Elias Tiliakos wrote:
> So, as the rolls turned out, I was to be the defender, and I got the low
> ground with City/Ruins. This game was pretty much an introduction to
> E40K for the other two guys (Paul and Andy L.)who were there. Paul was
> commanding the Orks with me, and Andy L. was commanding the SM portion
> of Andy S.'s combined army. As it was an introductory game, we decided
> to play without the hidden setup rules. BIG MISTAKE! This scenario
> doesn't work well without it, we would find out. I had to set up first,
> and I also had to use the reserves rule. Imagine my horror when only one
> out of six detats (two of which were gargants) showed up!
I definitely agree with Elias about this, though it did not really occur
to me until later. The Orks were stuck with the reserve rule, without
the hidden setup to make up for it. The fortifications they got were
not much compensation. However, the main difference it would have made
was that in the first turn my side wouldn't have known how many of them
were really there, and some of the blast markers we put via night
spinners would have been wasted. Who knows what would have happened
with the tac marines we dropped.
> Second turn, I let Paul roll for reserves, and we got 4 out the 5 remaining
> detats!
This lessened the degree by which they lost out for not using hidden
setup. But I don't think it makes up for it.
> Third turn, the THawks came in for a second run, taking out a sizeable chunk
> of what was left of the stompa detat. The MegaG rumbled forward in an attempt
> to get something in its HWB's fire arc and range so that a Krooz Missul could
> be shot at the Scorpions (three of them) on the hill directly ahead. BIG
> MISTAKE! One thing I learned the hard way is that though the Mega Gargant can
> take quite a beating, especially when it has a Warlord in it (automatic max
> shields are kinda nice, no?), IT CANNOT DEAL WITH THAT MUCH FIREPOWER!!! Well,
> massed AT shots, anyway. Those damn scorpions managed to take it down to about
> 3 DC, and then one of the shots was a critical. In less than one turn of
> firing, my MegaG was turned into a monument to the destructive power of Pulsars.
> At this point we called the game, as the MegaG had 7 BM on it when it exploded,
> and was worth 14 morale to begin with. 21 morale in one big basket. Ouch.
Wheeee!! :-) This was lots of fun, for our side, anyway. My partner,
Andy L, was playing the Marines on our side. He put a detachment of
devastators on overwatch. I was really worried that they were going to
be out of range, but they were in. (The Land Raiders with their
detachment weren't though.) But, boy, were they ever clumped up. We
absolutely _had_ to down that megagargant--it was going to eat us up in
its firing phase. We had a detachment of predators, a whirlwind, and
Land Raiders also shooting at the Megagargant, plus some falcons and
fire prisms. When we got to the War Engine shooting phase, we had two
chips in the cup to the Orks' one. We decided to play the fate card
that wins initiative. I rolled 5, 5, and 4 for the scorpions' pulsars,
and we had no blast markers on 'em. The 4 went against a Gargant
nearby, and the 10 finished off the megagargant. Whew!
I think the rest of the game still could have been tough, but we had a
lot of firepower in the middle that was still available. His other
gargant had a load of blast markers. I can't remember if its fields
were gone or not, but it was definitely low on them, and maybe had some
damage, too. Still no blast markers on my scorpions. He did have a big
assault detachment about to hit the flank, but I think we could have put
some overwatch on them, maybe some night spinners.
Things I learned:
1) I agree with Elias about hidden setup.
2) Pay attention to your stats. I took some Nightwings, just in case he
took fighta bommaz. But I was picturing them doing sorta like the
Thawks I've had in the past, able to put fp on units without danger (but
see below). I hadn't noticed they only had 15 cm shots, and that plus
the front firing arc makes that tough. :-) They did a little bit, but
not much. I think they only made it onto the board once.
3) I was aware of flak and snap fire as threats to aircraft. Gotta
remember psychic blasts, too. :-) They'd have had a few more blast
markers if that attack had gone off. I must say, the temptation to
overuse Thawks is pretty strong, though, with their 30 cm shot.
4) Taking a small assault detachment against Orks makes 'em tough to
use. :) I had two Wave Serpents with swooping hawks, and I just wasn't
sure what to do with them, against Orks that tend to win initiative in
the assault phase, and against detachments so much bigger. I took 'em
to try 'em out, so don't regret it. But I didn't really have an idea
what to do with them. I think I could have used them OK against a
detachment consisting mostly of battlewagons (by that point), but I took
them out of their transports in the movement phase. I guess I'm still
not that comfortable with such a long move in the assault phase. I
could have held the wave serpents back and still assaulted where I
wanted to go. As it was, my swooping hawks got shot up in the firing
phase before they got to the detachment they were supposed to hit.
5) Similarly for my jet bikes. I wasn't at all sure I wanted to bring
them within 15 cm of anything. I got them up behind cover near the
enemy, but most were still out of range. I would have lost a few more
if they had been in range, though. They're definitely intended to be
used with other troops.
andy
--
Andy Skinner
askinner_at_...
Received on Tue Mar 03 1998 - 13:45:17 UTC