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To view the previous report in this series, click here. To view the next game in this series, click here. To view more battle reports in The Hand of the King series, click here.

To view the tactical overview for this report, click here.

***

Melchoir looked through his magnoculars. He could see them making a desperate break up a long ravine. The enemy speeders were fast, the officer had to admit. Too fast to notice the trap he had set, or so it was hoped.

The long, brutal grind of the last day and a half was finally coming to an end. The trapped enemy had been slowly pushed back by wave after wave of assaulting guardsmen, and were now making their last desperate stand at the river junction. They had put up a remarkable defense, it was granted, but everyone lost to the Imperial Guard eventually. What had caused the enemy commanders to think they could withstand the might of an entire Foleran army backed by as much artillery, tanks, and airpower they could muster, Melchoir would never know.

The forces that had assaulted the ridgeline two nights before were now greatly diminished with various casualties. His priest was still wounded past the point of fighting capability, but he needed Sanario by his side to keep up the morale of the men. All he needed to do was look strong for the troops and occasionally give his eviscerator a rev or two. The rest of the casualties, though, had been replaced with alarming speed. It was as if his group hadn't yet gotten into the action, at least, if you looked at their current roster.

It did give Melchoir a nice boost of confidence. After so many years fighting a never-ending battle for men and materiel as much as battling the enemy, it was nice to see an at least moderately well-supplied Foleran army on the field. While weapons and armor were still in short supply, at least now he had as many men as he could command, and enough food to keep them in fighting shape.

"This is it," Melchoir announced, turning to the men of his group, "The enemy ahead is beaten and broken, but short in coming are those trying to escape the battle ahead. It is our job to stop them here, in this ravine. Nothing is required of you but that you kill your enemy, and then kill your enemy some more. You have the weapons. You have the skills. You have the courage."

Melchoir turned and looked through his field glasses at the enemy skimmers rapidly flying up the defile. "You heard the officer," Sanario added, trying not to wince, "Marshal Melchoir expects that every man will do his duty."

The officer turned around. "Hydras!" he called, "Prepare guns!"

The anti-aircraft battery behind him engaged their engines in a choking growl. Turrets whined softly as the gunners acquired their targets. The enemy vehicles speeded closer, and closer. Melchoir waited until the last possible moment to give his gunners the best targets.

The soldiers could hear the whine of the engines, and make out the blurry images of the enemy skimmers. They were almost on top of them.



"Fire!" Melchoir shouted.

The air split open with the thudding of hundreds of autocannon shots blasting forward into the air from the quadcannons. A massive spray of steel began to periodically punctuate with the booming of the artillery piece behind them. It had traversed its gun straight down to aim directly at its targets.

Immediately, the basilisk hit the front skimmer causing a massive explosion, flinging flaming debris high up into the air. Another skimmer blasted through the fireball only to be shredded apart by the incredible firepower of the hydras. A third tried to jink to the side, only to also rupture and blow out a second fireball, the enemy inside the transport were blown up into the air, careening through the sheet of Foleran fire.

But more came through as fast as the ones in front went down. There were just too many, bursting forward at breakneck speed.



In the confusion and the wreck after wreck that was sending pieces of debris cascading towards the troops in cover, a small group of them split off to try and clear the murder-field of the hydra's guns.

"Incoming enemy," Melchoir warned the troops to his right, as he watched the group peel off "Move up the meltaguns!"

"But sir, they're skimmers," one of the soldiers complained.

"Damn their skimmers!" Melchoir retorted, "I said move up the-"

The officer's words were cut off by a massive cascade of return fire. As they hydras sent out thousands of rounds of heavy caliber shell, the enemy opened up with hundreds of thousands of tiny shards from their splinter weapons. The gunfire raked everyone in the first rank and instantly downed a dozen conscripts. A spray of splinter fragments pierced Melchoir's body and those of his command squad, causing him to stagger backwards behind a ruined wall.

Melchoir cried out in pain as he sunk into the arms of his priest. He groaned as he struggled against the pain everywhere in his arms and abdomen. His breath seethed against the shock and the agony of the splinters.

"Officer down!" one of the junior officers shouted as he rushed over to help support Melchoir as he lay on the ground. "Are you badly wounded, sir?" he asked uncertainly.

"Hardly!" Melchoir choked back.

Another skimmer exploded in front of the line as the enemy continued to outflank on the right. The enemy slowed, but was pressing in right on top of them.

More splinter fire erupted into the conscripts and some of his regular soldiers. They began to panic.

"Sir," the junior officer suggested, "The enemy is upon us. For your safety, I beg you quit the field."

"Quit the field?" Melchoir shot back angrily, "I have not yet BEGUN to fight!"

"But your troops have taken casualties," the officer protested, "they are in flight."

Melchoir reached up and grabbed the junior officer by the collar and pulled him in towards him. "THEN SEND IN THE NEXT WAVE!"

Another skimmer buckled against the weight of hydra fire and began to fly out of control, a smoke cloud trailing it as it careened towards the ruined building. The vehicle impacted, shooting fire and flying bricks and mortar over the guardsmen.


***

The valkyries screamed forward as fast as their engines would allow. The speed of the enemy vehicles was truly phenominal. As fast on retreat as on attack, it seemed.

The valkyries had been chasing a small band of enemy skimmers that had broken from the main combat, and had managed to get away, flying at impossible speeds up the river valley, and approaching the ridgeline behind.

Suddenly, from in front of them, they started taking autocannon fire. Shots flew into their faces, a few glancing off of the wings and fuselage. The valkyrie pilots desperately began evasive maneuvers, as white-hot steel blew by them in their frantic dash up the ravine.

It was friendly fire! If it was hydras, then no amount of evasion would keep them safe. They needed to get out of the valley, and fast.

Instinctively, the valkyrie pilot hit the stand-by light for the stormtroopers behind. Either they would come across their enemy, or the stormtroopers would have to be bailed out. There was no other option as an autocannon round smashed through the cockpit of the lead valkyrie, killing the gunner and sending the round bouncing into the cabin behind it.

The enemy skimmers appeared before them, silhouetted by a murderous barrage of anti-aircraft fire. They had slowed down somewhat against the raging storm of steel. This was their chance. The valkyries jumped straight into the line of fire, and suicidally brought their craft to a stop. Wings began perforating and engines taking hits. One of the valkyries caught ablaze just as its cargo cleared the back hatch.

As soon as was even remotely possible for them to get away, the valkyries engaged full throttle and pulled up.

Their cargo was safe, there were now stormtroopers everywhere.



The ones furthest from the action saw the enemy before them. They rushed forward into the autocannon fire, flamethrowers blasting flames onto the occupants of the ruins in front of them. They charged in after, shooting the survivors in the back as they tried to flee, taking cover against the random whine of autocannon and heavy bolter shots flying all around them.



Other Kingsguard had piled out of their flaming transport directly into the heart of the action.

"Open fire!" the sergeant shouted, "Shoot anything! Shoot everything!"

The meltagunners in his squad fired and quickly detonated a nearby floating battle barge, sending flames and debris everywhere, landing chunks of shrapnel onto nearby vehicles and testing the strength of the stormtrooper's carapace armor.

All around them, vehicles were exploding, and autocannon fire was careening into the air around them from the murderous quadcannons in front of them. Their loud blasts punching them in the gut with the hundreds of shock waves from the booming cannons. Chaos and carnage were everywhere as a scene of indescribable madness and fire descended around them.

One of the rear vehicles peeled off and lowered its ramming prow, preparing to run them over like a flying train that had jumped its tracks.

"Get out of the way!" the sergeant shouted as the vehicle passed overhead, narrowly missing the squad.

"It's turning around!" one of the stormtroopers shouted.

"Meltaguns, ready!" the sergeant shouted, "Squad, prepare krak grenades!"



A third unit of stormtroopers had bailed out of their transport at the last second, landing right next to an enemy vehicle that appeared to have been stalled by incoming fire. The sergeant prepared to attack, when a stream of the endless, ripping explosion of steel shredded over the vehicle causing it to melt apart to the hydra's guns. The Kingsguard ducked instinctively as the detonating vehicle sent scything arcs of burning metal over their head.

Some of the enemy had managed to get out before it was too late.



"Fire!" the sergeant ordered as his men desperately tried to ready their weapons from their hard landing. They shot into the enemy, who immediately charged them.

The enemy commander withdrew a long, curved blade, dripping with venom. As he charged in, he leaped into the air, a dozen feet or more, jumping clear over the heads of the stormtroopers and landing directly in front of the sergeant. The last thing he saw was the alien's glowing eyes before he was instantly decapitated in a single uncannily fast stroke.

The rest of the stormtroopers beat their foes mercilessly with their hellguns and stabbed forward with combat knives. Their enemies were much, much faster, but the stormtroopers were much, much better armored. For every three blows that scratched carapace, there was one combat knife that found a weak, exposed portion of the enemy's armor.

The fight quickly devolved into one between the remaining Kingsguardsmen and the enemy warlord.



The enemy was fighting with a blade in each hand, and no matter where the stormtroopers struck, there was a steel edge to parry, and then to stab in return. It was like fighting three of them at once. A whir of blades met every challenge. The stormtroopers desperately struggled against the enemy leader.


***

More guardsmen came pouring into the fight. Where a soldier had fallen, a new one came and took his place. The line of men in front of the hydras quickly reformed.

The center of the trap was absolute carnage. The hydras continued to blast apart vehicles in front of them, and some newly-arrived stormtroopers had dropped in to attack them from the rear. The enemy was trapped on all sides.

A few of them had been able to abandon their vehicles before anti-aircraft fire splintered them apart. As they staggered to their feet, they were met by an invincible wall of guardsmen, lasguns trained on them, firing as soon as they bailed out. The desperate survivors attempted to find cover, to no effect.

Only the force that had peeled off was still free to attack. Darklight fire slammed into the side of the basilisk, causing the earthshaker ammunition to detonate. The vehicle blew apart, sending large chunks of metal flying into the nearby guardsmen. One of the guardsmen was struck in the head, splattering brains everywhere as he was bending to give Melchoir a drink from his canteen. Thick oily smoke rolled up into the air.



More splinter fire rained down on the conscripts. They stood getting butchered, unable to reply to the speeding vehicles. Despite the nearby standard, and their orders to hold at all costs, the new unit of conscripts disintegrated, running in a panic as the enemy skimmers approached the ruins.

Melchoir could see the retreat from the corner of his eyes. "We will stop them here with our blood or theirs," the officer growled, "We will stop them HERE! Send in the next wave!"

More conscripts piled forward through the retreating ones, the endless supply of guardsmen ensuring the line remained unbroken.

The enemy surged forward in one final push, with all of the firepower they had left to bear. Conscripts and regular guard alike bore the brunt of a hailstorm of crystalline fragments blasting like a never-ending shotgun into their lines. The hydras focused their fire at all the enemy skimmers, right and left, in all positions and let loose their fire as fast as their massive batteries of guns could put steel on target.

Under the barrage of return fire, all of the conscripts and some of the regular infantry began to back up from the threat mere feet in front of them. Retreat threatened into rout.

Melchoir looked forward with an icy stare. The pain racked at his mind and his body. He was starting to slip from consciousness as he lost blood.

"This is the hour of defiance!" He shouted, almost breathless, "MORE INFANTRY!" he cried, collapsing into the priest's arms.

A great shout from behind the front line rose forward as another entire company of soldiers rushed forward into the battle. The skimmers in front of them strained forward but were beaten back by a flurry of blows from the autocannons. One by one, they began to crumple and explode, the survivors of the wreckage meeting with punishing lasgun fire.

The soldiers cheered as the last of the skimmers went down in a fiery wreck. All across the field, stormtroopers were finishing off the last remnants of the enemy. Joy broke over the Foleran lines as the hydras finally ceased fire.

They had won.

***

Melchoir awoke on a small metal bed. The soft blue lights in the room flickered slightly.

"Are you going to stay awake this time?" Sanario asked incredulously.

Melchoir felt numb all over, but, surprisingly, he actually felt relatively good, given what the last few moments he remembered were. He looked down to see himself cleanly bandaged.

"Two days, in case you were wondering," Sanario spoke, "The chiurgeons thought it best if you were kept under until the threat had passed."

"And?" Melchoir asked, softly.

"It takes more than a few Eldar splinters to put down Marshal Theleos," the priest commented, standing up. He placed a small stack of books by the officer's bed. He could see his nearly worn-out copy of "Kallista Ionnen". Translating works of ancient Foleran had long been one of his more scholarly pastimes.

"Once they got the poison out," the priest continued, "You started healing quickly. These splinters do apparently leave clean wounds otherwise. If you stay on Narthecium and your rejuves, you should be back planetside in a week, a month at most."

"Planetside?" the officer asked.

"You will get to be one of the first to experience the joy of the newly completed fortress landing zone, once the ice storms below subside, of course."

Melchoir nodded drowsily.

"I'm going to the chapel. The one on this ship is sorely lacking, but I think I can make some improvements. Just call one of the therapists if you need me."

Melchoir was already asleep.


***

I feel like there's a meme to be made out of SiTNW.

In your last picture what role is the khorne bazerker filling?

Links aren't right.

Oops. Fixed.

The khorne berzerker tonight was filling in the role of objective #2. He could be heard shouting "next wave for the next wave god!"

Use your store cred for vendettas!! get the imperial navy involved with the florian first born!!

or you could work on your khorne chaos army....

TheMicah25 wrote:
Use your store cred for vendettas!! get the imperial navy involved with the florian first born!!

Florian firstborn? There's a possible army theme right there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floronic_Man 1st Imperial Florian Guard, Cauliflower for the Cauliflower God, &c...

But I digress. I was overjoyed when I unlapsed my Dakkalife this morning while attempting to procrastinate, and found 3 new batreps from you Ailaros. And that intro to the previous game, with Sanario chatting with the conscripts, had me chuckling all day.

Really glad you're getting back to the feel you want your army to have in 6th now. Although your fluff-port for this game made it joyfully triumphant, I did feel a bit dirty just reading about how you'd placed your objectives for the win. And I'm now quite interested in using conscripts as well, although my modelling/painting speed is glacial, and this last report just makes them seem dirty, dirty, dirty.

Still, I always look to your guard forces first when I think what direction I'll take in 6th, whenever I return to the world of geek, and stormtroopers seem a must now for all the reasons you cite. Outflanking Ogryns though? Why did nobody think of that before? I got 7 of those guys in storage, with Yarrick. Someone's going to be on the receiving end of some mindless violence in 6 months or so...

Once agin a great report. Thanks for taking the time to post these (along with the Tactical on your blog).
I have a question though. How do you distinguish (sp) your conscripts from your standard guardsmen? From looking at your pics the only thing I can see is some guys have scarfs.

I see nothing "dirty" about the placement of objectives. It is not as though Ailaros was placing the terrain. It only makes sense to place objectives in an area you can hold them ... the Dark Eldar player put his objectives in his own deployment zone, too.

Sure, there is a huge killing field in the centre, but this is not Ailaros' fault, nor is taking advantage of it wrong in my view. The table had, perhaps, too little terrain and this just happened to be a rather bad match-up for the DA player.

I really like the way scoring works at your gaming store. Glad to see the power gamers with their grey plastic armies got no benefit for being power gamers.

Captain Roderick wrote:Outflanking Ogryns though? Why did nobody think of that before? I got 7 of those guys in storage, with Yarrick. Someone's going to be on the receiving end of some mindless violence in 6 months or so...

so... expensive...

Even if you just gave them a regular lord commissar, it would cost you nearly 500 points for 6 ogryn, the LC, creed, and an astropath. Hell of a face beater, though, I'll grant you that.

There is an escalation league coming up soon that starts at the low, low points value of 250. I'm thinking that this means 2 6x stormie squads. Alternatively, you know what else costs 250 points? 6 ogryn...

Captain Roderick wrote:Someone's going to be on the receiving end of some mindless violence in 6 months or so...

I'm sorry that neither Bosnia nor Herzegovina have the 40k scene you're looking for.

Nicorex wrote: How do you distinguish your conscripts from your standard guardsmen? From looking at your pics the only thing I can see is some guys have scarfs.

My regular guardsmen are dudes with bayonets, and without helmets. My conscripts include my old guardsmen with helmets and bayonets, with helmets and without bayonets, my old dragoons with scarves, my new guardsmen without helmets and without bayonets, and my loaders (who are obvious because they have the big satchels).

The only problem is keeping the PISs apart. I used to put bayonet squads next to non-bayonet squads in a stripey pattern to keep them seperate, but I obviously can't do that now.

NWansbutter wrote:I see nothing "dirty" about the placement of objectives. It is not as though Ailaros was placing the terrain. It only makes sense to place objectives in an area you can hold them ... the Dark Eldar player put his objectives in his own deployment zone, too.

Sure, there is a huge killing field in the centre, but this is not Ailaros' fault, nor is taking advantage of it wrong in my view.

... you really shouldn't be defending me here. I did get to place terrain, and I did get to place objectives. I was terrible in this game. The only excuse I can give is that this was a tournament, not a regular game. Had it been so, I would certainly have given my opponent a more sporting chance by at least putting one of the objectives in the middle of the board, or perhaps set up terrain differently.

TheMicah25 wrote:
Use your store cred for vendettas!! get the imperial navy involved with the florian first born!!

or you could work on your khorne chaos army....

Firstly, it's the Foleran First, not the Foleran Firstborn. Folera doesn't adhere to the customary Imperial Guard regimentation system, having instead something much more fluid and arbitrary. The joke goes "Which Foleran regiment is that? I don't know, but it's the first one I've seen today". Another way to think about it is that a bunch of Folerans show up and it drives the commissars crazy that they're not regimented, so the munitorum on the spot reorganizes them into regiments, starting with 1, 2, etc.

As for the loots, it seems like I have three options:

- continue with my guard. I probably wouldn't go with vendettas here, instead going for russes. I've been fielding them off and on over the years, and have never managed to get one properly assembled, much less painted up. The main problem with this is that my desire to do this is rather low at the moment, especially since I don't have the tools to properly paint up vehicles. Of course, once I got done with this, my guard army would be practically finished. Barring a big switch over to mech, where I'd need to get like 4 more chimeras, I'd really have more or less everything I'd ever want to field with my guard army.

Or I could start a second army, either...

- Space marines! I've been thinking about this for a long time, and would like to do it. The problem is that it's going to be really expensive, and it's going to take me a really long time. I'd take things rather seriously, which I'm not entirely certain that I want to do at the moment. The idea of showing up with 7 drop pods full of sternguard, tac squads, and assault cannon dreadnoughts is very appealing to me, especially given how different from running guard it would be. Plus, there's something inside me that thinks that, as 40k sort of has this army as the army by which it makes all other armies around, that space marines really are the army I "should" play when playing 40k.

- Orks! I'm not nearly as interested in this as space marines, but, with a little work and the loot that I just won, it would be possible for me to make a 1500 point ork warbike army for less than $100 out of pocket. In not too long of time either. Plus, there are other things I'd be willing to expand into (like battlewagons, etc.), and it would definitely give me a lot of practice with plasticard, my skills with which are rather weak at the moment. I guess the question is how seriously do I want to see this as a second army, and how much I actually consider myself an ork player.

Why don't you expand your Chaos side project into a full army? The new Codex comes out in a week or so...

My god that was a bloodbath.

One question though. I thought the rules stated that objectives need to be no less than 12" from any table edge, and 18" from any other objectives.

Are you guys playing by a custom ruleset for the tourney, or was it houseruled, etc? My store uses things like NOVA and Feast of blades rules a lot though, so I may well be remembering some random restriction from a tourney.

Also, you KNOW you want that ork warbiker army. You may not realize it yet, but you know you want to krump some gitz just like the rest of us.

I've seen you posting in the ork tactic pages

Plus, I think every 40k player should have an Ork army, even if it's a small one. It did wonders for making me relax more about the game and focus on just having fun with it. Before I started my orks, I always stressed about whether I won or not. Now I just care about having an awesome match. And being able to start an ENTIRE 1500pts BIKER LIST on $100 is nothing to sneeze at either. Heck, you could do that and start your space marines too.

 Ailaros wrote:

... you really shouldn't be defending me here. I did get to place terrain, and I did get to place objectives. I was terrible in this game. The only excuse I can give is that this was a tournament, not a regular game. Had it been so, I would certainly have given my opponent a more sporting chance by at least putting one of the objectives in the middle of the board, or perhaps set up terrain differently.

Okay, I thought it was a typo when you wrote that you set up terrain. Any tournament I've attended has the terrain pre-set. In which case, that was pretty rude, yeah.

Looking at your comments about what to do with your winnings, I'd say go with the Space Marines since that is what you are excited about. I think going with more Guard or Orks may be a mistake since it doesn't sound like you're have the inspiration to work on them.

What kind of Marines are you thinking? I.E. BA, SW, Templars etc. Or just one of the many builds straight from C:SM? I would be willing to donate some surplus stock/Bits I have to your new army effort.

NWansbutter wrote:Okay, I thought it was a typo when you wrote that you set up terrain. Any tournament I've attended has the terrain pre-set.

Yeah, I thought this was peculiar as well. We took a vote at the store and the overwhelming opinion was to have the players set up terrain. The rationale was that because terrain placement is a skill, and tournaments exist to test player skill, therefore terrain placement should be part of the tournament.

Of course, I've come to develop different views over time, but seeing the kinds of people I've had as opponents over the past dozen games, you can see why it was included.

MrMoustaffa wrote:One question though. I thought the rules stated that objectives need to be no less than 12" from any table edge, and 18" from any other objectives.

We were using the standard rulebook rules for objectives - 6" from the board edge, 12" from each other.

Kingsley wrote:Why don't you expand your Chaos side project into a full army? The new Codex comes out in a week or so...

I'll probably hold off buying anything until the new codex comes out, but I'm not holding out much hope. I started a khorne army for the purpose of playing a certain style of army. Then 6th came along and took a huge, steaming dump on the playstyle that I wanted from my CSM. Let's just say that a foot horde army that only exists to work in close combat and abhors psykers of every kinds isn't exactly what this edition was designed to promote. I doubt that the new codex will single-handedly fix that.

Of course, 40k minis are a durable good, so they can just spend more time on the shelf until I can get what I want from them.

Nicorex wrote:What kind of Marines are you thinking?

Vanilla. Drop pods, followed by bikes, followed by land raiders.

NWansbutter wrote:Looking at your comments about what to do with your winnings, I'd say go with the Space Marines since that is what you are excited about. I think going with more Guard or Orks may be a mistake since it doesn't sound like you're have the inspiration to work on them.

I am more excited about space marines, but I'm also more daunted by them. Basically, it would be another "spouse" army. Something that I would have to put a lot of money and a LOT of time into in order (without even being able to play a game with them, in this case), in order to have a long-term, fulfilling relationship with the army. I would basically get as into it as I am with guard. That kind of commitment is a little daunting, given that I'm already "married" to guard (which I've been getting my ass kicked with because dammit-I'm-going-to-make-this-work levels of fidelity). I don't quite know if I'm ready for that.

Meanwhile, orks would be the "mistress" army. Something small and fun that I can spend a little money on and have a few laughs without having to take it all that terribly seriously. But then what are the long-term ramifications?

I mean, it's not that I'm being drug into an ork army against my will here. Of the three play styles listed above, ork can do two of them (arguably better), and for pocket change. Unlike when I asked this with vendettas (in which case I was trying to be lightly insulting), the question here is am I the kind of person who is an ork player?

MrMoustaffa wrote:Also, you KNOW you want that ork warbiker army. You may not realize it yet, but you know you want to krump some gitz just like the rest of us.

I've seen you posting in the ork tactic pages

Plus, I think every 40k player should have an Ork army, even if it's a small one. It did wonders for making me relax more about the game and focus on just having fun with it. Before I started my orks, I always stressed about whether I won or not. Now I just care about having an awesome match. And being able to start an ENTIRE 1500pts BIKER LIST on $100 is nothing to sneeze at either. Heck, you could do that and start your space marines too.

You certainly do know how to pitch orks. I would like to note, though, that the reason I've been participating in ork threads is because I've now read the codex, so actually know a little bit about them now. The rest, as you note, is preparation in case this is the way I go.

You're right, though. I hold a grudge against Tau from 4th edition, and Dark Eldar from 5th. Both of those were armies that prevented me from being able to get in there and do some proper krumpin'. That's why drop pods are so appealing - no matter where you hide, I'm there, and you're going to have to give me a proper fight. My chief strategic concern with orks is, actually, that I won't get this stereotypical ability from orks. I'm leery of another foot horde with flimsy vehicles that will show up against a gunline and just get blown off the board. I could do that with guard with much less effort. If I'm looking for krumpin', will I actually be getting that from orks?

As such, I have sort of a fear of the unknown here, especially with bikes, with which I have no real experience (playing as or against), and absolutely nothing in my gaming experience prepares me for wazdakka in a squad of 7 nob bikers with a painboy and a bunch of klaws.

That and the broader question of if I have a belligerant domineering biker attitude inside me that's just screaming for me to shout WAAAUGH! in my FLGS. it's a bit sad that orks don't have the same old fluff anymore. I like the idea that ork guns don't actually have ammunition better. I mean, that's really the problem, here. I like the over-the-top ultrapsychic yakkety-sax orks for whom reality is determined by belief as much as belief reality. Also the consummate aesthete thing, as found on pg. 8 of the current codex. A you say, it's supposed to be the zany fun army. Something about the new fluff "infestation of middle school bullies" strikes me as deeply unflattering.

Plus, I'd have to come up with a warboss name.

Wow, what a frustrating army, no offense, I bet its pretty disheartening to see all those conscripts coming back again and again. However what you do when its a kill point game?

Not bring them back.

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any middle ground between being tabled, and having infinite guys.

So I don't know if you remember, but I had to make this exact same choice a couple of months ago, as I had to choose between running an all drop pod Lamenters army, or going warbiker horde with orks. You know the reasons for taking the drop pod list (which will be awesome and fun don't get me wrong) I'm just going to say the reasons why I picked the orks, and why I think you may want them as well. Think of me as that little orky voice on your shoulder (no homo)

1. They're cheap (relatively speaking) for you to start, and they'll be a fun way to flex your greenstuff and conversion muscles. Heck, you can even do them now and still probably have a decent chunk of change left over for the marine army. And if you're going the way I think you are for the orks, you won't be able to use a lot of that store credit for them anyways.

2. They're about as opposite of foot Guard as you can get. Remember, we're not talking about green tide, we're talking about warbiker mobs. May take a boyz mob or 2 in battlewagons, but that's about it. This had a very big selling point that I'm not sure you've considered yet. Look at your army case. I mean really look at it. Look at how big it is. Think about the effort it takes to lug that monster around, take it to the gamestore, take over a table and spend 20-30 minutes getting your army ready. We all know foot IG can be a pain in the arse to field, and can feel draining almost at the end of a day when you're tired and just want to go home and you realize you've gotta pack up all those little boogers again. Now, think about how many models it would take to field that biker horde army. As long as you're not taking 3 dakkajets, you could probably fit said 1500pt list in a shoebox. Think about that. You can unpack your army in like 5 minutes, and be deployed in a few minutes. There isn't 150+ models to move every turn, there's roughly 30-50 (unless you go crazy with lootas/grots but that's besides the point) What drew me the most I think, was the thought of having a small, easy to carry army for days where I just didn't feel like lugging that giant army case into the store. If you go drop pod marines, you may find yourself in this situation again, as you'll need several drop pods, and those things aren't exactly small. May not be a dealbreaker for you, but I know it was for me.

3. You can really go nuts with fluff with them. You can literally make them however you want. All that zaniness you love about orks? You can still do that. GW just had to tone them down because they were too awesome in the older codexes and were more awesome than space marines, but you can restore their glory. Think about all the awesome conversions you can do, with nothing to hold you back. Tradition, common sense, even logic itself can't stop you, it's a friggin ork army, they do as they please. They have devices that literally rip holes in the fabric of reality so they can teleport a one foot tall goblin inside you, you can do whatever you want. Heck, my army is going to be full of heavy metal references, and is even named after one of my favorite bands. With your imagination, I imagine you could come up with something really awesome. Which leads me to my final point.

4. With orks, they fight whoever they want whenever they want. Know how with your guard batreps you have to come up with some excuse as to why your loyal guardsmen are fighting space marines every game? Doesn't matter with orks. Heck, you can say they're intentionally invading a chapter's home world just because they feel like it. No more "well, how do I dance around the fact that I'm fighting space wolves this time?" I don't know how much that appeals to you, but it was kind of nice for me to not have to make up "justifications" of why my guardsmen seemed to go rogue 3 times a week

But I'll leave it at that. Both are awesome army ideas, and I'm sure I'll get to making that Lamenters army someday when I win the lottery. Just figured I'd argue for the orks since most people will argue for the drop pod list. Either list will be fun, awesome on the table, fun to write about, and look cool, so it's a win win as far as I see it. Just a matter of figuring out whether you're feelin proppa orky or not.

EDIT: Holy crap didn't realize how much I had typed. Sorry for the book Ailaros

MrMoustaffa wrote:So I don't know if you remember, but I had to make this exact same choice a couple of months ago, as I had to choose between running an all drop pod Lamenters army, or going warbiker horde with orks.

I was paying keen attention, in fact. It was one of the things that led me to this thread, which was useful before it became hideously derailed by peregrine et. al. The idea of two guard players trying to figure out how to play ork biker lists in a world that just didn't understand or approve has some strange, very nerdy bromance thing going on. But I digress.

Everything said above is true, certainly. The first point is not only that for its own merits (if CSM is my greenstuff army, orks would be my plasticard (well, and GS) army), but it actually gets to something a bit deeper. Combine a near-professional desire to increase skill levels with a job that pays minimum wage and an army that you can build out of little more than plasticard and dreams is very attractive. For the bountiful-in-time-poor-in-pocketbook types, orks really do seem to be the way to go. My plan here is to get some of those $2.50 per bike chasis from ebay and a couple of box of boyz. Surely the two can go together. Actually, you can really do ANYTHING in the ork codex with just plasticard, greenstuff, and boxes of boyz.

As for the second point, it's not just bikes either. Were I to expand from bikes, it would be immediately into a battlewagon deffwing. It may well even have FEWER models than the bike army I'm plotting (2x 10-bike squads, a 7-nob bike squad, wazdakka and a bike boss). Terminators are cooler than MANZ, but manz can be made out of boyz and plasticard, and, as you mention, really anything goes so long as there's an ork head and it fits on the proper sized base.

As for the third, I well recall your impassioned speech on the subject, yes. As for the fourth, there is something that feels... wholesome? about running an ork army. Like 50% of the fighting in the galaxy is orks fighting orks, and 33% of it is orks fighting guardsmen. Everything else gets wedged into that last 6th. Yet despite this, all I ever see is GK v. Necron, or BA v. GK, or DE v. BA. It's like there's an entire galaxy at war, and in one tiny corner of it all the Matt Ward codices are having a fight while the rest of the galaxy sort of just watches.

On the one hand, I feel like every game should have either orks or guard in it, and being able to provide my opponents with what are, combined, by FAR the most common enemies certainly seems... civic? Meanwhile, as you say, there doesn't have to be endless justification. I mean, I guess any of the "bad guy" armies would have this be true, but I guess the orks do seem to have purer motives. Tyranid don't have motives, they're just hungry, dark eldar just need to cut someone else so that they can stop cutting themselves, and CSM has ALL SORTS of daddy issues going on there.

In any case, I've been leaning in this direction as what's the most likely outcome for a month or two now. I'm the kind of person who really likes to acid test things, though. I think what is clearing the path is something that I missed when people were talking about CSM. Yes, what I WANTED them for is gone, but what's to say they can't do what I want now? I mean, they're already in power armor, for a start, and what are the odds that CSM doesn't get drop pods (or an equivalent)? What are the odds that they're NOT going to get some sort of special character or HQ option that's going to make bikes scoring units? I guess I don't know for certain yet, but my guess is that most of what I'm going to want to be able to do with codex marines will probably be doable with CSM once their codex comes out. And I already have some minis for it.

In any case, I'd actually gotten a couple of bike chassis from ebay just in case, and I've just noticed that the ork battleforce comes with, what, two squads of boyz and some bikes you say? I could just get the boyz and the bikes, but for a measly, what $10 I get an extra trukk?

Just need a name for the warboss...

If that second thread is proof of anything, it's that if you give me enough time alone at my house unemployed with a phone that can get on the internet, I'll write a damn speech about anything. Hence why half my posts are a friggin book. Work is slow for me right now so I gotta do something to pass the time

Anywho, you really can't lose with this decision. Biker orks, Drop Pod marines, and chaos (whatever flavor you choose) can all be awesome armies I'm sure. And at the very least, if any of the 3 don't work out, they can all be fielded as pretty good allies for your guardsmen, so it'll never be a total loss (my god the fluff for the Foleran 1st working with orks would be hilarious.)

As for the warboss name, ask the ork players in your area to play a game with you. Take on the warboss in hand to hand with your command squad (this will end badly) The first name that pops into your head as the warboss tosses Melchoir into the sun is the name you use for your own boss. That, or just listen to a bunch of heavy metal until a cool word comes up. I suggest Motorhead, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, or one of my personal favorites, Budgie, as they all have songs that deal with suitably orky things.

Also, I'm looking into ways to take the trukk and add it "onto" a rhino to make my own custom built battlewagons. Not exactly sure how I'm going to do it yet, as I don't have the kit, but it won't be too hard. Plus it'll look cool and be a bit cheaper when you buy the battleforce. Other than that, I'd imagine all you'd need to field a proper warbiker army is a ton of those biker chassis and a few battleforces. That should set you up for a long time, and leave you some spare boyz to make lootaz or what have you.

I feel that these orks would be suitiable Allies to the Folerians.

 Ailaros wrote:

Captain Roderick wrote:Outflanking Ogryns though? Why did nobody think of that before? I got 7 of those guys in storage, with Yarrick. Someone's going to be on the receiving end of some mindless violence in 6 months or so...

so... expensive...

Even if you just gave them a regular lord commissar, it would cost you nearly 500 points for 6 ogryn, the LC, creed, and an astropath. Hell of a face beater, though, I'll grant you that.

There is an escalation league coming up soon that starts at the low, low points value of 250. I'm thinking that this means 2 6x stormie squads. Alternatively, you know what else costs 250 points? 6 ogryn...

Captain Roderick wrote:Someone's going to be on the receiving end of some mindless violence in 6 months or so...

I'm sorry that neither Bosnia nor Herzegovina have the 40k scene you're looking for.

Alas, all my minis are in boxes in the UK, so I won't be seeing them until April next year at the earliest. Plus I'm volunteering with a bunch of girls from all over Europe, it's bad enough that sometimes I stay in and trawl the webs for 40k gossip and/or play strategy games, sitting around painting models may alienate me terminally. There's no 40k scene whatsoever in a town of ~50k people with 80% youth unemployment, although there's friend of a friend plays GW games in Belgrade, Serbia... I've been asked to go through and challenge him sometime, but he'll probably just try and mire me in D&D, which is the one nerdy activity I draw the line at.

So it's an escalation league that starts with no FoC? that's cool. I'd say definitely run with the Ogryns, you can see it as a halfway house between Guard and Orks to get your teeth cut. And at that points value, there's no real way to build in much flexibility, so just go with the fun and silly.

Before I left I was squeezing the Ogryn+Yarrick combo into 1250 and 1500 point games for sheer silliness, it was great to see all the overreaction they caused. Rarely did very much, but always survived the game. There's just something loveable about genuinely durable units in a guard list.

And I've been really enjoying reading the Orky bromance, I think it's totally correct and proper for you to go Orks next Ailaros. Mr Moustaffa's a hell of a salesman, it's true, but you said it yourself - a: you want a mistress, not a new wife, b: you want a different playstyle and also something heartily fluffy. Fluffy enough, in fact, to dilute the 1/6th of the galaxy that's been transformed into the 'Wardularity'.


Everyone should have an Ork army, as a civic duty to 'the 40k we used to know'. If I ever earn any money again I'll be putting a few together as well.

And I know it's not original, but somewhere out there, there should be Warboss Ghostface Killah. Just sayin'...

I want to put in a word for your already underway Chaos Marines, if only because no one else is. I don't know if you'd planned on an all foot army with your Berserkers, but for some reason, I think you had, so I'm going with that.

Consider that when people talk about stuff they use to kill MEQs, it's usually referring to only a few squads, because there's all sorts of other stuff in the army taking up points. Most armies aren't very well equipped to deal with an army that has literally all its points in MEQs. I would be that in the new Chaos codex, Berserkers will be more effective per point, which makes them more durable per point, which will compound this issue further.

Also, with so many units, you can start making random charges work for you. While one unit randomly charging might get a long charge or might fall short, with only one there's really not much you can plan on. With two squads occupying roughly the same area though, you can charge with both, increasing the chance of getting a successful long charge.

Finally, the army wouldn't exactly be kill point denial, but it would really require work to earn kill points from it, and in objective games, most everything would be denying, and a huge portion would be scoring. Even if it's killing power would be less than an equivalent points of vehicle gunline, it would be tough to budge.

I'd say orks. I've played against them on several occasions and they are literally the polar opposite of guard. Not only in playstyle, but in in modeling and fluffwise as well.

See, I like to imagine my guard bitterly and heroicly holding the line on some forsaken planet against not only their enemy but their own mistakes and faults. And orks, well, orks just want to beat face. It's simple, nice and allows you to focus on the character of your army rather than some meaningless justification of being trapped in the ward singularity.

Now, the modelling aspect is by far the most fun. I started with pretty beaten up crap leman russes, and I had to scratch-build my own leman russ punisher gun. Heck, my plasma-tank has those lascannon wires you find on the heavy-weapons teams on it in some places to cover up the cracks in the original model. My Valkyrie has an autocannon sponson off the right door. My pask stands on top of his punisher with with a flag and a boltgun because it looks awesome. Even though these modifications are out of necessity, and help hide the flaws in my beaten-up, very used army, I love making these silly add-ons to my models, but at some points I have to say, "Nope. I wish I could, but that's just too silly for imperial guard." My friends joke that while I play IG, I secretly wish I had an ork army at heart, which is kinda true. With orks, there is literally NO LIMIT to the silliness that can happen in modding. At all. None. You want a battlecannon on that bike? Just add a sidecar and stick it on there. Whatever you feel like modeling, you can, and more importantly, people will accept it, and perhaps laugh a bit.

Go orks, they're fun every step of the way, from the building to the battlefield.

Crap now I have to model my wazdakka bike with a battlecannon on it. Thanks

I already was gas going to have my bosses and nobz surfing their bike though. Can't wait to see that in action.

MrMoustaffa wrote:(my god the fluff for the Foleran 1st working with orks would be hilarious.)

ObliviousBlueCaboose wrote:I feel that these orks would be suitiable Allies to the Folerans.

Boss: Kingz Freebootaz! Presenta ARMZ!

Boy: Iffa?

Boss: IFFA YOU DON PRESENTA ARMZ IZ GONNA KRUMP YA FACE IN WIF MY CHOPPA!!!... Iffa pleeze.

Ogryn teach ork boyz such bad habits...

Anyways, I know that there are some really off the cuff modelling opportunities with ork, but I would want to play things a LITTLE conservatively. The line between ramshackle good and ramshackle bad is razor thin. That said, there is the chance for a looted falcon in the future...

As for the biker boss "Wazzblast! da Krumpa" (my first draft name. Yes, the exclamation mark is part of his name), I was actually thinking of doing the wazdakka cannon as a razorback TL assault cannon front-mounted between the handlebars. That or I've got a bunch of guard stuff. It could be a warbike with 4 of the huge guardsman-sized heavy bolters stuck on.

Either mounted on (two front mounted, two mounted behind, above the driver's head, for example), or mounted as pintle weapons fired by grots.

Da ork's first Bikklewagon.

 kestril wrote:

With orks, there is literally NO LIMIT to the silliness that can happen in modding. At all. None.

OK, this is a bit of a further digression from whatever OP was (something about a ship?...) but that philosophy was in fact one of the things I loved about Chaos when I started out, oh god 15 years ago in 2nd ed. Conversions, mutation, crazy stories woo! And it's why I got bored with 'em later, because the chaos in the chaos seemed to have gone somewhere when there was suddenly a kit for mutations, a kit for chaos spawn. I made my own chaos spawn; One was godzilla with bloodthirster arms, another Azazael's head on tiny legs. I modelled my own possessed, my favourite having a daemonette claw, flesh hound tail, beastman sword, melted horrible face and half his armor burnt off. he was a pimp. I don't know why I'm still talking. I'm drawing attention to myself.


Anyway...

Yay Orks!

 ObliviousBlueCaboose wrote:
I feel that these orks would be suitiable Allies to the Folerians.

I picture in my head a Unit of top hated and tails wearing orky riding Pennyfarthing bikes.

I might just have to make these myself!

lol. I don't QUITE know if that's what I meant when I said I was starting an ork biker list...

Ohh but you make them powered pennyfarthing bikes.. In my head they look AWSOME! I might have to kitbash one up this weekend.

 Nicorex wrote:

 ObliviousBlueCaboose wrote:
I feel that these orks would be suitiable Allies to the Folerians.

I picture in my head a Unit of top hated and tails wearing orky riding Pennyfarthing bikes.

I might just have to make these myself!

I dunno, needs more dakka. And where's da rokkits boss? Gotta 'ave some way of gettin dat fing up ta speed after all.

That said, if someone doesn't make at least one nob biker with this bike, I will die a little inside.