[Orks] Road To Britcon 2010 - Game 1

Morning all,

It's that busy time of year again where everyone starts to rush around thinking about Britcon - what to take, which characters to use, how to play a mission and where will all our beer money come from?

This year is the first year I've decided I don't want to be painting anything before the tournament and I want to know my rules inside out, as opposed to in previous years where I've played new armies, new units and new configurations for the tournament.

One of the more notorious armies at Britcon has always been the Tyranids. They won in 2008 and have come pretty highly consistently. Now with 5th edition, people will moan and complain about "Meta-games" and "Nerfing" but I still think 5th Ed Nids are ace and a very dangerous army to face on the table.

So I've got my same army I took last year, knowing it pretty well and isolating the one silly weakness that cost me a game in the tournament - giving a Mek a Burna instead of a Power Klaw, along with a pointless Ammo Runt upgrade on the Warboss on a bike, he's now got a Kombi Skorcha to allow the bikes to deal with Hordes.

We played a Pitched Battle deployment in an Objectives mission. 2 being set up in my deployment zone, 1 being set up in the Tyranid deployment, 1 slightly further out.

I deployed with my 2 big Boyz mobs in the middle of the table, flanking a Burna Battlewagon with KFF Mek. The left boyz Mob supported by the Deff Dred, the right supported by Killa Kans. I set up a unit of 15 Shoota Boyz on my left objective, 17 Grotz on the right. I then kept my Warboss and Nob Bikers on the far right hand flank, able to utilise their Turbo Boosting and fast speed.

The idea was to be that my foot sloggers could hold the middle and go for a Tyranid objective each, with their respective support units and the Mek and Burnas for support where needed.

I didn't take notes, so I thought I'd just cover the major points of the game and give a conclusion in terms of the list and preparation for Britcon.

The Burna Boyz were, like last year, immense. They wiped out a unit of Tyranid Warriors, Alpha Warrior, Hive Tyrant and Tyrant Guard, Tervigon and Mycetic Spore, along with the help of their friendly Big Mek.

The Nob Bikers have a good showing despite getting thinned out pretty early on. They took down a Dakka Fex, Trygon Prime and the Warboss went after a unit of Hive Guard and wiped them out.

The Slugga Boyz as usual were steadfast. They killed when needed to and held firm most of the other times. The sheer amount of attacks they can put out is still horrible to any opponent.

The Shoota Boyz didn't do much at all, when faced with a unit of Gaunts they fled and continued to run off the board.

The Grotz... well, they set up and did nothing all game. Which means they had a good game!

The Deff Dred managed to destroy a Tervigon in close combat, thin out the Tyranid warrior unit and also destroy a unit of Gaunts via Skorcha attacks causing them to flee and destroy them by attempting to assault. Then clearing the Gaunts off the objective they were camping in, meaning a possible draw turned into a guarenteed win.

The Battlewagon showed BS2 isn't always so bad, taking out a Mycetic spore in a single shot, but it didn't manage to do much else aside from deliver the Burnas to the fight.

The Killa Kans managed to hammer the Doom of Malan'tai, but not without taking 2 casualties in return along with providing extremely valuable support fire for the rest of the army.

Conclusion

Overall it was a good 2 - Nil victory. I had a plan, stuck with it and the dice went my way. I crowded the park where it was necessary and played to the mission.

I just feel I need to work on my manouverability a bit more with the Boyz and try to keep them alive. In a 32 - 0 scoring scale, all the troops are important if I'm trying to aim for the top.

Peace,
SB