First travel tournament tomorrow

[TiguriusX]

Driving to a new location to attend a tournament tomorrow. Will be my first "travel" tournament (1 hour drive 1-way).

ITC 2k points

(Space Wolves) ++ Total: [109 PL, 2000pts] 6 CP ++

++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Imperium - Space Wolves) [57 PL, 1095pts] ++
+ HQ +
-Bjorn the Fell-handed: [14 PL, 242pts] Heavy flamer, Helfrost cannon, Trueclaw
-Njal Stormcaller in Runic Terminator Armour: [9 PL, 153pts] 1. Storm Caller, 2. Tempest's Wrath, 3. Jaws of the World Wolf, Bolt pistol, Nightwing, Psychic hood, Runic Terminator armour, Staff of the Stormcaller
+ Heavy Support +
Long Fangs [10 PL, 203pts]
.4x Long Fang: Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Lascannon
. Long Fang Pack Leader: Chainsword, Frag & Krak grenades
. . Boltgun and Bolt Pistol: Bolt pistol, Boltgun
. Wolf Guard Pack Leader in Terminator Armour: Storm bolter, Storm shield
2xRapier Carrier [4 PL, 85pts] + [4 PL, 85pts]
. Rapier Carrier: Quad launcher
. 2x Space Marine Gunner: 2x Bolt pistol, 2x Frag grenade, 2x Krak grenade
Relic Leviathan Dreadnought [16 PL, 327pts]: 2x Heavy flamer, 3x Hunter-killer missile, 2xStorm cannon array
++ Vanguard Detachment (Imperium - Officio Assassinorum) [14 PL, 240pts] ++
+ Elites +
2xCulexus Assassin [5 PL, 85pts] + [5 PL, 85pts]: Animus Speculum, Psyk-out Grenades
Eversor Assassin [4 PL, 70pts]: Executioner Pistol, Melta bombs, Neuro-gauntlet, Power Sword
++ Vanguard Detachment +1CP (Imperium - Space Wolves) [38 PL, 665pts] ++
+ HQ +
Iron Priest on Bike [6 PL, 100pts]: Boltgun, Frag & Krak grenades, Servo-arm, Thunder hammer
. Bike: Twin boltgun
+ Elites +
2xVenerable Dreadnought [8 PL, 160pts + [8 PL, 160pts
. Fenrisian Great Axe and Blizzard Shield: Blizzard shield, Fenrisian great axe
Wolf Guard on Bikes [14 PL, 215pts]
.4x Wolf Guard on Bike: Frag & Krak grenades, Storm bolter, Storm shield
. . Bike: Twin boltgun
. Wolf Guard on Bike Pack Leader: Bolt Pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Power axe, Storm bolter
. . Bike: Twin boltgun
+ Fast Attack +
2xCyberwolves [1 PL, 15pts] + [1 PL, 15pts]
. Cyberwolf: Teeth and claws

I hear there is a ton of knight spam going on right now. Hope my shield dreads are up to the task.

Will update tomorrow or Sun with batreps!

Until then....Space Wolves assemble!!

You have a lot of repairs waiting for you Iron Priest Biker...good hunting tomorrow

[Melete]

Good luck! Looks like quite an elite list.

[Konnavaer]

Good hunting brother, may your enemies sleep on the red snow come days end 

[TiguriusX]

Game 1 v UM

First time I ever played Bobby G

ITC mission 2

Hammer and Anvil Deployment (this sucked for me)

Objective in middle building inside of ruins

Objective inside another ruin in his DZ (left side from my perspective)

Objective in the open in my DZ (left side from my perspective)

Secondary-mine

Old School

Recon

HH

Seconary-his

Old school

HH

BGH

Deployment

He used his scouts and put them in the middle ruins with objectives as well as his DZ ruin with objectives

His rhino is empty

He puts his jump guys and captain in reserve

My deployment is fairly standard but for 1 item. I also put my LF-LC squad in outflank. He doesn't have much armor and I figured I would need them on the other side of the board and have nothing else that I could move that far that fast

I win the roll off and defer to go 2nd (MAJOR MISTAKE)

I didn't view his list as a true gunline threat and thought I had time to get closer and could use 2nd turn to my tactical advantage later. I was wrong wrong wrong.

The list doesn't have a large amount of LC but it has stratagems that I failed to consider at all.

In the future I need to recognize the type of list and get first turn moving towards his gunline ASAP

Turn 1

He moves his empty rhino up and deep strikes his characters into his lines

He starts firing at my left dread with his basic DEV squad and my dice are ice cold

I fail a LC and ML 3++

I use a CP to save the LC but take 5 wounds from the ML and then a SB from the rhino adds to the insult

My leviathan then eats all the other firepower in his list

He uses hellfire and double fire due to cheribum and my leviathan eats 5 mortal wounds. I built my list around durability and invulnerable saves. I have nothing to stop mortal wounds like this and it hurts.

He then unloads with his hellblasters. The rerolling to hit/wound from RG makes this insane and I drop to 1 wound

RG finishes me off with his insane bolter

Not a good start for me....the leviathan was my best tool to remove those hellblasters

My half of the turn my left dread moves for repairs (rolled a 1) while the right dread goes into a kamikaze advance and pops smoke

Bjorn and my bikes break left to avoid the hellblaster shots

In the firing phase I start asking for clarification on ruins and immediately learned my list is horrible for ITC objectives and ruins

In my league people frequently fire flamers into buildings and clear out infantry even if they go in (makes sense to me because RL flamers do that). Nope...ITC specific rules are ruins completely block LOS so flamers can't fire in. I should have known that but fail on my part. To clear the scouts I need to go in after them with infantry (which I don't have much of).

Basically he was guaranteed that middle objective with no attack from me until my assassins show up. This gave him the hold more objectives point easily.

I panic respond to the scout problem by firing my rapier mortars into them and only kill 3/5. I then realize that was stupid. I could be killing his devastators (same exact armor saves being rolled)

Bjorn puts 3 wounds on the rhino

My turn 1 is pathetic and I am on the ropes

He is up 4-1 on basic scoring and is making headway on his secondaries

His units come down in my rear right corner. Another glaring hole in this list...no backfield response or board control. Contrast that with his line of intercessors basically blocking the entire backline while also firing 30" for support.

Varro (I'm not calling that guy Tigurius gdamn it) smites my shield dread for 2

Hellblasters unload again (1 dies from overcharging) and the dread is gone

Devastators finish off my weakened dread

Krak missile kills 1 biker

His vanguard vets delete the rapier, the 2 man crew and the wolf nearby

I have lost all my dreads (which are my key units) before I start turn 2. I am boned...

I decide to see what I can do on the left flank before I am tabled

LC come in for additional support and I unleash the assassins on the scouts in ruins

1 culexus finds a hole in his rear right board to threaten his devastators over there

Njal smites 5W off the devastator squad and wipes them out singlehandedly

My LC kill 2 hellblasters but they use the ancient banner fire and remove 4W from my eversor (ouch!)

The eversor gets into the ruins with scouts and kills all but the sgt (this sucks b/c I didn't capture his objective as a result)

The culexus in middle fails to make it into the middle ruins

Same with my culexus in his backfield

Bjorn rips the rhino to shreds and consolidates behind cover near the LF

We decide to leave the tops off the ruins at this point

He swings his line to respond to my forces and ignores the backfield culexus

His jump guys continue clearing my backfield

I stopped taking notes at this point because it was painful and things just get deleted

Think all my bikes ate the hellblasters this round

Njal steps up to smite Bobby G

Iron Priest drives past him aiming for Varro

Bjorn steps up among the LF to heroically intervene

Culexus in the middle enters the ruins to clear scouts

Culexus in his DZ gets within 18" of Varro to supercharge his gun

My last highlight is the iron priest smashing his hammer through Varro and killing him

It was shortlived as Bobby G heroically intervened and erased the IP shortly after

Bobby G eventually got the drop on Bjorn and put something like 20 wounds on him

I concede in turn 4

34-10 Space Wolves defeated

It was a good learning experience. My opponent is taking his list to the BAO and was fine tuning.

I need more infantry and I need better usage of ruins

My opponent would finish 2-1 and take 6th place overall

[TiguriusX]

Game 2 v Eldar/Harlequins

I have no list for this opponent. He didn't have one printed out and he didn't upload it to BCP

I think this is unfair because I can't really pick secondary missions.

Sure he can tell me his list but I don't have a photographic memory to remember and sift through everything he lists off

I don't know what wargear things have just by looking etc. (I don't know every codex option possible yet)

I think it should be mandatory to upload lists or have them printed before the tournament even begins

As for my opponent he was a nice guy and this is my old man gripe for the day

What did he have? A bunch of sneaky cheaty eldar crap

Like 5 psykers

15 rangers

Forgeworld flamer unit called shadow spectres (they have a natural -1 to hit and if he puts all his spells on them could be -4 to hit)

Guy on a bike that explodes when he dies and gets to come back to life

Multiple swooping hawk units

Scorpion

Dire avenger

3 units of 3-man dark reapers

And freaky ass harlequins who had a morale gun that dealt mortal wounds (more of that MW crap)

ITC Mission 4

Hammer & Anvil (gdamnit not again!)

Secondary (his)

Old school

KS-Bjorn

HH

Seconary (mine)

Old school

HH

Recon

They line up for a full frontal assault basically

Rangers are all in reserve

So are his strike scorpions

I deployed similarly but 1 MAJOR mistake

I did NOT put my culexus in front of the dread formation on the left. Left them vulnerable to smite.

I put 1 culexus in with the bikes when I remembered

Njal eversor and 1 culexus in reserve

He uses the ranger rule and puts them in prime sniper position on the roof. Once again I have no tools available to stop him. He is 9 inches up so I can't flame him even though I can see him

I win turn 1 but he seizes on me (noooooo!!!!!!!)

He advances forward (that battle focus is crap with all the other tricks and bonuses eldar get it is kind of ridiculous how many special rules just stack and stack and stack on them. I think eldar are my #1 cheese army I just hate on principle right now)

He smites 3 wounds off a shield dread (culexus or even a wolf deployment would have stopped that)

His other psyker powers are horrible and he fails a ton

-Mind shield

-Fog

-Veil

The only thing that goes off is Drain on a dread and doom on leviathan

He focuses fire on my LF squad and kills them all

Then he focuses fire on my leviathan

Reaper #1 puts 2 wounds on it

Reaper #2 puts 2 wounds on it

Shadow spectres unleash a TON of flamer shots on my dread and sneak 2 wounds through

He tries to charge my bikes with one of his harlequin characters

My bike overwatch puts 2 wounds on him (40 dice yay)

He fails the charge and doesn't want to do any more charging after that

Leviathan stands still and prepares to fire

Iron priest drives up for a quick repair (1)

Shield dreads move up and angle to the right....I am hesitant to charge spectres because of that fire overwatch. I plan to consolidate into them instead after wiping out the hawks

Bjorn and the bikes break right to avoid his super sniper HQ in the rear (Bjorn has no invulnerable and I don't want him getting dropped)

Njal drops in my DZ and so does my eversor. I have a 9 inch charge on his spectres (outside flame range) which would let my dreads plow in

My culexus kills 2 rangers with his powered up gun (within range of all his psykers)

My bikes delete an entire dire avenger squad from his back line even out of rapid fire range

Leviathan splits fire into all 3 dark reapers and flames the specres

-Flames kill 2 shadow specters

-10 storm cannons on reaper #1 kill them all

-10 storm cannons on reaper#2 kill 2

-3 hunter killer missiles on reaper#3 kill 2

I use my rapier mortars to finish off reaper #2

I do NOT fire at the hawks near bjorn and bikes or the hawks near dreads (need them for easy charge range)

Eversor makes it in so I multi charge my shield dreads into hawks and specters

Leviathan says why not and also runs in at specters

I wipe out the hawks near bjorn and bikes but absolutely fail in my goal of killing his specters

Eversor and all the dreads only kill 4 after the dust clears (real bad rolls and good saves for him)

His turn the specters fly away and leave my dreads in the dust. They go directly for my culexus and eventually put 17 flame wounds on it in the shooting phase to kill it

His harleqeuins and other HQs make a charge at njal and my IP

One dreads eats a smite but the culexus penalty helps stop other powers

Njal denies another smite on a dread but eats a 3W smite on himself after

Blue dread (he named it Captain america dread I thought it was funny) is doomed

Culexus is flamed as mentioned earlier

Eversor eats sniper fire but lives

Njal is also sniped to death with all the HQ shooting

In the fight phase he charges his bike guy at my rapier and his harlequins at the IP

The key item from this fight phase is I spend CP to interupt with my weak dread. He needs to kill the HQ because it wounds on a 2

He fails miserably (I think I rolled a ton of 1's and 2's and he saved the rest). He has some kind of special rule requiring my wound rolls to be -1 so harder to hurt

The dread dies in the return strike

In my turn I have the leviathan fall back to expose his HQs

Bjorn and the bikes turn around to help clean up instead of pushing onward (I think this was a mistake in hindsight and I should have kept pushing for his objective)

I drop my 2nd culexus to help deter psyker powers now that Njal and my 1st culexus are gone

Bikers with 40 dice rerolling 1s are enough to punch through his specter BS rules and wipe them out

My rapier kills his HQ on a bike with shatter shells but he HQ explodes and kills my units around him then revives. This was a mistake b/c it hurt the ITC mission (more units around objective).

At this point notes stop b/c we get 30 min warning (yes in turn 2....)

Culxus fails the 9 inch charge

Eversor puts 4/5 wounds on the HQ in assault (needed that 5th grrr)

Bikes and wolf charge in to help IP but fail

I can't drop his harlequins with their invulnerables

We are neck and neck in points but the final round seals it. He gets all his guys onto my objective and kills IP and eversor to max his HH

I try to recover but don't have enough units or points available

Final score is 16-12 after 3 turns

I made some major tactical mistakes and it cost me. I should have focused on chasing points as well

Space wolves lose and drop to 0-2

My opponent would finish 2-1 and take 7th place

We were literally the last game to finish so I am hurry packing to make it to next table but TO assigns me the same table and I relax a bit and wait for my final opponent

[TiguriusX]

Game 3 v. BA/IG

First off....I know blood angels thanks to my buddy so I'm prepared to face this list and basically feel the exact opposite as I did from game 2

ITC Scenario 6

Dawn of War deployment (THANK YOU!)

Secondary (his)

1K cuts

HH

KS-Bjorn

Seconary (mine)

Old school

Recon

HH

He has tons of IG mortar and weapon teams in the back

LRC on my right has squad inside

LRC on my left is empty

Forward deployed 2 scouts hoping for first turn

His terminators and terminator HQ are in reserve

I split my forces left (assault elements) and right (firebase)

The left flank is where we both put our priority objectives

Njal and all my assassins in reserve

I get turn 1 and he fails to seize (finally!!)

On the left flank my bikes shoot forward and dreads follow behind

Overjoyed at getting the first shot my LC squad takes aim at his LRC on the right and put 17 wounds on it...hell of a way to start the game

My bikes take aim at his rear weapon team with a LC in it and wipe it out

My leviathan deletes the nearby scout squad

In assault I charge dread and bjorn at the scouts

I intentionally did NOT fire at them because I intend to sling shot off them for extra movement (charge + pile in + consolidate is turbo boost for a 6" standard dread. I outran my 14" bikers as a result)

His turn he moves his jump guys and LRC towards my dread on the left flank

Meanwhile on the right his jump captain uses a stratagem to go flying up the board and will get a turn 1 charge on my rapier team

All his mortar fire kills my CW holding my left flank objective

One of my favorite pictures of the day

He surrounds my shield dread and Bjorn heroically intervenes

The veterans put 2 W on the dread then he pops honor the chapter and they fight again to put 4 more!

Bjorn scrapes 3 veterans off the shield dread in his turn

His HQ fails to put the final wound on the rapier (rolled a 6 for armor save!)

He also had many mortar fails on the cyberwolves earlier in shooting

The main point is that failure denies him 1K cuts secondary points

Turn 2 my bikes move up to shoot IG and charge the veterans

A culexus drops in the corner to help as well

My other culexus drops on my rear left objective to replace the dead wolf

The eversor drops in the back right corner to get recon and rip up an HQ and mortar team

Njal drops in to smite his HQ and get the right flank under control (pic was taken after assault phase)

I make a MAJOR mistake here and forget to get my rapier gun OUT of combat so I can fire at him

My leviathan would have deleted him easily....doh

Bikes rapid fire and delete the IG unit in front of them then charge into the vets behind them killing 2

Eversor kills the IG company commander HQ via a combination of pistol/charge then consolidates into the mortar

Bjorn and my dread kill 2 more of his vets (those 3++ are rolling well for him)

His BA character kills off my rapier gun

On his turn his 3 remaining veterans leave combat so he can fire at me

He also drops his 10 man terminators to hunt Bjorn

He was forced to drop the HQ near his objective though b/c my eversor was threatening to take it (similar to how I had to waste the culxeus shown here on my objective)

His jump HQ wants to delete the LCs threatening his LRC

LRC melta doesn't do anything

Other fire puts 3W total on bikes killing 1 only

My 2nd favorite picture of the day

He uses 3D stratagem on his terminators to charge in both bjorn and shield dread

*After game my BA friend told me this was illegal...only works on jump units

He can't reach shield with his initial charge but piles into him

We think this is legal and lets him swing at shield dread

A flurry of lightning claws with reroll hit/wound and the +1 BA charge trait mean he needs 5 to wound Bjorn

Bjorn takes 3 wounds and kills 2 terminators in return

My shield dread makes 5 saves and hangs on with 1W left

On the right flank his HQ kills the terminator and PL but nothing else

This actually leaves him EXPOSED and no longer in combat

He consolidates towards Njal (closest unit)

My bikes and assassin close in to the IG in the corner

On the right flank Njal flees combat leaving his HQ exposed

The leviathan deletes his HQ

Bike rapid fire kills 2 more vets leaving 1 alive

I stopped taking notes here but there was also some CP meta game going on

He used all of his up but had the battery recapturing if I used it

He got 1 CP from my shield dread rerolling a save to stay alive

In my shooting phase I used a CP for LC shot at his LRC (wound roll of 1 rerolled a 2 still failed)

That was a MAJOR mistake because it gave him enough to interrupt in combat and what happened as a result was HUGE

Bjorn goes first and kills all but the terminator sgt

He interrupts and kills my shield dread

My shield dread explodes (I was in shock and forgot to use a CP to stop it)

My explosion does 2 MW

That hurts Bjorn AND kills the terminator which leaves Bjorn exposed to the LRC with only 3W remaining

I have a weak and exposed Bjorn with a LRC in range to fire AND charge (to deal mortal wounds)

In the side event the bikes and assassin kill his warlord HQ and consolidate into mortar team

His mortar team flees combat exposing everyone to the LRC guns

He positions his LRC to back up over Bjorn (I was making BEEP BEEP BEEP sounds)

Bjorn survives the LRC charge and rips it to shreds in return

My bike squad survives with 1 guy having 1W left (I chose a guy with a SS to live)

On the OTHER flank my leviathan erases his IG units in sight

This leaves his terminator HQ as closest unit for the LFs

The lascannons drop him

At this point he concedes

36-14 SW Victory

My opponent finished 1-2 and placed 11th overall (his victory was against my Round 2 Eldar opponent)

[TiguriusX]

Final results and thoughts

 

I always ask people what worked and what didn't

How they would change things

 

 

I finished the day 1-2 and place 9th overall (12 people total I believe)

Not embarrassing wooden spoon level but definitely needs improvement

As melete mentioned early up my army is an elite list. Unfortunately it is TOO elite and I need more bodies and tools.  People with stratagems or units to dish out mortal wounds really screw me over. 

 

I still think shield dreads are definitely worth the points.  They are simply fire magnets and 1 or 2 turns to focus them down helps other units maneuver.  

 

Rapier quad were gimmicky and need to go IMO. They work well for my BA friend but not in mine.

If I decide to bring in other SM chapters I might turn one into a vanilla thunderfire cannon to access the stratagems but I haven't decided yet.  However I do see how I could hit things out of LOS with them if needed (if someone fills a ruin with bodies they are immune)

 

My leviathan was hit or miss.  I really missed it game 1.  It did nice work in games 2 and 3.  How do I keep it alive is a key question.  Do I double down and go 2?  Do I just play it more defensively and hide better?  Need to evaluate it
 

Bikes were good at deleting cheap stuff and moving around board but once they get focus fired they lose effectiveness quickly

 

I'm considering replacing the eversor with the callidus again.  People went bananas with stratagems on me AND she ignores invulnerable saves (looking at you eldar)

 

I'm also considering removing Bjorn to free up points for list tinkering but it is a hard choice.  

 

Part of me even wants a SW firebase with WGBL and tons of LFs but too many points and not enough to go around

 

 

As for big take aways...

 

Infantry to take advantage of ruins are a big deal and I need more ASAP

All the shooting in the world doesn't matter if you can't legally fire at something (gdamn scouts in buildings)

Knights can't shoot into ruins if infantry is in there

Flyers can't shoot into ruins if infantry is in there

My dreads can't shoot into ruins if infantry is in there

 

Basically ruins keep infantry alive and immune to some of the biggest threats in the game

In an ITC environment with objectives playing a big part that is a huge deal

 

I also saw how maneuvering plays a part and reivers that ignore vertical distance or jump pack units are going way up in priority

My Jump WG are definitely coming back in.  Probably with the combi flamer setup.  They can clear buildings or go in and deter others from coming in and assaulting if I place them right 

 

I probably need some combat oriented GHs or my outflanking plasma LFs as well (getting across the map for Hammer/Anvil sucked)

 

 

In the meantime back to painting ETL almost done!

[Wolf Guard Dan]

Thanks for the write-ups. Those are some tough meta-esque matchups for you: Bobby G, Eldar, and AM CP Battery. 

 

That second guy should have had printouts of his list. That's really bad form. I am surprised he was even allowed to play. Will be back in a moment to edit in some more thoughts...

 

Edit:

Being one of the last armies without stratagems we are playing with a handicap. That will be rectified soon.

 

Mortal wound protection is really important this edition. Smite and other psychic powers are brutal vs us. Fen Wolves are a great chaff unit to eat that. Or proper positioning of the Culexus assassins.

 

For the leviathan I think playing defensively with it is the trick. Or like you said get another big target out there. The deployment didn't help you either that the gunlines could focus on it first then go after your other dreads footslogging it.

 

Sad to hear that the quad mortars didn't work great for you. I have three lol

 

I'm glad bikes were good for you. I hope the codex keeps them good!

 

I like the Callidus. I am not sure if the increase baseline CP's make her more useful or less useful.

 

I would wait for the codex to do any major retooling. The newest codexes have all options being useful. So ever armies like Dark Eldar can play whatever units they like and not suck. Unless you like beast masters with beasts.

[NightHowler]

Thanks for the great batreps.  Easy to read and lots of food for thought there.  Sounds like you had some tough games in the first two battles.  Hammer and Anvil against a gun line is always hard for a non-gunline list.    

[TiguriusX]

Game 2 was my closest game and i have been replaying everything in my head.

 

i think game 2 might have swung my way if i kept pushing up the board instead of chasing him on turn 2.

 

my dreads on the left flank and bjorn plus bikes on the right could have cleared his backfield.

 

i would have taken his objective and started scoring recon. plus with all his big stuff on the my side of the field with no targets he probably cant kill more per turn