Breath of Fresh Air

In other news, I finally had a go at something NOT in power armor, fatigues, or chitin. I also tested a new Trygon list, and have some thoughts on that.

Thoughts on Triple-Battlewagon Loota Orks
I got a game in with one of the nastier locals, who was fielding a triple-loota list in battlewagons with Ghazgull, 3 Meganobs, and a couple of Trukk Shoota Boy Mobs. Add in the fourth battlewagon as the Meganobs' designated transport, and Deffrollas all around, and it's a reasonably intimidating list. I think it's pretty nasty, as far as orks go.

Deffrollas are a pain against monstrous creatures (and likely vehicles/dreads), so that's an element of counterassault. They're not as bad as you think they are, but they're still potentially nasty. Death or Glory earns you on average seven S10 hits, so think about that carefully first...

Lootas...are random. Big surprise, I know. S7 hurts, though I had the absurd ability to make 3+ MC saves like I was a marine player. Between Feel No Pain and hiding a Tervigon, the Lootas managed to account for a Tervigon, chunks of Trygons, and a Tyrant Guard throughout the game.

Triple-Loota Pros
-Withering Firepower in the form of the Lootas; killing AV14 with a 14+ at range is annoying. But, you can always flank them, I suppose...
-Deff Rollas ARE reasonably nasty; I'm not sure I'd want to get a Land Raider near them since good rolls CAN pile up, and they don't much care about how fast you went.

Triple-Loota Cons
-Moving the Battlewagons IS an issue; if you move them (or they get shaken) you don't get to shoot the lootas
-Without Battlewagons, you're relying on Trukks to advance up the field. Let me know how that works out, especially when they advance out of the KFF. (My Hive Guard loved it, though...)
-Ultimately, you're going to have problems claiming objectives. The end result was a draw.

The Triple-Trygon Build
Mine went a little something like this...

HQ
Hive Tyrant
-Whip/Sword
-Heavy Venom Cannon
-Paroxysm & Leech Essence
-Hive Commander
Tyrant Guard w/ Lash Whip

Hive Tyrant
-Whip/Sword
-Heavy Venom Cannon
-Paroxysm & Leech Essence
-Hive Commander
Tyrant Guard w/ Lash Whip

Elites
2 Hive Guard

2 Hive Guard

2 Hive Guard

Troops
10 Termagants

10 Termagants

Tervigon
-Catalyst
-Adrenal & Toxin

Tervigon
-Catalyst
-Adrenal & toxin

4 Ripper Swarms

Heavy Support
Trygon
Trygon
Trygon

Thoughts on the List
First off, it's got decent range; the Venom Cannons give it some suppressive punch and there's the almost-default wall of hive guard backed up by the core of Objective-holding Tervis and the 'Launch ze Fighters!' of the wall of Termagants.

Rippers are, admittedly, filler. I didn't feel like dropping a single cluster of spore mines, as if you're GOING to try to screw with deployment you want the full three clusters (and therefore, 90 points into it).

Now, my major concerns with the list:

1) Double Tyrants
In part, this is my counterassault. Lash whips + bone sword = carnage. It also means that I'm probably gonna get all three Trygons on turn two. Heavy Venom Cannons are just nice suppressing fire.

Admittedly, I almost dropped the Rippers for Devourers and boneswords on the Guard, but I'd rather the counter-assault threat.

On the other hand, that tyrant config IS a solid 280ish points or so. I could easily get a pair of Harpies for suppressive fire and a little more mobility.

2) Mobility
My worry (at least, as it turned out in Table Quarters) is that the Trygons pop up on turn 2, and the rest of the army is a little behind. As nasty as they are, most enemies should be able to at LEAST kill one, and since they're the primary threat at the time...

3) Scatter Rolls
...so, there's nothing like getting 11 inches away from the side of the board, and rolling box cars on the scatter...happens to everyone, right?

It's very easy to get screwed by the scatter roll on this. I managed to mishap one (and get it slapped in the far corner). Hopefully, the worst that can happen is you fall back, but there's always the chance you can play creative (since you can't scatter into units on either side, but you CAN fall off the table).

4) Army Composition
Personally, I could probably stand to be more aggressive. That aside, I'm not sure walls of termagants are the way to go. I wonder if it's worth switching around the core, and grabbing a couple of large squads of Hormagaunts and moving out. On the flip side, that would dilute my MC count and make the Tyrants priority targets. I'd also have to consider how to hold objectives in my backfield, which would likely mean a Warrior squad and a couple units of Termagants.

Chances are I'll keep it the same for some testing, and work at being more aggresive.

Thoughts/feedback/commentary/word to your mother?

Pain and Batreps

Today, I actually got a triple-header in with my Hybridized Eldar against Jon's Imperial Guard.

His list was something like...
Command Squad w/ Autocannon in HB/Multi-laser Chimera
2 Vet Squads w/ camo cloaks, 3x sniper rifles, and heavy weapon (one las, one missile)
2-3 Vet Squads w/ Melta in Chimeras w/ Grenadiers
Vendetta
Leman Russ
Leman Russ
Leman Russ Squad
>Executioner w/ Plasma Cannon Sponsons, Knight-Commander Pask
>Ablative-tank Leman Russ w/ Lascannon

Game one...lasts one turn. He scouts up the Vendetta, nukes a Wave Serpent with the meltaguns and nuke a Fire Prism with the lascannons. The Wraithguard...get nuked to the last Guard on turn one.

We agree that it's pretty much over at that point.

Round two...much closer. I got a technical win because I had one Wraithguard left on my objective. Objective two had a last lucky Dire Avenger on it surrounded by vets; they'd made a run to it since we went into turn 7. The far objective had my Rangers...well, run off it after repeated tank shocks, but there was a bleeding turretless RUSS near it on the ground floor, so....there you go. I should've bit it, lost a turn of shooting, and moved everyone onto the second floor and AWAY from tank-shocks.

The game was just plain bloody, though a lot of tanks survived. However...

Pask in an Executioner is nasty. Pask lets you get +1 to armor penetration rolls, and re-roll wounds on MCs. The Executioner is thus a bit more accurate, but it can nail light armor, MCs, and ANY infantry. I mean, you're looking at a hella expensive tank, and taking an ablative tank helps since most volleys outside of a Fire Dragon round of shooting won't actually do enough damage to pen multiple shots, so you get to pawn off hits to the other russ. Plus, with camo netting and other crap? Disgusting, since then 1/2 the unit's in cover if you do it right and getting saves.

I expect to see this one again from Jon, since it's just plain nasty.

Still, technical win from luck, a bit.

Next, Sean's Orks. It's a departure from the normal...
Warboss on Bike w/ Claw, Cybork Body
5 Nob Bikers (vanilla)
10 Warbikers w/ PK
3 Trukk mobs w/ PK (one shoota, one slugga, one 'ard boyz)
1 Battlewagon w/ half-dozen Mega-Armor Nobz, ZZap! Gun
Looted Wagon
20-strong Shoota Mob w/ Rokkits on home objective
3 Killa Kanz
1 Deff Dread

The short version? Capture the flag, table quarters, I go first.

Bloody.
As.
Hell.

Warbikers drive up the middle with a Trukk behind; the Battlewagon and a Trukk take a flank, and two trukks move on the other flanks with the Kans/Dread moving up behind 'em as a 'finisher' of sorts.

He advances up the flank, and there's just too much to handle. I Mind War the warboss to death with Eldrad (and deal a severe morale blow to the Ork player in the process). One Wave Serpent moves in to block off the Nob Bikerz with shots from Dire Avengers hoping to stop the doomed Bikers. No avail.

So, I fight off wave one with some losses...Avatar, on my left flank, will KO the bikers, then a mob of Orks, and finally succumb to the second trukk mob that comes his way. He'll get the Warbikers into assault with the Wraithguard in the middle, and just short of a Trukk mob. I'll beat down the few bikers in there, then the Wraithguard get slammed by the Mega-Nobz that nuked one Fire Prism. Things will go downhill from there, as eventually he brings the remnants of a Boyz squad and the remnants of his Mega-Nobz (as the exploding fire prism KILLED on, amazingly, and the Wraithguard...shoot down a couple of them.).

Other highlights toward the end include...
-The Rangers actually killed a Deff Dread via immobilizing it, and blew the arm off another. Go little guys, go.
-Eldrad survived a couple assault phases with a Nob and Meganob, and then schooled the Deff Dread that got in there.
-The Wraithlord...flamed several Boyz, then couldn't kill off the 3 left before the PK nob killed it.
-I can do everything BUT kill the #$*(@#ing Battlewagon, but that's what I get for just having regular pens and not AP1 (though he didn't much like the Wraithguard guns...)

In the end...I lost; contested objective on my end by a Trukk that the Rangers couldn't stop. I have them, an immobilized Fire Prism, Eldrad, and a Wave Serpent full of Avengers.

He has a couple empty trukks, a couple Kill Kanz, and his 20-mob.