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!

Skirmish in the North 3 - aka Learning Age of Sigmar Part Four

Hello!

This past weekend I went to the Skirmish in the North 3 event, a 1000 point Age of Sigmar tournament run by Hull's Angels wargaming club (in Hull, obviously). I was not expecting to do well (my last AoS game seems to have been back in April last year) and with five smaller games on the day I was going in looking for a fun and educational time, literally doubling the number of AoS games I have ever played - and one of those was in first edition before they had points costs.

As it happens, that's exactly what I got, coming away with a much better understanding of how the game works and, spoilers, the last place award. I was running the current/old Seraphon book with a fairly basic selection of Koatl's Claw Saurus units and no magic to keep it simple; two units each of Saurus Warriors and Knights, a unit of Skinks to get in the way, led by an Oldblood on Carnosaur, a foot Oldblood and a Sunblood. As usual with these tournament reports, I'm just going to run through a very brief summary of each game and then some final thoughts. Here goes.

First game was Morgan, who had Magotkin of Nurgle. Some cultist types, a couple of characters and a big blob of Blightkings. Nurgle does nurgle stuff, so I was expecting tough units and a sprinkling of mortal wounds, which is what I got.

I had a good go at killing off the various units and scoring some points, but ultimately I had no answer to the Blightkings, after the Carnosaur killed three of them, then got easily cut down in return. 26-15 to Nurgle.

Second game was against Ryan and his Gloomspite Gits. Lots of squigs and lots of Trolls.

Unfortunately the Gits had some fun mushrooms that meant a unit of squigs charged and ate my general in turn one, which was not an ideal start. Elsewhere I found out that Troggoths hit hard and are really tough, so the rest of my forces struggled to make a dent. Particular disappointment were the Saurus Warriors who charged the Cave Squigs and only managed to kill two of them, and then obviously got slaughtered in return. 28-8 to the Squgs.

Game three was against Rob and his cool alternative Idoneth Deepkin. A couple of blobs of thralls plus two units of angler fish-eels and a big boss riding a rather scary eel. Wasn't sure what to expect from these guys other than fast and elf stuff.

This felt like a close game with a lot of back and forth action on a central objective that then split into two. However I was foiled by consistently failing to kill stuff. Saurus Warriors with character support failed to finish off a unit of Thralls, Carnosaur failed to finish off some eels, and finally the two generals met and did about one wound between them. Close until it wasn't - 24-9 to the fish elves.

Game four was a lizard-off against Lee and his also Koatl's Claw Seraphon. He didn't have a big dinosaur, but he did have two reinforced blocks of Saurus Warriors and magic Skinks to buff them. He also had, amusingly, brought the Sunblood to get some use out of it having unique rules before the new book turns it into a generic Oldblood.

The main story of this game was the Carnosaur getting taken out by Skinks. A little unit of ten got buffed to dish out mortal wounds on sixes and between that and some awful saves they took 6 wounds off the dinosaur in melee! Much reduced it struggled to eat them and finally got taken out by the lizard wizard on the pyramid. Ouch. My foot heroes did a lot better, each taking a beating before they finally fell, (and my Sunblood was winning the duel until he got swarmed by Saurus Warriors instead) but I didn't really have an answer for those big blobs. 28-12 to the blue Seraphon.

Final game was against Conner and his Gloomspite Gits. Having faced them before I was wary of the damage squig units could put out and the survivability of the Troggoths. Luckily he didn't take a Cave Squig missile, instead opting for a big unit of gobbos to hold his home objective.

This game was a real close one with a lot of back and forth, and the general finally got to do proper big dinosaur things as he chomped through a load of squigs and trolls through the game. Conner was a few points ahead of me all game, pulled away a little at the end, but thanks to having last turn I was able to stop his grand strategy (have something in my territory at the end) and complete mine (no enemies in my territory) which left the game agonisingly close, but wasn't quite enough to grab one win from the event. 23-21 to the Gits.

So with that, I went 0-5, and into last place, but I did pick up the favourite player award, which is nice. I do genuinely try to make my games enjoyable for my opponent, as it tends to mean the game is more enjoyable for me as well, so it is appreciated that apparently I wasn't seen as a salty loser or anything. And importantly I did have fun - four of the five games felt like I was at least in with a shout, and I feel like I got most of my rules correct once I'd gotten going. 

I'm starting to understand now a little better how you are 'supposed' to play AoS - how to work around the various rules that differ from 40k, such as the 3 inch engagement range, the double turn, and chargers not auto-striking first. I've also learned that some of these old Seraphon units are massively outperformed by equivalents in other armies. If only they had an up to date Battletome...

Anyway, thanks for reading, I 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!