Monday, May 4, 2009

AstroTO Game 5 - Lost Patrol

Opponent: Mike's Ork Horde:
Boss Ork leading Nobs in a Trukk
Another big Ork leading Ork 15 jump troops (or is that "doze jump troopz")
Two big 30-strong mobs of ShootaBoyz
Another big mob of greenskins
A tin can Ork walker with some guns on it

VP game. Each side had a unit that was its "Lost Patrol." It started basically in the opponent's setup area (deeper if it was vehicle-mounted). You got extra VPs for getting your Lost patrol to within 6" of your own board edge.

Mike set up 30 Boyz in the middle of the Eldar deployment zone. I put the Dragons in their Serpent in the far northwest table corner.

This was gonna be a tough slog. The Lost Boyz (there's a joke there somewhere) moved towards the cover of a nearby forest. The Dragons went flat out south, hiding behind a Tau building.



Yet again the Autarch muffed the deployment from reserves, and only the Autarch, an Avenger squad and the Banshees appeared. The Avengers jumped out and I tried a multiple unit shoot on the nearby Boyz, but only killed a few.

The rest of the Orks showed up for the party. A bunch of jump pack Boyz dropped out of the sky, their rocket packs smoking and sputtering, landing right in front of the Dragon's boat:



They brought down the Dragon's Serpent, whereupon the Dragon's failed their Pin check and they decided to hang out behind their wrecked vehicle. Meanwhile, the Orks called a Waaugh! and manged to contact and cut down most of the Avengers.

The other Avenger squad, the Spiders and the Farseer showed up. Massed Eldar shooting managed to kill off all the jump pack Boyz and their leader. Sadly, that was the apex of the Eldar fortunes for the game.

With no Farseer to cast Doom at the start of the turn, Banshee Exarch Angelic Rhapsody led out her women in a fruitless attempt to stem the Ork tide. The killed a bunch, then both they and the original Avenger squad were defeated and routed off the table.

The Spiders tried to block a movement by the speeding Trukk carrying the Boss and Nobz, as the Autarch, remaining Avengers and the Farseer tried to sell their lives dearly.

As the game wound down, at least you could say that the Aspect Templars took their wounds on the fronts of their bodies, facing their enemies:



Mike was an awesome opponent. However, there were just too many Orks to kill. In retrospect, I probably should have played the range game better, moving around the table edges and limiting the number of Orks who could get into contact.

Result: Ork Victory

Click here for Game Six.

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