NWG - Game 3

After a surprisingly short night, I was easily up bright and early for a shower, breakfast, and round 4. As I stated in the last report I was set to face Jan Karnowski and his Ork horde. Jan has being having success with this army even going way back into 5th edition, and I knew this one would be tough. I did have a lot of templates and blasts however, so I thought I might be able to get a handle on it, then I saw the table I was playing on. Below is a picture someone took during round 5. The table in the foreground, with the Nids and Wolves playing on it, is my round 4 table. As you can see, there's a massive piece of terrain pretty much disecting the board, and it just happens to block LOS of just about everything. In other words, those Orks would be unmolested until they were in my face pretty much. Funnily enough, that's me behind the guy on the right in the picture, playing on the table next to it.



Below is also a rough look at Jan's list.

Warboss
Mega Armour, Cybork Body, Power Claw

Big Mek
Kustom Force Field


15x Lootas
10x Lootas
9x Lootas


30x Slugga Boyz
Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole

30x Slugga Boyz
Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole

30x Shoota Boyz
3x Rokkit Launchas, Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole

30x Shoota Boyz
3x Rokkit Launchas, Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole

30x Shoota Boyz
3x Rokkit Launchas, Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole

10x Grots
Runtherder with Bosspole

No subtly, just Orks, lots and lots of Orks. For this game we were playing the Sieze Ground scenario once again with a Spearhead deployment. I got a lucky start being able to deploy and go first, giving me a chance to get the quarter with most of the objectives, allowing me to play a holding game if at all possible. I got the Master of Ruins trait though, while Jan got the extra Run dice within 12" of his Warboss. Coteaz rolled up Prescience and Misfortune for this game. I deployed spread out to try and sweep the objectives quick so I could then brace for impact; only the Ravens were in reserve. The Orks horded around their objectives mostly, with the Lootas going as far North East as they could to get LOS; the Grots stayed in reserve. We both got Attrition as our secondary BTW, and Draigo made Dreadknight 1 scoring with Grand Strategy.




Turn 1

I began as planned, sweeping out to capture objectives. As the huge ruin in the middle was all one big objective it was very important to get into it first. Pretty much everything ran as there was no shooting to be had and it was over to the Orks.



The Orks all surged forward as was to be expected. They ran, most of them benefitting from the Warlord Trait, while the 15 and 10 man Loota squads combined to wipe out a combat squad.




Turn 2

Coteaz put up Prescience just incase as one Raven came in, gunning for the Lootas. The Rhino in the East moved back, as its cargo were now dead. Coteaz got his squad into the ruins proper and shot 4 Orks dead. The Dreadknight up North fried 9 Lootas, 7 from the 10 man squad and 2 from the 15, with the rest of the 10 man fleeing the board. The Raven fired all it could at the 15 man squad, and despite doing 8 wounds, they passed 5 cover saves, meaning they stayed Fearless.



The Grots entered the fray in the North East corner, as all the Boyz geared up to charge. Jan enthusiastically called the Waaaggh! and the Boyz began to move. Both Loota Sqauds combined to blow up the Raven, the debree falling into the Mob, but killing none as they passed their cover saves. Other shooting did nothing and then charges were declared. The shortest charge to be made was 8", but all 5 units made it thanks to Waaaggh! re-rolls; both Slugga units hit Draigo, while the Shootas hit Coteaz with 2 units while the last hit a Rhino.

Combat was bloody, with masses of Orks and a unit of Strikes being killed, while Coteaz and Draigo both took 2 wounds each.

Just to note, at this point I was up 7-2 on primary.




Turn 3

As a display of the dire situation Coteaz as blindly casting his powers in hopes that he would Perils and die so that the Dreadknight could flame the tightly bunched up Orks. The other Raven came on and landed in mid-field. The Rhino turned back to try and stop the Grots. Both Dreadknights prepared to assault, the scoring one taking an objective as he went. The Storm Raven opened up on the Lootas again, using the Machine Spirit to send a missile at the Grots. 3 Grots died but passed their save, and yet again the Lootas made loads of cover saves and only one died.

Both Dreadknight charged in. Dreadknight 1 killed 6 Orks, but with 4 Power Claws in range to attack this turn, Draigo and the Paladins were wiped out. The other Dreadknight pulled off a similar feat, killing 5 including a Nob, but Coteaz died unsurpringly.



The unit that had just killed Coteaz moved to try and counter charge the Dreadknight, while the rest moved for objectives. The Lootas took out the second Raven, while in combat Dreadknight 1 was taken down. Dreadknight 2 killed 4 more Orks, but took 3 wounds.




Turn 4

At this point I knew I was probably going to lose, as the mass of bodies overran my army pretty quick. I tried to stay back and shoot with my Strikes but couldn't do anything else. The Rhino tank-shocked the Grots, but they passed their check again. The Dreadknight finally brought one of the squads below Mob rule size, however he was killed before it could matter.



The Ork turn was simple; move onto objectives and shoot. And with that my army was wiped.




Conclusions

It was partly a forseen conclusion based on the table, but some clever play could have seen me through had I thought of it at the right moment. In hindsight, I should have ran at the building, and just lined up at full 2" spacing all around the otuside of the walls, so he would have no way to move through it and would instead have to go around where Dreadkngiht would waiting with Heavy Incinerators. Unfortunately I don't tend to think of such unorthodox play in-game, but it will certainly be on my mind in the future.

The table aside, good cover saves by the Orks and sheer numbers won the day, however, the game looked fantastic with the small Grey Knight force fighting the massive Ork horde; as it should be. Thankfully my standing wasn't too awful, and I was only down 1 table for the last game, which would be against Brian Stack's Space Wolves.

Stay tuned.