Orks vs. Space Marines, Part I: Attack of the Greenskins

On Thursday night Jonathan (i.e., the Ork Player) and I played our first game without Bryce. This meant, of course, that the game ran an extra hour since our walking Codex was not available and we had to spend much of the night flipping through the rule book.

The Armies
I've commented before that I've never had much luck playing lower points games. And I knew that in a 500 point game, a single mob of Nobz would probably squash anything I could throw at them. Therefore, I pulled together an 1100 point list that included a Space Marine Captain with a power sword, two five-man Tactical Squads, a Terminator Squad with an assault cannon, a five-man Devastator squad with four missile launchers, a Dreadnought with a multi-melta, a Venerable Dreadnought with an assault cannon, and my beloved Vindicator, Vastator.

Space Marine initial setup; the Terminators are in reserve

Jon was able to reach 1100 points by using every assembled model he had and by upgrading almost every unit he could. He brought two Warbosses with power klaws and 'eavy armour, three DeffKoptas, a mob of ten Nobz with 'eavy armour, a mob of thirty 'Ard Boyz, and another mob with nine Boyz and a Nob. Although concerned about the amount of armor he'd be facing, I assured him that he had plenty of armor-killing power between his Warbosses and DeffKoptas.

As usual, the Orks greatly outnumber the Marines

The Setup
Both of us are still novices, so our strategies (such as they are) are pretty basic. Jon put one Warboss (Warboss #1) in with the Nobz and the other (Warboss #2) with the 'Ard Boyz. Jon's philosophy is that shooting is for armies with an average BS higher than 2, so he ran as much as possible. The DeffKoptas quickly swooped in and tried desperately to destroy my armor.

I had placed the Devastators off in my right corner in an attempt to delay the inevitable swarming. The Vindicator held the center while the Dreadnoughts covered the flanks. The Tactical Squads stuck close to the Dreadnoughts. Jon's Nobz and Warboss have disassembled my Terminators in close combat in the past, so I decided not to let them get trapped with the rest of my forces on my table edge. Instead, I held them in reserve with the intention of deep striking them behind Jon's lines.

I don't have any real scenery yet. The walls
and trees are from a Little People Nativity set.

The Game
A Bad Start for the Greenskins
As expected, the outlook was dark for the Orks early on. My wife, who has no interest in playing but finds our enthusiasm entertaining and will occasionally watch a turn or two, expected a complete rout. At first the DeffKoptas either couldn't hit or couldn't roll high enough to damage my armor. While my Vindicator had little impact during the first turn, things were very different in turn two. By then, Jon's Nobz, along with Warboss #1, were forced into a tight group while passing between two obstacles. Vastator hit the mob dead in the center, instantly killing nine of the ten Nobz. With that single shot, the Vindicator (115 points) killed about 270 points of Nobz (kill ratio of 2.35) and removed them as a threat. The Captain and the rest of his squad eventually finished off Warboss #1 and the remaining Nob. I reminded both my wife and Jon that the game wasn't over yet; the Orks had yet to really get into close combat.

Tank-Busting
In the meantime, Warboss #2 and the 'Ard Boyz swarmed the multi-melta Dreadnought. Obviously a multi-melta is worthless against a horde, but that's what I have available until I enlarge my army a bit more. The Dreadnought made a valiant effort, but it was quickly wrecked by Warboss #2. The Devastators fired Krak missiles against the DeffKoptas (and brought one down eventually, despite Jon's frequently successful cover saves) and hit the Boyz with frag missiles. Quite a few of the Boyz were saved by cover.

Eventually, the DeffKoptas were able to immobilize the Vindicator and the Venerable Dreadnought, both of which had their weapons pointed towards Jon's side of the table and were unable to get his mobs in their arc of fire. Seeing no reason to waste effort on destroying immobilized vehicles while there was still infantry to kill, Warboss #2 and the 'Ard Boyz mopped up one Tactical Squad and then attacked the Captain and his Tactical Squad while keeping themselves behind or to the side of the vehicles. In the meantime, the Boyz were quickly approaching the Devastator Squad whose Frag missiles seemed to be having very little effect. Things were looking bleak for the Astartes...

Next Time: Will the heroes of humanity fall before the Greenskin tide?

[See Part II of this series]