Hey folks!
You can read my other battle reports for this event here:
Whiskey Challenge / Celebrity Match
Round One
Round Three
Round Four
Round Five
Round Six
The Pink Waaaugh!
HQ1: Ghazghkull Thraka
HQ2: Big Mek with
KFF and Powerklaw
Troop1: 7x Nobs, cybork bodies + wound shenanigans in dedicated transport battlewagon
Troop2: 16x Boyz, Nob/Powerklaw/Bosspole
Troop3: 12x Trukk Boyz, Nob/Powerklaw/Bosspole + Trukk
Troop4: 10x Gretchin + Runtherder
Elite1: 15x Burnas
Elite2: 5x Lootas
Elite3: 5x Lootas
Fast Attack1: 3x Warbuggies with
TL Rokkits
Fast Attack2: 1x Deffkopta,
TL Rokkits + Buzzsaw
Fast Attack3: 1x Deffkopta,
TL Rokkits + Buzzsaw
Heavy1: Battlewagon
Heavy2: Battlewagon (Deffrolla, Boarding Plank, Grabbin' Klaw, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers, Big Shoota).
After Round One, I find myself moved up to table #3. Stack Rankings were based on strong vs. weak, and after my poor performance in round one, I was apparently the third weakest winner - causing me to go up against the third strongest winner. I was a little worried to have brought such a poor showing in the first game, because my subsequent rounds were going to be brutal. I show up to my table and find...none other than Vinny Pau, one of our own Dakka-ites!
He maimed and slaughtered his first round opponent and comes to the table with the bane of my existence: Mechanized
IG.
Vinny Pau's Imperial Guard:
HQ1: Company Command Squad with 3x Melta Guns; Astropath, Company Commander + Chimera
Elite1: Inquisitor + 2x Mystics
Elite2: 8x Pskyer Battle Squad Members + Overseer + Chimera
Troop1: 7x Veterans + 2x Plasmaguns, 1x Lascannon Heavy weapon team, Vet Sergeant + Chimera
Troop2: 9x Veterans + 3x Meltaguns, Vet Sergeant + Chimera
Troop3: 7x Veterans + 2x Plasmaguns, 1x Lascannon Heavy weapon team, Vet Sergeant + Chimera
Troop4: Infantry Platoon; Command Squad with 4x Meltaguns, Platoon Commander + Chimera // 9x Infantry Squad, Sergeant + 9x Infantry Squad, Sergeant
Fast Attack1: Vendetta
Fast Attack2: Vendetta
Fast Attack3: Vendetta
Heavy Support 1: Leman Russ Executioner
Heavy Support 2: Manticore
Heavy Support 3: Manticore
The picture is a bit blurry, but here's the
IG.
Those manticores have magnetized missiles; every time he fires one, he can pull a missile off and set it aside.
Nova Mission #2 is Pitched Battle, with the win conditions taking the following precedence:
1. Objectives
2. Victory Points
3. Table Quarters
We roll off and I land a six to Vinny's four. I elect to deploy and go first.
Pre-Game Tactical Assessment:
G*d damn f**** **** piece of **** codex with their ****** cheap ****ing transports of doom **** ***** and **** like *****. Mechanized
IG are the bane of my existence. Vendettas can outflank and hit my side armor from across the board, and they have THREE of them.
KFF saves inevitably fails against that many shots, not to mention alpha-striking vets, freakin' multilasers and worst of all.....the MANTICOREs that drop STR10 templates 3 at a time anywhere they want. No, there's no bitterness here. All I have to say is that for how wtfpwn this codex came out to be, when
DE come out in November, they better step up the game so hard that
IG and Space wolves are afraid to even get onto the table for fear of getting castrated by whatever vile tools are put into my arsenal, and the players behind them turn pale to see me put my Dark Eldar on the table for fear that my wyches will cross the table, come to life, and pull their innards out through their belly-buttons, turn their innards into their outards, their outards into their innards, and cackle gleefully while they wail and scream in agony and despair as their life leeches slowly into my models (which is how they pick up that ethereal glow).
In short, Mechanized
IG are my least favorite matchup. Everything is mechanized, everything is lethal to vehicles, and there's nothing to get a big chunk of and assault...not to mention flamers everywhere. *sigh* At least I won the roll to go first. It would have been much worse if I had lost the roll to go first - at least I can move up the board before taking fire if I go first.
Now, I have a reputation to maintain. Having won the roll for deployment, I figure that its 5:00 somewhere and reason enough to celebrate! I'm expecting to get beat down, so I might as well take it in good spirits...with good spirits!! A few healthy swallows later, my eyes are watering, my belly is warming up, and we're off to the races!
My deployment:
Here's a shot of the table. I set up directly behind the BLOS terrain in the middle to centralize myself to answer whatever Vinny does. Lootas on the left side spaced 2" apart to minimize potential Manticore damage. There's an annoying piece of BLOS terrain in front of me....but I don't want to clump all my lootas on one side of the board, so I don't really have a choice here, especially with that gigantic BLOS piece of terrain in the middle. I drop the second Loota squad on the right, also spaced out well, and space out the Gretchin the rear. With this being an objective game, I;d like to use them to stretch between the corner and central objective and control two.
Here's a closeup of my main army deployment: Battlewagons are same as always: Nobs on the left,
KFF + Boyz in the middle, Ghazghkull + Burnas on the right. Rokkit buggies are inside
KFF range, trukk is hiding behind AV14 ready to offer support where needed. I'm behind the BLOS building, ready to drive left or right to try protecting side armor from one side of the battlefield or another, while my flanking deffkoptas are set to look for an opportunity to do something mean.
On my right flank, I've got a unit of Lootas in cover, spread out to minimize Manticore evilness, with my gretchin behind them, also in cover. The stabby looking guy is my custom-built Runt-herder. My initial intent here is for those gretchin to spread out throughout the game towards the middle and hold two objectives, but much will depend on how the first couple of turns play out. I'm very carefully deploying 2" intervals to minimize blast template damage.
I've got a unit of Lootas on the left as well. They're not in an ideal position because there's some BLOS terrain in midfield (which you can see in the earlier table shot, or at the top of the picture here), but they'll cover the middle of the table, anything trying to hide behind the big piece of terrain in the middle, and be able to range any vendettas that fly around over there, or chimeras that come down to contest/nab my objectives.
Vinny deploys. He drops a manticore, his leman russ, and 4 chimeras in the corner. There's a vet squad with a lascannon in the chimera in front of the Manticore. The far left one is the Company Command Squad, with the Psyker Battle Squad pimping the yellow, and what I think is the platoon command squad in front of them.
On the left we get the second manticore and two chimeras in front of it; a Lascannon vet team and and regular vet team (or maybe an infantry platoon).
Here's a side-shot of the table after deployment is finished. Vinny chose to keep his two Vendettas in reserve; they have vet squads in them I think. Whether to serve as later-in-the-game objective grabbers, or to outflank and hit battlewagon side/rear armor, I'm not sure. This was probably a mistake on his part - my only credible Vendetta threat are my two units of Lootas, and he could have deployed in the middle / one flank and scout moved wherever he needed....with the added benefit of also denying my Deffkoptas the ability to scout move into a dangerous position.
My rightside Deffkopta scouted up the table towards his formation:
My leftside Deffkopta scouted up towards his other formation:
I have mixed feelings on Deffkoptas. A rhino with 10 marines in it - worth a Deffkopta to put them on foot where other Orks can pile into them. A rhino with 5 marines in it...probably not. Multilasers wound on 3+ against Deffkoptas, and I realize that I'm charging into certain doom against an
IG list. My "Powerklaws" are STR7 on the charge, meaning that leman russes aren't even good targets needing 4+ to glance on rear armor. Their best use is against targets that can hurt my battlewagons - I'd happily suicide a Deffkopta for a chance to shoot and assault a vendetta. Or a Manticore. Predators are nice too.
And with that, the game starts!!
Ork Turn One:
My main formation decided to head to the right towards the bulk of his army. I move up 12", skirting the BLOS piece of non-impassable terrain in the middle, using it to screen myself from the manticore on the left, and mostly hiding my battlewagons from his other units over there, although my Nob battlewagon can't get far enough over to not give the Lascannon in the chimera a shot if it really wants it.
Deffkopta on the left moves 12" up the field into dangerous terrain. With multi-lasers, melta, possible plasma....I'd rather take a dangerous terrain test for my move and assault then end up out of cover during his turn - the Nova Open had ruled that you don't benefit from cover granted by turbo-boosting if you have a turn in between, meaning that their 3+ cover save from the scout move disappears during my turn.
Here's my Deffkopta on the right - it moves up to the edge of cover. I can't get to the
PBS, the Leman Russ is too much to take on with a single deffkopta on front armor, and the Manticore is out of range as well, so I decide to go for a troop choice / lascannon instead, especially since it will get me into cover.
On the left side of the board, my Lootas can't really see the left chimera, so they open up on the right chimera that the Deffkopta is eyeballing and explode it! The vets all get out safely. On the right side of the board, my Lootas take aim at the Manticore and whiff, while my Deffkopta stuns the chimera its about to assault.
My Deffkopta on the left assaults into the vets from the exploded chimera! STR3 vs. T5, and I have a powerfist; I should get stuck in combat for at least his turn, and hopefully be able to clear out afterwards to deal with the manticore back there.
On the right side, my Deffkopta assaults into the stunned chimera.
ARG! Two swings bounce off and the third one nets me an "Immobilized" result. Not what I was looking for.
On the left side, his vets need 4+ to hit, 6+ to wound and deal two, of which I fail one armor save. In return, I need 3+ to hit, 2+ to wound and I whiff completely. I pass leadership and stay in combat.
Imperial Guard Turn One:
On the right, his leman russ and two mobile chimeras shift to the right; Cover or not, I don't suppose my Deffkopta is going to make it through this one.
His left flank sits still.
Onto the real fun....firing! The manticore on the right rolls for D3 and gets one shot. He plunks the template down on my
KFF wagon and...it scatters off into nowhere.
Not to be deterred, his other manticore draws line of sight to the rear corner of the nob battlewagon. He fires and scatters into the trukk, which promptly explodes. Two of three orks fail saves and die. The chimera next to it pops a Lascannon out of a hatch and explodes a rokkit buggy.
In my backfield, my Lootas take a barrage of multi-laser fire, for a total of 5 wounds between three vehicles. One goes down!
In Vinny's back corner, his Company Commander (there's about 37 meltaguns back there) discusses worker rights with my Deffkopta, who decides that he's not getting paid enough to pilot AirDash and goes on strike.
Into assaults! My lone Deffkopta is still in combat with his vets. They swing at me and miss. I swing at them and...whiff for the second turn in a row. Seriously...c'mon!!!
Ork Turn Two:
Unbelievably, I didn't take a picture of my main force moving.....so picture where they were in the last picture, and move them 12" straight towards his forces in the top right corner.
My Rokkit buggies break off from the
KFF protection. The Lootas can't draw
LoS to the Manticore in the back field, my Deffkopta is still tied up, and I don't want that thing firing at me, so I'm planning on sacrificing my buggies to try stopping it. They line up to get clear shots at the manticore for their suicide attempt.
When the buggies open fire, they're in the manticore's side armor, and manage to stun it. Arg....still not what I wanted, but at least it won't shoot for a turn.
Lootas in the rear left who can't see the manticore *can* see the other chimera with 3/5 of my members. Those three get two shots apiece, score two hits...5 to glance, 6 to pen....BOOYAH!
Stunned and Immobilized. Awww. :(
On the right side of the field, My lootas open up on his Manticore for a second turn, score a single hit, which he saves against. Drats! Not to be thwarted, Ghazghkull had disembarked from his wagon, and moseys up to the Leman Russ to have a discussion with the guardsmen inside about the fairness of putting heavier armor on the rear of tanks. They refuse to come out and talk, forcing Ghazghkull to break his way in to discuss the merits of face-to-face communication. The tank explodes, and as Ghazghkull opens his maw to begin communicating the importance of body-language in communication, a piece of shrapnel from the exploding tank flies into his mouth, causing a wound.
On the left side of the table, the Deffkopta of Uselessness finally caves before the might of Guardsmen biceps.
Imperial Guard Turn Two:
Vendetta reinforcements! He gets two of three Vendettas, one on each side of the board. The first moves onto the table and disembarks its veterans.....who eyeball the Lootas.
The other disembarks the inquisitor by my other Lootas. His chimeras and Manticores shift around a bit so that I don't auto-hit if I assault in anywhere and he opens up.
The manticore that can fire targets the
KFF wagon, rolls for scatter and gets a direct hit! And a Penetrate! And I make a
KFF save. The Vendetta on my right flank opens up on the
KFF wagon and scores a glance and a penetrate. The
KFF saves against the penetrate, the glance gets through for....shaken!
We're an hour and a fifth of a fifth into the game now! There's more than an hour on the game-clock; time started shortly after assignments when we were still getting to our table, trading lists etc. Vinny and I deployed carefully (he had a lot of
LoS to check) and we're both taking pictures for battle reports, so the game isn't progressing at lightning speed.
On the left side of the board, his other Vendetta opens up on the nob battlewagon with triple twin-linked lascannons into side armor. Two miss, even with rerolls, while the third gets a glance.
One glance later (
KFF failed again), my nob battlewagon will also not be shooting.
No surprise here, his multilasers open up on my buggies in the open; one explodes, the other is wrecked.
The no longer stunned chimera in the top right (still immobilized) pops a Lascannon out of a hatch into the Nob wagon, which fails its
KFF save and suffers a weapon destroyed result. STILL MOVIN!!!!
The disembarked vets from the Vendetta on my right flank open up on the Lootas and kill 3 of 4. My lone Loota passes leadership and sticks around. On the other side, his Inquisitor and friends fire pistols into the Lootas and do no damage.
Ork Turn Three:
*sniff* You smell that? WAAAAAAUGH!
My battlewagons decide to split apart and go get stuff. Nobs cut left,
KFF goes straight, Ghazghkull's wagon turns right and declares a 12" ram towards his Vendetta. I tank shock into the veterans first, who fail leadership and take off running after losing three models to the Deffrolla.
12" puts me up against the Vendetta's base, who handily dodges out of the way. I didn't yet know about the Deffrolla ruling at the tournament that says only the ram counts for movement (IE, if the Deffrolla explodes a vehicle, it stays in place and doesn't continue going), that also ruled that dodging a Ram with a skimmer still takes the Deffrolla hits. If I *had* known, then this would be a dead vendetta.
I had to put my Deffrolla down because my battlewagon wouldn't fit under the Vendetta to get into base contact. The burnas disembark. With the vets fleeing, I'm planning on tying them into combat and assaulting the vendetta, hoping for some lucky glances.
In midfield, my boyz battlewagon rams through the
CCS chimera and explodes it. Again, we did this wrong - didn't know that the tournament was ruling that only the ram attack results mattered for movement (like exploding through a transport). Having exploded it, my battlewagon continues on through, tank-shocking the company command squad. My nobs fail to ram far enough ahead to hit anything and stop short. Nobs get out of their wagon to make some assaults.
Boyz get out to make some assaults.
Last turn, my trukk boyz had moved up into the center objective to hold it. With the Waaaugh! on the way, they move down the other side to go threaten the
CCS.
Shooting phase! My Lootas on the left finally have a decent target to shoot at and immobilize his Vendetta.
I have an auto-six on the Waaaugh! for my run move, so my boys peel out towards the troop choice sitting on that objective.
At this point, they call 20 minutes, which means we don't get another turn.
WTF. My boyz in the middle take THEIR run move back to the objective in the middle since I won't get to assault his
CCS and then get back to the objective this game.
Burnas take their run move to line up for a multiassault against his vendetta and vet squad. In the back, Ghazghkull has moved into terrain as far as possible. Probably past the 3" mark to the objective. My intent was to assault the chimera in the middle, then go get the Manticore, then come back to the objective later in the game.
Burnas assault into the vet squad and Vendetta, wiping the vets and shaking the Vendetta (running out of time in the round, pictures stop getting taken so frequently).
Ghazghkull assaults the immobilized Chimera, exploding it. Vets get out. Troublesome here because I had moved Ghazghkull just before the 20m warning, or I wouldn't have stretched - at the end of the game, this costs me a contested objective and a win condition.
Nobs assault the platoon command squad chimera and the
PBS chimera wrecking both. They get out.
Boyz assault into the vet squad on his objective; they die and the boyz consolidate around the objective.
Imperial Guard Turn Three:
I forgot the grabbin' klaw on the burna wagon....it should have attempted to snag the vendetta and hold it in place. Instead, it peels out 24" for the middle of the table, trying to contest the central objective, but doesn't make it there. His reserve vendetta comes on, moves 12" to my gretchin owned objective and dumps out vets next to me.
His inquisitor makes a 6" beeline for my corner objective, but neither of us are troops, so it won't matter.
The vendetta in the back corner moves up to angle for rear shots on battlewagons. Looking at the picture now (and the one above) I just realized that it was immobilized and couldn't have moved. Ah well; it didn't affect the game.
His vets from the new vendetta are opening up into my single remaining Loota - I just pick him up to save time.
This one *did* affect the game, and I don't know how I missed it, especially with a big fat red dice ON TOP OF
IT staring me in the face.....but the remaining chimera in the top left moves up 6" to get within 1" of me, also putting him within 3" of the objective I'm holding. D'oh.
Time is called. Vinny throws out his manticore shots (I got to ground everywhere), tries to take my nobs below half to
PBS them (not realizing that they are still fearless from the Waaaugh!) with a manticore, multilasers, meltas, etc....
At the end of the game:
He holds one objective and I hold one objective, we tie on primary. In hindsight....I should have won on objectives because he moved an immobilized chimera to contest one. Also, Ghazghkull should have been contesting the objective Vinny held, but they called 20 minutes after I had moved him past the objective (and run him) and having to assault in a straight line, I couldn't get to the objective to contest it. That sucked too.
With a tie for primary we turn to secondary: I made the important
KFF saves, losing a trukk, two deffkoptas, my warbuggy squadron...and he gets half
VP value for blowing a 5 point big shoota off of a battlewagon. Not sure how I feel about that rule in hindsight either. He also gets half credit for Ghazghkull. In exchange, I've killed a couple of vet squads, a leman russ, 4-5 chimeras, half points for a vendetta, an uncounted half credit for the chimera that we forgot was immobilized, half credit for his platoon and company command squad, which is enough to give me a 250+ point lead for secondary. For table quarters, I think we tied, but I had the secondary win condition, which was enough for the win.
Post Game Assessment
1. Vinny probably shouldn't have reserved the vendettas. They could have been firing on me from turn 1 instead of turn 2-3.
2. He shot REALLY bad. To be fair, we both shot poorly, but his shooting is much more important to him than mine is to me. While I rolled just about statistically I think, I passed the most important saves, and the
KFF really shined.
With a second win under my belt, I'm 2-0, albeit two very minor wins, which will pair me up against someone else who has treated their opponents lethally.
2500 23-6-11 (W L T)
200 0-0-0 (W L T)
1100points
2500points
.
Death Guard 5100 pts.
Daemons 3000 pts.