Battle report 29 July 2014: Space Wolves vs Imperial Fists

[Kasper_Hawser]

Battle report 29 July 2014

 

Army lists (1250 points each)

Space Wolves

HQ                          - Bjorn the Fell Handed with Plasma Cannon, Warlord Trait Divide to Conquer (-1 to enemy reserves aka USELESS)

-          Rune Priest with Divination, rolled Foreboding (Fire overwatch at full BS) and Prescience Primaris. Also rolled Perfect Timing, which was wrong as was mastery level 1 but forgot at the time.

 

Elites                      - Dreadnought with Plasma cannon

                                - 3 Wolf Guards in drop pod armed with combi meltas

 

Troops                   - 8 Grey Hunters with Wolf Standard, 1 Melta Gun, 1 Mark of the Wulfen in Rhino

                                - 7 Grey Hunters with Wolf Standard, 1 Plasma Gun, 1 Mark of the Wulfen in Rhino

                                - 5 Grey Hunters with plasma gun in Rhino

Heavy Support    - 5 Long Fangs, 2 missile launchers and 2 lascannons

 

Imperial Fist list

HQ                          - Chapter Master with Shield eternal, Thunderhammer, Storm bolter and Artificer armour, warlord trait Master of Offence (furious charge)

                                - Captain Lysander

Elites                      - 5 Assault Terminators with Storm Shields and Thunderhammer

Troops                   - 10 Tactical Marines with Heavy Bolter

                                - 10 Tactical Marines with veteran sergeant (combi-plasma and Powerfist) and plasma gun

Heavy Support    - Land Raider Crusader with multi melta.

 

Mission type         - Scouring

Deployment type - Dawn of War

 

Pre-game thoughts:

I was actually expecting to face a Necron player tonight, so I decided to expand the list and bring in more rhinos to do the block trolling I successfully implemented the previous game against Grey Knight terminators. Instead, I faced the same mate who I had defeated earlier, only now he was going to use his fantastically painted Imperial Fists army against me. It wasn’t the first time I had faced Imperial Fists, but it was the first time I was facing not only a Land Raider, but Captain Lysander to boot. And a Chapter master of doom whose fortunately, was NOT on a bike. Nevertheless, I steeled myself, confident I had the necessary tools to defeat him.

 

 For the mission, there were six objectives which he ended up making me place all over my side of the table. I would later find out that was because he fully intended to steamroll into my territory and not only kill my troops but secure the ultimately more valuable objectives on my side.

 

As usual, I won the roll off but asked him to deploy first so I can deploy in response. Tried to seize but couldn’t.

 

Summary of game

 

It’s very late for me so I will only be summarizing what happened. Sorry guys, I brought shame to the chapter so soon after the victory over the Grey Knights. I overestimated Bjorn’s survivability against ASSAULT TERMINATORS ARMED WITH STORM SHIELDS AND THUNDER HAMMERS! Not to mention Captain Lysander who was, oh wait, Strength 10! Yep, the moment the guy disembarked and assaulted, I had the bright idea of making Bjron challenge Lysander. Wouldn’t be so bad if I put in a few wounds, but I ended up whiffing my attacks, while Lysander made no less than 3 penetrating hits. This was on top of the penetrating hit I already suffered from the Land Raider’s mutli melta. I was such an idiot, thinking I could not only block and tarpit the terminators but the Land Raider crusader. Instead I not only lost Bjorn, but I completely forgot that losing him made the whole army fearless and he became an objective point. Not only that, even after Bjorn’s fell and the assault termies advanced, I had the bright idea of charging my second dreadnought as well. Sigh, suffice to say, Lysander swatted him to kingdom come too. So my friend got Slay the Warlord and First Blood off the bat.

 

As to what happened to the 3 Wolf guard with combi meltas, well, two hit but rolled double 1s or total 3s to pen. One survived long enough to make into close combat, but in the end, still ended up dead. Drop pod would do nothing noteworthy rest of the game.

 

                Rest of the game was a desperate struggle to get the objectives, but in the end, his Razorback and tacticals managed to get more objectives than me. Again, my stupidity cost me dearly forgetting that Bjorn’s death made everyone fearless. At one point he succeeded in making one squad of Grey Hunters run off the board. And the other two Rhinos with plasma Grey hunters, I made the mistake of moving them too close together, allowing Lysander to break off from the rest of the terminators and both cracked the rhinos like eggs, costing me a few Grey hunters in the process.

 

                Sigh…… in this game I lost because

 

1)       Had no idea how to deal with the Land raider and stupidly decided Bjorn could stop them.

2)       Spreading my Rhinos and Dreadnought too far away from each other.

3)       Should have left my starting objectives as the Land raider and Assault terminators came, and held on to the further objectives.

4)       I guess 3 combi meltas as too little. Statistically only 2 would hit and that’s what happened, rolling double 1s and total 3 for armour penetration. On the other end of the board, my main army only had 1 melta gun.

 

In the end, the score was almost overwhelmingly on my opponent’s side, with almost 10 points worth of objectives, FB, warlord and linebreaker. I only had 4 points to my credit and no secondaries. His chapte master of doom even had time to try run towards my objective but thankfully, the game ended in turn 6 before he could charge my pack holding one objective.

 

A fun game nonetheless, and I did have a small consolation: I destroyed all his terminators including Lysander in the end, more due to bolter fire than the plasma gun. Hilariously enough, one even died to an exploding Rhino. Lysander ate plasma and finally stopped kicking my ass.

 

Heed me my fellow wolves, to learn from my mistakes so that you won’t have to hit your head against the table crying DOH!:

 

1)       Bjorn dying makes everyone fearless and he is one objective. That should stop the whole army from running or taking morale checks ever again.

2)       Do NOT assault Thunderhammer wielding terminators without shooting them down to size first. As mentioned above, I managed to kill all of the terminators with sheer weight of bolter and plasma fire.  I now learned that just because I’m a Space Wolf does not mean I am incapable of overwhelming DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA.

3)       When reacting to deployment, STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM LAND RAIDER AS POSSIBLE! I deployed most of my army including Bjorn practically at the Land Raider’s doorstop, enabling him to assault by Turn 2. I believe my strategy was sound, use SOMETHING to block the land Raider and the terminators within from advancing. Sadly I should have used the damn rhinos instead of Bjron. Idiot me.

 

One question though: if a Land Raider moves at Cruising speed 12”, can he still assault out of it? Actually, is it possible to assault at Turn 1 at all? I know very well that nothing can assault out of reserve, but if he had shoved his Land raider within assault range, could he have done so?

 

I don’t think I will be posting the details unless you ask me to. The salient features are as above.

 

Goodnight guys, have a good week.

 

[Teetengee]

You can't assault if you move past cruising speed, but some units such as chaos spawn can get an assault off via moving 12 inches and then rolling 12 inches for assault range, although it is very unlikely.

[Squark]

There are a few units that can pull of theoretical turn 1 assaults if both players deploy at the edge of their deployment zone (Or if something infiltrated or scouted in the wrong place. OR, going second. Of course, these are also usually stuff careful movement can avert). Orks have a few hypothetical charges involving boarding planks and Beasts, cavalry, bikes, and anything else that can move 12" can make the charge can pull it off if they roll a 12 on their charge move (Or someone gets the warlord trait that lets things charge an extra inch and they get an 11). Vehicles, however, do not allow you to disembark if they move more than 6", and you can only charge out of assault vehicles (Alas, poor blood  angels, who can never, ever charge out of a rhino).

[logun]

a little knit picky, but i think his chapter master has an illegal load out. i don't think he can have a TH, sheild eternal and a stormbolter. could be wrong though.

 

thats one hell of a death star he had there. anyway, chin up brother. 

[KiltedMarine]

Eh, fret not, brawd. No shame involved; you win some, you lose some. The Lysander/Chapter Master combo is a tough nut to crack, and it's easy to overestimate Bjorn's hitting power/survivability. You'll get him next time.

[Kasper_Hawser]

Eh, fret not, brawd. No shame involved; you win some, you lose some. The Lysander/Chapter Master combo is a tough nut to crack, and it's easy to overestimate Bjorn's hitting power/survivability. You'll get him next time.

Thanks mate for the encouragement. Next time I think I will try surrounding his land raider with my 3 rhinos all around to ensure his terminators have to foot it. Then it will be hunting season for Bjorn's plasma cannon.

[pedrogzc]

Nice report, thank for sharing and  keep it up, but please, take shots! Specially of the battlefield before even deploying objetives and after both armies deployment.

 

You have learned a very valuable lessons. Don't stop hammernators with your precious dreads or with your head :)

 

 

[Squark]

a little knit picky, but i think his chapter master has an illegal load out. i don't think he can have a TH, sheild eternal and a stormbolter. could be wrong though.

 

thats one hell of a death star he had there. anyway, chin up brother. 

Correct; Generic Storm Shields are purchased as an extra, but the Shield Eternal is a replacement for a weapon. It's a common mistake, though.

[DanPesci]

yeah, sounds like you were unlucky with the suicide drop pod, 3 shots is often enough to stop a land raider in its tracks, but that was some very unlucky rolling you had, maybe try find the poitns for a 4th guy next time (if we can still do this once the new dex drops).

 

 

With lysander, i also learned the hard way just how tough he can be. 4 wounds, eternal warrior and TH/SS make him an absolute tank. Especially when he has a chapter master along for the ride!! (personally i think thats a bit overkill - but if you dont stop that landraider, it will eat you).

 

TH/SS terminators excel at beating low attack things like dreadnoughts. AS you mentioned, you really need to take a couple down before assaulting, so then you can win via sheer weight of wounds.

 

Although you're right about forcing the deathstar unit to footsog being key to victory here...Im not sure surrounding the LR with rhinos is a great plan, if its got a Multimelta and TL Assault cannon on it, with power of the machine spirit it can very easily take apart 2 rhinos a turn (then leaving whatever was in there open to a dual charge off that horrible CC unit.

 

 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the game even in defeat, sounds like you learnt some valauble lessons! (and dont worry about forgetting things, theres barely a game goes by where  dont forget some special rule or other!!)

 

 

btw - how did he make you deploy all 6 objectives in your table half?? Is this some new thing in 7th?

[alpro]

Id agree that wsa a bit of a beast to have to fight at 1250 pts.

 

my best bit of advice would be to have 5 wolf gaurd in a drop pod. they have always worked out for me (apart from a week ago when they all rolled 1's to hit!!)

 

if he has parked his landraider near terrain and you can use your drop pod to force him through difficult terrain, then its a bonus just in csae your metlas dont manage to blow it up!

[Squark]

yeah, sounds like you were unlucky with the suicide drop pod, 3 shots is often enough to stop a land raider in its tracks, but that was some very unlucky rolling you had, maybe try find the poitns for a 4th guy next time (if we can still do this once the new dex drops).

 

 

With lysander, i also learned the hard way just how tough he can be. 4 wounds, eternal warrior and TH/SS make him an absolute tank. Especially when he has a chapter master along for the ride!! (personally i think thats a bit overkill - but if you dont stop that landraider, it will eat you).

 

TH/SS terminators excel at beating low attack things like dreadnoughts. AS you mentioned, you really need to take a couple down before assaulting, so then you can win via sheer weight of wounds.

 

Although you're right about forcing the deathstar unit to footsog being key to victory here...Im not sure surrounding the LR with rhinos is a great plan, if its got a Multimelta and TL Assault cannon on it, with power of the machine spirit it can very easily take apart 2 rhinos a turn (then leaving whatever was in there open to a dual charge off that horrible CC unit.

 

 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the game even in defeat, sounds like you learnt some valauble lessons! (and dont worry about forgetting things, theres barely a game goes by where dont forget some special rule or other!!)

 

 

btw - how did he make you deploy all 6 objectives in your table half?? Is this some new thing in 7th?

Rules misunderstanding. A) You don't know your table half until after objectives are placed in every game type except emperor's will (or whatever the "bases" mission with 2 objectives is), and b) All objectives must be at least 6” away from the board edge and a foot away from any other objective, so 6 objective missions tend to have one objective in each 2'x2' section of a 4'x6' board.

[Kasper_Hawser]

yeah, sounds like you were unlucky with the suicide drop pod, 3 shots is often enough to stop a land raider in its tracks, but that was some very unlucky rolling you had, maybe try find the poitns for a 4th guy next time (if we can still do this once the new dex drops).

With lysander, i also learned the hard way just how tough he can be. 4 wounds, eternal warrior and TH/SS make him an absolute tank. Especially when he has a chapter master along for the ride!! (personally i think thats a bit overkill - but if you dont stop that landraider, it will eat you).

TH/SS terminators excel at beating low attack things like dreadnoughts. AS you mentioned, you really need to take a couple down before assaulting, so then you can win via sheer weight of wounds.

Although you're right about forcing the deathstar unit to footsog being key to victory here...Im not sure surrounding the LR with rhinos is a great plan, if its got a Multimelta and TL Assault cannon on it, with power of the machine spirit it can very easily take apart 2 rhinos a turn (then leaving whatever was in there open to a dual charge off that horrible CC unit.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the game even in defeat, sounds like you learnt some valauble lessons! (and dont worry about forgetting things, theres barely a game goes by where dont forget some special rule or other!!)

btw - how did he make you deploy all 6 objectives in your table half?? Is this some new thing in 7th?

Rules misunderstanding. A) You don't know your table half until after objectives are placed in every game type except emperor's will (or whatever the "bases" mission with 2 objectives is), and All objectives must be at least 6” away from the board edge and a foot away from any other objective, so 6 objective missions tend to have one objective in each 2'x2' section of a 4'x6' board.

Russ' burning gonads! Yet another subtle rule that cost me the game! Yeah, we placed objectives AFTER we rolled for table sides. No wonder, he placed most of his objectives on my side, and I did the same although I did spread them out a little, which is why after dominating one side of the table, he was walking his terminators and chapter master of doom towards the other side with my objectives.

yeah, sounds like you were unlucky with the suicide drop pod, 3 shots is often enough to stop a land raider in its tracks, but that was some very unlucky rolling you had, maybe try find the poitns for a 4th guy next time (if we can still do this once the new dex drops).

With lysander, i also learned the hard way just how tough he can be. 4 wounds, eternal warrior and TH/SS make him an absolute tank. Especially when he has a chapter master along for the ride!! (personally i think thats a bit overkill - but if you dont stop that landraider, it will eat you).

TH/SS terminators excel at beating low attack things like dreadnoughts. AS you mentioned, you really need to take a couple down before assaulting, so then you can win via sheer weight of wounds.

Although you're right about forcing the deathstar unit to footsog being key to victory here...Im not sure surrounding the LR with rhinos is a great plan, if its got a Multimelta and TL Assault cannon on it, with power of the machine spirit it can very easily take apart 2 rhinos a turn (then leaving whatever was in there open to a dual charge off that horrible CC unit.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the game even in defeat, sounds like you learnt some valauble lessons! (and dont worry about forgetting things, theres barely a game goes by where dont forget some special rule or other!!)

btw - how did he make you deploy all 6 objectives in your table half?? Is this some new thing in 7th?

You are right, the mutli melta would have a much better chance of exploding the Rhinos outright without even leaving a wreck to block it. Still, he would need a 5+ on the penetration table, which is about 33% chance. Either too big or small depending on your point of view. The assault cannon would most likely glance the other Rhino to death though, so should still leave one Rhino to block. If they manage to survive even one turn though, that's one more turn I am delaying the arrival of the termie delivery system. In any case, I was planning to disembark my Grey Hunters to create a deathzone which should he cross it, will subject him to fire from all my remaining GH, Long Fangs, Dreadnoughts and Bjorn.

Meanwhile, the last Rhino will standby to see what happens. If the two rhinos survive or manage to become blocking wrecks, then the last Rhino will either go chase for other objectives, or get ready to block the Land raider again should one or two of the Rhinos explode.

Id agree that wsa a bit of a beast to have to fight at 1250 pts.

my best bit of advice would be to have 5 wolf gaurd in a drop pod. they have always worked out for me (apart from a week ago when they all rolled 1's to hit!!)

if he has parked his landraider near terrain and you can use your drop pod to force him through difficult terrain, then its a bonus just in csae your metlas dont manage to blow it up!

Damn, I forgot the Drop Pod can be an obstacle too! Although if I drop it between my guys and whatever I want to block, it would give him a cover save against my guys. Then again, I already plan to block him with my rhinos so he'll be getting some cover anyway. If I roll divination and get lucky with Perfect Timing, shouldn't be a problem though. Will have to try squeeze another combi melta for a better chance of explosion.

In regards to tarpitting techniques for deathstars like assault termies, dreadnoughts, daemon prince or even greater daemons, I wonder if it is now feasible to do so with big blobs of 16 Bloodclaws with Wolf Priest to make them fearless. If Stormclaw is any indication, I think we can upgrade one into a sergeant, so we can use that to take challenges at least for one turn, leaving the Wolf Priest to wreck face and survive a turn or two. With a power fist hidden in the group and sheer amount of attacks at least on turn one, I think its possible to tarpit a few deathstars, such as the afore mentioned lysander leading assault termies, Bikerstar, Deathwing termies or monstrous creatures.

Actually I think monstrous creatures might not be a good idea to tarpit with assault, especially if they have high weapon skill like the damn daemon princes and greater daemons which almost guarantees 4-5 deaths a turn.

[Kasper_Hawser]

Posting some pictures at the end of the game.

Some confusion here, I know I stated above that the remaings of the plasma grey hunters took the relic (represented by the WFB High Elf model) and were running back, but according to this picture, was actually the survivors of the melta team. Here you see them desperately running away towards the ruins. On the side, you see the equally desperate last 2 Grey Knights trying to shoot them to either kill or drop the relic.

My last Rhino also rushing up to secure the last Grey Hunters with the relic.

Oh yeah, Bjorn succeeded in destroying at least ten terminators in this game, plus Coteaz.

Sadly this dreadnought was the one who got 3 penetrating psycannon shots up its butt.

Ha ha! This plucky Grey Hunter shrugged off at least 4 Storm Bolter shots and lived past turn 6 to eventually get into the Rhino, afterwhich my opponnent conceded victory. damn, looking at it up close, I really need to clean and refine this model, I think it's one of my first Grey Hunters this year.

Part of my opponent's deadpile. Damn, I can't believe I took down that Dreadknight. In retrospect, it was easier than I thought. I only had one plasma cannon (bjorn), plasma gun and melta gun yet I succeeded in killing the Dreadknight midgame. Against AP2, the Dreadknight only has 5++. Suddenly I wonder why I was so fearful of that thing. Oh well, it did have a lot of dakka and that S10 sword is nasty especially at Initiative 4.

But the rest of these halberd wielding termies? Dreadnought food for Bjorn!

Well, that's the pictures I have, I promise next battle report (after the Imperial Fists one anyway), I will try to take pics of before, during and after each game.

Goodnight guys.