Escalation Update: Warbuggy Waaagh!

Seriously, what is more orky than a pile of scrap metal and overpowered engine barreling forward wid da biggest, shootiest, gun green-skinned fingers can find all held together wid nothin' other than the belief that it should. Paint it red and it even goes fasta! Fluff wise just a really cool unit. Seventh edition gave them a points drop, the option for a free twin-linked rokkit launcha, larger unit size, and the outflank special rule. Plus, as an Ork player I am always trying to find ways to deal with really low leadership and the new mob rule. Since they are vehicles they don't have a leadership value and they don't have the same cowardly grot rule as killa kans All this made them pretty attractive to me as a fast tank hunting unit. This weekends' escalation battles were still at 500 points but allowed fast attack and troop transports. A perfect opportunity to try the Warbuggies out. I took a Speed Freaks List as follows:

1 Warboss on a warbike with power klaw and boss pole, 

7 Warbikes,

2 mobs of 12 slugga boyz in Trukks (one boy and the Trukks had big shootas),

2 rokkit launcha armed Warbuggies 

Waaagh!

Sweet revenge. I once again faced the Tau gun line: three squads of Fire Warriors, one Pathfinder team with marker lights, and an Ethereal with two Marker Drones. I had second deployment and turn and deployed entirely out of range and LOS. I spent the first turn moving up slowly behind cover. Basically wasted two Tau turns that way. On my second turn both Warbuggies came in on opposite sides of the field. I was really expecting some transports to take shots at, but was content with trying to one shot kill his Ethereal and Drones. Meanwhile, my bikes and trukks came out of cover and made a mad dash for the line of squishy Tau holding big guns. 

I lost one trukk, most of a mob of Boyz, and about half my bikes to the Tau's next turn, but both my bikes and all my remaining Boyz made it into combat with two of the Fire Warrior Squads on my next turn. One round of combat and the Boyz had decimated a squad of Fire Warriors that fell back. The bikes took two round to kill off their squad. In the end, the last squad of Fire Warriors was able to blow away the last of my boyz and bikes while I sent my last Trukk and Warbuggies to claim objectives. I ended up winning on turn six by holding an objective with the last unit I had left alive: a Trukk that had one remaining hull point and no guns. 

Victory: Orks?

Holy Drop Pod blitz Batman! This was the fastest, bloodiest game I have ever played. The Blood Angels rained down five Death Company, five Assault Marines and a Librarian, and a Furioso Dreadnought in three Drop Pods right on top of me. I'd deployed expecting this by bunching my bikes on one edge of the table with the Trukks surrounding them and blocking them off. I lost a Trukk and took some bike casualties but I immediately threw everything I had at the Death Company and avoided the Dreadnought and its whirling, blender hands of death. The power klaw touting Warboss and shear weight of bike and boy attacks quickly put down the Death Company. Meanwhile, the Warbuggies took a hull point off the Furioso. 

The next turn brought the Assault Marines and their Drop Pod in, who all quickly fell to the combo of boyz and bikes while one mob of boyz tar pitted the Furioso. The Warbuggies took a couple more pot shots and wrecked a Drop Pod holding an objective.

The last turn saw a Warbuggy die and another run off to claim an objective while the Warboss and bikes finally put down the Furioso.

All in all the game lasted maybe 20 minutes. 

Victory: Orks

Not much to say about this game other than I'd gotten so use to being faster than my opponents all day that I thought I'd run circles around an Eldar army. Lets just say I learned a few lessons. Warbuggies are NOT the equal of Eldar Jetbikes. Shoot the Avatar. Ignore the squishy Dire Avengers and shoot the damn, bloody-handed, Avatar. Dear Mork do not let that Avatar catch up to and assault your Warbikes. Hah! Fun game.

So the Eldar tabled me. I ended up throwing most of my boyz into the Avatar/Warbike combat, hoping to drown it in dice, but it did no good. The Jetbikes quickly cut my Trukks and other mob of boyz to pieces.

Victory: Eldar

Orks are currently 6 wins for 5 losses.

So I learned a lot about the fielding Warbuggies in these three games. They have some strengths and some limitations. The biggest limitation I found was that although they have a relatively strong weapon that has a high likelihood of hitting something by ork standards, it is still just ONE shot. It is hard to do much with just one shot. True, they can bring down MEQ in one shot, put wounds on tougher creatures, or take off hull points, but they are relatively unlikely to put something down in one turn. A unit of 5 might do it, but Tankbustas, and probably Lootas, do it better. Warbuggies are not the answer to enemy armor. 

Although my Warbuggies did not actually kill much, they did WEAKEN my opponent and provide one too many targets for them to shoot at. Rather than going for the Eldar Jetbikes, they could have taken a couple of wounds off the Avatar which could have made all the difference. They claimed objectives and soaked up fire that won my game against the Tau. Against the Blood Angels, they brought down a Drop Pod holding an objective, took a hull point off the Furioso, and claimed an objective. All in all, the main strength of the Warbuggies is weakening and distracting the enemy while providing one too many targets for an enemy to deal with. This can mean the difference between victory and defeat. I see them as best used in low point games as a means of gaining at least some fairly decent and reliable firepower, and in high point games if you have the points to spare for something to distract the enemy.

Thanks for reading everyone. I will have my first fluff post up pretty soon. It will probably be about the Primarch Fulgrim during the opening of the Horus Heresy. He was never my favorite primarch, but his decent to Chaos is one of the most gut wrenching and epic stories in the fluff. Until next time...

Waaagh!!!!