Wenesday Night Gaming: ORKS GALORE! Plus, a query.

Last week I had a game with Dougie, pitting my Ghostwing against his (dusty) Orks. Dougie fancied a change from his usual Chaos outings, so out came the Green Tide from the shelves and onto the tabletop. So follows a mini-batrep...

Note: There’s a rules query that puzzled us here at Wednesday Gaming Night, calling all Grey Knights and Ork enthusiasts for assistance! (scroll to bottom if you want to skip the mini-batrep)

Here were the lists:

Envy the tide of green!

 We both took our ‘take-on-all comers’ lists, with some tweaks (e.g. double psyfleman for me and Interceptors, to replace a squad of Termies and give me flexibility, 2 squads of Killa Kans for Doug) and had a bash. We rolled off and again, the game was Seize Ground + Dawn Of War, just like my last game with him, with the objectives right in the middle! Dougie went first, and it was no surprise to anyone that his Orky models outnumber mine over 3-to-1.

THE RESULT

In short, it was a fun game where we both rolled loads of dice, and the game dragged on to Turn 7 in which I was completely wiped out, and Dougie had his Lootas, Tankhuntas, and a squad of Boyz left sitting on 1 objective. Dougie’s consistent dice rolling, and numerous bodies ultimately won the day.

Had the game ended on Turn 5 or 6, I would’ve won but alas them’s the breaks!

THE HIGHLIGHTS

All in all it was a fair, and fun game with the following Orktastic highlights:

1.       Zogwort failed his Psychic test on the 1^st turn, rolling double 6’s.

2.       Zogwort managed to turn my Librarian into a Squig. D’oh!

3.       Lootas, Tankbustas and a squad of 20 Boyz managed to Destroy! Both my Psyfleman, and 4 out of 5 of my Termis in Turn 4. Termies died when I failed all their armour saves, rolling 4 ‘1’s consecutively. Good luck for Dougie, bad luck for me.

4.       Looted wagon arrived very late in the game and all shots missed and scattered, bar a critical template hit that killed 4 out of 5 of an Interceptor squad in Turn 6.

5.       A single Interceptor chased a fleeing Ork Mob (with Zogwort) almost 6 inches away from the board. Thinking now would be a good time to charge the fleeing cowards, with a 50/50 chance of destroying them outright, the Orks rallied (rolling double 1’s) and regained dominance of the objective, prompting a bitter fight to the end in which an objective was left unclaimed by all due to mutual wipe-out (Damn you insta-gibbing Nob Power Klaws!).

This proved to be a costly mistake which I paid for dearly, and will remember for future use.

THE ANALYSIS

Also in hindsight my mistake was in my strategy. In my first game with Dougie (him being Chaos) I hit upon the ‘refused flank’ technique, overwhelming one side of his forces in a first turn alpha-strike from which he couldn’t recover. I tried this technique again against Laur but was completely ringfenced and effectively contained by a cordon of Rhinos, and thus the deployment of my Modrakwing was shockingly bad.

This time I tried spreading my eggs in many baskets, having independent forces spread far and wide to force Doug to commit one side or another, relying on my combat-squadded teleportation shunts to redeploy when needed but also playing conservatively (hanging back and letting rip with my piss poor Stormbolter and Psycannon shooting, rolling below-average), but alas I began to run out of steam eventually as the game dragged on longer and longe, and the lack of LOS=blocking cover meant my GK’s were shot at by all and sundry.

Note to self: Grey Knights are not meant to be spread thinly.

No doubt that the Grey Knights made mincemeat of all they attacked, with the combo of Stormbolter fire and force weapon attacks, they did manage to shred all they came in contact with and I dominated the objectives for the 1^st 5 turns, but Mordrak himself did not cause enough of a dent to the Orks to cripple them sufficiently to prevent a resurgence in the later parts of the game.

That and the silly mistakes I made (see Highlights above).

THE QUERY

Calling all Grey Knights and Orks players! Help Wednesday Night Gaming, in our hour of need!

Our query is this, one which a Google search has failed to provide an answer:

Q. How do Psyk-Out grenades affect Old Zogwort?

Zogwort being a Weirdboy is definitely a Psyker (as stated in his army list rules). His Initiative and Attacks are both 2. However, he has a piece of wargear called ‘Nest of Vipers’, that is worded accordingly:

“Nest of Vipers: Old Zogwort has an additional D6 Attacks at an Initiative of 4. All of Zogwort’s attacks are poisoned attacks that always wound on a 2+”

Ignoring the poisoned attacks portion, this means Zogwort, can have 2 attacks (3, if on the charge) at Initiative 2, and a potential +D6 attacks at Initiative of 4.

But how does this work with Psyk-Out grenades? Psyk-Out grenades reduce any and all Daemons/Psykers Initiative to 1, if assaulted.

Therefore, ANSWERS:

1.       Are all of Zogwort’s attacks reduced to Initiative 1, including the Viper attacks? This is my reasoning, he’s a Psyker and therefore his Initiative is reduced to 1 from the grenades, irrespective of wargear.

2.       Psyk-Out grenades should not affect Zogwort! “Mixed initiative attacks, too complicated! Psyk-out grenades should not work, Grey Knights are too cheesy! Oh wait let me turn your independent character into a squig... “ – This is an argument as put forward by Dougie.

3.       Should Zogwort’s 2no. base attacks now be at Initiative 1, while his ‘Viper’ attacks (+D4) stay at Initiative 4 as per the wargear description. Do the ‘Vipers’/wargear, not count as a Psyker  in itself, an argument put forward by Laurence?

Answer no.3 is how we continued playing, to keep things fair. Please let us know if we got this right.

This quandry belies a further question: Do Psyk-Out grenades affect wargear that changes a unit’s Initiative?

At first I would argue of course it won’t, as Psyk-Out affects Psykers, not the wargear they carry. Equipment should only affect other equipment if it stipulates it in the rules, e.g. Ulumeathi Plasma Siphon.

But then I read the recent Grey Knight FAQ, which presents us this puzzle:

“Q. If a model with a Nemesis Force Halberd has had his Initiative reduced to a fixed number by an ability/special rule, do they still get the +2 Initiative from the Halberd? (p54)

A: No.”

Obviously someone’s been playing Grey Knights Vs. Grey Knights!

By implication a Psyk-Out grenade will render a Psyker so useless, they can’t lift their polearm to give themselves +2 to their Initiative, and their wargear is now irrelevant. Reading between the lines, Psyk-Out WILL reduce all Psykers to Initiative 1, any wargear they had that could affect their Initiative is now ignored.

Or is it? Zogwort’s wargear doesn’t give him +3 Initiative to his D6 attacks, these extra D6 attack just stays at an Initiative of 4. The vipers are attacking at Initiative 4. Are the Vipers Psykers? Can wargear be Psykers? Arghh.

Does a ruling in one army’s FAQ affect another army entirely? Double Arghh.

Again we played it re: answer 3, with some of Zogwort’s attacks at Initiative 1 and others at 4, to keep things fair.

But what do YOU think?