Waaagh! And Deathwatch reinforcements

Well, yesterday I played a 3,000-point game of Imperial Guard versus Orks. There was too much to say and it only lasted 2 turns, so I will be pretty brief about it. But I did take a lot of pictures (I hope).

Red Orks!

Basically, I played a 2 versus 1 battle, where 2 Orks players teamed up against me - of course, each player has 1,500 points versus my 3,000. They brought a lot of different Orks that I can't remember all. I know one player had tons of Boyz, Gretchin, Killa Klans, a Morkanaut, 2 Deff Dreads, a Mega Dread that could supercharge and move 28" in the first turn, Kommandos, Tankbustas, Painboy, Big Mek, Warboss, etc. The other person had similar stuff and a Weirdboy, a Battlewagon, Lootas, that anti-air tractor gun thing (Mek Gun?), Storm Boyz, another Deff Dread, Boyz, Gretchin, Nobz, etc. I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure he has more than that. I'm pretty sure they had Flamer Boyz too. Basically lots of stuff.

Imperial Guard gunline, got smashed into by the Meka Dread who moved 28" in the first turn

Against that I only had a Brigade - the normal one - and a Spearhead of Leman Russ tanks, and a Supreme Command detachment with Primaris Psykers and a Shadowsword. Obviously my list was not tailored to fight Orks, and was more suited for fighting armor or power armor infantry (Marine Equivalents), so...you can imagine what happened.

All the infantry getting slaughtered by the Orks

It was a massacre.

In the first turn, I lost 2 Leman Russ tanks, and a whole squad of infantry, while another infantry squad was reduced to just 4 men - and 3 ran away, leaving just the Sergeant after morale. Another Armored Sentinel was clubbed to death by two squads of Boyz. Oh, it was the Mega Dread that slammed into my Tank Commander and destroyed him before he could fire a shot. Another Sentinel took 3 wounds. I took a lot of damage in the first turn.

The poor tanks, wrecked and scrapped by the Orks...

I couldn't retaliate. I tried, and threw everything I had into the Mega Dread that was right in the middle of my forces, and it absorbed everything with its 4+ Feel No Pain, 5++ invulnerable and high toughness. According to the owner, it could double its movement in the movement phase, and move 28" once per battle (apparently its Movement Characteristic is 14"?). Or was it a Meka Dread? I dunno. He called it a Mega Dread. Anyway, it wreaked havoc in my lines, and took everything I had to bring it down. And when it did, it blew up and killed another 3 soldiers in my infantry squad, 3 mortal wounds to my Primaris Psyker, and a few mortal wounds to the nearby Boyz. Despite shooting as much as I could with my Kasrkins and hot-shot volley guns Stormtroopers, I couldn't kill that many Boyz - maybe about 12 or so, leaving still a big chunk of Boyz left. Huh, he didn't roll for Morale, but I assume Boyz automatically pass morale when within 6" of the Warboss or something? Wait a second...they weren't within 6" within the Warboss...

The Orks still in reserve

Anyway, I was rolling pretty badly with my remaining Leman Russ Executioner tanks and failing to kill many Boyz, and the only unit I really took out was the Meka Dread or Mega Dread. Despite taking out all the Grotts or Gretchin, and a few Boyz, I wasn't able to do anything effective. I did kill 2 Killa Klans, but that was about it.

So everything ended on Turn 2. 14 different Ork units including the Morkanaut Deep Struck in front of me. All the Kasrkins were murdered, as was the remaining Guardsmen - the 2 remaining infantry squads wiped out by pure shooting. Funnily enough, my Shadowsword made a lot of armor saves against all the rokkits and other anti-tank weapons and got away with just 8 wounds in the shooting phase. Then the charging phase began.

Scary-looking Orks army, right?

The only thing of interest is that my Shadowsword - using the Defensive Gunners Stratagem - killed the Morkanaut in overwatch, his Volcano cannon and lascannon blowing the dude up through sheer amounts of damage. Yeah, crazy, right? The Boyz survived the storm of twin heavy bolters shots and piled into my Shadowsword, along with a Deep Striking Deff Dread. Stormboyz charged into my Valkyrie, along with 2 Deff Dreads, and the Stormboyz alone did 10 to 12 wounds to my hovering gunship. Damn. On the other side, the 2 remaining Sentinels were mobbed in combat and taken out in short order - we didn't even waste time rolling the dice because the first Sentinel had 3 wounds left, and the Boyz had 40 attacks. The Deff Dread fought twice using the Stratagem and in the end my Shadowsword was left with 8 wounds - while his armor tanked shooting attacks, he didn't fare as well in melee. Ouch.

This was before everything got wrecked.

One of the players had to leave, and we left the game there. It was obvious I wasn't going to win. This wasn't a mission with objectives, it was just the two of them aiming to table me. I sure as hell wasn't going to table them with the amount forces I had left. Sure, I still had 3 tanks left, but that was all. The Shadowsword probably wouldn't survive the 40+ attacks from the Boyz, and the Valkyrie wouldn't survive the Deff Dreads. So I effectively would only have 3 Leman Russ tanks by Turn 2, with a couple of Company Commanders (both Primaris Psykers were dead by now, I believe), and maybe the hot-shot volley guns Stormtroopers with their Tempestor Prime. I did have 3 Tempestus command squads (8 plasma guns, 4 meltaguns) and 2 Tempestus squads with 2 plasma guns each, and the 3 Tempestors Prime commanding them, still in reserve, but they had far too much for me to deal with. A Battlewagon, 3 Deff Dreads, lots of Killa Klans, Mek Gun, Kommandoes, countless Boyz, Stormboyz, Flamerboyz, Lootas, Tankbustas, the Warboss, Big Mek, Painboy, Weirdboyz, etc. and etc. There was no way in hell my Stormtroopers could take out all that, and even if they did take out a significant portion, the retaliation would have wiped them out. Besides, one of the players had to go, so we stopped the game there. It was my total, crushing defeat.

Why am I taking multiple pictures of the same thing?

That's fine. For my beleaguered Guard would be receiving reinforcements in the form of Deathwatch. I've managed to build my Deathwatch Primaris Intercessors today, and I hope to the Emperor that they would be more than enough to stem the Green Tide where the Guard has failed. Do take note that my Deathwatch is not a standalone army - I only got them as a supplement, as an anti-xenos option for my Guard. I mean, my Guard seems pretty...weak and fragile. Maybe I'm playing them wrong, but I'm not going to give up. I'll continue experimenting here and there and hope the Deathwatch and Imperial Guard alliance can stop these one-sided massacres. Funny thing is that, most of the time I'm being slaughtered, I usually win because I play to the mission and secure the objectives to gain as many victory points as possible. But once there are no missions or objectives, then it becomes a pretty one-sided affair. Oh well. Fortunately, I'm not a win at all costs type of person and I honestly am not bothered, but honestly, it is a little unfun and frustrating if the majority of my army is always massacred one-sidedly without me being able to fight back. The problem probably lies with me - everyone says Guard is a top-tier army, and discounting the times I play Thousand Sons, they're always getting killed. Like against Orks, or against Tyranids that other time. Or against Adeptus Custodes. Top tier army? I must be doing something wrong somewhere and playing them wrong...but I won't give up on playing a mainly tank army. I will keep my Leman Russ tanks in my list no matter what and find a way for my armor-heavy list or tank-heavy list to work. The infantry aren't the important ingredients - my focus is and has always been my tanks. Anyway, I'll continue to experiment and we'll see what happens next time!

Deathwatch army

Just look at those awesome Deathwatch shoulder pads! So I have a Primaris Watch Captain, a normal Watch Captain with relic blade and master-crafted boltgun, a Deathwatch Veteran squad with 4 Deathwatch frag cannons, a Deathwatch Veteran squad with 5 stormbolters, a Deathwatch Primaris Intercessors with 10 bolt rifles and 2 auxiliary grenade launchers. Sergeant has a cool-looking Deathwatch power sword too. In addition, we have 2 Inquisitors with incinerators and power mauls, plus  6 Acolytes with stormbolters and 1 Acolyte with plasma gun (they're just Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, to be honest). Plus either my Guard army or my Inquisitorial Stormtroopers army.

Deathwatch Intercessors!