Goin Out With a....BOOM!

I haven't had a chance to update in a while - I'm just going to blame that on final exams and Resident Evil 5 rather than on my own laziness....
Updates should be a bit more regular now, for a time at least, as things have slowed down a good bit.
(Plus - I got my IG pre-order stuff in at Hobbytown yesterday. Woo! Now I just have to wait for all my Forgeworld stuff to get here...Argh.)

So yesterday I got a game in with the greenskins before they are put on the shelf in favor of the new shinies in the Guard codex. I tried something a bit unorthodox list-wise as the last few games my lootas have been....unreliable at best, mainly due to poor deployment and an extremely mobile enemy. So this time I opted for rokkits - and lots of them.

My list was:

HQ:

-Warboss on bike (Power klaw, Attack squig, Cybork body)

-Big Mek (KFF, Armor, Burna)

Troops:

-Trukk Mob with Nob (PK/BP/Armor)
-20 Shoota Boys with Nob (PK/BP/Armor) and 2 Big Shootas
(Riding in battlewagon)
-20 Slugga Boys with Nob (PK/BP/Armor) and 2 Rokkits
(Riding in battlewagon)
-11 Grots with Runtherd

Elites:

-15 Lootas
-15 Tankbustas with Nob (BP, Armor) and 3 Bomb-Squigs
(Riding in battlewagon)

Fast Attack:

(2x) -3 Warbuggies with TL Rokkits

Heavy Support:
(3x) - Battlewagon (2 Big Shootas, Ram, Red Paint)


His list was mechanized Eldar with a Jet-bike Seer Council (Farseer attached), 3 Wave Serpents loaded with Dire Avengers (+Exarch and bladestorm), 2 Falcons each holding a unit of five Fire Dragons, and a Fire Prism.

We randomly placed terrain with the aid of a scatter die, and rolled up Capture and Control with Dawn of War deployment. His objective went in the ruin in the far corner of his DZ, with the Seer Council temporarily parked on it. My objective went in to the ruin on the opposite corner of the table where it was promptly swarmed by grots,who were (conveniently) completely out of line of sight of.....well...everything.

Before I go any further I should mention that when I was writing my list I had debated over upgrading the warbuggies to wartrakks for the ability to re-roll dangerous terrain tests, but in the end I decided that since the main draw of the unit was its low-cost, relatively accurate, ranged anti-tank fire I should run them as barebones as possible. Dangerous terrain is only an issue 16.5% of the time when moving through terrain anyways, right? No big deal.

He gets first turn and zooms his grav-tanks on to the table at full-speed for the cover saves as they have nothing to shoot at anyways. I move my vehicles up in an Orky flying V formation with the Trukk riding point closely tailed by the two wagons filled with boys, the tank-busta/KFF wagon hides torwards the back, and the two squads of war-buggies move up on the flanks. I was able to get everyone within the 6" bubble of the Mek's Kheese -er...Kustom Force Field to take advantage of the 4+ cover saves.

Highlights:

-Remember that bit about the war-buggy/Wartrakk debate? Well - early in the game I take the chance with one of my units of buggies and attempt to move through a piece of terrain that was between them and a juicy chunk o' grav tank. I roll three ones for my dangerous terrain tests, and thanks to the vehicle squadron rules the entire unit is destroyed. Later I have to move the other unit through terrain and roll another one - another buggy runs into a tree. "WAAAAAGH!! *KEEERUNCH*" The last two war-buggies somehow survive the entire game despite being an AV 10 open-topped vehicle squadron.
In the end, I killed more of my vehicles than my opponent did.

-Tank-bustas in a wagon can be ridiculously effective against mechanized opponents. (Durrrr....)
Their massed rokkit fire accounted for most of the flaming grav-tank husks that littered the battlefield. The glory-hogs rule can make them a tricky unit to use however, and it takes some practice to make them really shine. For example, I misjudged the distances - thinking I could set up a mob of boys to assault a stunned wave serpent and use the tank-bustas to pop a nearby fire prism. Unfortunately, the aforementioned wave serpent was an inch or two closer to the tank-bustas than the prism, so they had to blow the hell out of that. And the surviving dire avengers that fell out of the back of the burning wave serpent were an inch or so outside of the aforementioned boys' assault range.

-My opponent managed to fail his psychic test for fortuning his Seer Council twice during the game. Both times I threw as much firepower as I possible could into them, and the council made all of their saves without needing the re-roll. Gah.

-The dice rolled both ways though. My opponents shooting was less than spectacular for a good portion of the game, and in the last couple turns my tank-bustas had to charge his seer council - which by rights should have annihilated them - but the seers only managed to do 4 wounds, two of which I managed to negate by making 6+ armor saves. Then the tank-bustas and their big mek buddy somehow managed to KO two of them, tying combat, and locking them in combat for another turn at a very crucial moment.

-Bottom of turn 6 I got a wagon full of boys in to assault range of the dire avengers sitting on his objective, promptly wiped them out and claimed the objective.

We roll for another turn, and the die comes up a six. Crap.

Turn 7: He moves the remnants of his last dire avenger squad into within 3" of his objective. T
he Seer Council, having finally wiped out the tank-bustas they had been locked in assault with doom the orks holding the objective and drop three destructor templates on them.

They die horrible, horrible deaths.

I throw my entire army - what's left of it anyways - into that unit of dire avengers, and they fall...barely.
The grots on my objective throw up their arms in jubilation - Victory!

...but at what cost?

At the end of turn 7 the only living things left on the battlefield were the Farseer, Seer Council, one battlewagon, two war buggies, most of the lootas, and the scaredy grots.

So - around 75% casualties on both sides. It was a bloody one, and a nail-biter up until the very end.

Next week I plan to give the new IG Codex a spin.

It's Not Easy Bein' Green...

I was able to get a game in against Rob's Mechanized Eldar earlier today - well most of a game - we called it early due to prevalence of funnel clouds amongst other things.

My list:

HQ:
-Big Mek(Burna,KFF)
-Warboss(Kombi-Skorcha,Powerklaw,Attack Squig,Heavy Armor, Cybork)

Troops:
-19 Slugga Boys (Nob:HA/BP/PK) X2

-30 Shoota Boys (Nob:BP/PK)

-12 Slugga Boys (Trukk, Nob: BP/PK/HA)X2

-19 Grots

Elites:
-10 Lootas x3

Heavy Support:
-Battlewagon (2 Big Shootas, Ram) X2

His list included the Seer Council of DOOM, several wave serpents, a couple falcons, a fire prism, Dire Avengers in the Serpent, and some small units of Fire Dragons (though I never actually saw them as they stayed tucked away in their transports)

We rolled up Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment, Rob got the first turn, and I failed to seize the initiative.

My two wagons (loaded with slugga boys, one with the Warboss, and the other with the Mek) were deployed in the front, trusting the durability of AV 14 with a 4+ cover save, and giving cover to the lootas behind them. The two trukks deployed around the wagons, within 6" to take advantage of the 4+ cover of the KFF. The lootas were deployed in an effort to get the best possible firing arcs while keeping cover, one in the back of the board behind the wagons, the other two of the flanks. My big mob of shootas stays in reserve for lack of space, and the hope to come from the table edge and get some juicy falcon-flank.

Turn 1 Highlights:

Grav-tanks hover about a bit then the shooting begins.
A twin-linked brightlance goes into the Big Mek's Wagon.
*BOOM* HEADSHOT!
It penetrates, I roll a one for my cover save, it wrecks.

Another brightlance hits the Warboss's wagon.
*BOOM* HEADSHOT!
It penetrates, I roll a two for my cover save, it explodes violently.

Trukk number 1 is similarly maimed: I roll a 3 for my cover save, and a 1 for my ramshackle roll.

Trukk number 2 is mercifully spared, merely getting a stunned result.

....Not auspicious....

Bottom of Turn 1:

Now the fun begins! The lootas are ready to unleash hell upon those damn girly-dress wearin' space elves and their funky flying tank-skimmer things.

Loota unit number one scores two penetrating hits and two glances against a wave serpent, and.....gets two shaken results and two stunned results.

It doesn't get any better after that....the two other units of lootas yield similar results, and come the end of the turn the eldar force is unscathed - other than a couple of shaken/stunned grav-tanks.

Other game highlights include:
The warboss burning a tightly knit group of dire avengers with his kombi-skorcha, scoring seven hits, he needed anything but ones to kill, and of course - I rolled four ones. (!!!)

I ended up conceding the game after that. The weather was getting pretty horrid with talk of tornadoes and such anyways, so it was probably for the best.

Otherwise it would have technically ended as a tactical draw since neither of us were anywhere near the opposing objective, but I was maimed pretty thoroughly in terms of kill points and victory points.

All things considered it was a good game.

The dice can't always been on your side I suppose.

I Can Has Blog?

Okay, so - the primary focus of this blog is going to be Warhammer 40,000 so why not jump right in?

Right now I'm playing Orks, the one army that I own that is "finished." Well - sort of.
As finished as an Ork army can be I suppose. Here's my most recent list, a slight variant on the "Battlewagon Brigade" theme:

HQ:

Warboss (Kombi-Skorcha/Powerklaw/Heavy Armor/Attack Squig/Cybork)
Total: 120 pts

Big Mek (Kustom Force Field,Heavy Armor,Burna)
Total: 110 pts

TROOPS

12 Slugga Boyz
Nob(PK/BP/HA)
+Trukk(Ram)
Total: 157

12 Slugga Boyz
Nob(PK/BP/HA)
+Trukk(Ram)
Total: 157

19 Slugga Boys
Nob(PK/BP/HA)
Total: 159

19 Slugga Boys
Nob(PK/BP/HA)
Total: 159

30 Shoota Boyz(3 Rokkits)
Nob(BP/PK)
Total: 250 pts

19 Grots (Runtherd)
Total: 67 pts


ELITES

15 Lootas –225 pts

15 Lootas – 225 pts


HEAVY SUPPORT

Battlewagon(Red Paint,2 Big Shootas,Ram)
Total: 110 pts

Battlewagon (Red Paint,2 Big Shootas,Ram)
Total: 110 pts

Total: 1,849 points/147 Models/14 Kill points


-Typically, the boss and 19 boys ride in one wagon, and the KFF Mek and the other 19 boys ride in the other.
-The two trukks flank the wagons, taking advantage of the KFF's 4+ cover save.
-The Grots serve as cheap flower-picking objective sitters and a nice wide meat shield for my firebase when needed.
-The lootas....ruin something's day.

I was able to give it a test-run against Rob's mech-eldar this week, with great success. It was really his poor reserve rolls that swung the game though, so I might have to give it another run soon.

Overall though the list seems pretty solid, as it takes advantage of Orks' biggest strengths: loads of dakka and plenty of boys.