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Mind if I chime in with my grrreat 2-game experience?
So far we have managed to play two games with a friend I converted to Epic few weeks ago, him playing his Orks and me playing my modest Imperial Guard force. In the first game, he learned why artillery is oft referred as the god of battlefield, as he not only bunched up his most expensive warboss mob (mounted in battlewagons) but in addition, gave me the first move which I promptly used to pummel his forces with my Basilisk batteries (managed to get 6 battlewagons under one template...). The end result, a loss to the Orks, although their last assault with only a handful of Nobs very nearly carried through my Armoured Fist company.
On the second game we played on saturday, he fared better. A clever use of stormboyz unit to capture two objectives with a single move did win him the game, although his almost 1000-point mob was completely destroyed after a badly planned firefight with reinforced Armoured Fist Company entrenched in a treeline. Other memorable events include the use of three Hydrae in an anti-tank role, in which they are quite effective if horrendously vulnerable.
Lessons learned:
1) IG Artillery is the king. But it must be used in concert with other forces; simply pounding random units from afar will do no good.
2) You have to have a plan thought out and be ready to execute it. In both games, I really didn't have any battle plan and as a result, I was mostly reacting to the Ork's movements.
3) If your units have mobility, it should be used. I had an Armoured Fist company, which I moved a grand total of 30 cm. As a result, I failed to capture any objectives from the opponent's half of the table, when he threw a bulk of his fast-moving forces against my Tank Company (which I tried, halfheartedly, to use as a breakthrough element). One reason for my lack of mobility was that I was still thinking in terms of Epic 40,000, where March move was often unwise because of the column shift it offered to any enemy shooting. For this reason, I only double moved even my Rough Riders...
4) Breakthrough forces should be concentrated for maximum effect - I had only 1 Tank Coy, 1 Arm. Fist Coy and a platoon of Rough Riders, and when I split my tank and mech coys to differend ends of the table they were not effective enough to force a decision. In addition, the artillery support should be more useful and effective if it can be concentrated on the units facing the breakthrough formations. However, the rest of the table shouldn't be left totally unguarded - I need more infantry! Only problem being that from the figs I have left I can only scrounge about 2 companies worth of IG infantry...
5) Rough Riders should be used either as a screen, or as an assault unit. One shouldn't try to use them as both - if you spread out to the maximum 20 cm coherency, their value as a fast-moving assault unit diminishes unless the foe comes either too close or is approaching directly from front. In a 4-turn game, my RR:s did nothing useful because they were too spread out to use in an assault. In retrospect, a useful role might perhaps be a screen to a mech inf coy, with RR:s deployed some cm:s ahead of the mech on the start of the game and then march moving ahead of the double moving Chimeras, catching any assaulters with their hunting lances?
6) Hydrae against ground targets. Instead of 3-Hydra battery which breaks very easily, perhaps a better alternative would be one Hydra upgrade for mech coys? It could stay back behind the Chimeras and be still able to fire at the enemy closing to 30 cm with the front Chimeras, and at the same time spread the "flak cover" a bit further.
For the Orks, I'd say that the Grots are indeed very good. Manouverability is not good with the big mobs, but stormboyz & the like are a blast at taking objectives and targets of opportunity.
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-Janne Korhonen
ODERINT DUM METUANT
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First was my stormboyz against assault marines. Both were unhurt, and the stormboyz did okay (killing three to the marines two) However, I failed to remember supporting fire, and a nearby tac unit shot the rest of the Stormboyz to simitherines.
