Badtusks on Tour!

Warhammer 40,000 Ork Crusade

We’ve started a Crusade campaign at the club (well, it’s sort of started, been a bit slow kicking off properly but there have been a few games now). I had been debating about using Imperial Knights or Orks for the Crusade. I did play one game with the Knights, but starting with low PL limits meant I could only fit 2 Questoris Knights in my list, so it was no good for securing objectives… I figured I could get away with ignoring objectives and killing the enemy, but it was against Tyranids and their ridiculously overpowered rules that meant they were basically unkillable, so that was it for that game!

So I stuck with the good old Greenskins. Which was just as well as we’re basing the Crusade on the Octarius campaign, centred on the Ork-held world of Badsquig, so it feels right to be using my Orks. I decided to base my force on Beast Snaggas, hopefully getting some time to get the new models painted up.

Game 1 – 2^nd July 2022

50 PL 4-player game: Orks (Dan) vs. Tau (Dave) vs. Space Wolves (Pat) vs. Chaos Knights (Tom D)
Crusade Mission Pack: Catastrophe
Mission: Twilight Assault 

First game with Da Badtusks! We decided to kick off with a 4-player game. Great, in theory, but with 50 PL per side it was pretty unwieldy. Turns took a long time to finish, so it was a struggle to fit it into a Saturday morning at the club. Fortunately, it was a brutal and bloody affair, so it didn’t matter too much that we didn’t finish all the turns as most things were dead by the end anyway!  

Da Badtusks (50 PL Patrol Detachment)
	Klan:	Goffs
	Crusade Points:	0
Makdrakka Badtusk	Beastboss on Squigosaur (Warlord) 9 PL	Warlord Trait: Might is Right Relic: Headwoppa’s Killchoppa
Zargrod’s Bonecrumpas	10 Beast Snagga Boyz 5 PL	Choppas & Sluggas, 1 Thump Gun
Kharguk's Ladz	10 Beast Snagga Boyz 5 PL	Choppas & Sluggas, 1 Thump Gun
Boss Urdnod	Nob on Smasha Squig 4 PL	Big Choppa, Slugga
Urdnod’s Gruntas	3 Squighog Boyz 4 PL	Stikka, Saddlegit Weapons
Snargog	Nob on Smasha Squig 4 PL	Big Choppa, Slugga
Snargob’s Snarlas	3 Squighog Boyz 4 PL	Stikka, Saddlegit Weapons
Bloodfist Kumpany	5 Kommandos 4 PL	Choppas & Slugga, Nob with Power Klaw
Da Krumpwagon	Kill Rig 11 PL	‘Eavy Lobba, Stikka Kannon, Wurrtower, Butcha Boyz, Savage Horns & Hooves, Saw Blades
		50 PL

I deployed aggressively towards the Space Wolves in front of me. I was keen to get my boss, Makdrakka, into combat with a Chaos Knight – as the biggest things on the board, he’d want to have a go at ‘em! Equally, smashing up Beakies is always fun for an Ork! I knew from experience that Dave’s Tau guns were devastating at range, while he knew my squigs would eat his guys for breakfast if they got close. As the 4-player missions have an honourable alliance or treacherous betrayal mechanic, we loosely agreed to just charge across at the other side of the table. This ended up causing the Chaos Knights and Space Wolves to get themselves into a similar unholy arrangement – don’t tell the Inquisition!

Overall, it was a good game. Makdrakka Badtusk was shot off the table before he could really get stuck in, which was a shame, but it was only cos he was so big and scary! The Kommandos didn’t get to do much – their sneaky infiltration wasn’t helpful when 4 deployment zones were so close to one another. But, that short distance did mean that getting the squigs to charge into the Space Wolves was nice and easy, and they proceeded to chomp through all the power armoured warriors! I think I had wiped out the Space Wolves by the end of the battle, which was satisfying.

The Chaos Knights and Tau traded firepower throughout the battle. Dave hadn’t brought any significant anti-armour firepower, but sheer weight of numbers chipped away at the towering war machines. The Rampager and War Dog both ended up wrecked, but the Abominant survived the battle – only cos my Beastboss had been shot, otherwise he would’ve krumped it!

At the end of the game, I had managed to secure 70 VP’s and the win. By charging straight into the Space Wolf deployment zone, I was able to get extra points for killing units as they were outside of the lit areas around the objective markers (which were sitting between deployment zones). I was also able to hold onto a couple of objectives throughout most of the battle – the Chaos Knights didn’t have the numbers to really contest the objectives, and the Tau were sitting and polishing their guns, too busy to run anywhere. The squig cavalry is certainly highly mobile and hits hard, but it really relies on getting into combat and not getting shot to pieces while manoeuvring around the battlefield. It can be very easy to end up with one or two units out of position and providing prime targets for the enemy, especially after charging in and destroying a unit or two – I still don’t know how to get around that problem.

Still, winning the battle meant that I could mark a second unit for greatness, meaning that Zargrod’s Bonecrumpas now had enough XP to become Blooded and gain a battle trait! Makdrakka would soon do the same and gain a level. Most of my units passed their tests after being destroyed – just Snargob the Nob on Smasha Squig failed. I let him suffer a devastating blow so he lost the measly 1 XP he was due to receive for this battle. I then used some Requisition to add a Painboss to the force and prepared for the next fight.

Unit	End battle status	Game triumphs	XP Gain
Makdrakka Badtusk	Destroyed – recovered	Marked for Greatness	4 XP
Zargrod’s Bonecrumpas	Survived!	2 kills Marked for Greatness	6 XP
Kharguk’s Ladz	Survived!		1 XP
Boss Urdnod	Survived!	1 kill	2 XP
Urdnod’s Gruntas	Destroyed – recovered	1 kill	2 XP
Snargob	Destroyed – devastating blow		2 XP
Snargob’s Snarlas	Destroyed – recovered	1 kill	2 XP
Bloodfist Kumpany	Survived!		1 XP
Da Krumpwagon	Destroyed – recovered	1 kill	2 XP

Game 2 – 19^th August 2022

55 PL 2-player game: Orks (Dan) vs. Tau (Dave)
Crusade Mission Pack: Core Book
Mission: Raze & Ruin

Dave and I managed to find a free morning to grab an extra Crusade game. I think that’s the best way to do it – it’s a narrative campaign, not a tournament, so it shouldn’t really matter if people get extra games in here and there. There are mechanics in the game to balance out Crusade forces that have got more powerful – your opponent gets more Command Points for the game based on the difference in Crusade Points between the two armies. More Crusade Points means more of your troops have levelled up and gained abilities, so the Command Point bonus is a fairly easy way to try and balance that out. Is it going to be perfect? Not really. But neither is using Power Level for games. At the end of the day, just playing more Crusade games and adding to the narrative of what your force is doing is the whole point. And, so far, Makdrakka Badtusk is doing a pretty good job of stomping anyone coming into the Octarius System!

We’d both had some upgrades since the last game, so we agreed on a 55 PL game. That meant I just added a Painboss to my roster, to hopefully keep some of the boyz in the fight longer (spoiler alert: he did bugger all during this game!). Zargrod’s Bonecrumpas had gained a Battle Trait, Ded Choppy, that improved their ability to hit in melee if they charged. Very Orky.

Da Badtusks (55 PL Patrol Detachment)
	Klan:	Goffs
	Crusade Points:	1
Makdrakka Badtusk	Beastboss on Squigosaur (Warlord) 9 PL	Warlord Trait: Might is Right Relic: Headwoppa’s Killchoppa
Zargrod’s Bonecrumpas	10 Beast Snagga Boyz 5 PL	Choppas & Sluggas, 1 Thump Gun Battle Trait: Ded Choppy!
Kharguk's Ladz	10 Beast Snagga Boyz 5 PL	Choppas & Sluggas, 1 Thump Gun
Boss Urdnod	Nob on Smasha Squig 4 PL	Big Choppa, Slugga
Urdnod’s Gruntas	3 Squighog Boyz 4 PL	Stikka, Saddlegit Weapons
Snargog	Nob on Smasha Squig 4 PL	Big Choppa, Slugga
Snargob’s Snarlas	3 Squighog Boyz 4 PL	Stikka, Saddlegit Weapons
Bloodfist Kumpany	5 Kommandos 4 PL	Choppas & Slugga, Nob with Power Klaw
Da Krumpwagon	Kill Rig 11 PL	‘Eavy Lobba, Stikka Kannon, Wurrtower, Butcha Boyz, Savage Horns & Hooves, Saw Blades
		55 PL

Ultimately, I think this game largely came down to one roll – the first turn roll. I won it, and I won the game. If Dave had won the roll, he would have blunted my assault significantly with his superior firepower. I should have still got a good charge in with the survivors, and it would have been a good scrap, but it wouldn’t have quite been the whitewash that it ended up being. Despite what they say, there is still a significant problem with who gets the first turn in 40K I reckon, particularly when pairing a shooty army against a melee one. There’s not really enough protection against the shooting to really enable clever tactics or manoeuvring to try and catch them out. Maybe it’s just that my Orky ‘taktiks’ aren’t quite up to it, I don’t know!  

Anyway, I got the first turn, and managed to get some charges in straight away. The mobility of the squigs is great, but I was helped by the placement of his Stealth Suits – they were deployed forwards and not quite as hidden as they thought they were (certainly not when the squigs sniffed them out anyway!). He also performed an uncharacteristically ballsy move by sending some of his infantry forwards using a pre-game movement ability, so they could sit on an objective straight away… this, unfortunately for them, put them in striking distance of my Kommandos. I had been planning on using the sneaky gitz to hold an objective of my own, but the opportunity to get them to charge first turn and detonate one of Dave’s objectives was too tempting to resist (in this game there were objectives in your own half to protect and in your opponent’s half to blow up, definitely a good job for a Kommando to be doing!).

It wasn’t all plain sailing, as I ended up with squigs out in no-mans-land yet again, once they’d finished eating their first course of Tau-flesh. Dave’s Riptide tried its best to run away, but my boss managed to catch it and give it a smack, though the explosion finished off a Squighog Boy! I also couldn’t believe it when Dave’s commander actually charged the Kill Rig and managed to knock off the last couple of wounds – a Tau charge, rare as rocking horse shit, but surprisingly effective in this case (my rolls for the Kill Rig combat were atrocious).

At the end of the battle, I had won on points 90-0. Getting my Squig-riding Orks into Dave’s face on Turn 1 meant he had to deal with them, and couldn’t go chasing after objectives. Meanwhile, my Kommandos had the freedom to destroy his objectives on the other side of the table and then go to secure my own, while my footslogging Beast Snaggas stood around guarding some blinking doo dad that they surely didn’t care about, but they were too scared of Makdrakka to defy him – not even the thought of chopping some Tau could make them disobey his orders!

Anyway, it ended up being a bloody affair with all my squigs getting toasted, but pretty much all the Tau were wiped out and I managed to achieve the objectives. I had to mark the Kommandos for greatness after their sneaky demolition job – that meant I could give them an upgrade so that they can complete actions while still being able to shoot. To make that worthwhile, I upgraded them to include 10 models so I could stick some of the new and interesting Kommando weapons into the unit, rather than being restricted to just choppas and sluggas. As there are quite a few Crusade missions that require actions to be performed on objectives, I’ll be looking forward to the look on my opponent’s face when they complete their mission AND send a load of dakka flying at the enemy!

Makdrakka also got enough experience to be upgraded. As an Ork Warboss, he gets additional options in addition to the regular Battle Traits – upgrading his speed to 12” will make his threat range on the first turn of the Waaagh! considerable.

Winning this battle allowed me to increase my supply limit twice without spending the requisition, so that allowed me to increase the size of the Kommando unit, add some Grots for extra objective-grabbing sneakiness, and add in a Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun. The Big Mek was for two reasons: firstly, because Shokk Attack Guns are excellent! And secondly, having a Big Mek allowed me to use the Scrap Points I got during this game for killing the Riptide to put Squig Hide tyres on the Kill Rig, increasing its speed. Everything to help get those first turn charges! 

Unit	End battle status	Game triumphs	XP Gain
Makdrakka Badtusk	Destroyed – recovered	1 kill	3 XP
Big Doc Nutta	Survived!	-	1 XP
Zargrod’s Bonecrumpas	Survived!	1 kill	2 XP
Kharguk’s Ladz	Survived!	-	1 XP
Boss Urdnod	Destroyed – recovered	-	1 XP
Urdnod’s Gruntas	Destroyed – recovered	1 kill	2 XP
Snargob	Destroyed – recovered	-	1 XP
Snargob’s Snarlas	Destroyed – battle scar	-	1 XP
Bloodfist Kumpany	Survived!	1 kill - Marked for Greatness	5 XP
Da Krumpwagon	Destroyed – recovered	1 kill	2 XP

Game 3 – 10^th September 2022

25 PL 4-player game: Goff Orks (Dan) vs. Blood Axe Orks (Mikey) vs. Tyranids (Sam) vs. Tau (Dave)
Crusade Mission Pack: Catastrophe
Mission: Divert Power 

After the time it took to play the last 4-player game, we decided to just do 25 PL per side this time. This meant some tough decisions were made to reduce our Crusade forces down, but I was really happy with how this list turned out – a few killy things, a couple of objective-grabbers… mixture of Kunnin’ and Brutal, like it should be! The Tyranids only had 3 units, but that included an Exocrine and the devastating Hive Tyrant (he could probably have carried the game by himself to be fair). Mikey’s sneaky Blood Axes included plenty of Elites (Nobz, Kommandos and Tankbustas), while Dave’s Tau had to cut down on the number of battlesuits. No Riptide, boo hoo! 

Da Badtusks (25 PL Patrol Detachment)
	Klan:	Goffs
	Crusade Points:	4
Makdrakka Badtusk	Beastboss on Squigosaur (Warlord) 10 PL	Warlord Trait: Might is Right Relic: Headwoppa’s Killchoppa Crusade Battle Trait: Tenacious Squigs Crusade Waagh!boss Bonus: +1 Wound
Zargrod’s Bonecrumpas	10 Beast Snagga Boyz 5 PL	Choppas & Sluggas, 1 Thump Gun Battle Trait: Ded Choppy!
Snotty Grotz	10 Gretchin 2 PL	Specialist Mob: 'Orrible Gitz
Boss Urdnod	Nob on Smasha Squig 4 PL	Big Choppa, Slugga
		25 PL

Really need to get these boys painted...

Deployment

These Catastrophe missions have a mechanic whereby players can bid using their CP to increase their odds of winning the roll off for first turn – each CP gives an additional dice to roll, and the highest single dice roll wins. In the event of a tie, the player who bid the most CP wins. I bid two CPs and managed to roll a 6. Sam and Mikey also rolled 6’s, but they had bid fewer CPs so I was pleased to be confirmed as the first player – a first turn Waaagh! charge was on the cards! The downside was that I was last to choose a deployment zone, but I’d made sure the terrain was placed so they were all pretty even so that wasn’t a problem.

Oh and I had some new objective markers that clearly mark out the 3” zone to control them, which worked really well (though in this game you had to be within an inch to divert the power from the nodes… oh well!).

I ended up opposite the Tyranids. After the disastrous game against them using my knights, I was keen to see if the weight of attacks from the boyz would be able to take down the Hive Tyrant. Fortunately, Mikey was much more interested in charging his Blood Axes towards the Tau, so I figured I could pretty much ignore that half of the table and have a bash at the Tyranids. Unfortunately for me, Sam changed his mind on where he was setting up the Tyrant, and positioned it just behind his Hormoguant unit, making it difficult to get positioned for a charge straight away. Still, I stuck all the squigs lined up for the Tyranids while my Snagga Boyz and Grotz were ready to jump on two objectives straight away. In hindsight, the Boyz should have gone after the Tyranids too, but I put them facing the Blood Axes just in case Mikey decided to change plan and come after the objective between us. 

Turn 1 - the Orks control two objectives,
but the Tyranids have been feasting on Squig

Battle

Turn 1, I called the Waagh! So that my boyz could advance and charge. I probably should have been a bit more bold with my squigs and tried to get around the Hormagaunts to attack the Tyrant directly, but it would have been a pretty long charge to get there… at the time, I figured wiping out the ‘gaunts would be useful, as I’d seen them using an ability before to replenish their losses during the Knight game, so I wanted the whole unit dead and gone before possibly consolidating into the Tyrant. That was a mistake. My three squig units overkilled the Hormagaunts significantly, then I consolidated the Squighog Boyz into the Tyrant – which allowed him to attack them and wipe them out, just based on the mortal wounds from his relic sword (successful wound rolls do 1 mortal wound in ADDITION to normal damage, and he was doing 9 attacks with re-rolls to hit… absolutely brutal). In Sam’s turn, he was then able to shoot the Nob on Smasha Squig with his Exocrine and use the Tyrant to shoot and then chop up my Beastboss. There was absolutely nothing I could do about it, other than try to fight back as he died, but he fluffed all his rolls (in that hive fleet, the Tyrant can only be wounded on 4+, despite my boss having a total strength of 16!!!). It was a super bloody and painful first turn, there is something seriously broken about those Hive Tyrant rules – it’s immensely powerful in close combat with the relic sword, it’s got a gun that does multiple shots and 4 damage per hit, it can’t be wounded on less than a 4 AND it’s got a 4+ invulnerable save. And that’s all before it uses it’s psychic abilities to supercharge itself even more! I can’t get my head around what they were thinking when they made that thing only cost 9 PL. Insane.

Oh yeah, and it has a stratagem to heal itself, which it used later in the battle once Mikey had knocked some wounds off it with bomb squigs.

Anyway, end of Turn 1 I had just the Grots and Beast Snagga Boyz left on the table, but I was holding two objectives and performed the action on one of them to divert power and put it under my control. Turn 2, Sam decided to stomp his hive Tyrant off towards the Tau while the Exocrine moved towards an unclaimed objective, which left my troops unmolested for a time to concentrate on the mission. 

Not much of the Goff force left in Turn 2, while the
Tyrant turns its attention to the Tau...

Dave had to leave early, so the Tau performed a fighting withdrawal after having quite a tough scrap against the Blood Axes, and doing their best to take down the unkillable Tyrant. While the Blood Axe Tankbustas were busy throwing their bomb squig piñatas at the Hive Tyrant, by Beast Snaggas started sneaking around the shipping container to outflank them – out-sneaking the sneaky Ork Klan! Once they got there, the Blood Axes had no chance against the Snaggas and their brutal choppas, so they were cut down. I just wanted to get an extra kill under their belts so they could get some extra XP! After wiping out the Tankbustas, the Snaggas couldn’t resist having a pop at the Hive Tyrant, but unsurprisingly they achieved very little against it and were wiped out themselves.

With that, the game was done, with just two big Tyranid monstrosities and 10 Gretchin left on the table. 

Bomb Squig Piñata!

Mission Scoring

It was a bloody battle, with most people getting carried away with slaughtering their opponents and forgetting about the objectives of diverting power from the four objectives on the table! Somehow, I managed to channel enough Morkish Kunnin’ to ensure I used my Beast Snagga Boyz and Gretchin to sit on two of the objectives in the first turn, while charging the Tyranids and keeping them busy (while they chowed down on my Squigs…). The Blood Axes were too busy spilling Tau blood to worry about me or any objectives, so I was able to secure one of them in the first turn and one in the second. As VP’s can’t be scored Turn 1 in this mission, I ended up maxing out at 30 VPs for Turns 2 and 3 (10 VP for holding one objective, 10 VP for the second, and 10 for having more than anyone else). Once Sam managed to secure one objective with his Exocrine and then another with his Tyrant, we were both getting 20 VP each in Turn 4. We called the game there before Turn 5 as he clearly couldn’t wipe out my Grots and grab an objective from me in a single turn, while the Blood Axes were wiped out and the Tau had beaten a tactical retreat earlier in the game. So it was a pretty solid win for the Goffs! The lights stay on in Badsquig, though the Tyranid menace is sure to continue providing opportunities for fighting.

Turn	Dan	Sam	Mikey	Dave
1	-	-	-	-
2	30 VP	0 VP	0 VP	0 VP
3	30 VP	10 VP	0 VP	0 VP
4	20 VP	20 VP	0 VP	-
5	20 VP	20 VP	0 VP	-
TOTAL	100 VP	50 VP	0 VP	0 VP

Crusade Post-Battle

Based on playing a few Crusade battles now, I think it is really important to make a few notes during the game – you need to remember how many things your units have killed, what has died, if you’ve achieved your Agendas. It’s not quite the same as matched play where it’s most important to simply record the score each turn – you’ve got to remember if your unit did manage to do this or that so that you know if it gets any bonus XP at the end of the game. For me, I like that aspect because it forces the narrative more. I like adding narratives to my games. So far in the Crusade, I’ve been focused on the mechanics of getting things recorded and getting used to the Beast Snaggas, but now all the units are named and they’re starting to do stuff, it feels like a narrative is brewing. And with 3 wins from 3 games, they’re doing pretty well at defending the planet Badsquig from all the naughty invaders (however uncharacteristic it feels to be the ‘Defender’ as an Ork player!).

In terms of this game, I didn’t get many kills, but Urdnod’s Gruntas did kill the Hormagaunts during the Waaagh! to get a bonus XP, plus that takes their total kills to 3 which gives them another XP – putting them into the Blooded category. I could have marked them for greatness too, but as their Boss Nob is Urdnod on his Smasha Squig, I figure it makes sense that he would take all the glory for the success of his Gruntas (the way I see it, Squighog Boyz don’t have a Nob as part of their unit, instead the Nobs on Smasha Squigs are in charge but can run around on their own a bit more). So that meant that both Urdnod and his Gruntas become Blooded, so I gave them all Tenacious Squigs, the same as Makdrakka, so they all have a 12” move – that extra mobility might have helped get the charge in during this game!

As I had killed some Orks during this game, and won the battle, I decided to use the Orky requisition ‘Youse Fight for Me Now!’ – and I was able to do that using the free requisition point I got for being the victor. That enabled me to give Makdrakka, my Warlord, an extra 5 XP as well as use the Fresh Recruits requisition for free. It only seemed right to use that to expand Urdnod’s Gruntas – I’ve been thinking that mobs of 3 Squighog Boyz are a bit small. And, now that they have gained a level, it seemed like a good time to expand them to 6 models. I used my regular requisition point from the battle to increase my Supply Limit to 75 so that they would fit in the roster, without having to get rid of anything. I actually only have 6 Squighog Boyz, so for now I’ll have to choose during each game whether to bring the larger mob that has the bonus movement or the smaller mob with the Battle Scar… quite an easy choice, depending on the points value of the game! I’ll probably just disband the smaller mob of Squighogs and say that Urdnod just took them away from Snargob (the other Nob on Smasha Squig), which feels pretty Orky. But then I have to make a decision on what to replace them with in the roster… possibly some Mek Gunz to go with my Big Mek, or another small unit of Kommandos to back up the Bloodfist Kumpany. We’ll see, a decision for another day, and depends a bit on what PL limit we go for in the next game. My Boss, Kill Rig and now Squighog Boyz are all a bit more expensive in terms of PL, so I'll be having to do some chopping and changing anyway.    

Unit	End battle status	Game triumphs	XP Gain
Makdrakka Badtusk	Destroyed – recovered	No kills	1 XP
Zargod’s Bonecrumpas	Destroyed – recovered	1 kill (Tankbustas)	1 XP
Snotty Grotz	Survived!	No kills	1 XP
Boss Urdnod	Destroyed – recovered	No kills, +3 XP Marked for Greatness	4 XP
Urdnod’s Gruntas	Destroyed – recovered	1 kill (Hormagaunts), +1 XP for Megawaaagh! agenda	3 XP