Hylas: West coast falls, Berkeley lost to orks

Despite the Ultramarine success, General Van Dorn still didn't have enough forces to hold the extended line into Berkeley. This was demonstrated when Na'Porkleon attacked all across the Tennys coast front line just a few days after the city had been retaken. Massed ork attacks from the Sump Sea to the coast soon ensured the imperial positions in Berkeley became untenable, and Van Dorn retreated to straighten his line.

The local Novgorod Guard commander offered to prove his new arrivals' mettle by counter attacking to halt the ork advance. Surprised but intrigued Van Dorn agreed, pleased that at least some of his commanders were showing a positive attitude to the war which had now ground on for 413 days. The Novgorod Guard deployed in their positions and didn't have to wait too long for Na'Porkleon's hordes to show up.

The battle of West Coast lasted from 28-3110.013M42. During those three days both sides sent in waves of infantry with very little in the way of support, and for once the greenskins even found themselves outnumbered. Each ork assault slew thousands of men, but the Novgorod Colonel simply threw in more battalions, headless of the losses.

After three days of the slaughter, Van Dorn had had enough. He ordered a withdrawal to the north, fearful that the Novgorod units would soon break or be annihilated, allowing the orks to breakthrough. He didn't want a repeat of the fall of the west and was horrified at the colossal loss of life in his guard units. By the end of 10.013M42 the imperial line had retreated fully out of the West coast region, shortening the imperial line and providing some respite from the fighting for the exhausted guardsmen. Nevertheless the Novgorod commander maintained that had he been allowed to continue his meatgrinder tactics, the orks would have broken first. Van Dorn had clearly disappointed his new Colonel, but he simply couldn't afford such attritional tactics while supply lines to Hylas remained blocked by the ork fleet.