While B&C was down... (2000 Summary BatRep. BT vs Orks)

[Brother Darklight]

We're back, Brothers!

 

So, all that time you would have spent on here in the last few days was forced into other priorities. Hopefully some good Templar-y stories.

 

First couple of days I spent my evenings in a corner in the fetal position. Then it occurred to me that I should go kill something, so I had a 2000 point game against the most ridiculous Ork list I've come across to date! However, I had time to create a rather sinister list, knowing my opponent was Greenskins.

 

Amythestus Crusade: (Allies: Rynn's Heroes)

 

(Warlord)Reclusiarch: Combi-Flamer, Artificer Armour, Bolt Pistol, Teleport Homer

Reclusiarch: Combi-Flamer, Artificer Armour, Teleport Homer

Emperor's Champion: Suffer Not

 

Knight Squad (10 man) : Flamer, Power Sword

Knight Squad (10 man) : Flamer, Power Sword

Archer Squad (6 man) : Flamer, Heavy Bolter

 

SB Terminators (5 man) : Heavy Flamers x2

 

(SM Allies)

Pedro Kantor

 

Sternguard (10 man) : PowerFist(Sgt), 10xCombi-Flamers

Tactical Marines (10 man) : Plasma Cannon, Flamer.

 

Land Raider Redeemer.

 

Now, I play this Ork player a lot. I'm used to the rushing of Ork boys, the odd Loota squad... and I was fairly certain he wouldnt have too many curve balls in this list. He usually either has Trukks full of Sluggas, or very large groups of sluggas. Maybe a Killa Kan with a Grotzooka. Basically he's always running straight into my Bolters and Chainswords...

 

Never have I been so wrong...

 

Ork Horde

(going purely from memory here)

 

(Warlord)Big Mek : Kustom Forcefield, Power Klaw, Attack Squig, 'Eavy Armour.

Big Mek: Shokk Attack Gun

 

Shoota Boyz (20 Ork) : 2x Big Shootas, Nob w/ Power Klaw, BossPole

Shoota Boyz (20 Ork) : 2x Big Shootas, Nob w/ Power Klaw, BossPole

Shoota Boyz (20 Ork) : 2x Big Shootas, Nob w/ Power Klaw, BossPole

 

Lootas (15 Ork)

Lootas (15 Ork)

 

deff coptas (x5) (I think? They had Rokkit Launchas and were all Nobs. He proxied some Bike models and some Copta models, I can't remember which they ended up being)

 

Killa-Kans (x3) : Grotzookas

Killa-Kans (x3) : Grotzookas

 

Deff Dread.

Looted Battle Wagon.

 

The game was last weekend, so I don't remember the full details of turn-by-turn. However I remember what-killed-what and roughly how badly, so bare with me here.

 

Mission Type: Purge the Alien.

 

This was already looking bad. He was going to be waiting for my Knights to step out, or my Terminators to come in from Reserve. The board had a dotted-line style of Impassible Terrain. It ran through both of our deployment zones, So not parallel with our deployment table edges but perpendicular to them. And there were some gaps. We deployed rather evenly on either side, but I figured my plan was to move all to one side. His larger groups would have a hard time filtering through the gaps Impassible Terrain. My Terminators, his Deff Dread and his deff coptas were in reserve. He sort of ran out of room on his end of the table (4" x 4"), so he opted to keep the Deff off for the beginning.

 

-Kantor and the Sternguard in the Redeemer

-Warlord and EC attached to one Knight squad

-Other Reclusiarch in the other Knight Squad.

 

-Big Mek Warlord attached to one Shoota Squad

-Big Mek Shokk Attack with a Loota team.

 

Templar Turn One/Ork Turn One: There were rather uneventful. I started my migration to one side, and sniped a Loota or two with the Tac Marine's Plasma Cannon. He didn't move much.

 

Templar Turn Two: My Terminators came in. Damn. Well, to avoid the colossal failure of having them Scatter into Mass of Shooty Orks' line of sight, I dropped them near my Warlord and his attached Knights. They scored a few kills on a Shoota boy squad, but nothing amazing. I score a weapon disabled on his Wagon with my Assault Cannon on the Redeemer and advance up the table a bit. I try moving between some of the cover along one table edge with the Tac Squad, but fluff the roll to get into cover. I roll a 1, so I'm juuust out side of the forest, but at least I'm in a line of sight...

 

Orks Turn Two: the deff coptas come in from reserve, RIGHT next to said Tac Squad. He wastes 6 of the marines with those rokkit launcha things. Luckily he can't Assault yet. He scores a glance on my Redeemer with his Shokk Attack Gun. He also charges the Redeemer with one of his Boy squads. Luckily he failed to hit the Redeemer at all *phew*. The Killa Kans wipe a good half of the 2nd Reclusiarch's squad out with those Grotzookas. Those things hurt...

 

Templar Turn Three: This is where things start to get fun. My Sternguard and Kantor hop out of the Redeemer and end up about 2-3 inches from the Lootas with the Big Mek. Now, for those of you who haven't seen Sternguard used before; They have access to all sorts of cool ammo types. One of which ignores Cover Saves. Not to mention the whole squad has access to combi weapons. This makes them TERRIFYING, but rather pricey. I opt to only use 4 of the Combi-Flamers, and the rest use the ignore-cover bolts. I wiped the Lootas and the Mek from existence. First Blood and 2 Kill points to the Templars. My Redeemer Pivots and fires those unearthly FlameStorm cannons. Strength 6 AP 3 Flamer Templates. It killed all but 2-3 due to his clustered placement. My Warlord's squad was close enough to pistol the remaining ones to death. The Terminators were getting close to that Wagon, but not close enough. The Tac Marines near the Deff Coptas fire into the unit with little success. They scored 1 wound, and the nearby Templar Archer Squad that tried to support their Battle Cousins fared about the same. That was one Nob Copter dead, but 4 more ominously sitting by.

 

Orks Turn Four: Deff Dread hits the table, close to Kantor and the Sternguard. I had no idea what this thing had in store for me. I'd never faced one before, so whatever plan I was going to come up with, I'd have to do it on a gamble. He fires with the Wagon, 3 Killa Kans and 2 big shootas into my Warlord's squad. The Knights are all dead, and the Champion dies. Great, now my Warlord is on his own. His Coptas kill 3 of the remaining 4 Tac Marines with those Rokkits. His Warlord and his shoota squad move in on the Redeemer, this time a bit more spread out. He wants that thing dead badly. The other 3 Killa Kans assault my Reclusiarch and his 5 Knights... He kills 1 Knight and I fluff every single dice hit on his Kans. Crap.

 

He then assaults the lone Tac Marine for the kill point with his 4 Deff Coptas. This Tac Marine, however, he had no desire to fall to these 4 grinning morons. He scores a single wound on the coptas. The coptas then miss. Every. Single. Shot. This gets better. The Ork player then proceeds to fail Leadership on these Coptas. (I could've sworn they were fearless, but the Ork player insisted they weren't. Fine by me!). The Lone Marine, then proceeds to Sweeping Advance the remainder of the Coptas. He Won. He killed all of them. By himself. We're basically looking at Kantor's Successor, here. He consolidates back towards my table edge to avoid any more hostile encounters. He's clearly done his fair share already.

 

Templar Turn Four: Terminators Falcon Punch the Wagon into the next Millennium. In fact, they punched it so hard that one of my Terminators just died from how awesome they were... I'm serious, the explosion killed one my Terminators. *Facepalm*. I decided to take my chances with the Deff Dread. I charged it with Kantor and his Sternguard. I figured I'd do alright with 2 Power Fists, and I was right. His Dread killed only two or three Sternguards (Luckily, also those 3 had been ones who'd used the Combi-Flamers already. I'd been keeping track). The Dread popped, and the Sternguard moved to help the Terminators fight the Mob that had its eyes set on the Redeemer. My 2nd Reclusiarch was most likely going to die, so I decided I'd send my Archers in to help alleviate some incoming Killa Kan attacks. By the end of that, one Kan had died from the Str5 awesomeness of my Templars, but the Reclusiarch missed all his attacks (again).

 

Ork Turn Four: He kills the Redeemer with the Mek/Nob's Power Klaws. He also wastes my Terminators with his remaining Loota team. He kills my Warlord with his Big Shootas (since I couldn't save on a 2+ to save my life that day). If you take anything away from this: Never underestimate BS2 shooting. He kills most of my Archers with his Kans in close-combat, but he can't kill that Reclusiarch. Who, by the way, missed all of his attacks a third time.

 

Templar Turn Five: Kantor and Co. get revenge for the Sword Brethren. They use the remaining Combi-Flamer shots to score a whopping 38 hits on a squad of 21. That doesn't include the bolter rounds from Kantor or the other Sternguard. However, I rolled only enough To-Wounds to kill all but 3 Orks and the Mek. The Ork player had no luck with Leadership that day and he failed the roll. He also came to realize that the Nob had been the one carrying the BossPole so he couldn't do the re-roll shenanigans. He falls back. Elsewhere on the table, the Reclusiarch misses hard for the 4th time in a row, where as the Archers score a glance on one of the Kans. By the end of the Assault I had 2 Archers left and my Reclusiarch against 2 Kans.

 

Ork Turn Five: His Warlord continues to fall back. Like I said, he couldn't pass leadership at all that day. His last Shoota squad meets up with the Kans and my Reclusiarch, and the other 3 Kans get into Linebreaker position.

 

Oh, and that Lone Tactical Marine, Brother Awesome McAwesomeSauce? Well it turns out he was 18 inches from 2 of those 3 Kans. They fire. All get direct hits. Crap.

 

BUT WAIT! He saves ALL of the hits! What is this guy made of?!

 

Back to the Reclusiarch and the Archers. Due to positioning, only a few of the shootas were able to hit, so not all is lost. He focuses all of his attacks on the Reclusiarch. He shrugs off all of the attacks that hit him! There's hope for me yet! I glance the Kan with my 2 Archers and kill it. One to go!

 

Templar Turn Six: I move into position with Kantor to not get wasted by that last Loota Squad, but so that I have a line of sight on the Warlord Mek and the retreating Boys. I kill only one of the boys with my Bolters. I also move McAwesomeSauce out of the way as to not attract more attention from those Kans. He's not getting that Kill Point so easily! The Reclusiarch maintains that perfect miss streak... (I honestly still can't believe it.) And the Archers succumb to the Horde. Luckily the way it was laid out, not a lot of the boys could get into combat distance so my Reclusiarch still had a chance for survival, provided the game ended at the end of this turn.

 

Ork Turn Six: Warlord Mek fails his regroup roll again! Nice! The Kans get cozy for his Linebreaker point and we go back to the Eternal Assault. I decide to save myself from that powerfist. I challenge the Ork Boys. Like any sensible person, he declines to let his Shoota boys dish out their damage... which wasn't much this time. I think I only needed to save against 4 wounds. Failed 1, but hey that's the first wound he's taken all game! Kan missed hard and my Reclusiarch takes a few Ork boys down, breaking his miss-streak.

 

The Game Ends.

 

 

Final Scores:

Templars: 8 Kill Points + Slay the Warlord + First Blood = 10.

Orks: 7 Kill Points + Line Breaker + Slay the Warlord = 9.

 

Note: Since his Warlord and the remainder of his unit were falling back, they were counted as 'destroyed', hence my Slay the Warlord point.

 

One of the coolest games I'd played in a while, I must say.

Things to take from this:

-BS2 means, yes they miss a lot. But when Orks shoot, there is a heck of a lot of shots coming at you.

-Flamers. Rock.

 

 

(P.S. In B&C's downtime, I also thought it wise to start up a Roleplaying Twitter account for 40k rants from the perspective of a Templar. I figure I might have some fun with it. @TheAngryTemplar)

[TheCrimsonLancer]

A very unusual game... But, as always, the Templars triumphed in the end. This report is making me seriously think about more flamers in my lists. BTW you should offer the one tactical marine to switch chapters, he seems to be a Templar at heart.

[tvih]

Nice battle report. I sure hope Brother McAwesomeSauce got promoted, at least!

 

I really like Sternguard's versatility as well, and of course it's nice with Kantor making them scoring. Too bad only one of my metal Sternguard have combi-weapons. Gotta try to convert some more plastic ones, the two extras from the commander box just aren't enough. Not to mention no combi-flamers whatsoever.

 

A Redeemer is also something I gotta try at some point with my C:SM contingent. It's just too bad Templars themselves don't have access to it.

[Brother Darklight]

Nice battle report. I sure hope Brother McAwesomeSauce got promoted, at least!

 

Thank you! And yes, it's Veteran Sergeant McAwesomeSauce now ;)

 

I really like Sternguard's versatility as well, and of course it's nice with Kantor making them scoring. Too bad only one of my metal Sternguard have combi-weapons. Gotta try to convert some more plastic ones, the two extras from the commander box just aren't enough. Not to mention no combi-flamers whatsoever.

 

I believe there's a Bitz set you can get that's all combi-weapons... Can't remember if it's Forge World or GW's, but I remember seeing one somewhere

 

A Redeemer is also something I gotta try at some point with my C:SM contingent. It's just too bad Templars themselves don't have access to it.

 

I keep reading that people prefer not to use them. I don't see why not, I love it! I've also asked on several occasions if I can just field a Redeemer with my BT anyway, since we play casual games... Ork player just 100% shoots me down with that request. Can't figure out why... :P

[tvih]

I believe there's a Bitz set you can get that's all combi-weapons... Can't remember if it's Forge World or GW's, but I remember seeing one somewhere

Yeah, it's the Sternguard weapon kit, but it's pricey to say the least.

Tried my first combi-plasma conversion yesterday, didn't turn out so well because of my "floppy" knife, the plasma portion ended up much too small! Ah well, I guess I'll just use it regardless so that the plasma pistol wasn't sacrificed for nothing. I reckon combi-flamers and combi-meltas are even trickier, though. Maybe I should just try instant-molding existing ones (tricky on its own right).

I keep reading that people prefer not to use them. I don't see why not, I love it! I've also asked on several occasions if I can just field a Redeemer with my BT anyway, since we play casual games... Ork player just 100% shoots me down with that request. Can't figure out why...

Hehe. Well, the great thing about Redeemer is that it offers something other vehicles don't. I mean, instead of a regular LR I'd probably rather take a Predator or two instead, equal/more firepower for less cost, though obviously loses transport capability. LRC's firepower is puny against anything with half-decent armour saves, so that's out. And then there's Redeemer, with AP3 flamers, which you can even fire at different targets thanks to PotMS... tasty! Not sure why some people don't see that.

Not sure what I'm gonna put into the Redeemer yet. Maybe some Honor Guard if I'm feeling nasty? Hehe. For Sternguard I'll probably just drop pod them in and kill stuff with the combi-weapons.

[ScottishSmurf96]

Well brother... That was a very good read :) and a tense battle! Overall the alliance with Kantor's finest proved effective, though expensive sterngaurds are possibly my favourite warhammer unit of all time!