You can find my other battle reports for this tournament here:
Round One
Round Three
Despite getting a tie in round one, I wasn’t actually in bad shape. Everyone was talking over lunch, and the best score that anyone got was 14 – a minor win + 1 bonus point. It appears that I was the only person to bring 2
HQs, so my first round opponent got 12 points (10 point draw + 2 bonus points), putting him only 1-2 points behind the people who won their games. I find that kind of funny. =p Going into round 2, I was feeling a little disheartened. I got a draw my first game amidst rules problems during a very poorly written mission. However, I got paired up with Russ for round two – he’s a former army officer (as am I) so I was confident that we’d get along famously – and we did. He got a minor win his first game, so I’m the underdog here.
My list: 1500 point Ghazghkull’s Harem
HQ1: Ghazghkull Thraka
HQ2: Big Mek with
KFF
Troop1: 16 Ork Boyz, Nob/
PK, inside Wagon with
KFF Mek
Troop2: 11 Boyz+Nob/
PK inside trukk+reinforced ram+boarding plank
Troop3: 10 gretchin+runtherder
Elite1: 5 Lootas
Elite2: 5 Lootas
Elite3: 15 Burnas (inside Battlewagon with Ghazghkull)
FA1: Deffkopta, Buzzsaw,
TL Rokkits
FA2: Deffkopta, Buzzsaw,
TL Rokkits
FA3: 2x Warbuggies,
TL Rokkits
Heavy1: Battlewagon, Big Shoota, Boarding Planks, Deffrolla, Grabbin’ Klaw, Extra Armor
Heavy2: Battlewagon, Big Shoota, Boarding Planks, Deffrolla, Grabbin’ Klaw, Extra Armor
Russ’ Vanilla Marines:
HQ1: Librarian, Terminator armor, Infinity Gate, Null Zone
Troop1: 10x
SM, Lascannon, Plasma Gun, Power Weapon
Troop2: 10x
SM, Missile Launcher, Melta Gun, Powerfist + Rhino
Troop3: 10x
SM, Missile Launcher, Melta Gun, Powerfist + Rhino
Troop4: 10x
SM, Lascannon, Flamer, Power Fist + Razorback (with
TL Lascannons)
Elite1: 5x Assault Terminators (
TH/
SS)
Heavy1: Predator with Assauct Cannon, 2x Lascannon Sponsons
Heavy2: Vindicator
Mission: Modified Capture and Control (fixed six rounds)
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Massacre: Control Both objectives
Major Victory: Own your opponent’s objective, contest your own objective
Minor Victory: Own your own objective, contest your opponent’s objective
Tie: None of the above.
Let me explain modified Capture and Control. First, the two objectives were pre-set. They were directly across from each other on the board, and the objectives were buildings. IE, a 12” x 12” building was the objective. Anywhere within 3” of that building was enough to contest. Based on the scenarios, the win conditions were extremely difficult; both of those buildings were 3 stories tall – meaning that my opponent could put a combat squad in the 3rd story roof, I’d have to not only make it across the table, but climb up 9” just to get to his own stuff to get a massacre. And if I didn’t contest his and own mine at the end, I couldn’t do better than a tie.
Here’s a picture of our board: The buildings with the large blast markers are the objectives.
Russ and I roll off and…surprise!! I lose the roll. The statistical probability of me losing as many turn roll-offs as I have has to be nigh improbable. Russ chooses to deploy and go first, and combat squads all his space marines (smart move). He then deploys; putting a 5 man
tac squad on the roof of his objective with a lascannon, and either one big 10 man squad or two 5 man squads below, so that he’s got 15 marines in that building across three floors. He deploys across his board, so that he’s got ranged firepower to direct wherever I come on.
I deploy in return – I’m going to attempt a standard flanking action. I pick the right-hand forest to drop a squad of Lootas into since they have a field of fire into the middle of the table, while my second Loota squad takes up positions in my own objective on the 2nd and 3rd story. My gretchin go into the bottom floor to secure it – they’re hidden behind a wall so that you can’t actually fire at them from across the field. The rest of my army does its standard thing. What you can’t really see from the picture is that my objective building has a solid wall blocking off visibility to my warbuggies, and obstructing some
LoS. My trukk is hidden from view from anything that can range it by battlewagons.
I take my scout moves – I send one Deffkopta up the left flank to go threaten his rhinos, and the other one has a difficult proposition – he’s not really in position to turbo-boost anywhere useful that he can get without going through terrain, so I settle for dropping him 12” up and behind a building with enough intact walls that it should block
LOS against most of his weaponry.
I roll to seize initiative and fail miserably. Russ takes his first turn.
SM Turn One:
Russ moves his left-side rhinos around the corner to range into my deffkoptas. His predator comes around the building 6” so that he can shoot at my battlewagons while his assault marines with attached librarian shift around to make room for a vindicator, which moves 6” up.
Russ opens fire. I realize here that I’ve made my first tactical mistake of the game – I deployed my battlewagons on his left flank, with all his ranged weaponry to my right. And then I deployed facing forward, and presenting side armor to all that ranged weaponry on the right. I *should* have deployed diagonally, presenting front armor to all those lascannons over there. At any rate, Russ opens fire with his Rhinos – attempting to melta and bolter me from his rhinos into my deffkopta – he either whiffs his shots or I make my cover saves between all of them. In hindsight, I think I just realized that he moved 12” and still had the passengers fire, but I didn’t notice at the time. His vindicator insta-kills my second deffkopta, while his roof sniper and predator shoot into Ghazghkull’s battlewagon and explode it! My
KFF hasn’t been much use to me this tournament so far. I take three wounds. Ghazghkull takes one and rolls a one; he’s got three wounds left (the story gets better later) and two burna boys go down in flames.
Ork Turn One:
I’ve lost a battlewagon from the get-go due to my own poor deployment facing. Arg. My trukk moves 12” ahead into the ruins to clear away from the side of my remaining battlewagon. Those boyz pile out (the
KFF stays inside), while the burnas pile into the remaining battlewagon. Sucks to lose one this early, but I want to keep my burna boys mobile and get them up to the fight. My now foot-slogging boys move 6” up to the edge of the wreckage, and will also run into it. My remaining battlewagon rotates and moves 12”, presenting front armor to the nasties ahead. My rokkit buggies skitter 12” ahead as well. My deffkopta jumps over his rhinos to line up for rear armor shots.
I open fire!! My rokkit buggies can’t range anything, so do nothing. My battlewagon can’t shoot, and my trukk can’t see anything, but I’ve got a deffkopta and Lootas. My deffkopta fires into the rear of his rhino and wrecks it!! A
tac squad boils out. Both Loota squads fire into his predator (its either that, or front armor on his vindicator). I get a shaken result and a weapon destroyed result; I choose the lascannon sponson closest to me.
Not a whole lot of damage, but at least the predator can’t shoot at me next turn. Meanwhile, deffkoptas *are* suicidal units who exist to open up transports – once they’ve done so, it sucks to have to assault the unit inside because they’ll probably die, but if you don’t, they’ll get a melta in the face and assaulted in return. I take the lesser of two bad options, and assault his
tac squad. Amazingly, he whiffs his normal attacks, I miss with all my buzzsaw attacks, and he misses with both his powerfist attacks. We both suck.
Space Marine Turn Two:
Russ moves his terminators up 6” – he’s going to attempt to assault my battlewagons. His remaining rhino moves 12” up the table on the left side. His razorback moves up and pivots, and his vindicator shifts a bit for a better arc of fire (moving 1”). His missile launcher squad on the right moves up; he needs to get to my objective. Since his predator can’t shoot, it also moves ahead 12”.
He opens fire with all his lascannons and missile launchers on my battlewagon, which shrugs off his puny attempts to hurt me. His vindicator drops a template in the rear left corner of my battlewagon, getting a glance onto my trukk, which he weapon destroys.
Dashofpepper’s Tactical Blunder #2: Second big mistake of the game here. I’m new to using deffrollas, and I run into the same problem that I did the last game. I’m not as adept at visually measuring range as other people, and I put my wagon at the 12” mark from his assault terminators. Actually, at about 12.5” – but the problem again is that the cylinder extends beyond the base, so that if you measure to the most forward extending portion, he makes it into assault, but if you measure base to base, he does not. We were having an easy game, and I didn’t want to have issues, so I silently berated myself and watched him assault. I’m going to have to figure out how to address this in future games.
He needs 6s to hit, and gets a couple – he auto-penetrates and rolls a 5 (I’m open-topped) – ka-boom! I explode. I take another couple of wounds, which I assign one to Ghazghkull…who fails his 2+ armor save. He’s got two wounds left. And yes, this story gets even better as we continue. Elsewhere on the field, his space marines in combat with my deffkopta will whiff their regular attacks, and his powerfist will kill me while my buzzsaw kill two of his. He consolidates 5” towards his remaining rhino.
Ork Turn Two:
Things are looking grim – I’ve lost both of my battlewagons. Ghazghkull has taken two wounds from exploding vehicles, and his librarian has cast null zone, so Ghazghkull is going to have to reroll passed invul saves if he charges those terminators. It doesn’t sound like a winning proposition.
Ghazghkull detaches from the burna boys and rolls a 6! He’s going after that vindicator. My burna boys roll a 5” move and set themselves up in a semi-circle around his terminators. Bwah ha ha. My
KFF Mek detaches and moves over to provide a
KFF cover to my rokkit buggies. And then….
My trukk rolls dangerous terrain and rolls a one. Sokay, that’s why I have reinforced rams. I roll a second one. My trukk is apparently going nowhere.
Dashofpepper Tactical Mistake #3: I should have rolled for the trukk first. If my trukk had been immobilized, my big mek could have just moved over to it and fixed it this turn. As it was, there’s nothing I can do for that trukk this turn since my big mek is several inches away.
My mob of boys on foot head towards his rhino – I’m going to attempt to surround it.
My shooting phase: Ghazghkull Thraka declares his Waaaugh! His invulnerable save isn’t going to do much since I’m afraid to throw him into combat at this point, but I need that extra movement. My big mob takes a 6” move to position themselves better to surround that rhino, while Ghazghkull moves 6” towards that Vindicator.
Meanwhile, my burnas open up on his terminators. I get about 69 hits, and cause 33 wounds. He puts 5 on the librarian, who saves them all, and the rest of his terminators die to the other 28 wounds. He decides to voluntarily fall back with his librarian because he doesn’t want to get assaulted.
My Lootas on the right open up on his razorback and wreck it. Finally some luck. I’m trying to take away his mobility and slow that advance towards my objective. My rokkit buggies and other Lootas open up on his predator and wreck it as well. My
KFF Mek also uses his 6” Waaaugh! movement to get over next to my trukk to attempt repairing it next round.
For my assaults, Ghazghkull makes it into base with his Vindicator. His assault also nicely puts him within 6” of the librarian, meaning that he won’t be able to consolidate next turn. My big mob of boys assault into his rhino, completely surrounding it, and I cross my fingers.
My orange boyz have 64 or so attacks, needing 6+ to hit, 6+ to glance. They squeak out a few 6s, and I shake it and immobilize it. My powerklaw comes in next and gets two sixes!! Both penetrate and the rhino explodes. We do some measurements: The rhino is 3” across by 4.25” long, and I’m surrounding it in base contact – placing models in the vehicle footprint means that he loses 1” on each side, giving him a 1” by 2.25” field to place models – IE, two survive. Reader, remember that one. If you surround a rhino and explode it, instead of having your opponent remove the rhino, put down models and measure 1” around (which will inevitably somehow lead to 4-6 models getting onto the table, just remember to measure the rhino.
The squad inside passes its pinning test, but then fails its leadership test – and since they are completely surrounded, they are destroyed. I lost a couple of boys in the vehicle explosion.
Meanwhile, Ghazghkull assaults into the vindicator; 4+ to hit and he lands five of 7 attacks, and explodes it!! The ensuing explosion wounds a couple space marines, killing one. His chaplain takes a hit but passes his save, and Ghazghkull freakin’ jerk of a Thraka takes a wound and fails. He’s made a total of three saves this game, all against vehicle explosions, and failed all three. He has one wound left.
Space Marine Turn Three:
At this point, the game is shifting away from me getting beaten on into a level game again. I’ve lost my mobility, but so has he, and we both need to cross the board to each other. I have an advantage because he’s crossing the board with
tac squads, and I’ve got bigger units. Both of his tactical squads on the right move 6”, then run – they’re trying to get to my building objective. On the left side of the board, his reduced tactical squad moves up towards my boyz unit. His librarian had been with 6” of Ghazghkull, so he continues to flee.
We have a discussion about whether you can cast psychic powers (Null Zone) while fleeing, but decide that you cannot since it isn’t a shooting attack…and the only things you can do while fleeing are shooting. Meanwhile, his sniper lascannon on top of the building opens up on my trukk (he’s trying to finish off my mobility; I might be able to repair that trukk). I pass my cover save. The rest of his army opens up on Ghazghkull, who miraculously makes all his 2+ armor and invulnerable saves. Apparently, Ghazghkull’s only kryptonite are STR3
AP- hits from exploding vehicles.
Over on the left, Russ shoots at, then assaults in my orange boyz. I think this is a mistake on his part – typically you should always prefer to assault orks than to get assaulted by them, but this is a capture and control mission. Those space marines are going to die anyway, but by assaulting me, he’s giving me a 6” react move (towards his objective somewhat) and also a consolidate move if I win.
He actually lays into my boys admirably and kills 3, but then gets wiped out in the ensuing return fire, before his powerfist gets to hit. I consolidate 5” – basically getting an 11” free move towards his objective.
Ork Turn Three:
I’m moving into aggressive mode now. Ghazghkull is on the verge of death, but those space marines in front of him don’t have a power weapon, so I’ll take my chances, especially because it will make his librarian run another turn (and probably off the board). My burnas
2d6 and also run towards his objective, and my boys unit does as well. My rokkit buggies bug out south to assist with the incoming space marines.
I manage to fix my immobilized trukk (also a startling first; my Mek’s Tools NEVER work). My rokkit buggies and Lootas open up on his space marines, killing three in the closest squad (who fail leadership and break) and two in the furthest squad, who are fine.
Ghazghkull assaults into his marines with the missile launcher, who cause one wound. I roll a
D6 with my heart in the back of my throat and…………………………………………Ghazghkull passes. He deals six out of seven wounds in return and wipes the squad, then consolidates between the Librarian and the objective.
Space Marine Turn Four:
Russ regroups automatically with his fleeing marines and they both move 6”, then run 6” towards my objective. I’ve scaled the map poorly, because his further marines were able to move, flame, then assault my rokkit buggies. I was afraid he was going to turn that flamer on my Lootas, but he’s more concerned with getting to my objective. This may choose to be a bad choice, because those Lootas are going to kill the crap out of his sniper squad up in the tower.
On the flip side, it did give him a free 6” move towards my objective by assaulting my buggies.
His Librarian runs off the board (I think he made a mistake to choose to fall back – but I think he thought Ghazghkull was coming for him). His belltower lascannon snipes Ghazghkull and takes away his remaining wound. Boooo! His bolters and plasma and meltas lay into my burnas, trying to cut them down and minimize their threat. I seriously contemplate going to ground, but choose not to – and only fail one cover save out of 7-8.
Ork Turn 5:
My revitalized trukk passes
DT this time and spins out 18” towards his objective building. My burnas and boyz both move, then run towards his building. My rokkit buggies kill the closest space marine team with help from the left Loota squad, and the Lootas on the right range his belltower snipers and kill two of them.
Space Marine Turn Six:
His missile launcher in mid-field stays put – he can’t make it to my objective, but wants to hamper me, so he shoots at my trukk and explodes it! I forgot that I had ramshackle. (I forgot a lot at this tournament; dice, my ramshackle rules, common sense, tactical insight). My boyz get wounded SIX TIMES and fail all six. Ouch. I pass both my pinning and leadership tests. His objective building opens up on my burnas and other boys with rapid fire bolters, plasma, melta guns….but I had done moving shenanigans to leave half my squad in cover, so I get cover saves. While I take some losses, its not enough to stop me in my tracks.
Ork Turn Six:
My two troop choices and burnas move forward to get ready to assault. I’ll take losses, but at least I’ll have three units in combat. My rokkit buggies move forward 12”, and between them and a Loota squad, I finish off the belltower snipers. My other Loota squad kills his remaining two marines in mid-field.
Down below, I have three units piling into his bottom squad, and a gigantic combat later, I’ve tabled my opponent and have a 20 point massacre, +1 for killing his
HQ.
I just realized that I merged turn4 and 5 by accident. All that happened was a bit of running and shooting and dying. =p
Post game 2, I've got a 21 point massacre and a 10 point tie, and because of the heinous round 1 that no one could get a solid win on, I'm actually near the top of the pack now.
3000
3000 
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
2500 14W-3D-7L
1850