Magnus Wolfborne : First Battle report

[CatSmasher]

Hello gents,

 

Yesterday was my first game of Warhammer 40k and it was a showdown between the Tau and the Mighty Fangs of Fenris.

 

As a newly appointed Wolf Guard Leader Magus was given a small task force (750pts game) and sent to secure an LZ around a deserted town.

 

HQ Rune Priest with chooser of the slain (njal proxy)

 

5x Sky Claws, chain swords and bolters

 

10x Grey Hunters, 2x plasma, and one Wolf Standard 

10x Grey Hunters, 2x plasma, and one Wolf Standard

 

5x Wolf Guard TDA, one with shield and hammer, one assault cannon

Drop Pod

 

I misplaced my army list so i forget the exact point total, the limiting factor was my number of models. Also, I don't really remember the details of my friends army but loosely it was

 

2x Broadsides,

 

2, 5 unit fire warriors, with some weapons i forget

 

2x6 path finders with sniper types

 

Commander with 3x other suit guys

 

skimmer with stupid drones.

 

 

The game went down like this:

 

First, we only had a 6x3 table so we played on the diagonal, with three objectives across the table. Some decent 4+ cover with multiple levels in each deployment zone.

 

Tau deployed first with broad sides in the back, and sniper teams in the windows, his command unit in reserve. Skimmer right up front

 

Wolfborne deploys one GH squad on each side, HQ in the middle, sky claws and dp deployed later.

 

Turn one:

Tau: Skimmer moves up behind cover close to the middle objective and deploys his two drones. 

Wolves: DP drops and terminators destroy the skimmer. (I learned here that i could only shoot at the drones OR the skimmer, so it was a poor choice on a few accounts.) GH group runs to secure closest objective, while second unit moves forward behind cover.

 

Turn two: 

 

Tau sniper team rains fire on my terminators stuck in the open. The storm shield does its job at first, but when the broadside fires its gun he wasn't so lucky. His salvo with the second sniper team was more successful, eliminating a plasma gun GH and one other. His drones move around the cover to escape the attack from the termies. Tau then deepstrikes his command squad with drones and other :cusskickers. Their shooting phase takes out two termies.

 

Wolves GH moves into position and shoots down the skimmer's drone team, but puts themselves in range of the command squad. The GH in the rear move to secure the first objective, and the termies run to capture the middle objective and get out of range of the broadsides. The run maneuver was unsuccessful and the termies contest the objective but fail to find cover. Skyclaws deepstrike fails to arrive

 

Turn three:

 

Tau sniper teams move out of cover and advance on both flanks. Command team jumps around and gets and elevated position on the advancing GH pack and shoots them to bits through the window, leaving only 6 GH. Supporting sniper team drops another, and on the other flank the advancing sniper team runs for cover. Broadsides take out another termie that was exposed, leaving only a lone wolf from the original grouping

 

Wolves deep strike fails again and the GH are on their own. A plasma shot lands a wound on the commander, and the bolters take out one of his drones. The remaining termie moves into position and shoots his assault cannon, landing another wound on the commander. The GH on the rear objective re-positiion to take on the advancing fire team on the right flank.

 

Turn Four:

 

Tau command squad takes out the final termie, and the sniper team secures the far objective and thins out the GH behind cover with marker lights, down to two GH in the advanced squad. The other sniper team moves into around the middle of the map.

 

Wolves reserves strike behind cover on the flank, with their forces depleted the end looks near for the wolves. Some shooting in the rear drops a sniper and the advanced GH squad gets lucky and drops a drone.

 

Turn Five:

 

Tau advance and the crisis suits and commander move in and crush the sky claws with excellent shooting. The Broadside and sniper team clean up the remaining advanced GH with relentless fire power

 

Wolves, the remaining GH charge from their objective in a last ditch effort to engage the Command group, they bring their plasma and bolter to bear as the close the distance. They engage the command squad, banner held high but not before the commander does some serious damage to the group.  in CC one wound for the commander and two death blows for the crisis suits beside. The GH fought valiantly but the losses were great.

 

The battle was won by the Tau on this day, but Magnus Wolfborne learned some valuable lessons about Tau tactics and the effectiveness of his force.

 

 

END

 

 

I have some pictures but I'm not sure how to post them on here. Since this was my first game my expectations were not very high as far as in game success, but I was very happy with the over all experience. I mad a lot of mistakes, including a poorly placed drop pod, forgetting my 5+ invulnerable saves for TDA, and some other foolish tactical mistakes (2x10GH is not great for objective games since half my force was needed for each objective)

 

I also did not know what to do with my Rune Priest at all! I equipped JotWW and living lighting but was too afraid to move him within a useful range. I see that people like prescience as a skill, but i don't see where that is in the codex or rule book, any help here?

 

The sky claws were cannon fodder since i played them so poorly, i wish i hadn't tried to DS, but i wanted to test a bunch of different game mechanics

 

I also learned that my friend is ruthless, and he pummelled me (probably because I was trash talking him this week!) The use of drones for cover and for dividing fire really punished my formations, and tau's range and weapon strength put a lot of pressure on me.

 

In hind sight I should have dropped the termies right on his gunline so whomever survived could assault on the next turn. I should have split my GH into small groups for greater flexibility, especially since they were my only units that could take objectives. I also had no ranged weapons and his Broadsides just sat in his deployment zone and picked off my units.

 

All in all it was great fun. I will be looking into some devastators to add some fire support and I may just drop the Skyclaws entirely. I didn't love how quickly the termies got dropped, so I'm not sure if playing them was a good option on a small-ish board/game.

 

Anyway, thanks for listening, any tips or comments are greatly appreciated

 

M. Wolfborne

[Vykryl]

Prescience is under Divination powers on page 420 of the brb. You can roll for powers from the Biomancy, Divination or Telekinesis charts pages 419-421 I think. My first couple games my cousin pummeled me with a pair of Defilers. My only long range was a pair of Long Fang lascannons & I didn't understand my Rune Priests powers. I've since added a Predator and two long range Dreadnoughts to assist my Long Fangs. Need another game to try out my new toys now.

[Fytharin]

I did the same thing with my RP's and Njal when I first played. I tried to keep him back far enough where he couldn't get hurt but then you realize you aren't getting the return in output to compensate the points you spent on them. Don't be afraid to get him out there, if you see an enemy unit coming for him don't be afraid to spend a turn falling back. If nothing else it delays them getting to you a turn and allows you to shoot at them to wittle them down. Love the detailed battle report, keep up the good work. :)

[DanPesci]

Welcome, and good battle report

 

a few tips

- as people hav said, dont worry about getting your shooty rune priest out there, he needs to shoot stuff to make his points back, best bet is to maybe attach him to a grey hunter squad so he has some ablative wounds (whilst alos boosting their leadership). Divination is a great choice, but is most effective when you have some heavy support to be buffing.

 

- skyclaws i wish were more competitve, but i find them to be a bit of a points sink. The only time i ever run them is in very large games, and then its always as a full squad. The problem with deep striking them also is that they cant charge the turn they arrive, and as you no doubt found out, a 5 man power armoured squad doesnt survive long in front of a tau gunline.

 

- with the TDA, assault cannons are nice, and the model is lovely, but again, i find it too any points. My usual loadout in a termy squad would be to have 4 guys with combiplasma and a power weapon (axe or sword, your choice, costs the same), and then a 5th guy with a heavy flamer and power weapon. Storm shields can be good, but id save the points for now if you can only fit say 1 in, its often too easy for someone to manouever so your SS guy isnt the one taking the first few wounds.

 

- Your 2 10 man grey hunter squads at this level are actually pretty good, general rule of thumb at the moment is to take 1 grey hunter unit for every 500pts. Just remember not to be too overly keen to get onto objectives right away, games often last 6-7 turns, so often its a better idea to hug cover and try to whittle down the opponents gunline before running out into the open. You may however want to think about investing in some transportation, for both mobility and/or protection purposes. Rhinos/Razorbacks can be ok for a first turn rush, but are very easy to take out this edition, the alternative is more drop pods, which would help you get right in the face of that xeno gunline (be mindful of interceptors though!)

 

- Having no big guns is always going to be a hindrance, especially when your opponent shows up with lots! This edition of the game is much more focused on shooting at the moment than assault. The go to unit for us is the long fangs with missle launcher loadout, as its cheap, multipurpose, and can split fire, and at the smaller points level, theres not a lot you'll run into that has AV13/14

[CatSmasher]

Thanks for your replies,

 

I really like the idea of ML long fangs because of the large range, cheaper cost and relative versatility, but I don't have any models with a ML. I bought some used models for a great deal and combined them with some that my friend had donated and that has left me with two plas cannons, two lascannon, two heavy bolter, and two either flamers or meltas (not sure which). 

 

For the next game we have planned to add 250pts, which for him I think means a tank of some sort. I was thinking of surprising him with a WW or some other tank purchase, but I would really like to run some LF. I like the lascannon against his army which doesn't have that many models, specifically his command squad.

 

I know he can't read this but I want to thank my friend who is trying to get me into his hobby. He has given me close to $200 in models (retail) as well as clips, knife and a series of "army painter" brushes. Before this game his also bought me a drop pod (which I assembled poorly and now the doors won't close!). and the 3 basic "greys" from GW to start my painting projects.

 

Looking forward to painting my first units,

 

Thanks

[Fytharin]

You can buy them on ebay or you can get creative. Before I decided to buy the ML I had found just some plastic missles a friend had and was going to make a long fang holding a missle like he was going to throw it....to be honest I still might. lol My point is get creative, don't be afraid to proxy most people in casual situations don't mind at all.

 

It really does help when you have someone looking to help you out and get going.

[Rune Priest Jbickb]

Drop pods are tricky to assemble. Acetone should defeat the glue and allow you to try again if you like