The Grim Invasion Continues - Ork Crusade Updates

Hello!

Last time the Orks were out and about doing some krumpin in the Grim Dice Crusade league, Da Vipers got stuck in with limited success, but Boss Redtoof himself was proving to be a very tough cookie! Once again, here's a quick summary of the next three games...

Game four was against the sneaky Aeldari from the Ulthwe craftworld. They brought a selection of infantry units, plus a grav tank and a Wraithlord, led by a Farseer, who was attempting to complete a ritual...

Redtoof got seperated from the rest of the force and once again got stuck in, while most of the Boyz got caught in a crossfire between Guardians and Dire Avengers. The Squighog Boyz were once again able to hunt out the enemy warlord, but it wasn't quick enough to stop the ritual from being completed, earning the Aeldari a close win, with much blood shed on both sides.

Heading to game five it was time to escalate once again to 75 power. In part because I'm already going into 10th ed mode and I didn't really want to think too hard, and in part because I wanted to see 9th out with a bang, I decided to add Nipper the Gargantuan Squiggoth!

So with that decision made, of course I had my next game against an Imperial Guard gunline...

The Guard got turn one and took out both Squiggoths with relative ease. Ouch! Redtoof and his lads did get stuck in with the tanks, krumpin a few of them with the Tankbusta Bombz stratagem, but it was really decided on the first turn roll. Nipper did look splendid during deployment next to his son though!

Game six was a real krump-fest though, as the Vipers were taking on the World Eaters! Lots of choppa marine boyz with some Helbrutes for support. Mission involved taking each other's home objectives and burning them, so there was nothing for it but for both forces to go forward and meet in the middle!

In this game Nipper played a big part, smashing through a Rhino, goring one of the Helbrutes to death, nearly killing the other in melee (but for blood tithe points giving it a 6+ feel no pain) and between shooting and falling over, wiped out a unit of Eightbound! Elsewhere the Orks and World Eaters were trading units, but Redtoof had his sights set on the similarly buffed up Lord on Juggernaut. They went several rounds in a duel, shrugging off blows, before finally Redtoof fell (though in part due to an assist from a couple of Berzerkers, chaos cheating there clearly!) and the game was lost.

So three more games continuing the theme of smashing stuff up but lack of mission success, leaving me sitting at 1-5. Not that winning was ever the goal - though Redtoof has now died three times in this, in spite of how tough he got! Still, a lot of silly fun to round out the edition.

With tenth edition around the corner, I'm not sure if I'll be continuing with the league, so this very well might have been my last games of 9th. With that in mind I have had a lot of fun with this admittedly flawed edition, and at some point I'll do a bit of a retrospective/looking forward post, but suffice to say I am very excited to start playing 10th! In any case, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there!

A Grim Invasion - Ork Crusade So Far...

Hello!

Looks like I'm finishing off 9th edition with some Crusade! Once again, Grim Dice are running a Crusade league, and I decided to join in with the Snakebite Orks this time, after previously running AdMech and Tyranids. Since initially at least Crusade games tend to be quite short, and the last times I had a few byes so didn't actually play all the games anyway, and I'm kind of lazy (no one is paying me for this!), I'm just going to do a quick summary of each game, and this first post will be the first three of them.

This time rather than using a GW narrative pack the guys at Grim have decided to run their own narrative, which features special attacker and defender bonuses and a system of boons for your warlord to accumulate over the campaign. With this in mind I decided to lean into a bit of Warboss hero hammer and make Redtoof as tanky as possible - I used the Beast Boss and gave him both the Super Cybork Body and the Half-Chewed warlord trait. In the initial 25PL force he was leading up thirty assorted Boyz and some Squighog riders from Da Vipers tribe. 

The first game was against Grey Knights, bringing a couple of regular power armoured squads, some cheap servitors and a big beefy Dreadknight!

The Knights carved through the Boyz, while Redtoof went on a bit of a rampage chopping through marines everywhere. Thanks to teleport shenanigans the Grey Knights were able to pull ahead on points but by the last turn only two models remained - both warlords! The Dreadknight teleported over to have a duel (and pick up a load of XP) but Redtoof survived and managed to cut him down in return, having previously lost wounds from a fight with the Squighog Boyz. Technically a loss for da boyz but Redtoof killed basically the entire enemy army so got to feel pretty good about himself.

Second game was against Space Wolves, running the Phobos armoured Vanguard army of renown. Lots of sneaky tricks but that might not help them up close and personal with the boyz...

The Boyz got stuck in quick this time after some generally disappointing Space Wolf firepower (aside from the Eliminators removing the Squighog Boyz in one volley), coving the objectives with boots and their choppas with blood. The marines fought back with an outflanking squad of specialist Hounds of Morkai, but they were too little too late and the collective bosses got together to krump 'em good. Solid win for da Boyz.

After game two it was time to increase to 50 power level. I opted to add in a couple of big fun models in the Squiggoth and Killrig, and three of my recently painted Warbikers. During the first two games Redtoof got to Blooded rank and I picked up the Ded 'Ard armour and a WAAAGH-Boss upgrade to make him even tougher. With the custom boons he's now sitting at 9 wounds!

Game three was once again vs Space Wolves. Narratively appropriate that they would come to avenge their brothers. This time a more heavy hitting melee focused force with Wulfen, Thunderwolf cavalry, a Dreadnought and jump pack Wolf Guard, plus a beefy lord and some primaris units to fill the gaps. It was also a sabotage mission so the Orks would have to do actions on the objectives to destroy them and score points.

The Orks got to charge in first this time, with the Kill Rig and Warboss Redtoof making contact immediately. This time however the Wolves punched back hard, and it quickly turned into a bloodbath, all thought of objectives forgotten. Redtoof was felled for the first time this campaign with the combined might of Eradicators shooting and the veteran Dreadnought charging - though he did take out the Dread in return! The Squighogs managed to return the favour and down the enemy Warlord, though it wasn't going too well elsewhere and the last Squighog was the final Ork model surviving before getting cut down by Thunderwolves. A loss, but a good scrap none the less! The Squighog boyz did get a battle honour for their troubles, becoming Veteran warriors.

One win, one moral victory and one tabling, a reasonable start for da Vipers who are just here for a big fight, and a good start for Redtoof who has accumulated plenty of XP so is likely to go up again the next game, and has picked up 6 unit kills already! WAAAGH!!!

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

Crusade Battle Report - Orks vs Adeptus Mechanicus

Hello!

So about two weeks ago I played a role as an 'NPC' army in narrative, Crusade campaign run by Ed (from one of my first Death Guard games) at Grim Dice Tabletop Gaming. I was asked to run a 50 power level Ork force, so I took the opportunity of playing my first game with a new Ork Crusade. Apparently the background is that a big war has suddenly broken out on this backwater, unremarkable planet, and no one in the Imperium has quite figured out why so many forces have appeared - but it must be important, so they sent in their own. As far as I'm concerned, da boyz saw a big scrap going on and decided to join in!

Anyway, I was up against an AdMech Ryza force, which of course I approved of. They had a pair of Onagers, a couple of Kastelan Robots, a bunch of small Skitarii troop units, Enginseer, Techno-archaeologist and two blobs of melee infantry - Infiltrators and Fulgurite priests. 

Da Vipers tribe are propper Snakebites, though they aren't opposed to using a few bits of tech to get the job done - they'll just complain about it! My force was a mix of infantry (10 Slugga Boyz, 20 Shootas, 3 Meganobz), vehicles (Battlewagon and a Trukk), Snakebitey stuff (Weirdboy Durrork, Squighog Boyz and a Nob on Smasha Squig)  and of course Redtoof himself, who is a ded 'ard Warboss (Super Cybork Body and Brutal but Kunnin). Since both armies were starting Crusades we didn't have any funky upgrades.

Deployment looked like this - the black d10s are objectives. Fairly open ground in terms of LoS, but a fair bit of cover and of course a nice small board. I don't remember all the agendas, but I do remember taking Krumpin' Spree for Redtoof to get points for killing units himself. There was also a special rule in effect for the campaign to not allow the reroll stratagem or I think the auto pass morale one, to encourage more use of your own flavourful strats. Fine by me since I'm rerolling charges anyway.

First turn went to the Orks, and we surged forward. Shootas in the wagon, Nobs and Boss in the Trukk. The Squigs hugged the backs of the vehicles for protection, while the Slugga Boyz held an objective. Lots of big shoota fire plinked off around five Skitarii, but then the return fire came...

Between plasmas, and Icarus array and the Robots' flamers, the Trukk got cracked open, and the Meganobz were reduced to one. This left Redtoof and the Smasha Squig in the open, and through the will of the dice it was decided the second Onager would fire everything at the Squig, blasting it off the table. To add insult to injury, the Meganob would proceed to fail morale and run away.

But that wasn't all, as the Infiltrators had arrived (I don't remember off the top of my head if turn one reserves is technically allowed in narrative play anymore, but for this game at least it was!) They spat some flechette rounds, then lanuched into melee with poor Durrork Orkorrah - who somehow proved not to be useless and survived!

Into turn two, and now it was on! WAAAGH!!! Redtoof made a beeline for the big shiny robots, supported by the wagon with it's Deffrolla. The Slugga Boyz turned to face the Infiltrators, while the Squighogs grunted their way up to some Skitarii.

Some shooting from assorted big and little shootas did some damage, but the real damage was coming up...

Redtoof made it in, and with a little help from some Ramming Speed mortal wounds by the Battlewagon, he tore down both Robots! That's why he's Da Boss!

Elsewhere the Squighogs were reduced to one model, but made it into combat and butchered some Rangers. The Infiltrators interrupted and killed all ten Boyz and Durrork in a glorious display, though Orks is Never Beaten and he took a few of them down with him, swinging his force staff to good effect.

The AdMech response was to encircle Redtoof and go for the kill with the Priests, while the Onagers plinked fire off the Battlewagon.

"All I iz surrounded by iz fear, an' ded men!"

The Electro-priests dropped him all the way down to one wound...

And he killed six of them in return, while his attack squig finished of the couple of Rangers who joined in! That priest then, wisely, ran away.

Elsewhere the Infiltrators charged the last Squighog Boy, but he interrupted and went into a bit of a frenzy, only leaving one alive! Turn 2 did not go so well for the forces of Ryza, and neither of us had many assets left.

After that carnage we quickly raced through the last few turns. Redtoof attempted to charge an Onager, but failed and then got shredded by it's Icarus Array in return. The Battlewagon dumped it's Boyz onto a couple of objectives and charged the other Onager, which is where both stayed for the rest of the game, neither quite doing enough to finish the other.

Thanks to the Boyz on the objectives I picked up plenty of points to win the game and send the Ryza forces packing back into the ruins.

Really fun game, it was good to see the Orks take a battering but still fight back and ultimately win the day. As a result of this Redtoof levelled himself up, and being the WAAAGH-Boss, gained an extra wound. He also picked up the Ded' Ard Armour, a Crusade relic that grants +1 wound and +1 to armour saves, but he suffered a chest would, which reduced his wounds by one again. Durrork also suffered an injury, those taser goads giving him a deep concussion, meaning that he cannot use any stratagems.

I'm really hoping I can get in some more Crusade games with the Orks, but also the Death Guard and AdMech! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading, and stay safe!