Templar vs Orks - 1500pt Bat Rep

[Brother Darklight]

In the wake of my ridiculously topsy turvy weekend, a friend of mine had invited me over for a 1500pt game against Orks. I had a few hours to spare and figured we'd give it a shot.

 

Templar:

Master of Sanctity w/ plasma pistol, artificer, Termie honours.

Marshal w/ power sword, storm bolter, artificer, Termie honours.

Command squad (6 man strong) Champion, Apothicary, Sarge, all with Termie honours, power swords

 

And of course, the Emperor's Champion... (Suffer Not The Unclean To Live is my new favourite vow, by the way ;) )

 

9man Initiates: PF + flamer

9man Initiates: PW(sword) + flamer

8man Initiates: Bolters

7man Initiates: Bolters

 

7man Sword Brethren: (Claws + Sword)

 

Dreadnought w/ heavy flamer + lascannon

 

Vindicator

 

 

Orks:

Warboss w/ powerclaw

bigmek (he friggin loves that forcefield)

 

15* Lootas

 

5x* Trukks with ~12 boys in each. Each squad with a nob + powerclaw

 

5 bikes w/ nob + powerclaw

 

 

* - I can't remember exactly how many, but those seem to be right in my mind.

 

 

Gametype: I believe it was Crusade

 

The table had a 'mysterious river' cutting it in half width-wise, which made for interesting deployments. The bulk of my force starting on one side of the river with just my Dreadnaught covering the other. The river had a bridge, which had one of the 4 objectives right in the middle. Another was within Deployment's reach on my side on, what we designated a plateau. A third was on the same side of the river but on near the Ork's deployment behind a 'mysterious forest' (which rolled a 1 so it was pretty boring). The last one was on the side of river where my dreadnaught (and 4 of the Ork trukks) had started, but it was basically in the middle of the table, Razorwing nest forest on one side and another Plateau on the other. Neither of us seemed interested in that point at all.

 

Turn 1 (Night Fighting in effect): Orks had moved their Trukks forward, trying to get as close as possible. Thank the Emperor the sun had not come up yet, the Lootas couldn't effectively score much damage (even if he rolled a 3 (D3) for their number of shots).

 

One Bolter Crusader squad moved up to the objective on the Plateau and scored 1 hull point of damage on the nearest trukk. The other Bolter team, my powersword/flamer initiate team and my Command Squad (with both MoS and Marshal) advanced up the table edge towards the forest that concealed the Ork-side objective. My Vindicator (near the river) Immobilzed the Trukk containing the Warboss and halted his advance momentarily. My Powerfist team took to the river. (Hyperslime or w/e... FnP but Leadership upon leaving the river) They advanced nicely towards the Bridge objective while the Sword Brethren and EC kept up their pace along the river's edge. The Dread scored a vehicle stunned on the Warboss's Trukk... Bloody contraption wouldn't die...

 

Turn 2: The Bikes had made it closer to the Bridge Objective, but not close enough to my Crusaders to be of concern... yet... With a salvo of lucky hits from the Lootas and a charge from a boy squad utterly destroyed my powersword team. Two of the Trukks took the long way around on the other side of the table, trying to get around my Dread and onto my table edge.

 

The Bolter team had started the round of Vengence against the Boy squad that killed my Crusaders, followed swiftly by my Command Squad to finish the job. My Master of Sanctity would not let this atrocious act go unpunished and challenged the Xenos Nob to combat. Poor Xenos didn't stand a chance...Minimal loses to my Command squad (Standard Bearer). My two squads had some partial cover from the Ork Trukk the boys had arrived in, so I didn't worry about the lootas. My Sword Brethren and PFist Initiates had arrived at the Bridge Objective (which, to my extreme pleasure, turned out to be the Mysterious Objective that halves the units' charge distance when assaulting near the objective). The Vindi had destroyed the Warboss' Trukk and the Dread swiftly purged all but the Warboss and 3 of his cronies with his heavy flamer + assaulting, Unfortunatly Powerklaws are godlike... However the Dreadnought had softened the force for the coming turn's bloody conflict.

 

Turn 3: The Warboss's group decided it best to rembark and head for the bridge, but the Bigmek disembarked and met my PFist initiates in battle. The warbikers made the mistake of charging the Sword Brethren and EC... Counter-Attack ftw. The Nob and the Champion met and through an unlucky set of rolls, the Nob was victorious... however the Sword Brethren decimated the remaining bikers and caused the Nob to flee. Meanwhile, the Lootas had fired across the field at the Command squad. Because of the Artificer armour on the Master of Sanctity and the Apothicary's presence, the Xenos scored 15 wounds of which only 3 had been unsaved! One brother had fallen and the Master of Sanctity had been reduced to his last. The remaining Command Squad moved back towards the middle to try and assist if those Trukks flanking the far edge ever got close enough to attack.

 

The Sword Brethren then charged in to protect the initiates from the BigMek's onslaught. Between the Sword Brethren and the Initiates, The battle ensued, the Orks were far more interested in killing the Initiates to stop me from holding the point, but the Squad held on as the Sword Brethren carved their way to the rescue. This battle would continue. The Warboss's trukk didnt seem interested in the Bridge. It seemed he wanted my Vindicator. The vindicator had immobilized the front most trukk on the flanking edge, slowing their advance greatly, and the Bolter team in the field made it to the Tree line near the Ork-side objective.

 

Turn 4: The Warboss had made it to my Vindicator and destroyed it outright. This crime would not go unpunished... The lootas had scored more hits on the command squad, now only the Marshal and the Apothecary remained. The Flanking Trukks had repaired and slowly proceeded. One heads back towards the action on MY table edge. >:| The other deviates to try to take the bridge once more.

 

The Sword Brethren have saved the Initiates! The bridge is ours! The remaining Initiates are ordered to hold the bridge while the Sword Brethren proceed back towards the Plateau, the obvious next choice for the Warboss's destructive spree. Between the trukk's lucky shots and the previous Combats, the only hope for the Brothers holding the plateau are the Sword Brethren or the Marshal and the Apothecary. The Bolter team on the other side make slow progess through the forest.

 

Turn 5: The Trukk that had broken off heads towards the bridge, but its too far off to worry about this turn. The Warboss gets to the edge of the plateau but doesn't make the charge roll.

 

Both the Sword Brethren and Marshal get 12" Charge Range. The Warboss is thwarted by the unrelenting force of the Sword Brethren's Claws and the Marshal's wrath. The Brothers in the trees make it to the objective on the Ork's side, uncontested. The objective, to my horror, turns out to be sabotaged, but the Brothers get lucky and it doesn't explode.

 

Game Ends

 

Points held:

Templar 3

Orks 0

 

 

Epic victory if I do say so myself.

 

Edit: Changed the title, it was 1500 not 2000 B)

[Honda]

Epic victory if I do say so myself

 

Epic tale to say the least.

 

So, if you were to play the game over, what would you change in your forces (e.g. would you add rhinos?) and what if anything would you have done differently?

 

Cheers,

[Brother Darklight]

@Honda: Tough question. I might not add rhinos, so much as maybe make room for a Drop Pod or two to force them to focus about clearing their side of the table first. Honestly, this list worked out so much better than I had hoped. My goal was to make a combination Black Tide and gun-line list. Since the Orks would be dangerous if they got close enough, I opted for having more bodies to take the hits.

 

I may switch the Dread and Vindicator for Terminators or more Crusaders for the sake of having more models to soak up hits. Maybe even Assault Initiates for the Hammer of Wrath hits and the new Scouring game type (where Fast Attack can capture).

 

A good point to note is the +1 Strength -1I from Suffer Not is now great against Orks (And, in theory, Necrons) since they don't get their +1I from Furious Charge anymore. You'll still go first and hit harder.

 

As for Vet Skills, Sword Brethren with Termie Honours using Counter-Attack will get the +1 attack no matter who starts the assault phase for a total of 4 attacks per model on the first round. Not bad!

 

I'm a big fan of the Command Squad blob if they all have swords. With Strength 4 (5 with Suffer) and AP3, they'll make quick work of almost anything up to MEQ.

 

Artificer Armour is definitely something to consider if you don't want Terminator Armour for whatever reason. 2+ Is outstanding, no matter how you obtain it. :cuss

 

EDIT:

My Command Squad did demonstrate that it all depends on your unit's formation now, using the new wound allocation rules. If you're going to get shot from one side, keep the models that can take the hits (In my case the Master of Sanctity with his Artificer Armour) to cover your squad, but keep them close and in formation when attacking so all of the weapons that will do the damage are within range to do so. Just remember not to put your valuable power weapons up front if you can help it, since they're going to get hit first.

[Honda]

In my last game (oddly enough, against Orks), I was trying to see if I could implement a sort of "counterpunch"strategy. The gist of it was, the front line composed of shooty type units, with a backfield of close combat units.

 

Although it didn't go exactly to plan (like what plan does?), it did seem like I could work down and channel the Ork units and then rush up the backfield to plug holes. I even did an end run with my largest crusader squad (10+5+EC) to smack a 20 boyz mob. The vindi's didn't deliver their part that game, so I had to really use my Typhoons to create death zones to protect the other units. This then prevented me from getting the Typhoons into the Ork's deployment zone.

 

So, when I mentioned rhinos, I was wondering if you felt like the all foot nature of your force and being less mobile than say the 5 Trukk mobs, put you in situations that had you disadvantage.

 

So, my comments were more on strategizing for the next game.

 

Cheers,

[Marshal Severarse]

That was a good read. Cleanly written. A fine stomping of the greenskins, brother!

[Castellan Alaric]

glad to hear someone can beat them. my main opponent is my ork buddy, and it's been a helluva long time since i've beaten him. played again today at 1750 and got smoked. he ran a list tailored against eldar wraithguard (it featured the ability to fire upwards of 40 rokkits per turn) and needless to say taking that many saves even terms go down...i just can't seem to get the hold of him. back when we first started playing he ran a similar list to your opponents: trukk boy squads, kff big mech, and that was about it, but now it's burnas, lootas, dakka jets, tank bustas, battlewagons, scorcha looted wagons, boom guns and all other shenanigans that screw with all things templar. i've tried vindys, preds, assault terms (epic dice rolling fails on my part...), shooty terms, cc ini's, shooting ini's, lrc's and all falls short. any tips to beat the stupid green goblins? TIA.

 

great win btw. how did the sword brethren fare? i happen to think they are overpriced, but with the new edition they might have gotten a buff. good? bad? decent? thanks brother.

[Brother Darklight]

glad to hear someone can beat them. my main opponent is my ork buddy, and it's been a helluva long time since i've beaten him. played again today at 1750 and got smoked. he ran a list tailored against eldar wraithguard (it featured the ability to fire upwards of 40 rokkits per turn) and needless to say taking that many saves even terms go down...i just can't seem to get the hold of him. back when we first started playing he ran a similar list to your opponents: trukk boy squads, kff big mech, and that was about it, but now it's burnas, lootas, dakka jets, tank bustas, battlewagons, scorcha looted wagons, boom guns and all other shenanigans that screw with all things templar. i've tried vindys, preds, assault terms (epic dice rolling fails on my part...), shooty terms, cc ini's, shooting ini's, lrc's and all falls short. any tips to beat the stupid green goblins? TIA.

 

The thing to remember with Orks is the 3rd Turn is when the most eventful stuff happens. By the 3rd turn they've probably got at least half of your army tied up in assault and are basically situated where they want to be. My advice is a good mix of ranged and close combat units. Bolters and Flamers usually chew up the bigger squads enough that even Neophytes will stand a chance in the assault. Like I said in an earlier post, Suffer Not The Unclean To Live is a great vow for Orks because all of your CC models(except neo's) hit at Str5 when they finally get to you, and as of 6th the Orks don't get +1I for Furious Charge ;)

 

Plan to be assaulted.

 

Another thing to note, an Ork squad's Ld is only as high as its unit's head count. If you can kill enough Orks, it is possible to make them run away. In a game a while ago I got a squad of 20 Lootas to run off of the table from 1 Vindi Pie Plate. Granted, now the regrouping rules are a lot better, you can still buy yourself a good turn's worth of time with carefully placed shots. Not to mention, it may screw up your opponent's plans too :P

 

You may want to look into trying a group of Drop Pods for those Tank Busta's. Landing Crusaders w/ Flamers or a Dreadnaught with a Heavy Flamer will terrify most Ork Players because of the potency of flamer weapons against the walking plant dudes as well as get you close enough to use them on the first turn. If you land Crusaders, you may want to try a 50/50 mix of CC and range. You can't assault the first turn out of a Drop Pod so you'll be shooting, however your opponent will most likely try to assault you on his turn so you'll at least want to try and give him a run for his money.

 

This works well because the new Drop Pod rule will get half of your Drop Pods on the table on your first movement, as well as being able to move 6" out of it. This should get you in an ideal location to hit the Tank Bustas early on.

 

great win btw. how did the sword brethren fare? i happen to think they are overpriced, but with the new edition they might have gotten a buff. good? bad? decent? thanks brother.

 

The Sword Brethren did surprisingly well. I think maybe one model fell throughout the entire battle. If you use them, definitely consider Terminator Honours and Counter Attack as their Vet Skill. That way no matter how they get into an assault, the first turn you're hitting with 4 attacks per man. I think another key point is to use more than 5. I used 7 which worked out very nicely. It tossed out a good number of attacks on top of the two power weapons without getting too absurd for price. They also make a good escort squad for the Emperor's Champion. They help by taking wounds off of him, and by providing stronger support than a regular Initiate squad. I recently noticed that Sword Brethren can also carry Storm Shields(Not combat shields) to replace a weapon... This intrigued me since that would greatly improve the durability of the models. I'll get back to you guys on that one, though.

[travisb7]

Another thing to note, an Ork squad's Ld is only as high as its unit's head count. If you can kill enough Orks, it is possible to make them run away. In a game a while ago I got a squad of 20 Lootas to run off of the table from 1 Vindi Pie Plate. Granted, now the regrouping rules are a lot better, you can still buy yourself a good turn's worth of time with carefully placed shots. Not to mention, it may screw up your opponent's plans too :lol:

 

Just a note - Orks leadership isn't its unit's "head count" exactly. Most ork units, when over 11 models, are Fearless. You'd have to kill 9 of those 20 Lootas to make 'em run.

[Honda]

@CA: I think another to try and plan around is looking for severe mismatches. In my case, it was a 10+5 Crusader squad (PF+Flamer) with the EC attached running up against a Boyz mob. In this case, the EC challenged the Nob+Pclaw, smoked him and then went on to help out the remainder of the squad. This was successful in that the squad eventually won and took the objective.

 

I also put my Marshal (Termie, SS+TH), his termie escort (2 x CML) + plus a termie chappie on his Warboss and escort Nobs. I used Typhoons and CMLs to shoot out the non-Pclaw guys and Big Mek so my power weapons could strike them first.

 

The other thing to keep in mind is that more now than ever, combined arms is your friend. No one thing is necessarily going to jump out there and smack a big baddie all by itself. Deathstars will be isolated and out maneuvered. So figure out what your mismatches are, beat them into the dirt as that denies the opponent their use, then bring everything you have to bear on the bite sized chunks that remain.

 

I realize that is a tremendous simplification, but nevertheless, tactically what you should be striving for.

 

My two yen.

 

Cheers,

[Andhil]

I too have a friend who plays Greenskins. I have one thing to say: 10 Nobz + Ghagzkull Thraka= Unkillable. A 2+ Invul save On round 2 combined with the new 'Look out Sir!' means he can take all hits (he has crazy luck with Look Out rolls.) on Ghazgkull. This unit has swept aside 8 Assault Terminators while I had the charge, and he took eactly 1 wound. I had 4 LC and 4 TH/SS, escorted by a MoS. Challenging doesn't work, cos either Ghazghkull can win, or he throws a nob at your character to slow him down. ;)

I have destroyed them exactly once, with Guard, and a spam of Battle Cannon shots AND a Deathstrike Missile. The nobz died, Ghazgkull continued his rampage.

 

This has literally ruined all of the three matches I played against him.

 

Although the new rules definetly favour Crusaders in CC, I have not once lost a cc vs. his boyz. Definetly now he was forced to switch to Big Choppa's, no more Pk's for me ^_^

[Honda]

I think Andhil brings up a very good point.

 

Ghaz may very well be unkillable except through massive torrents of fire. In this sort of situation, you'd probably spend most of your efforts trying to strip him of forces so that you could localize his sphere of influence. I will be honest, I've not faced him yet, though I believe that opportunity will take place in the next few weeks.

 

I agree he's a very tough cookie.

 

I'd be interested to hear what others have done to deal with him.

 

Cheers,