Tuesday 6 October 2015

1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Orks, Game 3

The low down:
  • Vanguard strike
  • Emperor's Relice - 3 Objectives, your own [worth 5pts], centre [worth 10], opponents [worth 15]
  • No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second, failed to steal the initiative.
  • Warlord Trait - Ezekiel - Fearless to all units within 12"
  • Psychic powers:
  1. Psychic Shriek
  2. Terrify
  3. Hallucination
  4. Shrouding
I know, I see it too, the absolute lack of cover on my side of the table, which is why I bring my own bastion! To be fair though I'd been on Ferron Proxima for the first two games and I had offered more terrain for this table [even though they had some] but everyone else had played on it and I really didn't think terrain would affect the outcome.


Ben had tonnes of Orks and I was pretty certain I was never going to be able to kill enough to pull a win out of this so I was resigned to sending the First legion out to their doom. I did however get to sneak my scouts behind the Ork enemy lines.


But as Ben took his first turn it would appear the Orks new exactly where they were, backed their trukk up to the edge of the building and jumped out, managing to shoot two of the squad with a third covering himself in his camo cloak to evade the incoming fire.


But by then it was too late, the Boyz had seen the scouts and charged in with a 12" charge, Hammer of Wrath killing the scout taking cover in his cloak as they rolled over him and the Ork boss butchering the remainder on his own.


With whoops of glee they promptly left the corpses before they'd even hit ground, turned back and got back to the trukk ready to drive off next turn to find more victims [oh we laughed!]. Ben scored First Strike for this.


With the other trukks holding the centre objective I used the opportunity to pour fire into their flanks.


Ghazghkull's trukk got wrecked and the other trukk lost it's gunner, so I made my First Strike but the impending shock of Orks on the WAAAAAGH! was less comforting.


I think one of the Tactical squads Bolters were responsible for the penetrating shot that killed the gunner. The Dark Angels really are blessed with some quality ammo - first Typhus, now an Ork Trukk!


Ben's Kommandos arrived behind me, Ghazghkull and his mob headed towards the Tactical squad in the lava crater and the other Nobz leapt from the trukk and went for the Tactical Squad in the centre of the board.


The Kommandos were kitted out with Burners and a Power Klaw. It was almost as if they'd known from the start they'd have to deal guys in cover and a Bastion. Suddenly the only thing I had some confidence in their durability was lost.


Ghazghkull's mob were keen to get to grips with my Dark Angels.


Which they managed to do.


Leaving only one Marine alive to hold the line.


Ghazghkull himself wanted to take on the biggest thing on the board, even if it wasn't moving...


and charged the Bastion.


With so many Power Klaw attacks the Bastion just couldn't stand and was destroyed


To make matters worse I then had to roll to try and save the five Devastators atop the battlements, the explosive debris was just sufficient to kill every last one of them.


 Ghazghkull was left hoping that Gork or Mork were pleased he'd destoyed the biggest Green thing on the board because it wasn't 'Orky'!


A Pain Boy and War Boss managed to charge the Plasma Cannon Combat Squad and would ultimately wipe them out.


The remaining Nobz multi-assaulted one Combat Squad of Tacticals and my Land Raider.


The Pain Boy was nigh unstoppable, partly because of his FnP and partly because my Marines were pretty ineffective.



I'm not sure this situation lasted for long, I think the Dark Angels were squashed eventually.


The Deathwing arrived, technically they mishapped and all died [they deviated within 1" of  Ghazghkull] but Ben was feeling generous [or just wanted more 'ummies to kill] and allowed them to teleport in anyways.


The other Terminators appeared in his Deployment Zone but that was not good news as due to the dodgy way artillery rules work all those Gretchin are technically T7, so I was never going to shift them off his objective, instead I had the boyz back up their trukk and surge forth.


Ezekiel and the Techmarine entered the fray. I've found Ezekiel to be quite handy in a fight, definitely a better choice than Asmodai but I really need to find a better way to work with him as the Land Raider doesn't allow him to cast any powers until he gets out. I also need to get the Techmarine's rules down so I can play him correctly.


The Mob in the crater finished off the last of the Tctical Squad and headed for the newly appeared Terminators.


Ghazghkull got there first though with the Kommandos a close second, so the mob stood and watched jeering on support from the sidelines.


All the Orks bundled in


Despite being the Dark Angels finest there was only one inevitable outcome


The same would hold true for the other Deathwing, but as it would have taken too long to play out the inevitable we decided to call it.


Ezekiel and the Techmarine wouldn't have broken their deadlock either.


The final score was something ridiculous like 22-2 although I'm pretty sure it would have been 33-2 because despite Ezekiel contesting that centre objective, he would not have survived losing me Slay the Warlord and the objective.

So, what have I learned? The Bastion didn't survived in only 1 game, the Land Raider was equally unlucky. Whether adding in a Knight will take pressure off those units I don't know but as I've already observed it only take one penetrating hit to be unlucky and lose a pivotal part of my army. I'm pretty sure a Knight will take a lot of fire, perhaps leaving the Land Raider, and more likely the Bastion unmolested. 

I was impressed with Ezekiel, he's a much better choice, even without an invul save, but the 2+ armour is quite good and it matches up nicely with the Techmarine and other Terminators. How I better utilise his prodigious psychig ability is the greater mystery. I also went solely Telepathy which gave me a lot of options, sadly most of the powers I rolled were pretty dire. Psychic Scream is awesome as a Primaris, it's just of little use when he's locked in a box for a turn or two!

Ultimately I was just as torn between taking these to Blog Wars or nids as I was before. I still have to paint my Knight, still have to finish the Tactical Squad. The Bastion and Land Raider 'will do' but I'll have to find a way to fit the Terminators in and currently that looks pretty tough without removing yet more upgrades from my units. I may have enjoyed the games more than I expected and managed to win one but I don't imagine my BW opponents will be as kind. That's not to say their uber competitive, but it's a tournament afterall, even if it's supposed to be fun first and foremost. Bottom line is given my army choices and the sacrifices I'll have to make - paring down units etc. It wouldn't take a beardy cheese list to do me over, any old opponent is going to make my day difficult. So the question is - am I comfortable with that or do I at least want fighting chance with a fully painted army I'm happy with?

We'll have to see...

1 comment:

  1. Bad luck on that one. I think though some minor changes in deployment could have given you a much better chance.
    A refused flank on the right of you deployment would have given the orks a much longer walk giving you time to get a second or third round of shooting in. Having the the terminators on the board at deployment would also add to those turns of firepower. As sold corner to let the orks dash themselves against then plan to move the land raider out turn three for objective hunting.

    Carefully playing to the armies strength will get you alot more success and in this case it'seems alot of bolter fire needing to keep those orks at arms length. Terrify and snipers could also help slow the advance. I would have been tempted to have the scouts in with the main lines as well.

    Hope that helps you ponder tactics as it's a big change from nids moving to SMs.

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