Orks vs Chaos 2-27-15 (Cerastus Knight Lancer!)

In brief: Foregoing the Orky Terminators for this rematch, I brought in a tripped out skuad of Tankbustas in a Looted Wave Serpent to deal with Joel's newly-painted Cerastus Knight (a super-heavy walker with obscene 13 armor and stomp attacks doing Destroyer damage).

Da Nooble Orks (Andrew)
3	DeffKoptas	Fast Attack, with Rokkit Launchas
5	Tankbustas	Elites (w 2 tankhammers, 4 boyz, a Boss Nob with Klaw, and 3 squigs)
3	Trukk	3 Dedicated transports
1	Looted Wave Serpent	1 Dedicated transport
30	Shoota Boyz	3 Troops
3	Nobz with Klaws	No slot
1	Mek	No slot
1	Big Mek with Shokk	HQ, Brutal but Kunnin (I forgot to use this)
5	Lootas	Heavy support
1	Painboy	HQ, 1 squig
1	Deff Dread	With 2 Rokkit Launchas

Da Iginomineeos Kaos (Joel)
1	Cerastus Knight Lancer
2	Chimera Tanks
3	Renegade Squads
3	Rapier Laser Destroyer Artillery batteries

Rolled for Maelstrom-> Tactical Escalation Mission-> Dawn of War deployment (no night fighting or mysterious objectives)

In brief: Foregoing the Orky Terminators for this rematch, I brought in a tripped out skuad of Tankbustas in a Looted Wave Serpent to deal with the Cerastus Knight.

 Everything that could be upgraded to Rokkit Launchas was upgraded and I assumed that I could bring down the Knight in 2 rounds of shooting (Lootas, a Shokk Atak gun, 8 Rokkits, and the Tankbustas seemed like it could do the trick even with Ork ballistic skill).

Didn’t happen

Even though I fired everything including 4 bomb squigs into the Cerastus, the result was 1 glancing hit. The Tankbustas charged (because why not, it’s a “let’s see what happens” battle) and only 2 lived, though a surviving tankhammer Ork did manage a penetrating hit- Crew shaken. 

I switched gears and attempted to bypass the Knight, but 1 Trukk fell prey to heavy artillery fire (the krew started running and didn’t stop until they ran off the board) and the second one was stomped to death by an angry Cerastus Knight (the krew of that one was plowed under in a sweeping advance by Renegades).  

On the right side of the board, all was well as Trukk #3 managed to do its job and deliver 10 angry Ork Boyz and a power Klaw Nob into charge range where they wiped out a second group of renegades and the Deff Dread glanced a Chimera.

Cold comfort when my warlord and his 2 surviving Lootas ran off the table away from 6 Str 7 shots from the Cerastus Knight.

Final score: Chaos: 8, Orks: 3

Thoughts: Things may have gone better with a different strategy- either adopting a strategy of ignoring the Cerastus or going all out. I did forget the Tankbustas' "Tank Hunters" rule which would have averaged another 3 hull points, and had I charged the Knight with one of the Boyz squads to tie it down in melee (maybe- 60% chance of running instead), I could have charged the Tankbustas against a vulnerable rear arc instead. Having said all that, the most reliable way to deal with Super Heavies is another Super Heavy. 

Check out Joel's blog @ burntheimperium.blogspot.com to see his batrep

Mistakes made: 

• Doks can's carry bomb squigs
• Super Heavies can't fire overwatch (we're still working out whether they can get tied down in Melee, but haven't found any rules saying otherwise)
• Tankbustas have Tank Hunters (can't stress this enough)
• More to come

Still, a great time was had by all, and we're planning the next game under the rigorous "when we have time" schedule. I'm thinking my Necrons using the new rules, though Joel and Greg are sold on my Stompa vs their combined Chaos Cerastus Knight and Eldar WraithKnight.