Kill Team Battle Report 2: Alaitoc V.S Orks

We hadn't made it very far before we ran into some more aliens on this wretched planet, this time it was the loathsome Orks. As soon as the beasts saw us they began to charge forwards, shooting wildly, ostensibly at us, but doing nothing more than minor paint scratches to our fine armour. As they approached, we launched our attack. Using the runes as you taught me I was able to strike down nearly half their number in a psychic storm, while our warriors all but shredded their leader. The orks continued to try and resist, but it wasn't long before we had wiped out the majority, and sent the rest fleeing for their lives. We decided not to pursue, our own agenda being more important than the lives of a few battered and bloody greenskins.

--- Psyhic message from Warlock Ylrad to Farseer Aldean of Alaitoc ---

My second battle in the Battle for Piscea Prime was against Jordan and his Orks. We played the same mission that I played against Ben in the last game, as he wanted to try it out. I think I mentioned before that this particular mission is one that my particular list really excels at, as I can use my speed to great effect. Jordan is also relatively new to 40k, and unlike with Ben I thought to give him a bit of a briefing on what each of my models was capable of before we had started, to make things a little more fair. The lists were as follows:

Alaitoc Strikeforce

Team Leader:

Warlock Ylrad - Warlock on a Jetbike with the Spirit Stone of Windfall - 65

Core:

Jetbike - 17

Jetbike - 17

Jetbike with Shuriken Cannon - 27

Ranger - 12

Special:

Warp Spider - 19

Warp Spider - 19

Fire Dragon - 22

Total: 198

Fast, shooty, tough (for Eldar at least), and with psychic support. Whats not to like here? The only change here is that I had some RP from my battle with Ben. I put my jetbikes into a group and upgraded them to be BS 5, and I upgraded the Fire Dragon to BS 5 as well. Maybe now he'll hit something.

Boss Bludkrumpa's Boyz

Team Leader:

Boss Bludkrumpa - Boss Nob with Big Choppa, Eavy Armour, Metal Skull, Ammo Runt, Bosspole - 55

Core:

Boyz Mob with 4x Shootas, 1x Big Shoota, and 'Eavy Armour - 60

Boyz Mob with 4x Shootas, 1x Rokkit Launcha - 40

Special:

Killa Kan with Grotzooka - 55 

Total: 200

What we have here is a few Boyz, a Nob and a Walker. Bludkrumpa could be a problem, as T5 is pretty tough, and if he makes combat I'll be in trouple, and if the Kan makes combat i'm losing the model that it fights pretty much for sure, so they are probably the biggest threats. Personally, I would probably have ditched the armour on the Boyz, and gone with sluggas instead to take a whole other squad, but the injury rules are pretty punitive towards melee armies, so I see why he may have wanted guns instead. I think that this list will really start to come into its own once we get to higher points levels and he's able to add a few more toyz.

The Playing Field

I went with Destructor/Renewer for this battle, which may have been a little dirty, but I just couldn't resist the idea of being on the other side of the flame template for a change. Jordam one the roll to deploy/go first and elected for first turn. As I wanted him to get a little closer anyways, I decided not to attempt to seize the initiative. His deployment was pretty simple, as it generally is with this few models. The Big Shoota Boyz went on the right behind the piece of defence line, while the Rokkit squad went in the forest. The Kan deployed half in the forest, a bit behind them , and Bludkrumpa stood boldly in the middle, able to go either way.

I continued with my tactic from last game, mostly clumping up as close to the center as I could, trying to hide behind the hill as best I could, with the Ranger on his own guarding my objective.

Turn 1

With a great cry of "Waaagh!" the orks surged towards the Eldar battle group, the Boyz with the Big Shoota moving into cover behind the defence line section, joined by their Nob, and the Rokkit squad moving carefully through the trees. The Killa Kan moved up a bit, but was also hindered by the thick woods. Firing wildly at the assembled Eldar was inneffective, the few shots that did manage to make contact with the sleek Jetbikes skipping harmlessly off their armour. 

The Orks had advanced, just as Ylrad knew they would, so the Eldar of Alaitoc sprang their trap.the entire force heading directly toward's Bludkrumpa and the Boyz on the right flank. Calling upon his runes of psychic destruction, Ylrad send bolts of eldritch lightning washing over the Boyz, causing four of them to collapse writhing on the ground. With that threat all but neutralized, Ylrad directed his warriors to shoot at Bludkrumpa himself, bringing him down under a volley of Shuriken and Deathspinner fire. The Jetbike with the Shuriken Cannon fired instead into the Killa Kan, stunning the rickety walker. Their targets neutralized, the force faded back towards the hill.

Turn 2

Angered by the loss of their leader, the Boyz in the forest fought their way free, while Ork resilience made itself known, with some of the hardier members of the ravaged squad on the right managing to struggle to their feet, despite the psychic lightnings still lingering in the area. Unfortunately, their rage didn't manage to improve their aim, and their shooting continued to leave the Eldar warhost unscathed. 

Having dealt a heavy blow to the Ork forces, Ylrad ordered his host forwards once more for another attack on the beleaguered Orks. Once again calling upon his Runes, he managed to bring down the final members of the squad with the Big Shoota, though the Rokkit Boyz were left unharmed. to make up for it, the entire warhost blasted into the Rokkit squad, cutting them down where they stood, leaving just a few weakly struggling survivors. The Shuriken Cannon's heavier discs finished off the Killa Kan, turning it back into a useless pile of junk. In a final act of contempt, Ylrad smashed into the injured Boyz from the Rokkit squad, slaying them. With the battle turned hopelessly against them, the remaining wounded Orks fled the battle, dragging the body of their fallen leader along with them.

Post Game Thoughts

Well, this game turned into a massacre very quickly. I attribute most, if not all of that to Ylrad and his psychic power. In two turns, Ylrad was able to all but decimate the boyz, leaving the rest of the force to mop up survivors and key targets. Stunning the Killa Kan right away was a huge deal for me, as it meant that I could sort of throw caution to the wind that turn and clup up without fear of the Grotzooka just wrecking me.

I think that this battle illustrates the massive gap between the armies on the top of the food chain versus those closer to the bottom. The difference in the sheer offensive and defensive capabilities of what an Eldar force can bring compared to the Orks is just crazy, considering his troops were slower than mine, squishier than mine, and with worse shooting than mine, and he scarcely had more of them to make up for it. I think this is where community moderation has to step in a little, as even with the Heralds of Ruin ruleset, which I think is great, these imbalances still occur, simply because the lists still rely heavily on the codices that have little to no semblance of balance. I think that next time we play, 

There is another potential problem I see with the campaign rules for this game, and that is with how RP is handled. The way that RP is done is that it is awarded at the end of the game based on a team's specific accomplishments in that battle, so in essence the more crushing your victory, the more likely you are to gain more RP. If you win, you get 5, if you kill the enemy leader that's 3, if you lose 25% or less of your models that's another 2, etc. Once you determine your RP, you are free to spend it as you wish, and it can be spent to buy your models stat boosts, or cool special rules, as well as to buy back models that were lost in the previous game (which you also roll for). What this means, is if I have played a game already and won, gaining a sizable amount of RP (say 20+), I am at a pretty substantial advantage over a player who hasn't played a game yet, or who hasn't done too well and had to spend virtually all their RP on buying back their troops. What this does is create a game where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer so to speak. I understand that the point is to give players a bonus for doing well, and I don't totally disagree with that, but I think that the system could use a little work. Maybe not forcing players to use RP to get back models that they lost in the battle so that they will still be able to use their points to get things for their guys, though maybe have a restriction of not being able to give upgrades to models that were previously lost (these are new recruits, not the battle hardened vets after all). That way if I gained 20 RP, and my opponent gained 15, but he lost models at the end, he's not getting penalized both for losing AND for losing models as well.

So let me know. What do you think about the Heralds of Ruin campaign rules? Do you think they work fine as it is, or do you think that a reworking would be beneficial?