Orks vs. Iron Warriors REMATCH (battle report pt.1)

Wot's dis ruckus 'ere at da Mek shop?

I wos away for jus' a while, an' wot do ya know! Dem evil spiky space 'oomies came ta scrap da Meks noo workshop. Zog how mad da good ol' Tufmek woz when dey blew 'is gubbinz ta bitz! But now dat I'm back ta yell at da Boyz miself, we'll have a go an' go after dem spiky 'oomies an' have a good ol' bashin' nice an' propa. We gotz da new buggiez up an' runnin', da Gorkanaut repaired an' tooled up, an' I'z got da noo powa klaw and speshul shootas an' mega armours on, so no unz gonna walk away from dis scrap, dat's fer sure! We'll lobb deir 'eads orf fer good, loot deir wagons and robots and have a good larf while doin' dat!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!

Yers truly,
GORGOG da KOPPLOBBA
Ork Warboss
Deathskulls kitbasha tribe

 *************

As the last scrap between the Orks & Iron Warriors came to a thrilling DRAW, we just had to have a rematch. I decided to dust my old Ork Warboss miniature (the classic Bad Moon one) and give him a nice and proper new paintjob, so this fight was a few points bigger than the earlier one. I had been planning on including an Ork Nob with Waaaagh! banner as well, but didn't have time to get him done. So the Orks were a few power levels short of the Iron Warriors.

The armies involved were (iirc):

Iron Warrior
* Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour
* Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch (we used the rules for Sorcerer on Jump Back)
* Daemon Prince(ss)
* 5 Chaos Space Marines
* 10 Cultists
* 10 Cultists in Rhino
* 2 Obliterators
* Maulerfiend
* Vindicator
* Helbrute (with melee gear)
* Bikers with meltaguns

Deathskull Orks
* Ork Warboss
* Big Mek in mega armour & kustom force field
* Weirdboy Warphead
* Gorkanaut
* Shokkjump Dragsta
* 2 x Megatrakk Scrapjets
* 10 Ork shoota boyz
* 10 Ork choppa boyz
* 10 Gretchins
* 6 Killa Kans (3 skorcha-drillas & 3 kan klaw-rokkit launchas)

We decided to to play on quite similiar terms than the last time. So table and terrain was set up with 6 Objective markers, and a random Open War Deployment card was drawn. After both armies were set up, we rolled dice to see who gets to decide who'll have the first turn. Three Tactical Objective cards were drawn in secret by each player at the beginning of their turns. Unwanted ones could be discarded at the end of turn, and new ones drawn at the beginning of the players next turn, so that there were up to three objectives active for each player.

As the Orks had a slightly smaller army, we decided that I could choose the deployment zones and force The Iron Warriors to deploy first to even things out. This was great news for my Orks, since I saw how the Chaotic forces were split, and I could try to avoid some things (like the Chaos Bikers with their Melta Guns on the absolute northwestern corner of the battlefield), and place most of my beloved buggies, Killa Kans and the Gorkanaut far away from their initial reach. The Orks were already standing on two Objectives at the time of deployment, and were pretty much within reach of two others.

The Iron Warriors got the first turn, and dropped in some Obliterators and Sorcerer on a Disc of Tzeentch on a tall building, where the Objective nr. 2 was also located. The rest of their army advanced forth, and with the combined fire from their Vindicator tank and the Obliterators they almost blew up the Orks Gorkanaut before it even got a chance to move! And there were the Ork Warboss and Weirdboy Warphead still lurking on inside it... I think I used around 6 command points to re-roll some failed Kustom Forcefield saves (from the nearby Big Mek) to keep the Gorkanaut up and running, and barely managed that!

On their first turn the Ork Boyz & Gretchin charged forth to tie up the Iron Warriors advance. They were mostly shot (by overwatch fire) or cut to bits, with only one or two left alive in each unit. Warboss & Weirdboy jumped off the Gorkanaut, but 'ferget' to move on anywhere from there... Damn! The big gunz scraped a few wounds off the Daemon Prince(ss), Helbrute and Maulerfiend, but failed to get rid of the Obliterators or Vindicator. After the first turn the situation seemed abysmal for the Orks, with pretty much nothing done and the Gorkanaut & three troop mobz almost destroyed already. And it would be the Iron Warriors turn next...

Things were looking bleak for the Orks, but as the few last remaining Ork Boyz were tying up the Helbrute and Chaos Bikers in melee, and a singular Gretchin was hindering the Chaos Lord in combat, the situation wasn't actually nearly as bad as it first felt. I still got the buggies, Killa Kans and all the HQ's (Warboss, Weirdboy and Big Mek) fully intact, three Objectives under control, and the Gorkanaut drawing in all the possible attention from the Chaos side.

The next turn saw the Iron Warriors Daemon Prince(ss) leap towards the Ork Warboss. Chaos Bikers fell back from melee with the solitary Ork boyz Nob (exposing him to the Cultists massed autogun fire), and right to the Objective 3 in the middle of the Ork lines. The Chaos Rhino grabbed another Objective on the northern flank, and started harassing the Shokkjump Dragsta with it's combi-bolters. Something blasted the Gorkanaut apart as well.

The Ork choppa boyz and the poor lonesome Gretchin did their jobs perfectly by holding up the Chaos Lord & Helbrute in close combat, but they were unsurprisingly torn to bits.

The Daemon Princess charged towards Ork Warboss, but somehow failed to kill him and even more surprisingly died in return!

To be continued...

Orks vs. Iron Warriors - Warhammer 40k battle report(ish)

'Ere we go! - Finkins of da TUFMEK

We gotz a nice mekboy workshop in da ash wastes. Built big gubbinz in dere. Sum of da Boyz got da fastest buggies fer drivin around, and a bunch ov dem more troublesome Grots we tried ta install in dem Killa Kans. We even got da bigger biz & gubbinz fer building da propa Gorkanaut! Nice an propa lootin' an' hackin' an' bashin' around... We were jus' about ta go up in dem wastes ta have a bit ov a larf while beatin' up 'oomies, go fast wiv 'em noo buggies an' all dat fun. But no! Just when we wos firin' up da endjins, da stoopid bunch of dem big spiky space 'oomies wiv bad finkins' came up an' all around our Boyz. So we gots ta protekt our mekshop an' luckily have a good 'ol bashin' an' scrap while doin' dat! Waaaaaagh!!!

Yers truly,
TUFMEK

*****

We've had a few very nices games of 40k (8th edition) recently with an old mate. The third battle is now underway - we started yesterday but had to stop already during the first turn 'cause our time ran out. Gonna continue the game tomorrow. Anyways, the first battle we fought happened three weeks ago. I took some pictures, but not sure if all the important situations got covered. And remembering a lot of details from three weeks back can be hard...

I used my newly painted Orks (da Boyz, two HQ's and the Gorkanaut still not quite finished at that point) that I ran as Deathskulls for their lucky saves and re-rolls, while my friend chose to pick his forces from my collection of Tzeentchian Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines. I built an army of them at the beginning of this year, and have something around power level 150 to choose from. As I had only around power level 65 worth of Orks, that was the size of the game we had.

We set up the table, placed six objective counters and drew a random card from the Open War deployment deck. I got to pick the deployment zone first, and went for the middle one so I could concentrate my forces on a couple of suitably located objectives, and overwhelm any spiky space 'oomie scum that came too close. We decided to use hidden Tactical Objectives. Each player would have three active Tactical Objective Cards (drawn and replenished at the beginning of their turn). We could also get rid of any unwanted ones at the end of our turns.

Da Orks got the first turn, and with all the Kustom Boosta-Blastas billowing exhausts a good dozen of Chaos Cultists burnt up in an instant. Gorkanaut and rest of da Boyz scraped off a bunch of wounds from the Maulerfiend and Heldrake daemon engines that the Iron Warriors had brought along.

Majority of the Orks went for the eastern side of the table to secure some objectives and break the chaotic advance from that direction, while 10 pesky Gretchins prepared to secure one Objective on top of the northern hill. Only one mob of Ork shoota Boyz hurried westward, but was swiftly shot to pieces and scared off by some Chaos Cultists and Havocs. The rest of the Orks were still pretty much safe within the protective bubble of Big Meks Kustom Force Field. Then a duo of Obliterators, a Chaos Sorcerer on a Disc of Tzeentch and a unit of Terminators teleported in to the thick of the fight. Also the Maulerfiend and Heldrake rushed forward for some proper targets, and all of the freshly painted Ork buggies got mercilessly demolished.

The Killa Kans then turned their mischievous little noses towards the yellow Chaos Sorcerer and the Terminators who had just teleported nearby in the middle of the table. The Sorcerer and three of the 'nators got Drilled to death. Rest of the Terminators chose to disengage from the melee so that the Obliterators could shoot a volley of random chaotic projectiles towards the Kans. Elsewhere the Maulerfiend got on a very tight ruckus with the Choppa Boyz and the acting Ork Warlord, TUFMEK da Big Mek. Eventually only da Boyz were left standing.

The Chaos Cultists held the line on the southwestern corner of the battlefield, near the wrecked and weathered car of mr. Donald Duck. Gorkanaut hacked the Heldrake apart in close combat, and the Gretchins still tried to make themselves useful standing on an important looking hill that hadn't yet presented itself as an actual Tactical Objective. Gorkanaut received some damage from the Havocs Krak missiles.

The Killa Kans got into another fight with the Obliterators and Chaos Terminators and fared surprisingly well again. One of the Terminators found itself freed from the combat after some casualties on both sides, and legged it towards the central hill that had suddenly started to appear somehow more important to the Chaos guys... The Ork Boyz and a Weirdboy gathered their ranks behind a building, after finding some interesting looking posters on the walls. The Weirdboy tried to Da Jump the Boyz to the other side of the table to get in yet another scrap, but the Boyz seemed content in staying right where they were. They were now also in one of the Chaos deployment zones, completing one of the Orks secret Objectives.

I wasn't aware of the current victory point situation at the end of the last Chaos turn, but it proved to be a hilariously decisive turn. The lone Chaos Terminator tried to advance towards an Objective in the central hill, but ran short only by an inch. Then the Havocs let loose an volley of Flak missiles towards the poor Gretchin on a northern hill. The massacre was imminent, but as it turned out it hadn't been the exact intention of the Havocs. If only a few of the Gretchin had survived the shooting, the rest would have surely fled. This would propably have scored the Iron Warriors the decisive victory points for completing the Psychological Warfare Tactical Objective, and thus winning the whole battle.

"Do you have a minute to talk about our lord Tzeentch?"

So in the end with the all the final Tactical Objectives revealed (and the two very important ones for the Iron Warriors not scored), and absolutely the last dice rolls of the game, we came to a draw with victory points of 6 - 6!

This had been one the most thrilling games of Warhammer 40k I've EVER had. Really love the new rule mechanics, and the Deployment & (secretly drawn) Tactical Objective cards we used. Rematch is in order!

WAAAAAAGH!!!

Iron within, Iron without.