WAAARRRGGHHH!!!!!

I’ve said my primary focus is based around the Ultramarines, and that is perfectly true; I reckon I’ve probably got twice as many points of Ultramarines than I have Orks. My Ork army was in one sense a bit of a lucky shot; the bulk of it was from a single eBay auction that was a bucket of Boyz, Nobz, Warbosses and Deffkoptas, with some more supplemental bits and pieces added on since then to give a bit of flavour/survivability. I think the standard for this force is realistically something along the lines of 1,500 points as I have it now, and at the moment it is far from optimised; it’s based around the simple, traditional Orky taktik of charging hell-for-leather towards the enemy and hoping to survive the process! I had a small Ork force the first time around, led by old Thraka himself. (Everyone did. For years that was the only Ork Warboss figure that was readily available, it seemed…)

After some experimentation, the core of my army is three big mobs of Slugga Boyz, each naturally led by a Nob, with between twenty and thirty in each mob. I’ve experimented with Big Shootas, and had rather leaned towards taking them out…but then when I did, I found that I really missed them, so I think I’m going to take the maximum allotment in future, just for the sound of the dakka. An Ork Warband wouldn’t be a Warband without some Grots, so I have a squad of twenty-five Gretchin with a trio of Runtherdz – nice figures, I really like them, and they’ve done some fun things in combat. Not particularly useful things, but definitely fun, even if I can just use them as a screen for my Boyz. Might get a few more at some point.

For heavier support, I have a pair of Looted Wagons. Now – I know that they aren’t optimal, but I love the models, and…hell, its Orks, they don’t have to make sense, do they? One of them is a modified Leman Russ, the other a modified open-topped Rhino. Both of them look great on the battlefield. The latter is the transport for a squad I have yet to deploy; a ten-strong Nobz mob that includes a Painboy. Wouldn’t be a warband without a Painboy, Runtherd and Mekboy…so naturally I have a Mekboy as well. A nice one equipped with a Burna – the idea is basically to shove him in with the Nobz…who of course will ultimately be led by the Warboss, old Warboss ‘Aig himself (with the ‘march into fire across the battlefield strategy, who else could I use). Hopefully this will tear the enemy into nice pieces.

For mobility, I have eschewed the traditional stand-by of the Orks, the Warbike, and instead have three units – two squadrons of Deffkoptas which I have found excellent in battle, even if my accuracy with the Rokkits is legendarily poor, and another unit of Warbuggies to race alongside the Looted Rhino. (Not used these in battle yet – they were a Christmas present, and my battles since then have been with the Ultramarines.) Heavy support is provided by a Deff Dread – big shoota and burna, walking behind one of the Mobz, and a Killa Kan – I rather have the idea that that might hang around with a Grot Mob if I find myself holding an objective, though as yet I haven’t used it as such.

Thus far…this army doesn’t have a great win/loss record. In fact, it’s only victory was against Grey Knights! The highlight there was a Strike Squad being scared off the battlefield by a mob of Orks that didn’t even have to charge them – their pre-attack volley of popgun shots did the job! Almost managed a tabling in that battle, though to be fair there weren’t many Orks left on the table at the end of the battle either. The thing is this – my instinct is that the Ork Codex for 6^th, which looks as if it is coming sometime this year, will bring back what makes the Orks truly great, the close-combat effectiveness. It really feels odd that the best way to take them is as a ‘shooty’ army. Not when they ought to be charging the enemy! WAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

Ponderings and Musings...

Naturally, I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about the tournament and my army's performance over the last few days. My original plan was quite simple; to get my army forward into optimum firing range, and then blast the hell out of it, while using my close combat forces to deal with anything particularly heavy. The plan only really worked once - against the Tyranids. It might have worked against the Tau, but with my Rhinos wiped out on the wrong side of the battlefield, there's no way to really know!

I actually think that there is nothing wrong with this as a basic strategy. It must be faced that Space Marines are not close combat monsters. They will survive in close combat, definitely – the battle with the Tyranids is proof enough of that – but their best weapon is their humble bolter, and their best defence is their power armour. Taking out a squad of Space Marines is not an easy task, especially if they have the advantage of some line-of-sight cover.

I reckon that the key thing I am missing is sufficient heavy support. I only had four heavy weapons across the entire force, and that rather hurt. I probably should have taken that Predator after all...I suspect it would have had rather more of an impact than the Scouts ended up doing, though that was as much my placement as anything else. I still think that there is a key role for a Scout Squad in a force, but I don't think I'll be using the Land Speeder Storm as the delivery system. Too fragile, at least as things stand.

Definitely I need some more heavy support; it also has to be faced that the Command Squad did not have the impact on the battle that I had hoped. So even in a 1k force, I have points to play with. I need the third Rhino to get my characters into battle...(the Techmarine, as usual, justified his points and then some, but he does need transport) and having some marines to accompany them as human shields/fire support is not a bad thing...so I think a Devastator Squad might be the idea.

Yes, they are expensive, I know that much. But for 255 points, I get another ten-man squad with a Rhino and four Missile Launchers. I can put the Sergeant and four bolter marines with the Techmarine and the HQ, and leave the other unit standing at the back providing heavy support. A single bolter marine can provide, well, something for the enemy to hit first, realistically. I can also use the Techmarine to improve their cover as well, as a nice bonus.

On the subject of HQ...I really want to take the Captain, but this new configuration just doesn't have the points, so I think I'm going to switch down to the Librarian. At close range his powers should have a lot more bite to them, and the Techmarine is perfectly capable of providing a nice hard close-combat beast – the Librarian isn't exactly shabby on this score, either. The 1k list now looks like this:

• Librarian (Force Sword)
• Techmarine (Servo-Harness)
• Tactical Squad (Flamer, Missile Launcher, Rhino)
• Tactical Squad (Flamer, Multi-Melta, Rhino)
• Devastator Squad (Missile Launcher x 4, Rhino)
• Predator (Autocannon, Lascannon, Lascannon)

That leaves me with forty points for additional wargear; probably a Servitor for the Techmarine, Melta Bombs for the three Sergeants, and maybe a Plasma Pistol for the D-Squad Sergeant, to give him a little extra close range punch. Those last points I am still pondering, though. As for pumping this up to a 1.5k list, that will be for a future post; it's going to be a few weeks before I have another 1.5k battle.

Tournament Report

Well…that went probably about as well as could be expected! To cut to the chase, I ended up placing third…the same as last time! The winner was Greg, with his nigh-on unstoppable Tau force, with Pete coming second with the Dark Eldar and after my Ultramarines, Mark with the Tyranids. I can honestly say that all of the battles were very close this time – and in an unplanned yet truly proper fashion, the final two battles were two contesting first place and two contesting third.

Think we have enough cover?

My first battle was against the Tau; I actually was fairly confident here going in, thinking I had a decent chance. I had won the roll and elected to deploy and move first; my plan was to race ahead and grab the two objectives on Greg’s end of the table with my Tactical Squads, picking off his Warlord and troop units and using my Command Squad to go after his heavier stuff. This plan collapsed when Greg stole the initiative…and all of a sudden my Rhinos looked extremely vulnerable. With three resounding pops, not only did Greg have first blood, but more importantly, my forces were stuck on the wrong side of the battlefield. 

Get 'em!

From that point I was really playing catch-up; the Tau had their range advantage, and I struggled to get to grips with the enemy. Where one squad did get into action it did very well – one of my Tactical Squads on consecutive turns routed a unit of Stealth Suits, routed the Warlord and wiped out a squad of flanking Kroot, but none of my other units did anything significant. My Storm deep-striked into enemy territory and got blown away in a round of shooting. Didn’t even get a shot. Game ended on Turn 4 – which prevented me from actually being tabled. (To make sure we got the three games in, we were playing games of 4-6 turns length instead of 5-7.)

The Thin Orange Line

The second battle was against the Dark Eldar, and this was a lot closer. My forces got across the table and managed to deploy, though one of the Rhinos – containing my Melta Tactical Squad – was blown up during the first turn. As I expected, Pete’s Jetbikes proved decisive, and I was never really able to do much damage to them. By about Turn 2, we’d swapped sides of the battlefield, which was highly amusing, and confusing! I evolved the plan of grabbing the objective on the far side of the battlefield, and preventing Pete from taking the other objective my using all my mobile forces to deny it. That would have given me a 3-2 win…but it wasn’t to be. By Turn 5 both my Tactical Squads were on the verge of death, one Sergeant fighting a heroic last stand while a couple of bolter marines were standing off against the jet bikes…but those jet bikes really denied me a win. I needed to break them, get them off the table…and I failed to do so. I managed to avoid tabling again – we ended on Turn 6. (Technically Pete still had his Turn 6 to go, but we collectively decided that there was no chance of a tabling, and we wanted to proceed to the next game.

Mobile Tin-Openers of Doom

Then came my win! Albeit a slightly controversial one. I was playing against the Tyranids on this one, and Mark decided to simply go for the Kill Points. He whacked my Rhinos first, getting three easy points, but I was taking out his forces about as quickly. His Genestealers were wiped out by a single Tactical Squad, no problem, and I managed to take out his Trygons and Zoanthrope in quick succession. Mistake one – I erroneously thought that Krak grenades were AP 3, where of course they are AP 4. That did make a difference, obviously…but we did agree that realistically, I’d probably done enough overspill that they would likely have died anyway. Mistake two was Mark’s. He’d made his Hive Tyrant flying, and opted to fly him off the table back into reserves. The idea was that I wouldn’t be able to kill him; by his calculations, that gave him the game 5-4 in VPs when it ended on Turn 4. I then pointed out that any figures off the board counted as destroyed for the purposes of the mission…and thereforce a fifth unit was dead – so 5-5 – and the Warlord was dead…so 6-5, giving me the game. Fifteen minutes of flicking through the rulebook later, and this interpretation was deemed quite correct…so I got the win, 6-5. Interestingly – Mark had very, very close games in the first two battles, though the third was a steamroller for me. All he killed were three Rhinos and a Servitor – not a single Marine died. (Another reason why the ‘Super Krak’ anomaly wasn’t that bad. He wasn’t getting my units anyway; I had a whole Tactical Squad doing very little in Turns 3 and 4 I could easily have employed in support.) Ironic that the game he came closest to winning was the game he did worst in!

Little bit of overkill...

I think that the first battle went sour when the initiative was stolen. Had I managed to get closer in, my Rhinos would still have died, but my Marines would all have been well in range, maybe even in rapid fire range…which would have made all the difference. The second battle I really needed to get those jetbikes! The third…well, I don’t think I’d do anything differently, but I suspect Mark will next time!

Ratings on my army to follow tomorrow, then I’m going to do some reviews of old White Dwarves, I think…

Army Lists

Dark Eldar Army

1 x Archon (Shadow field, blaster, venom blade)

7 x Wyches Hekatrix w/Venom Blade and Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Raider)

2 x 10 Warriors (Splinter Cannon, Blaster, Raider)

9 x Reaver Jetbikes (3 Blasters, Arena Champion w/Arena Blade)

1 x Ravager w/ Retro Jets

Tau Army

Shasel

6 x Stealth Suits

3 x Battle Crisis Suits (Flamer, Missile Pods)

12 x Fire Warriors

2 x Broadside including leader (3 shield drones)

10 x Kroot

Tyranid Army

1 x Hive Tyrant

1 x Zoanthrope

4 x Tyranid Warrior Brood

10 x Genestealer Brood

2 x Trygons

Ultramarines Army

1 x Captain

1 x Command Squad (Flamer, Flamer, Flamer, Apothecary, Champion, Rhino)

1 x Techmarine (Servo-Harness, Servitor)

2 x Tactical Squad w/Rhino (1 x Heavy Bolter/Flamer, 1 x Multi-Melta/Melta)

1 x Scout Squad (Combat Knife, Bolt Pistol, Land Speeder Storm)

1 x Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

Ready for the fray!

So, below is the list I finally decided to go with for the tournament. The observant will notice that there are not many heavy weapons on this list; just two Multi-Meltas and two Heavy Bolters; I'm facing three armies that will probably have quite a bit of infantry, so I don't really consider this a major problem. If I do get any nasty surprises...well, that's what the two Multi-Meltas and the Meltagun are for! Fingers crossed.

The basic plan is fairly simple; the three Rhinos will start on the table, fully loaded, and close the range on the enemy as rapidly as possible; the idea being to get the units on board within 12 inches of the enemy battle line, and then open up with everything they've got. The enlarged Command Squad will close on the enemy with all speed, going for a nice tough unit – their job is to deal with anything I can't shoot to death. The Land Speeder Scouts and the Attack Bikes will be held in reserve, in order to fill any gaps in the line and secure objectives in the mid-to-late game.

Obviously, I don't intend anyone to be in the Rhinos by Turn 2...I can either use them as mobile scenery, try and do a bit of tank rushing...it's three more Storm Bolters and some Smoke Grenades at the very least, which provides a little more protection where required.

At this point...I reckon I have the best chance against the 'Nids with this list; they'll struggle to even get into my Rhinos. The Dark Eldar and Tau are likely to be the tougher nuts to crack...but I think this list is competitive given the armies I am set to face.

To battle!

Army List

• Captain (Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Artificer Armour)
• Command Squad (Champion, Apothecary, Flamer, Flamer, Flamer, Rhino)
• Techmarine (Servo-Harness, Servitor)
• Tactical Squad (Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Rhino)
• Tactical Squad (Multi-Melta, Meltagun, Rhino)
• Scout Squad (Combat Knives, Bolt Pistols)
• Land Speeder Storm (Heavy Bolter)
• Attack Bike (Multi-Melta) 

Retrospective: Space Crusade

Well, this is where it all began. The first GW game I played (I suppose it was Milton Bradley, but come on, the rules were GW, the figures were Citadel, the background was Warhammer) was Hero Quest, but the second was Space Crusade. Both of them made a huge impact; I blame the first for my interest in role-playing games, but the second is the one that probably also made me a wargamer. Certainly I reckon that Warhammer 40k sings closest to my heart at the moment. I played the hell out of this when I was a kid; I got the chance to play it again last year when Greg unearthed it from under a pile of games, and you know what...it's as much fun now as it was then!

OK, the basics of the game. Two to four players, one of which is playing the 'Aliens', the remainder get to command a squad of Space Marines. The three Chapters on offer are Ultramarines, Blood Angels and Imperial Fists; as I recall I always played the Ultramarines, which is probably subconsciously why I ended up choosing that army when I returned to 40k last year. Well, that, and that there are metric tons of them on eBay, and my painting skills are, frankly, poor. Interesting here that the Dark Angels and Space Wolves are not represented, and probably telling of the time; the Imperial Fists were being heavily pushed in the books being written around then, and the Ultramarines and Blood Angels seemed to be the other Chapters heavily featured – the Crimson Fists already descending from their Rogue Trader prominence. (Now that's another post, and potentially another army at some point – the 'Forgotten Chapters' of Rogue Trader that faded from view...I have the vague notion of a 'Crusade' army comprising Flesh Eaters, Flesh Tearers, Blood Drinkers and Rainbow Warriors – at least the Silver Skulls and the Crimson Fists still get some love.)

The goal is simple – purge the aliens from a drifting Space Hulk, the aliens consisting of a healthy mix of Gretchin, Orks, Chaos Marines, Genestealers, 'Androids' (Necrons in all but name, years before that army first hit the table) and a mighty Dreadnought. A five-man unit of Space Marines from one to three of the Chapters is sent in to complete twelve missions, strung together into a loose campaign, complete with promotions and bonus equipment for winning, either for the Alien or the Marine player. The Marines get a wide range of equipment, ranging from standard Bolters to Missile Launchers, Autocannon and Plasma Guns – essentially a rather oddly-equipped Tactical Squad, by modern standards. Certainly wish a Tactical Squad could take an Autocannon today! There was a choice of weapons for the Sergeant, as well – Bolt Pistol and Axe, still a pretty decent load-out, Heavy Bolter, or Combi-Weapon. Well, two out of three legal ain't bad.

Like Space Hulk, you didn't see the Aliens until they got into line-of-sight; before this, they were represented by blips moved across the board. The board itself was pretty good – lots of rooms and corridors, with a three-dimensional element as well representing bulkheads to traverse through. What appeals the most to me today – especially given what I am planning to do – is that there is a rather nice potted background in the books; the rule book essentially has a comic built into it outlining a mission that goes completely wrong (which I am using as my background starting point, about which more next week).

There were two expansions for this, as well as a couple of articles in White Dwarf. The first expansion, Mission: Dreadnought, added an additional, larger Chaos Dreadnought to fight, as well as adding some additional weaponry for the Marines to deploy – a Lascannon, a 'Fusion Gun' (actually a Multi-Melta) and a Conversion Beamer. Again, very Rogue Trader! There were also three 'Tarantula' support weapons and gunners for them; twin-Lascannon mounts, which in the 2^nd Edition games I played were always a core part of my force! Rather regret that they have been taken out of the Codex...I rather miss them. Not that I could get any for love or money... This book had three scenarios in it, which basically just bolt on to the twelve from the core box.

The second was Eldar Attack, which provided a squad of ten Eldar – Dire Avengers, though with an awful lot of weapon options beside the normal Shuriken Catapult – and a few scenarios to run them through. Only one of them included the Space Marines, intended as the culmination of the campaign; this one always seemed rather more disjointed to me. I had both of them, naturally!

The two White Dwarf articles – from 134 and 145...one was useful, one less so. The first I found less so, in that it simply added rules for Scouts and Terminators to the mix. What you would do with them was not explored, no scenarios or anything were added. I presume this was for some back-compatibility with Advanced Space Crusade, perhaps. 145 was much better, and still reads well now, consisting of a five-part campaign involving tracking down a rogue Adeptus Mechanicus researcher that had been exposed to Genestealer gene-seeds. Again, this is primarily back-compatibility, this time I suspect with Space Hulk, but it works because you get something to do with these rules and figures.

Fundamentally – this remains a good introduction for the setting. On eBay they seem to go for small fortunes as a rule, but if you see one in a Charity Shop for less than £15, buy it! If it isn't complete figures-wise, those aren't hard to find these days. Well, you might have trouble getting an Autocannon or a Conversion Beamer...

Well, that didn't work!

Well, yesterday's battle was in one way a complete disaster, but in another way extremely useful. My friend Pete arrived with an army of Dark Eldar – the first time he'd played the army, so naively I thought that might give me a little advantage – but I was totally annihilated not once, but twice. Tabled twice. First battle was 6-1, the second 5-2 – though those scores aren't really true, as both games ended on Turn 5 with the destruction of all of my forces, so likely Pete would have had time to secure the remainder of the objectives.

My army for the day consisted of the following, at 1,000 points:

Captain (Power Sword, Artificer Armour, Plasma Pistol)

Librarian (Force Sword, Power Armour)

Techmarine (Power Axe, Servitor)

Tactical Squad (Multi-Melta, Melta)

Tactical Squad (Missile Launcher, Flamer)

Scout Squad (Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks, Missile Launcher)

Scout Squad (Combat Knives, Bolt Pistols)

Dreadnought (Plasma Cannon, Close Combat Weapon)

Where is everybody? 

The first battle was 'Big Guns Never Tire'. Pete deployed first, with his three Raiders and a Ravager starting in the upper left corner of the table; he also had nine jetbikes held in reserve. I placed my units to cover the objectives on my side of the board. My plan was to, essentially, hold and shoot! Most of my forces were in range, and I knew that even bolters would have a chance of doing some damage against the AV10 forces...not that this happened. First turn was fought under 'night fighting' conditions. His first turn shooting was not that great, neither was mine; I lost a couple of marines and the Techmarine, giving him First Blood, he lost one of his Raiders. The second turn was the breaking point; I got slaughted! One tactical squad wiped out, leaving the Captain standing alone by himself...and the jetbikes came on and started to Bladestorm everything that moved!

The rest of the battle essentially followed the same pattern; I had deployed my forces too far apart, attempting to cover too many flanks, and he was able to use the superior manoeuvrability of his forces to knock me out piecemeal. The Multi-Melta Tactical Squad was the last to fall; it was the best performer of the battle, but by Turn 5, it was all over.

The second battle had the same forces, but this time we were playing 'The Scouring'. This time I deployed on a much narrower front, but critically we were playing the long way across the table, which turned out to be something of a problem, as almost none of my units were in range! I ended up running forces across the table, as Pete elected to allow me to come to him, while plonking me with his 36” weapons, and once again – I got taken out piecemeal, though at least this time the Techmarine got into hand-to-hand combat and demonstrated some of his usefulness.

C'mon lads, let's go get them! 

To rate my forces, then:

• Captain – Never even got into combat, unleashed a couple of ineffective shots with his pistol.
• Librarian – In the first battle 'Endurance' proved a very useful adjunct to the Multi-Melta Squad, in the second he did almost nothing, as his powers were too short-ranged to be effective.
• Techmarine – First battle died on the first turn, second battle was one of the last units to fall, and managed to get into combat...effective. I like Techmarines, they are a surprisingly low-cost close combat monster...
• Tactical Squads – The Multi-Melta was one of the few things Pete was afraid of, and it really influenced his deployment. The Missile Launcher, less so. As for the rest – they died gloriously, which is about what you can expect.
• Scout Snipers – Not really their battle. By the time anything emerged they could shoot, they were dead.
• Combat Scouts – Rather better. In the first and second battles they had opportunities for hand-to-hand combat, and actually took down a Raider in the second battle.
• Dreadnought – Ker-plonk. Did nothing. Plasma Cannon proved extremely disappointing.

The main thing I am missing is mobility. Even in a small battle-environment, the stand-back-and-let-them-come-to-me proved totally ineffective. Going full circle, I have decided to go with the following list for the tournament:

Rhino One

Captain (Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Artificer Armour)

Command Squad (Champion, Apothecary, Flamer, Flamer, Flamer)

Techmarine (Servo-Harness, Servitor)

Rhino Two

Tactical Squad (Flamer, Heavy Bolter)

Rhino Three

Tactical Squad (Meltagun, Multi-Melta)

Land Speeder Storm
Scout Squad (Combat Knives, Bolt Pistols, Melta Bombs)

Attack Bike (Multi-Melta)

Last stand at Skull Rock

I've now gone completely full-circle; everything is now to be carried on transports, to provide both maneuverability and protection. Obviously Rhino One and the Storm are the major close-combat elements here; the idea is that they engage anything particularly tough (with the option of detaching the Techmarine if necessary) while Rhinos Two and Three provide close-quarters fire support - though they should also be pretty good in a fight. The Attack Bike follows on as a tank-plonker...hopefully. Originally this list had a Predator instead of the Storm/Scouts combination, but I changed my mind at the last minute, if I'm going to make this charge hit home, then I need the strongest selection of models I can deploy. I'll decide whether to put the Storm and the Bike in reserve when I see the battlefield, but my inclination is to get everything into the fray as quickly as possible.

I'll be fighting three battles with this list on Sunday - against Dark Eldar (Pete) again, Tau (Greg) and Tyranids (Mark). It will be interesting to see how the re-match with Pete goes; at this point I am probably most confident about the Tyranids and least confident about the Tau.

For reference...the first time we did one of these tournaments I placed third out of four, playing my Ork horde - one win and two losses. (The win was against Grey Knights; the best moment was when a reduced mob of Boyz sent a Grey Knight Strike Squad running off the table, simply by shooting at them! They weren't even Shootas, just a mob of Sluggas making their 'might as well make some bangs before charging' rolls!) I'd like to beat this if possible, of course...but that would mean three out of three wins, most likely! Let's see what happens.

Tomorrow - I'm going to take a look at where it all began, with a look at the first 40k-verse game I ever played: Space Crusade!