Hopefully you all didn’t miss the close game between Orks and Tau on Tuesday. It had everything you could ever want in a 40k game so I recommend watching it if you didn’t catch it. Anyway, here are some after game thoughts.
Keith:
Hello everyone! DirtyDeeds here with my post game analysis for my game against Reece and his Sons of Anorky and Bik Mek Stompa! First of all, I want to thank Reece, Frankie, and the Frontline crew for having me on their stream. It was an honor and a lot of fun to play against such well known people within our hobby community.
Now down to business. As with any humble player, we begin our journey through our beloved hobby by building the list we feel will be the most capable of handling any situation. As such, I brought a standard Combined Arms Detachment with the Optimized Stealth Cadre from the Codex and the Drone Net formation from the Mont’ka campaign. I think my first mistake was taking as many Marker Drones as I had, while they provided a huge boost in Markerlights when and where I needed them, I lost my ability to utilize them as the tides turned in Reece’s second phase (more on this later). However, the bonuses from the Optimized Stealth Cadre coupled with the damage potential of two Riptides and a Stormsurge provide extremely scary outcomes. In future games I may favor the Riptide Wing formation over the Optimized Stealth Cadre and I’ll bring an Y’Vahra to see how it does!
Alright, game time. Leading into this match Reece and I both agreed that the first turn would determine the flow of battle for either side. Gauging by his list and typical Ork strategy, he would want to be in my face as quickly as possible. Zhadsnarck could give his bikes Scout (an additional 12” movement prior to the beginning of the game), and his two Trukks and the Big Mek could move 12” or more every turn. If there’s one thing Tau hate, it’s enemy units in our deployment zone on turn 1 or 2. He had 4 very mobile units to worry about, three of which (the Trukks and the Bikes) were relatively weak and easy to manage in my first shooting phase. The Big Mek and its healing capabilities were to be dealt with at a later turn. He won the roll to go first, so I had to try and mitigate his movement as best as possible. Since you cannot Scout within 12” of an enemy model, I deployed my Infiltrating Stealth Suits behind Line of Sight blocking terrain as close as I could. This force him to funnel his bikes down the middle of the board where I could bring my cover Ignoring, Strength 7 Ap 4 shots to bare. Ultimately, I would Seize the Initiative and obliterate half the squad of bikes that were forced down the middle of the board. Simultaneously, I knocked out both Trukks preventing his Tank Bustas from destroying my Void Shield Generator. I was in a great position at the end of my first turn, but that’s when my luck ran out…
My second turn saw my first major mistake. I ran my Heavy Burst Cannon Riptide up the right flank while keeping my rooted Stormsurge in my deployment zone. The Heavy Burst Cannon coupled with my ample Markerlights could have singlehandedly taken care of the remaining bikes with the help of one Ghostkeel. That would have left the remaining Ghostkeel the opportunity to shoot the ass of the Stompa dropping it a few more wounds. If my Stormsurge ran up the right flank instead, he would have still been able to use his Destroyer Missiles and Pulse Driver on the Stompa, Cluster Rockets on the Bikes, and my Smart Missiles and Airbursting Fragmentation Projector on the Grots hiding on his Emperor’s Will Objective. This would have dragged his Stompa away from my deployment zone in an attempt to protect that objective. But it wasn’t until his second turn that my mistake was finally realized. The reserved Grots were able to take out TWO Stealth Suits while in cover!!! W…T…F… The remaining suit decided that the building behind him was a much cooler place to hide and ran away. Then he used his Stompa’s Gaze of Mork (now forever known as the Care Bear State) to take out my Heavy Burst Cannon Riptide, and his Deff Cannon to Instant Death both Ghostkeels and three Drones.
T_T
So at this point with my spent Destroyer Missiles and the bulk of my damage destroyed, I was in defensive mode attempting to keep a handle on my lead in Maelstorm points and do my best to clear those Grots off of his Emperor’s Will Objective. My drones whiffed spectacularly in combat and were ultimately destroyed by those Grots… (Man, EFF THOSE GUYS.) I still had a decent chance to at least tie as we went into his fifth turn as his Stompa was stomping my backfield (as was predicted), but my Commander failed his leadership test after his Drone buddies took a Deff Cannon to the face with box cars, followed by ANOTHER set of box cars after the charge was declared!!!!
All in all, a fun game was had by all and I’m glad the viewers saw the damage potential of that Big Mek Stompa. But before I finish, I want to talk about this new and inexpensive superheavy we gave our green friends. It has the typical Stompa stat line with 12 hullpoints at 13/13/12 with D6 Void Shields (these work just like the Void Shield Generator shields, so Grav and Haywire won’t affect them per the ITC rules) that are rolled at the beginning of the game, that’s a staggering 18 possible hull points available for this beast. In addition, through in some Meks in the 20 capacity belly to heal this bad boy all day long! My advice to any Ork player out there is to take one of these guys to the next tournament you’re in, Reece wasn’t kidding when he said you guys are back on the table. As for the Gladius players, bring more Melta and try to take it out in one turn. Don’t give your opponent the opportunity to heal it. But I’m glad for the loss and glad for the opportunity to play against Reece! You guys will see me again for my…
REEEEEVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNN
Until next time Frontline, this is DirtyDeeds, done dirt cheap!
What a crazy game! First of all, big thanks to my awesome opponent, Keith. We had a very fun game, and crazy.
Tau vs. Orks is a game I have played many times and 9/10 times, I get stomped. Tau just have all the tools to beat Orks, it is a really poor match-up for the Greenskins. This time though with the Big Mek Stompa and the Zhadsnark Warbiker unit, I was confident if I got first turn, I’d take it!
Well, I got first turn…sweet…and then, seize! DOH! Well, that sucked. I got sucker punched first turn and it looked like the game was going to be over until turn 2 hapenned. What a crazy swing in the game! Turn 2 went red hot for me, and with some dice that just wouldn’t quit, was able to take out all the Ghostkeels, a Riptide and Stealthsuits. Wow, that was nuts! It swung the game from me getting stomped to being back in it.
It ended up being a very close game and in the end, was won by my Grots who killed a 2+ save Suit after passing two morale checks, lol! Way to be, little guys.
Great game, be sure to catch it on YouTube!