First Game of Death Squads

Me and figgy played our first game of Death Squads earlier this week, and i shall explain the battle and my thoughts on the game.

I played Eldar:
Striking Scorpion Exarch w/ Shuriken Pistol, Chain Sword, Aspect Armor, Helmet = 117
Warlock w/ Sword, Shuriken Pistol = 87
Dire Avenger Aspect Warrior w/ Lasgun, Mesh Armor, Helmet = 107
Warrior Aspirant w/ Sword, Hand Flamer = 66
Warrior Aspirant w/ Sword, Hand Flamer = 66

Guardians x2 w/ Lasguns = 116
Outcasts (Exodites dont fit in my vision) x2 w/ Lasguns = 136

Figgy's Orks:
I dont have the exact list, so i'm going from memory
Nob, big choppa, custom blasta
Wyrdboy w/ choppa?
Sneakyboy w/ shotgun
Ardboys x2 w/??
Painboy w/?
Burna Boys x2 w/flamers
Boys x5 w/choppas
Grots x 5 w/ grot blastas

I assumed i would get slaughtered since i was almost out numbered 2:1, but this wasn't the case. We played on our Mordheim table, and there was LOS blocking platforms and buildings in the center. I set up an Outcast to either flank up in buildings about a foot outside my deployment zone. The Orks bunched up in one corner. The Sneaky Boy set up opposite side of the main Ork force, in range to attack my left flank Outcast.

The whole game the Wyrdboy managed to avoid loosing control of his powers, but failed to cast anything of significance. My warlock managed to guide a few times but was otherwise ineffectual with his powers.

For the first 3 turns the Orks hugged buildings to avoid most of my fire, but my snipers got a couple of lucky shots off, stunning a few models. I moved up my left flank to reinforce the Outcast being shot at by the Sneakyboy's shotgun. But the Ork never once hit the whole game. From a small 4x6 platform with a small ruined building corner I made my stand. I won't recreate the whole battle field but here is what the area where all the action happened looked like:



You can see the Orks advanced from the bottom left of the image, and the 'Ardboys and boys ran up the ramp with the Nob in the lead. Mean while the Snaekyboy and Outcast infiltrators had a gun duel with no resolution. Two Burnas made a gambit and ran up under heavy fire to blast my fire base, but only took out one Guardian, while my return fire took one out.

Previously seeing the Orks running for the ramp, i placed an aspirant close to the bridge with hand flamer at the ready, once the ramp was covered with Orks, he jumped out and poured fire on 5 greenskins. The Nob grabbed the nearest Ork and used him as a shield; the poor boy suffered the nobs critical plus his out wound, burned to a crisp but apparently sheltering the rest of the Orks, I failed to wound any others!

The Nob charged the aspirant and cut him down, while the rest of my squad pumped fire into the Orks, taking most out over a couple of turns, I could simply not roll anything other than 5's to wound with my lasguns!

Grot fire actually took out my Outcast and another Guardian, but by then it was over. We decided not to roll routs in this game but after i cut down the nob when he charged across the bridge, the game was obviously an Eldar victory, 3 Eldar were out and over half the Orks were out.

The terrain left little options for the Orks, since the board edge was along the right hand side of the picture, there was no option to surround me. He was pretty much forced to walk 4" up a long ramp for 3-4 turns with everything i had shhoting twice into his sloooow charge. I question the logic of slowing to half speed and slowly marching up a ramp under heavy fire, surely they would charge the whole way!

I believe that we played a couple rules wrong. First if all we moved charges as in Mordheim, but it has little effect since the Orks had no guns to give the Nob cover fire anyway. Also if i am not mistaken, all the Orks behind the Nob could have declared failed charges and moved 8" rather than 4" up the ramp... it appears that failed charges move max distance in Death Squads, not half like Mordheim. This makes way more sense to me, and i believe we played that rule wrong. If this had have happened at least 3 more Orks would have made it to CC, possible making for a closer game.

This game raised a ton of questions about the Ork list which i will start a new thread for in the Official Squad section. Overall i was pleased with how smoothly the rules worked, but the squads often have rules that are far from intuitive, and some things we just had to guess about. Figgy wants to play test Kroot, so if he ever signs up here i assume i'll get to see that squad list!

Well.. glad to see that you had fun! It seemed like a great game! When we started we used Mordheim terrain too... then we started building more 'futuristic' buildings and now are using Area Terrain too. Don't worry... there are lots of medieval and feudal worlds in 40k for you to fight over. The picture looks AWESOME!

I'm VERY happy for your comments. You actually confirmed something that we are currently discussing on changing... because its a little to 'complicated'. Terrain Types will be simplified. The suggestion is to merge terrain that fits on the Open Ground and Difficult Ground categories, so movement would not be slowed down as much. We have been playing like that for a while, and the games moves 'properly'. In your case specifically, he would be able to Walk 4", Run 8" and even Charge 8" up that ramp. It would make perfect sense... it is a ramp! I would suggest that for next game, play only with Dangerous Ground as well as Impossible Ground. Anything else, treat it as Open Ground.

The Turn Sequence (Declare Charges, Move, Shoot, Assault) is critical in Death Squads. It simulates 40k pinning quite well. For example... you decide to charge with the Nob with Exarch. You Declare the Charge. You move whatever models you want... but NOT the Exarch. Then you had some of your guys shoot at the Nob... and he becomes Stunned. Now the Exarch (which is 5" away) moves in for the kill! He auto-hits, got +3 to-wound, the Nob has -3 to his Armor Save (so probably he has none now) and you have +3 to Injury Roll (a 2+ would be OOA!) This makes players (at a subconscious level) to use 'cover fire' to weaken enemies before the kill.

Now, the counter balance... same situation, but the shooters take the Nob OOA. Now the Exarch misses his Charge... you HAVE to move him to the intended position where the Nob was. Now he is in the middle of the battlefield, completely exposed. The Orks will probaly have him for lunch. OPPPS! This makes players (at a subconscious level) to be careful when using 'cover fire'; too much could spell your own doom.

It is important to know that you can't Declare a Charge to an enemy that could not be reasonably reached. The key word is reasonable... but because of situations like what you mentioned (not able to charge through a ramp) is that we are fixing the terrain types. THANKS... you have NO IDEA how invaluable your observations are!

Now, it concerns me slightly that you mentioned that some Squads have rules that you feel are 'far from intuitive'. This is 100% the opposite to what we want. So please, let us know exactly what is confusing so we can clarify them to you and (more important) fix the TLRB so nobody else suffers the same confusion. We aim to please!

Again, thanks for your comments!

I was referring to the Painboy in particular, which we discussed in the Squads section.

As far as the ramp goes, we did not count it as difficult terrain, it was the presence of the Eldar that made the Orks slow to 4". To me this works in a fantasy game, but with weapons so dangerous, it seems wrong.

Basically we had a mob or blood thirsty Orks armed with no guns, charge at full speed, until they got in short range, where the Eldar could double their shots... then they slowed to a walk and got destroyed.

I do not understand why the Orks were forced to Walk.

TLRB, page 15 wrote:

For an enemy fighter to be considered a Direct Threat he must meet several qualifications;
• The enemy fighter must be within 8” of the location where the fighter started to Run.
• The enemy fighter must have Line of Sight (also known as LoS, see Shooting section) of the path that the fighter will take.
• The enemy fighter must be on the same elevation level (i.e. both are on a 3rd floor) as the Running fighter.

If the Eldar were on the same level, the Orks could had Charged. If your opponent miscalculated (no pre-measuring), well that is part of the game. As I understood, the Eldars were on a 2nd Level, so the Orks could have Run without any issues. The Eldar could have been at 3" away, but on a 2nd floor and the Orks could have still Ran up the ramp... but better yet, they could had Charged them... need a simple climbing test and SQUISHED Eldar!

WAIT! Wait wait waitwaitwaitwait....

More pics of the terrain, please. You made it? How? etc...

pathfinder dubstyles wrote:

... Basically we had a mob or blood thirsty Orks armed with no guns ...

Huh?

Hahah! Post more terrain pics on the terrain section. I guess that we all had the same feeling!

Ah thanks for pointing out the direct threat rules, the same level requirement is something we overlooked.

For all those wanting more terrain pictures, I will make a new topic in the fantasy section, since it is all Mordheim related terrain...