Batrep: Orks vs. Tyranids (1584 pts)

I don’t play nearly enough 40k–especially when you consider how much crap I have laying around.  Well, lucky for me Brandon finds himself in a similar predicament, so we teamed up and put forth a little effort to rectify the problem…

Ork Horde:

• HQ:
  • Warboss w/ ‘Eavy armor, Attack Squig, Boss Pole, Headwoppa’s Killchoppa
  • Weirdboy (mastery level 2)
  • Painboy w/ Bosspole
• Elites:
  • 4x Nobz w/ 3x Big Choppa, 1x Powerklaw, Waagh Banner, ‘Eavy Armor
  • 10x Tankbustas w/ Nob & 2x Bomb Squig
• Troops:
  • 20x Shoota Boyz w/ 2x Big shootaz, Nob, Klaw, Bosspole
  • 20x Shoota Boyz w/ 2x Big shootaz, Nob, Klaw, Bosspole
  • 11x Gretchin inc. Runtherd w/ Squighound
  • 12x Boyz in trukk inc. Nob w/ Powerklaw w/ Reinforced Ram
• Fast Attack:
  • 1x Blitza-bommer
  • 4x Deffkoptas w/ twin-linked Rokkits
• Heavy Support:
  • 1x Deff Dread w/ Grot riggers
  • 1x Deff Dread w/ Grot riggers

From what I recall, this is a fairly standard Ork list from Brandon.  This is due in no small part to it being basically every painted ork he has (though he does have some burna boyz done up as well, but I guess he forgot them at home).  I don’t think it’s any thing spectacular as a whole (though I will go out on a limb and say that Warbosses are too damn cheap and they seem to kill everything in the Tyranid army with ease), but I also don’t think there’s a single bad choice in the army either.  It’s a big bunch of decent models looking for some bugs to squish…

Hive Fleet Proteus:

• Elites:
  • 1x Maleceptor (Dominion, Psychic Overload, Onslaught)
  • 1x Zoanthrope (Dominion, Warp Blast, The Horror)
  • 1x Zoanthrope (Dominion, Warp Blast, Catalyst)
• Troops:
  • Spawn of Cryptus (Warlord) + 8 Genestealers
  • 10x Genestealers inc. Broodlord (Dominion, The Horror)
  • 10x Genestealers inc. Broodlord (Dominion, The Horror)
  • 15x Hormagaunts
  • 15x Hormagaunts
• Heavy Support:
  • 1x Toxicrene
  • 1x Tyrannofex w/ Fleshborer Hive
  • The Beast of Phodia

So, I inadvertently went with another unbound list.  Like always, list construction for me involves a lot of changing around.  I wanted to start off with a walking hive tyrant (something I don’t use all that much) and then started building around that.  I wound up tossing in some units from the Shield of Baal (Cryptus & Phodia–which if you don’t know what they are, think of a Broodlord and a Carnifex, and jack up their price a little bit).  In doing so, I noticed that the Spawn had a warlord ability, so I mistakenly thought he was an HQ and replaced my Hive Tyrant completely to save points.  Sadly, he wasn’t and wound up breaking my force org (which is particularly bad because this is one game where having “objective secured” would’ve really helped me).

Otherwise, I started throwing in other units that I seldom use.  Sure, the army wasn’t going to be ultra competitive, but the worst case scenario would be that I lose, right?

Mission & Deployment:

I always forget what missions are called.  We deployed as Dawn of War and played the mission where you accrue one strategic objective for each point on the battlefield you’re holding per turn (up to 6 total).  We diced off for deployment, and he chose the side that had more terrain in the deployment zone.  I won the roll for deployment and opted to let him go first (since I didn’t have any real long range shooting and didn’t want him to get the charge on me…

Turn 1: Orks

All in all, this was a relatively quiet on the Greenskin front.  He moved forward with his Gretchin, trukks, and dreads–well, I guess with everything to a certain extent, but he was careful to keep them back a little ways to ensure that I wasn’t the one getting the first turn charge.  He didn’t have a large amount of long-range firepower, so he only managed to plink off five genestealers that turn (spread out over two squads), so he couldn’t earn first blood.

He did manage to get the card for Supremacy, so by the nature of there being two objectives in his deployment zone and one in mine, he scored that automatically at the end of his turn.  At least he only got one point for it…

Score: Orks 1 vs Tyranids 0

Turn 1: Tyranids

With his warboss and company coming up my flank, I wanted a way to pop open the tank and then charge him.  Sadly, I didn’t really have any way to break armor at range, so the best I could’ve done was to blow it up in assault and let him get the charge.  Instead, I opted to try to bubble screen my monstrous creatures with ‘gaunts and take out his tank with the fleshborer hive (I had let him convince me that it was conceivable to do so).

Spoiler alert: I did a single hull point of damage.

Elsewhere, I didn’t have any targets in assault range, so I just moved things up into cover where I could and tried to hold whatever objectives were available.  I did manage to snag four of them (scoring a single point for holding objective #2), but could I hold them all until next turn?

 

Score: Orks 1 vs Tyranids 1

Turn 2: Orks

My bubble wrap scheme might’ve been the best option I had, but I didn’t execute it all that well–leaving a path through the woods for him to jump out of his truck and charge my Toxicrene.  That was the bad news; the good news is that we were both surprised at how well he does in combat.  With six attacks wounding everything on a 2+, and ignoring armor, he’s not too shabby (plus on a 6, all wounds inflict instant death–not that I got any of those, mind you).

He managed to live through the turn thanks to a whiff from the warboss, but the rest of my units didn’t fair quite so well.  I wound up losing one Zoanthrope to rokkits, most of both of my squads of ‘gaunts to his unit of Trukk Boyz, and big chunks of two of my genestealers squads to his air support (who managed to roll an ability that let him effectively fire twice at my unit).

Despite suffering fairly heavy casualities, he only scored a single point, making it seem (on paper at least) that we were still fairly close.

Score: Orks 2+1 vs Tyranids 1

Turn 2: Tyranids

Despite ending my last turn on four objectives, he managed to assault my entire line and wound up contesting most of the objectives.  In total, I only held one objective at the start of my turn, and that was due to my mistake in list building.  As I said above, I had mistakenly assumed that since the Spawn of Cryptus had a warlord power, he was an HQ, and doing so had broken my FoC and robbed me of “objective secured.”

Most of the time, I don’t think that’s a big deal, but in a game where you’re already down at the start of turn two, having two more objectives could’ve really helped (especially since those two objectives were contested in combats for much of the game to come).

My toxicrene fought bravely, but didn’t have enough luck to hold out another turn (despite having some help from my Maleceptor who tried sniping his warboss and succeeding, but the dude rolled a 4 on 3d6 for a leadership test). Elsewhere my ‘stealers held up, and the Beast of Phodia single handedly crushed and ran down a squad of Trukk boys, but that was about where my bright spots ended.  I had positioned myself so that I had the potential to kill off characters in four combats (Three in challenges with broodlords, two of which whiffed horribly and another which failed to make the charge because I forgot the Spawn of Cryptus has stealth).  The last combat had two monstrous creatures wading into a half defeated unit of orks.

In total, I did manage to kill off a single character (only because the Beast got lucky in running him down), but hey–a point is a point…

Score: Orks 2+1 vs Tyranids 2

Turn 3: Orks

With his warboss free, he helped his brethren dispatch the Maleceptor (rolled two hits including a single six, so I died instantly.  Actually, that was one of the only models in my army that gets a save against it, but I failed my 5+).  The Tyrannofex didn’t stand up to his dreadnought, so that basically cleaned up that side of the board.

Elsewhere his rokkits had taken out my other Zoanthrope, and I was quickly down to just a handful of genestealers as my only units left–well, them and the Beast of Phodia (come to think of it, he probably should’ve had to make a leadership test–but maybe the Zoanthrope was alive at this point too?)

Between the massive carnage that was my army falling to pieces, and a frantic objective grab, Brandon managed to score six more points this turn, leaving the game hopelessly out of reach.

Score: Orks 8+1 vs Tyranids 2

Turn 3: Tyranids

Maybe I should’ve conceded the game at this point.  By turn three, I’d been virtually tabled, but one part of my game I really want to improve upon is my sportsmanship.  Some of my friends, like Simon and Albert don’t win a lot of games, but they do an amazing job of staying optimistic and upbeat throughout the process.  So, in an attempt to learn from them, I kept pushing on.  I grabbed what I objectives I could and made him come to me.  The one exception was the beast wound up stepping around a corner and tried to take out some rokkit launchers (both to thin them out and to knock them off an objective).

He was not successful at either.

Score: Orks 8+1 vs Tyranids 2 (again)

Turn 4: Orks

Brandon managed to charge my warlord and squish him, and pushed forward towards my other units.  Between his rokkit boys and deffkoptas, the Beast of Phodia was reduced to a smoldering crater, and my last unit of genestealers on the edge of the board fell prey to a few lucky rounds from a big shoota.

He managed to score another two points for objectives and a third for killing my Warlord.

Score: Orks 10+2 vs Tyranids 2

Turn 4: Tyranids

At this point, maybe the proper strategy was to call ‘no joy’ and charge his dread–instead I opted to bolt my one remaining broodlord across the table to see if he could score the objective over there.  By turn 5, that didn’t end well for him, and he died before he could make it through another turn (which shouldn’t be too surprising as he had an entire army firing at him).

Score: Orks 10+3 vs Tyranids 2

That was the first time I’ve been tabled in a while, and one can make a lot of excuses for it.  Sure, my list wasn’t super competitive, but I attribute it more to some of the mistakes I made, plus the fact that Brandon played a solid game with very few mistakes.  Luck played a factor, as it does in any dice game, but I think it was winnable from the start–I just didn’t play it right.  Will have to try harder next time…

What I Learned:

1. Spawn of Cryptus is not an HQ.  Not having obj. secure was actually a factor in this game.  I should read my codex.
2. Shield of Baal units are bad.  The spawn is just a broodlord with hard constraints on his unit, that costs a little more and gets preferred enemy/stealth.  Granted, he’s not bad, but not great.  The Best of Phodia was just a sub-optimized Carnifex.  I’d run him again, but only because I’m glutton for punishment…
3. Improve on bubble screens.  I messed up on my tactics.  I must’ve figured since there was a forest there he couldn’t get around it?  I don’t know what I was thinking… but it was a definite misplay.
4. Toxicrenes aren’t bad in assault.  Their gun is terribad–as it only shoots 12″, but in assault, he’s not horrible.  Unfortunately he’s in the heavy support slot, and only has armor 4+ (plus has those horribly tentacles which make him basically unusable on the table), so there are just better choices available.
5. My army needed better high strength range weapons.  When I played the game I felt that way, but really, that’s something the Tyranid codex really doesn’t have much in the way of.  I deal with vehicles with Zoas (had them) or Monstrous Creatures.  It’s just unfortunate when those creatures have a WS, and I don’t have a carnifex against them.  Maybe I should’ve pushed the Beast of Phodia up the middle to deal with the dreads?  That likely would’ve been a better solution for me…