the other side of the planet and found themselves facing the much larger fleet of Samael. Samael proceeded to ignore the puny Imperial fleet and began launching waves of bombers towards the orks. After a token attack Admiral Akrael turned towards the more immediate threat of Gorloth and his fleet closing on Santos.

The Orks began to enter orbit around Santos and the twisted genius of Rugblott's new "teknikul advisor" Leonardork Da Viscous became apparent. Several of the Ork ships (well, the smaller moons or large asteroids, depending on your point of view) entered the planetary atmosphere and actually landed on the surface of the planet.

In a surprising move the fleets of Gorloth and Rugblott completely ignored each other and turned towards the Space Wolves (Beardy Gits! …Ed.). The Space Wolves were in trouble and called on the support of the nearby Dark Angels to assist them. Commander Libace calmly ordered reverse thrust for his fleet and left the Space Wolves to their fate.

The battle between the Space Wolves, Gorloth and Rugblott was bloody but there could only be one possible outcome. The Space Wolf Battle Barge The Iron Wolf was obliterated by Da Deff Star and exploded. The blast destroyed several nearby ships.

One by one the Space Wolf ships were pounded upon and took shattering hits. The Capitolean Space Rangers took heavy casualties when several of their transports were destroyed by Gorloth's superweapon.

Samael's fleet was still pursuing the Orks (still), and finally the moment arrived to strike. Normally Da Deff Star would be immune to bomber attacks because of its array of defence turrets. However Samael had planned for this and elite commandos landed on Da Deff Star and shut down the Defence grid. The bombers were then able the strike with impunity, and Da Deff Star was then bombed back into the stone age. Or back to it's original purpose of being a moon.

Admiral Akrael attempted to break through Groloth's planetary blockade to relieve the Imperial defenders. Unfortunately the blockade was too strong and the Imperial fleet broke off after suffering some heavy damage. Admiral Akrael attempted to launch Exterminatus missiles to destroy the planet and deny it to both Chaos and the Orks. Unfortunately (for the Imperium) most of the missiles were intercepted.

With this final salvo over, the fleets disengaged.

Great fun was had by all that took part. Unfortunately for the Imperium, victory went to the bad guys. Several plot threads remain unresolved. Could there be a sequel?

By the way, I already have the movie rights to that too…