First Game/Battle Report

[bulley]

Rightt tonight I had my first game in over 11 years, and obviously first game with GK's at all (other than "learning" games vs my mate who was clueless as me with my own lists)

 

Playing against one of the vets of the store with his mech space wolves, his list was something like; (1750)

 

Rune Priest w/ Jaw/Storm

 

Land Raider w/ Blood Claws and Wolf Guard Leader

 

Rhino w/ Blood Claws (and the Rune Priest w/ them)

 

x2 squads of Grey Hunters

x1 vindy

 

My list was;

 

GM w/ HH/Pys Hood/Word of the Emp

x4 GKT w/ HC and Incin

 

x7 PAGK w/ Incin/PsyC Melta Bomb

x7 PAGK w/ Psy x2 Melta Bomb

x5 PAGK w/ Psy Melta Bomb

 

x2 LR w/ TWLC/HB

x1 Dread w/ TWLC/CC/Flamer

 

4 objectives, spear head. He went first.

 

Board - fairly heavy cover, big steps/demon thing in the middle, forrests in each corner w/ smatterings of small buildings floating near the edges. Meant that no LOS could be drawn from each corner to the other.

 

Turn 1:

 

He charges his LR up one side of the middle objective with a rhino, and the vindy/rhino the other side. he deployed his 2 GH's on the objectives near his corner. His LR fired the LC at my raider and destroyed 1 las cannon.

 

My turn I repostion my castle so to get full shots on the raider. I do nothing with the dread and x2 raiders. Rest of my troops stay pat in cover.

 

Turn 2:

 

His raider gets nearer - does nothing though. Vindy gets nearer but scatters on what it could see. 1 squad of BC's and the wolfpriest disembark on the center objective - casts storm which takes a model, jaws takes another.

 

My turn I push up a little bit and use one LR to cover my left flank a little bit and the other LR to cover my right, disembark the PAGK's in the LR on the right and take cover. Still no damage from shooting except 1 BC in the objective holding squad.

 

Turn 3:

 

I made a mistake the previous turn and left my PAGK from the LR just in charge range (I thought it was about 14" at least, turned out to be 11"). This squad gets chewed by the BC's from the raider. His scouts pop up and kill my raider on the right flank.

 

I push my LR w/ terms towards the center objective. Having just lost an entire squad I had to take that objective quickly and force his GH's to push foward and engage me. However had to assault into cover after shooting, which saw my GKGM 1 shotted with a force weap. I lost combat due to wounds, but stood pat. My dread did imob the rhino though on his right flank.

The second mistake I made this game was midjudging distance AGAIN and did not move my PAGK on the right flank back, and thus giving in turn 4 the BC's the charge AGAIN. The smaller PAGK's took out a few of the wolf scouts having moved to take 1 home objective.

 

Turn 4:

 

He moves his vindy again foward, having been very ineffective (really turned me off wanting them in my blood angels!) and he didnt move it right and it was not in a 45 degree arc! He shoots his scouts at my dread w/ melta and destroys it.

His BC's take advantage of my mistake with my PAGK's and charge them, they didnt win in 1 turn, but did do some serious damage (my justicar did a fair bit himself over 2 rounds though). The center assault w/ the terms goes my way I wipe his squad (my 2 terms vs about 5 BC's and a wolf priest) down to just the priest, he stays in combat though.

 

My turn and I push my LR to try and take out his vindy, 1 squad of PAGK not in combat turn to take out the scouts (and do w/ psycannon shots) and the other squad in combat finally dies (and the BC's consoldiate near to my shooting PAGK) in the center objective the wolf priest kills 1 term and I finish him finally. Currently I contest 1 objective, hold 1 and he holds 2.

 

Turn 5:

 

His BC's assault my holding PAGK's and kill them (justicar takes down a couple again). His vindy/rhino shoot at my term and I fail the invuln from the vindy.

 

I only have the raider left I move it to contest 1 objective but obviously have lost at this stage.

 

Roll a 1 and game ends

 

 

Wolves win 2 objectives to 0 (1 contested).

 

 

Overall:

 

I am pretty pleased, reason being I made horrible mistakes in game 1 of my new era and these will be mistakes I never make again. What happened was I was really apprehensive about the staying power of certain things, and balked on certain movement, I wasnt sure whether to move into the open and trust in my raider/dreads survivablity, or stand pat/move back. My PAGK's should have kept moving backwards/sideways to keep 24"ish range from those BC's.

 

Movement was key - I just did nothing really.

 

Raiders really have so much staying power that I did not trust in - and I will now.

The dread needs to be more aggressive as well - I need to use it as a road hump . Between the LR and the dread I need to create a block that the mech couldnt get past easily in 1 turn.

 

My PAGK's just have to keep moving.

 

Also I am dropping holocaust - it seems nice on paper but for 20 points at the end of assault, it just doesnt get the job done, and really can only be used the turn of the charge.

 

I am fairly confident if I played the game again right now, I'd at least get a close loss if not a draw, the few tweaks I'd make would certainly make for a much better game, I'd create a lot more storm bolter shooting. First game back, could have been much much worse.

[Gentlemanloser]

If you face Space Wolves agian, watch out for any Thunderwolf Cavalry. You won't find much in any but friendly games, due to the lack of mini's, but a Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf Mount with Saga of the Warrior Born (backed by some natural TWC) can steam roll through most everything in the game.

 

Against Dreads, watch out for the Wolves abilities to land Melta Bombs on them on a 3+ (due to Wolf Tooth Necklaces - clarified in thier FAQ) and some could even get to reroll this with Saga of the Beastslayer.

[bulley]

Cheers for the advice.

 

I've really spent most of the time since I started again (about 6 weeks ago) trying to read up on as many armies as possible to not be "surprised" by the more common/obvious things. Luckily I dont think anyone rocks thunderwolves (properly fear those, heard they are devestating!).

 

The GK's play really like how I played my Wood Elves in Fantasy about 10 years ago - the movement in any direction to keep the battle where I feel it needs to be - my problem is; range. Mis judging two seperate charges cost me dearly.

 

I'll typically play 1500 though, so I will also have to cut out the 165 point PAGK - some wargear (which is already getting axed from above) and a couple of PAGK's from the other two squads or bolstering them both and dropping the dread (going to see how it plays).

 

I anticipate the new 'dex having dreads as elites or LR's as dedicated transports - so want to get practice with both on the table at the same time since potentially can have both in multiples in the new 'dex (more for 2k games though). I do like the dread (plus my forge world dread is super sexual).

 

The game was originally going to be against guard - which I know he runs a bit of a mixed army (1 vendetta, a couple of tanks, some vets etc..) but not just gun line chimera's etc..