Da Waaagh fights again!

Having found the first batch of Chaos Marines not enough of a challenge, da Warboss decided to take his army in search of another bit of da spikey-beakies.  Sure enough, he found some and they were wearing red armour- da Orks' favorite colour!

I brought the same army as last time-
Warboss on bike with power klaw and cybork body (which I forgot about in the game)

5 bikers, including a Nob with a power klaw

5 Deffkoptas with twin-rokkit launchers

2 mobz of 20 and 21 Ork Boyz, each led by a Nob (all Nobs have bosspoles)

a mob of 8 Lootas led by 2 Meks with Kustom Megablastas

supported by a Painboy with a Orderly

and a Deffdred.  Because Orks need bigger, more metal Boyz!

My buddy (my normal opponent and different than my last opponent) brought his bog-standard CSM.  And when I say standard, I mean NO MARKS.  I was surprised since my buddy loves him some Khorne.  But he wanted to take the 'possession' route (and boy would that matter)-

Chaos Lord with jump pack, plasma pistol, and power axe (and +1 T from mutation)

6 Chosen with the mix of weapons (the Champ had eternal warrior- LOL!)

10 Marines with plasma gun and heavy bolter, with the Champ rocking a power maul (+1 wound for his mutation)

20 Cultists with 2 flamers

5 Havocs with 4 Autocannons

and 5 bikers with a plasma gun and the champion of doom (getting 4 mutations including rerolling armour saves and poisoned attacks with his power fist)

We rolled it all up and it turned out that our little 1k armies would be fighting a basic "Kill and Twelve", which means standard deployment and kill points.  That was what we were leaning towards anyway, but it's hilarious when the dice rolls match up.  By the way, it would be Night Fight as well (because I belatedly realized that I was playing Orks instead of beakies).

The battlefield, with tons of cover and plenty of choke points...

Deployment time came around and my buddy chose to go first so he could retain the first turn.  After deploying his forces in flanking positions and taking advantage of ruins and craters where possible (although I'm not sure why considering that I'm Orks- I believe in neither AP nor Initiative).  He was going to contain me.  My deployment saw me matching him and setting up to 'get in da fight' as fast as I could.  His advancing Cultists supported by Havocs would meet my advancing Orks supported by Lootas.  His Bikers and Chosen would encounter more Orks and a Deffdread!  The best part is that I put my Bikers and Warboss in the middle of the field, hoping to be able to react while still pressuring his weak center.  It was all coming together...

My deployment; the Deffkoptas are Outflanking later.

His deployment; the middle squad is having an identity crisis.  :-P

The only thing left to do was get the game started!  I rolled for Seize the Initiative, talked an immense amount of smack, taunted my buddy as only an Ork can do, and then tossed the die.  I assured him that I was going to seize.  Of course, the Dice Gods can be fickle.  We looked down and there sat, in all of its glory, a '6'.  Mork (or maybe Gork) had blessed me!!!

  So the first turn starts off with me rushing forward with everything I had.  The only unit that stayed behind was the mob of Lootas, who killed a massive THREE Cultists with their shooting phase.  The Warbikes and 'boss took some shots at the Chaos Squad in the middle of the table and killed half of them right away!  So, yeah.  Moving bikes are more accurate than aiming guns...
  My buddy responded by shooting his marines in the middle (under the watch of the Lord) at my bikes and killing three of them, and the rest was his bikers retreating from their obviously perilous position (seeing a Deffdread and a mob of Boyz both in charge range can do that to a person), his Cultists and newly-joined Lord charging my other mob (which saw my first Nob die), and his Havocs taking a clear bead on my dread.  Sure enough, the weight of firepower was enough to bring down a gunship, and my metal behemoth went down in a pile of smoking scrap.  I wasn't worried, I was in da fight!

End of Turn 1.  Poor Deffdread...

  In turn 2, I charged my advancing mob of Boyz into his Chosen, charged the Warbikers into the squad in the middle, and continued the fight on da uvver side.  With a bit of good timing, my Deffkoptas even arrived, screaming on the same side of the battlefield that his bikes were cowering on.  I had this!  Our combats saw his Chosen instantly wiped out (with the loss of my uvver Nob in a challenge, of course) and consolidating into the ruins, and the mob that was already fighting wiped out the Cultists and slapped the Lord with a wound.  My bikers even crushed the remaining Marines in the middle and turned to face his Havocs.  For the Chaos Marines, it was a fight for survival.  The only real response that he had was to shoot his bikes into the Deffkoptas.  Forgetting that they had two wounds each, I actually lost a couple.  No worries...

End of Turn 2.  I was mopping this up.

  In turn 3, I charged my Deffkoptas into his remaining bikes, charged my bikers into his Havocs, and continued to try to bring down his lord.  The 'koptas and bikes were lost quickly and the Havocs lost everyone except the Champion.  And that warboss struck with a vengeance.  Swinging his power maul at the Warboss, he crushed the Greenskin's skull, scared the rest of the bikers off, only to catch them and wipe them out with two well-placed execution shots!  Being efficient at warcraft, he didn't hesitate to leap into the mob of Boyz that were pouring from the ruins.  Seeing this, the Lord finally killed enough of the troublesome Orks that he broke them and wiped them out, just to charge the Lootas and kill a random Mek.  Seeing what happened next scared the Lootas off and saw them dispatched such as quickly...
  The Chaos Lord smashed the Mek and started twitching.  Within seconds, he was contorted and cracking, transforming and growing to a massive size.  Changing into a monster before their very eyes, the Orks that could see quit the battlefield.  A Daemon Prince was born!

End of Turn 3- they brought a Daemon Prince!

And that was all that was left...

There's the second battle with my Greenskins!  It was easily one of the best games I've played in a long time.  This battle was over at the end of turn 2, but took a complete flip in the last turn.  THAT is what the game is all about!

Oh, I lost that game 8-5 (he killed 7 of my 8 units and achieved 'Slay the Warlord' while I only killed 4 of his units and achieved 'Linebreaker').  But it was such a good game that the score was totally irrelevant.  Even if the score had come out in my direction, it still would have been a win for my buddy.  Although Mork (or maybe Gork) smiled on me at the beginning of the game, it seemed that the Chaos Gods turned their eyes upon him right when it mattered most.  Talk about a last minute victory!

I'm starting to expand the force now, and I hope to get a game with this army against another buddy that plays Astra Militarum.  I want to fight these 'oomies someday...

In the meantime, leave a comment about a great game you've played recently.  And if you haven't, well then what do you think I mean when I say HAPPY GAMING?

Rules I hate!

I have so much issue with so many things, but I don't really care as I'm not the designer, just the gamer.  But sometimes, and it's not often, sometimes I find a rule that just chaps my hide...

Here's the one that I had to clarify recently:

Pg 81, BRB, "If a unit disembarks from a destroyed vehicle during the enemy turn, it cannot charge in the assault phase of its own turn unless the destroyed vehicle had the Assault Vehicle special rule."

Now we all know that last edition saw that rule be put into effect (even if it required FAQ to clarify later), so this is not something 'new'.  But it is something that actually makes me sad when I have to be the victim of it.  Strangely, it makes me even more sad to see the effect this rule has on certain other armies.

Make no mistake, I LOVE these balancing factors that GW included.  To mitigate the 'parking lots' that we used to see in 4th edition, GW makes sure that vehicles are slower to fire more weapons (unless they're 'fast', in which case the rules make them TOO powerful) and makes sure troops can't use them as moving deployment zones.  To bring them back after the nerfing of said 'lots' in 5th edition, they made the vehicles more difficult to destroy and gave transports some extra overwatch love.  But those Khornate armies with Rhino support aren't terribly happy about those effects.

You see, some armies, like Orks and Necrons, have assault units and open-topped vehicles to take advantage of that.  While Necrons only have one good CC unit, Orks are all close combat and so both armies get to see their specialties taken advantage of.

But the poor Khorne Berzerker or Black Templar Crusader is strapped with the responsibility of bring ing a Land Raider or a really good set of boots.  Why?  Because all I need to do to stop those threats to my army is pop their Rhinos.  When I do that, not only are the squads now stuck where they didn't want to be, but they are also NOT ALLOWED to do what they're supposed to do.  I know that the vehicle blew up in my turn and those troops were on foot when their turn started.  But hey, the Gods-that-make-the-rules say that you have to look at me menacingly and toss a pistol shot my way.  But your Chain-axes and -swords can stay put away for at least another turn.


Does that make any sense?  Not too me.  All I can do is take advantage (remember, my buddy is a Khorne player) and complain incessantly about the common sense behind the rule.  I don't think it breaks the game, I just don't like what it does to certain armies.

What do you think of this rule?  Leave your defense or attack on the rule below and, as always, Happy Gaming!