Battle Report Week of 8/1/11 - 8/5/11

In an attempt to get more playtime in, my buddy Steve and I decided to take full advantage of him working from home for a week to try to get a game in.  It took on a bigger life when his son Connor decided he wanted to play too.  We decided to use a variation on the Cleanse battle scenario from 4th edition, but rather than split the board into 4 quarters, we created an imaginary Y section for the battle.

Hit the jump for Army Lists, pictures, and a breakdown of the awesomeness that was our game.

Scenario/Deployment:  Cleanse
Armies:  Steve's Blood Ravens vs. Connor's Necrons vs. My Orks

Steve:  Blood Ravens Space Marines - 1498 pts
HQ - Space Marine Librarian in Power Armor - 103 pts
Troops - Scout Squad w/Sargent Telion - 125 pts
Troops - Tactical Squad w/Sargent and Rhino - 210 pts
Troops - Tactical Squad w/Sargent and Rhino - 210 pts
Fast Attack - Vanguard Veteran Squad w/Sargent - 230 pts
Heavy Support - Land Raider Cruiser - 260 pts
Heavy Support - Thunderfire Cannon w/Techmarine Gunner - 100 pts
Elite - Ironclad Dreadnought - 155 pts
Elite - Dreadnought - 105 pts

Connor:  Necrons - 1496 pts
HQ - The Nightbringer - 360 pts
HQ - Lord - 130 pts
Heavy Support - Monolith - 235 pts
Troops - Warriors - 180 pts
Troops - Warriors - 180 pts
Elite - Flayed Ones - 180 pts
Fast Attack - Scarab Swarms - 36 pts
Heavy Support - Heavy Destroyers - 195 pts

Me:  Orks - 1500 pts
HQ - Warboss - 105 pts
HQ - Weirdboy - 85 pts
Troops - Boyz - 195 pts
Troops - Boyz - 200 pts
Troops - Nobz w/Ork Trukk - 375 pts
Elite - Lootas - 75 pts
Fast Attack - Deffkoptas - 180 pts
Fast Attack - Stormboyz - 60 pts
Heavy Support - Deff Dread - 105 pts
Heavy Support - Looted Wagon w/Boomgun - 120 pts

You can see how our terrain was laid out.

We chose cleanse because we were looking for a good scenario that would support a 3 person game.  None of the 5the edition rules seemed particularly adaptable to our setup, but Cleanse seemed to work when we shifted from a quarters split to a Y split of the board.  The Cleanse scenario makes territories control points, and requires you have a scoring unit in the territory to claim it.  If a scoring unit is in multiple territories you roll to see which territory it controls or contests.  It calls for a special deployment where each person deploys one unit at a time.  Order for deployment was myself, then Connor, then Steve.  Steve deployed everything, while Connor kept his flayed one in reserve.  I deployed everything but one squad of 30 Boyz, my Lootas, Stormboyz, and Weirdboy.

We had a good mix of terrain, wreckage, Ork barricades, Imperial statues, and skulls

One caveat about this battle report, since the game was spread across several days, some of the details were lost, so hopefully the overall narrative can still be followed.

Turn 1
Connor won initiative to go first, neither Steve or I were able to steal it.  I moved my Deffkoptas first to utilize the Scout rule.  Connor moved a couple units, but kept most stuff still.  This allowed his Warriors to rapid fire my Trukk, but of all his hits (around 15) only one was able to do anything and thanks to my armor plates it went from Crew Stunned to Crew Shaken.  Connor then fired on the Trukk with his Monolith, destroyed the Trukk, but only 2 of the Nobz were wounded by the resulting wreckage.  Connor then shot at Steve's Regular Dred with his Heavy Destroyers and got a Crew Shaken result.

I'll apologize right now.  Someone was desperate for the attention that only a digital camera can bring.

Also dat's a lot of Boyz dere

I followed up the destruction of my Ork Trukk by moving my Nobz and Warboss toward his Warriors.  I pressed forward with my Deffkoptas and ran my Deff Dread and Ork Boyz.  Meanwhile, my Looted Wagon moved forward 1 inch in difficult terrain.  My Deffkoptas fired on one of Steve's Rhinos and stunned it.  My Looted Wagon shot at Connor's Monolith, but it scattered off and did nothing.  And my Nobz assaulted Connor's warriors.  I took out one warrior, and then we piled in after Connor made his morale test.

I swear his photo bombs are just a sad attempt on his part to ask "Why don't people like me as much as I like me?"

Aslo, those snipers in that tower freaked me out, cause I knew it was me they were gunning for.

Steve moved a couple units, but spent his first turn firing on Connor and myself.  The one movement of note was his Librarian, who failed a dangerous terrain test and suffered a wound.  Steve's Iron Clad Dred blasted away at my Deff Dread with its Hunter-Killer Missile, but failed to do anything with his glancing hits.  Steve's scouts with Telion shot at my Ork boyz, but failed to wound, and failed to pin them.  However, my Deffkoptas suffered a withering barrage of attacks from his Land Raider, and two of the three died.  I failed Morale and ran back 12" just barely missing difficult terrain.  Steve then laid a Vortex of Doom down on Connor's Heavy Destroyers and took one of them out.  Connor made his morale test and held his ground.

The only piece of terrain we were missing was the sign that said "Monolith Parking Here"

Turn 2
Connor phased his warriors out of combat with my Nobz, and brought the one wounded warrior back.  He shot at my Nobz, and got some wounds on them.  He then assaulted my Nobz and Warboss with his Scarabs and Flayed Ones.  After the resulting assault and the shooting the Nobz all suffered from one wound.  Connor shot at Steve's Dreadnought with his Heavy Destroyers, but did nothing.  Connor brought his Nightbringer in from reserve and took Steve's Librarian out.

This picture didn't come out as well as I'd hoped.  When we squatted down and looked at the hill from

the Techmarine's perspective all you could see was Ork heads and weapons coming for him.

I brought my 30 Ork Boyz in from Reserve.  I was able to recover my Deffkopta from retreating, unfortunately his shot at the Iron Clad Dred did nothing.  I called Waaagh! and through some good dice rolls was able to assault Steve's Thunderfire Cannon with my Ork Boyz.  Steve's Techmarine failed to save against every wound and died.  I also assaulted Steve's Rhino with my Deff Dread.  I was able do quite a bit of damage on Steve, resulting in the the Rhino exploding.  Steve's Tactical Marines survived, but were pinned.  Against Connor I asaulted his Warriors with my Ork Boyz from reserve and took out one warrior.  I also finished off his Scarabs, and took out 2 more Flayed Ones.  My Looted Wagon shot at Connor's Monolith, direct hit, but was unable to penetrate the armor.

Mostly because that's what was heading for the Techmarine.

Steve shot at my Ork Boyz that took out his Thunderfire cannon.  4 wounds, but unsuccessful on the pinning.  His tactical marines took out another Ork Boy.  2 wounds from the Vanguard Veterans, but I had cover and made one save.  The Land Raider took out another of my Boyz and his Dreadnought took out a Heavy Destroyer.  Steve then assaulted my Deff Dread with his Iron Clad Dreadnought.  He destroyed it with the Seismic Hammer.  Unfortunately the blow from the Seismic Hammer and the destruction of the Deff Dread took out a Vanguard and two more Tactical Marines.  His Dreadnought took out the last Heavy Destroyer in assault.

Things were about to get crazy here...

 ...and here...

Turn 3
Connor rolled his We'll Be Back rolls.  He brought back 2 Scarabs, 2 Heavies, and phased out his Warriors, unable to bring back the downed Warrior.  He then shot at my Ork Boyz mob with the Warriors and Monolith and took out 9 of the Boyz.  His Heavies came back into assault with Steve's Dreadnought and lost one right away.

He looks like a retarted Forrest Gump here (and yes, I know Forrest Gump was retarded....so what does that make Connor, hmm?)

Also, these Stormboyz were about as effective in this game as Connor's Lord...only difference these guys tried to do something.

My Stormboyz, Wierdboy, and Lootas came in from reserve.  I assaulted the Warriors with my Ork Boyz, took out 3 warriors to the 2 Boyz I lost in assault.  2 more Flayed Ones fell and the scarabs again fell.  Stormboyz couldn't reach Connor to assault his other warriors.  On my front with Steve I took out 2 Tactical Marines and Steve took out 2 Ork Boyz.  My Wierdboy had Zzap as his power this turn and shot at The Nightbringer, but missed.  My Deffkopta again missed when he shot at Steve's Land Raider.  My Looted Wagon shot at the cluster of Marine bodies around the remains of the Rhino and my Deff Dread, but was unable to do anything.

'Dese fings jus keep comin' back.  Die already, I wants to fight sumfin' else!

Steve deployed his remaining Tactical Marine Squad in his remaining Rhino.  The Lootas lost 1 when Steve's snipers targeted them.  Thankfully Steve's pinning test failed.  He shot at my Wierdboy with a Krak Missile, and killed him with one shot.  Steve's Dreadnought again took out Connor's Heavy Destroyers.  Steve took down my remaining Deffkopta, and then attempted to assault Connor's Nightbringer with his Iron Clad.  He lost his Iron Clad, but not before inflicting a wound on the Nightbringer.  Steve assaulted the Ork Boyz with his newly deployed Tactical Marines.

Those Tactical Marines were on their way to meet the Techmarine who was stationed with that gun,
instead they found Da Boyz chompin' for a fight.

Turn 4
Connor was unable to bring back anything but 2 warriors, 2 scarabs, and 1 Flayed one.  Connor phased his warriors out from close combat with me again.  He shot at my Stormboyz, taking out 3 of them.  I failed Morale and they fell back 8 inches.

They might be Mechwarrior Mechs we proxied for the Iron Clad Dred andDeff Dread,

but their battle was the stuff of, sadly, Space Marine Legend

I failed my morale test on my Stormboyz and they fell back off the edge of the table.  I finished off the Flayed Ones.  Took out another 2 Wariors, and finished off Steve's Tacitcal Marine Squad in combat.

"And sometimes when I stick this finger up my nose too far, I can tickle my brain...and it bleeds..."

Also, those Heavy Destroyers (and yes they were Deffkoptas proxied)

tied up that Dreadnought for most of the game.

Steve shot at Connor's Lord with the melta gun and stormbolter on his Dreadnought, but was unable to wound.  He shot at and killed 2 Lootas, resulting in them being pinned.  He shot at my Looted Wagon and took out the Rokkit Launcha.  He assaulted my Ork Boyz, took out 4 of them, I lost my moral test, and when they fell back Steve made a sweeping advance and took the rest of them out.  He then assaulted my Looted Wagon with his Vanguard and destroyed it.

I think Steve did quite well, considering this roll pretty much summed up the dice for him

for most of (but not all of) the game.

At this point I looked at the turn dial and it said 5 turns so we rolled to see if the game ended and it did.  However upon reviewing my notes that were scattered around from multiple days of gaming, it appears we only played 4 turns.  I'm not sure if it was bumped by one of us (likely me, since the counter was on my table edge) or if it was bumped by one of Steve's pets.  I would say this is mostly a result of too many days between we started and finished this battle and having the guy who's trying to make notes on what is happening and run some tests for future 40K Neophyte battle reports track turns as well.  Steve did ask if that really was Turn 5, but the only thing I really had to go on at that point was the dial as my notes from earlier turns weren't with me.  It's a shame because the next turn could have been quite interesting.  And then to compound it, when I was doing this write up I looked at the scenario (which I really hadn’t looked at the specifics, we just liked the setup) and the Cleanse scenario is supposed to go 6 turns.  So we really screwed up the ending.  Which is a shame, because the rest of the game was great.

In the end, with us calling the game at that point it was determined that Steve and I each had a scoring unit in a territory, and Connor's territory was contested by him and me.  That's a draw for Steve and I, and a loss for Connor.  I really think what would have happened in the 5th turn had we played it, is my Nobz and Steve's Vanguard may have met in battle, I would have continued to work on Connor's Warriors.  Attrition and weak forces would have seen my Nobz go in turn 5, and possibly my Boyz in turn 6.  Probably Steve would have gotten the win, possibly a draw with Connor.  I think my remaining Nobz would have been cut down by his Vanguard, leaving my only scoring unit in contest with Connor if it could survive 2 more turns against 2 warrior units and a Monolith.

This may have been my favorite game so far.  Adding the Scenarios from 4th edition was a nice touch, and getting the large epic battles with so many points on the table made it fun to play.  We had truly cinematic moments like Steve's Iron Clad Dreadnought cutting through his forces to take on my Deff Dread who was flush with victory after destroying the Rhino and pinning his Tactical Marines.  We had some rules we messed up (we messed up the Thunderfire Cannon when I assaulted it, and We'll Be Back letting Connor bring entirely destroyed units back at first).  However the scale of the game makes me realize that Orks thrive in these larger points value games.

I was also pleased how the game transpired considering the predicament I was in.  When we first decided to set a Y shape for control zones in the Cleanse mission we knew whoever was in the top of the Y was going to be in the worst situation, and I volunteered to take it.  In the bottom of the Y Connor was in the right and Steve was in the left.  They had some confrontations:  mostly The Nightbringer against Steve's Librarian and Iron Clad, and Connor's Heavy Destroyers against Steve's Dreadnought.  However, a majority of the fighting centered on my fronts with Steve and Connor.  I sent one mob of Boyz against Connor, one mob of Boyz against Steve.  My Nobz were a troop choice but I considered them an elite in my tactical split and sent them towards Connor (keeping them in my part of the Y) and set the Lootas on Steve.  My Warboss was with the Nobz, so I focused my Wierdboy on Steve's forces.  However since the only power he got to use was Zzap I decided to bring that to bear on the Nightbringer because I didn't like seeing him so close to my Boyz.  My Looted Wagon continued to be fun to play, although not as devastating as before, but my Deff Dread with only Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons was a beast.  Steve really fought hard against me, and spread out after withstanding my initial assault into his territory, but Connor turtled in his territory never moving his Monolith and doing absolutely nothing with the Lord.