NOVA 2012 GT: Round 2

My next game was against Grey Knights with Space Wolf allies.

Ordo Xenos Inquisitor (mandatory HQ)
5 Strikes in Psybacks x1 million
3 Psyflemen
Rune Priest
10 GH in Rhino
10 GH in Rhino
Rifleman
Vindicator

Lots of hulls, lots of medium S and TL weapons and a couple beefier units to strengthen any position.

The mission was Quarters > Objectives > KPs with the center objective operating as the Relic.  Deployment was modified Hammer & Anvil, with each player taking a 24"x36" area on the short board edges.

Hammer & Anvil seems like a problem for the Orks, but between fleet on demand and their own firepower, I think they'll be ok.  I was more concerned with knocking out enough of those hulls before my flyers show up.

He deployed first and clogged midfield with hulls, leaving 1 GH unit in back on his home objective.  I set up my Boyz in the center, as close as possible, with kannonz covering one objective while Zahndrekh's crew and the Lootas covered another.  The Barges deployed in front of Zahndrekh's team with intervening cover.

Initial shooting was largely ineffectual thanks to cover for my A Barges and no viable targets for his Razors (S6 vs AV13 wut).  Losing 3 or 4 Orks here and there is far from crippling.  My Boyz run up as far as possible in an attempt to mob up on the Relic and hold him in place, while the A Barges, Lootaz and Zahndrekh's team proceed to start cutting back on his vehicle count.

He advanced his GH and Vindicator to start clearing out Boyz, but focused fire managed to negate his flamers' effectiveness while cover kept my losses to a minimum.  He had 2 units dangerously out of position, so I went for it.  Flyers arrived to devastate more armor while the Boyz made good use of Fleet to reach combat turn 2.  And they didn't leave combat for the rest of the game.

While the Boyz chewed through his units one at a time, my A Barges eventually got dragged down by glances while his parking lot was removed rather quickly.  His Vindicator was felled by a Voltaic Staff, forcing units away from the Orks to deal with the Warriors.  His objective camping GH were torched by the Deathmarks who had picked them as their victim.  Eventually his firepower units were silenced one by one and infantry ground down by Boyz or massed Tesla fire.

I finished the game with 2 seriously depleted mobs of Boyz and a few fewer Warriors and A Barges.  He had a Rifleman with 1 arm left.  I won all 3 missions and picked up a ton of tiebreaker points to finish the first day.

The Boyz getting off an early charge was key here.  Once they were in assault, he could only feed them one unit at a time and had nobody to grab the Relic and flee.  Flyers allowed me to pick out priority targets and knock them out, even if it meant sacrificing units in the process.  For all the firepower a MSU mech army has, they were not durable enough to last all game and keep dealing damage.