Region: Seraphon Sector.
Death Guard vs Orks.
Mission: Bunker Assault.
Deployment: Mission specific.
Points: 1750 vs 2000.
This engagement was a major battle at the start of the war. The Orks amassed a vast horde in very little time and threw almost everything they had at the Death Guard fortress line over a 35 mile front. The goal of the greenskins was to destroy the Death Guard command fortress and it was here that the future of the campaign would be decided.
Gary had challenged me to a game against his Orks. Specifically the Blitz mission with his new greenskin army as the obvious choice for attacker. That game is coming but this week we played a practice game using the Bunker Assault mission.
After playing this mission a few months ago against Adam's Tau and how totally one sided it was - the Fortress does not balance out a loss of army points - we agreed that he should have 2000 points of Orks and I would field 1750 of Death Guard plus the fortress. I feel that this way was a much better way of playing the mission.
Gary had the the first turn as per the mission rules. Everything came forwards except for some lootas sitting in a ruined tower on the edge of his deployment zone. They had a good field of fire towards my troops and the fortress. To start with Gary seemed very keen on destroying my predator throwing what fire he could at it. Over the next few turns he would throw everything at it including a unit of rokkit boyz who spent most the game in assault with it but only stripping one or two wounds at a time. If I remember correctly they took four turns to destroy it. But his turn was mostly taken up moving large numbers of boyz forwards into my line of fire.
I barely needed to move anything all game as the Orks were coming to me. I did manage to do some small damage with the fortress and the barrage strike that the mission gave me. The fortress is rather useless though with just BS 5+ and most shots I fired this game simply went off into the distance. My own shooting was a lot more effective and the the start of the game saw my vengeance weapon platforms doing their job reasonably well. But these are Orks and I could not do enough damage.
Once the Orks were close enough my psychic powers came to the fore. Mortal wounds were thrown about which did well. His painboy however was giving them an FNP benefit and he didn't lose anywhere near enough models because of it.
Turn three and we were in brutal combat. Once this became the case my vengeance platforms were useless as they couldn't shoot anything due to the nearest unit being in combat. I need to read certain rules a little bit better in future.
The unit of the match was one of my helbrute trio. It charged into the damaged gorkanaut taking a wound from overwatch. The assault was brutal and left the ork machine hanging together with good thoughts. The helbrute survived the return attack and then entered it's berserk mode for being wounded. The second set of attacks tore the gorkanaut into so much twisted scrap. The helbrutes soon died to a force of killa kans and a deff dread.
Once the orks were in my deployment zone they massacred their way through my plague marines and began to smash away at the base of the fortress. Typhus and the plagucaster both fell in combat. Typhus, at least, I assume gets teleported bask to the Terminus Est before the final blow came down. My cultists were the only unit to come out of that game unscathed for a change.
End of turn five and we had to wrap up the game as we had gone over the time that the venue was open. At this point I won 9 vp to 8vp only because the fortress remained standing. Had the game gone to the final turn 6 it would have fallen and victory would have gone to my opponent.
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Bunker Assault is one of those narrative missions that is hard to play for the defender. The bastion or fortress that you effectively get for "free" isn't worth the points for a fair game. It has plenty of weapons but the weak Ballastic Skill means that it isn't going to do anything worthwhile other than be the ultimate target for the enemy.
I certainly enjoyed the mission more this time around than when I played Adam's Tau. It is far too easy a mission for Tau to achieve with their superior weapons.
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++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [85 PL, 1549pts] ++
Rules: Plague Weapon
+ HQ +
Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Curse of the Leper, Plague Wind, The Pandemic Staff
Typhus [9 PL, 175pts]: Miasma of Pestilence, Putrescent Vitality
+ Troops +
Chaos Cultists [6 PL, 64pts]
. 13x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun
Plague Marines [10 PL, 181pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
Plague Marines [10 PL, 181pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
Poxwalkers [3 PL, 60pts]: 10x Poxwalker
+ Elites +
Helbrute [7 PL, 139pts]: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta
Helbrute [7 PL, 139pts]: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta
Helbrute [7 PL, 139pts]: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta
+ Heavy Support +
Chaos Predator [9 PL, 171pts]: Havoc launcher, Twin lascannon
. Two heavy bolters: 2x Heavy bolter
Defiler [11 PL, 190pts]: Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon
. Rules: Combi Weapon
++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) [12 PL, 200pts] ++
+ Fortification +
Vengeance Weapon Batteries [12 PL, 200pts]
. Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon
. Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon
Deployment at the start of the battle.
A monstrous gorkanaut.
A band of killa kans and a deff dread slaughter my helbrutes.
The man of the match moment!
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