Brilliant moves until they are not so brilliant

The league's best painted minis in action. ;-)

"Good evening sports fans, this is Jim Johnson..."
"...and Bob Bifford saying hello for this evening's between the Lar Guardians and Bob's Greenskinz Boyz."
"The Lar Guardians are still decimated tonight as they still have to stomach the absence of Ulminiel, their star receiver, but also Kalidoniel, who played really well recently."
"That's right, Jim, so the big question is tonight if the Guardians' second rank is adequate enough to replace them in tonight's game."
"Well, Bob, so far in this season Bob's Greenskinz only achieved a tie, so this is not an impossible game for the Guardians."
"That's right, Jim, if the Guardians can keep deaths in their ranks minimal, this surely could be something."

"And there we have the kick-off and Garfindel with the reception!"
"Garfindel probably is going to be the pillar of stability tonight with his accurate passes."

"Sertaniel thanks him with the catch and already storms upfield! The Orks didn't see this coming, Bob!"

"But the Orks don't accept No! for an answer and strip Sertaniel off the ball!"

"That's right Bob, but what's this? Garfindel with the Blitz!"

"Wow, Jim, nobody shouldn't ever say again this guy is for throwing passes only!"

"The Orks push Garfindel out of bounds, Sertaniel gets the ball, just to see the ball stripped from him by the Orks again!"

"More Wood Elves moving up from the 50 yard line, Spumantiel with the Blitz, and Sertaniel at the ball again!"
"Sertaniel breaks free and scores! Touchdown!"

"And this is the end of the first half. Wow, Bob, that was a wild back and forth."
"Indeed, Jim, so this promises an interesting second half with both teams pretty much tied."
"Well, Bob, speaking for Bob's Greenskinz I need to point out the casualties already piling up in the Guardians' dugout while the Boyz suffered none so far."

"Still we have the kick-off for the second half and - oh man! - the Orks managed to kick the ball accurately to the 50 yard line!"
"Impressive indeed, Bob, impressive indeed."

"But will they be able to score?"
"Sertaniel! It's Sertaniel! The Orks fail to pick up the ball, but Sertaniel is faster!"

"But this time the Orks paid attention, Jim, and they knock him from here to kingdom come."

"Tarod Foretake with the pass to Ronatgul the Troll - brilliant catch!"
"Ronatgul is loose! He storms to the Guardians' end zone! He storms to the Guardians' end zone! He storms to the Guardians' end... and stumbles over his feet..."

"Seeing the opportunity, Zafiriel breaks free and moves way downfield for the pass."
"Garfindel noticed, leaps forward, but Shum Dragonfury holds him back in the last instant!"
"Oh my god, Bob, I am gonna have a heart attack. The ball is still loose in the Guardians backfield when this should have been a touchdown for them!"
"Ronatgul decides to take the matter - errr, the ball into his own hands again."

"Thaal Dreamrunner moving up to assist, Ronatgul with the handover, Dreamrunner runs and scores!"

"Oh my god, the stadium just explodes, Jim!"
"Indeed it is, Bob. We are moving up into the bottom of the second half and if the Orks continue at this pace, a second touchdown is in range!"
"Back for the kick-off. The Guardians find it increasingly hard to put layers onto the field."

"But what's that? Sertaniel receives the kick, bypasses Garfindel, and throws deep to Zafiriel!"
"Elegant catch by Zafiriel, Jim. Moving up to the end zone."

"But once again the Ork Zug rushes in. Zafiriel down - and this time it really hurt!"
"Indeed, Jim. Zafiriel unconscious and bleeding heavily from his head."

"Zafiriel reels back onto his feet, but there's no one to assist him."
"That's right Jim, Dreamrunner again in the possession of the ball."

"In the meantime, the Guardians' line of scrimmage all but gone!"

"Dreamrunner moving the ball up the field again. The referee checks his watch..."

"...but Spumantiel breaks free again! Spumantiel with the Blitz! Spumantiel dives for the ball...

"...and trips over his feet."
"The referee blows the whistle! It's a tie!"

"Well, Bob, what a ride."
"A ride it was indeed, Jim."
"It is evident how the Guardians lack stamina, but they can play brilliant moves even if they are completely down."
"True that, Jim, but they really need to find a way to solve this issue. Their brilliance gives them a decent conversion rate, but with more stamina they could be exceptional."
"Well, with that in mind we say good night for tonight. This is Bob Bifford..."
"...and Jim Johnson signing off for tonight. I hope you are with us again this Tuesday in the Plane of Plagues for a rotten good time at the Potzers. Good night!"

The Story of Snubgubbin and Mission Objective 1

Winged angel vs. brute greenskin, that's how it is.

This battle reports covers my latest BA game vs. McMortison's Orks, both sides showed up with 1'500pts. Brother Techmarine Cephalus watched with concern the spread of an Ork infestation on Psimonis IV and decided to make haste to former Guard batiments near a strategic hilltop, but once he arrived there with his force the Orks were already at the doorstep, too.

This is how we set up in a bare green landscape with barracks, a watch tower, a hill, and a couple craters from a former conflict. We played corner to corner.

Round 1

On turn 1, the Ork tankz simply advanced. From left to right: Battewagon with BigMek (acting as the warlord), Trukk (on the hill) with 10 Nobz, another Battlewagon, Lotted Wagon.

That Trukk with the 10 Nobz had to die first, so the Blood Angels concentrated their disciplined fire on it. The Scouts on the watch tower managed to blow it up and scored First Blood.

Fire from the Battlewagon on the far right made this Techmarine lose his Stormbolter, close the Rhino's hatch, and have a cup of coffee inside with less lead in the air.

Once it was my turn to move, a miracle happened on the far left: the Meltagun and the Multimelta of the Tactical Squad in the Rhino (behind the watch tower) actually hit!!! The Battlewagon was a structure of molten metal after that.

In all of my games vs. Orkz, this definitely was the luckiest as I usually struggle against their vehicles with my Blood Angel's limited shooting.

The BigMek and his Boyz even started to run towards their table edge because of the losses they suffered from the exploding Battlewagon.

End of turn 1. (my D20 is the red one with the single point from First Blood)

Round 2

The start of turn 2 saw the arrival of the Ork flyers. This promised to become a very bad day - for someone. o.O

Snubgubbin felt the wind under the wings of his plane. Majestically it glided over a sea of green. The enemy was ahead, Snubgibbin's head was a crystal clear focus. Gently he swung in to that pesky red Spez Marinez Rhino, excitedly fingering that release button. A little red light flashed on his dashboard. Not yet, this was too soon. Three more red lights started to flash quickly. Snubgubbin didn't mind, he just felt the connectedness between him, his prey, and the bringer of death he rode through the sky like no Ork did ever before. And then the plane bore into the ground and vanished with a loud bang. The Brother Techmarine looking out of the Rhino hatch shielded his vision with his left hand from the falling dirt and then continued with his tasks.

The next tragic incident: where you can see McMortison's rulebook, just seconds ago was the BigMek and his Boyz. They decided to walk off the table rather than to rally and pick up the fight again. Hence I got another VP for killing the Ork warlord. I watched the Ork army dissolve without me doing much and started to feel sorry for them. :-/

At least the Nobz managed a quick hike down center to grab MO 6 for another Orky VP.

The remaining Ork Bomma fired at the Scouts, but their reinforced watch tower held.

So did this brave Rhino on the far right when it got sandwiched between a Battlewagon and a Looted Wagon.

Start of my turn 2. The Death Company, the Assault Squad, and the DC Stormraven with my Techmarine (and warlord) arrived from my table edge.

These two were left of the 10 man Nobz squad after the Assault Squad's Flamers and the DC Boltpistols were done with them. My DC failed their charge and foolishly I didn't announce a charge with my Assault Squad, so these two Nobz were left alive.

The Stormraven sent this abomination called Looted Wagon to its grave and had the Boyz inside exit it.

Right next to that (left edge in the picture above) the Third Squad's Rhino drove in a last effort right into this crater onto Mission Objective 1. The Rhino broke down, but the exiting Marines scored another VP.

So at the end of Round 2 I was able to build a thin lead of 2 VP.

Round 3

Start of Round 3.

The Bomma started by sprinkling Napalm onto the DC.

Then the last Battlewagon unloaded its Boyz right next to the DC, too.

Then the third and final Ork plane reduced the Assault Squad to its Veteran Sergeant.

The DC ate the charge and Brother Librarian Metipacus dulled the Ork Nob with the Powerklaw. Both were left standing because Metipacus hadn't activated his Forceweapon and the Nobz' Powerclaw proved to be too clunky to wield properly.

My lead shrunk to one point.

The start of my turn 3.

Once again, Brother Librarian Metipacus failed to activate his Forceweapon, but he gave himself The Quickening (I rolled a 2 on the D3) and Shield of Sanguinius to the entire DC.

With the power of the Warp, he finished off the Nob with his number of attacks.

The remaining Veteran Sergeant joined the fray, too, and started to hack a bloody path with his Powersword.

I hadn't won any VPs because my missions (kill something with a Flyer/Jump unit, kill something during your Assault Phase, kill an enemy flyer) were good, but my progress slow. While the DC can eat a charge and survive eat, it definitely slows down the VP hunt.

Round 4

Start of Round 4.

In the upper left corner, the Boyz from the broken down Looted Wagon assaulted the Tactical Squad still sitting on MO 1 because, well, they had drawn the card to capture MO 1, too. The Tactical Squad proved to be harmless with one attack each, but they did ungodly well on their Armor Saves.

To eliminate another unit and thus gain another VP, the green Bomma unloaded onto the Scouts sitting on top of the barrack on the far left and swiftly executed them.

Now the score was tied again.

On my turn 4, the Land Speeder finally arrived, shot the remaining Battlewagon into its rear with the Assault Canon, and blew it up. This meant the Orkz no longer had any big canons left that could be a threat to my jump infantry out in the open.

The Stormraven did a 90° turn and with its Assault Canon shredded the green Bomma for another VP.

Brother Librarian Metipacus executed the last Nob...

...and the rest of the DC mopped up the Boyz for two VP.

Hence I managed to gain a small lead of three points again.

Round 5

Start of Round 5.

The red plane came onto the battlefield again, aimed at the Land Speeder,...

...and had it crash and burn.

The score remained unchanged because my Tactical Squad was still sitting on MO 1 preventing the Orkz from scoring.

On my turn 5, I pulled the card to - you guessed it - hold MO1 as well. On the left side of the hill, the barely damaged Rhino raced to the buring Rhino and help its brethren, behind the hill you can see the shapes of my jump infantry moving up to do the same as well.

On top of MO 1, one Marine still weathered the Orkzez by successfully rolling all his 3+ Armor Saves - he even managed to take off one wound from the Nob by smashing his Bolter onto the Nobz' green head.

The score remained unchanged and the dice said (on a 2) that Round 5 also was our final round, so I won a small victory.

The battlefield at the end of the game.

Though I had many fun games in my life, this definitely was the most fun game ever simply because Orkz being Orkz. This could have been an entirely different game if my Melta Weapons hadn't hit their targets, Snubgubbin hadn't been such a vain pilot, and the BigMek with the Snotzogga hadn't simply walked off the field. Yet more than any victory points and tactical maneuvers I enjoyed this game for letting each army be its character: Orkz hitting like a brick but with their usual discipline problems, Marines being the few and elite who wouldn't break even in harshest conditions.

As I wrote this battle report, every second of the game bubbled up again and this probably was the quickest battle report ever written by myself, so you can take this as an indicator how much fun the game was. All rewards belong to McMortison for hosting this game and for being the awesome sportsman and fluff nut that makes any game with him an experience of its own.