Orks Vs. Necrons and Space Marines: 2,500 points, January 16, 2010

Below is the final board setup, agreed upon days before, and set up by Necronoob  that morning. The objectives were placed just before the game, and are shown in red. The mission: capture a majority of the three objectives on the board at the end of four turns.

D'Ork won the roll to pick deployment zones, and selected the south side. The Necron and SM players won the roll to decide who would go first, and opted to allow the Orks to deploy and move first.

Deployment

Below: The Orks deploy their horde of boyz on the left flank - 30 shoota boys in front of 60 sluggas, with three grotzooka killa kans in support, and a Kustom Force Field Big Mek protecting it all. [D'Ork's note: I did this because it was the only area wide enough to allow that many boyz to set up in a broad pattern. The forest would also frustrate enemy fire without slowing the boys down too much. One of the boyz mentioned that these trees would also give the Kans a hard time hitting things, and that boy was shot for being un-Orky.]

Two koptas with twin rokkits deployed in the center on the ridge, and everything else - 18 sluggas with Ghazghull in a battlewagon, 10 nobz and a painboy in a second battlewagon, 5 tankbustas in a looted wagon, two more koptas with twin rokkits, and 10 stormboyz - deployed to the right side. Although the wagons were constrained by the topography, the koptas and stormboyz could happily ignore the terrain and cruise ahead. 15 Kommandoes, led by Snikrot, were held in reserve.

On the Necron/SM side, there are two 5-man destroyer squadrons, a destroyer lord, three wraiths, and a terminator squad on the right, across from the ork horde. In the center, the Necrons bring in the big boy - the Monolith. Surrounding it are two 15-man Necron warrior squads, 10 flayed ones, a tomb spider, and a second Necron Lord on foot. The Space Marines make up the allied army's left, with a Multi-Melta Dreadnought and a Captain leading a tactical squad (with Missile Launcher and flamer) on foot. [SM Player's note:  In retrospect, the Terminators on the right side of the board should probably have staged further to the right.  I erroneously set up in the woods for the cover, but the Terminators armor save renders that cover save useless.  Similarly, any LOS restrictions imposed by the trees would have easily been traded by the poor Ork marksmanship should the Terminators have lined up in the open.  Probably better to line them up in the open portion to the right of the trees, allowing them to get one good stormbolter salvo off prior to the Ork assault.  This likely would have provided a valuable speedbump for the Necron Destroyers to later shift back to the left, gaining a few more shots prior to any assault.]

So final deployment looked like so (some models on the near side not shown):

Ork Turn 1

Predictably, everyone rolls forward and nothing is held back - except for the Kommandoes, in reserve. All four koptas use their scout move and their movement phase to set up a daring frontal assault on the Monolith. The two battlewagons roll up at cruising speed, side-by-side. The Orks inside decide to stick it out and stay in their wagons, praying to Gork and/or Mork that their luck holds. The looted wagon moves up at a fairly conservative combat speed. The stormboyz jet up the hill towards the marines, using most, but not all, of their allowed 16" move (12"+4 on a d6).

In the shooting phase, the unruly Ork horde on the left runs forward. The daring kopta assault fails miserably, not doing a damn thing against the thick armor of the Monolith. On the other hand, the tankbustas and the looted wagon - equipped with its own rokkits - dutifully fire on the dreadnought. And in a weird stroke of accuracy, they wreck it!  [SM Player's Note:  Lame.  Note for future:  having a Space Marine in black is akin to being an away team member in red.  Reference "March of the Termies" later.]

Necron/Space Marine Turn 1

The Necrons mainly stand fast to fire at the onrushing Orks. The Space Marines step forward to get shots on the approaching, foot-slogging Orks and Stormboyz, but terrain prevents them from getting any good shots. The Destroyers move towards their flank and unleash on the Ork sluggas, killing several. But the real damage is done in the center, in a brutal one-two-three shot. First, the Monolith automatically fires d6 shots at every enemy unit within 12". That would be the two kopta squadrons. So of course he does this on 2d6:

Not a bad start for the new Monolith. Two koptas go down immediately and one is damaged. One kopta fails his morale check, and decides that the back of the board looks safer. Secondly, the Monolith selects the Morkolith (and Gazzy) as its target. Rolling a "hit" on scatter dice as always, Necronoob  lays the smack down on the wagon with its massive Strength 10 Ordnance blast.  The Deathskulls and Ghazghull are thrown out of the wreck. The blast also catches the Nob wagon, blowing off a big shoota. Monolith 1, Morkolith 0. All told, the Monolith wrecks 200 points of Ork equipment in turn 1, not counting the damaged kopta, or the fact that the Deathskulls are now very vulnerable...

...and in the third and final blow, the two Necron warrior squads open up on the Deathskulls that the Monolith had just uncovered, killing everyone except the nob and Gazzy. Ouch. [D'Ork's note: I should have seen that fusillade coming, and placed the orks behind the wagon where they could take cover, rather than in front where they would just get shot up. Critically, Gazzy and the nob pass their morale check. If they had failed, a major element of the center Ork assault, the 225-point Ghazghull, would have run away.]

On the Necron right, three Wraiths leap into close combat with the lead Orks (the Bad Moon Shootaz) to stop them from charging the Destroyers. The quick Wraiths take down several Orks, losing only one in return.

Ork Turn 2

Ghazghull calls down the Waaagh!, giving all boyz on the board an automatic "6" for their run roll and giving Gazzy himself an invulnerable 2+ save for the turn. On the left side, the horde of boyz continues to run forward. Critically, the Goffs reach the terminators and the Snakebites reach the closest Destroyer. The Kans walk forward, firing ineffectually into a Necron warrior squad. The Nob wagon rolls up and disgorges its cargo into both Necron squads - and Gazzy joins them. The surviving Deathskull nob and the last kopta also charge in. On the Ork right, the stormboyz manage to roll a "1," and one of their mates corkscrews into the stratosphere before detonating. But the survivors continue on, assaulting the SM squad.

The assault phase is not kind to the Necron-Space Marine army. Three terminators fall, along with a few tactical marines. The terminators break and head for the hills, with the Goffs on their heels. Two destroyers are knocked down, although one manages to get up. The two surviving wraiths are killed by the Bad Moonz. In the center, the Necron squads cannot hold up to the charging nobs and Gazzy. They are beaten and overrun.

Necron/SM Turn 2

Almost every unit in the game is now tied up in assault. The only shooting is the Monolith, which tries to fire at the nobs, only to deviate and hit itself! Fortunately, even its own gun could not harm the Monolith, and one Ork nob, still covered by the blast, is killed instantly. Turret fire from the monolith onto the nobz is generally brushed off due to their invulnerable 5+ save, marking D'Ork's best dice rolls of the game. Necronoob then commits the nearby Flayed Ones and Tomb Spider into close combat with the Orks, trying to wipe them out. But the battle is a stand off, with casualties on both sides. In the center, the Terminators continue to rout, and the Goffs send them packing off the edge of the table. On the Necron right, the Destroyers take heavy casualties, dropping the Necrons below their 13 necron model phase-out.

With the Necrons gone, the terminators routed, and the lone tactical squad and captain mired in close combat with the stormboyz, the game is called for the Orks.

After Action Report/Lessons Learned

D'Ork

1) As I mentioned earlier, I should have hidden the Deathskullz and Gazzy behind the wagon, rather than in front of it. With the guaranteed 18" move on Turn 2's Waagh!, I still would have been able to reach the Necron line.

2) I should have placed the Kans in a more central location that would have given them more targets. In retrospect I was too keen on giving them KFF cover, when I should have concentrated on placing them where their 18" guns could reach something. They could have been targeted by SM heavy weapons, dreadnoughts, and Heavy Destroyers (had the Necrons taken any), but it would be far better for the enemy to fire at Kans than Wagons.

3) Firing on the Monolith with the koptas was a mistake. At best, I would have glanced and destroyed the main gun, but the chances of that were damn slim. Better to have them kill Necron Destroyers, complicating the Necron's efforts to stop the Horde, and getting closer to the all-important phase-out.