My favorite opponent and good friend Wel-torb has been deployed to Iraq for 13 months so I decided to start playing games at my
FLGS. Last week I met Locclo and played against his Tau army.
This week I joined the Planetary Empires campaign. You start with six tiles and try to conquer others on the same planet. There are bonuses if you win and what type of tile you attempt to conquer.
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Each week the host decides which type of games are played. This week was 3000 Apocalypse with anything on foot claiming objectives. Infantry cannot be in vehicles to claim and the game last 6 turns. The deployment was long table edges 12” from the edge which certainly changed my game plan. I was planning on the 12” no-man’s-land but house rules are house rules.
My opponent was Eric whom I played last year at 'Ard Boyz.
My list was:
155 pts. BikerBoss with Shoota/Skorcha,
PK, Attack Squig, Cybork Body
105 pts. Big Mek with Burna and
KFF
113 pts. Big Mek with
SAG, Ammo Runt, Cybork Body, and Bosspole
225 pts. 15 Burna Boyz
175 pts. 3 Mega Nobz, 1 normal, 1 with Rokkit, 1 with Skorcha (They never fired a shot all game) in Trukk
160 pts. 19 Boyz with
PK, Bosspole Nob X 2
140 pts. Battlewagon with Kannon, Deff Rolla, Armor Plates,
RPJ, and Grot Riggers X 3 AKA the Tin Kannonz
93 pts. Big Gunz with 3 Kannons, 3 Ammo Runts, and 8 Extra Grotz
50 pts. Kult of Speed Apocalypse – Every vehicle and Bike mob gets a free Strategic Redeployment every turn!!! (One of my 2 MVP’s this game)
---155 pts. BikerBoss with Shoota/Skorcha,
PK, Attack Squig, Cybork Body
---510 pts. Nobz with 9 sets of gear, Painboy, and trukk
---152 pts. Trukk boyz X2
---165 pts. 4 Bikerboyz with
PK, Bosspole Nob
---140 pts. 3 Bikerboyz with
PK, Bosspole Nob
---35 pts. Twin
BS Wartrakk X 2 (Had to take them, worthless, should have taken the time to convert them to Twin Rokkits)
Eric’s List:
Incedibly well painted Baneblade, the pics. don’t due it justice.
Leman Russ Battle Cannon Apocalypse Squadon with various sponsons and hull mounted weapons (lots o’ plasma and heavy flamers!) Ignore Crew Shaken if Command tank is mobile.
Leman Russ Demolisher Apocalypse Squadon with various sponsons and hull mounted weapons (more plasma and heavy flamers ouch!) Ignore Crew Shaken if Command tank is mobile.
Pask in a Lemon Rust Vanquisher with plasma sponsons.
Vet. Squad with Lascannon in Chimera X2
Valkyrie with 10 man Grey Knight squad with Nemesis Force weapons and power weapons and some super shooty gun which ignores
Inv. saves.
Another 10 man squad of Grey Knights on the ground, similar equipment. (I had no idea what the hell these things were or all their super powers. I was looking at the beautiful paint jobs on the Baneblade and Valk.)
Almost forgot: Marbo
Deployment:
We throw some terrain on and both sides are about equal, I choose one and deploy first after bidding 7 mins. Eric bid 30 so no problem there. We both deploy everything with the exception of Marbo who has to be in reserves. This is when we find out about the deployment zones
The Kult of Speed has to be deployed within 18” of the Boss so he goes down in the middle as far forward as possible. The rest of the Kult deploys around him to the left. The Tin Kannoz go on his right with the 2 20 ork mobz in left and right ones and the Burnas with
KFF mek in the middle. My 3 Mega Nobz in trukk next to that and the Big Guns and
SAG Mek deploy in terrain on the far right. My non-Kult Boss hides behind the BW’s.
He Deploys his Baneblade in the opposite corner of my
SAG Mek with Pask next to it. Then his Valk with Grey Knights and the 2nd squad of Grey Knights in terrain in front of that. Then the Demolishers with a Vet Chimera on either flank. Then for some reason the
LR Battle Cannon Squadron goes way to his left all by it’s self? (He admited at the end of the game this was a big mistake for him.)
6 objectives with the one next to his Baneblade worth double for him.
Turn 1
Everything that can Redeploy does straight at the gap between his 2 tank squadrons. I’m just able to squeeze in 1 bike squad and line them up in an arc 12” away from his demolishers with my Trukks behind for cover. The Mega Nobz and non-Kult Boss move towards the Battle Cannon squadron. For some odd reason one Wartrakk moves behind a piece of area terrain and the other behind the guns. The Tin Kannoz move up 13” for a whole lotta do nothing for now.
The first thing that fires is the
SAG at his Grey Knights, this is when I learn about “Shrouding”.
3D6 x 3” to see them. Well they’re kitty korner to my
SAG so needless to say the
SAG doesn’t fire that turn
The Big Gunz knock off a turret on the closest Battle Cannon
LR. Not bad for 3
Str. 8 shots that can only glance. This is when I learn that Apocalypse squadrons do not share hits among them. That’s it for shooting!
His whole army moves 6” back and to the left, the Valk moves 12”. The Valk manages to stun the left most BW which is downgraded to driver shaken thanks to Armor Plates. The rest of his army starts to pie plate the bikes and trucks. I roll the best cover saves of my life and lose only 1 25 point bike
Turn 2
All bikes, BW’s, and Trukks move forward. 1 trukkload of boyz, the regular Nobz, and the Mega Nobz disembarks. I call the Waghhh to try and get my Nobz in charge range of his Demolishers.
Once again the first thing to fire is the
SAG, now at the middle back Demolisher. Double 5 catapults the Mek in front of the Rear Armor 11 vehicle. I was thinking of giving him a
PK and now it would have paid off!! Oh well. Big Gunz are worthless in shooting. The Kult Boss and his Bike Mob of Three shoot the side armor of the Chimera which is
AV 10. It explodes so now I can assault the innards with da boyz!
The Mega Nobz assault and explode the lead Battle Cannon
LR. The Warboss takes a wound! The Warboss explodes the second one. The trukk boyz assault the ex-Chimera’s vets and wipes them out. The regular Nobz assault 2 of the Demolishers, wrecking one and popping the turret on the second one. The
SAG mek has 4
Str. 5 attacks. He needs 4+ to hit, 6’s to glance and he does . . . absolutely nothing
Marbo shows up in difficult terrain with the Big Gunz. Eric moves stuff a little bit but not too much to get in a lot of sponson shots. He unloads as much as he can against the Nobz. Shots scatter, cover saves,
Inv. saves, and Feel No Pain yields 4 Nobz wounded. I have to admit I’m a pretty happy camper right about now! Also his surving demolisher scatters onto his own Grey Knights and kills 3 of them!! Marbo demo charges the grots killing a few but then does not assault.
Turn 3
BW’s, Nobz, and bikes move towards his tanks. The other trukk boyz move toward the last Battle Cannon
LR along with the non-Kult BikerBoss.
The
SAG Mek shoots at the Valk and it scatters off the board. The Big Gunz and grots shoot Marbo. The gunz misses but the grotz are able to finish him off with their Grot Blasters despite his cover saves.
Nobz assault the Demolishers, the second Vet. Chimera and the Grey Knights. Trukk and BikerBoss finish off the last Battle Cannon
LR and the Boss takes a second wound from the explosion!!! The odds of this occurring is 144 to 1. Boarding Plank is starting to look good right about now!
He moves very little and shoots the Nobz again taking of 16 wounds. I have 2 wounds left on my Nobz hoping he’s going to kill them at this point. I took the Stategic Assesst which allows you to redeploy one destroyed unit. He then kills off 2 bikes from one squad at puts a wound on the Nob.
Turn 4
Both trukk squads jump in their trukks along with the Mega Nobz. They all zoom to various objectives and the non-Kult BikerBoss turbos to try to do something. The Wartrakk behind the
Sag Mek and Big Gunz zooms up towards the demolishers for some reason? Everything in the area near his Baneblade still plows forward. The ever cocky BW’s move into a circle of death surrounded by the pristine Baneblade, Pask in Vanquisher, and the Valk. The lead is just able to Tank Shock the Baneblade causing very minor damage due to the DeffRolla and we both forget about the regular ramming results. Whoops! The
KFF has been very good for me this games but is about to fail. The last 2 Nobz clear the rubble of a demolisher to setup an assault on the last Vet. Squad. The Nobz’ trukk (the only painted one) zooms to the deployment area ready to pick up the newly redeployed Nobz next turn.
SAG Mek shoots the Demolisher cannon of the damnable Baneblade. The Nobz use a single shot Skorcha on the Vets along with one Shoota and cause the Vets to flee! I wanted to assault to get closer to Pask but oh well. It was worth the laugh
Nothing can assault.
He moves his oppulent Baneblade and Valk closer to the objective in my deployment zone. His second Grey Knight squad jump out of the Valk and claim the objective.
His Valk imbolises one BW and Pask in Vanq. explodes the
KFF Mek’s prize BW! “Oh noes what shall we do now?” a nearby litter of kittens cry. 3 BurnaBoyz who never got to burn something to death die in the explosion. Let’s hope it was a fiery one just for poetic justice sake. The glorius Baneblade fires its primary weapon at the Big Gunz to try to get them off the objective. His last imbolised demolisher, which I forgot I didn’t kill, still has a heavy flamer and torches the
SAG MEK and Wartrakk I parked right in front of it illeagely. The Mek survives unharmed but now the Wartrakk is imobilised.
Turn 5
No pics as the game was getting heated. My Kult Bikerboss and bike charges the Baneblade , minor damage, I try to DeffRolla the Baneblade and immoblize myself on the rocks rolling double 1! This is the first time my DeffRolla hasn’t worked for re-rolling difficult terrain! So the boyz jump out and assault the Baneblade, only the Nob has a chance with this
PK. The 2 Nobz assault and exploded Pask in Vanq.
SAG Mek fires trough cover at the Grey Knights, hits with a
Str. 7 shot. I hit nine out of ten since they were all cramped up between the terrain and the over-sized Baneblade. 2+ needed to wound and I roll 4 1’s out of 9!!! Blech. He saves 2 to cover and passes his
Ld test easily. Now both remaining Tin Kannon BW’s are immobilized and fail their grot riggers but are able to destroy the remaining Demolisher.
His Valk fires 3 twin lascannons at my other Wartrakk sitting by the objective in my deployment zone his Grey Knights are attempting to take. They all miss or fail to pen or I pass cover saves. Then his Heavy bolters are able to do the job! He was a little frustrated at this point and that might have been the breaking point. The gorgeous Baneblade splits fire between the Big Gunz 65” away and the Burnas with
KFF Mek and the remaining BW. The Big Gunz are forced to flee, awesome
Ld 5 that they have. His Grey Knights walk around the immaculate Baneblade, shoot then assault the boyz hopelessly trying to bring it down. Only the nob survives and is able to break free and run for the board edge straight towards the objective his Grey Knights are trying to take and hold.
Final Turn
Mega Nobz, both Trukk mobs, and one BW mob jump out and secure 4 objectives. The non-Kult Bikerboss with 2 wounds from exploded vehicles is trying to make it to the fight. Big Gunz flee of the board. Nothing else much to do.
His Valk moves to contest one of my objectives. His perfect Baneblade trys to shoot and explode a trukk with boyz surrounding it. Trukk survives due to cover saves from the boyz, these are the original Gorka Morka trukks after all. He kills enough boyz to cause them to flee but bosspole keeps them in line.
End of game.
As we check the objectives I point out that the one Nob is still alive contesting his objective near his Grey Knights. He then shoots and kills it.
3 objectives to 1 is considered a massacre buy the campaign organizer. Now I have to roll
2D6 to try to take a tile. I need a 6+ to take it and I get a 5. With an Orky shrug of the shoulders all I can say is it was a lot of fun.
Thoughts
I normally run one bike squad of 12 with the boss to prevent them running due to failed morale checks. In this game I had mobs of 3 and 4 and it was never a problem. I might consider more, smaller groups for regular games like next week’s 1850 point game.
SAG Mek was fun, only the second or third time I’ve used him and he did a lot more than usual. I thought we was dead for sure but he lived through the whole game!!!
Nobz were awesome as always, no complaints. Grot orderly failed again to save a wound. He never has once!
Mega Nobz were fun, I’ve never played them before and they barely did anything due to my poor tactics. Not a single Mega Nob, nor trukk, nor Wartrakk fired a shot this game. Also not a single trukk was lost all game. Strange for open-topped
AV 10 vehicles to survive like that.
Big Gunz were useless with their 36” range. It was a last minute substitution for a Grotz Mob just to try them out. I was really counting on a much larger, traditional Apocalypse setup.
BW’s with
KFF Mek were perfect. Soaked up a ton of shots and I was able to ram once.
Kult of Speed for 50 points was a steal. Along with the
KFF Mek this was the MVP for me. The ability to get anywhere not within 12” of the enemy is huge for Orks or any objective game. I should have sent
KoS units to the Battle Cannon
LR’s on the right so then they could get back into the fight quicker. As it was the second BikerBoss and the
Mega Nobz did next to nothing the whole game due to my inexpiernece.
Twin-linked Big Shoota Wartrakks. I had to take them for the
KoS but I should have converted them to Rockits. Then maybe they would have been more than fire magnets.
For my opponent his MVP was definitely the Baneblade. It took a helluva lot of punishment and dished out a lot of pain. The entire game centered around it.
Game was awesome fun, there’s nothing like playing against a well painted army. Of course I don’t know what it’s like to play with a well painted army
Please leave any comments or questions.
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