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As a friendly game, Yakface accepted my open invitation to play a 1500 point heads up match on a lazy thursday. We met at Dragons Den Games inside of Meltdown Comics on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Yak brought his battlemissions book and we rolled the following mission:

My speed freaks Orks are defending a airport and Yak's Tau are striking with a surprise attack. You get 3 points for killing hq, 1 point for killing troop, and 2 points for anything else. If you're not scratching your head about speedfreaks defending an outpost against tau, save your head scratching for the end of this batrep.

I deployed my orks anywhere on the board 12 inches from an edge and every unit 6 inches from eachother... which was bad news for my kff and it's 6inch range.

My list:

Wazdakka
Warbikers (x7) w/ nob pk bp
Warbikers (x7) w/ nob pk bp
Warbikers (x3) w/ nob pk bp
Big Mek w/ KFF
Trukk Boyz (x11)
Trukk Boyz (x12)
Trukk Boyz (x11)
Deffkopta w/ buzzsaw
Deffkopta w/ buzzsaw
Lootas (8)


Yak now on his turn, turn 1, comes in off any board edge with his entire army.

Yakfaces list:

Shas'medium w/ airbursting fragmentation
Crisis suits (x2) w/ plasma, flamer...etc
Crisis suits (x2) w/ plasma, flamer...etc
Firewarriors (x6)
Devilfish + sms, flechette, etc
Firewarriors (x6)
Devilfish + sms, flechette, etc
Tetras (x2)
Tetras (x2)
Broadsides (x2) w/ shield drones
Hammerhead - railgun, sms
(that's just the gist, maybe we can get Yak on here to improve the quality of this list)


Guess where Yak came in? Yep you guessed it, in a costco sized package. This was a good move because he can focus his entire firepower on one unit at a time, and then I'll have to dive into his castled up green dudes.



He popped the first 7 man biker squad with his last bit of firepower.. now my turn. I had to assemble the troops which were spread out all over the board. Mainly this turn I just got into position, turboboosted, and drove some trukks 19 inches.. Wazdakka tried to go up against the hammerhead but it had moved over six so I couldn't hit. One solo nob from the 3 man squad went up against the broadsides, locking them up for a while. I was starting to feel the inability to bear my full army upon the enemy in one shoot. Piecemeal wasn't going to cut it any more.

In Yak's turn, his kroot worked on some of the trukk boyz and tetras ran around markerlighting things. He castled up and prepared for the turn 2 onslaught of orks.



In come the trukk boyz, I hit the first crisis squad hard and one of the two 6 man firewarriors got caught in the mele and took some hurt. Then the boyz consolidate and eye the second crisis squad. In come the second biker squads from the other side of the board to back up the badly hurt trukk boyz.



Yak's revenge comes swiftly, the suits line up and flame and airburst the open boyz and wipe the squad off the map.



Wazdakkas the only one left on this side of the map at this point, he rips the railgun off the hammerhead and then runs off turboboosting and shooting behind some cover with one wound left. Remember, in this setup an hq gives 3 points, which is not a good thing to give up. Unfortunately the tetras and devilfish pick him off giving Yak 3 points. (everyone watching the game was cheering at that point) I almost turboboosted to saftey, but that's just not what orks do!

Back at the main scuffle, the second trukk boy squad which got up there untouched (strangely enough) and unloaded right in front of the second crisis squad with hq... and the warbikers whipped past the kroot and the tetras to help out their teammates with the leader squad. Then once they devoured the leader squad and set their sights on the kroot.




During the next turn, Yak had a kroot squad, three tetras, a few units here or there but nothing really. Then something happened I didn't expect. The kroot wounded 7 bikes and I lost the remaining warbikers... the sms on the hammerhead killed 4 orks and the sms on the two devilfish smoked the walking trukk boyz. The last 6 firewarriors smashed the last kopta and I was left with 2 empty trukks, one immobilized. This is what I was left with at the end of the battle:






Sure I ate all his fireclass, but I couldn't lay a finger on the plethora of mech he had. I collected 21 points, he collected 29.

Good game Yakface...

Very ncie, ncie amount of pictures too, conveyed the right amount of info.

Dig the blue orks too.

Tetra is a FW piece right ?

Cool report. It's always refreshing to see non tourney type games with nice looking armies/terrain. I bought the Battle Missions book some time ago, but have only played one mission out of it.

I'm pretty sure the Tetra is a FW items. Kudos for pulling out some nice units from FW for the sake of having a fun game.

Neat report; always good to see those Tau in action.

reds8n wrote:Very ncie, ncie amount of pictures too, conveyed the right amount of info.

Dig the blue orks too.

Tetra is a FW piece right ?

Tetras are 10/10/10 open-topped fast skimmers; they carry a markerlight & a twin-linked pulse rifle. They're absolutely lovely for Tau, as they provide highly-mobile marker lights.

Yes they're quite nasty for tau, a quick markerlight on a tiny platform with mobility. Did I mention it moves? Add in the fact that it's a low priority due to lack of serious guns and those things survive and bump your bs all game long.

tldr wrote:Yes they're quite nasty for tau, a quick markerlight on a tiny platform with mobility. Did I mention it moves? Add in the fact that it's a low priority due to lack of serious guns and those things survive and bump your bs all game long.

Plus, they're cute li'l things.

I'd love to be able to legally run Tetras.

Good battle report! Thank you!

Sweet batrep. I liked that you guys took it easy and played a casual game rather than a "hardcore" game. I also appreciated seeing FW units in a list. I hate that people get pissy over the use of FW units. I think they add a nice challenge to the games..or at least changes up the status quo you see in so many spam lists these days.

CaptKaruthors wrote:Sweet batrep. I liked that you guys took it easy and played a casual game rather than a "hardcore" game. I also appreciated seeing FW units in a list. I hate that people get pissy over the use of FW units. I think they add a nice challenge to the games..or at least changes up the status quo you see in so many spam lists these days.

A lot of FW items are just good fun - they add a little variety, and aren't especially powerful for their costs. Some FW items are still fun, but are actually useful, from a cost/benefit perspective (the Tetra falls here). Some FW items are ill-conceived and too useful for their points (e.g., the Hades drill).

But almost all FW items are pretty toys, and there should be room to play with them, especially in non-tournament settings.

A lot of FW items are just good fun - they add a little variety, and aren't especially powerful for their costs. Some FW items are still fun, but are actually useful, from a cost/benefit perspective (the Tetra falls here). Some FW items are ill-conceived and too useful for their points (e.g., the Hades drill).

There is very few OTT FW units anymore. The Hades Drill and the Lucius pattern dreadnoughts are really the only ones that, in certain armies, are rude to the extreme. However, in friendly games I don't see a problem with them because usually in friendly games, people aren't trying to "break the system" as it were.

But almost all FW items are pretty toys, and there should be room to play with them, especially in non-tournament settings.

Agreed.

Great looking armies and scenery too.

Nice report! The armies and terrian looked ace as well.

Wow. I was almost sure that Tau was done for, especially against a Speed Freak army. Guess you shouldn't have spread out like you did.

CaptKaruthors wrote:
There is very few OTT FW units anymore. The Hades Drill and the Lucius pattern dreadnoughts are really the only ones that, in certain armies, are rude to the extreme. However, in friendly games I don't see a problem with them because usually in friendly games, people aren't trying to "break the system" as it were.

I beg to differ. Some FW units - Caestus Assault Ram, Land Raider Achilles, Grey Knight Land Raider Redeemer, Nurgle Blight Drones, Tomb Spider and the Eldar Warp Hunter just to name a few - are just too good for their costs and gives the player with the model a big advantage (of course in the case of Daemonhunters and Necrons, they need all the help they can get). Anyways, as long as the opponent is ok with it, then have at it. If my opponent brought a FW model with him to regular 40k (and as long as it isn't a super-heavy or gargantuan), I wouldn't have a problem with him using it in casual games against me.

Tomb Spider is a codex entry, I think you meant to say Tomb Stalker(Centipede-like mech)

shasolenzabi wrote:Tomb Spider is a codex entry, I think you meant to say Tomb Stalker(Centipede-like mech)

Right.

Good battle report. It's good to see two armies seldom played (Tau and Ork War Bikers).

jy2 wrote:Wow. I was almost sure that Tau was done for, especially against a Speed Freak army. Guess you shouldn't have spread out like you did.

Tau struggles against Nobz Bikers, but not against normal Ork War Bikers.

jy2 wrote:Wow. I was almost sure that Tau was done for, especially against a Speed Freak army. Guess you shouldn't have spread out like you did.

They were playing the Surprise Assault scenario out of Battle Missions. The defender (TLDR's Orks) must deploy on the board (no reserves) and cannot deploy any unit within 6" of another. It ridiculously favors the attacker, probably the least balanced mission in the book.

This battle reminds me of avatar. Great battle though.

Nice Batrep with a really good selection of pictures. Could've done with a bit more writing IMHO, but otherwise it was a great read and both armies were really well painted - blue orks!

Was a seriously nice read, didn't see the Tau coming out on top either...
Btw. You're missing the Kroot at least from Yak's list...

Thanks for the good game and the nice write-up! It looks like you took just the right amount of pictures to get the 'flow' of the game across. Whenever I try to take pics of the game I always end up forgetting at some point and missing something important, so kudos!

This was the first time I've gotten to play a Battle Missions game (as I've only been playing tournaments for a few years now, given I work at night) and it was a blast! We went with the purely random Battle Mission selection where you roll to see who will be the 'featured army' and who will be the 'enemy'. I got the featured army and he was the 'enemy'. We then rolled randomly for the mission.

I knew going in that playing with Battle Missions could mean a lopsided game, especially with Tau's weaknesses in many areas, but I figured I wanted something fun and exciting and if ended up meaning I would be fighting an uphill battle, then so be it! As it turned out, the mission definitely gave me a slight advantage, but he was definitely still in it and if a few combats had ended on my turn instead of on his turn then things could have easily have turned around.

Although ultimately his lack of ranged AT firepower besides his one squad of lootas meant that my vehicles were pretty tough for him to tackle as long as I kept moving over 6" (which I did).

The best part about playing with the Battle Missions IMHO, was the theme that the game then had. This was 'surprise assault' (a Space Marine mission) and the theme behind the mission is that the attacker is trying to go in and wipe out the opponent's HQ units (which is why they're worth 3 Kill Points). And if there was a situation where Tau would be attacking Orks, that would be it! So it fit perfectly, you could totally see that this was a Speed Freak camp that the Tau were suddenly hitting out of the blue.

Unfortunately for tldr, the two bonuses the defender gets in this mission is the Stubborn and Move Through Cover USRs for every unit. Its clear that as the defender you're supposed to be able to sit in terrain and hold it. However, all his units (besides the Lootas) are Bikes or in Trukks, so they didn't get to use 'Move Through Cover' and certainly Orks have nothing to fear from Tau in combat, so 'Stubborn' was pretty useless to him as well.

But at the end of the day, I think it was a bunch of fun and I really look forward to trying out some other missions from the Battle Missions book and since tldr can play in the afternoon we've already talked about meeting up and playing with some other old school armies we have that rarely see the light of day anymore (at least on my end).


Oh and my list was:

Shas'el w/plasma, Airbursting Frag projector, targeting array, multi-tracker, target lock.

2x2 Crisis Suits w/ plasma, missile pods & multi-tracker. team leader w/ bonding knife additional flamer, 2 gun drones.

2x6 Firewarrior units mounted in Devilfish w/ SMS, targeting array, multi-tracker, disruption pod & flechette.

12 Kroot.

2x2 Tetras w/ targeting arrays & disruption pods.

2 Broadsides w/ stabilization systems, team leader w/ bonding knife, 2 shield drones.

Hammerhead w/ SMS, target lock, multi-tracker, disruption pod, flechette.

tldr wrote: If you're not scratching your head about speedfreaks defending an outpost against tau, save your head scratching for the end of this batrep.

I was headscratching why there were lootas in a SpeedFreaks army... not exactly free wheeling.

Because it's a great unit and otherwise I wouldn't have some heavy backup?