catalyst2 | Battle #24

Tonight was 2000 points against Jake's Orks. It was Dawn of War deployment and the mission was Capture and Control. I had maxed out on templates and heavy bolters but was about to pay a terrible price for a lack of AP.

First turn and, because he deployed deep on his back line, he was out of range for any charges, with his shooting doing no damage to me either. I lost the game on my turn here because I also shot across the line and NOTHING! Everything missed or was saved (he had a bit of cover to protect him). The only thing he lost was five of his ten Stormboyz in a dangerous terrain test. I really needed to have immobilised/destroyed his trukks and battlewagons so I could force the squads to walk so I could drop Whirlwind and Thunderfire rounds on them as they came across slowly on foot.

Second turn and both his Battle wagons, both his trukks and all of his Killer Kanz came across the field. To try to get his trukks, I had risked my speeders but had failed to immobilise anything so I lost my speeders immediately and the rest of his line swung to get my left wing. I had also strung out a 10-man assault squad with the hope of fending off Snikrot and his Kommandos but when they arrived this turn, I charged, rolled appallingly and ended up losing the entire unit instantly. My Thunderfire finally did some damage and killed of a 12-man Burna squad. Even my Land Raider Crusader failed to hit anything again, leaving both of his Battlewagons in centre board and about to hit my line.

Turn three and he hit my line hard but curiously failed to do much damage. The terminator chaplain and assault terminators managed to see off another Burna unit and hold up Ghazgull for a turn. The Kommandos died to a man after taking out a Razorback and one Kan bit the dust. One tactical squad were reduced down to one man who stood his ground but, surrounded by 20+ Boyz, it was clear that his days were numbered.

Turn four and his second Nob squad and large Boyz squad also hit my line. My Thunderfire and Whirlwind all died and the sniper scouts got tangled in an assault by the Stormboyz, who lost another to a failed dangerous terrain test. The terminators all died, having killed all of Ghazgull's squad but only doing one wound to Ghazgull.

Turn five and all his squads swung into action - the Nobs took out the Land raider, the first tactical squad died and the one solitary scout left promptly ran 9 inches but was ten inches from the board edge. The second tactical squad managed to kill about 2/3rds of the incoming Boyz but still died in the resulting close combat. I blasted away at Ghazgull and got him down to just one wound but it was too late. All I had left now was one scout, the techmarine, the Predator destructor and the last Razorback. The scout rallied and managed to get within 3" of the objective marker. Don't roll for a sixth turn, please ..... and then rolled for a sixth turn! Damn!

Turn six and Ghazgull and the Burnas killed both the Predator and the Razorback. The scout withstood every bit of shooting he could muster, at one stage rolling 6 6's to save a whole barrage of big shoota shots. If I could survive the combat, I could at least salvage a draw since Jake had left his own objective untouched. Jake managed to roll a 6 to run within three inches of his own objective and then the assault started. The techmarine died, not even his own 2+ save helping him and then it came down to the sole remaining scout. Twenty attacks became eight wounds and he saved SEVEN of them, just dying on that very last wound. Damn and double damn!

Final result was a loss by two objectives to nil

What I learned today:
1) Never neglect some high AP weapons, even against orks
2) I hate Ghazgull
3) I hate Ghazgull - just thought I'd say it twice for emphasis
4) Tactically, I think I did most things right tonight but the loss of the speeders so early did me a great deal of damage because there was nothing left on that side to really slow down any attack. Even though it took another few turns before I paid the price, the combination of my terrible shooting in turn 1 and the loss of the speeders really did mean it was all over. The only thing I could have done really was to take a Predator annihilator, put that on the left and then swing the speeders over to the other side.
5) I really didn't know what to do when I had a bunkered down Ork horde in front of me.

My W-L-D record is now 18-6-0