Well, this is my last week of winter break before I return to school next week (spring semester is starting for the University of Minnesota). So I was trying to get as many games in as possible before the inevitable return to studying and cramming (and grading).
So today (or yesterday, since it's past 1am, rather...3am because it took me 2 hours to write the entire battle report), I managed to get a couple of games against an Orks player. Waaagh! I was looking forward to pitting my Imperial Guardsmen against Orks, especially after all the Ciaphas Cain novels and other Imperial Guard novels that I've read (
Imperial Glory with the Brimlock Dragoons,
Baneblade by Guy Haley, and
Pyres of Armageddon starring Yarrick).
First Game
The first game was Dominate and Destroy (yay!), and we decided to do 2,000 points. I actually offered to not play my Shadowsword, but he suggested that I should because he wanted to try out my list. I was like, "uh, my Shadowsword isn't going to be useful anyway" because he wasn't bringing any tanks, battlewagons, Stompas or even a Morkanaut/Gorkanaut. But he wanted to test his list out against my tank list, so I decided to use him as a Banehammer, which he agreed.
The Ork list consisted of 2 Weirdboys, 2 Big Meks, 3 squads of 10 Boyz, 1 group of Nobz, tankbustas all loaded on a trukk, 10 lootas, 3 Killa Klans, 3 deff koptas, 3 Deff Dreads...and 2 Kommando squads, I think. Yeah. That should be it. I think he used a Battalion and a Vanguard Detachment.
My list was my standard Shadowsword list, except that I replaced my Shadowsword with a Banehammer. So I fielded a Spearhead Detachment of my Tank Commander in Leman Russ Executioner (with lascannon and plasma cannons), a 2nd Leman Russ Executioner, a Leman Russ Annihilator (I got a new, 2nd one today!) and 2 Wyverns, a Vanguard Detachment of 2 Tempestors Prime, 2 plasma Tempestus command squads, a Valkyrie and a Tech-priest Enginseer, and a Supreme Command Detachment of 2 Primaris Psykers, 1 Company Commander and 1 plasma command squad and the Banehammer.
Surprisingly enough, I finished deploying first for once even though I'm Imperial Guard. It looked like the Orks had many more units than me. Thanks to that, I got a +1 to my roll, which helped me tie the first time. On our second roll, I managed to out-roll him and claim first turn. He tried to seize the initiative, but failed.
Turn 1
I moved my Valkyrie up and dropped my Primaris Psykers, Company Commander and plasma command squad 9" away from the deff koptas, which were the nearest unit to my deployment zone. My Kamikaze Troopers deep struck inside a building to capture an objective. And then I used Smite and brought down one deff kopta to one or two wounds. The Valkyrie fired his lascannon, and finished off the deff kopta, giving me First Blood! Meanwhile his heavy bolters and multiple rocket pods erased a bunch of Ork Boyz, downing them to...3 guys, I think? The plasma command squad supercharged their plasma guns and fired on another deff kopta and destroyed it. The Leman Russ Annihilator fired and killed a few Lootas because they were the only ones in range. The Leman Russ Executioners couldn't do much because they were practically out of range from anything except the Lootas, so I killed a few more Lootas with them. My first Tempestus Command squad fired their plasma guns and wiped out the Lootas - oh, and thanks to that, I was racking up victory points because of Dominate and Destroy. The second Kamikaze plasma squad fired on the Big Mek and brought him down to 2 wounds because of his invulnerable save and being out of rapid fire range. My Wyverns were MVP. Firing their stormshard mortars, they wiped out about 9 Boyz. The Nob then fled due to morale, granting me another victory point. The 3 guys lost another guy to morale, but still had 2 guys left.
As for the Banehammer, he did almost nothing. He missed his lascannons' shots, his twin heavy bolters were out of reach of anything, and his tremor cannon, despite doing 3D6 shots rolled a 2 and 2 ones - 4 shots. I ended up only dealing two wounds, which my opponent failed his saves, and destroyed just one Killa Klan. The good news is that the surviving two's movement were halved thanks to the shot. Yay.
I captured about three objectives and killed 4 units, and with First Blood, that led me to having 8 victory points in my first turn alone.
My opponent then moved his surviving Boyz up, and his Killa Klans toward my plasma command squad. Thanks to my Tremor cannon, their movement was halved, so they were practically out of charge range. The Weirdboyz casted Jump or something and had the Boyz appear more than 9" away from my plasma command squad. The trukk moved and stayed behind cover at a building while his Deff Dreads and 2nd Big Mek moved and advanced. The final deff kopta also moved toward my Leman Russ tank. The Kommandoes then deep struck behind my lines, right behind my Leman Russ Annihilator, and the 2nd squad of Kommandoes deep struck right behind my Tempestus Command squad. They fired and failed to wound any of my Kamikaze Troopers because I was in cover and had a 3+ armor save. The other Kommandoes squad also failed to wound my Leman Russ Annihilator with their shooting. The Boyz fared little better, shooting and killing just one plasma gunner in the command squad. It was the Tankbustas who had much better luck, firing from the Trukk and killing 3 Kamikaze Troopers in one squad. Ouch. The Killa Klans also failed to shoot or wound the plasma squad for some reason. That was really bad rolling on my opponent's part...in any event, both Kommando squads charged and even with 'ere we go! only one of them made it in - and started hitting my Leman Russ Annihilator. I killed one or two with overwatch despite using the Defensive Gunners Stratagem. The plasma gunners killed a few Boyz on overwatch, funnily enough, as did the Kamikaze Troopers, who killed a couple of Kommandoes - but neither of these made it in. On the other hand, the deff kopta did succeed his charge and got into combat with my Leman Russ Executioner. Oh, and the Killa Klans failed their charge despite 'here we go!But it was a 10" charge, so he needed a 9 or better.
I don't think the Kommandoes wounded my Leman Russ tank at all. Surprisingly enough, my opponent failed to kill even a single unit. So all he had was 1 victory point for that single objective he had his Big Mek camping on. I passed morale for both command squads, so none of them ran away, even the single Kamikaze trooper.
Turn 2
I had both my Leman Russ tanks fall back, while my Primaris Psykers and plasma command squad moved up to capture another objective. My psykers used Smite and brought one of the Killa Klans to just 2 wounds. In the shooting phase, my plasma guys supercharged their plasma guns and killed the Killa Klans. My Valkyrie fired and destroyed the deff kopta with his lascannon and wiped out the Boyz squad with his heavy bolters and multiple rocket pods. Meanwhile my plasma Kamikaze Troopers fired and wiped out the Kommandoes. I can't remember what else...I think my tank commander fired and killed the Big Mek. Meanwhile my Wyverns fired and decimated the Nobz, leaving just 2 or 3. My Banehammer fired and wiped out the 2nd Kommandoes with his twin heavy bolters, and his lascannons brought the trukk down to just one wound, while with his tremor cannon, he destroyed a single Deff Dread.
That gave me another 4 victory points for securing 4 objectives, and 6 victory points for destroying that many units, bringing my total tally up to 18 victory points.
My opponent then tried to move his Weirdboyz up and Smite my Primaris Psykers, while his 2 surviving Deff Dreads and the accompanying Big Mek moved and advanced. His trukk stayed where it was while the two surviving Boyz in the last squad ran forward toward my plasma command squad.
I managed to deny the witch with my 2 Primaris Psykers and the Weirdboyz's Smite fizzled out. Or maybe they killed 1 or 2 plasma guys because I failed to deny the witch with one of them. I can't remember. Anyway, Orks' shooting being what it was, they failed to hit the plasma guys. On the other hand, the tankbustas fired on the last remaining Kamikaze Trooper in the first plasma squad and killed him, earning him 1 victory point. I think that was it...he charged his Boyz at my plasma squad, and both guys got killed in a very lucky overwatch.
And that point, we called it game. My opponent had only 3 victory points while I had 19. There was no way he was going to win this game - I was too far ahead, and he killed only one of my units and wounded
none of my tanks. It was a uphill battle for him. There was no way he could catch up now.
So we decided to stop the game and play a 2nd, smaller game of 1,000 points. This one worked out much better and was more even.
Second Game
This time, the mission was Scorched Earth. We had a thousand points for each army, so I had to adjust my list. My opponent brought a Weirdboy, a Painboy, a Big Mek, 3 squads of 10 Boyz, tankbustas, a trukk, a dakkajet, 2 Kommando squads, and a single deff kopta. I think he loaded his tankbustas and Big Mek into the trukk.
As for me, I brought my Spearhead Detachment of Tank Commander in a Leman Russ Executioner with lascannon and plasma cannons, a 2nd Leman Russ Executioner, a Leman Russ Annihilator and 2 Wyverns, plus a Company commander, a plasma command squad and a Tech-priest Enginseer.
Turn 1
Once again, I managed to get the first roll, and he failed to seize the Initiative, but this time he deployed intelligently and had all his units hidden behind a building and away from my line of sight. The only thing I could shoot at was the Dakkajet with my Leman Russ Annihilator and my Tank Commander. Between the two of them, I could barely kill it, leaving only one wound on it. Then the Wyverns fired and obliterated one Boyz squad, leaving just 3 Boyz, who lost 2 to morale, leaving just 1 Nob. Wyverns for the win! Unfortunately, with everyone else out of line of sight, that was all I could fire. I did gain 2 Victory Points for the objectives, but that was all.
My opponent then used the Weirdboy to cast the jump and had one Boyz squad jump behind my Wyverns, and also the 2 Kommando squads appear behind my Wyvern and my tanks. The trukk moved around the building and the tankbustas fired on my Leman Russ Executioner, doing 6 wounds to him. Between the shooting and melee (the Boyz and Kommandoes made it in when they charged my Wyvern), they brought my Wyvern down to 3 wounds. Ouch. The dakkajet fired and did absolutely nothing to my tank commander. Meanwhile the other 2 Boyz squad, including the decimated one, moved forward. Fortunately, he didn't kill any of my units either, so no First Blood to him, but he had moved his deff kopta forward to capture 1 objective and gain 1 victory point. The 2nd Kommando squad failed their charge, I think. I'm not sure. Oh, but I used Defensive Gunners Stratagem on my Wyvern and killed a couple of Boyz and a few of the Kommandoes, decimating them.
Turn 2
I had my Tech-priest Enginseer repair my wounded Leman Russ Executioner, bringing him to 9 wounds (I think). My Leman Russ Annihilator finished off the dakkajet with his lascannons, and his plasma cannons obliterated the Boyz. Both my Wyverns had to move because the uncharged one was blocking his fall back path. Thanks to that, he could only fire on 5+ and couldn't re-roll ones, and only killed three or so Boyz in the 10-men squad. Menawhile my Leman Russ Executioner fired and did a pitiful 2 damage to the Trukk. I think. My plasma command squad then pasted one of the Kommando squads, while my tank commander wiped out the other. First Blood to me, yeah!
Again, I gained another 2 victory points for holding 2 objectives and 1 more for First Blood, giving me 5 in total.
My opponent moved his trukk forward, as well as his two remaining Boyz, Pain Boy and Weirdboy. The Weirdboy used the jump spell and had the 7 or 8 Boyz warp in right behind my wounded Leman Russ tank. The tankbustas put another 6 wounds on my Leman Russ Executioner, leaving him with just 3 wounds left. The Boyz fired and charged him, and despite my Defensive Gunners Stratagem, I only killed 3 or so. If I remember correctly, they had about 4 or 5 left after overwatch. They didn't wound him, I believe, or maybe put just one wound, I can't remember. He had about 2 or 3 wounds when my opponent was done. Meanwhile my opponent had moved his sole remaining Boyz and trukk up to capture the 2nd and 3rd objectives, so he earned 3 points, having 4 to my 5.
Turn 3
The game was getting closer than I thought. I had my wounded Leman Russ tank move 4" away from the Boyz. My company commander and plasma command squad moved up toward the trukk to get within rapid fire range, but to no avail. Anyway, my tank commander fired and blew up the trukk, and my plasma squad fired on the tankbustas (who lost 1 or 2 guys), only to do a pitiful 2 or 3 wounds. The majority of them were still alive. My first Wyvern, who I repaired with my Tech-priest Enginseer and used the Jury Rigging Stratagem to bring him back to 6 wounds, fired his heavy bolters and killed only 1 Boyz, while his stormshard mortars killed a couple of tankbustas. The second one swapped his weapons, training his heavy bolters on the tankbustas and stormshard mortars on the Boyz. I wiped out the Boyz but the tankbustas remained strong. Oh, and I lost one plasma gunner to another re-roll of one due to supercharging my plasma guns. Ouch. Anyway, I earned another 2 victory points and got 7.
My opponent continued to claim the 2nd objective while he blew up my wounded Leman Russ Executioner with his tankbustas and killed my plasma command squad with his weirdboyz's Smite. Ouch. The deffkopta and sole surviving Boyz (a Nob) continued to hold the 2 objectives, and he earned another 2 victory points, giving him 6 to my 7. At least he killed a Leman Russ Executioner! That was a big victory for him. Wow, he was closing in on me like crazy, cutting my lead to 1 because he was capturing objectives.
Turn 4
I killed his tankbustas with my tank commander, my first Wyvern killed the Big Mek, and my second Wyvern killed the Weirdboy, granting me Slay the Warlord. Thanks to that, I earned 3 victory points, bringing me up to 10. My opponent couldn't do much and merely moved his painboy up. His Nob and deff kopta netted him another 2 victory points and he got 8.
Turn 5
My tank commander killed the nob, and it took
both Wyverns to kill the painboy. At that point, my opponent only had one deff kopta left, so there was no point continuing the game. I would have earned another 2 points to get 12, while he could only get 1 victory point maximum from that sole deff kopta, who couldn't shoot anyone. So he surrendered and I managed to get another victory - just barely. The scales had tipped slightly in his favor thanks to his intelligent deployment, and honestly, my lead was hanging by a very thin thread. But I managed to prevail somehow through the sheer grit and determination of my Imperial Guard Armor. Phew!
