Gear Guts' Boyz - The Busted Warp Drive - Game 01

"Hoomies!" shouted little Stibgrit in his squeaky voice, just before Skullstompa's fist smashed into him. "Dere ain't been no hoomies 'ere fer lotsa days," the ork muttered, snappin' the runt's legs like twigs. "Yoo sure 'bout dat?" grunted Nogrok, fiddlin' with his Deffgun. Gear Guts popped his head up from under the busted warp engine. "Wot are you gits doin'?"

"We's been sar-way-ing like ya said, boss," Nogrok stammered. "You gits is supposed to be up on da zoggin' buildin's! 'Ow's ya gonna find humies if ya just starin' at a wall, ya zoggin' meat'eads?" Gear Guts roared. "B-but I wuz outside, boss. Da beakies is 'ere," Stibgrit whimpered, clutchin' his smashed leg. "Zog off, ya runt."

"I fink I sees 'em now, boss!" Nogrok yelled from the roof. "Yeah boss, I see some beakies I ain't never seen before. They's black like Goff boyz, but wiv blu-" just as bolter fire ripped through his chest...

The First Campaign Game

Gear Guts' first opponent was Inquisition Kill Team Platon, originating from a chapter of Space Marines known as the Irate Crusaders. This chapter of works closely with the Inquisition and were dispatched to Ferronia. They were surveying the remains of an old Ork fortress when their Gunship detected vital signs on the surface. They stumbled upon Gear Guts and his Mob, who were trying to salvage a busted warp drive that his boys had found in the area. Unfortunately, his underlings were dense enough to avoid climbing onto the roofs of nearby buildings while sar-way-ing the area and were caught off guard by the Astartes.

The Mission

"Eliminate Target" from the Octarius book was the mission of the day, with the Intercession Squad as attackers and the Greenskins as defenders. I had to choose my Spanner, Gear Guts, as my Commander because he was tasked with using an action each turn to oversee plans (looting the broken warp drive) to score points, while the Space Marines were out to eliminate him and claim the objective where Gear Guts was trying to loot.

All my shooting units were deployed under the roofs of the buildings with an engage order, ready to fire at any Beakies trying to reach the Boss. My melee boyz were hanging out in cover in the front building, waiting for an opportunity to charge at any Space Marines after they were softened up by the Lootas and Rokkit Boy. I gave one of the Grots the Mission Equipment which allowed him to heal an operative, because I didn’t have much else in the way of equipment, other than the Targetin' Fings on the Lootas. He stayed with Gear Guts, holding the flashlight, while his boss scolded him for not holding it correctly.

The Marines were quite fast, as they were able to deploy one inch further into the Killzone and were one inch faster as well. Thus, they quickly closed the distance to the Boyz. The Lootas managed to soften up a few of the Intercessors so each of the melee Boyz could score a kill. The problem was that I still ended up trading 2 for 1 for each Intercessor. Ten models weren't enough for this equation to work out. After a frag grenade wiped out the free-running Grot and wounded 2 Boyz, the game looked pretty dire for the Greenskins.

The issue I had was that my best gun was stuck performing the mission action, so I could not kill Marines and score primary points at the same time. Thus, Gear Guts' orky instincts took over, compelling him to throw himself into the fray and provide cover fire with his Kustom Mega-Blasta. He ultimately met his end when the leader of Kill Team Platon sliced him open with his Power Sword.

When it came to scoring Tac-Ops, it wasn’t looking great either. Trying to hold the crane in the deployment zone of my opponent was nearly impossible, as my path to it was immediately cut off by the Marines' great speed. All things considered, the game ended with me scoring only 4 points and my opponent winning by a significant margin, scoring 17 points. It was a lost battle, but Gear Guts will continue trying to find the shiniest Gubbins.

In the end, the team performed as I expected: pretty underwhelming, as it usually is with compendium teams. Having more paragraphs of rules usually means that you have the stronger team. This was even more evident when playing against the Starstriders in the subsequent game. I was simply overrun by them since they generated far more value than my Greenskins. My opponent even forgot to use his Support Assets and tabled me. Granted, I got cought out by the -Medic twice, so maybe all of this is just due bad playing on my part. At least he let my Grot live, and my Boyz got away with only a single Battle Scar. There isn’t much that I will achieve with Gear Guts and his Boyz other than being a cartoon villain, and maybe winning the Campaign Trophy for most casualties.