Welcome to my first battle report from the recent Double Trouble tournament that I attended at the start of June.
Double Trouble was the first doubles tournament of its kind being run by Alex at From the Fang. I was a big fan of Alex's Blog Wars tournaments, they were a lot of fun with a great atmosphere and some really tough games to play. Double Trouble was a doubles tournament where each player would be paired with a different, random partner in each game, so no combined list building with a partner as you don't know who you will be playing with. This means you will meet 9 great players and should provide some fun and tactical games. In addition, the missions were different from Blog Wars in that you scored both maelstrom points (from a modified maelstrom deck that rewarded risk and working with your partner) and blood points (essentially kill points, but based on victory points totals for units rather than number of units).
I was looking forward to the event, both for the chance to meet up with some of the fantastic bloggers and players that I have gotten to know online and at Alex's events and for the chance to play in a fun and very different doubles event that I was used to.
It was great meeting up with everyone I chat to online and those I have met before at Alex's events. A big shout out to Alex for running the great event and to Luke (Darksun Life), Rob (30Kplus40K), Dave (40k addict) and Nathaniel (objective secured) who I got to chat with over the weekend- a great bunch of guys and a lot of fun to spend a day of 40k with.
It was great meeting up with everyone I chat to online and those I have met before at Alex's events. A big shout out to Alex for running the great event and to Luke (Darksun Life), Rob (30Kplus40K), Dave (40k addict) and Nathaniel (objective secured) who I got to chat with over the weekend- a great bunch of guys and a lot of fun to spend a day of 40k with.
Based on community feedback, I decided to take my Orks to the event. I would never normally dream of taking my Orks to a tournament, but I think Double Trouble would be the most forgiving for my greenskins. Given that about half the armies going were Marines, I was confident in outnumbering most opponents, maybe even having the largest army in the tournament (there was actually a Tyranids player with 74 models, just beating my Orks at 72!).
I started the first game of the day on table 4, with the mission using Dawn of War deployment. My partner for the first game was Tess and his Eldar. I actually played Tess in my second game at Blog Wars X, so it was nice to be on the same side with a great guy and great player. Our opponents for the first game were Dan and his Daemons and Ian with his Raven Guard Space Marines.
My army consisted of (green on the maps):
Warboss- Eavy Armour, Power Claw, Shoota, Bosspole, Stikkbombs (with B1)
Painboy- Urty Syringe, Dok's Tools (with B1)
25 Ork Boyz- Sluggas, Choppas, inc. Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole (B1)
11 Ork Boyz- Sluggas, Choppas, inc. Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole (B2)
Trukk- Big Shoota (T)
Runtherd and 15 Gretchin (G1)
Runtherd and 11 Gretchin (G2)
3 Warbikers (WB)
Warbuggy- TL Rokkit (W)
Warbuggy- TL Rokkit (W)
Looted Wagon- Killcannon, Ard Case, Big Shoota (LW)
My warlord trait gave me Strategic Genius (+1 to Seize and re-rolls on reserves).
Tess' army consisted of (red on the maps):
Karandas (with G)
5 Howling Banshees- inc. Exarch (HB)
10 Storm Guardians- combat weapons, splinter pistols, unit includes a Warlock (G)
3 Windriders- Scatter Lasers (WR1)
3 Windriders- Scatter Lasers (WR2)
Hornet- two pulse lasers (H1)
Hornet- two pulse lasers (H2)
His warlord trait was fixed with Karandas (I can't remember what it was) and his warlock got Conceal/Reveal and Enhance/Drain as his psychic powers.
Dan's army consisted of (Blue on the maps):
Great Unclean One- Mastery level 3, Daemonic Portal, Hell Gaze (UO)
Nurgle Daemon Prince- Mastery level 2, Daemonic Flight, Warp-forged armour, Bale Sword, 4+ FNP reward (DP)
10 Plaguebearers- Icon (P)
3 Nurgling Bases (N)
His Great Unclean One got Cursed Earth, Sacrifice, Possession, Stream of Corruption and Summoning. His Daemon Prince got Iron Arm, Endurance, Smite and Stream of Corruption. His warlord trait gave the Great Unclean One a 5+ FNP roll (great, even harder to kill!).
Ian's army consisted of (Black on the maps):
Captain Shrike (CS)
10 Scouts- Camo cloaks, bolt pistols, combat weapons, Veteran sergeant with combi-flamer, power fist and meltabombs (S1)
10 Scouts- Camo cloaks, bolt pistols, combat weapons, Veteran sergeant with combi-flamer, power fist and meltabombs (S2)
5 Scout Bikers- 3 Grenade launchers, Veteran Sergenat with Power fist (SB)
Whirlwind (W)
Shrike's warlord trait gave him Fear.
I think that my and Tess' army should mesh well together. He has a good mix of mobility, firepower and combat potential with his units and I have the numbers to back up his units. We didn't really have a battle plan going in, we were going to try and achieve as many of our maelstrom cards as possible as we seemed to have the quicker force. The Daemon Prince would be tough to deal with (especially with the psychic powers he got), so we would try and avoid it while dealing with any summoned daemon units around the board.
Dan and Ian's armies looked interesting. Daemons are always tricky, being able to summon additional units would be very useful in this mission and his two larger daemons were tough. I have not played Raven Guard yet, but there special rules would make them very durable in the first turn. I was confident my Orks would be able to deal with the Scouts in combat, but the Whirlwind could be problematic for my large Ork mob. With the rules for the Raven Guard and nurgle Daemons, we would be dealing with a lot of 2+ cover saves, so it may be down to combat to deal with the enemy armies.
We placed the objectives as shown below:
Tess and I won the roll for table side and for deployment. We chose the side with most of the objectives close to us. I deployed the two units of Grots on either flank, one in the ruins and one behind the forest to hold the objectives. The large mob of Orks (with Warboss and Painboy) went to the right, with the other unit of Orks in the centre. One warbuggy went on each flank and the Looted Wagon and Ork Bikers went near the centre. The Howling Banshees took the trukk from the Orks to advance quickly and one Hornet went on the left flank. The Windriders units deployed behind the ruins in the centre and on the right flank. The second Hornet and Guardians went into reserve to Outflank.
In reply, Dan deployed his Plaguebearers and Great Unclean One on his right flank behind the ruins and the Daemon Prince in the centre. The Whirlwind went behind the ruins in the centre and the Nurglings grabbed objective 3 on the left flank. Next up, the three Scout units infiltrated on the left flank opposite the large Ork mob. The Scout Bikers set up a defensive line that the two Scout units deployed behind (to grant them a 2+ cover save on the first turn thanks to their camo cloaks and Raven Guard special rules). Shrike deployed in front of the Nurglings. The Hornet scouted forward slightly, but the Scouts chose not to move. For some reason, Ian did not want to give me a first turn charge.
As you may have already read online, the lighting in the venue was not great, so some of the photos may not be brilliant, but should still give you a feel for the battle.
The maelstrom cards for the missions are shown below:
As you can see, there are bonus points for working with your partner if you can both achieve the objective. The "Take the Point" cards give you bonus points if you control the required objective and your partner also holds an objective. The "Secure Objective" cards give you the option to try and hold the objective for 2 consecutive turns to gain bonus points.
The game would use Night Fighting on the first turn. Our opponents failed to seize the initiative and we got the first turn.
TURN 1- ORKS/ELDAR
Each team would only draw up to 3 cards for the team each turn (not 3 per players). In our first turn, we drew Secure Objective 6, Witchhunter (kill a psyker) and In Enemy Territory (have a unit in the enemy deployment zone). Realistically, we could not achieve any of these. Objective 6 was in the enemy deployment zone and it was not possible to get two of our units into the enemy deployment zone. It would also be very difficult to take out either the Daemon Prince or Great Unclean One in the first turn.
The two mobs of Orks advanced, running to get closer to the enemy forces arrayed before them, the Looted Wagon and Ork bikers moving to support them. The Trukk carrying the Banshees moved beside the ruins in the centre (the smelly, ramshackle vehicle insulting the delicate sensibilities of their passengers).
The Ork Wagon fired its Killcannon at the Scouts in front of it, hitting the squad but failing to get past their 2+ cover save. The nearby Warbikers fired their dakkaguns at Shrike and actually managed to wound the Raven Guard Captain.
One warbuggy opened fire at the Scout bikers and killed one of the squad. A unit of Windriders fired on the Scout bikers. None of the Raven Guard were wounded but the unit was forced to jink.
The other warbuggy fired at the Whirlwind, but failed to hit the enemy vehicle. The Hornet fired at the Whirlwind, penetrating it once and stunning it (my Orks were thankful for that). The jetbikes used their assault moves to move into cover.
At the end of our turn we scored no points and discarded Witchhunter.
TURN 1- DAEMONS/RAVEN GUARD
In their first turn, Dan and Ian drew In Enemy Territory (have a unit in our deployment zone), Bring it Down (destroy an enemy vehicle) and Hold Your Own (have units in your own deployment zone and no enemy units). Not great for us as they could feasibly achieve all three with ease.
The Scout Bikers moved towards the gretchin in the ruins in front of them, turbo-boosting to get into the enemy deployment zone. The other two scout units moved away from the large Ork mob advancing on them. In the centre, the Daemon Prince leapt from his perch, moving towards the Ork trukk (and wounding himself in the process thanks to the dangerous terrain test). The Great Unclean One deployed the daemonic portal behind the ruins beside objective 6.
In the psychic phase, the Great Unclean One cast Sacrifice on the Plaguebearers, killing one and bringing a Herald onto the battlefield. The Daemon Prince then cast Iron Arm on itself, making it incredibly tough, but periling in the process and losing another wound. It was now two wounds down and we hadn't even targeted it yet.
The two Scout units turned their pistols on the Ork mob in front of them, killing three of the squad with their combined firepower.
The Daemon Prince charged the trukk, easily ripping the transport apart, causing it to explode and killing two of the banshees. Tess passed his morale test, but failed his pinning test after a terrible roll!
At the end of their turn, Dan and Ian scored all their maelstrom cards for 4 points.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Eldar- 0
Daemons/Raven Guard- 4
TURN 2- ORKS/ELDAR
This turn, we drew Wiped Out (destroy 3 enemy units) to go with Objective 6 and In Enemy Territory.
The Guardians and Karandas arrived, outflanking on the left to target the Plaguebearers. The second Hornet did not arrive (even with the reserves re-roll).
The Orks on the right flank advanced on the Scout units, while the Windriders moved to target the Scout Bikers. The Warbuggies moved to engage the Whirlwind, while the Looted Wagon moved towards the centre of the battlefield. The warbikers moved and turbo-boosted to get into the enemy deployment zone.
In the psychic phase, the Warlock attempted to cast Enhance on the Guardians, but the power was blocked by the Chaos Daemons. He was then able to cast Shrouding on the unit.
In the shooting phase, the Gretchin opened fire on the Scout Bikers and managed to kill 2 of the unit! Seeing the great example of their grot allies, the Windriders wiped out the remaining Scout bikers.
The warbuggy opened fire on the Whirlwind, but failed to hit it. The Hornet fired at the Whirlwind, but failed to cause any damage with its hits. The second unit of Windriders fired their scatter laser at the Daemon Prince, but failed to harm the mighty Daemon.
The Guardians fired their two flamer weapons at the Plaguebearers, killing 6 of the squad. Their pistols killed another one of the unit. The Looted Wagon opened fire on the Daemons, the Killcannon killing another two and leaving only one remaining in the squad.
This was annoying. We had failed to kill the Whirlwind and were a single wound away from killing off the Plaguebearers that would have given us a good shot of scoring Wiped Out.
The Orks charged a unit of Scouts. I thought about charging both units to try and score Wipe Out, but the odds of killing 20 scouts with a disordered charge was slim. The Scouts struck at the Orks, killing 3 of the squad. In return, the Orks butchered 7 of the Raven Guard scouts. The Scout sergeant struck, but could not kill any Scouts. In reply, the Warboss finished off the unit and the mob consolidated forward.
At the end of our turn we scored In Enemy Territory for 2 points and discarded Wipe Out. The odds of us killing 3 units in a subsequent turn were slim.
TURN 2- DAEMONS/RAVEN GUARD
This turn, Dan and Ian drew Take Point 4, Take Point 5 and Take Point 2.
The remaining Scout unit advanced on the grots in the ruins, hoping to take them out and claim the objective. The Great Unclean One turn towards the Guardians, while the lone Plaguebearer and Herald moved into the cover of the ruins. The Daemon Prince moved into the ruins to take on the Orks. Captain Shrike moved up to grab objective 2.
In the psychic phase, the Great Unclean One attempted to engulf the Guardians in a Stream of Corruption, but the Eldar Warlock was able to block it. He then failed to cast Smite on the unit. The Daemon Prince once again cast Iron Arm on himself, periling and taking another wound (three wounds down already and we haven't even touched him).
The warp storm brought by the Daemons howled with fury, killing two of the Banshees. The Exarch felt he had had enough and failed his morale check, failing back and taking no further part in the battle.
In the shooting phase, Shrike threw a krak grenade at the nearby warbuggy, glancing it once but the intervening cover saved the Ork vehicle. The Whirlwind fired at the Guardians, but fortunately for us, the shot scattered off target causing no harm.
The Great Unclean One assaulted the Guardians, bellowing a challenge as his repugnant mass ambled forward. The Warlock stepped up to face the Daemon. He swung his Witchblade at the greater daemon, hitting once, but failing to wound (despite only needing a 2+). The Great Unclean One struck down the Warlock as his invulnerable save failed him. The Eldar lost combat, but their nerve held firm.
The Scouts assaulted the Grots, the puny gretchin slaying one Raven Guard with their overwatch fire. The Scouts wiped the unit out easily with their massed attacks and consolidated onto the objective.
The Daemon Prince charged the Ork mob in the centre ruins, hoping to claim objective 4. He bellowed a challenge, but the Nob decided to see how his boys would fare in combat, no point in fighting all their battles for them (it was most un-Orky to refuse a challenge but I needed to keep the Nob alive with his bosspole if the unit had a chance of holding and denying them all the objectives this turn). The Daemon Prince slew 5 of the Orks in fury, but the mob held firm- failing their morale check but holding thanks to mob rule.
At the end of their turn, Dan and Ian scored 2 points each for Point 2 and Point 5. Our opponents now had 8 victory points to our 2, we would need some good cards in our next turn in order to close the gap.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Eldar- 2
Daemons/Raven Guard- 8
TURN 3- ORKS/ELDAR
This turn, we drew Take Point 1 and Take Point 4 to go with Objective 6 from last turn.
The Windriders on the left flank moved up to secure objective 4. Even if the Orks died in combat, they would still claim it from the Daemon Prince. The Hornet arrived, moving on the right flank as the Ork mob advanced on the Nurglings. The warbikers moved up on the Whirlwind, while the warbuggies and Looted Wagon moved to the Scouts.
The Hornet on the left flank fired at the Whirlwind, finally destroying the Raven Guard vehicle.
The Warbikers, denied their target, turned their attention towards the Nurglings but were unable to get past their 2+ cover saves.
The Looted Wagon fired at the Scouts, who went to ground. The shot hit 5 of the scouts, but I then rolled four 1's to wound. The one shot that did wound managed to kill one scout, despite their impressive cover save. The Windriders and Hornet fired at the Scouts, but were unable to kill any of the Raven Guard.
The large Ork mob charged the Nurglings, easily butchering the squad for the loss of one Ork.
The Great Unclean One killed Karandas in a challenge. This was enough for the Guardians who broke and fled from combat. The greater daemon consolidated into the ruins.
In the centre, some poor rolling saw the Daemon Prince only slay one Ork in combat. I failed by morale check, but passed the mob rule test at the loss of two more boyz.
The Windriders on the right used their assault move to contest objective 5.
At the end of our turn, we scored two points each for Point 1 and Point 4 and discarded Objective 6.
TURN 3- DAEMONS/RAVEN GUARD
This turn, Dan and Ian drew Secure Objective 4 and Take Point 3 to go with Take Point 4 from last turn.
Captain Shrike moved towards the centre of the battlefield to try and take on the Windriders and get Objective 4 from the enemy forces. The Great Unclean One moved off after the fleeing Eldar, while a unit of Horrors ripped their way into reality from the daemonic portal.
In the psychic phase, a Stream of Corruption from the greater daemon killed two of the Guardians. Sacrifice slew one of the newly arrived horrors to bring a Tzeentch Herald to the fight. The Unclean one attempted to cast Cursed Earth, but this was blocked, while the Daemon Prince cast Iron Arm once more.
In the shooting phase, the Scouts snap fired at the Windriders, but failed to hit any of the Eldar warriors.
The Great Unclean One charged the fleeing Eldar, cutting down three of squad and wiping them out as they attempted to flee from combat once more.
Next came the crucial assault. If Shriek made an 8" charge and killed the Windriders and the Daemon Prince finished off the Orks (quite likely), they would score objective 4 for 4 points and put them well in the lead.
Shrike issued the charge. The overwatch fire of the jetbikes was unable to harm the Raven Guard Captain and he crashed into the squad. He cut down two of the jetbikes. The survivor failed his morale check and was cut down. Things were not looking good for us.
The Greater Daemon struck at the Orks, but again, poor rolling saw only one Ork fall. The mob failed their morale test. I rolled on the mob table, getting Breaking Heads with my bosspole re-roll. The Nob slew the remainder of his squad to regain control and was left the only survivor to contest the objective and deny them their points! This was a result that neither side was expecting and had helped to keep us in the game. My cry of delight brought quite a few quizzing looks from other players and a few laughs.
At the end of their turn, Dan and Ian scored no points and discarded objective 3.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Eldar- 6
Daemons/Raven Guard- 8
TURN 4- ORKS/ELDAR
This turn, we drew Take Point 5, Take Point 6 and Hold Your Own (have units in our deployment zone and no enemy units). The Scouts would need to be dealt with to score Hold Your Own. Drawing objective 6 was annoying, we controlled every objective on the table but objective 6, why couldn't we draw one of them?!?
The Warbikers moved towards the centre to targeted the Raven Guard Captain, while the rest of the army turned their attention to the enemy units.
In the shooting phase, the warbikers fired at Shrike, wounding the Captain once. The Hornet targeted the Captain and managed to slay him. My second cry of joy in 5 minutes brought a few players to our table to see what all the fuss was about.
The Windriders fired at the Scouts, who went to ground. Despite the 2+ cover save, the scatter lasers managed to slay 3 of the scouts and the Hornet killed another one. The Looted Wagon fired at the scouts, the killcannon slaying one more scout and leaving one survivor who passed his morale test.
In the assault phase, the Daemon Prince finally killed the Nob (he had nowhere left to hide) and consolidated up to the objective.
The Windriders charged the lone scout, slaying him and wiping out the last of the Raven Guard. They then consolidated back to objective 5.
At the end of our turn we scored Hold Your Own and Take Point 5 for 4 points. This gave us 10 points to Dan and Ian's 8. Depending on the card they got, we could draw the game.
TURN 4- DAEMONS/RAVEN GUARD
Time was running out, so this would be the final turn of the game. Ian and Dan already had two lots of objective 4 that would give them 2 points this turn and bring the maelstrom total to 10 each. Their final card would decide if they won or drew. The last card they drew turned out to be Take Point 6, meaning they would win on maelstrom points. Objective 6! That single objective had been a bane to us the entire game!
With time running out on the game, there was little that Dan could do to either kill more of our units or score more points, so we ended the game there.
The final maelstrom score was:
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Eldar- 10
Daemons/Raven Guard- 11
We also totalled up the Blood Points (BP) for the mission. Blood points were scored equal to the points value of each unit destroyed or half points for each unit taken to half strength or less or character/vehicle taken to half wounds/hull points.
After working out the casualties, the scores were:
Orks- 186 BP
Eldar- 509 BP
Daemons- 245 BP
Raven Guard- 750 BP
The totals for each team were:
Orks/Eldar- scored 995 blood points
Daemons/Raven Guard- scored 695 blood points
So we lost on Maelstrom points, but won on Blood Points. A drawn game.
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to Tess, Dan and Ian for a fantastic game. It was a tough tactical challenge and full of interesting and funny moments.
Had you asked me before the game, I would have predicted that we would win on maelstrom points and lose on blood points, but oddly enough the opposite happened.
There were some key moments for me during the game. The ultimate moment was the survival of the Nob on turn 3 to deny the Daemon Prince and Shrike from claiming objective 4 and keeping us in the game. As I said above, this was an outcome that I don't think either side saw coming and made for a thrilling turn of events.
The Howling Banshees failing their pinning test was also crucial. Had they been able to assault the Daemon Prince, they might have had a shot of killing it or at least holding it up for a turn and stopping it from taking out the Orks. Ian joked that they failed the test for being forced to slum it in the Ork trukk for the game.
The second Hornet failing its re-rollable reserve roll was also a blow. Had it arrived to support the Guardians, we may have been able to wipe out the Plaguebearers, allowing us to score Wiped Out and Objective 6 in turn 2, giving us a good round of points.
I would also say that we were quite unlucky with the maelstrom cards for our first two turns. Our first turn draw was pretty much impossible to achieve and our second turn draw did not help matters too much. At the end of turn 2, we were 6 points behind and I thought that this stage we would struggle to get back in the game. Our luck with the cards did improve as the game went on and it ended a lot closer than we deserved.
Dan and Ian played a great game and had some great luck and terrible luck too.
Ian was smart to split the Scouts on turn 2, forcing me to either go after one unit or multi-charge both. In hindsight, it might have been better to charge both Scout units. I doubt I would have wiped them out, but would have kept both units locked in combat, maybe even killed them in the following turn and stop the scout unit from killing the Grots and scoring more maelstrom points.
All the 2+ cover saves were pretty brutal to go up against. Ian had poorer luck with his saves and actually lost a lot of scouts to shooting, whereas Dan's Daemons took a lot of firepower and shrugged it off.
I also found it quite amusing that the Daemon Prince lost 3 wounds and gave up half blood points despite neither Tess or myself actually damaging it!
Thanks again to the guys for a great game. The Orks were certainly playing well so far and I was getting to roll tons of dice in combat, something I have not done for a long time!
Double Trouble 2016
Army List and Thoughts
Game 1- Orks/Eldar vs Daemons/Raven Guard
Game 2- Orks/Dark Angels vs Howling Griffons/Raven Guard
Game 3- Orks/Daemons vs Iron Hands/Dark Eldar
Tournament Army Review
My warlord trait gave me Strategic Genius (+1 to Seize and re-rolls on reserves).
Tess' army consisted of (red on the maps):
Karandas (with G)
5 Howling Banshees- inc. Exarch (HB)
10 Storm Guardians- combat weapons, splinter pistols, unit includes a Warlock (G)
3 Windriders- Scatter Lasers (WR1)
3 Windriders- Scatter Lasers (WR2)
Hornet- two pulse lasers (H1)
Hornet- two pulse lasers (H2)
His warlord trait was fixed with Karandas (I can't remember what it was) and his warlock got Conceal/Reveal and Enhance/Drain as his psychic powers.
Dan's army consisted of (Blue on the maps):
Great Unclean One- Mastery level 3, Daemonic Portal, Hell Gaze (UO)
Nurgle Daemon Prince- Mastery level 2, Daemonic Flight, Warp-forged armour, Bale Sword, 4+ FNP reward (DP)
10 Plaguebearers- Icon (P)
3 Nurgling Bases (N)
His Great Unclean One got Cursed Earth, Sacrifice, Possession, Stream of Corruption and Summoning. His Daemon Prince got Iron Arm, Endurance, Smite and Stream of Corruption. His warlord trait gave the Great Unclean One a 5+ FNP roll (great, even harder to kill!).
Ian's army consisted of (Black on the maps):
Captain Shrike (CS)
10 Scouts- Camo cloaks, bolt pistols, combat weapons, Veteran sergeant with combi-flamer, power fist and meltabombs (S1)
10 Scouts- Camo cloaks, bolt pistols, combat weapons, Veteran sergeant with combi-flamer, power fist and meltabombs (S2)
5 Scout Bikers- 3 Grenade launchers, Veteran Sergenat with Power fist (SB)
Whirlwind (W)
Shrike's warlord trait gave him Fear.
I think that my and Tess' army should mesh well together. He has a good mix of mobility, firepower and combat potential with his units and I have the numbers to back up his units. We didn't really have a battle plan going in, we were going to try and achieve as many of our maelstrom cards as possible as we seemed to have the quicker force. The Daemon Prince would be tough to deal with (especially with the psychic powers he got), so we would try and avoid it while dealing with any summoned daemon units around the board.
Dan and Ian's armies looked interesting. Daemons are always tricky, being able to summon additional units would be very useful in this mission and his two larger daemons were tough. I have not played Raven Guard yet, but there special rules would make them very durable in the first turn. I was confident my Orks would be able to deal with the Scouts in combat, but the Whirlwind could be problematic for my large Ork mob. With the rules for the Raven Guard and nurgle Daemons, we would be dealing with a lot of 2+ cover saves, so it may be down to combat to deal with the enemy armies.
We placed the objectives as shown below:
 |
| The shields represent the objectives, the numbers are the values for the maelstrom cards. |
Tess and I won the roll for table side and for deployment. We chose the side with most of the objectives close to us. I deployed the two units of Grots on either flank, one in the ruins and one behind the forest to hold the objectives. The large mob of Orks (with Warboss and Painboy) went to the right, with the other unit of Orks in the centre. One warbuggy went on each flank and the Looted Wagon and Ork Bikers went near the centre. The Howling Banshees took the trukk from the Orks to advance quickly and one Hornet went on the left flank. The Windriders units deployed behind the ruins in the centre and on the right flank. The second Hornet and Guardians went into reserve to Outflank.
In reply, Dan deployed his Plaguebearers and Great Unclean One on his right flank behind the ruins and the Daemon Prince in the centre. The Whirlwind went behind the ruins in the centre and the Nurglings grabbed objective 3 on the left flank. Next up, the three Scout units infiltrated on the left flank opposite the large Ork mob. The Scout Bikers set up a defensive line that the two Scout units deployed behind (to grant them a 2+ cover save on the first turn thanks to their camo cloaks and Raven Guard special rules). Shrike deployed in front of the Nurglings. The Hornet scouted forward slightly, but the Scouts chose not to move. For some reason, Ian did not want to give me a first turn charge.
As you may have already read online, the lighting in the venue was not great, so some of the photos may not be brilliant, but should still give you a feel for the battle.
The maelstrom cards for the missions are shown below:
As you can see, there are bonus points for working with your partner if you can both achieve the objective. The "Take the Point" cards give you bonus points if you control the required objective and your partner also holds an objective. The "Secure Objective" cards give you the option to try and hold the objective for 2 consecutive turns to gain bonus points.
The game would use Night Fighting on the first turn. Our opponents failed to seize the initiative and we got the first turn.
TURN 1- ORKS/ELDAR
Each team would only draw up to 3 cards for the team each turn (not 3 per players). In our first turn, we drew Secure Objective 6, Witchhunter (kill a psyker) and In Enemy Territory (have a unit in the enemy deployment zone). Realistically, we could not achieve any of these. Objective 6 was in the enemy deployment zone and it was not possible to get two of our units into the enemy deployment zone. It would also be very difficult to take out either the Daemon Prince or Great Unclean One in the first turn.
The two mobs of Orks advanced, running to get closer to the enemy forces arrayed before them, the Looted Wagon and Ork bikers moving to support them. The Trukk carrying the Banshees moved beside the ruins in the centre (the smelly, ramshackle vehicle insulting the delicate sensibilities of their passengers).
The Ork Wagon fired its Killcannon at the Scouts in front of it, hitting the squad but failing to get past their 2+ cover save. The nearby Warbikers fired their dakkaguns at Shrike and actually managed to wound the Raven Guard Captain.
One warbuggy opened fire at the Scout bikers and killed one of the squad. A unit of Windriders fired on the Scout bikers. None of the Raven Guard were wounded but the unit was forced to jink.
The other warbuggy fired at the Whirlwind, but failed to hit the enemy vehicle. The Hornet fired at the Whirlwind, penetrating it once and stunning it (my Orks were thankful for that). The jetbikes used their assault moves to move into cover.
At the end of our turn we scored no points and discarded Witchhunter.
TURN 1- DAEMONS/RAVEN GUARD
In their first turn, Dan and Ian drew In Enemy Territory (have a unit in our deployment zone), Bring it Down (destroy an enemy vehicle) and Hold Your Own (have units in your own deployment zone and no enemy units). Not great for us as they could feasibly achieve all three with ease.
The Scout Bikers moved towards the gretchin in the ruins in front of them, turbo-boosting to get into the enemy deployment zone. The other two scout units moved away from the large Ork mob advancing on them. In the centre, the Daemon Prince leapt from his perch, moving towards the Ork trukk (and wounding himself in the process thanks to the dangerous terrain test). The Great Unclean One deployed the daemonic portal behind the ruins beside objective 6.
In the psychic phase, the Great Unclean One cast Sacrifice on the Plaguebearers, killing one and bringing a Herald onto the battlefield. The Daemon Prince then cast Iron Arm on itself, making it incredibly tough, but periling in the process and losing another wound. It was now two wounds down and we hadn't even targeted it yet.
The two Scout units turned their pistols on the Ork mob in front of them, killing three of the squad with their combined firepower.
The Daemon Prince charged the trukk, easily ripping the transport apart, causing it to explode and killing two of the banshees. Tess passed his morale test, but failed his pinning test after a terrible roll!
At the end of their turn, Dan and Ian scored all their maelstrom cards for 4 points.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Eldar- 0
Daemons/Raven Guard- 4
TURN 2- ORKS/ELDAR
This turn, we drew Wiped Out (destroy 3 enemy units) to go with Objective 6 and In Enemy Territory.
The Guardians and Karandas arrived, outflanking on the left to target the Plaguebearers. The second Hornet did not arrive (even with the reserves re-roll).
The Orks on the right flank advanced on the Scout units, while the Windriders moved to target the Scout Bikers. The Warbuggies moved to engage the Whirlwind, while the Looted Wagon moved towards the centre of the battlefield. The warbikers moved and turbo-boosted to get into the enemy deployment zone.
In the psychic phase, the Warlock attempted to cast Enhance on the Guardians, but the power was blocked by the Chaos Daemons. He was then able to cast Shrouding on the unit.
In the shooting phase, the Gretchin opened fire on the Scout Bikers and managed to kill 2 of the unit! Seeing the great example of their grot allies, the Windriders wiped out the remaining Scout bikers.
The warbuggy opened fire on the Whirlwind, but failed to hit it. The Hornet fired at the Whirlwind, but failed to cause any damage with its hits. The second unit of Windriders fired their scatter laser at the Daemon Prince, but failed to harm the mighty Daemon.
The Guardians fired their two flamer weapons at the Plaguebearers, killing 6 of the squad. Their pistols killed another one of the unit. The Looted Wagon opened fire on the Daemons, the Killcannon killing another two and leaving only one remaining in the squad.
This was annoying. We had failed to kill the Whirlwind and were a single wound away from killing off the Plaguebearers that would have given us a good shot of scoring Wiped Out.
The Orks charged a unit of Scouts. I thought about charging both units to try and score Wipe Out, but the odds of killing 20 scouts with a disordered charge was slim. The Scouts struck at the Orks, killing 3 of the squad. In return, the Orks butchered 7 of the Raven Guard scouts. The Scout sergeant struck, but could not kill any Scouts. In reply, the Warboss finished off the unit and the mob consolidated forward.
At the end of our turn we scored In Enemy Territory for 2 points and discarded Wipe Out. The odds of us killing 3 units in a subsequent turn were slim.
TURN 2- DAEMONS/RAVEN GUARD
This turn, Dan and Ian drew Take Point 4, Take Point 5 and Take Point 2.
The remaining Scout unit advanced on the grots in the ruins, hoping to take them out and claim the objective. The Great Unclean One turn towards the Guardians, while the lone Plaguebearer and Herald moved into the cover of the ruins. The Daemon Prince moved into the ruins to take on the Orks. Captain Shrike moved up to grab objective 2.
In the psychic phase, the Great Unclean One attempted to engulf the Guardians in a Stream of Corruption, but the Eldar Warlock was able to block it. He then failed to cast Smite on the unit. The Daemon Prince once again cast Iron Arm on himself, periling and taking another wound (three wounds down already and we haven't even touched him).
The warp storm brought by the Daemons howled with fury, killing two of the Banshees. The Exarch felt he had had enough and failed his morale check, failing back and taking no further part in the battle.
In the shooting phase, Shrike threw a krak grenade at the nearby warbuggy, glancing it once but the intervening cover saved the Ork vehicle. The Whirlwind fired at the Guardians, but fortunately for us, the shot scattered off target causing no harm.
The Great Unclean One assaulted the Guardians, bellowing a challenge as his repugnant mass ambled forward. The Warlock stepped up to face the Daemon. He swung his Witchblade at the greater daemon, hitting once, but failing to wound (despite only needing a 2+). The Great Unclean One struck down the Warlock as his invulnerable save failed him. The Eldar lost combat, but their nerve held firm.
The Scouts assaulted the Grots, the puny gretchin slaying one Raven Guard with their overwatch fire. The Scouts wiped the unit out easily with their massed attacks and consolidated onto the objective.
The Daemon Prince charged the Ork mob in the centre ruins, hoping to claim objective 4. He bellowed a challenge, but the Nob decided to see how his boys would fare in combat, no point in fighting all their battles for them (it was most un-Orky to refuse a challenge but I needed to keep the Nob alive with his bosspole if the unit had a chance of holding and denying them all the objectives this turn). The Daemon Prince slew 5 of the Orks in fury, but the mob held firm- failing their morale check but holding thanks to mob rule.
At the end of their turn, Dan and Ian scored 2 points each for Point 2 and Point 5. Our opponents now had 8 victory points to our 2, we would need some good cards in our next turn in order to close the gap.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Eldar- 2
Daemons/Raven Guard- 8
TURN 3- ORKS/ELDAR
This turn, we drew Take Point 1 and Take Point 4 to go with Objective 6 from last turn.
The Windriders on the left flank moved up to secure objective 4. Even if the Orks died in combat, they would still claim it from the Daemon Prince. The Hornet arrived, moving on the right flank as the Ork mob advanced on the Nurglings. The warbikers moved up on the Whirlwind, while the warbuggies and Looted Wagon moved to the Scouts.
The Hornet on the left flank fired at the Whirlwind, finally destroying the Raven Guard vehicle.
The Warbikers, denied their target, turned their attention towards the Nurglings but were unable to get past their 2+ cover saves.
The Looted Wagon fired at the Scouts, who went to ground. The shot hit 5 of the scouts, but I then rolled four 1's to wound. The one shot that did wound managed to kill one scout, despite their impressive cover save. The Windriders and Hornet fired at the Scouts, but were unable to kill any of the Raven Guard.
The large Ork mob charged the Nurglings, easily butchering the squad for the loss of one Ork.
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| The awesome new formation known as "Pile of Orks". |
The Great Unclean One killed Karandas in a challenge. This was enough for the Guardians who broke and fled from combat. The greater daemon consolidated into the ruins.
In the centre, some poor rolling saw the Daemon Prince only slay one Ork in combat. I failed by morale check, but passed the mob rule test at the loss of two more boyz.
The Windriders on the right used their assault move to contest objective 5.
At the end of our turn, we scored two points each for Point 1 and Point 4 and discarded Objective 6.
TURN 3- DAEMONS/RAVEN GUARD
This turn, Dan and Ian drew Secure Objective 4 and Take Point 3 to go with Take Point 4 from last turn.
Captain Shrike moved towards the centre of the battlefield to try and take on the Windriders and get Objective 4 from the enemy forces. The Great Unclean One moved off after the fleeing Eldar, while a unit of Horrors ripped their way into reality from the daemonic portal.
In the psychic phase, a Stream of Corruption from the greater daemon killed two of the Guardians. Sacrifice slew one of the newly arrived horrors to bring a Tzeentch Herald to the fight. The Unclean one attempted to cast Cursed Earth, but this was blocked, while the Daemon Prince cast Iron Arm once more.
In the shooting phase, the Scouts snap fired at the Windriders, but failed to hit any of the Eldar warriors.
The Great Unclean One charged the fleeing Eldar, cutting down three of squad and wiping them out as they attempted to flee from combat once more.
Next came the crucial assault. If Shriek made an 8" charge and killed the Windriders and the Daemon Prince finished off the Orks (quite likely), they would score objective 4 for 4 points and put them well in the lead.
Shrike issued the charge. The overwatch fire of the jetbikes was unable to harm the Raven Guard Captain and he crashed into the squad. He cut down two of the jetbikes. The survivor failed his morale check and was cut down. Things were not looking good for us.
The Greater Daemon struck at the Orks, but again, poor rolling saw only one Ork fall. The mob failed their morale test. I rolled on the mob table, getting Breaking Heads with my bosspole re-roll. The Nob slew the remainder of his squad to regain control and was left the only survivor to contest the objective and deny them their points! This was a result that neither side was expecting and had helped to keep us in the game. My cry of delight brought quite a few quizzing looks from other players and a few laughs.
At the end of their turn, Dan and Ian scored no points and discarded objective 3.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Eldar- 6
Daemons/Raven Guard- 8
TURN 4- ORKS/ELDAR
This turn, we drew Take Point 5, Take Point 6 and Hold Your Own (have units in our deployment zone and no enemy units). The Scouts would need to be dealt with to score Hold Your Own. Drawing objective 6 was annoying, we controlled every objective on the table but objective 6, why couldn't we draw one of them?!?
The Warbikers moved towards the centre to targeted the Raven Guard Captain, while the rest of the army turned their attention to the enemy units.
In the shooting phase, the warbikers fired at Shrike, wounding the Captain once. The Hornet targeted the Captain and managed to slay him. My second cry of joy in 5 minutes brought a few players to our table to see what all the fuss was about.
The Windriders fired at the Scouts, who went to ground. Despite the 2+ cover save, the scatter lasers managed to slay 3 of the scouts and the Hornet killed another one. The Looted Wagon fired at the scouts, the killcannon slaying one more scout and leaving one survivor who passed his morale test.
In the assault phase, the Daemon Prince finally killed the Nob (he had nowhere left to hide) and consolidated up to the objective.
The Windriders charged the lone scout, slaying him and wiping out the last of the Raven Guard. They then consolidated back to objective 5.
At the end of our turn we scored Hold Your Own and Take Point 5 for 4 points. This gave us 10 points to Dan and Ian's 8. Depending on the card they got, we could draw the game.
TURN 4- DAEMONS/RAVEN GUARD
Time was running out, so this would be the final turn of the game. Ian and Dan already had two lots of objective 4 that would give them 2 points this turn and bring the maelstrom total to 10 each. Their final card would decide if they won or drew. The last card they drew turned out to be Take Point 6, meaning they would win on maelstrom points. Objective 6! That single objective had been a bane to us the entire game!
With time running out on the game, there was little that Dan could do to either kill more of our units or score more points, so we ended the game there.
The final maelstrom score was:
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Eldar- 10
Daemons/Raven Guard- 11
We also totalled up the Blood Points (BP) for the mission. Blood points were scored equal to the points value of each unit destroyed or half points for each unit taken to half strength or less or character/vehicle taken to half wounds/hull points.
After working out the casualties, the scores were:
Orks- 186 BP
Eldar- 509 BP
Daemons- 245 BP
Raven Guard- 750 BP
The totals for each team were:
Orks/Eldar- scored 995 blood points
Daemons/Raven Guard- scored 695 blood points
So we lost on Maelstrom points, but won on Blood Points. A drawn game.
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to Tess, Dan and Ian for a fantastic game. It was a tough tactical challenge and full of interesting and funny moments.
Had you asked me before the game, I would have predicted that we would win on maelstrom points and lose on blood points, but oddly enough the opposite happened.
There were some key moments for me during the game. The ultimate moment was the survival of the Nob on turn 3 to deny the Daemon Prince and Shrike from claiming objective 4 and keeping us in the game. As I said above, this was an outcome that I don't think either side saw coming and made for a thrilling turn of events.
The Howling Banshees failing their pinning test was also crucial. Had they been able to assault the Daemon Prince, they might have had a shot of killing it or at least holding it up for a turn and stopping it from taking out the Orks. Ian joked that they failed the test for being forced to slum it in the Ork trukk for the game.
The second Hornet failing its re-rollable reserve roll was also a blow. Had it arrived to support the Guardians, we may have been able to wipe out the Plaguebearers, allowing us to score Wiped Out and Objective 6 in turn 2, giving us a good round of points.
I would also say that we were quite unlucky with the maelstrom cards for our first two turns. Our first turn draw was pretty much impossible to achieve and our second turn draw did not help matters too much. At the end of turn 2, we were 6 points behind and I thought that this stage we would struggle to get back in the game. Our luck with the cards did improve as the game went on and it ended a lot closer than we deserved.
Dan and Ian played a great game and had some great luck and terrible luck too.
Ian was smart to split the Scouts on turn 2, forcing me to either go after one unit or multi-charge both. In hindsight, it might have been better to charge both Scout units. I doubt I would have wiped them out, but would have kept both units locked in combat, maybe even killed them in the following turn and stop the scout unit from killing the Grots and scoring more maelstrom points.
All the 2+ cover saves were pretty brutal to go up against. Ian had poorer luck with his saves and actually lost a lot of scouts to shooting, whereas Dan's Daemons took a lot of firepower and shrugged it off.
I also found it quite amusing that the Daemon Prince lost 3 wounds and gave up half blood points despite neither Tess or myself actually damaging it!
Thanks again to the guys for a great game. The Orks were certainly playing well so far and I was getting to roll tons of dice in combat, something I have not done for a long time!
Double Trouble 2016
Army List and Thoughts
Game 1- Orks/Eldar vs Daemons/Raven Guard
Game 2- Orks/Dark Angels vs Howling Griffons/Raven Guard
Game 3- Orks/Daemons vs Iron Hands/Dark Eldar
Tournament Army Review