A Learning Curve

So after my game against my brother, the following day I was down at my FLGS and managed to get one game in against the Orks.

I have only played the Orks once before, and that game did not go well for me, with it being a Kill Point game that I lost quite effectively.

This game was against Jordan, who has a nice hordy army, however not all in Vehciles (Thankfully).

The game was Capture and Control with 5 objectives and Dawn of War deployment. Unfortunately I didnt take lots of time out of the game to make notes about what happened.

The list I used was the second list that I preivously posted, and it performed admirably, wiping out all the Orks by the end of my 5th Turn. Admittedly they did get some serious hurt in when they got close, and I could have done a better job with a bit more Horde killing weapons.

The Deployment played to my advantage as I got to setup first, and deployed a sacrificial squad in the centre of the table to limit his deployment options.

The pictures in the post are from the game, and give a couple of quick snap shots of the action.

My favourite was when the Ork boyz circled his Nob unit to give them a cover save... something that would have worked well had I not managed to snipe them and they then failed their pinning check.

The game was fun and enjoyable, a played at a good pace, and fortunately for me a resounding victory.



That means two games this week, one with each of my latest Imperial Guard Armylists, and both lists were highlighted to have some serious weaknesses.

The first had the Commissars, and was designed to be able to get into combat... something which I thought might be a good idea given that they would be armed for it. This idea was quickly debunked.

The points spent on the Commissars were wasted, as were the power weapons as one squad got the charge on against an under strength Space Marine Tactical squad, with Creeds special order giving them Furious Charge and Fearless and they managed a grand total of 1 wound.

The other unit did not see combat, and given that their option was to charge Vulcan would probably not have faired any better. Both of these things made my mind up that Guard and combat should go their seperate ways... at least for me.

Most of my opponents are Orks, Chaos or some varation of Marine... none of these are going to be beaten in combat by a lowly Guard unit, not without some serious points spent on it, and a bit of luck.

Now I was aware this was an possibility, and it lead me onto my second list, with three tanks, three Vendettas and losts of shooty killyness. Good against a Mech list, but it did struggle against Jordans Ork army. If the setup hadnt turned out to be Dawn of War I might have really stuggled to down all those Orks before they go to me.

So I am thinking about a few small changes. Possibly adding a Valkyrie in instead of a Landraider, and another Leman Russ Battle Tank over a Demolisher. The Battle Tank increases the range of my Tanks, and the Valkyrie adds in more Pie Platey goodness for dealing with Massed troops, it alsow will not go amiss when dealing with Space Marines as the more wounds I can inflict the more saves I can hope my opponent will fail.

I have also begun to doubt the usefulness of the Officer of the Fleet... so I am thinking about trying a couple of Games without him, and instead having a Master of the Ordnance. While his shots might miss widely, and he is tied to shooting at the same target as the Snipers, he is something I will see actually having an effect on the game. If all of my opponents all start to Reserve / Outflank against me then I will look at swapping my Officer of the Fleet back in.

I would also like a couple more options in the Anti-Horde, so I figure that adding in a some Mortars to 1st Platoon will definately give me more chances to pin my enemies, and means they can do something even when the team cannon see the enemy.

I did debate dropping the Lascannons Heavy Weapons team for Rocket Launchers, that would save me a total of 15 points and makes them useful against armour and infantry. The problem with that is it means that if the my opponent can take out the Vendettas, then I will have some serious problems when dealing with Landraiders... and they already cause me nightmares. Another option is to drop the Heavy Wepaons team and incorportate the weapons into Guard units, this will increase their survivability, and will also reduce the Kill points on offer (praise be to the Emporer for Combined Squads!).

Wanting to get rid of enemy armour, I figure that 2nd Platoons Command squad can have two Meltaguns and two flamers, means they will be useful against tanks, and still stand a chance against larger squads. They will almost certainly be in the Valkyire and off on their own harassing the enemy so they wont need a Vox Caster, for that matter no squad in the 2nd Platoon will need a Vox Caster as they will all be mounted in the Vendettas so will be more than likely out of range for Vox Orders. I also think that giving them something to deal with armour isnt a bad idea.

So with all that in mind (and believe me, my mind can only just contain these thoughts) my army list will change to look like:

HQ
Company Command Squad, Vox Caster, Master of the Ordnance, Sniper Rifles x 3

Troops
1st Platoon
Command Squad: Vox Caster, 3 Flamers
Infantry Squad: Vox Caster, Mortar, Grenade Launcher
Infantry Squad: Vox Caster, Mortar, Grenade Launcher
Infantry Squad: Vox Caster, Lascannon
Infantry Squad: Vox Caster, Lascannon

2nd Platoon
Command Squad: 2 Meltaguns, 2 Flamers, Commander with Melta-Bombs
Infantry Squad: Meltagun
Infantry Squad: Meltagun

Fast Attack
Vendetta
Vendetta
Valkyrie: Multiple Rocket Pods

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Battle Tank: Heavy Bolter
Leman Russ Battle Tank: Heavy Bolter
Leman Russ Demolisher: Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta Sponsors

Total: 1500 Points
Total Men: 76.
Total Vehicles: 6
Max Kill Points: 15
Minimum Kill Points: 11

So as usual any thoughts or ideas, comments or critisim let me know.

Comments

Anneleah said…
the Learning Curves, a game?? wow..I was having a different thing on my mind about such word.. ;)