Yesterday was a holiday, so neither writing or working out was done. Instead, I lazed about the house for the day. It was peaceful and relaxing. I made red beans and rice for dinner. Things were a little thin as a I added too much water.
Last Sunday I played second edition 40K with David. For the third time, his Crimson Fists matched wits with my Blood Axe Orks. I was playing Hold the Line as my mission and David drew Dawn Raid. We previously agreed to 1250 points. Since marines are such a low model count in second edition, my strategy was to surge forward so that it would be difficult for his forces to reach the halfway mark for his mission objective. We didn't use Strategy Cards as my printer was out of ink so I never got to finish making them. Next time, hopefully.
My list included my warlord, Kolonel Krump, a Mekaniak, Painboy, Runtherd, two mobs of boyz, two large mobs of grots, a mob of nobz in 'eavy armor, a battlewagon, warbike, dreadnought and artillery (smasha gun and pulsa rokkit). In second edition, Orks had to take a Mek to field vehicles, a Painboy (and Mek) to field a dreadnought, and a Runtherd to field artillery. I also use Runtherds in grot mobs to boost their leadership since they are often outside the leadership bubble of the Warboss.
For the first two turns my army surged forward, filling up no man's land with green bodies. My light armor was immediately a threat (as intended), and the vehicles did their job of peeling away some bodies while taking a lot of shooting in the first round.
Dave was only fielding one Tactical Squad, five terminators, a dreadnought, a Rapier weapons platform with three characters making up his command -- a Chapter Master, Techmarine (required for vehicles in this edition), and an Apothecary. Since the dreadnought was with the terminators on my right flank, I spent my shooting for the first couple of turns focused on whittling down the Tactical Space Marines. Thanks to the mass of fire I kept sending his way, the ten marines were burned down, as well as the Apothecary.
The Chapter Master only took one wound before he waded into one of the gretchen mobs by turn three. I was happy to keep him locked into combat to keep him tied up. On the other hand, dealing with the dreadnought and terminators was brutal. The Crimson Fist dreadnought traded shots with my own Ork dreadnought, each damaging the other, until mine caught fired and was rendered immobile.
The other mob of grots did their duty and absorbed two volleys of storm bolter fire. And while they did break after the first round of fire, they rallied and regrouped back into the fray. The Blood Axe Boyz and Kolonel Krump avoided shooting until the end of the game; during turn four I moved Da Kolonel into range so that he could toss his squig stikkbomb (Da Kolonel's Gambit). While it hit the dreadnought, it failed to do any damage. In return, the terminators shot up the squad and routing the squad (humiliating, I know).
By the end of Crimson Fist Turn Four, only the Chapter Master, Dreadnought and Terminators were left standing. The Tactical Squad, Apothecary, and Rapier weapons platform were destroyed. On the Ork side, a few mobs were whittled down, as well as a war bike and Snakebites Boss. Dave secured more victory points than me, but I was able to secure my mission objective while denying the Crimson Fists their own. This allowed me to pull ahead and secure a 9-7 victory for the Orks.
Overall, I think Dave played very well. We've been playing Warhammer together for nearly 20 years, and he's a player that succeeds by playing to the mission. I think in this case I was able to corral the heavy units in his list, which made him rethink committing them deeper into the table. Had he spent just one more turn advancing the dreadnought and TDA, the game could've been his. And while the Orks took heavy losses (mostly grots, so it doesn't really count), I succeeded in my goal to deny him his Dawn Raid mission, which, in turn, also ensured the success of my Hold the Line mission.
For our next game, we are going to move to 1500 points, as well as introducing pskyers! We've been building up slowly so that we could focus on relearning the rules and fundamentals, so this should be interesting. In addition, I should be able to complete strategy cards for us to use. as well as what we will need for the Psychic Phase (Warp Cards and the psychic powers decks).
For my next 250 points, I plan to add a Weirdboy so that I have some psychic potential on my side. I'm not sure what to do with the rest. I'm thinking of what kind of firepower I can add since I will be struggling with dreadnoughts and terminators again!
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