Friday 17 June 2016

Double Trouble- Ork Army Review

As is customary at the end of any tournament, I like to take a look at how my army performed and look at what worked well in the army and what could be improved.

As a reminder, my army for Double Trouble consisted of:
Warboss- Eavy Armour, Power Claw, Shoota, Bosspole, Stikkbombs
Painboy- Urty Syringe, Dok's Tools
 25 Ork Boyz- Sluggas, Choppas, inc. Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole
11 Ork Boyz- Sluggas, Choppas, inc. Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole
Trukk- Big Shoota
Runtherd and 15 Gretchin
Runtherd and 11 Gretchin
3 Warbikers
Warbuggy- TL Rokkit
Warbuggy- TL Rokkit
 Looted Wagon- Killcannon, Ard Case, Big Shoota

I am going to look at the individual units and see how they performed and where they could be improved.

Warboss
The Warboss was a close combat monster. Whatever he went up against generally died thanks to the power claw giving him S10 instant death attacks against most units in the game. He performed well in the third game, where his S10 attacks were able to instant death the Grotesques, making them much easier to deal with.
The Waaagh ability was also useful, ensuring that I could always get a turn 2 charge off with most of my mobs and saving me from another turn of shooting. I would take the Warboss again.

Painboy
The Painboy was probably the Ork of the tournament for me. He helped the large mob survive for a lot longer than it should have done (especially in game 3). For only 50 pts, he was an absolute bargain and I would definitely take him again. The Urty syringe was useful in going up against T5 models, but his combat output was not too great.

Slugga Boyz
First up, the unit of 25 slugga boyz was an absolute beast. This unit had great durability with the Painboy attached and could put out an insane volume of attacks on the charge. The unit was only wiped out in one game and was not even reduced to half strength in the other games.

All I had to do was point them at a target and they would destroy it in combat. However, the problem was that once they had destroyed the target, they generally found themselves out of position and took no further part in the game. In a game that would only last 4 or 5 turns, it was very difficult for them to get back into the action and have much of an influence on the game beyond turn 3.

I think my original plan to take a unit of 20 boyz in a battlewagon would have been better. In my first game, I don't think there was anything in the opposing armies that could have hurt the AV13 or 14 of the battlewagon in the shooting phase, ensuring that the mob would have got into combat on turn 1 and allowed them to re-deploy to possibly take on other threats around the board. In the second game, it is likely it would have been Immobilised or wrecked by the grav centurions, but I would not have lost a lot of the boyz to an explosion and may have been in a better position to take on the enemy army. In the third game, only the Dark Lance of the Raider would have posed a problem to it and it would have almost guaranteed a first turn charge on the Beast Pack by my large Ork mob.

The unit of trukk boyz generally performed well. They did not survive a single game, but generally did quite well in combat and the trukk was useful for getting them around the board and grabbing objectives in the third game.

Had the tournament not restricted only 2 units the same, I probably would have loaded the army up with trukk boyz mobs to grab objectives and swamp the enemy army.

Gretchin
For a combined total of about 80 pts, I think the two units of gretchin performed very well at the tournament. They were essentially just brought in as extra bodies to hold objectives in our deployment zone or being annoying and they did just that.
I think their best game was game 2, where one of the units was able to tie up the Grav Centurions to prevent them firing for a turn and locking them in place for the slugga boyz to deal with.

The only problem is that they tended to fold rather quickly in combat. All it took was a casualty or two for the entire unit to flee and be wiped out.

I would probably take them again as cheap objective holders.


Warbikers
I think that a unit of 3 warbikers doesn't really achieve too much. They have some decent firepower, but I came up against a lot of 2+ cover saves or tough armour that didn't really bother with their dakkaguns. They had some decent mobility, but I didn't really use it too often to grab objectives.

I think the unit either needs to be bigger or include a Nob with a power claw for taking out tough targets or vehicles in combat.

Warbuggies
I think the Warbuggies were only of use as distraction units and using their mobility to grab objectives. I don't think the rokkit launchers did anything of use over the 3 games, either failing to hit every turn or the attack being saved by jinking bikers or skimmers.

I think I would have been better suited giving them scorchas. A pair of outflanking Scorchas would have been great for dealing with the Daemons and Raven Guard in several of my games. The S5 AP4 flamers would have made a mess of the Raven Guard scouts in games 1 and 2 and seriously worried the Dark Eldar in game 3. The extra bonus with the Scorcha is no To Hit roll for me to fail!

Looted Wagon
On paper, the looted wagon is much more of a threat than it is on the table. The Killcannon has some great stats, but cover shuts down its effectiveness rather quickly. I think it only killed half a dozen or so models over the course of 3 games.

It is a big target for the enemy army and with armour 11 and only 3 HP, it does not survive too long against dedicated anti-tank firepower. It was a very cheap way to get a pseudo-battle cannon into the army, and with so many marine armies going to Double Trouble, it seemed like a good investment, but I don't think it made its points back in any game.

Overall
So, some elements of the army worked very well, while others struggled to do anything or live up to their potential. Based on the results of the army and individual units over the course of the 3 games, if I had to take my Orks to Double Trouble again I would take the following list:

Warboss- Eavy Armour, Power Claw, Shoota, Bosspole, Stikkbombs
Painboy- Urty Syringe, Dok's Tools
18 Ork Boyz- Sluggas, Choppas, inc. Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole
11 Ork Boyz- Sluggas, Choppas, inc. Nob with Power Claw and Bosspole
Trukk- Big Shoota
Runtherd and 10 Gretchin
Runtherd and 10 Gretchin
3 Warbikers
Warbuggy- Scorcha
Warbuggy- Scorcha
Battlewagon- Extra Armour, Big Shoota

The Warboss and Painboy would join the unit of 18 orks in the Battlewagon. This will give them some much needed mobility in a sturdy transport vehicle that they can still assault from. The Battlewagon was given extra armour to keep it mobile and a big shoota to save it from any weapon destroy results.
The Trukk boyz mob remains, but would go on their own to assault enemy units and grab objectives or pair up with the large mob to take on serious threats.

The Grots were included to be objective holders in the deployment zone, but the size of the squads have been reduced.

I took two Scorchas instead of the rokkit buggies. The scorcha will be more useful against a range of targets and they get the benefit of re-rollable difficult terrain tests to help them when moving through cover to grab objectives.

I kept the Bikers in the army as they are a fast and mobile force with decent firepower. If I was to drop them, there is nothing in my army I could replace them with that would be as useful or as mobile.

So that is my review of my army for Double Trouble. Anything you would take in the army or suggested changes that could be made?
 
Double Trouble 2016
Army List and Thoughts
Game 1- Orks/Eldar vs Daemons/Raven Guard
Game 2- Orks/Dark Angels vs Howling Griffons/Raven Guard
Game 3- Orks/Daemons vs Iron Hands/Dark Eldar
Tournament Army Review


6 comments:

  1. My mate Bens Warbiker with the 'head lopper' weapon is an absolute nighmare. He's killed so many of my high wound monsters with just one hit! Worth considering.

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    1. Thanks Dave, I'll need to check that out (Double Trouble was the first time I looked at the Ork codex for a long time).

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  2. Nice to see your thoughts on the army after the tournament. Seems to have fiven you some green energy for going forward.

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    1. I do enjoy using my Orks. The only issue I have is that I like a horde army and on a regular club night, it simply takes too long to set up and use in a game to get past a few turns.

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  3. Love your battle reports and this wrap up. Your stuff looks great! And the lists look fun to play and play against, not sure you could ask for much more in a game of 40k.

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  4. The Double Trouble posts are rolling in now. Sounds like a lot of fun. There is a similar event that happens here in May but I haven't had a chance to go. I'll have to try next year.

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