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Offline Wyddr

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1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: Front Line Warfare
« on: March 9, 2018, 04:03:30 PM »
1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists, Front Line Warfare

The chapel aboard the Battlebarge Dorn's Ire was filled with the chosen few of the 3rd Company destined to join the conflagration below. The battle could be seen through the massive viewports behind the altar--a planet, swirling clouds lit by the explosions of the massed Ork artillery.

Chaplain Mythares raised his crozius arcanum. "The bombs shall fall and the shells shall burst, and your bodies shall be torn asunder and your bones broken."

The congregation of Astartes raised their voice as one: "We care not. Let the guns thunder on."

The chaplain nodded, and continued the litany. "And the poisons and plagues shall fall from the blackened skies, corrupting your body, melting your flesh!"

Again: "We care not. Let the guns thunder on."

"But the incendiaries and the plasma shall land among you and your brothers, blackening your armor and incinerating your flesh, until there is naught but ash."

Louder now: "We care not! Let the guns thunder on!"

"And what of the lasbolts and the shrapnel and the hail of bullets that shall chip and crack your helm and pulp your brains and spill your blood in torrents?"

"WE CARE NOT! LET THE GUNS THUNDER ON!"

"And so it shall be, brothers!" Mythares pointed at the battle swirling below. "The symphony of war awaits thee! Will you join the chorus?"

"Yes!"

"WILL YOU JOIN THE CHORUS?"

"YES, IT WILL BE DONE!"

The chaplain laid one fist upon his breastplate. "Then go, my brothers. Let us bring an end to the thunder."

Again, as one, the battle brothers of the Imperial Fists 3rd company saluted, and then took to the drop pods.


After a fairly pointed drubbing at the hands of my Vostroyans last time, Roboknee requested a change of opponent. I dusted off the Imperial Fists for another 8th edition workout. My rules for the army list were that I needed to already own the unit and already have it painted to field it, hence I wound up with this sub-optimal 8th Edition build which I, nevertheless, hoped could offer a decent challenge.

Imperial Fists Battalion
HQ
Terminator Librarian w/Force Axe, Storm Shield (Veil of Time, Might of Heroes, Warlord: Imperium's Sword)
Captain w/Power Sword and Primarch's Wrath

Troops
5 Sniper Scouts
5 CCW/Pistol Scouts (Sarge w/Power Sword)
6 Tactical Marines w/Flamer and Combiflamer, Meltabombs
--in Razorback w/Twin Hvy Bolters, Storm Bolter

Elites
5 Terminators w/Cyclone Missile Launcher, Teleport Homer
5 Assault Terminators w/2 Claws, 3 Hammer/Shield, Teleport Homer
3 Assault Centurions w/Hurricane Bolters, 2x Double Flamer, 1 x Double Meltagun

Heavy Support
Land Raider Crusader
5 Devastators w/4x Lascannons, Armorium Cherub

Ork Horde
Battalion Detachment
HQ
Warboss w/Relic Choppa, Kustom Shoota (Warlord: Tenacious Survivor)
Weirdboy w/Da Jump

Troops
30 Shoota Boyz w/Nob (Power Klaw)
11 Slugga Boyz w/Nob (Klaw)
--in Trukk
11 Slugga Boyz w/Nob (Klaw)
--in Trukk

Heavy Support
2 Kustom Mega Kannons
2 Kustom Mega Kannons
2 Kustom Mega Kannons

Vanguard Detachment
HQ
Snikrot

Elites
Waaagh Banner Nob w/Kombi Skorcha
10 Kommandos w/2x Burna
10 Nobs w/Kustom Shootas, Power Stabbas
--in Trukk
12 Tankbustas
--in Trukk

Mission, Terrain, and Deployment
Terrain was loosely themed around a power generator the orks had seized. Said Generator was on the east end of the board, with a small building to the north and a large building just to the southwest. Some ruins and rubble filled the north center and a forest was along the western board edge. Beyond that there was a crater or two, some small obstacles and so on. We rolled up a Hammer and Anvil deployment and I chose the west edge.

Objectives were placed as follows: 1 in the western forest, 1 in the northern ruins, 1 near the southern building, and 1 behind the Generator.

I deployed my Librarian and both groups of Terminators to teleport in later. The Devs occupied the forest atop the objective there along with all the teleport homers. The sniper scouts covered my northern flank for the purpose of warding off Kommandos/Da Jump, the CC scouts went in the south for the same purpose. The Bastion of Terra (my land raider) was loaded up with the Captain and the Centurions and went along my southern board edge. Finally the Razorback + Tacticals went in the north, behind the walls of the ruins up there. Already, this early, I've made a mistake--in an effort to keep the enemy off my back, I've spread out too much. That's what happens when you play nothing but horde armies for a couple years.

Having a distinct deployment advantage, but getting the worse board edge, my opponent throws all 30 shoota boyz behind the generator atop their DZ objective along with the Weirdboy. Two Mek Gunz go along the southern flank, the other four go in the north, trying to get good LOS to my Landraider. The slugga boyz Trukks (1 w/the Warboss, 1 w/the Waaagh banner) go in front of the southern cannons. The Nobz with the Tankbustas behind them go alongside the northern cannons. Snikrot and his Kommandos go in reserve, to emerge from the shadows later.

Deployment


Marines (too spread out)
Orks (no choice but to spread out)

Turn 1
I get first turn and the Orks fail to seize the initiative, so off I go. The strategy at the moment is to make a play for killing *most* of his Artillery/keep the enemy off the northern ruin objective while my general plan is to take the southern objective all sneaky like. The biggest problem is going to be keeping the Orks off of my home objective (in the form of Da Jump or Kommandos), and this is why my "spread out" strategy happened and also why the "spread out" strategy was a bad idea. Anyway, you'll see what I mean.

I teleport both units of Terminators and the Librarian into the northern ruins. I fail to get off Veil of Time on my Assault Terminators (dammit!), but shooting goes well. The Devastators and the Cyclone Missile Launcher take out the Nobz's trukk and the Waaagh Banner Trukk. As my opponent was careless enough to place his grot gun crews closer to me than his guns, my stormbolters take out about two crews worth of grots (thanks to morale), but unfortunately I learn that the crews behind him just need to move a guy an 1" closer or something and not lose the guns, so that sucks. The Razorback swings south, its heavy bolter tagging a few nobz. The Land Raider scoots forward a bit, but not very far since it can't get in range this turn anyway.

I fail *all* of my assault attempts by everybody (even after spending CPs). Which sucks a WHOLE LOT. I guess I can kiss a lot of Terminators good-bye next turn.

Top of Turn 1


Terminators Strike! But...you know, they don't feel like running much...
I kill a bunch of grots for no reason, it turns out.

In my opponent's turn, the Kommandos sneak in off the northern board edge and assault the sniper scouts, killing 3, but the other two hold. Snikrot, who is with them, doesn't manage to make the assault. The Tankbustas ride forward and pound the Razorback with a bunch of rockets with rerolls, using Dakka Dakka Dakka to get even more shots (with more rerolls). In the end, my opponent scores 12 hits on 12 rockets and, surprise surprise, the Razorback is toast.

The rest of the turn is just endless artillery barrages aimed at my poor terminators. I lose 3 of 5 regular termies and 1 assault termie. The nobs fail their assault, but the slugga boyz from the ruined trukk make theirs (the Waaagh banner misses it). They kill another terminator, leaving only the sergeant alive. The other slugga trukk moves forward a bit, acting as an LOS shield in the event those boyz didn't make their charge. The charging boyz also manage to consolidate into my assault terminators, which basically ruins any plans I had of charging into his lines next turn. Booooo!   

Given he doesn't have many good places to drop, he elects *not* to use Da Jump to pummel me with 30 orks. This is actually to my disadvantage, though I thought I was being pretty clever at the time. It would have been much easier to kill all 30 of those orks now as opposed to later.

Bottom of Turn 1


Sneaky gits...
The Terminators take one in the face...

Turn 2
In my next turn, I do something clever: I use Teleport Homers! I also screw up: I thought that the Termie Librarian had a teleport homer (because everybody else gets one!). So, yeah, I ended up teleporting all of them back to my DZ. Had I realized the Libby wouldn't get one, I guess that means the Assault Termies would have been forced to remain in combat up there, lest their Warlord be toast. Ah well--my fault there. Would have been a different game.

Anyway, they all teleported back. The Assault Terminators assaulted the Kommandos, wiping them out. The Centurions and Captain disembark. The Centurions shoot up the slugga boyz along with some firepower from the Land Raider and the Tac Squad, knocking the sluggas down to only their nob after morale. The Devastators split their fire between Tankbusta Trukk and the Warboss Trukk. They only do 5 wounds to the tankbusta trukk and don't manage to kill the warboss trukk. This is frustrating. So frustrating, in fact, that I make my next mistake of the game: I charge the land raider into the Warboss trukk, hoping to knock it out. This was stupid on many levels, not the least of which was it didn't even work.

Finally, the CC scouts brought up the rear, keeping their 9" bubble of protection positioned in a useful spot.

Top of Turn 2


A Hasty Retreat...
Centurions Attack!
Vroom, vroom...SMASH!
Bring it, Snikrot!

In the bottom of turn 2, the orks do the most obvious thing imaginable and simply FALL BACK with the trukk. The Land Raider then gets *pummeled* by all the tankbustas and Kustom Mega Kannons on the board, stripping about 10-12 wounds off the thing. OUCH!   

Before that Trukk fell back, though, the slugga boyz plus Warboss got out. The Warboss and Waaagh banner guy assaulted the Land Raider for a few more wounds, but the Land Raider's got 1 left! The slugga boyz set themselves up to charge the tac squad. The lone nob from the last slugga unit initiated the assault. "No problem," I think, "my double flamers will kill that dude." I get 7 hits, force 4 saves. Dead nob, right? WRONG! My opponent rolls 3 6s and the Yhwh-condemneded Klaw-toting ork makes it into combat. Then I can't even overwatch the 11 other orks coming for me, and all my tac die beneath a pile of bodies. Dammit, dammit, dammit!

Snikrot, meanwhile, charges the sniper scouts and kills them, consolidating into the Assault Termies. The Nobz also move forward, but don't make an assault against anyone.

Bottom of Turn 2


Angry Warboss!

Turn 3
The Land Raider limps back out of assault with the Warboss. Then the Centurions get involved. They kill all remaining slugga boyz on the board, blow up the empty trukk, and then charge and absolutely pulp the warboss with their siege drills and come *this* close to killing the Waaagh Banner nob, too (he escapes with 1 wound left).

In my backfield, the Librarian charges and kills Snikrot in short order. The Assault Termies and the libby consolidate eastwards. The Devs blow away the Tankbusta trukk, and the CC scouts bring up the rear as a rearguard yet again.

Top of Turn 3


Centurions mean business...

In the bottom of turn 3, the Kustom Mega Kannons *mostly* focus on obliterating the Centurions, which they do, though one of their number manages to blow itself up. The Tankbustas' Rockets don't manage to take a wound off the Land Raider (map is wrong), nor do the nobz, who charge it.

Bottom of Turn 3


Turn 4
At this point in the game, there is very little chance I'm going to get the north ruin objective, but the remaining terminators can make a play for it. My opponent doesn't have very much positioned to take the southern objective, so with luck I can get it. However, most concerning is the fact that 30 shoota boyz still stand ready to Da Jump into my backfield and, with the death of both the Centurions and the neutralization of the Land Raider, all of my main tools for taking out 30 boyz are gone. Now I *have* to keep the shoota boyz from getting an opening to jump, no matter what. The good news is, with First Blood and Warlord already in my pocket, I have a lead my opponent will need to overcome to win the game. 

My captain with the CC Scouts shoot/charge/destroy the nobz, thanks in large part to the Primarch's Wrath, which may as well have the words "nob killer" printed on the stock. The Scouts lost 1 of their number and the Captain took 2 wounds or so. The Assault Terminators advance towards the northern objective, followed up by the Libby. Again, any and all attempts to cast Veil of Time fail, as they have all game long.

The Devs, in a fit of poor judgement, killed a nob or two with shooting instead of, I dunno, KILLING THOSE Yhwh-condemnedED BIG GUNS!

Top of Turn 4


This would be, what, our 3rd wave?
Assault Terminators getting closer! (of note, somewhere along the line one of my termies was blown up by a mega kannon)

This turn, the Tankbustas finally kill off the Land Raider. Sundry Artillery kills the CC Scouts and 1 more Assault terminator (there are just the Lighting Claw guys left). A crew of 5 grots climb the southern building in an attempt to make a play for the southern objective.

Bottom of Turn 4


Captain Troilus stands alone!
The Last Terminators...

Turn 5
I'm on reeeaally thin ice here, and I know it. I've got only 10 models left on the board to my enemy's 40 infantry and various guns. I will never survive a 6th turn, so let's see if I can make it through a 5th and squeeze out a win. My assault termies claim the northern objective. My Libby smites the Waagh banner guy to death (and, again, fails Veil of Time on the assault termies--every single time I tried it, the whole freaking game!). The captain takes the southern objective. The last regular terminator takes a position keeping the Shoota Boyz from jumping in too close to the Devastators. He shoots a few grots atop the building and they all flee after morale. Though I forgot to put it on the map, the Devastators kill 1 Kustom Mega Kannon and damage another.

Top of Turn 5


So, as of the end of that turn, I have tenuous claim to both the neutral-zone objectives, worth 2 VPs each, and my own home objective, worth 1 to me (4 to my opponent). With First Blood and Warlord, I am sitting on a score of 7 to my opponent's 1.

He changes that to 5 to 3 in short order by moving the Tankbustas up to claim the nothern objective over me, their rockets killing 1 of my termies. Then he uses Da Jump to land 30 shoota boyz right in the middle of the "U" shape I've made with my remaining models. They shoot the crap out of my Devastators, killing 2. They fail to make any charges (phew!).

Bottom of Turn 5


Too. Many. Orks...

The score now is 5 to 4, with me having a 1 point lead. If the game ends here, I pull off a very improbable win. I roll the die...and get a 4.
I concede the game, as he has now at least 3 different ways to win and nothing I can do about it, the easiest being to move, shoot, and assault the 3 remaining devastators and take my home objective. Which is just what I'll assume he did. 

Final Score
Imperial Fists: 4
Orks: 8

Post Mortem
This was a hell of a game. I made several *critical* errors, took a bunch of crap units (Terminators = The Suck), but still made it close. I think one mistake was probably to retreat from the ruins (using my teleport homers). I might have given up too easily and I could have done much more damage to his artillery in coming turns. Of course, the artillery (and the fact that I couldn't manage to touch it) was the real killer here--those guns killed almost everything in my army. The tankbustas are also a devastating unit. I think my opponent's list was pretty nasty and well-balanced, though I'm not sold on the Nobz being worth the cost.

Overall, I was pleased with the scouts' performance (though shotgun scouts are probably more useful) and Assault Centurions are just *awesome,* but they were left hanging in the breeze and can't stand up to a sustained plasma barrage. The Land Raider didn't do well, but part of that is my fault for moving it into assault range (of course, it was going to get assaulted anyway, so...). Not sure a 300 point tank is worth it, even if they are almost the only ride assault centurions can take (which is a whole *other* complaint I have). In the future, I would take a flyer or something else that shoots over a unit of assault terminators and another tactical squad over the regular terminators any day of the week. Terminators just aren't as durable as they used to be in this day of multiple-wound damage weapons and AP and their damage output doesn't match their cost.

Anyway, it was a fun game and thanks for reading. Also, as always, thanks to my opponent!

Offline dog_of_war

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Re: 1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: Front Line Warfare
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2018, 08:25:35 AM »
A most stimulating read as always Wyddr. It's great to see orks take on a variety of foes and do well. I believe tactically holding his jump boys back for later turns was a great counter to your deployment and also helped deter the terminators from teleporting into his flanks to take out the mek guns. I'm not sure if that factored into his decision making process, but removing the threat of those shoots boys by jumping them forward to engage would have left the rear flanks an easy choice to deep strike in and take our those guns.

Always enjoy ready your battle reports. Keep up the exceptional work.

Offline Uncle Tungsten

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Re: 1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: Front Line Warfare
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2018, 10:38:07 AM »
Nice battle report, Wyddr. Sounds like it was a good game! Two questions. One, if the terminators had remained stuck in, how do you think things might have gone differently? Can they stand up to Ork close combat abuse better, or do they just get drowned in attacks like everyone else? Also, why was the northern objective the priority? I couldn't figure that out. My best guess was more cover/ position in relation to the ork deploymsnt. Asking to learn.


Offline Wyddr

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Re: 1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: Front Line Warfare
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2018, 12:00:11 PM »
The northern objective push, early game, was a diversion. Get him to expend effort getting me off it, allowing a much easier claim for the southern objective. It actually worked, but it cost me too much.

Leaving the Termies up there would have maintained a screen for the Land Raider and centurions. I could probably have repelled the Kommandos with the tacticals instead.
« Last Edit: March 10, 2018, 06:22:53 PM by Wyddr »

Offline Irisado

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Re: 1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: Front Line Warfare
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2018, 02:11:35 PM »
Thanks for posting another well presented and very enjoyable report.  It's true that some errors cost you dearly, but the dice were not with you regarding your Librarian's Veil of Time at all and that overwatch fire really ought to have roasted the Mob equipped with the power claw.  I think that spacing out did cost you quite heavily, owing to the fact that it made it quite easy for your opponent to create gaps in such a small elite force through concentration of fire, as well as assaults.

It was quite a strange game in some ways, given that the Marines went on the offensive for much of the game, while the Orks held back until the last before utilising Da Jump.  That was all a bit backwards :D.  Well played to Roboknee for keeping all those Boyz under control.
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: 1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: Front Line Warfare
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2018, 06:24:10 PM »
Ha, yes--I like playing offensively, if possible. Didn't work this time, but I needed to try and take out those guns.

Offline Roboknee77

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Re: 1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: Front Line Warfare
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2018, 07:13:38 PM »
Thanks for hosting and posting, Wyddr.  I had a ton of fun in this game.  It was nice that it wasn't part of the campaign, it let me get some experience in a larger scale battle.  I got to try  out some new units and see what I learned after my last krumping.

First, I liked the new scenario.  To get the most victory points you have to be aggressive and move into enemy territory.  The marines coming closer to me definitely helped me out.

The stars of the battle were definitely the Kustom Mega Kannons.  They are just all around good weapons, they can do anti-infantry and anti-tank.  And the fact that a unit of grot gunners can man multiple Kannons is great.

The Tankbustas with the Dakka Dakka Dakka stratagem were just insane against the vehicles.  They got 12 hits on one turn and 11 hits on another.

Dog, holding the boys back wasn't a truly tactical decision on my part, at least not to start.  I deployed the grots wide to help cut off areas to deep strike.  The boyz hid behind the reactor so they couldn't be thinned out before they could jump.  They did also deny the middle of my deployment zone for deep striking too, but they weren't held back on purpose.  Wyddr did, and usually does, a great job of denying me any areas to jump that large of a group of boyz.  After the second round I decided that I will eventually whittle down his units enough to give myself a place to jump the boyz and viewed them as basically being in reserve until then.

Like Wyddr, I'm not sure about the nobz either.  They are very modular and can be outfitted a lot of different ways.  It was great to try them out, especially the kombi-skorchas.  It was nice to be on the other end of a flamer for once.  The kommandos seemed okay, no weirdboy needed to jump them onto the board.

Thanks again Wyddr, I look forward to our next battle.

Offline Irisado

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Re: 1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: Front Line Warfare
« Reply #7 on: March 11, 2018, 08:53:21 AM »
Ha, yes--I like playing offensively, if possible. Didn't work this time, but I needed to try and take out those guns.

To that end, I wonder whether it would have been better to send the Land Raider and Terminators to attack that flank.  It seems to me that a greater concentration of force would have allowed you to punch through that right flank more quickly and more decisively, or is that a bit simplistic?
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: 1750 Orks Vs Imperial Fists: Front Line Warfare
« Reply #8 on: March 11, 2018, 10:22:51 AM »
No, you're right. I should have moved the LR up more forcefully to support the attack, but I was hoping the Terminators could clear some of that antitank first.

As for deployment, the ork deployment advantage meant I didn't know where his guns were going to be before I had to drop my Land Raider.

 


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