Topic: 500 Points Orks vs. Ad Mech: Tactical Escalation

[Roboknee77]

500 Point Orks vs. Ad Mech, Search the Factory

This is the second battle of an escalation campaign put together by Wyddr for myself and Uncle Tungsten.  You can read more about the campaign here

Ad Mech Forces
Tech Priest Dominus w/ Eradication Ray, Macrostubber, and Omnissian Axe (Warlord)

10 Vanguard w/ 9 Radiation Carbines & 1 Plasma Caliver

5 Sicarian Infiltrators w/ Taser Goads and Flechette Blasters

Onager Dunecrawler w/ Icarus Array

Orks Forces
Warboss w/ Big Choppa, Shoota & Attack Squig (Warlord w/ Tenacious Survivor)

Weirdboy w/ Da Jump

21 Shoota Boys w/ Boss Nob w/ Big Choppa
21 Shoota Boys w/ Boss Nob w/ Big Choppa

6 Tankbustas w/ Rokkit Launchers


Mission
Since the Orks won the last battle, the alarm was raised and the Ad Mech had to search for clues to the cache of technology from the dark ages of humanity in a disorderly, rushed manner under heavy Ork reinforcements.

Scenario: Tactical Escalation
Deployment: Dawn of War

Deployment
Ork Deployment

Ad Mech Deployment

I win the roll off to start placing the Tactical objectives (6 green barrels).  I try to set up my objectives closer to the middle of the board in the hope my opponent will have to move closer to my Orks if he wants to score objective marker based points.  My opponent does the same.  The objectives go clockwise from where the Ad Mech start their deployment.  My oppenent finishes deployment first and I fail to seize the initiative.  We are supposed to pick Tactical Priorities, my opponent picks Purge and I pick Take & Hold.  Neither of us draw any of these types of objectives during the entire game.

Top of Turn 1
My opponent draws his first objective, which is to secure Objective 5.  He keeps his Dominus, Vanguard and Dunecrawler in place.  He decided to infiltrate the Sicarians along the edge of the board closest to my Boyz, Weirdboy and Tankbustas.  They fire on the boys and manage to execute their charge.  Using 2 Ad Mech stratagems, one to add +1 to shooting, and one to add +1 to combat, he manages to take out 14 boyz while losing 4 Sicarians.  I use Insane Bravery to pass my morale while the Sicarians fail theirs, giving me First Blood.

Score: Orks 1 to Ad Mech 0

The Sicarian Infiltrators Infiltrating

So that's what it feels like to face a first turn charge

Bottom of Turn 1
I draw my first objective, Kingslayer.  I won't pull this one off any time soon.  I pull the 7 survivors of the Sicarian assault back behind cover.  I move my Warboss and Other group of boys closer to the center of the board and closer to my Weirdboy.  I do no shooting.

Score: Orks 1 to Ad Mech 0

End of Ork Turn 1


Top of Turn 2
The Ad Mech draws another objective, secure objective 2, which is on top of the catwalk.  The Ad Mech decide to hold position and fire at the exposed group of boys with the Icarus Array, taking out 6 boyz.

Score: Orks 1 to Ad Mech 0

End of Ad Mech Turn 2


Bottom of Turn 2
I draw the Master the Warp objective.  This is an easy point for me, I Jump the Tankbustas to higher ground to try to take out the Dunecrawler.  Sadly, I only take 6 wounds off the thing.  Not enough to kill it and leaving my bustas wide open to attack.  The Warboss and the boys around him keep moving closer to the Weirdboy.  The Weirdboy and the small group of Boyz hold position behind cover.

Score: Orks 2 to Ad Mech 0

End of Ork Turn 2

Tankbustas to the high ground

Top of Turn 3
My opponent draws mission critical objective 2.  He could score a lot of points from one objective now.  He moves his Vanguard closer to the tankbustas to get clear shots at them but his Crawler and Dominus hold position.  The tankbustas disintegrate under Radium carbine fire and the Crawler takes out 3 boys.

Score: Orks 2 to Ad Mech 0

End of Ad Mech Turn 3


Bottom of Turn 3
I draw 2 new objectives, secure objective 6 and defend objective 6.  I move all my boys closer to each other so I have an easier time jumping my larger group of boys close to objective 6.  I decide it's best to shoot and charge his vanguard and tie up my opponent instead of trying to hold objective 6.  I pull off my charge and manage to kill 8 Vanguard; 2 from shooting, 5 from assault and 1 from morale.

Score: Orks 2 to Ad Mech 0

The end of turn 3.


Top of Turn 4
My opponent draws another objective, defend objective 4.  Another objective across the board from his units and currently close to my Warboss.  He pulls his Vanguard back and shoots at my boyz with the Dominus' microstubber and the Dunecrawler, taking out 8 boyz.  He charges with both the dominus and crawler and each kills 2 more orks.  I lose the rest to morale.  Both armies are pretty heavily damaged now.

Score: Orks 2 to Ad Mech 0

Vanguard pulls back

No more Boyz

Bottom of Turn 4
I draw 3 new objectives, Secure Objective 3, Supremacy & Assassinate.  I move my Warboss to objective 4, my Weirdboy to Objective 3 and jump my boys to objective 6.  I take some pot shots at the Vanguard but do no damage.  I get a lucky roll and get 3 victory points from holding 3 objectives my turn as well as 1 from objective 3 and 1 from objective 6.

Score: Orks 7 to Ad Mech 0

Hold the objectives


Top of Turn 5
My opponent draws another objective, which I don't recall.  It might be Kingslayer.  Lucky for me, my opponent makes a tactical mistake.  He advances all his units, which means he can't charge or fire heavy weapons.  His Vanguard kill 2 boyz with their shooting but they pass morale.

Score: Orks 7 to Ad Mech 0

Ad Mech Advances but can't fire or charge


Bottom of Turn 5
I draw Domination and Defend objective 4.  I keep my units close to their objectives but move them closer to my enemies so I can use my Warboss' shoota and the Weirdboy's Smite.  I manage to take 3 wounds off the Dominus.  Shooting does nothing to the Dominus and my boyz charge but stay within range of objective 6 so I will score 2 points from defending that objective.  My boys do nothing in combat but my Boss Nob hits and wounds with his Big Choppa.  If the Dominus fails his save, the game will be basically over.  The Omnissiah blesses his own and the Dominus makes his save.  My opponent rolls to see if we go to turn 6 and we do.

Score: Orks 9 to Ad Mech 0

Top of Turn 6
This is where things get interesting.  My opponent draws to secure objective 4.  The Dunecrawler and Vanguard shoot at my Warboss.  He survives all the shots from the Icarus array, taking 4 wounds.  The Vanguard with the radiation carbines does nothing but the overcharged plasma hits with one shot and gets hot on the other.  Tenacious survivor fails this time after succeeding twice against the Dunecrawler.  The warboss and the Vanguard both disintegrate into piles of goo.  My opponent gets 1 point from slay the warlord and 2 points from kingslayer.

Score: Orks 9 to Ad Mech 3

Where did everybody go?


Bottom of Turn 6
I draw Psychological Warfare and No Prisoners as objectives but only have one goal in mind, HIDE!  I move my Weirdboy behind the containers he started the game behind.  I roll to see if the game ends but it goes on to turn 7.

Um, HIDE!



Turn 7
My opponent gets a lucky draw, Priority Orders and draws randomly roll Canticles of the Omnissiah.  He scores 4 points but is unable to achieve any other of his objectives, meaning their is no point to continue.

Final Score
Orks 9
Ad Mech 7

Post Mortem
Wow, this ended up being a close game due to the randomness of Maelstrom missions and going all the way to turn 7.  My opponent learned from our first fight and brought the Dakka to this match.  The Sicarian Infiltrators took out 14 boyz in one round of shooting and close combat.  Admittedly, that was with 2 strategems, but still nasty.  He also took a larger group of Vanguard and gave them Radium Carbines.  It made them harder to take out and able to dish out more fire.  This was also his first Maelstrom mission, so taking multiple objectives would be tougher for him than it was for me.  The Icarus array is nasty and can threaten hordes and any vehicles I bring in the future.

For me, the Dunecrawler is a Distraction Carnifax.  6 Tankbustas aren't enough to take it out in one turn and without a trukk or KFF for defense they get taken out quick.  At this point level Tankbustas aren't worth it.  It's better to focus on everything else first instead of wasting attacks on the highly armored Crawler.  Especially when it can be repaired by the Dominus each turn.

I also need more than a Big Choppa to effectively damage the Dominus. A power claw would wound him easier and make his save tougher.

All in all, another fun game.  Uncle Tungsten kept me on my toes the whole game and made this a really close game in the end.  I look forward to our next battle, another Maelstrom mission at 750 points.  Thanks for reading and thanks, as always, to my opponent!

[Blazinghand]

At first things were looking bad for admech, but the tide turned quickly. Sometimes you just have to hide your guys and run out the clock when you're ahead on points!

[Saim-Dann]

Niiiiice!
That was a hoot to read, Roboknee77. Really liked the layout of the table too. Thanks for sharing... Be well!

[Wyddr]

Games like this are why I hate Maelstrom. Tungsten was playing pretty well, doing lots of damage, and none of the objectives he pulled out mattered at all.

Thanks for the write-up!

[Roboknee77]

Thanks Saim-dann.  The new hobby store in my town has a nice range of tables and terrain to use that we've been taking advantage of.

I mentioned your dislike of Maelstrom after the game, Wyddr.  How luck of the draw can swing the game or how objectives just can't be met.  I can't wait to see Tungsten's thoughts on the game, we didn't have a lot of time to talk after the match finished.

[Uncle Tungsten]

This was the game of flanking and counter flanking, it seems.

The plan going into battle was to a) avoid a second stomping from 'Da Jump and b)try to control the objectives from a distance using the AdMech firing ranges, in particular the 48" on the Icarus Array: let the Ork forces go for the objectives, and destroy them as they came out into the open.

The Sicarians worked fairly well as part of the first goal.  Those tankbustas were worriesome; either they or the boyz threatened the AdMech back lines, although spreading out more this time near the corner of the board helped prevent that. The game plan was to infiltrate and do enough damage to blunt any incoming jumps by either assassinating the Weirdboy or putting a big dent in the boyz.  Mission sort of accomplished, but at the cost of the unit. In retrospect it might have been better to drop the sicarians near objective two, which was something I was considering. 

Objective b generally went according to plan, but I learned a valuable lesson from Roboknee.  You have to push for the objectives.  Orks made a push for those scoring points, and they may have been eradicated by AdMech firepower while doing so, but they still scored the points. 

I don't have enough experience to have an informed opinion on the Maelstrom missions, but I could see some pros and cons.  In terms of pros, the randomness forces you and your opponent to adapt during the game, and in some ways that might capture the chaos of a battle. ("Take out that flyer!  No, wait...hit the second objective!")  It forces you to rethink battle plans, and that's kind of cool.  It didn't feel like I suffered from luck of the draw: I chose purge because my general intent was to terminate orks with extreme prejudice, but I still could have gone for other objectives to score points.  I could see how pure luck could screw up a good game though.  If the points had been close and then the combo of the Priority Orders and Will of the Omnissiah determined the win, that would ruin the game for both players.  Maybe it's something house rules could address.

Some general take aways:

1) Magister Biologos on a Dominus rocks.  There's something immensely satisying about rerolling wounds on a 5 shot macrostubber as you wade into a pack of boyz defending an objective.  Never got a chance to use it with the eradication ray, but the prospect of character assassinations at close range seems strong.

2) The Icarus Array makes a pretty good anti-infantry weapon, and is also a decent threat to characters in the end game if the board's been cleared out.

3) Sicarians are wonderfully flexible, tactically.

4) Running the vanguard as a ten man squad made a huge difference.  Should have listened to Wyddr's advice earlier. 

Looking forward to the next game!