I posted last week the 3-way game between me, an ork player, and a tyranid player. This week I set out to attack the ork player one on one to take one of his outlying territories.
The attack was supposed to be a normal game, but when I arrived, he'd already set up a defensive network using his own terrain he brought from home, including an orkified chaos temple. I couldn't let all that work go to waste, so I modified my list for a planetstrike and we set up.
My list:
2 lash princes
greater daemon
2 squads of chaos marines with a meltagun and aspiring champion
2 squads of noisemarines with doomsiren champions
6 terminators, close combat upgrades, powerfist, "Icon of the Gladiator" [counts-as khorne. yeah yeah....]
6 terminators, similar setup
5 terminators, similar setup but no icon
2 individual obliterators
His army:
Warboss
Mekboy w/ shokk attack gun "Shokka Zulu"
20 shoota boyz with 2 big shootas, nob
30 slugga boyz w/ nob
30 shoota boyz w/ nob
30 grots, 3 runtherds with squighounds
12 'ard Boyz with nob in a trukk
3 individual killakanz with rokkits
deff dread with rokkit, big shoota
Buggy w/ T/L big shoota
******NOTE*******
All the pictures at the end of the battle report [from the link] are from his side of the table, so all the cardinal directions [east, west] will be reversed.
He filled his trenches as seen in the pics with orks. Nobs in northeast bunker, 20 shootas in central open-topped bunker, grots and mekboy in open-topped bunker on the west side.
My firestorm did nothing. I shook a killakan, ripped off its
ccw, and killed 3 orks. Big whoop. I hate my scatter dice, and the vehicle damage table, too!
Turn 1, Emperor's Children
Only 1 squad of the terminators came down, but a prince, one melta
CSM squad, both squads of noisemarines and two obliterators came too. The termies' combi-meltas got a "weapon destroyed" on his northeast bunker. It had no weapons, but I wasn't going to penalize him for bringing his custom terrain rather than buying a $30 bastion, so I let it soak the hit as if it had one. A
CSM squad tried to shoot as well, getting another weapon destroyed, which I let it soak - bastions should be harder to kill than letting any damage result scale up to wrecked all the time! Daemon Prince attempted to lash some boyz out of their trenches so I could hit them with flamers and doomsirens, but everything was in just the wrong position. Obliterator tried to take out a killakan that I knew would cause trouble with its dread
ccw. Failed horribly. Terminators charged bunker and wrecked it solid.
Turn 1, Orks
COLUMN SHIFT, RIGHT! The orks came out like a tide, moving, doing a little shooting, then charging. The 'ard boyz came out from my drop zone, taking out my "Forward Observer" strategem in the process. The 30-strong shootas and 'ard boyz double-charged an obliterator and the daemon prince. The slugga boyz charged the 5-man
CSM squad, both killakanz charged a squad of noisemarines, and the nobs charged the terminators. The terminators were wiped out, the
CSM were reduced to an aspiring champion that fled, the noisemarines were wiped out, the obliterator was wounded and the daemon prince was brought to 1 wound.
Turn 2, Emperor's Children
Everyone else joined the party. After moving and charging, then piling in/consolidating, the temple looked deserted. I saw an opportunity. On the west flank, I dropped the 5-man terminator squad, the other prince, and the other
CSM squad, all of which tried scattering towards some trees in the northwest corner. The wind of chaos blows strong! The other squad of terminators I dropped into the middle of the whole mess, ready to do some counter-charging and really mess things up. The greater daemon turned the fleeing aspiring champion into goo. I moved the surviving squad of noisemarines, ready to unleash a doomsiren and then charge. The greater daemon ran in the shooting phase, luring the nobs further away from the center. The unengaged oblit moved to go after a killakan with its meltaguns. In the shooting phase, the chaos terminators on the west flank blew the grot's bunker sky high. With only a T of 2, 30 S4 hits from the destruction reduced the unit to 5 models, including the mekboy. I tried to lash them out of their new cover, but rolled very low. The obliterator's meltagun blew off the
ccw of the killakan, while the doomsiren did little to the slugga boyz, much to my dismay. In assault, the other 6-strong terminator squad charged into the ongoing combat of the shootas and 'ard boyz with the obliterator and daemon prince. The oblit charged the killakan to finish the job, and the noisemarines charge the slugga boyz, forgetting that he can take casualties from models that aren't fighting. The terminators on the west charge through cover to the mekboy and his unit and even without power weapons, they kill 2 terminators before getting killed. The other side saw all of the 'ard boyz and the shoota boyz getting wiped out, but not before they dragged down the obliterator and the daemon prince with them. The noisemarines were horribly slaughtered. Despite some good damage, he took all his casualties from models not even fighting [forgot about that] and the rest butchered the
NM. The obliterator failed to do any damage to the killakan.
Turn 2, Orks
His buggy showed up! It moved onto the board, ready to shoot stuff. His nobs moved and charged the greater daemon, a killakan shot and wounded the west side [still living] daemon prince, and the shoota boyz unloaded from the center to shoot, doing no damage to the terminators on the west. The trukk idled, while the slugga boyz, after consolidating from the previous combat with the noisemarines.....
See, I figured 6 "gladiatorial" terminators would be able to take the charge from....15 or so orks. Going first, lots of attacks....I think I'd do enough damage to survive the reduced number of attacks that came at me, then do more damage with the powerfists, bringing them below the fearless level and losing combat by a lot. That didn't happen. The slugga boyz fired their pistols, dealing 5 wounds to the terminators, who promptly failed FOUR of the 2+ armor saves. Reduced to 2 models, the unit crumpled like paper when the boyz came upon them. The greater daemon killed the warboss, then weathered all of the attacks from the unit of nobs, taking 2 wounds [it took one from shooting] after passing lots of 4+ saves. Combat was a draw! .....But wait! Don't forget the 'urty syringe! 3 hits, 3 wounds, 2 failed saves later the greater daemon is dragged down. The obliterator finishes its killakan, while the shootas and deff dread try to charge the terminators in the west. The shootas flub the difficult terrain roll, and the dread goes in alone. It kills nothing, and gets blown up in return.
Turn 3, Emperor's Children.
The prince,
CSM, and surviving terminators in the west move forward, Lashing the shoota boyz into and beyond the trenches in a nice flamer formation. The terminator's heavy flamer does its work, and the prince, terminators, and
CSM charge the orks. Down to just 2 orks, they fail their morale test - but the nob smacks the silly git screaming about retreat and rolls snake eyes on his bosspole re-roll, so he stays put! The lonely obliterator shoots and kills one of the remaining killakanz that's down the field, threatening my west side force, which is rapidly depleting in numbers.
Turn 3, Orks
The 'Ard Boyz trukk moves forward, and the nobs move closer, ready to load up in the following turn. The slugga boyz charge the obliterator, killing him, and consolidating closer. The surviving killakan turns around and heads back to join the main fight. The lone nob is killed on the west side, clearing it of orks - well, almost. The buggy turboboosted into the crater of the grot's bunker, waiting it out.
Turn 4, Emperor's Children
These summaries are getting shorter, aren't they? Prince flew to the other side of the building, down to 2 wounds now after the beating he's taken. He lashes the nobs, so that the trukk will have to move closer for them to embark, and they'll lose a turn of approach on the center. The lone
CSM with a meltagun blows up the buggy, while the chaos terminators hunker down and pretty much stand there, ready to grab the objective [big mistake, go into that soon].
Turn 4, Orks.
The trukk moves forward, and the nobs embark. The sluggas move toward the center, and the lone killakan charges the daemon prince, who kills it before it can strike.
Turn 5, Emperor's Children
The lone
CSM moves into the crater of the grot bunker, claiming the objective. The terminators move to touch the center building, holding onto that and hoping some calamity befalls the oncoming orks. The prince flies to the front of the central bunker, and has options - he can lash the slugga boyz forward and charge them, hoping their fewer attacks and S3 won't kill him, and he'll reduce them below 11 models and they'll fail a morale check. Or, he can lash them away, hoping they'll go far enough to maybe not reach him. I knew he still had his Waaagh, but he could still roll poorly on that. He MIGHT have to send his nobs to kill the prince then, which means I'd take the center, and the west, and win. He could also devote either the nobs or the sluggas to taking the cratered nob bunker, which was uncontested, and then if he could kill the terminators he'd have the win there, too. If all he did was kill the terminators, I'd still win due to the daemon prince touching the objective. It was a hard decision. The sluggas could flub their waaagh run, and would still need to roll difficult terrain to reach the prince.
I decided to lash the sluggas away. I rolled a good distance. Now to see...
Turn 5, Orks
At first he planned to turboboost the trukk 18" to guarantee he could assault the next turn without fail, if the game went on [gambling on that!]. He decided to move only 12 and unload, while the sluggas advanced towards the daemon prince, ignoring the former bunker the nobs started in. Now he had to kill the terminators and the daemon prince, and he'd have a tie - which is good enough for the campaign to keep from losing a territory. He calls his Waaagh, sending the sluggas considerably forward and the nobs......one inch. Then, the kicker - his trukk pops off its big shoota at the lone
CSM holding the grot bunker crater, and kills him! It's all down to the center now, who will hold it! The sluggas roll good enough for their difficult terrain check to go right into the daemon prince, overwhelming and dragging him down. The nobs, tempted to roll a difficult terrain check to go through the ruins [because we forgot it was a bastion at the time] decide then not to leave it to chance, and walk around. The leading nob is juuuuuuuuuuust barely within assault range. Though the terminators get their attacks, they can't withstand the amount of powerclaws being toted in that unit, and are wiped off the board, sealing a victory for the orks!
Aftermath
I couldn't believe I lose 4 terminators to 5 wounds from ork pistols. That completely crumbled that flank, and let those sluggas roam free, which eventually cost me dearly. The sniper big shoota from the trukk also contributed, and I hate him for it! And in hindsight, on the last turn I should have lashed the orks forward and charged them - the worst that would have happened would be that the prince died anyway, and the boys could then easily reach the terminators on the opposite side.
BUT, the REAL mistake of this whole deal was that I forgot the center building was a "bastion" of sorts, and my terminators could have gotten INSIDE of it! With no ranged weapons capable of popping it, the best he could do is assault it, which would only destroy the bastion itself, leaving the terminators on the crater and thus claiming the objective, as attackers are favored in terms of contesting. Provided 2 strength 4 hits from an annihilated bastion didn't kill my terminators, I'd have held onto a victory. HAD I loaded up, with that confidense I'd have kept my prince back, less vulnerable to those orks, and honestly probably lashed them into a position to fire the terminators' heavy flamer at them from the open top of the center bastion. If only I'd remembered!
Still though, a GREAT game, really down to the wire and really back and forth each turn. I think I played well, with the whole of the green tide being pulled to one side, leaving the left wide open for a relatively small force to run amok. Check out the pictures from the fight! It's near the bottom of this link, under "Turn 8". Hope you liked reading, and enjoy the pics!
http://mysite.verizon.net/krista.smith/HTcampaign.htm#turn8
