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New player, first time poster, but what the hell.

Challenged to a 3000 point game today by a 'nid fanatic who wanted to test his new Trygon Prime out on my boyz. We'd both been to Games Day at Sydney, where he'd treated himself to an early Christmas, whereas I haven't added a model since last year. We play wysiwyg as much as possible, and because he's clobbered me often he thinks he has my measure. So I figured the only thing to do would be to abandon my strategies of old and try something new. New for me, I mean, which in this case meant a shooty, vehicle-less "green tide" that looked a fair bit like this:

Warboss with 7x nobz and a painboy
Big Mek with 7x nobz (troops choice) and a painboy
Deff Dread (troop choice)
10x warbikers with pk nob
3x deffkoptas
13x lootas
three mobs of 29x shoota boyz with 1x pk nob apiece
29x 'ard shoota boys with a pk nob
three batteries of guns (3x lobbas, kannons and zzap)
and in reserve, 10x kommandos with Boss Snikrot

My opponent, thinking himself clever, kept 1000pts in reserve and basically fielded a 2000 points cc army. I think he was surprised at the absence of orky vehicles on my side of the board, but what really surprised him was that (except for the bikes and koptas) I didn't move from my lines for two turns. Instead I let him come to me and bombarded him from afar, concentrating every missile weapon with range on his bonesabre-wielding Swarm Lord, who I dispatched in Turn 1 to much howling and gnashing of teeth from my opponent. But this still left a crapload of chitin headed my way, and while it was tempting to break formation and give the boyz their head, I held the green tide at bay and made the most out of my second turn of massed BS 2/3 missile fire to bring down a warrior brood, some lictors and a token flock of harpies. We finally got to it after that, and in Turn 3 I felt the wheel of fortune wobble slightly as about 750 additional points worth of 'nids appeared on the board exactly where their General wanted them. Hoping he'd exhausted his allotment of precision scatter-die rolls, I sacrificed my bikes to lure his ymgarls away from my 'ard boyz, who were duking it out with raveners and one very annoying mycetic spore. The sole surviving decoy 'kopta exploded in mid-air when I scattered a kannon-shell into it behind enemy lines. One hundred-plus boyz turned around to find a Trygon Prime making the neighborhood look untidy, so they chopped it up for bait, which cued a second round of wailing and gnashing from my opponent. With the left side of the board finally the right colour, my two squads of nobz tag-teamed through his Hive Tyrant's bodyguard before he could use paroxysm, leech me, or do anything equally annoying, and put their combined pk-goodness to use. With all of his big bugs stomped flat by the jolly green boot, I spent some time smearing his remaining units (the mycetic spore, some persistent termies and hormagaunts) but it was all over bar the shouting and tears by the end of Turn 5. Not a 'nid to be seen. First time I ever tabled anyone, and didn't it feel good.

So what did I learn from that? In my opinion, orky vehicles are a craptacular waste of points. 99% of the time they draw immediate heavy fire and are crippled in the first turn. They are the game's most expensive way of creating a 4+ cover save. Sure they shield your sooky little burnaz, or help plodders like Ghaz get amongst it, if you're lucky. But one thing I am not is lucky. Second thing I learned? Conduct a threat analysis and act with extreme prejudice. Best thing I did was concentrate fire on the Swarm Lord in Turn 1. Even at WS 2, a couple hundred shots at the same target is a lot of pew-pew, and bound to leave a mark. Plus, I was motivated by a phobia towards bonesabres... Third thing I learned is that a painboy standing next to a nob with a pk is a beautiful thing.

So what do you think? I'm an inexperienced player who should probably get around to reading the rulebook one day, but do you think my result was anything more than luck? Believe it or not, the 'nid player had a significantly higher ratio of above-average die-rolls than I did. I'm thinking he made a mistake going in without any long range firepower to soften me up. I will be playing him again, and I know he won't make the same mistake twice. Feedback appreciated.

It is hard to evaluate this game without seeing the Tyranid players list.

Sounds like good strategy on your part, too many people just run at one another rather than trying to decide 'do I really want to be in combat?'

I am unsure why his Swarmlord at that point level was not joined to some Tyrant guard for 4+ cover goodness and extra wounds.

Hello Redaxe,
As a fellow Ork Player, I have not ventured playing them yet in 5th edition, so not fielded them in a while. I think sometimes vehicles have their place and I have seen others use them very effectively. I do agree with you, they are expensive and many times do not stand past turn 1, but if you get 1st turn and can keep them in cover, they can take them up the board. With this army, getting some into CC right away would have been bad for you. It is better to take them out from affar and massing them as you did. I think you played the army very well. Good job. Against, Eldar vehicles and games where you have multiple objectives to capture, you will be hard pressed to capture them as your enemy will likely take out your fast koptas and bikes. Esp. shooty armies like Tau, will annihilate a foot list like yours and it will likely be you that get tabled. That is why in tournements, since you don't know who you will play, wagons are typically used. Take care.

Great tactics against 'nids, but as Eiluj said don't even think about using this list against a shooty army that has a BS better than 2. You may get lots of shots out, but that's not always enough.

No Tyrant Guard on the Swarmlord? Or did you manage to sneak 7 or more wounds on regardless? Either way, that's a good deal for you.

He should have brought Biovores.

NIce.

Im surprised how well you did with a more shooty list. I tried a shooty list for fun against my eldar friend and found out that it was a terrible idea, but mabye against a CC army prooves to be effective. I only have 1 Trukk in my army that i use and granted it doesn't do a whole lot because it does get shot down turn 1 by My tau Friend. (He doesn't like Nobz) Anyways nice win, Good to see a different approach of the Ork Army = D