Welcome back friends!
I've been on a Warhammer 40k adventure over the past few months and have just started getting to the play table. This have been really exciting as I'm so new that everything is novel and delightful. I've found a wonderful Local Game Store, last Friday, I was able to sneak away for a quick thousand point game.
Thousand point games are perfect for me. They are smaller engagements that make learning the game easier for me. It's also much easier to fill out a 1000 point list than a full 2000 point army list when you are first getting started.
At this point, when I saddle up to the table, I'm not at all concerned with winning or losing. I've spent the last months buying, building, priming, basing, and readying for paint all kind of Ork units ... Now I get to see how that play!
This week I rolled up with this list:
All and all this is a basic Ork 'Bully Boy' list made to utilize detachment rules that benefit my MegaNobz, Nobz, and Warboss led mobs. I really don't have any idea what I'm doing and this is my first time trying Bully Boys so I'm trying to keep things simple.
I met my opponent, a really kind player I had seen around the store before who is playing Necrons. They are a much more experienced player who has signed up to help show me the ropes. I still have a lot of clumsiness around the attacking process so this is very helpful.
We explained all our units to each other, deployed our units, and rolled for first turn. I lost, this is a major bummer for orks.
We both were set up along respective sides of the table and had spread our army fairly wide. My deployment looked something like this:
Right Flank: Lootas and Gretchin.
Left Flank: Lootas with a Trukk half full of Nobz driving in
Middle: 20 boyz with warboss and weirdboy.
Reserve: MegaNobz and Stormboyz
It looked a little something like this.
The Necrons made good use of their first turn getting line of sight on my 20-strong mob of boyz and starting the massacre. They also did some serious damage to a group of Gretchin approaching a objective. Then passed.
My turn! Time to do the Orky thing and jump right in! My 20-strong mob brought that weirdboy for a reason! Weirdboys are Ork psychics who can interact with The Warp. They can cast an awesome spell called 'Da Jump' that allows you to move the units the Weirdboy is attached to anywhere on the board thats 9" away from the enemy (as long as you don't roll a 1 when casting).
Long story short, I rolled a 1. This is a terrible start.
At this point I'm starting to feel tilted. I would feel a lot more tilted if I didn't smoke a bowl before this game but, the stress is present. I get to play one game a week, I have not taken my first turn, and my army is crumbling.
My fisr turn did not end up having much effect. My lootas blasted some Necron Warriors but mostly my army just moved up the board hoping to be in charge range ASAP.
At the start of turn 2 I walled the WAAAAGHH, this will help my orks in every way, also this WAAAAGH is going to extend to Turn 3 due to the Bully Boys rules and, if anything can turn this around that would be it.
What came next can only be described as pain. Necrons use gauss weaponery that tears the flesh from your bone like some sort of twisted magnet for organic matter. They also had some sort of weapon that hit whoever you are shooting at AND anyone within 3". A lot of Orks died.
My half of turn two and it's time to pull out all the stops. I charge stormboys at the left flank objective, cover the middle objective with goblins, accept that lootas was a mistake, and call in the big guns.
My Warlord and his six mega-armored bodyguards teleported in behind their largest units. If it's time to pick a fight we're picking da big fight!
Over the coming turns I was able to cut through the opponents heavy armor fairly well. That was extremely satisfying! It went a long way to prove that my strongest units can take down the strongest enemies of other factions fairly easily in the right circumstances.
The problem was that they had won the middle of the field and my left flank was in full collapse. Even if they MegaNobz and my Warlord COULD win their fights they could not fend off the rest of the table and I called the fight.
With the hindsight being 20-20, I made a ton of mistakes. Here are the biggest ones:
I took to many supporting units and not enough stuff to win the battle. I then marched my Gretchin into open battlefield with no cover to capture objectives turn 1 and they were torn apart. The Lootas held their own but battlefield cover was not enough to protect them.
The Trukk half full of nobz with no warboss was a halfmeasure. It was a fair amount of points with no real reward. I could have used it much better as a mobile bunker for the Lootas.
Pretty much everything that happened to my 20-strong mob was unfortunate. I cant help rolling a 1 on Da Jump but I should not be getting chewed up be enemy fire turn 1. I'm also realizing that the Blast keyword is on a lot of weapons and that can do a lot to tear apart a large unit.
All and all, I got my ass kicked. It's a good thing I also had a ball, learned a ton, and feel like I understand how my army plays a lot better.
Next time I play I'm going to take what worked from this list and maximize it. Expect to see at least 2 Trukks, fewer support units, and more Orky violence! I really hope I can pull off Da Jump next time. I'm realizing that, if I take both a Weirdboy AND a Warboss with Teleporta I can set up a large portion of my army wherever I want on the board turn 1. This could be a great way to start the WAAAGH earlier, still capture objectives early, all while providing screening for my gretchin to do their work.
All I know is I'm having a great time. My wet-pallet was delayed so I'm focusing on house projects until I can start painting.
I also started a new army but, that's another article entirely. Until we speak again, please take care of yourselves and each other.