Drawbridge has weathered Tyranids, the Genestealer Cults, an Alpha Legion infiltration and years of Imperial infighting. Can it also survive an Ork Waaagh?
Kraken here alongside Pootle. The Jimulthuan Quadrant rumbles on!
Qui Orket Adipiscitur
Orks never lose, making them an excellent go-to choice in a 40k campaign. I'm trying out two of smaller detachments here, More Dakka (assault guns on the infantry and sustained +1 on the Waargh turn) and Equitorial Hordes (give up to 3 units of Boys or Kommandos Scout 6").
Two big shoota swarms, some even shootier Flash Gitz, Meganobz and leadership for punch and a couple of trukks for mobility. Originally, the list had another ten Boyz and some Gretchin, but that was before I noticed Pootle had sneakily painted a block of Kommandos! So I took them instead.
They are running as a Disruption group, which probably means doing actions on things somewhere. Kommandos can be split into two smaller groups, and I expect I'll be doing that for the extra activations, but the trukks might also manage actions at a pinch.
- Warboss in Mega Armour - big choppa, 'eavy shoota, Kunnin' Hunta (a reactive move relic)
- Big Mek in Mega Armour - forcefield, mega-blasta and grot oiler
- 20 Boyz - Nob with slugga and power klaw, 17 shoota boyz and 2 rokkit launchas
- 20 Boyz - same again, but the Nob has a kombi-rokkit
- 10 Flash Gitz - Dead Shiny Shootaz for an extra point of rapid fire
- 10 Kommandos - Klaw on the Nob, Rokkit Launcha, Breacha Ram and Burna
- 3 Meganobz - 2 with Klaw and kombi-weapon, 1 with twin killsaws
- 2 Trukks - wreckin' balls included
Birds of a Feather
I'm using my son's Raven Guard again. I lost their last outing (also against Orks) but it was close and a great game, so I'm keen to try them again. I've chosen again to keep a strong emphasis on Phobos units, despite my son now having painted a few more aggressive units (Repulsor Executioner, Redemptor Dread, Heavy Intercessors, Vindicare Assassin...). Will I regret staying thematic?
- Kayvaan Shrike (warlord) leading 5 Vanguard Veterans
- Captain in Phobos armour leading 5 Incursors (the Cap has an enhancement that replicates the Lt's innate move-shoot-move ability)
- Lieutenant in Phobos armour leading 5 more Incursors
- 5 Reivers
- 3 Eliminators
- 3 Suppressors
- 2 Invictor Warsuits (with Autocannons)
Vanguard Spearhead detachment: 995 points
The army is pretty mobile - the Vanguard Vets and Suppressors both have jump packs so move 12", the Incursors both have Scouts 6" and move-shoot-move so can also move 12", the Invictor Warsuits Scout 8" and move the same, and the Reivers can deep strike and ignore vertical distance. Not too shabby! Movement wins games, right?
Mission and Battlefield
Reccy vs Disruption means I'm doing Smoke and Mirrors:
And I'm on Surveil the Foe:
To sum up, I have to sprint about building decoys on objectives. Pootle has to watch me do it and then knock them down. What a bully!
Online wisdom tells me this might be an uphill struggle for the Disruption player, so Pootle kindly offers a Twist - Martial Prowess:
That means I perhaps lose a little less from my Boyz mobs, they can advance on to an objective and still do the action I need whilst shooting randomly at the sky and yelling.
We are fighting on Drawbridge! Both of us totally forgot about the campaign benefits, so Pootle lost out on an extra command point and nobody used the extra surplus ammo. Next time!
Deployment
With that in mind, one big Boyz mob goes into reserve as jumping out on a side objective mid-game seems good, and helps keep them hidden. Everything else spreads out behind the ruins along my deployment line, with the Kommandos a little further forward than the others.
My Phobos Captain allows me to redeploy three units after we've done.
The Suppressors lurk behind the central objective while the Eliminators provide covering fire from the Ork building.
Shrike and his Vanguard Vets start in strategic reserve, along with the Reivers.
I've set up the battlefield to follow GW's advised terrain layouts (I chose the simple Dawn of War setup). I do intend to move away from this in due course as I still think the maps end up a little boring (my wife says the below looks more like a post-apocalptic Milton Keynes than the more interesting table setups I used to do - not sure that's a ringing endorsement of either GW or Milton Keynes).
I have the first turn! This is probably for the best, it would be much harder to stick decoys on the objectives if they're already full of Space Marines. Getting a strong first turn might force the Marines out towards me, although it also means running blindly towards the enemy. I guess that’s what Orks do best!
Orks Turn 1
Well, that's not awful. I nominate the Trukk full of Meganobz on the left flank as my Beacon, and then nominate units to hold all the objectives on the board, just in case I manage to do any of them.
The Meganob trukk goes and decoys the left side objective, the Kommandos the right.
The other Kommandos have elected to hold my home objective and swap places with the Warboss as the Boyz decoy the central objective, and the Flash Gitz in their trukk move up alongside the Warboss.
Raven Guard Turn 1
Brilliantly, I didn't note down what my secondaries were each turn as I played a nailbiter of a game against my son (him using Raven Guard) on the same table set up just a few days later, so my memory of what I was thinking here are vaguer than normal. I definitely had Centre Ground on turn one, so I elected to push the Suppressors forwards to claim the centre. Another reason for sacrificing this unit was that they could end their move touching the farther set of ruins that Kraken had decoyed in his turn.
I can score 5VP from clearing out the Decoy markers, but I have to do all of them (which means there's no point sacrificing a unit if I can't clear everything). Clearing the other two markers is relatively easy however: on my right flank the Incursors move forwards and then use their move-shoot-move ability to scoot back again slightly, whilst the Warsuit moves next to them to draw a bead on the Trukk containing the Meganobs on the Ork left.
The Eliminators have stayed still in the Ork building on my home objective as they can see the other Trukk (containing the Flash Gits). Just seeing it will give me 4VPs (though means they can't shoot as "seeing" is an action), but the other Warsuit has moved to the edge of the building and opens fire on the Trukk which, because it's the Oath of Moment, is destroyed with no particular difficulty with support from the Suppressors.
At the end of the turn I score 9 primary VPs (Surveil and remove markers) and 5 secondary VPs (Centre Ground)
I score another 8 points at the end of the turn - three on Beacon and five for Burden.
Score: 18-14 to the Orks
Orks Turn 2
It's clear what command is hinting at here. Waaagh!
Everything pours forwards except the remaining trukk, which hides and erects another dummy in the ruins on the left. Both Kommando units lurk behind ruins and plant flags. And in comes the other big Boyz mob on the right.
I take the opportunity to Rapid Ingress Kayvaan Shrike and his Vets on my back left, ready to pounce on the Boyz next turn.
Heaps of dakka from the big units mostly patters off armour, but both Incursor units and one of the Warsuits all take two or three wounds from it all.
Then the Flash Gitz open up and leave an 18-wound crater where the other Warsuit was. It blows up, killing another Incursor and one of the Meganobz. Strike!
I know from fielding them myself that Flash Gits can be surprisingly effective, but with the More Dakka detachment they had practically every shooting benefit available (apart from Dev Wounds) - with the dice that were rolled they would have killed a Land Raider!
To add insult to this, the newly-arrived Boyz make their charge and wipe the Incursors and their Captain out.
I had a CP that I could have used to retreat the Incursors by 6" but I thought I'd save that for the other unit and rely on Kraken failing a 9" charge.
Those sacrificial Suppressors achieve their goal as the Flash Gitz and the nearby Boyz sandwich into them, then split off into the two central objectives.
The Meganobz and the Warboss get nowhere - those Incursors bugger swiftly off with their sneaky strat.
Shrike is left to look in horror at the big holes in the marine line. The Orks have reclaimed the centre!
Raven Guard Turn 2
One of my secondaries was definitely A Grievous Blow (kill a unit with more than a dozen models in it), so I'm looking at one of those two big blobs of Boyz: I pick the one nearest Shrike and his lads and make them the Oath of Moment. Looking at the scores, I think that I carried over Plunder from round 1 and also drew Forward Position this turn.
Both these last two objectives can be achieved by deep striking the Reivers in on the Ork home objective, so that's exactly what I do.
On my right, the Incursors are somewhat alarmed by being asked to hold the entire flank by themselves against Meganobs, a Trukk and a Warboss (and being overlooked by Flash Gits), so they move to Surveil the Meganobs, then scoot round the corner of the ruin to (comparative) safety, perhaps hoping that the Meganobs think that if the Incursors can't be seen they no longer exist?
It's not just the Incursors feeling lonely: I'm already feeling short of assets, with only the remaining Warsuit holding the centre. He's clearly not long for this world, and I have a wealth of potential targets. It shoots its multi-damage guns into the Flash Gits (their lethality surprised me and I have to limit their effectiveness) with the one-damage weapons being fired over its shoulder at the Ork mob on my left who killed my Captain.
I overwatch it before it does this, though, and the Flash Gitz knock six wounds off it on the way in. It's left on three!
Shrike pushes forwards and, after chucking Grenades at the Boyz charges in and manages to finish the unit off, which is helpful of him: at least there's one flank that I'm in control of!
After hosing down the Flash Gits, the Invictor charges in and does some sterling work, only leaving three alive.
Shrike consolidates up on top of the objective. He doesn't need to and it brings him closer to an Ork countercharge, but damn he looks cool!
At the end of the turn I score 9 primary VPs (for Spotting the Meganobs and removing the markers that the Orks had put on the two Expansion objectives), but a respectable 13 secondary VPs, which pushes me into a narrow lead.
Score: 36-31 to the Raven Guard
Orks Turn 3
With that in mind, I pincer the remaining Incursors between the Meganobz and their Trukk. The big Boyz unit sticks a decoy on their objective, the Warboss moves up to rescue the Flash Gitz from the Invictor, and both Kommandos head for their nearest foes.
And elsewhere, I fail to finish off any of my targets! Shrike's bodyguard die, but he's untouched and easily murders the Kommandos by himself. The Reivers and their Kommandos both bounce off each other, pretty much, and the Lieutenant squeaks away from the Meganobz after Mr Killsaws can't get the motor started.
One other thing that happened here is the Kommandos failed the Battleshock test forced on them in the Fight phase by the Reivers - this will help me next turn.
Well, that's not a great turn scorewise - a dribble of primary points for holding an objective and for my singular decoy. I'm also not looking forwards to the next round, I was kind of thinking I'd have the game sewn by now!
Raven Guard Turn 3
I'm a little bit in shock! That Ork assault didn't do nearly as much damage as I'd thought it would. However I am definitely running out of assets now so need to be careful.
It's really important that the Kommandos on the Ork home objective failed their Battleshock last turn as now despite there being three on each side, the Reivers hold the objective (giving me 4VPs). I can see this objective being important enough to hang onto, so I take the unusual step of making the Kommandos my Oath target and the Reivers go on use this to finish off all three of the enemy for no loss. Great to see that Reivers are finally really useful!
Meanwhile the surviving Incursor Lieutenant scoots away from the Meganob; he can't do much apart from force the Orks to kill him in their turn (which keeps an expensive unit engaged away from the centre).
Surprised at surviving the last turn, the Warsuit lumbers towards the Warboss, intending to take him down, but the big Boyz mob never took their fingers off their triggers and Overwatch manages to take the last few wounds off the Invictor (one Rokkit hit becomes two which is enough to destroy the walker).
I've scored 8 primary VPs (I think the Eliminators spotted the Boyz on top of the Reivers holding the enemy home) plus I scored 7 secondary VPs, one was Beacon on Shrike I think (technically scored at the end of next turn), but I'm not sure what the other one was.
Score: 51-37 to the Raven Guard
More secondaries - Engage on all Fronts and Assassinate this turn, I think.
Unfortunately that's all the scoring I can do as my secondaries can't get me anything useful.
The final secondaries are in:
With only five model left there's really nothing I can do. I could Surveil the enenmy with Shrike but that would put him danger close to a Heroic Intervention from the Ork Boyz; I can't clear off all the Decoys (though at least Kraken won't get the end-of-game bonus for having four of them). All I can do is claim another 4VPs for the Reivers holding an objective, plus I score 5VPs from a secondary (can't remember which one).
Kunnin' and brutal, all in one! Really, luck handed me this game. I spiked my rolls early with a very strong second turn, Pootle got some shocking sets of ones rerolled into ones, and that sealed his fate. Orks Turn 4
This is looking doable now, but I still can't afford to relax. The Trukk and Meganobs hide out in their ruins, making it harder for Pootle to score on spotting them. The Lieutenant finally gets caught and clobbered, and that scores me several of those secondaries I was holding from earlier, although not for many points.
The Warboss slowly plants another decoy, and the big boys mob scoots over towards Kayvaan, thinking of trying to assassinate him. Turns out to be a bit far off, so they settle for more decoys so I can get my primary score up.
That's pretty much all I do, in fact, maxing out on 15 for having fake ork statues on all four objectives. I also finally score Plunder (that Trukk has been racking up the scores today), so I'm pulling even again, maybe even sneakin' ahead...
Raven Guard Turn 4
The Reivers still hold the enemy camp for 4VPs and Shrike scoots back towards the centre of the board but stays hidden.
The Eliminators move to try to deny the enemy Warboss from holding the near-centre objective and get Overwatched by the Boyz on their way in (losing one of their number). The Eliminators can at least Surveil the Boyz so I will get another 4 primary VPs.
Score: 62-59 to the Orks
Orks Turn 5
And that's not good news for Pootle, as I can pick up two of those. Not Assassinate, Shrike is impossible to pin down. I settle for butchering the last Suppressors with the Warboss, reflagging the right-hand objective and finally maxing out my Primary score.
That's been a very solid effort from the Orks, I reckon! I haven't kept a full running total, though, and it's been reasonably close. Can Pootle close the gap?
Raven Guard Turn 5
Final Score: 86:78
Locker Room
The score was a lot closer than the assets left on the table would indicate (I am finding that about 11th edition: it's easier to score VPs than you think which tends to lead to high-scoring closer games). I'd like to blame my dice, but the Ork bounce in turn 3 was really bad luck on your part, and at the end of round 3 I had a fairly good lead (though being able to hold onto Secondaries really helped you there).
All the same, I think I managed a reasonable stab at playing the mission. My overall idea was to try and spike a good high score on the first turn to pressure Pootle into playing forwards where I could reach him on turn two. That paid off pretty well!
It certainly did. Orks often disintegrate against Marines, but you managed to get the drop on me and it was me running out of assets from relatively early, which in the end limited my ability to score enough points. In retrospect, I think a critical mistake I made on my turn one was not considering the threat range of the Waaagh and the Flash Gits: I should have positioned the Warsuit and Incursors on my right flank further backwards, with the former in cover from anywhere the Flash Gits could have got. I don't know if it would have survived, but it's possible; it certainly made Kraken's job a bit easier.
It certainly didn't feel easy, though, all that action play feels like it's never going to work with Orks. Really I would want more small units, maybe another Kommando pack, to feel safe. It also feels a bit uneven as a match on paper. Heavy action play from one team vs very light action from the others is daunting, although it wasn't quite as unfair in practice as I'd feared. Did the twist help? Maybe a tiny bit, it only came into play once in fact, but it certainly helped psychologically.
My son came in to see how the game was going around turn 4 and shook his head at me when he saw how little I had left - he said something like "I told you that you should have had a unit of Heavy Intercessors". I'm still glad that I took a more narrative Phobos-heavy list, but I think I did feel a lack of units who were capable of killing things. Shrike did a good job, but once the two Warsuits left the table I really had nothing that could actually kill any units.
It was a fun game overall, it's very interesting to slowly work through the various permutations of the new missions - I'm very keen to try to mix detachments up so I can try as many as possible.
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