Battle Report: Orks vs. Space Marines

Hey, I got a game in yesterday with my Ork list here. I went up against my buddy Zach's Vulkan marines. Zach's a great guy, but his dice seem to hate him when I'm around :P

Here's an approximation of his list.

Vulkan

2 MM/HF Dreads, 1 in a Drop Pod

7 Legion of the Damned, power weapon, plasma cannon, plasma gun

2 MM/F/PW Tac Squads, 1 in a Drop Pod, 1 in a Rhino

2 4 man Bike Squadrons with AB, melta/flamer, power weapon

1 long MM Attack Bike

Vindicator

LRC

Obviously it's not an optimized list, but Vulkan still worries me since meltas fuck battlewagons up like crazy, and boosted flamers are never good for Orks.

We ended up playing Spearhead deployment Seize Ground. From here on I will describe the board from my POV, so left, right, top and bottom are consistent. Most objectives were placed in the middle strung out in a line going left to right. One of each was in a corner, top left and bottom right.

I won the roll off and deployed first, because I wanted to get my Bikers boosting early so I could survive the melta and Demolisher cannon certainly coming my way. I deployed as far forward as possible with my Nobs, spreading out the Bikers maximum distance and covering all the Battlewagons with the KFF. The empty Trukk set up in front of the Grots, who started in cover on the objective.

Zach deployed forward too, which surprised me. The LRC deployed to block LoS to the Vindicator and Rhino, while each unit of Bikes went to the flank, so top mid and left mid, with a Dread on his right flank and the Attack Bike dead center.

Turn 1 Orks:

Everything zoomed forward, Bikers spread out. Very uneventful.

Turn 1 SM:

The LRC moved to reveal an angry Vindicator and marines. The Dread dropped in the empty bottom left corner facing the Nob Bikers. Left bikes stood back while the right bikes zoomed around center for a shot on the Trukk. Dread and AB went to center to hit the lead Battlewagon belonging to a shoota mob. Vulkan and his boys jumped out of the Rhino, intend on messing up the Nob Bikers.

The Vindicator, Vulkan, his Tac Squad, the LRC, the left Bikes, and the Dreadnought all fired to full effect on the Nob Bikers. End result? 2 wounds! The right bikes popped the Trukk (twin-linked melta + Trukk - KFF = lol) and the other Dread and Attack Bike bounced off of the KFF trying to shoot a Battlewagon.

Turn 2 Orks:

Fun times! Nob Bikers move to multi-assault the recently dropped Dread and Vulkan's unit. The Nob Battlewagon attempted to zoom through cover to ram the LRC, but I rolled double 1's and it got immobilized >,<>

Nob Bikers burninated and dakka'd the marines, killing all of 2 while the Shoota boyz unloaded into the bikes killing 1. To save the shooting phase the Koptaz blew up the Vindicator, w00t! The other kopta unit killed off a biker.

Nob Bikers ran into assault, murdering 5 marines and the Dreadnought while taking 3 wounds from Vulkan and losing 1 model. Vulkan laughs at the Warboss's 4 wounding hits and passes all his saves. The Koptaz that shot the bikes charged in, lost 1 wound and smushed a biker.

Turn 2 SM:

Not looking good! AB and Dread move to pop the ram-happy BW, Tac Squad drops in next to the grots and LotD drop closer to the middle bottom.

Boom! The Bikes 'splode the Battlewagon facing them (so much for AV14) while the Dread and AB fail to knock out the other shoota wagon, even against side armor! LotD and the new Tac Squad fire on the recently vacated shoota boyz but only kill 4 (thanks KFF!)

Nob Bikers finish off the Tac Squad, Vulkan kills 2 Nobs and he sticks around soaking up all kinds of S10 loving. Bikes and Koptas do 1 each and keep it tied.

Turn 3 Orks:

The shootas on foot move towards the Tac squad, while the only mobile Battlewagon decides it doesn't like the Dreadnought's face and rams it, crushing it under its spiky deff rolla of doom! The Nobs hop out of their wagon (I kind forgot about them and the grot riggers) and head towards the LotD.

The Shootas on foot kill off 2 marines, the shootas in the wagon blow away 4 out of 5 bikes and run the Sergeant off. Nobs Waagh!

2 Koptas charge to help their komrades. Nob bikers lose another model and finally splat Vulkan. Nobs on foot charge the LotD, lose 3 wounds and splatter all but the Sergeant. Shoota boyz multi-charge the Tactical combat squads and wipe them out.

At this point we decided to call it since all my opponent had left were an empty Rhino, running Biker Sergeant, 2 Pods, the Attack Bike, and LotD Sergeant stuck in combat.

So, what did we learn?

1) Vulkan should munch BW spam, but when you make every cover save there's nothing you can do.

2) Never get out of your transport, especially with murderous Nob Bikers running around!

3) TANK SHOCK! It's only 7 models in the Nob Biker unit, shock them until they run or at least push them into better template formation.

4) Up against assaulty mobile armies? Deploy further back, let them come to you and try and take some down as they approach.

5) Dreads fuck Nobs up, before getting smashed by PKs. Use them to snipe the Warboss or do as much damage as possible before 'sploding.

I'd like to get more testing in against more powerful armies before I pass a verdict on my army or Vulkan armies.