My friend Jon and I continued our tradition of pitting what we painted for the 2nd Edition Challenge against each other at the end of the challenge. We continued the tradition by pitting my Dark Angels against his Orks. We settled on 1,450 points as that allowed me to bring two of my three bonus tanks (the Leman Russ was redeployed to assist the Imperial Guard) and gave Jon the points to bring his Ork Boar Boyz to support his Warboss on Boar. I also had to leave behind three of my terminators as they all have heavy weapons and make my list illegal. Which green force will win? Read on to find out!

The Dark Angels – 1,443 points

Dark Angels Master w/ Power Sword, Conversion Field 131 points

Dark Angels Master of the Deathwing w/ Refractor Field 145oints

Techmarine w/ Servo Arm 45 points

Deathwing Squad w/ Assault Cannon, 2 Chainfists 385 points

Dark Angels Tactical Squad w/ Power Sword, Lascannon, Plasma gun 359 points

Predator w/ Bulldozer Blade, lascannon sponsons 195 points

Predator w/ Storm Bolter, lascannon sponsons 185 points

Orks – 1443 points

++ Orks (Codex – Orks) [1,443pts] ++

+ Characters [219pts]

+ Mekaniak [43pts]: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour, Shokk Attack Gun [25pts]

Painboy [26pts]: Bolt Pistol, Doc’s Tools [8pts], Flak Armour, Show Wargear Cards

Runtherd [18pts]: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour

Warboss [132pts]: Army Commander, Bolt Pistol, Cyboar [15pts], Flak Armour, Kustom Force Field [20pts], Kustom Shoota [20pts], Power Axe [7pts], Show Wargear Cards, Steel Skull [5pts]

+ Mobs [814pts]

+ Evil Sunz Boyz Mob [258pts]: Axe, 5x Bolt Pistol [10pts], 5x Evil Sunz Boyz [60pts], Flak Armour, Frag Stikkbombz . Mount on Warbikes [175pts]: Twin Autocannon . Nobz Champion [13pts]: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour

Evil Sunz Boyz Mob [170pts]: Axe, 9x Boltgun [9pts], 9x Evil Sunz Boyz [108pts], Flak Armour, Frag Stikkbombz, Heavy Plasma Gun [26pts] . Nobz Champion [27pts]: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour, Plasma Pistol [4pts], Power Fist [10pts]

Goff Boyz Mob [114pts]: Axe, Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour, Frag Stikkbombz, 6x Goff Boyz Mob [72pts], 6x Krak Stikkbombz [18pts] . Nobz Champion [24pts]: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour, Frag Stikkbombz [2pts], Krak Stikkbombz [3pts], Power Sword [6pts]

Gretchin Mobs [60pts]: Autogun, Flak Armour,

12x Gretchin Mobs [60pts] Gretchin Mobs [65pts]: Autogun, Autopistol, Flak Armour, 13x Gretchin Mobs [65pts]

Snakebite Boyz Mob [132pts]: .Mount on Boars (All Models Must Ride), Axe, 5x Bolt Pistol [10pts], Cyboar [15pts], Flak Armour, Frag Stikkbombz, 3x Power Axe [21pts], 5x Snakebite Boyz Mob [60pts], Sword or Axe [1pts], Sword or Axe [1pts], 4x Warboar [24pts] Snotling Herd [15pts]: 3x Snotlings [15pts]

+ Support [410pts]

+ Ork Dreadnought [145pts]: Heavy Bolter, Lascannon [25pts], 2x Power Claw

Ork Scorcher [50pts]: Heavy Flamer . Ork Crew: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour . Ork Crew: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour

Ork War Buggy [65pts]: Multi-Melta [20pts] . Ork Crew: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour . Ork Crew: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour

Ork Wartrak [50pts]: Twin Heavy Bolters . Ork Crew: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour . Ork Crew: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour

Splatta Kannon [60pts] . Gretchin Crew: Flak Armour . Gretchin Crew: Flak Armour

Traktor Kannon [40pts] . Gretchin Crew: Flak Armour . Gretchin Crew: Flak Armour ++ Total: [1,443pts]

Pre-Game – The Dark Angels got Dawn Raid and the Orks got Take and Hold for their objectives. The Dark Angels set up from the middle of the field to their left flank, concentrating their forces against the wider spread Ork line. We decided to play 5 turns instead of playing 4 and rolling to see if there was a 5th and 6th turn. The Orks had to deploy first and even with their strategy rating bonus to go first the Dark Angels beat the Orks and got to go first. With that it was game time!

Turn 1

The Dark Angles moved up and headed towards the left of the bunker to stay out of line of sight of the Ork Heavy weapons opposite them.

The Dark Angles Predator’s opened up on the Ork lines causing both the Dreadnought and one of the buggies to go out of control!

The Ork Dreadought sumbled directly forward towards the Gretchin in the middle of the table. The grots were pretty excited for the back up as they didn’t realize the pilot was barely controlling the ironclad behemoth! The out of control buggy turned directly into the line of buggies striking another one which managed to avoid any serious damage. The enraged Dreadnought opened fire on the Gretchin, killing two of them. (We decided the Dread did not have to use the Sustained Fire dice when shooting friendly troops as sustained fire dice are optional.) The Ork heavy weapons did not have line of sight to any of the Dark Angels and the buggy’s autocannon bounced off the Predator.

The Dark Angels continued to move forward in an attempt to keep the Orks on their back foot. The Deathwing Terminators realized they needed to prevent the Orks from taking their objective (the side of the bunker) so they started to head back towards their right flank. With the Orks horde rapidly approaching the objective the race was on! In the shooting phase one of the Predators imobilized the Ork Dreadnought and the other blew blew up a buggy, and caused the schorcha and another buggy to go out of control! 2+ to hit with Space Marine drivers and targeters have proved to be very deadly for the ramshackle Ork vehicles! Meanwhile small arms fire killed enough Gretchin to cause them to break.

In the Ork turn the broken Gretchin fell back, and despite trying to rally throughout the rest of the game they never rallied. The Skorcha rammed the Predator who was tormenting the Ork lines blowing a track off and causing it to go out of control. The Dreadnought exploded but the Gretchin were now just out of range as they were legging it across the field. The Ork Traktor Cannon grabbed on to one of the Terminators and dragged him forward but didn’t kill him. In “something actually went actually right for once” the Ork Shokk attack gun managed to lodge some furious Snotlings in the other Predator. While there was no immediate damage the tank would need to test to see if it exploded on a 6 at the beginning of every turn. While it never exploded it did prevent the Predator from counting as undamaged and thus unable to achieve the Dark Angels Dawn Raid mission. Meanwhile an Ork buggy killed two Tactical Marines as they advanced up the field.

The out of control Predator slews forward and comes to a grinding halt. The Deathwing Terminator who was dragged by the Traktor Kannon took advantage of his free ride and hopped on the objective while the rest of his squad advanced and opened fire on the approaching Boar Boyz, killing all of them except their Warboss! Two more buggies are put out of control by the combined efforts of the Predators and the imobilized Preadator opens up its Storm Bolter at long range causing the Skorcha heading to support the Orks in their assault on the bunker to go out of control!

In what was a continuing theme of the game two ork buggies head straight off the table, which based on their orientation was almost guaranteed, while the Skorcha turned left and drove off the back of the table. The Traktor Kannon misfired dragging itself closer to the Deathwing while the Splatta Kannon once again fired to no effect. Things were not looking good for the Orks, but if they could get to the objective they would still have a chance so the Orks but on their best WAAAGHH face and charged the terminator on the objective, killing him in close combat with da bosses Power Fist! The Warboss charged the Master of the Deathwing and the two exchanged blows for no effect.

Things continued to go the Dark Angels way as they Predators killed off the last of the Ork bikes, and the mobile Predator killed the Shokk Attack Gun. Rather than engaging in close combat the Deathwing opened fire on the Gretchin surrounding them and killed off a handful. In combat the Master of the Deathwing put two wounds on the Warboss!

While the Dark Angels were using massed firepower to win the day the Orks attempted to use the fist. The Orks and Gretchin charged the Deathwing holding their objective and the Goffs charged the Tactical Squad as it made its way around the wreckage of the Dreadnought. Both sides lost a combatant so the fight would continue next turn. While the Deathwing once again made short work of most of their opponents, and their armor save them from the worst of the fights they lost another terminator was struck down by the power fist of the Ork boss. If the Orks can keep this up they might be able to regain the objective and earn some serious points!

In what would be the last turn of the game the Terminators killed off the majority off the Orks surrounding the objective, the Predator killed the Painboy, and the Captain and Techmarine joined the tactical squad in combat knocking it down to just two Orks. The Master of the Deathwing who had been slap fighting since putting two wounds on the Ork Warboss finally killed his opponent in close combat.

With that we called the game with the final VP’s going Dark Angels 13, Orks 5.

The game was actually closer than it looked. If the Ork with Powerfist survived another turn he could have knocked out another Deathwing Terminator and if the Goffs went towards the objective instead of the Tactical Squad they could have had enough figures on the objective to take it. If that happened the game would have been Dark Angels 13, Orks 12. (5 for the objective, and 2 for knocking an expensive unit down to half points.)

Jon had some bad luck with me knocking out the Dreadnought in the first turn, he needed the lascannon to take out my Predators, and with the exception of the Shock Attack Gun the Ork artillery proved lackluster. They scared me into moving away from the objective which was almost a serious problem for me but besides that they were all bang and no buck!

I always appreciate the chance to play 2nd Edition and I love seeing all out hard work painting over the course of the various 2nd Edition Challanges pay off!

-Wachtmeister