This week on Warhammer+, Strike Force Agastus makes its mark on the battlefield as the Battle Report crew unleash its hellacious firepower on a tide of Orks. We caught up with presenters Nick and Ben, so they could tell us what to expect.
Warhammer Community: What mission did you choose for today’s Battle Report?
Nick: For this game, we went with Open Play and used the Open Hostility mission pack from the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book. We wanted a nice, simple game where we could get to the killing right away, so we played the Hold at All Costs mission, where the player that holds the centre of the board at the end of the game wins – easy!
Ben: You would say that in your power armour! My Orks had to leg it through the jungles of Kolomar to get to grips with the Ultramarines, and there was a lot of firepower coming their way!
WarCom: How did you select the armies?
Nick: It was easy for the Ultramarines – we just used the contents of the Strike Force Agastus box set. We used Power Levels (as we were playing Open Play) and the box set came to 37 PL, so we picked the Orks to match.
Ben: I love Stormboyz, so I took plenty of them. A Deff Dread meant I could take on the Brutalis directly – at least, in theory… and no self-respecting Warboss would leave home without a horde of Boyz, so I took a bunch!
Nick: Ben had loads of Orks in this game!
Ben: It’s recommended the attacker has about a third more PL than the defender for this mission, so to make up for that I just kept throwing boyz back into the scrap after they had been killed.
WarCom: It's the first time that the Brutalis Dreadnought and Desolation Marines have been in battle - how did they fare?
Ben: By Gork’s Teef… Ooof.
Nick: Ooof is right. I can honestly say that the Brutalis Dreadnought feels like one of the strongest units in the Space Marine arsenal. It has enough guns to make any Freebooter jealous, and it can shred pretty much anything it wants in combat with those massive talons. Or fists, if you prefer.
Ben: And what about those Desolation Marines? My Orks just couldn’t hide from them!
Nick: Yep, with the castellan launchers and the vengor launcher able to shoot targets they can’t see, nothing is safe. Those superkrak rockets just obliterate anything they touch, too.
WarCom: Were there any amazing moments?
Ben: There were loads of really cool moments where one member of a unit that should have all been wiped out somehow survived and went on to bravely cause havoc.
Nick: I’ll say this much: Orks just don’t know when they’re dead. Also tune in if you like seeing Dreadnoughts knocking seven bells out of each other.
WarCom: Can you give us any hints about how the battle went?
Ben: The game was more swingy than an Ork’s big choppa. It went both ways, with some really big moments. We both had moments where we thought the game was over, only for it to totally shift with the next dice roll.
Nick: That ending though… it was the stuff of legends!
WarCom: What drew you towards using the Open Play rules for this battle?
Nick: Playing an Open Play game means there’s less list writing, objective selecting and all that other set-up - you just get the models on the table and get rolling. It’s perfect for quick, fun games, and especially those you want to inject a bit more narrative into, as we did – following the exploits of Strike Force Agastus on the jungle world of Kolomar.
Ben: It also means you can be focused on one single objective, which is super easy to do. It meant my Orks could dedicate all their brain power (what little they have) to choppin’ up the Space Marines.
Thanks guys! Make sure you check out this savage episode of Battle Report on Warhammer+ this Wednesday – and if you fancy leading these mighty Adeptus Astartes into battle yourself, Strike Force Agastus is available to pre-order from Saturday.
