Maelstrork of Waaagh! Orks vs Alpha Legion

Bludteef's Evil Sunz have been fighting on two fronts on Bagot Prime against the Ultramarines and the forces of Nurgle, but unbeknownst to the Orks, there's something fishy going on: today's marines are armoured like the Purge but are actually from the Alpha Legion. Kraken will be piloting the Alphas over Skype whilst I, Pootle, take command of the Orks. We're testing out the new Maelstrom of War rules, but my big question for tonight is simple: can Bludteef actually survive a battle?

Somebody to Legion

Lots of small units, was my thinking for this. Nothing particularly vicious on its own, and in fact nothing terribly powerful even together, but plenty of working parts who don't really need to synergise and could be relied on to do useful work wherever they end up. 

The strongest hitters are the paired Helbrutes (one stock, one with flail and bolters to burn through Ork mobs) and the Havocs (who have cheaper weapons than they could, but still plenty). The Termie Lord can snipe characters or be backstop for a line, and his cheap-as-chips Master of Executioner pal is very much the glass cannon, but not one for a charging warboss to underestimate. 

Some cultists, some spawn, some Raptors and a Rhino with a small squad of Chaos Marines, and that's the lot! 

They may look like Purge, but the Alpha Legion can look like whoever they damn well please

Alpha Legion Battalion Detachment - 1000 points, 5 CPs

• HQ - Chaos Terminator Lord with Viper's Bite, Power Sword and Headhunter Warlord Trait
• HQ - Master of Executions
• Troops - 10 x Chaos Cultists
• Troops - 10 x Chaos Cultists
• Troops - 6 x Chaos Space Marines, Combi-bolter and Chainaxe for the champion, Plasma gunner
• Elites - Helbrute with Power Scourge and Twin Heavy Bolter
• Elites - Helbrute with Multimelta and Fist
• Fast Attack - 5 x Raptors
• Fast Attack - 3 x Chaos Spawn
• Heavy Support - 5 x Havocs, 2 Heavy Bolters, 2 Missile Launchers and a Flamer and Chainsword for the champ
• Dedicated Transport - Rhino, combi-bolter and havoc launcher

Waaagh Bludteef!

Fresh off the painting desk are three Meganobs as well as a bunch more modern Boyz to gradually edge out the ones from the early 90s (slightly bittersweet this: I love the new models and am happy with the paint jobs, but the classic ones have a special place for me). The Meganobz are meant to be really strong, so I'm looking forward to crumping some beaky skulls.

Bludteef leads the army as normal, combining Brutal But Kunnin' (reroll hits in combat and add one to damage on the charge) with Da Biggest Boss (1 CP to give an extra wound and attack as well as a 4+ invuln save). Rather than the special claw relic, today he's going with a Cybork Body (5+++) reflecting the continual rebuilds he has had over the years.

The Deff Dread is big and impressive and made fairly nippy with Orkymatic Pistons for a pre-game CP (+3" move on top of the +1" it gets for being Evil Sunz). I've magnetised this fella to take a couple of guns, but I can't work out why I'd ever do this given its lousy BS.

A couple of Mek Guns for shooty support (one Traktor Kannon to ignore the Alpha's -1 to hit and one Smasha Gun because they're awesome) and a Trukk (eBay rescue and needing a little more dirt but a prefectly serviceable paint job for now) and two mobs of Grots to screen the Guns, and lastly a Weirdboy with the almost obligatory Da Jump and (because he's a Warphead for a CP) Warpath as well.

Evil Sunz Battalion - 999 Points, 3CP

• HQ - Warboss with Kustom Shoota, Power Klaw, Attack Squig (which I never, ever remember to use), Relic: Super Cybork Body, Warlord trait: Brutal But Kunnin', Da Biggest Boss
• HQ - Weirboy Warphead with Da Jump and Warpath
• Troops - 21 Boyz with Slugga & Choppa (2 with Tankbusta Bombs) plus Nob with Choppa and Killsaw
• Troops - 9 Boyz with Slugga & Choppa  (1 with Tankbusta Bombs) plus Nob with Choppa and Power Klaw
• Troops - 9 Boyz with Slugga & Choppa  (1 with Tankbusta Bombs) plus Nob with Choppa and Big Choppa
• Troops - 10 Gretchin
• Troops - 10 Gretchin
• Elites - 3 Meganobz with 2 Killsaws
• Heavy Support - Deff Dread with 2 Dread Klaws & 2 Dread Saws plus Kustom Job: Orkymatic Pistons
• Heavy Support - Mek Gun - Traktor Kannon
• Heavy Support - Mek Gun - Smasha Gun
• Dedicated Transport - Trukk

Mission and Terrain

We are having a crack at the new Maelstrom of War rules from White Dwarf. Reborn to greatness from the last edition, or still a mishmash of frustration? We shall see!

Alpha Objectives:

• Holding the Line - based on defence of your territory and objectives
• Brought Low - mostly about killing units
• Eradication - mostly about killing characters, monsters and vehicles

Ork Objectives:

• Raid - based on running forward and killing things in my opponents half of the table and stealing their objectives; sounds pretty Orky
• Territorial Seizure - also based on running forward into my opponents half of the table
• Eradication - as above

Pootle is hosting and providing a spiffing ruined desert battlefield!

Deployment

We rolled up the Search & Destroy deployment maps: I won the roll-off and picked the South East corner with most of the ruined cathedral, giving Kraken the hill and tower of ex-margarine pots.

We're both being incredibly cagey. I've got an excuse, I'm Alpha Legion! 

Hugging the edges and middle of my deployment, I keep everything behind hills or superstructures. No point rushing out there, it'll just encourage the Orks to come and get me, and I don't even know if it'll be worth it until I know the objectives. 

The Havocs take the tower at the back, where they have reasonable lines of sight to either side, and I have strike teams to either flank ready to react to whatever I might need to do. 

My excuse for caginess is having been mostly shot off the table before I got to move when I played against Ultramarines a couple of months ago - since then I've tended to deploy as if I'm going to go second. I hide behind the obscuring ruined cathedral. I'm slightly torn because the two objectives I am likely to be directed to grab are the two are A and B on the map below; B, in particular, is in a much more open part of the battlefield. 

Nevertheless, I start the Meganobz, Bludteef and the Trukk on my right flank. I'm not too worried about being some way from the important objectives, as I plan to disembark the Boyz from the Trukk and jump my two hardest units in and zoom over to where they're needed. I've also always got Da Jump to grab objectives if needed.

I get first turn, just after hearing a careful explanation of why this is a disadvantage under these rules!

Many of the objectives are determined at the end of the battle round. This means that whoever goes second gets a chance to either achieve their own objectives unhindered, or foil their opponents' objectives. Of course, the person going first still knows what objectives the other player has to achieve later on so can do things to scupper them, but it still feels like it's tipped in favour of going second. We shall see!

Alpha Legion Turn 1

Crippling Strike (kill a monster or vehicle)

Overwhelm (hold more objectives)

Expunge the Psyker (kill a psyker)

Well, that's going to be a quiet turn! I can't really do much of that. Running out early on to objectives is a ticket to an early grave against Orks, and even if I commit to it I can't get more than one or two that he'll fairly easily be able to take back off me. So I decide to stick to good old fashioned cowardice, and more or less just shuffle about in the deployment zone. 

The Rhino breaks for cover behind the plasma tower, and I push outwards a little on the other flank with Cultists (to stop one of Pootle's objectives, see below). 

Then I decide to leave a big gap in the back of my deployment zone to potentially tempt Pootle into throwing stuff into it, but otherwise the only action is to stick the Termie Lord back into the teleporter with Renascent Infiltration and plink a lone wound off the Traktor Gun with the Rhino's small arms. 

Ork Turn 1

Break Their Will (cause 3 or more models to leave through Morale)

Cut the Head from the Serpent (kill a character)

Expelled (2 or more quarters of the field have no enemy units wholly within)

I won't be able to kill a character this turn. I do consider Da Jumping a unit of Boyz to kill the Cultists in the backfield, but I think that the Alphas can stop that with the Scrambled Coordinates strat (pushing deep strikers out to 12" and therefore unable to charge); in fact Kraken does tell me that that only works in the movement phase, but I decide that I too will be careful this turn as I'm wary about running piecemeal into all those guns.

The Deff Dread inches forwards to the edge of the cathedral ruin, careful to stay out of sight even if the Multimelta Helbrute runs over the hill.

As I'd planned, the Boyz jump out of the Trukk and move towards the centre of the battlefield, and the Meganobz and Bludteef take their place. The Trukk then roars forwards and executes a perfect handbrake turn in order to stay out of sight of most of Kraken's guns behind the central ruins.

I'm wary of the Terminator Lord back up in the teleporter. His snazzy relic Bolter is more than capable of killing my Weirdboy in one shot, so the Ork cowers in the corner of the ruined cathedral and the nearby Gretchin run forwards to push the deep strike denial bubble out so far that there won't any LoS on the Weirdboy.

The only shooting is the Traktor Kannon, but the APC is just too heavy to be pulled around against its will. So no objectives for me either this turn!

Alpha Legion Turn 2

Crippling Blow (knock a vehicle or monster down a bracket)

Hit Them Hard (destroy two units)

Coordinated Strike (destroy something in a single phase using damage from two or more units)

Well, the objectives are telling me to nail that Trukk, so nail it I shall. 

Dropping the Termie Lord back in by the Scourge Helbrute, and leaving a squad of Chaos Marines in the plasma tower, I prepare to light up the ramshackle wagon with everything I can. 

At the same time, I stay carefully out of sight on the other flank, as well as leaving that tempting hole back there for the enemy. The Cultist and Raptors flood the centre, which I'm aware from Pootle's objectives that I need to block. 

Shooting goes pretty well - between them, the Lord, Helbrute, Marines (with VotLW) and Rhino knock the Trukk down to a single wound. Then I charge it with the Raptors (which annoying uses up a reroll), and they finish it off. Amazingly, this kills all three Meganobs in the blast! 

I laughingly said to Kraken "Watch me roll four ones now", but when I saw three of them winking back at me I was...a little disappointed! Still, at least Bludteef is still alive.

Rotten luck, but also a massive relief. 

I remember hearing someone say that when freak dice rolls let you down, remember that bad luck for one player is good luck for the other, so it's important to celebrate that and feel good for your opponent.

Two objectives scored for me, then, Crippling Blow and Hit Them Hard, but mostly down to luck!

Ork Turn 2

Area Denial (no enemy within 6" of the middle)

Storm the Line (hold objective A on the map)

Break Their Will

I need to put losing the Meganobz behind me, and quickly. The plan is to hit the Alphas hard across the whole line and give Kraken too many options to shoot at. The centre of the plan is Bludteef; he was meant to follow up the Meganobz and counterpunch whatever they ran into. Now he'll have to do all the heavy lifting - hopefully his Cybork Body will keep him alive while he does it. He can advance and charge (as can Boyz within 6") so he darts towards the Lord and Helbrute.

The two ten-strong Boyz mobs also advance (in the 40k running sense), one towards the Raptors, the other backing up Bludteef by heading towards the Cultists and Marines on the plasma reactor.

Meanwhile, the Deff Dread breaks cover on the right, hoping he can run in on the Spawn next turn and give Kraken a choice of who to point a Multimelta at: the Dread or Bludteef.

In the Psychic phase, the Weirdboy Da Jumps the large unit of Boyz to line up next to the Havocs. The new 9th Ed rules explicitly allow you to get closer to units who are high up on gantries - the Boyz are 9" away in a straight line, but it would only be a 7" charge. In fact they're pushed back to a 8" charge by the presence of the Helbrute the other side of the tower, but with the Evil Sunz's +1 to charge plus Orky rerolls I'm confident I can get these Boyz in and mash the Havocs, depriving Kraken of valuable fire support. They do lose seven of their number from the Alpha strat Ambush, allowing the Havocs to fire as normal when reinforcements arrive (we later realise that this should only be played in the movement phase so Da Jump is immune to this).

For his second psychic power, the Warphead Smites the Raptors and pops three of their heads. 

Shooting is simple: the Traktor Kannon autohits the Rhino again, but again rolls a 1 to wound. However the Smasha Gun manages to put four wounds onto the Helbrute and a lucky shot from Bludteef's Kustom Shoota plinks another wound off as well.

Bludteef and the two smaller units of Boyz easily make their charges, but the other Boyz mob are disoriented from their teleport and fail their charge, even with an Orky reroll. Gulp: now they're staring down a lot of guns. 

The Boyz kill the two remaining Raptors with ease and four of the Marines on the plasma silo, however they only drop two of the Cultists (I hadn't wanted to put too many attacks into them as they could kill them all, and one of my objectives is Break Their Will, so I wanted casualties from morale instead). This does mean that Kraken still has troops within 6" of the centre of the battlefield so I won't achieve Area Denial either.

The main fight is Bludteef vs the Helbrute and Lord. Both opponents are pretty scary in combat, but because the Helbrute only has three wounds left and my Power Klaw causes D3+1 wounds on the charge, I only really need one to get through to kill it. In the end, Bludteef squishes the enemy Warlord fairly easily (Kraken had spent all his CP so none left to reroll his invuln save), but manages to leave the Helbrute alive on 1 wound. In response the Helbrute flails at the Ork and reduces him to a solitary wound as well.

So I've killed quite a few assets, but Bludteef's life is hanging by a thread and there's a (still substantial) unit of Boyz dancing in front of the Havocs.

Alpha Legion Turn 3

Coordinated Strike (as above)

Enemy Repulsed (no unengaged enemy units in my deployment zone)

Cut the Head from the Serpent (as above)

There's one big fat snake right next to me there, and he's fighting an angry Helbrute. That'll do!

The Havocs move down a bit to shorten a potential charge, and the Fist Helbrute moves to back them, leaving the Spawn and Cultists hanging back a bit for counter charge potential. The Cultists pull a Feigned Retreat, firing rather ineffectually as they do so, and the Chaos Champion has to retreat to let them shoot. 

The Rhino picks off a few Gretchin, then the Havocs have a rotten turn of shooting, managing to kill a mere four Orks with all their firepower. Worse, the Helbrute misses all six shots on Bludteef! That's a mess, I was hoping to be able to charge it into the Boyz beyond. 

Ah well, the Master of Executions gets a chance to shine, and bellies into the Warboss to temporarily behead him again. The other Helbrute charges the big Boyz mob, but the Havocs don't reach to help, and the big lug only powders a lone ork, taking six wounds in return. At least it managed to take 5 off the Deff Dread with its Multimelta on the way in, but all the same - I'm getting a bit thin on the ground here! Still scoring though, and there's pressure on Pootle to pour more troops into my deployment zone to stop me getting more. 

I think the Helbrute failing to shoot down Bludteef was critical and very unlucky - if both the 'Brute and the Master of Executions had been free to charge my other assets I could easily have lost both smaller units of Boyz.

Ork Turn 3

Hit them Hard

Area Denial

Crushing Strike (kill something with a vehicle or monster)

I draw Area Denial again, but this time those Cultists aren't going to stop me. I need to kill two units to achieve Hit them Hard, but with a solitary Champion on the plasma silo and the Helbrute on one wound, I'm hopeful I can do this: in addition, if the Smasha Gun does the honours then I'll achieve Crushing Strike too.

The two smaller Boyz mobs move to engage the Master of Possession and Cultists respectively, with the Weirdboy following along towards the Master of Possession. He Smites the remaining Marine Champion and then Da Jumps a unit of Gretchin into the back corner of the field to deny Kraken the Enemy Repulsed objective.

The Deff Dread moves over the cactus field and eyes up a 10" charge on the Spawn.

In the shooting phase, the Traktor Kannon once again fails to wound the Rhino (I'm beginning to wonder if the Grots remembered to turn the thing on - they're probably just turning towards the enemy and shouting "Bang!") and between the Smasha Gun and some Tankbusta Bombs from the Boyz, the Helbrute's last wound is removed (I can't remember which unit did it, though I do remember a discussion about a silly rule that means the Smasha Gun couldn't target the Master of Executions because there's a (hidden) unit of Cultists closer to it - Kraken was quite willing to let me shoot the MoE and was not impressed by another silly rule).

One of the Boyz mobs (joined by the Warphead on a speculative long-bomb charge) run at the Master of Executions and execute him in short order, the other smaller Boyz mob carve up the Cultists, and the remainder of the large mob drag down the Multimelta-toting Helbrute.

For 2CP (which might have cost more due to the Hydra's Wail played at the start of the turn, but didn't) I also play Ramming Speed on the Deff Dread, which means I can charge with 3D6 (and cause D3 mortal wounds on a 2+ on arrival), making the 10" (rerollable) charge into the Spawn a lot easier. Two of the slavering beasts get carved up into tiny pieces, and that caps off a second strong turn. As long as nothing funny happens now I should be OK, though a lot could depend on the objectives draw of course.

Alpha Legion Turn 4

Tear Down Their Heroes (kill the enemy unit with the current highest Power Value)

Never Give In (hold Objective A or B on the map)

The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall (kill a vehicle or Monster)

That's some very doable objectives! I get lucky with my rolls, getting multiple identical results that I can't do on the Eradication table, meaning I get to pick things I can do instead. If I can kill the Deff Dread, mop up the rest of the big Boyz mob and hang on to objective B with the Rhino, that'll be a clean sweep. 

The Rhino duly rides and parks, then shoots off a couple of the big mob from a distance. The Havocs get Veterans going, then split their fire, killing more boys but sadly bouncing their Krak missiles off the Dred's armour, then they charge in and manage to massacre the rest of the Orks with aplomb. That's their MVP trophy in the bag for later!

Sadly, my cultists embarrass themselves against the Gretchin, shooting a couple before failing the charge. The Gretchin don't even run away, they're so unimpressed!

Ork Turn 4

Hit Them Hard
Area Denial
Dominate (have unengaged units in two or more quarters)

I draw Area Denial for the third turn in a row and get to pick Hit Them Hard again (after rolling an objective to kill an enemy psyker). Unfortunately for Kraken, not only do these objectives look achievable as well, but I can stop him achieving Never Give In by Da Jumping a unit of Boyz back to charge into the Rhino.

The Deff Dread charges across to finish off the last Spawn.

The Gretchin pepper the remaining Cultists with shot and then charge them! This doesn't go well and both units are reduced to a handful as they slap each other.

The Traktor Kannon ONCE MORE fails to wound the Rhino, but the Smasha Gun makes up for it (with some Dakka Dakka Dakkas) and lifts the thing fifty metres into the air before letting it crunch down in a splintered wreck.

Look! I painted the underneath of the Rhino!

Turn 5 (both)

Legion: Hit Them Hard, Break Their Will, Cut the Head from the Serpent

Orks: Dominate, Take and Hold (hold either objective 1 or B on the map, but this might be a bit of a misprint - we think it should be one of A or B as it's from the Territorial Seizure category), Driving Rush (get one unengaged unit into the enemy's deployment)

For my part, I sell the last of my wretched lives dearly! The Havocs take another unit of Boyz with them as they go, but the Cultists get shivved by pistol fire from the Gretchin! No final scores for me, and the Orks very firmly ascendant!

Result: Ork Victory, 46-26

Locker Room

Hats off to Pootle for a solid win and some canny generalship, as ever!

My broad impressions of the new Maelstrom are that it's okay, but that I prefer the simplicity of the Primary Objective stuff. This was kind of fun, and I'm not complaining about the objectives. They're a good mix of tricky and interesting, plus plenty of opportunities to change what you get with strats or rerolls, so I never felt stuck for things to score. Also nice that there's much less emphasis on objective holding, so you're free to dash about and try other approaches instead. 

It does feel slightly like fixing a problem that isn't broken. I played a lot more Maelstrom in 8th than Eternal War because it was fun, and I liked the deckbuilding in Schemes of War to remove some of the more random objectives. But the way that Eternal War works in 9th now is really good. I am also not convinced of the asymmetry that definitely gives an advantage to the player going second. Even though this didn't come up much, there were at least two occasions when I could stop Kraken scoring his objective without him being able to do anything about it, for example Da Jumping a unit of Gretchin into his deployment zone - if Kraken had the second turn, he could have simply charged them with Cultists and I wouldn't have achieved it.

It felt slow and cumbersome having to roll on tables and then ponder how you would adapt your strategy on the fly, though. I'm also not quite sure that the current setup works, laying out the objectives before you know which side you're on but after you've committed to which objective types you're after. That feels confused, I reckon either picking sides and then laying objectives, or laying objectives and then picking objective types both plays to the strengths of the game better. 

I think Maelstrom is worth having as it leads to a totally different kind of game, but if it's just a question of getting bored of the Eternal War missions, it's quite fun to come up with tailored versions of the narrative missions (for example this one).

Following on from the Da Jump reference above, we discussed after the game (again) that this power really does seem too powerful, particularly when things like the Ambush strat technically can't be used against it. The Orks do need some way of boosting their mobility, but it gives them an exceptionally powerful way of leaping around and scoring objectives. Speaking as an Ork player who's used it a lot, I'd vote for some kind of balancing (not removal though!) when their Codex comes out.

Having it cast on an 8 rather than a seven would seem fair to me. It'd be on a par with Warptime then, a similarly powerful move-and-charge power that feels slightly better balanced.

On another note, I must admit, I got in a right grump during the game over 9th Ed cover mechanics (apologies, Pootle!), which allow you to cherry pick which models from a unit take the saves. So if half the unit is in the open but nearer the attacker, the ones at the back and still in cover can choose to get shot first. I know that's RAW, but it really annoyed me to discover that the rules had gone backwards (as I see it) here. I much prefer the 8th ed style ruling, where the whole unit needs to have cover in order to benefit. Quicker and simpler, with both faster dice rolling and slightly better immersion as the result. 

No need for an apology - just like the weird way Look Out Sir works, when this first came up I was insisting your Marines got a better cover save than you had wanted. In fact, I'd hereby like to award you a title directly the opposite of "That Guy" - perhaps to be known as "This Guy", someone who, to his own disadvantage, tries to argue against the written rules in order to achieve a more realistic outcome.

That got followed up with the wording that means it's somehow easier to deep strike and then charge a unit that's high up on a building! Not that the charge was made, of course, so no harm done. That's 40K for you, though, always something in the rules that feels busted! 

New model syndrome with bells on. Sigh...