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.