Bat Rep: 1k Eldar vs. Orks

Game 2 saw me going up against Blue and his massively shooty Orks (Game 1 is the previous post, here). The last big tournament my LGS hosted, Blue won handily with this list. He's also a great player and was fun hanging out with all day. Deployment was once again Vanguard Strike, with mission being Emperor's Will, or as Blue put it, "Emperor's Draw."

 vs. 

Blue's list looked something like this:

Warboss in mega armor
2 x 14 Lootas
3 x ~16 Shoota Boyz
15 grots w/ 1 Runtherd.
2 Lobbas w/2 Grot Oilers

I won the roll for deployment, but decided to go second, probably a poor choice. Blue placed his lootas mobbed together on a rock in his corner, with the Lobbas behind them. At the base of the rocks was his objective, fronted by the three Boyz mobs, all screened by the Grots. I deployed with the Falcon behind my large rock outcrop, with my objective in a crevasse and my guardians and Farseer all hidden out of sight there. I pretty much ran out of cover at that point and had to deploy the guardians and Dire Avengers out front, with the Warp Spiders on my right.

Blue went first and promptly killed off the squad of Guardians in the open with Loota fire, though fortunately a few survived the first mob's fire, so he leveled all 28 Lootas at the one squad, sparing the rest of the army. That said, he did earn himself First Blood.

In my turn, I move forward as much as I can with everyone except the remaining guardians, who move to put the farseer and gun platform up on the outcrop out front to get line of sight. The Warp Spiders move a disappointing 10" and lose the Exarch in the warp. I cast Eldritch Storm and fry a few grots and a few boyz in the middle.

Top of Turn 2 the boyz in the middle and my left move forward while the boyz on the right hunker down. Fire from just about the entire army kills off the Warp Spiders, who courtesy of some poor run and thrust move rolls ended up in the open, and the Dire Avengers.The lobbas manage a direct hit on my guardians, but courtesy of Fortune and Conceal, again, they save everything.

In my turn, the Farseer and weapons platform again jump up on the outcrop while the Falcon, having moved flat out last turn behind an outcrop, pops out and the Fire Dragons dismount just in range of the closest boyz mob. They manage a few wounds but the boyz remain at 12 and stay fearless. The Starcannon and Farseer meanwhile kill a few more boyz in the middle squad, who similarly remain fearless. Both groups, after firing, run back out of line of sight.

Turn 3, Blue moves his grots back to hold his objective while the rest of the force moves up. The lootas predictably blow up the Falcon, though once again it takes both squads fire - the first mob managed a single glance, while the second managed 3 glances and 4 penetrating hits, though failing to make it explode.

Time is called during the beginning of my turn, meaning the game will end with my turn. I once again move the Farseer and weapons platform up, and move the Fire Dragons out from behind the rocks. Realizing I have a chance to win if I can get the Grots to run, I guide the Guardians and then fire the starcannon at the Grots, killing two and forcing a morale check. Blue fails, but uses the Runtherd re-roll, killing 3 grots and just passes the second check. The Fire Dragons meaninglessly kill a couple boyz in front of them and the game ends with a 4 -3 victory for the Orks.

Blue was a lot of fun to play, and a great sport. He has a reputation in the store of not giving up any Victory Points, so me even holding on to my objective brought some comment. I suffered from a bit of bad luck, but mostly a lack of volume fire at range. I've come to realize my list suffers against opponents content to sit back, particularly when there isn't much intervening terrain.