Do you know the threat ranges?

The content of this tiny case is trying to stand against the mighty Whaaaaagh!

So while +Botond Gati was busy winning a WM/H tournament abroad, we did some sort of "relaxed" 40K gaming back home with +Tudor Stanescu, +Sven Emmert, and +Andreas Balmer (plus +Michael Althauser, sort of). The game was very relaxed in terms of interpretation of rules and laid back gaming, but both Space Marines and Orkzez took their business very serious, of course. The match-up was

3'000pts of Orkzez
vs.
1'500pts Dark Angels & 1'500pts Blood Angels

+Tudor Stanescu even wrote a nifty prequel:

The year is 221997. M41 - the great ork invasion is in full swing in the Third Armageddon War. Piscina IV is a planet covered in teeming oceans and dotted with chains of volcanic islands. It's a planet used by the Dark Angels for recruitment, however, at the moment, only a handull of the Third Division being lead by the Company Master Belial and some small elements of the Ravenwing and Deathwing are present on the planet.
Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, the most formidable greenskin in the galaxy is leading the ork assault. There had been no space hulks or roks detected entering the system - the orks had landed troops on the surface through new long range 'telly-porta' technology, the brainchild of Nazdreg, an ostentatious Bad Moon Warboss nearly as powerful as Ghazghkull himself, using an ancient Bad Moon temple long forgotten and fallen into ruin on the planet surface as a landing medium.
The first move was Ghazghkull teleporting himself alongside a sizeable force, from Scylla,  their distant space hulk. Before the rest of the invasion force could be sent, however, the orks ran out of power to fuel their still experimental telly-porta. In order to bring reinforcements from their hulk, including their enormous Gargants, the Orks needed more energy. They quickly captured a small power plant at their landing site, but still needed more. Ghazghkull thus led an assault to capture the power plant of Piscina IV's nearby capital hive - Kadillus Harbour. The small contingent of Dark Angels stationed nearby responded. In order to slow down the attack, Belial challenged Gazghkull to a duel, but proved to be no match for the enormous greenskin, and was taken out of action with grevious wounds for the remainder of the battle. The orks had their second power plant.
The orks only needed one more powerplant for their landing site to become fully operational, and all that stood between them and the plant was Koth Ridge. It was only after the Dark Angels had made a desperate last stand, rallying around the wounded Belial and outnumbered 1000 to 1, that reinforcements had had time to arrive. Unexpectedly, it wasn't the remainder of the chapter that had responded to their distress call first, but a stray contingent of Blood Angels that was patrolling the area to fend off any outstretching tentacles of the all consuming Waagh!
Lead by Erasmus Tycho, who more than any had a score to settle with the orks, and was already displaying the berserking signs that symbolize the climax of the Blood Angel's tour de force, the contingent joined their Angels of Death brothers and started hitting back - the odds were now even.

The Marines stand ready to fend off the Whaaaaagh: on the very left a BA Vindictaor plus a 10 men Devastators Squad (plus a tactical squad near the center), the the DA infantry with a Dreadnought, another Vindicator, a Predator, and Ravenwing bikes.

On the other side of the table there simply was "the Horde"...

...and - oh look - it's a true 2013 Althauser! Ork players need to bring many dice!

End of Orkzez Turn 1: they just run/roll and shoot a little, nothing serious - yet. The Koptaz circle around the DA Scouts on top of the building, but there's no major problem.

End of Marines Turn 1: in the upper left where you see a single red dice on the grey ground once was a War Trukk with Gazzkhul Trakka & Co. - but the supreme DA fire power made them a thing of the past. The BA proved to be far less effective; the BA Vindicator near the building hurt two Killa Kanz and killed three Boyz, the BA Devastators decided to something really risky and shot the yellow Battle Waggon in the back - without any success. Should have shot them KIlla Kanz again. :-/

End of Orkzez Turn 2: they whaaghed (the regular one as Ghazzkul was dead) and stormed forward. The BA infantry pretty much evaporated, the DA stood their ground. Oh, and the Orkzez Fightin' Bomma appeared on the sky.

End of Marines Turn 2: the Nephilim Jet Fighter arrives on the scene and does - something...

...while the BA Vanguard Veterans perform a Heroic Intervention on the Killa Koptaz...

...because the stupid Assault Squad scatters and blocks the path to the juicy War Waggon.

On the other side of the table, two Baal Predators flank onto the table and ignite 18 Boyz on the spot. The single DA Scout on the roof even managed to scare away the Killa Koptaz! The most laughed at unit suddenly was a champion. :-)

Also, the DA cavalry arrived and meant serious business much to the chagrin of the Lootaz.

End of Orkzez Turn 3: they did what they always do in such a situation - continue to run and hack Marines in Melee! Yes, they had only hand weapons, but passing like 20 Armor Saves isn't exactly a walk in the park either. At this point, the Marines line of defense was anything but fully gone.

End of Marines Turn 3: we called it a games after seven hours. The last DA infantry models (five black minis in front of the mission objective) would have been gone in the next turn.

The Baal Predators were speeding up trying to come to the DA's rescue, but it would have taken them minimally one or even two or three turns.

In the backfield, the Deathwing gave the Lootaz a demonstration of their idea of pest control.

So on to the MVPs:

For the Marines, it was tanks because of their sheer mobile fire power and the Deathwing because they are a heavy weight that simply dominates a local area. A special honorable mention to the DA Scout Sergeant who single handedly defeat the Killa Koptaz!

For the Orkzez, it was the humble Ork Boy in a mob of 30 forming the Green Tide. Sooner or later, this had to smash into our lines as our firing priorities were on the vehicles with the Ork Nobz.

What do we Marines need to do better in our next game? Get rid of static infantry, it's pointless against the Green Tide. Tanks are good, but also mobile elements coming in through the air. It sounds like I need to paint up my two Storm Ravens.

Short trip to 40K

Tonight's 1'000pts of Blood Angels.

Every once in a while you get a weirt idea, e.g. playing 40K again after two years of playing WM/H exclusively, so this is how this blog gets an update again after one year.

As there also has been an edition change one year ago, this happened to be the first game in 6th Edition for me and my buddy +Tudor Stanescu. We agreed to play 1'000pts with the goal to have fun and see how the new rules are like.

Surprisingly, the game felt rather fluid and easy to get back into, although I am sure we did many mistakes. However, we didn't care as it was just an easy game.

My list at 1'000pts:

Epistolary
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer
Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack
Aussault Squad
Tactical Squad
Ball Predator

This is how we set up at the start of the game. I seize the initiative.

BA Turn 1: My troops advance. The Baal Predator scores a "Crew Shaken" result on the Dreadnought with its Assault Canon.

DA Turn 1: Tudor wants to deepstrike his Terminators, but that somehow doesn't make sense in his backyard. We check the rules and see that his bikes can Scout. We reposition them so they are right in front of the Baal Predator and the Terminators arrive. At the end of the turn, the BA Assault Squad is no more. The Baal Predator remains intact, though.

BA Turn 2: My own Terminators arrive from reserve and shoot Tudor's Tactical Squads with the remnants of my own Tactical Squads. The Baal Predator falls back and shoots the Terminators, but I don't score any rending shots and they make their saving throw.

At this point we had to end the game already as the shop was closing. :-/ However, the game confirmed my expectation that the 40K rule set is still good enough to have a fun and casual game. I also noticed while watching other 40K players at the store how relaxed their way of playing was. Once you have grown a habit of playing with chess clocks, you take it so much for granted that you stop to remember how playing without a clock was. Well there I got to feel it again.

I guess WM/H still is going to be my favorite rule set for years to come. In comparison, WM/H has the easier and better designed rules, but an unbelievable complexity because of the units' cards. Warhammer 40K, on the other, has complex rules, but especially in a game where you play Marine vs. Marine you can roll quite quickly as there are only a couple units' special rules you have to keep in mind.

Will I play 40K soon again? Probably not. However, if I do, it will be in the most relaxed way possible. It sounds like a BA/DA vs. Orkzez campaign may be coming up. ;-)