[R_Squared]

Hi Guys, Thought I'd share with you my experiences with the new, tournament busting (apparently) Green Tide.
I've not played this formation before, and neither had my opponent faced a GT either, so there was lots of discussion about various facets of the rules. Luckily we had another friend observing proceedings, who acted as GM and adjudicated. We are also entering a tournament at the end of the year, and are using every game to polish our skills and knowledge.
Anyway, ever onwards, here are the lists. Both bound CAD and Formation compliant from the codexs.

Orks
Great Waaagh! Detatchment - 829 pts

No Force Org - 20 pts
Mek, Choppa, KMB - 20 pts

HQ - 200 pts
Big Mek, Mega Armour, KMB, Mega Force Field - 150 pts
Painboy - 50 pts

Elites - 140 pts
10x Tankbustas, 2x Bomb Squigs

Troops - 80 pts
10x Gretchin, Runtherd, Grabba stick, Squig hound - 40 pts
10x Gretchin, Runtherd, Grabba stick, Squig hound - 40 pts

Heavy Support - 389 pts
Battlewagon, Reinforced Ram, 2x Rokkit Launchas - 125 pts
12x Lootas - 168 pts
Mek Gunz - 2x Kustom Mega Kannon, Traktor Kannon, 2x Ammo Runts - 96 pts

Green Tide - Formation detachment - 1021 pts

Green Tide - 1021 pts
Warboss, Eavy Armour, Power Klaw, Shoota, Attack Squig, Big Bosspole - Army Warlord
7x Nobs, PK, Shoota, 2x Bosspoles
100x Boyz, Slugga, Choppa

Dark Angels
Combined Arms Detachment
HQ - 165 pts
Librarian - Psyker Lvl 2, Force Sword, Bike, Combi-melta, Displacer Field, Porta-rack, Psychic Hood - 165 pts

Elites - 655 pts
Deathwing Knights - Storm Shields, 1x Knight Master - Flail of the unforgiven, 4x Knights - Mace of Absolution, Dedicated Transport - Landraider Crusader - 525 pts
Dreadnought - Assault Cannon, Missile Launcher - 130 pts

Troops - 354 pts
Tactical Squad - Sergeant, 9x Tactical Marines, 1x Plasmagun, 1x Heavy Bolter - 165 pts
Tactical Squad - Sergeant, Power Sword, Veteran Sgt, 5x Tactical Marines, Flamer, Razorback dedicated transport Twin linked assault cannon - 189 pts

Fast Attack - 431 pts
Nephilim Jetfighter, Avenger Mega Bolter, 6x Black Sword missiles, twin linked heavy bolter - 180 pts
Ravenwing Black Knights, Huntsmaster, Corvus Hammer, melta bombs, 2x Black Knights, Plasma Talon - 131 pts
Ravenwing Support squadron, 2x Landspeeders, 2x Heavy Bolter - 120 pts

Heavy Support - 245 pts
Devastator Squad, Sergeant, signum, 4x Heavy Bolter - 110 pts
Vindicator, Demolisher Cannon, Hunter-Killer missile - 135 pts

It was a fun, exciting game, and obviously a closely fought one. At times it could have gone either way and there was a huge amount of Dakka flying about the field as the Marines fought to stem the relentless onrushing horde.
Will Bolter and Blade be enough to blunt the savagery of the Ork lust for carnage?

Lets Find out.....

 

[R_Squared]

Setup and Deployment

We decided on Maelstron of War, I set up some scenery (it was my turn) and then rolled Tactical Escalation.
This could be interesting. It means my footsloggers are going to have to leg it the long way across the table, whilst squashed closer together, increasing the effectiveness of all those bolters, large blasts and assault cannons.
We took turns to set up the objectives, and rolled off for 1st turn. Luckily for me, I got to deploy, and go first (hopefully).
TBH, there's not really a great deal of thought involved in deploying a Green Tide, it just takes a bit of time.
For those who have never played it, I positioned the nobs 3 on on the right flank at least 3 boyz in and 4 on the left flank. The Painboy and Warboss sat a bit further back to make the most of the meat shield, and close enough to the Big Mek's Mega Force Field to benefit from that.
The non-force org Mek went with the Tankbustas on the right flank in the Battlewagon, and the MA Big Mek went with the Lootas so that they could benefit from the SnP.
My opponent looked at the tide and basically set up a gun line at the edge of his deployment zone. His Devastators took up position in the centre in hard cover, Landraider, Librarian and Tac squad on the right, bikes, Dreadnought, and Landspeeders on the left.
TBH, I think he was a bit intimidated and wasn't exactly sure what to do except open fire and shuffle backwards to stay out of range. There's not much else you can do against a tide. He rolled for his Psychic powers, and didn't like what he saw so stuck with Prescience and Psychic Shriek.

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 1 - Orks
Objectives - Scour the skies
Lets go boyz! The objective is pointless this turn, so no worries there. I spoke with my opponent about moving and running the tide simultaneously. We agreed that as long as I moved all my other units first and then went to the GT first in the shooting phase, he was happy for me to roll for the run and do the moves at the same time, so as to save a little time.
It is a bit of a faff TBH, and where units of other orks, such as Lootas or Tankbustas are standing about, it's easy to miss a few miniatures amongst them. Although this only happened twice in the whole game, it's not exactly a deal breaker in a friendly game. Just something to watch out for in a tourney.
Tactically speaking, it was just a case of moving forward as quickly as possible, and with a 4" run, we launched out nicely. Everything else just shuffled forward a bit.
The Mek Guns managed to shave a Hull point off the Vindicator, but not much shooting went off otherwise.

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 1 - Dark Angels
Objectives - Sorry Guys, I forgot to make a note of this. It didn't make any difference anyway.
The Ork filth defile this planet with their presence, ready bolters, Fire at will!
This hurt. The marines put out a huge amount of firepower and all in all over a quarter of the tide went down to bolter fire and shells.
As for movement, a little shuffling to bring weapons into range and that was about it. The Librarian cast Prescience on the Devastators, allowing re-rolls to hit and that in itself counted for a huge amount of casualties.
Still, this is what the Tide is all about, and it can soak up this punishment with ease,

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 2 - Orks
Objectives - No Prisoners, Take Objective 3
Ere we go boyz, lets stomp these tin plated oomies inta the ground, I want one of them fancy tanks! WAAAAaaaaagghhh!
This was a very successful round for the Boyz, we achieved both objectives, and a couple more.
The GT had a couple of targets, the Devastators in the ruins and the Landraider on the right. Both, with cover bonus needed a 9" charge, so as a primary target I chose the Landraider. Primarily because it couldn't snapfire, and didn't have 12 re-rollable heavy bolter snap shots.
The Tide made it into that assault, but failed the charge into the ruins. With Pile in moves, I managed to get enough Power Klaw Nobz into combat to rip it to shreds. The Terminators inside, bundled out the side in shock, waiting for the tide to advance. Luckily, none of the pens caused the massive tank to explode, which is lucky, because the Boss wants dat one.
On the right, the tankbustas deployed out and spotted a nice juicy Dreadnought just on the edge of range. In a surprising round of effective boy rokkit fire it got glanced to death. Nice one.
On the left, the lootas opened up on the TAC squad deployed in front of their Razorback, killing 3 of them out-right. So good shooting.
The Mek Gunz, however, hit nothing.

Victory Points -
First Blood, No Prisoners, Secure Objective 3, Tankbustas kill vehicle.
Orks - 4
Dark Angels - 0

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 2 - Dark Angels
Objectives - Secure Objective 4, secure Objective 1
Holy Throne, that was fast! The Orks are on us, hold the line!
What can be said, another round with everything the marines had opening up on the tide. The librarian again casts prescience on the devastators, giving them their re-rolls to hit on those heavy bolters, he also cast Psychic shriek on the tide. That alone killed 4 Boyz outright.
Unfortunately for the tide, we were not in combat, but were in range for lots of rapid fire. Not much we could do about that, but, the tide is tough, and numerous, and the Painboy is working furiously to patch up boyz as quickly as the marines can blow holes in them.
The Terminators, bereft of the landraider, and possessing only close combat weapons with a horde of orks within spitting distance do the only thing any honourable marine can do, charge! Unfortunately, sheer weight of saves meant that 3 went down to ork choppas and Klaws, not pretty.
The Tankbustas also faced some retaliatory dakka from the Landspeeders, taking 5 of them down. However, the wrecked inferno of the Dreadnough they recently blew to pieces, still blazed in their eyes. No way they are running away now, not with a tasty Vindicator square in their sights.

Victory Points -
Objective 1
Orks - 4
Dark Angels - 1

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 3 - Orks
Objectives - Seize Objective 2, Assassinate, Demolitions
Right ladz, stop messing about at the front. Stomp them marine boyz and letz get moving. There's annuva big tank over dere and I wantz it!
The tide is held in place for one turn here. The rest of the mob pile in 3" towards the Terminators, but fortunately, 6 of the Nobz are already there. After losing a couple of ladz to the Marine scented candle flail things, the Nobz rip the remaining 2 terminators apart like damp kleenex. The consolidation amounted to 1", not much to do, so I rather generously told my opponent that I would just leave them as is, rather than mess about shuffling them around. How I would regret that generosity, and his deviousness in agreeing so readily. :spiteful:
The Mek Gunz finally earn their points by penning the armour of the razorback, and causing it to blow itself to pieces. This is unfortunate for the Marine Sergeant stood next to it as he cops a face full of roiling plasma.
The Tankbustas scuttle back into their Battlewagon and open up on the marine bikes on the right, but they shrug off the wound.
The good thing, however, is that I scored a VP with my Grots for holding Ob2, and the marine sergeant that got blown up, plus the Knight Master count towards the Assassinate objectives. 2 points there, if the tankbustas had managed to take out them bikers we could have had upto an extra d3. Oh well.

Victory Points -
Objective 2, Assassinate
Orks - 6
Dark Angels - 1

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 3 - Dark Angels
Objectives - seize objective 1, seize objective 4, Supremacy
My Brothers, the Deathwing have given their lives for the Emperor, we must push forward and avenge them!
A third round of bolter fire, and significantly, another round from the Demolisher Cannon. Rather sneakily my opponent took advantage of the nicely packed boyz who had clustered together to mash the terminators into the ground. 14 went down, including the Painboy. Look out sir saved the Warboss, but unfortunately it wasn't enough for the Painboy.
On reflection, I should have spread my boyz out. However, there was a little confusion about wound allocation. The Painboy was still quite far from the front of the tide, and usually we take casualties from the front, but because he was under the template, he took the wound, rather than a boy from the front. It's a bit like a precision shot in that respect.
There was also some further shuffling about, the tac squads and bikes moving to get into rapid fire range, but not so close as to make too tempting a target.
The last surviving marine from the Tactical squad from the razorback, suddenly succumbed to a death wish and decided to charge the tide. I'm not sure why my opponent did this, as it was the equivalent of jumping into a giant green mincing machine. He did manage to take out one Boy though, before he was hacked to bits.
The librarian opened up his throttle on the right flank, and spying the opportunity to seize an objective leapt forward, he also gave the Tide another round of Psychic Shriek, which only took out a single boy this time.
The boyz consolidated away from the squashed Tac marine back towards the Vindicator. Without any form of save from the Painboy now, I had to take this beast out before he flattened the tide completely.

Victory Points
Objective 1, Objective 4
Orks - 6
Dark Angels - 3

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 4 - Orks
Objectives - Grab da Loot (objective 4), More Speed, Big Game Hunter, Stomp 'em Boyz.
That Zogga got the doc! Get im ladz!
The heavily depleted tide was running out of boyz, however, it was still close to a full size standard mob of 30, what's more it still contained 7 Power Klaw Nobz and a Warboss. Whichever way you look at it, it is one tough, dangerous unit to have running about in your table end and my opponent knew it. It had taken enough dakka to slaughter most armies and it was still coming.
The Vindicator had to go, still calling the Waaagh, and still fearless much to my opponents disbelief thanks to the Big Bosspole, I ran straight towards the big tank. Again, Imperial armour stood up to the fury of the Ork like a blow torch through butter. The Boyz managed to glance it to death, even before the klaws got to hit.
The only remaining problem was the lack of nearby cover. Luckily I rolled 6 for consolidation and managed to wend around the wrecked tanks, hoping to achieve some cover saves from which ever direction the incoming fire came in from. I knew the Marine flyer was coming in this round, so there was a limit to what I could do. However, that one attack had given me 2 points, Stomp em Boyz and Big Game hunter.
However, to achieve Grab da loot, I needed to snatch Objective 4. The Marine Librarian was camped there, but luckily the Lootas were nearby. Unfortunately the boyz had a horrible round of shooting, and only scored a single wound. Nothing for it, we had to charge in. The Boyz took a pounding, but the Mek's PK forced the librarians displacer field to shoot him 3" off the objective, and thanks to kunning placement, we were still within the distance needed to score the objective uncontested. :good:
On the other side, the Battlewagon and Tankbustas roared round the terrain and blatted off some rokkits against the bike, killing one at last and the Mek Gunz opened up on the Land Speeders, but only glancing off a single point.

Victory Points
Grab da Loot (objective 4), Big Game Hunter, Stomp 'em Boyz.
Orks - 9
Dark Angels - 3

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 4 - Dark Angels
Objectives - Hungry for Glory, seize objective 1, Assassinate, Hold the Line
Hold them back! Our brothers come pouring vengeance from the skies!
At long last, the cavalry arrived. The Nephilim Jet fighter swooped in from the left flank to bring the pain. Determined to finish off the tide, the marines let fly with everything in range, all 6 missiles, heavy bolters, bolters and assault cannons. Luckily for the Boyz, the corpses of tanks afforded them a 4+ cover save, and they managed to tank a huge amount of wounds, They still lost 15 boyz, but all the nobz and the Warboss still lived!
The bikes gunned their engines and charged the Battlewagon, managing to glance off a hull point and deliver two pens. Both rokkit launchas got ripped off due to weapon destroyed, but the tank was still rolling, with half a complement of tankbustas and a mek with a Mega Blasta. Phew!
Slightly less impressive was the Big Mek. Needing only to issue a challenge to win a point, the librarian charged the lootas and challenged the hulking Ork techie. With a full complement of Warp charge on his force sword, the Mek didn't fancy his chances, so refused and slunk off round the back of the lootas. The ladz acquitted themselves well though, they lost the combat, only by 1 wound, but managed to hold their nerve and forced another displacement field save from the librarian. He shot off again, out of combat. But, he had served his purpose, and won a point for the 1st legion.

Victory Points
Hungry for Glory, seize objective 1, Hold the line.
Orks - 9
Dark Angels - 6

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 5 - Orks
Objectives - Get em Boss, Kingslayer, Behind enemy lines, seize objective 1, Harness the Warp.
Wots Dat over there? There some cheeky zogger waving 'is sword abaht like 'ee owns da place. This is Ork parts round 'ere. Cum ere you, I want a word wiv youse!
Got to say, I was pretty tired by now, it was after 3 in the AM, and we had decided that this was to be the last turn, no matter what.
Happily, I stood a chance of racking up some good points here, if only I could play it right. I didn't but I got some anyway. :wink:
Looking over the battlefield, objective 1 was on my right, guarded by one squad of Tactical marines, with a Sergeant. It was also close enough to the enemies table edge that I could charge the unit, batter them, and then consolidate behind enemy lines whilst still holding the objective. To boot, my boss could challenge the Sergeant, and if he accepted, not only would he be a greasy smear, I would score for Get em Boss! I had also deployed my Tankbustas, rather foolishly onto the field with the vague idea of being able to assist my warboss for some reason. (it was late, I was tired). As it happens, I got them to rokkit the bikes thus completely removing the point of them standing out in the open, which TBH I could have done much more easily from the safety of the Battlewagon, but hey ho. I did kill one of them, so there is that at least.
So, final Waaaagh! declared, we piled into the Tac marines, and my warboss heroically called the Sergeant out like the girly panzee luvva he woz. Unfortunately, my opponent had the know wots to realise what I was doing and promptly refused the challenge. The rest of the squad got minced by the nobz and Boss, but we were stuck on a contested objective, too far away from the edge to score the points and unable to do owt about the cowardly Sgt. Knackers.
Luckily I could still get a couple of points if I could take down the librarian. My lootas opened up, and watched as every single shot bounced off his magic cape. :angry:
Right, have to do this the old fashioned way and charge the bugger. We not only needed to kill him for points for ourselves, but to stop him potentially scoring from Objective 2 which he could easily reach and potentially dislodge the grots from.
Fortunately, the Big Mek found his bottle, and managed to rip the bike out from under him with his Klaw, then batter him over the head with it. Kingslayer and Slay the Warlord achieved!

Victory Points
Kingslayer, Slay the Warlord
Orks - 11
Dark Angels - 6

 

[R_Squared]

Turn 5 - Dark Angels
Objectives - seize objective 2, No Prisoners, Supremacy, seize objective 3, witch hunter
Right, this has not gone at all like I was expecting. Still, we got a few good shots in eh lads? For the Emperor and all that, but it's getting late, and I want to get home for Poirot.
In the final death throes of the game, the sodding green tide is still on the table. It might be a bit of a dribble now, but it's taken 4 rounds of heavy dakka, and it's still going. The only thing left is a bit of pride, so that's what my OP did. The Jet flew across the table to unleash hell on the grots hiding in the woods, and seize linebreaker, whilst promptly killing 3, and forcing a morale check, which they passed, surprisingly. The Devastator squad, and landspeeders, unable to shoot the tide, locked in combat as it was with the cowardly sergeant, obliterated the Tankbustas who were mooching about in the open.
The last bike, scooted around the cover and landed on Objective 3, for an easy point and even took a pot shot at the Mek Gunz, which did nothing.
On the bright side, for the Orks, was the combat against the sergeant. He was stamped into the ground and what was left of the tide consolidated 6" directly into the DA's 12" "behind enemy lines" zone, scoring a point for linebreaker and that objective too for the Orks. Nothing was scored for objective one as the pesky landspeeders contested that.

Victory Points
DA - No Prisoners, Objective 3, Linebreaker
Orks - behind enemy lines, Linebreaker

Orks - 13
Dark Angels - 9

 

[R_Squared]

Victory for the Orks!

Victory Points
Orks - 13
Dark Angels - 9

Again, at the time, the game appeared much closer than it was in reality. At one point the Marines were level pegging the Orks, but whilst writing the report, I realised we had made a couple of mistakes scoring some of the Dark Angels Victory points. I put it down to the beer my opponent had drunk, and the lateness of the hour.

We finished around 4 am but this was partly due to the arrival of a gent who none of us would have expected to see at 2am!
Our gaming room is on a military base in Lincolnshire, and one of the guards popped in to check out why there was a light on in the Wargaming club at 3 am. After chatting for a bit, he revealed that he was an ex Forgeworld Painter, and partner for the painting company, MKA Studios. This is him on the left HERE. Apparently, being a guard pays better than painting for Forgeworld. He was a really friendly guy, and we chatted about different painting techniques, which is lucky considering it is something that I really enjoy about the hobby and have always fancied signing up to one of these events.

That aside, this was a helluva game, and a bit of a slog at times. Many lessons were leanred, especially about charging Orks across what was effectively an open battlefield with sparse cover. On the plus side, I feel more confident about handling the tide, and have a better idea what it can and cannot do. What it can do, in spades, is tank hits. 4 rounds of solid, shooting from an entire Space Marine army, and it was still going!
However, the Big Bosspole is an essential take in these circumstances. Without it, we would have lost even more boyz to tha Boss is Watching D3+3 each round. The Painboy also paid for himself in spades, easily covering his points in Boyz saved from death. He must be considered a second essential too, especially if cover is sparse.

We both enjoyed the game, although I think my OP may not have as fond a memory as me once I inform him of the revised, accurate, scores. Still, that's what you get if you neck 5 cans of lager whilst playing. :grin: