‘ard Boyz Round 1 list and Battle Reports

‘ard Boyz Army Comp
Here is what I played for the first round of the ‘ard Boyz Tourney.

Ghazghull Thraka 225 pts
1 Big Mek SAG, Power Klaw, ‘eavy armor, bosspole, Cybork Body, Ammo Runt 143 pts
8 Nobz ‘eavy armor, stikbombz, Bosspole, Painboy, grot orderly, Waaagh! Banner, 2x Power
Klaw, Truk w/ Armour Plates, Grot riggers, Boarding Plank, Reinforced Ram, Wrecking Ball, 383 pts
12 Kommandos w/ 2x Burnaz and Boss Snikrot 235 pts
15 Burnaz 225 pts
15 Lootas 225 pts
12 Ork Trukk Slugga Boyz w/ Rokkit, Stikbombz, Nob w/ Power Klaw, ‘eavy armor, bosspole, Truk w/ Armour Plates, Grot riggers, Boarding Plank, Reinforced Ram, Wrecking Ball, Red Paint Job 214 pts
30 ‘ard Slugga Boyz w/ 3x Rokkitz, Nob w/ Power Klaw, bosspole 370
30 Shoota Boyz w/ 3x Shootaz, Nob w/ Power Klaw, ‘eavy armor, bosspole 240 pts
30 Shoota Boyz w/ 3x Shootaz, Nob w/ Power Klaw, ‘eavy armor, bosspole 240 pts

Brief Synopsis of Game play

Game 1 vs. Black Templars: Massacre +1 battle point
This game was fun and I enjoyed my opponent. This was as close to a “flawless victory” that I got. I garnered 21 points from this round. The main lesson that was reinforced for me was stick to your plan. Since this mission was “Seize Ground”, I decided to focus on securing each of the five objectives and keeping them clear of the enemy presence. I also knew that since I was playing a horde army I would have to play each round as if it were my last.

My opponent was foolhardy enough to run his entire army at me, and I took advantage of this by moving my forces forward. Once my forces were where I wanted them, I shot at him and caused all of his forward troops to move towards my lines. This allowed me to assault him on turn 1.

My ‘ard Boyz managed to turn out casualties against his chaplain and command squad and ended up locked in combat because of the Templar’s fearless in hand to hand rule. Ghazghull, the Nobz, and the truk boyz hit two squads of sword brethren and when the dust cleared a lone Templar stood, which I was able to consolidate into with both units because he poorly choose who lived. He was trying to pull casualties so as to disengage Ghazghull, but 1 model from old Thraka’s unit was able to consolidate into base to base thus dragging the whole unit along.

Turn 2 was where my opponent attempted a weak retaliation and brought in 2 of his three deep striking units. Luckily for me all of his shooting was being made by Star Wars Storm Troopers and I was left fairly unscathed. As we launched into the assault phase it was announced that we had 30 minutes left.

This time the tables turned for my ‘ard Boyz as they were charged by the Emperor’s Champion and friends. The fight was bloody and the ‘ard Boyz lost and were run down. The lone Templar was cut down but he at least took two Orks with him, after which the Truk Boyz ducked behind the hill out of sight, but within 3” of the objective. Ghazghull consolidated towards an objective near the Templar lines.

On my part of turn two Ghazghull and his squad moved to capture an objective. Both of my Shoota mobs moved in and captured 2 more objectives, while the Burna boyz moved up to clear my opponent off the fifth objective. Once the boyz had moved into position they opened up to gun down nearby targets. Between the Lootas, SAG, and two units of Shoota Boyz I managed to thin the EC and his unit down to just the EC and a mook. As I began my assault moves time was called. Oh well maybe next time I will be able to secure all of the objectives instead of all but 1. I was a little annoyed that Snikrot and his Kommandoes didn’t make it out of reserve.

Game 2 vs. Imperial Guard: Tie no extra battle points 597 VP Orks to 587 VP IG

Game 2 got started after lunch. Interesting note during our 1 hour lunch the kids playing in the tournament decided to have an impromptu who brought the best character throw down. It was fun to watch, and in my opinion really in the spirit of the tourney and the game.

Game 2 began with the IG player going first. My opponent was a teenager who was a very excellent opponent. Thankfully the dawn of war rules saved my keester in this turn, but he did get off a lucky shot which threw Ghazghull and his gang out of their truck. However he forgot to bring in his forces, which I also did for a few of my units on my first turn.

When my turn 1 came I brought my Burnaz on but forgot about the Lootaz. GRRR!!! I then moved just about everything toward his lines. I did get a bit luckier than my opponent and managed enough shots to cause two squads to take morale checks, which one squad failed. Not bad for an opening salvo.

When turn 2 hit, the Hellhound, 2 Russes, and storm troopers rolled on along with a flamer special weapons squad being deployed behind my firing line. It was impressive, and it managed to kill the SAG, take out half a Shoota Boyz squad and immobilize the last remaining Trukk.

Then the hurtin’ time came for the poor IG. Once againg Snikrot thought that Ghazghull had the battle handled, and sat on the bench. The Lootas came on and got into a position to assault the Flame throwers that were in my lines. All but one unit moved up in preparation of an assault. Ghazghull declared a Waaagh! and the IG were immediately knee deep in Orks. The Orks had assaulted six units, and only managed to get 2 kill points. I knew that the KP rules were going to anger me greatly. Needless to say, he was now down six squads.

His turn 3 came and well the other Hellhound rolled on, but not his last Russ (whew.) I was able to withstand the fusillade of fire that came towards my orks, but as it became my turn game was called. Curses! Snikrot benched by my dice again!

Game 3 vs. Orks: Minor Loss
This like the last game was an evenly matched brawl against a great opponent. There was so much occurring I could not relate it all. The balance swung on the second half of the second turn where I dusted his fire base off of his objective with Snikrot and contested it, but he captured mine with his Nobz Squad. The pivotal battle was where Ghazghull and his unit rolled snake eyes on the difficult terrain check and they were more than an inch away. Curses! That stopped me cold from earning 5 KPs.

Wrap Up
I tied for fourth, but won on VP so fourth place was mine. The nice thing is that the second place player will be unable to attend the next round, so I will be going to regionals.

The biggest thing that I learned was that speed is an Ork’s friend. I also had “remember the mission rules” lesson pounded into my skull. Hopefully it will stick. I may also see if I can round up a rules runt to help me look up pertinent questions in the book and to deflect all questions away from me that slow down my game play. Hope you enjoyed my ‘ard Boyz wrap up.

Cross Posted at

Tactical Rock
Austin Miniature Minions

Tourney Talk

I begin this with an apology to every opponent I have ever played in a tournament where I dragged my feet and not allowed the game to complete all rounds of play. Mind you I have usually lost those games anyway, but I am now severely cognizant of the annoyance that this can cause. Now that has been said I will say that the preceding informs the rest of my Saturday tourney experience.

Round 1
Dark Angels vs. Dark Angels
Result: Massacred
Mission: Fire Sweep
Lesson Learned: Pay Attention
Game Time: 40 minutes for 5 complete rounds (I threw the towel in.)

I played against my good friend Frank. I started out real strong with my Preliminary Bombardment affecting 3 units. On turn one I punished his units with withering fire, and I was well on my way to a victory. Right up until the turn 3 assault where I had a complete lapse of reason and reacted to my opponent instead of responded. Failure to dog-pile his assault unit and poor casualty pulls completely cost me the game.

Round 2
Dark Angels vs. Necrons
Result: Draw
Mission: Urban Assault
Lesson Learned: Dragging your feet is annoying to your opponent
Game Time: 60 minutes 3 complete rounds played

This time I played against an opponent that I have never played before. His name was Joe and, from the looks of it he was freshly getting into the hobby. He fielded 2 Necron warrior squads, 1 Destroyer Squad, a Tomb Spider, a Monolith, and as always a Necron Lord with the ever popular Orb. His turn 1 took him 20 minutes to do and all he did was wound a marine. On Turn 1 I popped his Monolith, wiped out his Destroyers, and put a wound on the Tomb Spider. (All in less than 5 minutes.)

His turn 2 he charged a 5 man Tactical squad with a Tomb Spider and two scarab swarms, killed two marines, but I put two wounds on him also. His shooting once again managed to do squat. My Turn 2 I brought his squad within the target building down to below half with shooting (they would recover to just above half at the start of his turn.) I was able to assault the Tomb Spider with my master and the squad that the master was in. This time the Scarab swarms were evaporated with a power fist and the master’s power sword.

On his turn 3 he charges the center of the board with his under-strength warrior squad. I make short work of the tomb spider but now am locked with the warriors because they passed their morale check. My turn comes around and it is announced, “Finish the turn you are on.” I shake my head then wipe out the warrior squad in Melee and then consolidate into the target building. Thus I forced the draw.

One more turn I would have charged him, he would have phased out, and I would have had a Victorious Slaughter. The morale here is: Please, be considerate to your opponent and don’t drag your feet.

Round 3
Dark Angels vs. Tyranids
Result: Minor Loss
Mission: Urban???
Lesson Learned: Dragging your feet is annoying to your opponent
Game Time: 60 minutes 3 complete rounds played

I have played bugs countless times I’m not going to rehash this fight because like all bug fights I was charged on turn 1 and had no hope of reaching my objective in his deployment zone by end game. Every round was like pulling teeth because every time I measured range to something or placed a pie plate down he insisted to look at it himself. Normally this would not be a problem, but he took his damn sweet time lining things up and contesting every shot. In the end after spending a minute or two he would agree that what I said was actually what happened. I would file this under the fine art of chewing up your opponent’s time to hide the fact that you are actually the one wasting time.

In the end it was ruled because he had a scoring unit in my building (even though I had three scoring units engaged in melee with them) and I had none in his that it was a minor win for the bugs. (FYI where I come from that is a draw.) This caused me to tie with last place and we rolled off for the third place prize. I lost, of course. Oh well at least the Necron player was able to build his army a little more, and maybe we can see more folks at the Lair.

Lessons for the Future
First if I ever host an event where objective only missions are used I will make sure that the term draw and win are firmly defined before the event, so that there are no crazy spot decisions. Next finished games will be part of the scoring system. Finally I will have a defined way to decide final rankings where players have identical scores. Identical ranking scores could be decided via who had more painted, or maybe via the crazy sportsmanship score.

The Big Question
Did I have fun? Well I can say I mostly had fun. Game 1 was a hoot. My other two opponents weren’t much to write home about. I feel that really if I help build the Lair Community that we will start getting a better stock of players.

Next Tourney: Can we say possible Codex Ork Preview?