We set up terrain in balanced way with some freshly crafted, easy to do, LOS blocking silos, made of metal cans (I will write about them later) and rolled Mission 1.
We decided to have 1500 point game, as last time we played 1850 points it took us 5 hours and we had problems with finishing 5th round. 350 points less per side didn't help much, as after 4 hours we managed to finish 4th turn, but we were slow at deployment (also casual talking, and watching football distracted us a bit).
Crimson Slaughter Primary/ Chaos Daemons Allied
Chaos Lord: MOT, Disc, Daemonheart, Sigil, Power Fist, Lightning Claw
10 cultists
5 CSM: flamer, Rhino with dozer blade
5 CSM: flamer, Rhino with dozer blade
5 Spawns: No mark
5 Havocs: 4 autocannons
3 Obliterators: MON
Herald of Tzeentch ML 1, Exalted Gift: Daemonic Cake of Summoning (aka Portalglyph)
11 Horrors
7 Screamers
Soul Grinder: MOT, Torrent
Evil Roman, who is my regular opponent, went with a test army list. I don't remember those crazy, Orky weapon names like Kustom Mega Blasta, so I will just write what he took.
He used 4 Trukk Boyz units, 3 of which had heavy armour (scary orks with 4+ save!) and a Nob with a power claw. One was joined by Wyrdboy, second by Boss in Mega Armour and third unit consist just happy anarchists without "independent" additions. 4th Boyz were just point saver so they were naked. There were also a G(M)orkaNaut with lots of shooty stuff, power field and 3 burnas and 2 meks in his belly. Roman also used Flash Gitz (only 5 of these), and a Big Mek with a Very Big Gun.
We both had to proxy some stuff. I forget to bring part of my miniatures, and he had some unpacked fresh models still in sprues, and these look silly on the battlefield.
I really wanted to test Tzeentch Lord on disc, with T5, 2+/3++ and 36 move in one turn, but as it comes to fickle power of Chaos, he managed to kill Ork Warboss in challenge in first turn and turned into Daemon Prince and was shoot back to warp in next. So not much testing.
Spawns without MON are not so durable, and they lack hitting power without buffed character. Overall they managed well - they lasted long enough to be threat, and tarpited Flash Gitz, which are scarier than they look.
Screamers are fantastic, I need to buy more of theme. Slashing attack is great at blowing up trucks, and their mobility is vital for modified mealstorm objectives in BAO scenarios. If I weren't taking Daemon allies I would probably try regular Chaos Bikers for similar role.
Single Soul Grinder with torrent this time wasn't usefull. G(M)orkanaut assaulted him and ate him easily.
CSM in rhinos with single flamer are cheap and reasonably fast scoring unit, but they lack hitting power. I prefer to hide them (or reserve them) and use them in later part of the game for some objective scoring. Their biggest drawback is fact, that they are cowardly little bunnies, and if they fail Morale, they are useless. Taking 5 Noise Marines with Doom Siren, and extra CCW is much better and not so much more expensive. Those guys are fearless, but it means you need to pick Chaos Lord of Slaanesh, who isn't as durable as Nurgle Lord or as fast as Tzeentch. As recently Kevin from 40kdaemons pointed, he can be useful with unit of bikers with Icon of Excess. I will probably give it a try next time.
When comes to psychic phase, I'm not fan of summoning. It take ages and it's absolutely boring. I don't like idea of heavy warp charges armies and summoning lists, so I went for cheap Herald and Horrors. Usually I prefer deep striking Demonettes and cheap Herald of Slaanesh, but this time I decided to choose Tzeentch. Herald had to be alone, as he got same (primaris) Demonology spell as Horrors, and I wanted to have option to summon 2 units a turn. Psychic powers are not reliable right now, and I didn't plan to set my strategy on them (that why only ML 1 on Herald), and I just hoped for extra boost if Lady Luck (or Changer of the Ways) guided my rolls. Their main role was to sit back and hold objectives, and they worked pretty well doing this, still managing to do some threat. I even cast Flickering Fire once or twice in old good fashioned way.
When comes to new Orks rules, I got also some observations. Mob rule is pretty hard on trukk boys. They test Morale a lot, and if they fail, they kill themselves pretty hard. Roman took for most heavy armour (4+) which helped to mitigated this. But heavy armour itself cost almost as much as another unit of boyz.
G(M)orkanaut wasn't really brutal and cunning, neither cunning and brutal but at least it was durable. With 13 armour and 5 HP it is now not easy to destroy. As a transport, probably only burnas and meks are worth putting inside.
There will be more testing soon.
