Team Space Wolf at the OGC 1750 Tournament

Another Tourney has been and gone yet again Wolf Fans this time at the Oxford Gaming Clubs annual 40k 1750 tournament. This was no ordinary tournament for the Space Wolves Grey team because for the first time ever two Wolf Lords from the blog met up and actually clashed head to head in a dramatic battle to decide who was top dog!

Myself and Alex Harrison travelled to the tourney unfortunately Adam could not make it as planned due to an injury. After a gruelling day in the heat of a summer afternoon many hard battles were fought resulting in myself taking 4th place and Alex nabbing second place after sneaking a victory against yours truly!

I will take this opportunity to thank Bert, Mike (aka MJayC50), Chris and the rest of the guys who's names I cannot remember for a fantastic event which ran very smoothly and was overall a brilliant day and well worth the 150 mile journey although next time I don't think I will work a night shift the night before.

Anyway Wolf fans stand by for some action packed battle reports and for the first time ever on Spaces Wolves Blog a combined battle report from two Wolf Lords going head to head.

Space Hulk Weekend

This weekend I have been mostly playing Space Hulk!

Sometimes you get tired of Warhammer 40K and you fancy something a bit different. Or did this just coincide with me picking up the Aliens/Predator DVD boxed set with every Aliens and Predator film ever made for £12? Probably.

All we do know is that the Predator soundtrack sounds amazing in the background to a game of Space Hulk.

Only 4 more missions to go and I'll have battled my way through the entire Space Hulk mission book. Looking forward to seeing the Brood Lord appear and offer the Librarian a challenge.

It's hard to imagine that almost a year ago I was painting my Space Hulk Terminators and Space Hulk Genestealers while trying out the Games Workshop washes for the first time. I feel sorry for anyone who didn't get their hands on a copy of this game, as they now sell on eBay for £100 a pop!

I played The Artifact mission against Simon on Saturday. The Librarian made a mad dash down the middle with covering fire provided by the Heavy Flamer dude.

Next, james played the Breakout mission against Simon and employed pretty much the same tactics.

On Sunday I played the Defend mission and it was really hard!

I still think the real secret to doing well at Space Hulk is knowing the order to line up your Space Marines at the start. Sure, there's more essential tactics to learn like how to best use the Heavy Flamer, cross fire corridor Overwatch, keeping an eye on the Genestealer entry points and my personal favourite the "4 guys cross-fire room defence". But, getting the Heavy Flamer into the right position seriously takes practice.

I've kept all the components really nicely in foam trays, all my Space Hulk models are fully painted and varnished, and even the box itself is kept in the thick cardboard packing box Games Workshop posted it in.

I also recommend this video. Click SCENES when it loads and click the one top right. The first 4 scenes are dire, but the last 5 are pure gold :)

Space Hulk is a game I will play and treasure for years to come. I just wish Games Workshop would re-release a limited run of Warhammer Quest. Then I'll be a very happy man.

Toy Soldier Battle 1: Space Wolves Vs Blood Angels

To start my day off nicely I find I have drawn Gary Percival his Blood Angels, the last time I saw Mr Percival was at Vapnartak back in February when he was collecting his trophy for 1st place overall. This wouldn't be easy but I was up for the challenge as I had a bit of experience against the Space Vamps, Gary was running:-

Librarian
Fear of Darkness
Blood Lance (I think?)

Terminator Assault Squad
Thunder Hammer and Storm Shields
Land Raider (Godhammer)

Furioso Dread with Blood Talons

4 x Assault Squads in Las/Plas Razorbacks

Predator with AC and Lascannon Sponsons

Storm Raven with TL Lascannons and Multimeltas

Deployment

We were to play Kill Points with Dawn of War deployment.

Gary won the roll off and elected to go first with everything held off table to come on turn 1, I elected to do the same but with the Wolf Scouts in reserve.

Turn 1
With little else to do the Blood Angels rolled onto the board and took up positions to get the most benefit out of their long ranged weaponry.

I brought my Rhinos on in the centre of the board in a box formation popping smoke on the front two and hiding the other two behind giving all four cover saves. The Wolf Lords trotted on leisurely rolling a 1 for the run move. Finally my Long Fangs set up back field taking advantage of the 48" range.

Turn 2
Gary shuffled his Blood Angels around but made is intent clear, he was going to use his long Range advantage and not close in on me.

The Blood Angels opened up with Lascannon and Multimelta fire focussed on my Rhinos which and managed to knock a Storm Bolter off one and wreck another.

In my turn I raced my Rhinos forward towards a formation of rocks in the centre, I disembarked a squad from the Rhino with no bolter which brought them nicely into Melta range of the Storm Raven.

My Wolf Scouts also came on this turn and deployed right up the arse of the Land Raider. It was a dangerous position for them and they would die next turn but I needed to kill that Raider.

The Wolf lords again shuffled further mid field.

In the shooting phase I started with the Wolf Scouts who blew the Raider sky high with Meltafire. The Grey Hunters in the centre also aimed true and shot the Storm Raven out of the sky with some Strength 8 hits due to the ceramic shielding. Meanwhile my Long Fangs tried to take out a Razorback but failed to hit.

I decided to play hard with the Wolf Scouts and charged into the Terminators, my plan was to multicharge both them and a nearby Razorback. I managed to get a few scouts including the Powerfisted Wolf Guard into contact with the Razorback. My plan failed though as I failed to kill any Terminators and missed all my attacks on the Razorback, the Wolf Scouts were then pounded into the ground by Thunderhammers.

Kill points SW 2 BA 1

Turn 3
The Blood Angels army sprang to life and began to withdraw away from my advancing Grey Hunters towards the opposite board edge making it clear now they inteded to kite me and pick me off at range. The Terminators also moved away acting as a screen for the Razorbacks.

The Furioso Dread that had previously been secured to the Storm Raven now clambered out of the wreckage and advanced towards the Grey Hunter pack on foot.

Blood Angel fire again raked across my lines killing three Long Fangs and Wrecking a second Rhino which had previously lost its Storm Bolter.

Then the Furioso charged my Grey Hunters and proceeded to wipe out the entire squad in one go with its Blood Talons before any damage could be done in return, OUCH!!

My Rhinos changed course and made directly for the corner of the board the Blood were intending to go. I had a Rhino that had not popped smoke yet so it took the lead whilst the others tucked in behind it getting cover themselves.

My shooting was pretty uneventful with the Long fangs trying to take out the Furioso and failing.

In the end I had to charge it with my Wolf Lord with Thudnerhammer, despite taking a couple of hits on the way in his Storm Shield held and he smashed the Dreadnought to bits with his ThunderHammer.

Kill Points SW 3 BA 1.

Turn 4
Once again the Blood Angel Razorbacks shifted towards the right hand side of the board taking up positions behind some woods. The Predator shifted left trying to drawn out my Wolf Lords keeping them away from the Blood Angels transports. The Terminators followed the Razorbacks ready to make any counter attacks that would be needed.

Pretty much every Razorback fired at my lead Rhino and but in an amazing display of rolling cover saves I passed every single save required keeping the Rhino alive much to my opponents frustration. The Predator fired on the Long Fangs but failed to kill any.

In my turn I advanced the Rhinos further and it looked like I was going to be able to pin the Razorbacks in the corner of the board. I decided to take the bait with my Wolf Lords and go for the Predator which was now unsupported and asking to be beat up.

My shooting consisted of a couple of Missiles trying to reach the Librarians Razorback but I was just out of range.

The Wolf Lords then tried to charge the Predator but one of the Fenrisian Wolves was clipping some difficult terrain, I rolled for movement but got no where near the required amount needed.

Kill Points SW 3 BA 1

Turn 5
Things were getting a bit tense now, the Blood Angels had run out of places to run to and I would be on them soon. The Razorbacks just shuffled around so I couldn't auto hit them while the Terminators closed the gap and formed a wall of storm shields around some of the Razorbacks.

Again they all opened up with Lascannon fire, this time I did'nt have the luxury of smoke but the Rhinos got away with an immobilised and stunned result. The Predator again tried to pick off my Long Fangs but failed to hit this time round.

With this potentially being the last turn I played aggressively and advanced both my Grey Hunter packs now on foot towards the Razorbacks but because of the terrain I only managed to get one pack in Meltagun range. The Wolf Lords caught up with the Predator who had moved flat out last turn, I was confident I was well in charge range now.

The Grey Hunters opened up with Melta fire and score 1 hit, the shot penetrated but I only managed to stun the Razorback. My Long Fangs tried to pop the Predator just in case but the missile bounced off its front armour.

I finally got the charge off on the Predator but because it had moved flat out I ended up whiffing my attack rolls and failed to do any damage.

And with that we rolled to see if the game had ended which it did on a roll of a 2. In total the game must have taken us about an hour to play out of the 2 hours or so we had allocated.

Conclusion
This was a fast paced game and I was pleased with the result as I was at a serious disadvantage against this army. By rights my Rhino in turn 3 should have been blown to pieces with the amount of lascannon fire it took but I was rolling hot on my cover saves and it survived. I did manage to score an extra 6 tourney points in this round so depite me getting a draw I still pulled a decenty score.

Next Round will see me up against the Blood Angels again!