Thanks for the words of encouragement and the great ideas.
I was able to set aside some time today to visit my local gamestore for the first time to play my first game of 8th edition. A huge thank you to the wife for watching the kids. Brought 2000 points of orks and one of the
local players was kind enough to help me through my first game against his
eldar.
DOW's BattalionWarboss w/ big choppa, attack squig, shoota
Warboss w/ big choppa, attack squig, shoota
Snikrot
30 Slugga Boyz w/ powerklaw Nob
30 Slugga Boyz w/ powerklaw Nob
20 Gretchin
15 Kommands w/ x2 burna
Painboy
Painboy
Runtherd w/ grot prod, squig hound
2 Deffkopta bigbomm, kopta rokkits, spinning blades
2 Deffkopta bigbomm, kopta rokkits, spinning blades
2 Deff Dread x4 dread klaw
3 Killa Kans Grotzooka
3 Killa Kan Rokkit Launcha
Elliott's BattalionEldrad
Farseer
20 Guardians x2 shuriken cannon
20 Guardians x2 shuriken cannon
10 Avengers exarch x2 shuricats
10 Avengers exarch shimmershield, power glaive
5 Fire dragons exarch firepike
5 Dark Reapers
Fire Prism
Wraithlord brightlance
Wave Serpent x3 shuirken cannon
Wave Serpent x3 shuirken cannon
We played on a 6x4 table heavily littered with terrain. So much so that it was difficult to fit my army in my deployment zone. He rolled high and chose traditional 12" from table edge deployment and we decided to keep it simple and played kill points.
My orks were setup with a large boyz mob on each table edge and the grots
in the center off to my left. Each unit of kans were setup beside the boyz
and the corresponding dread behind them. The warbosses were setup one each behind the unit of boyz. I elected to reserve the koptas, kommandos, and Snikrot. You may have noticed I forgot the painboyz. More on this later.
He setup his farseer and the reapers high up in a corner ruin. Each guardian squad mirrored my boyz squads. The avengers were in the serpents about 24" from each of the side edges, The fire dragons were on foot, in the middle of the table with the wraithlord.
He went first and I failed to seize the initiative.
He started by advancing his guardians and serpents. Reapers, wraithlord and one serpents unloaded into the kans and dread and knocked off a wound from the kans and two from the dread. The other serpent took shots at the grots and killed two. Not much to get excited about.
My turn saw me move each boyz mob up and advance up the table edge. The grots moved up to the left most serpent, as well as the left most kans and dread. The right kans moved towards the guardians while the last dread hid
behind a ruin. I brought the koptas in behind the fire prism and dragons. Snikrot and the kommandos came in behind Eldrad and his guardians, but I kept Snikrot on an opposing ruin to the kommandos. The koptas take a single wound off the prism.
My assault phase saw the grots charge the wave serpent and weather the overwatch well and make it into combat. The kans and dread followed up with successful charges. The left most boyz squad charged their opposing guardians and made the charge range with only a few casualties to overwatch. I declined to charge Snikrot or the kommandos and tried to hide
them. I chose to do this to force my opponent to split his attention between the boyz and the kommandos next turn rather than try and weather overwatch for the off chance of making a charge and leaving the kommandos in the open for the following turn of shooting. If he wanted them, he had to come after them. The kans and dread take apart the wave serpent and the
boyz obliterate the guardians. Avengers spill out of the serpent.
His turn saw more shooting of my walkers with maybe a wound from the kans.
The boyz now in the open took some hits from the reapers. The wraithlord and fire dragons annihilate the koptas down to a single model. The avengers shoot and charge the grots and killed five. The remaining guardians move to shoot up Snikrot and only take off three wonds from him,
even with Eldrad's smite. The remaining wave serpent drops off the avengers and goes to intercept the right side boyz mob. At this point I choose to use 2 command points on insane bravery to keep the grots in combat and tie up the avengers.
My following turn sees the boyz advance and charge his farseer in the ruin and strip him down to one wound. He would have been creamed by the powerklaw nob, but when I rolled damage on his two remaining wounds I roll a solitary one after he fails one of his two forced invulnerable saves. Left most kans and dread advance on the fire prism and shots and assault bring it down to only a few wounds. My full strength boyz shoot their sluggas and assault his last wave serpent and take off four wounds. The other kans and dread shoot and assault the full strength avengers taking out about half. The kommandos and Snikrot and remaining kopta assault Eldrad and his guardians. Shooting and assualt take out 75% of the unit with only a two casualties on the ork side. The grots are joined by the runtherd and kill a few more avengers before subcoming to their attacks. I'm feeling in pretty good shape right now and it's only at that moment I
realize that I forgot to deploy my painboyz. My opponent let's me know that its not an issue and I can just consider them in reserve and bring them on from my table edge next turn.
His turn sees the farseer fall back and allows the wraithlord to flame the boyz and charge in. At that point I was about half strength of the thirty boy unit and lost another half to that assault. Surprisingly though I cut the wraithlord down to only a few remaining wounds and I'm left with 4 boyz and the powerklaw nob. Insane bravery kepts them locked in combat at the end of the turn. The fireprism falls back and allows the fire dragons to advance. I lose the last remaining kan, but I choose to reroll a covered save for the dread with a command point and he miraculously lives. The kopta, Snikrot, and kommandos kill off all the guardians but two and leave Eldrad with one wound. His serpent falls back and goes nose to nose with a warboss to take off a wound with his cannons.
With Snikrot and the kopta not in base contact with Eldrad on my turn, they move off to intercept the fleeing fire prism. They charge and leave him with a single wound. The left warboss, now left somewhat in the open moves to intercept the avengers that just killed the grots. The boyz and nob finish off the wraithlord in combat. The kans and dread finish off the other avengers.
The close to full strength boyz unit moves and charges Eldrad and wipe him
and his two guardians off the board. My two painboyz now enter and race up the board trying to meet up with a warboss, as they are the closest unit.
Eldar now strike back and his fire dragons clear out the last kopta, the dread with a single wound left, and Snikrot. The fire prism falls back to a hill. The serpent disengages and flies over head to circle and put the warboss in his sights again to strip another wound. The avengers shoot the other warboss and assault, but only cause a wound and lose 4 to the boss. His reapers remove the nob with his remaining four boyz. This is the final chance for the orks. The left most pain boy finally makes it into comabt and he and the warboss kill the remaining avengers. The other painboy and warboss charge and destroy the last wave serpent. The remaining kans and dread charge the fire prisim. Only the kans make it, but it's enough to strip that last wound. We roll to see if the game continues and it ends.
Orks 9 kill points, linebreaker, first blood
Eldar 8 kill points
Victory orks.
What a great introduction to eighth. I know I probably made a ton of tactical mistakes, mainly with my characters, but I'm really happy with how my orks work now. My list is virtually the same as I've played since fifth edition and it's really starting to click. Besides completely forgetting to deploy the painboyz, I need to learn to keep my characters with my troops. They simply got left behind and in the open this game.
Luckily my opponent wasn't truly able to capitalize on that, but the remained somewhat ineffectual. The koptas didn't seem to perform as I expected them to, but they did provide a significant distraction. It probably wasn't best to pop in behind all of his anti-armour firepower. The kommandos were solid and would have performed better, if it wasn't for the lack of ruins and only line of sight blocking terrain where I needed them. Grots were by all accounts a solid choice. They drew a lot of fire power for some reason and survived several turns of combat. They killed 3 avengers and even took a wound off a wave serpent with their blastas. I'm likely this everything can hurt everything ruleset. I absolutely love my huge boyz units, even though they are a pain to move and dreads and kans will continue to be the foundation for many lists to come.
