New Lease of Unlife: Orks vs Chaos Space Marines

 

Pootle here in bold! Kraken (in plain text tonight) hosted me last time in a cracking first outing in tenth (see the write-up here), so tonight I'm returning the favour. Kraken chose to try out Chaos Space Marines and I want to give my Orks another spin (I had a trial game with them against my son's Necrons recently and that was brutal). 

Pretty Fly for a Blight Guy

The new Chaos rules look hilarious - the opportunity to hurt yourself for short-term gains always appeals to me. So my main choice for today is that all units will always make a Dark Pact as often as they possibly can!

Everybody gets the Mark of Nurgle for two reasons. Firstly, I'm borrowing Pootle's lovely Purge models, even throwing in some Plague Marines, so that Gormenghastly can sample the latest ruleset. The erstwhile Terminator Sorcerer is equipped with the all-new Orbs of Unlife, which he can throw around with continual abandon throughout the game. Fun!

Secondly, it's less rules to learn. Dark Pacts synergise with the Mark of Nurgle to make your shooting even shootier (trigger Sustained Hits on 5+), and I reckon I can remember that well enough that it will stick. This goes even better with the Helbrute, who doubles down on all Dark Pacts nearby to give both bonuses, which then go off on 5+ for Nurgle marks. Tasty!

It's a small army I'm bringing, a couple of characters, a couple of Marine units, some cultists, a Rhino and a Helbrute, plus a terminator bodyguard for the Sorcerer. Small enough to get my head round all the abilities, although possibly also small enough to make a quick amuse bouche for the Orks...

Chaos Space Marine Slaves to Darkness Detachment

• Terminator Sorcerer with Combi-weapon and Force Staff, Warlord, Orbs of Unlife, leading the Terminators
• Exalted Champion with his usual gear, leading the Legionaries
• 5 Chaos Terminators with Combi-Bolters and Accursed Weapons, one with a Heavy Flamer
• 5 Legionaires with Bolters and Pistols, one has a Chain Cannon, the leader has twin Accursed Weapons
• 5 Plague Marines with Plague Bolters and Knives, one has a Spewer, one has a Blight Launcher, the Champion has a Heavy Plague Weapon
• 10 Cultists with Autoguns, Heavy Stubber and Grenade Launcher
• 5 Raptors, two with Plasma Guns
• Chaos Rhino with Combi-bolter and Havoc Launcher
• Helbrute with Twin Lascannon and Hammer

Ork Army

Good to get Bludteef back out in the field for a new edition! He's not clad in Mega Armour this time, but I do give him my old favourite Supa-Cybork Body (which gives him a handy 4+++ this edition). He'll lead a unit of Boyz in a Trukk and there's another unit of Boyz footslogging along behind.

A second Trukk will be stuffed with a Big Mek in Mega Armour leading 3 Meganobz. 

Some potential fire support will come from a unit of Flash Gits (a personal favourite from first edition) and Lootas. Then some fast stuff to make loud noises and zoom around the battlefield and a unit of Gretchin to sit on my home objective completes the army.

When I played my son recently, I confirmed that the Waaagh (which allows all units to advance-and-charge, gives them a 5+ invulnerable save and +1 to both attacks and strength) makes Orks hit like a train in the turn you declare it. The only interesting wrinkle in tenth edition is that you have to declare the Waaagh at the start of the battle round, not the start of the Ork turn. This means that if I don’t get first turn then Kraken could in theory fall back after I declare it to mitigate the potential hammer blow. But that way of thinking isn’t very Orky, or, for that matter, Krakeny, so I shan’t worry about that today.

Orks: Waaagh! Detachment:

• Warboss with Combi-weapon, Power Klaw, Attack Squig and Supa-Cybork Body enhancement
• Big Mek in Mega Armour with Grot Oiler, Kustom Force Field, Kustom Mega-Blasta and Power Klaw
• 10 Boyz with Sluggas and Choppas (Boss Nob with Power Klaw)
• 10 Boyz with Sluggas and Choppas (Boss Nob with Power Klaw)
• Trukk 
• Trukk
• 5 Flash Gitz
• Gretchin (10 plus 1 Runtherd)
• Kustom Boosta Blasta
• Lootas (4 plus 1 Spanner with Kustom Mega Blasta)
• 3 Meganobz with Power Klaw and Kombi-Weapon
• Megatrakk Scrapjet
• 3 Warbikers (Boss Nob with Power Klaw)

1,000 Points

Terrain and Mission

We're playing Leviathan, and the draw has given us this:

So a battle over the midground that will tighten up towards the end game. Our home objectives aren't so important today, which could be interesting, and all objectives are sticky, making my Cultists special ability worthless. Hurrah!

We screw up several rules throughout the match (it was late, we were drunk and tired), starting with not nominating the Omega and Alpha objectives correctly before the game. Instead, we randomised it just after turn one, and that worked fine.

Neither of us take fixed missions - we're both going to chance it.

Deployment

My units huddle in the safety of the industrial complex, relatively central but extending towards the north. 

The Terminators are in the teleportarium, the Raptors are having tea in a shed down south by themselves. 

I stick the Trukk with the Mega Nobz on my right flank, with the Lootas hiding behind the rusty oil tanks (a very recent piece of scenery designed, built and mostly painted by my ten year old son). I have a potential Kunnin' Plan to try with these two. The Kustom Boosta Blasta accompanies them on the very far right of my lines.

In the centre, the Gretchin dig holes behind my home objective, with the Flash Gitz just in front of it. The Boyz on foot and the Scrapjet take the left and right side of this objective.

My left flank is held by the Warbikers and a Trukk full of Bludteef and his Boyz.

Orks Turn 1 

I win the roll-off for first turn and start moving. We actually got to the end of my movement before we remembered that we needed to randomly generate one of the objectives to be the Alpha (which disappears at the start of round 4) and one to be the Omega (which will be the only objective left in round 5). Given that my plan was to move both flanks forward, knowing that the southernmost objective (on the hill) is the Alpha and the northernmost is the Omega wouldn't have changed my plans at all.

The secondaries I draw are Capture Enemy Outpost (ha!) and Overwhelming Force (kill units on an objective). The Warbikers drive underneath the rocky outcrops of the hill and hope something unusually good happens in the Ork shooting phase, however Kraken plays the Dark Obscuration stratagem and, as the Cultists are Nurgle-marked, I can't shoot them at all! Instead they unload their guns into the Raptors and manage to kill one of them.

Bludteef's Trukk drives up onto the hill to claim the Alpha objective. Meanwhile, the Meganobz disembark from the Trukk and jog forwards onto the Omega objective. They're joined by the Kustom Boosta Blasta, who unloads its Rivet Kannon into the Helbrute. I don't cause any damage but it will suffer a -1 to hit next turn after being hit by the rivets, which isn't too shabby.

Meanwhile, the Lootas get into the Trukk recently vacated by the Meganobz and it scoots forwards a little to enable everyone to be able to see the enemy Helbrute.

The Megatrakk Scrapjet and the Lootas all aim (and I use the word loosely) at the Helbrute as well. I roll a lot of dice but don't cause any damage whatsoever! But I'm sure they all enjoy the loud dakka noises.

At the end of the turn I ditch Capture Enemy Outpost (and gain a CP) but keep Overwhelming Force as I suspect that could yet be handy.

CSM Turn 1

The Cultists form a firing line towards the Warbikers, the Raptors huddle in their corrugated cover, the Helbrute and Rhino break northwards for the Omega objective. 

The next rule I get wrong is bringing in the Terminators early. They shouldn't be available until turn 2, but I can't for the life of me find where this is explicitly stated in the Leviathan game rules (until the following morning where I find it clearly and sensibly written in an obvious place). So they bamf into the midfield. 

Everyone declares Dark Pacts! Even the Rhino, which I guess has some sort of automated daemon-summoning app in the dashboard. With the Helbrute as a central lynchpin, this gives my rather small amount of shooting wings!

The Cultists and Raptors take down a Warbike and badly wound a second, the Rhino and Helbrute savage the Boosta and the Terminators put a fair crimp in the Meganobz, although not enough to actually kill one. I missed a few more rules with them, Terminators give themselves extra boosts with Dark Pacts, but I spotted it too late. 

There's a price to pay, of course. The Helbrute manages to pop a blood vessel in all the excitement, and then the Terminators fail their charge despite Warptime rerolls, and the Megatrakk Scrapjet kills one with Overwatch. 

Overall, it's not a bad start, but it does leave me flapping in the breeze in front of the Waaagh rather. 

Orks Turn 2

At the start of the turn I score 10VP for holding the Alpha and Omega objectives. My secondaries this turn are Overwhelming Force (carried over from last turn) and Investigate Signals (requiring me to mess around in the corners of the battlefield: shan't). The Gretchin also manage to gain me a CP (though that's the only time they were paying attention all battle and it doesn't happen again!). As Kraken suspected, Bludteef decides to call the Waaagh! He and his Boyz boil out of the Trukk and line up a 7" charge on the Raptors pretending that they can't be seen in the ruined shack.

The Meganobz can't quite believe they're still alive after the Terminators appeared so stomp forwards to line up a practically-unfailable charge. They're supported by the central unit of Boyz who managed a massive advance roll and don't want to miss out on the action.

The Lootas, Kustom Boosta Blasta and Megatrakk Scrapjet repeat their efforts from the previous turn, making a lot of noise but only scratching a couple of wounds off the Helbrute.

The Meganobz pile into the Terminators and I spend a CP to make their melee hits explode on 5s rather than 6s. The end result is messy: all four remaining Terminators are cut down and even Gormenghastly loses most of his wounds. However, Kraken had played the Eternal Hate strat at the start of the phase, and as a result three of the casualties get to fight on death. My saving throws are atrocious and everyone but the Big Mek is cut down, leaving only the two characters bleeding profusely, but not actually in combat any longer.

I have to say, that fight was glorious! Given that Kraken had failed his charge twice but technically shouldn't have been there at the time, it felt just right to have both units vanish in a melee mulching match.

On my left flank Bludteef makes extremely short work of the Raptors - he needs no help at all from the Boyz, who just cheer him on.

Chasing the Overwhelming Force objective, the Warbikers shoot up the Cultists and then charge the remainder. However their aim in melee is similar to that of their shooting and I leave four of them alive.

Still a good turn overall. I'm quite happy to have traded the Meganobz for the Terminators. My only slight concern is that Bludteef and his unit are quite a long way from the Omega objective - that could be a problem later in the game.

CSM Turn 2

I'm amazed at how many models I've still got, frankly!

The Rhino screeches to a halt and pours chaos marines out onto the Omega Objective, as the Cultists back away from the Warbikers and the Terminator Sorcerer slogs into the midfield, aiming at the Lootaz in their Trukk. 

I just can't get enough Dark Pacts - everybody once again starts selling their souls for extra dakka, and once again, the multipliers pay off. The Boosta Burner is taken apart, then the Sorcerer zaps the Trukk hard enough to blow it up completely!

Alas, this also kills him (I should have used that familiar last time!), but leaves the Lootaz in an awkward place. The Plague Marines mow them down cheerfully. 

I realise that two of these (the ones with the ridiculously oversized homemade weapons) have just technically fallen foul of New Model Syndrome as although they were built and painted in the early 1990s, I'm pretty sure that I've never actually fielded them in a game until today.

Somehow, the Big Mek is still alive, so the Helbrute charges him. And whiffs with his hammer - only a couple of blows land, and the burly lug takes them on his armour, before gouging the dreadnought for a decent couple of hits in revenge! Bah!

Orks Turn 3

I kept hold of Overwhelming Force because I'm certain that the Warbikers can kill the remaining Cultists this turn. Four of them? How hard can that be? Guess what: harder than I'd thought and one of the pesky Cultists does in fact survive the turn. Gaaah!

Cultists are a sleeper hit for me in this edition! 

My second secondary is Deploy Teleport Homers which initially seems problematic as although the Warbikers could do that I need another unit to do nothing in Kraken's deployment zone. 

The Gretchin fail to unearth any more CP in my own deployment zone and I score another 10VP for controlling the Alpha and the central objectives (because of the sticky objectives rule we're playing).

The Flash Gitz move forward to be able to draw a bead on the various units currently claiming the Omega objective. They'll draw some fire themselves next turn, but their guns are perfect marine killers...if they can hit!

In order to achieve the Deploy Teleport Homers objective, the Trukk on my left moves forwards so it's just inside Kraken's deployment zone and then Bludteef and his Boyz move to reembark in it, ready for them to get somewhere more useful in turn 5...I hope!

The Big Mek falls back from the Helbrute and the central mob of Boyz move forward to charge it. 

I also move the Scrapjet so it can shoot at the Helbrute and then charge into the Legionaries on the Omega objective. As it does so it shoots all its rokkits at the Helbrute and one of them gets through and drops it to the floor...and it explodes! With a beautiful bit of symmetry, the explosion kills my Big Mek (matching the exploding Trukk that killed Gormenghastly last turn).

The Boyz therefore decide to charge the Plague Marines, however in addition to losing a couple to the explosion, I lose another four to overwatch and then proceed to whiff the combat a bit (only dropping a couple of the Plague Marines).

The Scrapjet's drill does a little better but there are still a few more bodies left than I'd hoped for. Bludteef had better get over here fast...

CSM Turn 3

With not much left, at least my focus is clear. The Rhino powers off to the middle, where it can move block Bludteef and his Boys as they attempt to get back to the important parts of the battle. The lone Cultist backs away from the Bikers again, confused to still be alive but probably fairly relieved.

My four remaining marines spray a little firepower into the Flash Gitz, inconveniencing one of them, then surround and scrag the Scrapjet. If I can somehow weather the next turns, I reckon I can hold the vital Omega point for some decent points. 

Neither of us opt for Gambits, we know where the good stuff's hidden.

Orks Turn 4

In frustration I ditched Overwhelming Force last turn, which wasn't really clear thinking. The replacements though look good: Area Denial and Bring it Down. Both can be achieved by killing the Rhino in the middle, so Bludteef and his Boyz disembark from the Trukk to take care of it.

I think I was so confident that Bludteef would mash a simple Rhino that, despite having lots of CP now, I didn't think to spend one on Unbridled Carnage to get exploding hits on 5s. The Rhino survives of course...

Meanwhile the Trukk roars over to the Cultist to do what the Warbikers failed to achieve and does manage to do that with ease.

The Warbikers themselves have had to head over to where they can get their guns on the Legionaries on the Omega objective. They do pretty well and, when Kraken plays the Dark Obscuration strat on the Plague Marines so that the Flash Gitz can't target them, I throw their shots into the Legionaries too and wipe them out.

CSM Turn 4

This really is clinging desperately on to life, but nil desperandum! 

The Rhino backs off, keeping hold of the central objective. That's key, because they've just gone up in value - I score 16, bringing me back towards Pootle's lead. If I can hold the Omega objective for just one turn, I reckon I can overtake. 

My secondaries haven't been kind so far (that's why I haven't mentioned them much). It was mostly impossible stuff like trying to get the enemy homeline, breaking through enemy lines, etc. I did pick up 2 points for Bringing Down the Scrapjet last turn, but otherwise I've just been swapping them for command points, most of which have gone on Dark Obscuration. 

(Worth mentioning here that I learned later that, aside from your freebie at the start of each turn, you can get a max of one extra command point per round in Leviathan games, regardless of source. So you can't double down with say, Gretchin and swapped out Secondary cards, for example. That feels like a bit of a shame to me, but certainly a good thing in terms of keeping the game balanced. Yes, I spotted that later too. It didn't make any difference here as the Grots only gave me one CP all game and that was in turn two when I didn't burn any secondaries anyway. Worth being aware of though.)

My last efforts here are to send the Plague Marines to try and wipe out a few more Flash Gitz with charges or shooting. If I manage that, the Warbikers will have to take the objective but can't score it, and I can hopefully charge back and kill them in the last turn. A tall order, but I've had worse.

In the event, though, I kill one Git with the Plague Spewer, fail a rerolled charge and sit there, waiting for the end. 

Orks Turn 5

We roar very quickly through this turn: Bludteef does now dispatch the Rhino and the Flash Gitz mow down the last two Legionaries. That's a tabling and, just, a victory to Bludteef.

Result: Ork Victory, 43 to 38

Locker Room

Smashing stuff despite my dodgy grasp of the rules! Dark Pacts did not disappoint. It's very characterful and pretty powerful too, and I look forward to never not using it. Even though my army wasted away fairly fast, the extra bonuses from shooting really helped to even things out, and I still felt I had a chance until the bitter end.

More please!

Although by turn 4 things were looking ropey for you, there absolutely was a chance you'd survive, particularly becuase I had to rely on Ork shooting to take you off the Omega objective. Fortunately for me those Flash Gitz are now a really pretty good unit, and that's without the further buffs that adding Kaptin Jewelfang (my version of Kaptin Badrukk) would give them.

I've now had three games of tenth edition and all of them have been absolutely brilliant fun. I'm really keen to play more of these Leviathan mission cards: a quick look through them makes quite a few of them feel pretty good (but not something encouraging a particular army build).

More please!