The list I'd planned on playing tonight. It came to 48 PL and 995 points of nothing but Terminators. It was perfect. Captain, Ancient, three regular Terminator squads, and one of Assault, all Lightning Claws. I didn't realize though, that tonight was the kick-off of the 25 PL Crusade league being run by one of the store regulars, Sam.
I knew this would be happening, just not when. Sam had asked me two weeks ago if I'd like to participate, and I said sure, if possible. So, I get to the store today shortly after 4:00, and Sam is there and says, "Hey, we're kicking off tonight, can you play at 25 PL?" So I think about it for a moment and realize that yeah, I can use my Captain who is 6 PL and two of my squads, which are 9 each, and that comes out to 24 PL, so that will work.
It won't technically be a Patrol detachment, but no big deal. My opponent doesn't mind. He's got 24 PL of Beast Snagga Orks he's looking to play with, which looks like fun to me, so we're agreed. This guy's name is Austin, and I've definitely seen him at the store several times before, and I am pretty sure I played him back when I first got into the game, in 2019. I'm pretty certain he was the one with those metallic purple necrons I fought with my Guard army that one time. He's a pretty distinct looking fellow and I have a pretty sharp memory, at least for certain things.
Sam lets us know the mission of the week is... here I've forgotten what it's called, but it's one of the Combat Patrol level Crusade missions in the core book, where deployment is on the short sides of the table, and there's a defined strip down the center of no man's land where a couple of objective markers have to be placed. The other two are in each deployment zone. I'm the attacker, so I need to, as a side objective, get over to his edge of the board for VP at the end of the game. Objective control is sticky in this mission, meaning you can move off them and still control them until the other force comes to take them.
The forces are:
White Scars Terminator Captain
Terminator Squad with chainfists and heavy flamer
Terminator Squad with power fists and cyclone missile launcher
Goff Beastboss
Beast Snagga Boyz
Squighog Boyz
Kill Rig
Orks are defending, so they begin deploying first, with a unit of Beast Snagga Boyz. I put down a unit of Terminators on the objective in my DZ behind light cover (fuel pipe). He deploys his Kill Rig across from them on the same flank. I put down my other unit of Terminators behind dense cover (sector mechanicus scenery). He puts down a unit of 3 Squighog Boyz near the other Boyz. I think for a moment about where to put my Captain, and settle for by the Terminator squad with all chainfists, because I am going to want to use them to kill the Kill Rig since they buff up from D3 to flat 3 damage when attacking Vehicles. He puts down his Beastboss between his two units of Boyz of different types.
The Captain has a combi-melta, but is too far away to fire the melta at the Kill Rig. I forget to fire the bolter half of his gun. Oh well, it's T8 anyway. I fire the storm bolters and missiles of my one squad at the Kill Rig and get a lucky missile strike for 5 damage. A Kill Rig has 16 wounds, to begin with. End of my turn.
He does 2 psychic powers with the Kill Rig (the Wurrboy on the back of it), Smite and another one, which together do 5 mortal wounds to my Captain, putting him down to 1 wound left. His Orky psy power also affects my other units nearby, and each take 1 or 2 mortal wounds, also.
Shooting, he kills one Terminator from the missile launcher squad, but I think that's it. When he charges, the Beastboss fails an 8" one, despite a free re-roll (Goffs). The Kill Rig charges both my Captain and missile launcher squad, though.
Fighting, the Kill Rig has a total of 14 attacks. 6 stock, and 2 other weapons that each do 4 attacks additional when it fights. He kills my Captain and I think one more Terminator. My squad fights back, 4 power sword attacks and 6 power fist attacks, and one fist gets through, so now it's down to 9 wounds remaining. My squad passes morale, and it's back to me.
I'm now in Tactical Doctrine, so I fall back with the squad fighting the Kill Rig, and use Feinting Withdrawal on them so they'll be able to shoot. I put all ranged from both squads into the Rig, then charge both squads into it and after combat, it's dead. It doesn't explode. Here's it being removed.
Then it's back over to his second turn, in which he moves up his Beastboss and Beast Snagga Boyz and Squighog Boyz to where they'll be in charge range.
Between his shooting then and the charging and fighting that follows, he kills my whole squad of chainfist/flamer Terminators. I overwatch with the heavy flamer of course, but I think it only does one damage to the Beastboss as he's inbound. Pic of the beatdown in progress:
After the Squighog Boyz fight, though, he consolidates them into my remaining three models, and I then kill two of them in my own fighting since they came too close. When it comes back to me for turn 3, I'm in Assault Doctrine. I fall back with the three remaining Terminators in the direction of his Beastboss, and again use Feinting Withdrawal so they can shoot. They put everything into the Beastboss, then charge him and put all their swings into him, as well. However, he is -1 to wound, so even my S8 power fists are wounding on 4s, and the power sword is wounding on 6s only. I do a few damage, but he doesn't die. He fights back, killing one of my Terminators. Now I'm down to 2.
In his third turn, I'm now surrounded and he's got a stratagem to ensure the pounding.
I think this was my first time ever playing Orks, period. I didn't really notice the high Toughness of the Boyz because I was mostly focused on the T8 Kill Rig and the Beastboss who is T6, himself. His Beast Snagga Boyz didn't do a whole lot, either. They suck at range with low BS. I think they chipped in a few wounds in melee, though.
So I guess I'm officially in the Crusade league now as White Scars. I'm in contact with Sam now, so next time I'll come with a purpose-built list for it at whatever the PL will be. What I'm doing is taking my existing Scars Crusade force, and just zeroing out the XP and battle honours on the units I want to use for this new one, but also giving myself one RP for each 1 Crusade Point of battle honours and stuff I erase, for the purposes of expanding the supply limit to get more stuff in the (original) list. This way I can both advance my edition-long Crusade force but also start this new one on an equal footing with the other people playing who have not already got 30 games worth of XP under their belts.
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