This match was not extremely exciting or anything like that but I chose to do a battle report for one simple reason. I lost. Yeah, against Orks. But how could this happen, you might wonder. Lets start from the beginning.
I was playing against my friend George who is the owner of the local gaming store. He is mainly into Warhammer Fantasy Battles and MTG but he started 40k a while ago mainly to end my constant nagging. He's been playing with Orks since their release for the 4th edition and knows his list quite well (I did help him to cheesify his biker nobs of course).
We were playing at 1750 points and is his list he had a Biker Warboss with Power Klaw, Big Mek with Kustom Force Field and Power Klaw, 9 nob bikers each with different equipment (couple of Power Klaws, Painboy, Bosspoles etc.), 2 x 30 Boys with Nob (Power Klaw and Boss Pole), 20 Boys with Nob (Power Klaw and Boss Pole), 12 Boys with Nob (Power Klaw and Boss Pole) inside a Trukk, 11 Lootas. His lists is always depending on the models he has available.
My first mistake was to approach this battle with a wrong mentality. I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. My previous successes against other opponents made me feel a little bit too confident. I had fared well against mechanised lists but horde armies just need a different approach and I am just not used to it Although it's not a bad thing to have a winners mentality, taking your opponent lightly and not focusing enough on the game is always a mistake.
We rolled for Seize Ground (4 objectives) and Dawn of War. Once more I won the first turn roll thanks to the Emperors Tarrot. I wouldn't ever leave home without it these days. Since it was DoW and we were playing for objectives I let George get the first turn. Having the second turn in any objectives based mission is very helpful in my opinion since you have the last say for contesting. He wouldn't have anything on the board to shot at on the first turn anyway.
Unsurprisingly he deployed his 2 big ork units along with the Big Mek. He spaced them out as much as possible to avoid the worst part of my templates and placed them around the middle of the board 24'' inches away from my lines. When his first turn started, his lootas walked inside terrain in the left corner of the board. His 20 strong Boy mob entered the table slightly to the right of the board and hid behind a large piece of impassable terrain. This way he was contesting an objective and also avoiding most of my firepower. Trukk went 18'' on the right side of the board in open view. He kept the Nob Bikers + Biker Boss in reserve for a late game cheeky objective contesting.
So his 2 large mobs were dangerously closely to my lines. My knee jerk reaction was to go as close as possible with all my units and just fire everything at them. I guess I had enough guns to kill everything, even 60 T4 orks with 5+ and 4+ cover saves. Was I right? Let's see. My Hydras entered the board on the right edge and shot the Trukk to pieces as was expected of them. Unfortunately only 1 boy died to the explosion.
Bane Wolf, Infantry Squad 312 and the Platoon Command Squad emerged on the right to threaten the boys mob containing the Mek. Company Command Squad, Veterans and the other Infantry Squad came to the left to shot at the other big mob. Vendetta to the far left, Medusas halfway between centre of the board and the left edge and the Manticore slightly to the right behind some terrain.
I guess that between all of them they had enough shots to kill the two units. Worst case I could use weaken resolve to drive a Mob away (provided he had less than 10 models but I was pretty confident I could achieve that). I started with the orders. I was going to use "First Rank, Second Rank" to all the squad and maximize their killiness. I rolled for the Leadership check and it was a double six (no more orders this turn) . Bad luck I though but still had enough firepower to bring them down. To make a long story short. All my large blasts scattered quite far away (I couldn't roll less than '8' for the distance), George was very lucky with his cover saves and my rolls were abysmal. Highlight was the Platoon Command squad. Between them they scored 18 hits with the flamers but only managed to kill 2 orks. In the end I only managed to kill 16 orks from the unit on the left and 10 from the other one. Thins were looking bleak now since all my scoring units were waiting to get charged by angry orks. D'oh!
On his next turn surprisingly his Nob Bikers arrived (needing a "5+" due to Officer of the Fleet). He turbo boosted them on the left side of the board behind terrain for maximum protection. His yellow ork mob stayed put behind the impassable terrain (it's funny because they are wearing yellow armour and are cowards at the same time). The other 2 mobs closed in for the kill and the trukk boys moved out of their vehicles charred remains More comedy rolls ensued. He shot at the Medusas with his lootas. He fired 22 shots which 11 hit on a 5+. Managed to do 2 penetrating and 2 glancing hits and I failed all my cover saves. First Medusa was blown up and the other one had it's weapon destroyed and stunned. Suitably all my scoring units got wiped out on the following assault phase. I killed 5 orks between my four squads but I was left with nothing to contest those objectives.
At least I knew I could take down his two big units now. Maybe I could even wipe him out and win the game after all. I placed my chimeras so they could do maximum damage with their heavy flamers although George had really spread them out and I could only get 4-5 under each template. I must learn how to tank shock units in order to make models squeeze together for maximum template coverage. Hydras shot at the Trukk boys killing only 5 (8 twin linked autocannon shots and 6 heavy bolter shots). Manticore threw an indirect shot at the Nob Bikers but again scattered widely. Vendetta shot at them too but George allocated the wound to his Warboss (I should stop giving him tips). I cut the mob with the Mek down to 10 models and hit it with Weaken Resolve so it couldn't come back. His other mob was left with 5 guys. To my dismay he passed all his Morale checks (even the one in the mek mob with snake eyes) and he was still in my territory.
Mek and his mob charged the Chimera containing the Psykers and managed to destroy it. 5 men died to the explosion but no orks. Trukk boys immobilised the Bane Wolf despite needing 6 to hit it and the other big mob destroyed an empty Chimera. The biker nobs retreated further away in the back of his board.
Hydras shot again at the trukk boys but only killed 2 this time. Something was going awfully wrong with my dice rolls. From the combined shooting of all the chimeras and the Company Command Squad I cut down all the orks from the Mek posse but he didn't die and also the Nob from his other mob stayed alive as well. To add insult to injury he passed all his morale checks with exactly the minimum rolls needed (7 for the Nobs and 8 for the Mek). At least the Vendetta managed to kill one Nob biker and give Warboss another wound. Manticore shot at the Lootas and scattered but still managed to kill 6 (passed this morale check too in case you are wondering).
So he still had three power klaws running around my army and picking off my vehicles. He moved the Nob Bikers closer to my lines since he didn't have anything to be afraid of anymore. Trukk boys killed the Psykers second ride (they had confiscated a Chimera from the dead Platoon Command Squad) leaving only 3 men standing. They managed to fail their pinning test as well. Mek finished off the Manticore (only had one rocket left fortunately) and the other Nob stunned the Command Squad chimera.
In my fourth turn I disembarked the Command Squad so they could shot at the Nob. Hydras moved to the objective contested by the yellow mob and the couple of chimeras left closed in the other objectives in order to deny them from the Nob Bikers. I finally killed the Mek and Nob in the shooting phase (just for the moral satisfaction) and killed another biker nob with the Vendetta (still not enough for a Leadership check though).
He moved the Nob Bikers a little bit further away (I guess he was afraid of my Chimeras...) and shot the Psykers. Unsurprisingly they all died. Lootas fired at my disembarked Command Squad (I had placed them in the open) and killed 4 guys.
It was my fifth turn and I had to go to the only contested objective he had. The one which the yellow orks were holding. I moved the Hydras a full 12'' to close them in. I had misjudged the distance though and fell 2'' short of it. Some shooting happened but nothing too exciting or game changing. I was planning my moves for the next turn and I thought I could still draw with a little bit of luck. Of course this never happened since I rolled a "1" for the turn continuation and the game ended there. I lost 1-0 and I guess he had more Victory Points than me too.
I could blame everything to bad luck I guess and I did have abysmal rolls indeed. Honestly! My templates always scattered (only had one hit in the whole game) and more than 8'' most of the times. I rolled so many '1' and '2' for to wound like I never done before. And George have been lucky with his rolls too. Passed a lot of cover saves and of course passed all his Morale checks (even after he had a -9 Leadership modifier).
Although that would reassure me it's wasn't all down to luck. My tactics lacked a lot and I really didn't put any effort into my playing. In retrospect I think I should have done things completely differently. Maybe I should have kept all my squads in the back (putting them to a safe 21'' distance from the orks) and just send their empty Chimeras 12'' forward blocking his movements. I think he would have gotten the bait and assault them. Worst case I would lose two chimeras but then his orks would be bunched up ready to receive those templates outside of the 4+ cover. If he stayed put then I would just use all these heavy flamers on them and my squads would still be alive. I will probably get a rematch next week and this time I am going to be paying more attention.
I was playing against my friend George who is the owner of the local gaming store. He is mainly into Warhammer Fantasy Battles and MTG but he started 40k a while ago mainly to end my constant nagging. He's been playing with Orks since their release for the 4th edition and knows his list quite well (I did help him to cheesify his biker nobs of course).
We were playing at 1750 points and is his list he had a Biker Warboss with Power Klaw, Big Mek with Kustom Force Field and Power Klaw, 9 nob bikers each with different equipment (couple of Power Klaws, Painboy, Bosspoles etc.), 2 x 30 Boys with Nob (Power Klaw and Boss Pole), 20 Boys with Nob (Power Klaw and Boss Pole), 12 Boys with Nob (Power Klaw and Boss Pole) inside a Trukk, 11 Lootas. His lists is always depending on the models he has available.
My first mistake was to approach this battle with a wrong mentality. I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. My previous successes against other opponents made me feel a little bit too confident. I had fared well against mechanised lists but horde armies just need a different approach and I am just not used to it Although it's not a bad thing to have a winners mentality, taking your opponent lightly and not focusing enough on the game is always a mistake.
We rolled for Seize Ground (4 objectives) and Dawn of War. Once more I won the first turn roll thanks to the Emperors Tarrot. I wouldn't ever leave home without it these days. Since it was DoW and we were playing for objectives I let George get the first turn. Having the second turn in any objectives based mission is very helpful in my opinion since you have the last say for contesting. He wouldn't have anything on the board to shot at on the first turn anyway.
Unsurprisingly he deployed his 2 big ork units along with the Big Mek. He spaced them out as much as possible to avoid the worst part of my templates and placed them around the middle of the board 24'' inches away from my lines. When his first turn started, his lootas walked inside terrain in the left corner of the board. His 20 strong Boy mob entered the table slightly to the right of the board and hid behind a large piece of impassable terrain. This way he was contesting an objective and also avoiding most of my firepower. Trukk went 18'' on the right side of the board in open view. He kept the Nob Bikers + Biker Boss in reserve for a late game cheeky objective contesting.
So his 2 large mobs were dangerously closely to my lines. My knee jerk reaction was to go as close as possible with all my units and just fire everything at them. I guess I had enough guns to kill everything, even 60 T4 orks with 5+ and 4+ cover saves. Was I right? Let's see. My Hydras entered the board on the right edge and shot the Trukk to pieces as was expected of them. Unfortunately only 1 boy died to the explosion.
Bane Wolf, Infantry Squad 312 and the Platoon Command Squad emerged on the right to threaten the boys mob containing the Mek. Company Command Squad, Veterans and the other Infantry Squad came to the left to shot at the other big mob. Vendetta to the far left, Medusas halfway between centre of the board and the left edge and the Manticore slightly to the right behind some terrain.
I guess that between all of them they had enough shots to kill the two units. Worst case I could use weaken resolve to drive a Mob away (provided he had less than 10 models but I was pretty confident I could achieve that). I started with the orders. I was going to use "First Rank, Second Rank" to all the squad and maximize their killiness. I rolled for the Leadership check and it was a double six (no more orders this turn) . Bad luck I though but still had enough firepower to bring them down. To make a long story short. All my large blasts scattered quite far away (I couldn't roll less than '8' for the distance), George was very lucky with his cover saves and my rolls were abysmal. Highlight was the Platoon Command squad. Between them they scored 18 hits with the flamers but only managed to kill 2 orks. In the end I only managed to kill 16 orks from the unit on the left and 10 from the other one. Thins were looking bleak now since all my scoring units were waiting to get charged by angry orks. D'oh!
On his next turn surprisingly his Nob Bikers arrived (needing a "5+" due to Officer of the Fleet). He turbo boosted them on the left side of the board behind terrain for maximum protection. His yellow ork mob stayed put behind the impassable terrain (it's funny because they are wearing yellow armour and are cowards at the same time). The other 2 mobs closed in for the kill and the trukk boys moved out of their vehicles charred remains More comedy rolls ensued. He shot at the Medusas with his lootas. He fired 22 shots which 11 hit on a 5+. Managed to do 2 penetrating and 2 glancing hits and I failed all my cover saves. First Medusa was blown up and the other one had it's weapon destroyed and stunned. Suitably all my scoring units got wiped out on the following assault phase. I killed 5 orks between my four squads but I was left with nothing to contest those objectives.
At least I knew I could take down his two big units now. Maybe I could even wipe him out and win the game after all. I placed my chimeras so they could do maximum damage with their heavy flamers although George had really spread them out and I could only get 4-5 under each template. I must learn how to tank shock units in order to make models squeeze together for maximum template coverage. Hydras shot at the Trukk boys killing only 5 (8 twin linked autocannon shots and 6 heavy bolter shots). Manticore threw an indirect shot at the Nob Bikers but again scattered widely. Vendetta shot at them too but George allocated the wound to his Warboss (I should stop giving him tips). I cut the mob with the Mek down to 10 models and hit it with Weaken Resolve so it couldn't come back. His other mob was left with 5 guys. To my dismay he passed all his Morale checks (even the one in the mek mob with snake eyes) and he was still in my territory.
Mek and his mob charged the Chimera containing the Psykers and managed to destroy it. 5 men died to the explosion but no orks. Trukk boys immobilised the Bane Wolf despite needing 6 to hit it and the other big mob destroyed an empty Chimera. The biker nobs retreated further away in the back of his board.
Hydras shot again at the trukk boys but only killed 2 this time. Something was going awfully wrong with my dice rolls. From the combined shooting of all the chimeras and the Company Command Squad I cut down all the orks from the Mek posse but he didn't die and also the Nob from his other mob stayed alive as well. To add insult to injury he passed all his morale checks with exactly the minimum rolls needed (7 for the Nobs and 8 for the Mek). At least the Vendetta managed to kill one Nob biker and give Warboss another wound. Manticore shot at the Lootas and scattered but still managed to kill 6 (passed this morale check too in case you are wondering).
So he still had three power klaws running around my army and picking off my vehicles. He moved the Nob Bikers closer to my lines since he didn't have anything to be afraid of anymore. Trukk boys killed the Psykers second ride (they had confiscated a Chimera from the dead Platoon Command Squad) leaving only 3 men standing. They managed to fail their pinning test as well. Mek finished off the Manticore (only had one rocket left fortunately) and the other Nob stunned the Command Squad chimera.
In my fourth turn I disembarked the Command Squad so they could shot at the Nob. Hydras moved to the objective contested by the yellow mob and the couple of chimeras left closed in the other objectives in order to deny them from the Nob Bikers. I finally killed the Mek and Nob in the shooting phase (just for the moral satisfaction) and killed another biker nob with the Vendetta (still not enough for a Leadership check though).
He moved the Nob Bikers a little bit further away (I guess he was afraid of my Chimeras...) and shot the Psykers. Unsurprisingly they all died. Lootas fired at my disembarked Command Squad (I had placed them in the open) and killed 4 guys.
It was my fifth turn and I had to go to the only contested objective he had. The one which the yellow orks were holding. I moved the Hydras a full 12'' to close them in. I had misjudged the distance though and fell 2'' short of it. Some shooting happened but nothing too exciting or game changing. I was planning my moves for the next turn and I thought I could still draw with a little bit of luck. Of course this never happened since I rolled a "1" for the turn continuation and the game ended there. I lost 1-0 and I guess he had more Victory Points than me too.
I could blame everything to bad luck I guess and I did have abysmal rolls indeed. Honestly! My templates always scattered (only had one hit in the whole game) and more than 8'' most of the times. I rolled so many '1' and '2' for to wound like I never done before. And George have been lucky with his rolls too. Passed a lot of cover saves and of course passed all his Morale checks (even after he had a -9 Leadership modifier).
Although that would reassure me it's wasn't all down to luck. My tactics lacked a lot and I really didn't put any effort into my playing. In retrospect I think I should have done things completely differently. Maybe I should have kept all my squads in the back (putting them to a safe 21'' distance from the orks) and just send their empty Chimeras 12'' forward blocking his movements. I think he would have gotten the bait and assault them. Worst case I would lose two chimeras but then his orks would be bunched up ready to receive those templates outside of the 4+ cover. If he stayed put then I would just use all these heavy flamers on them and my squads would still be alive. I will probably get a rematch next week and this time I am going to be paying more attention.
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