League match two vs. Alexanders orc horde

So the day arrived and Alexander and I put together this gaming table. Alexander has some really nice terrain.

Pre game thoughts

As I wrote, a week or so ago when I found out I would be facing Alexanders orc horde, it would be a game of attrition and survival.
Could I keep my Venoms alive long enough, it would probably turn out good for me.

My taget priority would have to take this into account, making sure the ranged threats to my Venoms is elimnated as fast as possible.


Also keeping moving full speed would be imperative. That way he would have to roll 6´s to hit me, should he catch up with my skimmers.

Deployment would be king no matter if I go first or second. Usually I like going second since that will allow me to outdeploy the opponent. But against this vast a footslogger horde, I would probably like to be able to deploy in the center and alpha strike his looters and artillery.

Mission:

Primary: 3 most expensive units (noy IC´s) in opponents deployment zone
Secondary: 4 Objectives

Tertiary: more than 600 VP difference

Deployment

Alexander wins the roll and choose to go first.

Since the mission we are playing is Fog of war" we deploy hidden. We drawn a nice little picture of the battlefield and where our units are. Otherwise its standard pitched battle.

The orcs deploy pretty much as expected. The artillery in the center with the 3 large squads of mobs on the sides. The two looter squads are sitting on a hill and in a ruin on each extreme flank of the orc deployment.

I deployed everything down in the left bottom corner of my deployment zone. Even if i didnt know how Alexander would deploy, I was pretty sure he would spread out. Not that he has a choice with that many orcs.

Turn 1

Orcs move up. Shooting is ineffecient due to deployment and range. A single Venom is blown up to Looter fire. The Deffkopter with is buzzsaw is denied any targets due to castling up with warriors on the outside. It takes a potshot at a Venom bu misses.

Dark eldars move up on the left flank.
Shooting sees a looter squad whittled down to 4 looters, but they pass leadership. Also one of the big boy squads that is scoring in the primary and secondary mission is cut in half by Venom fire. Ravager fire falls short of the artillery (which means the artillery can´t reach them either).

And the results of the shooting. Not really that noticable a dent, but around 25 orcs died.

Turn 2

The orcs move up. Lootas and big gunz move forward. Shooting is horrible and the green tide doesnt get a single result thanks to some fantastic flickerfield saves.

Now comes my one big mistake.
Instead of moving backwards, so I only have to deal with either Gazhgkull or Kommandos with Snikrot and Warboss, I move the majority of my Venoms forward and disembarks the warruirs. Im certain in my head that i can decimate the rest of the small Shooter boyz squad and put a big dent in Gzahgkulls group.

The picture is from the orc turn 3 but it shows where I moved up to get squeezed in.

My Succubus and a reaver squad enters the game and blasts up the extreme opposite end of the table to get behind LOS blocking cover.

My shooting turns out slightly less than I thought/hoped/assumed it would.
The shooting was average and it turns out I miscalculated hugely. The nob from the shooter boys survive and Gazghkull and his 30 Slugga boyz are intact.

Turn 3

Snikrot arrives, the orcs moves up to encircle my laager. On the oppsite end of the board the second group of looters move closer to a big mob of boyz to get away from the wyches

Auch auch auch. Welcome to the pain. This looks like a gamebreaker.

Shooting downs a single Venom and stuns a ravager.

The mother of all multicharges ensues and results in alot of wiped or broken warriors. The Venoms fare alittle better thanks to the orcs not getting many glances.
One Venom died and one got stummed.

I dodged one frigging huge bullet there, but the danger is not over.

Ok my turn. My forces scatter in all directions. Trying to get away from something, hell just get away from anything is cool with me at this point, so the orcs cant get any more multicharges in.

My shooting finally decimates the single nob, who is important since he was scoring in the primary mission. About half the Kommandos, who also are scoring in the primary mission, dies to the fire from my remainng venoms.

The scattering of the fleet

In the opposite end of the table the succubus + wyches and the reavers move into the orc backfield. Here they pick on the looters and a group of grots sitting on an objective.

Turn 4

The orcs move the warboss, Gazhgkull, Kommandos and the slugger boy mob out after different targets, but only manage to get one of them. A previously immobilized ravager. The midfield group of looters try to shoot down one of my ravagers, which is scoring in the primary mission, but getting only one shot each and missing them all. It is not meant to be.

The big midfield Shooter mob moves further down towards mt deployment zone and the objective with my Raider with five wyches in it. Their shooting manages to stun it.

Again my forces flitter about trying to get out of shooting and assault range of the orcs. Shooting sees the kommandos elimnated to an orc, except for Snikrot.
Also more gretchins are mopped up and my Reavers engage the midfield looters in close combat. A single bad result on my ravager will most likely result in a tie, so they have to be dealt with.

Midfield four Reavers engage 8 looters in close combat. Reavers kill two and orcs kill one. The orcs stay.

Inefficient consolidate (rolled a 1) leaves the wyches sitting out in the open, but with fearless and feel no pain they are probably gonna be able to survive whatever the orcs can shoot at them.

Turn 5

The orcs who are down to three rokkits in position where they are unable to reach my primary scoring units. Their turn is spend trying to get into position to claim, objectives for secondary mission and getting victory points for the tertiary.

On the other hand my turn is spend killing Snikrot to ensure that I win on primary. He goes down in a rain of splintercannon fire.
My remaining Venoms, raider and Reavers fly into proximity of both the orc held objectives. This makes sure that should the game end on turn five I win on primary and secondary.

As it turns out Alexander rolls a 1 on the dice and the game ends. A blood mayhem is over and the Dark eldars can limp back home.
Gazhgkull also survived the carnage.

Score:

Primary: 3 most expensive units in opponents deployment zone
Jens; 2 - Alexander; 1

Secondary: 4 Objectives
Jens; 2 - Alexander; 0

Tertiary: more than 600 VP difference
Jens; 1415 - Alexander; 1030

So the game ends 18 - 2 in to me on Battlepoints, which gives me 2 Tournament points.

Post game thought:

Whew that was closer than I thought it would be. I knew it would be tough and not to underestimate Alexander. He does not make mistakes.
But that big mistake I made moving up and setting myself up for a multicharge was headless and nearly cost me the game.

Another thing that did not play out as I anticipated was how fast I would remove the looters and artillery. It turned out the boyz were much faster in my face than anticipated, and I had to focus fire on them. That left a full squad of looters unhurt and sitting midfield alongside two decimated units of Big gunz. Those had to be taken care of by wyches and reavers.

The deployment eventhough it was in the blinds so to speak turned out pretty good for me. I denied his artillery and one group of looters two full rounds of shooting, And by the third or at latest fouth round I were in position to deal with them by other means.

A very good game with Alexander. And as the good host he supplied cola and icecream, on a day where the sun was high in the sky and people out to be outside in the sun.