Vs Orks 2000pts 23-8-2010

This was my first time trying my 2k foot slogging Biel-Tan army against my friend and old rivals Orks. You'll have to excuse the cruddy terrain and unpainted models. As this is my second string army list it's all WIP.

So my list was:
Avatar
10 Fire Dragons - Exarch, Fire Pike, Tank Hunters
10 Striking Scorpions - Exarch, Claw, both powers
10 Banshees - Exarch, Executioner, Acrobatic
10 Dire Avengers, Exarch, PW/SS, Defend
9 Dire Avengers
9 Dire Avengers
9 Dire Avengers
6 Swooping Hawk - Exarch, Sunrifle
6 warp Spiders - Exarch Dual Death Spinners, Withdraw
5 Shining Spears - Exarch, Star Lance, Withdraw
5 Dark Reapers - Exarch, Missile Launcher, Fast Shot

My opponents list
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
Mad Doc Grotsnik
10 Nobs, eavy armour, 3 power klaws, cybok bodies, painboy
Battle Wagon, Armour Plates, Kannon, Deffrolla
20 Boyz, Cybok bodies, 2 big shootas, Nob, Power Klaw
20 Boyz, Cybok bodies, 2 big shootas, Nob, Power Klaw
20 Boyz, Cybok bodies, 1 big shoota 1 rokkit, Nob, Power Klaw
3 Deffcoptas - Cybok bodies, 3 rokkits
3 Deffcoptas - Cybok bodies, 3 rokkits

Mission - Annihilation
Deployment - Spearhead

I won first turn and took it deploying in the corner with the ruined building trying to make layers out of my squads for protection. The Shining Spears are held in reserve.
My friend deploys as much stuff as close as possible and scouts his deffcoptas.

Top of turn 1


I shuffle my forces around a little trying to get some long ranged shots off. Reapers and Dire Avengers hit the Deffcoptas killing 1 and wounding another but they pass their leadership.
Few pot shots here and there may have killed some orks.

End of my turn 1


Bottom turn 1
Orks do what orks do and run forward.
The battle wagon shoots it cannon and Ghaz puts some shots into the full Dire Avenger squad (the white primed one -_-) and do some wounds
The 3 Deffcoptas manage to shoot and kill a girl or two with their rockets
the original deffcoptas assault my isolated Dire Avenger squad. He wins by a couple of wounds but my boys hold.



Top of turn 2
Shining Spears failed to come in - Kinda needed them to wipe out the 3 deffcoptas.
I shuffle back slightly keeping his force at 17-18"
I brought the Scorpions up a bit so they could rush forward to meet any attackers. I left my flank 'weak' but screened to prevent the nobs getting into the back field.
Banshees fleet up the side towards the deffcoptas.
Reapers shooting kills 2 deffcoptas and puts a wound on the last one but once again my friend passes his leadership test on them.
Avatar climbs over the wall to take a long range shot at the battle wagon (and try and taunt the nobs to go to him) but he falls short by less than an inch.
Unsure whether the girls would be in range for the single deffcopta the Reapers were shooting at I decide to throw them in with the Dire Avengers to try and break them out of the combat, I could then screen my Banshees with the Dire Avenger squad from Grotsniks squad and then counter attack. Great plan but it helps if I win the combat first, right?



Might've been a draw I'm not sure. Either way they got stuck there.

Bottom of Turn 2
My friend moves his battle wagon in front of my Avatar and piles out his nobs and Ghaz. Rolling a 4 on difficult terrain with Grotsniks squad he decides to head to the banshees/Dires knowing he'll fall short of the red gemmed Dire Avenger squad (the one in front of my Dragons). His other boy squad heading towards my avatar whilst the back squad falls further and further behind on his terrain tests.
He calls a Waaagh!
Nobs not taking the bait of my weak flank head to the scorpions
Boy squad reaches the Avatar
Grotsniks squad reaches the Dire Avengers that are tied up in combat with the Deffcopta
The other deffcopta joins the fray attacking the banshees.



Somehow the Avatar won.
The banshees kill one deffcopta, all my Dire Avengers in that combat die. My Banshees hold (thankfully he didnt have the movement to get his boys into the girls I only ended up taking a Ld test at -3).
Scorpions did 1 wound perhaps? Something garbage.

Banshees fight on!


Top of Turn 3
My shining spears arrive - I had planned to use them to 'snipe' Grotsnik knowing how hard orks become when they get FNP though in his pile in move he managed to hide him. So there's not any viable targets so I boost them onto the board behind my main lines so they can move in to assist where need be.
My Warp Spiders jump behind the battle wagon.
Fire Dragons shuffle around so they all have LOS to the nobs.
Hawks and both the red and green gem Dire Avenger squads move around to get LOS to the nobs. The pinning/primed Dire Avengers position to protect the Dragons.

I first fire with one Dire Avenger squad hoping to put a few wounds into his squad (hoping he wouldn't put any on the pain boy so I could 'snipe' with mass melta fire and instant death). I do a couple of wounds nothing dies.
Dragons step up 10 meltas. 6 misses including the exarch. Great! 4 rolls to wound and I roll three 1s. To rub salt into the wound he makes the cover save. I then fire the Reapers (Exarch fast shooting a EML to which he misses both shots...). A wound or two gets scattered throughout the squad. The two remaining Dire Avengers and hawks contribute fire. I may have dropped one maaaaybe two. He's still Fearless from the Waaggh call of Ghaz. 12 Instant Killing shots and in the end he only had to roll 1 cover save. Ffs that was my trump card!

Warp Spiders take out the Battle Wagon at least.

The Avatar kills 2 orks and takes a wound in return.
Spiders jump back out of range of the last boy squad.
Banshees somehow kill 6 orks (wish I threw my Spears into the squad now) they took a pounding but Grots and the Nobs fists kill the last Banshee with 1 last wound getting through.



The Avatar holds back the tide!


Bottom of turn 3
Grots and the wounded deffcopta scoot forward into the next Dire Avenger screen
The nobs split off from Ghaz and circle round the building.
The back boy squad still plods on forward slowly.

Grots and the Copta make short work of the red gemmed Dire Avengers.
The nobs needing a 6 to get over the fence and into my dragons... make it. -_- Somehow the dragons hold though.
Ghaz charges into the pinning Dire Avengers (I had decided not to charge him in the previous round as I was sure I would've lost so he could've just bounced forward with consolidation). The Dire Avengers take heavy losses but hold.

The Avatar with my awesome rolling skills misses 3 attacks (I really hope he gets preferred enemy next edition seriously I'm really happy if I hit twice with the Avatar). He takes another wound so he's left down to two.



Top of Turn 4
If things start going my way I can still pull this off.
I move my shining spears towards Grots, my green gemmed Dire Avengers shuffle back. Thinking I have got this in the bag I move my hawks into position to shoot at the back squad of boys and my Warp Spiders jump forward to start hitting them too.

I guess this is my best round of shooting. Sadly.
Dire Avengers and reapers shoot into Grots squad (fast shooting Krak missiles to avoid FNP and to wound easier). The shining spears also shoot into them the Exarch firing his Star Lance to negate FNP. 24str 4, 8 str 5, 3str 8 (BS5). Killed 5 orks.

At least the Swooping Hawks and Spiders did better they killed 10ish.

I charge in with the Shining Spears. Grots was protected so wasnt able to position for any Instant Death. One shining spear attacked the wounded Deffcopta but he made his inv save. I ended up killing 3 orks. They lost combat but the Exarch lived and withdrew.
The Dire Avenger exarch manages to live by himself but is killed from the Avatars Fearless bubble.
The Avatar managed two wounds which both got saved thanks to the Cyboks. He then took a wound in return and died for a Fearless wound.



Bottom of 4

My lines are completely broken now and this turn is just a clean up for him really. Kinda funny/sad the Shining Spear exarch died to a deffcopta rocket in the back.

Here's the orks doing their victory dance.




Regardless of being tabled on turn 4 I still think the foot slogging aspect list is quite fun to play so I'll stick with it. The only mistakes I felt I made this game was creeping the Scorpions too far forward and in hindsight if I knew I'd roll so well with the Banshees I would've moved my Shining Spears up to join that combat I just didnt see them killing 6 orks without charging or doom. I was a bit surprised he didn't multi assault the nobs into my Avatar and use fearless to bring him down, the last couple of days I've been thinking and anticipating this (still put myself in a position for it...) at least it didnt happen.

Wave Serpent pics

Months back I made a post about wanting to repaint my Wave Serpents and I did that though they still need some touch ups and finishing touches I'm still very pleased with how they've turned out.

Lets hope I can get these damn pictures to work.

So here's the Howling Banshees' Serpent. I need to work on the gems some more and I want to try painting a Banshee (the mythological creature not the Eldar warrior) onto the hull. The guns and canopy need a little work too as does the large rear gem stone but I need to acquire a vallejo brass before I do that.

Here is my Fire Dragon Serpent and once again needs finishing touches onto the canopy and gem stones. The face took I think 4 days and the scales took another 3 or so. Very tedious but I love that face! My freehand is definitely improving!

Here is one of my Dire Avenger serpents. They all use a space theme which I think looks pretty nice. The Shuriken Catapults on this one are just place holders until I get off my arse figure out how to tie it in a bit better with the Dire Avengers whilst keeping it looking nice. Obviously needs work on the canopy too. Ive got an idea in mind for all of them just once again need to get off my arse.

Guide of tips and tricks.

A while back on 40k Online I posted some tips and tricks the thread didn't quite go the way I wanted and so I've decided to import my work over here so I can locate it more easily.

Name: -
Opponent: Any
Situation: A squad of Howling Banshees assaults and eliminates a unit in cover.
Tactic: If the squad comes under heavy fire going to ground becomes a good option (especially if the target you just removed was on an objective) whilst this isn't anything special what makes this tactic is the inclusion of Fortune and Acrobatic. A re-rollable 3+ cover save makes them quite sturdy and the inclusion of Acrobatic means the girls don’t care if they get assaulted. Taking the Farseer along with the assault also has some benefits.
Notes:  Whilst any unit will gain from Going to Ground in cover it is the Banshees that will gain most benefit, they can take a lot of fire and your opponent is going to think twice about getting too close or assaulting as they have counter attack and Fortune going, it can create a nice hole in your opponents battle line.
Harlequins also benefit very nicely.

Name: Chasing down Combat Tactics
Opponent: Vanilla Marines
Situation: Marine squad chooses to use Combat Tactics to fall out of assault range.
Tactic: If in close proximity several Eldar units have a move in the assault phase, which can be used to jump within 6” of the Marine Squad and force them to fall back further. Warp Spiders are the best unit for this as they generally have a larger bounce move but any Eldar jetbike can do this as well. Just make sure not to expose yourself unless the risk is worth it.

Name: Grav-Tank Manoeuvres
Opponent: Any
Situation: Using grav-tanks to control the field in the movement  phase.
Tactics: 
1)   Tank shocking units to herd them for flamers.
2)   Tank shocking units to pull it closer to your assault units
3)   Tank shocking to push units away or force them to move around the tank
4)   Blocking movement/assault paths or to grant cover saves
5)     Positioning the grav-tank directly behind a unit (that is spread out wide 4-5+ models) that is falling back. They must fall back by the shortest route so the grav-tank will wedge them a part breaking the unit coherency preventing them from regrouping later, saving time baby sitting them off the board.

Name: Dire Avenger Clipping
Opponent: Any
Situation: Dire Avengers shooting at an enemy squad that uses Rapid Fire weapons.
Tactic: This is a simple one that comes up fairly regularly. I see a lot of opponents spreading their troops out in lines, so obviously what you want to do is try and position it so your whole squad is in range to hit 1-2 of the enemy squad and positioned away from the rest of the unit. This will force your opponent to do one of two things, they can either stand and shoot getting a few additional shots from the squad members the extra 6” away in which case you will be the one putting out more offensive power (20 odd shots to your opponents 6 or however many are in range). Alternatively your opponent will move forward towards you to get into rapid-fire range only to find the majority of their squad is out of range and still offering minimal fire towards your unit. When this happens step back 6” whilst trying to position to clip again.
Clipping from multiple angles – This can be used against the Rapid Fire weapons squad or also works against any slow moving assault units (Khorne Berserkers who’ve lost their rhino for example). Try to clip the unit from opposite sides; your opponent will be forced to run towards one squad in particular so now reposition and repeat. This may mean, depending on their run roll and how close they are, that it may be beneficial for you to move towards them and charge or fleet away whilst using the second unit to shoot them in the back.
Notes. I have gotten both of these to work in several situations my opponents having cottoned on after 2-3 turns and whilst it may not seem like much that is 2-3 turns of one sided combat. When I say from multiple angles I don't mean 180 degrees because if the unit you are shooting at gets a good run roll it may put your second unit out of range so try and aim for something like 135 degrees. This allows you to be closer to each other for support whilst both being far enough to a particular side to clip successfully.

Name: 
Opponent: Orks 
Situation: Mechdar fighting an Ork army with Deffcoptas
Tactic: Not much of a "tricky" tactic but a realization that Deffcoptas are prime targets to Tank Shock especially if the ork player scouts them close to you first turn. 
Notes: Needing to pass a Leadership test before even thinking about Death or Glory makes this great, if theres a git w/o a rocket on the deffcoptta even better and if not at least you'll get a cover save if you go fast enough. Just dont expose yourself foolhardily.

Name: Double chances to sweeping advance.
Opponent: Any.
Situation: Charging into CC with a unit with an attached IC.
Tactic: This is quite situational really. If the unit you are charging is likely to be broken and you want to increase your chances to catch it in a sweeping advance you can split off the IC in the movement phase and assault it with both units. With a few exceptions (Exarch powers, psy powers, Apothecary etc) ICs gain little from being in the squad and now if you win the combat and your opponent fails leadership and is forced to fall back both the squad and IC have a chance to catch them with a sweeping advance. Best used against other fast armies CWE/DE or SM if you don't want them getting away and leaving you in the open. The drawback to this is of course the IC cannot rejoin the squad until the start of your next turn so s/he is vulnerable to being shot and assaulted separately though there may be times when thinking outside the box may be useful and I imagine if the IC and squad could join up in the consolidation move that this would be common practice.
Notes: This came to me one time when I had previously split Jain Zar off from a squad of Banshees, both units a turn later converged onto a single Grey Hunter squad when it hit me.