The Blackhawk roared out of the warp gate in the Castor system. Autarch Machant'ii immediately engaged the interstellar transport's cloaking technology, making it all but invisible to all inferior races, except perhaps to the technologically advanced Tau or ancient Necrons. The Blackhawk pulled into orbit around the 6th planet. "We are undetected," said Farseer Ji Handr'an, who had been dispatched by the Council to oversee this mission. Sensors indicate that the Orks appear to be scavaging the planet looking for resources. Machant'ii communicated mentally Ji Handr'an. We launch in 30 minutes, Ji Handr'an commanded, have a tactical plan to me in 20.
"The orks have discovered a mine shaft. Our planetary penetration sensors report strong levels of titanium in the mine," reported Machant'ii 20 minutes later. "So we had faulty information back on Novas-Dinne," responded Ji Handr'an. "We will correct that when we return. What is your assessment, Machant'ii?"
"The orks are in a spread formation, scouring the land. It appears they have sent a rearguard of lootas and a wagon to guard the mine, but the lootas appears to be slowed by the vegetative terrain. Next to the mine is a small settlement. It is in ruins, but our visual sensors show massive numbers of gretchin working to prepare the settlement for habitation. Among the gretchin is a Big Mek; he appears to be in charge of the resource gathering mission. A large squad of ork boyz are marching toward a glowing artifact in the east. The artifact's radiation emission is consistent with that of the Tau. The orks have sent another wagon of lootas and a skorcha buggy toward that artifact to secure it before the main squad of ork boyz can arrive. "
"Great Farseer, our plan is to launch a mechanized assault on the western flank. The spread formation of the orks will allow our infantry to outnumber them on that flank. This should allow us to take control of the mine and give us time to eliminate their transports. We can then secure the artifact."
I will accompany Kallas in his Wave Serpent. Stay aboard the ship, Machant'ii, and communicate updates as they occur. We will secure the region and prepare for the landing of the rest of our force. We launch now, commanded Ji Handr'an. Minutes later, a beam of darkness flashed down in the glow of the planet's sunrise. The Eldar had landed.
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The Eldar launched a 1500 points mechanized force:
- Dire Avenger Wave Serpent: Squad of 10 with Exarch Kallas wielding dual avenger shuriken catapults. Farseer Ji Handr'an accompanied this squad. Serpent equipped with twin-linked ("TL") EML.
- Striking Scorpion Wave Serpent: Squad of 10 with Exarch Sol'Tor. Serpent equipped with TL EML.
- Dire Avenger Wave Serpent: Squad of 10 with Exarch Oazi wielding dual catapults. Serpent equipped with TL scatter lasers.
- Two Fire Prisms with holofields.
- Reserve squad of 4 jetbikes.
- Outflanking lone War Walker with dual scatter lasers.
- Big Mek in a squad of 30+ gretchin.
- 30+ shoota boyz.
- 30+ boyz.
- Scorcha
- Two squads of 10-12 lootas with accompanying looted wagon transport
Deployment and Mission
The game was a Capture and Control mission (two objectives) with Dawn of War deployment. The Orks deployed first as shown in the picture; the Eldar deployed nothing and went second.
Turn 1
The Orks had no targets, so they marched onto the board and ran forward.
The Eldar mechanized force deployed on the western flank and skimmed close to the line of shoota boyz, but blockading them from blocking the rear access of the transports. Oazi's wave serpent flew flat out over the line of shoota boyz, preparing to surge forward to the lootas in the bush in the north. Firing at the empty wagon, Kallas's wave serpent missed with its twin-linked EML, while Sol'Tor's serpent hit, but could not damage the front armor of the transport.
Turn 2
The orks ran around preparing for their shots, but their empty wagon experienced a power surge, forcing it to burst forward 12 inches, providing solid cover for the wave serpents. The eastern lootas let loose their rokkits at Oazi's serpent, wrecking it despite its flat out movement the turn prior. Oazi's squad took cover behind the downed serpent. Unfortunately for the orks, the gretchin didn't notice the approaching Eldar and went about their business preparing the ruined settlement, keeping the Big Mek from firing his Shokk Attack gun.
None of the Eldar reserves arrived. Sol'Tor's scorpions disembarked their white transport, which then flew over the ork line, covering them from the north. The serpent fired at the surging wagon, stunning it. Kallas's fortuned transport bolted forward maximum distance to prepare to attack the lootas in the bush. The Prisms missed entirely. Oazi's dire avengers moved into position and bladestormed into the bush-hidden lootas, killing 5; but they hung around. The scorpions charged into the doomed spread orks, killing 20. The orks struck 5 scorpions in return, but their armor repelled all but one of the attacks. The fearless orks consolidated into the battle.
Turn 3
The big mek fired his shokk attack gun at the swirling scorpion/shoota combat (which was an error we only caught at the end of the game -- you cannot target combats, even with ordnance blasts). The shot scattered off, missing everyone entirely. The lootas unleashed their rokkits into Oazi's dire avengers, who took 5 wounds, but surged forward with courage. The scorpions struck the shootas hard, felling 8 and only taking a single wound in return. This time, the orks were forced to retreat, but were cut down by the scorpions, who consolidated to the rear of their wave serpent. Ji Handr'an's fortuned serpent was shaken by rokkit fire, shrugging off approximately 30 incoming rokkits and two penetrating hits.
The Eldar retaliated hard. The War walker entered from the west flank, lining up a nice shot on the rear of the empty looted wagon. It fired, only shaking the vehicle with the 5 lasers that struck home. The scorpions embarked into their transport, which fired its EML at the side armor of the shaken transport, wrecking it from point-blank range. Oazi's depleted dire avengers took cover behind the wrecked wagon. Kallas's dire avengers disembarked and unleashed a bladestorm into the bush-covered, doomed lootas, kiling them all. Ji Handr'an remained in the serpent as it drifted forward slightly, covering Kallas's avengers and unleashing its EML at the wagon carrying the other loota squad, whose armor repelled the missile. The fire prisms finally pulled their weight. One fired through the arriving, turboboosted jetbike squad, destroyed the wagon carrying the lootas, while the other killed 5 of the disembarked lootas who were in heavy cover.
Turn 4
The shokk attack gun finally hit, stunning Sol'Tor's wave serpent; but the spirit stones reduced that to shaken. The blast also struck down one of Oazi's dire avengers, who bolted for the board edge. The remaining lootas fired at the jetbike squad, hitting two of them. Even with a 3+ save, the two bikes exploded violently; but the squad remained valiant. The eastern ork boyz continued running forward toward the artifact objective.The Eldar again struck back hard. The shaken scorpion transport burst forward 24" to prepare a dual assault on the big mek and the ork boyz at the far objective. Kallas's avengers embarked onto their serpent, rejoining the Farseer. The serpent lined up a shot on the lootas and hit them hard, forcing them to fall back off the board. The prisms and walker unleashed their weapons on the big mek and his gretchin friends, killing 6 gretchin.
Turn 5
Ji Handr'an fortuned his serpent, which surged forward flat out over the titanium mine objective, claiming it. The two remaining jetbikes turboboosted forward to contest the artifact objective, which the ork boyz had finally reached. The skorcha had been able to maneuver behind Sol'Tor's serpent, shaking it with its flamer. The walker retaliated, immobilizing the vehicle and knocking out its flamer. The prisms took out 13 gretchin, but the squad passed its morale check. The scorpion serpent rushed forward next to the big mek, preparing for a run on the artifact objective. The game continued for another turn, dooming the two Eldar jetbikes, as they were surrounded by 30 boyz.
Turn 6
The shokk attack gun hit Kallas's serpent, but its fast move the prior turn saved it from damage. The boyz decimated the jetbikes. In return, the prisms took down a negligible number of them as they moved into position for tank shocks in the 7th turn, if necessary. The scorpions disembarked and charged the big mek's squad, wiping them off the board. In the meantime, their serpent tank shocked the boyz, contesting the artifact objective. The game ended on this turn, with the dire avengers controlling the mine and the artifact contested.
The Eldar had lost only 1 dire avenger squad and its transport, and two scorpions, while the orks were down to a single troop unit.
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This was a fun game and my first with an entirely mechanized force. I think it was a very strong force, and I think I handled mechanized tactics very well, even though I was outnumbered about 120 units to 41 (including tanks/transports). Richter made a couple mistakes, one with aligning his lootas in area terrain and the other in accidentally moving his gretchin so his big mek couldn't shoot. He also rolled terribly on the damage table against my skimmers. My maneuvering was solid, nearly always having vehicles to provide cover for other vehicles and troops, and my attacks were synchronized well.
I made a rules mistake in the last turn, when I disembarked my scorpions and then tank-shocked the squad controlling the objective. You cannot embark/disembark and move flat-out in the same turn. However, it ultimately did not matter, as if I hadn't disembarked, I still would have tank-shocked the boyz, contesting the objective and thus winning the game that ended that turn. The only difference was that the big mek squad would still have been alive, but that would not have affected the outcome; and it would have subjected the gretchin to both of my prisms guns, instead of wasting the shots on the boyz.
Because of the way the orks had crushed the Eldar in the previous few games, we tried playing an unbalanced-points game. Next game, we'll be reducing the difference in the forces to something closer to 1500 to 1300. Here comes 60 more boyz. ;)
5 comments:
Yeah, this was a horrible game for me. I made a long list of errors, some based on unfamiliarity with the rules, appended. Dice were NOT friendly. I put 2-3 penetrates and glances on every vehicle I fired at, but could not seem to roll above a 2 on the damage table. The shokk attack gun killed all of one DA all game. But the main difference was a completely new army from Banys.
Instead of walking his units up into my withering fire, he now flashes them up in next-to-indestructible Wave Serpents. Consider: cruise 24 inches to some vantage point, gain auto cover save. Then another 12 inches into attack position, destroy the only unit that can spot you from where you placed the Wave Serpent to cover. Load up and repeat next turn. Scorpions get to assault up to three units per game this way, traveling up to 42 inches per assault, always in cover, killing 20 orks each time. Avengers get three blade storm assaults, 12 wounds each time under practically the same conditions.
The only way to deal with this is to destroy the Wave Serpents early on, but since they almost always have a 4+ save and moreover can only be hit on a roll of 6 in assault and can't be locked in combat, that's not an easy proposition. You'd think the 44 S7 shots per round my Lootaz pump out would do it, but it didn't.
I'll post mistake list later.
So, the original idea was to place my objective between two close areas of cover and tear apart whatever tried to take it with sheer firepower. The first mob of boyz was to take an easily modifiable position in the center, also protecting the grot SAG unit there.
I sent the second mob of boyz to take the enemy objective. The lootas came out on either side of center, and the skorcha I sent toward the only area terrain that required its special capabilities.
Errors:
Turn 0
1. For maximum mobility, I wrapped the boyz around the ruins. It probably would have been better to have run the line through the ruins or, better yet, have stationed them there.
2. The grot SAG unit, therefore, should have gone somewhere else. As its defenses are only against shooting and based on the number of gretchin in the unit, it could just have easily gone on the rocks in back.
Turn 1
3. I chose to have the larger loota unit enter off its transport in the area terrain on the back hill. I figured they'd be less vulnerable in there and could then use the transport as an additional unit, but my first assumption was probably wrong. I knew I might face difficulties with the fold of the hill, but this was made worse when it turned out that cover terrain dropping over a slope is ill defined. My lootas actually had CLEAR lines of sight over the bushes to the Wave Serpents with both eyes and weapons, but because were more than two inches in, were ruled to not be able to shoot ANYTHING without a 4+ save to target. Of course, the bushes only conferred 5+, so going into cover helped my targets more than me! All this was completely counter-intuitive to me as the hill gave me plain and clear LOS/LOF with the units that could see. I brought up the fact that the rule would also affect the SAG on the high point at the back of the ruins, but somehow that was OK. I just can't get a feel for how area terrain works and am considering not placing it on any more of my boards. At the very least, I think the 2" rule should affect only area terrain that has multiple points higher than units stationed in it...
In the game, we actually split the diff b/c Banys did not bring the rule up until the second time I fired the unit, and the Dire Avengers the Lootas brought down did them in by Turn 4.
Turn 2
4. The loose Loota wagon malfunctions and rolled to a spot that blocked ALL lines of fire to the enemy from my two mobs of lootas and SAG.
5. Knowing that the coming assault would wipe out my grot SAG unit, I rearranged them in cover. Only to realize that, duh, now I couldn't fire the SAG (though IT hadn't moved).
6. When Banys wiped out 2/3 of the shootas before they had a chance to strike back, I took casualties from the back of the mob, figuring I'd do significant damage. Then Banys saved all but one wound, and I realized that I had just wasted what was left of the mob (hence I dropped the SAG template on the entire combat next turn). I should have left the ones I had in the ruins to snipe from there. This pretty much doomed the nonfunctioning SAG unit, as now they had no protection from assault.
Turn 3
7. I downed another transport, only to realize I forgot to test for the Lootid wagon, which turned out to fail. We reversed the event, but of course I had already shot my hilltop lootas at the Avengers, thinking the transport was down.
8. At this point, I'd pretty much given up. When the remaining Lootas were blown out of their wagon, I hid then behind a wall, but wasn't careful enough. Banys could still spot part of one boy, placed a large template on him, hit, and blew away half the squad.
Turn 5
9. I didn't realize troops in a transport could claim an objective. So much for shooting them up.
10. Due to all the low rolls for difficult terrain and runs, my slugga boyz averaged around 3" a turn and did NOT reach the enemy objective by Turn 5. Banys' jetbikes got there easily in a single move, so he would have had a solid win if the game had ended Turn 5.
11. I forgot about the tank shock tactic. It basically means I can't hold ANY objective with infantry in the open, which means I can't win a game unless I destroy EVERY Eldar tank on the board.
12. This means that my placing my objective in the open was yet another error.
Turn 6
13. I forget "Death or Glory" with my Nob's Power Klaw as the Wave Serpent shoves him aside to contest the objective I had taken.
14. I finally blow up a transport, only to see it make its permanent cover save.
Moral: There's not much I can do to pull in more anti-tank ability. The Lootas are it. Hence, I need to develop my massed infantry army capabilities.
Nice comments, Mike. It's always fun to hear the other side's thoughts! FYI, the area terrain cover save from your lootas firing OUT of the bush was the same as you received when I fired in, 5+. The cover same is the same in both directions, and that was how I played it when I did call you on it.
You raise a good point regarding the sloped area terrain that I didn't really comprehend during the game. When it comes to the second level of a ruin, you can clearly see over the intervening ground-level terrain by definition, so hence there is no reverse save given when shooting out. But on a smoothly sloping hill (as compared with a terraced hill), I think you're right, there should be some point at which you can fire over the intervening terrain. However, I think that needs to be very carefully defined at the beginning of the game, given that it's an analog (constantly changing) relation as opposed to the multi-story ruins, which is a digital relation (1st level, 2nd level, etc.).
So good point, we can discuss the terrain pre-game if it comes up in the future. In the meantime, read over the area terrain section of the rulebook closely to fine tune how that works.
Oh, and I think area terrain still should be on the board. :) There's no way to make a forest or a truly ruined building without it! (not to mention it has tactical effects that standard LOS terrain does not).
I was curious why you didn't try a death & glory on turn 6 ... I had just assumed that your orks couldn't hurt it in melee...
great game and reports! let me know when you guys plan another.
heath
A side note on the death & glory thing ... the pics looked really cool to see the Ork turn 6 with your Orks standing in a line, then the Eldar turn 6 to see the wave serpent among them, having knocked them over. If you had death & gloried, and been successful, the pic wouldn't have been nearly as cool. :)
Oh, and for D&G, the nob would have had to have been in the path of the waveserpent. You can't just pick any model from the unit. So there's a chance that you couldn't have D&G's with the Nob anyway (I have no idea which model he was...)
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