The Beast Must Die: Prot DW vs Orks 1850 Maelstrom

[Prot]

So here we go.....

I wanted to do another Custodes test. I've used them a few times now and did batrep one of those games before the squad got sold. If you're curious and haven't seen it, the first Batrep with my GK army is here: LINK

NOTE: Please excuse the large number of unpainted models. I sold the unit of Custodes and am working on my new squad. Sold a lot of DW so am now rebuilding them from scratch. Sorry for the unpainted stuff... I hate it too.

The GAME:

Maelstrom: Contact Lost (draw 1 Maelstrom card in T1, but you may only draw additional cards for every Objective you Control! ouch)

The Armies (just the basics):

Orks:

This is a basic Wazdakka dual Bikstar list. Essentially we're talking two max sized Bike squads that become ObSec, both have Fists on multi characters, and both have Apothecary type save guys. The Wazdakka squad gets Skilled Rider as well. It's really a potent list and can do well at some tournaments. Especially if you haven't faced it before.

He also had Mega Armoured Nobs in a trukk which is underrated, and annoying as heck. He had the 4+ save boyz in trucks, and 2 squads of Tank Bustas full of rocket launchers.

Lots of junk to go with his bikers and armoured nobs, totaling something like 72 models I think....

Deathwatch:

Here I take my basic BSSF + CAD.

I am proxying an Imperial Bunker with Improved Comms to see if I can correct the horrible delays my army has had in recent games.

I also have the Culexus, and a 5 man Squad of Custodes to go with my DW CAD Chaplain. (The idea being RAW that I can use the Terminator Captain's Beacon Angelis to teleport the Chaplain (attached to Custodes on the ground) to my location T1 if necessary.)

The Custodes are Experiment number 1. Experiment number 2 comes from forcing myself to use a different load out for a Black Shield! Yes I have not been a fan of them, but I haven't tried one with an Axe and a CC weapon. So I plopped him with my Captain in a pod.

NOTE: Until FAQ I'm still not using all Shotguns also have Bolter ruling.

DEPLOYMENT + OPENING SALVO!

+ Orks win first turn deployment and opt for Night fight, and get it! (Not fun considering Jink + Night + Skilled Rider = 2+ cover saves on ObSec troops!)

+ I deploy my Bunker safely within my Zone and I put 5 Stalker Bolter guys in the bunker to secure it, and I plop that thing 3" away from a Marker to ensure (?) I get a card going forward.... My Culexus has no real target, so in this game he will play the wild card trouble maker. I deploy him near my bunker for now, beside an Assault Cannon Dreadnought.

+ I fail to steal the initiative. His first turn is fairly basic....he turbo's up everything. I kept the Custodes with the DW Chaplain and hold on for the firepower, but only 2 shots wound my Custodes and they laugh it off..... The good news is I don't give up First Blood. The bad news is he has total board control and outnumbers me more than 2-1 and he has blobs of ObSec all over the markers making it almost impossible for me to get cards in the future.

+++ The Deathwatch wait patiently. The motive of the Beast is as obvious has his body odor. The Custodes lie in wait. Their time will come..... +++

+ The massive wall of bikers and trukks all zoom full forward. (I can't fit it all in the picture. In some situations terrain forces some of his trukks to slow down.)

+ I draw a card that requires me to get an Objective in his backfield! A big challenge since it will definitely leave the Deathwatch on their own, unsupported but I need points.

+ I deployed my entire force on the table because of the army I ended up playing against... except for 2 pods. One was empty, one had my Termie Captain, and an Aquila including the Black Shield. I decide to go after the Objective in my T1 with this unit....

+++ It's a dire situation. I need to distract the horde and grab this objective. The Captain makes the call and the Pod is left unsupported, deep in the Ork back lines. +++

+ The picture above paints a bleak picture. I did have the option of Beaconing over my Custodes and Chaplain but elected to do something else with the Custodes.

The Captain's squad has no ObSec so I must blow away this Trukk full of Tank Bustas. Now they hurt Power Armour pretty badly so I elect to start with the Frag Cannons and Template them over and over, roasting the contents until the trukk is a burning pit of rotten green skin.

Now the really bad part, because hey, it's Watch Master Prot, and things can never go off cleanly! The I still need to get one hullpoint off the trukk, he keeps making these stupid 6+ Nightfight saves. So I reluctantly fire off the Assault Cannon on the termie and I get my first 6! The explosion radius is also a 6! D'oh....

In the explosion I lose the front 3 guys.... the Frag Cannon included, and my Shotguns (I rolled 1,1,2 for saves.) .... and now I face an angry, smelly green horde... with no templates now. lol.

+ The Custodes decide to make things happen.... a massive cloud of bikes and trukks advance the ruins, and Storm Bolters fire them up and somehow kill 2 bikes! (Custodes mean business)

+++ The Custodes use Hatred to full advantage. The Warlord Wazdakka bellows in disgust as he watches the Custodes hack down his entire Bike squad +++

+ The Custodes perform way above my expectation. Even with FnP the bikes go down hard, and the Hatred re-rolls are quite punishing. The Shield Captain in particular is brutal, severing a Nob's bike in half, and lopping his head off with a backhand. He eyes Wazdakka up for the next round....

+ I get one point for the objective, but I know a world of hurt is coming my way. Above the Bikes are dead, but now two full squads of Nobs rush my Custodes to get revenge.... The Custodes take wounds, but hold their ground. Things are slower now but the butchery is decidedly in the Custodes favour. Ork blood stains the ground, Wazdakka is destroyed.

+ Without breaking pace the Custodes continue to butcher the green horde to the degree I've never seen before.... Nob Fists do hit home this time, but at T5, and Eternal Warrior I make sure they only lose one model, and the rest hold on for dear life. Some are now wounded, but fight on with the Emperor's Will.

+ North of this butchery the scene is much more grim for Deathwatch....

+++ The Captain is alone. The vehicle explosion and 20 bike shots (snap firing) manage to take down another Deathwatch and a Terminator. The Ork Nobs run in, but the Black Shield exposes an ancient blade of hate, and attempts to protect the Captain.... +++

+ I did try to thin the secondary biker unit, but I stood further away with my back line, and did not want to get overwhelmed so soon, I fired 12" shots, and he jinked, only losing a few bikes. The Dreadnought tried to help but the Jinks were really good, compounded with Feel No Pain.

+ The Bikers turn their attention to the Captain. The cowards see an easy kill... but after shooting down the Terminator the Mega Armoured Nobs figure this is an 'easy' job and bark at the bikes to turn around and face the Deathwatch front lines.....

+ The 3 Nobs rush into the captain, brandishing clunky fists that look like crude toasters mounted to forearms. The Captain steps up with his relic blade, and using his unique Warlord Trait (I have never rolled this one before) he ends up with Five Re-rolls. I use them all as this might be his swan song.... The Relic blade hits all, and wounds all with the assistance of Aquila rules.... BUT the crude looking Mega Armour passes all on a 2+.

Going at the same time as the Nobs, the Black Shield thumbs the activator on his power Axe, and with 5 attacks he needs to use only one of the Warlord Trait dice, to get 5 hits! The Axe only wounds 3 times though, but this is enough to send two of the Nobs to their graves. (One Nob had a wound from over watch oddly enough.) But now all Nobs strike back, the first wound is taken by the Black Shield who instantly dies, the next 5 are taken by the Captain.... he fails his first Halo save and is killed outright.

The Mega Armoured Nobs claim Warlord Kill, but as useless as the Captain was, the Black Shield took them down to one model....

+ The Orks draw several cards, and are now clearly in the lead with on card coming up to kill a Bunker! We normally have a House rule: Any incompletable card from the start of the game, is a free discard, but since I actually has the bunker he had to keep it. Also the marker in front of the bunker was being contested by my ObSec Stalker Bolter crew.... speaking of which....

+++ Meanwhile on the Eastern Deathwatch front lines, all hell breaks lose. The Culexus breaks from the shadows as all other forces fail miserably. Can he hold the beast back long enough? +++

+ The objective in front of the bunker is hotly contested and means points for both of us, but I haven't' been able to draw a single card for 2 turns! He is up 4 points to my 2 points and he is drawing up to his max of 6 cards a turn by just parking ObSec trukks on markers all over the table.

+ In this eastern line, I have an Aquila fail to do anything to the trukk in front of them. Now the desperate actions of the Stalker Bolter team in the bunker try and Fail as well to glance the AV10 trukk.

+ In pure desperation I force my Dreadnought to fire into the trukk with Assault Cannon and gets ONE glance that takes the Trukk down to a wreck. Wow. I couldn't believe how many 1's + 2's I rolled that entire turn.

+ Desperation reaches a new high as I must assault the Nob squad as they passed the pin check.... so my 2 Bikers (above) ignore terrain and we calculate I needed a 3 to assault the Nobs... Snake eyes! So I look at the Dread... he needs an 8, rolls a 7. Now I'm worried, I can't leave the bunker, so I throw the Culexus in... he makes it...

+ The Culexus goes first, and the Orks fail the fear test and are hitting on 5's anyway.... he hits about 8 times!!! The Culexus only hits 1 time, and fails to kill anything. The Culexus takes 5 wounds, fails all saves, dies outright. Wow. Thanks Assasinorium! Maybe send a guy with a smaller head next time so it doesn't get hit so easily!!!

+++ The dire news of the state of the attack reaches the Custodes and the Chaplain. Instead of folding, they dig deeper and push even harder in the Ork lines. The Custodes' Guardian Spears effortlessly block 2 attacks adding insult to injury as they dice up another squad. +++

+ The situation is very bleak. I draw my first card since Turn 1 (having even limited ObSec really blows) I am behind 5-2 but I can now grab an objective with my empty "ObSec" pod. I take the chance, and get a bullseye.

+ A remnant squad of Orks is running, along with a solo Nob Biker with FnP. He hopes to rally the Boyz with the Nob Biker and give them all Feel No Pain, but the Deathwatch Chaplain knows the beast all too well, and Pain will be Felt! He steers the Custodes into a multi assault, blowing up a Truk, while the Custodes dice up the rest of the Trukk Boyz and Nob Biker.

+ He still wants the objective #6 and my bunker. He gets his remaining squad of Tank Bustas up on a tower building and with S8 he needs to hit on 5's and then roll 6's on my bunker to glance.... he glances the bunker 3 times!!!! Wow. I have one hullpoint on it. I want to get the Stalker Bolters OUT of the Bunker but if I do (it's a back door) I lose the 3" I need to stop him from scoring a point he's been trying to get forever..... I stay inside, and fire all Stalkers at yet another ObSec Truck he has parked in front of the Bunker. I glance it to death.

+I take an Aquila out of the ruins with a solo Cyclone Termie and mince this squad up which had wanted to assault me:

+++ Split by indecision and typical faulty Xenos leadership, the thick headed Beast is ripped to shreds by the Deathwatch, but the Orks have another plan... +++

+ The Orks are shot up badly above, even with Jink they are down to 3 Bikes, and all are Independent Characters. He drew a card needing 3 units in my zone, he splits these bikes up and rushes deep er in my zone to score 2 points.... Orks are now in a strong lead of 7-3.

+ Deathwatch forces are depleted, but I get to finally pull 3 cards. One for Objective 6 (in front of my bunker), one Primus DW card for killing characters, and one for shooting a unit to death.

+ The Orks are spread out. Their leadership is gone, but the Deathwatch are too slow. Both bikers are dead, and the Stalker Bolters have under performed immensely. The Custodes have 10 pounds of dried Ork entrails on their blades and seem to move slowly as a result, but in their travels the Chaplain points out an objective marker and orders the Custodes to chase down the loan Mega Armoured Nob who fatally wounded the Watch Captain. They destroy him without thought, and recover the Watch Captain's body.

+ The Independent Characters the Orks drove deep into the Deathwatch zone are mutilated by Dreadnought assault cannons, Terminator fire, and Frag Cannon shots.

+ Looking around the field all Orks are somehow dead... debris everywhere, smoking antiquated trukks litter the battlefield... in the distance only a squad of Ork Tank Bustas remain. They cling to their abandoned tower for refuge. The Deathwatch Captain runs as hard as his power armour will let him, and reaches the Ork zone, but well short of the last squad on the table.....

+ I score a few points. Orks are winning 7-6. We are in Turn 5, he rolls to end the game. I need one more turn... one more, but the game ends. We tally the score and realized my Chaplain had secured his zone for Line Breaker making the game 7-7. Incredible. Somehow a tie is eked out.

Conclusion:

- My opponent couldn't believe the Custodes. I couldn't either. They'd been good, but this was a very good match up for them. No AP2 shooting makes a massive difference. My Opponent estimates he threw 30 guys at the Custodes and Chaplain, and that includes his Warlord, and FnP saves in there, as well as about 4-5 power fists. They stalled the green flood, and bought the Deathwatch time to position and fire. They were definitely the best aspect of my army.

- The captain held the beacon, but as usual did little else. The Beacon did not get used in this game, but rarely am I seeing such a fast army that wants to assault. The Black Shield did very good.... it's too bad I couldn't have kept him alive somehow but without a competent tank HQ it puts a lot of stress on the squad.

- The Culexus... he was a total throw away, non-factor in this game. I wanted to keep using him in more games because not everyone has a broken pskyer formation to defend against and it turns out this was a good test for him. I kept him back with defense in mind, and he just whiffed and died. Even his special gun only killed an Ork.

Thanks for reading this. Hope you found it entertaining.

[Sheesh Mode]

Nice. Those Custodes are pretty attractive. 

I'm glad you see why the Black Shield is so awesome.

[SnakeChisler]

Thanks for the Batrep

 

Have just finished a game and used a Stalker Bolter team and found them priceless (though I did buff the pants off them with a 4+ invun (relic) stealth & bolstered defences from a tech marine) their a huge distraction with precision shot rending and ignores cover & 2+ poison ammo for some MC misery. If your putting them in a bunker I would have thought that a heavy weapon would be useful, alt templates are a real boon.

[Vel'Cona]

Surprised to see the Beacon Angelus useless here, but I suppose it makes sense.  I find the WC really only ends up in my lists if I plan to run a Watch Company, otherwise he's on the shelf (and a Libby carries the Relic).  Definitely impressed by the work the Black Shield did; it's too bad there aren't more "fun" assault armies to use these models against.  Here's hoping 8e pulls down the shooting game a bit, eh?

[Prot]

Nice. Those Custodes are pretty attractive. 

 

I'm glad you see why the Black Shield is so awesome.

 

Hehe, I dunno about awesome. This was my first 'great' experience with him. I still feel the lack of tank in our codex makes it harder to leverage him because as you had mentioned before I don't really think you want him in a challenge. I still really want to see if he ends up with a Heavy Hammer because ideally I want it on this guy.

 

 

Thanks for the Batrep

 

Have just finished a game and used a Stalker Bolter team and found them priceless (though I did buff the pants off them with a 4+ invun (relic) stealth & bolstered defences from a tech marine) their a huge distraction with precision shot rending and ignores cover & 2+ poison ammo for some MC misery. If your putting them in a bunker I would have thought that a heavy weapon would be useful, alt templates are a real boon.

 

- Stalker Bolters definitely have their moments. Oddly enough this is probably the worst game I had with them.

 

Something really funny occured to me through out the game it was driving me nuts... I really don't like that Infernus Heavy Bolter, but this was the one bloody time it would have paid off. I kept getting these stupid Ork trukks (ObSec) parked right on an objective in front of me. I really needed the Infernus.... OR my old Aquila with Stalkers which included a Cyclone launcher Terminator.

 

 

Surprised to see the Beacon Angelus useless here, but I suppose it makes sense.  I find the WC really only ends up in my lists if I plan to run a Watch Company, otherwise he's on the shelf (and a Libby carries the Relic).  Definitely impressed by the work the Black Shield did; it's too bad there aren't more "fun" assault armies to use these models against.  Here's hoping 8e pulls down the shooting game a bit, eh?

 

I still like the Watch Captain simply for the lack of tanking in our codex. If the squad set up includes the Black Shield, with one wound, he's no tank, even with a Storm Shield (which robs him of an attack anyway).... why doesn't our Termie Captain have a Storm shield option? Drives me nuts.... it would be an auto include for me. Anyway the Captain's job was to tank deep threats with his simple Relic blade and 2+/4++ but one fist shot and poof!

 

The Librarian has been my go to but with the Black Shield I felt I needed to give him the 'time' to do some work. Libbies just... aren't great for what I needed in this game.

 

The lack of ObSec and units really hurt me a lot, because I was scrapping to get a tie, yet in the end I was one squad of Tank Bustas away from tabling him.

 

The Custodes were incredible in this game though. I hate to say it I probably would have been clobbered without them. They're just under 300 pts as I spec them out.

 

At the end of the day I REALLY wish the Watchmaster was usable. He's so iconic, but I never miss not using him... he's terrible in every other aspect, and a bit of a point sink.