Ragnar on the Warpath

[Valerian]

Howdy Fang,

 

So I just got back from a pickup game at the new LGS in town - The Foundry, in Huntsville, AL. It's a very nice place with cool owners; very pleasant gaming and shopping experience. This was my first game since I moved here this summer, and was actually my first game in a long, long time (just over a year, I think). I brought an 1850 point list that I modified from something I had whipped up last year (the last time I had played). Many of the players were tied up in an ongoing Escalation League that recently started at the store, but I found a willing opponent as I went cruising through the crowds at the shop. As luck would have it, the only guy ready to play just happened to be running Blood Angels; this isn't a huge deal, but it seems like every time I've been able to sneak out of the house to game, I end up across the table from the Blood Angels. I don't know what they've done to tick Ragnar off, but 4 out of my 6 "recent" games have been against Blood Angels. The fellow had a 1,500 point force, however, so I spent just a minute or two to figure out how to quickly cut 350 points from my list. The simplest thing was to cut out my 3 Drop Pods (figured he was coming to me, anyway), and my 2 Wolf Scout Packs (figured there wouldn't be anything in the backfield for me to sneak up on, either). It turns out that I had assumed correctly, which worked out well for a rapid adjustment.

 

We rolled for Mission - Annihilation, and Deployment - Pitched Battle. I won the roll-off and gave him the first turn. I really wanted to be able to react to his deployment, and it didn't bother me that I'd get the last turn in the game. He deployed all the way up at the midfield, which didn't leave me a whole lot of options with what was left in my Deployment Zone, given that I had to stay at least 18" away.

 

Here were our lists:

 

Space Wolves (me)

 

HQ:

Ragnar Blackmane

Rune Priest Alaric the Wise (in Power Armour with Chooser, Tempest's Wrath, and Living Lightning)

 

Elites:

Wolf Guard pack (4 in TDA, 1 in PA, mixture of Combi-Plasma, Combi-Melta, a Heavy Flamer, and various special close combat weapons).

 

Troops:

Grey Hunters pack (10 Marines, 2x Plasma Guns, 1x Power Weapon)

Grey Hunters pack (10 Marines, 2x Melta Guns, 1x Power Fist, 1x MotW, 1x Wolf Standard)

Grey Hunters pack (10 Marines, 2x Melta Guns, 1x Power Fist, 1x MotW, 1x Wolf Standard)

 

Heavy Support:

Long Fang Pack (6 Marines, 1x Lascannon, 1x Missile Launcher, 2x Plasma Cannon, 1x Heavy Bolter)

Long Fang Pack (6 Marines, 1x Lascannon, 2x Plasma Cannon, 2x Heavy Bolters)

 

A few notes: When I dropped the 2x Scout Packs and the 3x Drop Pods from the list, I reduced my Operational Mobility to nill, and had nothing but standard infantry Tactical Mobility. It was a gamble, but know how most Blood Angels players like to play, it was a risk that I was willing to take.

 

 

Blood Angels (opponent)

 

HQ:

Librarian (Power Armour, with Jump Pack, Shield of Sanguinius, Unleash Rage, Melta Bomb)

 

Elites:

Sanguinary Guard (2x Inferno Pistols, 1x Power Fist).

Sanguinary Priest (Jump Pack and Power Weapon)

Sanguinary Priest (Jump Pack and Power Weapon)

 

Troops:

Assault Squad (10 Marines, 2x Melta Guns, 1x Power Fist)

Assault Squad (10 Marines, 2x Melta Guns, 1x Power Fist)

Assault Squad (10 Marines, 2x Melta Guns, 1x Power Fist)

 

Fast Attack:

Land Speeder Typhoon (Typhoon Launcher and Heavy Bolter)

Land Speeder Typhoon (Typhoon Launcher and Heavy Bolter)

Land Speeder Typhoon (Typhoon Launcher and Heavy Bolter)

 

A few notes: In many ways, our lists mirrored each other- I had 3 full packs of Grey Hunters as the core of my force, he had 3 full Assault Squads; I had the Wolf Guard pack (that I kept together as a bodyguard for Ragnar), he had the Sanguinary Guard; I had a Rune Priest, he had a Librarian; I had 2 Long Fang packs for fire support, he had the 3x Land Speeders. The one difference was that I had brought along Ragnar, which paid for his two Sanguinary Priests and Jump Packs for his entire army. In all, it looked to be a fair and interesting fight.

 

I won't do a full battle report at this point (I didn't take good enough notes for that, and it's getting late), but I will hit the highlights.

 

Things I did well:

1. I would assess that I made good choices, and tactical decisions. I also think I maneuvered well (for what movement there was, given the limited mobility of my army.

2. I was able to keep my eye on the objective (getting kill points), so I didn't let myself get distracted from that.

3. I massed forces (primarily during deployment, and the first turn "walk ons"), and concentrated fires.

4. I managed my casualties better than the last time I played. This allowed the Fangs to keep on shooting, instead of having to regain coherency.

 

Things I did poorly:

1. I didn't remember important abilities (forgot to deploy my "Gretchin of the Slain"; forgot to attempt to cancel his psychic power the one time his Librarian was clearly in range of my Rune Priest; activated Wolf Standards, but forgot to actually pay attention to and reroll the 1's in the assault phase for that unit (did this twice, arghh!).

2. Placement of Ragnar and his unit (I should have walked them on across from the core of my opponents army, but instead deployed against the week side. Turns out that side was easily and quickly overwhelmed, which meant about 500 points of my 1500 point army was largely out of the fight.

 

Lesson learned by my opponent:

1. Don't underestimate Long Fangs in close combat. My opponent shot at and then assaulted a full Long Fangs pack with a depleted Assault Squad (with no Sanguinary Priest near enough to grant Furious Charge). I passed Leadership check for counterattack, lose 1 guy and kill 4 of his. Nothing happens in my assault phase, but then they easily finish off the his last model in his next assault phase, the consolidate, and then proceed to gun down another of his depleted Assault Squads, plus attached Sanguinary Priest and Librarian in my next shooting turn (netting me 4 kill points in one go).

 

Highlight of the game:

1. Enemy uses Descent of Angels to deep strike his Sanguinary Guard plus the other Sanguinary Priest (attached) about 7 inches away from the lone Long Fang from the other pack (the pack had been hammered by those Land Speeder Typhoons in two previous turns of shooting). The Long Fang proceeds to 'hit' with the scatter dice for his blast from his trusty Plasma Cannon, no 1's are rolled to wound, and my opponent looks on in horror as he removes 300 points worth of models from the table.

 

We called the game at the end of the 5th turn. He had 1 unscathed Land Speeder, 1 immobilized Land Speeder (with Ragnar and my Wolf Guard inches away), and 2 Assault Marines Left. I had Ragnar and his entire Wolf Guard retinue (untouched), a mostly full Long Fangs pack (the guys that beat up the Assault Marines in close combat), and a Grey Hunter or two remaining.

 

Space Wolves win, 7 (maybe 8?) Kill Points to 4.

 

Valerian

[Nrthstar]

Sounds like a good night. The only truly great fight i've had against team edward was when my oppenent left his sang guard too close to my dreadnought. Since they had no fist available, i had the ability to tie up and slowly wittle them down while my lone wolf intercepted any who got too close with the firepower/fist to free them back up. I struggled with them for so long since furious charge and fnp made them better in cc and my opponent always kept his priest in range of all his forces and i refused to accept that the wolves of fenris couldn't stand face to face against some sparkly vampires.

[Beef]

GO team Jacob.

 

Sounds Like a good match, Would have been better if Ragnar had got stuck in a bit more but your explanation explains why he did not.

[Valerian]

Would have been better if Ragnar had got stuck in a bit more but your explanation explains why he did not.

 

Yes, well, in the third turn he had nothing left on his left/my right side but two Immobilized Land Speeders, and 3 Assault Marines that were doing there best to run for cover on his side of the board to prevent the loss of another kill point. I was already redirecting two Grey Hunter packs to move left to intercept the 2 incoming Assault Squads that were heading for my Long Fangs. I had three courses of action:

 

1. Move Ragnar and Bodyguard left along with my Hunter packs to ram headlong into the mass of Assault Marines - this is what I wanted to do, and I was really wanting to try to pull of a War Howl charge from multiple units and show the Blood Angels how an assault is really done. It would take about two turns of movement to make contact, but he was more likely to pull of the charge on me, given his advantage in reach with all Jump Infantry.

 

2. Detach Ragnar and send him solo to destroy 2 Immobilized Land Speeders, that were also about two turns of movement away in the other direction, downfield in my opponent's deployment zone. This would be exceptionally risky, as Ragnar would have had to weather the fire of 3 Land Speeder Typhoons (all could still shoot to maximum effect), of which a single failed Dodge save would ID him. The only advantage here, is that I could have commited the Wolf Guard to the other fight.

 

3. Move Ragnar and Bodyguard toward the less thrilling, but game-winning objective, which was securing two easy kill points by destroying the two Immobilized Speeders. I had to trust that the Hunters and Fangs could hold their own on the left (which they did). In hindsight, I had a fourth course of action, which was to send the Bodyguard on toward the Speeders, but moving Ragnar over to join the closest Hunter pack. Those guys never made it into close combat, however, so all it would have done is given them a couple extra Bolt Pistol shots.

 

V