Sunday, October 11, 2020

Storm Their Lines

Finally, after 16 months, I got to play a game of Warhammer 40,000. Da Masta Cheef and I arranged to play a game at the local Hobbytown USA and we choose to keep tradition alive by agreeing to another Ork vs. Ork game. This is also my first game of the 9th edition.  

"I come for da reap'n!"


We like how unpredictable and zany the Open Warhammer card deck can be so we went with that and a mission called Storm Their Lines. We ended up with an interesting deployment layout (quqrters) and a Twist called Last Stand which basically made both of our armies fearless. Note that in some of the pics below you might occasionally spot a lonely grot. Those are actually objective counters. Also, yes, we know, they aren't on 40mm bases, it's just the best that we had at the time. 


Open War!

Cheef was able to get a Ruse card (Ambush) that allowed him to move a unit anywhere that wasn't within than 9" of one of my units, so that's how I ended up with his "Matildah" Battlewaggon full of Tankbustas on my side of the table. 

Ambush!


With that maneuver out of the way, both armies are now deployed accept foe my Dakkajet which I placed into Reserves. 

Da field of battle!

It's a good time to point out that my Orks Clan Kulture was Goffs and Cheef's was Death Skulls.
Here's the Death Skull deployment:  

Cheef's Deathskull gits!

Here is the over-all view of the Goff (with a fen unofficial Bad Moon guests) deployment: 

Neverness has deployed!

Here is a close-up of the Goff Boyz deployment: 

Close up of da boyz!

ORKS (NEVERNESS) TURN ONE

With a mighty yell of WAAAAGH! My Shoota Boyz leapt over the trench walls and stormed the nearest objective, claiming it. All the other units surged forward as well, accept for the Mek Guns of course. My Warphead used Da Jump to move the Mega Nobz to be 9" away from Da Cheef's Battlewagon for what I thought was going to be a strategic maneuver on my part. After a woefully ineffective Shooting Phase where I only managed to kill a single Ork Boy on the opposing side, I made the foolish mistake of assuming I would have better luck in the Charge Phase. The Mega Nobz declared a charge on the Battlewagon and Cheef gleefully burned a CP to be able to Overwatch with the Battlewagon and it's open top crew. Even with good odds to save, I botched four of my rolls resulting in four dead Mega Nobz! Ouch! However the last guy still made the charge and he latched himself onto the front of the Matildah and did the level of annoying damage that would impress a nature park monkey. ("Look Mom, he's peeing on the hood!" "Hey, leave my radio antenna alone!")

Those four Meganobz on the bottom are dead!

ORKS (DA MASTA CHEEF) TURN ONE

The cacophony of roaring jets filled the air as the Blitz Bomba soared over my lines. The Tankbustas, accompanied by Da Masta Cheef himself, left the Battlewaggon to deal with my Shoota Boyz that had taken one of the objectives. "Oy, dat's mine dat is!" 
The hail of rockets and exploding projectiles reduced the unit of Boyz down to half it's starting strength, and I was already thanking Mork and Gork for that Last Stand card or this game would have been way harder on my orks!

A Last Stand indeed!

Above you can see the survivors of the once mighty Shoota Boyz squad, and below you can see the Tankbustas gleefully reloading their rokkits for another volley...

Tankbustas bring the pain!

On the Charge Phase I decided to burn a CP to allow my Shootas a chance to Overwatch and I managed to kill a Tankbusta or two while Da Masta Cheef himself set himself up to deal with the Meganob attacking his Battlewaggon ("Oy, don't scratch da trim!").

"Oy, leave me tank alone!"

It was a bloodbath. In the end I had only a single Boyz model left, the unit's  nob. I did take a few Tankbustas to Hell with me though but they were clearly winning. 

Clearly. (And yes, my Nob is still missing his head).


ORKS (NEVERNESS) TURN TWO.

Being the sneaky git that I am, I was able to get my Slugga Boys onto another objective while my Dakkajet roared on from Reserves. I pulled my Boyz Nob and via the Stratagem called Endless Green Tide I was able to bring back that unit into play. 


"Don't call it a come back!"

The new Shoota Boys arrived to see the DakkaJet, which I spent more CP to give it More Dakka, to waste the remainder of the Tankbustas. Their only viable target was Da Masta Cheef himself, who was looting the gear from the now dead Meganob, whom they shot to ribbons. 

Da Masta' Cheef''s murder sponsored by Coke!

It was a far better round than my Turn One but not nearly as awesome as Da Cheef's was. I had the moral support of having 2 points to zero at the end of my turn, but this fight was still in it's infancy...

Bottom of Turn two.

ORKS (DA MASTA CHEEF) TURN TWO.

Cheef's forces were not bothered by their leader dying, and continued their advancement. Their attempts to bring down the DakkaJet were to no avail but they did destroy my Slugga Boyz from shooting with the final blow coming from the Big Bomb dropped by the Bomber. 

The thing I miss most about 5th edition is the craters...

ORKS (NEVERNESS) TURN 3

My Deffdread ambled closer to the unit that was defending a crater. It would attempt to charge those guys but would fail to reach them after losing a wound to Overwatch. Meanwhile my Dakkajet would blast the Blitzbomber out of the sky.

Air supremacy! 

ORKS (DA MASTA CHEEF) TURN THREE.

Other than his Weirdboy smiting more wounds off of my Deffdread I don't recall much more happening in this turn other then Cheef taking more objectives, which was actual quite crucial as now we were tied.

ORKS (NEVERNESS ) TURN FOUR

An explosive turn as the Mek Guns eliminate the Battlewaggon and the Dakkajet jet straffs one of the smaller Boyz mobz in an attempt to prevent them from taking another objective. 

The demise of da Matildah.

My Deffdread made into combat finally only to kill... no one. The Deathskulls never saw a machine they didn't want to loot and pretty much dismantled the Deffdread on the spot. 

"Look, da scrap is coming to us!"

ORKS TURN FIVE. 
My efforts to stymie Da Cheef's surge were to no avail as his forces crashed into mine. In the end I had a few Shoota Boyz left alive along with the Dakkajet and Warphead. The Mekgubz survived also but one of them only had 2 wounds left which was mostly due to self-inflicted Mortal Wounds that it did to itself while shooting.  Cheef was limping also but his forces clearly had the tactical advantage and claimed 6 points to my 3, securing his victory. 
  • Dis is how da waaargh ends...

Wow! What a fun game! Yeah we probably made a few mistakes, but we had way to much fun to care.  My first turn was awful and Cheef's was just amazing. A lesser ork might have forfeited at that point but I was committed to the Waaargh and stuck it out to the end! 

The highlight for both of us had to be my suicidal Megnobz and their ill-fated attempt to charge the opened top Battlewagon. Cheef was grinning ear to ear as I was also bemused, and a bit shocked, by how well he was rolling his saves. And how absurdly bad I was rolling mine. My luck has never seen a good plan it didn't want to thwart! In the end though, it was another good game and we both agreed that we need to do this more than just once a year! An Ork vs. Ork game is also a perfect way to celebrate Orktober and I encourage you to give a go if you can.

Silly Bad Moons, this was supposed to be a Goff army!








2 comments:

Da Masta Cheef said...

Towards the middle there your dice went hot whilst mine with the other way and I was pretty sure I was going to lose this bout. Though luckily Da Groop came thru in da end!

Maybe I ought to get more tankbustas...that unit in GOLD in virtually every game that I play Orks.

neverness said...

No doubt about those Tankbustas! I need to get mine assembled or at least playable. Those things will make Terminator squads and big Nids disappear in a flash.