My Ork list was:
- Deathdeala with extra powerfield, Warlord, and reroll
- 2 Terror Ships
- 2 Kill Kroozers
- 5 Ravagers
- 5 Brutes
- 5 Brutes
- Battle Barge with Leader
- 2 Strike Cruisers
- 4 Hunters
- 4 Hunters
- 4 Novas
- 4 Gladius
We played a fleet engagement, with my orks coming in from both short ends of the table and Jon in the middle. I was faced with the classic dilemma of "do I divide my forces?". If I do, I can catch the marines in a pincher movement, but on the other hand it risks the prospect of him concentrating all his forces against part of mine...
I decide to split my Ork forces, with Deathdeala, Terror Ships and Brutes on the the left flank in photo below, and Kill Kroozers, Brutes and Ravagers on the right flank.
I win the roll for first turn, and decide to rush the Marines and unload everything I can. 11 assault boats manage to wreck all the armaments on a strike cruiser AND the Battle Barge. In addition torpedoes and guns do a point of damage to both of the Strike Cruisers. Seems like a good start!
It gets even better as the Kill Kroozers unleash their volley of torpedoes on the other flank...
Boom! A squadron of Marine Escorts is eliminated.
Now it's the Marines turn and they swing all their remaining ships towards Deathdeala and my Terror Ships.
Feeling rather brave given the damaged systems on the Marine capital ships (and hoping to ram next turn) I don't bother to brace for impact with Deathdeala. This turns out to be a bad idea as Deathdeala takes 10 points of damage - only 2 left!
Undaunted, Deathdeala puts all power to thrusters and rams the BattleBarge! But it's just a glancing impact and both ships survive taking only a single point of damage each. My Terror Ships do better, reloading ordnance and firing like mad they take down another 4 Escorts and damage some systems on the intact Striker Cruiser with more Assault Boats.
My other ships are racing to get to the action, but they are still a turn or two away... I notice that the entire Marine fleet is managing to concentrate on 3 of my ships (that are also my carriers). "Never divide your forces in the face of the enemy" said many commanders I should have listened to...
Next turn the Marine Capital Ships steer clear of the combat, concentrating on repairing all their damaged systems. The Marine Escorts swing in behind my Terror Ships shooting up the weak rear armour and crippling one of them despite a successful brace for impact order.
Next turn the Marine Capital Ships steer clear of the combat, concentrating on repairing all their damaged systems. The Marine Escorts swing in behind my Terror Ships shooting up the weak rear armour and crippling one of them despite a successful brace for impact order.
My turn and things are a little heart stopping... as my poor positioning has Deathdeala (on 1 hit point!) and my Kill Kroozas heading straight for Asteroid fields. The Orks ignore orders to slow down and plow straight through the asteroids. Miraculously they avoid taking damage.
My Brute Ram ships close on the Battle Barge firing ineffectively, while my Terror Ships try to get away from the Marine Escorts - or at least lure them towards the Kill Kroozers.
Another turn, the Marine Escorts finish off my damaged Terror Ship and damage the other one too. I retaliate with the Kill Kroozers and destroy a couple of the Marine Escorts in return. I continue to fire ineffectively at the Battle Barge with my other ships.
I wreck more Marine Escorts... but the Battlebarge finally finishes off Deathdeala and then starts picking off my Escorts.
The Marine Escorts close in and finish off the remaining Terror Ship...
Which explodes also destroying the three Escorts! One last "victory" for the orks...
Because the rest of my ships keep failing their leadership tests, and are dying without hope of even taking down the Marine shields by now. The Marine Capital ships have almost completely repaired all the systems that my Orks had conscientiously wrecked, and are now picking off Ork Escorts at leisure. My two Kill Kroozers beat a hasty retreat, not having the speed or firepower to take on the three Marine Capital ships. Victory to the Marines and well done to Jon!
In space no one can hear you WARGGHHH!
ReplyDeleteVery true Nick!
ReplyDeleteExcellent battle report!! Why not disengage the Deathdeala when you are that low in hits!?!? Also, Jon, how do you like those models for marine ships? I think they look great for the,. The cruisers seem to be pretty much perfect strike cruiser size. I also think that dreadnought is a pretty nice stand-in for a Battle Barge. After the Deathdeala rammed the Battle Barge, if may have been a good idea to burn retros and board it that next turn. Put those marines to good use! I bet it would be been an almost guaranteed death for the Deathdeala.
ReplyDeleteYes you're right I should have disengaged with Deathdeala I suppose!
DeleteAh well, disengaging and one-off battles. In a campaign it is always better to disengage but in incidental games I would often point that at such a point I would disengage (because of a vps victory) but then battle on just for the fun of it. Depends a bit on the battle.
DeleteA good hard fought game, and a close finish. Mark, you had killed 695 points worth of escorts. I don't have the most up-to-date version of the Ork fleet list, but I had killed Deathdeala (with shield upgrade and Warlord I'm assuming ~400 points?) and 2 Terror Ships (still 185 each?) so ~770 points worth.
ReplyDeleteQuestion on disengaging - the VP section says if a crippled ship disengages you get 25% of it's points as VPs, I assume this is in addition to the 25% of it's points you get for crippling it?
Congrats, and yeah it is interesting on the VP's. It was only 340 for Deathdeala as I didn't buy any rerolls.
DeleteAnd actually I think it is only 25% if it disengages crippled, 10% if it disengages otherwise, and 100% if it's destroyed. On top of that, hulks (enemies and your own) are worth 50% points if you hold the field at the end of the battle. Thus it often pays to disengage ships and Escorts before they are wiped out, which would also speed games up. So yeah I probably should have at least tried to disengage Deathdeala, the Terror Ships, and you maybe some of those escorts that were down to 1 or 2 ships (or just fly them out of range even better).
Crippled = 25% vps
DeleteDisengaged (uncrippled) = 10% vps
Crippled + disengaged = 25% vps.
So no additional 10%.