Battle Report 6-18-11

 In a weekend filled with James Bond movie watching and 40K games, the most frustrating part of the entire venture was a quick 500 point battle my buddy James and I decided to do to fill the time. We really didn’t spend much time on the lists, and I will admit I brought ‘Ard Boyz mostly because I had never used them.

See the lists, and gory details after the jump






Scenario: Seize the Ground
Deployment: Spearhead
Armies: James’ Tau v. My Orks
Orks
HQ – Warboss – 95 points
Troops – Nobz – 230 points
Troops – ‘Ard Boyz w/’Ard Boyz Nob – 175 points

Tau
HQ – Commander Shas’el – 122 points
Troops – Kroot Carnivore Squad – 108 points
Troops – Fire Warrior w/Devilfish – 190 points
Heavy – Broadside Battlesuit – 80 points

I won initiative, and kept nothing in reserve. James kept his Kroot in reserve. We set up the table with the remaining terrain pieces that weren’t being used on the other table. So not quite 25% coverage, but enough big pieces to cut off shooting lanes and help me survive what I did.

 The table wasn't the exact size, and coverage wasn't exactly 25% on terrain

but we figured it was a good size for a 500 point battle

 Don't let my early deployment fool you, the advantage may have looked good

but it didn't play out that way.

Turn 1
I moved and ran my units, no shooty and no assault.
James shot at my ‘Ard Boyz with his Devilfish. The Twin-Linked Rail Rifle from the Battlesuit hit, but I was saved by cover, but the missle pod from Shas’el did take out an Ork Boy.

 He may not have a lot of units to clutter the table, but he has enough to mess you up.

Turn 2
I moved my Ork Boyz to take control of the middle objective. As I was still to far away, and Ork shooty sucks I had no shot with my Boyz, and ran my Nobz 5” to move around the big hill in the middle.
James used Outflank to infilitrate his Kroot within shooting distance of my Nobz. He had 24 shots, and hit with 17, and then wounded with 9 of the hits. The Devilfish then focused on and took out my Warboss in the shooting phase. The Kroot mopped up the last wounded Nob in Assault.

Somewhere a dice god is smoking a cigarette and zipping up his pants while James

searches feverishly for a bottle of mouthwash.

If you squint you can see a green smudge on the table where my Nobz used to be.

Turn 3
I was bitter and shot at the Kroot, but missed on all shots. I then assaulted them with my Ork Boyz, knowing I didn't need the control point just yet. James took a couple guys out but I was focused more on how quickly they fell in assault.

 There isn't much I can look at during this game with any pride,

avenging the death of my Nobz might be the only thing.

Turn 4
I finished off the Kroot, which then allowed James to shoot at my Ork boyz, taking out 3 with the Devilfish and one with the Broadside. Shas’el hit but no wounds.

 Run little Ork Boyz!  Run!

Turn 5
Knowing this was an objective based board, I moved my Ork Boyz within close enough range that I could run my boyz to take the 2 objectives…but my run roll was short when I rolled a whopping 1. I needed a 2 to get one objective and a 3+ would have given me both.
James then disembarked his Firewarriors from his Devilfish and moved them to take the chaos pool. The devilfish, Firewarriors, and Shas’el wiped out the remaining Ork Boyz and wounded the Nob. I failed Morea and rolled a 9 to fall back. Called the game at that point. With 1 remaining individual troop I had to recover morale and would need at least 2 rounds to get back within 3” of either objective I had a shot at, and that was assuming that he wouldn’t roll all 6’s on his hits and wounds the next round effectively leaving a pile of greenish dust in a large crater.

One objective secured, one contested...

 ...and one last scoring unit of my Orks wounded and ready to run away.

This was a quick game where we really just slapped together a 500 point list to play. However, next time my Nobz are going to be ‘Ard and I’ll just bring a larger mob of regular boyz to hopefully cause James more time to pick them off. In all honesty, I knew the game was done when he rolled 17 out of 24 hits, and then 9 out of 17 wounds. I mean that took out 230 of my 500 points in one shooty round. Add in that I lost the Warboss that same round and that’s a loss of 325 points. That was 65% of my points total, and half of my scoring units in one round. I mean it’s still fun, and I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to play the game ever, but oh man it was frustrating to suffer that kind of defeat.