ARMY OF THE WEEK: 1850 Battle Report Orks Vs Grey Knights (Blue vs Grey)

Played at the LGS in Tampa last night against a Grey Knights player by the same name of Patrick (same name as me) in what I consider a close and interesting game. I considered several armies to bring and settled on Orks as I have not used them much except during the Apocalypse game a few weeks ago. Even so, not much of the Ork codex came into play as most things such as units and vehicles die so easy in that game that I could not call it an official game using all the rules as such.

He had the special HQ that had the Ghost Knights in tow (about 5 I think), Crowe, 2 Units of Purifiers with psycannons (full) in Rhinos, 1 Unit of Interceptor (teleporter squad with psycannons), 1 Dreadnought with a pair of TL Autocannons, Vindicare Assassin.

I had Warboss on Bike with Klaw and Cybork, Mek with Cybork, Klaw and KFF, 30 Boyz with 3 Rockets and shootas, 2 Trukk Squads with Nob with Klaw/Bosspole, Trukks has Red and Ram, Battlewagon with single big shoota, red and Ram. 15 Burnas with 3 Rocket Launchers on Meks, 12 Lootas, Snikrot with full unit of Kommandos with 2 burnas and 20 Ard boyz with Nob with Klaw and Bosspole.

We rolled for the Mission and got Kill Points and Spearhead deployment. He won the dice off and picked his side. Deploying the Interceptors central, the Dread just behind, Crowe off to one side behind a Rhino full of Purifiers, the other Purifiers off to the other. The Terminators in reserve and the Assassin would infiltrate.

My deployment was basic, Lootas into a high building, one squad of boyz near a rock formation for cover, the rest in reserve. Burnas jumped in the Battlewagon with the Big Mek. The Warboss on bike ambushed with Snikrot (see latest Ork FAQ, yea dumb but figured what the hell).

Turn 1:

Failed to seize and he moved a little. I lost several orks from the Boyz squad to storm bolter fire and the Vindicare sniped the Nob with a 2 wound round. Lost a few Lootas. He also landed his Terminators near the Lootas. They had one turn to live.

My first turn was quick, I moved the Boyz into cover, fired a few shots killing a few Interceptor Grey Knights, the Lootas followed suit and wounded a few more despite only getting 1 shot each.

Turn 2:

His next turn took the terminators into the Lootas wiping the squad out. The rest of the army shot at Ork Boyz in cover. The Vindicare tried to snipe one of the Rocket Launchers but the cover save was passed and the boyz managed to hold out despite terrible losses. Cover saved them from this round of brutal shooting.

Next round I got the Battlewagon, Kommandos, Ard Boyz, and 1 Trukk. One was stuck in reserve! At first I was going to send the Wagon into the Terminators and try to use the burnas to either flamer them down or try to break their armor and wound them as power weapons. Based on the halberds in that squad it would have ended badly for me. I ended up deploying the wagon to the far left side outside of the quarter I deployed in earlier as I could use the long edge. The Trukk rolled in beside it with the Ard Boyz behind for cover. The Trukk boyz deployed out towards the Rhino. Snikrot and Warboss moved in from the back side behind the Interceptors. I called the Waaaggghh and charged forward. I was in range to do a few assaults. The bonus move for the Trukk boyz got me close to the Rhino. Then I opened up some shooting. Some rockets and shootas caused a shaken result and a storm bolter to be removed. Assault phase kicked in. The Kommandos hit the Interceptors. The boyz failed their terrain test and failed to surround the rhino, which was my hope, pop it and trap them inside. The Boyz beat up the rhino and forced the Purifiers out (didn’t get to use the Klaw). The Kommandos took a few losses, then ate the Interceptor Squad, we slipped back into cover and waited.

Turn 3:

His turn took an interesting swing. Crowe moved to assault the Kommandos and Warboss. The Sniper and Dreadnought fired into the Trukk and Wagon. The Trukk failed the KFF roll and exploded on the spot after rolling on the mishap chart. Lost 2 Ard Boyz I think. Lost a few more boyz to fire from the Terminators, again cover helped. The Purifiers shot up the boyz that wrecked their ride and assaulted them. He also got an assault with the hammer on the Trukk. Crowe killed the Warboss with his psychic “if I die, you die” power. Ugh! The other Purifier squad got out of the Rhino and tried to kill a few Kommandos and get an assault if possible. They failed their roll.

I pushed the Kommandos into cover, fired both burnas, wounded the Vindicare and killed a few Grey Knights. Once the assault was over, the Vindicare was dead but so was the rest of the Kommandos after an ugly bout with the Grey Knights. After we discussed moving the wagon, I opted not to move it and moved the Ard boyz around it to setup to clean house. I opened up on the Purifiers on my side, multiple burnas and rockets wiped them from the table in short order.

Turn 4:

He moved his terminators closer the boyz squad once 30 strong was a handful of survivors took a few more losses. The Purifiers started to run to the other side of the board, he moved his rhino to safety to avoid my lucky rocket launchers blowing it to hell and back. The Dread opened fire on the Battle Wagon again, again saved by the KFF.

My turn was again a quick one. A few shots into the Purifiers closing, he lost a few to a lucky rocket shots. The Wagon raced forward, out came the Mek and Burnas, 3 rockets streaked towards the Dreadnought and blew it to hell and back. I had expected the Klaw to be the one to finish it off. A nice surprise if you ask me. The other Trukk arrived, I started to move through a building rolling a nice “1” on the dice. Well, I had ram at least, then promptly rolled another “1”. The Trukk fired off a bunch of accurate shots and killed a few Purifiers that turn.

Turn 5:

He advanced up again, the boyz was down to less than a half dozen now. To my surprise they held out well without a Nob leaving two rockets left when it was all said and done..

The Burnas and Mek loaded up the Battlewagon and drove around the wrecked Rhino ready to pounce. Next turn he would be in assault range. Again, a few big shoots, pistol shots (Ard Boyz) and rockets thinned down his Purifiers to only 2 in the squad. Roll to continue happens.

Turn 6:

Terminators and the two Purifiers make a multi charge on the Ard Boyz and the two surviving rocket launchers in the Boyz squad. The Purifiers BBQ a few Ard Boyz and one rocket go down. The power weapons sliced of the rest like butter on a hot knife.

I roll up the Battle Wagon, 12 flamers and 3 rockets fly towards the Terminators. The Trukk Boyz gets out and prepares to assault the Purifiers. Oddly, again they both died due to the big shoota and some pistols! So, they are standing around with the mushroom in their hand waiting to be assaulted. Just a rhino, HQ choice left! The flamer wounds his HQ and a ghost knight appears to replace the one I burned down. *sigh*

We roll, we continue to 7!

Turn 7:

This was a fast turn, he wiped out the last Trukk Boyz squad and the disabled Trukk. The Wagon rolls up again, flamers away! I killed another terminator and wounded the HQ again, again he restores one! ARG! After something like 50+ flamer hits I killed 2 Terminators and wounded his HQ twice!

Kill Points Tally:

Orks Dead: Warboss (on bike), Boyz Squad, Ard Boyz, 2 Trukk Boyz squads (and transports), Snikrot/Kommandos and Lootas. Giving him 9 totals. I only had a Battle Wagon, Mek and Burnas surviving. (Don’t recall 100% if the last truck was gone or not, but I am counting it anyway).

Grey Knights Dead: Dreadnought, Vindicare, 2 Purifier Squads, 1 Rhino, Crowe and Interceptor Squad. Giving me a total of 7. He had was survived with his HQ with Ghost Knights and a Rhino.

A bloody game indeed! If the game ended on 5 I would have won. Maybe even on 6 I could have pulled a win or a draw. After 7, I would have had to wipe both the HQ and Rhino to draw. If I was more thoughtful I should have fallen back more and kept away from him instead of trying to fight it out like an Ork. Alas, that was not part of my Kunnin’Plan.

Unit Reviews:

Snikrot and Kommandos: Did well, they finished off the Interceptors, Vindicare and killed a few Purifiers as well as wounded Crowe before they died. A good showing.

Burnas: Earned their paycheck taking down one Purifier squad, 2 terminators and threw a few wounds on the HQ to boot.

Trukk Boyz: Didn’t earn their keep. The one squad downed one Rhino, the other finished off two Grey Knights then died. A few big shoota shots claimed a few more GK but not sure if enough to call it a success.

Boyz Squad (30): They got the Mork Award of bravery and shooting deftness. Serious, they held out against the odds and died to man, took down a few Grey Knights, maybe not their point value but drew enough fire to allow others to do stuff.

Warboss (on bike): Meh, he killed Crowe and died to a craptastic power. Didn’t get to do much this game.

Mek (KFF): That KFF saved all but 1 shot against the Trukk. This was a major ace for the game for me. If that Wagon went down, it could have went REALLY bad for me.

Battle Wagon: Did well enough, got the unit from point A to B and survived well enough.

Lootas: VERY disappointing performance. Their one shot of glory was a 1! Then died to the Terminators of DOOM!

Ard Boyz: They were pretty much wearing toilet paper against an army with power weapons. Even the 4+ I needed a few times against explosions and storm bolters didn’t cut it.

In retrospect I should have went with more large blocks of Boyz Squads. Ditched the Trukks and Ard Boyz for them.