Hey folks!
You can read my other battle reports for this event here:
Whiskey Challenge / Celebrity Match
Round One
Round Two
Round Three
Round Four
Round Five
Other rounds not written yet.
The Pink Waaaugh!
HQ1: Ghazghkull Thraka
HQ2: Big Mek with
KFF and Powerklaw
Troop1: 7x Nobs, cybork bodies + wound shenanigans in dedicated transport battlewagon
Troop2: 16x Boyz, Nob/Powerklaw/Bosspole
Troop3: 12x Trukk Boyz, Nob/Powerklaw/Bosspole + Trukk
Troop4: 10x Gretchin + Runtherder
Elite1: 15x Burnas
Elite2: 5x Lootas
Elite3: 5x Lootas
Fast Attack1: 3x Warbuggies with
TL Rokkits
Fast Attack2: 1x Deffkopta,
TL Rokkits + Buzzsaw
Fast Attack3: 1x Deffkopta,
TL Rokkits + Buzzsaw
Heavy1: Battlewagon
Heavy2: Battlewagon (Deffrolla, Boarding Plank, Grabbin' Klaw, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers, Big Shoota).
Five games down and I'm still trucking! Only four undefeated players left, and I get paired up against Mark Ferek's Blood Angels on my way to the top of the heap. Yes, that's right. I'm wearing a shirt about liking long Waaaaughs! on the beach. Also, he is taller than me. I don't see that often.
Mark Ferek's Blood Angels:
HQ: Mephiston
HQ: Librarian with Shield of Sanguinius, Fear of the Darkness
Troop1: 5 man assault squad (in rhino); melta gun, infernus pistol, power weapon
Troop2: 5 man assault squad (in rhino); melta gun, infernus pistol, power weapon
Troop3: 5 man assault squad (in rhino); melta gun, infernus pistol, power weapon
Troop4: 5 man assault squad (in rhino); melta gun, infernus pistol, power weapon
Elite1: Honor Guard (in rhino); 2x meltaguns, 2x flamers
Elite2: Honor Guard (in rhino); 2x meltaguns, 2x flamers
Fast1: Baal Predator
Fast2: Baal Predator
Heavy1: Predator with Lascannon Sponsons, Autocannon Turret
Heavy2: Predator with Lascannon Sponsons, Autocannon Turret
Heavy3: Predator with Lascannon Sponsons, Autocannon Turret
Missions are getting rotated in at this point to be whatever hasn't been done yet. We land the following:
1. Table Quarters
2. Objectives
3. Victory Points
Deployment: Spearhead
We roll for deployment. Mark chooses to deploy and go first.
Pre-Game Tactical Assessment:
1. Spearhead: Awesome. Spearhead is the best way for me to maximize the value of AV14. He's only got 6 Lascannons on the field, and while Meltas are obviously a threat, my assault radius negates serious threat from meltas, the
KFF goes a long way to back it up, and I've got boarding planks, deffrollas, and grabbin' klaws to run amok through his vehicles. I just need to keep my front armor positioned to block off access to my side armor.
2. Mephiston doesn't scare me. Ghazghkull has a 2++ invulnerable save on the Waaaugh!, can be fearless when it counts, and will happily join in combat with him to see what happens.
3. I feel like table quarters is also to my advantage. Rushing out to meet me would be suicide, and in spearhead, I control half the board to start, and intend to invade the other half. Despite losing the roll for deployment, I'm not too worried; there's not enough ranged weaponry to threaten me before I get going.
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Blood Angel Deployment:
Mark deploys: Predators in the rear, rhino wall in front, with his Baal predators off to the side.
Ork Deployment:
I deploy in return. The table is a little awkward. In a spearhead setup, one of my biggest difficulties is finding a use for my Lootas. Shooting diagonally with a 48" range can get tricky if my opponent moves backward, meaning I need to stay forward to get use out of them - but I also have to be cognizant of the fact that crossing the board can easily cause my battlewagons to block line of sight to my Lootas. He doesn't have any blast (aside from flamers), so I'm not worried about 2" spacing on my Lootas and they deploy in what scant cover is available that still has potential lanes of fire. Mark has no reserves, and since I'm going into his table quarter, I think the opposite one (on the long table edge) will be safe....so my gretchin deploy to go head over that way and hold it.
Scout Moves!
Mark wins the roll for scouting and moves one of his Baal predators incrementally backwards. One of my deffkoptas immediately scouts up 12" away from his Baal predators - blocking access for him to scout past or into my side with those Baals. I'm a little confused here though - he moved away from me instead of exploiting a weakness, and my confidence takes a step up.
Here's a crow's eye view of my deployment.
Blood Angel Turn One:
Mark sits mostly still. Two of his heavy support predators mosey over towards the Baal predators. Baal predators cause a wound to the turbo-boosted Deffkopta, who survives, while lascannons open up on Battlewagons and cause no damage.
Ork Turn One:
The Pink Waaaugh! advances 12". My rokkit buggies were on the flank where all the predators now are, but while he's at a disadvantage in trying to open up my battlewagons at range, I dont want to give them viable alternative targets, so instead of looking for a target to fire at, my rokkit buggies scoot around the central terrain to use the battlewagons to screen them from autocannons and lascannons. Up top, my wounded deffkopta scoots up 12" to try taking a piece of a Baal predator.
My Deffkopta on the other side wants to start pounding away at enemy mobility, and scoots up to the edge of cover by a rhino.
My Lootas fire at the lead rhino in the corner (trying to block off mobility) and immobilize it.
My Deffkopta on the left assaults into the rhino it fired at (unsuccessfully) and causes an immobilized result. Grr.
On the other side of the board, my other Deffkopta assaults his Baal predator (it moved 6") and scores a glance - shaken. Double grr.
Blood Angel Turn Two:
Mark moves his shaken Baal predator up and smokes it, and starts disembarking troops and moving rhinos up to provide a physical screen. My eyes get really big, and I look over at whomever is standing at the next table over....who is staring at our table with his jaw dropped open.
Here's a shot at the end of his movement phase. Mephiston has retreated behind terrain, his troops are falling back to protect and prepare for me and he's offering up sacrificial rhinos.
Some comments are required here.
1. At the start of every game, I give my opponents a copy of my list. When I do, I say, "Are you familiar with orks? Do you need me to walk you through anything on my list or in my codex?" Their responses give me a rough starting point for what kind of trickery I am going to try pulling. Mark told me that he wasn't too familiar with Orks, and asked a lot of questions. Based on this, I thought I would try baiting Mephiston with Ghazghkull (stay tuned for this development).
2. On turn two here, seeing him move up to block off my mobility, I'm in shock. You can't stop Ork mobility; I have triple deffrollas and he's making my job easier.
3. At the start of the game when he scouted his Baals backwards when I was expecting to be threatened in my side or rear with them, my confidence rose. At the top of turn2, seeing him GIVE ME what I want...free access to deffrolla over his transports while the troops inside are retreating, I'm ecstatic; that's a colossal mistake to make against an Ork player with Deffrollas. At this point, my confidence is swelling and I'm surpressing a grin - by my estimation he's done everything just about wrong up to this point.
There's a librarian over there somewhere, and he casts "Fear of the Darkness" on my Lootas here. They break and run.
My Deffkopta that shook the Baal predator takes fire and dies.
On the other side, my deffkopta survives bolter, melta, and whatever else is thrown at it and winds up getting assaulted. Then killed.
Ork Turn Two:
HERE THE PWNAGE MOTHERF***ING COMES! I'm going to Deffrolla the crap out of stuff, jump out, eat all those troops.....
Apparently not. As I start declaring my rams, the
TO steps in and makes an extremely unfavorable ruling: Deffrolla hits are NOT part of the ramming attack, and take place after the ram occurs - meaning that when I ram a vehicle, only the ramming attack itself matters to see if I get to continue on. IE, if I declare a ram, run into a rhino and the ram does nothing, but the Deffrolla explodes it.....I still don't get to continue moving, since the Deffrolla hits happen afterwards.
Mike and I had a discussion about it because this was game-changing.
Mike's argument:
The rulebook tells you to apply the ramming effects immediately - therefore only the ramming attack matters in terms of getting to continue. Mike, sorry if I missed any elaboration beyond that.
Dashofpepper's counter-argument:
1. The Ork codex *adds*
D6 attacks to the ram. At worst, the Deffrolla hits should be happening simultaneously; I didn't see any reason to add timing to something that doesn't need it defined.
2. More importantly, the rules for a ramming vehicle continuing don't require that the ram explode the vehicle to continue - only that the vehicle is in an exploded state.
3. The only time timing is ever accounted for in the rulebook is in DoG - if a unit performs a DoG (say a dreadnought) against a ramming vehicle; they can stop the ram, but still suffer from the Deffrolla hits, but
2d6 in this case. If anything, that means the Deffrolla should be resolved before the ram. It even makes sense fluff-wise; giant spiked thing in front of the battlewagon crushing all before it.
Regardless, the ruling stood - meaning that I can't deffrolla through vehicles. On the flip side, since the Deffrolla attacks aren't part of the ramming attack here, skimmers who dodge the ram still take
D6 Deffrolla hits. That would have been nice for me had I been playing against a Mechdar list or something, but I wasn't.
For the fluffies out there, there was no yelling. =p We had an intelligent discussion. I told Mike that I respectfully disagreed with his ruling, and that had I known Deffrollas were going to be ruled like that, I probably would not have brought Orks. I had my Dark Eldar with me, they both have advantages and disadvantages, and I ultimately decided to hedge on my Orks, even though my
DE have performed spectacularly (even better than my Orks) in the tournament circuit. Then I told him that it was his tournament, and that while I disagree, I'll respect his ruling and play on.
Here's a shot of my moves.
I ram/Deffrolla the left rhino and kaboom! Same thing on the Baal Predator on the right. In the middle, I only get one deffrolla hit, and cause a shaken result. That means I'm stuck. Next turn, my ram can't actually explode it because I'm 1" away, and even if I deffrolla in and explode it, I go nowhere. Balls.
My rokkit buggies creep up around the middle terrain, still hiding - there's nothing for them to really shoot that won't in turn cost them their lives; my
KFF is in the middle of terrain and I don't want my warbuggies making dangerous tests - it cost me a warbuggy last game. Ghazghkull jumps out of the burna wagon. In my eyes, Mark has made some serious mistakes so far, but the initiative has swung back in his favor with the Deffrolla ruling - so I decide to see if I can bait Mephiston out of hiding with an
IC sitting in the open.
Ghazghkull assaults into the Librarian and his honor guard, wiping them out and consolidating away with one wound.
Blood Angel Turn Three:
One of my grabbin' klaws spitefully reaches over and stops the blocking rhino from moving.
Mark's assault marines on the left scoot away from Ghazghkull, while Mephiston creeps around in the back terrain. He rolls a psychic test for wings and I hold my breath - he fails.
His predators are now splitting - one is headed left, while the other two and his baal are creeping up my right flank looking for side armor shots. Meanwhile the rest of his army has retreated behind terrain to await my wraith.
My flank at the end of his moving:
He opens fire - the
KFF survives, the nob wagon survives, but something punches through the burna wagon and wrecks it. My positioning unfortunately requires me to disembark partly in now dangerous terrain.
Ork Turn Three:
My
KFF wagon pivots and rams towards the Baal predator (and the other two predators over there to present front armor). I hit the rhino after 1" and explode it with my Deffrolla. And stop.
Meanwhile Ghazghkull moves around the immobilized rhino and towards his troops.
Here's a closeup of the
KFF wagon snarling futilely at a Baal predator mere inches away that he couldn't ram into.
Meanwhile, my Nob battlewagon declared a 12" ram towards the Autocannon / Lascannon predator nearest to it. It makes it 10" or so and explodes it. With the Deffrolla, not the ramming attack.
In my backfield, my gretchin have been 2d6ing + running from cover to cover since the game started - always rolling 1-3". Very annoying. =p My trukk and rokkit buggies aren't being much help; I can't screen them behind battlewagons with that annoying terrain in the middle, so they turn around and head around the OTHER way looking for a way to get in somewhere useful without getting shot up first.
Ghazghkull can't get to his assault marines, but he moves up anyway to try baiting Mephiston into combat. My burnas roll
2d6 and get a 1 and a 2, and decide to stay put for now instead of taking a bunch of dangerous terrain tests that wouldn't even get them out of
DT. I'm not sure what my remaining Loota unit in the backfield did, but since I didn't take a picture of anything, I'm going to guess nothing. =p
Blood Angel Turn Four:
Mephiston decides to stay in cover; he's not taking the bait.
Mark moves his two rhinos in the back there a bit, maneuvering them both into melta range of the Nob battlewagon. Because of the Deffrolla rulings....I'm now no longer in 6" of my
KFF protection.
In the foreground, one of his squads mounted back up and moved into melta range of my
KFF wagon.
Mark opens fire. My
KFF wagon survives unscathed through a melta shot (or two?). Ghazghkull gets targeted with predators. With the first predator, I decide to take the saves (failing one 4+ cover save and taking a second wound). When his next predator targets Ghazghkull, my hand is forced - I declare a Waaaugh! to get a 2++ for Ghazghkull to weather the shooting.
At this point my confidence level is waning. Mark has made what I consider HUGE mistakes up to this point, and has suffered for it, although a judge ruling kept him from significant more damage than he otherewise would have been dealt. However, he either has a master plan and psycho-analyzed my psycho-analysis of him and just PLAYED me...in which case I'm suitably impressed by his execution and bolstering of my own confidence....or he's just getting the right series of things working in his favor.
The units near my nob battlewagon explode it and the nobs get out. The other unit then drops two meltas into them, and I fail both cover saves, losing two nobs.
His assault marines over by Ghazghkull assault into Ghazghkull instead of letting Ghazghkull come for them - Ghazghkull kills a couple, but takes another wound; he's only got one left. The marines pass leadership.
Ork Turn Four:
My remaining battlewagon rams 12" into a rhino with troops in it and score an immobilized and a shaken. *sigh*
This picture deserves explanation. =p My boyz disembark from the
KFF wagon. They can't all fit out without being within 1" of the rhino or the Baal, so they wrap around, touching 2" coherency on either side. after a 6" run move (Waaaugh!) they're in assault range of some marines in cover, but I couldn't get them all through because of the 1" rule, so they're stretched out. Meanwhile, those nobs in the foreground are getting ready to shoot and assault both rhinos.
Over in the middle of the table, my rokkit buggies line up for shots at his remaining Baal predator. They need to do *something* in this game. My boyz disembark from the trukk and fleet towards the rhino and Baal, while my burnas have nothing to do but to go join the tank-hunting duties and assault a rhino.
My rokkit buggies open up and...
lol. Double penetrations against the Baal. Its wrecked.
Moving into position for my assaults:
My boyz make it into assault with his squad! My nobs also drop into assault with both rhinos.
In midfield, my trukk boyz assault the rhino, and my burnas assault an immobilized rhino.
The three marines in combat with Ghazghkull deal a single wound. Ghazghkull rolls a single save and....keels over dead in fright. Go figure.
Meanwhile, my 8 burnas assault his rhino. 8 you say? Yes....8 out of 15. You wouldn't believe how many
I'm capable of rolling for dangerous terrain. Apparently, despite it being immobilized, my burnas can't cut through the rhino and they whiff.
My nobs wreck both rhinos, causing both squads to get out. One fails pinning. Mark also runs out of "wrecked" markers here and resorts to dice. =p
My trukk boyz wreck their rhino, and my boyz eat the assault squad they assaulted into. A consolidation later, I'm trying to minimize the effect that the inevitable flamer response is going to have.
Now.....if this had been a tournament game with a time limit, we just hit it, and the game wound have ended - I have at least two table quarters, possibly three, and I just assaulted him off his objective - meaning we'd end the game 2-0 for objectives and I win. However, the finals games had unlimited time, so we continued playing!
Blood Angel Turn Five:
Mephiston finally decides to come out and play.
In the middle, his depleted squad of two moves to try maximizing flamer damage to me. One of those is a priest or something, who detaches and moves over into cover.
Ouch.
His unpinned squad by the nobs climbs up on top of the wrecked rhino to rapid fire me and drop a few meltas into me.
Meanwhile his remaining assault squad comes around the corner to join in the fight Mephiston is about to pick.
His predator on the left (back by his board edge) opens up on Lootas trying to pick apart my hold on the table edge. They take a single casualty; one short of a morale test.
Mephiston and his assault squad charge my boys. I manage to drop two wounds on Mephiston from the Powerklaw, and the rest of my squad is wiped.
Ork Turn Five:
My
KFF wagon still has a Big Mek in it. He's got a powerklaw too. Unfortunately, there aren't really any tanks in shooting range, so I tank shock 12" into the two man unit that just flamed my boyz. My
KFF gets out and assaults the flamer.
My boyz clamber over, around, and through to get to the assault squad that helped Mephiston wipe out their friends. I count 7 left - with one being a powerklaw, I'm hedging that I can wipe him and deny him the ability to take that objective.
My gretchin finally make it where they're going and sit tight on their objective.
In close combat, I whiff against his single flamer with my powerklawed Big Mek. Useless GIT! He does a wound back to me, I lose combat and...stick around.
I assault up and onto his wrecked rhino to pull that tactical squad down with me.
And...my trukk boyz assault his assault squad. I win, but he stays.
My nobs win their combat.
Blood Angel Turn Six:
Mark zooms his left side predator forward onto the objective, and uses it the best he can to screen his lone priest(?)...whatever that guy is away from my Lootas shooting at him.
Mephiston heads over to help his lone marine against my boyz, while his now unpinned assault unit lines up for shots at my nobs.
His assault squad opens up on my nobs, who go to ground. They fail cover regardless and melta eats one, while wound allocation catches up with another. Mephiston assaults my boyz and finishes them, and consolidates towards my
KFF.
His rear predator tries taking down the
KFF wagon (still in range of the
KFF) and fails.
In the
KFF combat, I whiff again. *sigh* At least he does too and I live with my one wound for another turn.
Ork Turn Six:
I've been hedging my bets here on the game ending on turn 6. My Nobs went to ground to try staying above half to keep
KP in that table quarter; they're an expensive unit. My Lootas also went to ground against autocannon fire to maximize their chance of staying.
My trukk rolls up to the objective he's holding and contests it. I open fire on the lone marine, who makes his save.
My rokkit buggies drive over the middle terrain, losing one in the process to get into that table quarter over there - with my
KFF, now my rokkit buggies, and a battlewagon, I own it, but they went fast to get there and can't shoot. Since my stupid
KFF mek couldn't do a single hit in two rounds of combat, he's now in the way of me getting to ram into the predator over there.
Here's that table quarter.
For assaults, my big mek finally deals a wound and wins combat. He consolidates back into cover. If the game ends, I have three table quarters to one.
Mark rolls...and the game does NOT end.
Calculated risk gone bad.
Blood Angel Turn Seven:
Mephiston jumps towards the
KFF. He pistols the
KFF in the face, who dies.
His assault squad shoots, then charges my trukk, exploding it and taking their objective back. The predator in his far corner shoots at my Nobs - causing one wound, which I fail cover for....and which makes me take morale which I fail. The bosspole got killed earlier, and they break and run.
The other predator pulls up behind my battlewagon and explodes it viciously.
Here's a closeup of my
KFF taking Mephiston's pistol in the face.
At the end of Mark's turn: His lone gunman is on the objective, and I've lost my last battlewagon and trukk.
ARG! Why couldn't you explode you stupid trukk.
Ork Turn Seven:
Fleeing Nobs:
My warbuggies spring out and within 3" of the objective here - and drop two rokkits into the back of the predator that just killed my battlewagon. It explodes.
Game end.
Time to tally it up.
Table Quarters: My gretchin own a table quarter. My Lootas own a table quarter. His 5 man assault marines and predator own a table quarter. Mephiston....is straddling two table quarters. If he's in the quarter with the assault marines and the predator, I win; my two rokkit buggies are more than half
VP for the lone gunman's squad. If he's in the rokkit buggy quarter, then he'll own two table quarters. The
TO says that it will be diced off; on a 4+ he's in the rokkit buggy quarter. Mark rolls and.....damn it, he's in my table quarter. Final tally, 2 vs 2.
Objectives: My gretchin own one objective. I *should* have spread them out and had them take the middle objective as well. He didn't have NEARLY enough firepower to go around, and they sat untouched the whole game. I could have spread them out earlier and had two - to be honest, I thought I had the game in the bag. As it stands, I own one, he owns one, and the rest are unoccupied or contested. Final tally, 1 vs 1.
Victory Points: Mark has half of Mephiston, a full predator, a full assault squad, and half an assault squad left (
VP). I have a full Loota unit, a full gretchin unit, 2/3 of a squadron of rokkit buggies, and since my Nobs decided today wasn't the day to make cover saves.....I think Mark pulls a 250 point margin and takes the win on victory points.
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Post-Game Assessment:
Interestingly, I didn't feel bad about losing. It might have been the exhaustion and pain. I was glad it was over. There were about a dozen different ways in there that I *SHOULD* have won, and none of them materialized. If my
KFF had managed to get a single hit in two rounds of combat, I would have been able to Deffrolla into his lone marine and predator. If Ghazghkull hadn't fallen over like a gimp from a single wound delivered by a tactical marine while he was on the Waaaugh. If the game had ended on turn 6. If Mephiston didn't roll a 4+ to be in the right table quarter. If my nobs had passed a single cover save at the end. So many ifs.
Not a single one materialized for me.
At any rate, I had a blast. Mike harangued me that if I didn't win at least my first three games, I was going to be labeled a loser (
) so having made it to the semi-finals, the pressure was actually off. I rarely point to dice rolls for blame, but this might be one of those times where karma simply didn't want me to win.
Ah well, there's always next year.
I was going to make a Batrep for my Game 7, and make a big deal out of it (as a joke) but am too tired. Sam and I(my fifth round opponent) got paired off for round 7. I was absolutely exhausted, bone weary....I decided to sit this one out and let my wife and he pair off.
She drubbed him for me, and I ended up 6-1. Sorry, no details of the fight!
...............................ok, they diced off. But technically, she gets to say that she beat one of the tournament aces, right? =p
Team Zero Comp 
Death Guard 5100 pts.
Daemons 3000 pts.
2000