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| by Danny Internets | July 23rd, 2009 - 2:00 pm
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The question of whether or not Orks are a “top tier” army has been the subject of some debate amongst 40k players on the internet lately, particularly on Dakka (view the current thread here). The thread mostly consists of poster Frank Fugger offering an insightful analysis of the army while fighting off a horde of nerd-raging knuckle-draggers. There are a few exceptions however (Primarch and Mahu, most notably).
At the risk of coming late to the dead horse beatdown, I’ll throw in my two cents since both sides aren’t really debating the viability of Orks, but the competitive nature of 40k armies and the tournament scene. It should also be be noted that Stelek has chimed in on the issue, and in fact has been asserting that Orks are one of the least competitive armies in 5th edition 40k for quite some time (view article here). More recently, he has commented on the same Dakka thread, posting highlights of the conversation (link).
The release of the Ork codex represented a significant shift in game design from previous army releases in late 4th edition, most notably Chaos Space Marines. Prior to the Ork codex release, it was mostly trash with the exception of a few very specific builds that relied on favorable rock-paper-scissor matchmaking to perform well in a competitive setting. Afterwards, they managed to catch up with codex creep and perform on a level above pretty much everyone else.
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| by Danny Internets | July 16th, 2009 - 9:56 am
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Again, no pictures, sorry. Details are also a little spotty. For the TLDR crowd: Kris won.
Game 2: Dan (Chaos Troopzilla) vs. Kris (Vulkan bikers)
Kris and I came to the tournament together and with only 3 players in the tournament it was inevitable that we’d play each other. So, we sucked it up and made the most of it.
Kris’s list is dead-hard and I knew I was fighting an uphill battle from the get-go because his list could only potentially yield 26 kill points, whereas mine yields 36. More importantly, each of his Troop units are fast and pack a ridiculous amount of anti-tank, and we both knew he could afford to send units on suicide missions if it meant taking out my heavy and elite choices.
His list was as follows:
Vulkan
Captain – Bike, combi-flamer, relic blade
5 Assault Terminators – Thunder hammer and storm shield, Land Raider Redeemer w/ multi-melta
5 Assault Terminators – Thunder hammer and storm shield (in LRR)
5 Space Marine Bikers (Troops) – Meltagun x2, combi-melta, Attack Bike with multi-melta
5 Space Marine Bikers (Troops) – Meltagun x2, combi-melta, Attack Bike with multi-melta
5 Space Marine Bikers (Troops) – Meltagun x2, combi-melta, Attack Bike with multi-melta
5 Space Marine Bikers (Troops) – Meltagun x2, Attack Bike with multi-melta
5 Space Marine Bikers (Troops) – Meltagun x2, Attack Bike with multi-melta
2 Land Speeders – Multi-melta, heavy flamer
2 Land Speeders – Multi-melta, heavy flamer
Land Raider Redeemer – Multi-melta
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| by Danny Internets | July 14th, 2009 - 12:11 pm
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Game 1: Dan (Chaos Troopzilla) vs. Zach (Battlewagon Orks)
My first opponent was Zach, a fellow Dakka-ite, who was running Battlewagon Orks led by Ghazghkull using a fairly standard configuration. His army was roughly as follows:
Ghazghkull (in Battlewagon with Nobs)
Mekboy – KFF (in Battlewagon with Nobs)
12 Lootas (in Battlewagon)
12 Lootas (in Battlewagon)
Nob Squad – Mega armor, kombi-flamers, power klaws, Trukk
Nob Squad (Troops) – Heavy armor, Painboy, Battlewagon w/ boarding plank, big shoota x2
20 Slugga Boyz – Nob w/ klaw (in Battlewagon)
12 Shoota Boyz – Nob w/ klaw, Trukk
12 Slugga Boyz – Nob w/ klaw, Trukk
Deffkopta – TL rockets
Deffkopta – TL rockets
Deffkota – TL rocket, buzzsaw
Battlewagon – Boarding plank, big shoota x2
Battlewagon – Boarding plank, big shoota x2
Battlewagon – Boarding plank, big shoota x2
We used the round 1 scenario, Land Grab (modified Capture and Control + Annihilation), and deployed directly across from one another on the left half of the board. I kept my objectives as close together as possible, knowing that I could easily castle them with the huge volume of vehicles I was fielding. Zach set one objective across from me and the other on the opposite side of the board.
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| by Danny Internets | July 14th, 2009 - 12:10 pm
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So, as mentioned in my previous post, Kris and I took a drive down to New Jersey on Saturday to participate in round 1 of the 2009 ‘Ard Boyz tournament at Maplewood Hobby.
We had originally planned to attend the tournament at Time Warp Comics, also in Jersey, however they (along with many other stores) had deferred the tournament until Sunday due to the simultaneous release of the new Magic: The Gathering expansion. (Earth to GW: don’t schedule major events that coincide with major events of much larger, directly competing hobbies.) Our second choice was Dark Tower (again, NJ), but they moved the tournament to a local comic convention which included a $45 entry fee, despite GW providing prize support and explicitly stating there would be no charge to participate. We also briefly considered going to Brothers Grim in Long Island, where we attend tournaments every other month, however summer weekend traffic to LI is just too brutal.
Maplewood was choice #4. We had known in advance that turnout was going to be poor, but this was a little silly. Only 3 players showed up, including Kris and myself. Talk about easy pickings. Free passes to the semi-finals and everybody takes home loot. We decided that the only fair way to determine placings would be to conduct a round-robin tournament in which we each played the other two participants once over the course of 3 rounds (sitting out for one of them).
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| by Danny Internets | July 13th, 2009 - 11:53 am
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(Incoming horn-tooting post. You’ve been warned!)
Perhaps as a result of the Grand Tournament season being canceled, there has been a marked increase in the frequency of local 40k tournaments in the New York area over the past year. But even preceding the slew of local competitions the players in our club (Battle for Salvation) had really begun to step up their game, bringing leaner and meaner lists with firmer handling of the rules and better application of tactics. When we aren’t matched against each other we tend to take home trophies.
There have been a number of times when we’ve played one another only to knock ourselves out of the running, the most famous example of which was when I played all three rounds against fellow club members (none of us ended up placing). To avoid this at ‘Ard Boyz, our club decided to split up amongst 3 different hosting locations.
- Matt, James, and Bobby (playing Chaos, SM, and IG) went East to play in CT, where they took home 1st, 3rd, and 4th place, respectively. Matt tells me that the guy who placed 3rd can’t make it to the semi-finals, so that means Bobby is in.
- Charlie went solo over the Tappan Zee to Toywiz where he captured 3rd with his Space Marines (+ Grey Knight allies).
- Kris and I went to Maplewood Hobby, also in Jersey. I took 1st and he took 2nd (of 3 total, lol).
Overall, every single player from our club who went to the tournament is going to the second round. I guess we’ve all been eating our Wheaties.
So, the purpose of this post? I am proud of our club members and they all deserve accolades for their performance, even if it is still only the first round. Tonight is our weekly gaming night at the Salvation Army, so I’m sure there will be lots of stories to share.
(Horn-tooting over.)
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| by Danny Internets | July 6th, 2009 - 12:09 pm
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Over the holiday weekend I managed to get the first 2 of 3 planned practice games in with my Troopzilla list in preparation for the ‘Ard Boyz tournament on Saturday. I would have liked to get more in, but real life has been calling and my fiancé will kick my ass if I don’t answer (we all need a good ass-kicking from time to time).
On Friday morning, Charlie brought his boards over to my apartment and we squared off against each other in the Drawn and Quartered mission slated for game 3 of the upcoming tournament. The scenario is a modified version of Capture and Control using Spearhead deployment and kill points as a secondary objective to determine the extent of victory (massacre/major/minor). I can’t help but think that the title of the scenario is a good-humored jab at the writers of Capture and Control, which is frequently referred to as the “draw” mission. The modifications are great though, and it is hands-down my favorite of the first round.
I played my Troopzilla list with some slight modifications, swapping out extra armor and heavy flamers for twin-linked lascannons on both Chaos Dreadnoughts and trimming some fat from the CSM units.
Charlie’s army used the Space Marine codex as its primary, but made heavy use of Daemonhunters allies. He was rocking the following list (roughly):
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Email Danny Internets
Dashofpepper: In response to the question, “What will you do now?” I offer this insight into the skills...
Daemon-Archon Ren: My black/red dice are WAAC (ask Stelek) my army is not. Also, funi artykal
Green7: HAHAHAHAHAHA !!
Killswitch: Screw you and your british jokes D:<!
Killswitch: I don’t think his that lame lol ;)
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