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Fighting
Tigers: Other
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Campaigns Return
to Auros IX: Battle #5 by Patrick Eibel and Kenton Kilgore For this game, we each had 8000 points, but
cramming all those figures on my 8’ x 4’ board would be difficult, to say the
least. Kenton and I agreed to start
the game with each of us having 2000 points of our armies on the board, then bring on the rest in 2000-point increments each turn,
starting with Turn 2. This nicely
represents waves of units rushing to battle, and hopefully would alleviate
crowding. Usually, we list our entire armies at the beginning
of our battle reports, but for this one, it makes more sense (and is easier
to read and comprehend) to say what units show up on the turn they
arrive. So let’s talk set-up and
deployment and go from there.
Brutality awaits! Setting Up by
Patrick Eibel As we had for every game in the campaign, we played
at my house on the Blood Deserts boards that we used for much of the first Auros campaign.
Something that we’ve never mentioned before is that after that first
campaign, Kenton gave me those boards as a symbolic prize for “winning the
planet.” So that’s why all the games
for this new campaign have been at my place.
Not to mention, I have a new baby, so getting out for gaming is not as
easy as it used to be. I set up the table according to the standard
Apocalypse rules, dividing it roughly into thirds, which I marked off with
painter’s tape. It’s our habit that
one person arranges the board and the other guy picks what side(s) he wants,
so Kenton chose the end with plenty of open areas for shooting. We then took turns placing objectives, two in each
deployment zone, plus two in the “no-man’s land” between them. Objectives at my end wound up on top of a
bastion and in the wreckage of a Fighting Tiger Rhino that had broken down in
a stand of scorched trees (yes, you can find the occasional clump of trees in
the desert. At least, that’s what
Kenton says, and he used to live in Arizona). One objective in “no-man’s land” was among a
collection of oil cans and the other was atop another bastion. An objective in Kenton’s zone was at an
“oil refinery” and the other was at the tippy-top of a watchtower attached to
a fortress. We agreed that all the bastions and fortresses
counted as 3+ cover saves, and that the hills and craters were difficult
terrain. We also agreed to an 8-hour game
to be played over two days: whoever had the most objectives at the end of the
8 hours would be the winner. Kenton won the roll to see who would go first and
deferred, allowing me the first move but necessitating that I set up first. Turn 1 by
Kenton Kilgore I love when Pat plays Greenies or Nids, because then I can chillax for a long while with a
beer or twelve while he sets up all those dudes. Pat took the opportunity this game afforded
him to try out a number of Orky datasheets, some
from the Apocalypse book, some from the Games
Workshop website. He started off the
game with the following on the board:
Ork deployment. That big black thing is Pat’s Big Mek Stompa, made from cardboard When he got done plunking down all that, I set up
these fellows, most of them in or near the Big Honkin’
Fortress™ (BHF) in my deployment zone:
Because
I don’t own any Apocalypse-sized Space Marine units, Pat was kind enough to
loan me his Baneblade. Almost all of
the units I deployed at the start of the game were static, long-range shooty units (even my Chapter Master, with her Orbital Bombardment) that could start
spitting out serious firepower as soon as Pat’s Fungus Fellows trundled their
happy green butts towards me. Which,
because I had made him go first, he would have to do. I may only be a Steelers fan, but I’m not a
complete idiot.
Fighting Tiger deployment. The thing next to the
Baneblade is a scratch-built vehicle that “counts as” a Whirlwind I
did, however, goof with my Techmarine.
I assumed that Parvin was allowed, by the Bolster Defenses rule, to upgrade any
fortification so as to adjust the cover save by 1, allowing me a 2+ save in
this situation. However, that is not
the case: Techies are allowed to fortify ruins (normally a 4+ save), which
was not the building type my guys were occupying. I didn’t realize this until well after the
game was over, and my guys made a lot of saves they should have failed. On
the flip side, I completely forgot about the signums
that my Devastator Sergeants were packing, so during the battle, my guys
missed a lot of shots they otherwise would have made. In the end, it was probably a wash, and I
don’t think either error had any real effect on the outcome of the game. Apocalypse
allows each side at least one Strategic Asset, and for his lone choice, Pat
took Careful Planning. Because of the
funky way we were handling Reserves for this game, we agreed that Careful
Planning would allow Pat to start bringing his reinforcements early, so at
the start of Pat’s turn, he brought on:
The
bad news was that Pat had 4000 points of Greenies opposing 2000 points of Our
Stripey Heroes.
The good news was that 1) almost all of the Orks
were too far away to hurt my guys, and 2) the board was now, as we like to
say in the business, a “target-rich environment.” In
the Movement Phase, the Orks tramped forward, which
they would continue to do throughout the game (Orks
are creatures of habit like that, you know).
Eager to get cracking with his Big Mek Stompa, Pat fired the lifta-droppa
(out of range of the “White Tiger” Land Raider), the gigashoota
and the deth kannon
(doing nada against Dev Squad Agni 2 Mh), the supa-rokkit and Gaze of Mork
(hitting but not damaging the “Tyger Tyger” Predator), and the big shoota
(out of range of Dev Squad Agni 2 Gh). Deffguns from the Lootas did
exactly “bup” and “kiss” to “Tyger
Tyger,” and the Boom Wagon’s gun was out of range
of Dev Squad Agni 1 Gh. All that sound and fury, signifying
nothing, as Willie the Shakes so
aptly said. After
doing some slight movement of the Land Raider and the Baneblade, I had the
Tigers return fire. Whirlwind shooting
accomplished exactly zip, with the mass of Ork
infantry out of range. The Bane’s main
gun did skadoosh against the Big Mek Stompa, as did the Orbital
Bombardment from Khandar Madu. On
the plus side, lascannons from the Land Raider, Baneblade, Predator, and
Devastator Squads stopped all of Pat’s Battlewagons dead in their
tracks. I was willing to put up with
the Stompa’s nonsense (especially if it was going
to shoot as poorly as it had), but one can’t ignore van-loads full of
screaming, foaming Ork maniaks
amped up on steroids and gangsta rap and armed with sharp, pointy, and/or choppy
kitchen utensils and gardening tools.
It’s just not healthy. Turn 2 The
start of another turn, and time for more of Pat’s guys to shamble onto the
board. In came: ·
20 ‘ard Boyz w/ Battlewagon
(same as the mob from Turn 1) ·
Nobz
Mob consisting of two w/ klaws, two
big choppas, one combi-skorcha,
one Painboy; three w/ sluggas
and choppas; one w/ a Waaugh
banner; all w/ cybork bodies, mounted in a Trukk ·
Nobz
Mob as above ·
Trukk Konvoy [datafax]
consisting of 4 units of Trukk Boyz (w/ rokkits) and led
by a Nob w/ klaw and ‘eavy
armor That’s
about 6000 points of Orkiness facing off against
2000 points of Tigers, but again, most of those Orks
were, at that moment, no threat to the Marines. Fire
from the Boom Wagon took out a Devastator Marine from Agni 2 Mh. The Stompa’s lifta-droppa did just
as its name suggests, scooping up the “Sabretooth”
and bopping “Tyger Tyger” on the head,
immobilizing the Whirlie (no big deal) and
destroying the lascannon turret (yoi!) and the right lascannon sponson on the Pred (double yoi!) The
rest of the Stompa’s massive guns went to work on
my Devastators, dropping two from Agni 2 Mh and one
from Agni 2 Gh.
The Killa Kans
clanking along with the Stompa fired at the Devs as well, but were out of
range. At
the start of my turn, I brought on the following:
These
were more mobile units that were able to respond to the Ork’s
movements, with a mix of anti-vehicle and anti-infantry weaponry to take out
rides and pesky Fungus-oids that got too close.
Attack Bikes and Sternguard,
most of them mounted in Razorbacks, reinforce the Tigers already on the board Duly
reinforced, the Tigers moved on to the blasty-blast
part of the show, killing 10 guys from Sho-T’s
Green Tide, knocking down one power shield on the Stompa,
taking out a Battlewagon full of ‘Ardboyz (killing
some of them in the kersplosion, too), nuking
another Battlewagon (loaded with Mad Dok Grotsnik and Burna Boyz), and making another bunch of ‘Ardboyz
go to ground (and thus, doing nothing next turn). As
I had hoped, the game was becoming a shooting gallery, with Orks getting jeeted out of
their rides, forcing them to waddle slowly down the length of the board,
taking more and more casualties the closer they got. It was looking good for Team Stripeypants, but then, it was looking good for the humies at the beginning of the Battle
for Helm’s Deep, too, didn’t it?
And then THAT rapidly turned to suck…. Turn 3 Pat’s final group of
guys came on:
The Trukk Konvoy used its ramming ability to shove one Trukk far forward towards the Tiger lines, at the expense
of knocking off said Trukk’s big shoota. No
matter—there was plenty more dakka to be had.
Da Kult
uv Speed zooms onta da bord, waaaaaaaaaayze away from da Tiggers—but
donchu worry, deyse gotta kunnin’ plan…. Pat apparently doesn’t like Attack Bikes (or what
they do to Orks), because he threw a bunch of fire
at them. The Deff
Koptas and R2Ork2 were out of range, the Killa Kans and the other Ork Dred whiffed, but the Lootas
killed one Attack Bike from Kali Squadron 3, and big shootas
from the Green Tide wounded one Attack Bike from Kali Squadron 2. More
effectively, the Stompa’s lifta-droppa
picked up the Vindicator “Tiger Claw” and plopped it on Kali 2, wiping them
out. The fall also immobilized my tank
and knocked out its demolisher cannon.
The giga-shoota on the Stompa
killed one Attack Bike from Kali 1 and wounded another before the deth kannon polished off the
squadron. Rude! Fortunately,
the Gaze of Mork did nada to the Land Raider
Crusader White Tiger 2, and the Stompa’s big shoota failed to hurt anyone from Devastator Squad Agni 1
Gh. More
fortunately, none of the Orks were anywhere near
charging range, and that’s always a Good Thing.
Inspired by their mascot, Spot, the Tigers continue
to hold the line On my turn, the
following Tiger reinforcements came on the board:
I
picked these shorter-range, uber-shooty units (some
with some serious close-combat ability) to show up at this time because I
thought that by Turn 3, the Orks would be all over
me like white on rice. They were not
(yet), but these new guys were still good to have around.
Terminators, Tornadoes, and a Dreadnought show up
at the other end of the Tiger line to stave off the oncoming Greenies My
shooting took down several (i.e., I forgot to count) members of the Green
Tide mob, as well as the runaway Trukk (and its Trukk Boy passengers) who were near my lines. Our Stripey
Heroes also immobilized another Trukk (and its
cargo of insaniak Ork Choppa Boyz), wrecked the Boom
Wagon, and shot down two Deff Koptas. More importantly, however, I managed to
knock out the last shield on the Big Mek Stompa and take out its Annoying-As-All-Get-Out lifta-droppa! Turn 4 With no more reserves, Pat’s guys kept on with the keepin’ on. The
units in the Kult of Speed group used their special
Strategic Redeployment ability (granted to them by their datafax)
to make a zoggin’ ‘ooge
move up the board—a much longer move than they would ordinarily be able to
make—uncomfortably close to my lines.
Suddenly, my guys were in real danger of being engulfed by a tsunami
of Orks.
A zoggin’
‘ooge ‘orde uv Orks Fortunately
for me, Ork shooting still remains on the
“Not-That-Good” level. Deffkoptas and ‘Ard Boyz fired at my Attack Bikes, to no avail. The second unit of ‘Ard
Boyz (Pat could bring more than one, because there
are no restrictions on number or types of units in Apocalypse) were out of
range of my Terminators. Lootas took out two Land Speeders from the “Tiger Shark”
squadron and shook the other one. Big shootas from the Green Tide had 30 shots on the “Flying
Tigers,” hitting 7 times, shaking one, stunning another, and blowing the
assault cannon off the third. The
Killa Kans stunned one
Speeder from the “Flying Tiger II” group, and the giga-shoota
from the Stompa immobilized one Speeder from the
“Tigers Maruti” and stunned the other. But that was all for that, and still no Orks were in charge range of my guys. At start of my turn, my final detachment came on
from reserves:
Yes,
as a matter of fact, I *do* own eight Tactical squads, and I like using them
all. When fighting greenskins,
my strategy is to spend most of the game shooting them, then
rush to grab objectives when the tide of Orks has
turned into a puddle. These Tac Squads were coming on the board at this time to go grab
(or at least contest) some real estate.
As for the SM Captain, I just like the character (first introduced way
back here)
and I brought him strictly for fun. I
finally used my Strategic Asset, which was Strategic Redeployment. At the beginning of the game, I had thought
I would use it to get away from Orks that were too
close, but now I used it to unclog the massive traffic jam of vehicles and
infantry that I had in my deployment zone, repositioning units that were
blocked by others or by terrain.
Shrouded by smoke grenades, Rhinos full of Tactical
Marines rumble into the battle The
Baneblade, the Terminators, Dreadnoughts, Rhinos, Razorbacks, Land Raiders, and
the remaining Attack Bikes and Land Speeders surged forward, the Rhinos
firing smoke launchers. The Baneblade killed six Warbikers
and two Nob Bikers. Termies and Dreads killed five Orks
of the Green Tide, Whirlwinds killed three more
(damn those 4+ cover saves!). With
one lascannon left, the Tyger
Tyger Predator took out the giga-shoota
of the Stompa.
Devastators shook two Kans and a Trukk, killing four passengers. Speeders destroyed another Trukk, killing four more passengers and pinning the survivors. The Attack Bikes’ multi-meltas
fried another Trukk and killed four of its passengers (do I hear an echo in
here?). Other shooting took out an additional Kan and shook another. The
end of Turn Four and *still* no hand-to-hand combat with Orks. That has to be some kind of record. Turn 5 As
they are wont to do, the Orks kept surging forward
in a huge line from one side of the board to another. Shooting from Lootas,
Bikers, and Foot Boyz broke down one of my lead
Rhinos, taking off the guns and immobilizing it. Pat’s Warbuggies
shot down a Land Speeder, and the rokkits of the Tankbustas (disembarked from their ride this turn)
dropped my Dreadnought Vashtar. Fire from the Killa
Kans took out one member of Devastator Squad Agni 2
Ghuyarashtra, which, while unspectacular, is better than what the Big Mek Stompa managed against the
same target.
The Orks relentlessly
advance…. Surrounded
by the Green Tide, Warboss Sho-T
BigHed finally called a Waaaugh!,
but Pat rolled a “1” and the Boyz, seemingly
frustrated with the lack of “gettin’ up-klose-an’-perzonal-like,” started fighting prematurely and failed to
reach their targets, the Terminators. The
home team was more successfully at the other side of the table, where the ‘Ard Boyz assaulted and wrecked
an oncoming Rhino (power klaws are bootiful tings). A
mess of Trukk Boyz
assaulted the last two Attack Bikes, and while two Boyz
purchased the agri-world, the Nob (again, with
power klaw) waxed the Bikes but good.
Carnage as the Tactical Marines and Sternguard dismount from their transports and open fire
on the Orks Time
was starting to run out. I had Tac Marines clamber out of the wrecked Rhinos as best
they could, but some failed difficult terrain checks or couldn’t stay more
than an inch away from Orks and were
destroyed. Despite a target-rich
environment, the Baneblade crapped out on me, its big gun taking out two Nob
Bikers (and wounding one) and two regular Bikers, while its demolisher cannon
and lascannons missed. Elsewhere,
more Marine shooting stunned the driver of the Stompa,
and a Whirlwind took down a measly two members of the Green Tide. Combined shooting from Tac
and Sternguard squads (the latter of whom had
finally disembarked from their Razorbacks) took out the ‘Ard
Boyz (despite them hugging cover), and immobilized
or crippled Warbuggies. The
Terminators of Indra 1 Gh
fired into the Green Tide, killing “lotz” (i.e. the
Ork name for any number greater than five), then
charged. The Orks
dropped one Stipeypants, but the Termies hammered nine, then
caused the Orks to lose six more due to the morale
rules regarding Fearless
troops.
Terminators of Squad Indra
1 Ghuyarashtra charge into the Green Tide mob Venerable
Dreadnought Shiva the Destroyer fired into the Tankbustas,
scorching nine of them (heavy flamers are beautiful things), then charged and
killed two more. But after 7 hours and
50 minutes of play, we called the game, with Sho-T’s
Blood Axes holding four objectives and the Fighting Tigers with two. Pat took the game and the campaign! Final Results Campaign Points for Pat: 13 Campaign Points for Kenton: 4
Da winners! Post-Game Analysis by Patrick Eibel Once
I saw the board and determined Kenton’s strategy was to sit back and shoot, I
realized that my task was to hold the two objectives in my deployment zone
and seize the two in the neutral zone.
To accomplish this task, I designated the two Loota
Mobs to hold the objectives in my zone (one of them started the game on one),
and sent the remainder of the army to clog the middle. My plan was to throw so much at Kenton that
there would be no way for him to kill everything. By
the time Kenton made his move to contest no man’s land, it was too late. I had too many bodies in position to keep
him from getting close to the objectives.
This was by design, as I focused my shooting on either fast units
(bikes, speeders) or on shooting units that could threaten a lot of my
scoring units. Kenton noted in the
write-up how little close combat there was.
This also was by design, as I was more concerned with screening the
units in the back rank than sending suicide squads into his guys. Preparing
for the game was really a lot of fun.
8000 points allows you to field a whole lotta Orky goodness, and I
still had units in cases! I really had
fun picking datafaxes that would work with my
army. Some were awesome – the Dred Mob
was uber effective – and some were more interesting
on paper – the Konvoy really never got going (pun
intended). This
game really lived up to all expectations as the last battle in the
campaign. Although we don’t do it
frequently, there is just something innately cool about really huge
battles.
Post-Game Analysis by Kenton Kilgore As
I alluded to earlier, it’s silly for “vanilla” Space Marines to rush towards Orks, because despite what initial success one might have
in the Shooting Phase, the much-more numerous Orks
will simply own one’s Marines in the Assault Phase. The key to winning against them is to sit
back, winnow them down with shooting, then go get
objectives and secure victory. Pat,
being no dummy, designed the perfect army to counter that. Had the game continued for a few more
turns, I might—might—have gotten
some units in position to challenge or take some of Pat’s objectives, but I
doubt it. I was playing the same old
strategy, and Pat had a new and better game plan. Hats off to him. Several
things went wrong for me in this battle.
I had several expensive units that either did nothing at all (Chapter
Master, Space Marine Captain) or spent most of the game doing nothing (the Sternguard units inside their Razorbacks), only acting
when the battle was already decided.
This was an Apocalypse game, yet I didn’t take advantage of any of the
numerous Space Marine datafaxes available. The Baneblade, while interesting, was not
effective considering its points cost: Pat had and made lots of 4+ cover
saves against it. My forces were
jammed into one end of the board and often got in each other’s way. I should have Deep Struck the Terminators and Land Speeders down at the other end
of the board to challenge for the objectives there and make Pat divert some
of his forces away from my lines. And
so on. Nevertheless,
the game itself was a lot of fun to play and I had a great time. After the sh*tfest that was Battle #4, I thought I would never—no
hyperbole—never play another game
of 40K ever again: I really, honestly, was that honked off. Though I
lost this game, it restored my enjoyment of the hobby, and I am looking
forward to many more years of friendly competition against my best friend. Return to Auros IX Posted April 2011 |
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Fighting
Tigers: Other
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