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So this one should be fairly brief, I just thought I could throw this up as a lesson learned with the new FAQ. I made a few big errors, but the list may have been the biggest one (Watchblade). This was an 1850 Ork game, and I had no delusions of taking my Watchblade list against something higher end in the compete level so I thought this would be a good fun game to try it out with as I was paired against what I consider a mid-level ork list. Orks: 2 Warbosses on Bikes (one was Warlord) 2 squads of 12 Lootas in Battle Wagons 3-4 trukk squads of Boyz (4+saves) 1 squad of boyz on foot Deathwtach Watchblade Task Force: Watchmaster (Warlord) 5 Custodes + Astropath from C:IA 2 x 5 Vets in Pods with various loadouts (one combimelta heavy, the other Frag heavy) 1 x 5 Stalker Vets 4 Bikes, Maul, Axe, PwrWeapon, Meltabomb 2 Terminators w/Assault cannon. Razorback w/Dual assault cannon. BSSF: Libby with Beacon Angelis Aquila with Frag and Hammer+SS. in Pod Dread with Twin Las. The Game was Maelstrom Escalation and the Orks got to go first, and spread out appropriately with dual Loota Wagons spread out. These things are easy to underestimate but I had a lot of juicy targets for him. That's a TON of S7 shots in AV14 wagons. So I set up quite conservatively trying to keep my Razorback very deep, and my Dread completely hidden, and my Custodes with Watchmaster hidden behind a factory. Turn 1: His card was not doable in T1, and he could not get first blood, he just basically hunkered down though and this made me realize I had made a mistake. With my Utlra's I had been used to forcing him up, but he had ObSec, I had none, and he had range, and I had... a Dreadnought with range. So with 2 pods coming in I was extremely aggressive. I knew the Lootas would wreck my list if left unchecked. I took an insane risk but had not chance and put both pods supporting each other, blocking easy movement, but allowing my 3 Combi Melta squad easy shots to his one red loota wagon truck. + The Librarian shouts orders, but has his own target in mind. The dilapidated Loota Wagon has weak side armour, an easy tareget for 3 Combi Meltas... right????!!!!??? + - I picked the Mission tactics for Heavies, re-rolling ones. (The Lootas and Wagons are heavies). The Librarian notes on of the dreaded Warbosses on a Bike has the Lucky stick (the one piece of Xenos wargear I wish the Imperium would steal already!). BUT the Warboss is not joined to a squad. The Librarian Targets the warboss with Psychic Shriek, perils (Loses Psychic Shriek power as a result!!!) but the Warbosses head explodes like a rotten head of cabbage. First Blood + Slay the Warlord for Deathwatch! That netted me 2 points (including Maelstrom), - The Astropath tried to get off Prescience on the Custodes squad so I could re-roll reserves next turn, and failed to pass a single dice, never mind two. - Now the shooting starts.... the 3 Combi melta's look to open up the Lootas in the wagon on side armour 12, re-rolling 1's to hit. I roll 2 x 2, and a 1. So all miss, I re-roll the 1 and get a hit, and score a glance! ugh. Now I'm in big trouble. - The Libby has Beacon Angelis. As per FAQ I can only use it as a Beacon this turn, but cannot pull the Custodes and Watchmaster this turn which I dearly want to do, especially now that the Combi Melta's have failed horrendously. (Ultra Doctrines would have allowed the re-rolls of 2's.. and that stuck with me.) - The Custodes moved to the far side of their shelter building to intercept an advancing Trukk as he wanted an objective point. - The Libby was still in trouble. He was down a wound (perils) and the Lootas were still fine. And they had 2 frag cannons and I had another trukk right beside the Libby squad. This was big trouble as I was heavily surrounded with 50+ dudes in assault range next turn. I decided to shoot the wagon and use the Frag Flamer mode... big mistake, I could not get through the darn truck AV of 10 with the squad's combined shooting! Ugh. + The Custodes on the edge of nowhere need the Beacon to stay alive. I had to take the obvious bait of intercepting this trukk. I needed to deny him the point beside my Custodes and couldn't afford to leave it in such a close game. + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Turn 2: - The Ork player was livid with his mistake of thinking I couldn't access his Warboss and gave me First blood/Warlord. It was also his best CC character but had no defense for Shriek. Well he wanted to make that Libby pay. I really did need the beacon in T1 as there was a clear path, and he took it with 30+ Boyz, and the Trukk I could not take out... it all got out and annihilated the Libby Squad and the Combi Melta squad beside it. I was severely outnumbered now. My Alpha Strike had essentially failed. I had nothing left to even use the Watchblade's "Hit and Run" rule (which is typically the case). + The Librarian and the Beacon are going to be bacon here. Overwhelmed by greenskin, the anti-xenos elite prey for a miracle. + The Custodes were now stuck walking, and I had only 2 empty pods left on his half of the table. While he was missing his warboss, literally the most damage I did was simply overwatch with Shotguns and Frag Cannons. This was looking really bad. Both Loota wagons being 100% was also a massive problem I did not foresee with my Alpha typically capable of taking at least one down a turn. - The Ork Retaliation netted him 3-4 points. We were tied after my first turn, and I had bottom of 2 to go: Deathwatch TURN 2: - As crazy as this sounds, with one Pod coming in reserves, I felt I had to make a very deep push for one of the Lootas. 75% of his army shifted to kill my two Pods of Deathwatch so this left a TINY bit of breathing room by his OTHER Loota squad in a wagon.... Not much but a bit of space. So the idea was I'd take down the other wagon, and try to get him to turn his army away from me, and go back to rescue his Lootas. In the meantime he turbo'd a Trukk to sit on an objective and my Custodes would have to take care of it there while the rest of my army juggled for a position. - The Dreadnought came out of cover, got off a Lascannon shot and flat out blew up a trukk in a single pen shot! Not bad...at least I hit something. That netted me a point. - The stalkers had no targets all game as his army was predominately far away, the odd shots I could get on his boyz were meaningless to him. So I advanced them, but lost 2 in return fire. - the Pod had come in, to take out the second loota wagon: + When at first you don't succeed... prey for a re-do! The third and final pod comes in with a vet squad targeting the second Loota Wagon. + - Deep in the heart of things that smell like cabbage and look like green carnie folk, I took a huge risk. I also slammed my bikes upward to force him to make a difficult decision.... the bike shot up the 20 man foot squad (I think I must have been outnumbered by about 60 models in this game.. no joke.) The Bikes presented a mild mid table threat, and cut off support from one trukk that just turboed and faced the Custodes. So now the dual Frag Cannon team would NOT use the flamer templates (I made this mistake last time) and take rear/ and side shots on his Loota with Impact S9/AP2 shots. I BARELY wrecked (did not explode unfortunately) the Loota wagon. So good thing I did not use the templates like usual. The Lootas were also pinned from the damage, and that bought me precious time. - The Razorback blew up the turbo'd trukk in my zone, the Custodes swept in and completely annihilated the 12 boyz in the trukk and swept into the mid table to try to threaten the 20 man blob. TURN 3: - The Orks had shifted the army of course... to take on the 5 man squad that podded in. I knew this was going to be ugly. - The score was decidedly in my favour because I could draw up lots of cards, and pick a soft target to complete it. He was sitting on an objective I needed in a loota wagon, and he knew it. The unharmed Loota Wagon unloaded on the Dreadnought with 20+ shots and wasted it. + Well the ol' Dread did wack a little trukk so living to T3 is pretty acceptable for him. He's having a nap now. + - The Orks press hard into the corner where they lost the loota wagon. They take the bait on the bikers (who are doing very little but did take down about 5 orks). The bikes were hit hard with orks, and they almost missed everything. I think I caused one wound. I performed hit and run with the last bike to deny him a victory point. - The Orks in the corner surrounded my last 5 vets. The Custodes... so slowly were coming to mid table but the game was being decided here. Stupid gold armour must weigh a ton. Without the Beacon these guys were just out of the picture too long... Anyway, he calls a Waaagh and sure enough, he rolls a 10 to run with 12 Orks, and makes the 9 inch assault by one inch... to smash into the 5 man squad. he MUST issue a challenge and MUST kill a character. Aside from my Custodes, and the squad I just deep striked in, I had NO other characters so he MUST kill my Sergeant in the challenge. .... of course I accept the challenge. What Deathwatch Sergeant surrounded by fist toting Orks wouldn't? I still go first but the vets can only kill 1 bloody Ork. Now the challenge, and he wiffs on two fist attacks with his fist Nob.... One hit, then one wound, the Ork winds up to deliver the killing blow but the Segeant would spin out of the way and the fist would glance off his Stormshield! Oh I laughed.... I had to. This was so ugly, but the Ork player blue screened on me at that point. In this moment I was denying him points he really should have. Now I wanted to use Watchblade's Hit and Run, but guess what? I lost combat badly and ran 11" away and he couldn't catch me. lol Turn 4: - Now I have to get the last of my forces up and running in... the headless Watchmaster and funky Custodes wade through the blizzard looking for anything Green. + Left to explore Hoth, the rebels see no sign of a probe droid.... + - The running Vets auto rally and hit the remaining (now unpinned) Lootas as they pass by. The orks want them dead badly... but the Orks would get flamed hard by dual Frag and then attempt to charge them and die in the process! How? I don't know...living on borrowed time they try to nudge by an objective marker I happen to need. - On the far right side of the table is the Loota wagon I targeted in T1. It was annoying all game... it destroyed the Razorback finally, and put a ton of shots into the Custodes as they crossed the plains of the frozen wasteland, but only took one wound. - The Two Terminators waddled up the side.... + The two termies had no valid targets left and after cleaning out greenskins they went for the Loota wagon + - The Termies would assault the truck, the Lootas inside unloaded overwatch, and killed a Terminator. STILL I rushed in with the last survivor and would fail to take down the truck, only scoring a glance!!!1 - The Orks counter with a few assaults of remnant squads, and kill the Terminator with a fist. The Terminator wipes them as well with his dying blows. It's a complete wipe out on both sides.... - The 'running' squad of Shield Sergeant has his Frag Gunners gunned down by stray Ork bullets. As the last surviving Veteran on the board, he seeks shelter beside the downed Loota wagon, to hold an objective, and deny "kill a character" from the Orks. - By turn 6, my Custodes had made it all the way across the tundra and hit the original Loota Wagon targeted way back in T1, and blew it up!!!!! At that point the Orks conceded with almost nothing left on the table for either side, I had a 4 point lead. Deathwatch win 11-8 points. Warlord intact + line breaker.