Da Ironbullz took to the table for the first time, and suffered two resounding defeats succored by a single win. This means yet more changes for my tournament army list for May.
Other life committments have continued to encroach on my free time for hobbying over the last month, but nevertheless I have three exciting updates to share:
This past weekend, I got together with three of the four other players slated to participate in our May mini-tournament and had a chance to playtest my list in three 1,000-point games.
Even in spite of my list being exposed as jumbled tactical mess, it was simply a thrill to finally hit the table with my Orks in 9th! I had been looking forward to that moment for months.
I've written brief recaps of each matchups below, but first I want to share three lessons I learned on 1,000 point tournament-style games in 9th:
As a recap, my list took a single Deffskulls Vanguard detachment with roughly the following:
Going into these games, my goal was to hold my Meganobz, Stormboyz, and Kommandoz in reserve and deep strike them into the midboard on turns 2-3 to threaten backfield objectives. In the meantime, my Warboss, Nobz, and Dread would push up one flank to get early pressure on the enemy.
That was how it was supposed to go. In theory, at least.
Spoilers: things did not go as planned!
Da Ironbullz first time on the table in 9th was an unmitigated disaster. I stuck to my original game plan outlined above: I started my Stormboyz, Kommandoz, and Chinork with Meganobz in reserve and sent my warboss & nobz up the left flank. This would have worked fine... if I had been able to deep strike or infiltrate any of those units effectively! As it went, my Warboss & his Nobz engaged his deathstar (Bladeguard, 5 Intercessors, and all three characters) on my left flank and cleared all three bladeguard on the first charge, then were killed to a man in his counter-charge. This left my left flank entirely exposed (although my Big Trakk got up to some futile blocking shenanigans to prevent him from accessing my back-left objective), and I wasn't able to bring in any of my reserve units outside of my own deployment zone. On turn three, they all arrived, but the game had already been decided. The Eradicators melted anything they pleased (including my dreadnought with the very first shots of the game!). My Meganobz ended the game by dropping from their Warkopta and mutilating all three outriders in a single assault phase, but it was far too little to turn the tides. We didn't tally the final points, but the game ended up somewhere in the ballpark of ~70 to ~30. A crushing loss.
I played only slightly better in this one and still made a number of crucial mistakes against a more competitive list. I foolishly kept my Meganobz and Kommandoz in reserve like Game 1, but started with my Stormboyz on the table. Otherwise, this game was largely similar to the first. The Ultramarines sent the Bladeguard, Dread, Ancient, and Ventris down my left flank head-to-head against my Warboss and Nobz. After the Dread melted my Big Trakk with its heavy D6 plasma cannon, my Warboss and his ladz didn't stand much of a chance. I was able to scrub about half of the wounds off the Redemptor, but its ability to subtract one damage from all wounds effectively neutered my Power Klaws and Big Choppas. The right flank fared a little better: my Stormboys and Dread rushed his two Inctercessors squads, Apothecary, and Library guarding one of the four objectives. The Stormboyz killed a handful of Intercessors on the charge, but I was shocked when a five-man unit of Intercessors tarpitted and eventually killed my Dread in melee. Huge disappointment. The objective fell outside of my reach between the Master Apothecary regenerating a handful of Intercessors over turns 2-4 and the librarian providing some buffs and chipping a few wounds into combat. Just like Game 2, my Meganobz made their glorious arrival on the right flank two turns too late, but had a big impact when they finally showed up by racking up a fistful of kills in the final two combat phases of the game. Thanks to my Chinork, Stormboyz, and Deffkopta, I was able to pick up maybe ~9 points for Engage and another ~3 for Assassinate on his Apothecary, so while the final score was slightly closer than Game 1, it was still demoralizing (on the order of ~70 to ~40).
Our third game of the day went decisively better for Da Ironbullz. Two assault-oriented armies facing off in a mission that inceitivized aggressive headlong play was bound to be a bloodbath. I feel bad for my opponent in this one, because by rolling for the first turn, he had no choice but to come headlong straight at me. I was able to jump onto his assault, rolled pretty well with my shooting (Deffskullz rerolls on Kustom Mega-Blastas and Rokkit Launchas are clutch!), and land a few key charges. A key factor in this game was that my opponent didn't have much in the way of ranged threats, which allowed me to play ultra-aggressively. I also started with everything deployed on the table this game, which allowed my Meganobz to reach his backfield objective by Turn 3. Between me clearning 100% of his Genestealers and Lictors by turn 2 and my Dreadnaught one-shotting his Trygon with a very lucky combat phase, we called the game early as we were both tired from a long day of gaming and there was clearly no hope of a comeback for the Tyranids.
I talked strategy at length with my opponents, which helped crystalize my thoughts into which aspects in my list worked well and which didn't.
Starting with the positives, a few elements of my list clearly worked well:
Although some aspects of the list worked, there were also many disappointments:
I tried to incorporate these sobering lessons into a revised list. I made a few key changes, like dropping the Dread, Waaagh! Banner Nob, and Kommandoz to pick up 2x10 Gretchin, a Weirdboy, and a second solo Deffkopta, as well as a smattering of other minor changes. I'm hoping that the Gretchin and Wierdboy will give me some flexibility to compete in more phases of the game without sacrificing the core dual threats of mechanized Nobz and Meganobz.
Here's how the revised list worked out:
+-------------------------------+
| Battalion Detachment: Orks |
| 1,000 Points; 53 Power Level |
| 2 Command Points |
| Deffskullz Clan Kultur |
+-------------------------------+
HQ: Warboss [Warlord] - 83 points
Wargear: Attack Squig, Da Killa Klaw (Relic), Kustom Shoota
Upgrades: Da Biggest Boss (stratagem), Might Is Right (warlord trait)
HQ: Weirdboy - 75 points
Psychic Powers: Smite, Warpath, Fists of Gork
Upgrades: Warphead (stratagem), Super Cybork Body (relic)
Troops: Ork Boyz - 95 points
Boss Nob with Kombi-Rokkit
7x Ork Boyz with Shoota
Ork Boy with Shoota & Tankbusta Bombs
Ork Boy with Big Shoota
Troops: Gretchin - 50 points
10x Gretchin
Troops: Gretchin - 50 points
10x Gretchin
Elites: Meganobz - 158 points
Boss Meganob with dual Killsaws
2x Meganob with dual Killsaws
Meganob with Power Klaw & Kustom Shoota
Elites: Nobz - 110 points
Boss Nob with Power Klaw & Slugga
Nob with Power Klaw & Slugga
Nob with Big Choppa & Choppa
2x Nobz with dual Choppas
Elites: Painboy - 65 points
Fast Attack: Deffkopta with Kustom Mega-Blasta & Bigbomm - 31 points
Fast Attack: Deffkopta with Kustom Mega-Blasta & Bigbomm - 31 points
Fast Attack: Stormboyz - 82 points
Boss Nob with Power Klaw & Choppa
5x Stormboyz with Choppa & Slugga
Flyer: Chinork Warkopta with 2x Rattler Kannons and Kustom Mega-Blasta - 105 points
Dedicated Transport: Trukk with Big Shoota - 65 points
Kustom Job: Squig-Hyde Tyres
My limited free time over the last month for hobbying has forced me to (yet again) reevaluate how realistic my hobbying goals are before mid-May.
I have come to terms with the fact that even simply building, converting, and kitbashing all of the models I need might be a challenge.
In the weeks leading up to our weekend of playtesting, I focused primarily on building and converting the models needed to play (even if they weren't painted, as much as that pains me!).
At a minimum, I'm planning on having everything built by the May tournament. I think the best-case scenario would be to have all models built, primed, and basecoated (so at least they look like the right colors)! As of right now, I'm intending to prime & basecoat all currently unpainted models in one giant batch as soon as I have everything built.
I've broken down progress per unit below. I may give some more details on each at a later date, but for now I'll just highlight some notes.
These were a ton of fun to convert. As I outlined in a previous post, I wanted my Warboss' retinue of Nobz to be full of character, with each model having a unique theme or role. I had been looking forward to building these for quite some time. It was well worth the wait!
I tried to come up with a creative conversion theme for my Meganobz... but the GW plastics are just too good on their own! I couldn't resist working in some miscellaneous bitz (especially including some head swaps), and co-opted the Imperial Guard Sentinel missile launcher to make a Deathwing-esque Cyclone Missile Launcher look-alike, but the other Meganobz are pretty standard.
I know most people like the Painboy sculpt, but I'm not a fan of the standard face and Power Klaw. Instead, I gave him a head swap from the Meganobz kit for a face fittingly riddled with stitches and bioniks, and gave him a Kromlech resin Power Klaw.
Nothing too special with these, either. In keeping with my Shoota Boyz theme, I wanted each model to have a helmeted head, at least one armor plate, and at least one pouch or belt of spare ammunition.
This conversion is in its infancy, but already has taken quite a bit of time. This is the most ambitious vehicle kitbash/scratch-build I've ever attempted, and I have grand designs... but not much to show for it yet. I'll certainly go into more detail on this model as it matures!
I just started this model last night, but my vision here is to use the Imperial Guard Sentinel cockpit as a "news helicopter" style cockpit with a slender tail extended from the rear.
This conversion came together exactly like I had hoped, so it's unfortunate that I've decided to cut him from my 1k tournament list. I am confident he will see the table plenty in the future, though.
