40K Friday - The Tranicos Campaign Battle 2 - Recon In Force

Establishing a presence on the planet with the help of several brother marine chapters, the Crimson Fists begin their campaign of reclamation. In particular, one small band of Space Wolves helps hold the line against the green tide ...

This too was a 500 point battle to help get our campaign started. This time I was playing the Orks and Apprentice Blaster was playing the Space Wolves:



1 Warboss (HQ) @ 105 Pts
     'Eavy Armour; Cybork Body; Power Klaw; Shoota / Skorcha; Stikkbombz;
     Warlord

13 Ork Boyz (Troops) @ 124 Pts
     Slugga (x13); Choppa (x13)

     1 Nob @ [46] Pts
          'Eavy Armour; Power Klaw; Slugga

13 Ork Boyz (Troops) @ 78 Pts
     Slugga (x13); Choppa (x13)

1 Killa Kan (Heavy Support) @ 80 Pts
     Dreadnought CC Weapon; Big Shoota

     1 Killa Kan #2 @ [40] Pts
          Dreadnought CC Weapon; Big Shoota

1 Killa Kan (Heavy Support) @ 40 Pts
     Dreadnought CC Weapon; Skorcha

2 Big Gunz (Heavy Support) @ 72 Pts
     Lobba

     8 Grot Krew (Gretchin) @ [34] Pts

          1 Runtherd @ [10] Pts
               Grabba Stick; Slugga

Models in Army: 42


Total Army Cost: 499

Around 30 Orks, a couple of Kans, and some big indirect fire guns- I should be able to make something of that!

Blaster's forces consisted of a Grey Hunter squad, a small Blood Claw squad led by his wolflord, and some Long Fangs.

We played Scenario 2 - Purge the Alien. My Warlord trait was Master of the Vanguard, giving my Warboss and his boys an extra roll when running. I set up the two mobs of boyz and the kans on the center & right, aiming to take out his fangs and hunters. The lobbas were on the left in some cover. He set up the hunters in some woods on his left, the long fangs in a ruin in the center, then the blood claws on his right. Our backstory was that the Space Wolves were out on patrol and had tracked a party of Orks into a wooded area where things got hot:

Ork Turn 1 - The boyz run forward, the kans shoot and miss, the lobbas shoot and scatter all over, doing nothing!

Wolf Turn 1 - 3 out of 4 Fangs hit, killing 6 boyz

Ork Turn 2 - Boyz run forward, lobbas and kans continue to miss

Wolf Turn 2 - Grey hunters& fangs wipe out a boyz mob and put a wound on the warboss!

Ork Turn 3 - Boyz charge the long fangs, wipe them out, one kan charges the hunters then explodes when blown apart by krak grenades

Wolf Turn 3 - Hunters kill more boyz

Ork Turn 4 - Everybody runs, lobbas continue to miss

Wolf Turn 4 - Hunters shoot at back of the remaining kan, lay one hull point on it, Blood Claws move up

Ork Turn 5 - Kan shoots, boyz run

Wolf Turn 5 - The last Kan dies to bolters and plasma fire, Claws and Lord charge boyz and Boss, take them down in Assault

So the Wolves win 6 VP's to 1 - not a great showing by me. Attempting to charge a unit of Grey Hunters in cover with only half of my forces was a mistake, and taking lobbas in a small battle like this was probably a mistake too. I'm thinking buggies or more boyz instead of lobbas and kans would have been better choices. I can tell I have a learning curve to climb going back to small-point ork forces. Apprentice Blaster was happy with the way it went for him, as he should have been.

Next time we're bumping it up to 650 and we will play another one or two battles.