Hey folks!
This weekend I drove 8 hours down to Florida to play in the semi-final round of 'Ard Boyz. While there were closer venues, I'm moving to Jacksonville FL for my job, and thought I would check it out!
The semi-finals were held at SunCoast Comics in Jacksonville; I showed up Friday night to practice and ended up helping set up Friday night and Saturday morning instead and getting to meet some cool folks. I'm not used to weather in FL, and while the store had air conditioning to fend off the 102 degree weather, with the air constantly on, it probably didn't get below 90 degrees inside with all the people and the doors constantly opening and closing as people moved around. By the time I left, I had salt-stains on my shirt from sweat drying and resoaking my shirt!
I finally got the official
GW Deffrollas and replaced my PVC pipe deffrollas with them. I kept them in the upright position all three games; there are debates about the deffrolla's positioning, counting as hull, shooting from it, being impassable terrain....so I just keep it raised. No requirements about where it is, only that it is represented and paid for in points and it solves all potential rules arguments.
You can find my other battle reports for 'Ard Boyz semi-finals here:
Mission One
Mission Three
The scenarios for 'Ard Boyz can be found here:
'Ard Boyz Missions.
My army for 'Ard Boyz:
The Pink Waaaugh!
HQ1: Ghazghkull Thraka
HQ2: Big Mek +
KFF + Powerklaw
Troop1: 9x Diversified Nobs with Cybork Bodies; Dedicated Battlewagon+Deffrolla+Boarding Plank+Big Shoota+Grabbin' Klaw+Grot Riggers
-Painboy
-Bosspole
-Waaaugh! Banner + Ammo Runt
-Powerklaw
-Powerklaw + Kombi-Rokkit
-Powerklaw + Kombi-Rokkit + Ammo Runt
-Big Choppa
Big Choppa + Kombi Rokkit + Ammo Runt
Troop2: 11x Boyz + Nob/Powerklaw in trukk + Boarding Plank + Reinforced Ram
Troop3: 19 Boyz + Nob/Powerklaw
Troop4: 19 Boyz + Nob/Powerklaw
Troop5: 19 Gretchin + Runtherder
Elite1: 15x Burnas
Elite2: 5x Lootas
Elite3: 5x Lootas
Fast Attack1: 2x Deffkoptas, both with twin-linked rokkits and buzzsaws
Fast Attack2: 1x Deffkopta + twin-linked rokkit + buzzsaw
Fast Attack3: 3x Warbuggies with twin-linked rokkits
Heavy1: Battlewagon with Deffrolla, Boarding Plank, Big Shoota, Grabbin' Klaw, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers
Heavy2: Battlewagon with Deffrolla, Boarding Plank, Big Shoota, Grabbin' Klaw, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers
Heavy3: Battlewagon with Deffrolla, Boarding Plank, Big Shoota, Grabbin' Klaw, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers
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Austin Clark's Space Marines:
HQ1: Vulkan He'stan
HQ2: Master of the Forge + Power Axe and Bolt Pistol
Troop1: 10x Tactical Marines + Flamer + Missile Launcher, Sergeant+chainsword+Meltabomb
Troop2: 10x Tactical Marines + Flamer + Lascannon, Sergeant + Storm Bolter
Troop3: 10x Tactical Marines + Meltagun + Multi-Melta, Sergeant + Power Sword + Meltabomb
Troop4: 10x Tactical Marines + Meltagun + Missile Launcher, Sergeant + Storm Bolter
Troop5: 10x Tactical Marines + Flamer + Lascannon, Sergeant + Power Fist
Troop6: 10x Scouts with Combat blades and bolt pistols, sergeant + Power Fist
Elite1: 9x Terminators (with Powerfists) + 1x Heavy Flamer
Elite2: Ironclad Dreadnought + Chainfist + Hurricane Bolter + Heavy Flamer
Elite3: Ironclad Dreadnought + Seismic Hammer +
DCCW + Heavy Flamer // Dedicated Transport Drop Pod
Heavy1: Dreadnought + Multi-melta +
DCCW+ Heavy Flamer // Dedicated Transport Drop Pod with deathwind Launcher and Locator Beacon
Heavy2: Dreadnought + Assault Cannon +
DCCW
Heavy3: Thunderfire Cannon
Pre-Game Tactical Assessment: Uh.....
Two drop pods? I certainly hate dreadnoughts, but there's a lot less anti-tank here (two lascannons and two missile launchers) aside from the dreads. And...they're in a foot-slogging list!
Given how mechanized 5th edition is, I'm astounded to see a foot-slogging list in a game, let alone in semi-finals, let alone coming off a 24 point massacre in the first game. Dreadnoughts are always a difficult thing to fight against as Orks, but I have boarding planks and deffrollas.
We roll off to go first and tie - we roll off again and I win, then choose to deploy and go first.
Here's a picture of our board. You can see my dice box (for when I'm rolling buttloads of dice) and my cookie sheets full of Orks!
Here's a picture of Austin of the Vulkan Marines!
I deploy: Objectives aren't on the table yet (they deep strike first turn). I've got Lootas on the left spaced 2" apart, my battlewagon line screening the trukk in the back. I've got deffkoptas left and right - not sure what to do with them since there's no light transports and I can't take on a dread with a deffkopta - and previous attempts to take on marines with a deffkopta never seem to really turn out well. There's also a Loota squad on the right out of view. My warbuggies are lined up to try advancing without having to move through terrain.
Here's a side shot of my deployment (while my opponent is starting to deploy):
Start of Ork Turn One: I place my two objectives for deep-striking - I put both directly in the center and scatter from there to minimize the chance that they will scatter into either deployment zone - which could cost bonus points. One objective lands in front of my deployment zone, and the other scatters just a couple inches from the middle and will end up being worth two points.
My deffkoptas turboboosted up the field during my scout moves. I originally intended to shoot and assault his thunderfire cannon with my deffkopta on the left (you can see it partially behind the structure to the center left, but I forgot somehow and decided I was going to try neutralizing his heavy weapons. He broke all his tactical marine units into combat squads; subsequent pictures paint a better picture of what is where, but he's got missile launchers on both flanks (where my deffkoptas are going), Lascannons inside the flanks of the missile launcher squads, and meltas / multi-meltas in the middle along with his
HQs. He's got a dreadnought anchoring both flanks, and his two drop pod dreadnoughts in reserve.
Here's after I've moved 12". Battlewagons blocking the truck in the rear, which is angling for a shot around the corner at the far left marines, while my warbuggies are angling for shots at a combat squad in the open just to the left of the Master of the Forge. My gretchin are moving forward to block drop pods coming in behind me.
Here's the right side of the board. I've got two deffkoptas to shoot and assault at that tactical squad - I want to neutralize the missile launcher. I realize that it will cost me the deffkoptas because his dreadnought will eat me, but at least I can neutralize a missile launcher - with two buzzsaws following two AP3 rokkits into the combat, I should be ok.
Here's the left side of Austin's deployment. Uh...not sure what happened here, but I completely meant to shoot and assault that Thunderfire cannon and for some reason moved up to the flanking combat squad there with the missile launcher. While I respect a multi-melta at 24", I have more respect for flanking missile launchers that might hit side armor. And...for thunderfire cannons that can ignore cover and wtfpwn Lootas.
My gretchin roll a
for their run! They spread out to snag the first objective and more importantly....cover in behind my battlewagons to protect against a drop pod.
Shooting! My trukk's big shoota does nothing. My Lootas on the left pull five shots against the Thunderfire cannon, get two results but Austin makes both cover saves. My Lootas on the right open up on a tactical squad with the multimelta (I think). Rokkit buggy on the left gets a rokkit hit and vaporizes one of the marines its about to assault! On the right side, I get two rokkit hits and kill two marines; the odds are now 3 marines vs. two rokkits with buzzsaws. My rokkit buggies add in their shots against the squad with the multi-melta and cause two more wounds, forcing them to take a leadership test which they fail!
My deffkopta pounces onto the marines on the left with his buzzsaw!
And I assault the marines with the missile launcher on the right.
One of my deffkoptas on the right takes a wound, but between them, the two koptas finish off the combat squad and consolidate....away from the dreadnought. Which was pointless since it could move 6" and assault 6". At the time I had a thought that there was a better place to go with my consolidate, but I don't remember what it was now.
On the left side, the tactical marines whiff and cause no damage! In return I swing and....cause no damage! At least it isn't firing at me.
That's the end of my turn! I killed one of his missile launchers, have the second tied up, leaving two lascannons to threaten me, a melta that won't be in range to threaten me yet, a multi-melta running backwards (and now unable to shoot me) and 4 dreadnoughts (two of which are in play and a third will be along shortly) as my battlewagon threats.
Space Marine Turn One:
First things first! The drop pod with the locator beacon and deathstrike launcher attempts to drop directly in front of my battlewagons. Doing so could potentially disrupt a unified charge by breaking up my formation, but he ends up scattering 8" away from me.
On my left, his combat squad next to the squad with the missile launcher that I've assaulted move up to prepare assaulting into the deffkopta to finish it off, while the dreadnought advances and points its assault cannon at my battlewagons.
On the right, his dreadnought moves towards my two deffkoptas and shoots one of them down. The rest of his army works into optimal firing positions where possible.
Space Marine Turn One Shooting:
In game one, I failed 14/16 or 16/18 cover saves in the first two turns. My dice decide to even things up a little bit.
The deep-striking dreadnought multi-meltas one of my battlewagons, and I make my
KFF save! One of his Lascannons fails to hurt me, the other gets a glance and I make my
KFF save! The dreadnought on my left flank fires its assault cannon at the boyz wagon on the end and rolls a 6 on the penetrate table, followed by a 6 on the extra D3 table....and I make my
KFF save! His thunderfire cannon opens up on the Lootas on the left with his cover ignoring template. They're spread 2" apart, and he's got three shots with it and only hits three between the shots. Three Lootas die, and the other two pass leadership (as does the lone deffkopta by the dreadnought). Shooting ends and we move to assaults.
His dreadnought on my right flank assaults the remaining deffkopta, and spectacularly fails to make a single hit. In return...my deffkopta does nothing and we stay locked in combat. I was actually reaching for my model before he rolled his dice and had to put it back; wasn't expecting it to live.
On the other side of the table, the combat squad assaults in and its now 9 vs 1. He causes two wounds, but I make two armor saves! In return I whiff. But 9 v 1 is heroic!
Ork Turn Two:
I lost a Deffkopta and...that was it. and now I'm in charge range of his lines. My turn two here actually takes an hour to finish. But first things first. WAAAAAAAAAUGH! I tactfully decided not to scream it out. I was completely sober. Interestingly, given the recent shenanigans at another gaming store where I got banned for drinking when I hadn't even BEEN drinking, I had asked the store owner about drinking. The restaurant next to the gamestore (which they borrowed to fit all the people in) has a liquor license, and was selling booze....but given the heat and humidity, I opted to stick to gatorade, which I drank two fething gallons of that day. I sweat it out as fast as I drank it in. The POINT to all this is that I'd be more likely to scream "WAAAUGH!" if I'm drinking. I have no doubt that this will somehow turn into a story about my rampant drunkenness at semi-finals by the same people that follow me around trolling me.
Anyway, I'm starting turn 2 in a devastatingly good position - my main force is unscathed and in position to move and assault pretty much his entire army.
My battlewagons start moving forward....hey! Where did that dreadnought and drop pod go?!? My dice have an interesting trend with my ramming - I determine the strength of the ram hit first, roll it, never get anything (roll a 1-3 usually) followed by rolling deffrolla hits and rolling a 4-6. The dreadnought and drop pod both explode!
My leftmost boyz wagon rams into his dreadnought! My ram whiffs, and my deffrolla only manages to get a weapon destroyed result - I elect to take away his
DCCW so that he can't wtfpwn my battlewagon as easily with the dreadnought. I was kind of relying on killing it with the ram and didn't have anything else lined up to support it. Instead, I choose to leave my boyz in their wagon. I've still got a boarding plank, and if that fails a grabbin' klaw. You can see Ghazghkull has jumped out of the burna wagon in the middle there to glare at Vulkan while my trukk boyz disembark to go lend support to my lone deffkopta.
In the center of the board, my nobs disembark and prepare to cause carnage.
On the far end, my battlewagon boyz disembark and prepare to threaten the marines on that end. My nob is out front, and the Master of the Forge doesn't have an invulnerable save, so I'm going to give him some powerklaw.
Shooting!
My favorite part of every fight, burnas in action! Don't pay particular attention to where the template is located - its just posed to illustrate that I'm shooting. I clip four from Vulkan's unit and three from the unit behind.
Lots of dice later, Vulkan is unwounded but alone, and the tactical squad behind him is also gone and mysteriously replaced by the smell of charred ceramite. Sorry for the blurry picture. Ghazghkull takes his Waaaugh! movement and closes in with Vulkan.
My Lootas on the left (reduced) do nothing that I remember and on the right cause 4-5 wounds to a combat squad; he makes all his armor saves. Battlewagons/trukk that can shoot drop their shots into Vulkan; in hind sight I probably should have just relied in Ghazghkull and tried thinning out marines before assaulting.
My trukk boyz assault into one of the tactical squads assaulting my deffkopta! I've lined it up between the fleet and the assault so that only one of his squads (and only a few members from it) can turn and attack me, the rest are stuck swinging at the deffkopta's T5.
My nobs multi-charge two combat squads in the middle, while my blue boyz multi-charge three units: The two five man combat squads with the attached master of the forge and the two man combat squad that I sent running turn1.
The combat on my left: I lose two trukk boyz, and the deffkopta takes the brunt of the attacks again...and AGAIN survives unscathed! My boyz slean up one squad, the deffkopta finally gets hits (two hits, two wounds) on the other squad, and his remaining two marines fall back.
Worth noting here is that I *NEVER* remember to use hit and run with my deffkoptas. Grrrrr. Not that I have a likely chance of getting away with my terrible initiative, but in theory I should at least attempt to do it. I just never remember. Grabbin' klaws are the other one; I always forget to use them. I consolidate 6" and spread out to minimize the damage potential of flamers and thunderfire cannons. My embarked boyz drop a boarding plank and the nob takes a couple swings on the dreadnought stunning it. *phew*
In the center combat, the nobs kill one unit, kill two models from the other unit, and the survivors only flee a couple inches. I consolidate also spread out to minimize template damage while staying within 6" of his fleeing unit to escort them off the board.
You can see Ghazghkull Thraka and Vulkan He'Stan in the background. Vulkan swings on Ghazghkull and causes three wounds which Ghazghkull saves all of. Ghazghkull swings back causing three wounds, which Vulkan saves all of. The two titans stay locked.
On my right flank, my blue boyz assault in, and lose a handful of boyz. My Lootas were working over one unit while the master of the forge's unit is unscathed. I kill 2/3 of the remaining marines in the first unit and 4/5 in the second unit, including a powerklaw to the face for the master of the forge. He passes leadership for two units (I won by 3-4) and we're locked except for the unit of two, which break and run (again). Poor guys can't catch a break. They run off the board this time. His dreadnought recovers from the nasty trip and eats my deffkopta, then consolidates towards my boyz. Uh-oh.
That ends my turn, and the space marines are crippled. I killed a dread, a drop pod, stunned another dread...and out of 50 tactical marines, he has 6 left. Two units of one, and two units of two - and both units of two are fleeing off the board next turn.
Space Marine Turn Two:
He rolls for reserves. He gets his scout marines, but not the other dreadnought or his terminators. The scouts come on in the top left of the board from my perspective.
Both falling back units of two marines run off the board. His dreadnought moves towards my blue boyz and his scouts run towards my orks. The thunderfire cannon is silent while the techmarine with it pulls out a plasma pistol and kills another ork or two at close range with rapid fire. His dreadnought assaults into my orks and kills a couple with help from his two marines. My boyz finish off the two units of one marine each and consolidate into the dreadnought. *sigh* The worst place for an ork unit to be. Vulkan and Ghazghkull go at it another round and Vulkan is crushed. Not sure why I didn't take any pictures of this, but it was a very fast turn.
Ork Turn Three:
Also a very fast turn. The battlewagon with the boyz in it that has been dueling with the dreadnought deffrollas it under and wrecks it. The trukk boyz assault the thunderfire cannon and kill the tech-marine manning it (Powerklaw bypasses his 2+ armor save). I'm planning on using those 20 boyz in the battlewagon against those 10 scout marines, so for now just leave them alone. My Lootas open up on the scouts and kill four.
Meanwhile, my nobs are trying to bring assistance to my boyz stuck in combat with the dreadnought; they've got 3 powerklaws to lend. They roll a 1 and a 2 for difficult. They run and roll a 2. *sigh*. Help isn't coming just yet.
In the meantime, the dreadnought and the boyz stay locked up. Kinda blurry.
Back in midfield, my gretchin have moved out of my deployment zone and are staying spread out and trying to cut down drop-site possibilities as much as possible.
Space Marine Turn Three:
Terminators and last drop pod both come in!
Dreadnought drop pods into the middle of my battlewagons.
Terminators deep-strike next to my blue boyz - they scattered a bit.
His scout marines move forward 6".
For shooting, his terminators open up on my nobs. They have storm bolters and power fists. On the flip side, I have 4+ cover and Feel No Pain. I take a wound here and there, but none die.
The dreadnought drops its heavy flamer onto my spread out gretchin and kills four. Oh noes!
His scouts fire on my boyz and manage to only get one hit....and roll a 1 to wound.
Ork Turn Four:
Closing in for the kill! My Lootas move
2d6 forward and also run - time to get out of my deployment zone to score the bonus point. I *also* have discovered that my magnetized deffrollas still aren't a perfect solution. I've been using PVC pipe ones which were really heavy and unwieldy. These are better, but don't stay on well if the table gets bumped; I kept having to put them back onto their wagons. I would have just dropped them into the back of the wagons except for the pictures.
Nothing like a bit of overwhelming force to deal with some scout marines.
My nobs
2d6 again and end up 3" away from the dreadnought. Will finally get to apply some powerklaws! The burna wagon rolls up 6" and drops a template over the terminators. I'm getting pretty good at figuring out how far away to stop to maximize damage with this 8" template!
I cause 90 wounds. Personal best. NINETY wounds. That's 10 per terminator, and they all die.
The deffkopta, battlewagon boyz, and trukk boyz drop a rokkit and a bunch of pistol shots into the scouts, who actually all die, negating the need for a charge.
In the middle of the field, the nobs battlewagon rammed into the last dreadnought - Austin decided to try a death or glory and failed to penetrate the wagon, taking
2d6 deffrolla hits. The drop pod exploded, letting me ram into the dreadnought, which was wrecked.
On my far right, the nobs enter combat with the dreadnought locked with my boyz. The dread gets a single wound on the nobs, which make a 5+ invul save and survive unscathed! They explode the dreadnought, which wounds a couple boyz.
The game ends with my gretchin controlling all four objectives for the massacre while my opponent has been tabled. I control the 2 point objective for +1, I have more units in my opponent's deployment zone than he has in mine (obviously) for +1, I've moved everything out of my deployment zone for +1, and I killed more enemy scoring units than I lost. In fact, while I lost models from units, the only unit I lost was a deffkopta unit.
I score my second 24 point massacre! When all the score sheets come in, there's only two players that have gotten double massacres and I've got a two point lead over the other guy. Also worth noting - I came to 'Ard Boyz prepared for shenanigans and am actually having a great time. No rules disputes either game, and the tournament as a whole is going smoothly. The judge had to kind of babysit the table next to us the second game, there were some....interesting arguments coming out of it (like "I have a squadron of hydras, you got one result, which I allocate to the one in the back, which you can't see so it automatically misses"). Yeah...
Post-Game Analysis:
Honestly, I'm not sure what my opponent could have done differently. I don't think foot-slogging marines can hope to stand up to mechanized orks, and I'm no slouch with them either.
I wander around checking in on the other top players and catch the end of Gabe's game - he's a damned good player and had just lost Best Overall to Marc Parker at Bolter Beach in the final game; I'm expecting to have to play him, but he only manages a major victory. In hindsight, I would have preferred to play him over what I did get matched up against, but more on that later.
Renegades - 
3000
3000 
