1500 BA v Orks

[gigasnail]

hey folks, another batrep against dave's battlewagon orks. we were both trying out new lists. i took my chaos counts-as blood angels list (2nd ever game with BA) and dave took a mixed ork force, trying out some new units. game was 1500 points at our FLGS, the Crazy Squirrel. i like this place. they have mexican cokes. yes, the softdrink, not the dry goods. it uses real sugar, not corn syrup but is most likely equally unhealthy. don't believe the hype, anything with 10 calories to the ounce is bad for you when consumed by the liter. public service announcement over!

my list was as follows:

1500 BA
hq
libby, jump pack, force sword
elites
X7 sternguard, sgt w/ combiflamer, drop pod
X7 sternguard, sgt w/ combiflamer, drop pod
X2 sanguinary priests, each with a power sword
troops
X10 assault marines, sgt w/ melta bombs
X10 assault marines
heavy
stormraven gunship, TL heavy bolter, TL plasma cannon, extra armor
stormraven gunship, TL heavy bolter, TL plasma cannon, extra armor

dave's list was something along the lines of:

warboss, squig and big choppa
mega nobz in battle wagon, deffrolla
boyz w/ nob in battle wagon, deffrolla
boyz w/ nob in battle wagon, deffrolla
16 or so 'ard boyz w/ nob on foot
12 lootas
12 lootas

mission and deployment are rolled up; purge the alien and dawn of war. my libby went divination, got prescience and forewarning. i'm not super familiar with the other disciplines and nearly just went for biomancy/iron arm/endurance.

his warlord trait was master of the vanguard, mine was dust of 1,000 worlds which we both promptly forgot about (neither would really have helped, the way things fell out so i only feel mildly dumb for not remembering it).

we rolled up the terrain by section, very sparse this time, only 9 pieces on the board total with most of the stuff on his side. we placed terrain and i got a couple of good-sized LOS blocking ruins though, so all was well.

i won the roll to deploy first, and declined. david set his lootas up in ruin in the center of his zone, and one in a large forested hill to my right side. one wagon center, one left, one right. 'ard boyz behind the wagon.

i deployed both assault marine units + librarian behind the LOS blocking ruins, with the birds and pods coming in reserve as required. with the mission being killpoints i didn't need to combat squad them to pick up objectives and didn't want them squadded to avoid extra killpoints. the priests rode with the vet squads in the pods, the birds coming in as gun ships. one sang priest fails (or makes, depends on how you look at it) his red thirst roll. [note: i just realized priests don't have the red thirst...fail on me]

this is dave's favorite mission: everything is within easy driving distance and smashable and he heavily out numbers me. i'm less than thrilled with things and nervous; in 5th i'd have gone full reserve and DoA the assault guys in. have to have something on the board.

we roll to go first, he wins, i fail to seize.

Ork 1:
dave rolls the battle wagons forward, 'ard boyz behind. he can barely see two guys with the lootas through cracks/holes in the ruins. after firing both units of lootas at the luckiest damn marine in the world, he inflicts six wounds and the guy makes every save. the mega nobz can see the same guy and shoot him, well, a lot. he finally fails an armor save on the last wound, seriously having weathered about 60 shots. on one guy. it'd have been funnier if the priest was on that unit and he made the FNP roll. it was still pretty damn funny, he shot the hell out of that guy.

BA 1: with two pods, only one comes in turn 1. after a nice scatter i land about exactly where i want to be, with the pod kind of in the way of the left battlewagon and my vets w/ priest lined up for a nice barrage. my assault guys stay hunkered down, waiting for the birds to come crack open the wagons. the vets open up on the orks with the cover-ignoring bolters and the combi-flamer from the aspiring champion, er, sergeant. some (please do not swear) shooting/wound rolling only saw 8 lootas die. they made their leadership test and stayed to play.

Ork 2: dave looks at me funny and says ok that's cool, but you know that's about the only thing those guys will do, right? i ask him what he meant, he says well i have enough guys to put 67 shots, minimum, into the squad. i say yeah, i know, they're 3+ armor save guys with FNP. i think i'm ok.

tl;dr: after shooting with a battle wagon (with all its big shootas) and the shoota boyz in the wagon, a full unit of 11 lootas, and the remaining 4 lootas in the other squad, i lost one vet to the lootas, and three to the massed fire from the wagon and shootaboyz.

the other wagons tried to get a position to shoot at my assault guys, but couldn't do much. he was reluctant to put all his guys on the table with two flyers coming in. he was too close to ram the pod with his deffrolla wagon (have to be cruising speed to ram, you can't tank shock a vehicle, must ram it, so have to move over 6", he was 5" away. i didn't know this till i was looking up the rules for ramming.)

BA 2: i roll all 1's and 2's for reserves. FML. i had hoped to begin burninating everyone by now. i figured it was a good idea to get that vet squad the hell out of dodge, before it gave up a KP and first blood. nowhere to hide, i decided to try to assault the lootas, hoping i wouldn't kill them. i moved up through the terrain no problem, was less than 2" away. i charged, he shot them about 12 times, wounding nothing. then the lootas kind of exploded. there were only 4 of them, i had my priest with power sword and 3 vets land about 11 total wounds on the 4 remaining orks, four of which were AP3. soooooo, first blood, and 1 KP to me. i consolidated behind an outcropping on the hill, hoping to hide from the other unit of lootas.

Ork 3: dave was now a bit concerned, as he's re-learning how annoying power armor guys can be when dug in like ticks. he swings two of the wagons around to start putting rounds into my two assault squads but manages no wounds. the left side wagon obliterates the pod, deffrollering the hell out of it. 1 KP orks. the wagon and its boyz snapshot at the vet squad, killing one (i failed every damn look out, sir! roll i made for that aspiring champion, er, sergeant. the Lords of the Warp protect!).

BA 3: one storm chikken comes in, guns a-blazing. the libby + one assault squad hop over the ruin and get into position to kill some mega-nobz (better to charge than be charged) after the chikken cracks open the wagon (this is a link to the model for this battlewagon: www.network54.com/Forum/110741/message/1246377036/Miyazaki%27s+Pig+Tank,+AKUYAKU+%231 it is an awesome model and painted up bad bad moonz yellow with a red wash and absolutely covered in dakka. everyone stops to comment on the tank when we play. i will try to get some pics of it now that it's mostly painted). the vets hunker down, if they moved it would expose them to a wagon full of boyz + the lootas. the last assault squad, i very nearly commited it to trying to crack open the left-side wagon (the sgt had melta bombs), but after measuring it was a 9" charge that if failed would have left me in a really bad spot. even with the reroll it wasn't worth loosing the squad (because getting deffrolla'd, shot by a 12 man squad of lootas, and then shot by 16 or so shootaboyz + the guns on the truck is pretty much lights out for a 10 man unit of marines. unless your'e that other vet squad, then you're gold.).

so, the storm chikken, eh, i had it pointed slightly the wrong direction. i should have inched its nose 2" to my right. as it was, i had a solid side shot for my missiles into the meganobz tank, but was unable to shoot the lootas or the 'ard boyz with both plasma and heavy bolter (bolters are in the nose with limited fire arc). i opted to drill the wagon with two missiles and the 'ard boyz with the plasma. one hit, no pen with the missile. the plasma cannon kills three 'ard boyz and puts a wound on their nob. not exactly the results i was looking for.

my assault unit charged the wagon anyway, hoping to glance it to death. at this point there was no way i was getting out of the mess (too bad jump infantry doesn't run 12" as well) and wanted to at least kill the wagon before loosing the squad. after dave charged and i got stuck in, i figured i could at least challenge and forceweapon his warboss to death. i put a awhole ton of attacks into the truck (lost one guy to overwatch and a 1 on an armor save), but forgot hammer of wrath attacks. i glanced it 3 times. rather infuriating, and the squad is now looking at getting deffrolla'd and shot, exactly why i didn't commit the other squad.

Ork 4: dave defrollas the assault squad w/ libby, killing 3 and the aspiring champion (er, sergeant) (S10, AP- ftw). shooting from the meganobz kills one more. shooting from the wagon and the shootaboyz kills the rest of the vet squad, though the sang priest was unharmed. 2 KP Orks. he was going to get the guys out of the pigtank, however we found that you can't disembark on the round you tank shock or ram (page 85, brb if your'e wondering. there are some caveats; like you can get out, THEN tank shock, etc). firing from the lootas results in several hits, i elect to evade, and reduce this to 1 hit which gets an immobilzed/velocity locked result [note: i found after the fact i did this out of order. you have to decide to evade after hits are rolled but before armor pen rolls. we were trying to hurry because it was getting late though and i messed this one up).

BA 4: the rest of my reserves auto-arrive. the vet squad pods in next to the lootas, an this time i carefully deploy the sgt to ensure he hits nearly everyone with his combiflamer. the other storm chickken comes in with a good field of fire on the damaged wagon and the wagon far to the right that had been shooting at my guys through the ruins to the side. the velocity locked storm rave moves up 18". the lone sang priest hunkers down and tries not to be noticed. i move 2nd assault squad up to support the charge on the meganobz, after i crack open this damn wagon. are you sensing a theme, here yet?

so, shooting. the velocity locked storm raven's plasma scatters off target from the 'ard boyz. the vets put like a bazillion wounds on the loota squad, burninating ALL THE THINGS. no survivors, 2 KP BA. the newly arrived storm chikken fires three missiles and plasma and gets no pens or glances [note: i couldn't find anything that says i can't fire a third missile with PotMS, but this seems wonky to me].

at this point we take note of time and realize it's 20 minutes until closing.

[gigasnail]

continued~

so, it's bottom of the 4th and 20 minutes until close. i ask dave if he wants to try to get a 5th turn in fast and he says no, we should finish and call it. so i make a run for the sun, trying to kill this damn immortal battle wagon. this time i remembered hammer of wrath (loosing one guy to overwatch from the meganobz on the truck), and got the last required glance out of those I10 attacks. this wrecks the wagon, 3 KP BA, and we end the game there.

after checking things, i had first blood and line breaker for my vets and the lone sang priest in his deployment zone. he had two wagons full of guys in my zone, however they don't count if they're embarked in transports (we checked again to be sure). so final count was BA 5, Orks 2. was a great and fun game.

notes: dave i think was hesitant, neither of us have used/faced flyers in 6th until now (we bought him a fighta/bomba for his birthday, it's a sick model and i half expected him to bring it tonight. we discussed this; he only has the one. we're kind of in agreement, bring 2 or 3 or dont' bring them. things are kind of fragile, even with jink and hard to hit). his new list had points tied up in meganobz and 'ard boyz instead of his usual bikes and buggies which he's used to good effect before. still didn't really make many mistakes (there were a couple of rules flubs, like the tank shock/dismebark and the minimum ram distance but hey i rolled red thirst on a unit that didn't have the trait so i'm not complaining...) and this list shoots a LOT. sheer weight of fire from it is ugly, i think he should drop the 'ard boyz and add his bikes back in. those guys just kind of stood there and got shot up.

which is the same thing he said about my two assault squads. most of the game they hunkered down behind a ruin because there wasn't much they could do. i really, really felt the lack of melta in this game. i wanted the extra armor on the chikkens to keep them shooting, but i guess i should free up the points and rely on PotMS to keep me going through shaken/stunned hits. its' that or reduce the vet squad numbers but i feel that's a pretty solid number for taking out fire support/backline units, or at least crippling them operationally in one volley. i have power swords on the priests but due to the environment with challenges, i feel i need them on a forward deployed/podding unit. i wanted to fit a third pod in somehow so i would get both my vets in turn 1 for sure. maybe drop the jump packs from one squad to get a pod for free? and the multimeta has to go back on the chikkens. there is too much cheap AV14 out there to rely just on the missiles to bring it down.

so, to recap:
drop packs on one 10 man assault squad, get it a pod for free. this allows me to get both vet squad down and burninating turn 1.

drop TL HB and put TL multimetas back on the birds. i thought the plasma + missiles would be enough to deal with heavy vehicles. sometimes, basic math eludes me. i know better than that.

drop the extra armor off both birds; this gives me 30 points for special weapons for the assault crews.

thoughts and CC welcome as always. this was my 2nd game as traitors in disguise, er, BA, so any CC is welcome.

thanks ~

[paxmiles]

Interesting game.

Those SRs, if designed for AT, should be MM/Las. Remember that machine spirit doesn't just let you fire at another target, but adds a weapon to the total fired. Rules as written, you can move your flyer at cruising speed and fire 5 weapons, 3 of which can be bloodstrike missiles (Machine spirit for the 3rd missile). This should be enough to sink a land raider in one turn, assuming decent rolling.

It seemed like you were baited into firing your SRs at non-vehicle targets, despite having them for primarily AT purposes.

You are correct that the extra armor is a waste on the birds. It's just that glances can't shake or stun anymore, so most of the threats to the flyer will glance or just destroy it.

Though with his posted list, I'm not sure why the CSM are having trouble.... (that list looks pretty soft...)
-Pax

[gigasnail]

oh, my CSM had trouble because in the first round he killed all 4 AC havoks in a squad with one volley. 9 wounds on the squad, killing one at a time with only the champ surviving. horrid luck on my part on top of great luck on his part. it happens. after that it was trying to deal with 3 battle wagons that i could only damage from flank shots ( i ended up destroying one in the last round, bad luck again) or with the meltas on my bikes and regular squad, which would have exposed them to counter-fire and counter charge from the load of guys inside it the next turn. all the big point objectives were on his side of the board and i wasn't able to kill enough of the blob squad sitting on it for them to loose fearless and be run off it. that was a good game though, my friend has finally learned not to just run straight at me and to actually play to the missions.

on this BA list, i'm still not for sure on how i want to be loading out my birds. i wanted them less kitted for dedicated AT and more of a swiss army knife for whatever was a problem when they showed up. i simply had bad luck with the missiles (hitting with 1 of 3, and only glancing that one, for instance. that's just bad luck, nothing more). i think with the missiles and TL MM, that should be enough AT to bring down a hard target per bird per round of shooting, leaving me with harassing HB fire for whatever is dismounted from the turret TL HB. then again, it might be better to be able to bring down two hard targets per bird per round of shooting. i honestly haven't gotten to play them enough to have a feel for them yet.

thanks for the feedback ~