Orks vs Eldar and Astra Militarum, 1500pts

I was expecting a thorough ass kicking this game. He was packing tons of firepower and tough to crack units with av12 and 14, artillery and T6 troops.  We generally don't tailor lists so it wasn't designed with me in mind (that I know of).  Even if I made my list to kill Eldar specifically, I don't think I would have changed much.


1500 Orks - "maybe I'll try some boyz" list
125 warboss, bike, klaw, Da finkin kap, BP
75 Painboy, bike
240 4 Nob Bikers, 2 PK, 2 BC
208 27 choppa boys, nob w/PK & BP
208 27 choppa boys, nob w/PK & BP
202 8 Warbikers, 1 Nob w/PK & BP
60 2 Deffkoptas
140 10 Lootas
140 10 Lootas
99 5 Lobbas, 3 runts

1500 Rhys' Eldar with AM allies
Spirit Seer
Guardians in Wave Serpent
Wraith Blades in Wave Serpent
Crimson Hunter
3 Vaul's Wrath artillery
2 War Walkers w/scatter lasers

Pask in a Punisher
with an Eradicator in a squadron
Vets in a Chimera

The sheer firepower of Eldar lists scared me and I was certain I would lose. Vaul's Wrath, the Eradicator, Punisher, and Wave Sepeants are infantry lawnmowers.  The Hemlock Wraithfighter would have been devastating against my low leadership.  The Crimson Hunter is still decent, but doesn't have any ideal targets in my list. The lootas weren't going to dent the russes but at least there were no wyverns or manticores

Setup

Emperor's will mission and Hammer and Anvil deployment meant that if I didn't get tabled it would come down to secondaries. He won the roll off to pick sides but I still ended up getting the side I wanted since it had raised items so my lootas could get line of sight.

I won the roll to go fist. I planned on going all in on strategic to maximize my chance to get the infiltrate warlord trait.  Luckily I nailed it first roll, then ended up rolling on command to get move through cover.  Things were looking my way since these are the two traits I would have picked and was lucky to roll for them. 

The Nobz started along the right edge as far up as they could go because there was line of site blocking terrain in case I got seized on.  One squad set up on top of some ruins the other on some raised terrain that might conceivably give me a 5+ cover.  The lobbas hid behind a hill with one poking out to give line of site.

He hid the Vaul's wrath in the corned behind some ruins, with the russes in front and the chimera dead center followed by the wave serpents to my right.  Everything was hanging in the back half of his deployment zone.

I infiltrated both boyz squads and the biker boyz with the Warboss and Painboy attached. The boyz squads were as close as I could get and not in terrain so I wouldn't be slowed down.  I decided to risk bunching them up.  I figured that was my only chance.  If I had been seized on both squads would pretty much be dead/ineffective anyway.  The bikerboyz manager to squeeze in to the far right corner single-file along the board edge.  This prove critical.

Turn 1

After not seizing, I proceed to move & run my boyz squads as close as I could rolling a 6 inch run on the first and 5 inch run on the second.  The biker boyz swung around to the back getting rear shots on the wave serpent.  With TL str5, 3 shot dakkaguns, the bikers managed to destroy the wave serpent for first blood.  The lootas caused 2 glances and a pen.  The pen was reduced to a glance bc of the serpent shield and one of the glances survived a cover save so my second squad of loots, only rolling a 1, still managed to take off the last hull point.  Huzzah, both Wave serpents were destroyed by circumstances falling my way every time.

The lobbas, targeting the guardians that spilled out of the first WS, scattered onto my bikers causing 4 wounds, but 2 were saved by armor and 2 by FNP.

I was still hesitant since his firepower, though diminished, was considerable.  He elected to unload on the large squads of boys with nearly everything.  Both squads took heavy casualties.  The squads were reduced to 11 and 12 models, but the Nobz lived.  The Wraithblade's Str10 shooting scored 4 hits, but he rolled 2 ones to wound and jinking saved the rest.  The boyz hung around with a passed morale test and a mob rule checking killing 1.

Turn 2

The deffkoptas failed to come on.  I called the Waagh right away.  The bikers all closed in on the right flank, but the guardians were blocking the wraithblades from assault by my warboss and bikers.  I ran my boyz up and tried to surround the chimera.  It took both loota squads to blow up the chimera but the contents were able to disembark.  The lobbas scatter far away but the reroll at least got me some wounds from the squad, but not enough for a gap.  The nob bikers shot and killed most of the guardian squad except for the 3 right between the warboss and wraithblades..  Snap shots from the warbikers managed to kill 3 wraithblades.  The guardians failed their morale, but I had shot myself out of charge range.

One squad of boyz assaulted and wiped the vets.  The other squad assaulted Pask's punisher.  Since only the Nob could hurt it, I was luckily able to score 2 glances and a pen, which unfortunately blew up and killed 6 of the 11 boyz.

His turn the crimson hunter came on and plinked a lobba and grot.  Everything else focused on the warbikers.  They sustained heavy casualties, losing 5 warbikers and the nob from the combined firepower of his army.  The walkers did not come on.

Turn 3

The deffkopta came on and killed a crewman of his artillery as did the lobbas.  The lootas downed the crimson hunter.

Both boyz squads assaulted the eradicator.  It blew up and killed all but the nob from one squad and half the other squad. The nobz assaulted wiping the wraithblade. The warboss with bikers charged causing the crew to flee off the board after taking severe casualties.

With nothing left on the board for the Eldar, we called it as I don't think the warwalkers would have made that much of a difference by then.

Observations

• Everything really went my way.  From getting the infiltrate and move through cover warlord traits, winning first turn, and blowing up both wave serpents, it was an extreme result.  
• Without infiltrate, a wave serpent lives first turn and my boys don't charge until turn 3.  One whole squad of boyz is wiped out each of turn 2 and 3 before they even get to assault.
• I still think that this matchup is a loss for me about 75% of the time.  I got lucky, but I feel that I at least made good choices throughout the game.
• Things die very quickly.  Terrain is still a problem.  Other than ruins there isn't much that we have that can give 25% coverage to warrant a cover save besides intervening units.  We'll need to take a good look at the terrain situation and plan on what we need to fill in the gaps.
• The boyz acted as as a meat shield to the Nobz who pulled their weight.  Otherwise, the boyz just killed 10 vets, which they should always be able to do.
• Explosions at S4 really hurt.  Even with AP2 from the claws, it should still be rare to blow them up, so I'm not too worried yet.  It does make me even more apprehensive about taking Trukks and Wagons.
• I really liked the smaller squad of nobz as opposed to the big deathstar with HQs attached.  They work well as a precision striking unit.  
• Increasing the size of the warbiker squads is an option, but I would need to get more models.  Their shooting is very solid, so it seems like a waste to use them to soak wounds.  A squad of 30 shoota boyz (210 pts) can be replaced by 9 warbikers (TL assault 3, str5) for 162 pts that will cause the same amount of wounds against T5, but are more mobile, more durable (T5, 4+, can jink if needed), and less susceptible to blasts but at reduced body count.
• I really liked the idea of running a biker boss with Stormboyz (combo with move through cover!!!), until I reread the rokkit pack rules.  You can't do your run move with the warboss in the unit, so the 2D6 isn't an option.  Maybe start the warboss with the bikers turn one.  The bikes boost and the stormboyz run 2D6.  Turn 2 the warboss joins the stormboyz.  Seems like a savvy opponent could easily thwart that tactic.

Rules mistakes

• When I assaulted the Punisher, I believe I should have rolled individually for the hits and potentially could have done some damage to the squadron, but I already rolled so I just went with blowing up the punisher.  I'll need to check the rules on how to play this situation in the future
• The emergency disembarkation from the Chimera didn't go too smoothly, will need further research as well.
• Need to remember to ask about jinking.  We both missed this.  Chalk it up to 7th edition newness.
• The Eradicator is rear armor 10, not 11.  The bozy should have had a chance to swing first and maybe glance it to death before the nobz swung with their claws.