The Battle for Golgotha
Introduction: To celebrate the levelling up of my Youtube channel and my commitment to provide exciting Epic material, I was wracking my brain to think up something that would be a bit of a treat for the community. To my intense relief, fellow Epic blogger Caregadras (check out his amazing Epic blog, you won't be disappointed) made the suggestion that was a winner: reenact the Battle for Golgotha, the famous battle between Epic legends Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson! I can't claim my miniatures and terrain* are at the same level as theirs, but hopefully you'll find my version a lot of fun too!
*I love the fortifications I bought from Battlescene Designs, but I haven't built them into rock formations the way WD did for the Squat fortresses.
Changes: There are a few minor changes to the Ork forces: I didn't have Gobsmashas or Hop-Splat Guns so I swapped those out for Lungbustas, Gutrippas and Dreadnoughts (a mistake, the Orks ended up fielding 50 points more than they were entitled to). I also didn't own a Mekboy Gargant or Wartraks (I think that pretty much every hole in my Ork army was highlighted by this choice of forces!) so I proxied them with a Slasha Gargant and the Nobz Warbles with flags which are suitably different in look to the actual Nobz Warbikes I was fielding! You'll notice that I didn't have the cards for the leaders but I did have a note of their stats and rules so that was all good. The Squat force was no problem for me to field, I had plenty of miniatures to cover everything there. I've done my best to recreate the terrain, but admittedly it isn't an exact match!
Anyway, here's the video - the write up follows below! I hope you enjoy both! Please consider liking, commenting and sharing my videos if you enjoy them - but most importantly, please subscribe to my Youtube Channel if you want to see more - I have plenty of added Epic goodness on the way!
Scenario: This is a head to head battle, with 45 Victory Points required to win.
Army Lists:
Orks:
Battlefield Overview and Deployment:
Deployment was as Andy and Jervis set up. From here on in though, the game was played as normal, meaning that if you're familiar with the original battle report, things diverge from this point onwards.
The Orks received the pictured Mekboyz cards. The Bionik Bitz and Super Power Armour were given to the group of 8 Goff Nobz, driving one insane and confining him to the Madboyz Mob! The Kustom Force Field and Glyph Inscriptions were applied to the Lungbustas, intended to make them durable against the Thunderers defending the fortress.
Turn 1:
Movement Phase:
First Fire Phase:
The Orks have no First Fire so the Squats look to take full advantage! The Colossus uses its Gyrocopter to bring the mighty Doomsday Cannon to bear upon the Kult of Speed!
...but still picks off two Warbuggies - and a stand of Nobz Bikers!
Finally, the Colossus targets the Great Gargant with its battle cannon...
...landing four hits! Three power fields are knocked down, but as they flicker, one shot is a direct hit! Fortunately the head only suffers the lightest of damage!
...and destroys one!
The Goliath Mega-Cannon tries to pick off the last Shokk Attack Gun, but somehow misses! That said, the punishment the Deathskulls have taken this turn has been severe!
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| Squat dice in red, Orks in green |
With things going badly and Squat bikes piling in on tanks and Goffs around the periphery of the woods, Ghazghkull - possibly panicking - calls upon the power of the Waaagh! to turn the table on the rampaging bikes!
The melee that follows is vicious - but, despite having the advantage, the Orks somehow manage to come off slightly worse than the Squat bikers!
But, despite the firepower at its disposal, it only manages to destroy a single Warbuggy!
The Colossus fails its roll - and is destroyed! Note: The Colossus may have survived had I been playing Net Epic as Praetorians have damage charts like Titans. They are far more brittle in 2nd Edition!
Ork Casualties:
Turn 1 VPs:
Orks: 25 VPs
Squats: 20 VPs
Turn 2:
Movement Phase:
First Fire Phase:
Ghazghkull and his retinue target the Overlord Armoured Airship - but fail to bring it down!
A Baneblade fires at the Great Gargant but only succeeds in downing a single power field!
The Mekboy Gargant brings its weapons to bear on the formidable Land Train!
It fires its ball round - and once again, it is dead on target!
But the Mekboy Gargant has two Kustom Cannon to fire as well! It rolls a whopping 18 attack dice and decides to hit the three remaining carriages in its line of sight with 6 shots apiece!
...and lands in the middle of a nearby melee, splattering a squad of Deathskulls boyz!
Destroying both!
Mole Mortars activate...
The remainder of the Mole Mortars try to clear the distant hill of Deathskulls - but miss their targets!
...and take it down! The objective is secured!
...and another two stands fall under their fire!
Thunderers hammer at the Mekboy Gargant...
...but come off badly!
...but they tear them apart!
Trikes try to penetrate the Mekboy Gargant force fields - but fail!
End Phase:
The Mekboy Gargant is not damaged by the field - but only just!
Squat Casualties (destroyed Colossus & Land Train not shown):
Colossus: 5 VPs
Guild Biker Force: 8 VPs
Deathskull Clan: 10 VPs
Turn 2 VPs:
Orks: 39 VPs
Squats: 30 VPs
Turn 3:
Movement Phase:
First Fire Phase:
Mole Mortars target the Warbuggies and Nobz Warbikers on the hill...
...and they pick off one of each! Sensing the writing is on the wall, the Nobz Bikers retaliate, targeting the closest Baneblade...
...and destroy it, breaking the Company!
The Overlord Armoured Airship targets Ghazkhull's crew...
...but the power fields flicker - and the shot punches through the hull and hits the magazine, inflicting maximum damage and starting three fires! An immediate roll is made on the fire table and with four fires already burning, it does not look good for the Great Gargant! Internal explosions tear through the Gargant and reduce it to a burning pile of molten slag! Even Yarrick is stunned by the dramatic turn of events - little wonder that Orks across the battlefield shudder with shock and dismay!
The Mekboy Gargant brings its Kustom Cannon to bear on the Grand Battery - this time it can unleash 12 shots!
The still intact Mortar Car has a direct line of sight on the Scorcher tanks...
The Wildboyz take on the Guild Master...
...and are easily defeated!
The Gyrocopters target the Wartraks...
...and destroy another two! This is the last action of the Turn!
End Phase:
The Mekboy Gargant is not damaged by the field - but - again - only just!
The Kult of Speed is broken - and the Wartraks fail their Morale Check and are forced on to Fall Back orders! Deathskulls rally, but the Trikes fail their Morale Check again!
Squat Casualties (destroyed Colossus & Land Train not shown):
Colossus: 5 VPs
Guild Biker Force: 8 VPs
Ork Casualties:
Kult of Speed: 6 VPs
Great Gargant: 9 VPs
+ 4 Objectives: 20 VPs
Turn 3 VPs:
Orks: 44 VPs
Squats: 45 VPs
Squats win by 1 Victory Point!
Closing Reflections:
Wow! What a battle - and unbelievable that the Orks lost out by a single point! Given that Yarrick's Baneblade pulled off a wonder shot, the Orks can feel especially hard done by! It was funny seeing the Colossus going out to the ball round from the Ork Gutbuster as this was exactly how it played out in the original White Dwarf battle report. The second ball round trashing most of the Land Train was another big moment for the Orks, and it felt like the momentum had swung their way...but it was not to be! The weapon being blown clean off the Gargant was another fun moment, one of the nice details that's built into the Epic system that occasionally delivers a surprise and a few laughs! As you'll have noticed, I had to proxy the Mekboy Gargant with a Slasha, so I hadn't used the Mekboy Gargant before - on this evidence I may again in the future! The invulnerable shield (which can overheat) proved to be a real boon as did the two Kustom Cannon I tooled it up with (I didn't see any use for the close assault weapon), although the dice rolls were very kind when rolling the number of attack dice for those guns! It could have just as easily misfired, causing damage! One of the Epic community has pointed out that the Mekboy Gargant does not have a Gutbuster weapon, so unfortunately that was a schoolboy error on my part that it was treated as having one here (I thought all Gargants had them). It was a lot of fun replicating this classic battle and I hope you enjoyed reading up about it!
My Patreon is now live, so if you want to see what happened when I replayed this battle with 7,000 points and allowed free deployment, please consider backing me! I hope to make it well worth your while! This will be posted up on my Patreon within a week from now.
