Battle Report: Orks vs. Pilgrims of Rust (IG)

At our local Games Day this weekend I got a game in using my Orks against Aaron's Pilgrims of Rust seccessionist/traitor/part chaos IG army.  We used 1250pt armies, Hammer and Anvil deployment and the Relic was our mission.  I took the opportunity of having a Blood Bowl table nearby and borrowed a football model to use as our objective.

I took:  

Mega armored warboss and three meganobs

Force Field Mek 

Deff Dread

3xKans

2xKoptas

6xwarbikers

30xshootaboys

10xshootaboys

10xgrots

3xlobbas

Aaron had:

Company command squad, master of ordnance

10xratlings

2x40-man blobs

autocannons

heavy bolters

mortars

2xleman russ tanks

My basic plan was to use the bikers and outflanking koptas to try to take out the tanks to avoid repeated large blasts on the infantry, while walkers tied up the enemy blobs and my infantry walked away with the prize.

Aaron set up with the tanks on the ends, blobs up front and weapon teams behind them.  Ratlings were slightly forward of the main line in the ruins by the big silver can.  I put meganobs and all the walkers on my left, bikes on the right, infantry in the middle.

View from the Pilgrim lines.  Troopers move up a bit, tanks take pot shots.

Bikers turbo up towards one tank.

Orks advance, lobba and mortar shots exchanged.  The football can be seen between the two craters here, in case you didn't spot it before.

Orks creep up on the Relic.  The screening squad of ten boys has been reduced to four and hides along the wall on the right.

On my right, the bikers charge into the exposed Leman Russ.  This was one of Aaron's mistakes here I think, leaving that out in front without using the blobs to screen it.  I had three surviving bikers make contact.  The two regular riders swung first, getting four hits.  Sixes to glance and maybe weaken it a bit before the nob gets to swing with the Power Klaw.

Well, guess we don't need that nob after all!  Three glances, wrecked tank!

Krump!

 

 

Walkers continue to advance.  Dread makes it past the wall.  Pilgrim infantry shifts away from the mechanical monstrosity.

 

 

Unfortunately, that takes the Dread out of cover, and the Russ blows it to flinders.  Infantry cheers up and down the Pilgrim lines.

Koptas come in from reserve but fail to kill the other Russ.  They do shake it, keeping it from using the main gun for a turn.  A turn too late for the Dread though!

Shots rip into the Ork bikers.  When it's all over, only the nob is left, who breaks and slowly drives back towards the Ork lines.

Orks make it to the football, but the Pilgrims don't move up to try to fight for it, trusting in firepower to thin the Ork ranks.  Kans move up  and are exposed to autocannon fire.

One blob shoots up koptas while the other moves up on the Ork right.  Kans advance on the tank while the Ork infantry starts pulling back with the football.  Mortars continue to thin out the Orks, and the lobbas have been punishing the Pilgrim blobs severely.

Shootas dump fire into the advancing humans, trimming them down.

Kans make it to the other Russ and tear it up.  The koptas have since been dispatched by concentrated human firepower.

Unfortunately charging the tank left their rear armor facing the autocannons, and the kans all get wrecked (two having been damaged previously).

A few more Orks die (one from overwatch when the sole survivor of the ten-boy squad tried charging the depleted human blob), but keep a solid hold of the prize.

Preparing to hike to the meganobs

Game end, victory Orks!  I had the Relic for 3pts, and First Blood from the tank the bikers killed.  Neither of us killed the others' warlord or managed to secure linebreaker, so 4-0 Ork win.

I think Aaron made a few key mistakes (at least from my perspective) that let me end up on top here.  First, leaving the tanks on the edges and in one case exposed let me get to them much easier.  Had they been more in the middle it would have been a lot harder for me to shut them down.  Second, holding back as much as he did with the infantry, letting me get the Relic largely uncontested.  Even if a blob wouldn't have fared well in the end vs. the Orks, it would tie them up long enough to keep me from getting away, and depleting the boys so that fire could finish them off.  Of course then the bikers and kans may have been redirected to the attacking blob, so the end result may have been the same, but a few extra turns of battlecannon fire could have turned the tide.  Who knows?

A fun game, always a pleasure playing Aaron, sure to be lots of carnage.  He may be joinin