Back from the Mechanicon!

[littlbitz]

What a weekend!

 

Honestly if I could only do one Tournament a year, that would be the one I'd choose, truly an absolute blast.

 

I had a great time meeting up with some old friends and making new ones in the process. Its always great to see everyone, hang out, play some games and talk some smack.

 

I ended up not doing to bad over the weekend. I ended up with the "Best Army" Award for the Friday Vets night tournament. And also took the Flagellant award as well (that's a story in and of itself).

 

In the "Iron Ogre" paint competition I took 3rd place in the Single Miniature category and 2nd Place in the 40k Squad Category.

 

Over Saturday and Sunday ended up 5th over-all out of about 50 players, took 2nd place "Best Sport", and managed to get the same Paint score as Chris "The Mighty Jawa Balls" himself (who won over-all). I was only 6 points behind 1st place, so it was tight at the top.

 

I took some pics that I hope to get posted soon, as well as some BatReps!

[Sarapham]

Sounds like a great time and congratulations on what seems like an equally great showing. ;)

[Hear da Lamentation]

Well done mate - really sounds like you played well and everyone loved your models.

 

Really looking forward to how you got on - and getting as many tips as I can from your biker tactics

 

H.D.L.

[littlbitz]

Thanks guys!

I got to the Mechanicon early on Friday. The "Veterans Night" Tournament was to start at noon. It was 3 games with Imperial Armor book army lists allowed (no flyers, and no super-heavies though).

This was a great idea for a fun tournament I thought, as it really allowed for some variety.

I simply played the same list that I was going to play over the whole of the weekend.

Here is my army ready for battle.

I had three great games against three really great opponents.

1st game was against a Vanilla Space Marine List

Game 2 was against a Horde IG Mob/Comm spam list

and Game 3 was against an Ork list

I would love to give some detailed reports of the events of Friday, but lets just say that the Spirit of Russ was truly with me all day, and along with the Battles there was much, uhm... merry making and I really can't recall much in the way of details, though I do know I had a blast. (I had the headache to prove it on Saturday morning.)

I can say this, that the games were all fun and I really tried some things with my army that I don't normally do, testing the limits of my HQ choices. At the end of the day this won me the highly coveted "Flagellant" award, meaning that I gave up the most Victory Points over the course of the day! :lol:

After the Friday Night Tournament ended, I continued to make merry with "Jawaballs", Alex, John, Colin, and some others into the wee hours of the evening...

[Natanael]

Oh, nice. Looking forward to those batreps =D And congratz on your placements and the "Best Army"-award. Seeing stuff like this always make me want to go play a tournament right away :lol:

 

- Natanael

[WG Vrox]

Very much good show there Littlbitz, always nice to see a fellow wolf brother get high marks and without a razbak list or pure thunderwolf list. Of course we all know your deadly on wheels when it comes to tactics and modeling.

 

Look forward to any details your able to dredge up in your battle report.

[MRC(+)]

Looks great... would love to hear a battle report.

 

Also, would you mind sharing your list with us? I like the balance it appears to have from the picture, as well as the fact that is not the "cookie cutter" SW Tournament army.

[littlbitz]

Thanks for the comments guys!

@MRC(+): No, my list isn't the standard "Tournament" army you typically see for Space Wolves these days, but those who are familiar with me and my play style know that I like to break the mold and do my own thing (typical for a Wolf Lord). I especially take pride in taking units not normally seen and actually trying to "force" the list to perform in a Tournament setting.

My list for the Mechanicon was as follows:

HQ: Wolf Lord on a Thunder Wolf Mount (Erik the Master of the Hunt), with a Frost Blade, Storm Shield, Runic Armor, Wolf tail talisman, Saga of Warrior Born and 2 Fenrisian Wolves. This guy weighs in at a hefty 280 points!

HQ: Wolf Lord on a Bike (Wolf Lord Thorgrimm himself) with a Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Runic Armor, Wolf tail talisman, and Saga of the Bear. He too is more expensive than a Land Raider weighing in at 255 points!

Point sinks? maybe, but it seems too me that this is what the Space Wolves are all about, mighty heroes leading their retinues into battle.

Elite: the Wolfguard (for ease of reading the list, I will list them with their respective packs)

Elite: the Iron Priest (Honored Brother Priest Dorgar, the Kennel Master) on a Thunder Wolf Mount, in addition to his standard wargear he has been honored with a Wolf tooth necklace. 4x Cyber-Wolves. 165 Points

Troops:

GreyHunters x10+1 (pack leader) with 2x Melta-guns, Power weapon, Mark of the Wulfen, and a Wolf standard. The Pack leader wears TDA has a Power fist and an Assault Cannon

GreyHunters x5 +1 (pack leader) with Plasma-gun, and a Power weapon. The Pack Leader has a Combi-Melta and a Power Weapon

Mounted in a Razorback with Twin-linked LasCannon

Blood Claws x7+1 (pack leader) with a flamer and a Power weapon. The Pack Leader has a Power Fist and a Storm Bolter

Mounted in a Rhino

Fast Attack:

Swift Claw Bikers x3+1+1 (Attack bike and Pack Leader), armed with a Power fist, Melta-gun, and a Heavy Bolter on the attack bike, the entire pack has Melta-bombs. The Pack Leader is armed with a Power fist and a Combi-Melta.

Swift Claw Bikers x3+1+1 (Attack bike and Pack Leader), armed with a Power fist, the Attack bike has a Heavy Bolter and the entire pack has Melta-bombs. The Pack Leader is armed with a Pair of Wolf-claws, and Melta-bombs

List total 1848.

Game 1 was against my old buddy John Tinney. I have known John through the Tournament circuit for about 10 years, and he always is a blast to play.

John wasn't my original opponent in this first game, after he was paired up with one of his club mates for the first game he actually requested to play against me, the Tournament organizers were more than happy to oblige his request to attempt to shoot me into oblivion...

John plays a Vanilla Space Marine "Foot Slogging" list. I faced this list last year and he actually beat me because of a couple of mistakes I had made during that game. Now I saw my chance for revenge.

He made some changes to his list. He had his shooty Veterans beefed up to a full 10 man unit and had them in a single drop pod. His army was led by a Librarian, he had also added a Tech Marine with the big Tech marine gun that those Vanilla types like to field. His assault element was a foot slogging Thunder hammer Termie squad. His ranks were filled with a variety of full Tactical squads and some Devs. One squad of Scouts outflanking would round out the force.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 Marines, I was to be out numbers about 2 to 1.

Above is a picture of our armies from LAST years Mechanicon. Sorry for no photos this first game, but my head still hurt...

We rolled off for first turn and I actually won the roll for first turn! The mission was Victory points with bonuses for killing the opponents HQ and each squad actually wiped out would be worth double Victory points.

Looking at his army and the board, I decided to deploy my entire force tightly in one corner of my deployments zone with my bikes on my far right side as close the enemy as possible. My Thunder Lord and Iron Priest deployed on their left side with my rhino and razorback packs acting as a second wave. My foot slogging pack would follow up behind the bikers.

John set up his army spread out across his front with his Terminators holding the center.

There was really not much cover for me from his army, and I knew my deployment was risky because if he managed to seize the initiative, the sheer volume of fire power he could put out would devastate my entire force.

He rolled to seize initiative...

[Serunox]

Good game big brother.And congrats ont he standings in the end.

 

He rolled to seize initiative...

So wheres the rest?lol

[littlbitz]

I'm getting to it! :P got called away from the computer.

 

So, where was I? ah yes, John rolls to seize initiative and rolls, uhm... I forget, but it wasn't a Six! That is all that matters.

 

With a Howl (well not really, more of a groan, as I had to stand to move my models now.) I moved forward.

 

I turbo-boost my two biker packs forward along my right side, my Thunder Lord and Iron priest move forward but at an angle so as to keep the Terminator squad of his outside of his charge range.

 

My troops choices move forward in support, the Rhino and Razor back blocking lanes of fire to my Thunder Wolves as best they could, while my large Grey Hunter pack follows the bikers moving forward for Clean up duty.

 

Aside from some runs, and the popping of smoke my turn ends.

 

In Johns turn he decides that Thorgrimm and his Bikers are target priority number one, he remembers his encounter with him last year, and even calls him by name as he places his Veterans in the Drop Pod, disembarking they quickly load their Hell fire rounds into their bolt guns...

 

His Terminators shift towards my Wolf Lord and Iron Priest, he knows that if they don't die that they will be charged next turn but hopes that their Storm Shields will be enough to slow down the impending assault.

 

A couple of his Tactical squads that are on his far right and out of the action shift to his left in an effort to get into the fight and his Devs take aim on my Transports.

 

His shooting phase is less than stellar as a couple of Bikes go down, he manages to blow the Lascannons off of my Razorback and my Wolf Lord looses his 2 pet wolves.

 

Turn 2, my first cup of coffee is down, and I'm feeling better. The battle field is going to be littered with white marines shorty.

 

My Wolf Lord on a bike breaks off from his BC biker pack. and the other Biker pack moves forward. In his effort to reach my Bikers he dropped his pod in between my Bikers and my Large GH pack, this left his Veterans exposed, my GH pack moves into position to smash into his Veteran Squad.

The smaller GH pack disembarks from their Razorback and moves forward to put as much firepower as possible into the Terminators, I thought the Lord and Priest could handle them, but I didn't want them bogged down for too long, so I thought softening them up with some GH fire was a good idea.

 

My Rhino also moves forward to act as a second wave.

 

I limit the Large Grey Hunter packs shooting to the Assault Cannon, MGs, and pistols, then smash into the Squad in CC.

My bikers open fire with their Twin-linked bolters and then smash into the White Marine lines, and my smaller GH pack double taps and opens fire, killing 2 of the Terminators, my Thunder Lord and Iron Priest charge.

 

With a Howl, Erik the Thunder Lord smashes into the Terminators, his attacks combined with the attacks from the Cyber Wolves kills all three terminators without them even getting a chance to swing!!! (John's only response was; Hmmm... well that doesn't happen often.)

The large GH pack wins combat by about 5 and forces the Veteran squad to flee (I can't keep them in CC because of my TDA pack leader)

My biker packs also all win combat but the other squads hold.

 

In his turn John uses his Librarians Psychic power to make some sort of "leap" towards my Thunder lord in an effort to engage him in CC.

 

This time John's massed fire power is more effective as he manages to destroy the Razor back as well as the small GH pack.

 

Oh, I should mention that his Scout pack shows up and attempts to extract some revenge by coming on my right board side and shooting their shotguns into my Large Grey Hunter pack (causing minimal damage in the process)

 

Close Combat does not bode well for John, as his Veterans continue to flee, and I finish off some more squads as well as the Librarian.

 

My 3rd turn sees John in some serious trouble as my Large GreyHunter packs Leader turns on the Scout squad, he was heard muttering "Those aren't guns son, This is a gun!" as his assault cannon began blazing away at the helpless scouts. My bikers began rolling up the flank as my Thunder Lord, Iron Priest and now the Blood Claws hit his center.

 

The Space Marines are no match for the Close Combat might of the Space Wolves. The following turns sees the spilling of much blood on both sides, but at the end of the day all that remains of the White Marines are a lone Tech marine and his gun. His life spared because my Bikers and Thunder Wolves cannot climb stairs :P

 

A very good start for the Wolves...

[Max_Dammit]

Risky tacktic atacking the thunder hammer TDA with the thunder lord.

 

How did the ironpriest mount do for you, I feel the one wound is a bit iffy.

[Natanael]

Not so risky tough. He had a lot of attacks before they were gonna get to swing, and 3 wounds with a 3+ save from the shield. The 3 TDA-guys have only got 6 attacks, and one of them is tied up in the IP-squad.

 

But yeah, I've also been wondering how the IP-unit works out for ppl. Seems kinda neat at so low a cost, but still. Feels like it need a Saga of the Wolfkin.

 

- Natanael

[TiguriusX]

I love batreps from LittleBitz! Those bikers always surprise me

[littlbitz]

Nat is right there Max, it wasn't such a gamble, in fact the way I was able to position the unit prior to attacking only left one in base to base with the Lord, the other two were in base to base with the cyber-wolves and the IP.

 

Best they could have done was 2 wounds on the lord and thats if he hit both times and I failed my Storm shield saves. I didn't expect to kill all three on the charge, but I did expect to win combat and probably finish them off on his turn in the assault phase. I just did a little better than expected.

 

I am really liking the Iron Priest, I think he is working so well because I run him together with the Wolf Lord, together they form a pretty strong unit. I must admit though, that once the Cyber-wolves go down he is fragile especially with only one wound and no invuln.

 

Thanks Tig! I tend to think its a combination of me having lots of practice with them and people not facing bikers that often and not knowing quite how to deal with them. (Of course a dash of luck on occasion helps too)

 

In the AM, I will post Game 2.

Thanks for reading!

[Natanael]

Looking forward to seeing the next report. And I have to agree with TiguriusX; the bikes always suprise me with their performance. ^_^

 

- Natanael

[nurglez]

oooo look, jawaballs from bell of lost souls has mentioned you too bell of lost souls ^_^

[littlbitz]

Thanks for the link Nurg!

 

Chris takes much better pictures than me, I was having serious camera issues all weekend.

 

I do have some more pictures to post with my other battle reports, but none the caliber of "Jawaballs".

 

If any of you reading my thread are interested, his write up is worthwhile and Chris gives an excellent review of the event as a whole.

 

Game 2 coming soon. (honest.)

[nurglez]

I'm looking forward to the next report :D

[Max_Dammit]

I forgot that those spacemarine thunder hammers are only S8 :lol: So i thought without saga of the bear it would be a big risk

[littlbitz]

Alright,

 

Game 2 was against Rob Baer's Ork "counts as" IG army. I think you can see pictures of his army on Spikey bits (his website).

Note that I said my game was against "his army" as Rob was not able to make the Mechanicon, so his army was being led by a nice young man named Kelsey.

 

Now this List was sick, 2x Command HQs, an Inquisitor with mysitcs, a full Psychic choir in a Chimera, an assortment of Mech-Vets, 3x Hydra Flaks, a Manticore, the Mighty Plasma-Russ of Space Marine death, and an infantry platoon with the command mounted and just two squads of 10 with absolutely no upgrades.

 

The Mission, Objective Markers. 3 of them, two of them were quite centrally placed, while the other was deep in the Imperial Orks deployment zone.

The deployment Spear-head , this just keeps getting better.

 

So that everyone is on the same sheet of music, I was playing against a Psychic choir list on a board that had no terrain blocking and lanes of fire in an objective mission with one objective that was going to be impossible to get to in a spear-head mission allowing my opponent to castle up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-11 tanks.

 

I know the above is a terrible run-on sentence, but I needed to make a point.

 

So after meeting this young man and scolding him for his list, with some quite colorful language and explaining to him that my 7 year old daughter could successfully play that list we decided to roll for first turn.

(Please be aware that while the above could be taken as rude by those who don't know me, and may have even been offensive to the person on the receiving end of my taunts. By the end of the game he was well aware that it was all done in jest and I meant no offense.)

 

I win the roll-off. Now I do have a couple of options and my normal response to an army like this would be to keep my entire army in reserves, hope for the best and strike him in one flank and cause him to re-adjust his lines. However in this case with the Inquisitor retinue giving me -1 to reserve rolls, and with the Physic choir, I thought coming in piece meal would be certain demise.

 

I decided to deploy my whole army as close as I could to his lines and just rush him and hope for the best, taking cover where I could and hope to reach his lines.

 

After I deploy, he sets up his army in a typical castle set up. the Leman Russ holding the center with chimera on either side forming a wall with just enough space for his Psychic Chimera and Hydras to draw LOS in between them. To finish off his deployment he picket lines his two squads across the front of his tanks in order to prevent me from charging his tanks. They are even deployed as Two squads so its impossible for me to draw one side away to clear a path to armor.

 

He attempts to seize initiative but lucky for me he fails.

 

I basically do the only thing I can in this mission, both Bike packs turbo boost along my board edge to strike his right side, while my Thunder Wolf units head the other way in a pincer like move. My large GH pack hunkers down in a Wood within objective grabbing range to hold, and force him to shift me. The other two units (Rhino and Razorback) move onto the other objective staying in their rides and forcing him to pop those.

 

Popping smoke in my shooting phase my turn ends, I brace for the pain...

[Natanael]

Oh, come on ;)

 

- Natanael

[Wolf Guard Nostromo]

Oh, come on :)

Seconded!

 

Good see and hear of your exploits again bitz - I'll admit that the kind of guard army seen in the second game is the kind that warms my pint, so to speak.

[littlbitz]

Above is a picture of my deployment this game, those two round discs, are the Two objectives that I decide are my priority this game.

With little to no movement, the IG player decides to focus his fire on my lead biker pack. He manages a few casualties, then with the assistance of his Psychic Choir, promptly causes them to fail their morale check and high-tail in the opposite direction.

Other than that, he attempts a few shots on my transports, and my smoke saves me.

His turn ends.

My Biker pack rallies and resumes their mad dash towards the IG lines. My other biker pack now within charge range hits the picket line of Guard on one side, while my Thunder Lord and Iron Priest hit his lines on the other.

I advance with my Large GH pack staying near the objective and in cover while attempting to get my assault cannon into range, I take some potshots but have little effect.

My twin-linked Las-cannon fails to even scratch the paint on the Plasma-toting Leman Russ.

At the end of the turn, 20 Imperial Guard, er.. Orks meet their end.

In his next turn he again concentrates fire, this time on the Pack with my Biker Lord (I should have moved him away from the pack in the last movement phase to avoid this). He causes enough wounds and again forces me to break, My Lord is fleeing and he hasn't even taken a wound!

To add insult to injury I only flee 4 inches, yes on three dice, this will mean I continue to run... :P

He takes some shots at my Thunder Lord and Iron Priest, and kills off my Cyber and Fenris Wolves.

He also blows the Twin-linked Las off of my Razorback.

In my turn, I bring whats left of the first Biker pack and prepare for an assault, as my Iron Priest and Thunder Lord hit two different tanks.

My Assault cannon again fails to do anything but scratch paint.

My Wolf Lord decides to try his luck and smashes into the Large Leman Russ, If I can break through here I can bog things down, and maybe get to the Chimera Hiding the Psychic choir (I would love nothing more than to get to the creamy filling of that tank) 12 swings on the Leman Russ auto hitting at S6 on rear armor, I have good chances. I penetrate 3 times! The results? a one, a one, and yes, a two... :P (I'm making this face alot this game)

My Iron Priest also only gets a cannot move and shoot result on a Chimera packed with some Vets. On the other side of the battle field I catch another Chimera with 3 Blood Claw bikers 3 Fist attacks, and two Melta Bombs. I manage yet another one, and a pair of threes, taking off both weapons (I really needed to immobilize it) So he could not chase my fleeing lord.

In his turn he promptly kills a couple more bikers leaving only the Power Fist, he opens fire on my Large GH pack and attempts to hit them with his Weaken Resolve but actually fails a Psychic test.

On the other side, he actually manages to make a Wreck of my Razorback forcing my GH to disembark. I've positioned my two tanks in a wedge so have plenty of room to hide out of LOS.

I should mention his most important move of the game, he moves the weaponless chimera a full 12 inches in order to keep my Wolf Lord and his biker pack fleeing.

He opens up a ton of close range fire power from the back of Chimera transports and brings down my Iron Priest.

Its now Turn 4, I'm still holding 2 out of 3 objectives, but I'm losing men fast. I decide to abandon my assault on his lines with the only two models I have there, the Thunder Lord and a lone Blood Claw biker with a Power fist. I go after the weaponless Chimera. If I can stop it, then Thorgrimm with his Thunder hammer and his biker pack which still has 2 Powerfists may just put me back into this game.

On my right side I decide that I need to move. My GreyHunters which have been forced to disembark move towards his lines and onto the side of one of his Chimeras. He comments that this is a bold move between swigs of his Rum and Coke (saying it was time to "unleash the Kraken" as he did so). The reason for this move was simple. If I could even pop one of these tanks, then he would have need to give pause and focus his attention on the GreyHunters and take some heat off of the BloodClaws who were still hunkered down on the objective in their Rhino.

My Assault cannon manages to cause a cannot shoot result on the Leman Russ with a rending hit. (really about the best result I could hope for).

I shoot at the side armor of the Chimera on my right with the small GreyHunters pack and only manage to blow the Multi-laser off of it.

On the other side my Wolf Lord with the lone remaining SwiftClaw attempt to pop the Chimera thats keeping my other Wolf Lord from rallying. I fail miserably, no even managing to hit the tank. :P

In his turn, he moves the damaged Chimera up close to my fleeing Wolf Lord, the majority of his gun fire goes into my Thunder Lord and the remaining Biker they both go down. Opening fire on my large GH pack he causes enough casualties to force a Morale check which I fail thanks to his wonderful Psychic Choir. ;) (there's that face again)

He backs up and readjusts his defensive line (just as I knew he would) in order to destroy the small GH pack. Which is promptly shot down to a man under a hail of plasma fire.

In a last bit of shooting his Hydra Flaks manage to Wreck my Rhino forcing them to disembark, which they do in the cover of the two tanks, they also pass their pinning check.

Going into turn 5 I've nothing to do but hunker down, and hope that my small pack of BloodClaws manage to hold. They really want to charge forward towards the enemy, but the Pack Leader tightens their leash knowing the importance of keeping this objective.

In his turn, he continues to move the damaged Chimera that he has been chasing my fleeing units with toward the objective that my Large GH pack was holding (but were now fleeing from), putting the tank within holding range of the objective and within 6" of the GH pack to ensure it would continue to flee.

He also moves a Chimera towards my Objective being held by the BloodClaws, but he isn't close enough, he is going to have to try to shoot them.

He claims line of site with his Plasma Russ, I tell him he is out of his mind. Then he pulls out a laser pointer and manages to hit one of my Blood Claws with it between the two tanks they are hiding behind. Rather than argue about the rules for upraised weapons and trophies ect. I just let him shoot, I say "Go ahead, the Emperor knows the Truth" as he shoots and promptly scatters all of the blasts right off of my Blood Claws :lol:

He picks up a die, I tell him if he rolls a one and ends this misery I'll buy him a beer. He shakes the die, and a One comes up!

Tallying up the results, he has Two Objective to my One. He manages a 12-6 win against me.

I don't know, I could and have gone over this battle again and again in my head. I'm sure there were some mistakes made on my part but the reality of it is, when I combine the Army List with the Deployment on the board we were on, I can't help but think this was the "Paper to my Rock".

Maybe the next game will turn out better ;)

[Wolf Guard Nostromo]

On my right side I decide that I need to move. My GreyHunters which have been forced to disembark move towards his lines and onto the side of one of his Chimeras. He comments that this is a bold move between swigs of his Rum and Coke (saying it was time to "unleash the Kraken" as he did so). The reason for this move was simple. If I could even pop one of these tanks, then he would have need to give pause and focus his attention on the GreyHunters and take some heat off of the BloodClaws who were still hunkered down on the objective in their Rhino.

I hope that at some point you hit him over the head with your mug of mead! :tu:

 

I don't know, I could and have gone over this battle again and again in my head. I'm sure there were some mistakes made on my part but the reality of it is, when I combine the Army List with the Deployment on the board we were on, I can't help but think this was the "Paper to my Rock".

 

Maybe the next game will turn out better ;)

It sounds like you had some horrible rolls, but then again his plasma death tank (why Russ, why?) possibly could have done more damage to your army at key moments than it did(They have been the nemesis of my bikers in the past). I can't agree strongly enough that under the circumstances (a spearhead deployment with negative modifiers for reserves) the 'reserve all' would have seen you torn apart one little bit at a time. Next time with some better damage table rolls on those vehicles... Maybe in the next game... ^_^

[Natanael]

I agree with you that his army, combined with that horrible spearhead deploy (hate it :thanks:), seemed to be a bit of the paper to your rock. Still, you made a good showing, it seems. Also, from the looks of it, he played it like he should, sacrificing units and then shooting your bikes/thunderlord/IP to bitz as soon as he got you other pack running.

 

Looking forward to next report as well. Have you got more pic then you show here? In you album on photobucket or on here maybe?

 

- Natanael