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"The Orks have ferocity and brute force on their side, but we have reliable firepower and a beastly +4 reanimation roll. And we have Anrykyr the Traveler with us as well! Anrykyr, what's your take on today's lineup of Necrons versus Orks?"
"Shut up, Rynkelyh." |
After almost a month-long hiatus from 40k, due to various projects and duties, I got a game in with my buddy Ike, the guy who introduced me to Warhammer. He’d been waiting for a chance to try out his scratchbuilt fortifications, Orkified M3 Lee tank, and an Ork-Marine list.
Mission was Big Guns Never Tire, and we rolled up 4 objectives. They were placed roughly equidistant across the board, one in the center, one on the open end of the table, and two on the other end of the table. Each objective in this mode is worth 3 points. Remember that, it comes up later.
My army consisted of a Decurion built to knock down Marines and Orks, cleverly named “MEQ-Masher”. Because I’m just that classy. The main MEQ-mashing element of this list was the Destroyer Cult, the models for which I recently bought at a 40k garage sale of sorts. Supporting the Cult were two squads of warriors, a squad of Immortals with gauss, the typical trio of Tomb Blades, with a Canoptek harvest along for the ride (with an unpainted Destroyer proxying for the Spyder). Anrykyr the Traveler had stepped in to lead the army, and fought alongside a Lahker royal court with Overlord Rynkelyh (as my Warlord), Lord Nahz, and the Ref-tek.
Ike’s army was Orks with Marine allies. The greenskins had their Warboss (bosspole, kombi-weapon with skorcha, and power klaw), ten boyz in a trukk, twenty more boyz in a blob, two pairs of Deffkoptas, and a single Wartrakk proxied by a little toy tank. Heavy support was provided by two Looted Wagons with Killkannons and a Battlewagon with a Killkannon and a Kannon, represented by a modified M3 Lee tank. The Red Marauders Space Marines had come along for the ride with a Master of the Forge and his Conversion-beamer, with two Venerable Dreadnoughts (both in Drop Pods), a five-man Tac squad, and a ten-man Tac squad in a Rhino.
Of particular note were the fortifications Ike brought: a Skyshield Landing Pad, Imperial Bastion, and an "Orkgeis" Defence Line.
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| Comparison of scratchbuilt bastion to official Bastion. Ike just about nailed the right size. |
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| Orkgeis Defence Line, made out of sprues and milk tabs. |
Ike’s kunnin’ plan was to put his Looted Wagons and Battlewagon on the landing pad, have it in closed position, so that his vehicles got a +4 invulnerable save, and if the Looted Wagon drivers “pressed dat”, they wouldn’t be able to drive off the landing pad.
My plan: advance line abreast, Tomb Blades harry the flanks, deep-strike the Destroyer Cult and kill everything. The Canoptek harvest, specifically the Scarabs, I held back slightly, hoping the Scarabs could deal with the Dreadnoughts should they deep-strike behind me.
I won the roll-off to deploy, we set up, he failed to steal the initiative, and the game went ahead.
Turn 1
Turn 1 was pretty yawn-inducing. My army inched forward, the Wraiths and Tomb Blades jetted forward, there was shooting here and there, and a single wound was put on a Deffkopta.
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| "Advance, but don't look like you're advancing...because that makes sense." |
Ike’s first turn, one of his Looted Wagons pressed dat, but thanks to the landing pad didn’t go anywhere. His Trukk with the Warboss and his boyz cruised up towards the Wraiths. In his shooting phase, his Killkannons opened up on my Wraiths. One shot scattered onto his Trukk and blew off its Big Shoota. The joy of BS2, right? The barrage did end up killing two Wraiths, though. The Wartrakk and other squad of Deffkoptas wiped out my Tomb Blades, earnign him First Blood. One Dreadnought dropped in, landing by Nahz’s squad of warriors to cause trouble.
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| Tomb Blades: field more than three at a time. |
Turn 2
Two of my three units of Destroyers came in, and deep-struck into the center of the board. My warriors shuffled around and took potshots at what was available. This, plus shooting from the Destroyers, killed the Rhino, and the Marines inside piled out onto the ruins. I killed the Trukk as well, forcing the Warboss and his boyz out. Nahz’s warrior squad fired at the Dreadnought nearby, bringing it down to 1 HP.
Rynkelyh and Anrykyr, after a quick huddle, charged into the Warboss and his boyz in the assault phase. Rynkelyh threw out a challenge, the Nob in the squad accepted, and Rynkelyh killed him. One more trophy for the wall. The rest of the boyz were slain, leaving the Warboss alone to fight on.
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| "The Warboss Fights Alone", the new single from Boss 'eadbang and the 'eavyboyz. |
Ike’s turn, his other Dreadnought came in. He dropped down by Nahz as well. Nahz and his warriors were not happy, but they were alive to be unhappy, as I had my Decurion-buffed +4 reanimation rolls going for me. Concentrated fire killed two Destroyers in one squad and put wounds on the other squad.
Turn 3
I moved my Destroyers nearer to the center objective, preparing to assault the Marines up there. My single Destroyer in the ruins shot the AV 12 ablative void-shield off the Bastion. The Scarabs, having had their numbers boosted by the Spyder, moved towards the Dreadnoughts. Once again, the warriors did little to no shooting.
Rynkelyh challenged the Warboss, and the Warboss swung in with his power klaw, inflicted a S10 wound, and Rynkelyh remembered too late he didn’t have Eternal Warrior. RYNKELYH YOU FAILURE. Ike claimed Slay the Warlord, and I kicked myself. The strategically-worse part was this was the fourth or fifth time I’d lost a Warlord–not just an Overlord, a Warlord–to a humiliating instant-death kill. The tactically-worse part was the squad lost their nerve, broke, and thankfully outran the Warboss.
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| YOU HAD ONE JOB, RYNKELYH, ONE JOB |
In better news, the Scarabs assaulted the remaining Dreadnought and began chewing it down. Nahz’s squad managed to defeat the Deffkoptas, giving them a temporary reprieve. And then I forgot to assault with my Destroyers into the Marines, which burned me up at the moment. In hindsight, it may have saved their space-bacon.
Ike’s turn, he slowly started to whittle down my forces. His troops shot at Nahz’s squad enough to force a morale check, and to Nahz’s (continuing) shame, he failed and ran! A Necron Lord, running from grubby mortals! It was a good thing the gaming area was relatively empty that day, few witnessed Nahz’s failure.
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| You face down two Dreadnoughts, and then run when Marines plink at you? Shamefur dispray! |
Turn 4
Nahz did not recover, he ran off the board and made his failure complete. Anrykyr yelled at the Immortals enough that morale was restored, and they turned around to deal vengeance to the Warboss. This time, there was no honorable combat, only a ruthless volley or two of fire. The Warboss, on his last wound, couldn’t take it and was killed…and then I discovered that the Warboss was not Ike’s warlord. The MoTF was, and he was tucked safely away in the Bastion.
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| Finally got that bugger... |
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"Sir, what are we doing in an Ork bastion?"
"This is an exceptionally festive building, built by the natives, which happens to look similar to greenskin 'architecture'. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it." |
The Destroyers laid a nasty enough volley on the Marines that Ike had them go to ground, giving them a +3 cover save (ruins plus one for GtG).
It was at this point Ike remembered that objectives are 3 VP each, and that I controlled three to his one. He deployed his Looted Wagons and boy blob, heading for the centerfield. MoTF continued to cause problems with his Conversion Beamer.
Turn 5
At some piont my last unit of Destroyers had arrived, I forget when. My turn 5 was dedicated to gettign the Wraiths and Destroyers (and Destroyer Lord) into position to assault the Marines on the ruins. The assault went off without a hitch, the Marines were wiped out, and I claimed the objective.
Ike moved his boy blob up and fired whatever he could at the Wraiths. The single Destroyer on his side of the board would get Line Breaker for me if left along, but no matter what Ike threw at the Destroyer, he kept making his armor and RP rolls. Decurion FTW.
Turn 6
My Scarabs and Spyder finally finished off the last Dreadnought. My forces camped on their objectives. Ike shot at things, and the one Destroyer, the MVP Destroyer, survived a hail of Big Shoota shots, a Killkannon, and the Conversion Beamer.
The game ended in a Lahker victory! Orks had 6 victory points, 3 for one objective, and 3 more for First Blood, Slay the Warlord (wince), and Line Breaker. The Lahkers had 8 victory points, 6 for three objectives held, 1 for Line Breaker, and 1 more for killing the Dreadnought in the Heavy Support slot. (The other was an Elite choice, because MoTF.) Ike believes that his goof of forgetting objective VP values was due to a poor breakfast that morning, which was toast and nothing else. I am just glad I improved my somewhat disappointing win-loss ratio slightly.
If I could redo two things this game, one would be to have Anrykyr, not my Warlord, challenge the Warboss. Duh. The other would be to buy the Immortals as two five-man squads, and use them to hold objectives rather than keep ten warriors on the backlines doing nothing.
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| The hero Destroyer who won the game. He has been awarded the Black Pauldron of Endurance for his actions. |
