Battle, and some observations

From: Angel <angel_stranded_at_...>
Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2003 19:41:52 -0000

Just finished a game this afternoon, 3500pts Orks vs Marines. I
won't give a blow by blow description, just a couple of points that
surprised us both.

1. Weirdboyz Battle Towers. I'd never used these before, and at
200pts I thought they were quite expensive. Halfway through the
game, I realised they were very cheap for what they could do. I took
a Bad Moon clan, with two Weirdboy Towers. The clan has 4 Nobz and
15 Boyz, so 19 orks total. That gives a LOT of firepower with no
risk. Actually I goofed, there were some dreadnoughts within the
25cm range so the Weirdboyz actually had 21 points of power. Their
heads didn't blow up, and they smashed the Marines to bits from the
back of the board! One tower wiped out a whole Terminator
detachment, still inside their Land Raiders, in one round - and with
a -5 TSM they didn't even get a bail out roll. That was a turning
point, none of his forces could get close enough to hurt the
Weirdboyz without being blown to pieces. Later on I just kept
shooting with them, risking the headbanger, and when one did blow up
it took out half the clan as well. But the battle was pretty much
over by then, and the remaining Boyz ran over to the other tower to
keep it operating at a safe level. Are they worth 200pts each? They
are worth 300, at least.

2. Rhino stampede. When the Marines saw what happened to the
Terminator detachment, they quickly jumped out of their Rhinos and
held their ground against the oncoming Orks. I sent two detachments
of Spleenrippas up one side to outflank them. They caused a bit of
damage, but the Rhinos (which weren't doing anything else once they'd
unloaded their Marines) turned and charged my Spleenrippas! Neither
of us had any CAF, so it was down to numbers and the Rhinos won
easily. 3 Rhinos for 50pts, they're very cheap and can afford to
take a few casualties. The Spleenrippas were twice the cost but were
effectively battered out of the game! Must remember that tactic, use
a whole swarm of Rhinos and charge into something, sheer weight of
numbers will win the day.

3. Pulsa Rokkits. Nice try, didn't hit a goddamn thing with any of
them.

4. I took a detachment of hop-splat artillery, towed by warbuggies.
As soon as they got within range, all but one of the hop-splats was
wiped out by a Tactical Marine Company. The one remaining gun was
virtually ignored, but it continued to fire anyway. It hit again and
again and again, and must have taken out half a dozen Marines and
several Rhinos by the end of the game. Nobody fired back at it
because they had more important targets to shoot - Stompas, Nobz
Bikeboyz, etc. The lone gun survived the game and was declared Ork
of the day :)

5. Forward Observers and Orbital Barrages. Does that card only
entitle the Marine player to one single barrage? I know it's free,
but the FO cost 100 pts and the barrage didn't kill that much in
points! What is the FO supposed to do for the rest of the game?

6. Super Heavies. Marines don't have any. We only realised that
when I put 5 SH's in my army (2 Skullhammas and 3 Stompas) and he
didn't have anything to stand up to them. What do Marine players
recommend to use instead - take SH tanks from the IG ally list?

All things considered, it was a fun game. The Orks won, but that's
not the point - it would have still been fun if they'd lost (I
laughed just as hard when my Weirdboy blew up half his own clan).

Steve
Received on Sat Dec 06 2003 - 19:41:52 UTC