I have been discussing weither the new orks would be enough to shake up the metagame so that a space marine player set in his ways about always taking las/plas squads would worry about the lack of anti horde weaponry enough to change his list for a GT once the actual ork rules hit the shelves. His opinion is while its nice the orks are finally getting a new needed upgrade, that they wont have any impact on the metagame and armies like nidzilla, mech tau, mech eldar, lash prince chaos, or tourney built marine armies wont have to change or worry about the new threat. I invited my friend over for a game randomly generated from the book, he is an avid eldar player. I told him to make a 1750 point army and make it an agressive list, dont pull any punches, like you were going to a GT. I dident tell him however that I would be playing orks. With this background I should let you know what the points costs/rules were for orks however before I list off the armies.
I went by the most basic rumors that had the most backup, and he agreed before the game everything seemed reasonable. Its also important to note that orks have no mobbing up rules anymore, but still go off the mob size for morale, any higher than 12 is fearless. Once a game they can use the power of the waaaagh! to have every unit fleet for one turn.
Basic slugga/shoota boys dropped down to 6 points. Choppas lose the ability to raise your armor save to 4+ max. Shootas are now str 4 range 18 assault 2.
Lootas rumored to cost 15 points. Come with a gun that is str 7 range 48 heavy d3. You roll this for the whole squad once. In my case my squad had 10, so it produces either 10, 20, or 30 shots per shooting round.
An army can be lead by 2 big meks, no more required warboss. Both had custom force fields. Used the current points cost for them and the shields. This was assuming they dident change too much in the book.
Tankbustas as is but all of them can have rokkit launchas now. Only used 10 but got kinda pricey after buying that many launchas. Probably drop in points in new book.
Stormboyz to drop 3 points each to 12. Zaagstuck is an ork stormboy nob who has power klaws that strike on inniative. Any stormboy squad he leads can fleet of foot, and assault the same turn they come into play. I put his value at 110, but realistically I would not be suprised to see him priced more like eldrad on release. This was the core of my army.
My points breakdown was as follows:
3x 30 Shoota boyz squads, nob, p.klaw, slugga, 3x b shootas: 720 points (important note: its one big weapon per 10 boyz now, so no more cheezy 10 squads of boyz with 3 rokkit launcha/big shoota combos each.
30 slugga boyz, nob, p. klaw, slugga, 3x rokkit launchas: 231 points. (nobs were the same points cost for an upgrade, so they are basically just 3 points cheaper now as well, klaw was left at 25 points)
2x big meks, 2x custom force field: 90 points (dident buy them any weapons, that might not be allowed not 100 precent sure. If so it would have been 3 points more a model for slugga/choppa)
2x 10 man squad of lootas: 300 points.
10x tankbusta boyz, 10 rokkit launchas, tank hunters: 180 points. (same point cost for everything in the current codex, with the exception now every one of them can have rokkit launchas)
10x stormboyz, zaagstuck: 230 points. Total of 1751. In a tourney I would drop one boy just to make sure I wasent over, but he said no problem. Would also free up enough points for weapons for the meks. So that is probably what I would do if I had a do over. His army I can remember the models but cant give the points breakdown as I dont have the book/dont play the army.
Eldrad
Avatar
10x dire avengers in a wave serpent
7x fire dragons in a falcon
6x harlies, kisses in a falcon
10x dire avengers in a falcon
2x 5? man squads of pathfinders. Cant remember exactly how many were in these squads, thought it was 4 but dident keep track till late in the game.
Setup: I won the roll so he deployed first, not that it mattered with eldrad. After we were done he basically put everything on one flank, denying me about half my boyz usefulness for an extra turn or 2. I set up my lootas, one set in a bunker 4+ cover, another in woods 5+ cover. With crossfire either one of them could see 90 precent of the board, although not at the same time. I actually put a die down where the mekboyz would be, and measured 6" from there all around to see how to fit my boyz for maximum cover saves. Left a line between 2 squads for each mekboy. It looked like some horrible evil pokeball as I wasent too concerned with template weapons. Tankbustas followed in the middle behind 4 units. Anyone wanting to shoot them would have to make at least a target priority test. The mission was to find the objective. 6 tokens, only one correct one for victory.
Turn one: I lost and had to go first, not that I minded. Everything but the lootas moves up, the shoota and slugga boy mobs with the big mek get bogged down in rough terrain, all of them rolling a 4" movement suprisingly, so I kept coherency. Big shootas in range of the avatar, but I fail both priority tests and ping off a falcon in front. Lootas squads BOTH get a 1 on d3 so I get 20 shots total for both squads. Both squads open on the closest falcon, 2 glancings which are 5,2 and 6,1 (dam you holofields!) so both become may not shoot due to stones. Orky shooting at its finest.
His turn, confident bastard moves all his vehicles up, completely unafraid of orkey accuracy. Avatar moves up with eldrad behind. 2 squads of dire avengers pop out in front of the closest shoota squad. Eldrad fortunes, and suddenly 25 orks blow'd up (would have been 35 wounds, but I made 10 cover saves) the wave serpent and falcon finish the last 5, and he grasps his hands cackling that my independent character is now the closest model to his pathfinders, who open up on him. Dead mek. Things look bad, but at least I can still take comfort in his worry at the beginning of the game. "oh crap, theres nothing good for my fire dragons to shoot at". He dident see the point in getting them killed for 24 points of dead boyz, so they were busy checking markers.
Turn two: My shoota boyz are out of range to assault the dire avengers bar a 6 on a waaagh! fleet roll, but thats when I remembered zaagstuck. 6 comes up and he comes in, 5 inches away. Smeldar are gonna feel the pain now.sluggas and shootas advance up on avatar/eldrad, wont be long now. My now shieldless slugga boyz open up with 60! str 4 shots on the dire avengers. I hit with only 14 sadly, however 12 of those wound. 7 dead avengers. Lootas roll a 6 and a 4 for 50 freakin str 7 shots! First squad with 30 shoots the wave serpent. 9 hit. 5 glance. Wave serpent gets blow'd up. The squad with 20 open on the falcon, but only 3 hit and one glance for a cannot shoot. Slugga boys shoot there rokkits at the avatar, one hit but he saves. Slugga boys open with 56 regular shots and 9 big shoota shots. Avatar asks wtf just happened as he is brought to one wound. Tank bustas target the harlies that are next to them and the lootas. One elf dead. Rather than lose my lootas next round I hope my tankbustas can stall and charge em into em. I forget that there str 4 till the game is over on the charge, so only get one elf where it might have been more. 3 orks die, but dont run. Zaagstuck charges the 10 strong squad of dire avengers, who despite going first manage a sad one wound, and to insult even more it is saved on a 6. Zaagstuck kills 4 by himself, the other 30 attacks get the last ones. Can you say consolidate into the other squad to avoid being shot next turn?
His turn two: freakin lucky elves fire dragons find the marker. Plans are made to get outta dodge with it. At least I dont have to waste any turns checking them now. Avatar and eldrad move up, why I have no idea. He must have thought basic ork boyz were like guard, nice and squishy in meelee. To his credit I am the only ork player at our store, and it has been a while since he has played em. Pathfinders and the 2 remaining falcons open up on the lootas in the bunker, 5 die, none to pinning shots tho. Avatar and eldrad super up via psychic powers, eldrad manages to wound himself tho. They charge. Only 8 boyz can participate. Avatar and eldrad kill 7 total. I attack the avatar, one wound but saved. I lose but have 23 boyz left, im not going anywhere. Zaagstuck kills the last 3 avengers with one loss and consolidates toward the pathfinders. Harlies kill 2 boyz, orks kill 2 harlies. Orks hold fast. At this point he begins to question why a special weapon team fights as well as elite space marines. I just shrug and tell him my "elite weapon teams" are far from elite come the shooting phase.
Turn 3: luckily falcons dont block line of sight. My shoota mob behind the now engaged slugga squad moves toward the fire dragons. Zaagstuck moves toward the pathfinders, and uses his fleet. (when you fleet with the stormboyz, each one has to make a difficult terrain test, I lose 2 more heh.) Both loota squads can see the dragons. The 5 man gets a 3 for 10 shots, the 10 man gets a 2 for another 10 shots. I kill them to the man with the shootas and both loota squads. Sure it took 89 shots for me what it would have taken marines 20 or so, but it still worked. Unfortunatley his pathfinders were closer to the marker now...or were they. Zaagstuck manages to charge the other squad with a 5 and 4 rolled. Dead elves for no ork losses. Stays in terrain. Harlies finish off the orks for no losses. Move toward the 10 man squad of lootas. Avatar and eldrad kill 5 more orks, before being pulled under the green tide.
His turn: All three falcons move toward my shoota squad near the objective. His pathfinders move to pick it up, as its his last chance to get away with it. Falcons do great in shooting accounting for 9 dead orks, but that still leaves 21. Harlies charge in to the lootas on the side, set up like a firing squad. Only 3 orks could fight back. I lose 4 orks to his zero, fail LD run and am beaten down. Harlies consolidate.
Turn 4: the squad of shootas that had been behind the first one wiped out (who had been heading back to help the lootas last turn) move closer to the harlies again. Zaagstuck moves out of terrain toward the pathfinders. I declare waaagh! and him and the closest shoota boyz move 4 and 3 respectivley. Both within charge this turn. The 5 remaining lootas roll a 6 for 15 shots and say what the hell. They open up on the closest falcon. 5 hits. 5 glances! I rolled em all with different sets of dice at once. 4,3 3,3 2,5 6,5 and 6,1. For the first time in a long time with my orks, I managed to shoot down a falcon. The 30 strong sluggas open up on the harlies, only scoring 10 hits. 7 wounds were rolled, but not a single one died, damn uber trees. Zaagstuck and the shootas charge in, I lose 1 stormboy, and he would have lost 22 pathfinders if his squad could be that size (we rolled total hits, wounds and saves for fun). I have the shoota boyz pick it up as it would have been harder to bring below half. At this point he calls it, looks around the board and whistles.
His remaining force: harlies at half strength, and 2 untouched falcons.
My forces: a 30 strong squad of shootas, 21 shoota boyz squad, Zaagstuck and 4 stormboyz, a mekboy, and 5 lootas.
His impressions: he would have a tough time with his current list against an effective horde this size unless it was a mission tailored to him, like breakout, or ambush. His impression was that there might not be that many ork horde armies at a GT as it takes a long time for movement and setup, and while it has a shot at winning a GT, what it will do for sure is punish the players who dident prepare for that kind of fight. Someone who might have outright won it against the standard lists, would probably be put out of comission with the inability to fight a list like this one.
My impressions: While I have no exact points costs, I would say overall the improvements to orks are great. Although I dont like the shift to a more shooty metagame (old tyranid and ork players are still griping about how there armies all of a sudden became shooty murder machines) I do like not losing every game to the power 5. Now all I need are to buy and paint about 40 more shoota boyz (black templars filled in for some orks today) and figure out a more fun build. Dont get me wrong this one was fine, but it leaves out all the new tasty stuff coming out, like the awesome new trukk models. It wont be optamized, but should be more varied.
8k points
3k points
3k points
