Second Independent Clubs Tournament

Wow, talk about way beyond posting time. I attended this tournament back in February but for some reason (maybe it's my notorious laziness and procrastination) haven't posted the battle report yet. So, yeah, here you go. This is for the second Independent Clubs Tournament . You might remember the last one I went in September and had a really good time. I wouldn't miss this one for the world. Especially if you consider  that this time there would be ten people going from my gaming group/guild. So, with my trusty Ork list I started my journey on a bleak January morning.

As usual I din't bother with pictures. Fortunately, Mr. Markador was there with his camera so I will be borrowing his pics liberally. Check out for more stuff after the break. 

Had to use orks again since I don't have another fully painted army yet. Plus, I really love these guys, what can I do? Here is the list:

HQ1: Big Mek , Kustom Force Field [85]

HQ2: Warboss , Power Klaw , Cybork Body , Attack Squig , Warbike  [150]

Elite1: 5 Lootas [75]

Elite2: 5 Lootas [75]

Elite3: 5 Lootas [75]

Troops1: 5 Nobz , Warbikes , Bosspole, Waaagh! Banner , Power Klaw , Big Choppa , Painboy, Cybork Bodies [330]

Troops2: 20 Ork Boys , Nob (Power Klaw , Boss Pole, Eavy Armour) [165]

Troops3: 20 Ork Boys , Nob (Power Klaw , Boss Pole, Eavy Armour) [165]

Troops4: 19 Ork Boys , Nob , Power Klaw , Boss Pole [154]

Troops5: 10 Gretchin, Runtherd [40]

Heavy Support1: Battlewagon , Big Shoota, Boardin' Plank , Grabbin' Klaw , Red Paint Job , Armour Plates , Deff Rolla , Grot Riggers [145]

Heavy Support2: Battlewagon , Big Shoota, Boardin' Plank , Grabbin' Klaw , Red Paint Job , Armour Plates , Deff Rolla , Grot Riggers [145]

Heavy Support3: Battlewagon , Big Shoota, Boardin' Plank , Grabbin' Klaw , Red Paint Job , Armour Plates , Deff Rolla , Grot Riggers [145]

First table I played on. Picture taken from here.

My first game was against Blood Angel. My opponent's list had a Reclusiarch joined with a bunch of Death Company guys inside a Stormraven with a DC Dread tagging along, two units of Assault Marines and a Priest with a jump pack joining them, a Vindicator, a tactical squad and another DC dread in a Drop Pod. We were playing Spearhead with Capture and Control.

To be honest I didn't get a very good vibe from this game. My opponent was constantly questioning my actions and the rules of my army and we had to call the judges more times than I care to remember. There is nothing wrong with asking clarification from your opponent of course, it's just the way you do it. Anyway!

He deployed as close to the centre of the board as possible and so did I. He then moved as fast towards me as he could. Not a great idea really. His drop pod deep stroked in front of my battlewagons. I didn't suffer much during his shooting phase. I moved my Bikers to engage one of his Assault Squads and they made sort work of it. The battlewagon in the middle destroyed the Drop Pod and the guys from inside engaged the other Assault Squad. I was lucky with my rightmost BW that reached the Stormraven and managed to destoy it (he failed his dodge save). The 20 Ork boys charged the Death Company dudes inside but didn't manage to do much.

My orks in action on the first game. Picture taken from the Invulnerable blog. 

For the next few turn my Lootas were shooting at the combat squad that was holding his objective. They managed to kill them with all that dakka they had so his objective remained uncontested. Amongst the rule arguments and judge calling we only managed to play 3 rounds. If we played 6 or even five I could have easily wiped him out. I think he moved way too soon to engage me and got charged in return and he didn't really have much fire-power to threaten me from a distance anyway. A solid victory on the first game then.

Played my second game on this table. Picture taken from here. 

Second game I went again my mate Dinos and his Dark Eldar. He had an Archon with a blaster, 3 x 4 Trueborns with blaster inside Venoms, a bunch of Warrior Squads with blaster in Venoms and 3 Ravagers. A very shooty list that it. We got to play Kill Points in Pitched Battle.

Luckily I got to play first so I deployed everything (bar the grots of course) in the middle of the board with the lootas taking up vantage points on top on that very high ruined building on my left of the board. Dinos split his forces in two, keeping all the Warriors and their vehicles to my left and the Trueborns and Ravagers to my right.

My bikers turbo boosted towards his Trueborn's vehicles and two of my battlewagons followed them. The other one turned to the warrior squads on the left. The lootas managed to do some damage on the venoms and everything else was too far away. Dinos moved everything he had at that flank close to my Bikers and disembarked the Trueborns ready to unleash hell on the Orkz. However he was very unlucky with his "to Hit" rolls (and nob bikers tend to be very resilient) so I only suffered very few (non instant death) wound on them.

In return, the bikers multicharged all three Trueborn squads and cut them down. To my left the boys were in charge range of some warriors and so they got stuck in. Lootas continued to rain dakka on the fragile warriors but they somehow managed to pass all their cover saves. I was as unlucky on my second turn as Dinos was on his first. Shooting with 3 Ravagers he managed to kill all of my Bikers (that's 6 dead guys on a 4+ cover save from 9 shots) but fortunately they already had done some massive damage.

I spent the rest of the game running around trying to catch his remaining vehicles but that proved harder than I though. He managed to kill my yellow battle wagon and the Big Mek that was inside and also immobilised the other one. In the end of the game I managed to get 1500 Victory Points of him (you only counted how many victory points you have scored, and not the difference, in this tournament).

Last game was against my mate John and his IG. He had Straken with a Company Command Squad, few Meltavent Squads inside Chimeras, few more Meltavets inside Vendettas a Manticore and some Psykers. We played Dawn of War with Seize Ground.

From the beginning I knew I would have a hard (if not impossible) time winning this match since he had an answer for every one of my units.I deployed the bikers hoping the 3+ cover from turbo boosting would save them. Run towards him on the first turn covering a lot of ground. He targeted me with a Vendetta but didn't manage to see me through Night Fight. However he used the Searchlight to illuminate the Biker Nobz. I thought that you couldn't really do that but since I wasn't sure and couldn't prove it I went along with it (in retrospect he couldn't have done that but that doesn't matter much).

He then fired directly with his Manticore and got quite lucky hitting with all the blast and I was quite unlucky with my cover saves so a large chunk of the Nobz died. Since they'd been hit with Weaken Resolve they promptly  run away. The rest of the game went downhill from then on. He easily destroyed the Battlewagons with the plethora of meltas he had and he had enough shots to kill the rest of the boyz. To add insult to injury some of the boyz even failed their close combats because of Straken. I really hate that guy now, with his Furious Charge and Counter Attack!

I ended up losing the game very badly. I think that even if the first turn was different I would still lose since I couldn't do much against his Vendettas and all the tanks he had. John ended up winning the tournament so I can find a bit of solace knowing I lost from the best. 

I placed 10th overall (from 50 players) and won a nice "Best Ork Player" award (pictured below). Overall a very fun experience and an improvement from the first event. Thanks for reading!

Won the beardiest guy award...I mean best orks! Picture by Dinos Papawinter.