Another great game against Sam's Orc horde. Said it before but damn I love Orcs such a cool army. If Deathmasque hadn't come out with the cheap Harlequins I would have gone down that road. So 1500pts which meant a couple of dozen Harlequins vs. 120+ Orc Boys - no worries. Slightly different Harlequin list this time as I decided to use my Fire Prism because why not? Recent codex update came as a nice surprise (cheers Simon) which not only makes Prism's cheaper but gives them the Leeman Russ fire twice rule. Very nice.
| Bugger me there's a lot of them |
Sam's been doing some painting as well so his horde is looking damn good. Remembered my rule book as well so we played a proper scenario going length wise with the 18" is -1 to hit scenario.
Harlequins
Battalion Detachment
Troupe Master - Fusion Pistol, Power Sword
Shadowseer - Neuro Disruptor, Fog, Smite
Shadowseer - Neuro Disrupter, Mirror, Smite
Solitaire
6 x Players - 3 x Fusion Pistol
6 x Players - 3 x Fusion Pistol
12 x Players - 4 x Caress, 4 x Embrace
2 x Skyweavers
2 x Skyweavers
Starweaver
Starweaver
Auxillary Detachment
Fire Prism - Crystal Matrix, Spirit Stones
Sam goes first. The Orcs rush forward but I've remembered they can advance and charge so have kept everyone out of range. But I forgot about (a) his deepstrike units and (b) the Pyschic power that allows him to teleport units across the table.... what happened next was well...
Ok so there's like 120+ of them and 27 of us so?!?!
The first Orc Reserves come in and suddenly I'm surrounded...
| Feeling horribly outnumbered right now |
Combat didn't go the way the Orcs planned. Only charging the Players they were careful not to draw my 4 characters into combat. I charged them in anyway. Troupe Master giving everyone re-rolls to wound, Shadowseers buffing out S5 attacks, Caress's doing more and then the Solitaire going nuts reduced 40+ Orcs to 5 after one fight phase.
My turn now - the Solitaire moves toward and charges the 30+ Boys who had failed their initial charge. Shooting and Psychic stuff whittle them down and he goes in and pretty soon those 30 boys have dropped to 6. Rest of my army moves up toward the Orc Blob's with one unit of Players disembarking and rushing forward to join in.
Damn Smite.... poor old Solitaire was the closest unit to the Orc Psyker and gets himself reduced to one wound. He then gets taken out by the remaining Orc Boys. Rest of my army though charges into the right hand Orc Blob. 9 Players, the Troupe Master and both Shadowseers all go in successfully.
Lots of pew pew... only problem Sam's picking up Tactical Objectives all over the shop while I'm yet to complete a single one.
The grand melee begins and the Harlequins go to town cutting a swathe through the Orc ranks. However, I'm fluffing rolls and when Sam focuses on the Troupe Master and the Troupe with the special weapons I rapidly lose my advantages. Soon its just a single Player and the 2 Shadowseers left... but there are "a lot" of dead Orcs lying around
Seriously the new Halo Launcher rules are just awesome - Range 18" hits on 2+ and you roll 2d6 vs. targets leadership. Equal or higher and they take D3 mortal wounds. Firing two of those a turn plus smite against low leadership units really stacked up the wounds.
Only one Orc Blob left now - shooting has also blown up an Orc Truck but like Sam I'm rapidly running out of units. The remaining Orc Blob charges into against my remaining Troupe who have disembarked while my characters try to kill off his.
Final stages of the game saw another brutal combat go down in the middle of the board. We called the game at the end of Turn 4 as it was getting late. End result major tactical victory to Sam on points and in all likelihood we were both close to tabling each-other. Only 2 Starweavers and a single Shadowseer remained from my army while he was down to his Rocket Boys and a single Truck. Apologies to Sam though for not understanding the overwatch rules properly - 6's always hit and modifiers don't apply...
