Space Wolves vs Drukhari 1000 point battle report

[Karhedron]

Continuing to enjoy my local club being open, I played another 1000 point Incursion against Ian's Drukhari. The mission as RECONNAISSANCE from the 2020 GT pack. This is a table quarters mission with an Objective in each quarter. My list was almost the same as against Dave's Necrons last week. My only change was to swap out the Plasma Cannon on the Redemptor for the HGC. I had the points to spare and I thought the weight of fire would probably be better against the fast but fragile Eldar.

Space Wolves: Patrol 6CPs

HQ
Primaris Wolf Lord with Power Fist and Plasma Pistol. Armour of Russ, Rites of War, Saga of the Wolfkin (-1CP)

Troops
5 Intercesors with Auto Bolt Rifles, AGC and Thunder Hammer
5 Heavy Intercessor with Hellstorm
5 Infiltrators with Helix Gauntlet

Elites
5 Bladeguard Veterans, Neo Volkite pistol on the sergeant
Redemptor Deadnought with Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Icarus missile pod and Fragstorm launchers

Heavy
3 Eradicators with melta rifles

Drukhari Patrol: 6CP

HQ
Archon with Huskblade and Shadowfield
Succubus

Troops
10 Warriors with Splinter Cannon and Blaster in Raider

Fast
5 Scourges with 2 Dark Lances
9 Reaver Jetbikes with 3 blasters

Heavy
Ravager with 3 Dark Lances

Elite
5 Incubi in Venom

Deployment was fairly cautious for both of us. I deployed my Intercessors to hold my home Objective while the Heavy Intercessors, Wolf Lord, Bladeguard and Redemptor deployed as close to the centre as possible, relying on the central ruins to keep me out of LOS for the most part. My Eradicators went in Reserve while the Infiltrators went into the closest empty table quarter to bag me a second Objective. I hoped this would put pressure on Ian and force him to split his attacks or give me a head start on Primaries from T2 onwards. For my secondaries I picked:

• Oath of Moment
• Bring it Down
• Engage on all fronts

Ian deployed with his army fully mounted up. The Succubus went in the Venom with the Incubi while the Archon went in the Raider with the Warriors. The Ravager he deployed out of LOS behind the central ruins but with a clear intention to get a shot on my Dreadnought as soon as possible. He Reserved both his Scourges and Reavers. For his Secondaries, he picked:

• While we stand, we fight (Ravager, Reavers and Incubi)
• Linebreaker
• Assassinate

I won the roll-off for first turn and opted to go first.

[Xenith]

Don't leave us hanging!

[Karhedron]

Don't leave us hanging!

Apologies.

Turn 1 Space Wolves

My Intercessors and Infiltrators held their Objectives while the rest of my forces moved forward. The Heavy Intercessors moved into the central ruins to hold the centre of the table accompanied by the Wolf Lord to try and spread his aura as widely as possible. The Bladeguard moved left into the cover of a small bunker while the Redemptor stomped around the ruins to right to get a line of sight into the Drukari's deployment zone.

Most of shooting was blocked by being either out of range or LOS but the Redemptor could see the Venom so I put "Keen Senses" on it to cancel out the Nightfield. I also popped Wisdom of the Ancients on the basis that there is no such thing as overkill. In this particular case it probably was slightly overkill but I blew the Venom out of the sky. To top it off, it exploded and killed 2 of the Incubi on board. The surviving incubi and the Succubus took cover in the ruins around their home Objective. The Heavy Intercessors targetted the Archon's Raider but failed to score any wounds. With nothing in melee range, it was Ian's turn.

Turn 1 Drukhari

Determined to avenge the Vemon, the Ravager shrieked over the ruins to bring its guns to bear on the Redemptor. The Raider with the Archon and Kabalites moved towards my left flank, heading for the same Objective as my Bladeguard.

The Ravager damaged the Redemptor with its Darklances but not enough to bracket it. On my left flank, the Raider and its occupants were less successful. Despite an impressive volley of fire, they only scored a single wound on the Bladeguard as they took cover in the bunker.

At the end of Turn 1, I was holding 2 Objectives to Ian's 1 and had scored on all 3 of my secondary Objectives. More importantly, I lured the Drukhari out of the ruins and survived their opening salvo with only minor damage. I felt pretty confident going into Turn 2.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Karhedron

[Karhedron]

Turn 2 Space Wolves

My Eradicators came in from my left flank near the Bladeguard taking the last unclaimed Objective and drawing a bead on the Archon's Raider. The Bladeguard and Wolf Lord also moved towards the Raider. The Redemptor stomped forward towards the Ravager. All my Troops units stayed put to hold their Objectives or the centre of the table.

In my shooting phase, the Redemptor fired on the Ravager and damaged it but failed to bracket it. The fragstorm launchers however and Heavy Intercessors rolled well and managed to kill 2 more Incubi, in spite of their heavy armour and the cover of the ruins. That left just the Klaivex and Succubus holding that Objective. The Eradicators brought their melta rifles to bear on the Raider, heavily damaging it. The Bladeguard added their pistols, knocking off another wound but still it remained airborne. Finally, the Wolf Lord fired a perfect shot from his plasma pistol, downing the Raider and spilling the Archon and Kabalites into the open. "You owe me a barrel of ale for that", he laughed to the Bladeguard as he holstered his pistol. "Now get them!"

The Bladeguard needed no further encouragement and charged into the Kabalites although they could not reach the Archon. In an impressive display of prowess, they slaughtered every single Kabalite and consolidated into the stunned Archon. The Redemptor was similarly effective, charging into the Ravager and finishing with its fist what it could not do with its guns. As the Redemptor ripped the Ravager out of the sky, things were looking difficult for the Drukhari.

Turn 2 Drukhari

With limited options, Ian brought on his reserves to plug the gaps opening in his line. The Scourges dropped in on the edge of my deployment zone to target the Intercessors holding the Objective. The Reavers came on in his DZ to hold his home Objective and target the Redemptor. In a most un-Drukhari-ish display of loyalty, the Klaivex and Succubus burst through the ruins to assist the beleaguered Archon.

In the shooting phase, the Reavers opened up on the Redemptor. Their blasters badly damaged it and left it teetering on the brink of destruction. The Scourges were less fortunate. A combination of poor shooting and good saves meant that they only scored 1 wound on the Intercessors.

In the combat phase, the Succubus and Klaivex both charged the Bladeguard and the Succubus attacked first but only managed to score a single wound. I then used the Counter-Offensive stratagem to allow the Bladeguard to attack as I didn't fancy the look of the Klaivex's armament. The Bladeguard cut down the Klaivex and scored a massive 11 wounds on the Archon. My smugness was short lived as Ian then proceeded to pass every single Shadowfield save. I was only slightly mollified when the Archon whiffed his Huskblade attacks in return.

At the end of Turn 2, I held 3 Objectives and was scoring on all my Secondaries. Victory seemed within my grasp as long as the Bladeguard held out longer than the Archon's Shadowfield.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Karhedron

[Karhedron]

Turn 3 Space Wolves

My Intercessors decided that the risk of the Scourges outweighed the importance of the Objective and moved the attack the flying interlopers. The badly damaged Redemptor stumbled on grinding servos to try and bring down the Reavers. The Wolf Lord moved towards the melee with the Archon and Succubus. The Eradicators moved to try and draw a bead on the Reavers while still maintaining control of their Objective.

In the shooting phase, the Intercessors gunned down 2 of the Scourages. The Redemptor tried to target the Reavers but Ian played Lightning Fast Reflexes meaning I needed 6s to hit. Despite the volume of fire, I only managed to bring down a single jetbike. The Eradicators managed to down another. The Bladeguard fired their pistols at the Archon. Again the Shadowfield deflected every single hit although the neovolkite pistol did managed to sneak a Mortal Wound past it.

In the melee phase, the Wolf Lord charged the Succubus but only managed get a single hit past her invulnerable save. In return the Succubus wounded the Wolf Lord leaving the 2 combatants eyeing each other warily, looking for an opening. The Bladeguard continued to rain blows on the Archon. Finally his Shadowfield collapsed and he was cut down. Despite spending a Command Point, the Redemptor failed its 8" charge against the Reavers, robbing it of a chance of a glorious death in combat. The Intercessors did better and charged the last 3 Scourges, wiping them out.

Turn 3 Drukhari

The Reavers shifted position slightly and contemptuously gunned down the Redemptor with precision blaster fire. In combat, the Wolf Lord crushed the Succubus.

With just his Reavers left on the field, Ian conceded and victory went to the Wolves.

[Commisar Necros]

Very solid. Nice showing by the wolves, GJ working the objectives

[Harald Fairmane]

hmmm been following your heavy intercessors - want to pick up a box but struggle to find a role - how do you like them this match compared to the last one?

 

Always fun to read old school battle reports with pictures :)  Good work, keep it up!

Edited May 26, 2021 by Harald Fairmane

[Karhedron]

hmmm been following your heavy intercessors - want to pick up a box but struggle to find a role - how do you like them this match compared to the last one?

I really like them. They did not come under heavy pressure this game but parking them on the centre of the table gave me 2VPs per turn from Oath of Moment and they contribute a generous amount of anti-infantry firepower.

 

In this game, regular Intercessors would have done the same job but the Drukhari were somewhat distracted by taking a Redemptor and squad of BGVs to the face. But they are seriously durable. A Ravager with triple Disintegrators would typically kill 4 Intercessors in a single volley (before rerolls). But the same volley would only kill 1 heavy Intercessor and wound another. That is some serious durability there. They also have access to THP if they get hit by something really heavy and "Unyielding in the Face of the Foe" if your enemy tries to inflict death by 1000 cuts. Pairing them with Infiltrators (who have their own tricks) and then throwing something aggressive at the enemy has been working well for me so far. I think they are definitely worth their points.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

@Harald Fairmane

I've used proxies to playtest heavy Intercessors, and I think their worth their points but you need to view them as a specialist unit. In the games where I ran a unit they felt great, but it seemed like I got diminishing returns the more I ran. Some of that comes down to my playstyle (I like actions and EOAF), but I think some of it was that once you committed to them as your troops you need to build the rest of the list around them. I think they're best at either guarding an objective in your deployment zone with the heavy option, or getting into the middle of the board and just being tough to budge.

[Wraithwing]

Really loving these battle reports. Really enjoyable to read!

[Karhedron]

I think they're best at either guarding an objective in your deployment zone with the heavy option, or getting into the middle of the board and just being tough to budge.

So far I am leaning towards using them as a midfield unit. Plonking them either on a midfield Objective or bang on the centre for Oath of Moment while your Elites and HQs crash into the enemy really gives your opponent a difficult choice.

 

Putting them on the backfield sometimes may just give your opponent an easy choice to ignore them when a cheaper unit would suffice. The more choices your force your opponents to make, the more likely they will make a mistake.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

Yeah but the heavy option has good range, and honestly if an opponent wants to just concede an objective to me I'll take it (there isn't a guarantee that with a cheaper unit they'd still just give up on it after all). I also have to admit when I've tried them its been with 2000 point games which have a different dynamic. There just is more space for deep strikers to work with, and more of them. I really like how incursion games work at the moment, because they seem to favor armies that rely on reserves less so it doesn't feel as point and click as bigger games can. I'm really hoping that the format takes off, I enjoy it a lot because the movement phases feel more important.

 

That said I'm far from expert and I don't plan on running them. I think they're good troops but they cost enough where I need to compare them to my more elite options. With my playstyle its tough because I like action based secondary objectives, and also tend to take warriors pride cause I don't want to take a secondary from the "codex". Even though I know from my own experience and Goonhammer's breakdowns that it is one of the best in the game lol.

 

 

[Karhedron]

I am also enjoying the Incursion games a lot but I do feel it is giving me a slightly distorted impression of the game. Elite units are especially powerful when it is hard for the enemy to bring enough firepower to bear on them. Similarly mobility is less important on a small table. My Wolves like operating "up close and personal" so I think the format favours them slightly. On a larger table, infantry and Dreadnoughts pulling off charges against fast skimmers would be harder to pull off.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

Yeah I think it's important to look at them as different games. Marines have such a good selection of troops that putting together a solid 1000 point list is easier. I think both crons and DE can be really strong, but I think their builds might be quite a bit different from what works at 2000 points.

[yan]

Nice to see that Drukhari can still be beaten. I'm playing a strike force game against them on Friday and I'm slightly nervous haha. any tips?

[Karhedron]

Nice to see that Drukhari can still be beaten. I'm playing a strike force game against them on Friday and I'm slightly nervous haha. any tips?

They are still a glass cannon army so look for opportunities to land blows. Move up as much as your army as possible so that you can reduce their opportunity to outrun you. Spreading across the board can be risky but if you position your units so that their vehicles cannot move out of charge range, this helps. Remember Flyers cannot move out of combat and shoot in this edition so try to tag them in combat whenever possible as they possess the bulk of the army's heavy weapons.

 

Watch out for certain DE Characters that can be absolute blenders in melee. You may lose a squad or two to them but if you are hitting multiple units, either with shooting or melee, you should be able to make the damage stick. A few beatstick characters won't win the game by themselves if the rest of the army can be brought down around them.

 

Spreading out to extend your board control while maintaining mutual support is tricky but valuable. Try to position units so that they cannot assault without risking a heroic Intervention and cannot shoot without exposing themselves to retaliation from elsewhere.

 

A Whirlwind with Vengeance missile launchers can threaten their skimmers nicely, even if they try to hide out of LOS.

[TheUnlikelyGamer84]

Yeah I think it's important to look at them as different games. Marines have such a good selection of troops that putting together a solid 1000 point list is easier. I think both crons and DE can be really strong, but I think their builds might be quite a bit different from what works at 2000 points.

I feel the same about Admech. I ROFL stomped them last weekend at 1k. A 6 man squad of Wulfen are most of my opponents army. OP do you have a list building plan for expanding out to 2k?

[Karhedron]

OP do you have a list building plan for expanding out to 2k?

I have several thousand points of Wolves to choose from so I am almost spoiled for choice. I would like to try adding Bjorn, Murderfang and an Iron Priest to form a Dreadmob. The Redemptor has been MVP on several occasions so doubling down on that seems like a good idea.

 

My Bladeguard have done well but will need an Impulsor in larger games I think.