Battle report Orks vs Dark Angels – 31-01-2021

Mission: Vital Intelligence Chapter Approved GT Pack

Format: 2000 Points

Opponents: Jonas Orks vs Dariusz Dark Angels

Forewords: with a new supplement looming over the corner, the Dark Angels are looking menacing as ever. Their Deathwing terminators are going to be amongst the most resilient and hard-hitting elite units in the game. With an edition that gives an important role to durable tarpit units, this is a benediction for the Unforgiven. That and their very scary plasma make the recipe for a competitive force to be reckoned with. However, this is all in the future, as the list I played against was still played with the previous rules. And my opponent gave me a cool run for my money.

Mission:

Lists and secondaries:

Dark Angels:

The army had all the flavours of things to come.
Azrael and 2 Talon Masters leading the charge, Terminators as the anvil, Bikes, and Dreadnoughts as the hammer.
Very beautifully written and balanced.

My opponent opted for While we Stand We Fight, Engage on all fronts and Codex Warfare:

• Codex Warfare: the latter proved my opponent’s undoing. That list should have been able to bring a couple more points than this. I first estimated around 10 points.
• Engage on all fronts was a good pick, the list was mobile and had a decent number of reserves
• While we stand, we fight: with the change from model to units, this is definitely going to be one of the top picks of 2021, especially for such a durable outlet as Dark Angels. The units were the Deathwing Knights and two units of bodyguard Deathwing Terminators. Not a tender meat to mince for my Orks.

 Orks:

My list is a single battalion of Evil Sunz with Ghazghkull, a beefed up Mekk in mega armour (Killa Klaw, Kleverest Mekk and Follow me lad) and a Weirdboy to lead the pack. Following them, 80 Boyz, 5 buggies (2 Shokkjump Dragstas and 3 Scrapjets), 2 units of Kommandos, a Painboy and a unit of Meganobz 4-man strong. The concept of my list is pretty simple: use the Boyz to cover objectives, do actions with the Kommandos and use the buggies for two other secondary objectives[1].

I chose my secondaries:
with the list containing 3 characters, 4 vehicles (only two of them over 11 wounds) and small resilient units, a kill secondary was out of the equation.

• While we stand, we fight: Ghaz, 3 Scrapjets and 30 Boyz. Playing all of them conservatively or as counterpunch units if the Marines came too close from my lines.
  This pick was my most swingy one if I did not play my pawns correctly or overextended. I did a bit with the Boyz, and the Scrapjets but more on that later.
• Engage on all fronts: that is an easy pick for me, the Dragstas (16 inches) are so fast they can reach the other side of the board quite rapidly, the Weirdboy can da jump a random unit on the opposite side of the board, Kommandos appear anywhere they need to be… not to mention that Ghaz can always advance and charge while being able to operate solo.
• Deploy Scramblers: step1 – Boyz, turn 1 in your own DZ, step2 – Kommandos, turn 2 in your opponent DZ, step3 – Kommandos, turn 3 in the no man’s land, step 4 – profit.
  Ok, admittedly the execution can be a bit trickier than that but that’s the general concept.

Pregame:

I won the roll-off for deployment (the one that does not matter). I put my Kommandos in reserves and Dariusz set aside his unit of Deathwing Knights and a unit of bodyguard Terminators.

terrain looked like this:

We both deployed our forces behind the big line of sight blocking ruins. My army as a massive blob around the Painboy and under the all too useful Kustom Force Field of my Big Mekk.

I also won the initiative roll off, which means, I would have to take the first turn and start rolling.

Game:

Disclaimer: I won’t be going through every movements and thoughts that went through our minds but give you the gist of what happened. I’ll dive deeper into some of the actions and decisions that made the game and where it swung.

Turn 1 – Orks:

In my opinion, in the current meta, turn one is a positioning turn. Not so much action going on in the Movement Phase. Using the teleporting Cars to snatch 2 objectives and put them in firing position to shoot at some key targets, the Scrapjets positioned themselves to see terminators from an angle, Ghaz stayed himself behind a tall building, binding his time. The Boyz advanced to seize a 4th objective marker. Everyone stayed under the KFF umbrella. I basically maximised my shooting opportunities while shielding me from as much harm as possible.

Psychic Phase saw my Weirdboy granting a full reroll to my Scrapjet thanks to Visions in the Smoke and my Meganobz being catapulted behind enemy lines, 9 inches from Attack Bikes. They were one of the main threats against my list. A 9 inches, with a +1 and a reroll, that’s a decent chance, right? WRONG

The Shooting Phase is where the magic happens (what? Shooting Orks, you say?): the Dragstas decided to pick up the bikes and did peanuts damage (one mortal wound) with their melta-like gun, they killed one termi however with rocket launchers. The Scrapjets almost finished the job with Moar Dakka, leaving one of the bodyguards alive. Once the Dragstas finished shooting they teleported back into the relative safety of the KFF.

The Meganobz tried to get a charge on the attack bikes, which overwatched and did one damage to them in return. They failed their charge on a 6+1 rerolling the 1 into another 1 (they needed anything but). Meaning they would stay put. They did score me 2 points of engage so I was not too unhappy with that.

Turn 1 – Dark Angels:

The Dark Angels moved out of cover towards the objective markers in their Movement Phase,but not quite far enough to snatch back 3 of them. The bikes went to nick the furthest left objective before using a stratagem to hide them behind the line of sight blocking building. The Dreadnought Redemptor pulled to bear on one of the Scrapjets, the Terminators and the Talon Masters aligned their scopes to kill some Boys in the middle of the board. While the attack bikes turned round to take care of the nasty Meganobz in their rear end. Prometheum heating up in their tank cells.

The 20 Boyz took in a lot of lead from various shapes of bolters, but thanks to their magnetic force field and the busy Painboy, only 12 of them died in the Shooting Phase. The Dreadnought Redemptor damaged the Scrapjet badly with his mean plasma gun and the Attack Bikes made short work of the Meganobz.

That rang the end of turn 1

Turn 2 – Orks:

Movement Phase: Have you ever heard the definition of madness? It’s doing the same thing over and over again expecting things to change. So that is exactly what the Orks did. The Dragstas teleported to bear range with valuable targets (The Dread Redemptor), the rest of the troops shuffled around to hide behind the buildings. The Kommandos dropped where the Meganobz once stood and deployed the scramblers.

Psychic phase: the remaining 8 Boyz were sent far into the last corner to score me engage. The Weirdboy induced some Visions in the Smoke to the Scrapjet driver so he could shoot better and so he did.

Shooting phase: everything I had went into the Dread Redemptor and they downed it. Then the Dragstas teleported back out of line of sight.

There is not much to say about that round, I scored my 15 points, claimed enough to prevent my opponent to score 15 too and hid to hopefully withstand the return fire and the coming reserves.

Turn 2 – Dark Angels:

In the Movement Phase, the Angels continued progressing towards the Orks lines, grabbing back 3 objectives on their left flank and home base. One of the Talon Masters flied back towards the right flank to help the Contemptor Dreadnought getting rid of that pesky Scrapjet. The Terminators arrived from reserve on my left flank and snatched a 4^th objective out of my control. Meaning I would only score 5 during my next turn.

The Shooting Phase showed the Talon Master killing the Kommandos with an assault cannon which is heavy. Not the right doctrine… The bikes and Terminators finished the poor Boyz that were kunningly sacrificed to score some engage. Finally, the Contemptor opened up and got rid of the Scrapjet in retaliation for the loss of his venerable brother.

Finally, the Terminators charged a hidden Scrapjet in a building and destroyed it quite easily with their power fists and Thunderhammers. Obviously, the car exploded (Ork technology) dealing some damage to the elite warriors.

The Dark angels had a firm grip on the board now camping 4 objectives and with forces on 3 quarters of the table. But they were tailing on points and still outnumbered around 3 to 1.

 Turn 3 – Orks:

During the Movement Phase, the Dragstas went doing their stuff again, teleporting out in the deployment zone of my opponent. The Kommandos appeared to deploy the scramblers in the no man’s land. One unit of Boyz shuffled in eagerness around the characters and spread (spoiler alert: not enough) to prevent the deep striking of the mighty Knights. The Weirdboy put himself in range of a smite on the warriors that came in last turn, the last unit of Boyz advanced 12” to get a good charge in the same Terminators. It was essential they’d die since it was a WWSWF unit from the Angels, so I decided to allocate my last Scrapjet to them.

Psychic Phase: smite did its job of tenderising one terminator, visions in the smoke went to the Scrapjet. Time for dakka!

Shooting Phase: the Dragstas finally got rid of the attack bikes but one of them ran out of fuel (or couldn’t reach 89 miles per hour?) and did not teleport back. Good thing for me, that would score me 2 engage points.

The Boyz unloaded everything they had on my primary target and the Scrapjet added its own lead and rockets to the mix. When the dust cleared only two terminators perished and the decision should happen in the Charge Phase.

Charge Phase: and charging they did. The Boys and the Scrapjet ran into the Terminators. Buckets of dices were thrown, and 2 more terminators fell under the bluntness of the Orks. For those who wanted to study their physics: this is what happens when an unmovable object meets an unstoppable force. Anyhow, one terminator survived but got trapped into a literal wave of Greenskins.

With scramblers now maxed out and engage well under way, it was looking good for the Greenskins, that only needed to finish the job. But the Deathwing Knights still needed to come and play.

Turn 3 – Dark Angels:

Command Phase: Important to say that at this point, I had managed to steal back every objective marker except one. So, my opponent did not score any primary points that turn.

Movement Phase: remaining on the board were Azrael, 2 Talon Masters, 1 Dread Contemptor, one unit of bikes, 1 unit of terminators 5 strong and 2 lone heroic Deathwing Veterans. The whole left flank of the Penitent was mostly left unscathed and the right flank was a Talon Master and the Dreadnought. Everyone continued progressing forward, nicking objectives in the middle of the board.

The lone Deathwing terminator in the green wave made a Desperate Breakout to allow his brothers to fire at the Boyz.

Finally, the Knights showed up from behind my lines, menacing my WWSWF Boyz and my characters. That was a bad coverage on my part, there should not have been space there. However, I was not worried too much, the only valuable target there were my Boyz and they could withhold 5 Knight, right? Right?

Shooting Phase: Talon Master got rid of the Dragsta lagging at the opposite side of the board, Kommandos were blown from the table by bolts. Contemptor unloaded on the Boyz killing 2 of them. Some other Boyz died from bikes and terminators. But it seems conviction was not in the heart of the Unforgiven. Possibly the charge of the Knights would elevate the spirit.

Charge Phase: unfortunately, and in spite of a reroll, the Deathwing Knights failed their charge and were left in an awkward position, ready to receive their weight in lead in return.

At this point, I thought the game was pretty done and dusted. The Knights could have brought 3 units of mine in the grave with that charge and got some points of Codex Warfare. But failing there left one of his WWSWF exposed while one was already very weakened and the last one was in charge range of the Beast itself.

Turn 4 – Orks:

Movement Phase: Ghazghkull could not take the wait any longer and came out to play, rolling a 4 on his advance thus moving 12 and having to successfully roll a 6 to get to the Termis. His eyes bore down on the unit of Deathwing Terminators that were left untouched. The last remaining Dragsta teleported somewhere (I actually don’t remember since its shooting would prove inconsequential) and the last Scrapjet gazed back to my home base to shoot at the Knights.

The Boyz that must survive body blocked the Knights in a corner, so they could not move anywhere.

Last but not least, the Boyz on the left side chased the remaining veteran hopeful to finally get rid of him.

Psychic Phase: A super Smite inflicted 3 mortal wounds to the Knights; Da Jump was used on the Painboy who landed on an objective marker although in range of the rest of the Angels.

Shooting Phase: the most efficient Orks Phase this game, you heard that right, proved not so good this time. The Boyz’ slugga ripped over the armours of the veteran marines, Ghaz managed to tenderize his prey slightly and as mentioned earlier the Dragsta did nothing good.

Charge Phase: Ghazghkull charged into the Deathwing terminators in the middle of the board, the Boyz on my left flank caught up with the lone Marine. The latter managed to scrap 2 wounds to the Terminator while Ghaz went absolutely beastly lucky killing 4 Deathwing with 5 attacks!!

Turn 4 – Dark Angels:

Movement Phase: too stubborn to die, too ruthless to flee. That sentence could summarize both my previous turn and this movement phase. Both Heroes of the imperium refused to fallback from combat. On either side of the board. That meant, Ghaz was out of danger in the Shooting Phase of this Angel’s turn. I couldn’t help but express a sigh of relief while at the same time jokingly implying Ghazghkull to be a Fallen. The rest of the Marines army was forced to split around to seize points and cope with the few remaining threats here and there. The battle was already won for the Orks, but the Stubborn warriors of the imperium were hellbent on ridding the planet of the foul Xenos.

Knights could only approach the Boyz, for an extremely easy charge.

Shooting Phase: with the two buggies hidden in buildings, the Boyz and Ghaz tied in combat, the remaining firing options were slim. The dread opened up on the WWSWF Boyz in my home base and killed quite a number.

Azrael aimed at the Painboy and missed. The Talon Masters shot the not-so-hidden Dragsta and destroyed it… with heavy weapons.

Charge Phase: Knights did not fail their charge this time… casually killing 18 Boyz, leaving the Nob alone and a bit groggy, panicked even. The Big Mekk shook the poor lad to make him come to his sense… a tad too strongly, he died (instead of taking a morale test, the Big Mekk can inflict d3 mortal wounds, on a 1 or 2, I would only have taken 1 wound and could have used Endless Green Wave. It was worth the try).

Azrael finished the Painboy in a 1-1 duel that decidedly didn’t last awfully long. In the rest of the Fight Phase, Ghaz finished up his part of the job while the Boyz still did not manage to pry open the ceramite of the Terminator armour.

Turn 5 – Orks:

Movement Phase: In the Movement Phase of the last turn, the remaining Boyz received reinforcement to finish up the last terminator on my left flank (Endless Green Wave), Ghaz continued strolling towards the Angels’ Deployment zone. The Weirdboy, the last Scrapjet and the Big Mekk prepared a counter charge on the Knights.

Psychic Phase: Smite on the Knight, 3 wounds. Vision in the smoke on the Scrapjet

Shooting Phase: the Scrapjet whiffed pretty badly on the Knights and all that he could do is see all his projectiles rip on the ornate shields of the Marines. He did manage to scrape two wounds off them.

Charge Phase: The Big Mekk charged and so did the Scrapjet, dealing 2 Mortal Wounds to the Knights. Together they managed to kill 2 Knights. That’s 4 this turn! Not quite enough though. Although the way they were placed and thanks to my consolidation, I put  my Big Mekk as though he could heroically intervene on the falling back Knight, should they choose to. In return, the Knight did a couple of wounds to the Scrapjet.

On my left flank, the Boyz coming from reserve failed their charge, 8 inches rerollable… again. The heroic Terminator would live to fight another day.

Turn 5 – Dark Angels:

Movement Phase: The Contemptor finally got in sight of the last Scrapjet. The Knight indeed fell back out of combat. On the other side of the battle board, the Marines moved out so as to seize the maximum number of objectives.

Shooting Phase: the Dreadnought finished the job of taking out my last buggy.

Charge Phase: I heroically intervened on the remaining Knight with my big Mekk and killed him.

That was how the story unfolded.

Conclusion:

My secondary picks were sound and reliable. I have enough projection to get to any quarter of the table. So, I’d easily be able to gather at least 10 points out of the 15 available for engage. I can do Scramblers without too much difficulty, as long as my opponent is unable to totally screen the map out. And WWSWF was a gamble. It worked out okay this time, as I could protect and play Ghaz defensibly and conservatively. I don’t think it is a secondary I should keep against more mobile and versatile opponents, but it is a great tool to be able to pull off from my pocket.
Possibly the Mission objective could have been achievable on this mission.

I am fairly sure that my opponent was not ready for this type of Orks list, the firepower of the Orks is oftentimes underestimated. Vision in the Smoke and Moar Dakka are combining extremely well together on the Scrapjets, Damage flat 3 on those rockets helped a lot against the Terminators, even when always wounding on 4s. It meant that every fail save was consistently a terminator dead.

Last words are for lady luck as I would definitely say I rolled hot at important times while my down peaks happened on not so important stuff (my out of deep strike charges, that would have been actual win more situations rather than anything else)

My next game is on Wednesday against the Battle Sisters. I have tweaked the list a bit more to bring 1 additional Dragsta.

Lists:

Dark Angels:

Orks:

++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Orks) [99 PL, 9CP, 2,000pts] ++

• Configuration +

Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points)

Clan Kultur / Specialist Mobs: Evil Sunz

Detachment Command Cost

• HQ +

Big Mek in Mega Armour [6 PL, 115pts]: Da Killa Klaw, Da Kleverest Boss, Follow Me, Ladz!, Kustom Force Field, Power Klaw, Shoota (Index), Warlord

Ghazghkull Thraka [15 PL, 300pts]

Weirdboy [4 PL, -1CP, 75pts]: 3. Da Jump, Evil Sunz: Visions in the Smoke, Warphead

• Troops +

Boyz [12 PL, 240pts]: 3x Tankbusta Bombs
. Boss Nob: Choppa, Slugga
. 15x Ork Boy W/ Shoota: 15x Shoota, 15x Stikkbombs
. 14x Ork Boy W/ Slugga & Choppa: 14x Choppa, 14x Slugga, 14x Stikkbombs

Boyz [12 PL, 245pts]: 3x Tankbusta Bombs
. Boss Nob: Big Choppa, Slugga
. 15x Ork Boy W/ Shoota: 15x Shoota, 15x Stikkbombs
. 14x Ork Boy W/ Slugga & Choppa: 14x Choppa, 14x Slugga, 14x Stikkbombs

Boyz [8 PL, 160pts]: 2x Tankbusta Bombs
. Boss Nob: Choppa, Slugga
. 5x Ork Boy W/ Shoota: 5x Shoota, 5x Stikkbombs
. 14x Ork Boy W/ Slugga & Choppa: 14x Choppa, 14x Slugga, 14x Stikkbombs

• Elites +

Kommandos [3 PL, 45pts]
. 5x Kommando: 5x Choppa, 5x Slugga, 5x Stikkbombs

Kommandos [3 PL, 45pts]
. 5x Kommando: 5x Choppa, 5x Slugga, 5x Stikkbombs

Meganobz [8 PL, 160pts]
. Boss Meganob w/ Saws: Killsaws (Pair)
. Meganob w/ Saws: Killsaws (Pair)
. Meganob w/ Saws: Killsaws (Pair)
. Meganob w/ Saws: Killsaws (Pair)

Painboy [3 PL, 65pts]: Power Klaw

• Fast Attack +

Megatrakk Scrapjet [15 PL, -1CP, 330pts]
. Kustom Job: Korkscrew
. Megatrakk Scrapjet: 2x Twin Big Shoota
. Megatrakk Scrapjet: 2x Twin Big Shoota
. Megatrakk Scrapjet: 2x Twin Big Shoota

Shokkjump Dragstas [10 PL, -1CP, 220pts]
. Kustom Job: Gyroscopic Whirligig
. Shokkjump Dragstas: Rokkit Launcha
. Shokkjump Dragstas: Rokkit Launcha

++ Total: [99 PL, 9CP, 2,000pts] ++

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[1] I’ll get to write an in-depth analysis of my list another time.