Game 1 vs. Bodgerboy

Last week I was able to get the first of my five upcoming league games for the new Legios Sparticus 40kfightclub league I am running.  You can find out more details about the league here. My first game was vs. BodgerBoy one of the three ork players.  His fixed list was:

Big Mek Grotbug with Burna, Kustom Force Field, 'Eavy Armor, Cybork
29 Slugga Boyz w/Nob with Power Klaw, Bosspole
18 'Ard Boyz w/Nob, 2 Big Shootas, Power Klaw, Bosspole
11 Shoota Boyz w/Nob with 1 Rokkit, Power Klaw in a Trukk with Reinforced Ram, Boarding Plank
10 Shoota Boys w/Nob, 1 Rokkit, Power Klaw in a Trukk with Reinforced Ram, Boarding Plank
10 Grots with Runtherd
2 Deffkoptas w/Rokkits
2 Warbuggies w/Rokkits
3 Killa Kans w/Grotzookas
3 Killa Kans w/Rokkits
Battlewagon with 3 Big Shootas, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers

Pregame Analysis:  Kans, lots of them.  Fortunately they are only armor 11 so scatter lasers can pen them.  A battlewagon that will be difficult to deal with but fortunately no deffrolla (he was under the impression that the FAQ had removed the S10 vs. vehicles).  The required forcefield, a bunch of boyz with various upgrades. I ended up taking a unit of scorpions, a unit of war walkers with scatter lasers, a nightspinner and a doomseer.  The nightspinner is solid vs. this list because if it hits the Kans they have to roll for dangerous terrain if they move, since they are a squadron, this kills them.  He added a couple units of lootas, a second KFF mechboy and commandos with snikrot that can outflank from any board edge (boo!).

Mission: We rolled up the Surprise! mission.  This mission is supposed to represent two armies stumbling on each other.  As a result, it is dawn of war deployment and those units deployed have to test for stupidity (4+ or can't do anything) on turn 1.  The primary objective was kill points, the secondary was won by who forced the opponent to take the most morale tests from shooting and the tertiary was for killing the most opposing HQ units.   This was a fairly even mission as we both had about 15 kill points in our list.  The morale test objective was also surprisingly even, even though I had more shooting, his unit sizes made doing 25% difficult, and most of it would be directed at his vehicles.

Deployment and Turn 1:

I won the roll to go first, which I did since it wasn't an objective based mission and the less ork fighting the better.  I deployed one unit of jetbikes in order to prevent him from deploying forward in his best deployment lanes.  I outflanked the scorpions and held the rest of the jetbikes in reserve. Everything else moved on turn 1.  The warwalkers were hoping to make it into the wooded hill but some poor terrain rolls and a 1 inch run prevented that.

 

His turn 1, he moved everything into position.  The lootas took the flanks and the battle wagon moved up in between the tank traps  just below the nightwing in the picture above.  Two trucks take cover behind the battlewagon and the tank trap and one tries to race for right flank. His Kans formed a nice wall in the center of the board with 30 boyz and a big mek right behind them.  The left flank has his buggies and koptas racing up it.  Finally the grots find a nice hill in a corner to hide behind.

Turn 2:  None of my reserves come in.  The war walker feel so bad about failing to enter the terrain that they just walk around to get some shots on the lootas.  The wave serpent moves to blow up the trukk sneaking around the right flank and the nightwing tries to blowup the wagon but merely stuns it.  This is good enough as it effectively traps his two trucks behind the tank traps and the kans.  The phoenix bomber moves over to left flank and takes out the other unit of lootas.  My most debated move was, should I charge the warlock bike squad into a unit of kans.  it is a battle I will lose, but should hold onto for a turn of two (I hit on 3's, glance on 2's with 2 attacks, he hits on 4's, kills on 2's but with up to 6 attacks after me.)  I decide to charge in hope to tie up the unit for a turn and maybe kill one.  Instead I miss with everything and he hits with everything wiping out the regular bikers but my warlock makes his save and passes his morale test thanks to embolden. The warp spiders jump up and take down the two warbuggies before retreating.

He decides not to commit his 30 man boyz unit to the combat, so my warlock makes a pair of saves.  On a sad note, his reserves do come in so things aren't looking good for the war walkers as they weren't able to get 13 inches from the board edge due to their terrain failures on turn 1.  They did get lucky by weathering the initial assault with only a couple of stuns and weapons going away but they would be tied in combat the rest of the game.  I do get lucky when he moves his rokkits cans up to shoot a wave serpent one gets immoblized due to the nightspinner, wrecking itself. His 'ard boyz and mech get out and assault the wave serpent but don't get to do much other than end up in the open.

Turn 3:

Still no sign of the scorpions, a unit of  jetbikes does show and harasses the last kopta on the right flank but it is up to the Vyper to do the final wound to it.  The dire avengers get out and get ready to bladestorm the 'ard boyz as the wave serpent goes off to shoot up the boyz that fell out of the trukk to no avail.  The bladestorming is mildly successful knocking them down to about 10 orks.  On theory it is better to charge than be charged, the dire avengers charge in.  With 21 attacks they get 5 hits and 2 wounds, one of which he saves, not quite what I was looking for.  He returns with about 24 attacks, hitting 15+, wounding 10+, killing 7 including the exarch, the remainder promptly break and watch the 'ard boyz try to take down the nightwing in his turn, but not until the nightwing finished off the battlewagon.  He also starts to try and bring the second trukk around the right flank.  What about the lone warlock on a bike, he continues to do little of value other than get hit 4-6 times per turn and make all his saves!

Turn 4:

The scorpions show up and assault the boyz that fell out of the trukk, killing them.  The wave serpent on that flank runs from the ork horde shooting down a few more.  The warp spiders take some shots at the kans with rokkits blowing up one klaw before jumping away.  The dire avengers got out and collect a grot kill point and the rest of my shooting basically bounces.  He is able to just get the 30 man boy unit into combat with the dire avengers, but only a few get to fight so the avengers are able to hold for a turn and break during his turn.  The kans charge the wave serpent and get double sixes to hit with the one that still has a klaw, blowing it up.  This kills a couple of boyz as well and leaves the kans open to rear shots fro the spider and phoenix.  The warlock continues to shake off wounds and even immobilizes (kills) one of the kans!  The trukkboyz on the right flank charge the scorpions only to bounce off.

Turn 5:

  The warp spiders take down one of the rokkit kans and the farseer that was hiding in the serpent charges the last one, since the warlock was doing so well and has similar results.  Unfortunately for him bomber, falling away avengers and nightspinner were unable to stop the remaining boyz from charging in to rescue the last kan which they do, but the farseer takes down the mechboy in the process (he had taken a dangerous terrain wound earlier) securing the second objective as at least a draw.  The scorpions kill the last trukk (and a couple of themselves in the explosion).  The wave serpent on that flanks tries to do a final wound to the mechboy and nob chasing it down but both pass their saves.  They are nice enough to than pound it into a pulp with some more sixes to hit.  The biggest tragedy was that the warlock finally failed his save but did shake one of the kans, so when they shot the warp spiders it only killed a couple.

Turn 6:  Didn't happen as the game ended on 5.

Post game:  The eldar certainly go their teeth kicked but won by two kill points.  Had the game continued I think I would have been a strong position as he had a couple of heavily damaged unit (two boyz units down to a nob with 1 wound, a mech with 1 wound, a single kan) while the only "easy" killpoint would be if he took out the last of the warwalkers (no weapons left, immobilized).  The MVP has to go the jetbike warlock, single handedly tie up 3 kans for almost the entire game.  The two dire avengers squads were the LVP but that for one that was a matter of bad luck and the other I just failed to judge my distances correctly.  Overall this was tough battle where nothing "normal" happened.  I was over aggressive with the two flyers.  Although they are mobile, their move 12 and shoot limitation is something I need to get use to as I have primarily used them in Apoc games previously where they are flyers with unlimited movement each turn.