This match was a meet up at our friendly local game shop. We used the Endless War mission “The Scouring”, and a basic Dawn of War deployment. We placed the six primary objectives with three on my side and three on his side in essentially mirrored positions and only one objective was placed without any line of sight blocking terrain or cover around it.
Lists
I brought my Orks using the Ork Hoarde formation, while my opponent brought Ultra Marines using the Demi-Company and with a Librarius Conclave.
Orks
Ork Horde Detachment (1503pts)
Warboss w/ Power Klaw, Gift: Warboss Gazbag’s Blitzbike (Warlord)
Painboy Biker
Zhadsnark ‘Da Rippa’ (FW)
Nobz Bikers – Boss Nob w/ Bosspole, Power Klaw, 4 x Nobz w/ Big Choppa
Tankbustas Squad – 10x Tankbustas, Trukk w/ Big Shoota
3x Boyz Squads – Boss Nob w/ Bosspole, Power Klaw, Shoota, 20x Boyz w/ Shoota
3x Deffkoptas w/ Twin-linked Rokkit Launcha
3 x Warbuggies w/ Twin-linked Rockit Launcha
Ultramarines
Battle Demi Company (1180pts):
Chaplain w/jump pack (Warlord)
3 Tactical Squads all w/ Flamers, Rhino, Veteran Sergeant
1 Devastator Squad w/ Missile Launchers (x4)
1 Assault Squad w/ veteran Sergeant
1 Dreadnought w/ multi melta, heavy flamer, power fistLibrarius Conclave (320pts):
Chief Librarian Tigurius – Biomancy
Librarian mastery lvl 2 – Telepathy
Librarian mastery lvl 1 – Divination
Deployment
I rolled to deploy first and spread my three units of boys across the center of my deployment zone with the bikers and Trukk with Tankbustas on the left side of the board and the Deffkopters and rocket buggies on the right. Theoretically, this would make sure I could bring rockets to bear on those Rhinos from either side on turn one, and the boyz could do what they do best and charge up the middle with little to slow them down. Meanwhile the bikers would roar up and shred anything in their path.
He deployed his three Rhinos in the board center opposite my boyz with two of the marine units broken into combat squads with five inside and five outside the transports. His warlord and jump troops positioned opposite my Trukk. He spaced everything to take full advantage of the psychic powers of the Conclave as well and had line of sight on most of my models.
Turn One
Once we were done deploying he rolled to steal the initiative and failed and the hoard started forward. I moved the buggies up to hold an objective while the Deffkopters got their sights on the right hand Rhino and fired, only managing to hit one pen which got crew shaken. On the left my Trukk shot forward and unloaded the Tankbustasas, where they took a shot at the closest Rhino and got a glance and a crew stunned. The three units of boyz moved up, with the center one claiming an objective, but were too far back to shoot anything.
I also moved up my bikers and then turbo boosted towards his warlord. I planned on hitting him hard next round, but things were about to turn very bad for me.
The Marines in the Rhinos disembarked to join their comrades and formed a decent gun line across the center of the board.
Then the psychic phase began and spelled doom for the Orks. He cast Invisibility and Endurance on the jump troop squad with his warlord. Making them damn near impossible to hit and giving them a bunch of bonuses to prevent death even when I did manage a hit. Then to put salt in the wound he cast enfeeble on my bikers.
He opened fire and even with a boosted jink save two bikers went down, followed by 10 boyz, cutting the group on the right in half. He followed that by assaulting my bikers with his jump troops. Twenty-one twin-linked shots resulted in two of the Marines going down, but the assault and a sweeping advance wiped my bikers from the board giving him First Blood and Kill the Warlord.
Orks 0
Ultramarines 2
Turn Two
I was just a little devastated by that round, but I attempted to rally. I moved the buggies up to join the Deffkopters and managed to take out the Rhino and three of the Marines near it. One unit of Boyz moved over to hold the objective the buggies had just left while the rest unloaded massive amounts of Dakka on another squad of Marines and nearly managed to wipe it.
Unfortunately, the Ultramarines were able to duplicate the powers of the previous round and wiped the Trukk and Tankbustas off the board along with another 10 boyz, sending that unit retreating from the objective.
Orks 0
Ultramarines 2
Turn Three
The ten man squad of boyz managed to rally, and retook the objective. Meanwhile the buggies moved up to attempt some shots against the center Rhino, no hits though. The Deffkopters were equally useless when they fired upon the nearest Marines. The far right squad of Orks attempted to shoot at the Jump troops, but Invisibility continued to make my attempts to stop the juggernaut useless. Lots of Dakka but nothing to show for it, It looked very bleak for the Orks.
Another round of that psychic combo and a Smite for good measure saw the Orks on the objective wiped from the board while Marine shooting took out the Warbuggies. The other squad was sent falling back with only two boyz left.
I called the game at that point as he was holding four of the six objectives and I was just about out of units.
Final score if we counted the objectives we held at that point was
Orks 2
Ultramarines 11
Takeaway
This was something of a perfect storm of my mistakes and his lucky draw of powers that led to a very one-sided fight.
He used his psykers very effectively, and managed to pull a devastating combo between Invisibility, Endurance, and Enfeeble. Though I think that particular combo was a game changer, I also made the major tactical mistake of putting way to many points into my Biker squad.
I had hoped to use it as a massive hammer, and I think it would have been extremely effective under different circumstances. With the buffs he had, my bikers was effectively neutered and then knocked off the board before they could do much. You should never be relying on a single unit for your army’s success. It was a major rookie mistake on my part.
I look forward to a rematch at some point with a reworked Ork list, and hopefully with a different set of powers on his side. I think I could give a better showing at the very least. I’ll leave you with a few cool shots.
