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The Brain followed the weaving strands of fate looking for a weak point. A point where, with a single bold stroke, he would be able to end the life of this Craftworld as he had done to others since his ascension. There. Although it was weak he saw the principals of the Craftworld in a wrecked human city. He couldn't believe his luck, the autarach and the entire leading council was there. The fools thought their runes would hide them from him. They had obviously underestimated his god-like intellect and powers. He sent out an imperative on the eddys of the warp, summoning all those whom he had received allegiance.

Some time later, or perhaps no time, the Brain looked upon those who had answered his call. He would send in his shock troops first before leading the remainder in himself. He began the Ritual of Breeching but as it was almost completed he noticed a flicker in the warp.

The Ritual was too far gone to be stopped and at the last moments he realized that the Eldar witches had tricked him! Rather than the impassive, slender faces he was expecting he saw a brutish horde of greenskins. This world they were on was rubble, crushed under their stinking machines and primitive weapons.

The shifting world came into focus and he realized that his distraction would cost him dearly as his first wave remained in the warp and he was drawn bodily into the midst of a great ork camp.


Army Lists

As I mentioned before I am working on honing my tourney list somewhat. I have been trying out a mixed force of shooting with assault elements and this list is pretty much the same with a couple of really minor tweaks. I have swapped out one of the tzeentch princes with a soul grinder and a flamer for two plaguebearers (one for each unit) and my army looked like this:

The Brain's Master Plan
Bulemius - Great Unclean One (Breath, Flies)

12 Plaguebearers (Icon)
12 Plaguebearers (Icon)
6 Horrors(Bolt, Changeling)

7 Flamers (Bolt)
5 Bloodcrushers (1 Rending)

5 Screamers of Tzeentch

The Brain - Tzeentch Prince (Bolt, Gaze)
Skwawk - Tzeentch Prince (Bolt, Gaze)
Soul Grinder (Phelgm)

Shep on the other hand decided that he wanted to take a break from Eldar (actually, they are on the painting table in various states of readiness) so he decided to break out his orks which had treated him so well in the past. I was looking forward to this challenge - orks are certainly one of the best tourney armies out there so I am sure to face them. His list was pretty standard loota fair:

2x Big Meks with Kustom Force Fields
9 Killa Kans with big shootas
19 Grots with slaver
2x30 Boyz with 3 big shootas and nob with klaw and runtherds
3x15 Lootas

We rolled up a spearhead capture and control and Shep ended up with the first turn.

Setup and early game
Shep's deployment was pretty standard - a quarter of the table filled with greenskins - the lootas and grots infesting a building near his objective and a wall of kans providing a cover save to everything. With no targets on the table they just expanded a bit to take away deepstriking room. My own objective was in the opposite corner from his army - I knew that I could basically count on my owning that and him not doing anything about it. My preferred wave went for survivability and pie: Bulemius, one unit of Plaguebearers, the Bloodcrushers, the Screamers and the Soul Grinder. Unfortunately it wasn't to be.

I took a couple of seconds to try and see the pattern which Tzeentch obviously saw that I didn't. There was a small space in the rear of his lines where I could drop my horrors and get a shot on some lootas without an armor save. Everything else dropped fairly conservatively near the building in my deployment zone. Both princes ended up on either side of the building - both drifted, but not by so much that it mattered - the plaguebearers just south, again a slight drift, but a run move was able to correct that and get into cover. The flamers took up position directly behind the building out of the LOS of most of the lootas. Finally, I placed the horror inside an area that was no larger than 6"x6". The dice gods approved of this bold move - I got a hit and had high hopes for the rest of the turn!

The horrors fired up the closest loota unit since they had no save and killed off 4 of them - not quite enough to make them test. The Brain and the flamers both fired on the northern most unit of kans destroying one.

The orks continued to advance on the building with the plaguebearers. The lootas nearest the horrors decided to get a little payback and shot at the little runts. They fired into them causing 7 wounds but when the smoke from all their dakka cleared the horrors were unharmed and the lootas next to them were all shot up. Well, they weren't about to get shot at and not shoot back! They also failed their check (though with their reduced numbers it wasn't as big of a surprise.) They fired at the final unit of lootas in the building but only managed to kill a couple of them. The lootas in the building saw exactly who was responsible for the shenanigans and they did send the horrors back to the warp.

The kans and the boyz big shootas put three wounds on skwawk but the Brain was able to predict the trajectories of most of the shooting that came his way and side step them - he took only a single wound. The big deal for me here was that the lootas who took the brunt of the shooting failed their leadership test and ran off the table. Whew. It was the first time I have seen the Changeling's ability actually work, but it did work with a vengeance.

Feeling pretty good about my position I started rolling for the reinforcements - I could tell that gambit had knocked Shep off his game, now if I could just keep him on his back foot I might actually be able to pull out a win against the big green machine. Unfortunately Tzeentch has a heck of a sense of humor and I failed every single reserve roll.

Most everything stayed where it was and shooting was basically the same - I killed another Kan from the same group and immobilized the third one.

The orks continued their advance - their shooting finished off Skwawk and the Brain took another two wounds. The plaguebearers lost a few of their number as well but were forced to go to ground in the building if they were to survive long enough to at least claim my own objective.

The Brain damned those Eldar witches and their manipulation. Not only had they made him dance like a marionette by pulling him into the midst of a might Waagh, but even now he could feel them manipulating the skeins of reality and thickening the barrier to the warp and preventing his allies from intervening. He focused his concentration and ripped a tear in reality with the sheer force of his will.

Turning his gaze back toward the green tide advancing on him he realized that the distraction would have lethal consequences. Time slowed around him as he frantically searched for a corridor safe from the hail of slugs. There was none. He had to quit the battlefield or risk losing his corporeal form - he decided a banishment of indeterminate time was simply unacceptable at this point. He spoke a single word and felt himself jerked back to his wraithbone palace in the webway. A handful of slugs came through with him and ripped through his body shattering bone and punching through unworldly organs. The mighty prince collapsed and bled on the floor of his throneroom. His fading vision caught his monstrous form reflected in the pool of blood on the ground.

He hoped he could maintain consciousness long enough to activate the wards of healing and protection surrounding his sanctum.


Mid-game to end game
Bottom of turn 3 I made all of the reserves rolls save that for the soulgrinder. My how things can change in just one short turn: Top of turn 2 I had been feeling pretty good about my chances, now, not so much. But at least my heavy hitters had arrived. Bulemius, the screamers, and the bloodcrushers all came in off the plaguebearers icon - the bloodcrushers and Bulemius closer to the orks, the screamers further back. Bulemius appeared in the building and failed his dangerous terrain check, but did make his invulnerable save. The other unit of plaguebearers dropped in to the space where the lootas that fled had left. It was a little bit risky, but would allow me to contest his objective and I realized that my own objective was probably 16-19" away from my other plaguebearers who were pinned. They drifted slightly but appeared safely.

Now that there were more high priority targets on the field the flamers jumped over near the Brain to get a better line of fire. Both fired into the nearest boyz unit to try and thin them out somewhat and killed a few. The bloodcrushers ran forward towards the ork line and Bulemius stumbled slowly (in the course of this game I realized that Bulemius has very low self esteem - anytime I rolled a dice for "Bulemius" it was decent, anytime I rolled for "fatty" it was a combined roll of 4 on 3 dice.

I now gritted my teeth and waited for the hail of lead. Most of the shooting went on the bloodcrushers, killing all but one. The last one was charged by a unit of killa kans and sent back to the warp. One of the boyz units moved towards the newly arrived plaguebearers in their backfield and waaghed towards them even further to make sure that the klaw got to combat. I have often wondered if a unit of plaguebearers could survive a charge from a ful unit of boyz.

The answer is, at least this time, yes. Almost 90 attacks and 18 wounds later I was down 6 plaguebearers but, importantly to a plan forming in my fevered brain, I also had an icon.

Bulemius stumbled and barely made it out of the building, most likely out of range of anything and tried running, but didn't get very far. Out of curiosity we measured if he was in range to puke on a kan and he was by a fraction of an inch. I need to get that range down better.

The screamers charged into the kans but did absolutely nothing but die right away. I have to say, I really wanted to get the screamers to work in something other than apocalypse. Sadly, they are so specialized at killing immobile vehicles they they can't do anything else.

After the initial charge those plaguebearers spent the rest of the game in combat with the ork boyz whittling them down by winning combat by a couple and Shep had the worst rolls ever. He seriously failed 18 armor checks in a row for that combat (for both wounds caused by combat and resolution.)

The following turn the soulgrinder finally showed up. He came in also in the backfield, this time off of the plaguebearers icon. He fired at the grots hoping to do enough wounds to cause them to run off the table. He killed a few but not enough. In return the lootas got 2 glancing hits on him. The first one destroyed his maw cannon and the second immobilized him.

Had he not been immobilized, he would have charged in to help the plaguebearers and one or both of the units would have been able to contest his objective and since my plaguebearers managed to make it to within 3" of mine it would have been a win. Alas, it wasn't meant to be, but it was a great game - very close throughout and I could have won right up to the end.

After action review
I am glad that Shep brought his orks. That list is a tried and true hard case. It isn't too far off from the list that is sweeping the GTs this season and is the kind of list that one must test against for tourney play. He beat me like a drum and I almost conceeded on turn 5 but then realized that I still had a shot (not if it went to VPs but if I could have contested his objective I would have won.)


Eternal Praise
It has to be a toss up between the Changeling or the unit of plaguebearers in his backfield.

Eternal Damnation
The screamers. GW just really dropped the ball with these guys. They can only do one thing (kill vehicles) but they can't even do that reliably thanks to only getting a single attack each needing a 6 to hit the things you most often need to hit. There are any number of things that they could have done to make this unit acceptable (not even necessarily good) - intercept would have been perfect for this unit.

Professa Nubnetz scratched his head in confusion. He and da ladz were just scavenging up some interesting bits from da 'umie city when those warp boyz dropped in. Da boyz done good, though. They just opened up the dakka on the warp boyz and sent 'em scurrying back to wherever it was they come from.

It looked like Skabba's lot settled some kinda dakkadebt with Ardguz's flashgitz - lotsa shootin and cursin back there. Ah well, his ladz 'ad been angling for another fight and it was good they got it from someone else before they started arguing over something shiny.

Something shiny caught Nubnetz's eye and he started towards it, all thoughts off the last battle forgotten and eagerness for the next one building up.

I think it should be emphasized, because it wasn't all that clear. The changeling dropped into my backfield behind my lines and killed 4 lootas. when the now 11 man loota unit fired at the horrors on my turn, they failed their leadership test. Somnicide rolled a '3' for number of shots and killed 8 lootas from another loota unit. Then, THAT unit failed its leadership test when trying to shoot at the changeling, Somnicide rolled '2' for number of shots, and fired at my THIRD loota unit, that only lost 2 thanks to better than average cover save rolls. That last unit finally passed its leadership test to see through the illusion and killed off the horrors. At the end of my own shooting phase, the remaining 7 lootas from the second unit failed their leadership test and ran off the table. Total lootas killed by the changleing and 5 horrors... 21. It was QUITE devastating.

The game revolved around a plaguebearer close combat versus a full shoota boy unit. I waagh charged them and stuck them about 5" away from my objective. After shrewd pile-in moves, he had a plaguebearer within 4" of the objective at the end of the game. The plaguebearer unit was prime to be wiiped out... but if the game had ended at the right time, and he was just an inch closer... I'm eating a loss.

The soulgrinder became a harvester cannon immediately. 2 loota units, 2 glancing hits, 1 immobilized and 1 weapon destroyed. Where maybe earlier Somnicide had some luck, it seems like the luck turned on him. If that doesn't happen, the grinder charges my shoota boys, pops the plaguebearers free, and gets a D6" consolidate on the grinder that could easily get it into contest range. The soul grinders placement however, was inspired. The battered laguebearer unit had an icon that had been surviving the saves. It was placed further back from the scrum, closer to an open area with enough space for the grinder. Without the hours logged behind the wheel of this army, there is no way in hell Somnicide would have had that as planned out as he did... I asked him about it, and it was no happy accident. I didn't see it coming, and wasn't able to counter it.

I'm pushing him to take more grinders, and less DPs (I was president of the sniper prince fan club for a while)

Ultimately, I had a few spaces in my green tide. I ad my lootas in the back row in a double-tee formation to mitigate phlegm casualties, and there was a corner of my backfield open in later turns as I over-aggressively moved shoota boys up in an effort to get lots of shootas in range of the charging bloodcrushers. That horror placement was the equivalent of playing russian roulette with 4 bullets in the revolver. Any direction except straight back towards the table corner of more than 3" was a mishap... I have learned to not even give him a legal placement at all. I'll turtle up more in future games.

a very fun game... r.i.p. screamers, we barely knew you (and didn't like you very much)

Other Daemon players have claimed an ability to 'own' Orks with increased numbers of Blood Crushers with the 3+ invulnerable save with a reroll. I'm not convinced-I still think that over a couple of turns of fire the Lootas will send them to the Warp.

This game also shows why Drop Pod Marines may not be an answer to Orks, the Orks have so many figures that they can deny a drop pod landing zone, and guess what, then you are just marines in range of Lootas, and that's a bad situation, Sternguard or not.

My son wants to build Daemons, so I always enjoy your reports.

Impressive work with the changeling! Especially when the Orks fail two Ld 10 tests. I finally got him to work in my last game, and oh it's so nice when he does! Curious though, do you interpret his rules to use the Glamour more than once a turn?

@mikeguth - I am adding in a second squad of bloodcrushers - they have really impressed me, but one unit just dies. I wouldn't say they own orks, but they certainly are a great assault unit.

@ tzeentchling - Yeah, it is the first time he has worked and it was pretty awesome. We do interpret it as something that is basically always on. There is no language to imply it is once, so we figured it was like Pedro's ability to give everyone in range a +1 attack. Out of the games I have used him, this is the first time he has ever done anything, so it doesn't seem too bad. I can easily seeing GW changing it in a faq, but it really, it has been irrelevant in most games.

edit: and in support of "any" not being limited to just 1 - in the new space marine codex you can give rhinos any of the following - storm bolter, extra armor, hunter killer, dozer blade. (I have received a few pms on it so thought I would just add that here)