Chaos Knights (Herpetrax) vs. Orks (Goffs) – Warhammer 40,000 Battle Report

I’m getting ready for an upcoming GT in September, which means I need exposure to some new armies! I did well at my last RT, and I’d like to continue putting on a good showing. Fortunately, my friend Chris obliged me with his new Ork army so that I could see the boys on the table against my Knights!

I’ve talked about my list in a couple places at this point (including that tournament report linked up above), so without further ado let’s see the contendors!

We rolled Secure Missing Artifacts from the War Zone Nephilim Tournament Pack. This is a scenario where you score:
– 4 points for controlling one objective
– 8 points for controlling two objectives
– 12 points if you control at least two objectives and more than your opponent

Additionally, players get to move the non-central objective around and designate a priority objective for their opponent, which scores them extra points. I chose the bottom right as Chris’s priority objective, and he chose top left for mine.

I took my normal secondary objectives of Storm of Darkness, Ruthless Tyranny, and Grind Them Down.

Chris took Bring Them Down, Retrieve Nephilim Data, and Warp Ritual.

Chaos Knights Deployment

I followed my usual pattern of putting an Executioner on the home objective, a bunch of War Dogs and the Desecrator to go after his priority objective, and then the Abominant and a few more War Dogs to flank or take the center.

Chris’s special Kill Rig with the upgrades went top, with a unit of Squighog Boys around his Beastboss on Squigasaur. Below them, a unit of Beastsnagga Boyz escort his other two HQ choices.

Ghazkull starts the game in the Battlewagon, and then below that the second Kill Rig, the other two units of Squighog Boys, and Nob on Smasha Squig make up the rest of the main deployment.

Chris also had a unit of Kommandos in the center and another on bottom right.

Round 1, Orks:

Chris won the roll off. We both got a CP to start off the turn, I started my Harbingers of Doom in the Doom track for -1 Leadership and Combat Attrition Tests, and then he started moving up the table.

Movement Phase:

Top to bottom, his Kill Rig went to take over my priority objective. His first unit of Squighog Boys hid in the area terrain, and also provided a bit of character protection for his Beastboss on Squigosaur. You can’t see the first unit of Kommandos as they are obscured by the central building – they couldn’t make it completely into the bottom left table quarter for Retrieve Nephilim Data so they just moved up a bit.

The Beastsnagga Boyz didn’t really move, but did perform Retrieve Nephilim Data.

His two other HQs moved into the area terrain, with his Weird Boy getting within 6″ of the center of the table.

On the bottom, his remaining forces move up, with the exception of a unit of Squighog Boys which did not roll a high enough advance roll and so hid behind the area terrain. I took this picture just before he moved his Kommandos into the zone for the extra three points on Primary.

Psychic Phase:

The Weird Boy attempts the Psychic Action and Succeeds on a 4. Chris deliberates and opts to reroll it so that my deny chances are lower. He rolls a 9 and I fail to deny with the Abominant.

The top Kill Rig uses Smite on the Abominant, and the bottom Kill Rig casts Smite on the Nurgle Huntsman as well as Roar of Mork on the Desecrator to make its leadership and charge rolls worse.

Shooting Phase:

Pistols do 90% of the work here (a theme this game) as I fail every single 3+ save asked of me. Some chip damage is done to the Abominant and the Nurgle Huntsman.

Charge Phase:

The Kommandos in the middle get brave and charge the Khorne War Dog Stalker with Collar of Infernal Brass.

The Abominant heroically intervenes into the Kommandos.

The Kommandos scratch up the Stalker, and the Abominant slaughters all of them in response, adding five to its offering tally for Blessing of the Dark Master.

When the dust settled, the Nurgle Huntsman was down to eight wounds, the Khorne Stalker had six, and the Abominant had 23.

Round 1, Chaos Knights

We both get a Command Point during my Command Phase, and I roll for another and don’t get it.

Movement Phase:

My plan here is pretty simple – kill the Beastboss with the Abominant so that Blessing of the Dark Master fully comes online before Ghazkul gets at me, destroy as many Squighog Boys as I can, and take over the top, middle, and bottom zones to deny Chris points on Primary.

With that in mind, the Executioner on the top moves to get maximum firing lanes, the Stalker with Collar of Infernal Brass moves to charge the Kill Rig, the Abominant walks up and is just over an inch away from the Beastboss on Squigasaur, and the red Huntsmen is sacrificed to the bottom zone.

Psychic Phase:

The Abominant casts a Vortex Terrors on his Beastsnagga Boyz (this was a mistake, it should have gone on the Beastboss), and then gets Winds of the Warp denied.

Shooting Phase:

Things start off strong with the bottom Executioner killing an entire unit of Squighog Boys (unlocking its Favour). Desecrator and Huntsman firepower take down the Kill Rig in short order too, and the ten Beastsnagga Boyz hop out. Stalker Gatling Cannon fire rips through them like crazy, leaving only three alive.

The Abominant hits and wounds the Beastboss four times, Chris fails three of the 5+ Invulnerable saves and then makes half of his 5+ Feel No Pains, leaving the big guy on six wounds.

I really should have had the pink Stalker move such that the Beastboss was closer than the top unit of Squighog Boys so that it could shoot at the big scary thing, but instead it just kills a Squighog Boy.

The top Executioner leaves the Kill Rig on about 10 wounds, and then the Stalker uses its Daemonbreath Thermal Spear to drop it to four.,

Charge Phase:

The red Huntsman charges into the Beastsnagga Boyz, the Stalker up top gets into combat with the Kill Rig, and the Abominant makes it into melee with the Beastboss.

I opt to go with the Abominant first, and disaster strikes. I do 14 damage to the Beastboss and he saves enough through the Feel No Pain to live on one health. We’ll talk about this a bit at the end of game wrap up, but I made some mistakes with target priority here that could have made this a non-issue.

The Huntsman uses Blood Shield to go ahead and make sure all of the Beastsnagga Boyz in the bottom zone die, and the Stalker up top thankfully whiffs all of his attacks so the Beastsnagga Boyz in the Kill Rig don’t pop out and take that zone away from me.

The Beastboss hits the Abominant back for a few damage.

During the Morale Phase, one more Squighog Boy runs away and I start a Storm of Darkness on the bottom left zone as it is the only one I control.

At the end of the round, Chris has scored 1 tick on Retrieve Nephilim Data, one on Warp Ritual, nothing on Bring it Down, and a bonus three on primary for holding his Priority Zone at the end of his turn.

I scored three on Grind Them Down, four on Ruthless Tyranny, nothing on Storm of Darkness yet, and my bonus three for holding my Priority Zone.

Round 2, Orks

We both get a Command Point, and I opt to head into Darkness for my Harbingers of Dread ability, which forces enemy models to make Dread Tests every time they shoot or charge in range of a Dread Aura. If they fail while shooting, they have to shoot the closest target. If they fail while charging, the charge distance required is doubled. Chris scores four points on Primary.

Chris cries WAAAAAGH.

Movement Phase:

Ghazkul hops out of the Battlewagon and moves towards the Abominant (he’s behind the building in this next picture).

The Beastsnagga Boyz get out of their Kill Rig and move towards the Executioner.

The remaining Squighog Boys in the middle move right up to the Abominant and everything in the bottom half of the table swarms the red Huntsman.

The remaining Kommandos perform another Retrieve Nephilim Data.

Psychic Phase:

All of these pictures are still from the end of the movement phase.

The Weird Boy attempts the Psychic Action again, but this time the Abominant denies it.

The remaining Kill Rig uses a Smite on the Collar of Infernal Brass Stalker and fails due to the Favours -2 penalty. Its other Psychic Power similarly fails with the -2.

Shooting Phase:

Basically nothing of note happens here. Pistols continue to go right through my saves.

Charge Phase:

Ghazkul and the Squighog Boys both fail their Dread Tests, but are close enough to not care.

The Beastsnagga Boyz on the top side also fail their Dread Tests, and because of that do not make a successful charge into my Executioner.

Everything on the bottom half of the table makes their charges.

Fight Phase:

Ghaz goes first and knocks my Abominant down to single digits. The Abominant then weathers every single attack the Squighog Boys throw at it with a single health remaining.

Then we remember the extra WAAAAGH attacks. The Abominant dies.

I opt to not try and make it stand up on a 4+ with the Chaos Undivided Stratagem because I really need to try and do four damage to Ghaz this turn. Instead, the Abominant bravely auto explodes, killing the Beastboss, a couple of Squighog Boys, and doing four damage to Ghazkul.

The Kill Rig finishes off the badly damaged Stalker in the top zone, and the waves of Orks take down the red Huntsman.

Chris’s Battlewagon pops off some mortal wounds, and my Huntsmen fails to hit it once in return.

Round 2, Chaos Knights:

I get two CP this turn thanks to The Tyrant’s Banner, and I also only score four on Primary.

Movement Phase:

My top Executioner moves to take the zone, as there are only 4 models inside it from the Ork side of things. The Pink Stalker moves up right next to the Squighog Boys screening Ghazkul.

The Desecrator moves up to tangle with the mass of accumulated Orks on the bottom of the table, and the Huntsman engaging the Battlewagon backs up so that it can be shot at and more easily charged.

Psychic Phase:

My first Storm of Darkness completes on the back objective.

Shooting Phase:

The top Executioner takes care of the fellows in front of the pink Stalker, and the Stalker returns the favor by blasting most of the Beastsnagga Boyz harrying the Executioner off the table.

The Desecrator puts two wounds into Ghazkul, who only saves one of them and takes four damage.

The Executioner on the bottom thins the ranks of the Squighog Boys a bit, and the Battlewagon remains immune to every attack I put into it.

Charging Phase:

The Executioner stays put up top. The Stalker charges Ghazkul, and the Desecrator charges both the Kommandos and the Squighog Boys.

The Stalker with Helm of Dogs charges the Battlewagon.

Fight Phase:

I kicked things off with the Stalker that charged Ghaz. I gave him +1 to hit with the Iconoclast Stratagem, and the big Ork goes down. Chris spends the CP to let Ghazkul fight at the end of the phase even though he’s dead (he kills that Stalker, it’s not close).

The Desecrator kills the remaining three Squighog Boys, turning on the second part of Beguiling Majesty to give enemy models within 9″ -1 attack. However, he completely flubs the six attacks he puts into the Kommandos.

The Stalker with Helm of Dogs….completely misses the Battlewagon. This is a big deal for two reasons. 1) The Battlewagon is preventing my War Dogs from moving forward. 2) I’ve now been denied Grind Them Down as I’ve only killed three units and I lost three Knights last turn.

The Kommandos punch the Desecrator down to about 24 health.

During the morale phase, Chris loses two of the remaining Beastsnagga Boyz on the top and no Kommandos.

Chris scored a total of ten on Bring It Down this turn, failed to score Psychic Ritual, and got another tick on Retrieve Nephilim Data. He also got a bonus 3 on Primary for controlling his Priority Objective.

I scored nothing on Grind Them Down, three on Ruthless Tyranny, three on the Storm of Darkness, and a further three for controlling my Priority Objective.

Round 3, Orks

Chris scores 4 on Primary once again, and we both get a CP. I continue down the Darkness track to give enemy models -1 to hit me outside of 12″

Movement Phase:

The Kill Rig moves back so that the repair fella can repair it.

The Beastsnagga Boyz move up as far as they can, but only roll a 1 on the advance.

His Weird Boy gets brave and moves into the central zone.

Psychic Phase:

The Kill Rig casts a Smite at the Executioner. The Weird Boy successfully performs the Psychic Action in the center of the table.

Charge Phase:

Everything on the bottom half of the table (Nob on Smasha Squig into Desecrator basically) makes their charges. The Kill Rig fails its Dread Test, but rerolls into the hard twelve it needed to charge the Executioner.

The Kill Rig goes first and I use the -1 Damage Stratagem to keep the Executioner alive. That Stratagem was money this entire game, making War Dogs stick around for far longer than they should have, but this was the most critical moment.

Unfortunately, the Kommandos absolutely pop off. Even with the -1 to hit, wound, and attack against the Desecrator, they drop it down to two health after the Nob on Smasha Squig had dropped it down to 18.

My Stalker finally kills the Battlewagon which promptly explodes, killing the Nob, Desecrator, and all but one remaining Kommando (which promptly runs away).

Round 3, Chaos Knights:

We both get a Command Point!

Movement Phase:

The top Executioner falls back, the Stalker that killed the Battlewagon moves up to the center.

Psychic Phase:

Ha!

Shooting Phase:

The bottom Executioner takes the last few wounds off the Kill Rig which blessedly does not explode.

The Stalker murders most of the Beastsnagga Boyz with its Gatling Cannon.

Charge Phase:

The Stalker charged into the Weird Boy and murdered him dead.

During the morale phase, Chris rolled a one so that his remaining Beastsnagga Boy stayed around, and I started another Storm of Darkness in the center.

At the end of the round, Chris scored four more on Bring it Down and three more on Warp Ritual.

I scored three on Grind Them Down, three on Ruthless Tyranny, nothing on Storm of Darkness, and three extra for Primary.

Round 4, Overview

At this point, we made a couple key rolls. Chris failed the charge into the central Stalker, and I was able to kill it with shooting the next turn and controlled enough zones to effectively max out primary with the Orks all tabled by the end of round 4 or 5.

At the end of the game, the tabulation has me scoring 41 primary and 36 secondary for a total of 87, while Chris scored 21 primary and 25 secondary for a total of 66.

Post Game Thoughts:

There were a few critical moments this game that made things quite close, and I think that at least a couple of them could have been changed with decisions I made.

First, the Beastboss on Squigasaur living was an absolute nightmare for my plans. If the Abominant had killed it, he likely lives on quite literally half his health pool after Ghaz charges into him.

I ran the odds on the charge killing the six health Beastboss, and it puts me at a comfortable 76%. However, if I’d done even one more point of damage, that percentage leaps up to 84%. This could have been done easily by moving the pink Stalker, which really would not have been in any danger, slightly farther up the table such that the Beastboss was the closest model and then shooting it with the Gatling Cannon.

Secondly, the Battlewagon living for as long as it did and then exploding in that particular fashion could have been avoided by being slightly less CP stingy (I always had 2 or 3) and using the +1 to hit stratagem on it when the Stalker charged in the first time. I missed every attack, but most of those were misses that were rolls of 2, and with a +1 to hit they would have largely connected.

Overall, I’ve learned some important lessons about fighting Orks – play cagey, shoot as much as possible, trigger morale as often as possible – that I’ll be able to use moving forward, and I am very excited to play Chaos Knights at the GT coming up in September.