Wolfy finally joins 7th edition

So, owing to a significant number of issues, I have finally got around to playing my first 7th edition. Given the [URL="http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?48697-Total-Wargamer-A-Cautionary-Tale"]difficulties[/URL] that I had getting my rule book you would have thought that I would have been playing much earlier!

My mate and I played a small game 1,000 pts. It is one of those points levels where you do feel the pain of paper-scissor-stone-lizard-spock. Because of a mix up it ended up slightly hastily put together with a gentleman’s agreement of no flyers, he couldn't find any of his armies so borrowed some of my orks which currently have nothing built that can take out flyers. It was supposed to be Blood Angels vs Nids, though the Nids somehow managed to become lost...

Blood Angels vs. Orks

BA - 997pts
[Baal Strike Force]
HQ
Mephiston - Warlord
Elite
Death Company Dreadnought - Blood Talons, Storm Bolter, Heavy Bolter
Death Company - (9 man) Jumpacks, 1 Power fist, Bolt Pistols & Chainswords
Lemartes - (joins Death Company, obvs.)
Troops
Tactical Squad - Flamer, Heavy Flamer, Meltabombs on the Sarge [Combat Squadded, a) Flamer + Sarge b) Heavy Flamer]
Tactical Squad - Missile Launcher, Meltagun [Combat Squadded, a) Meltagun + Sarg, b) Missile Launcher]


Orks - 1064 pts
[Great Waaagh!]
HQ
Big Mek - Mega Armor
Elite
15 Tankbustas (joined by Big Mek)
Troop
3x Boyz
- 10 Shoota Boyz
- Rokkit Launcha
- Nob w/Bosspole
- Trukk w/ Reinforced Ram, Rokkit Launcha
Fast
2x Deffkoptas w/ Rokkit Launcha
5x Warbikers + Nob w/ Bosspole, Power Klaw
Warbuggy
Heavy
3x Killa Kan w/ Rokkit Launcha

Maelstrom rules with a Vanguard Deployment.

The game ended at the end of turn 4, owing to time constraints, Orks 8 - 1 Blood Angels.
Not the most glorious of endings, but it ended up with the Orks down to a Buggy, Trukk, 5 Boyz and an immobilised Killa Kan. The Blood Angels 4 man Death Company with Lemartes, 2 combat squaded tactical marines squads (1 full strength with missile, the other 3 man). So it was slightly closer than the victory points led.

I very much enjoyed it. The Maelstrom rules made the game very agile and a bit random, though it hurt me as a number of times the Orks got secure objective X which was already being held. Certainly it rewards an agile army and keeps the army moving rather than getting "into the thick of it". Though it does hit one with that difficult decision, do you hunt a unit down, or do you go after the objective for the points and risk being hunted down otherwise.

Things that I learnt.

Mephiston is no longer the beast he was, though with the massive points reduction he had it is not surprising. With some tragically unlucky roles I managed to take all the wounds off him, 2x Perils and 1 Gets hot :(. I should have been more aggressive with him.

Never trust my mates counting ;) Though to be fair it wouldn't have made all that much of a difference, combat squadding the tacticals didn't really do much. I probably should have kept them together and march forward bolters blazing on mass.

Tactical Objectives - they are crazy (but in my opinion fun). They add a level of randomness which others may not appreciate. They can really screw with you, in two turns in a row, the Orks got claim objective X, which they were already holding.

Death Company are still awesome :) They had a bit of luck, on one turn they failed to charge a squad of boyz, on the subsequent turn boyz, bikerz failed to charge the DC but the killakans did make it in. When the boyz and bikes did make the charge they were annihilated, which was cool.

15 tankbustas are awesome marine hunters and at low point values large blobs are crazy good. Tooling up every option to rokkits was a great move for obscene AP3 coverage.

Edition shift never gets easier, so there was lots of rule checking and "I'm sure you could do X"

Possibly the most important thing was that great fun and the next game is pencilled in.