Games We Play

Wednesday, 17 April 2024

Weekend at Burnie’s 5 - Day 1: Orks vs Dark Angels


Pootle again, writing up the third game of day 1 at this year's Weekend at Burnies, which was against Simon's Dark Angels. My brain was somewhat frazzled by this point, but at least I'd already got some practice in against a Land Raider Redeemer stuffed full of Aggressors earlier in the day


Waaagh Bludteef!

Same army as my last post obviously: I brought Orks to WaB this year as they're relative easy to play with (central tactic: CHARGE!) and fun to play against (as my opponent will definitely be killing lots of models). I picked a stripped down version of the list I fielded against Winters back in October:

  • Warboss - Warlord with Cybork Body enhancement (4+++ feel no pain), Power Klaw, Kombi-weapon, Attack Squig; he's leading...
  • 10 Nobz - Power Klaws, Ammo Runt; and all eleven of them are riding around in...
  • Trukk with Wreckin' Ball
  • Defkilla Wartrike with Kunnin' but Brutal enhancement (fall back, shoot and charge); he's leading...
  • 6 Warbikers - Nob with Power Klaw
  • 3 Warbikers - Nob with Power Klaw
  • 10 Boyz - Nob with Power Klaw, 9 Boyz with Choppas
  • 10 Boyz - Nob with Power Klaw, 9 Boyz with Choppas
  • 5 Flash Gitz with Ammo Runt
  • Deff Dread
  • Kustom Boosta Blasta
  • Megatrakk Scrapjet
  • Skokkjump Dragsta
  • Mek Gun - Kustom Mega-Kannon
  • Mek Gun - Kustom Mega-Kannon
  • Mek Gun - Kustom Mega-Kannon
1,500 points on the nose



Dark Angels

Although my brain is frazzled, this is a very similar list to the one I lost to earlier today...maybe I can learn something from that? Like avoid the Redeemer's overwatch for one thing!
  • Gravis Captain - warlord; he's leading...
  • 6 Aggressors - Flamestorm gauntlets; they'll all be riding around in a...
  • Land Raider Redeemer
  • Terminator Librarian; he's leading...
  • 5 Terminators - Cyclone Missile Launcher; Power Sword for the Sergeant
  • Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
  • 5 Infernus Marines
  • 5 Intercessors
  • 3 Eliminators - Bolt Sniper Rifles
  • Ballistus Dreadnought
  • Invictor Tactical Warsuit


Check out Simon.hill.94043 on Instagram for more pics of his army.

Mission and deployment

We decide to play the simple Take and Hold mission and pick the rerolls-cost-3CP twist to simplify things there too.

Entirely not to me surprise, Simon puts his Eliminators up on top of the ruin on his right flank, with the Infernus marines below them.


The Intercessors hold his home objective, flanked by the Land Raider (stuffed full of Aggressors).

His left flank is secured by the Ballistus and Invictus Warsuit.


 I'm able to see that Simon has more strength on his left flank, so am happy to reinforce my right to deal with this, particularly because this is where my only bit of LoS-blocking cover is located! The Flash Gits go up on top, with the Trukk, big unit of Bikers and a Mek Gun trying to get as much cover as they can down below. One of the Boyz mobs sits out in the open on the far right.


My centre is held by the Gretchin, a couple of Mek Guns, the other Boyz mob, the Shokkjump Dragsta and the Deff Dredd.


On my left, I put the other two Buggies and the smaller unit of Bikers.

Given the lack of cover, I would really like to go first this time...so naturally Simon wins the roll-off.



Marines: turn 1


Simon isn't inclined to move towards the green horde at all, so he elects to start shooting immediately. The Ballistus targets the Shokkjump Dragsta but Simon fails to wound with one Krak Missile and I manage to make a critical 6+ invulnerable save against one of the lascannon shots so the buggy survives on a single wound. 

Orks: turn 1


On my left flank the Bikers and Kustom Boosta Blasta surge forwards towards the midfield objective, with the Scrapjet just to their right. All three units open fire on the Eliminators up on the ruin ahead of them and, quite against my expectation, kill all three of them in one burst of fire! In my first game I shot far more units against the same target and only caused three wounds! 


In the centre the Boyz mob sprint towards the centre and just manage to get within range of the objective.


The big unit of Bikers (who automatically advance 6" with the Wartrike leading them) push up my right flank, with Trukk grabbing as much cover as it can behind the rocks.


The Flash Gitz stroll along the ruined parapet looking magnificent and ready their weapons (though there's nobody to shoot at right now).


The Mek Guns pop out from behind cover and take aim at the Invictor Warsuit and Ballistus. Once again this game appears to be compensating for poor luck earlier the day and I manage to pop the Invictor open! Two units down from Orky shooting - what is going on?


Marines: turn 2


I declare the Waaagh at the start of the round (giving me a 5++ save this turn, which could be handy). Simon scores only 5VPs for holding his home objective The Land Raider unloads its Aggressor contents.


Now, I've already said that my brain was a little frazzled by this point and it turns out that I stopped taking photos of the game after this turn so I now can't remember whether the Aggressors shot and destroyed the Boyz on the central objective ahead of them or just failed their charge. When I put the map together I thought that it was the former but now I think they did charge the Boyz and (unsurprisingly) killed the lot of them. 


The Infernus marines emerge from the cover of the ruin they were skulking behind and toast a couple of the Bikers in front of them (nobody has any respect for these lovely old lead Warbuggies!)


The Terminators teleport down into my back left corner and shoot up the Mek Gun nearest to them (the Librarian's enhancement of turning a hit roll in the unit into a six stacking nicely with the Sustained Hits 1 ability he also has for the Cyclone missile launcher in the team).


The Terminators then make their 9" charge into the Kustom Boosta Blasta and tear it apart.


Lastly, the Land Raider decides to Tank Shock its way into the Bikers in front of it, causing five wounds (I think) and dropping the unit down to just the Wartrike and Nob as the Ballistus and Land Raider had already reduced the unit significantly in the shooting phase.


Orks: turn 2


At the start of the turn I score 15VPs for holding the left and right midfield objectives and my home one. As noted above, I stopped taking pictures last turn, so I'm just going to confidently report what happened despite not being at all confident in the details!

I wasn't sure how I could deal with the Terminators so decide to just run away from them. On my left, the surviving Biker and Megatrakk Scrapjet shoot up the Infernus Marines (killing all of them I think) and then charge into the Intercessors and Lt in Simon's back field.

The Deff Dredd charges into the Aggressors, alongside the Deffkilla Wartrike (and Nob Biker, who could fall back, shoot and charge thanks to the Wartrike's enhancement) and cause a lot of damage. I don’t quite wipe them out, but it isn’t pretty.

Bludteef and his Nobs clamber out of the Trukk and hit the Land Raider. Hard. It had lost a couple of wounds to the Deffkilla Wartrike last turn, but 40 attacks from the Nobs is enough (just) to destroy it (I was confident enough of this happening that I didn't even spend a CP on making their melee attacks explode on 5s).

Marines: turn 3



Simon only scores his home objective for 5VPs in the command phase. I think Simon fell back and then charged the Wartrike with the Captain and Aggressors and killed it in melee, having had the Ballistus destroy the Deff Dredd in the meantime.

In the backfield, the Intercessors and Lt fall back from the Scrapjet and the Terminators, who'd moved on the lefthand objective shoot the Buggy to pieces.

Orks: turn 3



Only 10VPs for me this turn for holding my home and the righthand midfield objective.

Bludteef (whose mob of Nobz had suffered casualties somehow but I don't remember who from) charge and kill the Captain and Aggressors.

The Biker in the marine back lines tries to kill the Lt but fails and dies to his counterpunch.

Marines: turn 4


10VPs for Simon this turn for holding his home and the lefthand objective. He's running out of assets but the Cyclone Terminato shoots up the Trukk at distance (not quite killing it though), whilst the Intercessors in his backfield do a little dance to try to keep out of charge range of Bludteef.

Orks: turn 4



Another 10VPs for the home and righthand objective. I think that the Mek Guns finally managed to kill the Ballistus at this point. Bludteef advances onto the marine's home objective but can't then charge the Intercessors. I've a memory that it was ONLY Bludteef and no Nobz at this point, so presumably the Ballistus or someone had killed the Nobz in the meantime.

Marines: turn 5


Simon only held the lefthand objective with his Terminators this turn, so just 5VPs for him. I think they shot up the Boyz on the middle and destroyed the Trukk on my right as I've written down that I only held two objectives at the end of my fifth turn.

Orks: turn 5

As noted, a final 10VPs to the Orks brings the final score to:

45:25 - Victory to the Orks


Locker Room

Considering the similarities of the list with what I faced in the morning I was surprised at the very different outcome. However, the Anvil Seige Force detachment rules worked very well earlier, whereas the Dark Angel ability didn't come up at all. 

More importantly was that in this game the Orky shooting really turned up (killing two units at range in turn one), whereas the Marines didn't kill a single unit in their first turn (this was the mirror image of what happened earlier in the day). 

My Orks rely on getting board control early, and because that balance of (even) fewer Marine units to shoot vs (even) more Ork units to shoot at shifted significantly, it meant that I maintained the materiel advantage into the end game and the game shifted.

It was still fun, though I don't remember some of the details (apologies Simon if I've got something radically wrong; I'm fairly confident I've got the broad sweep right, though I have a vague memory that Bludteef (by himself by that point) only swept onto the Dark Angel's home objective in turn 5). I've never played against Dark Angels and they have something of a reputation, but Simon had brought a fun list and played it in a very friendly spirit, so thank you for that; hope to play you again at some point in the future.

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