Boss GreenNutz' RTT Game 3 BATREP, From the POV of the tin'ead player Options

[Boss GreenNutz]

My tin'ead Scumgrod posted this. Thought you guys would want to see it from the POV of the guy facing an Ork Army.

The tin'ead List:
HQ:
Deceiver

Troops:
11 warriors
11 warriors

Fast Attack:
5 Destroyers
5 Destroyers
5 Destroyers

Heavy Support
2 Heavy Destroyers
2 Heavy Destroyers
2 Heavy Destroyers

The mission was Gamma Seek & Destroy, with the same objective modifiers as the previous games. The terrain had four *big* buildings in the corners, about 8" off of the side & back board edges each. Center had two size 2 terrain pieces opposite each other.

This was my first time playing new Orks with tin'eads... we don't have many ork players in ATL, and the guy I came up with isn't as regular as most others to the local gaming store, so I hadn't had a chance to fight them in the new edition with my 'crons. I played new orks with my bugs once with much success, but not crons.

I felt, going into the game, I absolutely needed one of two things to happen: I get first turn or Snikrot doesn't come in until turn 3+. If one of those happened, I should be able to handle this okay... if not, it's going to be a very very hard game.

About his (the Ork players) list - Not exactly the list I would play. It wasn't completely optimized for maximum killy-death with stormboyz and lots of guys, but it's definitely a strong list. It's got a lot of shooting and some very fast assault elements... plus a huge mob of boyz walking up the field. The biggest issue is going to be Snikrot, though. Without Snikrot, I'd easily be able to out manuevre his list with all of my destroyers and pick him apart. But with him, he threatens so far from any board edge when you factor in the waaagh that it is a serious problem for me.

For deployment, I used my heavy d's to push him back, countering the 15" deployment range. He ended up with the big boyz squad on the left center, the lootas, big mek w/ SAG, and boomgun (kill kannon?) looted wagon in the building on the left, with the PK warboss and 2 trukk boyz behind it... the battle wagon and tankbusta looted wagon were in the center right, and the buggies were on the far right.

I, to much laughter from both of us, lined my two warrior squads along my back board edge using the maximum 2" coherency to block Snikrot's access point as much as possible. It probably wasn't worth it, but I dunno..... it certainly was amusing, haha. I had the deceiver in the left half, along with all of my destroyers behind the building on my left. With one move, my destroyers would be able to shoot one of his trukks and take them out of the game, effectively. If I got first turn, that is... if I didn't, I'd risk getting charged by Snikrot if I moved where I'd need to in order to shoot the trukk.

Now I did get a little confused in the deployment. At one point, he said "a squad's going in the vehicle", and indicated the looted wagon behind the battle wagon. I thought he meant a squad was going inside the battlewagon, and assumed it was a big assaulty squad. So I spent some effort where I shouldn't have, not realizing he meant tankbustas in the looted wagon... which wouldn't have been too high on my priority list.

With Grand Illusion, I pulled the heavy destroyers together, basically fortressing up on my left, then prayed for first turn.



His Turn 1:
Unfortunately, he won the first turn. He kept the trukk squads and warboss back, but moved the shoota boyz forward, along with his battlewagon and looted wagon. Note that he rolled for breakdowns every turn, but didn't get any 1's... so I'm not going to mention it each turn going forward. His buggies on the right zoomed forward behind the building on my right near my DZ. Lootas shot down a heavy destroyer squad, but it was within 6" from another one so it could attempt to WBB.

Big Mek instant deathed a warrior, and the looted wagon pie plate scattered off the board attempting to kill warriors.


My Turn 1:
Both heavies stood up and joined an existing squad. So here's my big mistake: I was intimidated by the firepower that his 13 man loota squad could put out. I should have taken the shots they put out and rely on armor / WBB to weather it and focused on the real threats: his assaulty troops. What I *should* have done is attempted to destroy the trukk I could see and then started shooting everything I had at the shoota boyz. Instead, I got away from the left edge with my destroyers and shot the lootas down to an ineffective size. I did put one destroyer squad into the shootas and killed 7? or so, but two destroyers squads shot at the lootas. The heavy destroyers were surprised to realize the battle wagon wasn't open topped.

The lootas passed their morale check.


His Turn 2:
I started making offerings to the Deceiver to not let Snikrot come in this turn, but they weren't enough... Snikrot decided to show up right away, and things went downhill.

He decided to come in on the right hand side of my warrior line, while taking his two trukks and the warboss and zooming them forward 25" on my left. The shoota boy squad continued to run forward. I was completely boxed in at this point. Shooting 4 destroyers in one squad, and the remaining guy broke but only ran a few inches despite going 3d6.

Snikrot and company assaulted the warrior squad and easily won combat. None fell to burnas, though, so they all would be able to WBB if I passed my morale check. I wanted to fail very badly, though. If I failed, I could fall back in their direction counting on my very strong firepower to break them and open up a direction to run. Checking at -3, I unfortunately passed! Now he's threatening to break me on my turn, massacre d6", then move, waaagh, and assault. Big problem.


My Turn 2:
Only 1 warrior stood back up. 2 Destroyers stood up, allowing me to attempt to rally by going back up above half, and they did. Because Snikrot was threatening to break out, I shifted all I could to the left, hoping to do some real damage to the trukk squads. The big D ran over there, too.

A destroyer squad got a bunch of pen's and made the trukk explode. It even killed about 5 guys with the strength 3 hits... and luckily, they failed their pinning check, too! My opponent was very smart in his placement. Instead of putting them as close to me as possible, he put them in the back section - and therefore *just* out of assault range of the Deceiver. Another destroyer squad shot the other trukk and got 4 destroyed results. It ramshacked with a direct hit, but he couldn't physically come forward at me because of the way he disembarked the other squad... so it just immediately stopped when it hit his own models.

The Deceiver tried a Hail Mary and made the warboss take a morale check, which would have immediately killed him if he failed.. since he was surrounded by friendly models and had his fallback corrodor completely blocked, but he succeeded. The last destroyer squad couldn't see in the direction because they only got a 3" consolidate from rallying, so they shot the shoota boy squad some more and killed another 5 or 6. They were still well above 10, though, so fearless. 4 Heavy destroyers shot at the tankbusta squad's looted wagon, not realizing what was inside was not a big threat, got 2 hits and only 1 glance (needing a 2 to glance 3+ to pen), but was able to immobilize it. The other squad killed the looted wagon with the kannon.

One thing that did go right was that the warriors held up Snikrot.

Things are in a very bad spot, though.


His Turn 3:
The warboss came forward and prepared to assault some warriors. The non-pinned trukk boy squad ran forward and prepared to assault the Deceiver (only thing in range). The shoota boy squad ran forward. He declared his waaagh and did the fleet for the trukk boy and shoota squad. The shoota squad was in range of the three man destroyer squad and a heavy destroyer squad.

Shooting just wrecked a bunch of stuff. The big mek with SAG rolled boxcars for strength and removed a heavy destroyer and two destroyers from the game. Lootas killed another 2 heavy destroyers, the tankbustas killed 3 destroyers, and battle wagon killed another 2 heavy destroyers. I had 1 heavy destroyer up (4 down), and 2 destroyers up (3 down)... then another full destroyer squad off to the left. I passed morale checks.

Warboss assaults warriors, but with my line formation, only 2 are in the kill zone - they are crushed completely. Trukk boys assault the deceiver, who misdirects towards the warboss. Snikrot and company kill 7! warriors, leaving just 1 alive. And he refuses to run away, sticking in combat for my turn.


My Turn 3:
Only 2 warriors stand up, so snikrot & company are in combat with only 3 models. 2 heavy destroyers and 1 destroyer stand up. Things were bad, and not getting better.

I really don't have much I can do. Deceiver moves to assault warboss. My 5 man destroyer squad moves to shoot the 12 man trukkboy unit, 2 man destroyers move to shoot the shoota boy squad, and 3 heavies to shoot either the shootas or the small trukk boy squad.

5 man destroyers kill a large number of the trukk squad, but it's still easily combat effective... but it will need to take a morale check. 2 man destroyers and heavies shoot into the shoota boy squad, dropping them down to 9 and no longer fearless. The deceiver tries to force a morale check on the previously pinned trukk boyz. If, by some miracle, they all fail their morale check, I can pull out the game. If not, it's over... they all pass.

Deceiver assaults the warboss and causes 2 wounds. Warboss then crushes 4 warriors, who break and run off the board. Snikrot's squad kills only 2, and he passes morale again. Uh? This combat has been going on for way too long I now have 1 above phase out, but I'm about to be assaulted all over by power klaw weilding orks. I conceed the phase out.


He got the full points, since the phasing kills off my general & highest point unit Deceiver, and he's got a unit in my DZ. I control no quarters now, but I did kill a unit completely before being destroyed, so I got a measly 4



It was a big learning experience, though. My opponent played well, he really knew how to hem me in with his fast units and snikrot. If he had brought snikrot in on my left flank to support the warboss & trukk boy squads, as he mentioned he thought of doing, it would have been a very different game, as I would have had an avenue of escape.. but he did the right thing and completely boxed me in.

When I looked back at the game later, there were a lot of things I think I could have done differently that might have won me the game (and the tournament)... shooting the shoota boyz instead of the lootas on turn 1, so that I could escape that way. Shooting the trukk that stayed back on turn 1, risking Snikrot coming in and assaulting there immediately. But that would have been okay, too, as he would have been in the same area as the trukk and warboss, which means I could fall back safely.... and had he still come in on the right, his left threat would have been seriously weakened. Also, a big problem I had being hemmed as what happened was that I needed the Deceiver to be in multiple places. If I could have forced him to come from one place with everything, then the big D could stall his squads all together.

As a side note, that was the first game I've played where I was wishing for my monolith(s) since playing more shootier tin'eads, and boy was I wishing hard for it.

[Grubnar]

Well this was nice!
I find it interesting to read a battle report whose POV is from the scumgrods side. We need more of these.
And it was an OK-ish fight as well. I have, personaly, never face the Deciver with my Orks (or any other army) since Tinhead players always seem to choose the Nightbringer.