The inspirational power of losing a game

Last night, after work, I went over to my friend Matt's house and we had a game of Warhammer. It was an 8^th edition game because neither of us are bowled over by Age Of Sigmar (to put it politely for the sake of a quiet life) and, contrary to what the internet at large seems to believe about 8^th, the game was fun, interesting and only took about three and a half hours.

2000 points, my Lizardmen versus his Orcs & Goblins. I lost as it happens. I spent the first four turns utterly dominating the game, helped more than a little by Matt fluffing endless Fear tests and having the laziest Fanatics known to man. They just didn't want to go anywhere, I think someone subbed out their madcap mushrooms for weed. He had nine of the buggers, they all got activated and the complete butcher's bill for them was two Saurus Warriors and three of his own Squigs. Also, as always seems to be the case with his Orcs & Goblins, his warmachines promptly destroyed themselves when fired.

On the plus side he totally obliterated my usual MVPs the Saurus Cavalry when they utterly fluffed their attacks on his Big 'Uns. My two previous games with Lizards have given this unit something of an inflated reputation, I feel, but a useful one from the psychological point of view.

It all turned on me in the fifth turn. I compensated poorly for some failed charges and my Saurus Old-Blood and his Temple Guard were surrounded: Black Orc Warboss and Black Orcs to the front, a gigantic Squig Herd to the flank. It was all over from there, the Temple Guard were obliterated, my right flank dissolved and I spent the remaining turn impotently victimising Night Goblins for want of anything constructive to do.

And it was really fun. Yes, part of what killed me was chance but it was also partly my own poor decisions. There were genuine learning experiences that will help me in future games, most particularly that Fanatics are not necessarily as horrendous as I previously thought. From now on I'll be a little more confident in charging Night Goblins. Equally, my Saurus Cavalry are not as hard as any of us believed, they just did well in the previous games and I need to be more cautious about charging them into ranked units.

This was the second time I've used Lizards against Matt's Orcs and we're starting to create a storyline around it with the Lizardmen trying to stop the Orcs colonising a series of vital nodes in the geomantic web. His Warboss keeps escaping me, as well, so I feel my Old-Blood So'Kar is going to be pursuing a cold-blooded and logical vendetta against the creature that keeps defying the will of the Old Ones by surviving.

So I'm feeling inspired to write about this game. I'm also feeling inspired to get some painting done, which is useful because the painting table, thanks to my experiments in white spray, is getting seriously over-populated. Currently sitting on or orbiting the paint station on various surfaces are:

5 Ork Boyz with slugga and choppa

5 Ork Meganobz

5 Tomb Kings Skeleton Warriors with command options

Lizardmen Saurus Old-Blood with halberd and shield

Lizardmen Skink Priest with Cloak of Feathers

1 Lizardmen Bastiladon with Solar Engine

5 Lizardmen Saurus Warriors with spears and shields

2 Lizardmen Salamanders

Wood Elves Shadowdancer

This is too much and, frankly, inspiration is probably for the best. I suppose that what's making me happiest is that, after weeks of annoyance and being told that my opinion is somehow objectively wrong, I'm rediscovering the actual joy in my hobby. Long may it continue. 

After Action Report #2: Orks vs. Tau Empire

I WON! That never happens in 40k. Seriously, I'm only exaggerating a little. Contrary to how the two systems of Warhammer are usually assumed to work I've always had more trouble understanding (and therefore winning) 40k. Its probably worth analysing why one of these days but I'm going to enjoy my victory lap first and see if there's anything worth learning from this victory.

Matters of Reality

1000 points, my Orks versus Dave's Tau Empire. Victory to me in Turn Six by way of tabling with a two Victory Points advantage beforehand. On the character pool side of things three of my characters are out for the count and under the care of the Mad Doks: my Big Mek with Shokk Attak Gun, my primary Warboss Kaptin Thunderguts and little Mek Mistah Chubb.

Matters of Story

After four games in this campaign I have finally broken out of my starting zone, capturing an area on the southern bank of a coastal estuary to the north of my home base. With the Kaptin still busy back at the rokk having bits stitched back on the other Warboss Mistah Krumpins, who won this victory, is going to be getting some quality plotting done.

He's also going to hosting a barbecue for the boyz. They have to get rid of all those Tau corpses somehow and bashing heads is hungry work.

On the “cinematic moments” side of things, in Turn Six the only model Dave had on the table was Darkstrider, who made a desperate dash into some rocks with five Flash Gitz, six Gretchin, three Deffkoptas and three Killa Kanz on his tail. The Flash Gitz got the kill in the end, so that'll have to go in the fiction.

Lessons Learnt

I've become much less timid about combat so the 20-man Boyz mobs are coming into their own. I'm currently running two in the thousand points list, I think for the fifteen hundred I'll add a third with shootas. Weight of numbers is always the way to go with Orks.

I tried out my Mek Gunz as Kannon (they're usually Zzap Gunz) and I have to say I did prefer them. The choice between a high-strength single shot and a lower strength blast template gave me much needed versatility. I think I'll keep them like this for a while.

The Flash Gitz spent most of the game stationary and finally taking advantage of their gitfindas and they really came into their own. The secret to using them, I've decided, is knowing when to sacrifice the gitfinda bonus by moving and when to hold your ground. I know “holding your ground” is an odd concept for an Ork army, but there it is.

Slapped a Kustom Force Field on the Big Mek and stuck him next to the Mek Gunz. Sadly the Big Mek blew himself up in Turn One so I'm not sure how useful spending those thirty points were.

Future Refinements

Expanding to fifteen hundred points I think definitely another twenty-man mob of Boyz. Also, with my Big Mek out for a game it may be time to try the Weirdboy. 

After Action Report #1: Orks vs. Astra Militarum

Seventh Edition, First Impressions

1000 points, my Orks versus Matt's Traitor Astra Militarum (with summoned Nurgle Deamons). My first game of 7^th edition. My first game since the release day of 6^th edition, in fact. I lost 14 Victory Points to 8 but it really came down to the last two turns.

I have to say I really like the Strategic Objective cards. We were pulling three per turn and it really adds a level of unpredictability to the game I've always felt was lacking. The constant shifting of priorities was fun, especially in my mad Turn Six dash to equalise as I tried desperately to take out Matt's Warlord (and gain D3 Victory Points) with a one-Deffkopta suicide charge. I almost did it too, winning the combat but Matt passed his morale check and my hopes of running the man down evaporated.

It was a genuinely tense moment.

Matt's fifty man Conscript Platoon led by Ministorum Priest continues its long run as his MVP, especially now he has realised how many shots he can get out of it with Front Rank, Fire! Back Rank, Fire! Seriously, there was one turn where the unit pumped one hundred and ten shots into my Boyz.

Lessons Learnt

I either need bigger Boyz mobs or faster ones, so either expand to thirty Boyz per mob in the 1500 points version or invest in some trucks to get smaller units into combat faster.

I need to remember that Furious Charge exists, as I forgot several times.

I also forgot that Waaagh! existed for almost the entire game and then it was too late to use.

Matt's Wyrdvane Psykers should be a real priority for me. In my defence, I knew this before and took out two of the five in my first Shooting Phase but then he hid them behind sight-blocking cover where they rode out the rest of the game, summoning Plaguebearers and Nurglings in peace. In hindsight I should have sent the Deffkoptas in to finish them off.

Flash Gitz are fantastic: great guns (which have more components than an entire Space Marine, by the way) and they have the combat ability of a Nob. I had my Warboss accompanying one of the Boyz mobs but I'm seriously considering surrounding him with Flash Gitz since Snazzguns are Assault weapons.

I had the Killa Kans figured all wrong, I was using them for shooting but once they entered combat with the Plaguebearers... well, okay, they died but took out a few in return. Really, I should have used them to tie up the Conscripts for a few turns, stop them slightly shifting the outer edges of their enormous unit to leisurely claim objectives.

The Mek Guns didn't get much of a testing. Matt only had two vehicles: a Chimera and an Armageddon-Pattern Armoured Sentinel, the first went down in turn one and the other was on the far side of the board. So my fantastically powerful artillery spent the rest of the game sniping off a Guardsman or two per turn from his flamer-toting Veteran Squad.

Forging a Narrative

Aside from the Deffkopta suicide-charging Matt's Warlord there were no real “cinematic moments” to build epic rivalries around. This might be for the best as Matt and I will be team mates in Dave's campaign. Also, I only won that combat in theory, the victory didn't achieve anything.

Still, one of the Gretchin manning the Mek Guns sprang back to life after we discovered we'd resolved a round of shooting incorrectly.

Conclusions

Good game, better than any game of 40k I've had since the Hallowed Third Edition and I'm much more motivated to get this army painted.