Hey all,
So to celebrate the arrival of the 7th edition codex, and my recent wedding gift of a Stompa (which the wife was very impressed with, obviously), me and Alan held a rematch of our last game. This was a quick and cheerful 1500pt game, with us learning the new stuff as we went, so don’t expect any kind of masterful strategy on display. As this was just a testing game, this report will be fairly light and quick.
I decided to try out ‘Ard Boyz in Trukks, to see whether the 4+ armour was worthwhile. With the Stompa using over half my points in one model, there wasn’t a lot of room to move! I also made sure to protect the Stompa itself, with the Big Mek giving it a 5++ versus shooting, and him and the two Meks in the Loota squad being able to fix hull points.
Orks
Big Mek – Kustom Force Field, ‘Eavy Armour, Da Fixer Uppers
Boyz – 12, with ‘Eavy Armour, led by a Nob with Powerklaw and Bosspole, in a Trukk with a Ram
Boyz – 12, with ‘Eavy Armour, led by a Nob with Powerklaw and Bosspole, in a Trukk with a Ram
Lootas – 6, with two Meks
Warbikers – 6, led by a Nob with Powerklaw and Bosspole
Stompa
Alan took the opportunity of using some newly painted models, who just so happened to be carrying a heck of a lot of thunderhammers.
Blood Angels
Librarian, Mastery Level 2, Divination Powers
Assault Marines – 10, with 2 Flamers and a Combi-Flamer on the Sergeant
Assault Marines – 10, with 2 Meltas and a Powerfist on the Sergeant, with an attached Priest
Assault Terminators – 5, with 4 Thunderhammers and 1 Lightning Claw, with Brother Corbulo giving them FNP and whatnot
Furisio Dreadnought – 2 Blood Fists
Stormraven
Landspeeder – 2 Multimeltas
Landspeeder – Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer (I think)
Alan’s latest magna opera:
The Table
We had pre-selected Cloak and Daggers, the 5th Maelstrom of War mission, which required a Hammer and Anvil deployment. We set the table up accordingly. Night Fighting was not in effect.
We placed down the six objective markers, but none of them actually came into use so I won’t be mentioning them again.
Deployment
I won the roll. The models you see behind my vehicles are the dudes who are riding in said vehicles. Obviously the Stompa was full of Lootas and Meks.
With the Stormraven holding easily half of Alan’s points, his deployment zone looked as empty as mine. As you can see, bravery was lacking in the sons of bloody bloodness this day!
Turn One
Everything moved forward. I got my first Tactical Objective here, as I scored an Ork one:
Have at least three units Run 6” or more, Turbo-Boost or move Flat Out.
The Stompa killed some marines from the Flamer squad, and also blew up the (non Melta) Landspeeder on the other side of the table. That gave me First Blood, as well as the Tactical Objective ‘Big Game Hunter’:
kill a vehicle.
View from the front lines.
Assault Marines move towards the Trukk. Both them and the Land Speeder shot at it, but miraculously it survived on one hull point.
They ended up wrecking it in melee, and the ladz inside got out. I think that I failed the pinning test, but Mob Rule let me knock some heads together (saved on the ‘Eavy Armour) and pass.
The other squad continues to hide. So brave.
So manly.
Funny story: my Stompa’s dakka arm fell off during transport. I spent the whole game either balancing it on the Stompa’s head, or just placing it vaguely nearby.
Turn Two
The yellow Boyz moved around, and the Bikes moved on the Landspeeder (already dead in this photograph).
The red Trukk moved over to the table edge, trying to entice the Librarian’s squad to come out and play. I had an objective to kill a Psyker, as well as one to wipe a unit in assault, meaning that one model was worth 3
VP (including Warlord).
Shooting saw the second Landspeeder go down and one marine from the squad hiding behind the ruin. I got an epic miss with the Stompa’s main cannon, causing much lamentation (or happiness, depending on what side of the table you were sitting on).
The yellow Boyz charged. I declared a challenge, for a laugh, and then the Sergeant hit twice, wounded twice, and I failed both my 4+ saves. So my Nob died. Embarrassing. Anyway, we drew combat and remained stuck in.
The Stormraven came in. Boo!
He chose to re-enact Flash Gordon at this point…
http://youtu.be/LfmrHTdXgK4
…but did only three hull points once the dust settled. I failed a lot of
KFF saves, sadly.
Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. Primarily by people smaller than the Stompa. Incidentally, Mob Rule saw me take a wound instead of being pinned. Cool. The ‘Eavy Armour continued to be golden.
I was slowly winning the other combat.
Turn Three
My decision this turn was either to charge the Stompa into the combat (and go for those 3
VPs) or to try and shoot down the Stormraven.
I decided for the combat, hoping to quickly win it. The Lootas shot at the Stormraven, taking a hullpoint off. Very exciting. I also tried to fix the Stompa, but failed all three Mek’s Tools rolls.
Bikes charged into the other combat, and the Stompa went into the combat.
The Stompa and Boyz killed five of the Assault Marines, but they stuck around. Stomping on things is fun!
This combat I won. Not much else to say, really.
The Stormraven went into hover mode and dropped the Thunderhammer PainTrain off.
The big melee saw him strip four hullpoints off of the Stompa. In return I stomped the Dreadnought to death as well as the Librarian. His Assault Squad ran, but my Boyz didn’t catch them. The Stompa and Terminators stuck around.
Turn Four
I moved all my units towards the hated Stormraven.
I charged it.
It blew up. Sadly, so did my Stompa; with eight attacks, Alan got four hits, two penetrates (needing 6s) and then two explodes! results (needing 6s). Dice, eh. The resulting explosion killed half the Lootas inside, my Warlord, one of the Boyz from the red squad (leaving only the Nob), Brother Corbulo and a Hammernator. I think that Corbulo died to a Stomp, actually.
Stupid Terminators.
Mob rule: so the Lootas survived the S10 AP2 hits from the explosion with four models left. I failed my pinning test, which I didn’t really care about, and then took
D6 S4 hits from the Mob Rule table. I then lost three more models to those hits, leaving only one model left. Great.
Alan launched a bunch of charges, including with the rallied Assault Marines (god, I hate
ATSKNF so much). He wiped the Bikes and killed the Mek, but couldn’t finish the red Nob. The Terminators consolidated away from my yellow Boyz.
Turn Five
With ten models left on the table, and being in the lead on Victory Points, I decided to try and keep my army alive.
Run away!
The combat with the Assault Marines finally ended with my Nob dying. We rolled for another turn, and got it.
Turn Six
The yellow Boyz went and hid in this ruin. Two reasons: firstly to give his Assault Marines that –2 to charge distance. Secondly, I had another Tactical Objective to get a unit within 12” of Alan’s table edge. With that I was on 6
VPs to Alan’s 3.
His Assault Marines moved up, rolled their charge distance… and got a 3. Thanks to difficult terrain, that was a fail. Good times.
We rolled for another turn and didn’t get it. Game over! The final score was 7VPs for me versus 3VPs for Alan, a fairly convincing points difference.
Final Thoughts
Terminators suck. The Stompa was good, but struggled to make a huge dent in melee when faced with good invulnerable saves. It was a lot of fun to use, though. The tactical objectives were great fun, and I really preferred them to the usual turn five scramble for objectives. The new Codex is interesting – I really liked having ‘Eavy Armour, while Mob Rule was mostly beneficial – but the Stompa took up so many points that it was hard to see how it affects army lists.
Angels Amaranthine - growing slowly
Currently 200pts 
