Topic: 1000 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: The Relic

[Wyddr]

1000 point Orks Vs Imperial Fists: The Relic

The bunker shook with the impact of another greenskin shell, knocking the dust from the plascrete support beams and making the glowbulb shake. Captain Jorran Marro, of the 12th Hemoclan PDF, shouted into the the master vox. "No! Air support, dammit! I need some birds! Damned greenskins are all over us!" The reply was garbled static. The orks were hitting all over the line, their bombers reducing the human fortifications to rubble--it was total mayhem. Marro hadn't tallied his casualties--he didn't want to--but when he'd given the order to retreat, he hadn't seen more than a third of his platoon up and moving.

He was about to yell into the vox again when he felt a tap on his shoulder. "What?"

Private Haldric stood there, white as a sheet. He was a stern man--this wasn't like him. "Haldric, what the devil's got into you?"

"A...a person here to see you, sir."

Marro scowled. "Person?"

"Loosely speaking, sir." Haldric moved aside and pointed down the corridor. There, ducking through the door, was a giant in golden yellow power armor. He seemed to fill the whole bunker with his breadth--he had to twist sideways to make it through the doorway. When he did, Marro got a good look at his pauldron--a black fist in a white circle. An astartes of the Imperial Fists.

Marro only managed to say one word: "Throne..."

The giant warrior removed his helmet, revealing a craggy face that was as much scar tissue as it was anything else. "Captain Jorran Marro, Theta Company, 12th Hemoclan PDF?"

Marro paused--was he supposed to salute? Or was he supposed to be saluted? How exactly did the rank structure work, here? He realized he was staring, so he snapped to attention and gave what he hoped was a curt nod. "Yes?"

The astartes nodded. "You're relieved. We'll take it from here." Marro heard the heavy tramp of armored boots and glimpsed a few other astartes scaling the bunker to take up positions on the roof.

"Sir, I must inform you that there is ork artillery in the forest one klick north of here. The roof isn't safe."

"If this zone were safe, Captain, we wouldn't be here." The astartes said. "Is Enginseer Barith's equipment accounted for?"

"What?" Marro blinked, "No...well...I don't...how the hell should I know? We've been shelled and bombed for hours. We've taken heavy casualties. There's no way for me to--"

The astartes turned away from him. "All right--we'll find it."

"I beg your pardon, Captain, but what in blazes--"

The astartes put on his helmet. "I'm a sergeant, sir. And this zone is no longer your problem--as I said, you're relieved."

Marro stiffened. A sergeant? A *sergeant?!* "Well, sergeant, this is my post and I'll leave it when I determine that's the wisest course. And I'm telling you right now that there's a damned division of enemy artillery pounding this position and about two hundred orks bearing down on this location, so if you know what's good for you, you and your friends will take my advice and retreat right bloody now!"

The sergeant stared at him through his helmet. His voice boomed through amplifiers. "You don't know us very well, do you?"

With that, the massive warrior stomped back outside and joined his men on the roof. The shells kept raining down, the bombers kept up their runs, but, for some reason, Marro found himself feeling better.

As my ork opponent has grown tired of the sheer madness of facing a Tzeentch Daemons list, he requested a matchup against my Imperial Fists. I gladly dusted the fellows off and readied a list to face off against the intractable greenskins:

Imperial Fists Battle Demi-Company
Battle Demi-Company, Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics

Captain Troilus w/ Relic Blade, Artificer Armor, Bolter, Auspex, Meltabombs (Warlord: Angel of Death)

Tactical Squad Macedon (9 marines w/ 1x Flamer, Sarge w/Combiflamer, Meltabombs)
--in Drop Pod (Deathwind Launcher)
Tactical Squad Attica (6 Marines w/ 1x Heavy Bolter)
Tactical Squad Delphos (6 Marines w/ 1x Heavy Bolter)

Devastator Squad Scylla (8 Marines, 4x Lascannons)
The Centurions of Rhodes (3 Assault Centurions w/Hurricane Bolters, 1 x Meltagun, 2 x Flamers)
Brother Hektor (Dreadnought w/Multimelta, Hvy Flamer)

The Trukk Boyz of Boss Basha
Ork Combined Arms Detachment

Warboss w/ 'Eavy Armor, Power Klaw, Cybork Body, Ded Shiny Shoota (Warlord Trait: Like a Thunderbolt)

11 Shoota Boyz w/1x Big Shoota
--in Trukk
12 Shoota Boyz w/ 1x Big Shoota, Nob w/Big Choppa
--in Trukk
12 Shoota Boyz w/ 1x Big Shoota, Nob w/ Big Choppa
--in Trukk

10 Lootas
5 Kannons
"Francis" the Deff Dred (3 x Klaws, 1x Big shoota, Grot Riggers)
2 Koptas w/ Rokkits

So, yeah, lots of dakka in that list of his. Mine's no slouch either, though.

Mission, Terrain, and Deployment
The mission we rolled was "The Relic" and we wound up with a Vanguard Strike deployment. The board had a variety of terrain, but most notably a series of trenches and bunkers on the east side of the board and a forest and river in the northwest corner. The southeast corner had a bunch of ruins, one of which was multistory. My opponent won the roll-off and selected the corner with the forest and river as his deployment zone, I assuming planning on using the forest for plentiful cover against my guns.

When deploying, he crammed his Lootas into the woods and lined the three trukks and the dreadnought along the river's edge. The kannons deployed partially in the forest and partially by the waterfall (one of the biggest challenges to the kannons, I'm finding, is their sheer size. Five of those suckers takes up a LOT of real estate!). Finally the koptas deployed along the northern edge of the board and then scouted to the east, getting closer to my own lines. The Blitza Bomba was in reserve, of course. 

For my part, the Devastators deployed atop the big bunker, giving their lascannons and commanding view. The Centurions deployed towards the south, with the plan that they would slowly claim the middle board and take the relic. The two smaller tac squads deployed between the big bunker and the trenches to act as a defensive line against the ork attack. Finally, Hektor, not wanting to be shot off the board by Lootas on turn one, hid behind the large bunker in position to secure a flank and/or act as a counter-assault unit to any orks that got to my lines. The Captain deployed with Tac Squad Macedon in their drop pod and prepared to ruin some greenskins' days on a first turn drop.

Deployment:


Behold the Ork line!
I'm just *slightly* outnumbered.

Turn 1
I try to seize the initiative, but fail. Instead, the orks go first. They begin by rolling their trukks forward across the river, which two manage without any problems, but the third one gets hung up in the water and is immobilized. The orks in that one elect to disembark, heading towards my lines. Lots of shoota shots rain on my forward tac squads, and I lose two marines in one of the squads (Attica, I think) and they fall back. This doesn't really bother me, since I would have had them fall back anyway.

The Lootas pounded on the Devastators, killing two, and the Kannons fired on the Centurions and got lucky when I failed 2 out of 3 saves of a 2+ (!) and I lost my forward centurion. Finally, the Koptas zoomed off to my northern flank and fired at Hektor, but failed to do any damage to the old dreadnought.

Top of Turn 1


The Ork Advance
Sneaky Koptas!
No, really, I *meant* to withdraw!

In my first turn, I'm smarting from the fluke loss of a Centurion (he would have come in handy!), but I press on. Two objectives this turn: kill the lootas and stop the trukks from assaulting next turn. To begin with, I solve the easier problem first: I drop my drop pod right smack dab in the middle of the ork lines, pop out my tac squad plus captain, and flamer/bolter the Lootas into oblivion. I kill 8 and the remaining 2 run off the board. The Drop Pod's deathwind launcher, meanwhile, drops a pie-plate on the disembarked orks, killing 4-5 or so.

As for the Trukks, Devastator Squad Scylla completely obliterates the Warboss's trukk with one volley that scores 4 penetrating hits. The Trukk explodes, killing 5 orks or so, and they hunker down in the crater only to raked by Centurion hurricane bolters, knocking off another few guys and forcing them to run for it. The second trukk is shot up by the two smaller tac squads. Delphos scores a glancing hit with its heavy bolter while Attica's heavy bolter manages a penetrating hit that, for a lark, blows that trukk up, too (those Imperial Fists are deadeye shots, man). The orks inside lose about half their number and they wind up pinned. It should be noted that both I am my opponent totally forgot about the Mob Rule table, so they might have actually avoided the pin, except only after they lost a few more guys--not clear if that would have been better.

Finally, Hektor comes around the corner of the building and takes a mulitmelta shot at one of the koptas, but he misses.

Bottom of Turn 1


amphetamine parrot's exploding, dude.
Surprise!

 Turn 2
With his assault effectively blunted, my opponent looks to clean up his backfield. He shoots the drop tacs with the kannons (lots of frag shells), the Warboss's squad, and Francis the Dredd's guns. Then Francis charges them. The tac's krak grenades and meltabombs serve them well, however, by knocking off two hull points and one Klaw (though Francis got back one of those with his grot riggers). Altogether, they lose about 6 marines through the turn.

The Warboss and his boys fail to rally and keep running away. The intermittent shoota and big shoota fire from the pinned squad fails to do much against the rest of my army, and the disembarked boyz claim the relic. The Koptas keep harrassing my dreadnought to little effect.

Top of Turn 2


Francis eats marines

At the bottom of turn 2, the centurions stomp forward and gun down/flame the disembarked boyz holding the relic, wiping them out easily. The Devastators, bereft of decent targets, fires at the Koptas along with Hektor. The Dev's score a wound on one and Hektor is foiled by jinking by the other. He then manages to charge is kopta and smash it to flinders.

Attica and Delphos continue to use scarily accurate bolter fire to run off the pinned orks, securing my board position nicely. The Deathwind launcher fires at the Warboss's unit and, even though the map doesn't show it, I think it kills everybody but the warboss. Finally, in combat, Francis kills two marines but falls to meltabombs with a big explosion that doesn't kill anybody but himself.

Bottom of Turn 2

 
Lots of craters hereabouts!

To Be Continued...

[Wyddr]

Turn 3
On Turn 3, the Warboss failed his fourth consecutive leadership test and failed to rally. He didn't run very far, though, and his Ded Shiny Shoota accounted for the last member of the drop tacticals, leaving my Captain all by his lonesome. The running mob of boyz rallied and tried shooting down the Captain, but to no avail.

After shirking its duty on turn 2, the Blitza Bomba finally showed up and flew low over my bunker to drop a nasty bomb on my Devastators' heads, killing 3 and leaving me just with three lascannons remaining. The last Kopta had had enough of Hektor and swooped away, firing at him as it did, but doing nothing (I failed to mention it earlier, but somewhere along the way Hektor did lose a hull point to a glancing hit--I think on an overwatch attack last turn). The Kannons and the last Trukk shot at the Centurions, but did no damage.

Top of Turn 3


Captain Troilus Stands Alone

In my end of the turn, the Captain assaulted the artillery, slaughtering the grots with little trouble and destroying the unit. Meanwhile, the Centurions advanced to claim the Relic and the two remaining tactical squads ran northwards to get out of the Blitza Bombas flight path. My devastators tried to take care of the last kopta, but the jinking cover saves foiled them. It was left to Hektor, who missed his shooting but pulled off the charge and smashed the kopta on his Hammer of Wrath hit. After a consolidation of 6", he was getting mighty close to the slipping ork infantry.

I believe some stray bolter shots and the Deathwind launcher tried to nail the warboss, but I didn't connect.

Bottom of Turn 3


Hektor is coming for you!

Turn 4
In the top of Turn 4, the Warboss failed his fifth consecutive leadership check on a 12 and finally ran off the board, no doubt to tell his friends what a big tough guy he is and how he killed all the lousy humies himself.

The Blitza Bomba flew to hopefully intercept the Centurions next turn. With not much left on the board, the last mob of orks charged Hektor. Three out of four remaining orks were killed in overwatch, but the nob made it, hefting his Big Choppa in an impressive display of fearless bravado.

He was then immediately rendered two-dimensional by Hektor, who earned himself *another* 6" consolidation move.

Top of Turn 4


This guy *should* have been Warboss...

My opponent at this point was ready to concede, right after he tried to drop another bomb on the Centurions. That gave me another turn to clean up. The Captain charged and blew up the immobilized Trukk (taking a wound in the blast). The Centurions, tacticals, and Devastators all tried to shoot down the bomba and didn't manage to do anything. Hektor stomped across the river to ensure Linebreaker.

Bottom of Turn 4


Turn 5
There is only one thing left to do: Bombing Run! The Bomba banks right and zooms over the Centurions' heads, aiming to drop the bomb. Sadly, the pilot flew too close and got a "Clipped 'Em" result, doing a wound to a Centurion and taking a hull point off the Bomba. The Relic remains in my possession, and my opponent concedes.



Final Score
Imperial Fists: 6 (Relic + Linebreaker + Warlord + First Blood)
Orks: 0

Post Mortem
Okay, so this was a big victory for my yellow buddies, but the game was still a lot of fun regardless of the rather lopsided matchup. The Ork boss who never rallied was honestly hilarious, and both of us were laughing about it the whole game. Trukks exploding everywhere, orks running hither and yon--this is good fun. Now, we *did* forget all about Mob Rule, which might have kept some of those orks in the right spot. But it also would have meant more casualties and the orks didn't have the numbers after their trukks exploded to break my line, anyway.

My opponent's list was okay, I think, but for two problems: First, kannons are terrible. Sorry, they just are. They are just like missile launchers, and those are *also* terrible these days. Taking 5 of them for cheap is okay, I guess, but Lobbas are vastly superior artillery weapons, to my mind--for the range, the barrage, and for the better anti-infantry firepower. The second problem is the Lootas. Yes, they're a good unit, but they are just so squishy and so dangerous I can't see many opponents leaving them alive for more than a turn or two (and I can't think of that many armies that can't blow them off the board in that time). There needs to be more of them or they need some kind of protection.

As for the Demi Company, I had no complaints this time around. The Dreadnought was a trifle redundant this game, but that's just this game--Hektor has often delivered as a backfield reserve, and I see no reason why he still shouldn't work. He needs a longer range gun, though. The Devs are similar overkill--AV10 trukks are very, very easy prey for Tank-hunting Lascannons. Then again, other armies might see them be more worthwhile. The formation rules themselves barely came up. I *did* use the Tactical Doctrine (turn 2), but it had a minor in-game effect this time around. Objective secured was obviously redundant this time around. It's worth giving this list another try, at any rate, to see how it does. I love the drop tacticals (always have), since they're just so perfect a diversion. That unit, while expensive (with the Deathwind and Captain and everything), knocked out the Lootas, the Dredd, the Kannons, and a Trukk all while soaking a huge amount of enemy firepower. What's not to like?

Anyway, it was a fun game and a good workout for the Fists, who hopefully will see more board time soon. Thanks for reading, and thanks, as always, to my opponent!

[Roboknee77]

I definitely had a lot of fun with this battle.  I got to try out some new things, like the Blitza-Bommer and the Deffkoptas.

The Bommer model is fun and looks awesome but does require a little thought to figure out how to optimize the bombing runs.

I will also agree, Kannons are not as good as Lobbas, so won't be taking them again.  Definitely need to figure out a way to make lootas less squishy.

Also, I should have rushed the trukks during the first round shooting phase to get closer to the enemy.  Killing 2 marines wasn't a great use of firing.  Also need to invest in 5 points for a reinforced ram to let me re-roll dangerous terrain tests.  In the two battles I've really used trukks I've had one get stuck before it could move in each game.

All in all, this was a fun game. I learned a few more things about orks.  Plus, my Warboss bravely ran away the entire game shooting blindly as he ran. 

[Irisado]

Thanks for writing up such an entertaining game.

The score obviously wasn't close, but it was a very Orky attempt to win with a mass Trukk surge, and had that first Trukk not immobilised itself, things could have been a bit closer.  I thus think that Roboknee had the right idea, but had about as much success as I used to have when playing Orks back in second edition .

A very impressive amount of fire power on all sides.  That Imperial Fist list especially has a scary amount of fire power for a Marine army.

[Wyddr]

Thanks for writing up such an entertaining game.

My pleasure as always.

A very impressive amount of fire power on all sides.  That Imperial Fist list especially has a scary amount of fire power for a Marine army.

When you're fighting things that fall down to bolters, getting tons of firepower into a marine army isn't that hard. It's when everybody is rolling around in a Wave Serpent or Rhino that you find your firepower steeply curtailed.