Prot's Battle Co Batrep with Pics Vs Orks (quick n' dirty)

[Prot]

Hey guys,

Mostly a quick batrep as I have multiples going out in the past week... Crimson Slaughter, more Grey Knights, and Ultramarines so this will be brief....

Background and Set up:

At 1850 I wanted to take the advice of some people who were thinking that a good angle with the Battle Co was to take a lot of basic units to increase the free stuff, and create greater numbers. So I stripped my list down quite a bit... no Grav Cents, no Assault Centurions, no Landraider, etc, etc.

My opponent is a good Ork player, playing a very underrated Ork list using Nob Bikers, a Named Warlord on a Bike with Bikes as Troops, and a Fist that strikes at initiative and has Skilled Rider. The squad has FnP as well. He also brought out the normal stuff.... lots of boyz in various trukks as well as 2 mega armoured Nob Squads in trukks which can be a handful if you're not ready for it. Of course he had Lootas in a Battle Wagon and a Dakka Jet.

Again to be brief, my list is my basic Battle Co stripped of expensive units, using my Anti-Air Defense Force for an Auxiliary. As is customary I always include some assault elements as I believe it's crucial as some metas still like close combat. So the only extra points were put into my Captain, and a 6 man Assault Squad (Eviscerator) and my jump Chaplain Sentina. Everything else is super vanilla:

But as usual let's start with a late game scene....

+ Captain Proteus makes his stand. The Devastators are down, the Ironclad dreads are down, and the Captain is ObSec but must clear this point or surrender Warlord, as well as an Objective Point. +

- We get the game that serves me well for objectives: Maelstrom but you only draw cards (up to 6) based on the amount of Objective markers you own. I figure my best bet is to 'starve' my opponent of cards since ObSec is the Battle Co specialty.

- He gets first turn, and is already pushing past the halfway point of the table.

- He turbo's on the Western flank with his fast trucks.

+ I deploy deep but his first turn has him breaking the halfway point. The Western flank is worse as he's turbo'd in trukks for an objective. +

- I shoot like crazy... it's all I can do. The captain calls in 2 Ironclad dreads but they fail to do much of anything. He has so much Jink going on... a 2+ jink (first turn night fight) . Everything else has some form of cover rushing in.... I am already regretting pulling out my typical assault elements.

- He gets his point in the first turn, and doesn't do too much damage, but in his turn 2 he is well into me:

+ The Battle Co anticipate the assault. Chaplain Sentina and the Assault squad lie in wait. +

+ The Western Flank is in shambles. It's been overrun and Mega Armoured boyz are on foot, but running into close combat.+

- The Ironclad, and several million bolter shots including a Multi-melta bike kill a total of one Mega Armoured Nob. A very bad round of shooting, But what isn't shown in any pictures is my far right flank (East) is full of my Razorbacks and Las Devs. They are punching down trukks, but too slowly. In turn 2 he's on me.

- I need a comeback of sorts. His Biker squad is now well into me and he leads 7-2.

EPIC MOMENT #1:

+ The Boss and Bikers roll in. This is big, I have to take them down... Chaplain Sentina and the Assault Squad with dual flamer and Eviscerator roll in.+

- What happens above sets up a disaster that will change the goal of the game from 'let's slaughter Orks' to ' Mesa gonna die?' Jar-jar style. The orks Turbo in, getting a very good save (2+) and FnP. The Assault Squad lays down 2 flamers doing about 11 wounds, and bolters combine to do about 14 total wounds. I use the Auspex to reduce the ridiculous cover saves.... he loses 1 (ONE) bike.... But wait, it gets better.... Assault marine Jar-Jar decides to charge into close combat, I get over watched and 2-3 marines die in overwatch and thus fail the charge range.... That's right, I killed more of my own guys in my turn, than his. But WAIT.... there's more!

+ There's More Fail just a drop pod away! Captain Proteus seeing the horrific failings of the Assault Squad drops in with a squad of Grav-Cannon Devs with the Dev Doctrine. It's time to unload on these buggers.+

- So how useful is grav against Orks? We're talking White Crayon status here follks. But I do put another 8 wounds on the squad, but with FnP he saves them all.... every one of them.

- He smashes into the squad slaying most of them, but something interesting happens.... I challenge him and my Captain does have Eternal Shield and the Relic Blade. I get smashed pretty bad but the Captain slays a few dudes.... the unthinkable happens and the Captain actually annihilates the rest of the squad... escaping unscathed.

+ Here we are. An extremely close game. Both sides suffer horrendous losses. +

- This is it... he needs this point, I need to deny it. Most of the 'reachable' Razorbacks are wrecks. I've lost 30-ish marines... one dev squad, the assault Squad, the Hunter is down, and only one Ironclad remains.

- The Captain rushes in, shrugs off Overwatch, and challenges his Nob to a duel.. the fight is fast, and with no usable Doctrine (Ultra Captain without a squad seems unable to use anything... which doesn't feel right.) The Captain is on fire though and cleaves half the squad down, and runs the rest down.... Claiming a victory of points (after slay the warlord is added up) of 12- 10.

Thanks for reading!

+ Bonus Pic: This was my Grey Knight Knight... but doesn't really function that well at all with them so I may get him in with my Ultra's:

[Morticon]

Whats the list Prot?

[Morticon]

Also, with 8 wounds off of the devs- thats not bad! 

 

12 shots- 10 or so hits and 7-8 wounds? Not bad!

[Prot]

My list from memory was something like:

 

AADF: 2 stalkers, Hunter.

 

Demi-Co x 2

Chaplain w/Auspex + Jump Pack (he joins...)

6 Assault Marines , 2 flamers, 1 Eviscerator (I added this dude because this squad was having trouble performing)

 

5 marines 2 x melta Pod

5 marines plasma Cannon (great addition for last 2 games) w/ Plas/Las Razorkback.

5 Marines Missile Launcher w/ Twin Las Razorback

5 Marines Missile Launcher w/ Twin Las Razorback

5 Marines (vanilla) w/ vanilla Razorback

5 Tacticals (vanilla) w/vanilla Razorback

 

Attack Bike MM

 

5 Devs, 2 Lascannons, fatbaby w/Twin Las Razorback

5 Devs, 3 GravCannons (Captain went here)

 

2x Ironclad, Hvy Flamer/Melta w/Pod

 

I think that's it basically. It's a very vanilla approach.  Minigun and some others had been discussing a more basic approach with more models, more free stuff. This is my second try with this variant. My previous version used a Termie Capt with Shield and Hammer paired with Assault Centurions in a LR Reedemer and these guys were darn good. (I just batrepped this game not long ago in this forum vs. Eldar).

 

I also like using Grav Cents but neither unit actually benefits much from Battle Co so it's kind of weird. I did feel I missed the strong assault component. I thought the Ironclads would do it but they really didn't.

[minigun762]

Great report as always.

 

I couldn't help but feel that this was a case of the dice just hating you though.

 

Feels like you got really unlucky many times.

 

Also, why did the Ironclads fail you? I would've thought the heavy flamer and DCCW would have been a big bonus.

[Prot]

Great report as always.

 

I couldn't help but feel that this was a case of the dice just hating you though.

 

Feels like you got really unlucky many times.

 

Also, why did the Ironclads fail you? I would've thought the heavy flamer and DCCW would have been a big bonus.

 

 

Well actually the dice were worse than I depicted.  The Ironclads were probably inaccurately described here... In more detail here's what happened:

 

- I needed a deep threat and he was advancing big time. One threat I saw to my Razorback wall which was going down fast was a truck full of Rocket Boyz which are an amazing unit... I dropped an Ironclad way back on a marker with an ObSec pod. He was supposed to smashup the Rocket Trukk but failed miserably with his melta rolling a '2' (no re-roll with Tactical Doctrine on that). He did heavy flame the truck, doing no glances, and roasting 1 ork in total.

 

Later that turn I put about 5 lascannons into that stupid trukk... his 5+ terrain cover saves were amazing, truly. He also turned 2 pens on that truck into glances with his Ramshackle rule. Another Las took it down, that gave my Ironclad something to do.... he fire roasted the squad, and charged with... 6 attacks killing 1 Ork. That assault lasted 2-3 turns of close combat.

 

- The second Ironclad had a more important role. He was coming in to get rid of the Mega Armoured nobs that were in a Truck and they broke my front lines. I was really worried about this squad as I had no other CC unit that could touch them....

 

The Second Ironcald came down in his pod and stuck behind the truck. Perfect. Now to take down the truck..... 1. Multi melta Bike fires, rolls a 2. (no reroll), 2 Razorbacks fired. 3 Hvy Bolters, twin linked, 1 lascannon and 2 plasma gun shots. Zero penetrates. 3. All tacticals in the area fired: Plasma Cannon (deviated off the trukk too far), and a missile... missed. 4. In desperation the Ironclad was now stuck doing the unthinkable and wasting all his shots on this trukk.... his Hvy Flamer did nothing, his melta rolled a 1, re-rolled another 1.

 

So I shot about.... a 5th of my army at that trukk and it lost a hullpoint. (I even shot pods at it.) I draw a line of sight from 3 feet away from a lowly missile launcher and get a pen hit that he finally doesn't Ramshackle and the Truck wrecks, but I can't assault due to where he disembarked, and my Ironclad is stuck behind the truck which is still a wreck.

 

The Ironclad was out paced by the Nobs, he gets another truck out of the way, lines up his Lootas for a kill shot in the rear and it takes about 6 glances.... Rough game for the Ironclads overall. But as you say, a LOT of bad luck.

 

Ironically I would say the Ultramarines are the hardest army I play to win with. Well aside from Crimson Slaughter, but they don't count. lol But by far my most difficult victories come from this army no matter what formation I use.

[Captain Idaho]

Probably have an easier time of it if your opponent didn't have loaded dice.

 

Nice report (as usual).

[Prot]

Thanks but he always rolls like that. Funny story.....about a year ago I had such a horrible game with my chaos I actually calmly walked to a garbage can and chucked them all away. He went and fished them all out.

 

Now when he rolls well with them he loves reminding me they used to be mine. Of course whenever he has a terrible roll I'm quick to remind him of that fact as well. Lol

 

Thanks for checking out the batrep. I appreciate it. I do really believe in this deathstar era that Orks have become underrated morticons batrep also shows that.

[Captain Idaho]

Agreed. Ork Nobz in particular are a solid unit especially on bikes.

[Flint13]

Wow, that sounds like it was pretty tense and bloody!

 

But aren't those games where everything dies just so much fun? ^_^

[Raven6826]

Ouch... Ouch.... Did I mention ouch? ... Ouch.

 

Again we see how little squads get nerfed against big ugly zeno's with dubious personal hygiene. That captain must be marked for greatness... He kinda saved your bacon old chap!

 

It was a way "ard" ork force, uber mobile with uber muscles backing it up. Scars or Raven Wing would have wacked em a bit harder, but ultra is about making do and getting wins by skin of your teeth!

 

Darn fine battle report.

 

A combined arms detachment would have done much better methinks.

[Prot]

Ouch... Ouch.... Did I mention ouch? ... Ouch.

 

Again we see how little squads get nerfed against big ugly zeno's with dubious personal hygiene. That captain must be marked for greatness... He kinda saved your bacon old chap!

 

It was a way "ard" ork force, uber mobile with uber muscles backing it up. Scars or Raven Wing would have wacked em a bit harder, but ultra is about making do and getting wins by skin of your teeth!

 

Darn fine battle report.

 

A combined arms detachment would have done much better methinks.

 

 

Thank you.

 

It's very possible a CAD would have won this more convincingly for me, but in the Ultra forum I have been on a multi-month experiment spanning dozens of games now (I haven't been keeping count).

 

I batrep about 1 out of every 3 Ultramarine games on average since I started this experiment:

 

- Since the new codex came out I started by only playing CADs using Ultra Doctrines and our characters. The CADs were thin on troops but usually used our best units which are extremely hard to access in the formations/detachment.

 

-  Phase 2 I played only Demi-Co's using whatever I wanted. This was short lived because it felt awkward using the Tactical Doctrine on the Demi only while the CAD would be on it's own different Doctrine... so I moved into...

 

- Proper Gladius, Demi Co style. I played almost every Auxiliary that I found reasonable.

 

- Full Battle Co Gladius. It makes for difficult Auxiliary choices but right now I'm mostly using the AADF because it's a lighter cost, but covers a serious hole in the Battle Co. (it has its negatives too.)

 

Thanks for checking it out.

 

I don't know if the Ultra's are designed to win by the skin of their teeth but it certainly feels that way sometimes. :)

 

My alternative Battle Co is oriented towards close combat much better, however, it does not leverage the 'free' stuff using the taxes.

[Raven6826]

Your writings give me hope, I'm kinda a lonely voice... Don't play deathstars, don't play super specials, don't stack up immortal death on legs super characters...

 

Personally, I think the battle company is an epic idea in THEORY... It's weakness is its geared to sell more minis, its restrictive and the rewards are slight.

 

Played a series of three games in last week en a bit with pure vanilla list...

 

Ten man tac squads x2, ten man assault (jumppacks) x1, x1 ten man dev squad, x4 rhinos (basic with extra armor) , x3 basic dreads (x1 auto/missile, x1 laser/powerfist, x1 multi/powerfist), an hq with stn/apoth/champ/flamer/powerfist plas pist.

 

No grav's, just missiles, hv bolters and plas cannons... No named characters, just a capt upgraded to chap master with arti armor, power sword and bolter with auspex.

 

It's been an eye opener... Lads I have played get kinda confused when I don't plop a deathstar on table.

 

One win, one draw, one loss (by not much).

 

I'm all for a return to vanilla, just wished they tweeked the requirements for formations a little .