750 Vostroyan AM Vs Orks: Big Guns Never TireIn the continuing effort to introduce my friend Mike to the game and find him an army he likes playing, we recently played a 750 point match where he used a bunch of my models to proxy a small ork force. In lieu of my usual fiction vignette, I'm just going to hop right into the report.
Vostroyan Garrison CompanyAstra Militarum Combined Arms DetachmentCompany Command Squad w/Carapace, 2x Sniper Rifles, Mortar, Master of Ordnance (Warlord Trait: Master of Command)
Grenadiers w/2x Plasma, Autocannon
Grenadiers w/2x Plasma, Autocannon
Grenadiers w/3x Grenade Launcher, Lascannon
Leman Russ Punisher w/Heavy Bolter Sponsons ("Chainsaw Heidi")
Avenger Strike Fighter ("The Devil Marie")
Ork Raiding PartyOrk Combined Arms DetachmentWarboss w/'Eavy Armor, Bosspole (Warlord Trait: Kunnin' But Brutal)
Big Mek w/Kustom Force Field
20 Slugga Boyz w/Nob + Bosspole
20 Slugga Boyz w/Nob + Bosspole
10 Tankbustas
--in Trukk w/Rokkits
5 Lootas
3 Deffkoptas
Terrain, Mission, and DeploymentFor terrain, I set up a military facility, basically. There was a large power plant dominating mid-board west, an in-tact building at about mid-board center, a watchtower at exactly mid board, and a series of trenches and a bunker running along the north. In the east there was a forest and a few craters. In the southwest corner there was a small defense line. A wall separated the "base" from the eastern wilderness, stretching below the building. Overall there was plenty of LOS-denying cover (the building and the powerplant) which I figured would work to the Orks advantage, but some large areas of open space, which I figured would work to
my advantage a bit.
The Mission was Big Guns Never Tire, meaning I had two extra VP at risk in the Avenger and the Punisher. Given my opponent's list, I wasn't awfully worried about the Punisher, just so long as I could keep the Tankbustas out of assault. The Avenger was at risk of being shot down by tankbustas, but not if I could kill them first--they and their trukk would clearly be high on my target priority list. The game had 4 objectives, placed as follows: 1 in the defense platform in the SW, 1 atop the central building, 1 in the NW trenches, and 1 in the NE crater. We rolled Vanguard Strike deployment and I won the pre-game roll-off.
I chose the SW corner as my base of operations, as it put me on top of the SW objective and pretty close to the central one. The crater I gave up for lost and then the objective would be to keep him from claiming the NE one. I had the Punisher anchor my lines at the edge of the landing pad. The Lascannon Grenadiers went to the west of it, one group of Plasma Grenadiers went to the east of it, and one of them deployed behind it. The CCS claimed the SW objective and planned on staying there. The Avenger, of course, waited in the wings.
The Orks virtually mirrored my deployment on the other side--the Trukk at the edge of the forest, the two groups of sluggas on either side. The Mek and Tankbustas were in the Trukk, the Warboss hung out with the southern sluggas. The Lootas deployed out of LOS behind the northern bunker, as did the Deffkoptas.
Deployment
Vostroyan DeploymentNote: I did take pictures of my opponents deployment, but as they were all bloodletters and chaos marines and stuff, I'm not sure the pictures really add to the report by much, so I've pretty much left those out. The map should be sufficient.Turn 1The Orks fail to seize the initiative, so I get going. My plan is pretty simple: kill the Trukk and the tankbustas, and then use Chainsaw Heidi to rip apart orks with impunity. The big building blocks LOS to his army, so early shooting will be thin, but the big building also comprises a serious obstacle to him getting to grips with me, so I'm totally okay with the delay.
Knowing that Tankbustas in Trukks can get a pretty decent charge off, especially with a WAAAGH called, I seek to bubble-wrap the Punisher while moving it north so it can get some LOS with the Heavy Bolters. The Lascannon Grenadiers hug the tank while it picks off four orks from the edge of the north mob. The rear plasma squad moves forward to get itself in a useful position and the CCS shuffles some of its members forward so the officer can get order range to the necessary units. The Master of Ordnance (MoO) stays put, as does the mortar crew. The Officer issues a Bring It Down to the forward plasma grenadiers, since their autocannon has LOS to the trukk. They take their potshots and the force field deflects one pen and the other shot just takes off a hull point with a glance. Then I issue another Bring it Down to the Command squad itself, which tries to call in an artillery strike on the Trukk. I scatter a full 9" off target...right into the middle of the southern mob of boyz. It's a nasty blast that kills about 5-6 orks and takes a wound off the warboss. Early on, I can tell my opponent is already feeling demoralized. That's not good.
Top of Turn 1
The guardsmen shuffle around a bitIn the Ork turn, the Trukk guns it to hide behind the building while both mobs of orks run in my general direction, both sheltering as much as possible behind the big building. The Koptas fly behind the power plant, careful to remain out of sight, and the Lootas jump out to the other side of the bunker and open fire on some grenadiers, killing 2.
Bottom of Turn 1
Turn 2I can see that the Koptas are planning to loop behind my forces and try to pick off the CCS, so I "Run, Run, Run" the rear plasma squad back to serve as an assault deterrent--they might get my CCS, but the plasma squad will gun down the koptas pretty quickly thereafter.
The Punisher backs up and picks off another 4 orks in the north mob while the Lascannon squad moves so its grenade launchers can get range on the Lootas. That plus a First Rank/Second Rank drops 3 of the 5 Lootas, which is most satisfactory. The forward plasma squad takes pot-shots at the approaching warboss squad with another First Rank/Second Rank and kills 2-3, as well.
The Avenger swoops in and does its level best to blow up the Trukk. It scores 3 penetrating hits and a glance, and the lousy Kustom Force Field saves every single pen--still just one more hull point off. It's up to the Artillery now. The Master of Ordnance makes the call and an Earthshaker shell lands pretty much smack dab on top of the trukk (only a 3" scatter) and manages to wreck it, forcing all the Tankbustas to pile out.
Top of 2
"Sir...are you sure these are supposed to be orks?!"In the Ork turn, the Deffkoptas swoop around the power plant and gun down the mortar team and the MoO. They, however, shoot themselves out of assault and fail to close in. The Tankbustas struggle with climbing over the building and fire their rokkits at the Avenger, which jinks. That turns out to be unnecessary, though, as they miss with everything. The north mob of orks also try climbing the building, but get bogged down, as well (they really would have been better off just running around it). The Warboss's mob moves closer to my southern flank and are in possible assault range next turn.
Finally, the Lootas open up on the forward plasma team again and kill another 2. If you're keeping count, the casualties are 4 dead guardsmen to 19 dead orks plus a wrecked trukk. Ouch.
Bottom of 2
Turn 3In turn 3, the rear plasma squad gets a Fire On My Target and obliterates the Deffkoptas in fiery plasma/autocannon/lasgun death. The forward plasma squad falls back to foil an assault next turn while Chainsaw Heidi shifts south and gets full range on the Warboss squad--Punisher cannon, Heavy Bolters, everything. 6-7 orks are reduced to salad dressing. In the north, the grenade launchers and lascannons (with a First Rank/Second Rank) manage to kill 2 orks from the north squad.
Finally, the Avenger still has enough accuracy to pick off both remaining Lootas, snapshots or no snapshots.
Top of 3
At this point, my opponent is pretty well demoralized. The building is proving to be a pivotal piece of terrain and he can't seem to get around it without being cut down by my guns. I point out to him that he has a real chance at assaulting some of my units if he declares a WAAAGH. So he does, and the Warboss's squad goes for it first, but they lose a guy to overwatch and then its a 12" charge and they don't make it. Then the northern mob goes for it--they're in good shape after their run and only need to roll a 5 or 6 to make assault. I then proceed to roll my best non-Tau overwatch roll of my life and pick off 3 (!) of the lead orks with krak grenades, lasguns, and a lascannon. This extends the charge range to about 7", which is still doable. Of course, not if they roll Snake Eyes, which they totally did. Even with the 'Ere We Go re-roll, it was a 4" charge. No good.
Finally, a few Tankbustas climb atop the building and fire some rokkits at my tank. No damage.
Bottom of 3
By this point, my opponent is pretty bummed out and I clearly see what's going to happen next: the Punisher rips apart one mob of boyz while my infantry does for the other, all while falling back. Next turn the Tankbustas do almost nothing to me and, at the top of turn 5, the Avenger comes back and everybody blows them off the building with minimal trouble. Game over. As it's late, my opponent concedes. Even though he's got a bunch of models on the table, they are in no position to hurt me and can't withstand another turn or two of me punishing them.
Final ScoreVostroyans: 4 (1 objective + First Blood)
Orks: 3 (1 objective)
Post-MortemHmmm...this game was something of a total blowout and, therefore, as a "teaching" game it totally failed. I don't think my opponent had a really good time and that sucks. Why did this happen? Well, a couple things:
1) Bringing a Punisher was an act of pure cruelty against a novice ork force. I brought it because I wanted to use it--its one of my newer models, after all--but an AV14 dedicated antipersonnel tank is pretty horrible against greenskins. Shouldn't have done it if the idea was to have an even match.
2) My opponent spent too much time messing around with that stupid building. He would have been better off, I think, charging straight at me at top speed and ignoring cover rather than making difficult terrain rolls to climb on top of that thing. The Tankbustas were rendered irrelevant in this game as a result of the terrain. This was surprising to me, since I felt, if anything, the terrain was offering him plenty of advantages.
3) Army list! The Ork Army List wasn't playing to any particular strength of the orks. It wasn't a fast list nor was it a tough list. He either needed more trukks and bikes OR things like kans and deffdredds. A pair of small-ish mobs and one trukk didn't work well. 5 Lootas were basically a waste of points. The Koptas should have been taken separately, which would have made them much harder to deal with.
Next time I play him, I'm going to do things a bit differently. I won't be taking the Punisher, for starters (I'll probably give him a break from the IG entirely, which has been killing him pretty effectively for the past two exhibition games). I'll also take the time to play the game more open than I have--explaining my plans as I do them, pointing out the opportunities he has, and so on. Also I'll give him the first turn. As of right now he's convinced that if you go first you automatically win, which is very much not the case and I should make that clear to him.
Anyway, I wish the game had been a little less lopsided, but I did enjoy playing anyway. Thanks for reading and thanks, as always, to my opponent!
