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So Longshot through down the gauntlet for a 6000 point apocalypse game at Miniature market on July 31st.

We’re getting ready for a big Rynn’s World themed game in September, and Longshot’s marines are Crimson Fists, so it made sense to me that I should put together 6000 points of orks to oppose him.

We agreed on a few ground rules (mostly that we would decrease template size on strength D weapons by 1 “size” – e.g. 5” down to 3”), and then we were off to list construction.

Joshb’s orks:

I had a few goals when I started my list construction:

(1) tryout the battlewagons I finished up not too long ago.

(2) keep my model count down so that the game could be managed in an afternoon.

(3) bring decent counters for the super-heavies I’m likely to see in his army (namely the eclipse pattern t-hawk and longshot pattern warlord that he has shown painted pictures of lately).

(4) pre-construct some units that can slot into my siegeworld army next month to help with prep for that event next month.

A few units / models stood out for me after I had thought through my goals:

(a) The three fighta-bommas I used last month when I played BigK would both consume points and give me some anti-aircraft support. In a standard apocalypse game their arrival could predicted and planned for, so hopefully I’ll get good results out of them. If Longshot has a T-Hawk and doesn’t keep it butt up against the board edge, then massed big shoota fire to its rear arc from the fighta-bommas could down it.

(b) It has been a while since I pulled out Gorkzilla, my armorcast gargant, so I figure he’ll be perfect for squaring off against really heavy (like a warlord) that Longshot shows up with. The BOLS datasheet isn’t fancy, but it represents the model as I own it and we’ve never had any balance complaints about it in the past.

(c) after recently suffered at the hands of BigK’s long range shooting in a big game because I was too slow, I’m planning on being mounted up in this game. I’ll take the 2 trucks and 3 battlewagons I’ve got painted and load them up with units. A kustom force field will protect the “blob” initially, and then hopefully they’ll be rumbling into his army and causing chaos.

(d) for a bit of a wildcard (and to add some more ranged firepower), I’ll take a shock attack gun battery to pour on the hurt. Even if I attach a KFF to the battery with an extra Big Mek, they’re nearly guaranteed to be wiped out in a turn if left unprotected. The obvious answer would be to mount them in a vehicle for that extra protection. The immediate problem would be that snotlings aren’t infantry and can’t embark in a normal vehicle per 40k rules. It seemed reasonable that they could embark in a superheavy if counted as beasts per the Apocalypse rulebook (3 capacity per base), so I just needed to pick out a vehicle to mount them in. The standard stompa has three fire points (I don’t want to speculate if a SAG battery needs one or multiple, but it seemed reasonable to drop one SAG from the unit so they would have 3 guns, one mek with a KFF, a runtherd, and 5 snotling bases to power up a couple of shots … 20 infantry equivalents all safely tucked away in my stompa’s belly)

These big-point formations / units gave me the start for my army. All I would need to do is flesh it out and fill those transports.





Gorkzilla - BOLS Great Gargant 2500
Stompa 600
3 Fighta-Bommas 750

Battlewagon: 3xBig Shootas, Kill-Kannon, Reinforce Ram, Armor Plates, Grot Riggerz, ard Case, red paint 205
10 grots + 1 runt herd 40

Battlewagon: 4xBig Shoota, Deth-Rolla, Armor Plates, Grot Riggerz, boarding planks 160
4 Mega-Nobz (combi-weapons, Cybork) 200
Mad Dok Grotsnik 160
Big-Mek - KFF 85

Battlewagon: 2xBig Shootas, Kill-Kannon, Deth Rolla, Armor Plates, Grot Riggerz, ard Case 200
11 Slugga Boyz (Rokkit) + Nob (Klaw, Bosspole) 122

11 Slugga Boyz (Rokkit) + Nob (Klaw, Bosspole) 122
1 trukk (reinforced ram, grots, red paint, big shoota) 50

11 Slugga Boyz (Rokkit) + Nob (Klaw, Bosspole) 122
1 trukk (reinforced ram, grots, wrecker ball, boarding plank, big shoota) 60

1 Dethkopta - twin rokkits, cybork 50
1 Dethkopta - twin rokkits, cybork 50

Big-Mekk - ShAGun, Bosspole, Ammo Runt 103
Big-Mekk - ShAGun, Ammo Runt 100
Big-Mekk - ShAGun, Ammo Runt 100
Big-Mek - KFF, Grot Oiler 90
1 Runtherd 22
4 Snotling Swarms 32
Shok Attack Gun Battery Formation 75

Total: 6000 points

2 Superheavies
3 Flyers
5 Tanks / Transports
58 Infantry
5 Swarms
2 Jetbikes


Longshot’s Imperial Guard:

So I was looking forward to the big Siegeworld event in a few weeks and I don't get to play against Josh very often so I sent him an email to see if he would be in town the same weekend I had free just before the event. He did and we worked out the ground rules and the points value. I wanted to play a pretty big game as I am always stuck at under 5000 points for the Mega-Battles I thought 6000 would be fun and as we are pretty good friends the only ground rule we needed was the reduction of D templates as discussed in the Siegeworld forum.

My basic thought process in making my army was to cut out of my Siegeworld list what didn't fit into 6000 points, I had a long way to go from 35,000 points. After some work I had reduced the list to Most of my Guard without the Leviathan several of the Super heavies and no Titans. As for my thoughts on what I brought here we go.
-First: "Mailed Fist" Tank Command you play guard in Apocalypse don't leave home without it. All the tanks are BS 4 and you can have 2 squadrons fire their turret weapons twice by issuing 2 orders at leadership 10, what could be better.
-Second: Hydras, Well I am playing Orks and I know Josh has several planes. These also fall into the don't leave home without for guard armies.
-Third: Superheavies I had a Baneblade for General purpose work and the Hellhammer has 4 sponsons so I figured that it would make short work of Josh's mobs of Orks.
-Finally: The Valdor, I just finished painting this and I wanted to see hoe the Neutron Laser worked out.

185 Commissar Yarrick
240 Company Command Squad, w/ Nork and Chimera
1105 Infantry Platoon In Chimeras with Melta guns, a Missile Launcher squad and a Sniper squad
200 Veteran Squad in Chimera w/ 3 Melta Guns
200 Veteran Squad in Chimera w/ 3 Melta Guns
65 Guardsman Marbo
100 Salamander
1655 "Mailed Fist" Tank Command with 3 Vanquishers, 3 Demolishers and 3 Executioners
75 Hydra Flak Tank
75 Hydra Flak Tank
490 Emperors Wrath Artillery Battery w/ 3 Basilisks
130 Hellhound
500 Baneblade Super Heavy Tank
600 Hellhammer Super Heavy Tank
320 Valdor Tank Hunter Super Heavy Tank

Pre-Game:
So we arrived at noon on the 31st to find the larger tables already occupied, so we’d be cramming onto a small board with our 6000 points each. I also discovered that Longshot had gone an entirely different direction than I anticipated with his army list. It was an all Imperial Guard mechanized / armored force with no titans or flyers. He did have 3 superheavy tanks though, including a cool Valdor Tank Hunter that I was looking forward to seeing in action.

We put out 6 objectives and some terrain, I generate the random number of fields my Gargant will bring, and then we go at it.


Turn 0A:

Imperial Deployment:
"Mailed Fist" Tank Command with 3 Vanquishers, 3 Demolishers and 3 Executioners
Emperors Wrath Artillery Battery w/ 3 Basilisks
Hydra Flak Tank x2
Missile Launcher squad and a Sniper squad
Hellhound

Longshot lays out a wall of armor from board corner to board corner. At this point I still don’t really know what Pask’s big armored company formation does.












Turn 0B:

Ork Deployment:
Gorkzilla – Great Gargant
Stompa loaded with Shok-Attak Gun Battery


I lay down about 4000 points in two models. Life is good.










Turn 1A:

The Imperials start off with a hail of autocannon fire from Pask’s Executioner Squadron and the hydras at my Stompa, looking to glance it into submission. After blasting away they end up with 19 hits. 11 are ignored by the stompa’s obscured save, 1 glance is generated by the other 8 and that result is ignored by a primary weapon save.

Then the rest of his force opens up on Gorkzilla. 4 Lascannon, 3 earthshaker, 3 double vanquisher shots, and 3 double demolisher shots later and his fields are stripped, the lifta droppa is destroyed, and his drive is damaged.

I’m sure Longshot felt like he didn’t accomplish anything.





Turn 1B:

Stompa: Deth-Kannon scatters (of course) and does nothing, the soopa-rokkits only manage to shake a hydra.

The Shok-Attak Gun Battery is a mighty strength 8 (using 3 dice!). Three hits on Russ hulls generate 1 shaken tank.

Gorkzilla: The gut-buster fires a solid ball that penetrates and stuns a Russ from Pask’s squadron. The Mega-Shoota opens up on the basilisk squadron and manages to shake one gun.

Underwhelming for a first turn. I know I didn’t accomplish much.



Turn 2A:

Imperial Deployment:
Baneblade
Hellhammer
Valdor

The superheavies trundle on. The Valdor misses the gargant and the Baneblade ends up with a gun crew shaken on the Gargant’s observation tower.

Another wave of AC fire at the stompa merely scratches his paint.

Pask’s Company strips 3 structure off the Gargant and shakes the Mega-Shoota.











Turn 2B:

Ork Deployment:
Fighta Bommas (x3)
Dethkoptas (x2)

My dethkoptas arrive and destroy the hellhound’s main gun and shake a hydra between them.

My fighta-bommas unleash two grot bombs on Pask’s company and manage one shaken result. The third fighta-bomma fires 2 soopa-rokkits at a hydra and has it merely shaken.

The Stompa’s deth-kannon scatters off again and the SAG Battery generates a strength of 7 on three dice, accomplishing nothing.

Gorkzilla can only fire his gut-busta kannon, but makes up for it by destroying a vanquisher and a demolisher with a solid shot.










Turn 3A:

Imperial Deployment:
Commissar Yarrick, Company Command Squad, w/ Nork and Chimera
Infantry Platoon In Chimeras with Melta guns,
Veteran Squad in Chimera w/ 3 Melta Guns (x2)
Salamander


The Valdor misses the Gargant (that’s 2 misses!)
Pask’s Company and the Baneblade immobilize the gragant, destroy the observation tower, shake the gaze and mega-shoota weapons, and strip 3 more structure off.

The Stompa weather’s another storm of fire, hiding behind the Big Mek’s KFF.

Massed heavy bolter fire shoots down my red fighta-bomma.



Turn 3B:

Ork Deployment:
Battlewagon with Mega-Nobz, Bad-Dok, and Big-Mek
Battlewagon with Boyz mob
Battlewagon with Grots
Trukks (x2) with 12 Boyz each

My SAG Battery bails out the back of the stompa as I’m planning on moving it forward because shooting just isn’t cutting it.




A kill-kannon shot from an arriving battlewagon shakes his hellhound.
Fighta-Bommas destroy a chimera and generate a shake and immobilize (= destoyed thanks to squadron rules) against the vanquisher squadron.

It’s about now that my fighta-bommas come into their own. The key to using them is exploiting their movement to get favorable shots against the rear arcs of enemy vehicles.

The Gargant misses with its gutbuster, but the mega-skorcha cooks an entire unit of veterans that was unlucky enough to be exposed after loosing their chimera.

A boyz mob from one of the battlewagons unloads behind their wagon to prepare to charge the demolisher squadron next turn.

The stompa still doesn’t kill anything with shooting, but it charges the executioner squadron, destroying 2 and knocking the main gun off the third.









Turn 4A:

The Valdor misses the gargant (that’s 3 misses!).

The remainder of Pask’s company takes a structure point off the Gargant, destroys the Gaze weapon, and shakes the mega-skorcha.

The hell-hammer shoots up the stompa (now outside of the KFF!), generating a weapon shaken and drive damaged result.

Hydra fire glances the green bomma, destroying a grot-bomb.
Veterans melta-gun my grot’s battlewagon, destroying it and killing the vast majority of the squad.




Turn 4B:

My red battle-wagon rams a hydra, destroying the autocannons.

The SAG Battery roll three dice for strength and generate a mighty:




They are all dead and a vortex appears on top of the former leader’s position. The remaining members of the battery pass a morale check and hang around.




One of my dethkoptas picks off an enemy chimera.

The stompa penetrates the hell-hammer and damages its drive train, then it charges and destroys a chimera in close combat.

In close combat, the Mega-Nobz and Bad Dok kill a chimera and 6 guardsmen and the Nob from the Boyz mob kills a pair of Leman Russ Demolishers in close combat.









Turn 5A:

The vortex I just unleashed jumps forward and takes a structure point off of my Stompa (perfect!)

Pask’s remaining tanks unload on the Gargant, removing the remaining structure and sending it staggering forward 6” (towering inferno rule from the BOLS data sheet).

The Valdor changes targets to the Stompa and misses (that’s 4 misses!).

Combined fire from the Hellhammer and a veteran squad immobilizes the Stompa and destroys its close combat weapon.

The Baneblade kills a pair of Mega-Nobz with its demolisher cannon.

Combined heavy bolter fire from many sources kills off a boyz mob.


Turn 5B:

The vortex jumps over to the remaining damaged Leman Russ Executioner, destroying it.





Gorkzilla explodes, leaving a monstrous crater in the middle of the battlefield!



The truk mounted boyz on the right speed over to grab the objective that Gorkzilla formerly covered. They unload and cower behind a hill and their trukk.

The stompa has some targets that the soopa-gatla can hurt, so it lets loose. I roll a double 3 on my first set of dice to generate hits (which doesn’t stop the gun because it’s the first roll), then I roll 15 more times before I roll up another set of doubles. A total of 114 shots kill 2 chimeras, immobilize the salamander, wipe out a command squad, and pick off 3 veterans from cover. Probably a third of those shots were wasted into the front armor of the Hellhammer as I used it to bounce my fire back and forth across the Stompa’s front fire arc.

The remaining boyz mob on the left moves forward into cover to grab an exposed objective.

One of my deth-koptas jumps into close combat with the Imperial missile launcher squad that is claiming one of his objectives. The fight is drawn and he is safely locked in close combat right in front of the enemy Baneblade!








Turn 6A:

The vortex rolls doubles and disappears.

The Valdor hits the stompa with the neutron-blaster! Then I make my cover save because my KFF moved up last turn to protect it. (that’s 4 misses and a bounce if you’re keeping track.)

The Hellhammer destroys the deth-kannon on the Stompa (which is now immobilized, down one structure, and has both primary weapons and the flame-thrower destroyed)

The survivors of the veteran squad that was hammered decide to seek vengeance with thir melta-guns instead of grabbing an objective.



The Baneblade lashes out ineffectively, only managing to kill one of my dethkoptas with a scatter from its demolisher cannon.

Heavy bolter fire kills over half of the big boyz mob claiming the objective on the left, but they make their morale save.

Turn 6B:

My Bad Dok and the lone remaining Mega-Nob kill off his sniper squad for lack of anything better to do.

Combat between the deth-kopta and the missile launchers ties up again, leaving that objective contested.

My fighta-bommas blast away at Pask, trying to avenge Gorkzilla, but can barely scratch his paint.




Results:

At the end of turn 6 the Orks have two objectives, the Imperial Guard claims one, one is contested, and two are unclaimed.

Victory: Orks

Victory Points: a quick tally of remaing points on the table shows the Imperial Guard with roughly 1000 points more than the depleted orks. Notably the Imperials have three relatively undamaged super-heavy tanks and the orks have little left to counter them.

Sly Marbo had been forgotten and hadn’t made an apearance. (I’m guessing he was in Gorkzilla when it went critical and blew.)

Thoughts:

We both had good armies for keeping the game flowing. Even though we both fielded 6000 points, we finished 6 turns in a little less than 6 hours.

The small table size would have killed us if I had brought a horde army. As it was, it turned things into a knife fight from the get-go. We’ll have to plan better next time.

The BOLS Great Gargant Datasheet really wasn’t all that impressive. It certainly wouldn’t compare well to the Warlord Titan datasheet in the Apocalypse book. One major complaint we had with the rules were the relatively few number of weapons it carries. Very quickly it was immobilized, had its weapons destroyed and was taking structure damage. While a Warlord doesn’t only has 4 weapons, each of those weapons is significant enough to make a difference. If ork weapons are going to be less powerful, then they should be more plentiful.

The BOLS sheet weapons pale in comparison with the new Stompa rules in IA8.

We’ll be working up a new Great Gargant sheet that can represent the old Armorcast Great Gargant. We’ll start from the basics of the BOLS sheet and try to improve the rules so that it will compare better with the Warlord. We’re planning on keeping the fixed-cost “buffet” approach of the Warlord titan sheet instead of going the route of the IA8 kustom stompa.

it's cool to see the gargant on the same tabletop as the stompa! i didn't realize there was a size difference between them; i guess i remembered the gargant as smaller and the stompa as bigger!

This is what I imagine Apocalypse to be like, tons of tanks rolling across the battlefield, supers heavies battling it out, at bombers pounding the earth! Great battle report!

Wow nice Batrep, must have been awsome seeing that many models on a table first hand. Oh btw, how are flyers in Apoc anyway, cause they sound fun to use.

Very nice report, loved the Gargant model. Pity about the Valdor though.

Great report!

Nice report. I love to see apoc games. They are so much fun since you get to bring out the big toys. Even if that was a very weak first turn for both sides good game over all.

I will have to add in as well the gargant was a little underwheling.

A warhound titan or a few more stompas would of done better I think. I mean for 2.5k points I would imagine something like that taking out sevral russes at a time.

Good stuff and great photos. Too bad you had to squeeze in to a small table.

Really great to see an armourcast Gargant take the filed - it is much bigger than I realised

CommissarPaine wrote:Wow nice Batrep, must have been awsome seeing that many models on a table first hand. Oh btw, how are flyers in Apoc anyway, cause they sound fun to use.

It was a great game visually, too often I see big battles overrun by lots of unpainted metal and plastic.


The jury is still out for me when it comes to flyers. I've used those three fighta-bommas together in two games now. In the first, they were underwhelming and didn't seem to accomplish much.

In this game they were more effective.

One problem I've had is that the weapon that looks like it should be most effective, the grot-bomb (essentially a one-shot, re-roll scatter battle cannon) is ordnance so the fighta-bomma is limited to just firing one of them in a given turn. For a fighta-bomma armed with two of them, that means you'll spend a couple of the few turns you have firing two shots.

I've yet to make good use of the burna bombs either, in theory they should be great ... but in practice you have to line up exposed enemy infantry that aren't engaged closely with your own troops.

In apocalypse games I probably should schedule their arrival later and take advantage of being able to line up any bomb run I want when I come in from the board edge.