100TH WIN ORKS 5th ED!!!

Life is still proving to be crazy and squeezing in time for gaming is near impossible currently. I won the tournament at another store almost 2 months ago and I hit my 98th win for 5th edition with my orks in the last round. I wanted to hit that magical 100th win mark before the next edition landed. Preorders went out and I knew I would have to do it this week or bust. I went to the FLGS and like what happens often almost everyone was playing already or just talking on an on. I needed 2 wins to get to 100 and only had time for 2 games. If I lost either one I would not hit the 100 mark.

Ming and his ultras had no opponent and I wanted to get my first game in quickly. We set up and played 2000 points and the same exact lists we used in the previous tournament. Another grudge match and I know he wanted to stop me and go down in history in the club for doing so. We rolled up standard missions and got Kill Points and Dawn of War. I was going first and I set up my 2 30 man squads along the center of the board. I moved in on turn one and set one of the squads forward enough to bait our the terminators. He took the bait and on turn 2 the whole board was in close combat. We slugged it out for a while but because he never got to soften me up I wont the battle 12-7 in kill points.

I started looking around for who wanted to stop me from hitting win 100. One of my favorite opponents and friends in the club stepped up to face me with a crazy CC GK army. I looked across the table and I was not happy and he could very easily win if I make a mistake or he plays flawlessly. We rolled up and got KP/DOW again! I also managed to go first and set up as per usual with my 2 blobs along the center. He set up his deathcult assasins and terminators in the corner in a nice castle formation. I knew if I had to fight him I would have to hit him all at the same time and win one massive combat. When he drove his reinforcements on turn one he put them in the opposite corner. My mind was set and I was going to ignore most of his army and pick up the 7 easy kill points that he deployed on the other side of the board.

I just ran away from his deathstar and pushed into his other half of his army. The nobz and Ghaz made quick work of 5 kill points(almost 7) and I lost 3 in return. It was a close game and came down to strategy. It might have gotten even closer if the game continued past turn 5 but the dice gods didn't allow it.

I would like to thank everyone who I have played in 5th edition for the great games I have had (even you shiny rhino)! I can't wait to see what 6th brings and start my counts over for my armies.

RIPPED

April Assault: The Final Battle

The day grew dark and it was about time for the final battle to be fought. I was going to be against one of my good friends and rival Amberclad and his space puppies. There were only 3 Space Wolf lists in the tourney and  Ghaz got to fight all of them. I picked up my tray and moved to my now randomized table. We typically randomize the tables in later rounds to try to get players on NEW tables especially the ones near the top of the rankings so that players don't play on the same ones all day.

The table I got moved onto was my 2nd least favorite table. A massive 8 inch wide river ran clear across the center with high cliffs and a pond on one side. My massive ork horde would once again be slowed by terrain. I was ready for an epic battle to break out for the victory. I had made it to where I wanted and I was sitting currently in first place with a comfy lead over 3rd and 4th.

The mission was:
Primary: 5 objectives one in the center of each quarter and one in the center of the board
            (once captured early in your movement phase, you can move away from them and still control them)
Secondary: Victory Points
3rd: Table Quarters (i think)
4th: (i dont remember)

The Space Wolves have 1 Rhino, 1 Drop Pod, 1 Landraider, 3 grey hunter 10 man squads, 1 rune priest with jaws and murderous hurricane, Land Speeder Typhoon Squadron 3x speeders, Long Fangs /w MLs. My general strategy would probably not work for this game because of my mobility being cut down by the river. I had to formulate a new plan and quick. I thought about zerging his back field with the trukk and storm boyz but I realized that both would just get blown up in torrents of fire and the boyz would get stuck in the center river choke point. I knew I could not play this game they way I normally would so Instead I decided to go for the primary and let him come to me and make the mistake.

The first Turn his pod squad dropped in and took an objective quickly and he took one in his back field with the land raider squad. I lost my lootas to all of his fire even being in 4+ cover.

I retaliated by jumping my storm boyz onto his objective in attempt to assassinate his squad like I failed to do in the last game. I came very close where I killed 7 of the 10 guys and I lost quite a few. This was all done in a large pond in the corner. I was banking on his other squad not being able to make it over but if they did I would be in the clear to take and hold the center. Ghaz and my nobs took one of my objectives on the flank and a large boyz squad took my home objective.

CRAP he rolled well and made it into combat with my storm boyz on turn 2! I lost them all and he narrowly escaped with his squad. My large squads were not the main focus of his fire and boy did they take a lot. I got some cover and only lost a few boyz. I keep them spread out so that I don't get crushed by templates.  He moved his empty rhino onto the center to be my play toy for the kans.

The rest of the game was a boring tea party. Ghaz rolled a 6 irl for his kunnin ability and sat around on the center objective. I used his rhino that was contesting for cover for the kans. I moved the bulk of both 30 man squads into area cover and let him shoot and do everything he could to me. I slowly lost guys to his fire and by turn 4 I blew up his transport and took the objective. I was now winning the primary by holding 3 out of 5 objectives. Ghaz sat waiting to pop his Wahhhhgh and counter charge the space puppies for the victory point win. However they just never came and we rolled on turn 5 and the game ended. I lost on victory points but I won by getting the primary. Apparently my opponent had planned to get the center on turn 6 with a massive charge. Knowing ghaz and what he does I would have killed both squads in 4 rounds of CC with ghaz alone for the most part.

We shook hands after a great game of chess and waited for awards. I ended up where I had tactically planned... In first place based on battle points. Amberclad had also won best overall because he did not get crushed the final round and he had high points in sport, comp, and painting.

Tough day but I feel that round 2 and 3 were more a factor based on the table rather then the opponent. My orks did exactly as they were designed to. I was very happy to pilot them to another 3 wins in 5th edition. My goal is to hit 100 wins before 6th drops and I want to do it without a single loss.

Thanks for reading as always

RIPPED

Sorry...Tourney Batreps

College has been crazy and I have not been able to really play or do anything 40k related after the tourney last month. Here are the last 2 battle reports from rounds 2 and 3 of our April Assault.

Game 2 I found myself across from another space wolf player. I was ok with that but I was put onto the damn LAVA BOARD. At the beginning of the day it was ruled by the judges that the lava was going to be difficult and dangerous terrain for everyone. This board was covered in it and for me I knew I was always going to be going through part of it somewhere every turn with almost every mob.

The game was king of the hill with an objective directly in the center of the board. This objective was surrounded by over 3 inches of lava in all directions. It was chosen to be table quarters and I got put in the one that would funnel me through a small center opening and moving constantly through lava.

I set up my storm boys and ghaz in his trukk so that they could easily sweep up his flank and push through his lines. The storm boyz made it into combat on turn 1 like planned. However, between the good rolls and his banner being popped I only managed to kill 5 marines while losing a lot and then fleeing off the board. Ghaz was in position for turn two with his nobz. The trukk was exposed and I was hoping that I wont ramshakle backwards. I also shot up his speeders turn 1 with my lootas after they had already taken heavy fire from his long fangs.

His turn two he blew up the trukk as I thought he would. I got a ramshakle and closed my eyes and rolled the scatter result. A hit would have been fine but instead I moved 14 inches shooting a gap between terrain and his unit that the storm boyz assaulted the turn before. I was now in the heart of his army with ghaz and 5 nobz standing in a crater. You could almost see his whole army turn in fear and start blasting away hoping to wipe them out. I lost one nob to shooting and then was charged by his closest squad with his HQ in it. I lost all my nobz but Ghaz stood still in a drawn combat.

I moved my army forward and did some shooting but not much really happened on my next turn. I took more casualties to lava and slowly got closer to striking distance. His venerable dread shook off an immobilized result and was forced to not shoot the following turn. Ghaz won combat vs his grey hunters and they fled from the mighty warboss. Ghaz advanced to keep them fleeing and moved toward the rest of his army. I was ready to make my move.

He predictably shot at ghaz and then charged him. I popped my 2+ invuln and took 3 wounds for the whole turn with his army focused on him. Ghaz slayed 4 grey hunters in return laughing in their faces as he knew his friends would be there soon.

The rest of my army was now enraged and pushed into his lines. I slaughtered his grey hunter squad and kept his other one fleeing after my combat and made them run off the board. His lone wolf and dread smashed into a boyz squad.

The rest of the game did not take long at all. Ghaz marched over to the long fangs and tore them a new one. His dread killed the boyz squad but was taken down in a flurry of loota fire. His last rhino with grey hunters found out what kans do in close combat and were mauled to death. My grots came in on turn 5 and marched to the center of the board. He had a small terminator squad also marching toward the center but they were also ripped down by loota fire and kans. At the end of the game he had only one immobilized rhino left on the board and my grots were sitting on the objective surrounded by lava.

Ghaz was again by far the MVP of the game because he took out 2 grey hunter squads, long fangs, and his HQ ran off the board with some grey hunters. I will always argue that he is the best HQ in the game bar none.

Look for the next bat rep in a few days

Thanks for reading,

RIPPEDDRAGON

April Assault Round 1

Each round was going to be 2 hours at 1500 points. I was warned before my first game that I would be playing against a new player with less than 5 games played of 40k. He was a polite older gentleman who had played figure games most of his life and was finally getting into 40k. He was playing a space wolf army with long fangs, a dread, predator, a couple squads of guys, and a rune priest. He did not have dice and was very fresh to the rules and armies.

The mission was kill points and objectives and they were all centrally located on his half of the board. We were playing on a dense urban setup with plenty of tall los blocking buildings. I hid Ghaz's truck and lined up my boyz on the two major routs across the board and my stormboyz flanking to the left. He shot up some stormboys and my lootas and killed one kan. I marched forward and ran with everything prepping a quick strike. Ghaz shot forward and ate a squad that had gotten out of their rhino. There was plenty of talking and the first turn took well over an hour. I had a time crunch and knew I had to finish this quick.

Turn two was more of him shooting and not killing a lot. I lost a mega nob and a few boyz but not enough to stop the onslaught that was going to happen on my turn... We had about 30 minutes left when my second turn finally started. I moved everything and then blew my 6 inch fleet and then charged everything on turn 2. When the dust settled he had lost everything except the long fangs hiding in a building. My stormboyz got crushed by both grey hunter squads but had been multi charged by a 30 man squad and 2 kans.

We played 3 more turns but I just left his long fangs alone and sat on objectives and let him fire at me. I got full points for the game and was set to move on to play against the next top person.

April Assault Prep

After my poor experiences with blood angels and comp systems. I decided to scrap my plans and go back to the drawing board. I knew 6th was going to come out soon and I really wanted to break 100 wins with orks before then. I started to fiddle with perfect comp lists and digging out old models. Some of the lists I liked but I knew playing fluffy orks VS some of the lists that match perfect comp but are competitive in other codex will be hard.

I was pretty bzy with school and did not have much time to paint or build things. From that I knew I would already be behind in points. There were also 30 comp points given out on top of everything at the judges discretion. The judges are made up of people that I play with and as such they know I am here to stomp. No matter how fluffy my list is I will not be getting the 30 extra comp points. I concluded my only chance was to go for pure winning goodness. I build my list around that and disregarded comp. The only thing I had to do was make a list to meet the minimum comp requirements.

My List:

Ghaz
5x Mega Nobz
trukk
20 storm boyz
30 boyz
30 boyz
10 lootas
3 kans

Took me a little bit to make it to this point but it was not a hard list to make. It runs off of my standard ork build and strategy.

I took my first warm up game vs ming the weekend before the April Assault. Orks vs Ultras...classic!

Not much to report on that game. I tabled him by the bottom of turn 2 except a land raider. I then chased the land raider down for another turn and the game was over in 30 minutes.

Second practice game was against a bug list. He stayed back and kept shooting with warriors and guard. I pushed ghaz, nobz, and storm boyz down his throat and let my boyz handle the big bugs dropping in near the mid objective. The kans got into combat with Doom and tied him up and eventually killed him. His tyrant got into combat with ghaz on turn 5 and I blew my 2+ invuln and crushed him. The rest of my army had pretty much already wiped the board. Easy win.

Lists were turned in that day and no one could swap and counter me within the club.

I was happy with the strong showing from them as usual. Time to fight for first in the April Assault.

Battle reports for the tournament are coming.

April Assault Champion: RIPPEDDRAGON!

Just got home after a long day of 40k. 18 people playing...less than out fall event but a lot of people from away which was good to see. I changed to my orks last weekend and played 2 games this week and stomped both. Today was a little different but partially due to terrain and my opponents. I had to go against space wolves 3 rounds in a row! The orks did it and I won all 3 games and got max points for the first 2 and a minor victory in the last round to Amberclad. I won best general and Amberclad took best overall due to my comp hit and lower painting scores. I never planned on winning overall with my comp score and wanted to just get best general and have the most battle points at the end of the day. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. MVP: Ghazghkull - he carries games plain and simple. I will be posting battle reports over the next week or so. Look for my updates ;)

April Assault thoughts

My flgs this april is hosting another large tournament with 30+ people (hopefully) sign up over at crossroad games you can buy tickets online. It is a 1500 point tourney standard codexes allowed with a very strict comp system which can be found in our forums.

I made a blood angel force and played a game vs creative twilight and I had no idea that the comp system existed. I found out that my army was very illegal and I would not be able to use it in the tourney. Fine... so i went home and started thinking of lists and almost everyone for blood angels had its balls cut out. These guys like the "hobby aspect" tournaments and as such all spam is unplayable literally you cant play if you have more then 2 of anything except troops.

I have been spending my time trying to come up with lists that have a decent chance of winning despite my comp setback. If you dont know already, both my orks and blood angels lack a ton of variety and I never built them for the "hobby". My armies were designed to win and play that way as you can see from my record.

I did play once with my neutered blood angels list against ming last week. It did not go very well at all, bad dice, and a shitty list. I held on and tried to win but no luck I ended up losing to him...the first time in many many years (3+). He joins the ranks of the very few who have beaten me in 5th edition. I was very happy for him because he has come a long way in his play skill. After playing with him and winning the doubles tournament last month he seems to finally understand that he needs to play aggressive with his death stars and pick proper targets.

April Assault has left a bad taste in my mouth already and I dont even know if I want to play in it. I have never played a game in my life just for the fun of it. Sports, video games, bets between friends, everything is always about being the best I can be. It is not in my blood to sit back and have fun and not care about the result. Anyone who has played against me should know that already ;)

"hobby event" wtf is that...