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WAAGH! Batrep - Darwin's Black Templars - 2013.12.16

I really wanted to have a chill game on Monday 40k night and my buddy Darwin is a really cool guy.  I sought him out for a game after he came in.  I wanted to try out some units, most importantly the return of Snikrot and his band of lunatics.  The list itself wasn't particularly hard, but fun, so I figured we could have an exciting game because Darwin has also been trying out new things and getting into a new groove with the 6th Edition Space Marines codex.

Darwin's list consisted of a large squad inside a Crusader (because Black Templar), a biker command squad with an Apothecary and a Captain on a bike with Stormshield and power sword, two 5x troops with missiles and melta in rhinos, and two bigger squads in rhinos.  He also had two Vindicators with siege shields!  Eek!

WAAGH! Drillteef's list:

1850 Pts - Codex: Orks Roster - Adepticon 2014 02

1 Mad Doc Drillteef, DDS, 160 pts (Warlord)

4 Meganobz, 285 pts (Count as Troop Troops; Cybork Body)
   1 The Electrork Mayhem (Red Paint Job; Reinforced Ram; Big Shoota x1)

18 Boyz, 159 pts (Shootas)
   1 Boyz Nob (Bosspole; Power Klaw; Big Shoota)
1 The Orktimus Prime, 110 pts (Red Paint Job; Reinforced Ram; Stikkbomb Chukka; Big Shoota x1)

11 Boyz, 132 pts (Shootas)
   1 Boyz Nob (Bosspole; Big Shoota)
   1 Trukk (Reinforced Ram)

11 Boyz, 157 pts
   1 Boyz Nob (Bosspole; Power Klaw; Big Shoota)
   1 Trukk (Reinforced Ram)

1 Mega-armoured Warboss, 105 pts (Bosspole)
15 Lootas, 225 pts
1 Fat Pig, 115 pts (Reinforced Ram; Stikkbomb Chukka; Big Shoota x3)

6 Stormboyz, 157 pts
   1 Shazzo Blitzklaws

13 Kommandos, 245 pts (Burna x2)
   1 Boss Snikrot

We started off by having my buddy, John, who was in from out of town set up the terrain for us.  I think this is a pretty fun way to do things sometimes as neither player knows what to expect and the third party often has a mind to do some kind of narrative setup.

We rolled a regular mission with The Relic mission and Dawn of War deployment.  We didn't have night fighting and I chose to go first.

I deployed with some spacing to avoid multiple vehicles being hit by the Vindicators.  I did put the Fat Pig very near the rear bumper of the Electrork Mayhem which would require Darwin to move terribly out of position with his Vindicators in order to take advantage of it.  He didn't fall for the bait.  Darwin corralled his bikes with his vehicles and placed one squad of marines on top of a battlement.


I chose to fire at one of the Vindicators with my Lootaz, shaking it down to 1 hull point and flanked on either side with my other vehicles.  Darwin, intelligently, continued to circle the wagons and disembarked his assault troops into the circle of boxes.  He killed both Trukks, sending boyz careening from Hell to breakfast.


The Lootaz were able to eliminate the other Vindicator and the remaining Trukk boyz destroyed one of the Rhinos and the unit inside over the course of the next couple of turns.  Poor Shazzo Blitzklawz did manage to land near and assault the Land Raider, but didn't even glance it.  His unit was unceremoniously shot to death on Darwin's next turn.  I do question my target priority there, but I wanted to see what happened. Also, a Land Raider Crusader is capable of serious damage to Ork units and he proved that throughout this game.  My battlewagon full of Boyz on the right flank did manage to annoy his troops over there and pull them out of scoring position, but just barely, before they crumpled and died.  The Meganobz threw themselves into the Bike squad, hoping to kill a few and they became tied up there.


Snikrot brought Mad Doc in from Darwin's back edge and put one glance on the back of his damaged Vindicator.  Even after being shot by most of Darwin's army, Mad Doc and the Kommandos were able to kill one of Darwin's assault units.  Meanwhile, the Lootaz with the Warboss and a small squad of remaining Trukk Boyz assaulted into the Bikes on a mission to save the Meganobz.  This scrum went on for the rest of the game.  Fortunately, the Warboss did manage to multi-assault against the Land Raider in that first turn and immobilize it.


Although they wiped out the unit they were fighting, Mad Doc and his unit fell prey to the Crusader's weight of fire.  Similarly, Darwin's bike unit was eliminated to a man.  Several Lootaz, a few boyz, and a Meganob remained.  Two of the Battlewagons also remained alive.  Darwin had a squad of marines heading for The Relic (a Christmas Tree) when the game ended on turn 5.

In the end, the score was 2 to 2 with both of us claiming Warlord, Darwin claiming First Blood, and I winning Linebreaker.  I'm not sure what the result would have been had we gone to turns six and seven, but I think it would still have been a tie.

I don't put too much stock in First Blood, but in some single book missions, it is important.  Also, I'd have liked to go after his Rhinos. However with the single massive unit of Lootaz, I feel compelled to go after bigger targets.  If I'd had two units of Lootaz instead of one huge one, I quite likely may have popped rhinos instead and gone after the Vindicators with assault.  I really need to re-think the Lootaz in the Battlewagon.  I think they are hindering me, especially since Heldrakes aren't as prevalent as they used to be.  I can't forget, however, that one or two blasts from a Serpent Shield are still more than enough to wipe eight Lootaz.

Is the answer just to drop the Lootaz?  Should I get all of my medium strength shooting from Dakkajets instead?  I'm not sure.

Snikrot was good.  It allowed me to get Mad Doc into position for assault where I wanted him.  It's tough to kite him when he's already deep inside your lines.  I'll probably be testing him for 6th edition effectiveness again.  I doubt I'd make the squad smaller since he needs the wounds to survive a turn of shooting.  I am kind of considering putting the 5+ invulnerable on them, though.  That seems nuts, but I think it may be worth the points.

I think that a Rhino-based Space Marine army is pretty great right now.  For 35 points you basically get a free pass on the first round of shots against your unit.  That's not too bad if you ask me.  Granted, it'll get erased by Taudar, but you can't judge everything off how it'll do against Taudar because then we'd never play at all.

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