So as a belated celebration of Father's Day, my dad and I played a game of
40k! He doesn't have his own army, but he's played quite a bit. He'll be taking my Orks, Da Dezz'urt Ratz, while I take my Crimson Fists.
Both armies are 1500ish, I wrote them pretty hurriedly:
Crimson Fists
Captain Rynn (counts-as Lysander)
Command squad with Champion Ook-Ook, apothecary, power fist
Tactical squad Sanchez with powerfist, flamer, heavy bolter, in a rhino
Tactical squad Rico with powerfist, plasma gun, rocket launcher, in a rhino
10-man terminator squad Alvez with two cyclone missile launchers
Dreadnought with assault cannon
Dreadnought with plasma cannon
Da Dezz'urt Ratz:
Boss 'Eadkrumpa with powerfist, bionic body, twin linked shoota
10 nobz with 3x power klaw, 2 uge choppas, WAAAGH! banner, bosspole, painboy, cybork bodies in battlewagon with deffrolla, 4x big shoota, red paint, grot riggers
30 boyz with sluggas, bosspole/klaw nob
30 boyz with shootas, 3x big shootas, bosspole/klaw nob
12 boyz with sluggas, bosspole/klaw nob in red trukk
15 lootas
Gametype is killpoints, pitched battle. I roll this a lot.
Captain Rynn, reporting. Scouts have uncovered a medium-strength Ork WAAAGH! growing in the gulch of Bolo, out by the ruins of a forgotten temple. It was time for some recon in force.
Deployment looked like this:
Orks fail to seize, so I go first.
You have to be careful when facing Orks; charge them head on and they'll respond in kind. We'll have to make sure to fight them on our terms wherever we go. Divide and conquer.
TURN 1
My plan for now is to run my two rhinos up to the slugga mob to the Northeast, unload both squads, and get 20 Marines rapid firing those Orks in short order, before they can get close. My command squad will follow behind as a counter-assault measure. Meanwhile, my Terminators and Dreadnoughts will close the gap with the shoota boyz, and use Lysander's awesome Bolter Drill rule to shred them with stormbolter fire. I pop smoke on my rhinos. End of my turn looked like this:
The trukk of boyz counter-attacks my APCs and the boyz jump out, rarin' for a fight. The battlewagon and shoota boyz shoot my Terminators, causing 5 wounds, 4 of which I fail. Not a good way to start the game. Lootas miss whatever they're shooting at. The trukkboyz multi-assault my rhinos, harmlessly bouncing off Sergeant Rico's, but wrecking Sergeant Sanchez's. End of the turn looked like this:
The Orks are more cunning than I thought, launching a counter-attack before our boots were even on the ground. Worse still, their gunners are far better shots than we gave them credit for, as four of my wounded brothers can testify. With my previous order of battle ruined, I hatch a new plan as I seek cover.
TURN 2
That didn't treat me well. Rolling four 1s for Terminator saves really hurts, especially when I haven't gotten to use the squad yet. No matter, I have other ideas. While my plan to double team the sluggas is put on hold, I try to pull it off with just one tactical squad, netting 8 kills. Sergeant Sanchez's squad and the command squad combine fire and bring down 11 of the trukk boyz, leaving only their nob. Meanwhile, my dreadnought with an assault cannon rends a big shoota off the battlewagon. The plasma cannon dread vapes two shoota boyz. My Terminators try to run to the East side of the table to help that assault and let my dreadnoughts take care of the West, but they only run one inch. Finally, my command squad charges the nob, but he makes both of his armor saves somehow, and my champion fails to wound. One of my guys die as my power fist totally whiffs it. End of the turn looked like this:
Heavy Ork fire is keeping our heads down, as I'm getting reports of my men in the East needing assistance. I order the two dreadnoughts under my command to silence the guns in the East so we may fight unhindered in the West.
Warboss 'Eadkrumpa's pimpwagon finally rolls up, driving its full 13" towards my dreadnoughts. The boss and his Nobz all pile out of it. Elsewhere, the slightly depleted slugga mob rolls around sergeant Rico's tactical squad. Lootas drop four of Sanchez's Marines, while the shoota boyz immobilize Rico's rhino, ensuring he won't escape. The Warboss declares a WAAAGH! and his nobz fleet towards my dreadnoughts, but can't get far enough to multi-assault my Terminators. Fighting sees the assault cannon dreadnought single out the Warboss in combat, instant killing him with his power fist. The big lug is brought down by copious amounts of power klaw attacks, and the nobz consolidate into the temple. Rico's Marines manage to kill 2 Orks, but he and 6 other Marines get brought down by the choppas. End of the turn looked like this:
As I advanced towards my Marines in the West, I heard the roar of an engine and the even louder roar of a mob of Orks! A hulking monstrosity erupted from seemingly out of nowhere and some of the biggest Orks I'd ever seen jumped out to pursue us. The biggest; the Warboss, locked eyes with me as he screamed towards me. His screams of anger turned to agony as honorable brother Dario (May the Emperor grant him peace) picked the warboss into the air and ripped him in two, only to be himself dragged down by the rabble about him. Inspired by his noble sacrifice, I direct my men towards the newfound enemy...
TURN 3
I was wondering when the wagon would get moving - I made it clear to my dad that it was great at running things over but he still played it fairly conservatively. Squad Rico is doomed and locked in combat, and squad Sanchez is ineffectively shooting the Trukk that's pestering my backfield. I roll up my command squad and Terminators, and get the Nobz in the temple in a pincer. My cyclones kill two nobz while stormbolter and bolt pistol fire scatter some wounds around. My other dreadnought charges the battlewagon and it explodes. Meanwhile, Rico's squad kills three Orks only to be finished off themselves. Finally, we come to the big Terminator and command vs. nobz melee:
Fists and choppas swing in all directions, and when the dust settles I've lost one Terminator and one man from the command squad, and the nobz have been completely wiped out! End of the turn looked like this:
The head of the snake has been severed, but the price has been high. The temple becomes a temporary medicae, where my apothecary treats the wounds of my men behind the safety of the rubble. I flick the Orkoid ichor from my hammer and look onward towards the Orks hiding in cover/
There is very little Ork movement this turn. The lootas and shootas shoot an obscene amount of fire at my Terminators, causing over a dozen wounds of which only one goes through. Elsewhere, the sluggas are bored and they wreck my remaining rhino like a bunch of hooligans. End of the turn looked like this:
TURN 4
I think I just got lucky with that turn of shooting. I doubt I can keep those kind of armor saves going, and I'm starting to run low on Terminators. Meanwhile, my power armored guys are running low too. I turn my attention to the shootas in cover, but I roll terribly for difficult terrain. Fortunately, my frag missiles roll better, getting 8 kills from the Terminators and 3 more from the command squad and dreadnought. My tactical squad runs up and tries to flame the slugga boyz, but I roll terribly again and the whole squad only manages to kill 6 Orks. End of the turn looked like this:
I was desperate to get to grips with the enemy; nothing would satisfy my thirst for vengeance like smashing my hammer into some Orkoid hide, but the bodies of the fallen littered this temple, and getting out was difficult under fire/
My luck holds out again as I make another dozen+ saves on my Terminators without taking a wound. There is a LOT of fire coming on these guys from the shootas and lootas. The sluggas make up for this by charging Sanchez's tactical squad and wiping them out without taking casualties. Despite the low resources the Orks have, they're doing a lot of damage. End of the turn looked like this:
From my position I heard the din of close combat. Looking down, I saw Sergeant Sanchez's Marines torn to pieces by the Ork horde. We had to save them, or at the very least protect their bodies from desecration and looting!
TURN 5
So far I have been seriously disappointed in my tactical squads. They've caused negligible damage, lost every close combat they've come into, and haven't even done the one thing they're allegedly good at: surviving. Anyway, I move the half dozen or so men I still have towards the Orks in the open, and blast them to hell with my stormbolters and frag missiles from my cyclones. 11 die from shooting, while my dreadnought kills 2 more shootas. I charge, and my champion continues his streak of seriously not doing gak. He hits with all four attacks, then rolls four ones to wound. Wonderful. Keep doing your thing, Ook-Ook. Of course the apothecary fares no better, and the nob kills Ook-Ook (who can't even make his invuln save) and the apothecary. Rynn shows everybody who's boss and smacks the nob down with his hammer. End of the turn looked like this:
The Orks from here had been purged, but at no small cost. My apothecary lay wounded next to the remains of my beloved Champion Ook-Ook, a member of this chapter's "Equal opportunity recruitment" plan for when we can't make the numbers in any given century.
The Orks moved out of cover to shoot my Terminators, which with the lootas makes 3 kills. I still have a couple left, along with my unwounded Captain who has passed every save so far this game. The Trukk, long forgotten, takes a potshot at the last member of my command squad, killing him. I forgot to take a picture, but I totaled up the killpoints:
Crimson Fists: 5
Orks: 6
Narrow Ork victory!
I really enjoy this stupid expensive deathstar I've been using with Lysander and 10 Terminators with two cyclones. There are definitely more efficient units I can use in its place, but it's just so damn fun. Unfortunately, I lost too many Terminators too early on to make use of my Bolter Drill effectively, but the stubborn helped keep the Orks at bay while my troops did work elsewhere. My dad never really grasped that Lootas are better anti vehicle than anti infantry, because "They can shoot one tank, sure, but they can shoot a whole bunch of guys instead!" and he was a bit conservative with his forces overall. Meanwhile, my rolling really hampered me for much of the game, but my Terminator saves were on fire after the first turn. Anyway, we both had a fun game and it was good he got to win on a belated Father's Day!
I looked around me and while the Orks were severely depleted, we were as well. I knew with our current numbers there was no way we could take the Ork position. I called for immediate Thunderhawk extraction, with orders to extract the wounded first. If need be, I would hold until every Marine was off this battlefield. Captain Rynn, signing off.
2000pts Hive Fleet Gargant 20% painted
