Once again I play the Orks and once again I'm practically tabled. I completely failed to learn any of the lessons from last time. Let's once again have a look at where it all went wrong:
Deployment
We were playing Mission 3 from Open war which means that there is approximately 20" between deployment zones. So, this means that the Nob Bikers are arriving in my deployment zone on turn 1 and the Battlewagons are arriving turn 2. Now, I accept the fact that I was unlucky in having the initiative stolen (that's twice in two weeks!) and if that hadn't happened I would have got an extra turn of shooting. However, I still spread my forces out far too much. Also, why on earth did I deploy most of my forces on the edge of my own deployment zone? Yes, the mission is to get units into your enemy's zone but I could have worried about that after I'd killed the Orks. What I should have done is deployed my long range elements (Long Fangs, Lascannon Razorbacks & Rune Priest Rhino) in the corner as far away as possible from the Orks, thus giving me the maximum amount of turns of shooting. I should then have left everything else in reserve so that my Assault Cannon Razorbacks could have gotten side shots on the armour and the Land Speeders could either Deep Strike or come on from my board edge.
List
Definitely needs some tweaking, though that's exactly what these games are for. I had some severe reservations about the Predator and it did nothing to assuage them. Although I'm not a believer in chopping and changing on the back of one bad performance, I do think that it need to go. Andy has suggested taking a Dreadnought as it could potentially have tied up his foot Boyz for couple of turns. It could definitely prove useful against any horde style army. A similar option could be a second Lone Wolf. I'm also not sure if I have too many Troop choices in my list. Yes, all of the missions are objective based but I'm thinking that 6 might be one too many. The other amendment I'm considering is a Vindicator (shock! horror!) Yes, I know that they're not optimal but, given the missions, they would be a fantastic area denial weapon. With the mission we played having only 20" between deployment zones, you're almost guaranteed a shot on turn 1. In the quarters mission no-one will really want to go into a quarter with a Vindicator in it. Actually, in general, I'm very happy with my list. Andy needed a ridiculous of amount of luck with his cover saves for his vehicles and his Nob Bikers to survive.
Tactics
This is pretty much a combination of the above two. In general, my plan for all of the Open War missions is to have a large number of Troops and be able to claim more objectives than my opponent to claim the win. Talking to Mike yesterday, he has set up his Space Wolf list to destroy his opponent first and then to claim objectives almost as an afterthought. You can claim a raft of Battle Points by getting lots of Kill Points so I could do with tweaking my tactics to take advantage of that. Clearly, my plan to get my Troops into Andy's deployment zone drove my deployment whereas if I'd deployed as I should have done I could have claimed some Kill Points as well as putting myself in a position to actually win the mission.
So, lots to think about. I really need to remind myself that the Space Wolves are a counter attacking army. Shoot the enemy, let them come to you, shoot them some more and then claim objectives later. The other thing I'm doing is coming up with a super efficient optimal list which is fine when everyone is doing the same thing but I don't believe that they will. This isn't the States, people will turn up with fluffy armies. Also, this is my first tournament, I shouldn't be going in with expectation sot win the thing! Especially since when it starts I'll have been playing for less than a year. Anyway, I'll tweak the list over the weekend and see what I can come up with.
Who says vindicators aren't optimal? Compared to Blood Angels and CSM versions of it (ones fast, the other possessed) I might see why, but its still a good tank.
ReplyDeleteBy not optimal, I mean that you're one Weapon Destroyed result away from it being essentially out of the game and with AV11 side armour that's not too difficult to do. With three weapons a Predator with Heavy Bolter sponsons is cheaper and more survivable.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say it's a bad tank. People are always scared of S10 blasts so it makes a great area denial weapon or just as a way of attracting fire away from the rest of your army.
Can I make a suggestion as an Ork player - If he is running Nob Bikers and BW's that want to hit your lines, and you are running Wolves that should actually win in HTH with Orks (as an Ork player I found this out the HARD way), deploy your HS slots that need to be stationary (fangs etc) and reserve your faster elements. If your GH are in rhinos, leave them off the board and let him come to you in your deployment zone and roll out and Melta/plasma his nasty stuff (odds are you will get side/rear shots on BW's and Melta Insta-kills nobs).
ReplyDeleteJust a thought. Your rhinos are 2 turns from being in his deployment zone. Try it out. I was amazed how not deploying my horde actually worked for me in some missions :)
Hi Fester, I'm only running five man GH units at the minute so while they'll do a bit of damage a 20 or 30 boy mob is still going to torrent them down in a turn. The plan (as much as there is one) is to let the Orks charge me, lose combat in their turn so that I can shoot them during my turn. I have found that five Grey Hunters can take on 10 Orks though. The key to charging Orks seems to be thinning them out with shooting and then trying to keep the Power Klaw Nob out of combat by choosing which part of the line to charge.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that I should have reserved more. I alluded to it above the line that I should have deployed the shooty elements and reserving everything else.