ITC Battle Report

[Jarl Deathwolf]

Hjolda, Vlka Fenryka! I participated in a small tournament a week ago. Reading Chaplain Otho's report has inspired me to write a report of my own. So apologies ahead of time if my recollection of the battle is not as strong as it could be. On the bright side, one of my opponents gave me a print out of his army list, and that battle was the best by far. 

 

There are supposed to be three matches, each at 1850 points, using the ITC ruleset. So there are two missions, one from Maelstrom of War, and one from Eternal War. Maelstrom of War objectives were determined by the roll of a d6, with the objectives being simplified to "kill unit", "take objective #1 or 2", "hold the line", or "break the line". There were a handful of bonus objectives that varied between the matches.

 

My friend and I ended up arriving late, so we missed the first match. 

 

The army I brought was drawn from Champions of Fenris, with a couple of formations in addition:

 

HQ: Jarl Deathwolf, with Thunderwolf Mount, Krakenbone Sword, Storm Shield and Runic Armor

 

Elites: 

 - Dreadnought Hel Thunderfang, who was Venerable, with a Fenrisian Great Axe, Blizzard Shield, smoke launchers, and arrived via Drop pod

 

 - Dreadnought Asmund the Ironbeard, with a Helfrost Cannon, Great Wolf Claw, and a Heavy Flamer

 

 - 5 Wolf Guard, all on bikes, with the Pack Leader having a meltabomb

 

Fast Attack

 - 4 Thunderwolves, each having a storm shield and the Pack Leader having a power fist

 

 - Landspeeder Skaol, with a Heavy Flamer and Multi Melta

 

Heavy Support

 - 6 Long Fangs, 4 with rocket launchers, 1 with a lascannon

 

Then I had three formations:

 

One that brought in Sir Falagar, a Knight Errant

 

Wolfkin Formation, with 15 Fenrisian wolves

 

Wyrdstorm Brotherhood

 - x2 Rune Priests

    - Alrik Truesight: Mastery level 2, meltabombs, Runic Armor, Runic Staff

    - Jurgen Windcaller: Mastery Level 2, Psychic Hood, Bike, melta bomb, Runic Sword

 

The idea was Alrik Truesight should generally be my Warlord so he could hide with the Long Fangs and not die. Sometimes, the Jarl was my warlord. Jurgen would either be attached to my bikers or my Fenrisian Wolves. The Jarl would either be attached to the Thunderwolves, or the Fenrisian Wolves, if Jurgen wasn't attached to them.

 

My first opponent was an "Ultramarine" Space Marine player who went for seemingly all the formations. He ended up with a Gladius detachment with 11 free drop pods, a Skyhammer anhillation force, a 10th Company formation, and a single Inquisitor who gave out servo skulls. In order to cram all those formations in, he had a force wherein the largest squad size was 5 Marines. It should be noted that his list was designed to fight the resident Renegade Knight player, who often had 3 Lords of War on the board. My hopes were not high for Old Falagar to survive to his first turn.

 

The game ended on Turn 3, even though it took up almost all of the allotted two and a half hours. Turns out a drop pod heavy list has the dubious honor of a very active first turn. My memory is a bit hazy, but I believe that all but 3 or 4 of the drop pods came in the first turn.

 

The enemy warlord (a Captain) dropped right next to my Knight, resplendent in Cataphractii TDA Thunderhammer and Storm Shield. He lead a group of Multi Melta devastators. Sir Falagar took 4 multi-meltas, 3 tactical marine meltas, 2 lascannons, 2 plasma cannons, a variety of krak grenades and missile launchers, and other shots, but stood firm with 1 HP left. Likewise with Asmund, whose Ironbeard left him with 1 HP and was shaken by the onslaught. Skaol, famed for his artful dodging, emerged unscathed. Also notable is that the plasma cannons both got hot and both killed their users. 

 

Then came my turn. My thunderwolves bolted past the enemy and made a dash for the relic, in the middle of the board, surrounded by enemies. Falagar charged the multi-meltas, realizing that only one of them could exist in the field, and died in overwatch. We realized a bit later that the Captain's Slow and Purposeful meant that the multi-meltas can't fire overwatch. When we went back to resolve the combat, the devastators were dead, but so too was Falagar, bested by the Captain's Hammer. Jurgen killed a tactical squad with lightning, and assaulted a second unit. I was beginning to reform my lines, but I still had 7 pods in my deployment zone, a few units besides, and two terminator HQs - the other being a Chaplain.

 

The next turn saw the remaining reserves come in. Assault squads bolstered the breach in my lines, and a Flamer tactical squad killed several of my Long Fangs. A rain of fire descended on my Cavalry, who walked unmoved through it. A ring of drop pods blocked off the route back into my deployment zone, trapping the Cavalry until the pods could be destroyed. The Captain killed Asmund. On my turn, my reserves came in. Fenrisian Wolves flooded the left flank, supporting Hel Thunderfang, who arrived next to the Cavalry. The Cavalry moved the relic close to my lines, but had to drop it to assault the drop pods.

 

What would be the last turn of the game saw my Fenrisian Wolves and Hel Thunderfang providing a rear guard for the Cavalry. Meanwhile, the Captain continued unharmed through my back lines until a Lightning storm brought him down to one wound. Supported with another Assault squad, he charged and bested Jurgen and his biker guard. At the end, he and the Chaplain were the only non-drop pods remaining in my deployment zone. We ended the game here, with the Maestrom mission ending in a draw, but I was still holding the relic. I ended up with my 11 versus his 5.

 

 

 

 

This match was intense for all the time we played it, due to turn 1 starting with most of his army in my deployment zone. He didn't do as much damage in the alpha strike as he hoped, but was still enough to keep my Knight was contributing much to the match. I think that the main reason I did well was because he was focused entirely on armor, and gambled on wiping out a larger amount of my army the first turn. 

[Kasper_Hawser]

Well done. I particularly applaud your decision to use Wolf guard on bikes though I don't see much of them in action beyond protecting your backlines. I winced though at the amount of firepower you had to endure from the moment the pods drop in. Glad your Twolves managed to make their armour and invuln saves.

[Jarl Deathwolf]

Well done. I particularly applaud your decision to use Wolf guard on bikes though I don't see much of them in action beyond protecting your backlines. I winced though at the amount of firepower you had to endure from the moment the pods drop in. Glad your Twolves managed to make their armour and invuln saves.

 

I favored the Wolf Guard over Swiftclaws here since their WS was 5 due to the CoF detachment. Plus, the extra attacks on the counter-attack was helpful, and the more precise fire meant between Lightning Storm and the twin-linked bolters I could do good damage to multiple targets. This served me well against the number of 5-man units.

 

Weirdly, he ignored the Cavalry the fire turn, and they ended the game undamaged, despite all subsequent turns enduring about 15 sniper rounds and some heavy weapons.

[Chaplain Otho]

Nice report and great result sounds like a tough list.