Warboss Scott here. So I joined my local game stores escalation league last weekend. I know the idea with escalation leagues is to start a new army, but I have a new codex to work with, a new town to meet people, and a doctoral program to pay for. So Orkses it is! Currently the league is at 500 points with the following restrictions: HQ and troops only, no 2+ saves, no Lords of War, and no flying units, and no allies or unbound armies. Personally, I felt this favors Orks ability to field lots and lots of models. Each month the point limit goes up, and the rules change slightly. I have played four games since then so I will have to catch you up. Here after the mini battle reports will be better fleshed out.
Last weekend's list was as follows:
My idea was to march up the field using the grots (gretchin) to screen my advance and give my boyz a cover save while utilizing the Warboss' higher leadership to help pass leadership and use his Waaagh! special rule to march up the field. When Mork blessed the dice, my boyz moved frighteningly quick.
Week One Battle One: Ork vs Necrons
My first battle was against some Necrons. You will have to forgive me. Since this was a week back I can't remember exactly what my opponent fielded. However, I tabled him without him scoring a victory point. Win, Orks.
Week One Battle Two: Orks vs Tau
My second battle was against the Tau. The Tau player fielded a gun line of Fire Warriors supported by Marker Drones and an Ethereal. I charged, and ran, and charged as fast as I could, but there is only so far you can get when your run rolls are mostly ones. Oh well. The dice didn't favor me. I could have had it if they had I think. The shoota mob got into combat and murdered a unit of fire warriors. But the other mob never made it, even with running every turn. Win, Tau.
This weekend's list was the same except for the swap of the Warboss for a Big Mek with a shokk
attack gun. Based on my experience with the Tau I thought a large blast template might help me deal with bunched gun lines better. Ork BS is abysmal, but even if I scattered I figured I'd hit something. True, I lost the Waaagh! special rule, but I thought I'd give it a go.
Week Two Battle One:
This week's first battle was against the Eldar. My opponent fielded a Farseer type with some relic sniper riffle, a unit of 10 Dire Avengers, a unit of five Wraithblades, and an Autarch. Interesting list in my opinion, though I don't really know Eldar well.
Things did not go well for the Eldar. My Big Mek and was hidden in a mob of Grots which utilized look out sir to negate all his sniper shots. Through out the game he pie plated the Wraithblades and slowly wilted them down until they and the Autarch charged. Mork favored me, my opponent rolled awfully and my Grots, Runtherd, and Big Mek killed the remaining two Wraithblades and the Autarch.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, my mob of shoota boyz marched up the field to blast away all but two of the Dire Avengers and after two turns (and failing some leadership rolls forced by the Farseer's psychic power dominate) blew away the Farseer. The slugga boyz marched up along side them, avoiding charge range of the Wraithblades, and killed the remaining two Dire Avengers with overwatch to claim an objective. My other mob of Grotz hid behind a hill cowering over the other objective.
Eldar, tabled, Win, Orks.
Week Two Battle One:
My second battle did not go so well. I played an Imperial Guard army for the first time. I have to apologize, though. I don't know much about the Guard and will give you my best on my opponents list. On the field were a huge blob of Guardsmen, a 10 man squad of Veterans, three heavy weapons teams with missile launchers, and a command squad with some dude who called in orbital bombardments or something like that.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to test out my shokk attack gun vs gun line army theory. It did not go well. My shoota boyz were hunkered down in some ruins on one side with the Big Mek and a Grots mob. The slugga mob and screening Grotz were on the other side. For three turns I fired the shokk attack gun at the command squad in hopes of ending the orbital bombardments that were dropping my boyz, but I only managed to kill one guy. His guys were too spread out, or I rolled poorly on the shokk attack gun table.
The shoota boyz did the best. The fired into the Guardsmen and took out several. Thanks to the ruin cover save they took a lot of bombardment, missile fire, and las fire. They even passed all their leadership rolls. However, eventually they were just all dead.
The slugga boyz advanced up the board a turn. Their Grot screen was blown away by the end of turn one. They then took a hefty amount of fire from the Veterans, lost 25% of the unit, then proceeded to fail a leadership roll and run off the board.
All in all, I think the Big Mek would work better against the Tau (who need to be closer to their Ethereal and have less bodies). Over all a Warboss probably fairs better in these games since I can move the boyz up the board faster. Against the Guard, I need trukks...lots of trukks at a low point level in order to move up and put pressure on him faster. Las guns can't hurt trukks. Fun game, good experience.
Win, Imperial Guard (or Astra Militarium as they are now known)
Current Score
Orks 2-2
Last weekend's list was as follows:
- Warboss with boss pole and power claw (90 pts),
- 23 x Slugga boy mob (138 pts),
- 24 x Shoota boy mob x 23: included 3 big shootas and a nob armed with a big choppa and boss pole (199 pts),
- 10 x Gretchin mob with Runtherd (35 pts),
- 10 x Gretchin mob with Runtherd (35 pts).
My idea was to march up the field using the grots (gretchin) to screen my advance and give my boyz a cover save while utilizing the Warboss' higher leadership to help pass leadership and use his Waaagh! special rule to march up the field. When Mork blessed the dice, my boyz moved frighteningly quick.
Week One Battle One: Ork vs Necrons
My first battle was against some Necrons. You will have to forgive me. Since this was a week back I can't remember exactly what my opponent fielded. However, I tabled him without him scoring a victory point. Win, Orks.
Week One Battle Two: Orks vs Tau
My second battle was against the Tau. The Tau player fielded a gun line of Fire Warriors supported by Marker Drones and an Ethereal. I charged, and ran, and charged as fast as I could, but there is only so far you can get when your run rolls are mostly ones. Oh well. The dice didn't favor me. I could have had it if they had I think. The shoota mob got into combat and murdered a unit of fire warriors. But the other mob never made it, even with running every turn. Win, Tau.
This weekend's list was the same except for the swap of the Warboss for a Big Mek with a shokk
attack gun. Based on my experience with the Tau I thought a large blast template might help me deal with bunched gun lines better. Ork BS is abysmal, but even if I scattered I figured I'd hit something. True, I lost the Waaagh! special rule, but I thought I'd give it a go.
Week Two Battle One:
This week's first battle was against the Eldar. My opponent fielded a Farseer type with some relic sniper riffle, a unit of 10 Dire Avengers, a unit of five Wraithblades, and an Autarch. Interesting list in my opinion, though I don't really know Eldar well.
Things did not go well for the Eldar. My Big Mek and was hidden in a mob of Grots which utilized look out sir to negate all his sniper shots. Through out the game he pie plated the Wraithblades and slowly wilted them down until they and the Autarch charged. Mork favored me, my opponent rolled awfully and my Grots, Runtherd, and Big Mek killed the remaining two Wraithblades and the Autarch.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, my mob of shoota boyz marched up the field to blast away all but two of the Dire Avengers and after two turns (and failing some leadership rolls forced by the Farseer's psychic power dominate) blew away the Farseer. The slugga boyz marched up along side them, avoiding charge range of the Wraithblades, and killed the remaining two Dire Avengers with overwatch to claim an objective. My other mob of Grotz hid behind a hill cowering over the other objective.
Eldar, tabled, Win, Orks.
Week Two Battle One:
My second battle did not go so well. I played an Imperial Guard army for the first time. I have to apologize, though. I don't know much about the Guard and will give you my best on my opponents list. On the field were a huge blob of Guardsmen, a 10 man squad of Veterans, three heavy weapons teams with missile launchers, and a command squad with some dude who called in orbital bombardments or something like that.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to test out my shokk attack gun vs gun line army theory. It did not go well. My shoota boyz were hunkered down in some ruins on one side with the Big Mek and a Grots mob. The slugga mob and screening Grotz were on the other side. For three turns I fired the shokk attack gun at the command squad in hopes of ending the orbital bombardments that were dropping my boyz, but I only managed to kill one guy. His guys were too spread out, or I rolled poorly on the shokk attack gun table.
The shoota boyz did the best. The fired into the Guardsmen and took out several. Thanks to the ruin cover save they took a lot of bombardment, missile fire, and las fire. They even passed all their leadership rolls. However, eventually they were just all dead.
The slugga boyz advanced up the board a turn. Their Grot screen was blown away by the end of turn one. They then took a hefty amount of fire from the Veterans, lost 25% of the unit, then proceeded to fail a leadership roll and run off the board.
All in all, I think the Big Mek would work better against the Tau (who need to be closer to their Ethereal and have less bodies). Over all a Warboss probably fairs better in these games since I can move the boyz up the board faster. Against the Guard, I need trukks...lots of trukks at a low point level in order to move up and put pressure on him faster. Las guns can't hurt trukks. Fun game, good experience.
Win, Imperial Guard (or Astra Militarium as they are now known)
Current Score
Orks 2-2