The Gaming: 2-4 overall with the Orks, not bad for my first 6 games with them ;) I really struggled in KP missions, mainly because I'm Orks so can't really kill anything whereas the army bleeds KPs everywhere :P I tried to play the list quite passively, not really rushing at my opponents till the 6th game where I changed it up a bit. Works quite well enough, but as I mentioned before, the list really struggles at actually killing stuff. Surviving was fine, but killing 1) terminators, 2) vehicles, 3) MCs was a nightmare. Its not really a symptom of the particular build either, I think Orks generally struggle with the aforementioned things, just because about the only way they force lots of saves is in combat where you will lose a lot of boyz in the process.
So what else didn't work so well? The trukks :( Totally crap lol. Especially giving up such an easy KP was tough because I couldn't really match opponents as they started to take out some trukks and I couldn't really respond at range.
I think leadership was another problem, usually for Orks it isn't but when you take lots of trukk boyz, you are really counting on low dice after a few casualties, even with the bosspole. It was a major problem, from getting pinned, to falling back from a few failed saves, I really felt that Ork weakness.
So what did work? Kanz :D 3 x 3 squadrons is quite uber, and with a KFF you are able to save a fair number of shots. The grotzookas worked well enough, generating a fair few wounds at range but generally terminators and FNP troops won't lose that many models.
The deffrollas worked nicely too I felt, even though they only got to roll once or twice a game if that. The temptation with 2 wagons is to rush them asap into the enemy but I resisted this Orky temptation and was able to generally keep my force all together, mostly under the KFF.
I felt I needed some shoota boyz, especially in the Wagons, if not everywhere. I think they are generally better in an army like this for some ranged shots whereas slugga boyz will usually get raped by even semi capable combat opponents.
I also felt like the Kanz would slow me down so much, especially in DoW deployments but both the others too, just because everything else behind them can go much faster :D I suppose it was better to have the Kan wall than not though, getting 4+ cover on my things almost all of the time.
So I faced DE, GK, CSM, SM, DE, SM, winning the first 2 games and losing the next 4. Andrew ran DE with (from memory) Archon, Haemon, 2 x ravagers, 1 talos, 2 wyches in raiders, 2 warriors in raiders, 2 wracks in raiders, also some trueborn in raiders. He strangely reserved against me and I was able to get up into midfield with no casualties and just grind it out from there, although there were some tense moments because DE move so quickly. Andrew had some really bad luck but apparently it was the norm for him :( GG mate.
Julian ran a GK list that was all foot GM, interceptors, crussassin squad, GKTs, Thawne, Inq, 1 or 2 x GKSS and 2 x purifiers. He was able to hang back at a 24" range as I advanced my Kanz forward. I was able to narrowly grab the win but got 0 KPs which was a precursor of things to come :D Highlights include shitty dice (mostly for Julian - such as 21 attacks that hit not getting a glance against 1 Kan and some psycannon hitting fail :( Game was much closer though as he had had me on KPs and VPs but I had done enough for board control to pull out the close one. GG Julian.
Matthew was the CSM guy who finished runner up to Knight Champion (kudos!) and ran an interesting list: 1 x Lash Prince, 1 x Nurgle Prince, 7 oblits (2,2,3), 1 x 10 CSM in rhino, 2 x 5 TS with bolt in rhinos, 2 x AutoCannon and DCCW dreads. It was a KP mission which was tough and he got some easy KPs from trukks and a couple of others and I wasn't able to match him late game. GG Matthew ^^
Game 4 was vs Mark with a sweet looking Imperial Fists army. He had Lysander, 5 x TH/SS termis, 1 x sniper scouts with Telion, 1 Thunderfire, 2 Vindicators, 2 TLLC razors, 1 x rhino, 2 x speeders and 3 x 10 marines. Mark was able to gun me down from range while pushing up his termis and lysander and I wasn't able to get enough wounds on them to neutralise them. GG Mark, wish my imperial fists looked like that :D
Game 5 was against a DE player by the name of Mark (another one!). His list was (from memory): Haemon, Succubus, trueborn in venoms x 2?, warriors in raiders x 3?, wracks in venoms x 2?, 2 ravagers and 1 voidraven. He was very effectively able to keep me at distance all game and shoot me up with lances, blasters and voidraven missiles to halt my advance fairly early and as this was another KP mission, I got down in the count really early and couldn't kill enough stuff back. GG WP Mark :)
Finally, game 6 was against Justin with SM: 1 Libby, 10 TH/SS termis, 2 x 10 tacs in rhinos, 1 x 10 tacs, 2 speeders, 2 preds, 2 MM, DCCW dreads. Interestingly, his rhinos were scratch built from plasticard (If you read this Justin, email me how you did it, it was awesome!) I decided to rush him this game since it was DoW deployment and I wanted to try something different by holding him mostly to 1 quarter and later spreading to get the others. It was a fairly close game but Justin was able to spread out enough to get the quarters and some nice kills on the bottom turns meant I couldn't really spread to get the quarters as well as he did. GG Justin!
So that was the gaming! In terms of painting, I tied for first in points with Shane but clearly his Eldar are much better than my Orks, that Wraithlord is Golden Daemon winning right there. I guess as Dennis commented that my army looked nice as a black tide of Orky crap coming at you whereas Shane's individual models were unbelievably good. Kudos to Luke and Andrew too, tough job judging lots of nicely painted armies ;) I just realised that I remember Luke's death guard army from Aussie WD a few years back... Go to Dennis' blog for more details there.
So I think Shane won Players Choice and I won Best army, or something like that. Quite proud to win it, especially considering there were some really dope armies there. Piccies are up on WAU in the Event Horizon subsection of the NSW tournaments page. I think I will leave you with a couple of pics of the two armies but clearly Shane's is superior (we all know it, its GD Gold stuff right there!)
