The final battle of the tournament saw my Orks teaming up with Matt and his Daemon army. Our opponents were Luke and his Iron Hands Space Marines and Nathaniel (NafNaf from Objective Secured) and his amazing Dark Eldar Carnival army. Whatever happened in the fight, this was going to be a good looking battle!
My warlord trait was conqueror of Cities (Stealth Ruins and Move Through Cover Ruins).
Matt's army consisted of (blue on maps):
Daemon Prince of Nurgle- 4+ FNP and Balesword (rewards) (DP)
Lord of Change- Staff at +2S (reward) (LoC)
11 Pink Horrors (H1)
11 Pink Horrors (H21)
His warlord trait gave units -1 to WS and BS when targeting the Warlord. His psychic powers were:
Daemon Prince- Stream of Corruption, Psychic Shriek
Lord of Change- Flickering Fire, Sacrifice, Prismatic Gaze
Horrors 1- Flickering Fire, Cursed Earth
Horrors 2- Flickering Fire, Summoning
Luke's Iron Hands army consisted of (red on maps):
Captain- Cataphractii Terminator Armour, Chainfist, Chains of the Gorgon (C)
5 Cataphractii Terminators- Lightning Claws (T2)
10 Tactical Marines- Bolters (TS1)
10 Tactical Marines- Bolters (TS2)
Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, Skyhammer Missile Launcher (S)
His warlord trait was Strategic Genius (+1 to seize and re-rolls for reserves).
Nathaniel's army consisted of (purple on maps):
Succubus- Archite Glaive, Haywire Grenades (with G)
3 Grotesques- Close combat weapons (G)
Raider- Dark Lance (R)
3 Mandrakes (U)
5 Kabalite Warriors- Splinter Rifles, Blaster (K1)
Venom- Splinter Cannon (V1)
5 Kabalite Warriors- Splinter Rifles, Blaster (K2)
Venom- Splinter Cannon (V2)
Beastmaster and 7 Khymera (BP)
Talos- TL Heat Lance (T1)
His warlord trait gave him Night Fighting and Night Vision. Nathaniel was taking his stunning La Danse Macabre army that features some amazing conversions and painting. You will be able to see more of this army in my Armies on Display post for Double Trouble (or check out the link above for better quality photos).
This mission would see all four armies deploy in different table quarters (team mates in opposite corners). With deployment zones only 18" apart, first turn charges were entirely likely. We set up the objectives as shown below:
We won the roll for deployment zone and chose the two quarters with the ruins. We also won the roll off for deployment and chose to go first.
I put one unit of grots in the ruins to grab the objective, the other unit on the edge of my deployment zone to go for another objective. The large Ork mob set up on one side, while the Trukk, Looted Wagon, warbikers and warbuggy went on the other side of the ruins.
Luke deployed next, to the right of my deployment zone. He put a tactical squad on the edge of each deployment side and the terminators and Captain next to my trukk and wagon.
Matt then set up. One unit of Horrors and the Daemon Prince went in the ruins, the other unit of horrors and lord of change went in the open towards Luke's deployment zone.
Finally, Nathaniel set up his Raider and Beast Pack to go for my big mob of Orks, while the Venoms and Talos deployed a bit further back. He decided to infiltrate his mandrakes, but based on the deployment zones they could only deploy in his own deployment zone, setting up near the objective.
Luke and Nathaniel failed to seize, so we got the first turn.
TURN 1- ORKS/DAEMONS
In our first turn, we drew In Enemy Territory (have units in the enemy deployment zone), Pile On (have a unit from each army in the same combat) and Wiped Out (destroy 3 enemy units).
The Lord of Change advanced on the Iron Hands, while the Daemon Prince moved into the Dark Eldar deployment zone. The large Ork mob advanced on the Dark Eldar, while the warbikers and trukk moved to engage the Tactical Marines. A warbuggy turbo-boosted into the enemy deployment zone.
In the psychic phase, a unit of Horrors was summoned onto the battlefield. The Daemon Prince cast a Stream of Corruption on the two venoms, killing three warriors from one and one from the other.
The warp storm blew through the battlefield, penetrating the Raider and stunning it.
The crew of the Looted Wagon were too caught up in the excitement of the enemy army being so close that they forgot to shoot and moved flat out (I failed the test to see if I could shoot). A warbuggy fired at the Raider, penetrating it, but the Jinking skimmer saved the damage.
On the other flank, the warbikers fired at the tactical squad. Two wounds got past their armour, but Luke managed to roll a double 6 FNP to save them from harm! The slugga boyz fired at the tactical marines, killing two of the squad.
The warbikers charged the tactical marines, losing one biker to overwatch fire and failing the charge. The slugga boyz were able to reach the marines, two of the Orks were cut down before they got to attack. The Orks struck back, killing 5 of the tactical marines. The Nob with the power claw and attempted to wipe out the unit, but I managed to roll four 1's to hit! The tactical squad failed their morale check and fell back.
The Lord of Change failed to charge the tactical marines. The large Ork mob attempted to charge the Beast unit but failed the charge (in their defence, they did need a double 6 to make it in).
At the end of our turn, we scored In Enemy Territory and discarded Wiped Out.
TURN 1- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
In their first turn, Luke and Nathaniel drew Take Point 1, Gunned Down (destroy enemy units in shooting phase) and Big Choppers (destroy an enemy unit in assault phase).
The Beast Pack and Grotesques advanced on the large Ork mob, ready to show them the joys of the circus up close, while the Talos and a Venom advanced on the newly arrived Horrors. On the other flank, the tactical squad that fled moved back up on the Ork advance, while the Terminators went after the Slugga Boyz, and the Terminator Captain advanced on the Looted Wagon.
A venom opened fire on the large Ork mob, killing 8 of the squad (after some great cover saves and FNP rolls from me, it could have been a lot worse). The Raider snap fired at the warbuggy in front of it, but failed to hit the target. The tactical squad fired at the Lord of Change, but failed to cause any damage.
With the shooting phase done, it was time for the massed assaults.
The tactical marines charged the warbuggy, wrecking it with their grenades (the tournament was not using the new draft FAQs yet).
The Terminators charged the remnants of the sluggy boyz mob, easily destroying the unit for no loss in return (the Nob failed to cause any wounds yet again).
The Talos charge the horrors, winning the combat and killing all but two of the horrors.
The big event was now up. The Grotesques and Beast Pack charged the large Ork mob, the overwatch of the Orks causing no damage (better to hit them in combat anyway). The Succubus issued a challenge that the Nob stepped up to face.
The Succubus struck at the Nob, wounding him 3 times, but he made every Feel no Pain roll required. The Grotesques and Kymeras struck at the Ork mob, killing 6 Orks. The result should have been much worse but my Painboy was on top form this turn. I swear, I must have made about 75% of my Feel no Pain rolls in combat. The Orks struck back at the Dark Eldar, killing a couple of beasts. The Warboss struck at the Grotesques, slaying one outright with his power claw. The Nob was unable to kill the Succubus in the challenge. I lost the combat by 2, but passed my morale test.
I don't think anyone was expecting the combat to go that way. I fully expected to lose both Ork mobs this turn, but some phenomenal triage from the Painboy meant that the main combat was not as brutal for me as it should have been.
At the end of their turn, Luke and Nathaniel scored Take Point 1 for 2 points and Big Chopper for one point. They discarded Gunned Down.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 2
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 2
TURN 2- ORKS/DAEMONS
This turn, we drew Dominance (control at least 2 objectives and twice as many as your opponents), Objective 6 and had Pile On from last turn.
The warbuggy headed for the central objective, while the Trukk moved up on the objective in the Iron Hands' deployment zone. The Lord of Change and Warbikers moved to engage the tactical squad. The Daemon Prince moved towards the objective in the woods.
In the psychic phase, the unit of Horrors in the ruins attempted to summon a new unit of daemons, but periled in the process and killed themselves. The Lord of Change tried to cast Flickering Fire on the tactical marines, but the attempt was denied. He then cast Psychic Shriek on the tactical marines, but was unable to roll high enough to cause harm.
The Daemon Prince then targeted the Mandrakes with a Stream of Corruption, hitting the Venom too. The Mandrakes were unharmed, but the warriors in the Venom were all slain.
The Looted Wagon fired at the 3 man tactical squad (they were not so keen to advance after seeing what happened to the slugga boyz). One marine died and the squad fell back 5".
The Lord of Change and Warbikers charged the tactical squad. The Lord of Change slew 3 marines for no loss to our side. The tactical marines passed their morale test and stayed locked in combat.
The Talos easily finished off the two horrors and consolidated towards the Daemon Prince.
In the big combat, the Succubus wounded the Nob in the challenge. The Dark Eldar units struck at the Orks, killing four more of the unit. The Orks struck back. The Nob killed the Succubus and a Grotesque in combat. The warboss killed the last Grotesque and the Orks brought down one of the Kymeras. The Dark Eldar lost the combat, but were caught and butchered by the Orks as they tried to flee.
At the end of our turn, we scored Pile On, Dominance and Objective 6 for 5 points in total this turn.
TURN 2- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
This turn, they drew Take Point 6, Secure Objective 6 and Pile On (have a unit from both armies in the same combat).
The Stormtalon arrived, moving on to engage the Ork threat (though slightly diminished now). The Talos moved up on the Horrors, while a venom turbo-boosed to grab objective 6 in the ruins. The Terminators moved to engage the Warbikers, while the Captain advanced on the Looted Wagon.
The two tactical marines fired at the trukk, but the cover saved it from harm. The Stormtalon fired at the Ork mob, killing 4 of the squad, while the Venom killed another one. The mob failed their morale check, but the warboss kept them fighting with the mob rule, killing the last 3 slugga boyz and leaving only the Nob, Warboss and Painboy.
The Venom fired at the warbuggy, penetrating it and stunning it.
In the assault phase, the tactical squad charged the trukk, their grenades taking two hull points from the vehicle.
The Talos charged the horrors, killing one and staying locked in combat (but drawing them off the objective).
The Lord of Change killed 4 of the marines and the Terminators charged in to the Warbikers, slaughtering them all. The Lord of Change won the combat, but both units held.
The Terminator Captain charged the Looted Wagon, penetrating it twice and immobilising and stunning it.
At the end of their turn, Luke and Nathaniel scored objective 6 twice (for 3 points) and discarded Pile On.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 7
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 5
TURN 3- ORKS/DAEMONS
This turn we drew Take Point 1, Take Point 2 and Take Point 5.
The Warboss led the Nob and Painboy towards the Mandrakes and objective 5, while the Gretchin moved to secure objective 2. The Daemon Prince advanced on the Talos currently locked in combat with the Horrors.
In the psychic phase, the Horrors cast Cursed Earth to help them survive the combat.
In the shooting phase, the Trukk fired its big shoota at the two marines, killing one of the squad. He passed his morale test.
In the assault phase, the Warboss led his unit to attack the Raider and Mandrakes. The Dark Eldar struck at the Orks, but could not harm them. In reply, the greenskins used their power claws to destroy both units.
The Daemon Prince assaulted the Talos and wrecked the engine of destruction. The Lord of Change failed to kill any terminators after some poor to hit rolls and great saves from the Cataphractii. The lone tactical marine destroyed the trukk with his grenades.
The Terminator Captain struck the looted wagon, blowing the vehicle up in a hail of shrapnel.
At the end of our turn, we scored all three of our objectives for 6 points.
TURN 3- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
This turn, they drew In Enemy Territory (have units in our deployment zone), Wiped Out (destroy 3 enemy units) and Dominance (hold at least 2 objectives and twice as many as your opponents).
The Stormtalon advanced on the Warboss, while the Terminator Captain moved to engage the grots in the ruins. The lone tactical marine went after the second unit of grots on the objective. The Venom at objective 6 attempted to move away from the Horrors, but immobilised itself trying to move through the terrain.
The Stormtalon opened fire on the Orks, killing the Warboss and Nob and leaving only the Painboy alive. The Venom near the Painboy fired at the Daemon Prince, slaying him in a storm of splinter fire. The other Venom fired at the Horrors, killing one of the squad.
The Captain assaulted the grots in the ruins, killing two of the squad and forcing them to flee. The lone tactical marine charged the second unit, killing two and slaughtering the squad as it attempted to flee from combat.
The Lord of Change struck at the Terminators, but once again failed to kill any. The Terminators wounded the mighty greater Daemon in reply.
At the end of their turn, Luke and Nathaniel scored Wipe Out for 2 points and Enemy Territory for two points.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 13
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 9
TURN 4- ORKS/DAEMONS
This turn, Matt and I drew Objective 4, Objective 6 and Big Choppers (kill an enemy unit in combat).
The Painboy moved into cover, while the Horrors moved towards the Lord of Change, while still holding on to the objective (conga line!). The grots continued to fall back towards the table edge.
In the psychic phase, the Horrors launched flickering fire at the venom near objective 6, blowing it up. They then cast Cursed Earth on themselves.
In the shooting phase, the warbuggy snap fired at the surviving Venom, but failed to hit it.
In combat, the Lord of Change turned his attention from the Terminators to the marines and wiped out the last of the tactical squad.
At the end of our turn, we scored all three objectives for 5 points.
TURN 4- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
This turn, Luke and Nathaniel drew Secure Objective 1, Secure Objective 2 and Dominance.
The Stormtalon went into hover mode to target the Horrors, while the Venom moved to grab an objective.
The Venom fired at the Painboy, killing him. The Stormtalon fired at the Horrors, killing two of the unit.
In the assault phase, the Lord of Change killed a terminator and suffered no wounds in return. The Terminators held in combat.
At the end of their turn, they held off on scoring objectives 1 and 2 to get the bonus points next turn.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 18
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 9
TURN 5- ORKS/DAEMONS
In our final turn, we drew Scorched Skies (destroy an enemy flyer), Gunned Down (destroy an enemy unit in the shooting phase) and Take Point 3.
The grots fled from the board as the Horrors moved to target the hovering Stormtalon.
The Horrors cast flickering fire at the Stormtalon, blowing the flyer apart with their eldritch firepower.
The Warbuggy fired at the Venom, but failed to hit it.
The Lord of Change and Terminators struck at one another, but neither side was able to harm the other.
At the end of our turn, we scored Scorched Skies.
TURN 5- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
This turn, Luke and Nathaniel still had Objective 1, Objective 2 and Dominance.
The Kabalites leapt out of the Venom to secure the objective, while the transport moved to claim the objective from the Warbuggy.
The venom and Kabalites fired at the warbuggy, but were unable to remove the final hull point to table the Orks.
In the combat phase, the Lord of Change again failed to kill a terminator thanks to some more abysmal rolling.
At the end of their turn, Luke and Nathaniel scored all 3 maelstrom cards for 8 points.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 19
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 17
The Blood Points losses for each team were:
Orks- 738 BPs
Daemons- 597 BPs
Iron Hands- 325 BPs
Dark Eldar- 630 BPs
The totals for each army were:
Orks/Daemons- 955 Blood Points
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 1335 Blood Points
A win for the Ork/Daemon alliance on maelstrom points, but a big loss on Blood Points.
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to Matt, Luke and Nathaniel for an epic game of 40k, easily my favourite game of the day (sorry guys from the other games, but this one was just a little more awesome than the rest of my games).
The highlight of the game for me was the massive combat between the large Ork mob, Grotesques and Beast Pack. My mob had been hankering for a decent brawl the whole day and finally got what they wished for. If it wasn't for my amazing Feel no Pain rolls, I would have been in real trouble. As it was, my mob was able to weather the masses of attacks arrayed against them, giving the Nob and Warboss a chance to take out the enemy units thanks to their Instant Death attacks. Even though he lost the combat, Nathaniel shouldn't feel too bad as he had managed to whittle the squad down to about 10 models. The armies in the other games struggled to take more than 10 wounds off the mob, this was the only game where the large mob of slugga boyz did not survive.
Another bizarre situation was the Lord of Change being held up in combat for 7 rounds of the game. This was in part due to some abysmal rolling from Matt. Whenever he targeted the Terminators, he was only rolling one or two successful to hit rolls. Luke was also rolling brilliant for his invulnerable saves- the 4+ invulnerable for the Cataphractii armour makes a big difference. What is even more gutting is that Matt only needed to kill one more Terminator to take them below half strength and get half Blood Points for the unit. Had he done this, he would have scored more blood points and may have won a prize at the tournament.
I ended the game a single hull point away from being tabled. So, a nice result for me then.
In writing the battle report I noticed an error in reporting the maelstrom points for both teams. We should have scored two extra points each (correct in the report, but wrong on our sheets), which may have improved our rankings slightly. Too late now, but may have helped on the day.
So with three awesome games that were all draws (I guess), I ended up finishing 15th out of 32 players. I was quite pleased with that, based on taking a weaker army and how my games went.
My partners for the day ended up in the following positions:
Game 1- Tess: 10th
Game 2- Hendrick: 12th
Game 3- Matt: 2nd
My opponents for the day got the following results:
Game 1- Dan: 11th, Ian: 26th
Game 2- Luke: 18th, Steven: 13th
Game 2- Luke: 3rd, Nathaniel: 5th
As you can see, a good spread of results over the day. Luke and Nathaniel from the final game finished in some amazing positions, glad we could help them get there over a pile of dead greenskins!
Overall, I thought that Double Trouble was a fantastic event. The random pairings and opponents worked really well and led to a lot of fun games with armies you normally wouldn't see together. Congratulations to Alex for putting on such a great event despite all the difficulties provided by the venue. I look forward to any future Double Trouble events, maybe my Orks will stay at home the next time to give another army a chance to shine.
My next posts will look at a review of my army, the armies on display photos, my practice game from the Friday night and my first forays into X-wing territory.
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 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 was conqueror of Cities (Stealth Ruins and Move Through Cover Ruins).
Matt's army consisted of (blue on maps):
Daemon Prince of Nurgle- 4+ FNP and Balesword (rewards) (DP)
Lord of Change- Staff at +2S (reward) (LoC)
11 Pink Horrors (H1)
11 Pink Horrors (H21)
His warlord trait gave units -1 to WS and BS when targeting the Warlord. His psychic powers were:
Daemon Prince- Stream of Corruption, Psychic Shriek
Lord of Change- Flickering Fire, Sacrifice, Prismatic Gaze
Horrors 1- Flickering Fire, Cursed Earth
Horrors 2- Flickering Fire, Summoning
Luke's Iron Hands army consisted of (red on maps):
Captain- Cataphractii Terminator Armour, Chainfist, Chains of the Gorgon (C)
5 Cataphractii Terminators- Lightning Claws (T2)
10 Tactical Marines- Bolters (TS1)
10 Tactical Marines- Bolters (TS2)
Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, Skyhammer Missile Launcher (S)
His warlord trait was Strategic Genius (+1 to seize and re-rolls for reserves).
Nathaniel's army consisted of (purple on maps):
Succubus- Archite Glaive, Haywire Grenades (with G)
3 Grotesques- Close combat weapons (G)
Raider- Dark Lance (R)
3 Mandrakes (U)
5 Kabalite Warriors- Splinter Rifles, Blaster (K1)
Venom- Splinter Cannon (V1)
5 Kabalite Warriors- Splinter Rifles, Blaster (K2)
Venom- Splinter Cannon (V2)
Beastmaster and 7 Khymera (BP)
Talos- TL Heat Lance (T1)
His warlord trait gave him Night Fighting and Night Vision. Nathaniel was taking his stunning La Danse Macabre army that features some amazing conversions and painting. You will be able to see more of this army in my Armies on Display post for Double Trouble (or check out the link above for better quality photos).
This mission would see all four armies deploy in different table quarters (team mates in opposite corners). With deployment zones only 18" apart, first turn charges were entirely likely. We set up the objectives as shown below:
We won the roll for deployment zone and chose the two quarters with the ruins. We also won the roll off for deployment and chose to go first.
I put one unit of grots in the ruins to grab the objective, the other unit on the edge of my deployment zone to go for another objective. The large Ork mob set up on one side, while the Trukk, Looted Wagon, warbikers and warbuggy went on the other side of the ruins.
Luke deployed next, to the right of my deployment zone. He put a tactical squad on the edge of each deployment side and the terminators and Captain next to my trukk and wagon.
Matt then set up. One unit of Horrors and the Daemon Prince went in the ruins, the other unit of horrors and lord of change went in the open towards Luke's deployment zone.
Finally, Nathaniel set up his Raider and Beast Pack to go for my big mob of Orks, while the Venoms and Talos deployed a bit further back. He decided to infiltrate his mandrakes, but based on the deployment zones they could only deploy in his own deployment zone, setting up near the objective.
Luke and Nathaniel failed to seize, so we got the first turn.
TURN 1- ORKS/DAEMONS
In our first turn, we drew In Enemy Territory (have units in the enemy deployment zone), Pile On (have a unit from each army in the same combat) and Wiped Out (destroy 3 enemy units).
The Lord of Change advanced on the Iron Hands, while the Daemon Prince moved into the Dark Eldar deployment zone. The large Ork mob advanced on the Dark Eldar, while the warbikers and trukk moved to engage the Tactical Marines. A warbuggy turbo-boosted into the enemy deployment zone.
In the psychic phase, a unit of Horrors was summoned onto the battlefield. The Daemon Prince cast a Stream of Corruption on the two venoms, killing three warriors from one and one from the other.
The warp storm blew through the battlefield, penetrating the Raider and stunning it.
The crew of the Looted Wagon were too caught up in the excitement of the enemy army being so close that they forgot to shoot and moved flat out (I failed the test to see if I could shoot). A warbuggy fired at the Raider, penetrating it, but the Jinking skimmer saved the damage.
On the other flank, the warbikers fired at the tactical squad. Two wounds got past their armour, but Luke managed to roll a double 6 FNP to save them from harm! The slugga boyz fired at the tactical marines, killing two of the squad.
The warbikers charged the tactical marines, losing one biker to overwatch fire and failing the charge. The slugga boyz were able to reach the marines, two of the Orks were cut down before they got to attack. The Orks struck back, killing 5 of the tactical marines. The Nob with the power claw and attempted to wipe out the unit, but I managed to roll four 1's to hit! The tactical squad failed their morale check and fell back.
 |
| My awesome rolling. |
The Lord of Change failed to charge the tactical marines. The large Ork mob attempted to charge the Beast unit but failed the charge (in their defence, they did need a double 6 to make it in).
At the end of our turn, we scored In Enemy Territory and discarded Wiped Out.
TURN 1- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
In their first turn, Luke and Nathaniel drew Take Point 1, Gunned Down (destroy enemy units in shooting phase) and Big Choppers (destroy an enemy unit in assault phase).
The Beast Pack and Grotesques advanced on the large Ork mob, ready to show them the joys of the circus up close, while the Talos and a Venom advanced on the newly arrived Horrors. On the other flank, the tactical squad that fled moved back up on the Ork advance, while the Terminators went after the Slugga Boyz, and the Terminator Captain advanced on the Looted Wagon.
 |
| Nathaniel showing off his hand modelling skills. |
A venom opened fire on the large Ork mob, killing 8 of the squad (after some great cover saves and FNP rolls from me, it could have been a lot worse). The Raider snap fired at the warbuggy in front of it, but failed to hit the target. The tactical squad fired at the Lord of Change, but failed to cause any damage.
With the shooting phase done, it was time for the massed assaults.
The tactical marines charged the warbuggy, wrecking it with their grenades (the tournament was not using the new draft FAQs yet).
The Terminators charged the remnants of the sluggy boyz mob, easily destroying the unit for no loss in return (the Nob failed to cause any wounds yet again).
The Talos charge the horrors, winning the combat and killing all but two of the horrors.
The big event was now up. The Grotesques and Beast Pack charged the large Ork mob, the overwatch of the Orks causing no damage (better to hit them in combat anyway). The Succubus issued a challenge that the Nob stepped up to face.
The Succubus struck at the Nob, wounding him 3 times, but he made every Feel no Pain roll required. The Grotesques and Kymeras struck at the Ork mob, killing 6 Orks. The result should have been much worse but my Painboy was on top form this turn. I swear, I must have made about 75% of my Feel no Pain rolls in combat. The Orks struck back at the Dark Eldar, killing a couple of beasts. The Warboss struck at the Grotesques, slaying one outright with his power claw. The Nob was unable to kill the Succubus in the challenge. I lost the combat by 2, but passed my morale test.
I don't think anyone was expecting the combat to go that way. I fully expected to lose both Ork mobs this turn, but some phenomenal triage from the Painboy meant that the main combat was not as brutal for me as it should have been.
At the end of their turn, Luke and Nathaniel scored Take Point 1 for 2 points and Big Chopper for one point. They discarded Gunned Down.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 2
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 2
TURN 2- ORKS/DAEMONS
This turn, we drew Dominance (control at least 2 objectives and twice as many as your opponents), Objective 6 and had Pile On from last turn.
The warbuggy headed for the central objective, while the Trukk moved up on the objective in the Iron Hands' deployment zone. The Lord of Change and Warbikers moved to engage the tactical squad. The Daemon Prince moved towards the objective in the woods.
The Daemon Prince then targeted the Mandrakes with a Stream of Corruption, hitting the Venom too. The Mandrakes were unharmed, but the warriors in the Venom were all slain.
The Looted Wagon fired at the 3 man tactical squad (they were not so keen to advance after seeing what happened to the slugga boyz). One marine died and the squad fell back 5".
 |
| The two marines fall back. |
The Lord of Change and Warbikers charged the tactical squad. The Lord of Change slew 3 marines for no loss to our side. The tactical marines passed their morale test and stayed locked in combat.
The Talos easily finished off the two horrors and consolidated towards the Daemon Prince.
In the big combat, the Succubus wounded the Nob in the challenge. The Dark Eldar units struck at the Orks, killing four more of the unit. The Orks struck back. The Nob killed the Succubus and a Grotesque in combat. The warboss killed the last Grotesque and the Orks brought down one of the Kymeras. The Dark Eldar lost the combat, but were caught and butchered by the Orks as they tried to flee.
 |
| The Dark Eldar forces are fought off. |
At the end of our turn, we scored Pile On, Dominance and Objective 6 for 5 points in total this turn.
TURN 2- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
This turn, they drew Take Point 6, Secure Objective 6 and Pile On (have a unit from both armies in the same combat).
The Stormtalon arrived, moving on to engage the Ork threat (though slightly diminished now). The Talos moved up on the Horrors, while a venom turbo-boosed to grab objective 6 in the ruins. The Terminators moved to engage the Warbikers, while the Captain advanced on the Looted Wagon.
The two tactical marines fired at the trukk, but the cover saved it from harm. The Stormtalon fired at the Ork mob, killing 4 of the squad, while the Venom killed another one. The mob failed their morale check, but the warboss kept them fighting with the mob rule, killing the last 3 slugga boyz and leaving only the Nob, Warboss and Painboy.
The Venom fired at the warbuggy, penetrating it and stunning it.
In the assault phase, the tactical squad charged the trukk, their grenades taking two hull points from the vehicle.
The Talos charged the horrors, killing one and staying locked in combat (but drawing them off the objective).
The Lord of Change killed 4 of the marines and the Terminators charged in to the Warbikers, slaughtering them all. The Lord of Change won the combat, but both units held.
The Terminator Captain charged the Looted Wagon, penetrating it twice and immobilising and stunning it.
At the end of their turn, Luke and Nathaniel scored objective 6 twice (for 3 points) and discarded Pile On.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 7
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 5
TURN 3- ORKS/DAEMONS
This turn we drew Take Point 1, Take Point 2 and Take Point 5.
The Warboss led the Nob and Painboy towards the Mandrakes and objective 5, while the Gretchin moved to secure objective 2. The Daemon Prince advanced on the Talos currently locked in combat with the Horrors.
In the psychic phase, the Horrors cast Cursed Earth to help them survive the combat.
In the shooting phase, the Trukk fired its big shoota at the two marines, killing one of the squad. He passed his morale test.
In the assault phase, the Warboss led his unit to attack the Raider and Mandrakes. The Dark Eldar struck at the Orks, but could not harm them. In reply, the greenskins used their power claws to destroy both units.
The Daemon Prince assaulted the Talos and wrecked the engine of destruction. The Lord of Change failed to kill any terminators after some poor to hit rolls and great saves from the Cataphractii. The lone tactical marine destroyed the trukk with his grenades.
The Terminator Captain struck the looted wagon, blowing the vehicle up in a hail of shrapnel.
At the end of our turn, we scored all three of our objectives for 6 points.
TURN 3- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
This turn, they drew In Enemy Territory (have units in our deployment zone), Wiped Out (destroy 3 enemy units) and Dominance (hold at least 2 objectives and twice as many as your opponents).
The Stormtalon advanced on the Warboss, while the Terminator Captain moved to engage the grots in the ruins. The lone tactical marine went after the second unit of grots on the objective. The Venom at objective 6 attempted to move away from the Horrors, but immobilised itself trying to move through the terrain.
The Stormtalon opened fire on the Orks, killing the Warboss and Nob and leaving only the Painboy alive. The Venom near the Painboy fired at the Daemon Prince, slaying him in a storm of splinter fire. The other Venom fired at the Horrors, killing one of the squad.
The Captain assaulted the grots in the ruins, killing two of the squad and forcing them to flee. The lone tactical marine charged the second unit, killing two and slaughtering the squad as it attempted to flee from combat.
 |
| The grots flee. |
The Lord of Change struck at the Terminators, but once again failed to kill any. The Terminators wounded the mighty greater Daemon in reply.
At the end of their turn, Luke and Nathaniel scored Wipe Out for 2 points and Enemy Territory for two points.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 13
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 9
TURN 4- ORKS/DAEMONS
This turn, Matt and I drew Objective 4, Objective 6 and Big Choppers (kill an enemy unit in combat).
The Painboy moved into cover, while the Horrors moved towards the Lord of Change, while still holding on to the objective (conga line!). The grots continued to fall back towards the table edge.
In the psychic phase, the Horrors launched flickering fire at the venom near objective 6, blowing it up. They then cast Cursed Earth on themselves.
In the shooting phase, the warbuggy snap fired at the surviving Venom, but failed to hit it.
In combat, the Lord of Change turned his attention from the Terminators to the marines and wiped out the last of the tactical squad.
At the end of our turn, we scored all three objectives for 5 points.
TURN 4- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
This turn, Luke and Nathaniel drew Secure Objective 1, Secure Objective 2 and Dominance.
The Stormtalon went into hover mode to target the Horrors, while the Venom moved to grab an objective.
The Venom fired at the Painboy, killing him. The Stormtalon fired at the Horrors, killing two of the unit.
In the assault phase, the Lord of Change killed a terminator and suffered no wounds in return. The Terminators held in combat.
At the end of their turn, they held off on scoring objectives 1 and 2 to get the bonus points next turn.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 18
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 9
TURN 5- ORKS/DAEMONS
In our final turn, we drew Scorched Skies (destroy an enemy flyer), Gunned Down (destroy an enemy unit in the shooting phase) and Take Point 3.
The grots fled from the board as the Horrors moved to target the hovering Stormtalon.
The Horrors cast flickering fire at the Stormtalon, blowing the flyer apart with their eldritch firepower.
The Warbuggy fired at the Venom, but failed to hit it.
The Lord of Change and Terminators struck at one another, but neither side was able to harm the other.
At the end of our turn, we scored Scorched Skies.
TURN 5- IRON HANDS/DARK ELDAR
This turn, Luke and Nathaniel still had Objective 1, Objective 2 and Dominance.
The Kabalites leapt out of the Venom to secure the objective, while the transport moved to claim the objective from the Warbuggy.
The venom and Kabalites fired at the warbuggy, but were unable to remove the final hull point to table the Orks.
In the combat phase, the Lord of Change again failed to kill a terminator thanks to some more abysmal rolling.
At the end of their turn, Luke and Nathaniel scored all 3 maelstrom cards for 8 points.
VICTORY POINTS:
Orks/Daemons- 19
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 17
The Blood Points losses for each team were:
Orks- 738 BPs
Daemons- 597 BPs
Iron Hands- 325 BPs
Dark Eldar- 630 BPs
The totals for each army were:
Orks/Daemons- 955 Blood Points
Iron Hands/Dark Eldar- 1335 Blood Points
A win for the Ork/Daemon alliance on maelstrom points, but a big loss on Blood Points.
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to Matt, Luke and Nathaniel for an epic game of 40k, easily my favourite game of the day (sorry guys from the other games, but this one was just a little more awesome than the rest of my games).
The highlight of the game for me was the massive combat between the large Ork mob, Grotesques and Beast Pack. My mob had been hankering for a decent brawl the whole day and finally got what they wished for. If it wasn't for my amazing Feel no Pain rolls, I would have been in real trouble. As it was, my mob was able to weather the masses of attacks arrayed against them, giving the Nob and Warboss a chance to take out the enemy units thanks to their Instant Death attacks. Even though he lost the combat, Nathaniel shouldn't feel too bad as he had managed to whittle the squad down to about 10 models. The armies in the other games struggled to take more than 10 wounds off the mob, this was the only game where the large mob of slugga boyz did not survive.
Another bizarre situation was the Lord of Change being held up in combat for 7 rounds of the game. This was in part due to some abysmal rolling from Matt. Whenever he targeted the Terminators, he was only rolling one or two successful to hit rolls. Luke was also rolling brilliant for his invulnerable saves- the 4+ invulnerable for the Cataphractii armour makes a big difference. What is even more gutting is that Matt only needed to kill one more Terminator to take them below half strength and get half Blood Points for the unit. Had he done this, he would have scored more blood points and may have won a prize at the tournament.
I ended the game a single hull point away from being tabled. So, a nice result for me then.
In writing the battle report I noticed an error in reporting the maelstrom points for both teams. We should have scored two extra points each (correct in the report, but wrong on our sheets), which may have improved our rankings slightly. Too late now, but may have helped on the day.
So with three awesome games that were all draws (I guess), I ended up finishing 15th out of 32 players. I was quite pleased with that, based on taking a weaker army and how my games went.
My partners for the day ended up in the following positions:
Game 1- Tess: 10th
Game 2- Hendrick: 12th
Game 3- Matt: 2nd
My opponents for the day got the following results:
Game 1- Dan: 11th, Ian: 26th
Game 2- Luke: 18th, Steven: 13th
Game 2- Luke: 3rd, Nathaniel: 5th
As you can see, a good spread of results over the day. Luke and Nathaniel from the final game finished in some amazing positions, glad we could help them get there over a pile of dead greenskins!
Overall, I thought that Double Trouble was a fantastic event. The random pairings and opponents worked really well and led to a lot of fun games with armies you normally wouldn't see together. Congratulations to Alex for putting on such a great event despite all the difficulties provided by the venue. I look forward to any future Double Trouble events, maybe my Orks will stay at home the next time to give another army a chance to shine.
My next posts will look at a review of my army, the armies on display photos, my practice game from the Friday night and my first forays into X-wing territory.
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