I moved up to secure an objective, my shooting was relatively successful - killing the Wartrike at least. I'm not sure how I'd split my fire but I know I debated it ad nauseum. The Preceptor's Las Impulosr is relatively short range so I think it may have taken out the Trike. There is the Capacitor Charge Stratagem that makes it Heavy 6 instead of Heavy D6 and he would have been within 18".
Unfortunately one vehicle down just wasn't enough with Ben calling the Waaaaaargh! This time with Ghazgkhull leading the charge. The Lancer was down to 19 wounds going into combat
And then suffered another 14 taking it to just 5.
I'm not entirely sure what this roll is for - it could be Ghazgkhull's damage roll on my Preceptor, or it could have been a saving throw but as he can only take 4 wounds it wouldn't be hugely significant him passing most of them.
Regardless, the Knight fell and I was just left with the Lancer and the Warglaive.
The Lancer did not last long and in an act of charity Ben suggested we finish with Ghazgkhull versus the Warglaive, based on the premise he had in fact suffered 4 wounds already. In which case the Warglaive had to cause 4 wounds in shooting and 4 in combat.
Which he just managed to do, even with Ben re-rolling his invulnerable save. Ghazgkhull was dead but the rest of the Orks butchered the Knight for its audacity killing their leader.
Tabled again. So much for my cockiness. We had quite the discussion afterwards about the game and the experience we've had of 9th edition so far. If you haven't gathered, it isn't particularly positive. We can't seem to pin down yet, what is making it feel so one dimensional. Is it the size of the games, the armies we've got, our inexperience [both of the rules and tactics], the discrepancy in age of Codex, the terrain setup or even the board size. It's a topic for a post on its own, when we've played a couple more games. We're planning a bigger game - 1,500pts in the hope that might change the dynamic a bit. We'll use the bigger table to do so, but I'm not sure how that will change anything as the 'no-man's' land is still the same distance.
But we're going to persevere, but it says something that with 4 wins under his belt Ben does not feel happy about the outcome. We've had fun and plenty of exclamations and drama but when that is purely on the outcome of a lucky or unlucky dice roll why do we need the figures or terrain? We need to feel like tactical choices have had a bearing on the game. So far it's just me being swamped, but maybe that's how Orks play?
I have played a few games against Blood Angels and Slaanesh Daemons and the short board length has made for very scrappy games. It speeds up the game at smaller point levels, but I don't like it. In the case of your game, that is also pretty much how Orks (and a few other armies) work. 9th Edition is very much about punishing units that can take but can't hold objectives. I think your knights fall into that category in this scenario. A shooting focused Knight army sitting hard against the board edge for one or two rounds may have weakened them enough to break them up close, and steal the objectives in time for a win. Not a great answer, but I am feeling your pain at the moment.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marc, let's face it I've never been blessed with tactical acumen so it's unsurprising I've found it a challenge, we are only 4 games in. 1,500pts next time and with a bigger board I might have more distance. I'll perhaps need to look at longer range weaponry perhaps... The Thermal Cannon and Las Impulsor are a bit hamstrung in that department.
DeleteLove the bright red terrain, I know it's meant to be a Blood Angels temple (judging by the icon on the side of the shrine) but it reminds me of second edition where EVERYTHING was painted red.
ReplyDeleteI echo your thoughts about 9th edition. I've played three games with my Deathwatch so far and been tabled each game by turn three (two against Deathguard and one against Harlequins) and the game certainly does seem to be lacking a certain something compared.
Cheers Lewis, the red terrain is thanks to the often used phrase in 40k lore - 'rockcrete'. This I imagine is some form of concrete made from locally sourced rocks. My red planet world of Ferron Proxima is where the rockcrete for these buildings would come form. Unfortunately Ben's table is brown, it'd make a lot more sense on my red battle board.
DeleteAlso the red buildings would blend in a bit with the board, hence why I added the blessed verdigris and interior white walls for spots of contrast. I do appreciate it's a contradiction for me to choose the same colours as the board to blend in and then pick out details to make them stand out, but they're also a challenge.
I was there for second edition, just. But in 1993 I then went to uni and lost touch with my gaming mates so that's when I got on the wagon and kicked the habit. '94 or '95 I painted some figures, mainly fantasy Empire stuff but I was effectively out of the hobby so missed all the red terrain. Gutted to hear it was all the rage, I'll have to look it up.
Fingers crossed we find some satisfaction with 9th eventually. I don't mind so much I can be patient as we've plenty we can play instead. I'm hopeful we can one day get back to Blackstone Fortress as that collaborative play among the four of us was a really fun experience. 1v1 just feels a little bit divisive now, but it did as we tired of 8th. Alternatively we can get our MERP campaign back on track...
Ah. I love the lore reationale behind the buildings. Makes much sense in the scheme of things and tbh they look great, if I hadn't started down the grey ruined city route I may have taken some of your ideas (I may yet).
DeleteI began in Orktober 1997 so the very tail end of second edition.
I think the problems with 9th for me personally are that it feels too much like AoS in that everyone seems to either be shot off the larger board, or just descends into a scrum in the middle, no maneuver tactics, and everything comes from command points and stratagems, which I always forget.
8th was brilliant at the begining with the indexes, but slowly started to either under bloat and codex creep. My own projects are turning back to 3rd edition as the base, with some modifications by me to game solo, as most of my group has stopped gaming due to the pandemic.
If you do manage to get back to Blackstone, I'll just say that you'll enjoy the story throughout, just avoid the Black Library novels until you've played it out otherwise you'll spoil certain parts for yourself.
Totally agree with the issues regarding stratagems. I remember when Warhammer Underworlds came out and it was hailed for its quickness, but I rapidly understood the games were quick but you spent your time working out how to build your deck, getting those buffs to stack. Now I've never played Underworlds, I have it and 4 Warbands but the thought of that level of game mechanic understanding doesn't interest me. Unfortunately I see stratagems in the same light.
DeleteI'm usually quite good at remembering them, although I do tend to make edited lists of those I can use or think will be useful. It does mean there may be some I never get the benefit or understanding of. Although if it's not your Hive Fleet/Knight House then the chances are I'd never use them anyway. 7th was ruined with the feature bloat of Formations and as you say the Indexes of 8th wiped them all out and then the codexes reinstated them with the stratagems, it's bizarre. Now we're getting Armies of Renown which are Formations in disguise.
I also think adopting the ITC approach to mission objectives is confusing. You'd think they'd have created their own turn trackers to keep the points recorded. I actually miss Maelstrom games, it seemed like a better mechanism to score points [and profitable - they sold cards too]. There was a Warhammer Community article suggesting bringing them back as Beta rules for 9th. It was a weird post that both hailed them as a really great mechanic but then suggested it was new and might be too complex a way to play for folk?!
Don't worry about BF spoilers, I struggle to read very much recently, I end up falling asleep!