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That is gonna be one stunningly glorious Grot land battleship!

Had a really fun game with Thing 1 last night to practice with my grot army for a campaign that starts this week at my FLGS. Unfortunately I'm part of a team so I could drag have the participants down the drain due to my lack of 40k acumen & insistence on playing a very silly army... but what the hell. It's supposed to be an enjoyable pastime, isn't it? This isn't really a battle report, but I thought the first official fielding of the grot mega tank needed to be documented.

Here's our layout. We rolled "The Relic" as our primary, maelstrom cards as the secondary (the one where you pull cards equal to the turn number) with linebreaker, first blood and slay the warlord as the tertiary.



Here's the grot deployment... panzers and big squiggoth w/ meganobz & HQ as close to the relic as possible in cover behind some trees. Tree cover we try to go for is heavy enough to actually block line of sight.



I also put a unit of grots on an objective in the cover of some ruins.



Thing 1's army was anchored by twin Predators backed up by a tech marine with servitors. Tac squads in rhinos held the flanks while 10 deep striking terminators were to provide some up-close and personal punch.



Turn one the grots leapt forward to grab the relic.




The grots survived the opening Doom Eagle salvo nearly unscathed by rolling out-of-their-butts when it came to their 5+ invuls (in essence, the pieces blown off the grot tanks by the marines were totally unnecessary to the functioning of the tank!). The grot tanks then surge forward to take the battle to the spess mehrines, knocking out one of the Predators and killing all 3 of the servitors (God I love grotzookas).



Behind the chaos caused by the grot panzers, the mega-armored big mek and meganob escort begin to slip away with the relic.



The trail of tears.... the grot tanks lie burning on the frozen tundra, but not until they'd added the Doom Eagles HQ and a handful of marines to their total.



The mega tank was still unscathed even after being assaulted by a Tac squad with PF sergeant (5+ invuls come through again!).



By game'e end (T5), the relic was safely behind the line of trees under the watchful eye of the meganobz and warlord.



As the objectives piled up and the grot numbers dwindled, Thing 1 really started to catch up in points. I was up by 4... but had the game continued with a possible total of 13 new maelstrom objectives to be earned... he could probably have just sat his units on the 4 objectives he controlled and would have earned enough maelstrom points to beat me.

A really fun game. Thanks son.

Wonderful battle report. The Preds with Techmarine huddling up really impressed me. Also, that mat is lovely as well Gits.

Thanks for the batrep! Man, that table looks great.

Thanks guys. It was a really fun game. The more I think about it the more I'm convinced that Thing 1 would have come on strong in turns 6 & 7 if we'd have continued. It's a crazy fun little army though. Unpredictable but really flexible and tougher to knock down that first appears. It's also easy to play because there aren't a bazillion models to move around.

I just picked up 42 more trees (probably overkill) off ebay from the same company. My plan is to make some "woods" bases that are flocked, that the trees can be added to and removed from. I've always been a big fan of woods terrain pieces. We used to use felt blobs that gave a cover save at the edges and were completely LOS blocking more than a few inches in. My woodland sections should give us real LOS blocking tree areas, which will really add to the look and feel of the mat.

Nice looking game all round, Gits'. Good to see.

Gits I am heartened to see your relentless progress has never ceased lol! Good stuff like always bud

*squeaks like unicorn alarm in li'l sis' kindergarden group* Beakies in old-old-school style painting! Squee!

TOM!!! I'm so happy to "see" you posting on Dakka!! I thought we'd lost you forever my friend! *sob*

Yes, I am still a slave to my minis and the insatiable thirst of the mob. I did take quite a bit of time off to be with my family and just live life this summer though... so my mini tally's for last year were pretty pathetic. I am energized by my orkses however... thus am endeavoring to make as much progress as I can before I get burnt out on them.

@Hroutland: Ah, those would be space marines done by Solar_lion which were actually bought and painted in the period you wax nostalgic for. Yes... he's an old fart.

Nah, my level of interest is certainly far lower than it was a few years ago in the hobby (mostly because I was a GW only type guy), but the end-times stuff has kinda got me enjoying it a bit again fluff wise and made me more interested to see news again, so here I am! Certainly checking in on old friends doesn't hurt too

Work, an obsession with modding guitars and adding a few to my collection and children put a serious dent in my ability to hobby at all. Sooner or later though, I will be able to put in the time painting demands and get something on the table, certainly I want to paint something again one day, the blight knights and the FW verminlord are very tempting atm

Good to see you sir!

Bags of fun was had by the sound of it. And I do love that giant banana tank of yours

That was a good read! I had fingers crossed those little Grots would save the day! :-)

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Thanks guys. It was a really fun game. The more I think about it the more I'm convinced that Thing 1 would have come on strong in turns 6 & 7 if we'd have continued. It's a crazy fun little army though. Unpredictable but really flexible and tougher to knock down that first appears. It's also easy to play because there aren't a bazillion models to move around.

I just picked up 42 more trees (probably overkill) off ebay from the same company. My plan is to make some "woods" bases that are flocked, that the trees can be added to and removed from. I've always been a big fan of woods terrain pieces. We used to use felt blobs that gave a cover save at the edges and were completely LOS blocking more than a few inches in. My woodland sections should give us real LOS blocking tree areas, which will really add to the look and feel of the mat.

Hm. I am trying to make thick autumn and pine woods for my board, I am talking very thick. Tacticals having a hard time traversing it as only one or two fit between all the trees in any directipm etc with lots of brush in the center making it los blocking at times.

People once told me it was a dumb idea, what are your thoughts on it? I think it would be a blast if the trees were destroyable.

P.S Your tanks act like they are from Fury.

@Tom: Seems like you have your priorities in order. Nothing wrong with that. Good to see you again though.

@graven: Yes, quite the banana at the moment... but that'll change 'er long.

@nerdy: Grots for the win!

@Stormwall: I think it's a great idea. In years past we've played on completely forested tables before with only small open pathways or clearings here and there. We just used pieces of felt to simulate the tree stands with standard rules about visibility and movement based on proximity to the wood's edge. Completely changes the game and makes it very fun and challenging. Had a unit of gretchin win a game for me once by marching through the woods from one end of the table to the other because none of my opponent's forces could catch them (he'd committed them early) and nothing could see them to shoot at them because they were deep in the woods and completely hidden. I would recommend that your friends who think this is stupid; a) try something besides their IG & Tau armies, and b) try picking up a book about actual wars... like... Vietnam, Korea and WWII (both in Europe and the Pacific) just to name a few.

Got the wash done on the tank. This is actually a very tedious process as the tank is big enough that I could only do one section at a time... then had to wait around to remove any forming drips, etc. I'll hit it one more time with an airbrush to bring up the yellow a bit in places, but this is much closer to the yellow I'm aiming for.

I like how the wash has placed the details out from the paint for all to see!

Been reading through your plot.
Great stuff!


Love your warm painting style.

U got me hooked for more

 Stormwall wrote:


Hm. I am trying to make thick autumn and pine woods for my board, I am talking very thick. Tacticals having a hard time traversing it as only one or two fit between all the trees in any directipm etc with lots of brush in the center making it los blocking at times.

People once told me it was a dumb idea, what are your thoughts on it? I think it would be a blast if the trees were destroyable.

I'm going to throw my 2 cents in here. Do this. Warhammer 40K is about creating stories. If you create and play on interesting tables, it makes you have to think about things. It makes you have to use units you might not field, otherwise. Change the game up, play scenarios, put weird stuff on the table.

 Stormwall wrote:

Hm. I am trying to make thick autumn and pine woods for my board, I am talking very thick. Tacticals having a hard time traversing it as only one or two fit between all the trees in any directipm etc with lots of brush in the center making it los blocking at times.

People once told me it was a dumb idea, what are your thoughts on it? I think it would be a blast if the trees were destroyable.

I think this is a great idea. Assign the woods pieces the necessary stats like any other building to destroy. Then test run it. I think doing this would make a space marine player deploy a vindicator or two.

Looked like a nice relaxing game Git's. Really love the snow table, loads of trees around sounds like an interesting battlefield. Great for flamers thinking about it

A little battle report from last Wednesday... I don't really have the time to do a proper battle report with all the bells and whistles, but I know several of you were interested in what happened so I'll try my best.


Points: 1250
Deployment: DOW
Primary: The Relic
Secondary: control of 4 other objectives
Tertiary: first blood, slay the warlord, line breaker

Shawn's Sisters of Battle: (this is just a wild guess)
Celestine + 9-10 Seraphim
A priest of some sort
3? Sister's squads bristling with melta (5 each), 2 in rhinos
2 Exorcists
2 Immolators

Git's Grotzapalooza
Big Mek in mega armor, lucky stick, buzz saws, KFF
pain boy
5 meganobz w combi-skorchas
5 grot tanks, 2x grotzookas, 2x rokkit launchas, command tank w/ 2x rokkit launchas
10 grots + runtherd
10 grots + runtherd
Grot Mega Tank, TL rokkit launchas, TL grotzookas, rokkit launcha, 2x kustom mega blastas
Dakka Jet, boss, 3x TL super shootas
Big Squiggoth, snakebite combat drugs

My opponent Shawn is one of my favorite people to play. He's been playing as long as I have and has assumed the role of the "sun" in the Madison 40k solar system by being the principal organizer of the local league. He's also more interested in having fun and playing a cool army than being uber-competitive... so our similar attitudes pretty much guarantee a very enjoyable game. Shawn also has his own YouTube channel where he posts video battle reports, reviews, answers 40k questions and such. Here's the link to his YouTube channel "Wargamer Shawn", I highly recommend it. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCirv7zjwzoIuzVOVIERJ9pg The bonus is that Shawn recorded our game & will be eventually posting it. I'll add the link when I know its up.

To the game...

I deploy and choose to go first, Shawn does not steal the initiative.


Deployment:

Unfortunately in this picture you can only see one of the five objectives (the poker chip in the lower right). The relic is just behind the roof of the cottage in the foreground. The other objectives are scattered on the far side of the table on both the right, left and center. Having just ran a practice of this mission against Thing 1 (total coincidence), I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I placed the mega-nob laden Big Squiggoth as close to the relic as I could (unfortunately it was over 12" away due to intervening terrain) & put all the grot tanks in close support just to the right. The Sisters deploy their cowardly selves hiding behind whatever pile of rubbish they can find.







Ork Turn 1

The Big Squiggoth makes a b-line for the relic while the grot tanks split up in order to take some pot-shots at the immolators hiding (cowardly gits) behind the tower. I would have liked to concentrate all the grot tanks on a single immolator, but there just wasn't the space. I do a hull point on each. Not great but I'll take it.





Sisters Turn 1

The Sisters move out and a million melta guns and super PMS-ML shots unload on my grot tanks, reducing the squad to one... lone... intrepid... grot tank. They also knock a turret off my battleship.






Orks Turn 2

Well, all those Sisters with melta guns in my lines need to die. The squiggoth makes it's way to the relic and claims it, while the meganobz pile out of the beastie and put the wood to the Sisters. Their follow up move takes them around the corner so they can slam into the Sister's armor on the next turn.




A unit of grots come on and claim an objective behind the safety of a rock wall.



The dakkajet also arrives & takes out some infantry. Not as exciting as I'd hoped.





Sisters Turn 2

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of Shawn's turn 2... however in short... the meltas and PMS missile launcher obliterated nearly all of my meganobz, leaving only the big mek, the painboy and one meganob. They do not run however... so far, so good.



Orks Turn 3

My squiggoth falls back slowly with the relic, using the cottage to keep out of sight of the ML tank of death. The last remaining grot tank joins the mega tank and both shoot uselessly at the meta-nuns. Grots come on and take objective in center of my deployment zone.




More interestingly... the last remnants of the meganob squad multi-charges and blows up both Immolators. I'll take it.



To crown a pretty darn good turn, the dakka jet shoots the bejeezus out of one of the Exorcist missile launchers. Thank God.





Sisters Turn 3

Unfortunately at this point, the pictures I took don't really lend to a good narrative... but I'll remember what I can. Also my back decided to have a major malfunction... so I spend the rest of the game sitting and in pain.

The Sisters move forward aggressively. Trying to claim objectives and herding my squiggoth back into the far corner. I get lucky and only lose the last meganob while still retaining both HQs. My grot tanks make all their 5+ invuls so live another day. A Sisters rhino moves up towards where my squiggoth is retreating from... it's filled with a small unit of melta-nuns.





Orks Turn 4

Dakkajet flies off table. Mega tank moves to split fire between advancing rhino and straggling sisters on right side of tower. Squiggoth continues to move towards far left corner. Here's a shot of the Mega Tank... how I LOVE the battleship configuration and the fact that each gun can target independently (just look at the way the guns are facing). Last grot tank and mega tank finish off the melta sisters out-of-frame on the right while the leftward pointing turrets take a hull point off the rhino.




Sisters Turn 4

Saraphim squad of death finally comes in right in the center of my depleted line... then mishaps. I place them wayyyyyy over in the far corner. The blasted PMS missile launcher tank wipes both my HQs off the board along with melta sisters fire. Sisters unload out of rhino and shoot at my squiggoth, putting a wound on it. Seraphim start moving towards grots holding objective in lower right.



Turns 5 & 6

Dakkajet comes on and takes out the OTHER Exorcist. Squiggoth charges and kills 2/5 of the melta-sisters squad. Grot tanks shoot and wreck (I think) forward rhino. The various surviving elements of the Sisters army cover two of the objectives on my right while the Saraphim drive towards the grots holding one of my two objectives in the corner. In the last turn, my squiggoth finishes off the melta-nuns in cc and the Seraphim flame my grots off of their objective. Nothing else of note happens. We roll and game ends.



Final results:

Orks: Primary (12) and First Blood (1): 13 pts
Sisters: Secondary (10) and Slay the Warlord (1): 11 pts


Very close, very fun game. Thanks so much Shawn! My pleasure to play you any chance I get!

Da Orks prove dey iz da best!

Battle rep is up on YouTube!

Sorry, I can't figure out how to post the link from my phone.

Here ya go Gitz let me help with this... Check it out. If you like it please subscribe. Thanks and thanks Art for putting this up.
Gitz is always a joy to play. He and I have been playing this game long enough that cut throat competition is not really our thing. I also like to play armies that people say are bad and try to win with them.. Just to prove them wrong. I like the underdog. Thanks Art for posting. Cheers all.

Jesus! You put one on youtube? Thank you, can't wait to watch!

Not Jesus, Shawn!

... heh, walked into that.

You can see from the video why Shawn is so much fun to play. Very fun game. Lots of teasing to go around to be sure. I was very pleased with all of my grot units. Stupid of me to get my mega nobs killed but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I should have reviewed his video before writing the battle report though... there's some obvious inconsistencies in my account. *sigh* I've got a mind like a steel.... sieve.

Definitely getting another mega tank. Too useful. Next game goes up to 1500 pts. Was able to very cleanly bump the army up to that level while maintaining the overall theme. Clearly, I'm approaching this all from a fun/fluff standpoint... but then again it's a campaign... not a tournament. If I can't be fluffy now, then when??

Gitz I thought the same at first for the meganobz, but honestly, I was going to go for them no matter what as they were my biggest threat as they could wreck me. They did take out a sister squad (dominions) and two immolators (which have TL multimeltas) before I stopped them, they did work and kept the rest of your stuff safe - namely the tanks and the squiggoth, who I had to ignore for a good deal of the battle. Now my stupid seraphim squad and St. Celestine could have come earlier or DS nicely. But thinking back I should have just started them on the board Celestine has a 2up 4up so she could have taken a lot of punishment and still dealt out more hurt. Anyway, fun as always and cheers man

Great batrep- looks like you guys had a blast
Nice to see some Sisters seeing the table, too. Always wanted to start up an army of my own, but those minis are really hard to get these days!

In other news, the yellows are looking great, as we've come to expect from your orks. Eager to see how you approach the rest of it!

Thanks Ramos. The big tank is just yellow at the moment, long way to go yet. Hope to get the ball rolling on it again tonight.