2011.10.29 - Orks & Eldar vs. Dark Eldar

My opponent from the Dark Eldar game earlier in the day got tag-teamed by a new player and myself. I played my Kan Wall Orks, and my partner rolled out a small force of Eldar replete with two wraithlords. The points limit was set at 2000, so the Dark Eldar player added some hellions to flush out his force, but otherwise the list was the same.

Reavers and raiders and ravagers, oh my!
Haemonculus
Duke

~10x warriors, raider, blaster
~10x warriors, raider, blaster pistol
~10x wyches, raider, 2x hydra gauntlets

5x Wracks
5x Trueborn
5x Incubi
5x Scourges
6x Reavers

2x ravagers, one with lances & one with disintegrator cannons.
1x Razorwing

8x Hellions, helliarch


Waaagh! The orks! Dakka dakka!

2x Big Mek

5x Lootas

22x Shoota boyz, nob, pk, bosspole
22x Shoota boyz, nob, pk, bosspole
22x Shoota boyz, nob, pk, bosspole

3x Killa Kanz, rokkits
3x Killa Kanz, grotzookas


The Council Has Arrived

1x Farseer, 3x warlocks, guide

5x Pathfinders
5x Pathfinders

1x Wraithlord, sword, scatter laser
1x Wraithlord, EML, starcannon

Our opponent rolled for game and deployment, unfortunately we got annihilation again. Deployment type was dawn of war, which I wasn't terribly impressed with, but it came out okay so I can't complain too much.

TURN 1

My partner won the roll for first turn and I suggested we go second. The board started out pretty lonely: our opponent stuck a squad of wracks and the haemunculus and I stayed all-off, though my partner plopped his pathfinders in the bush and the ruins, giving us some excellent fire support.

Our opponent then walked on some warriors with the duke, his trueborn and his incubi and proceeded to run them towards their doom.

On our turn, we opted to shelter the Eldar with the main ork force behind the kans, and sat up as far away from the board edge as possible so I could cram all my boyz in. A lone wave serpent stuffed with banshees secured our right flank with the pathfinders.

TURN 2

Our opponent rolled for reserve and was rewarded with both ravagers, his hellions, his scourges and a raider full of wyches. After my last encounter with the wyches, I wanted basically nothing to do with them. Excited as I was dismayed at their arrival, he put them down halfway between the ruins and the table edge, roughly 10" away from my leftmost kan wall and boyz squad, not to mention lootas. Then the heavens parted and I heard angels sing as the Mork-damned machine mishapped off the table edge and into oblivion. High fives were liberally applied between ork and eldar.

The rest were basically on target, but who cares? Ding-dong the wyches were dead. Unfortunately his scourges took the mishap personally and laid waste to the wave serpent, turning it inside out. The banshees escaped, though one was a little slower than the rest and got caught in the explosion, thinning their number down to four.

The hellions on the other hand whiff with their special weapon but manage to break the pathfinder squad inside the ruins with splinter pod fire. The ravagers whiff with lance fire at the kans thanks to your friendly neighborhood big mek, and the footslogging warriors inflict minimal casualties against the second pathfinder squad in the bush. Similarly, the second ravager did nothing in its attacks against the pathfinders.

On our turn, the two pathfinders falling back regroup and we mulched some inches towards the enemy, shooting up the hellion squad hiding behind the ruins, laving four with enough shoota slugs to end their hijinks forever. The rokkit kans whiff, as do the banshees with their pre-assault lovetaps, but they annihilate the scourges in close combat with mirror blades.

The top of turn 3 started like this:

TURN 3

The rest of our opponent's reserves come in, leaving the board a bit more packed in.

Everything moves up, and the razorwing drops three huge blast missiles onto the middle boyz squad, killing 16 out of 22. Thankfully, they pass their leadership test and no boss pole was necessary. Shooting is otherwise uneventful.

On our turn, we follow form and the green tide + eldar roll up towards the enemy, though the banshees. My boyz obliterate the incubi sneaking around the side of the ruins and the wraithlord's scatter laser turns all but one of the hellions to dust. The ravager atop the hill takes a glance from the starcannon and gets stuck in, which was pretty great.

The grotzooka kanz plus a mob full of shootas sends the reavers to a swift end. Lootas inflict minimal casualties on the wracks, but assault sees the end of the hellions and the green tide sweeping towards them.

This turn also saw the pathfinders dropping all but one of the trueborn in shooting. Go team!

TURN 4

Our opponent's movement phase saw a swift retreat of wracks in the face of kans, wraithlords, twenty-two boyz and a very pissed off farseer who had yet to get into killing range. The raider with warriors near the grotzooka kans moves up to cover. He moves his ravager off to the side a bit to get a better shot at the banshees swimming for cover, missing, but also knocked out another kan with blaster fire from the warriors. I marked this turn down in my notes as "lots of whiff," but I'm pretty sure the last razorwing missile also leveled like 6-8 boyz in the third squad this turn. Obviously I have no idea what I am talking about.

Dismayed by our egregious advance into his model count, he was disappointed even further on our turn when my kans took a liking to his raider. My partner and I finally remembered to use guide, and his wraithlord decided to drill a hole through the damn thing with a missile.

After the warriors piled out, squad two and accompanying kan were already primed and ready to assail the raider and decided its squishier contents were probably a better choice anyway. Combat was a wash, each side losing one wound.

TURN 5

Our opponent shifted his guys around a bit, moving the wracks towards the far kan wall to get off a great shot against one of the wraithlords, who received its first wound of the match. The non-immobilized ravager, tired of taking potshots at the lone pathfinder, shoots at boyz squad three, dropping four wounds on its eight-boy squad. All four saves were made with boxcars. BOO YA! Sadly one of the boyz celebrated a bit too loudly and gave his position away to a warrior with a blaster, who took his head off at the knees.

Not to end on a sad note, though, as our intrepid grotzooka kan and nob laid waste to the stuck-in warriors, who lost combat by two and failed their morale check. Rolling 4" for its fall back move, the nob squad cranked out a seven to tie to sweep. Huzzah! Just to put a point on it, they consolidated 5" straight into the remaining warrior squad.

On our turn, the only kan wall big enough for the title advanced on the wracks after my opponent mentioned they didn't have anything that could even glance them.

This turn the wraithlords continued their streak and wiped out two more wracks and took out the splinter cannon on the razorwing--the first damage done to the damn thing in either of my games that day. The pathfinders took some more potshots and laid out a couple of wounds.

The kanz, in a fit of accuracy slapped the remaining wrack and haemunculus with two missiles, causing instant death instantly. Shooting also saw four warriors laid out from shoota fire, which was exactly odds. The kan assaulted the ravager, whiffing, while the boyz and big mek filleted another two warriors.

Our opponent rolled for game length and it came up a 2.

RESULTS

Final score was 9 to 1 I believe, us having lost the wave serpent way back on turn 2. Between massed shoota fire, 4+ cover saves and an interminable amount of T4 bodies, dark eldar were overrun handily. However, I am uncertain the match would've ended so one-sidedly had the wyches not mishapped into perdition, but we may have had enough firepower on that side of the table to clean their clocks.

I also am generally very leery about splitting my orks up like I did here, but with eldar support on the left flank it worked out fabulously. The kan wall on the right flank even disintegrated just as the boyz reached assault range, so perfect.

The MVP this match has to go to the kanz, without which there would've been no game.

Conversely, Hero of the Game definitely goes to the wraithlords. I think my partner was pretty disappointed by the disparity in dice we were rolling on any given turn, but to be completely honest I think those wraithlords put up enough pressure to break the left front.

2011.10.29 - Space Wolves v. Dark Eldar

I played my Loganwing list against a reserve heavy Dark Eldar list. I forgot to grab a list from my opponent, but from memory it looked something like this:


A Challenger Appears: All out of bubblegum...
Haemonculus
Duke

~10x warriors, raider, blaster
~10x warriors, raider, blaster pistol
~10x wyches, raider, 2x hydra gauntlets

5x Wracks
5x Trueborn
5x Incubi
5x Scourges
6x Reavers

2x ravagers, one with lances & one with disintegrator cannons.
1x Razorwing

Pod, pod, pod, pod, pod: You have how many terminators?

Logan

3 squads of 5x terminators in pods
1 squad of 4x terminators in a pod

4x Long Fangs w/ ML
4x Long Fangs w/ ML
4x Long Fangs w/ MM, pod


I will note here that the actual match didn't happen as it is pictured. I got a little forgetful about notes and pictures during turn 4, and I think Logan actually died then. Another example is that I am pretty sure I popped the raider that started on the board, but can't remember when. Instead of guessing as to what happened I just made up a new story from my notes and the pictures.

My opponent rolled game type and deployment: we ended up at annihilation and pitched battle. I won the roll to go first, but opted to go second. After deploying, I decided to try and seize, but failed.

TURN 1

Top of the first was pretty empty, seeing as how most of my army was sitting on the side of the table, but my opponent had plopped down his wracks, a squad of warriors and his incubi so he had something to shoot with. He also put down a raider near the wracks, which looked like a juicy target for those podding long fangs. Lastly, he put his small group of trueborn into the other structure. On my turn, I put the first missile long fangs into the cover near the table corner and the other behind a decrepit building, hoping to climb up turn 1 and get a good vantage over the table.


The fangs got shot at with a hex gun or what have you, along with a splinter cannon, but they survived unscathed.

At the top of my turn, my pods make their assault. I put Logan in with the multi-melta long fangs and dropped them next to the raider on the board; Team Arjac dropped in to harass the incubi and warriors hiding in cover; the G team dropped in behind the other ruin where my opponent's trueborn were chilling. Shooting saw 4 out of 5 incubi demolished, along with 3 of the trueborn scrubbed out from Team G. A most excellent beginning. The raider also took a face full of melta and survived to write home about it, but fortunately was immobilized.

Logan moves in on the left while Arjac demolishes the incubi. Not pictured is Team G laying waste to some trueborn scum that thinks buildings beat missiles.

TURN 2

My opponent got extremely lucky with his reserve rolls, netting his razorwing, his wych raider and a ravager. His fighter almost scattered off the board, but the other two landed roughly on target. The ravager shot at Team G and dropped one with a lance, but the storm shield absorbed the rest. The razoring decided the long fangs hiding in the bush were a bit too much dakka for its all around armor 10 and popped off two with a couple missiles and its ridiculous amount of firepower, though to be fair both missiles went wide. The warriors popped off a terminator as well, and the pod Logan rode in was similarly decapitated. Not to be outdone, two of Logan's long fangs died to S1 attacks from the warriors.

Assault saw Logan get charged by the wracks. He made his counter-attack, which was good, but he also took a wound. His squad crumbled around him.

On my turn, I miss both rolls for my pods and shooting was awful. I think the only thing that hit was a missile against the raider near Logan, which immobilized it. Assault wasn't much better, but Logan ended up chewing up a significant portion of the wracks. Note I forgot to shoot my pods yet again.

TURN 3

The rest of my opponent's reserves came in, which included a reaver squad that made farting noises in the general direction of my entrenched long fangs but not much more. The ravager shot its entire payload at Team G, but Team G was celebrating their partial victory over the trueborn with a conga line at the time, which coincidentally let them all line up behind the storm shield and take not a single wound. Poor ravager.

The wych deploy and shoot, but they bounce as well, though the recently arrived scourges drop two long fangs hiding in the bush. The razorwing polishes off two more long fangs and they break towards the board edge.

Assault saw Logan demolish the remaining wracks, leaving him to face the haemonculus alone. Arjac traded one for one with a warrior--amazin--but Team G did a bit better, killing two trueborn for one of their chainfisted brethren.

My turn saw Team O drop in from the heavens, right next to the wych raider. Lone Wolf Long Fang regroups as well, and pops a shot off at the razoring which does nothing. The other long fangs carve out a fat chunk of reaver flesh for dinner, leaving two surviving by the end of turn 4. I can't remember when they all died exactly, but I know the drop pods lit a few up as well.

Team G throws down its melta at the ravager and hits a fuel line, causing it to explode in a brilliant but not quite deadly fireworks display. Arjac shoots, whiffs and decides to take his anger to a more personal distance, not quite killing any warriors. Disgraceful. Team O charges the wych raider and kills it, because charging into wyches would've been silly, right?

Logan finishes off his friend and cowers in the smoking crater that was his chariot.

TURN 4

Warriors shoot and charge my long fangs, killing two. The jetbikes whiff again, but a raider polishes off Eyjolf's long fangs that had previously inhabited the bush. The razorwing has no luck either, and whiffs 12 shots. The wyches charge, roll a bajillion attacks and end up killing three out of four Team O terminators. They consolidate towards Team G, while the scourges hang out in the open. Delicious.

The northern close combat sees Arjac die, leaving one terminator to hold the line.

Thankfully on my turn my pod comes in to unleash Team S: five very drunk wolf guard. They were so drunk they hit every scourge, annihilating them. This was a big mistake for me I believe, but compounded with all my other mistakes this game it was really just par for the course. I shoot and charge Team G into the wyches, not realizing how much they hurt, but end up killing three in shooting and zero in close combat.

TURN 5

Shooting saw the razorwing continue its harrowing existence by leveling two more terminators.

 Team G knocks out two wyches, finally, and takes no casualties in return. The warriors close into close combat and drop a long fang, while the sergeant plays with himself. The lone cyclone terminator of Team Arjac dies as well.

On my turn, Team S goes wide with both of its melta shots, but drop pods go for broke and take out two of the warriors from the duke's squad, which had previously been in combat with Arjac. Wyches steamroll another terminator with 27 attacks, which I suppose really says more about terminator resiliency than wych ferocity, leavin two terminators facing four wyches.

Thankfully, my opponent rolls a 1 for game length, ending the match somewhat prematurely.


RESULTS

In the end, I had 7 KP and so did my opponent, leaving us at a draw. Had the game gone on and without a lot of lucky rolling in the next turn, though, I would have lost by at least two, likely three points.

For me, my MVP was absolutely my drop pods. They wiped out the reaver squad, sucked up a ton of high S/AP fire and three lived to tell the tale. They even got two glancing hits off to stun the razorwing and immobilize a raider.

The hero of the game was definitely Bjorgulf, the sergeant in the ruins. Although I have written it like he got assaulted in Turn 5, it was actually the top of Turn 4, which means that he survived alone against 10 warriors for four assault phases.

Review

First off, my deployment of drop pods was fucked. I overexaggerated Logan's abilities and it cost me a lot, namely Logan and a squad full of S8 AP 1 dakka. I think I played too reactively, and I can tell you now I had no other plan than to get stuck in combat. This did not end well. After looking at the pictures I took during the match I am pretty sure I killed twice as much outside of combat as in it.

I also need a better system of notes and pictures. And to paint to stuff.