Double Battle Report - Orks vs Adepta Sororitas

Hello!

I've been back to Warhammer World for another pair of games, this time against Andrew (aamcking on Instagram) and this time using the second iteration of the green tide Ork list. In a similar format to last time, we played two 2000 point games, starting with a matched play GT2021 battle, followed by a game with the Open War cards.

As before, my list was largely built around lots of Boyz supported by characters and a few small 5 man units of specialists. I did break with the theme slightly by including a unit of 5 Deffkoptas, but I figured they would be able to drop in where required to provide a bit of firepower and work as a distraction. As before it's a Snakebite battalion, and I spent 4 CP off the bat on warlord traits and relics:

HQ: Warboss (powerklaw, kombi skorcha, attack squig, Brutal but Kunnin, Da Killa Klaw), Weirdboy (Warpath, Da Jump, Super Cybork Body), Big Mek with KFF (Brog's Buzzbomb)

Troops: 4x 20 Boyz (powerklaw), 2x 15 Boyz (powerklaw, shootas)

Elites: Nob with WAAAGH Banner (Ard as Nails), Painboy (Surly as a Squiggoth), 5 Kommandos (powerklaw), 5 Tankbustas (bomb squig)

Fast Attack: 5 Deffkoptas (Boom Boyz), 5 Stormboyz (powerklaw)

Heavy Support: 4 Lootas/1 Spanner

 

Andrew's force was another melee focused Imperial army for me to face, though with a fair bit more shooty support. He took a single battalion as well, running Ebon Chalice and with an extra trait and relic. He told me in advance that his list is all about getting the charge off, being able to get miracle dice sixes when needed. He did tell me what all this stuff does but I have largely forgotten it. There were also some combi flamers mixed in somewhere.

HQ: Celestine and Geminae Superia, Morvenn Vahl (warlord)

Troops: 3x 5 Battle Sisters

Elites: 2x 5 Celestian Sacresants (spear, maces), 10 Celestian Sacresants (spear, halberds), Dogmata (Enduring Faith, Holy Piety, Terrible Knowledge, The Sigil Ecclesiastus), 9 Sisters Repentia, 8 Sisters Repentia

Fast Attack: 2x 5 Dominions (4 storm bolters)

Heavy Support: 2x 5 Retributors (2 multimeltas, 2 heavy flamers, 2 cherubs)

Transports: 2x Rhino (hunter killer)

Other: Repentia Superior (Litanies of Faith), Culexus Assassin

And deployment (with my squig mascot watching on). We were playing Battle Lines (two objectives on the centre line, one in each deployment zone), I picked the secondaries Green Tide (points for having units of 11+ models in multiple quarters of the board), No Prisoners and ROD. Andrew took Engage, Vital Ground (mission specific, points for holding central or opponent's objectives) and To the Last (Celestine, Vahl and the large unit of Sacresants I think).

We both pretty much placed our units according to our own plans rather than paying much attention to where the opponent was. The Sisters were spread out to zone out deep strike and with the rhinos central full of units to head down either flank. Celestine and the Assassin were off the board to strike in, while the large unit of halberd sisters were waiting in strategic reserve.

I had the Stormboyz and Deffkoptas off the board, filled my deployment zone with boyz and then plonked the characters in the middle. The intent being to send most of them down the strongest flank. Also worth noting that we were playing all of the terrain as effectively ruins with obscuring for this game.

We rolled off and the sisters went first.

Turn one featured manoeuvring for both sides. The sisters marched up, keeping much of their forces back and flexible, while killing a few Kommandos and boyz with shooting. The Orks advanced pretty much across the board, didn't really do any shooting, and the last couple of Kommandos failed their suicide charge into the Repentia. Onto turn two!

Sisters turn two, and they set up some charges, Repentia on the right flank and Sacresants out of reserve on the left. Most of the other units pushed up on the left behind them, and a Rhino advanced forward and out of the way in case it exploded. After shooting removed a fair few boyz from various units, both the melee threats made it in to my shoota boyz in the front ranks. However the ones on the right overwatched to kill a few Repentia, then after the Celestians had murdered most of a unit, the right boyz interupted to kill even more Repentia before they could strike. Though both charges were successful and I lost a load of boyz, this turn was not great for the Sisters.

Ork turn two, and it was WAAAGH time! Once again I had a lot of advancing units into position. I got the Stormboyz to drop into my back corner for a second ROD action and to deny deep strikes behind my main push. The remaining shootas that got harassed by halberds fell back, then got Jumped back to hold my objective. The Deffkoptas arrived, killing off a bunch of Retributors withe their rokkits and combining with the Tankbustas to clear away the Rhino. So far so good.

Then a decisive charge phase. Charging units managed to get bodies onto both the middle objectives and the far one, after a big 11 inch from the shoota boyz who dispatched the Repentia. Warboss Redtoof got in to the Halberd sisters and finished them off, while elswhere a bunch of battle sisters, the Repentia Superior and a load more Sacresants with maces were removed. All in all a very solid turn.

Into turn three and the Sisters picked up a big fat 0 for Primary. They would need to hit back really hard to get back in the game. Vahl moved up on the left flank, as did the remaining Retributors and Sacresants, to try and clear me off that objective. The right flank was abandoned, though the remaining Rhino got a charge off onto some Boyz to hold them back. The Shoota boyz on the Sisters home objective for lit up by bolter sisters and Dominions, then finished off by the other Repentia. Finally Celestine dropped into my back corner to remove the Lootas and harass my objective. It all more or less went right for them, but I still had a good chunk of Boyz about.

Ork turn three, and we surrounded to go for the kill. Deffkoptas shooting was a bit of a whiff second time round, killing a single Retributor rather than a whole squad and half a Rhino, but I can't really compain because they then charged in with 9 attacks each thanks to the WAAAGH and finished off the Celestians. Redtoof made a brave charge into Vahl, taking her down with his klaw! Boyz swamped Celestine and took her down as well (though she got better). To add insult to injury the Rhino in melee got taken out and the Boyz piled into some Dominions to stop them shooting, and the tiny remnants of another Boyz mob piled into the last Retributors for the same effect.

Without many options left and way behind on objectives, Andrew called it there at the start of turn four. There would be no way back for the sisters, even if they could kill all the Boyz in their lines they would not be able to catch up. A win for the Green Tide! WAAAGH!!!

A bit one sided, but a good learning experience for both of us. I think Andrew probably split his force up too much, I was able to handle it one unit at a time, while he was frequently trying to kill off units of mine so that he could get shots at characters or trying to kill some without ruining a charge. This was also a game where the Snakebite trait came in a lot, almost all his melee units were going at strength 6 or 7, and his strength 6 heavy flamers effectively did not get their bonus. It was also good to see T5 doing a thing again, stopping a lot of meltas on 2s and bolters on 4s compared with before.

Anyway, onto open war. Andrew is mainly a matched play guy and he hadn't used the cards before, so was eager to see what it was like. We kept the same lists and drew these cards:

Long, wide arrow head deployment, a single objective that would move about the board, and some awful weather to stop advancing and long charges. Should be interesting...

Deployment, once again observed by squig. I had some special units hidden, and the Koptas off the board, but the rest was arranged for a central push. With the inability to declare a 9 inch charge, all off Andrew's forces were on the board. We also decided the Sector Mechanicus terrain would be dense rather than obscuring for this one, which I think is the 'official' stance.

Squig-eye view!

Sisters won the roll off, and opted to go first.

The first couple of turns featured some walking up towards the middle from both sides, and some shooting. My Kommandos got a cheeky charge into some mace Celestians and killed a few before Celestine wiped them out. I suffered significant casualties from combined chip fire and the powered up heavy flamers on the Retributors, effectively halting my advance. In return I did kill off a few more of the specialist sisters with the Lootas fire and some shoota chip damage.

In Ork turn two the Deffkoptas dropped in to do some killing, though the decidedly did not, rokkits bouncing off storm shields, while the Stormboyz jumped up to deal with some Dominions, and got absolutely rinsed on overwatch.

With the objective yo-yoing about in the middle, the two sides were unable to claim it on turn three, however the Sisters finally got their hands dirty, with Celestine leading a flank charge, eliminating the Lootas, while some battle sisters pushed up into the middle to kill off a stubborn lone Nob and provide a screen for the objective.

Those brave, brave sisters. Anyway, they died.

In Ork turn three we eliminated a bunch of sisters, finally getting out choppas bloody, and the Deffkopta rokkits powered up to blast Celestine off her feet, and she stayed down!

A big charge in the middle tagged the Rhinos and put a blob of Boyz in front of my characters, then at the start of turn four the objective went back towards my lines.

However Morvenn Vahl and the Repentia were pretty keen not to let me have it, after the flamers burnt many boyz to a crisp, they finished them off and got a whole load of bodies onto the objective to deny me scoring it in turn four as well.

Characters and Deffkoptas crowded in to the melee, causing all sorts of damage and removing the Repentia. Into turn 5 the objective moved back my way again, hiding under the Deffkoptas. It would all come down to if Vahl and friends could remove them and stand on the objective at the end of the game for two points.

It turned out the Sisters shooting was too good, and the Koptas were removed, leaving no targets to charge on the objective! Vahl instead got into my remaining character (big mek) and infantry near the objective, killing the obsec unit and not giving the Mek a straight run for the objective with a fall back. That meant no one claimed it, and a nil-nil draw!

Very fun game, and Andrew loved it! I think the Open War cards have a new convert. Ultimately no advancing was hugely punishing for a movement 5 melee army, and I think I was very lucky to get out of that with a draw, my boyz suffered horrendous casualties and by the end it was pretty much just the Big Mek left! Not sure what lessons can be learned from that, other than getting shot up for two turns with no real response is bad. 

Anyway, it was a fun day out, and a great couple of games. I'm glad the Green Tide seems to be working, and that the squig was well received by the staff and other gamers! Hope you enjoyed, stay safe.

Battle Report - Orks vs Space Wolves

Hello!

Another report with the new Ork Codex, this time against Sharpy, who was bringing his Space Wolves, led by Ragnar! Surely this Open War game promised to be a glorious scrap? (Also, I stole a couple of his pictures for the blog - he has more of them on Instagram as j.sharpe0608, so check him out!)

I was running my first iteration of a Green Tide list for my Orks, in this case 160 Ork infantry models and no vehicles! A single battalion, I spent a bunch of CP on relics and traits, and then at the start of the game some more to reserve units so that I wouldn't have to think about deploying them!

HQ: Warboss (powerklaw, kombi skorcha, attack squig, Super Cybork, Brutal but Kunnin), Big Mek with Force Field, Weirdboy (Warpath, Da Jump, Might is Right)

Troops: 2x 30 Boyz (powerklaw), 2x 20 Boyz (powerklaw), 2x 10 Boyz (shootas, powerklaw)

Elites: 15 Kommandos (powerklaw, distraction grot, bomb squig), Nob with WAAAGH Banner (Da Ded Shiny Shoota), Painboy (Da Killa Klaw, Surly as a Squiggoth)

Fast Attack: 10 Stormboyz (powerklaw)

Heavy Support: 2x 4 Lootas/1 Spanner

Sharpy was taking the puppies for a spin, with a selection of characters and a nice mix of Primaris and Firstborn units. He was mostly melee focus, as one might expect, but had a few shooting anti tank options which were going to be disappointed. As usual I don't remember the exact relics/traits (or if everything is in the right slot), so it's something like this:

HQ: Ragnar Blackmane, Rune Priest (-1 to hit power, combat doctrine power), Wolf Priest (Armour of Russ)

Troops: 2x 5 Assault Intercessors, 2x 10 Grey Hunters (chainswords, some special/melee weapons)

Elites: Judiciar (artificer armour), Venerable Dreanought (multimelta, heavy flamer, fist), 4 Bladeguard, Bladeguard Ancient 

Fast Attack: 4 Thunderwolves (assorted melee weapons), 3 Outriders

Heavy Support: 3 Eradicators

Transport: Razorback (lascannons)

Here's the card draw. Deployment zones the timeless classic of long edges, 12 inches from the middle. Objective the same as when my Orks faced his Eldar, 6 objectives that slowly disappear through the game, and the twist would be falling rocks from space, which I think is kind of the perfect twist because you only have to remember it at the start of each turn!

Deployment - as mentioned, I spent some CP to keep some reserves. The Lootas went into Strategic Reserve, while one of the 30 Boy mobs went in the Tellyporta. The Stormboyz would drop from the skies, and the Kommandos deployed sneakily forward behind the central ruin. The Space Wolves put some units on the flanks (notably a unit of Grey Hunters on an objective on the far left flank not seen in the pictures) while the other Grey Hunters were outflanking with wolfy cunning, or whatever that stratagem is called.

I won the roll off, and since it's not the GT pack, opted to go second.

SW turn one, and not a lot of action. They moved up fairly conservatively, and held the three objectives in their half of the board. Some shooting killed a few boyz, but nothing dramatic.

Orks turn one, and we surged forward, advances across the line and not much else. As we were still a turn away from the charge I didn't call the WAAAGH yet. I tried to Jump one of the Boyz units and potentially make a charge, but the power failed. The Kommandos were in a position to charge forward however..

Between the bomb squig and the powerklaw they did... not much, chipping a few wounds off it, but they did make it onto objective 2 there, scoring me an extra point at the end of my turn and putting me in the lead 4-3, though they were undoubtedly sacrificing themselves. 

As expected in turn two, Ragnar and chums mobbed the Kommandos and butchered them. We also had the Outriders and Thunderwolf cav charging through the buildings to plow into a bunch of Orks, while the sneaky Grey Hunters popped up behind to charge from the rear.

And there were many Ork casualties. But there's plenty more where they came from! At the end of the turn Sharpy picked up another two points, after the objective previously held by the Bladeguard disappeared, and I spent the two CP to keep a single obsec Nob from running off the objective near the bikers and cavalry.

WAAAGH!!! Ork turn two, and reinforcements have arrived! The Lootas popped in behind the sneaky Grey Hunters, outflanking the outflankers, ready to put some holes in them with their dakka guns. The Tellyporta mob dropped in behind the other 30 man unit, ready to feed more into the grinder that was Ragnar and the Space Wolves' hard centre.

Assorted charges connected, killing off the Outriders, the first unit of Assault Intercessors and Warboss Redtoof himself took out the last of the Thunderwolves. Both the Grey Hunter units took a beating, but stuck it out, with the return attacks killing off some more Orks and stopping me claiming to far left objective. The big central blob did take the objective from Ragnar's crew though, scoring me another four points, so 8-5 at the end of the turn.

Turn three saw the Space Wolves once again fight back hard to clear their lines. On the left the remaining Grey Hunters and Eradicators finished off the Boyz harassing their objective, with the last few running from morale. Ragnar sent in more Assault Intercessors to help him and his HQ cull the hordes, though it took a lot of killing to cut through nearly 30 Boyz, and they suffered some losses doing so.

The Bladeguard also got in on the action, shooting then charging the Warboss and killing him with disapointing ease. Largely in vain though as the objective he'd been standing near had disappeared. Another two points for holding their 'home' objectives.

Ork turn three, and the Stormboyz jump in to go for that corner objective where the Boyz failed... and they failed their charge! Elsewhere the Lootas dakka'd the Grey Hunters to death while some remaining Boyz moved up to try and hold off the Bladeguard from getting near any objectives. The big pink mob moved in to remove the Intercessors, while the Painboy lined up a charge through the ruin into the Dreadnought.

With the WAAAGH still in it's second phase and Da Killa Klaw relic, the Painboy gave that Dread a good krumpin', he was then taken down by Ragnar, but his warlord trait kicked in and he was indeed as Surly as a Squiggoth, refusing to die.

The pink mob took heavy losses after being made to fight last by the Armour of Russ, but they were still capable of removing the last of the Assault Intercessors. With that I held two objectives to make the score 10-7 in my favour.

Turn four and the Space Wolves were trying to mop up the remaining Orks, but were struggling to find objectives. Once again the objective removal wasn't favourable to Sharpy, taking away the one his last few Grey Hunters and Eradicators were protecting. A lot of Boyz died, but the Wolves were only able to take back 'their' objective where Ragnar stood.

In my turn the Stormboyz flew over to hold number 6, while the Nob with WAAAGH Banner held position on the left flank, letting rip into the Eradicators and killing one with his Ded Shiny Shoota. The Lootas got into a scrap with the Bladeguard Ancient, eventually killing him, though soon to all die to his slightly younger veteran brothers. The last few remnants of the pink mob piled into Ragnar himself, both getting Obsec on 'his' objective and chopping him down to a single wound. I picked up another three, to get to 13 points to Sharpy's 8. With only a couple of objective markers left on the table in turn five that meant it was impossible for the Space Wolves to catch up - but they were going to have a good go!

The remaining Orks crumbled under the assault from the last few Wolves, allowing them to control both remaining objectives. In my last turn the twist gave me a falling rock, so I spitefully dropped it on Ragnar's head to finish him off. I managed to survive with one model - the WAAAGH Banner, but was unable to rest back control of an objective, so the final score would be 13 - 10 to the Green Tide! WAAAGH!!!

Brutal game, as you can see there's not much left. A handful of Space Wolves (along with their barely participating Razorback) and a single Ork, out of 160! The Green Tide performed much as I'd hoped, being tough enough to take a beating and still hold ground, while killy enough to remove the enemy's front line units. I was a bit careless with my character positioning, allowing the Warboss and Weirdboy to get taken out early, and missing out on some bonuses where I could have used them, so I think there's more in the tank for this style of list. The Snakebite trait also came into effect a fair bit here, with most of the SW characters rocking strength 6 or 7.

For their part the Wolves were pretty scary, they are still good at cutting through even T5 Orks, and their -1 to hit psychic power proved massive in this match, hitting the Kommandos in turn one and then several Boyz units. Ultimately the fates were not with them, as the objectives we lost were almost always ones they were controlling, so I'm not sure what I could have done if it was the other way around - I probably would have been really cursing myself for letting the Weirdboy die early! 

So once again, an awesome game. It's been pretty close in all our games but I think Sharpy is due a win next time, I guess we'll have to wait and see. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe!