Jay's Workshop: Last Battle of 2014

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Last Battle of 2014

You can't stop the Waaaaagh! Everyone knows that! That's why the galactic map in that codex is GREEN! And once that waaagh is called...

My Warboss decided to take his boyz for a spin and found some Slaaneshi Marines to battle. My Warboss was itchin' for a fight, so he quickly mustered his small force and saturated the ruins that the spikey-beakies were hiding in. Here's the list:

HQ- Warboss on Warbike with Cybork Body, Power Klaw, and Bosspole

HQ- Painboy and Grot Orderly

Troop- 20 Slugga Boyz with 2 Big Shootas, led by a Nob with a Bosspole

Troop- 21 Slugga Boyz with 2 Big Shootas, led by a Nob with a Bosspole

Fast Attack- 4 Warbikes led by a Warbiker Nob with a Power Klaw and a Bosspole

Fast Attack- 5 Deffkoptas with twin Rokkit Launcher

Heavy Support- 8 Lootas led by 2 Meks with Custom-mega-blastas

Heavy Support- Deff Dread with Scorcha and Custom-mega-blasta
It all added up to 993 points and a helluva good time!

The battlefield was a simple 4'x4' tablewith some ruins and an unclaimed (dilapidated) bunker. The mission was the third Maelstrom of War scenario with the escalating Tactical Objectives each turn. With no 'night fight' in action and very little true cover, I deployed with no other reason than to rush forward. I appreciate the 'mindless' army once in a while.

The image above shows the end of my first turn, with the Greenskins rushing at the rebels at break-neck speed. I'm not a Evil Sunz guy (all Bad Moonz all day!), but I do appreciate running and running some more. My opponent and our audience were both significantly worried about this as they saw the flood flowing from one side of the battle to the other. I rather enjoyed the shakey boots...

There were some awesome moments right from the beginning. With some well-placed shooting with my Orks, the entire army managed to knock a single HP off the Vindator. The entire army included a ton of Rokkits and gobs of Loota shells. Typical Ork shooting. That Vindicator then one-shotted my Deffkoptas, leaving one to survive and flee from the table post-haste. Typical Ork Resilience.

There was a point early in the game where a Lucius-led mob of fanatics suffered the first wave of Ork assault. Not feeling terribly confident myself, I watched as my Nob and two more Boyz were easily dispatched by the ancient duellist. Then, sure enough, the rest of the Boyz begin swinging their Choppas and the frenzy saw the entire unit wiped out and wounds overflowing onto the surviving Warlord. His Armor of Shrieking Souls is still trying to figure out which Choppa got him, which arm held it, and which soul to steal- days later! The very next turn, the victorious Ork mob was gunned down mercilessly by some Noise Marines. Oh, the 'glass cannon' that is Orks... But it was nice to see a challenge end positively for me (I'm usually the boyz in blue, and we don't do so hot in the 'ol slapfight).

The defining moment of the game came with the glorious death of that stupid Vindie tank. While his Sorcerer Lord gave the tank Shrouded and it was half concealed from the Lootas behind the bunker, it appeared that the tank was invincible, even at side armor. Sure enough, the Lootas score two hits, enough to finish the war machine off. With a 2+ cover save, there's no way that tank is going down. My buddy, having siphoned some of my fantastic luck over the months, decided to roll this:

Tank dead!!! The worst part of that whole situation was that we were so confident that the tank wouldn't die that I exclaimed (apparently invoking my black-shirt power) "You won't roll snake-eyes!" in that reverse psychology kind of way. After seeing the dice fall and my victory lap around the house, er, workshop, we all just laughed and laughed. Game over, man, game over.

The rest of the battle saw him mow down Orks with whizzing bullets ignoring crucial cover, and my Warboss surviving the annihilation of the rest of his army just charging everything. I had a few Boyz cowering in some ruins and claiming an objective, the Lootas still hidden deep in the back corner (trying to find Joseph and Bob, the only two casualties from turn 1), and just smoke and craters besides. Although the game should have ended in turn 3 with the tabling of my Ork force, there was some ridiculous whiffing and funny luck all over the place.

And my reliance on Maelstrom missions to win paid off yet again. For some strange reason, the cards seem to generally fall my direction. This makes the ninth win in that format, and really just because I could score a dozen or more points while my opponent scored few in each of the games. The first match for the Greenskins is a win!!!