Target Sighted - Game 3 - Space Wolves vs Dark Angels

Despite my earlier concerns I'd managed to avoid playing either Necrons or Daemons and instead found myself playing Dave Wigley and his Deathwing. I'd spoken to Dave earlier in the day about how he was finding Deathwing and I was interested to play them to better understand their use.

With the tournament running backwards we'd be playing the first mission now which was Purge The Alien on Dawn of War with the additional rules that for each FOC slot you killed something from you got a bonus point e.g. the first time I killed an HQ I'd get 2 points but the second HQ would be worth 1 as normal. Dave was fielding Belial, an Interrogator chaplain (TDA of course), 2 squads of 10 DW terminators (two plasma, two cyclone, rest TH/SS) and some FW missile things. Therefore he'd only got 5 normal points available and 3 bonus points from HQ, Troops and FA. I on the other hand could give away 13 pts with choices from all but Elites (as the wolf guard become troops when they join squads). This was always going to be difficult as I'd need to comfortably table him to score enough points. We were both in a decent position in terms of the rankings too so there were potential podium spots to play for. I couldn't rely on sheer luck at this stage.

Battle Report

I won the roll off and elected to go first. Now this may or may not have been stupid (I'll get to that later) but I decided to spread out my forces across my deployment zone to minimise the number of places that Dave could deploy safely. I chose not to Outflank the wolf priest as I thought I could use the firepower if I was going to try and down so many TH/SS terminators. As the rules for DW and the 50% in reserve haven't been clarified Dave was playing fair and deploying 50% of his army. This consisted of one of the DW squads and the two missile thingies. He did so in the far corner of the field as far away from me as possible.

Great I thought. I know how this game is going to go. I'll struggle to pick those terminators off and he'll slowly chew through my army with their heavy weapons. With this in mind I decided to put the drop pod down behind some cover nearer my deployment zone.

Unfortunately we got Night Fighting so it wasn't until turn 2 that I started to fire at the turrets and managed to kill one straight away with my long fangs. All I'd need to do is down the other which would give me 3 VPs (one for killing it, one for First Blood and one bonus point from the mission). This would put Dave in a position where he had to come to me if he wanted to win and hence allow me as much time as possible to thin out the terminators before they got to my lines.

Unfortunately for me Dave was firing back all the time. I was pretty lucky with the long fangs cover saves though. I was repeatedly casting Prescience to ensure the best chance of downing the missiles but around turn 3 I managed to double-6 it and not only fail to get the power off but strip a wound from my Rune Priest. If I did it again I'd be sure to lose as I'd be gifting Dave 2 VPs. Luckily enough I still managed to take a "wound" off the missile thingies (I really should find out their real name). Belial came down on turn 2 via Deathwing Assault and the plasma cannons didn't really help me out, leaving the long fangs with a single missile launcher and the pack leader who I'd unfortunately put out of sight meaning launchers died rather than him.

It was now a case of whether the sole long fang could managed to kill off the missile thingy before he died. At this point I moved the rune priest out of the squad and into a grey hunter pack who'd been thinned out by more plasma cannon fire. This meant he'd still be able to cast Prescience (nervously) but he'd also be able to move himself out of range quickly once the long fangs had done their job.

It took until turn 4 for me to finally kill off the missile thingies and score the 3 VPs. I was pretty certain that I'd sealed the game. Sadly for me in Dave's turn 4 he hit the long fangs with the plasma cannons and despite going to ground for a 3+ save they both perished. The score was now 3-2 to me. Dave would only need to kill either the rune priest or some grey hunters to push it to a 3-4. With the other long fangs way out of range I decided my only hope was to play it safe and pull back everything I had as far as possible to keep them safe. The rune priest and wolf priest were buried in the remaining full grey hunter pack and everything else pulled back as far as possible.

This worked well for turn 5 where I lost a single thunderwolf but the other 2 held their nerve and were able to fall back further in my turn 6. I was pretty confident I'd managed a narrow victory. Dave then opened fire for the final time. The plasma cannons could only kill a single grey hunter (I'd been pretty lucky with Dave's poor scatter rolling) which left just the cyclone launchers to fire. In a move I have to say I wasn't expecting Dave realised he might be able to down the drop pod and win the game. Unfortunately for him he only managed to penetrate with a single missile. This would mean I'd need to fail my 4+ cover save and he'd need to roll 5+ to blow it up. Of course, both of these things went Dave's way and although no more space wolves died in the explosion Dave had done enough with the last possible shot of the game to make it 4-3 to him. Gutted.

As a consolation we decided to honour the tradition of a champion from both armies recreating the famous tussle between the Wolf and the Lion. For the Wolf it would be Arjac Rockfist and for the Lion it would be Belial. Belial managed to inflict 3 wounds on Arjac but he only failed one of his saves. Arjact hit back with his foehammer and inficted 5 wounds. Belial only failed a single save but since he lacked Eternal Warrior (unlike Arjac) it was enough to cut him down. Victory to the sons of Russ! Hail the Allfather...ahem.... moving on.

Conclusion
What I thought would be an incredibly dull game actually turned out to be really tense and tactical. It had a real feeling that every dice roll mattered. Every time Dave fired his plasma cannons I was sure I'd lose a squad. Every time the cyclones fired I thought the long fangs were toast. I felt every single model I lost and was nervous about every morale check. At the end of the game we'd only managed to completely destroy 220pts worth of units between us! Hardly a bloody affair but certainly one I'll remember. Can't imagine there'll be many sagas written or songs sung about the deeds of the Space Wolves as they heroicly cowered in cover!

When the game ended I suggested to Dave that he should've really used his low KP advantage and just come at me. There was little or no chance of me managing to kill enough terminators before they scored more VPs than I could reasonably achieve. From his point of view this would've also given him the best chance of climbing the leaderboard toward the podium places.

As soon as I realised that it was a case of kill the missiles and hide I should've been moving my entire army back as far as I could. This would mean that Dave would only get the long fangs. From a game point of view it would still have been a draw but for personal pride I'd know it was a win!

We're going to try and arrange a rematch to see what would've happened if Dave had played it more aggressively but I think I know how that'll go. 

Target Sighted - Game 2 - Space Wolves vs Blood Angels

As the placings were read out for game two I found myself on table 5 (I'd actually started on table 1) but unfortunately I was paired up with Chris again. The ref swapped us with the guys on the next table. I was pleased to see that I got James Clulow's Blood Angels instead of the GK that Matt had beaten in game 1. With the tournament missions now running in reverse we'd be playing the dodgy "Escort" mission. The referee ruled that all of the shenanigans were now allowed again but the "Escort" couldn't leave the table until turn 3.

Anyway, James' Blood Angels consisted of Tycho (his "Escort") with 5 sternguard in a razorback, two tactical squads (one in a Pod, the other in a Rhino), 10 assault marines, 5 devastators with a razorback, an Aegis line and another bloody vindicator. Again my list can be found here.

Battle Report

There'd be no night fighting and despite not choosing sides, I won the roll off for first turn. I deployed in a fairly standard way with long fangs in cover and grey hunters/TWC on the left flank. James stuck his Aegis centrally with the devastators inside it. He then had Tycho's razorback with the rhino behind and the assault marines on the far left. The vindicator and empty razorback were on the right.

I decided to drop Arjac in to try and take out the vindicator to protect my TWC. He'd be out of the fight for a turn or two because the vindicator was on the flank but it'd be worth it if I could down the tank. Sure enough as his drop pod burst open he came out, launched his hammer at the vindicator (the meltagunner missed of course), and blew it to pieces. So far so good. The long fangs got Prescience and I chose to fire 3  at Tycho's razorback and one cheeky shot at the other empty razorback. The shots on Tycho's were enough to wreck it and I got lucky with the single shot which managed to destroy the twin-linked lascannon. The other long fang pack added to the misery with a couple of assault marine kills. I was already starting to feel a bit guilty.

James dropped in his tactical squad in the back corner on my right flank. The tactical squad piled out guns blazing, cutting down 3 long fangs. The sternguard struggled to harm the TWC as despite wounding on 2s I made most of their saves. The hunter killer on the remaining razorback could only glance the drop pod leaving the BA tank with no weapons left. The tactical rhino advanced at full, flat out, pace.

Arjac and his squad turned their attention to the devastators, moving into rapid fire range and killing all but one marine. The TWC charged into Tycho and his sternguard. Killing a couple of veterans and wounding Tycho. Sadly Tycho made his saves from the power fist though. The long fangs had another great turn with one pack blowing up the rhino. The other squad opened up with frag missiles on the occupants who were clustered in the wreckage. Thanks to Prescience I managed to score a disgusting number of wounds (36 in total) but James finally had some luck and saved all but 7 of the 23 wounds I caused. Elsewhere the Wolf Priest showed up and killed all but 3 of the tactical squad.

The assault marines charged in to try to save Tycho and his veterans. Sadly for James the thunderwolves were able to finish off the veterans regardless and Tycho succumbed to a power fist strike this time around. In the next phase of the combat, all but one of the assault marines perished and the lonely survivor decided it was best to leg it. He stayed on the board by an inch.

At this point there wasn't much left of the Blood Angels. The tactical marines from the rhino exchanged fire with the grey hunters but the Space Wolves ultimately won out. The thunderwolves charged down the remaining assault marine and finished him off. The long fangs got rid of the razorback (which had no weapons) and the wolf priest and his squad rapid fire again to kill the tactical squad before attacking their drop pod in the next turn and wrecking it with the fist from the wolf guard and crozius from the priest. To tidy up completely Arjac and his squad destroyed the quad gun and James was tabled in my turn 4.

I'd managed to secure all 3 secondary VPs, the bonus VP for killing the escort and 11 from the decimation of the army giving a total of 15! James hadn't managed to kill any whole squads and my pile of dead marines only numbered out of the 42 available. You can't get much more one sided than that!

Conclusion

An example of James' rolling!

As I said in the previous analysis this mission was never really going to be about the "Escort" and instead would devolve into Purge The Alien. Sure enough that's what happened. My first turn was incredibly lucky. Not only did I blow up the vindicator despite getting side armour and only hitting with Arjac but I also destroyed a razorback and got lucky when the twin-linked lascannon dropped from the other. From then on it was an uphill struggle for James.

At the end of the day comparing like for like it was unlikely to be much different. Assault and tactical marines just can't stand up to grey hunters. Losing the vindicator was a huge blow as it was the only thing I was particularly worried about. James compounded the gulf between the two lists with some awful luck. There were times when his dice rolls were just plain unfair! I often find its the case with 40K that you have awesome games and diabolical ones without many in between.

When you're the one decimating an opponent's army it isn't exactly fun most of the time. Sure it's great if you feel that you've done something tactically superb but frankly I hadn't. The game could've been totally unbearable had it not been for James' good humour, so I'm grateful to him for that. Suffice to say I was pleased with the result and I hadn't done much wrong but it still came down to a lot of luck.

The impending threat of playing Daemons or Necrons was looming ever closer, especially since I was now on table 3!

Target Sighted - Game 1 - Space Wolves vs Space Wolves

In a change to a mission order that was advertised the organisers decided to play the last mission first. The reason for this was that they'd run a mirror event on the day before and realised that the last mission ended up being low scoring and hence didn't give a dramatic conclusion. Fair play to them for changing it up. Anyway, we'd be playing for 3 central, fixed objectives and Vanguard deployment. If either army ever controlled all of them (after turn 2) they'd win automatically. In turn 4 one objective would vanish. So my first game would be against Chris Thorne and his purple Space Wolves. I was mainly relieved to get at least one game that wasn't Necrons.

Sadly, Chris had included a stormtalon which put me in a difficult position. First game in a new venue against a new opponent. Do you point out that SW can't take them? Do you risk making the game feel miserable throughout? Obviously this is the sort of thing they should've picked up from the pre-submitted lists but nevermind. Anyway, I decided that I wasn't going to win anything so I wouldn't be an arse. I pointed out that other people might make him ditch it but my main problem was that I didn't actually have it in writing that they couldn't take them. I hoped it wouldn't make a difference but read on for that.

Otherwise he had a thunderlord with hammer joined by some fenrisian wolves, a ven dread in a drop pod, two tooled up grey hunter packs led by wolf guard, a vindicator and two packs of long fangs. It's at this point that I realise he only had two wolf guard which again is illegal. Sigh. Anyway, here's a shot of my army, a list for which you can find in yesterday's post, they aren't arranged into squads properly because I was throwing them down for the painting comp before dashing off for lunch!

Battle Report
I got to pick deployment zone but sadly Chris got first turn. I knew that it would be costly. He deployed fairly aggressively with the long fangs slightly behind his front line. He got a Warlord trait that let the thunderlord Outflank but either chose not to use it or else forgot. I stuck my long fangs in craters and a hunter pack mid field. The thunderwolves were sat on my right flank so they'd be as close as possible. My mistakes started here. The grey hunters should've been positioned so that he couldn't hit them with anything in his first turn. The vindicator certainly could've been avoided. Anyway, in Chris' first turn he managed to decimate the grey hunter squad by killing 7 of them from a combination of vindicator and long fangs. The dreadnought and other long fangs killed all but one of the long fangs that weren't joined by the rune priest.

As he'd needed to move the vindicator forward to get shots on me it was a simple case of charging it with the thunderwolves who's S10 power fist would almost certainly blow it up. Sure enough they did it with ease giving me First Blood. Elsewhere Arjac's squad arrived but rolled badly and failed to kill one of the long fang packs (they did run though). The remaining hunters that'd been thinned out were out of range of everything else so took pot shots at the fenrisian wolves, killing a couple. The remaining long fangs couldn't seem to kill the dreadnought despite Prescience.

The stormtalon arrived in turn 2 and with help from the dreadnought more long fangs perished. The stormtalon hit with a missile and I decided to risk it on the rune priest's runic armour costing him his life when I rolled a 1! This lost me Prescience and much hope of downing the flyer. The wolf lord turned 180 and headed back towards Arjac and his hunters. His packs of hunters combined to kill two thunderwolves from shooting. One squad then charged the remaining cavalryman but could only wound him once. In return he struck wounds but all were saved.

On my turn 2 the wolf priest squad arrived behind the unengaged grey hunters and thanks to Preferred Enemy they decimated them leaving 2 from the original 11 who then ran! Sure enough the long fangs couldn't kill either the stormtalon or dreadnought again. The remaining thunderwolf rended twice killing two grey hunters but inevitably lost his final wound in return. Arjac and his squad shot at the fenrisian wolves before attempting to charge, which I failed miserably. Turn two had at least been better than turn 1!

The stormtalon would have to hover to take further part in the game (as it would spend at least 2-3 turns turning around to be able to hit something so Chris elected to fly it off into ongoing reserves. The long fangs were further thinned out by the dreadnought but still clung on. Elsewhere the grey hunters who'd killed the thunderwolf headed for the central objective. The long fangs tried to thin out Arjac's squad but could only land a couple of hits which Arjac saved. The thunderlord charged in and I challenged him. The grey hunters easily dealt with the fen wolves without loss. Arjac struck with his 5 attacks and the wolf lord inevitably bought it thanks to S10. He struck back with his hammer causing 3 wounds. Arjac failed 2 of his 3++ saves on 1s and thanks to the standard managed to re-roll 1 to survive.

In my turn 3 Arjac and his squad shot the fleeing grey hunters and finished them off. The drop pod tried to kill the lone remaining long fang but failed. The long fangs again failed to deal with the dreadnought. The wolf priest and his squad moved up onto the objective and ran to try and be in range of the central grey hunters. My remaining hunters broke cover to head for the central objective and took shots at the enemy hunters killing one.

At the top of turn 4 Chris rolled to see which objective disappeared and sadly for me it was the one controlled by the wolf priest's squad meaning they'd need to break cover and head for the centre. The storm talon re-appeared and killed a few of the wolf priest's hunters. The drop pod killed the lonely long fang with its storm bolter (gutted) and the dreadnought finally finished off the other long fangs. Elsewhere Chris' remaining long fangs gunned down the remains of Arjac's squad including Mr. Rockfist. The drop pod was made to pay for failing to kill the lascannon long fang as he blew it up.

In my turn 4 the wolf priest and co. couldn't get into decent range of the central hunters so the other, dwindled squad of mine charged in. It was a straight hunter vs hunter fight but Chris managed to pass 4 3+ saves to keep his fist alive who then made the most of it by finishing my squad.

I'd now only got the wolf priest and his thinned out squad to try to hold out for a win. With the clock ticking down I knew I had a decent chance. Chris only had a very small scoring unit left and with me taking First Blood & Slay the Warlord he'd need to table me to win.

Stupidly, (I'll get to that) I decided to push the wolf priest forward to clear the remaining hunters and try to grab the objective. Over the next couple of turns Chris' dread, long fangs and stormtalon thinned out the squad enough that in turn 7 (it was a compulsory 7 turns) the wolf priest was on his own with far too many saves to make. Depsite being tabled I'd actually got 2 VPs to Chris' 1 from Slay the Warlord, because of the tabling though it had to go down as a loss for me.

Conclusion
I should've played for one of the objectives on my left, deploying a squad of grey hunters on that side. This would've kept them safer and force him to either risk the dreadnought near them (which they had a good shot of killing) or else the rest of his army would've needed to advance to get range whilst I shot them. The thunderwolves did their job but by waiting a turn or two and hanging around the edge of the vindicators range I could've shot it with long fangs and protected them so they wouldn't have been left vulnerable after killing it. Still it did give me First Blood and nearly give me the game.

Had I thought about it better I should've shot the dreadnought rather than the stormtalon on my second turn. The talon was going to have to hover and ultimately the dreadnought was more of a problem. I doubt I'd have killed it though with the rolling I was having combined with its Venerable rule.

Finally, I really should've hugged cover with the wolf priest's squad and killed the hunters at range. With Preferred Enemy that would've been a fairly simple task. I could've kept them out of sight of the long fangs, out of range of the dreadnought and got them cover from the stormtalon. The objective was irrelevant at this point but I think I was boyed by the turn around I'd managed despite feeling like it was one-sided for the first half of the game.

I'd love to say I don't think the stormtalon thing mattered that much but it was pretty decisive. I was always going to struggle to kill it even with Prescience and it managed to kill most of the long fangs, finish off the Wolf Priest on the final turn and distract my attention from the, easier to kill, dreadnought. As much as I didn't want to be a dick I screwed myself by not pointing out the illegalities of my opponent's list. I really wish the venue had properly checked them so that I wasn't in that situation but I know from Blog Wars experience that it isn't a fun or easy task.

Anyway, having lost I should manage to avoid playing Necrons or Daemons in my second game!