40K in 40 mins - strategies needed!

[WarbossBigBadJim]

Hi Guys,

 

Just wanted to let you know how I got on with a quick test run for some newly painted space pups... and the results weren't pretty!

 

My List (500pts)

 

Wolf Guard Battle Leader with Power Fist & meltabombs

leading

9 Blood Claws (1 flamer, 1 power sword)

in

Rhino

 

3x Thunderwolf Cavalry

1 with power fist, 1 with meltabombs, 1x vanilla

 

Lone Wolf with power weapon

 

My Opponent (Orks)

 

Warboss with Klaw

 

Trukk Boyz x10 (Nob with bosspole/klaw)

in Trukk

 

Slugga Boyz x20ish (Nob with bosspole/klaw)

 

Killa Kanz x2

 

Kannonz x2

 

I won role off and went first, deploying rhino on left flank, LW in centre and TCs on the right, all in/behind cover. He deployed sluggas opposite the rhino, boss and kanz opposite the lone wolf, and trukk / kannonz opposite thunderwolves.

 

Turn 1

Rhino rushes forward and pops smoke, LW and TCs move up.

 

Orks charge forward. Kannonz shake the rhino, but otherwise no shooting loss. However, my first big mistake is shown up... trukkboyz are able to disembark and charge the thunderwolves (damn 20" charge!). The nobz claw wounds each wolf once, and I dispatch half the boyz, but they pass Ld.

 

Turn 2

Blood claws disembark and can snatch a charge on the big boyz mob (taking out a few from shooting first). Lone wolf moves up towards the boss/kanz. In CC, the Blood Claws kill roughly 6-7 boyz without loss, taking the mob down to 10. Thunderwolves finish off the trukkerz, but not before the nob's klaw knocks off two more wounds (leaving just the PF wolf with one wound).

 

Orks sees the boss move up, kanz charge an immobile rhino while the kannonz kill the last TC. Combat sees the rhino exploded while blood claws lose 2 guys for 4 orks... but they still hold.

 

Turn 3

Its going to be all over soon... kanz charge the embattle blood claws, while lone wolf and boss exchange blows. I kill another 3 orks and shake a kan and wound the boss but its all over by the end of the ork turn. He still has 3 boyz, 2 kanz, boss and kannonz.... and I'm tabled!

 

 

So my big question is, what could I have done better? Clearly moving the TC too far was one, and I guess deploying first didn't help. And we realised afterwards the 40k in 40mins rule on 2 wounds max meant the boss shouldn't have been there either.... oops! Still it'd be useful to get some feedback.

 

As a greenskin player myself, I know Orks are very, very good in small points battles, but I'd love to get some pointers from any marine veterans (particular any experienced wolf guard out there!) for what I could do to make it more of a fight and less of a massacre!

[Justicar Valius]

Thunder wolves are often deemed too expensive points wise for even 1550 points, drop them for some grey hunters probably.

[sniperhavens]

Ive got alot of experience playing 750 pt and below. The trick is Grey Hunters and long fangs with Rune priest. Arguably some of the best and cheapest units in the game. Missile launcher tooled Long fangs can wither those big mobs down While Grey Hunters w/ MotW can do alot of damage to just about anyone. I hear that the addition of the Wolf standard makes them even better, gonna try it out. The Rune Priest with LL and JotWW are great against Orks. Just my 2 cents drop the TWC and Blood Claws go for 2 GH packs, 1 long fang pack and a rune priest in 750 or below Then add whatever sparks your fancy.

[sniperhavens]

Double Posted on accident please delete

[the akratic]

I think there's a problem with using blood claws in a rhino, as opposed to grey hunters.

Look at it this way: The blood claws will get one additional attack each in the first round of close combat, but only if they charge. Although, they don't have bolters, so they can only take 1 shot each when they exit the rhino (which hits on 4's because of BS3). Grey hunters on the other hand can take 2 shots with their bolters when getting out of the rhino (hitting on 3's because of BS4), which more than makes up for the one attack less they each get if they charge. Plus, grey hunters can have better upgrades (wolf standard, MotW) and they have Ws 4, meaning they'll take less hits in return from the ensuing CC phases.

 

Because of this, i can't see any good reason to take blood claws in rhino over grey hunters.

 

I'd definitely recommend using a rune-priest. I recently played a 400 points combat patrol with a 7 man GH squad, with a WG and 2 rune priests attached and all in a rhino. It was ridiculously effective, and i'd highly suggest you try to maximize runepriests in combat patrol.

 

Murderous hurricane is bad news for big mobs of boyz. So is JotWW.

 

Imagine two runerpriests using murderous hurricane on ork mobs from the top hatch of a rhino? that's 6d6 str 3 autohits in the mob! Plus, if they want to move they need to roll dangerous terrain which on average will net you another kill for every 6 models. Don't forget that a target that's hit by murderous hurricane in your turn needs to take the dangerous checks not only when they move, but if an additional check for each model if they want to assault.

 

If you manage to get off the hurricane on a mob, and it moves and assault it's next turn statistically 1/3 of them will be lost to dangerous terrain checks alone!

 

So take 2 rune priests! or maybe even 3 depending on how (im)moral you are! lol