Deathwing vs Space Wolves

[riddles]

So been thinking about dropping a Chaplain into my Wing recently. Long post to explain it is over on the Dark Angel boards. Got the first game in with it last night.

 

Opponent: Space Wolves (good player, not an optimised list, but still some scary bits)

Rune Priest - living lightning and jaws

Rune Priest - jaws and murderous hurricane

Wolf Guard Battle Leader - warrior born, frost blade, storm shield, thunderwolf

9 Grey huntersx3 - rhino, powerfist, mark of the wulfen, wolf banner, meltagun, wolfguard, combimelta

4-5 TWC (can't remember the exact amount) - 1 frost blade

7 wolf scouts - melta gun, combi melta

Lone wolf - mark of the wulfen

6 long fangs - 5 missile launchers

Vindicator

 

Anihilation and Spearhead.

I won the roll off and put him in first. He gave me the corner that had a couple of LOS blocking ruins that I hid my speeders behind and put all my termis into reserve.

 

Turn 1:

He shuffles about a bit, tries to get some shots off at the speeders but does nothing.

My first turn. The plan is to drop into position giving me LOS to the side armour of the vindicator. I don't want to isolate a squad anywhere near the TWC because they can tear through my squads in a turn (I onl have 2 THSS per squad. 3 in the command squad). So, the command squad. scatters big. mishap. back into reserve. Still rescuable. Chaplain squad. scatters REALLY big. mishap. my opponent places them in my corner, leaving them effectively out of the game for 2 turns. Belial's squad. Big Scatter. In front of the TWC.

At this point, I know I'm shafted. he can take me apart piecemeal and there's little I can do. But I persevere. I get shots off at the side armour of the vindicator, as its still my biggest threat. Nothing happens. Multimelta from the speeder is 14 inches out, but I get the penetrate and wreck. Happy times. No death template.

 

Turn 2:

He immobilises a speeder, but more importantly, he JOTWW on belial's squad and I lose 2 terminators, including 1 storm shield. The TWC charge that squad. I kill a wolf, but the battle leader and frost blade really do a number on my boys and I'm left with just Belial. Things are not going well.

I get 2 squads in, including the command squad. They sit a little further back, waiting for the Chaplain's squad to catch up. I (perhaps foolishly) choose to shoot the Chaplain's squad instead of running. I pop 2 rhinos and kill 2 grey hunters. Belial gets hammered into dust by the battle leader.

 

Turn 3:

He immobilises another speeder. Murderous Hurricane on the command squad. The TWC are out of charge range, so he shuffles about a bit. He charges the command squad with the Lone Wolf and I squish him. My consolidation is a mighty 1 inch.

I get my last squad in and drop them as a screen infront of the command squad and supporting squad so I can absorb the TWC charge and counter charge myself. I unload everything I can into the TWC. Eventually there is the battle leader and 2 wolves with 1 wound each.

 

Turn 4:

Scouts turn up. The last speeder gets immobilised and one of the immolised ones is finally wrecked (he had terrible damage rolls all game). The screening squad takes fire from the scouts and a grey hunter squad, only 7 of whom were in rapid fire range. And Jaws. I lose 3. Which opens up the multicharge for the TWC to the squad behind. It's all a tad desperate. He wipes the screening squad and puts the other squad down to 1 THSS. I kill both thunderwolves. land speeder goes pop (i now have 1 left)

I shuffle the Chaplain squad round my speeder, foolishly thinking I can use it to block the charge. Don't move the command squad. The Battle leader fails to kill the THSS termi. Command squad hits a grey hunter pack with the living lightning rune priest and sends them running with 3 dudes left. However, they've taken a fair few casualties due to the rune priest and the powerfist (and terrible rolling) and i'm left with the apothecary and a lightning claw dude.

 

Turn 5:

The battle leader kills the THSS termi, then runs away. The scouts move into cover to hide. My last speeder gets popped. The command squad gets Jaws. again. lose the lightning claw guy. meltagun finishes of the apothecary.

With the Chaplain and his squad being my only unit left, I'm lagging behind by 3 killpoints. They (finally!) make it to the fray and decimate a disembarked grey hunter squad (he had, unfortunately, moved their rhino away so I couldn't tag it).

 

I needed turn 6. I needed it desperately. I could have pulled the draw at least, but it was not to be.

 

Given the HORRIFIC first turn, I was quite happy with the rest of the game. The command squad on the charge, as per usual, caused carnage. The Chaplain's squad (when they finally made it to the game instead of drinking tea at the back of the board), cause carnage on the charge. Belial's squad, had they got the charge, would have done some damage. When you put those 3 elements together on a first turn drop, I'm pretty confident it's going to shake people up.

 

I could have just deployed on the board and formed a phalanx to absorb the wolf charge. Something to bear in mind when facing limited ranged shooting, but that may well have given the vindicator a chance to pop a shot off, and I don't want that hitting me, storm shields or not.

 

I should have run the Chaplain's squad for 2 turns. Not having them there when the TWC hit was rather unpleasant.

 

I like the chaplain list. I think it will put me in the mid tables if I can get it right.

 

Oh, and 100% thunder hammer storm shield. It's just that much better than everything else.

[BoonKin]

I suppose what went wrong here was more of a deployment choice rather than list building. I wouldn't DWA my DW squads given the lack of teleport homers, or that the opponent is Wolves.

 

Does your typhoons have MM on them? Perhaps you should have sent them against the vindicator.

 

Your List 1 is pretty good (and solid) compared to the others. Play more testgames but don't change the list. Keep it up!

[riddles]

it was a multimelta typhoon that did for the vindicator. Through cover, so it was a lucky shot.

 

I think the deployment was ok, just where i chose to deep trike was not. been a while since i used DWA extensively, but I used to be a dab hand with it.

[BoonKin]

Well, isn't DWA defined as a deployment choice?

 

I find your thread on splitting both HQs and the command squads separately an interesting combo.

 

Will definitely give it a shot :rolleyes:

[riddles]

lol. true. If I had the game over, I'd still deep strike, just in a different position. Those wolves were hitting me no matter what.

 

I have another game next week against Blood Angels to try it out. should be interesting.