You can find my other battle reports for this tournament here:
Round Two
Round Three
Hey folks!
Another
40k tournament under the belt – I forgot my camera and dice, so I had to buy dice at the store and recreate vassal pictures the best I could from memory.
If you want to see my Orks (the Pink Waaaugh!) there are pictures all over the battle reports from all the other
GTs and
RTTs that I attend, otherwise Vassal will have to do.
This tournament was 1500 points. Interestingly, the rounds were 2.5 hours apiece, which severely angered my wife, who was hanging around town while I was playing – she thought we’d be done much sooner than we were. There were additional interesting things – the guy running the tournament at All Fun and Games (Mike) is a bit odd; I haven’t gamed there in a *very* long time since I’ve moved away, and when I saw him I stuck out my hand and said, “Hey man! Long time no see – don’t know if you remember me or not….” And he looked at me without extending a hand and said, “I’m not shaking hands right now, I’m busy.” Kind of off-putting, but the gamers themselves were friendly, and told me that I shouldn’t worry, he’s mean to everyone….which they said probably accounts in good part to the poor attendance at the tournament. *shrugs* I live far away now, and game elsewhere, but wanted reacquaint myself with old friends, and most of that didn’t happen. Ah well.
My list: 1500 point Ghazghkull’s Harem
HQ1: Ghazghkull Thraka
HQ2: Big Mek with
KFF
Troop1: 16 Ork Boyz, Nob/
PK, inside Wagon with
KFF Mek
Troop2: 11 Boyz+Nob/
PK inside trukk+reinforced ram+boarding plank
Troop3: 10 gretchin+runtherder
Elite1: 5 Lootas
Elite2: 5 Lootas
Elite3: 15 Burnas (inside Battlewagon with Ghazghkull)
FA1: Deffkopta, Buzzsaw,
TL Rokkits
FA2: Deffkopta, Buzzsaw,
TL Rokkits
FA3: 2x Warbuggies,
TL Rokkits
Heavy1: Battlewagon, Big Shoota, Boarding Planks, Deffrolla, Grabbin’ Klaw, Extra Armor
Heavy2: Battlewagon, Big Shoota, Boarding Planks, Deffrolla, Grabbin’ Klaw, Extra Armor
Mark’s Black Templar:
HQ1: Master of Sanctity, Frag Grenades, Lightning Claws, Artificer Armor, Adamantium Mantle, Melta Bombs, Bionics, 3x Servitors
HQ2: Emperor’s Champion, Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds
Troop1: Templar Squad – 10x Initiates, 9x Neophytes (P.Fist, Melta Gun, frag grenades)
Troop2: Templar Squad – 10x Initiates, 3x Neophytes, (P.Fist, Melta Gun)
-Inside Dedicated
LR Crusader, Blessed Hull, Dozer Blade
Troop3: Templar Squad – 5x Initiates, Lascannon
-Coming with Dedicated drop pod
Elite1: Daemon Hunter Inquisitor + Null Rod
Heavy1: Vindicator +
PotMS
Mission: Modified Seize Ground
Deployment: Modified Dawn of War
Massacre: Own all 5 objectives
Major Victory: Own 3 more objectives than your opponent
Minor Victory: Own more objectives than your opponent
Tie: No one owns more objectives
Special Deployment Rule: Nightfight lasts the entire game.
Let me explain modified. The
TO assigned 5 objectives to every table…and THEY put the objectives on the table before the games began. And they put the objectives as far apart as they freakin’ could. I’m not even joking. 5 spread objectives placed by a
TO, far apart in a 1500 point tournament….where a massacre requires you to hold all 5 objectives, and I don’t think anyone even BROUGHT five troop choices. Scenarios were not released in advance. The other missions were even worse, but we’ll come to those in the appropriate battle report.
The deployment special rule – nightfight the whole game!!! o.O When I played 100% mechanized assault orks, I loved this kind of stuff, but now that I’ve balanced out my list and have Lootas, rokkit buggies, long ranged light transport popping stuff, this is kind of ridiculous.
Anyway, Mark and I settle down to our table and roll off – he wins the roll and decides to deploy and go first. I haven’t actually won a roll to go first in a long time; I’ve been through two major
RTTs and a
GT recently, and absolutely nada. Seriously. ><
A note on pictures: I’ve done the best I could to recreate them. You may look at a picture and wonder “why didn’t he move there” or “why didn’t he multi-assault” or “that’s in range” but keep in mind that I’m just making the best vassal recreation that I can. Keep in mind that you can ZOOM IN on any of these with a simple click to get a better view.
Black Templar Deployment: Mark puts out his his big templar squad and his small one; the medium one is inside a land raider. Black Templar always come in expensive and small number of unit lists, and I greatly enjoy playing them because of that – not enough stuff to fire at my stuff and do major damage before I crunk into their ranks with bad stuff of my own. Stay tuned for me eating my words.
Ork Deployment: I keep everything in
DoW reserve to come onto the table turn1. In hindsight, I probably could have thrown out a battlewagon or a trukk (actually battlewagons are heavy, so nope) but my standard
DoW is to keep everything together and roll them on together, so I do.
I fail to seize initiative, and we start turn one.
Black Templar Turn 1:
Mark shuffles his big squad around a little bit, but doesn’t commit them – I have nothing on the table so he’s not sure where to go. He brings his land raider and vindicator on the board, spread out enough that he can get table coverage for wherever I might come onto the board.
Ork Turn1:
I move my battlewagons on the board 12”. After the discussion over in
YMDC, I discuss deffrollas with my opponents in advance and tell them I count them as hull. It gives me a bit less room in the back, meaning that my trukk has to turn sideways to get protection behind it, but I roll on with AV14 presenting proudly to the Black Templar, with my deffkoptas turbo-boosting onto the table from either side of the hill (not going through terrain). My Lootas move on 6”, then run
D6 to get into better firing position, and my gretchin also come on into the center rear to jump on my first objective, although I forgot to get them into this picture.
Black Templar Turn2:
Mark moves his land raider and vindicator up. His big squad shuffles around a bit more (gets out of cover), but not a lot of shooting. His lascannon in the roof of the building to the rear snipes a battlewagon and whiffs – ignore the blood spot; that deffkopta didn’t die yet, was a faulty recollection. He opens up with vindicator and land raider on my deffkoptas, but they’ve both got 3+ cover saves and live through.
Ork Turn2:
My entourage rolls 12” up the table. My rokkit buggies sneak around the back of the battlewagon to try ranging something, and my Lootas loft their guns to fire. One of my deffkoptas jumps up the board to assault his vindicator, and the other (the blood spot) zooms into the middle of the board to hang out – he was too far away to get in to assist with the vindicator, and I don’t want him getting zapped by other things, although the land raider is in range. My Lootas all nightfight nada, same with the warbuggies, and my turn ends.
Black Templar Turn3:
His big initiate squad moves forward 6” towards my battlewagons. His land raider cruises 6” forward, and his demolisher….I think I immobilized it. He also got his drop pod, which he wants to put on the center objective and he does – drops it smack on, hits on target.
He opens fire, and the melta whiffs against my battlewagon. His land raider punches through my battlewagon’s side armor and I fail my
KFF cover save. Boom, I wreck. I drop the
KFF in the rear next to the other battlewagon so that he can get into that one. At this point, we run into our first….rules disagreement. His
BT want to assault my battlewagon. He’s right *at* the 6” mark, with one caveat – the deffrolla is a cylinder. When he moves 6” forward, his base can touch where the very front of the cylinder projects out….but he can’t make it into base contact because it’s a little too far. This would be the equivalent of a grabbin’ klaw sticking out the side, and a model can get its base under the grabbin klaw with 6”, but not the extra 1” to get into base. Argument ensues, the judge rules in favor of my opponent. He assaults, and boom – the other battlewagon gets wrecked.
Here’s the “after” picture.
Ork Turn3:
Ghazghkull is PEEVED. You don’t wreck the big dude’s ride without answering for it. Unless you’re Black Templar apparently.
Ghazghkull Thraka detaches, and moves up the flank of the Initiate squad. The burnas
2d6 around a little bit, jostling for position. My deffkopta that’s been harassing his vindicator flies behind it so that he can shoot and assault it from the rear. My other deffkopta, and my now disembarked boyz line up to assault his drop pod, while my gretchin start stretching out to capture both objectives.
Ghazghkull declares a Waaaugh! – I don’t really need the fleet movement, but I want the invulnerable save on him, and the fearless for my burnas. My deffkopta shoots into his vindicator and weapon destroys it, my rokkit buggies and other deffkopta whiff against his drop pod – both Loota squads aim for the drop pod and whiff too. Someone shot the Initiate squad….maybe Ghazghkull? I killed a scout and triggered righteous zeal.
This triggered argument #2:
Righteous Zeal Discussion
I read it as being triggered immediately, and he reads it as happening at the end of the turn….IE, shooting a single scout down let him consolidate 8” AWAY from my and (he rolled a 5, gets an auto+3 from servitors) towards a deffkopta in the rear of his table. IE, I couldn’t chase him with my 6” fleet. IE, this was going to literally cost me the game. I was like, “Well, if I had known you played it that way, I wouldn’t have shot at you….” And he was like, “Well, this is a tournament game…you can’t take it back.” Lesson learned for me, which is why I play. *laughing* Don’t shoot the
BT, or if you do, ask some very important questions first. I didn’t even unload my burnas on them because I was planning on assaulting.
He gleefully runs 8” away from danger, while my deffkopta and other boyz assault into his drop pod and wreck it.
Black Templar Turn4:
No surprise here – that Master of Sanctity and his swarm of jerks (just a little bitter) turn around and move 6” back towards me, while his land raider moves up a few inches and dumps out his other big troop choice with the emperor’s champion attached.
Yes….you are seeing that correctly. I’ve lost two battlewagons, am about to lose most of the rest of my army, and the only damage I’ve done is to immobilize and weapon destroy a vindicator.
He opens fire with his land raider on my Lootas and kills one. His black templar that got out of the
LR shoot into my boys and kill a couple. His big squad shoots into my burnas and kill a couple more.
Queue argument #3: You can see in the picture that he’s…quite spread out. He declares that he’s multi-assaulting into both my burnas and the deffkopta in the rear. And that he’s going to conga-line to make it happen with the models that can’t make it into base contact with the burnas. Not joking, 15 minute argument ensues….I won’t try communicating how angry I’m getting during this game; I’m literally contemplating packing up, asking for a refund and leaving. I took a mental timeout instead and kept playing. We argue about this one for 10 minutes, I break out the rulebook, quote it to him, show it to him….quote it again, argue some more….finally tell him “Dude…I don’t care how you’ve always played it, you’re not getting to do it, live with it.” He “let it go” presumably because I’m getting monkey-stomped at this point.
And strangely enough – before you think I don’t like my opponent…he’s a really good guy. I like playing against him, I like him as a dude, and he has a great sense of humor, and he usually keeps me laughing through our games together. Just some bad chemistry or something this game.
Anyway, he assaults one Templar squad into my boys, and the other into my burnas – I’m still on the Waaaugh! so he ignores Ghazghkull Thraka.
Two minutes and a lot of attacks later, I have two burnas left alive (after fearless saves). They may have killed a scout or three, but I forgot to mark them off. On the other side, his emperor’s champion teleports to my
KFF mek and actually whiffs, despite preferred enemy and such. However, at the end of it, everything is dead except my
KFF mek and the nob (after fearless saves killed the rest of my squad. I think I whiffed too and didn’t kill anything.
Ork Turn4:
Looking VERY grim for the Pink Waaaugh! My two big units are dead, my Waaaugh! is over and Ghazghkull hasn’t done anything yet. My trukk jumps over to the objective on the right, and my boys pile out. I’m hoping that between them and Ghazghkull, I can put a hurting on his big squad. Maybe I can’t do math. >< Anyway, my rokkit buggies line up for a shot on his squad (because the lesson hasn’t sunk in yet), while my gretchin stretch out between objectives. My Lootas on the left have nothing to shoot at, so they move, then run trying to screen those templar who are going to be getting out of combat away from my gretchin.
Nevermind my previous note on the two burnas alive – they all had died. I shoot him with a rokkit and he…righteous zeals, but this time does it to get everyone closer to the Ghazghkull combat about to ensue so that they can all take their attacks.
We tie up into a big combat on the right; his master of sanctity and squad vs. Ghazghkull and a squad of trukk boys.
Despite him going first and having frag grenades….I think I actually managed to tie combat. 7 boyz dead. Ghazghkull had gotten to attack the squad, but he removed all the models in base with Ghazghkull, so the next turn he’ll have to go after the Master of Sanctity.
On the other side of the board, my
KFF mek and the nob die; he consolidates nowhere much since he’s right next to me.
Black Templar Turn 5:
Not a whole lot to do here. He declares that his Inquisitor is detaching (he wants the inquisitor to go after the gretchin). He moves his inquisitor slightly.
His land raider opens up on my Lootas and…I think they kill one. Kind of hazy here, but I had three left at the end of the game. He doesn’t shoot his templar squad.
Queue argument #4: As he’s declaring his assaults, he declares that his inquisitor is going after the gretchin, and that his templar are going after my Lootas. I respond that while he’s welcome to declare attaching or detaching, only his actions on the table count – attaching and detaching is determined by the position of the models at the end of the movement phase. He tells me that he declared that he was detaching and that it was a simple mistake….but I’m feeling quite unforgiving right now given the course of the game so far, and don’t let him have it. If I’m getting punished for not knowing his codex right, I’m not going to let him slide on not knowing the rules.
He rolls difficult terrain for his black templar squad with the inquisitor to get to my gretchin and rolls 1,3. They won’t make it!!
The combat over with Ghazgkull gets even bloodier. I lose more boys, Ghazghkull takes a wound or two, and more boys die, but the nob sticks around and they are holding fast.
Ork Turn5:
I haven’t got much left on the table, and what I do have is dying fast. My Lootas in the back right corner have done nothing all game and now….will keep doing nothing. My gretchin back up a bit, and pick a side. The picture here is poor because the actual array of them was such that he wasn’t positioned for a multi-assault of the gretchin and the Lootas. My rokkit buggies jet up the board – I need to get them in contesting an objective.
At this point, we have 7 minutes left, and if we had stopped the game, I would have won. I own two objectives (gretchin on two) while I’m contesting one, and he owns one. However, my opponent insists on another turn, (there ISN’T much left on the table), so he rushes to get his turn in. His land raider opens up on my gretchin, then he assaults my gretchin.
He assaults my gretchin and kill them all. Ghazghkull and the nob/boy left on the other side die. He consolidates onto the objective in the center/left bottom, and my trukk is sitting on the objective to the right, and we don’t have another turn.
Here’s the end of his assaults and consolidates.
Ork Turn 6:
Not kidding, I have 200 points of stuff left on the table, and I’ve only killed a vindicator.
My rokkit buggies flat out onto his objective (passing
DT tests). My Lootas
2d6 and get a 5 – plenty of room for them to contest the center rear objective if they can manage it.
My opponent didn’t consolidate enough to block me off from touching the 3” mark, and argument #5 ensues: He tells me that he meant to consolidate a little more to the right. I tell him that’s nice, but this is a tournament and given the course of the game, I don’t have much sympathy. He calls the judge over – I’m literally 1” away from all his models and touching the 3” mark on the objective with a tiny bit of room to spare. The judge rules in my favor, and the game ends in a draw. I can’t believe I squeaked out a draw in that one.
Moral of the story: Lesson learned about
BT – apparently my understanding of how righteous zeal works is wrong. The scenario, the
TO placed objectives – especially 5 at this point level with that kind of spread was *REALLY* abusive – no one got more than a minor victory the first round at any other table, simply because of the objective spread and needing to own 3+ to all five for more than a minor. Mark and I had a good laugh after the game – I apologized for being a dick, and….he might have too; I wasn’t in a very forgiving mood of his mistakes during the game because of how badly I got punished for mine.
We both got 10 points for a draw, and Mark scores 2 additional points for having killed both of my
HQ choices. Stay tuned for my game 2 and game 3 battle reports!
