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Author Topic: 1500 Orks vs. Iron Hands: Tactical Escalation  (Read 1067 times)

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Offline Roboknee77

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1500 Orks vs. Iron Hands: Tactical Escalation
« on: July 11, 2019, 01:36:28 AM »
1500 Orks vs. Iron Hands: Tactical Escalation

Having the 5th of July off, McComas and I got together for another battle.  This time he wanted to try out Maelstrom missions and I was happy to oblige.  We grabbed the city ruins table again and got to it.

Iron Hands

Iron Hands Battalion

HQ:
Captain on Bike w/ Thunder Hammer & The Shield Eternal
Techmarine on Bike w/ Chainsword & Storm Bolter

Troops:
5 Scouts w/ Camo Cloaks
10 Man Tactical Squad w/ Missile Launcher & Flamer, Sergeant w/ Chainsword & Combi-Flamer
10 Man Tactical Squad w/ Missile Launcher & Flamer, Sergeant w/ Chainsword & Combi-Flamer

Elites:
Apothecary on Bike w/ Teeth of Terra
4 Company Veterans on Bikes w/ Storm Bolters & Storm Shields w/ Sergeant w/ Chainsword
2 Dreadnaughts w/ Twin Heavy Bolters

Heavy Support:
Thunderfire Cannon w/ Techmarine Gunner

Flyer:
Stormtalon Gunship w/ Twin Assault Cannon & 2 Heavy Bolters

Dedicated Transport:
2 Rhinos w/ Hunter-Killer Missile & 2 Storm Bolters

Ork Forces
Bad Moons Battalion

HQ:
Warboss on Warbike w/ Attack Squig, Shoota, Da Killa Klaw, The Best Armor Teeth Can Buy (trait)
Big Mek on Warbike w/ Choppa, & Kustom Force Field

Troops:
30 Shoota Boyz w/ Boss Nob
10 Slugga Boyz w/ Boss Nob
10 Slugga Boyz w/ Boss Nob
10 Slugga Boyz w/ Boss Nob

Heavy Support:
2 Traktor Kannon
2 Traktor Kannon
15 Tankbustas

Dedicated Transports:
3 Trukks w/ Big Shootas & Wrekin' Balls

Bad Moons Battalion

HQ:
Weirdboy (Warphead) w/ Warpath & Fists of Gork
Weirdboy w/ Da Jump

Troops:
10 Grots
10 Grots
10 Grots

Mission
Since McComas wanted to try out Maelstrom I let him roll for the mission and we got Tactical Escalation.  Each round we would be drawing objectives until we had as many as the round.  Thus we'd only draw one the first round.  We also picked an objective type each which would score us more victory points when completed.  McComas picked Take & Hold and I picked Orks.

Deployment
We set up 6 objectives, 1 was near the center of the map, 2 was in a ruin in the south southwest, 3 was in a ruin in the north northeast, 4 was on a building in the southeast, 5 was in a ruin in the western center of the map, and the last was in the northeast corner.  McComas picked the northern edge of the board, controlling objectives 2 and 6.  I deployed on the southern edge, holding objectives 3 and 4.  McComas finished deploying first and chose to go first and I failed to seize the initiative.

Main Ork Forces

Main Iron Hands Forces
Iron Hand Air Power and Artillery

Top of Turn 1
The Iron Hands decide to split their main forces, the dreadnoughts and rhinos move south up the main road while the bikers head east to support the stormtalon.  WIth precision the combined fire of the the Iron Hands eliminates the grots holding objective 4, destroy a trukk and the boyz that were inside it.  They also manage to kill 3 boys from the 30 boy blob and 4 wounds off of a traktor kannon.  No objectives were completed but the Iron Hands drew first blood.

Iron Hands 1, Orks 0

Iron Hands Roll Out

Goodbye Grots

Bottom of Turn 1
The orks retaliate by surging forward to engage the pesky humies.  The tankbustas jump behind enemy lines and show off their stuff, destroying 1 rhino and 1 dreadnaught.  The warboss charges the other rhino and destroys it with de killa klaw, completing an Orks objective to destroy a unit in the fight phase, earning 2 vp.  3 Marines are slain, trapped in the burning wreckage of the Rhinos.

The blob of boyz manages to kill 2 scouts with all their dakka.  In the eastern front, the trukk and boys assault the captain but not his biker entourage. hoping to strike a major blow.  2 Veterans give their lives to prevent the captain from taking damage.  Finally, 3 traktor cannons strip the stormtalon of 7 wounds.

Iron Hands 1, Orks 2

Orks Move to Engage

Tankbustas Jump behind enemy lines
Surround the Bikes

Top of Turn 2
The Captain withdraws from combat and he and his entourage move to support the remaining dreadnought and the tactical marines that survived the rhino explosions.  Along the way the apothecary resurrects a veteran biker and the techmarine repairs the dreadnought for 3 wounds.  It was my mistake of not engaging the veteran bikers, apothecary and techmarine with my trukk and boyz that let the bikers be able to fire and fight this round.  The bikers and dreadnought manage to blow up a trukk and smash the boyz inside.

Meanwhile, the snipers drop down a few levels in their ruin to take control of objective 5 in hopes of holding it for 2 rounds.  They manage to strip the Weirdboy of 3 wounds with accurate fire.  The stormtalon flies toward the center of the map to strafe the warphead.  Thanks to the protection of the Big Mek's kustom force field all but 3 shots that could have hurt him are harmlessly deflected leaving him alive to smite another round.

Finally, the tankbustas lose 1 boy to fire from a tac squad.  Overall, a good turn but no victory points were earned.

Iron Hands 1, Orks 2.

Bikers Fallback to Support the Main Force

Priority Target Acquired

Bottom of Turn 2
I draw 2 easy objectives, More Speed, Go Faster, an orks objective to advance 3 units and Overwhelming Firepower, to kill units in the shooting phase.  A unit of grots advance back to objective 3 and another unit advances toward objective 4.  Both weirdboys advance since it doesn't hurt their ability to cast, so I gain 2 VP.  The tankbustas destroy the dreadnought to get 1 VP.  They then charge and beat 3 tactical marines to death, eliminating that squad.

Meanwhile, the Warphead fails to smite the Stormtalon, leaving it to the traktor kannons to destroy it, automatically causing it to crash and burn, wounding themselves and the Warphead.  The Waross and a damaged trukk assault the biker squad and manage to strip a few wounds off of the captain and apothecary, but not kill anybody before falling as the bikers retaliate, giving the Iron Hands a vp for Slay the Warlord.

Fainlly, the blob of boys, through fire power and gun butts, smash the scouts off of objective 5.

Iron Hands 2, Orks 5

The Boss' Last Stand

Zog Off, Dis is Ours!

Top of Turn 3
The Iron Hands begin to slowly turn the tide this turn, removing many ork units and depleting others.  The biker entourage manages to shoot 10 boyz, and smash 5 tankbustas in combat, as well as the Big Mek.  The tac marines kill off the last trukk boys and the thunderfire cannon kills 2 traktor kannons, earning a vp for the emperor buy destroying 3 units.

Iron Hands 3, Orks 5

Weren't there a lot more orks before?


Bottom of Turn 3
I get another good draw.  The surviving tankbustas withdraw from combat into a ruin to gain 1 vp for being behind enemy lines.  I get 3 vp from the dwindling blob of boys on objective 5, 1 from secure and 2 from the ork objective grab the loot.  That's about the only good things from this turn.

  The blob of boyz takes cover in the ruin and their shooting is wildly ineffective.  The traktor kannons and the warphead's smite kill 2 tac marines.  The weirdboy smites few wounds to the bikers and the warphead tries to fight the bikers, powering himself with the fists of gork, killes a veteran and gets smashed for his efforts.  Even though I'm losing units, I'm still building a solid VP lead.

Iron Hands 3, Orks 9

Those Bikers are pretty tough.

Take Cover Boyz

Top of Turn 4
Things start moving faster now and the Iron Hands continue to deplete the ork forces.  The bikers kill all but 5 boys and take control of objective 5, setting up to defend it and earn victory points next turn.  The 3 squads of tactical marines wipe out the warphead, 2 tankbustas, and a traktor kannon with a missle.  the thunderfire cannon destroys the grots that had just taken objective 4 at the end of the previous turn.

Iron Hands 3, Orks 9

Setting Up for Victory


Bottom of Turn 4
I have very few units left by now and they aren't very effective.  The Weirdboy decides to try to smite the captain and fails instead of jumping the boyz out of the ruin.  The boyz are ineffective in shooting and will probably die if they assault, so hold tight.  I luckily score a vp for holding the line, having 3 units in my deployment zone (grots, mek, and 2 traktor kannon)

Iron Hands 3, Orks 10

To Jump or to Smite?


Top of Turn 5
The Iron Hands systematically continue to kill off my orks.  The techmarine and apothecary kill off the last boys in the ruin.  The Captain and the Last Veteran kill the Weirdboy on their way to objective 1 in the center of the map.  The Tactical marines, who haven't moved all game, kill the last tankbustas.  The thundefire cannons kills two grots.  By holding objective 5, the iron hands earn 3 vp there as well as an easy vp for holding objective 6 by the thunderfire cannon.  I think I miss another point somewhere, but all of a sudden the score is much, much closer.

Iron Hands 9, Orks 10

Earning those Sweet Victory Points.


Bottom of Turn 5
At this point I have 3 units left and draw 5 objectives, only 1 that I can achieve if I'm lucky, Advance.  I need to have no units left in my deployment zone to earn a VP.  The Mek and traktor kannon both make their advance rolls with movement to spare.  The grots just manage to advance out of the deployment zone, earning me a final vp.  If the game ends, I win.  The game doesn't end.

Iron Hands 9, Orks 11

The last stand.


Top of Turn 6
This round the Iron Hands destroy the rest of my units and draw enough attainable objectives to score 4 vp.  I get one more vp for achieving more priority objectives but it's not enough to tie the game.

Running Down the Grots


Final Score:
Iron Hands 13, Orks 12

Post Mortem
This, and the last game against Wyddr, have been two of the funnest games I've played so far in 40k.  They were back and forth battles throughout the whole game and felt like real battles.

This list was made because I thought I was going to be facing off against McComas' Eldar forces.  The Traktor Kannons would be useful against his Wave Serpents and the Trukks would offer some mobility to grab objectives.  That said, the kannons did well against the Stormtalon but after that, weren't too effective against the marines.  The trukks weren't bad, I was able to get into combat quicker but I think I need to use them together instead of splitting them up.  The tankbustas also made a good show against the rhinos and dreadnoughts but I think 15 lootas would have been better in this battle.

Thanks for reading, and as always, thanks to my opponent.

Offline Wyddr

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Re: 1500 Orks vs. Iron Hands: Tactical Escalation
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2019, 09:46:03 AM »
Wow! Close game! I thought for sure you'd pulled away, but those extra objective points for McComas really paid off.

McComas: that bike unit seems to be paying off pretty well! How many points does that thing cost? Also: what are your thoughts on the Apothecary? I've been tempted to use one, but I'm just not sure it's worth the cost.

Offline Roboknee77

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Re: 1500 Orks vs. Iron Hands: Tactical Escalation
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2019, 10:09:55 AM »
Thanks, it really was a nail biter.  I thought I had enough points to hold onto the win but tactical priorities helped make up the difference.  That plus going to the 6th round.

All in all, I think I did okay with a list meant to take on the Eldar and hopefully destroy more than one wave serpent.


Offline Uncle Tungsten

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Re: 1500 Orks vs. Iron Hands: Tactical Escalation
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2019, 08:34:52 PM »
What? Making it past the second round, Roboknee? What wizardry is this?

Sounds like a fun game. Congrats on the win, Mccomas!  Are you thinking of trying out Iron Hands primaris, or are you happy with the tactical squads' performance? With The Flesh is Weak, IH primaris are supposed to be pretty good durability for the points.

Offline McComas

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Re: 1500 Orks vs. Iron Hands: Tactical Escalation
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2019, 12:29:43 PM »
Wow! Close game! I thought for sure you'd pulled away, but those extra objective points for McComas really paid off.

McComas: that bike unit seems to be paying off pretty well! How many points does that thing cost? Also: what are your thoughts on the Apothecary? I've been tempted to use one, but I'm just not sure it's worth the cost.

The bike-star worked the way I wanted it to in my first game.  The synergies between the following rules is what I am hoping to get:

The Flesh is Weak
The Shield Eternal
Iron Resolve
Bodyguard
Narthecium
Stormshields
Character targeting
Blessing of the Omnissiah

The last one hasn't worked as well as I hoped because (1) it doesn't work on the bikers obviously and (2) vehicles are not lasting long enough to heal.  Perhaps dropping the two regular dreads for one Contemptor will help. 

Dropping some heavy and regular flamers and giving them all stormbolters instead was a major benefit along with bolter discipline.

It isn't cheap: 546 points.  I need to repeat a mantra to myself: "don'tsplitupthebikersdo n'tsplitupthebikers"

I haven't considered Primaris yet because I feel the Iron Hands are fairly old school (My contemptors even have big "X" on the flank) and I'm not ready to give up on the tac squads yet. 

EDIT:

I didn't answer Wyddr's question: I think the Apothecary is essential in my set up and probably a below average option in standard Marine lists.  He has NO points options (which is why I give him the Teeth of Terra to give him at least some bite...heh) and that really limits what he can do offensively.  That said, he did restore about 100 points worth of wounds in my last game so if you have a high cost per wound model you want to get mileage out of, go for it.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2019, 12:25:20 PM by McComas »

 


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