It's Raining Marines! Battle Report: Orks vs. Blood Angels, Part 2

(Part one can be found HERE )

The marine reserves streak down onto the battlefield.  Two assault squads land on my left, with terminators in the distance, a firepower dread facing the battlewagon and a third assault squad behind the dreads. 

Firing kills a few grots and wrecks a lobba, but not much else gets through.

The grots find their comrades' messy demise amusing, and successfully make their Ld5 check.


Now the retaliation starts.

Sluggas blast through the ruins, saved from immobilization by their ram.  They pile out and plink at the marines with their namesakes before charging in. 

Bikers zip back over and unleash dakkagun shots at the other assault marines.

The bikers pull off some amazing shooting, with the twin-linking helping them pull off 16 hits out of 18 shots.  With wound rolls and saves, it nets three dead marines, but they hold firm.

The wagon charges into the center and the megas spill out, with targets all around. 

The large shoota mob also arrives from Reserve, and with the aid of the Waaagh! prepares to hit the third assault squad and tie up the dread.  Nob with big choppa will try to get a lucky pen on the drop pod, but fails.  Koptas shoot off the dreads cc weapon, dropping his attacks and making the boy tarpit even better.

Assaults hit home.  I got greedy with the megas, trying to get lucky with hits on the speeders as well as the pod and dreadnought.  I knew that it would leave me open to the terminators, but felt the risk was worth it for a chance to net 4KP at once and eliminate the speeders' firepower. 

Orks hurt the marines but the Angels of Death hang on, at least for now.

Firepower dread is destroyed but speeders dodge the powerklaws while the large mob occupies the other dread.

Speeder blasts the back of the battlewagon while terminators move into assault range.  The other speeder had been Shaken and went flat out across the board.  The wagon emerges in good shape thanks to the force field.

Orks finish off the marines during the marines' turn and prepare for more mayhem. 

Assault squad flees from the Orks, leaving the dread to face them alone (he doesn't mind).  Meanwhile, power fists and klaws trade titanic blows.  At the end, only the Librarian and one nob are left alive and the nob mega-routs away.  He takes a few pot shots at the libby later, but to no effect.

Sluggas pile back into their ride and smash through the ruins again, while bikers and koptas try to take out speeders.  Bikers kill theirs in assault later, but it will be another turn before rokkits can bring down the UM one.

The battlewagon tried to run over the assault marines, letting them regroup.  I should have just gotten close and let them run again, but I find it hard to resist tank shocks, especially as an Ork.

The assault marines and librarian try to stop the wagon, but to no avail.

Wagon positions to box in whirlwind while bikers close on it from the other side.  Scrum with dread continues, losing a couple of boys a turn but staying comfortably in the Fearless zone.

Annoyed at the bikers' saves, the Whirlwind tank shocks through them.  They initially fail their check but are saved by the bosspole.  Surviving assault marines move in for a risky but potentially game-winning assault.

But it's not to be.  The bikers take out the marines, and position for shooting and charging the back of the whirlwind.  Meanwhile the battlewagon guns the engine and bears down on the librarian, who loses his nerve and hoofs it towards the landing zones.  With few options left to do further damage, John concedes. 

Orks lost one trukk and ard boy squad, megas and warboss for 4KP lost out of 12. 

Marines lost libby, one dread, two speeders, terminators, three assault squads for 8KP lost out of 12.

Victory to the Orks!

Rough game for John.  Lots of stuff was potentially really threatening, but I was able to mitigate it or neutralize it, and some good dice helped.  The whirly could be bad for regular Orks, but I was able to stay in transports or in assault most of the time, leaving it to try its luck on koptas and bikers.   The termies were a unit that would tear up the megas, true, but would die in the exchange so they couldn't threaten the regular boy mobs or bikers.  The libby dread could be annoying, but locked down by the large mob he was pretty neutered.  Being able to get the assault off on the small assault squads was a big plus.  MSU is great for a lot of things, but surviving slugfests isn't one of them. 

I had a good time with the game and hanging out, and I think John did too despite the turn of events, and I think Charles had a decent time painting his Heavy Gear guys and making snide remarks about events in the game and 40K in general. 

I really enjoy the Ork bikers.  When I go down to 1500 it's usually a choice between cutting them or the Kommandos.  While I like both units and the Kommandos can do really well sometimes, I think the bikers' speed is a real asset and pairs well with the transports and koptas.  I may even experiment with dropping the 30-man squad and keeping the kommandos sometimes, although I do like having such a large scoring unit.  Something to experiment with in any case.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!