CHAOS SPACE MARINES versus Orks

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Cleanse
1st turn: Orks
Points: 1000
Date: 10/06/2003

Chaos Space Marines

• Daemon Prince Lamprey - Mark of Chaos Undivided, Daemonic Stature
• Squad Hotep – 9 Chaos Space Marines, Mark of Tzeentch, Aspiring Champion, Bolt pistol and close combat weapon, Bolt of Change, Talisman of Tzeentch
• Squad Surculus - 5 Possessed, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Daemonic Talons
• Squad Infractis – 7 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Bolt pistols and Close combat weapons, 2 x Plasma Pistols, Aspiring Champion with Power fist
• Squad Profuge - 7 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Bolt guns, 2 x Plasma guns
• Atrocitor - Dreadnought, Twin-linked Lascannons
• Squad Imber - 5 Havocs, Mark of Chaos Undivided, bolt guns, 3 x Heavy Bolt guns

Orks

• Warboss in mega armour + 5 Nobz in eavy armour in Wartrukk
  
• 3 Killer Kanz
  
• 5 Warbikes
  
• 16 slugga boyz
  
• 16 shoota boyz
  
• 5 Tankbustas

Terrain and deployment
This was a warm up game for the gauntlet convention so was played on a 6’x4’ table. What a difference it made. Each of my shooty units was a good 10” apart preventing most sweeping advances, never mind consolidates into combat! I concentrated all of my assault units together as near to the Ork deployment zone as possible.

The game
Winning the dice off for first turn I elected to go second to the surprise of the other players gathered to watch. It seemed like a bad choice when my Dread was destroyed by a lucky Rokkit shot and four of squad Infractis were blown away by the warbikes. My own return fire was ineffective and the Orks were in assault range.

The Warbikes finished off squad Infractis and the Warboss and retinue piled out of the Wartrukk to take on squad Surculus. The possessed killed a single Nob, causing two wounds, and only took two casualties themselves. The Orks failed the dice off, failed their morale check, failed their Mob-size check and then rolled three inches for their fall back. Once I had stopped laughing the Possessed pursued them and killed them all.

Things went from bad to worse for the Orks. My Daemon prince assaulted the Killer Kanz, a potentially risky move considering they could kill him outright with just a single wounding hit, but he destroyed two and the last Kan could only fight with a supporting attack. In the next assault phase the Daemon prince killed the remaining Kan and then took on the Tankbustas, whittling down the squad over subsequent assault phases.

Meanwhile, the possessed charged into the Shoota boyz, and although they were eventually dragged down by sheer weight of numbers, the Orks were reduced to below half strength and were unable to contest a table quarter.

The warbikes had swept into the Thousand Sons and were brought down by volley fire from squad Profuge and squad Hotep leaving the Chaos right flank open. The only threat was the slugga boyz but they were shot to pieces as they advanced and then they had to turn and take on the daemon prince as he was chewing up their rear.

Result: Win. A decisive victory for Chaos.

Commendations

• The Possessed.
  

Turning point
The Possessed seeing off the Warboss and retinue.

Learning points

• I got very lucky with the possessed vs the Warboss and this won me the game. Past battles have shown that the Ork leader and retinue is a mega tough unit and they usually munch through anything they touch, but the possessed hung in there with 5+ invulnerables and ended up my men of the match.
• The Daemon prince did far better in this game, easily recouping his points back. Maybe playing him more bravely was the key.
• The larger table gave some advantage back to shooting units as the assaulters had far more ground to cover (compared to our regular 4’x4’ tables).