Battle Report - 1500 vs (Foot) Space Wolves

[bulley]

Just back from this evenings game, where I faced off against one of the younger members of our veteren "squad" so to speak. Space Wolves player who does not abuse the list (wierd to feel like the power gamer in this match up!). By young I do mean about 17, which feels young for me lol.

 

This is also my last game with my current list, which I've had good success, but given in the UK we rarely play above 1500 (even when I used to play 1500 was the norm, back in the early 00's), and my Landraider Assault Term death star is just too costly to play, 600 points, leaving 900 for the rest of my core doesnt give me the flexibility I like, plus I am WAAAAY more shooty than I am assaulty!. So I'll leave at the end of the battle report the changes I'll be making. However, at 2k the Assault Terms will reappear as a straight in addition + my 2nd libby (my list will need a bit of working at 2k, but thats fine).

 

But enough of that, on to the game;

 

THE LISTS

 

Blood Angels (Mine):

 

HQ:

Libby w/ Unleash Rage/Shield of Sang (in LR w/ Terms)

 

ELITES:

Sang Priest (in LR w/ Terms)

Sang Priest (in Razor w/ TH)

Assault Terms x3 LC x2 TH

Land Raider Crusader (no upgr)

 

TROOPS:

x5 RAS w/ Razor (AssCan, TH, MG)

x5 RAS w/ Razor (LasPlas, PF, MG)

x5 RAS w/ Razor (LasPlas, MBomb)

x5 RAS w/ Razor (HBolt, PW, Flamer)

 

FAST:

Baal - AssCan / HBolt

 

Smattering of "points" - namely search lights.

 

Space Wolves (His list)

 

Rune Priest w/ necklace thing that makes him hit on 3+ + jumppack

 

Lone Wolf w/ wolf claws and other bits

x5 Wolf Guard w/ frost weaps and marks of wulfen I think

wolf scouts w/ melta gun + melta bombs

 

x1 10 man GH w/ x2 Melta gun

x1 10 man GH w/ x2 melta gun

x1 15 man BC w/ no upgrades

 

x1 15 man swift claws

 

x1 6 man Fangs w/ HB/PC/LC/ML/MM

 

I actually felt he was under pointed, but he assured me he was 1500, doing a rough calc in my head he is coming in at 1500 with wargear. This was not a good foot list, I did give him advice both on tactics and some units, but he is swapping to orks so maybe fell on deaf ears.

 

The Game

 

x4 Objectives

Pitched Battle

Blood Angels go first - he does not seize

 

Table Setup: due to bad planning we are on a 4x4 table rather than 6x4 - but no matter. Its a pretty standard "figure 5" but with a massive advantage for me, with one big ruin in the middle, one ruin to the right flank center, and one to the left corner. Then broken aquilla in my 2 corners.

 

My 2 objectives were 1 in the ruin on "my side" of the terrain, and one in my bottom right aquilla. He sets one up in the far left ruin at the top (urgh not going to bother) and one in the building in the center flank. Great objectives for me. 3 in very easy range for me, and 1 I just wont bother with.

 

I set up, predicitng long fang deployment in the far left ruin, center but just off to the right slightly so I could LOS easy on 1st turn, but if he siezes he could only hit w/ LC, ML and plasma on my LR and nothing else, thus tempting him to deploy there. I do the normal parking lot, with baal about to scout forward to give itself cover by the hill if he does sieze, and giving my razors 4+'s easy.

 

He setups long fangs and grey hunters on his far left objective. Swiftclaws and grey hunters on my right flank, and blood claws in the center ready to charge. His lone wolf front and center.

 

BEGINNING

 

Like always I forget exactly what happens each turn (getting better) so I just cover beginning middle and end.

 

He does not seize so I move forward. Charge the LR full 12" and Baal moves up to provide AV 14/13 shields at front and cover saves for the Razors behind. All get their guns out and ready to hit the lonewolf, grey hunters and swift claws. I moved the AC raz most foward, and the las plas's on the rear flanks of my "parking lot" and then the HB at the back peaking over everyone with a little bit of raised terrain. I am now center right, in between the two ruins, right in between 2 objectives (with the HB loitering near the rear objective for me). The las plas fires at the swift claws but wiff's, so I quickly decide the meltas on the GH are a bigger target, so the baal and ac raz fire at them with the land raider and hammer them down to about 5 or 6 - they pass LD. The Lasplas and HB fire at the lone wolf and manage to drop it in turn 1.

 

He just foot slogs up towards my tanks. The BC's get in very close, but not enough for charge range. The grey hunters move into cover to get a 4+ but miss with their melta guns. The swift claws move into the right hand ruin, but lose 1 or 2 to dangerous terrain. They do get a fat 3+ cover here though. Longfangs manage to see 1 corner of a razor, but I make the 3+ on it vs ML and LC - the plasma shakes it so cant shoot (no HB next turn).

 

Turn 2 I basically realise I have full control now. I move the LRC about 3" away from the blood claws, and delpoy so I can charge even on a 1 in difficult terrain (and remind him that the LRC gives me the 'nades so I am not I1). The razors and baals reposition so they can fire on the swift claws and grey hunters both in cover, but also so rear armor is not exposed should the wolf scouts come on next turn. Firing was effective. The razors managed to drop the grey hunters down to about 3 or 4 - and they run. The swiftclaws take a couple of casualties from the tanks now as well, trying to whittle down that 15 number before they try and charge. The combat against his blood claws was pretty horrible. My libby and LC's did about 7 kills, but due to terrible rolling he drops 2 thunder hammers and wounds the libby. I'd cover this later, but here I should have taken a save on 1 of the LC's really at least. Despite being infantry heavy I should have given myself at least 3 more attacks just to try and really clean off the squad. Ofcourse I did win the combat, he does run, but I fail to charge him down - so he can now charge me next turn!

 

In his turn 2 he realises his long fangs are out of the fight and begins to foot slog them across to help out - leaving GH on his objective there. No scouts. His swift claws sit tight for 1 more round as well. He rallies his GH due to me not having any one near him. He charges his BC's into my terms, and manages to kill 2 LC. I do however kill another 3 or 4 blood claws, the dont run and make the saves. Libby on 1 wound, and the sang priest.

 

MIDDLE

 

In this turn I just really pull my attention to the GH and swift claw squads. I move again to keep the 4+'s to hit in combat, and just reposition the tanks a bit, now my tanks have made a big circle with x2 objectives on the outer ring of the circle so to speak. The razors and baal's fire at the swiftclaws dropping them right down to the wolf priest and wolf guard. The AC tank shocks the GH's and forces them to run. The closer LRC can now saftly escort them off the table knowing that the long fangs wont get a chance to shoot at it. Having gotten my TH squad out with the sang priest, I move them into combat w/ the BC's which is what finishes off his wolfguard/BC - the I5 allowed me to kill off his BC's and the TH finished off his wolf guard. I consolidate back towards teh tank with teh RAS and away with the libby/sp

 

In his turn 3 he gets the long fangs up into cover as he cant quite get the range to charge Next turn they could unleash hellish fire from the center ruin if they are standing. He does however charge his rune priest and wolf guard into my libby. His rune priest wiff's on his 4 wounds - rolling 1's and 2's, and his wolf guard got min attacks with mark of wulfen, and did nothing! I kill the wolf guard, and his rune priest makes his invul (I think), and stays in combat. His turn teh scouts come on near my right flank, absolute wiff.

 

In my turn 4 I instantly relocate my army to keep the 6" move while keeoing "circled around" the objectives on the outer ring. I fire pretty much all my tanks at his long fangs and wipe them out. The baal shoots at the wolf scouts and wipes them out solo I charge the the priest with my TH squad, which allowed them to join the libby to get unleash rage - this really finishes off teh rune priest, who dies to the libby at I4 (the I5 RAS put on 1 wound).

 

In his turn 4 he just starts to run the GH towards the center objective as he has nothing left to do.

 

END

This is where I take the foot off the peddle - My land raider continues to run his GH off the table, and I still shoot at his GH's running towards me, but I throw him a bone with a my Baal which has now 12"'d over to get back into the action, knowign he's going to try and melta it. I've made sure I have 3 objectives controled at this stage, though its irrelevant.

 

In his turn he runs towards my BAAL and shoots - and misses.

 

4 on the die - game contiunes (was over a long time ago!)

 

Turn 6 I half heartedly fire at his GH's - I could have deployed on all 4 objectives really if I wanted to, and made cross fire to completely table him - but he was a nice guy so I just really left most of my tanks on objectives out of LOS.

 

In his turn 6 he gets to melta range 6" and 6+1 my Baal - I actually did have a cover save which I failed.

 

Game ends on a 5

 

I win controlling 3 objectives to his 0. I lost x1 Baal x5 terms x1 SP to his remaining 3 Grey Hunters.

 

SUMMARY

 

He said it a the start that his list is awful vs mech, and that was the case. He didnt stand a chance at all.

 

I felt like I made a mistake with the first win in combat over the BC's who ran - I rolled 6 to consolidate and could have forced the BC's off the table, but that would have brought me into LOS of fangs and GH's which could prob have dropped my LC/lib/SP I reckon, so I may have made the right move. Though I think I should have tried it (then let a tank take over the duties).

 

I told him first off of a couple of deployment mistakes he made - he should have tried to force me to come after him - which he can do with the footsloggers - castle up on 1 objective and tetris to give himself cover saves and force me to get into Long fang fire while slowly tetris'ing his GH/BC's up towards the center and left objectives. He tried to take 2 objectives that were about 55+" away from each other.

 

Also he only needs small modifications to his army to make them half decent vs alot of lists. I said firstly dump the sky claws and take more long fangs, with launchers. Get logan who would just make his army so much better, and grab a few term's. He could just keep his GH's the way they are (and forget about BC's) or run them as wolf guard w/ combi/plas and throw in a few term wolfguard w/ cyclones etc.. - He could then sit back w/ 15 ML's and spam me, storm bolters/bolters for mid range, then counter charge if we get to near. He did say he was going orks, so I told him he'd be fine with that playstyle with orks, walking fowards to me and just forcing me to try and find a good target.

 

All in all was a decent game, he was a good opponent sporting wise, and took it well. He didnt have much luck with dice, but didnt blame it. He'll be alot harder with his foot Orks which will be a fun game.

[BigBaals]

Great write up! Good to read about other sporting players! Maybe I need to get stationed in England.