1650 Highlander tourney report

[Chaplain Otho]

A couple of Sunday’s ago I took my spacewolves to their first ever tournament. BIG’s Tides of War event which was 3 highlander games at 1650 points. Each mission was Maelstrom and Eternal War. Forgeworld was limited to 1 unit at max 150 points.

 

My list

Warlord           Thorkild Thunderarm; Wolf Lord; Thunderwolf Mount, Runic armour, Storm shield, Digital Weapons, Axe of Black Death, Fenrisian Wolf

Little Ragnar; Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Thunderwolf mount, runic armour, storm shield, Thunderhammer                                                                 

Hakon’s Raiders; 5 space wolf scouts; bolt pistol, close combat weapon,                          

Sven’s Hunters; 9 grey hunters, 2 melta guns, 1 wolf guard pack leader with combi melta, drop pod,                                                                             

Bjorn’s Hunters; 10 grey hunters, 2 plasma guns, rhino       

Gunnar’s Claws; 5 bloodclaws, bolt pistol and close combat weapons, Stormwolf with twin linked lascannon, twin linked helfrost, 2 twin linked multi meltas,                                

Raven’s Flight; 2 landspeeder Typhoons,                

Thengrir’s Vikings; 5 Thunderwolf cavalry, 2 powerfists, 3 stormshields, 3 melta bombs, 

 

 

Game 1. Purge the Alien & Contact Lost

Deployment Dawn of War

Opponent Ben, Chaos Daemons

Deploy first and go first space wolves

Ben’s list

Great Unclean one, (Warlord)

Herald of Nurgle

Herald of Tzentcth

10 Flesh hounds

3 Bloodcrushers

20 Plaguebearers

Pink Horrors

6 Plague drones

 

 5 reasons why space wolves will win

1.      I have a lot more firepower so can start dealing damage turn 1 and before he can power up his units

2.      My thunderwolves and characters can take any of his units 1 on 1

3.      I have good speed with infiltrating, deep striking, Typhoons and Thunderwolves

4.      He had no anti air

5.      Strength 10 thunderwolves can double out his multi wound models

 

5 reasons why daemons will win

1.      Kill points mission and he had less units and less squishy units than me

2.      I had no psychic defence

3.      His big fast units could easily get board control meaning he could wrack up maelstrom points

4.      If he can kill my thunderwolves then the rest of my army will struggle to deal with his units

 

5.      In my last two games against daemons I got absolutely battered

Turn 1.

Melta hunters came in on objective marker 1 but scattered 6 inches so only just managed to get within 3 inches to grab it from the flesh hounds using objective secured rule. I then remembered to pick my maelstrom card and got objective marker 1, good start. The melta guns could double out some flesh hounds and they couldn’t charge due to having charged and I was hopefully far enough away to avoid a long charge from the blood crushers. Typhoons moved over to lend their firepower; rhino moved 12 inches to grab an objective marker in the centre and to tempt the Bloodcrushers into a charge so I could counter charge from the Thunderwolves. Thunderwolves moved forward slightly grabbing an objective and taking dangerous terrain checks. All passed apart from my battle leader who then failed his armour save starting a trend which would continue all game. Shooting from both hunter squads and typhoons killed 9 out of 10 flesh hounds. Not quite first blood. I then got my maelstrom point. 

Daemon turn 1.

Flesh hound moved back to sit with the Bloodcrushers who moved forward slightly. I was expecting him to charge the rhino to take me off the objective and get first blood here. Ben’s maelstrom card was grab objective marker 3 which was by the plague drones but they moved up instead intending to sweep round my left flank which was now defended by 6 bloodclaws only. Psychic phase saw a lot of dice thrown for summoning 10 Plaguebearers and then sacrifice for a herald. Warp storm did nothing. He elected not to charge the rhino as he would leave himself vulnerable to a counter charge. No maelstrom points gained nor damage caused.

 

Turn 2.

Both the scouts and Stormwolf arrived, I rerolled to try and keep the scouts off the table but they wanted to join the party. They outflanked straight onto objective 3. Even without that I had 4 objectives so gained 4 cards. That flesh hound was very tempting for first blood. Stormwolf flew forwards to target the bunched up recently summoned Plaguebearers as did the Typhoons. Thunderwolves moved up to charge the Bloodcrushers. Melta hunters stumbled 2 inches through the trees leaving them out of range of everything then ran an inch. Plasma hunters opened up on the flesh hound and did 6 wounds. Ben then made 6 saves of 6! To add insult to injury a plasma gunner overheated and died. Stormwolf and Typhoons killed off seven Plaguebearers, not bad but I had hoped to kill them all. So much for shooting; onto assault. Thunderwolves made a disordered charge against the three Bloodcrushers and Flesh hound, Battle leader again failed dangerous terrain test for a fence but made his 2+ save this time. Warlord challenged his champion for a maelstrom point. Combat was bloody with both khorne units wiped out due to wounds and daemonic instability for no wounds in return.  2 kill points and first blood and 3 maelstrom points. Thunderwolves then got tired and consolidated 1 inch. Right next to 20 Plaguebearers, Nurgle herald and GUO.

Daemon turn 2.

Plague drones moved up to assault the Typhoons, All the Plaguebearers, Herald and GUO readied themselves for the charge. Psychic phase saw several failed summoning roles and then cursed earth was dispelled. Warp storm then rolled the khorne result so burning blood rained down. He then rolled a 6 to hit my first four units of both hunter units, drop pod and rhino. Killing one plasma hunter and immobilising the rhino. It was still parked on an objective so I wasn’t too worried. He charged into the Thunderwolves with the Plague bearers and GUO, lots of poison and FnP could be nasty. I challenged with my warlord trying to avoid his bucket load of Ap 2 attacks on my Thunderwolf unit. My warlord took a wound but dealt 2 back. Plaguebearers killed 1 Thunderwolf only thanks to poor rolls and storm shields at the front. I then totally forgot about counter attack (which I continued to do all day) but still managed to kill 7 winning combat by a healthy margin and killing off another few with combat resolution. Plague drones rolled really poorly for charge range and only got into combat with one Typhoon and I survived after only taking one glancing hit. I could then move away due to not being locked in combat.  No maelstrom points or kill points.

 

Turn 3.

Both hunter units were out of range to target anything but decided to stay in their cover away from the plague drones. Scouts and bloodclaws lit camp fires on their objectives and drank some mead. Stormwolf hovered to target the plague drones, Typhoons targeted the remaining Nurgle herald and 3 Plaguebearers. I was still sitting on 4 objectives so I was pulling ahead in maelstrom at this point. Typhoon’s killed off the summoned herald and plague bearers for 2 more KP’s. Stormwolf then only did a single wound to the plague drones. I deliberately left the Typhoons next to the plague drones as I didn’t want them joining the combat with the Thunderwolves. The big combat continued losing one Thunderwolf in return for a few more Plaguebearers and 2 wounds on the GUO.

Daemon turn 3. Plague drones moved up to the Typhoon’s ready to charge again. Pink horrors prepared to fire on the bloodclaws opposite. Flickering fire killed a single blood claw. Plague drones charged in and did more than enough glancing hits to wreck both Typhoons.  I knocked down a few wounds in the combat leaving just the herald on two wounds and GUO on 1 wound. Annoying as I really needed to get out of that combat but the last Plaguebearers died.

 

Turn 4.  

I couldn’t do much this turn as both hunter units were out of position and were staying there to avoid the plague drones. Bloodclaws and scouts continued to camp on objectives as did the rhino. Melta hunters started to move up towards linebreaker in case he did anything about the scouts in his backfield but only moved 4 inches after a move through difficult terrain and a run. Stormwolf fired at the Plague drones again and did 1 more wound. Combat was finally won when the Thunderwolf powerfists and Thunderhammer smashed apart the herald and GUO. 2 more KP’s and slay the warlord I consolidated 6 inches towards the plague drones and pink horrors.  

Daemon turn 4.

Plague drones charged the Thunderwolves hoping their instant death venom stings would do some damage whilst the pink horrors fired at the Stormwolf which had gone into hover mode to grab an objective point. I jinked to avoid any damage. Plague drones did a couple of wounds 1 on the Battle leader in a challenge and killing another Thunderwolf. Return attacks did enough wounds to kill 4 outright and the remaining 2 wounded ones died to combat resolution. I then consolidated towards the pink horrors and herald who were the only daemons left on the tabletop.  I grabbed another handful of maelstrom points too.

 

Turn 5.

Thunderwolves moved up to charge the pink horrors whilst the storm wolf and scouts provided supporting fire, well they meant to but managed a combined 1 kill between them. Thunderwolves then lost 2 wounds on different models for charging through the ruin but the resultant combat so 15 horrors killed for no wounds in return and daemonic instability saw the rest of the banished back to the warp. Game over.

 

Final result was 10 1 in kill points. I also got all 3 secondary objectives and a big win on maelstrom too.

 

Post battle thoughts.

 

Wow! I knew Thunderwolf cavalry were hard but to go through almost an entire Daemon army? Altogether they killed off the Bloodcrushers, Great Unclean One, Nurgle herald, 20 Plaguebearers, 6 plague drones and 18 pink horrors and Herald. Good support came from the Typhoon’s whilst the rest of the army grabbed objectives and maelstrom points. Stormwolf was a bit disappointing, scouts would have done better with boltguns rather than bolt pistols and close combat weapons. 

Deployment.

I put the bloodclaws in a ruin with objective 4, Typhoons behind that ruin, plasma hunter squad on a big ruin on my right, Thunderwolves with both characters in a big ruin in the centre, rhino just outside the ruin on my right, scouts would outflank, Stormwolf in reserve, melta hunters in reserve. My warlord trait was to re roll reserves, very handy.

 

Ben deployed his Nurgle herald and GUO with the plaguebeares in the centre, Pink horrors and herald in a big ruin on his right, plague drones on the far right by objective marker 3 and Bloodcrushers and flesh hounds opposite the plasma hunters and rhino, flesh hounds then scouted up to objective marker 1 on his far left. Nothing in reserve.

 

Game 2 teasar 

 

Game 2.

Big Guns Never Tire & Tactical Escalation.

Deployment Hammer and Anvil

Opponent Ben, Sentinels of Terra

Deployment Wolves deploy first Sentinels of Terra go first. 

[Konnavaer]

Nice report brother, congratulations on your win, may you continue to bring the murdermake and glory to The Rout, Fenrys Hjolda !

[Chaplain Otho]

Game 2.

Big Guns Never Tire & Tactical Escalation.

Deployment Hammer and Anvil

Opponent Ben, Sentinels of Terra

Deployment Wolves deploy first Sentinels of Terra go first.

Ben’s list

Librarian level 1

4 Grav Centurion’s with sergeant with lascannon and missiles (elites choice due to Sentinels of Terra)

10 man Tactical squad in drop pod with combi melta and melta gun

10 scouts with bolters in landspeeder storm

3 bikes 2 grav guns combi grav

2 multimelta attack bikes

Whirlwind skopios

Thunderfire cannon

5 devastators with 4 lascannons

Bunker with escape hatch and quad gun

Coteaz with 3 servo skulls

 

5 reasons why Sentinels of Terra will win.

1.      Ben is a very good player and won the last tournament I attended winning all 4 games

2.      Coteaz and the equipment on his landspeeder storm will make it very risky for me to drop pod in close

3.      Ben has a lot of long range high strength firepower

4.      There is not a lot of line of sight blocking terrain, just a few pieces of rock

5.      Grav centurions will rip through my Thunderwolves very quickly

5 reasons why wolves will win

1.      I’m going 2^nd in an objective mission

2.      I have more manouvrability

3.      I have a flyer and he doesn’t

4.      Ben has three heavy support choices which are worth an extra vp each

5.      I’m sure I could win the close combats when I get there

 

Deployment. Objectives were placed 1 in each corner and 2 in no mans land pretty centrally. I deploy the rhino as far forward as possible but hidden behind a big set of rocks as much as possible, and the Typhoons a couple of inches back and getting a 4+ cover save from a hill. Bloodclaws hide out of line of sight on an objective in my back corner. Thunderwolves put storm shields at the front and hang out in some woods to the right of my rhino. Both characters attach themselves to the squad one on either side. Everything else goes into reserve. 

Ben then bolsters the ruin in his deployment zone with the techmarine and puts the thunderfire cannon in it on the objective. Bunker, landspeeder storm, whirlwind devastators and centurion star with attached characters go at the back on his far right on top of an objective. Grav bikes go further forward in the middle but hidden behind a hill. Servo skulls are deployed across the front of my deployment zone. His scouts combat squad and one unit infiltrates in my back corner whilst his other ones outflank.

I decide to let Ben have first turn as I doubt I can get into combat to do enough damage so my plan is to wait it out and then make a late grab for the objectives. My warlord trait was reroll reserves again and Ben got night fighting but his units get night vision. Brilliant, I couldn’t see his bright yellow marines cos it’s dark but he can see my dark grey wolves fine.

 

Turn 1.

Sentinels of Terra

Drop pod comes in by the rhino and scatters 6 inches backward. Ben then combat squads with a melta gun in each squad so he can choose to shoot the bloodclaws or the rhino. Whirlwind then fires at the rhino and only scatters 1D6 due to the servo skull. Rhino takes 1 hp and is immobilised. Irritating but could have been worse. Devastators and quad gun then fire on the Typhoons, due to good bs and having tank hunters both Typhoons are shot down despite a 4+ cover save. First blood. Ben then shoots dead five bloodclaws and the last one runs off the table. His infiltrating scouts move up onto an objective. Ben also grabs his maelstrom card.

My turn 1.

Whilst I kind of expected to give up first blood losing two units and the rhino being immobilised was a serious blow. Fortunately there were 4 fairly squishy units hanging around my backfield, 5 scouts, two tactical combat squads and a drop pod, if I could destroy these I could remove most of his troops. My maelstrom card was issue a challenge. Should be easy enough. First things first, the drop pod with melta hunters had to come down. Whilst I could play safe and go in my own deployment zone I wanted to put some pressure on his backfield. In the end I dropped on the objective by the Techmarine in the bolstered ruins but also close enough to shoot his bikes or Thunderfire cannon. I then scattered 6 inches away. The intercepting quad gun then hit, penetrated and exploded the drop pod, blast radius 6 inches, nine grey hunters wounded 4 dead! If this carried on I’d be dead in an hour. Plasma hunters disembarked to shoot at the nearest tactical combat squad with the sergeant. Rapid fire saw them all wiped out but also meant I couldn’t get my maelstrom point. Thunderwolves and Battle Leader moved up to assault the drop pod and remaining tactical squad. Thunderwolf Lord broke off to deal with the scouts.  Melta hunters then killed a grav biker and caused the other two to jink. Combat went well with the drop pod dispatched and 1 tactical marine surviving so I couldn’t be shot. Thunderwolf lord did eight wounds then rolled 4 ones, meaning one scout survived, he then escaped pursuit to run away. Grrr. No maelstrom points.

 

SoT turn 2.

Melta bikers turned up. Grav Centurions moved up. Scout rallied and moved back onto the objective which he had just drawn from the maelstrom deck. Grav bikes moved up to shoot the grey hunters. Shooting saw all but one melta hunters die and a couple of plasma hunters.  The scout then shot dead the Thunderwolf’s lupine companion, that scout really did have a deathwish. This turn was a lot less painful then last turn mainly because I was out of range or line of sight. Thunderwolves killed off the last tactical marine and consolidated forwards. 

Wolves turn 2.

My scouts arrived and came on behind his scout ready to bolt pistol him. I considered going in his back corner and trying to take out the whirlwind or landspeeder storm but decided against it as I wasn’t confident in the power of five bolt pistols. Plasma hunters moved up towards the cover of the big rocks in the centre. Melta hunter moved towards the Thunderfire cannon then fired and failed to hurt the melta bikes. Thunderwolf lord charged in and killed the scout several times over. Take that you little B*****d. I was feeling a bit better now as I had killed off a couple of units and cleared my backfield, if I could kill off the bikes and landspeeder storm I was confident I could hold my backfield objectives and push for the ones in the centre. I had given up on trying to grab the ones in his deployment zone.

 

SoT turn 3.

Ben’s scouts turned up and moved towards the centre objective. Melta bikes moved forwards to the centre line as did the grav bikes. Grav Centurions moved forwards too. Shooting killed off the last melta hunter and the plasma hunters were whittled down to 4. Ben grabbed a couple more maelstrom points here. He did have a couple of unlucky scatters with the whirlwind which should have done more damage.

 Wolves turn 3.

Stormwolf came on and moved up to shoot the grav bikers as 1, they were the easiest kill point, 2, not much else was in range, 3 I hate grav guns. Quad gun then did 1 hp, I elected not to jink then wished I had when I remembered it was twin linked and had tank hunter. Thunderwolf lord moved up to threaten the melta bikers. Thunderwolf cavalry positioned themselves behind the rocks and rhino to get as much out of line of sight as possible. Plasma hunters fired on the scouts but did no damage. Stormwolf killed off both grav bikers.

 

SoT turn 4.

Grav Centurions moved to shoot the Stormwolf. Scouts reached the centre objective putting Ben on 4 objectives with me on 1. Landspeeder storm moved forwards ready to make a dash for one of my backfield objectives next turn or go for linebreaker. Melta bikers retreated away from the Thunderwolf Lord. Stormwolf got shot down from 2 penetrating  hits despite jinking and plasma hunters were killed off. Ben grabbed a few more maelstrom points putting him well up and probably out of reach.

Wolves turn 4.

We only had time for one more turn after this. So I needed to plan carefully. Scouts had one objective, Battle leader could split off and grab another, Thunderwolf lord moved up to grab a third. The game would be decided on whether the Thunderwolf cavalry could survive enough shooting to assault the scouts on turn 5 and butcher them off the objective. I hid them as much out of line of sight as possible but there wasn’t much to hide behind.

 

SoT turn 5.

Melta bikes move up to contest the Thunderwolf Lord objective. Thunderfire cannon fired on the scouts but did no damage. Whirlwind killed of a Thunderwolf and Devastators killed a 2^nd. Landspeeder storm turboboosted onto an objective in my backfield. Grav Centurions then moved up and fired into the Thunderwolf cavalry killing them all off. Scouts sat on the centre objective. SoT 4 objectives 1 contested, Wolves 1. Hmmmm .

Wolves turn 5.

Ok game was lost now but pride could still be salvaged. Battle leader moved to assault the Landspeeder storm and Thunderwolf Lord moved to assault the melta bikers. Both units were destroyed giving me control of 2 more objectives.

 

End result.

SoT won 21 to 13 when objectives maelstroms and kill points were totalled up.

However, if the Thunderwolves had survived turn 5 and gone on to kill the scouts and grab the objective then the game would have been a draw. 6 point swing on objectives and 2 on kill points.

 

Post game thoughts.

Overall this was more of a chess match than a dice game with lots of clever positioning and baiting and avoiding threat ranges. Ben agreed that I made the right tactical choice to go 2^nd and try and win on objectives. His view was that I was too bold with my drop pod. I decided to be aggressive with it to try and focus him on his backfield. Also I did get quite unlucky with maelstrom cards and the drop pod blowing up. I was pleased with how I played despite my early setbacks. I think I would have been better deploying the Typhoons further back but as Ben deployed 2^nd he could have deployed further forward to put them in range. I also should have gone round his side of the table more to better position my units out of line of sight. Scouts completed their 2^nd successive game of sitting on objectives and not killing a single enemy. 

[wulfgar hammerfist]

Great reports and nice analysis of your games. I am enjoying the read.

[jay170788]

You do know that since 7th edition landed the best a quad gun can do is wreck a drop pod through hull point depletion? You need a 7 on the. Shucks damage table to blow up a vehicle and a quad gun has no AP so all he can do is imobilise it.

 

Hope that didn't affect the outcome of your game too much.

 

Jay

[Chaplain Otho]

Thanks Wulfgar. I'll try and post the third game this week.

 

Jay you're right the quad gun isn't ap 1 or 2 but the drop pod is open topped so you get +1 to the damage roll so can blow up on a six. M opponent rolled a six to hit followed by a six to penetrate followed by a six to blow it up.

[TheLastHuzzah]

Good reports! Came across this as I just used an Inquisitorial detachment in a game over the weekend.

 

How did Coteaz get servo skulls? They aren't upgrade options for him.

 

Did he have a 25 pt Xenos Inquisitor around?

[Chaplain Otho]

Good reports! Came across this as I just used an Inquisitorial detachment in a game over the weekend.

 

How did Coteaz get servo skulls? They aren't upgrade options for him.

 

Did he have a 25 pt Xenos Inquisitor around?

 

He could have done, I didn't get a copy of hi list so I wrote his list from memory. When he went through his list I only listened to the really scary stuff i.e. grav cents, devastator squad, coteaz, thunderfire cannon, grav bikes so probably missed a few details. Inquisitor coudl have been in with the grav cents, coteaz and librarian, 

[Chaplain Otho]

Game 3.

Mission Scouring & Opponent

Opponent Nick Tyranids

Deployment Vanguard strike

Deploy first and go first, Space Wolves.

Night fighting Yes

Nick’s list

Tyranid Prime

3 Hive Guard

Venomthrope

Zoanthrope

3 rippers deep striking

3 rippers deep striking

20 hormagaunts

20 hormagaunts

30 Termagants 15 devourers 15 fleshborers

30 Termagants 15 devourers, 15 fleshborers

20 Gargoyles

Harpy

Biovore

2 Carnifexes with 2 sets of twin linked devourers

The Highlander rules allowed duplicates of troops choices. 

We both got the same warlord trait on the tactical table of rerolling the D3 to see how many maelstrom points were gained.

5 reasons why nids will win

1.      Lots of objective secured, over 100 troop models and 6 troop choice

2.      My army had a real lack of blast and template weapons 5 small blasts in total.

3.      His hive guard with ignore cover and ignore line of sight were a real threat to my light vehicles and my scouts which I wanted to use to advance and grab objectives. 

4.      The Carnifexes had enough shots and high strength attacks to be a serious threat to my Thunderwolves

5.      If he could tie up my thunderwolves will a couple of his big squads the rest of my force was in serious trouble.

5 reasons why space wolves will win.

1.      Nick had a lack of synapse and low leadership across the rest of his army. If I could kill of the synapse his instinctive behaviour roles were in my favour.

2.      My other army is nids so I knew a lot about what his army did.

3.      Thunderwolves on the charge would put a real dent in just about everything.

4.      Fast attacks units are worth extra VPs and a harpy and 20 gargoyles were more squishy then 2 Typhoons and 5 Thunderwolf cavalry.

5.      Outside of his Carnifexes and hive guard he had very little that could deal with my objective secured vehicles.

Deployment.

I won the roll to deploy first and took the corner with most cover to deny it to his venomthrope. Blood claws and plasma hunters in rhino sat on two objectives whilst scouts infiltrated to a third just outside my deployment zone on my right. Typhoons went behind a hill and Thunderwovles with attached characters went front and centre.

Nick then filled his deployment zone with nids (literally). Venomthrope went in a wood with the Carnifexes and Biovores and harpy giving all units a 2+ cover save due to nightfighting and other buffs. Zoanthrope went on my far right with a termagant squad. Prime went on the centre left with another squad of termagants. Gargoyles screened across the front and the hormagants went either side of the venomthrope bubble.

Turning over the scouring objectives meant I was sitting on 1, 2 and 3 whilst Nick had the 4 in his deployment zone and the 2 and 3 just outside. I was already 9 to 6 down so I needed to get into his deployment zone.

Turn 1.

Normally I would go second in objectives missions but with the maelstrom giving 6 cards turn 1 then going down this was a good chance to grab some easy maelstrom points and hopefully first blood. My basic plan was to hold my objectives surrender the 2 and 3 point objectives to him and then contest the 4 point objective with one of my vehicles. I gave up on slay the warlord due to him being in a 30 strong bodyguard. I got a good set of maelstrom cards then dropped the melta hunters on the far right to try and draw him away and fire into the gargoyles. Typhoons moved up to target the venomthrope with their krak missiles. Thunderwolves shuffled forwards slightly. I made a mistake here and targeted the venomthrope with a 2+ cover save when I should have gone for the synapse of the zoanthrope on the far right which only had a 3+ invul save. Shooting killed off 8 gargoyles and put a wound on the venomthrope from a heavy bolter. I got 4 maelstrom points but the melta hunters now looked very vulnerable.

Nids turn 1.

His whole army moved up with the Harpy flying and the Hormagaunts running. Psychic phase saw a warp lance blast knock a hull point of the drop pod. Termagants then opened up on the melta hunters lots of shots plus poor armour saves saw 9 killed, ouch!  His prime and termagants grabbed one objective and the Hormagants grabbed the other two. I fully expected his termagants to charge my final hunter for first blood but he didn’t for some reason. He also grabbed a couple of maelstrom points.

Turn 2.

Stormwolf failed to arrive. Thunderwolf and characters advanced to mash up his gargoyles Plasma hunters moved up to fire on the gargoyles too. Typhoons moved back slightly whilst the last melta hunter moved further right to try and draw away the termagants. Shooting finished of the venomthrope for first blood and then I killed a couple of termagants and a couple of gargoyles. Thunderwolves then smashed apart the remaining 10 gargoyles for no wounds suffered but only consolidated back an inch leaving me right in front of most of his army. Hmmmm I grabbed a couple of maelstrom points and with first blood and a fast attack point I was racking up an early lead.

Nids turn 2.

A unit of rippers arrived from reserve, deep struck on top of the bloodclaws misshaped and went into ongoing reserves. The other unit landed by the plasma hunters. Harpy and Biovores both moved to shoot the scouts with large blast ap 4 weapons. Termagants advanced on the melta hunter.  Everything else advanced on the Thunderwolves. Shooting killed off three scouts but they held morale. Termagants killed the last hunter and warp blast missed this time. Carnifexes fired 24 str 6 twin linked shots at my Thunderwolves, with twin linking all 24 hit! He then did about 15 wounds. I had my wolf lord and battle leader at the front of the unit with their 2+ saves to tank wounds. I then took 2 wounds on the lord and then started looking out sir to the battle leader. A really poor run of ones saw the lord and battle leader both on 1 wound. Carnifexes and 40 Hormagants then charged.  Only ten Hormagants got into combat and both Carnifexes did too but they then wiffed with their hammer of wrath wounds. Phew. As he charged through cover I got to attack first with some models. Again I forgot about counter attack but managed to kill off several Hormagants. His return attacks saw me lose a couple of wounds here and there which I took on the storm shield guys. Carnifexes killed my warlord but failed to do much against my stormshields and then my powerfists smashed both MC’s apart. I won combat by quite a way and one unit of Hormagants ran away due to being outside of synapse. I consolidated against the remaining hormagants. I got maybe one maelstrom card and my opponent grabbed slay the warlord.

Turn 3.

I took stock. My main unit was damaged and most of his troops were still alive and sitting on objectives. I hadn’t done much damage either so I needed to start killing stuff and moving onto his objectives. The stormwolf arrived from reserve and moved to shoot both the venomthrope and either the Biovore or hive guard. Typhoons moved up to target the hive guard or Biovore too. Plasma hunters turned to shoot the rippers and the scouts moved back out of sight of the termagants. Shooting phase went really well. Stormwolf killed off the Zoanthope with a twin linked lascannon shot then fired its helfrost at the Biovore and killed it with the helfrost special rule. Typhoons killed off the hive guard. Plasma hunters killed all three rippers bases. 4 units down in one shooting phase, nice. Thunderwolves then killed off all the remaining Hormagants and consolidated towards his termagants on my right.  

Nids turn 3.

Other squad of rippers arrived and deep struck by the blood claws. Hormagants failed their synapse test and started to attack each other with the result that 1 died. Everything else passed instinctive behaviour tests. Harpy dropped down to jump mode and failed to do any damage to the plasma hunters. Termagants killed off another Thunderwolf. Nick grabbed a few more maelstrom points here too.

Turn 4. Blood claws moved atop the hill to shoot and then assault the rippers. Thunderwolves advanced on the Termagants on my right which were furthest from synapse. Stormwolf, Typhoons and plasma hunters turned to fire on his harpy now that it was on the ground, Stormwolf went into hover mode as it did so as there was only the harpy that could hurt it.  Blood claws did 1 wound on the rippers. Shooting went badly with the madly jinking harpy surviving on 1 wound. The Typhoons did no wounds between 4 krak missile shots and 6 heavy bolters shots.  Thunderwolves then did what they had done all day and charged in and slaughtered 12 Termagants for no wounds in return then ran them down. Bloodclaws failed their 3 inch charge.

Nids turn 4.

Rippers failed instinctive behaviour and took another wound from eating themselves. With only a few units left Nick’s options were limited. Termagants and prime moved to cover two objectives in anticipation of the prime splitting off next turn. Hormagants moved on to the 4 point objective, 14 of them left. Harpy tried to charge the plasma hunters but two plasma wounds from overwatch killed it off, phew.

Turn 5. This would be the final turn due to time so I made my final moves in the quest for victory. 

Typhoons moved up to shoot the Hormagants, Thunderwolves moved up to charge what was left. Bloodclaws moved down the hill giving them a 1.5 inch charge to the rippers. Plasma hunters hung around on their objectives doing nothing. Stormwolf moved to reinforce the scouts on their objective as there were only 2 scouts left and there were two floating spore mines drifting nearby.  Bloodclaws did another wound killing off a ripper base. Typhoons then killed off six Hormagants.  Thunderwolves then charged in, well they tried, to, they needed to make a 6 inch charge, but rolled a 2 and a 3. I used the reroll from fleet to re roll both and came up with a 3 and a 2. (Insert ancient Fenrisian curse of your choice here). Bloodclaws charged the rippers and killed them off then consolidated 6 inches back onto the objective.

Nids turn 5.

Hormagants consolidated onto the 4 point objective. Termagants and prime moved to grab the 3 point objective. He would have gone for the 3 and 2 point objectives by splitting off the prime but the prime was too far away to reach either. Game over.

Final result.

Wolves 6 points for objectives, 7 for maelstrom, first blood, 2 fast attacks points, 10 kill points

Nids, 7 points for objectives, 7 for maelstrom, slay the warlord, 2 kill points.

Wolves win 16 to 15.

 

Post game thoughts. 

Wow what a bloodbath, I killed almost a hundred models in Nicks army over 5 turns. I did make several mistakes during the game by not using my objective secured vehicles to go for objectives. I should not have fired the Typhoons into the Hormagants as I killed enough to fail an almost certain charge. I also should have had better target priority at the start of the game. In some ways I was reckless by charging in my Thunderwolves so early but I wanted to get them stuck in and draw in his objective secured troops away from the objectives into a meat grinder combat. Nick’s army did give me a lot of problems but once I killed off his heavy hitters I could concentrate on his troops.  

[SonOfThunder]

Nice reps, pity on the game against marines :( The one against nids looked good however, I killed about a 100 gants a couple of weekends ago with TWC and murderfang, and it does feel wicked!

 

There was something in the second game I didn't understand. You needed to issue a challenge to get a maelstrom point, but you couldn't because you killed off the squad that had a sergeant...but then your warlord assaulted a scout squad the same turn. Scouts do have a sergeant, don't they?

[Chaplain Otho]

SonofThunder despite the result the game against Sentinels of Terra was really good fun, very challenging mentally, the Nids game was jsut throwing dice at each other, was good fun killing so many models though, 

 

the scout squad charged by the lord in turn 1 was a combat squad without a sergeant, he threw them in the corner to provide a distraction and to try and split my forces, the sargeant was with the other scouts who outflanked on turn 3. 

[SonOfThunder]

gotcha!

[Chaplain Otho]

Final result and post event list review.

The event was won by Ben with his Sentinels of Terra who won all three games. A blood angels army was second as it also won 3 games.

Dark angels third

Then me 4^th, but only by 3 kill points. My best ever tournament result! And in my first event with Wolves too.  

A couple of other interesting facts,

A fellow space wolf player tabled his grey knight opponent in 15 minutes. He used the Helm of Durfast on a model with the massive plasma gun fortification, blew apart a terminator squad and with a deep strike mishap on turn 1 meant the grey knight player was tabled. Ouch

One of the players turned up then realised he had forgotten his army.

 

List review

Thunderwolf Lord. A.  Taking out a GUO in a challenge, good work sir. He did a lot in close combat and was fairly resilient as long as I don’t roll many one’s. Don’t think he took any wounds in my first two games.

Battle Leader.  B+. Good supporting character with his Thunderhammer did a fair few wounds. Not sure whether a Biomancy rune priest on bike or Iron priest on Thunderwolf would be more effective though. 

Scouts A. Only killed 2 Termagants all game but for 70 points they did a good job of grabbing maelstrom points and objectives.

Melta hunters. B. Gave my troops more mobility but didn’t dish out much punishment. But there was a lack of heavy armour for them to take on.

Plasma hunters. B. Camped on objectives mostly but again damage output was limited. Would points be better spent elsewhere?

Blood claws. A. Spent most of each game except game two grabbing objectives and maelstrom points without killing much. Not bad for 60 points.

Stormwolf. B. Didn’t kill much all day but was a tough nut to crack too. Having a fast durable objective secured vehicle did give me a lot of options though.

Land Speeder Typhoons. A. Lots of mobile firepower with a long range and a fast unit to grab objectives. Not great against tank hunting lascannons though.

Thunderwolf Cavalry. A+. Stars of the day whatever they charged they killed massively. I totally forgot about the melta bombs not that it mattered. 

I’m considering trading out the plasma hunters for a second six man blood claw unit and a relic sicarian as I think the troop choice to sit in the backfield would be useful and some more long range firepower would be very handy.