Nephilim Battle Report - Orks vs Custodes

Hello!

If you've been keeping watch on the blog, you may have noticed I've not been playing many Nephilim battles recently - but I'm going to the Leicester City GT soon so I thought it was smart to at least get one extra game in before then! So here's a game with the Orks vs James' Custodes.

Somewhat similar list to the one I took against Sharpy the other day, this army is a sold block of Boyz and some big stompy things. It's a Battalion and a SHA, with only one CP spent for a warlord trait. For my secondaries I took Da Biggest and da Best, Green Tide and Get da Good Bitz.

HQ: Mozrog Skragbad (Warlord, Surly as a Squiggoth), Weirdboy (Da Jump, Fists of Gork)

Troops: 10 Beast Snagga Boyz, 4x 20 Boyz (Powerklaw),

Elites: 8 Burna Boyz/2 Spannas (2 Kustom mega blastas)

Fast Attack: 5 Squighog Boyz (Bomb Squig)

Heavy Support: Kill Rig (Frazzle, Squiggly Curse), Squiggoth

Lord of War: Gorkanaut (Big Krumpaz)

In a bit of a rematch from September last year, JP was running the Custodes. Emperor's Chosen shield host, Trajann, a Praetorian Plate Terminator Shield Captain and the 'Blade Wizard' lead two units of three Sagittarum, two units of five Sisters of Silence, two units of three jetbikes, a solo Terminator and three dreadnoughts - two Galatus and one Achillius. Custodes secondaries were Grind Them Down, Behind Enemy Lines and Auric Mortalis (targetting the Gorkanaut).

Deployment. As is their way, all the golden boys were hiding behind walls (apart from the Terminator in reserve). Burnas went on the back of the Squiggoth, Beast Snaggas on the back of the Kill Rig. Mission was Tide of Conviction - hold two, three or more and bonus points for holding objectives in your opponent's half and more for holding them at the end of the game. We rolled off, and first turn went to the Orks.

With nothing to shoot or charge, all the Orks moved up and did some secondary stuff. Boyz started Get Da Good Bitz actions on the objectives just outside the deployment zone. Da Jump went off and got a unit of Boyz out in front of the Squig and 'naut, cheekily grabbing the enemy territory objective for some bonus primary points.

Turn one for the 'stodes saw some moving to position and a bit of shooting. Melta warheads on the bikes took a big chunk out of the Gorkanaut, while over on the left flank the Squighog Boyz got taken out by the other bikes.

Turn two, time to WAAAGH!!!

The Orks picked up some primary points for holding a bunch of objectives, and secondaries were flowing in as well. Some Boyz moved up while some stayed back to continue looking for good bitz.

I realised those bikes were going to be an issue so I tried to remove them early. Easier said than done! Shooting poured in to both units, then the Squiggoth and Kill Rig charged in, and managed to kill exactly zero of them, though they didn't take much damage in return, even with the assistance of the Praetorian Plate guy vs the Rig. Elsewhere Mozrog ran into some Sisters to clear a forward objective, though not quite killing all five for more Biggest and Best points.

Though in Custodes turn two, he got himself into a bit of a situation!

The Custodes also focused on killing off my bigger units this turn. The bikes and captain on the left flank fell back in order to shoot some melta missiles in - three hits and three wounds, but I made all three 5+ invulnerables. The spear dread shot another chunk off the Gorkanaut before charging the Squiggoth, reducing it down to a mere couple of wounds - though it did manage to finish off a biker before going down and disgorging the Burna Boyz.

In the middle Trajann and the Blade Wizard charged around Mozrog (the cheek of it!) into the Gorkanaut - though the wiz nearly died to overwatch, and then the two Dreads piled into Mozrog. Trajann took out the damaged 'naut to score a bunch of points, though Mozrog interrupted and slapped down one of the two Contemptors, surviving the attacks back from the other, and netting some lovely points for Da Biggest and Da Best.

Turn two, trying again to get those bikers (and failing). Scored big on the primary again, and got some more good bitz. Two Boyz units started the actions again, while the third surviving unit moved up to charge the Sagittarum on the left enemy objective.

Burnas did a bit of shooting, taking some Mega Blasta pot shots at the wiz, who had to use his one off 3+ invun and a CP reroll to avoid damage. Annoyingly I lost a Spanna bringing the unit down to 9 models.

Mozrog then got piled into and the Blade Wiz took him out - but Orks is Never Beaten, so he fought back to kill the wizard and earn some more Biggest and Best points on his way out.

Going into Custodes turn three, and thanks to my early forward movements they were still not scoring much on the primary. The push back was on though.

Trajann, the Spear dread, bikes and the teleporting Terminator piled in to one of my Good Bitz finding units on an objective. They chopped them down to a single Ork, before Trajann remembered his Misericordia and stabbed him, denying me some points and claiming an opponent's objective for the Custodes for the first time.

Turn four for the Orks, and primary points were nearly maxed out. Other than continuing to score some Green Tide points here and there, there wasn't much left for the Orks to do. The Kill Rig and Beast Snaggas finally killed off the Jetbikes, but the Shield Captain smashed the Rig in return. On the far left the white mob finished off the Sagittarum to firmly control the objective over there.

Turn four for the Custodes and the Bikes swung into the purple mob that had been holding my home objective all game, assisted by the remaining Galatus dread. A cheeky interrupt saw the Boyz chop out and remove a damaged biker, leaving just one remaining.

On turn five the Orks maxed out the Primary objective and didn't have much else to do. Going into Custodes turn the Shield Captain finished off the Beast Snaggas, and then Trajann piled in to the remains of the purple mob to combine with the dreadnought to reduced them down to a single model - before once again remembering his little boot knife and killing the Nob. That left the Emperor's Chosen holding all the objectives in my half of the board at the end of the game and getting a big chunk of points...

But not quite enough, as the game ended with a final score of 86 (45 primary, 31 secondary) to 77 (28 primary, 39 secondary) to the Orks! WAAAGH!

An interesting, fun game of Orks scoring heavily early and then Custodes racing to try and catch them at the end, and of course as usual with JP the game looked great. A good bit of practice before the tournament next month - though I am a bit torn on what to actually take. I'd love to run a list similar to this, but with so many models it's a bit of a logistical struggle to move between games etc. I'm worried that there won't be much space between tables and if I'd just piled up my dead on the board in this game it would have been about a quarter of it covered! Stuff to think about for sure.

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there.

Tempest of War Battle Report - Orks vs Daemons

Hello!

Recently I played another Tempest game against Sharpy, this time with my Orks against his new Chaos Daemon codex. This was nearly my first game against the new Daemons, though I did in fact get a bit of a shortened game in the night before, and I had learned that Flamers = Ouch.

Tempest of war is always a good close game so I took a list with a bit of punch but also a bit of fun - plenty of Boyz but also a load of big chunky models, including the new Kill Rig. It was a Snakebite Battalion and Super Heavy Auxiliary. 

HQ: Mozrog Skragbad (Warlord, Surly as a Squiggoth), Weirdboy (Da Jump, Fists of Gork, Super Cybork Body)

Troops: 10 Beast Snagga Boyz, 2x 20 Boyz (Powerklaw), 20 Boyz (Shootas, Powerklaw)

Elites: 10 Tankbusta Boyz

Fast Attack: 5 Squighog Boyz (Bomb Squig)

Heavy Support: Battlewagon (Deathroller), Kill Rig (Frazzle, Squiggly Curse), Squiggoth

Lord of War: Gorkanaut

Sharpy's force was a nice mix of various Daemons from various Gods. Led by a couple of Greater Daemons, a Great Unclean One that was regenerating wounds and a Bloodthirster that can only take 8 wounds a phase. There were units of Plaguebearers, Bloodletters, Pink Horrors, Daemonettes, Nurglings, Drones, Flamers and Flesh Hounds, supported by a Chariot of Tzeentch and a Soulgrinder. A bit of everything to cover for whatever orders come from the warp aka the Tempest of War deck.

Deployment and mission: We were playing Vital Ground, which gives 3, 4 and 5 points for holding a home, no-man's land and enemy objective respectively. There were also bonus points on offer for killing enemy units but we did forget about this almost all game so when we got to the end we chose to ignore it. The mission rule was Pall of Dread, meaning the Insane Bravery strat could not be used, bit rough for the Boyz!

Deploying in corners, we both had some units off the board. The Bloodletters, Daemonettes, Flamers and Chariot were all in the warp, while I had the Beast Snaggas, Tankbustas and Shoota Boyz embarked and the Gorkanaut placed in the Tellyporta. We rolled off and I got first turn.

Orks moved up and did a bit of shooting, with little success. My secondary objectives were to get behind enemy lines, to hold three objectives and to hold both my home objective and one in the middle, the last of which was achieved. I tried to jump some Boyz over to harass the Plaguebearers on the Daemon home objective but the power failed - something that was to become a theme.

Daemon turn one and they also moved up to claim a middle objective and close the gap. The Bloodthirster showed no subtlety in leaping over the central bridge and charging into the Squiggoth.

The War God's chosen made short work of Nipper Jr, causing the Tankbustas to bail out. Only one hit his head in the fall, but thanks to the Bloodthirster's daemonic aura the morale test was a disaster and only two of the ten remained at the end. 

Ork turn two and time for the WAAAGH! The Kill Rig looked to cause problems around the flank while a unit of Boyz, heavily diminished by the Bloodthirster's roar and whip, got Jumped over to the far edge of the board. Squighogs eyed up the Soulgrinder and the Gorkanaut tellyported in to lend fire to downing the Bloodthirster. Shooting was operation reduce it to 8 wounds or less, but after firing literally every gun in range at it, including the Gorkanaut's wall of lead, the monster was still stuck on 9 wounds. This meant if I were to kill it this turn I had to use the Ramming Speed stratagem on the Battlewagon to get some mortals in the charge phase - this left the Gorkanaut hanging with a very long charge into the Soulgrinder.

Unsurprisingly the 'naut failed to get in, but the Squighogs managed to do the job unaided! This also grabbed me a third objective to complete a secondary.

The Battlewagon did manage to get the wounds onto the Bloodthirster to give me a chance to kill it. Mozrog Skragbad charged in on his great white squig, powered up by Fists of Gork, and did something like seven or eight damage three wounds on the monster. Sharpy promptly saved all but one of them. Git.

The Bloodthirster opted to lash out at the Battlewagon, destroying it and securing Grind Them Down. The duel continued...

Daemons turn two saw the reinforcements arrive across the board and hit back hard.

Fast Tzeentch and Nurgle units appeared on the flank to cause some problems for the Squighogs. Shooting reduced them to two models, but in melee they did manage to interrupt and kill the Chariot, before the Screamers and Drones took them out.

The Great Unclean One charged into the Kill Rig to engage in a grinding melee that was only ever going to go one way (the way of the big guy who kept regenerating wounds.)

Elsewhere the Daemonettes and Bloodletters dropped in. The Daemonettes became a roadblock for the Plaguebearers on the Daemon home objective, charging in the cause some pain for the Boyz there but taking some heavy losses in return. The Bloodletters appeared in my back lines to deploy a teleport homer - which I assume for Khorne is basically a big pile of skulls?

In the middle of the board the battle raged on with the Bloodthirster unable to kill Mozrog on it's reduced profile, but getting hot saves once again to stick around.

Orks turn three, with the second part of the WAAAGH! still active, we tried to get stuck in where possible.

The mob at the back charged backwards and made very short work of the Bloodletters. The Wierdboy failed to Jump any of their friends though.

The Gorkanaut went on a bit of a rampage, pasting the Flamers with it's shooting and then crushing the Screamers and one of the Drones with it's claw.

The Kill Rig did eventually fall but it's cargo of Beast Snagga Boyz had already gotten out and got stuck in to making a load of blue and brimstone Horrors appear.

While finally the Bloodthirster was brought down by Mozrog, and scoring me some secondary points for No Prisoners. The Orks were fighting back hard!

Daemons turn three saw them work on clearing the Boyz from their lines. The Plaguebearers got their blades wet while the Nurglings doubled up on the objective. They had the No Retreat, No Surrender secondary active so in the middle the few remaining Horrors had to sit and wait for help from the Flesh Hounds and Great Unclean One - luckily for them a super smite cleared most of the Beast Snaggas and the Hounds were able to clear up. It also meant the Plague Drones were stuck in melee with the Gorkanaut and they were reduced to one.

Turn four and we were pretty much even - both scored 7 points on the primary every turn and that was unlikely to change. We were pretty much getting 5 points each on the secondary each turn as well.

I attempted to get the Gorkanaut into the opponent's deployment zone to finally score Behind Enemy Lines but the advance wasn't long enough, and Da Jump failed again. At the end of the turn I gave up and discarded it. I also had Blood and Guts and was looking to kill off the one Drone, the couple of Flesh Hounds and the few remaining Flamers in melee, but the Boyz failed their charge and Mozrog whiffed against the Drone, so that one was a bit of a bust, putting me behind on the Secondary scores.

Daemon turn four saw them consolidating their position by drawing weakened units back and doubling up on the objectives, and the Plague Marines finally killing my invasive Boyz mob. They scored a secondary (I think for holding home and No Man's Land objectives) to go ahead.

Orks turn five and not much to do apart from claiming those objectives. I got a slightly favourable draw and had to Raise a Banner and Hold the Line.

It eventually fell to Daemons turn five, and a 58 point draw unless the Daemons could break the Ork lines and deny the secondary points. The only model with the speed to do so charged the shoota Boyz mob to get the distance, but was unable to survive the overwatch and return attacks, nailing on that draw. Even Stevens.

With the Squig watching on, and excellent game came to it's tight conclusion. Tempest with two mixed, not optimised armies is always a close affair, and that was definitely the case here. It felt like it swung back and forth, and my only disappointment is that we didn't get the Great Unclean One vs Gorkanaut Sumo bout! If you're looking for something a bit less intense than the GT mission packs but a bit more balanced than Crusade or Open War, Tempest really does fill that niche. The Tempest and Open War card packs really should be pushed more by GW IMO because they both go some way to covering the biggest issues with current 40k being allegedly too tournament focused.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the report. There will be plenty more Orks in action soon as well, so check back for that! Stay safe out there.