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October 1.5k Tournament

Oct 27th, 2021

Da Ironbullz hit the tabletop last weekend for their first games under the new 9^th edition Orks Codex, but things didn't go quite as planned.

Last weekend saw the anticipated arrival of our local gaming group's October 40k tournament, which included eight* players each bringing 1.5k lists.

*Unfortunately, one player dropped out at the last minute, forcing us to go down to an awkward seven-person format; more on this below.

As with our previous May mini-tournament, this one was intended to be a weekend of semi-structured casual gaming. In general, the lists were reasonably balanced, with some of the more competitive & experienced players taking sillier "meme lists" to keep games interesting against those of us with less experience.

The structure of the tournament was fairly straightforward with four games spread over two days. The first two games on Saturday were to determine seeding, and the last two games on Sunday were to allow for a four-person "championship" bracket and a three-person "consolation" bracket based on the results from Saturday.

Before diving into the games, here's the final list I ended up taking:

Da Ironbullz 1.5k point list for Garagehammer 2021

Coming into the games, my general strategy with this list was to control the midboard with durable Kanz and Meganobz backed up by a Painboy and Big Mek, while my faster harassment units (Deffkoptas, Burna Boyz in Trukk, and Warbikers) advanced up the flanks to pick off weaker enemy units and activate the Freebootaz +1 to hit in shooting.

The matchups

Game 1: Sweep & Clear vs. Grey Knights

• Opponent: Rapiers Grey Knights (Castellan Crowe, Grandmaster in Dreadknight, 3x5 Strike Squads, 4x5 Interceptor Squads, 2x Dreadknights)
• Secondary Objectives: Stranglehold; Direct Assault; Abhor the Witch.
• Outcome: Orks loss (85-69 VPs)

What better way to jump straight into the deep end with a game featuring not one but two brand-new 9^th edition codexes I had never played before! This game was against our tournament host, who is an excellent sportsman and generous opponent but also quite a skilled player, so I knew this matchup was going to be an uphill climb for Da Ironbullz even with the mission, Direct Assault, playing to my list's strengths. I made matters worse during deployment by leaving most of my slow shooting threats (Flash Gitz, Mek Gun, Badrukk) completely exposed on my left flank, where his trio of Dreadknights were able to shoot them off the board in the first turn. The strong Grey Knight alpha strike put me on the back foot even before my first turn, so after effectively abanoning my left flank, the remainder of the game consisted of the Orks scrapping for Stranglehold while the Meganobz pushed hard on the right flank. The Orky MVP of this game was the Burna Boyz without a doubt, who emerged from a ruined building near the vital central objective and torched Castellan Crowe in a single round of shooting by rolling hot with their Burnas! However, the Grey Knights' alpha strike left me too crippled to trade effectively versus their wealth of seven minimum-sized squads, and the victory slipped out of reach for Da Ironbullz by turn four.

Game 2: Battle Lines vs. Orks

• Opponent: Freebootaz Orks (Deffkilla Wartrike, Warboss on Warbike, Big Mek with Kustom Force Field, 2x5 Kommandoz, 2x10 Gretchin, 4x Megatrakk Scrapjets, Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy, Dakkajet, Gorkanaut)
• Secondary Objectives: Engage on All Fronts; Retrieve Octarius Data; Bring It Down.
• Outcome: Orks always win when Orks fight Orks! But Da Ironbullz "won" considerably less than the other Orks (82-27 VPs)

I was looking forward to an Orks-vs-Orks showdown, so was thrilled when this matchup crystallized for the second round. However, not all Orks lists are created equal; specifically, my opponent's buggy-heavy Freebootaz Speedwaaagh list is a style that is currently dominating the competitive 40k tournament scene, albeit with even more powergamey builds than he brought to our tournament. I anticipated this would be a hard game for my list, as most of my anti-tank threat is concentrated in melee (Meganobz, Kanz, characters), but his buggies should be mobile enough to evade me as needed. It turns out this evasion strategy wasn't even necessary, as his five buggies packed the midboard and drew my units towards the center of the table with their fusillade of shooting while his Dakkajet mowed down my Shoota Boyz guarding my home objective, allowing his Gorkanaut to deep strike behind my lines. The game was basically over once the mighty Gorkanaut hit the table. I did try one potentially interesting tactic by using the 2CP Tellyporta stratagem to deep strike a Trukk carrying my Meganobz and Painboy into his deployment zone in turn 2, but their arrival was too little too late after his devastating shooting and a failed Meganobz charge.

Game 3: Vital Intelligence (*with Thousand Sons) vs. Harlequins

*As mentioned above, our eighth player pulled out days before the tournament, meaning we had an odd number of participants. We rectified this by having one game be a 2v1 matchup in each round, where the team of two brought 750 points each vs. their opponent's 1.5k list.

• Opponent: Soaring Sprite Harlequins (Shadowseer, 2x Troupe Masters, Death Jester, Solitaire, 2x5 Fusion Pistol Troupes in Starweavers, a basic 5-man troupe in a Starweaver, 2x7 Troupes on foot, 2x3 Skyweaver Jetbikes)
• My reduced 750 point list: Single Freebootaz Patrol with Badrukk, 10 Shoota Boyz, 5 Kommandoz, 3 Deffkoptas, 3 Warbikers, 5 Flash Gitz, and 3 Killa Kanz
• Ally: Thousand Sons (Ahriman on Disk and 5x5 Rubric Marines)
• Secondary Objectives: Assassinate, Raise the Banners, and Mutate Landscapes (a Thousand Sons' Codex-unique secondary).
• Outcome: Orks/Thousand Sons loss (69-44 VPs)

Day two dawned with Da Ironbullz on the bottom of the standings and solidly in the consolation bracket. To provide the championship bracket with a full set of 1v1 matchups, we decided to run the 2v1 matchups as part of the consolation bracket. Although Orks and Thousand Sons make an usual pairing, my teammate and I decided to spread our resources evenly across our deployment zone with a plan to beat the Harlequins by stretching them too thin to contest all of the six objectives on the board. This strategy worked alright, with the Thousand Sons shoring up our left flank easily in the first 1-2 turns... but the amazing mobility of the Harlequins allowed them to quickly pivot and dedicate 100% of their resources to a spearheaded assault on our right flank, where I had deployed most of my Orks. This strong push by the Harlequins led to a protracted brawl between his jetbikes and troupes versus my Killa Kanz, Warbikes, and Flash Gitz, but the combined might of the Harlequins proved to be too strong and they were able to drive all the way back to our home objective and clear my Shoota Boyz and the Rubric Marines camping there. Even though the Thousand Sons were able to push our left flank all the way into the Harlequin deployment zone--capped off by Ahriman nuking the Death Jester with psychic before tanking an assassination attempt from the Solitaire only to kill him in return!--we weren't able to hang on to enough primary objectives to keep up with the Harlequins, resulting in a third consecutive Orks loss.

Game 4: Surround Them vs. Harlequins

• Opponent: Harlequins (same list as Game 3)
• Secondary Objectives: Stranglehold; Raise the Banners; Assassinate.
• Outcome: Close Orks loss (68-50 VPs)

In what is apparently becoming a tradition for our tournaments, I faced off against my brother for the fourth and final round of the weekend. I was eager to avenge the loss suffered at the hands of his Harlequins in game three, and hoped that this scenario, Surround Them, might help Da Ironbullz thanks to its very long deployment zones, which would require the Harlequins to spread their limited units across the entire board. This ended up being mostly true, with us trading unit-for-unit on both of the central objectives while my Kanz and Meganobz tarpitted the midboard, Badrukk and the Flash Gitz held down my right flank, and my Warboss and Burna Boyz rushed up the left flank in their Trukk. The game was neck-and-neck until the end of turn three, when I was unable kill off the remaining 1-2 wounds on five (!!) of his units between shooting and melee. These units, which were wounded but not slain outright, ended up being the deciding factor in an already close game; the Harlequins simply had more assets left in turns 4-5, allowing them to rack up primary and secondary scoring in the final turns.

Musings on a weekend of being drubbed

They say that failure is the most effective teacher, in which case four consecutive losses must count as a masterclass lesson!

Irrespective of the outcome, the tournament was a blast, and it's always great to spend a weekend playing 40k with friends.

My focus was on having fun--mission accomplished!--but I did also try to learn some lessons from my losses along the way. Here are some Orky insights I gained over the weekend of gaming:

• Support characters like Big Meks and Painboyz are more valuable in lists running large squads (for example, 6 Killa Kanz or 8-10 Meganobz rather than the units of 4 I ran in this tournament). In an MSU-style list, it seems difficult to retain the positioning with support characters to ensure they confer their benefits on the right squad at the right time. In the future, I probably won't run support characters unless I'm investing heavily in at least one large unit.
• Mixed Ork Klans probably can work well for most combinations of Klans (e.g., Deffskullz for ObSec Stormboyz and Kommandoz paired with Goffs for hard-hitting melee specialists), but I have a feeling that Freebootaz are the one Klan that does not work well when souped with a second clan. In most games, I never felt like I had invested enough of a concentrated shooting threat to either (i) activate the Freebootaz army-wide buff or (ii) take advantage of that buff once it went off. I will almost certainly run future Freebootaz lists as mono-Klan armies.
• This list fell prey to the adage of "too many toys, not enough boyz". In short, I didn't have enough infantry bodies to score objectives like Raise Banners or Retrieve Octarius Data. Given my five-month hiatus from playing any 40k, I had forgotten how indispensible throw-away infantry units are for scoring VPs in 9^th edition. In future lists, I think I would probably reallocate the points from non-infantry support units like Warbikes, Deffkoptas, Mek Guns, and transports to invest in a second unit of Kommandoz and a second unit of Stormboyz. Given their astonishingly cheap price tag (~50 points per squad), it's difficult to imagine a list of at least 1,500 points where I don't field at least 3 total units of Stormboyz and/or Kommandoz.
• I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of some of the more unconventional choices in my list; namely, Flash Gitz, Burna Boyz, and Killa Kanz, all of which tend to be overlooked by conventional wisdom for other units in competitive lists. While none of these units are admittedly as efficient as the top-tier units in the 9^th edition Orks Codex, I think they all deserve serious consideration in more casual/fun lists:
1. The Flash Gitz were surprisingly useful as a generalist unit that could hold points, dish out meaningful shooting damage, and even hold their own in melee. The unit is a little pricey for what it does (135 points for a 5-man squad), but I am certainly going to field them again as a multi-purpose unit. Badrukk's aura of rerolling 1's to hit in shooting and melee was really useful, too; I would probably try to field Badrukk as well in any lists where I'm taking Flash Gitz.
2. The Killa Kanz shooting was not nearly as effective as I hoped--it's basically good for nothing more than light harassment fire--but their utility as a big, cheap block of Ramshackle wounds with 3+ armor saves is really superb for their points cost. I will absolutely be running this unit again, and would consider increasing from 4 to 5-6 models at 2,000 points.
3. Finally, the Burna Boyz got lucky on a few of their random rolls to determine their number of shots, but nevertheless they were probably my single most valuable unit across all four games. When loaded up in an open-topped Trukk, they can move across the board quickly, shoot from their transport to clear enemy's chaff units, and then disembark to hold objectives (becoming ObSec as needed for 1CP thanks to the Freebootaz unique Klan stratagem). I will absolutely be taking Burna Boyz in a Trukk in future lists!

What's next for Da Ironbullz?

This weekend's jaunt as Freebootaz was great fun, but I am hoping to return to my no-nonsense melee/Nobz/Goffs focus like I've eluded to previously.

Moreover, by running such different lists in our May and October tournaments, I have spent nearly all of my hobbying time this year on building and converting models. I haven't painted anything since March! And the grey plastic mountain continues to grow larger...

A major goal of mine is to get at least 2,000 points of Da Ironbullz fully painted. Thus, my plan for the rest of this fall is to focus on wrapping up all of my ongoing conversion projects before launching into a winter dedicated completely to painting. I am currently planning on priming and basecoating everything in one giant batch, then going back through the army and finishing each unit one at a time... but we'll see how tractable that plan really is when push comes to shove.

In an upcoming post I'll detail the full plans of exactly what will be included in this mega-batch as well as preview some new conversions in the works. Keep your eyes peeled for that post coming soon!