First game, many bitter lessons learned from silly mistakes

[Kasper_Hawser]

Greetings to all. As some of you may know, I started to collect, assemble and paint Space Wolves back in February. After three months of assembly, painting and observing gameplays, I finally had enough to play a short 500 point game at my FLGS. Unfortunately, I fear tonight I did nothing but bring shame to the rout, not for losing to the hated maleficarum known as chaos daemons to most of the galaxy, but for making extremely silly mistakes. Fortunately, it was still a fun game and my pack did have their moments of glory or near glory. In fact, I daresay I would have at least drawn had I at least deployed better. Oh well.....

 

The first mistake was, well, my list:

 

Rune Priest         = 100

 

Grey Hunters

10 Hunters        

Plasma Gun       

Plasma Gun       

Wolf Standard        

Rhino

Dozer blade           

Sub Total        = 210

 

Grey Hunters

 

5 Hunters        

Melta Gun        

Wulfen              

Wolf standard  

Razorback        

Lascannon        

Hunter killer missile 

Sub Total        = 190

 

Total             = 500

 

Yeah, I can see most of you shaking your head already. why the heck did I put the Wulfen and Melta in the RAZORBACK instead of the Rhino?!?!?! The simple answer, I was lazy to change my list when I realized my smaller pack was inappropriately armed to go with my Rune Priest in Razorback. And basically when I started playing I realised a second fundamental flaw in my plan....

 

RAZORBACK HAS NO FIREPOINT! WHICH MEANS NO LIVING LIGHTNING! 

 

sigh, on with the disaster.

 

Battle report

Deployment: can't remember, its the last one where you deploy diagonally in the middle. He went first.

Mission type: the Relic, red crystal is the relic.

 

 

 

Yep, anyway, the wulfen and melta pack was with the rune priest with the razorback. Rest of the list is in the other Rhino. Relic is the

 

His list from what I remembered:

 

Herald of Tzeetch

A bunch of pink horrors, twenty I believe.

ten Khorne bloodletters in reserve, one was a champion with AP2 weapon I think

One Soul Grinder.

 

Turn 1: Nothing much happened, his soul grinder shot his plegm and autocannon at me which mercifully did nothing. sadly, i rolled double ones to hit with my twin linked lascannon too. Rhino shuffled nearer to get to his warlord and pink horrors. Third Mistake: didn't grab the relic when I had the chance, was so bloody scared of the soul grinder.

 

 

Turn 2: Pink horrors used a power which I think gave them 2d6 shots of S5. can't remember. Eitherway, it wrecked the Rhino with my plasma squad in it. The Soul Grinder shot at the Razorback, reduced it to 1 HP and with crew shaken, so could only snapshot my turn. Predictably, my lascannon then wiffed in my turn. Having nothing better to do, I deployed my rune priest and squad outside. Melta was of course too far away to do anything, and my rune priest couldn't see the herald squad behind the hill.

 

Turn 3: Miraculously for my opponent, the warp storm rolled double six, resulting in spawning a troop of daemons of his choice. He chose to spawn a bunch of horrors, 13 I think, in front of the rune priest. Shot at the rune priest pack, didn't manage to block the spell, and promptly lost my melta gunner. Fortunately, the Rune Priest was near enough now to block the spells of the herald and the other pink horror blob, saving my other Grey Hunter pack some witch fire pain. Unfortunately, the bloodletters had arrived from reserves and deployed right behind my grey hunter squad.

 

In my turn, I knew I was losing at this point, the question was what could I salvage out of this situation? I had no illusion of winning a fight with the bloodletters with their AP3 swords. So I decided to go for the warlord instead. I rolled a decent amount of bolt pistol shots but only killed a couple. I then charged with all my Grey Hunters with about 24 attacks. And when the fighting was done? THE BLOODY HERALD WAS STILL ALIVE WITH ONE HORROR LEFT! Sigh, so close yet so far.

 

From the other end, the Rune priest squad fared better, 3 GH + 1 RP killing 13 horrors. Unfortunately, that meant the Soul Grinder was free to kill me.

 

 

 

Turn 4: Well, the invevitable happened. The Bloodletters charged in and wiped out my pack. I actually still had hope to kill the warlord at that point, considering both GH and Bloodletters strike at same initiative. so i allocated at least 6 GH with 12 attacks at the Herald and last horror. I only hit with 6 attacks. Of the six attacks, 4 wounds. Of course he looked out sir. And the bloody horror survived 2 Invuln saves before he finally died! So I could only wound the herald once and the herald made his invuln save as well! So no slay the warlord for me. :( and after that, the Bloodletters ate the rest.

 

Meanwhile, the Soul Grinder charged and killed all of my rune priest guards, leaving him alone with only a powersword vs AV13.

 

My turn, I only had one unit that could do anything: the lascannon razorback. It aimed. It hit. It wounded. And the herald saved it. :( 

 

 

At that point I conceded. My rune priest would only get stomped in the assault phase so there was really no point.

 

sigh, such idiotic mistakes that it deserves to be enshrined for all to shame me and make sure nobody follows my bloody entrails:

 

1) List - make sure you know who is travelling with who and that they synergise. Like me putting the rune priest with the melta gunner in a lascannon razorback. Meanwhile, the other GH pack was close to a bunch of daemons and had no powerfist or wulfen, just the banner.

 

2) Deployment - bloody hell, make sure everybody is in a place where they can bring in the pain turn 1.

 

Hmmm, come to think of it, that's my only two main mistakes. Otherwise, the game went pretty well. The Wolf Banner came very close to netting me the warlord, but the lack of wulfen was really bad. 

 

Hope this serves as a lesson to rest of the rout, and also entertain you somewhat with my tale 

[Dahli Llama]

Nice write-up.

 

Deployment is definitely a huge part of the game.  Finding those shooting lanes early is important.

[Kasper_Hawser]

So after that first bitter defeat, and reading Valerian's topic on tactics, have revised my list and battle plan:

 

List 1:

Unit                               Costs          Role

Rune Priest                     100           Accompany Pack 1 as Vanguard

 

Grey Hunter Pack 1        225           Assault Pack 1

9 hunters

1 melta gun

Mark of wulfen

Rhino

Powerfist                         

 

Grey Hunter Pack 2        175           Medium range support/backup anti tank

6 hunters

Plasma gun

Razorback with Lasplas

 

No heavy support but at least this time, everyone should be able to do something, and Rune priest will be able to cast his powers 

 

On a bigger scale, my FLGS will be having a beginner tournament soon at 750 points. This is my planned list:

 

Rune Priest                    100

 

Wolf Guard Pack X 3      84

 - Combi melta

 - Combi plasma

 - Combi flamer

 

Grey Hunter Pack 1        210           Assault Pack 1

8 hunters

1 melta gun

Mark of wulfen

Rhino

Powerfist     

 

Grey Hunter Pack 2        165            medium range support

8 hunters

1 plasma gun

Rhino

 

Long Fangs

5 members                     190             Long Range support

4 missiles

Razorback with TL Las

 

Hopefully will fare better.

[Leif Bearclaw]

What is the third WG going to do? The only squad you could stick him in is the Fangs, which is wasting his points given his armament. And trying to solo with him would be suicide.

[Brother Crazywolf]

I would suggest putting the rune priest in the mid field. And the third wolf guard is a question. What powers are you thinking? BRB or codex?

[Kasper_Hawser]

Oh yeah, actually the third wolf guard with Combi Flamer is kind of like I'm forced to take him. This is due to the minimum of 3 Wolf Guard per Elite slot we are required to take. Leif, u are correct, I do intend to put him with the Long Fangs. Reason I put combi flamers is because, frankly, had to put something on him. At least with a flamer, should be able to protect the Long Fangs against outflankers. Of get charged, I believe template weapons get D3 automatic hits. Better than nothing.

 

Wolf guard with combi melta will join Priest and Grey Hunter Pack 1 to get as close as possible. Rune Priest I plan to run with Jaws of the World Wolf. As for secondary power, well, as crazy as it sounds, since I'm going to go up close anyway, Freki and Geki seems like a useful choice. I always seem fascinated by that power but seems like nobody ever uses it. The strength and AP is reasonably good, with the chance of pining/scaring away the unit if they fail leadership.

 

Otherwise it will be Living Lightning as usual, since it is Assault D6 anyway. While it wastes the unlimited range of the spell, I want my rune priest to be in the thick of things with his force weapon. If there's a Chapter master or Captain with a power fist, worse come to worse I will decline the challenge. My hidden Grey Hunter powerfist should then make mince meat out of the chapter master/captain. Somehow at 750 points, I don't think its likely that I'll encounter the chapter master of doom with shield eternal. If I do, well, that's what the melta, combi melta, and the sheer number of bolters shots are there for. Not to mention Grey Hunter pack 2 armed with plasma and combi plasma.

 

Depending on my opponent, I can also switch strategy by placing Rune Priest with Fangs and go divination. Eitherway, my list allows me the flexibility of being shooty or assaulty.

 

I am actually working on another crazy fun list which involves Arjac Rockfist. :P Sadly, I think I may have to sacrifice the Long Fangs to take him, and switch Grey Hunter pack 1 transport into a drop pod instead. Oh crap, Arjac + 1 Rune Priest is 3 slots, which means only 7 GH left. Hmmmm, good enough, can still take the rest of the loadout mentioned earlier. With banner and hidden powerfist, and the entire unit's counter attack, I'm all set to land near an enemy which is near an objective, wipe then out then camp at the objective.

 

Arjac can then tank any big dueler that comes my way, while the entire unit should be able to defend objective with good old bolters, chainswords and counter attack. Sacrificing my Heavy support just to take that overgrown terminator champion, but DAMN HE IS COOL!