Topic: Orks vs Adeptus Astartes 1500 pts

[Blazinghand]

Played against my friend Kingsley today at the game store. We played Matched Play at 1500 pts. I ran my Orks versus his Space Marines.

Army Lists

Blazinghand's list:
1x BATTALION Detachment, 1x SPEARHEAD Detachment of Orks (7 CP)
++HQ++
Warboss on Warbike with Power Klaw
Big Mek on Warbike with KFF, Killsaw
Weirdboy
++TROOPS++
30 Slugga Boyz, 1 is Nob with Klaw
11 Shoota Boyz, 1 is Nob with Klaw
11 Shoota Boyz, 1 is Nob with Klaw
10 Shoota Boyz, 1 is Nob with Klaw
++FAST ATTACK++
9 Warbikers
++HEAVY SUPPORT++
3 Killa Kans, 2 with Rokkit Launcha, 1 with Big Shoota
3 Big gunz: Zzap guns
Mek Gun with Kustom Mega Kannon (modeled with the loot Basilisk that isn't legal in 8th as an Ork Basilisk)
++DEDICATED TRANSPORTS++
3x Trukk with no frills



Kingsley's List:
1x BATTALION Detachment of Imperials (6 CP)
++HQ++
Captain with Storm Bolter, Power Axe
Techmarine on Bike with Storm Bolter, Power Axe, Copnversion Beamer
++ELITES++
Dreadnought with 2 twin Autocannons
Dreadnought with 2 twin Autocannons
6 Inquisition Acolytes with Storm Bolters
5 Inquisition Acolytes with Storm Bolters
++TROOPS++
5 Tac Marines with Plasgun, Combi-Plasma
5 Tac Marines with Plasgun, Combi-Plasma
5 Tac Marines with Plasgun, Combi-Plasma
++FLYERS++
Stormtalon Gunship
Stormtalon Gunship
++DEDICATED TRANSPORTS++
2x Razorback with Lascannon, Twin Plasguns, Storm Bolter
1x Razorback with Twin Assault Cannon, Storm Bolter



Setup and Deployment

We rolled for modes and got No Mercy, which is Kill Points with a point each for Line Breaker, First Blood, and Slay the Warlord. We rolled for deployment rules, and got Vanguard strike. Kingsley won the roll-off and got to pick his deployment zone. He conveniently picked the side close to where he had staged his units.

We begin alternating deploying units. Kingsley deploys one or two of his transports, but for the most part makes conservative deployments, such as his Dreads in the back that don't reveal if he's favoring one side or the other. I try to make the "obvious" deployments first, such as my Big Gunz in the forest area, and eventually have to decide how I want to deal with the two routs to his side. I decide to send one trukk and my bikers around the left side of the LoS-blocker in the middle, towards most of his force, and the other two trukks around the right side towards the razorback and his air units. I set up my boyz and HQs right behind the bikes.




In general, I'm concerned about KPs. Kingsley's army can give up to 14 KPs, but due to the way Big Gunz and Mek Gunz split up after deployment, my army can give up to 20 KPs. If we slug it out evenly, it's entirely possible I'd lose on KPs. This will not turn out to be a major concern.

Kingsley finishes deployment one move before me, and I fail to seize the initiative. In retrospect, deploying my weirdboy inside a Trukk to start would have won me the first turn, and a CP reroll would have been well spent the seize attempt regardless. Orks win or lose based on how many make it to melee, and one less turn of shooting could be a difference-maker. Ah, hindsight!




Top of Turn 1 (Imperials):

Kingsley acts first, his razorback disgorging a tac squad that moves forward along with the screening element of his Inquisition troopers. His other unit of Inquisition troopers take cover in a crater, and his flyers move toward my guns.



His shooting takes down one Kan, kills 4 bikers, pops a Trukk, and destroys both the Mek Gun and one of my Big Zzap Guns. Overall, a very good shooting phase, knocking out a few of my weapons that had a good chance of taking down the flyers.




Bottom of Turn 1 (Orks):

The leftover Grots from the Mek Gun take cover in the forest, and all my forces move forward as quickly as they can. I advance with my Bikers, which turns out to be a mistake since they can't use the Warboss' ability to actually charge after advancing because they are Bikes rather than Infantry. Shooting is unevenful. The Kans don't advance and instead fire their rokkits, but do little. The Zzap Guns roll poorly for strength and fail to do significant damage to the Stormtalons

Rather spectatularly, my Weirdboy uses Da Jump, putting 30 Ork Boyz in position to charge.




And charge they do. They hit with 27 of them still alive, cranking out an astonishing number of attacks. They put 5 wounds on the Razorback, liquify a Tac squad, and consolidate into the Inquisition to prevent them from shooting. Sadly, I don't go for the complete wraparound on the Razorback, so it is able to Fall Back if it chooses.





Top of Turn 2 (Imperials):

Kingsley's Razorback and Inquisition Acolytes Fall Back, opening the boyz up for shooting. The Inquisiton Troopers in front of his two razorbacks move forward enough to prevent an assault against them from consolidating into the vehicles behind. His Razorbacks deploy the other two plasma tac squads as his two HQs move left to engage the boyz. The Stormtalons fly around uninhibited.



During his shooting phase, Kingsley effectively wipes out the Bikers as well as the right-side Trukk with some well-placed Plasma, Lascannon, and Assault Cannon. The Kans, however, take hit after hit without complaint. After a significant amount of shooting and assault, my squad of 27 boyz is now down to a meager 8-10, and my left flank has collapsed.




Both of his HQs have caused a lot of problems in assault. My 8 boyz would have all died to Morale no matter the roll, but I spent 2 Command Points on the Insane Bravery strategem, automatically passing the Morale test, thereby keeping about a third of my remaining infantry alive.






Bottom of Turn 2 (Orks):

Things are now looking pretty bad, I basically need to assault down all the rest of Kingsley's army to win. I charge his razorback with one squad of Boyz, and the other squad disembarks and multicharges his Razorback and his Inquisition Acolytes.



The Razorback pops like a soap bubble, and one squad consolidates into more infantry towards his razorback, while the other heads after his HQs despite significant losses.

Top of Turn 3 (Imperials):

Kingsley uses Fall Back to disengage all assaults, and brings one Stormtalon around for repairs while the other does cleanup on my side of the board.




His shooting cleans up my Killa Kanz as well as most of my remaining Boyz. At this point I judge it is impossible to win, and concede.





Final Tally:

Blazinghand Concedes!


----

Some key learnings:

1. Ork Big Gunz and Mek Gunz are generally vulnerable, especially against flyers. My army list needs some way of taking down flyers or heavy vehicles, or both.
2. Da Jump proves its usefulness once again. With a mob of 30 Boyz it's really quite solid.
3. Splitting my fast-moving units around the LoS blocker was a mistake; all of Kingsley's units could Rapid-Fire at once. If I sent everything rushing at one flank it would have gone better.
4. I should have deployed for minimum deployment moves to get first turn. Failing that, using a CP on seizing the initiative would have been worth it. It felt like 1 turn of shooting would make the difference.
5. 2 of 3 Trukks successfully delivered their squads, relatively intact, into melee. Not bad!
6. I kept my Big Mek back to hang out with the Boyz and provide them with the KFF. This was a mistake. He should have gone with the Bikers to give THEM the KFF, it would have given them a chance against the Plasma. Also, since Bikers were going to take 2 turns to get to melee, I should have started them out of LoS of some of his shooty units.
6 Bonus: In general, a lot of my mistakes this game were of the type "split up units that should have been supporting each other" which is fairly easy to address.
7. This deployment and mission mode forced me to come to Kingsley, since he's shootier and there were no objectives to take, so he didn't have to leave his deployment zone. This is not advantageous for my army.
8. Combat was generally short and brutal, and Boyz are VERY good at it.

[Wyddr]

Thanks for the report, Blazinghand--very entertaining!

How reliable did you feel the psychic tests were? They seem pretty hit-or-miss from an armchair perspective.

Second question: How cost effective were the Kans? I gather they're not as cheap as they once were, but is the extra expense worth it?

[dog_of_war]

That was a very entertaining report! Thanks for the good read. It looks like the learning curve for 8th edition is pretty steep and we'll have to reevaluate how the orks work on the table, which is not a bad thing, as they weren't really working well before.

[Irisado]

I really enjoyed reading that report.  You've identified the reasons for your defeat very well.  I particularly agree that the main problem here was splitting up your forces too much.  Had you concentrated your army more to attack in one place, I think that you would have been able to overwhelm the Imperial force and make it a much closer game.

[Blazinghand]

Thanks for the report, Blazinghand--very entertaining!

How reliable did you feel the psychic tests were? They seem pretty hit-or-miss from an armchair perspective.

Second question: How cost effective were the Kans? I gather they're not as cheap as they once were, but is the extra expense worth it?

Since Weirdboy gets a bonus to psychic tests based on his proximity to other orks, he actually passes his psychic test rather reliably. Positioned properly, he rolls 2d6+3 on psychic tests, which lets him pretty effortlessly use Da Jump. If he rolls to high, there's a problem, but the test still passes and the max wounds that perils can deal to him is less than his wounds, so he'll almost always be able to use his power on Turn 1. The cagey part is actually the charge roll for the boyz, which even with a reroll only succeeds 50% of the time. On turn 2 I was able to smite a Stormtalon for 2 wounds with him. But I mostly take him for that Da Jump.

I've played two games with the Kans. In one, they were fairly valuable, taking down a rhino in melee by turn 2 to open up a rhinowall for my boyz and bikers to get through. In this game, they were quite durable but had no major impact on the game with their two turns of shooting. As weapon platforms, they're sturdy and accurate (for an Ork) but they seem to lack the density of fire to make a big impact. I think they'll be best as objective-holders and contestors, since they're sturdy, decent in assault, and at least capable of annoying the enemy with shooting. I'm still figuring out how to use them best.

That was a very entertaining report! Thanks for the good read. It looks like the learning curve for 8th edition is pretty steep and we'll have to reevaluate how the orks work on the table, which is not a bad thing, as they weren't really working well before.

Thanks! One thing I found was that Orks seem to have two modes, morale wise: "automatically pass the test" and "probably get wiped". It was worth it to spend 2 Command Points to auto-pass Morale to save my squad of 8 orks that had lost like 20 models in one turn.

I really enjoyed reading that report.  You've identified the reasons for your defeat very well.  I particularly agree that the main problem here was splitting up your forces too much.  Had you concentrated your army more to attack in one place, I think that you would have been able to overwhelm the Imperial force and make it a much closer game.

Thanks!

[Saim-Dann]

G'day Blazinghand
Amazing pictures, mate. Pity your Orks didn't fare to well. Great looking paint jobs on them though... Be well!