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Hey folks!

You can read my other batreps for this event here:
Round One
Round Two
Round Three
Round Four
Round Five
Round Six


This past weekend my wife and I headed up to Washington D.C. so that I could play in the Nova Open GT. When I originally signed up for this, I lived in North Carolina and was excited to only have to travel 3-4 hours to a GT after my previous experiences traveling across the country in all directions to participate in other events. Then I moved to Florida, and my Friday afternoon drive up turned into a 12 hour driving marathon to arrive just in time to eat dinner and prepare for fight night!

A little backstory:
I like Orks. Waaaugh! Heh. I play Pink Orks. They belong to my wife. She plays orks too. For the last year or two, my niche on Dakka has been as a resident Ork expert. I do very well with them and enjoy helping spread the Waaaugh! to new players and imparting tactical wisdom about how to make the mean greenies (or in my case pinkies) excel on the table. Stelek is the author of the blog site YTTH. One day, he wrote an article titled, Why Orks Suck. As a staunch Ork advocate, I got spammed with notices that a blogger was talking trash about my favorite codex. That blog and his later Lets flame Dash's Orks followed by Dash is an emo ranter set the stage for a 40k "celebrity death match" type event where Stelek and I would face off to illustrate to him that Orks definitely do NOT suck.

The Night of the Event:
Shortly before go time, I wandered down to the lounge/bar area to see if I could find Stelek. I didn't want our first meeting to be across the table from each other, and wanted to get to know him a little bit. I found him sitting at a table waiting for the Whiskey Challenge to start (I wandered in and loudly asked, "Is anyone in here Andrew Sutton?". He doesn't drink alcohol, so I bought him a Sprite and sat down to chat for a bit. He was not the nefarious bunghole I was expecting. :p Stelek may enjoy his drinks virgin, but I suffer no such compulsion and cracked the fifth of Captain Morgan I had brought along. Interestingly, since I was not wearing my "Dashofpepper" shirt, a lot of folks didn't recognize me. When I opened the bottle in the grand hallway, raised it in a cheers to the 40kers hanging out in preparation for going inside and took a long pull, several people said, "You must be Dashofpepper!" Ah well, I have a reputation to maintain!

We wandered into the hotel ballroom and started getting models out. Stelek and I (along with all the other players that night) went through a series of interviews, podcasts, and the like (which are scattered around the internet according to whom their author is).

Mike Brandt, the Tournament Organizer rolled a D3 for mission, and we got ready to set up!

Personal Reflection: Coming up to the Friday night game, I'm torn. I'm a Dark Eldar player. I've been playing Dark Eldar for six months, and the Orks have been in hibernation, with the exception of 'Ard Boyz, where they came out to play because Dark Eldar don't scale to 2500 points by ANY stretch of the imagination. As such, I want to play Dark Eldar this weekend. At the same time....my friends are warning me not to bring Dark Eldar to the tournament. We suffer from a weakness to Space Wolves and Mechanized IG, both of which can outshoot us and survive an alpha-strike while being able to respond. If I go first against either army, it will be a good game; if I don't go first, chances are good that I'll take a beating. With the Nova Open being billeted as an incredibly competitive army, Orks should stand up better against the heavy swing of Mech IG and Space Wolves than Dark Eldar can.

At the same time....I'm also being encouraged not to play the same list on Friday night that I do on Saturday, for fear that it will give people insight into how to exploit me. In hindsight, this is ludicrous because I post my list everywhere, always use the same things (or variants of them), and batrep a lot of my tournaments. I didn't think of this on Friday night though - I was thinking to myself, "If I should play Orks on Saturday, that means I should bring DE on Friday night.....but people want to see my Orks vs. Stelek." Ultimately, I decided to just drop my tournament Ork list on the table, and worry about the rest of it later.

Anyway...game time!

I took a picture of Stelek and myself. The chubby one on the left is Stelek. The chubby one on the right is me. Every time I look at a picture of myself, I cringe at how much I've porked up since getting out of the army in 2007. Add that distinctly absurd look on my face, put a shirt on me that says, "Its ok to laugh at my growing belly!" and there you go.

Stelek's Space Wolves:

HQ1: Wolf Guard Battle Leader (Thunderwolf Mount; Fenrisian Wolf; Combi-Meltagun x1; Wolf Claw x1; Rending in CC only; Saga of the Beastslayer) + 2 Fenrisian Wolves

Elite1: Wolf Guard Pack: 6x Wolf Guard, 1x Combi-Melta, 1x Power Weapon + Las/Plas Razorback
Elite2: 5x Wolf Scouts + Meltagun
Elite3: 4x Wolf Scouts + Meltagun

Troop1: 5x Grey Hunters + Meltagun + Rhino
Troop2: 5x Grey Hunters + Meltagun + Rhino
Troop3: 5x Grey Hunters + Meltagun + Rhino
Troop4: 5x Grey Hunters + Meltagun + Rhino
Troop5: 5x Inquisitorial Stormtroopers + 2x Plasmaguns
Troop6: 5x Inquisitorial Stormtroopers + 2x Plasmaguns

Fast Attack1: 1x Thunderwolf Cavalry
Fast Attack2: 1x Landspeeder (Heavy Flamer / Multi-Melta)
Fast Attack3: 1x Landspeeder (Heavy Flamer / Multi-Melta)

Heavy1: 5x Long Fangs (4x Missile Launchers + Squad Leader) + Las/Plas Razorback
Heavy2: 5x Long Fangs (4x Missile Launchers + Squad Leader) + Las/Plas Razorback
Heavy3: 5x Long Fangs (4x Missile Launchers + Squad Leader) + Las/Plas Razorback


Thoughts on Stelek's list:
I think I see 24 killpoints in there. I suppose a tournament without killpoints calls for using as many MSUs as possible, and this was the first of many instances I see this being used at the tournament! I play DE, but SW can put equally lethal but much more survivable MSUs onto the table, which is what makes them such a bad matchup. With my own list heavily revolving around battlewagons, I'm most interested in his four Lascannons and 2 multi-meltas. Those can hurt my battlewagons. The missile launchers I'm not too worried about; with good positioning, I can keep him from getting side armor on me; my first priority is trying to take away his ability to hamper my mobility at range. I recognize the threat of wolf scouts as well - I usually have gretchin and Lootas in my backfield, and they can be bothersome quite easily.

Dashofpepper's Orks:

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).

Thoughts on my own list
I've been playing pretty much the same flavor of Orks now for a very long time. While I haven't been playing them much in the last 6 months, I don't variate much. I built my list with the idea that I have an answer (multiple answers) to everything. Before the Nova, I messed around trying to take the nobs out, didn't like anything I could get in their place. I've seen suggestions for less burnas, no burnas, more nobs, no nobs, more buggies, more deffkoptas, no Ghazghkull.....I'm not sure what to think of it all. I used to play without Nobs until someone pointed out that I was wasting part of Ghazghkull's utility by not taking them. So then I started taking them....but I only had room for 7 here, and didn't know what to give up. Those deffkoptas seem precious to me. The rokkit buggies serve their own purpose for screening (most of the time)....if I take the trukk boyz out, I only have three troop choices left, one of which is...a 40 point gretchin unit. I don't know what to change, what to give up, and suppose I should make a separate thread about that. Anyway, its served me well for a long time. Its just disconcerting to see so many comments in other threads like, "Good general, bad list." Aw, hell - I shouldn't be starting Necrons, but I am. ><

Mission:
-Primary: Table Quarters
-Secondary: Objectives
-Tertiary: Victory Points

Deployment: Spearhead!

I win the roll for deployment and elect to deploy and go first. The table is mostly symmetrical, so I pick the corner that seems like it has the best terrain for my Lootas to be deployed in while maintaining as much visibility of the battlefield as possible. Ignore all the marines you see - they are just set off to the side / inside transports etc.



This is a picture of my deployment over a shoulder view. The battlewagon formation is identical for all games: Ghazghkull with burnas in the...burny looking battlewagon. KFF + Boyz in the middle. Nobs on the other side. The squad of Lootas is overlooking the left side of the field.


At this point in the game, we're presuming that the big castle thing in the middle is impassable and blocks line of sight.

While the Loota squad seen above is outside of the ability of an outflanking / ambushing scout squad to reach in a single turn, the second squad is not, so I put my gretchin unit behind them as a screening unit to protect my rear. You can also see that my deffkoptas and rokkit buggies are lined up, with everyone tied in for access to the KFF Mek's cover saves.


Here's a deployment shot of Stelek having deployed across the table from me. Take note of the piece of terrain in the middle.


And...a zoomed out shot of deployment. Stelek has his troops and rhinos hugging one corner of his deployment, while the razorbacks and longfangs sit as far away from me as possible. One of his scout squads chooses to outflank, the other infiltrates just on the other side of the impassable / BLOS terrain.


At one point here, a spectator notes that they thought there was no impassable terrain in the Nova FAQ. I ask Mike (the TO) to come over and clarify, and he says that there is no impassable terrain, but that it does block LOS. Now to me...there are two kinds of buildings. Either they have an armor value and you get inside them or blow them up....or there are ruins that you walk/run/drive/fly through. Our game has our first and really only serious dispute centralized over this - As I'm moving forward later in the game, I'm presuming that I'm driving through the building(crash crash CRASH!), while Stelek presumes I am driving over the building.

Here's a closeup of the Wolf Scouts infiltrating behind the building. They serve the dual purpose of having the ability to pose a threat, and also of preventing my Deffkoptas from scouting within 12" of them.


Final Deployment shot here: Stelek puts one of his inquisitorial stormtroop squads out in the open, lined up to prevent my deffkoptas from scouting within 12" of them either.


With that, we start!

Scout Moves: My Deffkoptas have limited mobility based on his deployment, so they both zoom off towards his rhinos, making sure to keep 12" away from his scouts on their way over. The white dice is marking the 12" mark from the scouts. In hindsight, I should have also had Stelek mark their 12" radius so that I could arc towards the rhinos while staying 12" away from the scouts.


Stelek rolls to seize the initiative and fails.

Ork Turn One:
My battlewagons move 12" forward. My trukk and rokkit buggies won't be in range to do anything, so they hide behind the AV14 to keep their AV10 safe from long range missile launchers. The white dice on the building are supposed to be marking my progress through the building. My intent here is that the KFF wagon is halfway through a solid-walled ruin, with both other wagons flanking it but not completely inside.


Here's a shot from a different vantage point. I had considered a few alternatives: Moving 6" and dropping an 8" template onto the scouts. Moving up 12" and dropping the nobs out to fight. Sending a Deffkopta in. Stelek had attached a power weapon to the scout squad, so I didn't want to drop a Deffkopta in there. Ultimately, I decided that with only a single melta gun, no access to my KFF wagon, and a 4+ save I'd be ok and would hold out for now.


My Deffkoptas both move 12" towards their respective Rhino targets. I don't expect to get fair trade out of this in terms of Victory Points, but I am hoping to crash into his rhinos and troops and anything disembarked by my Deffkoptas is going to suffer my wrath when I get there. In addition, since this is a table quarters mission, I want to take away whatever mobility I can and push him back into the far corner.

Into shooting! My righthand squad of Lootas open up on and explode a razorback in the opening salvo. The explosion wounds a longfang, and a missile launcher longfang takes a piece of shrapnel in the throat and falls over gurgling.


My left squad of Lootas whiff. My Deffkoptas both whiff as well. Into assaults! My first Deffkopta assaults into a rhino - Weapon Destroyed + Immobilized. Drats.


My second Deffkopta assaults into its rhino target and gets the same result: Weapon Destroyed and Immobilized.


Space Wolves Turn One:
Stelek moves up! Both un-immobilized rhinos move forward 12" and disgorge troops with melta guns, with one of them popping smoke. His land-speeders move forward to threaten with multi-meltas as well.


The Stormtroopers on foot jump into the newly vacated rhino.


In the backfield, his second squad of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers jump into a razorback while his Wolf Lord and Thunderwolf model connect and hang out in cover to provide centralized protection to his artillery. Ignore the longfangs lying down - he put them on the edge of the table; this was to prevent them from falling off the table.

This is where things get interesting in the middle of the table. Stelek was presuming my vehicle drove up the building and was on top, while I presumed it was a ruin and that I was driving through it. He had his scouts in double-tap range of my KFF wagon with their melta gun, three lascannons, and two multi-meltas. The troops on the ground were also in double-tap range of the Nob battlewagon.

At any rate, the Nob battlewagon absorbs massed fire; one melta misses, the other one bounces off of a KFF save, and the multi-melta punches through and explodes the nob battlewagon. I didn't bring my crater markers, so outlined my wreckage with dice.


His scouts had been planning on firing at the KFF wagon, but instead shoot at Ghazghkull's wagon - they get a glance and a weapon destroyed result. About this time Mike joined our game and ruled that I was supposed to be up on top of the castle, not crashing through it. Stelek noted that he would have been firing at the KFF wagon instead. I noted that I would have killed the scouts if I knew I wasn't behind BLOS terrain with an assault. The scouts scored a weapon destroyed result on Ghazghkull's wagon; I offered to switch the weapon destroyed result over to the KFF wagon, but he declined. I think there was a slight ruckus in another thread somewhere about them not getting to shoot, but they did score a weapon destroyed result. Somewhere in there, he also dropped a melta shot each on the deffkoptas and they fell over dead.

His remaining longfangs open up on my nobs, looking for some insta-kills. Three fall over. His lascannons all ping off of Ghazghkull's wagon or fail to fire.


Top view of the battlefield at this point: His Wolf Lord sends his wolves and Thunderwolf Cavalry ranging out.


Now that we know that my battlewagon has vertical thrusters, it zooms into the sky, lands on the castle, and the jump wolf scouts fly up to assault it!


Awww....they whiffed.

*****Dashofpepper Mistake #1: I probably should have assaulted the scouts. It would have taken heat off of my nobs and cut that melta and power weapon out of the game on the spot, and saved this whole issue. Moreover, it probably should have been my nobs assaulting out given that his anti-tank was coming in on their side.*****

Ork Turn Two:

My trukk full of boyz swings around and dumps out its boyz by the tactical squad that just melta-ed the Nob Battlewagon.


My two remaining battlewagons push ahead and disgorge Ghazghkull, Burnas, and boyz. I'm planning on using my Waaaugh!. I intend to use the Burnas and Ghazghkull independently to assault his Wolf Lord and Thunderwolf Cavalry model from two directions, and using my mob of blue boyz to either assault a speeder (heavy flamers are bad mojo) or taking a piece out of a rhino. The KFF Wagon Deffrollas through the Scouts, and they all fall over dead.


Here's a closeup: I'm lining up my rokkit buggies for clear shots at a land speeder, while the Lootas in the backfield are also getting clear fields of fire - the nobs 2D6 and get 2".


Into shooting: Boom! The Lootas explode one landspeeder, the rokkit buggies wreck the other. I don't remember which, and couldn't convince Stelek to mark them for my pictures and memory, so I'm going to presume the exploded one was by him since I don't remember losing any boyz.


With the Land speeders dead, those boyz are free to move around and do what they like, and assault what they want to.

In the backfield, my second Loota squad takes aim at another Las/Plas razorback and stuns it. Good enough! That's a lascannon not firing at a battlewagon next turn.


Ghazghkull and the Burnas assault into the Thunderwolf cavalry model and the Battle Leader.


My blue squad assaults his immobilized rhino, and multi-assaults the inquisitorial (reduced) stormtroopers that were fleeing....presumably from a tank shock. they fail leadership and are destroyed.


My nobs assault his tactical squad while my trukk boyz assault the rhino that just moved 12" and smoked. Its empty, but I'm using the Waaaugh! and don't have a better target - so if I can immobilize it, I will - anything to reduce his ability to move around the board to get to table quarters. They manage to stun it.


The squad of blue boyz assault the immobilized rhino and wreck it before the Powerklaw can enter the equation. His tactical squad disembarks.


Over in Ghazghkull's arena.....yeah, you're seeing this correctly.


We have a small rules discussion here. Apparently, the Battle Leaders fenrisian wolves count as a separate unit despite being wargear for the battle leader. I don't have a warm and fuzzy on this one for a couple of reasons, but I'm not sure how the rules are supposed to play out. He said that Ghazghkull had to move closest to closest....which was into the wolves. But that the wolves were a separate unit, and that I couldn't move into the Thunderwolf Cavalry model because the wolves were closer....I was fine assaulting into the wolves because I thought that they would be wargear for the battle leader, allowing me to swing into him. As a result, he piles a wolf, the Thunderwolf Cavalry model, and his battle leader all into the burnas and destroys them, while Ghazghkull's 7 STR10 attacks get to only kill two wolves because he's not in base anywhere else.

*****Dashofpepper Mistake #2: If I had known that the wolves counted as a separate unit for combat, Ghazghkull would have gotten out by himself and eaten the battle leader and thunderwolf cavalry model by himself. Instead, I basically lost the entire burna unit, causing Ghazghkull to take fearless saves, which he failed one or two I think.*****

Space Wolf Turn Two:
Stelek rolls for reserves on his remaining scout unit and they don't show up. My backfield is safe for now!

One of his two tactical squads disembarks and moves towards my orks that assaulted his 12" moving rhino.


The other squad moves around the rear of his rhino to line up for some damage on the blue orks I presume.


He opens fire on my buggies with lascannons! Phenomenal shooting there sees only one explode. I built them myself and put on some custom exhaust pipes which stick up above the model - he could see them through the battlefield, and took the opportunity to open up on them. Fortunate dice rolls for me there.


His longfangs open up on my gretchin with frag templates, fragging two of the little buggers, who proceed to run squabbling off the table with Stelek's small blast template.


Into assaults: Ghazghkull is still on the Waaaugh! with his 2+ invulnerable save. He eats the Thunderwolf Cavalry model (who had two wounds to the battle leader's one) and he and the battle leader consolidate into each other.


His tactical squad assaults into my boyz, and kills about half of them before getting eaten.


The boyz and nobs consolidate out of their mutually won combats.


My reporting is going to break down from here - this was 4 days ago now, and my pictures are getting a little disordered.

Ork Turn Three:
Not much to report post-Waaaugh! My battlewagons rammed 12" forward and barely missed one of his remaining razorbacks. My trukk moved up into firing distance of his Longfangs, while my rokkit buggies and left Loota squad finish off another rhino. My nobs advance into the last tactical unit and mulch them. Ghazghkull finishes off the wolf lord and consolidates 2" out of combat, and chooses to sit in cover.

Space Wolf Turn Three:
Stelek's scouts enter the fray; he gets to choose any board edge and picks my back table edge. He plops onto the table behind my gretchin, who are screening my Lootas. His remaining Imperial Stormtroopers jump out of their razorback and advance towards the objective Ghazghkull is sitting on. His longfangs finally have some good side shots on my battlewagons, which failed to ram into any of his vehicles this game and....boom. Boom. He opens up on Ghazghkull with his plasma shots from the ISTs and lascannons and.....Ghazghkull takes two wounds, with one left. So far this game, I've failed 14/19 4+ cover saves on my nobs, wagons, and Ghazghkull. Sonofanitch!


We resolve assaults up by the remaining nobs, and after taking a couple wounds, my nobs clean them up and consolidate. One of the spectators grins at me - he totally forgot about his scouts!

Ork Turn Four:
Ghazghkull moves up towards his Longfangs while my nobs and boyz move into cover and behind ruined vehicles - its a vehicle graveyard over there, and I want to make sure I hold that corner.

*****Dashofpepper Mistake #3: I didn't know that the Imperial Stormtroopers were troops. They were his last troop choice on the board, and if I had killed them, I would have been in position to leverage a game win on objectives if table quarters ended up tied. At the time, my hope was to engage the longfangs, kill them, consolidate into cover, and then hunker down through whatever retaliation he dished out with 3+ cover saves for going to ground.****


Stelek stops me, moves my models back and notes that he forgot to use his scouts. I said, "You want to rewind a turn and do stuff you forgot?" He says, "Well, yes!"

*dramatic pause*

The TOURNAMENT GAMER inside me is screaming at me that he's punished me for every mistake, checked my movement around him to the centimeter to make sure I'm not moving more than I should or within 1" of enemy models, took advantage of me at the Ghazghkull + Burna debacle, and that he's frankly been kind of mean to me throughout the game (self-admittedly afterwards because he was stressed out), and that I should not only deny him the opportunity to rewind a turn, but also rub it in.

The FRIENDLY GAMER inside me says that this is a friendly game, not part of the tournament....also that this is a showcase match for an event that I truly believe is going to be awesome, and I don't want to start it off on the wrong foot.

Friendly gamer wins out and I tell him to go for it. He assaults my gretchin, eats them, and consolidates into cover next to my first Loota squad.

Back to Ork Turn Four. Ghazghkull is looming over the long fangs, and my rokkit buggies move up to throw rokkits ineffectually at anything.


Both Loota squads turn and fire onto his scouts, who pass 7/7 cover saves. Ah.....crap.

Ghazghkull assaults into the Long Fangs, who pass counter attack, cause 3-4 wounds, and Ghazghkull fails one. His last one. He falls over dead.


Space Wolf Turn Four:
Long Fangs eat my rokkit buggies.


His scouts move up and assault the first Loota squad. They die miserably. My trukk suffers a weapon destroyed result.

Ork Turn Five
I dodge my trukk behind the BLOS terrain in the middle. Things are looking sketchy now that I'm losing my backfield and fire support, so I pull back to defend. My nobs jump into terrain to hold the center objective, while my Lootas attempt to weaken the 5 scouts tearing up my backfield without any luck.



Space Wolf Turn Five
Stelek jumps my last squad of Lootas with his scouts (who stick around this time but are locked in combat) and the the rest of his firing is ineffective against my stuff or can't see.

At this point, its 8 minutes past midnight, we were supposed to be closed up shop at midnight, registration starts in less than 7 hours the next morning.....we D6 to see if the game continues and roll a 2. We stop.

In the final tally:
I own two table quarters to his two table quarters - he moved a razorback into an empty quarter to take it, while my trukk, Lootas, and Nobs were enough to hold one table quarter, while I had a trukk boyz squad in the other quarter. Tied Table quarters. His ISTs own one objective, while my nobs in the middle hold another objective. We're tied on objectives. Victory points: He's got two razorbacks, a scout squad, an IST squad and three 5 man longfang squads on the table. I've got a single Loota unit, a trukk boy squad, a trukk, and my nobs, mostly worth half victory points for him - the Lootas were at 3-4, and were the only thing left that he didn't get at least part credit for. Tertiary was winning victory points by 250 points, which we also tied - moving it to straight victory points - which he won.

*****Dashofpepper Mistake #4: Hindsight is 20/20, and this one probably cost me the game. If we had stuck to rigid format, his 4+ save scouts would have been out in the open, with no cover, while two squads of Lootas and a gaggle of gretchin fired at him unmolested; no cover or armor saves. Instead, he got to sweep through my gretchin, consolidate into cover, hit my Lootas, consolidate into cover, and hit my second squad of Lootas the following turn....also preventing me from two turns of firing at his remaining units. Did I make the right choice? I think so. My pride will recover.*****

Post-Game Analysis:
I've earned some respect for Stelek as a player. People were looking for some sort of fisticuffs, but in reality, we just have a professional disagreement about Orks. I would have preferred to ROFLstomp him to demonstrate that Orks *are* all that and a bag of corn, but he's a gifted player. As I pointed out, I made a few critical mistakes throughout the game. The game was also slow as some people have noted. I took a *LOT* of pictures (only 3/4 are on here - the others I can't figure out which order they go in, which is why pictures are sparse at the end. Its also 3:00 AM and I've been up almost 22 hours right now. Work tomorrow is going to suck. I shouldn't have finished this tonight; should have let it go. I've been writing this for almost FIVE HOURS!

Point being: Taking pictures slows a game down. I try doing it quickly, but its inevitable. Also, with one exception I haven't been an Ork player since there was snow on the ground in North Carolina. I *did* play slowly because I was worried that I would forget important things, so was meticulous that I hit up everything in my moving/shooting/assaulting. My DE army plays much more quickly; I've been using it a lot. I had a great game, earned some respect for Stelek, and would be happy to add him to my group of friends that I play on a regular basis if distance permitted / Vassal interested, as long as his friendly demeanor materialized, and not his angry face.

Great report, i consider it a win for you still dash! I wouldn't have been so nice after the guy was obviously such a douche about... well, everything else

Nice read, thanks for the effort of writing this report.

Good that you had a cool game and especially good that you managed to keep it adultlike (you allowing him to replay the Scouts for instance). Well played!

So, next time your going to show the world that Necron are perfectly viable and competative? (Norbu and others allready illustrated that iirc, but still :-) ).

The conclusion that this game - and many others - warrants, might be that lists/army's are not that 'all or nothing' as some like to think. We've had plenty of examples where lists that were frowned upon, did really well.
Blackmoor surprised a lot of people with his Eldar, Norbu continues to do great with Daemons. You are doing great stuff with DE and Orks.
Maybe many a list with inherent quality and an answer to most threats, in the hands of a competent general is a potential tournamentwinner...

I recognise that Stelek writes very competative lists and I read and enjoy his reviews and tactics. Still, when someone like Blackmoor manages a tournamentwin with a list that makes a lot of people go 'Huh?' it brings a smile to my face.
Maybe being a good general actually is of great importance. Which is good news, because that means improving upon yourself and becoming better at this game is possible! :-)

Also DoP: congrats one a great tournament result! (I understand you finished top 5 out of 90 players?)

Cilithan

Lmao @ the re-wind, especially after he started moving your models around without your permission? That is off limits and forgetting to move your models is your own fault and generally just considered a stupid play that you'll hate yourself about later.

I would've told him to remember better next time and moved on with my turn.

Well played, seems it was a fun game..which is the main thing.

...you really drink something called Knob Creek ?

Oh, if we can avoid calling people "douches" and the like please, it's toy soldiers yeah ?

Well, the big day finally came, you recognize your mistakes, and you acknowledge the game overall was pretty good. The friendly gamer in you shone through and in the end that's what's important. It's a GAME and the purpose is to have FUN. WAAC seems to forget this, but you didn't. You're obviously the bigger man for it (Haha weight joke not really.) Good game and if anyone reading this even halfway says Orks aren't worth their salt then they can piss off. Simple as that. Good stuff as always, Dash.

Stelek stops me, moves my models back and notes that he forgot to use his scouts. I said, "You want to rewind a turn and do stuff you forgot?" He says, "Well, yes!"

I would have strangled him for that...
You can ask politely, but just moving the enemy models back is not very nice...
But good, you let him redo his movement, I would have done it too Winning because an opponent forgets a critical movement is not very satisfying.

I assume you did well due to the bad matchup against wolves, Dash. And without the mistakes, you could have won. But thats all theory.

Overall solid playing I think from both sides.

The terrain discussion is somehow a little silly and unnecessary in my opinion. Why doesnt the TO let you just play your terrain? Well still funny the picture of a battlewagon climbing a wall... oO

I love those prestige duels Too bad you both seemed to be quite stressed during the game

Wow 24 kp in one list. That's not many VP's for you to get per shot you take and per assault you make. Did he lose 17 kp and you lost 11? Yet VP's were under 250pts? If those are right then I see no correlation between VP's and KP's. It's good for MSU Marine lists to not have KP missions, there is no denying that.

reds8n wrote:Well played, seems it was a fun game..which is the main thing.

...you really drink something called Knob Creek ?

Oh yeah, i saw some Knob Creek even over 'ere in ye' ol' Britain! Would've had some as well if my liver wasn't pre-occupied with another drink. What's it like Dash? With a name like that surely it's awesome!

Well played though Dash, i think you did yourself justice through sportsmanship (OK, as sporty as 40K can be) and ability/result. I agree that Stelek should act more like he did then than his *ahem* internet persona, but it was a good game, well played.

So are you going to try Necrons now?

1. The Knob Creek: I've never had it - this was called "The Whiskey Challenge." Winner got the good stuff, loser got the bad stuff. Stelek doesn't drink so I got them both, but I was drinking Captain Morgan, so I think Hulksmash ended up with our bottles.

2. Zid: While Stelek *does* have some interesting posting techniques and thoughts, he wasn't a "douche" during our game. He admitted to not being on his best behavior, but I have an incredible level of tolerance (read my "Real Life Batrep?") for things. I dropped him a friendly reminder mid-game that we were having a friendly game and he eased up significantly. When you're playing a game that everyone is watching, and that half of the internet wants you to lose horribly in, it can be hard to relax - I'm used to standing in front of people and speaking (sober), so the hub-bub wasn't a big deal.

3. Stelek said after our game that he didn't change his mind about anything. I also didn't change my mind about anything. I'm hoping that with reflection, he will realize that his competitive list that went 6-1, did equal to mine, and barely squeaked out a win against me, in circumstances that could easily have swung the other way on a dice roll or two. While I agree that Orks aren't on par with Space Wolves, I *do* think the statement, "Orks suck" is unwarranted - which is what this was all about. I'd like to see that opinion change.

4. Yes, Necrons are next. I don't imagine I'm going to be able to crush everyone with them, or that they are a top tier army, but I do plan on trying to surprise people with their resilience and stubborn unwillingness to lose a game peacefully.

Great report and a well played and very well behaved game, congrats.

Edit: that may sound demeaning and that's not what I want. In a showoff like this it takes a big man to allow the opponent to correct mistakes. I greatly respect you for that.

DarthDiggler wrote:Wow 24 kp in one list. That's not many VP's for you to get per shot you take and per assault you make. Did he lose 17 kp and you lost 11? Yet VP's were under 250pts? If those are right then I see no correlation between VP's and KP's. It's good for MSU Marine lists to not have KP missions, there is no denying that.

I need to work this one out.

I had a total of....16 killpoints.
Stelek had....24 killpoints.

At the end he had....6 left alive.
I had....4 left alive. I don't remember what happened to my KFF Mek, so I'm going to presume he died somewhere.

So I killed 17 killpoints and he killed 12 killpoints?

Indeed, VP are a benefit to MSU armies.

Ok dash... Now a question.....
I have read and enjoyed your batreps and noticed that in this battle you seemed to abandon one of your primary tactics.
So, why didn't you mass fire the burnas into, well, ANY of his units? From previous batreps, its a tactic that works exceedingly well for you.

Stelek had LOTs and LOTs of anti-mech fire coming along in his list, and a whole bunch of vehicles to boot around as well.

The good news is that Orks have the KFF Big Mek, but in the end he wittled down the transports and BGs with a withering barrage of fire. If it wasn't for that thing in the middle of the field and the Deffkoptas, I wonder how long the game really would of lasted.

And as for Necrons, they cheat a bit because of their Monoliths. I've had focused fire on 1 Monolith take about 20-30 Multimelta, Las-Cannon, and Missile fire merely shrug it off, for the potential to land a roll to hit, a 6 followed by another 6 is insane just to take it down.

When I played my fragile CSM versus a similar anti-tank list, all my rhinos get knocked out/immobilized/stunned and my trio of Defilers are left a smoldering husk after 1 turn.

Sometimes it is not fair how lists can stack against each other, but in this case, your Orks caught him good at a few junctures. It just was he edged you out in the end.

Good battle report.

Bugger about the knob *snigger* Creek...

Good Luck with the Necrons though! After reading your real-life battle report recently I was going to suggest trying an army such as Necrons/Daemons/Templars or whatever to show how skilled a general you really are and how you're not so much a WAAC gamer, but competitive in competitive environments IMHO.
Even so, I think Necrons may a bridge too far as it were and i think even you will struggle with them, but good luck none-the-less, I look forward to seeing your progress.

I can't believe he didn't change his view on Orks at-all after that game. His Space Wolves - one of the most competitive codex's around - were drawn against what he considers to be a rubbish army! aaah well, Ignorance is bliss!

helgrenze wrote:Ok dash... Now a question.....
I have read and enjoyed your batreps and noticed that in this battle you seemed to abandon one of your primary tactics.
So, why didn't you mass fire the burnas into, well, ANY of his units? From previous batreps, its a tactic that works exceedingly well for you.

The burnas were in the battlewagon on my right flank, his troops were all on my left flank, on the opposite side of the battlewagon wall. There wasn't an opportunity to get them over to anything that they *could* burninate....not to mention that everything came in units of 5, which 15 burnas would have been wasted on shooting.

I just now realized that in a tournament with no killpoints, just VP, where MSUs are encouraged, Burnas probably don't belong. There was only one game where they got to actually *burn* something.

Was there not a 3-color minimum? The space wolf army appears to consist of a lot of models with a blue wash over a white primer, or something similar?

It doesn't seem like that kind of army should be allowed to compete in a "painted" tournament... unless I'm missing something...

And as to the space wolf list: Min/Maxing ftw...

RiTides wrote:Was there not a 3-color minimum? The space wolf army appears to consist of a lot of models with a blue wash over a white primer, or something similar?

It doesn't seem like that kind of army should be allowed to compete in a "painted" tournament... unless I'm missing something...

And as to the space wolf list: Min/Maxing ftw...

It was something like blue, with aqua drybrush and metal weapons. The idea was that it was supposed to look ethereal as it was Chaos count-as SW.

why am i not suprised stelek fields a barely painted army and has a goatee?

nice report but i'm certainly suprised you let him get the take back especially after he started manhandling your models without asking.

warboss wrote:why am i not suprised stelek fields a barely painted army and has a goatee?

Were you not around for his Lava Imperial army he posted on Dakka? He likes to paint his stuff in unique schemes.

Platuan4th wrote:

warboss wrote:why am i not suprised stelek fields a barely painted army and has a goatee?

Were you not around for his Lava Imperial army he posted on Dakka? He likes to paint his stuff in unique schemes.

I like the Phantom much better than the Firey one.

The Firey Red Paintjob.



The Phantom Paintjob at a previous event (back when he was still on Dakka) and not the same army.

At work, so i couldn't read the rest of the coments, but the bat rep was great. I think you prooved your point about Orks. you didn't need to manhandle him to show that they are still a viable army even though the meta has changed greatly since thier codex release. You basically tied SWs against what many consider to be a really good player. I'd say its a win for Ork players everywhere.

Basically a Rocky Scenario. all you had to do was go the distance

Excellent Battle Report from a Class Act.

I watched the U-streams (after the fact) and I must say that I hope I get the opportunity to get mauled by your orks.

To bad things didn't work out so well in day 2.

I don't imagine I'm going to be able to crush everyone with them, or that they are a top tier army, but I do plan on trying to surprise people with their resilience and stubborn unwillingness to lose a game peacefully.

I don't know Dash, you might be able to punch some people good with Necrons. I've only had my 'crons for a few months, and am currently 22W-4L with them. I even tabled a couple of armies. Just depends on who you go up against.

That's the first time I've ever seen a Big Mek used without a Shock Attack Gun.

Is it really useful that way?

Wouldn't a Warboss be better for CC?

and by the way, it seems like DashOfPepper didn't alert of you of some things before the battle...

Such as the Wolves being a seperate unit...

Orks Rule!!!

pretre wrote:

Platuan4th wrote:

warboss wrote:why am i not suprised stelek fields a barely painted army and has a goatee?

Were you not around for his Lava Imperial army he posted on Dakka? He likes to paint his stuff in unique schemes.

I like the Phantom much better than the Firey one.

i vaguely remember him on dakka years ago but not his armies. as for the armies, the lava one is eye catching but barely meets the 3 color minimum standard that some tournies have; i see a base color and two others with no detail work (guns, faces, arms, etc). the lava look done properly looks awesome as evidenced by multiple eldar avatar paint jobs. as for the phantoms, there's a base color and a lighter dry brush over it with little to no basing. it's the minimum effort to call it painted (although he did spring for rock basing on the lava guys). i'm certainly not a golden demon painter but i also don't blog loudly and vulgarly about how i'm the be all and end all in the world of toy soldiers. people that do blog like that generally don't put much effort into their armies and he didn't disappoint.

Both armies are at least 3 colors, which as you said is the minimum. Not everyone is a great painter and some folks want to do their own thing, including wacky ghosty or light-based paint jobs.

warboss wrote:
i'm certainly not a golden demon painter

Luckily you have a good secondary career in axe grinding...

Who cares about the guys paint jobs. Maybe he just doesnt enjoy painting miniatures, I know I dont. So I use lots of wash and what not to get my army to a decent level without having to spend hours working on it.

grayspark wrote:Is it really useful that way?

4+ save to all my vehicles? Golden.

Wouldn't a Warboss be better for CC?

4+ save to vehicles...? If eldar had that in a other wise sub-par HQ choice, i'd ditch the council in a heartbeat to cram it in there.

and by the way, it seems like DashOfPepper didn't alert of you of some things before the battle...

Stelek you mean? Dashofpepper admitted not knowing alot about space wolves, nothing wrong with that. I actually had one opponent at the NOVA, who had never fought eldar, tell me to stop explaining what eldar units did what and the special rules, since he didn't want help!

Nothing wrong with that kind of painting, my actual painting skills were a hatchetjob, Stelek's actually had a good quality to them.

Dashofpepper wrote:

DarthDiggler wrote:Wow 24 kp in one list. That's not many VP's for you to get per shot you take and per assault you make. Did he lose 17 kp and you lost 11? Yet VP's were under 250pts? If those are right then I see no correlation between VP's and KP's. It's good for MSU Marine lists to not have KP missions, there is no denying that.

I need to work this one out.

I had a total of....16 killpoints.
Stelek had....24 killpoints.

At the end he had....6 left alive.
I had....4 left alive. I don't remember what happened to my KFF Mek, so I'm going to presume he died somewhere.

So I killed 17 killpoints and he killed 12 killpoints?

Indeed, VP are a benefit to MSU armies.

It's a heated debate with the KP vs. VP, but is it any surprise folks were doing well with 5th ed codexes (Read: cheap transports) where VPs replaced KPs? There was no real trade off when taking MSU and 5th ed codexes.