One Last Apocalypse - Advanced

Carnage on the dance floor

Round 2 of the mega-apocalypse goodbye-5th-edition game continues apace, taking up the entirety of Wednesday Night Gaming's nighttime slot to play, with the 3rd round to be played next week. Highlights include the following:

Wednesday Games Night: The Scouring of Boros - Part 2 of 2

Ed: Any Zombies out there?

Shaun: Don't say that!

Ed: What?

Shaun: That!

Ed: What?!

Shaun: The zed-word. Don't say it!

Ed: Why not?

Shaun: Because it's ridiculous!

- Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Wednesday's Games Night! It came, it went. The Scouring of Boros campaign continued as Ultramarines (led by Lysander?) with everyone's favourite Zombie Marines, the Legion of the Damned (LotD) fought an uphill battle against the Orks. Their mission? To contest every bastion held by Orks. If they failed to do so, the Orks win. So...

Dowel rod & balsa quad interceptor gun. The height of Imperial technology!

How well did they do?

From last week's post, I discussed that L (Marine player) should have taken more accurately deepstriking LotD units based on the mission fluff, objectives, stackable bonuses (e.g. all Lotd come in on a single reserves roll, every melta and flamer weapon goes Vulkan Hestan for the first turn the Lotd arrive, etc), but instead an emphasis on survivable termies weas pursued, with 2no. combat squads assault marines with jet packs for mobility, and 2no. combat squads Lotd.

Against a lot of Orks.

The proxy Legion of the Damned believe in affirmative action.

It certainly doesn't help that by the beginning of turn 2, all of L's jetpack marines were decimated, his termies were going to be bogged down in combat or shot to pieces, and IMHO poor placement of deepstriking Lotd (one squad of which was going to be assaulted by Snikrot), the other squad had a mishap, and is placed by D (Ork player) at the far corner of the table to sulk. Onwards to the highlights!

Turn 2 Orks:

1. Orks shoot with everything they've got. Lysander takes a wound, the Dread is shaken, 2 termies are taken down, and Snikrot arrives with his Kommandos. The Legion of the damned look worried..

Ork plastic surgery is so advanced these days. Those Kommandos look just like S.A.S!

2. And they should be. Losing a Kommando, Snikrot wipes out a LoTd combat squad (+ sarge) on the charge. Meanwhile, the mob in the ruins of the bastion-fortress attacks and kills off the Chaplain, leaving the Termies.

Pile in! There's plenty of room!

3. Lastly, 30 Orks pile out of the far right corner bastion, charging 4no. Termies. They lose 2 of their own, killing 3 termies. Sweet hot! dice rollin', and now the blue cheese stands alone.

Party like it's 2nd Edition, baby!

Turn 3 Marines:

When reminded over how long L took (2 hours) to play his last turn, and that things should be hurried up, the response was: " I will take as long as I want to take."

Note to self: Will remember that quote the next time L disallows me to fire a pie plate from a basilisk because I ran out of time, due to L stalling over time calculating and re-calculating to hit ratios, to wound ratios, and armour saves during my turn of shooting.

1. L takes his shots. Bang bang bang! Even with multiple blast plate hits, only 5 Orks die.

2. Everyone advances. Termies charge the Orks in the ruins, reducing 13no. Orks to 8, who break and run. They lose 1 of their own, leaving 3 left.

3. The lone termie and 30 Orks (with Nob) hit each other but nothing happens. Stalemate!

Turn 3 Orks:

1. Lootas fire their Deffguns, 39 shots, at Lysander. He saves them all. Meanwhile, Orks in the Fortress fire at the group of Termies in the ruins, killing 2, and leaving 1 left.

2. Meanwhile, the 2no. Ork dreads (proxied as show in photo below) charge Lysander and the lone Cyclone..

Fire da Giant Tape Measurah!

Combat ensues. Lysander puts the smack down on the Dread, though the Cyclone Missle launcher is lost.

Why hello there big boy!

3. Lone termie mobbed by the Orks is killed, Orks get back into the bastion.

Turn 4 Marines:

1. The Marine forces are looking thin, but yet again they advance, and run towards their targets. They must contest! Or at least try to. The lone termie in the ruin hides against the fortress, in order to contest it by being in base-to-base contact.

2. Devastators fire away at Snikrot, killing the all the Kommandos. Snikrot himself runs off the board.

3. Lysander and Ork Dread remain locked in combat, failing to wound each other.

We are the Men in Black.

Turn 4 Orks:

1. Orks fire everything they can at the 5no. LotD squad shambling their way towards the far left corner bastion. 3 fail their 3+ invulnerable saves, leaving only 2no. LotD, carrying the meltagun and multi-melta.

2. Grots pile out of the middle bastion to crowd around the fortress entryway.

3. Lysander and the Dread are still locked in combat, at one point the fist of dorn rolls triple ones! Oh wait, it's master-crafted, you get to re-roll one result. *rolls* Another 1. Orks cheer and jeer while somewhere quiet, a Marine player's heart shatters into a million pieces.

Turn 5 Marines:

1. Everything continues moving and running towards their designated bastions, the idea being hopefullt the Lotd and Lysander can take the far left, the Dread takes the far right, and the lone remaining Termie will hopefully take on and break the group of grots, thus contesting the remains of the fortress. It's a long shot.

2. Grot weaponry is taken out by automated heavy bolter fire. Wazdakka takes 1 wound from intense firing by the Devastator squad.

3. The Termie charges the group of grots, hoping ot take out enough. It isn't, and mob rules allows them to hold their ground, preventing L from contesting the final piece of the puzzle he needs.

Turn 5 Orks:

1. D, realises that the Marines are going for the long shot, piles out his guys from the far right bastion to screen it (he still holds it if one of his boyz are in base-to-base contact with it).

Now you don't see them..

Now you do.

2. D manouevres his Orks and Wazdakka (proxied by a Chaos biker above) and gets shoots it, glances and shakes it, then gets stuck in. The group of Killa Kans (proxied by Sentinels above) damages it and blows it up on a 6.

3. The lone termie stuck into the group of grots kills a couple more, but it's not enough.

It's pretty much game over for the Marines as they have not enough to contest, but a 4 is rolled and Turn 6 is played, "just to see what happens".

Turn 6 Marines:

1. The Lotd finally get to be in sufficient range to shoot their multi-melta, bringing the far-left corner bastion down.

Now you see it.

Now you don't

2. Lysander runs up to contest the ruin, but with nothing to contest the far right bastion, the game is definitely over and L calls it quites.

Amazingly, those past 8 turns of gaming, took only 3 hours to play! Amazing how fast one can play once list building, terrain set-up, and deployment has finished.

All in all I stand by my observations: The game is already stacked against the Marines, but the game objectives and stackable bonuses as mentioned before help balance the scenario. However, an emphasis on using Termies instead of Lotd, mistakes (shuffling in a Dread from table egde instead of another LotD squad), poor placement of deep strikers (placing 2 squads close between 3 bastions and proceeding to mishap one of them as it 'lands' on an enemy unit on it's re-roll), and unlucky dice rolling, meant L did the best he could with what he was given, but even with lucky dice rolling I don't think it would have been possible for him to win.

D, on the other hand, had an easy ride. His survivable, hardy & numerous boyz stayed in the Armour 14 bastions and kept them in, he had plenty of skirmishers to tie up any Marine elements running on the ground (wazdakka, battlewagon, dreads, killa kans). The only mistake he made was forgetting to bring deffkoptas, so he had to take grot cannons instead. If he did have deffkoptas, L would have even had more of a beating, I reckon!

It would seem to me, that in the Planetstrike-esque games and missions, melta AND flamers are certainly king. It is my opinion that, in this mission, the Marine player should choose as many Lotd options, AND as many meltas and flamers as he can.

So, anyone else had go at The Scouring of Boros, or any similar tales involving Planetstrike games?

More list & match analysis come the next Wednesday Games Night!

Wednesday Games Night: The Scouring of Boros - Part 1 of 2

"When the dead walk, señores, we must stop the killing... or lose the war."

- Old Priest, Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Wednesday Games Night! The only night of the week I truly look forward to, that one night my girlfriend lets me go off to play with my little plastic toy soldiers, have some pizza and banter with the guys, and generally vent steam.

Last night, we tried out the Scouring of Boros scenario from the latest UK WD by Andrew Kendrick, a 2000 pt quasi-Planetstrike game featuring Ultramarines with an Legion of the Damned assist, and Orkz. This was also the game we featured Games Workshops (c) Fortress of Redemption (tm) as a centrepiece for our gaming, and part of the scenarios objective. Here it is:

If only!

Heh. Here is our attempt, that took us 3 hours-each per section, Fortress of Cardboard in all its glory. Albeit, it's an inch or two bigger lengthwise, but dimensionally more or less equal. We hope.

 Games Workshop, eat your heart out.

Pretty nifty eh? I was particularly proud of the balsawood lascannon (that was the section I did. Plus the walkway by the tower). It even moves! (360 degrees, but is stuck at  a 45 degree angle posture). That's D, our local Ork player counting out his numerous Boyz. To the left, a couple of cardboard buildings I made stacked up to 'count as' another bastion.

 Bang bang bang! Pew pew pew! Grown-up men-boys with their toys. *sigh*

L, our Marine player, has set up on another bastion that's pretty close to the 'Great Fortress' bit in the middle.

Now, I won't bore you with further details re: rules, setups, etc, you gotta read the WD for that stuff. What I can say though, is it's meant to be a fluffy last stand in which Marines, having 1 bastion, have LoTd and other deepstriking units, and have to flush out the Orks. Orks, on the other hand, have to survive. Orks win if they control one uncontested bastion (they own 5 at the moment, the fortress counting as 3 parts). Marines win, if they contest all the bastions, so they need at least one guy in base-to-base contact at all 5 portions OR wipe out the bastion AND it's inhabitants (as ruins still count as objectives) at the end of the game. Sounds simple enough?

Here's a rough breakdown of the 2000pt lists from what I can remember, bear in mind planetstrike army composition rules are in effect, thus all units 'scoring', more elites & hqs in attackers, and more heavies in defenders. Also, be prepared for plenty of proxying:

The Attacking Ultramarines! (L)

HQ

• 
  
  Lysander, termie armour, etc
• 
  
  Chaplain, power armour, jump pack, p.fist
  
  

Elites

• 5-men terminator squad, 1 with cyclone missle launcher
• 5-men terminator squad, 1 with chainfist
• 5-men terminator squad, all with TH/SS
• 5-men combat squad LoTd - flamer, heavy flamer, 1 p.fist
• 5-men combat squad LoTd - meltagun, multi-melta, 1 p.fist

Troops

• 5-men combat assault squad, jump packs, 2 flamers, sergeant p.fist & melta bombs.
• 5-men combat assault squad, jump packs, 2 flamers (Chaplain attached)

Heavy Support

• 5-men devastator squad, 4 with missile launchers
• 1 dreadnaught - 2 HK missles, something or other

+ 1no. bastion (Quad gun, 3 automated heavy bolters)

D & L (pictured) count their forces prior to deployment. Orkz, in formation! TEN-HUT!

 The Defending Orkz! (D)

HQ

• Wazdakka Gutzmek

Elites

• 6no. Nob Bikerz, 2 p.klawz, with bike-mounted Painboy
• 9 Tank busterz
• Snikrot + 14 Kommandoz

Troops

• 30no. shoota boyz, 1 big shoota, 1 nob with p.klaw
• 30no. shoota boyz, 1 big shoota, 1 nob with p.klaw
• 30no. slugga boyz, 1 nob with p.klaw
• 30no. grotz, with runtherdz

Heavy Support

• 15no. loota boyz
• 3no. gretchin artillery - kannons
• 1no. battlewagon - deffrolla, big shoota
• 2no, Ork dreadnoughts (individual)
• 3no. Killa Kans (1 squad)

+ 2no. bastions (3no. heavy bolters & quad gun each) + fortress (3no. bastions) with lascannon, missile launcher thingy & 4 heavy bolters).

My role in this: To invigilate the game, check up rules (e.g what happens when a bastion gets ruined with occupants, etc) and keep things in line, 3rd party measuring, ensure the game goes smoothly, etc.

My thoughts on the game itself? The rules themselves (see GW website) are interesting and flavourful (twin-linked flamers on first turn, deployment rules, etc) but to me it does seem the odds are stacked against the Marines as the survivability of the Orks, with their large squad numbers and mob rule rules, seem to favour the defenders.

Thoughts on the lists: The Marines have gone for survivability here, with 3 groups of Termies, and only 2 groups of LotD. In fact, before the game started, I walked into a mini-debate between D & L, re: Lotd composition, in which the fluff demands a greater emphasis on the LoTd purchases (obviously to sell minis, duh!) + the obvious twin-linking flamer SPESHULL RULEZ LOL gear the game towards taking LoTd, in order to flame and cleanse out bastions, reduce numbers of Orkz, etc, in their plentifulness. L's clearly taken more Termies anticipating high-rate of fire from bastions, Orks, etc, and is hoping his guys survive long enough to put in the hurt to those bunkers, instead of relying on unpredictable deep striking units (although he does get rerolls).

D disagreed with L's army composition, saying that really more LoTD must be taken, fluff-wise it would make sense. I looked at the rules, no rules saying you MUST take Lotd, just that you should. We left it that L played his list as above, with his 3 groups of termies.

One thing he didn't realise though is his Dread could not deep strike which was a mistake (he forgot a drop pod), so that has to walk in from reserve. Whoops.

D, on the other hand, confessed to me it's the most shootiest Ork list he has ever made! Lotsa boyz, lotsa heavily-armoured survivable toyz, and that nob biker pain (4+ cover save always 3+ cover save turbo boost 4+ save normally, Toughness 5, 2 wounds each, and FNP!). He did forget to bring his deffkoptaz, so was forced to play with grot artillery instead.

The game itself is still unfinished! After 4 hours, we had only just finished turn 2 of the Marines, meaning next week we'll resume with Turn 2 of the Orks. I'll do a further article sometime later regarding game speed and the amount of time one takes to play a turn, so that's another story for another time, but here's a summary of the highlights and boo-boo's:

Ultramarines new secret weapon: Diet Coke Dreadnought. Rarrrgh.

Deployment:

1. Fortress in middle of table, with 2 more bastions each at left and right corner. Marine bastion in middle at the other end. Marine player puts down craters in a way to create a 'moat' of difficult terrain around his bastion.

2. Orks deploy troops in all bastions, bikes partially hidden behind one with lootas to left corner, dreads and killa kans and artillery skulking behind the Fortress. Wazdakka sits by himself behind another the bastion at right corner. Tankbustaz sit in difficult cover nearest to Marin bastion with Battlewagon for help. Kommandos in reserve,

3. Marine Devastators in their own bastion, 2 combat squads of jump pack assault marines and 1 squad of termies to the right of the bastion, 1 squad of termies to the left of the bastion (deployed 12" within of said bastion but 12" away from any enemy unit and/or bastion). 1 squad termies, and 2 squad Lotd in reserve.

Turn 1 Marines:

1. Devastators & bastion shoot at Nob bikers. Kill 1.
2. A group of assault marines jump close and assault tankbusterz. Wiped them out.
3. Other group of assault marines jump in and flames battlewagon and bastion behind it. 7 Orks killed, and they assault battlewagon. Stunned, shaken & immobilised.
4. Termies advance forward, with one group running closer to fortress. L then realises during the assault phase that he mistakes Relentless USR for Fleet, and thus cannot assault. D'oH!

Turn 1 Orks:
1. Nob bikers speed away mega quick to the middle rear of board.
2. Wazdakka shifts slightly to get a better position for firing, everything else is pretty much static.
3. EVERYTHING fires their guns at the Marines. Of Lysander's group, only 2 Termies, and himself is left (good shootin' tex!), of the Assault marine combat squad with the chaplain, only the chaplain is left. Leadership tests are passed. For the Marines, every Dead Marine really, really, really hurts.

Who let the Squiggoth take a crap in the yard?

Turn 2 Marines:
1. All reservists arrive. Dread arrives from table edge, last group of Termies deep strikes close to right corner bastion where Wazdakka as, but scatters almost off the board, but luckily they didn't. LoTd deep strikes where bikers and artillery are, but 1 group (with melta & multi-melta) scatters, mishaps, and ends up being placed in the unoccupied far corner. L reckons their pretty much out of the game.
2. Nob bikers are shot at by almost everything until 3 are left (twin-linked flamer goodness. No more cover saves!), Lotd assault them (losing 1 of their own number) and break them, running them down when they fail leadership.
3. Wazdakka is shot at and takes a wound. Joy of joys.
4. Termies wreck a section of the fortress and it comes down! Assault Marines & chaplain assault the 30no. boyz inside it, the result being 8 Orks dead, to all Assault Marines dead. The Chaplain is still alive, the lucky bastard.

That round, Turn 2 of the Marines, he took 2 f*cking hours to play, agonising for ages over deep strike deployment.

So, the game will continue next week, with Snikrot hopefully arriving in next turn, and more Orky shooting goodness.

Have the Marines spread themselves too thinly? Is the loss of the LoTd melta unit at the far corner too much to bear? Can the Termies hold their grit and contest all 4 bastions and 1 ruin? Should he have dropped the Termies and loaded out on the LoTD? Is 2 hours to play per turn (obviously checking up rules on the go, chatting about banter, stressing out over deployment, furrying of eyebrows, speaking aloud one's mind and tactics and what-ifs and maybes, etc) too, too much?

Can the Ork player hold the line and survive to hold all his objectives? Will the artillery, Wazdakka, Dreadz and Killa Kan boyz finally kick some Smurfy ass? Will he win this war of attrition?

Find out next week.