Mutant Modifier: 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.