Lately I've had this fascination with tanks that's left my Ork horde no room in my heart or carrying case. At least until I saw
these little beauties on Forgeworld. I thought 'hey, I could make a half dozen of those with some sprue and bitz.' This morning I got my mits on a copy of
IA8, and along with the
Grot Mega-tank rules and Codex: Orks, I fashioned myself a right killy Grotzkrieg list. But first I've got to test it: I mean, if it isn't even fun to play, why spend the time building it? So I pitted it against my scaled down Armored Company. With very little to bust AV14, if I could at least have fun against a difficult list, I'd be worth the effort to build them.
Big Mek,
KFF, 85
5 Grot Tanks, Big Shootas, Kommanda w/ Grotzooka, 200
3 Grot Tanks, Rokkit Launchas, Kommanda w/ Rokkit Launcha, 165
19 Grots, Runtherd, 67
25 Shoota Boyz, Nob,
PK,
BP, 190
Grot Mega-tank, 2
TL-Big Shootas, 3 Rokkit Launchas,
RPJ, 140
3 Killa Kans, Rokkit Launchas, 150
997
Company Command Tank, Vanquisher, co-axial Stubber, Lascannon, 190
Leman Russ Demolisher, 165
Leman Russ Punisher, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, 200
Armored Fist Squad, Grenade Launcher, Heavy Bolter, 120
Armored Fist Squad, Grenade Launcher, Heavy Bolter, 120
Medusa, Bastion Breachers, 140
Colossus Artillery Strike, 60
995
I know few people have the Forgeworld books, so for reference rules for the Grot Mega-tank are
here. The Colossus Artillery Strike basically gives my Vanquisher the Master of Ordnance, but it fires with the Colossus' profile and has to wait until reserves are available. If you think of the Grot Tanks as Trukks with the movement and invulnerable save rules the Grot Mega-tank has, you won't be far off.
It is Capture and Control, Pitched Battle. Orks go first, and the
IG fail to seize. The Deffkoptas are place-holders for the Grot Tanks, and the Looted Wagon is the Grot Mega-tank. The Orks hold the Grots in reserve. The Orks plan on flanking the enemy's objective with the Boyz and Kans, and putting as many wrecked tanks between the Russes and their own as they can. The Guard intend to break through the Grot Tanks, take the objective, then contest the remaining one with Leman Russes.
The Orks move up, and the Big Shoota Tanks throw a ton of lead across the board, through cover and into a Chimera, wrecking it. The Rokkits are just out of range at this point.
The Imperial Guard's turn begins with several bangs. The Punisher shakes 2 of the Big Shoota Tanks and wrecks a third. The Vanquisher is only able to stun the Mega-tank, while the Medusa bags a Shoota Tank. The Demolisher gets a glance or penetrate on all 3 of the Rokkit tanks, but cover saves them. The Chimera's Multilaser fails to hit anything.
The Orks only manage to Immobilize the Punisher this turn, but locking it in that position guarantees the Ork's success on that flank. They'll at least score a draw, so the pressure is on the
IG.
The Colossus bombardment begins, although it will miss every shot this game so I won't mention it after this. Chimera it is escorting pops smoke for fear of the impending storm of lead. The Demolisher only manages to stun a Rokkit Tank, the Vanquisher misses, and the Punisher only manages to blow off some unimportant bits. The Medusa has the same problem with its main gun, then fires its Heavy Bolter as an after thought and explodes a Shoota Tank.
The combined fire from all of the Ork vehicles gets the Chimera a shaken result. Fantastic.
I'm almost certain the Demolisher doesn't actually fit there, but the
IG would have to concede if it didn't. Finally the Vanquisher gets on target and it kills two Killa Kans. The Medusa follows suit, but only takes the
DCCW off the last Kan. The Punisher takes out two Rokkit Tanks, and it looks like the
IG have a glimmer of hope.
The Orks wreck that Chimera by the skin of their teef. 4 Weapon Destroyed results and the Guardsmen fall out like candy for the Killa Kan. The Shoota Tanks make it behind the Vanquisher, but fail to do damage. Now if you look at the bottom right of the board, you'll see a distinct lack of Guardsmen. I'd just started to wonder where all the 6's had gone when the Guard rolled this:
<Nikolii> rolls 24 dice, 5+ to save...
* 11 out of 24 dice save (5+) = (6,6,6,6,6,6,6,5,5,5,5,4,3,3,3,3,3,2,2,2,1,1,1,1)
* Amounting to 11 saves, being 13 wounds.
Because apparently 5+ means 50/50. Still, the Guardsmen all died, and with the other squad locked in combat with the Kan and Grots on the home objective I decided to call the game at the top of turn 4. Even if the game goes on to turn 7, the Guard can't kill both the Grots and the Boyz.
That was an awesome match. I'll probably sell my Ork Horde and be content with this little thousand point army.
