Battle Report 6-17-11

I know I published my ignominious defeat first before the larger battle that I started first, but it was a shorter write up, and I really wanted to get that write up done and wash the taste out of my mouth before I got into the meat of my 40K gaming, this 1500 point battle with Steve.

To spice things up we decided to use the Battle Missions book to get a scenario.  We rolled off (1-3 were the Ork, 4-6 were Space Marines) and ended up with the Blitzkrieg Ork scenario, a fast attack favored scenario featuring 3 control points angled across the board.  It started Steve at a severe disadvantage before some surprising twists took the game in a direction we could not have predicted.

Hit the jump for the army lists, and turn by turn action


Scenario: Blitzkrieg
Deployment: Blitzkrieg Scenario deployment rules (opposite corners of the board)
Armies:  Steve's Blood Ravens v. My Orks

Space Marines
HQ - Space Marine Captain w/Power Armor - 130 pts
HQ - Space Marine Chaplain w/Terminator Armor - 130 pts
Elite - Terminator Assault Squad w/Sergeant & Land Raider Crusader - 450 pts
Troops - Tactical Squad w/Sergeant & Rhino - 205 pts
Troops - Tactical Squad w/Sergeant & Rhino - 205 pts
Heavy - Thunderfire Cannon w/Techmarine Gunner - 100 pts
Elite - Furioso Librarian - 175 pts
Elite - Dreadnought - 105pts

Orks
HQ - Warboss - 95 pts
HQ - Big Mek W/Kustom Force Field - 90 pts
Troops - Ork Boyz - 216 pts
Troops - Nobz w/Trukk - 305 pts
Troops - Deff Dread - 85 pts
Fast Attack - Stormboyz w/Boss Zagstruk - 145 pts
Fast Attack - Warbikers - 75 pts
Fast Attack - Deff Koptas - 320 pts
Heavy - Killa Kans - 165 pts

The first thing we did was get out all of our available terrain pieces and alternated picking pieces until we had 25% of the board covered fairly well, then we alternated placing those pieces around the board giving us a pretty good coverage of terrain.

Seems pretty close to 25% of the board

And once it was spread out, it looked pretty good, even with the unpainted pieces

I won initiative so I decided to deploy my units first.  In all actuality this didn't matter, as we had built our lists before we determined the scenario we were playing from.  As a result Steve did not include any fast attack or fast vehicles in his list.  Blitzkrieg only allowed fast attack vehicles to be deployed and only fast vehicles could be brought out on the board utilizing the scenario specific rule of Lightning strike.  As a result I deployed only my Warbikes and Deff Koptas.  I decided to keep my Stormboyz in reserve to utilize their deep strike ability later.

This control point was across the short edge of the board from my deployment zone

This was the middle control point

This was across the short edge of the board from Steve's deployment zone

Turn 1
I moved my Deffkoptas and Warbikes and brought my Trukk on the board with the Lightning Strike.  Inside my trukk I had my Nobz and Warboss.

After the first turn the board WAS MINE...too bad the game didn't end then

Turn 2
My Deff Koptas, Trukk, and Warbikes moved.  I was able to bring my Deff Dread out of reserve and Deep Strike my Stormboyz, without any mishaps.

Steve was able to bring his 2 Tactical Squads out of reserve along with his Dreadnought.  He shot the The Dread's stormbolter and muti-melta at my Stormboyz but missed.  One of his deployed Tactical Squads had a shot at the Stormboyz.  They got 2 wounds on them, I applied both to Zagstruk and made 1 of 2 saves.

Dammit all, Steve did decide to table some minis after all.

Turn 3
This round saw my mob of Boyz come onto the field, along with the Big Mek that I grouped together.  I turbo boosted my bikes to get closer to one of the tactical squads.  My Stormboyz then assaulted the other tactical squad.  All Stormboyz died without doing any damage to any of the Space Marines.  Zags' wound from earlier kept him from unleashing mayhem as his low initiative and that wound coupled together to bring my downfall of that unit.


Steve deployed his Land Raider Crusader with Terminators, Thunderfire Cannon, and Captain out of reserve.  His tactical marines shot at my Warbikes with his tacitcal squad and took out one.  The Land Raider Crusader shot down 2 Deff Koptas and wounded a 3rd.

Turn 4
My Killa Kans came out of reserve.  I ran my Mob and Deff Dread, moved my Trukk and Bikes.  I moved my Deff Kopta and dropped a Big Bomm on the Tactical Marines, but the Bomm scattered over the Rhino doing no damage.  Knowing my Koptas were sitting ducks, I assaulted the Tactical Marines, but Steve saved all wounds and the Deff Koptas went down in a blaze of glory.

Steve saw his Furioso Librarian come onto the table.  His Dreadnought shot at and damaged my Trukk.  I rolled a Kareen on the table that ran it into one of the terrain pieces before it blew up throwing my Nobz and Warboss from the Trukk and giving them all 1 wound.  He then took out 3 Nobz with his Tactical Squad and 7 Boyz with his Thunderfire Cannon.  The Nobz failed a Morale test and ran.

That green template was the crater left by my Trukk.  It hurt me to see it sitting there

the rest of the game.

That mob looked mighty good...until that Thunderfire Cannon tore through them

like a grinder tears through Drug Cartel henchmen in Bond movies...

for those who don't get it, it's just a bloody mess when it's all done.

Turn 5
My Nobz and Warboss recovered morale and moved back towards the far control point they had been moving towards in their trukk.  My Warbikes moved into range to fire at the Thunderfire cannon, one hit, but no wounds.  I ran my Deff Dread and Boyz to their targeted control points, and moved my Killa Kans toward a hill to give them a good firing range.

Right at the beginning of Turn 5 I was about to pull those pesky Warbikes out of hiding

And block Steve's path to that control point, not to mention trying to shoot that cannon.

Oh the best laid plans of mice and men...

Steve took out my Warbikes with his Furioso Librarian and Tactical Squad.  He then finished off my Nobz and Warboss with his Thunderfire Cannon and Deff Dread.  In the Assault phase he attacked my Dread with his Terminators and Tactical Squad, losing his missile launcher.

I rolled to see if the game ended, praying it would as I had control of one control point, one was contested between my Deff Dread and his units, and the other wasn't controlled at all.  Unfortunately the victory I sought was denied me by the dice and we continued on to Round 6.

That's one control point I have...please let the game end with this dice ro..d'oh

Turn 6
I took out 2 more Space Marines with the Deff Dread before Steve broke off the attack with his Tactical Squad and bemoaning his missile launcher's demise earlier.  My Kans moved closer but couldn't get in range.

Steve continued to thin my Boyz with his Thunderfire Cannon as he moved his other Tactical Squad into control of the point and his Furioso Librarian in between my Boyz and that squad.

And as that Tactical Squad moves towards the control point I can see my

victory slipping away.

Turn 7
I disengaged my Deff Dread to allow my Kans a shot at the Terminators, but they saved all wounds.  I then reengaged the assault with the Deff Dread and took out one Termie.

Steve moved his Dreadnought in to contend the point my Boyz had been in control of, and the game was over.  Turn 7 was the last round, he had 1 control point and the other 2 were contended by both of us.

My list was actually well suited for this scenario, unfortunately events didn't go my way.  I used the Warboss and Big Mek's ability to make my Nobz and Deff Dread troops, giving me 3 scoring units to Steve's two.  I made a beeline across the board for the one point, I was able to move my Boyz into control of the middle one, and moved my Deff Dread to the third one.  Everything was going my way, except I couldn't take anything of Steve's out.  Every time I assaulted either initiative, existing wounds, or crappy saves (or a combination therein) all seemed to go against me.  I can't completely complain, my Deff Dread did well, my Warbikes were a nuisance to Steve for much of the game, and my Big Mek's force field saved my Boyz bacon a few times.  But my Trukk's early demise, my Big Bomm's bust, and my Stormboyz's untimely exit all hurt.

Steve's list looked woefully wrong for the scenario at first, but he was able to get things on the table fairly quickly after round 1, and was able to maneuver his units across the board to get the control points he needed.  With nothing in round 1, it was fairly admirable he was able to move what he did, but that missing round really would have been his downfall if the game had ended after Round 5.

In the end I need to get some other units on the table.  I need to get my Battlewagon done, I need to get some Big Gunz for long range attacks.  And I need to have my Killa Kans do more than get 1 shot in.  Had I been able to bring them out sooner I can imagine they would have been a thorn in Steve's side.  Still the new scenario was a fun change of pace and added some neat twists to how we were able to use our lists.