[Droofus]

How big an army??
Boneguard

Warboss Grubbynutz Uruk Dakkasnap was not pleased. Big Mek Klickinklak realized this as he idly began picking his nose. The boss kept yammering on and on…

“I left youz to be takin’ and guardin’ da tinboy ‘liffs!” Grubbynutz screamed “You let dem get takin’ away from ya! BY DEFFSKULLS! I zoggin’ HATE Deffskulls!” Several of the nearby lootaz were moving surreptitiously away from the confrontation at that last declaration. They were black-blooded goffs, but it never hurt to be careful.

“Iz you done, boss?” Klickinklak asked, “Iz got some kanz to fix…” Grubbynutz eyes grew wide with fury and he fumbled for a minute before he was able to force words through the rage.

“NO! You’ze not goin’ back to yer workshop until ya krump somethin’ proppa! I need to see dat you’ze not gone soft on me.” He gestured to a group of slugga boyz standing around fighting.

“Take dese boyz into da field over dere and wait.” Klickinklak peered into the mist-shrouded field. He could vaguely glimpse the outline of some eldar ruins.

“But boss, dere’s no one over dere” whined Klickinklak. Grubbynutz chuckled.

“Dere will be, me mek. Dere will be.”

Eldar List
Farseer
doom, guide, fortune, singing spear, jetbike and other gear
Autarch
Fusion gun, warp jump generator, other gear
10 Dire Avengers
Exarch with bladestorm, twin dire catapults
Wave Serpent
T-L Shuricats, T-L Brightlance, other upgrades
10 Wraithguard
Spiritseer with conceal, singing spear
7 Pathfinders
Vyper
Starcannon, Shurikannon, (other upgrades?)
6 War Spiders
Exarch with powerblades, hit and rur
Wraithlord
Brightlance, two flamers, wraithsword
2 War Walkers
2 scatter lasers on each (other upgrades?)

Ork List
Warboss
Power klaw, attack squig, cybork body, bosspole
Big Mek
Kustom Force Field
10 Lootaz
10 Lootaz
8 Nobz
Power klaw, 3x big choppaz, waaagh banner, painboy, all are cyborks
Battlewagon
Red paint, armor plates, big shoota, reinforced ram
30 Sluggaz
Nob with power klaw and bosspole
30 Sluggaz
Nob with power klaw and bosspole
30 Sluggaz
Nob with power klaw and bosspole
Deffkopta
Buzzsaw, t-l rokkitz
3 kanz
Rokkitz

Deployment:

Dawn of War. I won the choice of edges and selected the one with multiple loota hills. He puts his objective as close to his side as possible, while I put mine front and center. I put down my standard “push the envelope” dawn of war formation that involves the big mek and 60 boyz. Hurray! He puts down… nothing.

Then he informs me that he is holding his entire army in reserve. I explain the dawn of war rules (that basically allow you to do this anyway and get them on the board in turn 1) but he insists that he’s going to hold everything in reserve. The pathfinders and war walkers are outflanking while the warpspiders and autarch are deepstriking. I inform him that the Baron is outflanking but everyone else will be entering play on turn 1.



Turn One:

Ork:
My stuff rolls on the board. My lootaz, a bit worried about outflanking scatterwalkers, deploy towards the center, with a battlewagon screening one of them, and the kanz screening the other. I forget to move my mobz that were already on the table. D’oh!



Eldar:
Some crickets chirp mirthfully in the bushes. The Eldar, however are nowhere to be seen.

Turn 2
The black baron doesn’t show himself.

Ork:
So he’ll be coming on with SOMETHING this turn. Just not sure what. I want to make him play for his objective so I send my forward mobz to claim it, while my rearward slugga mob heads to claim mine. I only have three scoring units, but by god they’re BIG scoring units. Right hand lootaz scoot into better positions while the battlewagon roars forward some more.

Forgot to take a snapshot of this in Vassal...

Eldar:
With some failtacular reserve rolling my opponent gets a grand total of his dire avengers, his farseer and his autarch-led warpspiders. The farseer fortunes himself and dooms the eastern slugga mob.

Both the seer and the avengers come on in the northeast corner of his deployment zone to try and protect his objective. The Autarch (ziggy stardust?) and his Spiders deepstrike near the kanz and the slugga boyz holding my objective. The dire avengers disembark from the serpent.

Shooting:
The Dire Avengers bladestorm the doomed slugga mob and, combined with shooting from the seer and the wave serpent, kill 14. Not too bad at all, given the fact the squad was nominally protected by a KFF. The warpspiders fire a torrent of their monofilament goodness into the slugga mob guarding my objective and kill 8 of them.



Close Combat:
The fortuned farseer charges in, alone, to the same mob, determined to tie them up for long enough for the dire avengers to get away. He spears an ork on the way in before dying horribly to a wave of slugga attacks Bit of bad luck for the Eldar player there. Still, my nob hadn’t gotten a chance to strike and you never know what he would have done… The sluggaz consolidate towards the dire avengers.



Turn 3

Orks:
The black baron fails to come in again.

Movement:
My eastern sluggaz converge on the dire avengers. The mek seperates from them and joins the other slugga mob, who are bearing down on the eldar objective. My sluggaz abandon my objective to go after the warpspiders, as do my kanz. My battlewagon takes position on the central hill, trying to position itself to react to wherever the eldar decide to strike next.

Shooting:
Kan rokkitz, slugga fire and loota fire account for 3 warpspiders. The squad easily passes its morale test. The sluggaz in the northeast corner shoot up the dire avengers they are about to assault and kill 1. The eastern lootaz wreck the wave serpent.



Close Combat:
The dire avengers kill 2 orks before being completely stomped into the dirt. Again, the nob doesn’t get a chance to strike. In the west, the kanz manage a charge on the autarch and company. The autarch attempts to plant a haywire grenade and fails. Two kanz concentrate on him and kill him, despite needing fives to hit. The final kan attacks the rest of the warp spiders and snips one in half. The Spiders, now consisting of an exarch and a single aspect warrior, pass their leadership but elect to hit and run away from the kanz.



Eldar:

Movement
This turn sees the remainder of his reserves except for the war walkers arrive. The wraithguard take aim for the slugga mob my mek has just joined, while the wraithlord guns for the smaller slugga mob that just got done eating the dire avengers. The Vyper jets on from the western corner of the eldar table edge, presumably to get into position to contest my objective, while the rangers come on from the eastern table edge behind the hill on my side. The warp spiders move back to engage my sluggaz. Not sure why he did this…

Shooting:
The warpspiders kill 3 orks and then prepare to charge in. The vyper gets a penetrating hit on the kan squadron but only manages to stun one (downgraded to shaken). The wraithguard fail epically against the slugga mob with their shooting, only downing two. The wraithlord does a bit better and cuts the depleted slugga mob down to 6 models



Close Combat
The warp spiders charge in and kill one slugga boy before being buried under an avalanche of choppa wounds (I think each had to make six saves). The sluggas consolidate back onto my objective. The wraithlord does better, mashing two orks as the nob tries vainly to hurt it. The orks, in an uncharacteristic display of courage, pass their leadership test and stay to fight. The wraithguard hit the third sluggas hard, killing 7 for the loss of only two. 5 more orks die from no retreat. I think some help is in order…



Turn 4:

Ork:

Movement:
The black baron arrives to great fanfare. He must have been following the pathfinders as they crept towards the battlefield, because he shows up on the same side and goes right for them.

The battle wagon roars off the hill and offloads the nobz and Grubbynutz right next to the ongoing wraithguard/slugga combat. The kanz plod towards the vyper and the other unengaged slugga squad (the western sluggaz) move to surround my objective. No eldar trickery to contest objectives! Not from a vyper, anyway.

Shooting:
Turns out I needn’t have worried, combined fire from my lootaz and kanz is more than enough to wreck the poor little skimmer. A single rokkit from the baron misses and the eastern lootaz are foiled by the pathfinders cover saves.



Close Combat:
The baron charges in, weathers the pathfinder’s feeble knifings and rips three of them apart with his buzzsaw. Take that! The wraithlord, down to only 3 orks and the nob, nevertheless can only kill two. The nob rises to the occasion this time and snips the wraithlord for two wounds. Tied combat! Woot!

Predictably, Grubbynutz and his ladz make an absolute mess of the poor wraithguard, who are only able to slay two slugga boyz before they are turned into wraithdust. The nobz and boss consolidate towards the wagon, while the mek and boyz consolidate towards the eldar objective.



Eldar:

Movement:
Finally, the two warwalkers arrive, outflanking from the eastern side (just like everything else. Rather than try and help the pathfinders, they decide to try and clear mek and sluggaz from my objective (which given that they have 16 shots between them, doesn’t seem too likely). Since they are within 6” of the baron, the pathfinders continue to flee.

Shooting:
The war walkers, predictably kill around 5 slugga boyz from my mek led squad. This is enough for a test, which I pass.



Close Combat:
The Wraithlord whiffs its attacks (failing one rerolled to-hit and rolling a 1 to wound). The nob makes it pay and takes its last wound. The nob and his last boy consolidate towards the warwalkers.



Turn 5:

Orks:

Movement:
The last two boyz from my eastern mob moves towards the war walkers and sets up for an assault. The middle sluggaz move to claim the eldar objective. The baron continues to harass the pathfinders (stays within 6” of them so they can’t rally). Everything else stays still (even the nobz, who presumably are trying on wraithguard-shaped hats).

Shooting:
Lootaz blast the hell out of the war walkers, but due to some intervening terrain, they’re only able to score a couple stunned and armament destroyed results. The baron misses the pathfinders (ha).

Close Combat:
The nob and his boy charge in. The war walkers do a wound, which I allocate to the nob. The nob then strikes back and blows up one of the war walkers. Both the nob and the boy are wounded and they both fail their saves. I think it’s how they would want to go. The remaining war walker lurches towards my slugga mob.



Eldar:

Pathfinders continue to run and the war walker heads towards my boyz. It can’t quite make the assault however.

We do get another turn. Not sure why he hadn’t conceded yet.

Turn 6:

Orks:
I shoot the pathfinders to hell with the baron and the lootaz. The middle slugga squad charges the war walker and kills it.



With nothing left on the eldar side, the game is over.

Post Battle Thoughts:

My opponent's list was probably suboptimal for what he was trying to do with reserves. Generally mek eldar can pull off holding everything in reserve. He didn't have such a force. Moreover, he was hamstrung by crappy reserve rolls in the 2nd turn. Instead of getting 2/3rds of his force as he should have statistically (thanks to the Autarch), he got 1/3rd.

I felt like I simply had to keep destroying what arrived piecemeal and the game was pretty much won.


Klickinklak picked his way over the mountains of eldar and ork dead to where Grubbynutz was stomping on a weakly moving wraithguard. The boss didn’t even acknowledge the mek’s presence.

“We krumped da pansies, boss. Now can I go back to da shop?” Klickinklak ventured. Grubbynutz looked up, a grin showing several rows of sharp yellow teef.

“I guess so. You hasn’t gone soft on me. I’m not forgettin’ the failure, but I guess ya can stick around. Build me more dreds so dat we can krump doze deffskulls!” Klickinklak nodded and ambled away as the boss began kicking the wraithguard again. The mek sighed. He had three more kanz and deff dread to fix. Then he’d get those deffskull boyz.

[crazyguy832]

Heh, cool battle report. Way to show those Eldar who's boss.

;D

I've had similar results when opponents have used reserves against me. As long as you're even semi-mobile, it's fairly easy to pick the enemy off as they come in.

[scoutfox]

Good report, now just put [campaign battle] in the subject and report it on the campaign thread.

That eldar player didn't seem like a very good general, he pretty much did everything he could to loose that one. I can't believe how many stupid mistakes he made. You did a good job though, and surrounding the objective to stop a late game turboboost was a great idea that I will have to loot in the future.

[Droofus]

Originally Posted by crazyguy832

I've had similar results when opponents have used reserves against me. As long as you're even semi-mobile, it's fairly easy to pick the enemy off as they come in.

Right on. I think that if he had been fully mechanized it might have been tougher for me. A full mech force has the resilience to survive my initial assault (mostly, my Lootaz will down a serpent or so a turn) but a slow infantry army? Probably not the best idea....

Originally Posted by scoutfox

That eldar player didn't seem like a very good general, he pretty much did everything he could to loose that one. I can't believe how many stupid mistakes he made. .

No, he isn't a shining example of eldar generalship. I believe his original army was 'nids, so he may well be better commanding them. It's actually a bit surreal for me to beat eldar this easily. One of the guys who started playing warhammer around the same time as me commands Eldar VERY well, so I'm used to close and bloody battles against the pointy-eared menace. This was anything but that.

Thanks for the comments!