1500pts IG vs Orks: The Emperor's Will

This was the last practice match before the tournament. Mission: The emperor's will (not sure if that's the correct name but 1 obj each) and deployment was the diagonal one.

Lists:

IG: Same as last time and time before

Orks: Ilya was trying out nob bikers but also was looking at how an ork army with max/nearly max troops played out, for the tournament he used what he learned in this match extensively. As far as I can remember:

Gazghskull 

Wazdakka Gutsmek

26? Boys and perhaps a nob with power klaw

10 nobz with assorted weapons

Quite a few normal bikers (about 10) (proxied, sorry)

3 4 Nob Bikers

20 shoota boys with 2 big shootas or smthg

A wartrukk and I think that's it really...

We pre-agreed the terrain setup to save time and because we thought that it would be pre-setup at the tournament. Again no mystery objectives/terrain... Ilya setup first hiding his 20 shoota boyz in the building, along with (to my turn 1 surprise the load of bikers - I didn't notice them). The trukk filled with nobs and Ghaz hid behind a piece of terrain and the orks spread out in a line (to reduce the effects of blasts, although you never know with Ilya's logic, sometimes it's more random than Paul's)

My plan was to hold at all costs my home objective, and for that I knew I would require more or less my whole army to batter away nobs, ghaz and whatever else would be thrown at me and then to send a squad of veterans to capture/contest Ilya's. I didn't know which way the Orks in the centre would go so put my heavy tanks on two flanks, although the Executioner went further away from Ghaz's trukk. My chimeras tried to find some cover behind either the central ruin or another tank and my 2 front AV14 Russes were out on the left in the open, giving me a nice spread of firepower and creating overall quite a nice castle, so the blob deployed right on the objective in the midst of all this. Vendetta went in reserve, for the first time without it's payload of the flamer platoon command squad, which along with the company command squad hid behind the tanks close to the blob to give some orders. As usual first blood would be vital.

I then failed to seize and perhaps this was a good thing for me...


Ilya's turn 1 saw little change in the look of the battlefield with a cautious advance from his forward elements, as his army tried to get into position, after some of Paul's advice and some misleading (??? how could I do such a thing) helpful tips from me. A few members of the blob died to small arms fire.

Turn 1 for the Guard and the flanks open up. Tanks present front armour. Command Squads try to remain inconspicuous. I realise that next turn I'm going to get charged no matter what and so try to influence where Ilya goes. And so I use my 170 point Vanquisher as bait sending it forwards, to tempt the mob of advancing orks while covering my obvious ploy by seeming to be aggressively attacking the trukk. I'm hoping that the line will become more bunched up after charging so I can employ my eradicator to maximum effect. I open fire and manage to slay a few orks but not a significant amount due to the line formation. I also take off a hullpoint/do somethign to the trukk. I may have also killed some bikers.

Turn 2 and a mighty WAAAAAGH!!! erupts and Ghazghskull and the nobs stride out of the trukk. Orks charge destroying the bait but bunching up in the process. However what I did not expect was a triple multi-charge and so all three tanks on the left flank are damaged. The chimera is immobilised and left on 1 HP btw. On the other flank, nob bikers race on from reserve and assail the executioner - so much for trying to avoid trouble and unwanted attention! Ilya takes first blood. Also the bikers and Wazdakka come out of hiding.

The Guard remain stalwart and return fire even though reserves do not arrive, the whole ork mob is destroyed through a combination of gushing flame and falling shells. The plasma veterans get out of their immobilised chimera and open fire on Gazghskull and nobs, wounding, but not killing several. A combination of the two command squads and some orders gets rid of one nob biker, as the remaining chimera races forward, it's advance covered by some blasts from the executioner. Things are looking dangerous.

Score Tracker IG 3 - 5 Orks

Turn 3 and the nob bikers rev their engines towardsd the command squads and kill part of and make the pcs run away. Ghazghskull, nobz and escorting trukk try to make their way around the chimera, but don't quite make the charge at the veterans. Nob bikers and bikers + wazdakka wheel around. The executioner explodes harming wazdakka and killing a biker and the chimera loses it's flamer and a hull point or two.

Nob bikers attack and kill some of my ccs and make them flee too.

The guard retaliate, continuing to fire as they retreat.

Also reinforcements arrive and combined efforts of just about everything I have left kills the nobs, and Ghaz's last 2 wounds are finished off by some lucky vendetta shots. The chimera (still with vets inside, continues it's tedious advance into the enemy deployment zone. I think I assaulted the nob bikers/bikers with everything/shot and the pcs and ccs died. But not without causing one or two wounds on the nobs and killing a few bikes. (Oh and my chimera accounting for some bikes too, I think).

Score tracker: IG 5-6 Orks

Turn 4 and the unbelievable happens... after 30 (or some other ridiculous number) shots from the 20 boys in the building into the backside of the vendetta, firstly 8 hit and then 4 glance it and it goes down. The nob bikers assail the blob in the building winning the combat by a lot and my blob turns and flees, even with the attached commissar's execution of a cowardly sergeant. (or maybe I just used challenges unwisely, honestly I can't remember) The bikes + wazdakka continue to attack my poor fully functioning chimera

IG respond with the veterans clambering up towards the ruins and shooting down the nob bikers hiding within. My chimera probably could not move but I reduced the squad of bikers to 1 (perhaps just Wazdakka with multi-laser fire and an eradicator shell. Hopes rested on me being able to stop Ilya from getting linebreaker and getting the chimera to his obj. while hopefully also killing some of his orks and making them run away.

Score Tracker: IG 4 - 5 Orks

Turn 5 and Wazdakka guns it to my deployment zone, while the trukk blocks my chimera.

I kill wazdakka with some multi-laser fire I think and maybe some eradicator help, while the trukk is probably killed with a combination of meltaguns out of the mobile chimera and an eradicator shot (if this didn't go into wazdakka). The veterans run full speed and just manage to reach the obj.

We roll for another turn and it's over..

Guard Obj

Linebreaker, oh so close to getting out the veterans and contesting/with a little luck capturing.

Final Score IG 5 (1 obj., slay the warlord, linebreaker) - 5 (slay the warlord, first blood, 1 obj.) Orks

This was definitely a tense game, and although it ended in a draw, I'd still say it's better than the old capture and control due to the secondaries.

Lessons:

- Careful with the Vendetta, it's not invulnerable
- Don't forget about Jink (which I promptly forgot about for the 1st 2 games of the tournament)
- My list can actually deal with hordes which is good, as I was worried I'd get swarmed (although this wasn't that big a swarm) but still it's nice to see it works.
- More heavy flamers?
- Need to take care with my fragile warlord (and know that he has a refractor field which I found out sometime during the tournament)
- Leman Russ' die in cc
- The blob, despite looking like it's impossible to destroy, is actually quite fragile when assaulted by dedicated cc units

Anyway... next post should hopefully be the tournament report. :)