Wednesday Night Gaming: Stop Da Breakout

Here at Wednesday Gaming Night, Laur has convinced us to give the recent GW Armageddon mission supplements a go (variations of the existing standard missions).

So being the IG player and Doug being the Orks, naturally we had first crack at this ‘Stop the Breakout’ mission.

Unlike an objective-based game, this is a twist upon Annihilation with following summarised points:

Da Humie Rulez

1. IG get a point for every unit they successfully get off the board (at the Ork player’s edge), and half a point for every unit still left alive.

2. Also, any IG unit broken and fleeing can rally (even under 50% strength)

3. IG get to deploy, and go on the first turn, deploying in full and running desparately  from a packed urban cityscape edge across into the ash wastes of Armageddon.

Da Orkz Rulez

1. Orks in turn deploy only 2 troops and 1 HQ a la Dawn of War, everything else in reserve coming in at any table edge (as long as the resulting move ends up 12” away from any IG unit) as per reserve rules.

2. Orks can steal the initiative on a 5 or 6, and they get a point for every IG unit killed.

A twist on the normal Annihilation mission! (to fluffily represent the fictitious event of the Hive defenders of Armageddon attempting to break the Ork line and flee into the ash wastes in order to regroup later for a counter-assault, which features only Blood Angels. I know, it doesn’t make sense whichever way you slice it but hey ho, that’s 40K fluff for you). For more information check out GW’s website and PDF rules.

A disclaimer

As blog activity is rather sporadic of late due to Real Life (tm) concerns (e.g. work, more work, and even more work) which has resulted in me falling behind on my painting and blogging, I’ll present to you a cribbed battlereport unlike the long rambling play-by-play accounts with diagrams and in-depth list analysis and whatnot.

So just highlights and photos. Sorry to disappoint!

Escape From Armageddon! Da Playerz

Point limits were set to 1500 each.

 The IG list (mine) was based around mobility, mech, and throwing in an Ogryn squad for some hard-hitting action, as follows:

Primaris Psyker (HQ)

Vet Squad, 3 Meltaguns, Chimera

Vet Squad, 3 Grenade Launchers, Chimera

Vet Squad, 3 Flamers,, Powerfist, Demolitions (Demo charge, Meltabombs) – riding in Valkyrie

Ogryn Squad – 1 Bone ‘Ead & 5 Ogryns, Chimera

Valkyrie Gunship – Multiple Rocket Pods, Heavy Bolter sponsons

Hellhound

Sentinel Squad – 3no. Scout Sentinels

Punisher

Hydra

The steel cavalcade

Ork list (Doug) was built around getting as many bodies on the table, as follows:

Big Mek, Shokk Attack Gun (HQ)

Wazdakka Gutzmek

Shoota Boyz – 20no. boyz (inc. 1nob, 2 Heavies)

Shoota Boyz – 20no. boyz (inc. 1nob, 2 Heavies)

Shoota Boyz – 20no. boyz (inc. 1nob, 2 Heavies)

Tankbustaz – 8no. boyz

Tankbustaz – 8no. boyz

Lootaz – 7no. boyz

Grot Artillery (Big Gunz) – 3no. boyz

Looted Wagon

The thin green line

A hard and tactical game was then fought between IG and Orks, a game of cat & mouse where IG were trying to get off the table and Orks trying to contain, and massacre the humies. Both sides had a very thin, spread deployment (IG relying on mobility to reposition themselves late and drive in a wedge through the thinly spread Orks). After 5 turns these were the  noteworthy events:

Ork Highlights:

1. Stealing the Initiative, going first and deploying Tankbusterz to the rear of the Valkyrie blowing it up on the first turn (despite it going full tilt during its Scout move)!

2. Demolitions vet crew killed by Ork small arms fire immediately after

3. Looted wagon removed the Hellhound’s weapon, and destroyed it eventually.

4. Tankbustas immobilise a Chimera, forcing my Grenadier Vets & Psyker to dig in deep in cover.

5. Ork boyz destroy another Chimera and kill all the Meltavet passengers. (they and their ride had launched themselves into the mass of boyz killing loads and forming a traffic block to buy some time for the rest to escape)

6. Ork boyz further overwhelm and kill the squad of Sentinels (again the Sentinels had provided fire support and formed a subsequent  traffic block to buy some time)

Tankbusta-proxies (Eldar guardians) on the Valk's 6.

Kablooey

IG Highlights:

1. Hydra takes out the Big Mek on it’s first turn, and causes a weapon destroyed and immobilised result on the Looted Tank later on.

2. Combined arms fire take out a squad of Tankbustas and eventually 1 squad of shoota boyz (20 Orkz).

3. Punisher takes out the other squad of Tanbustas but is then consistently Shaken! By the Lootaz.

4. Ogryns chew through an impressive amount: charging, then killing Wazdakka, followed by a squad of 20 boyz,  and then finishing off the Grot artillery before them and their transport scoot off the board, losing only a single Ogryn throughout !

Ogryns commence their Orkish massacre, starting with Gutzmek

The result:  

Orks had 6 points outright (Valk, 2 Vet squads, Chimera, Hellhound, Sentinel squad)

 IG had 5 points (2 for the Chimera & Ogryns escaping, ½ points for the Punisher, Hydra, Chimera (Immobilised), Chimera, Grenadier Vets, Psyker)

Orkish Victory!

To be fair on both myself and Dougie, it was a hard-fought battle and we both played a tad on the conservative side, holding back and fighting a war of attrition before really going for it.

I would test the line, shooting and testing for a weak spot. Eventually Doug’s flank consisting of tankbustas, artillery, the looted wagon proved to be just that, and I rammed the Ogryns straight through!

Unfortunately, despite the Ogryn’s stellar performance (yes, you heard me right!), the rest of the crew lagged behind too badly and time ran out before they could make their escape. In hindsight, everything I had on the table should have gone out at full throttle, pushing ahead desperately and forming more effective tarpits to stop the Ork onslaught.

Obviously if I had decided to take a couple more Hellhounds would’ve tipped the balance! The Orks getting the first turn also didn’t help my cause (taking out the Valk from the get go I felt really tipped the balance in the Orks favour)

Final Analysis: 

All in all, this twist in the game parameters proved a welcome change to the standard Annhilation missions. No sitting back and taking pot shots at the enemy for the Imperial Guard! A total re-think of the list has to be considered, focusing on tough sacrificial units, hard-hitting line-breakers, and fast, mobile mech units to give yourself the edge (of course I couldn’t resist including a Hydra in the unlikely event of Nob Bikerz).

So if you’re an Imperial Guard player and fancy something different, give ‘Stop Da Breakout’ a go!

The Orks stop da breakout