Prot's Ultra-Report: Greenskins vs Chronos an 1850 Maelstrom

[Prot]

Greetings,

Here we go with another report complete with some pics. For now I continue to apologize for having tor proxy so heavily but I am trying out lots of units and slowly painting up what I have! You'll notice I've actually completed some tacticals so I'm very happy with that, but lots more to do!

+++ Can the fate of mankind be trusted in the hands of a yellow landraider, 3 headless Centurions and a Dark Angel pretending to be Tigurius? We don't have a choice. +++

Here is my list, as mentioned it is based on something I never do in 7th... tank heavy Ultramarines staring the tank superstar: Chronos in a Pred Annihilator. See that list here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/299936-1850-ultramarines-maelstrom-chronos-edition/

The Orks from memory were something like this:

Mega armoured warboss w/

Mega armoured boyz w/

a Pain boss (FNP conferred to squad)

All mounted in a Battlewagon of course.

10 Lootas in a battewagon

Trukk full of shoota boyz x 2

2 foot squads of boyz

2 Dakka Jets

5 Kopters /bikes

The Mission: Escalation (number of Objective cards is equal to the turn number), 1850, long edge deployment.

The Game Setup:

- I won the choice and took first turn deployment. Basically it was in the middle on my edge. Not much blocked total line of sight so I tried to use the landraider to block some LOS from the Thunderfire Canon.

+++ Chronos is in the Predator (annihilator) flanked by a twin Assault Razorback and the Landraider with Tigirius and Centurions. To the left is the other razorkback and 5 marines with missile launcher standing on some of those boxes to the bottom left of the picture.

- The orks took the standard 'run straight ahead and try not to get lost' formation:

+++ The Orks are hungry and there's no more wildlife left on this planet. Without thought they manage to get the Lootas partially hidden behind a structure, while two trukks flank the Mega Armoured War Boss' Battlewagon. Beyond the truks to the north you see some of the foot slogging Orks. Beyond them is another squad of Orks which I stupidly (or should I say Tigurius stupidly) infiltrated across from them to get a shot at an objective marker.

Early Game:

- After much debate between the headless Centurions who obviously begged for Prescience, Tigurius did not like the threat of the Lootas and decided against it, and instead rolled on the Telepathy table. With his re-rolls he managed to snag Terrify, Invisibility, and a few other things I never used.....

- My opponent tried to steal the initiative and failed.

- I feared the Mega Armoured Nobs getting into my lines. I've seen what they can do against 'plain' marines and it's like an all you can eat buffet. Tigurius conjured up Invis from within the landraider, affecting only his squad of course. There was no need to disembark but to be safe he cast it anyway. But it was time to start the game on a very dicey plan.....

+++ 10 of the Emperor's finest come down with Melta's in a pod. A bullseye is struck (naturally!) and the Mega armoured Battlewagon is blown to pieces with a pen 7. One wound is taken on the stunned refridgerators who rolled out of the vehicle. (they are just in front of the marines here partially obscured by the structure). It is a sacrifice no doubt, but necessary to buy Tigurius some time!

- The Armoured Nobs and warboss are on foot, and not happy about it. I get first blood, but my objective card stinks.

- The Orks aren't happy about the loss of their old junk wagon. Shooting doesn't do the job though, but a rush into close combat wipes out the Ultramarines....

+++ *Pooof* Ultra's disappear from a fit of rage from the Warboss and his hygiene challenged crew.

- Ironically the Pod still survives and has "Objective Secured" thus preventing the Warboss from claming the objective RIGHT beside the pod (see #2 in the picture above). That objective was revealed to provide an increase in cover saves! Also, the pod is actually blocking LOS from his Lootas to my Landraider and Centurions.

- On the far end of the table the footslogging Orks run forward, trying to flood objectives.

- Chronos let's shots go and fails to pen the Loota wagon. Same with the Landraider.The Thunderfire pops some Orks in the distance.

- The Orks, faced with adversity, are fairly predictable: A full ahead rush is performed by the 2 remaining trukk squads.

+++ Well into my lines, the Orks zoom ahead and Chronos orders full firepower before they can disembark. The Razorback above is wrecked from the Lootas and the Plasma Ultra's bail out.

- With such overwhelming firepower the Ork inferior machinery never stood a chance. Tigurius disembarks with the Centurions and passes Invisibility on his squad. Chronos unleashes the full fury of the Predator and demolishes one trukk. The second is destroyed by the landraider. The Ultramarines try mopping them up with all bolters available and while most die, there are stragglers.

- My opponent gets up to 3 points in objectives. I am still at 1.

- In my second turn he uses his warlord trait to decrease my reserve rolls by 1. Even with Tigurius I fail to get either of the Stormtalons in the game! Meanwhile on his second turn he uses his other warlord trait to increase his reserve rolls by 1 and brings both Dakka jets in..... Tigurius sees them first... over the tree tops. They announce a Whaaaaag, and point their barrels at..... the Centurions.

+++ Using his Waaaaaaaaaaaaaggh, and firing all out at the Centurions, even with snap shots, each Dakka jet wounds 5 times! I make 8 of the saves. A different centurion is closer to each Dakka jet so no one dies, but 2 are down to one wound.

- The Ultramarines lose quite a few razorback marines as well as the wounded Centurions. We go to mid game with the Ultra's still losing the battle... but the war isn't over.

MID Game:

- These Ultra's value the Codex Astartes and as such they allow the Dakka jets the illusion of air superiority. But it appears it was all a ploy because with the Dakka jets half way across the board, they can't predict the arrival of the Stormtalons:

+++ The Stormtalons (one played by my Nephifail) are on the scene.

- Just off the picture are the Dakka Jets. The Right Stormtalon comes in hovering, and needs to take an objective there. Above him are a squad of Orks who are widdled down however they have destroyed the Scouts and surrendered a point to the Orks.

- The Left stormtalon gets a lock on the rearward Dakka Jet and downs it by just firing the Assault cannon. It crashes uncermoniously in front of the Orks running for cover.

- The Landraider maneuvers to protect the Centurions. Tigurius calls upon the Warp to cast Invis and barely passes with 2 dice. However the Orks cancel it with no psyker, using just 3 dice!!

- In what could only be described as superior training by the 500 worlds, the Landraider calls upon the machine spirit to fire lascannons on the remaining Dakka Jet... hitting once! Penetrating and causing an Immoblized result! The Orks fail to pass the test, and smash into the ground in a ball of flames: Ultramarine air force: 2 Orks flying junk: 0

- I have a big turn and turn over 3 points. The kopters rush the Western front but the remaining Twin Assault cannon Razorback rips into the squad leaving only one alive. The remaining Kopter would miss its lone shot, and fail to assault. The price would be death. Another case of Objective Secured (the Razorback) denying the Kopter a victory point from an objetive point.

Mid-Late Game:

- The faulty Trukks may have exploded sky high, but the contents still survived. One straggling crew of Orks grabbed an objective point in front of the Landraider. The second crew of stragglers was widdled down to merely a single Nob with a power fist....

+++ One Bow-legged Ork in a construction vest VS the mighty Chronos Predator? Surely you jest? Yet the inbred Ork manages to punch a hole clean through Chronos' tank! He would disembark and annihilate the Ork in return.

- At this point my opponent grabs another point and we are tied 5-5.

- The Orks have thinned the Ultramarines severely, but attrition is high on the other side:

- Exhausting Centurion firepower on the Mega Armoured Nobs, the results were poor. With Cover from the Ultramarine drop pod and feel no pain from the Pain boss, only one Mega Armoured nob went down. But they were afraid to advance out of the cover even at this point in the game which was strange.... and this lead to a very bizarre decision....

- In an unlikely turn of events the Warboss separates from his Mega Armoured squad to take on the Drop Pod! It turns out rather than take a turn moving his Lootas in the Battlewagon and suffering one turn of Snap Firing, the Warboss decided he would be the big hero and destroy the Pod. Of course he did so, but it remained as a wreck! Foolish Xenos!!!!

- Realizing the folly of the Warboss' plan, Tigurius orders all Centurions to decimate the Warboss.... he is riddled with 11 unsavable wounds, giving me Slay the Warlord.

- The Mega Armoured Nobs are incensed at the annihilation of their leader and finally come out of cover in an act of desperation. A partial squad of Orks grabs an objective before being mowed down by a Stormtalon.

- The Thunderfire gets off a very good salvo mincing several Orks, and the second Stormtalon finishes them off. I have a stellar turn scoring 5 points. (one was a "D3" bonus)

- The Centurions take aim on the foolhardy Mega Armoured Nobs, finally killing them all including the Pain Boss. However, Tigurius fails his attempt with re-rolls at Invisibility. In return the Ork Lootas take aim at the Centurions however they only kill 2 of them, giving up a character kill point to the Orks. (the Sargent died)

END GAME:

- We play my (top) half of turn 5, but there's nothing he can do now as both Stormtalons are hovering on objectives, wiping up all footbound Orks. All Mega armoured bodies are dead. The battlefield is also clogged with Tactical Ultra-corpses. The smoking hull of Chronos' Tank is a reminder of what the Orks can do if they get through.... but nonetheless the Orks have nothing but a single Battlewagon with Lootas left. They fire wildly, at nothing in particular, before conceding.

The final score was 14- 7 for the Ultramarines. But again my losses were quite heavy. I did have a combat sqaud left, Tigurius +1 Centurion, a Landraider, one Razorback and both Stormtalons.

Things to add to my Codex Astartes:

Chronos: Not bad, but in hindsight this guy is totally suited to the 'normal predator'. With the Autocanon/ twin Hvy Bolters his BS5 is far more useful. I hardly got any significant benefit out of his BS and ignored one shaken/stunned event the whole game. His world came to a halt from a close combat I may have been able to prevent with more bodies on the table. He is 'good' for his points, but I'd definitely put him in a cheaper predator. Again, my opponent had very little to handle AV13 with.

Army Composition: This was new for me with Ultra's. The tank flanks on Chronos were great, as was the Transport (Landraider) for the Centurions as this table would have been a nightmare for them without the Landraider for protection. It makes me want to take the Landraider more often. It -almost- guarantees they get in the fight.

As a side note, due to the army lists posted in the Ravenguard section I took a page out of their book and went Dual Assault cannon Razorbacks instead of my usual Las/twin-plas and it was quite good. Quite flexible.

* On my opponent's point of view he always uses the Mega Warboss and Pain Boss w/ Mega Amoured Nobs for an HQ but he's pulling them out now in favour of more trukks. (I think this is indrectly a result of the TOP 5 Ork player at SoFlo con. who played a heavy trukk variant.) I reminded him that the Centurions will still probably make mince meat out of those Trukks but I don't think he liked how powerless he felt about the Centurion shooting on his elite squad.

Pods/Tacticals VS Legion of the Damned: Normally I take 3-4 Pods. This game since I only took one with my staple Melta Squad, I SHOULD have combat squaded the squad either before they dropped, or after they dropped and only sacrifced 5 guys instead of 10. Normally with 4 pods dropping those 30-40 marines make quite a meaty line up with a very good counter shooting phase with the Tactical Chapter Tactic. But not in this case.

I stuck with my gut instinct on the Pod vs Legion of the Damned and I think it worked for the best. If you read the report, you know the Pod with Objective secured annoyed my opponent to no end. PLUS it made for a precision drop, bucking right up the hull of the HQ Battlewagon. I could not have 1) dropped the Damned in the first turn, nor 2) taken such liberties with the position of the deep strike.

Tigurius: He continues to be my 'go to' HQ. I've tried others but without him I fear the army losses a lot, and it's not just psychic powers. I LOVE the Stormtalons for fun, and he assures a swift arrival, even with the goofy Ork delay tactics.

Invisibility: Without it, I'm certain the Centurions were going to be vaporized in turn 2. The two Dakka jets and the Lootas would have pummeled them. On one hand I wish I had something else which posed such a threat to get some HEAT off the Centurions, however they are too expensive, and just can't be replicated.

My Continued Ultra-Phobia: Close Combat: This is the only army I play that feels incredibly inept at close combat. But so far, somehow, it is working.

Well onto another variant. Lots of thinking to do from this game. If you've read this far, thank you!

[Aspecti]

Just a small thing, but you can't cast blessings or maledictions while inside a transport or a building, only witchfires and then only if there's a firepoint. Page 25 of the rulebook, top of the page. That is a really annoying and illogical rule >_>

[Prot]

oh gees... I had no idea. Luckily it had no meaning to our game. Damn, I thought the rule was I could only affect the psycher's unit within a vehicle. Thanks for the clarity, comment and reading the batrep! 

[markham82]

Good win brother

 

Pew pewing is a lot less tiring than punching. And also remember we put a lot of effort into shooting the enemy before they can close with us so that they don't find out how good we are in combat, all part of the mind games..

[Prot]

Yea I see what you mean. The list wasn't as tight as I'd like it to be but I took some chances and had just enough fire power that only the odd turdling squeezed through the cracks.