After investing a lot of time and energy in other armies, my pal Pat and I have returned to our “core” forces: Orks and Fighting Tiger Space Marines, respectively. Pat has declared 2004 to be the “Year uv da Ork” and he has dedicated himself to reorganizing and painting his greenskins. I have launched the “Fighting Tiger Recruitment Drive,” and will be adding 40 Scouts to the 20 I already have to make a full detachment of trainees.

We’ve already fought one battle with our “new and improved” armies and decided to gauge our progress with a rematch. 
 

We played at Dream Wizards, in Rockville, Maryland, on a 6' x 4' table; the mission was “Recon.” Just a few days before our battle, Games Workshop had posted a preview of some of the revision that will be released this fall with the new 40K rulebook, so Pat and I thought we’d give them a try. We rolled randomly and determined that the mission would allow Deep Strike and Infiltration (which could definitely benefit my Scouts), and would be subject to the new Escalation rule. This meant that:

…only Troops without transport can be deployed on Turn 1 and count as concealed (use Night Fight rules) until they move or shoot. All other units enter as reserves.

That meant that I started with 60 Scouts on the board and Pat started with 6 Warbikes. Right away, he wasn’t happy, and I can’t blame him at all. He put his Warbikes under as much cover as he could. 

I put my two “devastator” Scout Squads at one end of the field, with the best possible firing lanes, infiltrated my “assault” Scout Squads about halfway across the board, and put my “tactical” Scouts at the forward edge of my deployment zone. My thought was to use the “assault” Scouts to lure the greenies out into the open, where my “tactical” and “devastator” Scouts could shoot them to pieces. If the “assault” Scouts happened to survive the green tide, they could move into the Ork deployment zone to claim bonus Victory Points.

What Happened?
On Turn 1, Pat’s bikes went first and moved up cautiously, trying to put as much cover as possible between them and my Scouts. Nevertheless, one unit of snipers got a bead on them and took down three of them. So now it was three bikers vs. 60 Scouts: not good odds at all. 

Above:  The bikes cautiously advance while the rest of the Orks wait on the sidelines 

Turn 2 started off with Pat making some Reserve rolls: Speedo, the Skarboyz, and their Battlewagon came on, as did the Basilisk and a unit of Trukk Boyz. The bikes moved up, gunning down two “assault” Scouts, the Battlewagon fired all of its weapons (allowed by the new rules) but did nada to the other “assault” Scout squad, and the Bassie fired its Earthshaker (again, thanks to the new rules) at a sniper Squad, killing the Sergeant and pinning the squad.

Above: The bikes, backed by some Trukk Boyz, move up on the "assault" Scouts

Below: The Basilisk and the Battlewagon arrive on the board

I began my turn by bringing on the Predator and an Attack Bike. The “assault” Scouts that had lost two to the Warbikes returned the favor by shooting two Bikers, assaulting the last one, and killing him. The Scouts then swept 5" (a new rule change) toward the Trukk Boyz, who were having their own problems. The Attack Bike had shot their ride and destroyed it, which resulted in the boyz being automatically pinned (again, a new rule). Pat wasn’t happy about that, but he liked even less that my Pred got in a lucky shot and nuked his Basilisk. So far, Team Tiger was loving life.

Above: An Attack Bike and the "assault" Scouts kick a little ass

On Turn 3, the second Trukk Boy unit came on and combined its fire with the Battlewagon, killing four of the unpinned “devastator” Scouts. The new Trukk Boyz got out and charged the “assault” Scouts that had taken down the Warbikes. Bad rolls ensured that my Scouts lost six but the Trukk Boyz lost eight, and the two survivors fell back 10". 

Above: Orky reinforcements arrive

On my turn, Daksha Ram and the Vindicator came on, with “Tiger Claw” firing on and killing eight of the pinned Trukk Boyz (again, thanks to the new rules about firing ordnance weapons on the move). My closest “tactical” Scout Squad and the remnants of the battered “assault” Scouts charged the two survivors of that Demolisher cannon blast and hacked them to pieces. Meanwhile, my Attack Bike stunned the second Trukk—the greenies weren’t going anywhere.

Above: The fighting continues on the right side of the board...

Pat’s luck started to change on Turn 4. His Burna Boyz and his third Trukk Boy unit came on, and Speedo and the Skarboyz went after the other “assault” Scout squad. The Battlewagon’s guns killed four Scouts and Speedo and Co. assaulted the rest, wiping them out without losing a single boy. Speedo and his pals swept 4" toward one of my sniper squads. 

...while Speedo and the Skarboyz attack the Tigers on the left side of the board

My second Attack Bike came on, and I realized (with growing horror) that I had ignored Speedo and the Skarboyz; now, I had precious little in position to stop them from entering my deployment zone and romping up and down on whatever they found. The second Attack Bike and the closest snipers fired into Speedo’s mob, killing six boyz.

Above: Tigers try to stave off Speedo and the Skarboyz

On Turn 5, the Burna Boyz drove up on some “tactical” Scouts and unloaded their flame weapons, killing five in a Marshmallow Roast of Death. The charged the survivors, pulling down two more Scouts and the first Attack Bike, which had strayed too near. The “tactical” Scouts fell back 3" and the Burna Boyz consolidated into the other “tactical” Scouts, who were also a bit too close for their own good. Speedo and Skarboyz charged the second Attack Bike, killing it (and losing one of their own), but only swept 1". My “sniper” Scouts had a small amount of breathing space….

Daksha Ram (bottom of photo) is on his way

Both sniper squads fired on the Skarboyz, but the one closest to Speedo was mostly blocked by terrain (they were on top of a huge stone skull and most of the boyz were at the bottom, protected by the rim of the skull). Only one boy died. Daksha Ram charged the Burna Boyz, but inflicted no wounds—how revolting! In the mass melee, one Burna Boy fell to the Scouts already in combat.

Turn 6 saw the Skarboyz moving closer to the sniper squad on the skull and unleashing a burna on it, killing three of them. However, the boyz rolled poorly for their difficult terrain check and were unable to assault. At the other end of the field, Daksha Ram killed an Ork but was cut down by them—gaaaah! I diverted much of my fire into the Skarboyz, hoping to break them, but only four dropped and the survivors stayed put. In my Assault Phase, the “tactical” Scouts won the combat and the Orks attempted to fall back, but were wiped out (again, a new rule). 

Above: Speedo and his boyz can't quite get the Scouts

In the end, only Pat had gained a Victory Point bonus for having an eligible unit in the opponent’s deployment zone; his Skarboyz were firmly ensconced in the Tiger end of the field. Nevertheless, I killed enough of his guys to win the game (Tigers: 942 Victory Points; Orks: 694 Victory Points).

Post-Game Analysis by Patrick Eibel
At their best, special conditions like Infiltration and Escalation can provide a change of pace to make tired missions feel different. At their worst, they can totally hose you if you are not prepared. 

The entire time we played this game, I felt like I had one hand tied behind my back. It was bad enough to have nearly my entire army start off the board, but the Reserve rolls would also mean that I would be hard-pressed to muster any kind of coherent response. In the end, I guess I am pleased that I lost by 248 points.

The other thing about this game that was difficult was using the new rules revisions. Rather than making things clearer, the two page summary of changes GW posted made things more confusing. There were points in the game in which we did not know what rule to apply—“Black Book,” Trial Assault Rules, or new edition. My advice is to wait until the actual book comes out before trying to incorporate the revisions into your games.

Post-Game Analysis by Kenton Kilgore
I agree with Pat. Though most of the rule changes benefited me (especially playing a “shooty” army), I would have preferred that we not used them. The two-page “preview” sheet from Games Workshop caused us no end of headaches. At one point, I wanted to fire an autocannon at a Trukk, but directly in the way was a scrum of hand-to-hand combat between one of my squads and Pat’s Burna Boyz. Yet according to the new rules:

Only terrain and vehicles block line of sight, NOT other opposing units.

So did this mean that I would be allowed to fire? By a strict reading of the rules, the answer seemed to be “yes.” But that contradicted all of our experience with the game, going back to the Rogue Trader days. In the end, I decided to “not go there” and chose another target for my autocannon. 

Also, the Escalation rule, as presented, means that in a third of your games, Troops with transports will not start on the board. This is fine if you have an infantry-heavy force, like I did, but not if you have a “speed” army like Pat’s Kult or my Dark Eldar. Sixty Scouts against six bikers is no laughing matter and is hardly fair—had there been less terrain on the board, those bikeboyz would have been toast on Turn 1. 

Games Workshop should not have offered two pages of ambiguous rule changes—I would have preferred to wait and get the actual rulebook.