Bludteef's Ork warband have been battling the Ultramarines on Bagot Prime for several months now. Bludteef himself has recovered from the mauling he took from the boys in blue and what remains of his vital organs (mostly teef) have been transplanted into a new cybork body. Now his Meks have intercepted a strange signal coming from an equatorial part of the planet. It sounds like the Ultramarines are up to something, and Bludteef is keen put a stop to whatever the beakies are doing.
But something else is going on. Many years ago a shrine to Nurgle was built in a radioactive part of the desert. The wasteland has since been mined for the uranic deposits, but the workings have in turn fallen into disrepair and the desert is reclaiming the area. Unaware of other forces interested in the plant, the Death Guard are now looking to take back the shrine for reasons known only to themselves.
Never mind, Bludteef came to kill marines, and these ones look half dead already, so it should be easy to finish them off...
It's another Skype game and I, Pootle, will once again be leading my Orks and I, Kraken will take charge of the Death Guard.
Ork Battalion (Evil Sunz):
I'm slowly adding some new units to my old Ork horde from the mid-90s. Fresh off the painting desk are a Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy and a Deff Dread, so they're definitely going into the army!
The force will be lead by Bludteef once again, kitted out as last time with the Brutal but Kunnin' warlord trait (reroll failed hit rolls in combat and add 1 damage when charging), Da Killa Klaw relic (a Power Klaw with a flat 3 damage and rerolling wounds), plus a CP on Da Biggest Boss to add 1 to wounds and attacks and give a 4+ invulnerable save. He's accompanied by a Weirdboy Warphead with Warpath and Da Jump.
I've then got three mobs of Boyz, one 25-strong, one of 15 and one of 10. Plus a unit of ten Gretchin. I've chosen more, smaller units to be able to Da Jump around and grab objectives, plus one bigger unit to try to take advantage of Unstoppable Green Tide and recycle a nearly-dead unit.
Lastly I've picked a couple of cheap Mek Gunz and 5 Flash Gitz (whose Snazz Guns are tuned to kill Death Guard as they're S6 and damage 2), who are led by Kaptin Joolfang (functions as Kaptin Badrukk).
My plan is to spread out and grab more objectives than the Death Guard can manage to do using the Squigbuggy and Da Jumping Boyz (and Grots if it comes to it). I'm not planning to even try to kill the Plagueburst Crawler or the Blightlords - both units will suck in more firepower than I have, so I'm better off trying to take out the Helbrute and Troops. The Deff Dread will spring forwards to hunt down the Helbrute, however I'll keep Bludteef in reserve as his Killa Klaw is about the only thing that can (nearly) reliably kill Blightlords.
- HQ - Warboss - Attack Squig, Kombi-Rokkit, Power Klaw (Shiney Gubbinz - Da Killa Klaw). Warlord Trait: Brutal but Kunnin. Stratagem: Da Biggest Boss
- HQ - Kaptin Joolfang- Ammo Runt
- HQ - Weirdboy - Stratagem: Warphead. Warpath, Da Jump
- Troops - 25 Boyz - Choppas & Sluggas, 2 Tankbusta Bombs, Nob with Choppa & Killsaw
- Troops - 15 Boyz - Choppas & Sluggas, 1 Tankbusta Bomb, Nob with Choppa & Killsaw
- Troops - 10 Boyz - Choppas & Sluggas, 1 Tankbusta Bomb, Nob with Choppa & Power Klaw
- Troops - 10 Gretchin
- Fast Attack - Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy
- Heavy Support - 1 Deff Dread - 2 x Dread Klaw, 2 x Dread Saws. Kustom Job - Orkymatic Pistons
- Heavy Support - 5 Flash Gitz - Ammo Runt
- Heavy Support - 2 Mek Gunz - Smasha Guns
1,200 Points; Power Level 65, 9 CPs
Death Guard Battalion (Mortarion's Anvil)
There aren't many options Pootle doesn't have for the Death Guard! They have a whole bunch of alternative options from one of the Psychic Awakening books, too. I've gone with Mortarion's Anvil, the Death Guard Company who really like tough siege warfare.
Playing to those strengths - a nice fat Blightlord unit, tooled for spearheading an assault wherever I can teleport them into, boosted by a Terminator Lord with their special Gloaming Rot warlord trait. He can't be wounded on better than a 4+, this means, and I'm also spending an extra command point to give him disgusting resistance.
The Rhino and the shooty Helbrute are also getting Contaminated Monstrosity, and they're backed by a Plagueburst Crawler with sprayers, who will trundle unstoppably towards the enemy line, acting as a shooty tarpit all by itself.
The rotten meat at the heart of this vile pasty is a trio of Plague Marine squads, two shooty ones and one combat one. The latter will use the Rhino to head for the foe, then jump out followed by a Tallyman with the Tollkeeper Relic (more CPs, but with 12 to spend, it's easy to go overboard!) that means 6s in melee cause another hit. Not bad on top of his existing aura, plus he might refund some of my pre-spend CPs!
Finally a Plaguecaster will be backing the line and hopefully denying the odd Jump too.
- HQ - Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour - Combi-Melta, Balesword (Relic: Plaguebringer). Warlord Trait: The Gloaming Rot, Strat: Contaminated Monstrosity
- HQ - Malignant Plaguecaster - Gift of Contagion, Plague Wind
- Troops - 5 Plague Marines - Flail of Corruption, Plague Belcher, 2x Double Plague Knives, Champ with Plaguesword, Power Fist & Bolt Pistol
- Troops - 5 Plague Marines - Boltguns, Blight Launcher, Champ with Plaguesword
- Troops - 5 Plague Marines - Boltguns, Blight Launcher, Champ with Plaguesword
- Elite - 5 Blightlord Terminators - Combi-Bolters & Bubotic Axes. Blight Launcher, Flail of Corruption, Champ with Balesword
- Elite - Helbrute - Missile Launcher & Twin Heavy Bolter
- Elite - Tallyman - Tollkeeper Relic
- Heavy Support - Plagueburst Crawler - Plaguespitters & Rothail Volleygun
- Transport - Rhino - Havoc Launcher
1,200 Points, Power Level 62, 8 CPs
Mission and Terrain
We're playing the Priority Target mission from the GT pack. Five objectives, one in the middle and four spread out halfway to each corner (marked with green tokens in the pic below), but before we set up we each move two of the these by up to 6", so they end up slightly more spread out as shown in the maps further down. Controversially, I've set up the board on the minimum size 44"x60" battlefield because although this is a Strike Force mission, we're only 1,200 points so if we used a 4'x6' table I think we'd be quite far apart.
I have set up some new terrain however - I received the Eternal Cathedral from Archon a month or so ago (plus some other bits and pieces from a Kickstarter campaign at the back end of last year. It's a great set and finally gives me enough terrain to turn over my double-sided battle mat (this one from Urban Matz) to use the desert side.
My secondaries will be the mission-specific Priority Targets (3 points for controlling one of the Priority Objectives at the end of my turn, 5 points for controlling both), Engage On All Fronts (because I'm planning to rush all over the battlefield) and Raise The Banners High.
I'm going with While We Stand We Fight (Helbrute, Chaos Lord and Plaguecrawler) and Thin Their Ranks, both of which play to our army choices. Then Priority Targets, more because I like to try out the mission special for a new mission than because I think it's a great idea, but at least sitting on my own back special objective ought to be a steady trickle of points.
Deployment
I put the Flash Gitz (and Kaptin Joolfang ) on the gantry in the centre of my lines - they should be able to move forwards and have a commanding field of fire into the centre.
The Boyz spread out to their left, with the two smaller units both near my priority objective - I want to make sure I don't make it easy for the Blightlords to teleport in and steal it.
Bludteef and the Deff Dread both go front and centre, ready to cause trouble in the centre.
I'm spreading myself thinly, like slime mould on a kitchen surface. The vehicles go in the middle, ready to split in either direction, with the Plaguecaster amongst them so his powers are ready to rock (or he can jump into the Rhino in the first turn and move to where they will be).
The Plague Marine shooter squads take up positions on the flank, ready to take and hold objectives. And the Terminators are, of course, in the Teleportarium and eyeing up the midfield!
So overall, it looks like this:
The Orks have the initiative and grab the first turn.
Ork turn 1
The Squigbuggy and Deff Dread pile forwards, with the latter advancing to claim the central objective.
The two Mek Gunz trundle forwards to try to shoot at the Helbrute, however I've been a bit too careful in my deployment and only one gun can draw line of sight.
The two smaller units of Boyz move forwards slightly to sit on top of my Priority Objective. The Flash Gitz and their Kaptin walk to the front of the gantry to get sight of the centre of the battlefield. Unfortunately nothing will be within range of their guns for now.
In the psychic phase, the Weirdboy casts Warpath (+1 attack), then Da Jump on the large unit of Boyz, teleporting them to the Death Guard right flank.
In the shooting phase, the Squigbuggy kills a Plague Marine and the one Smasha Gun who can see it takes six wounds off the Helbrute (rerolling the initial one wound was a good CP investment).
The Boyz make their charge into the Plague Marines, but 100+ attacks leave one marine alive - those guys are TOUGH!
Putrid Fecundity helped here - 2 CPs, but it boosts their DR to 4+!
At the end of the turn I score 5VPs for controlling both the Priority Objectives, along with 3VPs for being in all four quarters of the board. However I forgot to Raise the Banners on my two home objectives, so I'll have to remember to do that next turn.
Death Guard turn 1
That's a terrifying start from the Orks, and I'm already on the back foot. But when 120 attacks can't finish a unit of five Plague Marines, you know you're in with a shot!
So I try to stick to the plan. The lone Plague Champ spends two CP to fall back through the Orks, then the Rhino team gets out and heads for combat as the vehicles break right and move forward.
I imagine that the Champ crawls out from under a huge pile of Orks, who are all furiously punching each other, and dusts himself down whilst they continue to scrap.
The Helbrute takes cover but also draws a bead on the Rukkatrukk (a word I cannot say often enough!), giving the Plague team on the left a bit of fire support.
The Psychic phase goes as well as I could hope. Gift of Contagion drops the Ork mass to T3, then Plague Wind kills four of them, plus another from the Plaguecaster's toxic fallout. And then it's bolter time!
Once the Plagueburst Crawler rolls boxcars for its muck spreaders, the writing's on the wall for the Boyz. Sure enough, although I've lined the Knife Marines up for a charge, there's shortly nothing left for them to run at. Between the two vehicles and the characters, all 25 Boyz cark it - even the Tallyman's pistol takes one out. Nothing left for a Green Tide! Good.
Not much else going on, though - the Helbrute misses his shots, although the Plague Marines scrape the Rukkatrukk's already rugged paintwork, and the plague mortar takes a very disappointing single wound off the Flash Gitz, who I know can cause me problems.
Ork turn 2
I start the turn with a tasty 15 VPs for controlling three objectives (more than Kraken). The Deff Dread moves to the corner of the ruins ahead of it, intent on charging the Helbrute. The Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy roars towards the Plague Marines on my far right.
Once again, one of the Smasha Guns can't see anything to shoot at, so trundles forwards slightly to allow it to shoot next turn. The Gretchin and smaller unit of Boys belatedly remember that Bludteef had ordered them to stick some big flags in the ground saying "Bludteed woz 'ere".
I'm tempted to Da Jump the next unit of Boyz to the back lines, but I've had another thought: right now the Flash Gitz can only see the Plagueburst Crawler, however if they are Jumped across to the other gantry then they could see the unit of close combat Plague Marines. The power goes off successfully (leaving one of them within 6" of Kaptin Joolfang , so they'll still get his reroll ones aura), and the Flash Gitz proceed to drop the entire unit of marines. Very effective!
The Smasha Gun also manages to take four wounds off the Plagueburst Crawler: I'd just like to bracket it if I can't do anything else.
The Squigbuggy makes its charge into the Plague Marines, but, in a fit of over-enthusiasm, the Deff Dread tries to run straight through the ruins and bounces off the surprisingly sturdy walls.
I score 3 VPs for holding my Priority Objective, 2VPs for raising a couple of banners, and another 2VPs for being in three table quarters. I'm building up quite the lead here, but I need to keep the pressure up to prevent the Death Guard cutting through my army with the Blightlords.
Death Guard turn 2
Got to keep moving forwards! So the vehicles droop steadily towards the centre, and the Terminators arrive. The Helbrute sneaks the tiniest amount forward so it can just see the Deff Dred but still has cover from those Smasha Guns, and the Tallyman goes to camp on my backline with his Plague Champion chum.
The Psychic phase is nothing special - I do spend a CP to swap Plague Wind for Miasma, and get that on the Blightlords, but my Smite gets shut down. I get the CP back from the Tallyman, though, so it feels like progess!
Shooting goes well. With a combo of Virulent Rounds and Relentless Volleys, the Blightlords shoot the Flash Gitz to pieces. But this is maybe a mistake - I could have shot up the Boyz ahead and maybe charged the Gitz, maximised the forward movement. Ah well, their demise is still a win. Also a win is the Helbrute, who slams the Deff Dred with a Krak missile and finishes it off with heavy bolters. That extra damage is very handy!
In the backline, the Plague Marines slowly pull the wheels off the Rukkatrukk, losing another of their number to its sawblades. It's a stalemate there, really, which could go either way, neither of the combatants are properly tooled to kill the other, but I suspect the extra shooting output from the buggy will tell in the end.
Ork turn 3
I score 10VPs at the start of the turn for holding my two home objectives. More shuffling forwards of the Smasha Gunz at the back to try to improve my LoS, but the big decision is to push forwards with Bludteef and the 15-strong Boyz mob towards the Blightlords.
In the psychic phase, the 10-stong Boyz mob are Da Jumped across the Kraken's Priority objective.
The Squigbuggy kills a couple of Plague Marines in the shooting phase, and between them Joolfang and the Smasha Gunz tickle a couple more wounds off the PBC.
I'm holding one Priority Objective at the end of the turn, but it's Kraken's not my own. Add that to another full 3VPs for Engage on All Fronts and two more from the Banners and I'm building up a good lead. Is it enough?
Death Guard turn 3
Another wave of Orks! Gah. The Helbrute and Rhino head for these latest interlopers, the Crawler crawls towards the Gretchin, and the Lord and Plaguecaster square up to Bludtoof and his Boyz.
As you'd expect, the psychic phase isn't kind to the Orks. The Plaguecaster fails to cast Miasma, but his Smite takes out the towering Ork Warboss. It might sound unfair, but bluntly he's just another Ork to the Death Guard, and doesn't deserve special duelling.
Then the shooting starts up again, and between them, the Rhino and Helbrute kill off half the Boyz as the Crawler and HQs pick off a few of the mob in the middle. With a reroll, the Helbrute makes a charge into combat and starts throwing Orks about, leaving just one. Can the Rhino finish him?
No, it's a Rhino. The last wretched Ork Boy keeps the priority objective out of my grubby mitts, drat him! Elsewhere, the Chaos Lord takes an unhealthy bite out of the Boyz mob, but the Plaguecaster doesn't make it in to help him. The Crawler charges into the Gretchin (neither side achieve anything, but they'll have to run or get sprayed later) and the Rukkatrukk bumps off another Plague Marine, leaving both sides on a single wound!
Orks Turn 4
I'm rapidly running out of troops here, so I need to score as many VPs as possible to maintain my lead. I do start off with the full 15 VPs for Primaries however, thanks to the Nob surviving on Kraken's Priority Objective and the Boyz in the middle holding the centre.
The two Mek Gunz crawl forwards to make sure that both are within 3" of the objective and stop the PBC disputing it
In the centre, Kaptin Joolfang screams at the Boyz to fall back from combat so he can dispatch the Terminator Lord.
He can't - squeaks another wound through, but that Warlord trait has been a lifesaver!
 |
| 'Ere! We're goin'! |
The Squigbuggy does finally do for the last Plague Marine and at the end of the turn I again score 3VPs for Engage on All Fronts, 2 for Raise the Banners and 3VPs for holding Kraken's home objective.
Death Guard Turn 4
Gretchin popping out of the woodwork aren't going to slow me down here. The remnants of my army (all the important bits) are all nicely in range, so I can really get some work done now.
And indeed I do - using my single command point for Fire Frenzy on the Helbrute, I time its bursts of fire to take out first the remaining Ork in the building, then (after the Rhino shot previously) the Gretchin, and even have spare shots to throw into the Boyz in the middle! With this, the shots from the Plagueburst Crawler and the Lord's Melta, Joolfang, the Weirdboy and the rest of the Boyz are all swept away in a tide of goo.
Finally, I'm in a good place. But the Orks aren't done yet, and there's only a single turn to score primaries left now, so I suspect it's too little too late. But we'll see!
Orks Turn 5
Although I'm on two objectives at the start of the turn, I can only score 5VP as I've maxed out on Primaries. That's a nice problem to have. What I'm not maxed out on is bodies on the ground. If either the Smasha Gunz can kill the PBC (unlikely), or the Squigbuggy the Helbrute, that will deny 5VPs to Kraken. However, predictably, neither can get through the disgusting resilience of the Death Guard.
Death Guard Turn 5
So my last scores come down to the Helbrute again, which has been my MVP, as it blows up the Rukkatrukk with a final fire frenzy!
Good killing, there - and all three of my While We Stand We Fight guys have made it through to the end. But will that, plus the Thinning of Their Ranks, be enough to bridge the gulf between our scores?
Final score:
Death Guard
Primaries: 30
Priority targets: 12
Thin their ranks: 7
While we stand we fight: 15
Orks
Primaries: 45
Priority targets: 14
Engage on all fronts: 11
Raise the banners high: 8
Victory to the Orks: 78-64
Locker Room
Aw - too many Orks spoiled my broth, there! Being so few, I really couldn't contest objectives as I needed too. Other than by massacring everything in reach, which I certainly managed!
That was exciting. I was always going to score well at the start of the game; luckily I managed to stop you scoring Primaries in turns 3 and 4 (you held one objective at the start of turn 3 and none at the start of turn 4) by killing your Troops, so I'd pinpoint my turn 3 as the critical point. Given you scored 40 points in turn 5 and we scored pretty similarly on Secondaries (you pipped me by one point in fact 34:33), if you'd managed a to hold a couple more objectives earlier it could have turned the game.
Good match, and I felt I had a handle on the Plague Marines there. Taking an unfamiliar army is always a bit of an uphill struggle, but I don't think I did anything severely wrong in the game. Keeping the Knife Marines in the tank would have been better with hindsight, but I couldn't rely on all the bolters to kill the Boyz mob and needed redundancy. And maybe charging the Blightlords into the Flash Gitz, as mentioned before, but I don't know that it would have changed their eventual fate!
I agree that both of those things were important, but it's hard to say that they lost you the game. I guess it's possible that with the volume of fire the Blightlords can kick out, they might have wiped out the 15-strong Boyz mob, then I'd not have had Troops to hold the central objective the following turn, so perhaps that was more important. Overall though, I agree that you definitely handled the army well - you remembered a couple of stratagems that I hadn't thought of.
I suppose the Rhino could also have emerged from reserves to hit the enemy's distant back line. But it actually did pretty well as a sort of ersatz Marine squad - the hitting power of twin combi-bolters is pretty handy for hoovering up Orks!
I think the Rhino did pretty well where it was. The decisive thing was my continued (successful) use of Da Jump. We talked afterwards that it does feel overpowered, especially when it's coupled with Ere We Go and the Evil Sunz +1 to charge, which makes it very likely (I make it a 72% chance in fact) that the charge will succeed. I would be happy to see a nerf on that one come along in due course, but I'm equally happy to make use of it whilst it's still there...
Yeah, maybe. And given that Orks can also put anything into deep strike with a strat already, you could say it's almost redundant, even if it's very flavourful. Turning it into Warptime would be more like it, if a bit dull.
Anyway, good game! The loss didn't sting, and it's good to see Bludteef break his losing streak!
Thanks. I'm going to keep building up the Orks (I've got my eye on a few vehicles on eBay) - Bludteef will return!
Nice game. Looked like some good play on both sides there.
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