Challenge made, challenge accepted!

Challenge made, challenge accepted! Da Masta Cheef and Amy accepted a challenge by my Orks for a rare Friday night 40K brawl.

The Orks aim their Space Hulk at the peaceful Maiden World of Velveeta VII and plunge straight for the heart of the derelict imperial outpost to rip it from the protective embrace of the Eldar Exodites. However the Eldar, with the assistance of their Tau allies, weren't about to let Orks take their sacred ground without a fight, which of course, is music to the ears of the Orks. 

We rolled for the corner deployment zones and the scenario was Big Guns Never Tire. Four Objectives were placed, with one in each Deployment zone and the other two in 'no man's land'.

The battlefield. 

Ork deployment

The Gobsmasha contains Mad Dok Grotsnik and his Burna Boyz. 

Eldar/Tau (Taudar as the 'net says we should call this union) Deployment. 

Two Broadsides overlook the battlefield and the Eldar Exodites. 

 Turn one
(Orks steal the initiative. Yes it is sort of ironic)

The Orks advance. 

 The first round of Ork shooting was largely unimpressive. The warbikes killed a ranger, the shokk attack gun killed a few models, as did the loota boyz, but nothing terribly significant happened. It was Night Fight for the first turn which proved to be highly beneficial to the Eldar.

A ranger dies from Warbike fire!

Taudar Turn 1

The Eldar wipe out the warbikes and the Tau Broadsides get a perfect shot on the Big Mek with the Shokk Attack gun, eliminating him from the game before he can cause any major havoc and giving the Eldar the First Blood Secondary Objective! Drats!

Orks Turn 2

Ouch! Reeling from the loss of my Bigmek, whom, upon reflection, I should've joined to the lootas, I proceeded to try to reverse this loss. Mad Dok Grotsnik leapt from the battlewagon with the burnas and completely annihilated a guardian squad.

There was a squad there...

The shoota boys tear up another guardian squad with shooting and force them to route.

It was a more satisfying round for the Orks, but by no means a game-changer.

Taudar Turn 2

The Shoota boyz are mostly shot to pieces by the Guardian, Harlequins, Tau, etc, that threw everything they had them, even a few insults and expletive phrases the likes of which could make a whole maiden world blush -but they aren't out of the fight yet!

Forces redeploy to deal with the Grotsnik/Burna threat. After weathering a great deal of shooting, thanks to the Cybork bodies and Feel No Pain, they would really be tested by their (and my!) first exposure to D-Sythes! Holy crap are these things NASTY!

Setting up for the kill...

The Wraithguard (appearing as Exodite Knights on Dragons) declared a charge but they lost a guy due to Overwatch, and then botched the charge roll! This left the Harlequin Solitare to charge by himself, which left him in a challenge with Mad Dok Grotsnik. Grotsnik survived the figth, but the Harlequin did not, but in his dying gasp he exploded almost taking taking Grotsnik with him! Thus the Secondary Objective Slay the Warlord was earned by the Orks!

"But before I die...." -BOOM!

Orks Turn 3

Rallied by that victory, Grotsnik and the Burnas chose to finish off the Dire Avengers, while the Deff Dread was working it's way up (it killed a Dire Avenger with a Scorcha). Having given up the other side of the field, I pulled what remained of the Shootas back to my area to try to bolster my force. My Killcannon scattered horribly and missed the broadsides, however the Lootas killed the one with the Railgun, forcing it's companion to flee off of the board! Perhaps the tide was turning?

This side is feeling a bit secure!

Eldar Turn 3
The eldar hold on to their second objective, while the rangers advance through the ruins, closer to the lootas that they hope to kill...

The Eldar advance through the ruins

The Shoota boyz lose even more of their number to the Harlequin and guardians, and Grotsnik and the burnas are finally destroyed by another round of the D-Sythes, making me realize that I should've targeted them rather than the Dire Avengers, but really, at that point it was really a matter of choosing my poison!

Orks Turn 4

The lootas, gobsmasha, and the big shootas from the choppa unit all contribute to the destruction of the Harlequin troupe. Desperate to rid myself of those annoying wraithdragon things, the deff dread declared a charge, only to be utter destroyed by the D3 hits that those 3 template weapons threw down! Seriously, those things are better on Overwatch than they are normally! I shiny crater is all that remained of the Deff Dread!

Ka-Boom!

Eldar Turn 4.

The Eldar would practically shrug off this loss however (although Cheef was bummed by it!) And press on. Now the Lootas were starting to take some hits, and the Shootas were whittled down to just two models. The Gobbsmasha was stunned by the D-Sythes, and the Lootas would be pinned by a plasma missile!

Ork Turn 5. 

My shooting seemed useless as most of the Eldar made cover saves, or what losses they had were negligible. I ran the last two Shoota over to the objective that the Deff Dread was covering. With the gobbsmasha stunned and the Lootas only able to snapfire, my turn was over in a flash. It was looking quite grim...

Eldar Turn 5 

The Gobsmasha was stunned again, and was more or less useless. The lootas take more punishment, but are not pinned again, although their unit would have to be reformed.  One of the two fleeing shootas would be picked off, forcing the sole-survivor to flee for his life!

We rolled, the game ended!

Tallying the scores, the Orks had Warlord (1vp), a Heavy Support kill (1vp) and an objective (3vp) for a total of 5 victory points!

The Eldar/Tau had First Blood (1vp), Warlord (1vp), Line Breaker (1vp) and 2 objectives (6vps) for a whopping total of 9 vps!

Declaring the Eldar the official winner, and feeling that the last turn was bit anti-climatic, we decided to press on...

Unofficial Ork Turn 6

The lone shoota boy, somehow was bolstered by something and rolled a double one -Insane Courage!- thus rallying and getting back into the game, he moved over and took an unclaimed objective!

Insane Courage! Hey, it happens! (he's the red speck by the ruins at the top)

The orks tried to stop the approaching guardians but with the Lootas still pinned, and the Slugga Boyz reluctant to leave the objective, guardians armor was able to absorb any wounding firepower.

End of Ork turn 6.

Unofficial Eldar Turn 6

The Eldar chew into the Slugga Boyz, but only kill off a few of them

Thank Gork for cover saves.

The Wraith Guard Dragons easily get around the stunned Gobbsmasha to deliver the death blow to the ork tank, resulting in an awesome explosion. Due to our mission (Big Guns Never Tire) this would give the Taudar and additional VP, putting out totals up to 8vps Orks and 10vps for the Eldar and Tau.

The Gobbsmasha is smashed!

Unofficial Turn 7

The orc firepower doesn't amount to much, and the slugga boyz and guardians fail to get a charge against each other, so they remain holding onto the objective.

The dragons hunt down and destroy the last Shoota Boy.

The objective is lost as the Wraith Dragons destroy the last Shoota Boy!



But at least the gun platform died!

The dragons were getting fire support from another guardian squad that was holding an objective, but check out this cheesy configuration:

The lost art of Snaking.

Good to see the Exodites utilizing such long-forgotten tactics. (we all had a good chuckle over this).

So the game was stopped here.

The final tally ends up being Orks 5vp and Taudar 10vp.

Looking at it, it was just not possible for the Orcs to win a 'to the death" challenge at this point, but the score was acceptable (as opposed to 0 or 1), and I helped the Eldar out with their whole 'dying race' tagline. As far as tactics go (that I can't exclusively blame on dice) I should've held the Deff Dread back, however I know that if I had managed to connect to the dragons on a charge, it would've been over for them, but those D-Sythes are a game-changer for the unit, and I will have to watch out for them in future match-ups! And failing to have Mad Dok & the Burnas focus exclusively on the Wraithguard/dragons was a horrible mistake!

As I play with and learn more about this 6th edition Eldar Codex, I feel more and more that the Eldar deserve a new banner, one that hasn't been so proudly hailed since 2nd edition:

A maiden on her world. 

It would at least make a pleasant image to behold for my desperate troops as they rush headlong to their deaths!