Battle Summary: Games 2 and 3

Pete and I played two more games that evening. I won't do full battle reports, but I wanted to post some of the pictures and talk about the games briefly.

Game 2

We used the same armies and played the same mission. Only this time, Pete set up the terrain and I selected a deployment zone (we used the angular ones). I won the roll-off, but decided to let Pete deploy first and take the first turn because I thought it might be a big advantage to see how the other force was set-up before I deployed and thought having the last turn might be a big advantage in an objective-claiming mission, which were both true in the previous game. I tried to deploy my boyz as much behind cover and out of sight as possible, but with our lack of terrain, that was impossible. Again, we forgot to roll for Night Fighting!

Game 2 Deployment. 

On the first Space Marine turn, the Devastator squad wiped out the bikes. The plasma cannon killed one and the two heavy bolters killed three, despite my attempted jinking. On my first turn, I moved all the orks straight ahead over the top of the hill to try to get stuck in with the marines. The rokkit buggy and skorcha zipped through the valley, with the rokkit buggy picking up where it left off last game and killing a Tactical marine with a bulls-eye hit with a rokkit.

Ork Turn 1: The Ork wheelz zoom between the hills and open fire on the Tactical squad, killing one marine.

Pete spent his second turn pummeling the slugga boyz on the hill top with fire from both Tactical combat teams and the Devastators. In all, they killed nine boyz and the rest decided to fall back. The orks returned fire on my second turn, but it was rather pitiful. The skorcha moved up and blasted the Devastators, but they passed their armor saves. The rokkit buggy hit the Tac squad again, but didn't wound. The entire shoota mob fired into the Tac squad with flamer, but only killed one despite scoring nine hits!

Ork Turn 2: Middle of Movement phase. 

The Space Marines pretty much sealed the deal in Turn 3. The three remaining marines in the Tactical combat team with flamer moved forward and targeted the shoota boyz. The flamer killed three boyz and the bolters killed three more. The Terminators were finally within range and added their firepower to take down three more, including the nob. Finally, the Devastators wasted two more boyz and the Warboss with their heavy weapons. I conceded at this point as my army was decimated and I had barely scratched the marines by only killing two of his marines!

Game 3

Once more, we used the same armies and played the same mission. I set up the terrain and we rolled for random deployment zone type. We rolled for the first turn and I won. This time, I definitely wanted to set-up first and go first! I certainly learned my lesson after the last game.

I deployed my boyz across the center where I felt they would have the best chance of claiming either (or both) of the objectives. I bunched all of the fast attack together on the right flank so they could support each other and keep the marines busy while the boyz moved forward. Pete deployed his Devastators and Tactical combat team with flamer in the center. His Terminators would once again hold the flank against my vehicles. He deployed his Tactical combat team with missile launcher far to his right, possibly as a distraction to make me split my forces or as a flanking attack for later in the battle. I forgot to take a picture of the deployments.

On the first turn, the bikes and buggies raced ahead firing with everything they had. The bikes killed one Terminator with their massed dakka gun fire. The rokkit buggy hit a Terminator (again!) but in a familiar scene, the marine made his save. The big shoota in the shoota boyz mob killed a Devastator with heavy bolter.

Ork Turn 1 Movement phase from the marines' perspective.

Ork Turn 1 Movement phase.

Turn 1 for the Space Marines found the Tactical team with flamer moving forward to meet the horde. Their firepower brought down three slugga boyz. From Pete's far right flank, the Tactical combat team with the missile launcher dropped another slugga boy with bolter fire. The Terminators take their revenge on the bikes by wiping out the whole squadron with their assault cannon and storm bolters! The Devastators went for the closest threat and fired at the skorcha sled, destroying it.

End of Marine Turn 1. The Ork vehicles took a beating, but did their job of diverting fire from the boyz.

Ork Turn 2: The rokkit buggy knocks a Devastator marine stone-dead with another direct hit. The Warboss calls his Waaagh! and all the orks run forward and then charge. The slugga boyz charge the Tactical team with flamer and lose two boyz to Overwatch, but they make it into combat on Turn 2 despite being slowed by difficult terrain, thanks to their 'Ere We Go! rule. The shoota boyz must have been caught in some snow and ice because they only ran 1" and charged 3", which left them well short of reaching their targets, the Tactical squad. In the melee, the Tactical marines kill two orks. The ork boyz strike back and inflict 12 wounds, but the marines make 9 saves. But it didn't matter because the nob with power klaw killed the last two marines and wiped out the squad. The orks consolidated toward the Devastators.

End of Ork Turn 2. The slugga boyz killed the Tactical squad and moved toward the Devastators.

The Space Marines fought back bravely on their second turn. The Tactical team with missile launcher over on the flank was just within range with a single bolter and was able to kill the ork carrying the big shoota. The Devastators fired point blank at the oncoming slugga boyz and killed four. The Terminators moved forward and fired into the shoota boyz, dropping two. Pete decided that it was better to charge orks than to be on the receiving end of their Furious Charge so he made his first assault of the day by having the Terminators charge the shoota boyz. The orks did no damage with Overwatch, but then Pete rolled a 3 for charge distance the Terminators did not make it!

End of Marine Turn 2: Devastators inflict some pain on the slugga boyz, Terminators take out some shoota boyz, but fall short on the charge distance roll.

On Turn 3, the slugga boyz moved toward the Devastators and fired, but did no damage. The rokkit buggy finally missed a shot. The shoota boyz fire into the Terminators, but fail to kill anything. Typical ork shooting phase! In the Assault phase, the slugga boyz charged the Devastators and the shoota boyz charged the Terminators. Amazingly, neither marine squad killed any orks with their Overwatch fire! The five slugga boyz kill one Devastator in combat and the nob kills another. The marines fail their morale check and fall back, but the orks cannot catch them in a Sweeping Advance (they would have rallied anyway, but we would have at least stayed engaged in combat instead of letting him get away to shoot us). The lone marine fell back to within 1" of his own board edge. In the other combat, the Terminator sergeant with power sword Challenged the ork Warboss and inflicted a wound on him. The shoota boyz killed one Terminator in return. The rest of the Terminators killed a few boyz, but I didn't write down how many. The ork Warboss killed the sergeant in his duel and one of the other Terminators. The orks lost more wounds and so had to roll for morale and passed.

End of Ork Turn 3: Last Devastator fell back to the table edge. Orks kill three Terminators and lose a few of their own.

On Pete's third turn, his Devastator marine with heavy bolter automatically rallied thanks to "And They Shall Know No Fear" and then killed two slugga boyz! Bolter fire from the other Tactical squad killed two more. (All this because I could not stay in combat with that Devastator!) In the other combat, the Terminator killed one more ork before the Warboss split him open.

Marine Turn 3 Shooting phase. The Tactical marines pour fire into the distant slugga boyz, but it is not enough to save their battle brother!

On my fourth turn, the slugga boyz charged the Devastator and the nob finished him off. The rokkit buggy moved closer to the objective on the hill and killed one of the Tactical marines with yet another hit. The shoota boyz and Warboss moved toward the objective near the cliff. The Space Marines took a few long shots at the slugga boyz, but didn't kill anything.

End of Turn 4, I believe. 

Both armies spent Turn 5 maneuvering for position. On the orks' Turn 6, the Warboss and his shoota boyz charge the marines. The boyz kill one marine and the boss is then left out of range, even after consolidating, due to some intervening terrain that stretched the mob out before the charge. On Pete's turn, the boss gets into combat and finishes off the marines.

WAAAAGH!! Victory for the Orks! (Finally!)

The Space Marines got First Blood (1 VP).

The Orks had Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker, and both objectives (8 VP).