My first battle report on the Space Wolves blog! This week I took my Space Wolves for their second game against Neil's Chaos Daemons.I was going to do a battle repprt of a game against my mates Eldar but mid way through I had a phone call to tell me that I had been burgled!
Luckily they only took my laptop and iPod. I also got married at the weekend. So now that's all out the way and I have a new laptop and no money, here is my first battle report!
We decided on a 1,750 points game using a regular mission from the rule book. We rolled up the mission which was Capture and Control with Pitched Battle deployment.
Alex West's 1750 Points Space Wolves Army:
Wolf Lord [Thunderwolf, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Runic Armour, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman, Saga of the Beast Slayer]
Rune Priest [Stormcaller, Murderous Hurricane]
2 Wolf Guard [combi meltas, power fists]
1 Wolf Guard [combi melta, terminator armour, chainsfist]
Lone Wolf [Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer]
6 Wolf Scouts [melta gun, mark of the wulfen]
7 Grey Hunters [melta gun, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen, rhino]
8 Grey Hunters [melta gun, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen, power weapon]
5 Grey Hunters [melta gun, razorback - twin lascannons]
2 Land Speeder Typhoons
Land Raider [multi melta, extra armour]
5 Long Fangs [4 missile launchers]
Total - 1749 points
Neil's 1750 Points Chaos Daemons Army List:
Lord of Change
Blood Thirster
6 Fiends
6 Fiends
5 Crushers with full command
5 Plague Bearers x 2
3 Tzeentch Daemon Princes
Deployment:I deployed everything apart from the speeders and scouts.
The raider, razorback and rhino clumped around my objective in the centre of the table while the long fangs took up a decent firing position on the balcony of a building to my right.
The wolf lord went to the right of the raider and the lone wolf went to the right of the rhino in the terrain to keep him roughly central.
Turn 1:Neil chose a Lord of Change, Daemon Prince, Blood Thirster, unit of fiends and a unit of crushers as his preferred wave which he got.
Everything landed pretty much where he hoped it would and with a bit of running and shooting which stunned the rhino on the left and killed a long fang was done.
In my turn I don't move much. The wolf lord moves towards the lord of change intending to charge him whilst the land raider spins on the spot to pump some heavy firepower into him. The razorback moves backwards to add a lascannon to the mix. The lone wolf moves towards the rhino anticipating a blood thirster attack.
Shooting sees the land raider and razorback kill the lord of change with some poor dice from Neil. This freed up the long fangs to do a bonus 2 wounds on the blood thirster. The rune priest casts murderous hurricane on the blood thirster but it has no effect. In close combat the wolf lord charges the fiends, always a gamble due to the high number of attacks, and promptly dies. I can't complain too much after my shooting!
Turn 2:Neil rolls for reserves and gets his fiends which come in using the blood crushers icon in the centre of the table. His shooting did nothing to the rhino. The fiends that killed the wolf lord charged the razorback and blew the weapon off and immobilised it. The blood thirster wrecked the rhino.
I roll for reserves and my scouts and the speeders come on. The lone wolf moves forward to threaten both the daemon prince and the blood thirster whilst the grey hunters that got blown out of the rhino moved to shoot and then assault the blood thirster. The razorback squad and the land raider squad get out and move to shoot up then charge the fiends that assaulted the razorback.
Shooting killed the newly arrived daemon prince and wounded the blood thirster. The Rune Priest put a wound on the blood crushers and shooting from the remnants of the army killed a fiend from each unit.
The assault phase was an unmitigated disaster which we both agreed cost me the game. The grey hunters and lone wolf charged the blood thirster killing him for the loss of just 1 marine which was good. However the 2 units of grey hunters which charged 5 fiends lost 6 marines and did no wounds to the fiends despite the large unit using their wolf standard! Both units failed their morale test, the remnants of the razorback squad succumbed to the additional saves but the larger squad held up ok. That pretty much killed the game for me and it would take a massive swing of luck to get back into it.
Turn 3:Neil rolls up another daemon prince to come on which lands near the scouts on his objective. The crushers move towards the lone wolf and the fiends in the centre also move to charge him. His shooting kills a scout. In close combat the fiends charge the lone wolf and only do a wound, the lone wolf does 2 wounds back killing a fiend and winning the combat. This is a bad thing as it means the fiends are likely to kill the lone wolf in my turn freeing them up to charge again in his turn. The super killy fiends put 7 wounds on the grey hunters who save all but one of them. Could this be the point where it swings back in my favour? no. I do no wounds back to the fiends. I pass my test and stay in combat.
In my turn the land raider tries to cross difficult terrain to pick up the grey hunters who killed the blood thirster but gets immobilised, luckily within 3" of my objective though. The grey hunters now have to move away from my objective into cover of they would be fiend breakfast. The speeders move forward a bit to shoot the newly arrived daemon prince. Shooting from the speeders and the long fangs killed the daemon prince. In close combat the lone wolf dies and the super killy fiends kill 3 grey hunters for the loss of 1 wound. I pass my ld test. Joy!
Turn 4:The last daemon prince and the plague bearers arrive. One unit goes on my objective using the crushers icon, the other unit lands near my scouts. The fiends move up to charge the speeders and the crushers move up to charge the landraider. The daemon prince kills 2 scouts with shooting who pass their test. The crushers charge the land raider but the one with rending fails to damage it and the fiends charge the speeders blowing both up. The killy fiends finish off the grey hunters.
There isn't a whole lot for me to do now as I'm pretty much man down but Russ wouldn't give up and neither would i!
The grey hunters in cover prepare to rapid fire into the fiends which killed the speeders whilst the rune priest moves up to add a murderous hurricane into the mix. The scouts move up to charge the plague bearers figuring if I can kill them and keep the land raider alive I could draw the game. Shooting kills the fiends with murderous hurricane inflicting 6 wounds on the last fiend. The long fangs put a wound on the daemon prince and the scouts kill a plague bearer with shooting. The scouts charge in and kill a plague bearer with no losses in return but its not enough.
Turns 5-7:
The game continued to turn 7 but it was basically a case of the daemon prince helping the plague bearers kill the scouts and the crushers continuing to recharge the land raider which survives. The killy fiends kill the rune priest.
In the end it was a reasonably comfortable win for the daemons and I wasn't really ever able to recover from the drastically failed charge on the fiends. Working the odds out roughly I should have lost 3 marines before I got to swing but then inflicted 6 wounds in return with the fiends losing another model from combat res which would have made a huge difference and that's without factoring in the wolf standard. But ho hum, it just goes to show that even when you stack the odds in your favour it doesn't always work out. Other factors contributed to my loss, not least the lone wolf surviving the fiend charge which cost me the speeders and a desirable move with the grey hunters from the rhino and charging the scouts into the plague bearers when I should have carried on shooting up the daemon prince with them and the long fangs whilst being sat on the objective.
CONCLUSION
I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about how to win at 40k. Obviously its not rocket science, but I have a habit of complicating things, so I wanted to pin down some key principles that sticking to would, with some judicious use of tactics, ensure winning the majority of my games.
Looking at my list, I lacked in long range firepower. While it's never a Space Wolf army's strong point, it's now partially solvable by the cheaper Long Fangs.
By rejigging a few things I have included a squad of these guys who in conjunction with the razorback grey hunter squad should form a fairly meaty 'home force'. I also lacked anything to really make my opponent think about how he was deploying and where he was moving in the game. Everything in my army deployed in my deployment zone which makes it easier for an opponent to plan.
In the past I've used 5 Grey Hunters with a melta gun and a Wolf Guard with a combi melta, terminator armour and a chainfist in a drop pod to drop down first turn, pop a tank and generally be irritating. This works well but can be readily countered by someone who realises what the squads role is -which is generally any good player.
It is for this reason I wanted to try out scouts. They have the advantage in that they don't have to come on first turn so force the opponent to think about them and if they forget them they will happily chew through most stuff that is left behind to guard home objectives.
In the old codex Wolf Scouts were brilliant for forcing an opponent away from the table edge and towards the main Space Wolf army which enabled the Wolves to get in close where they excel. They should perform the same role in the new codex.
Anyway, it was a really enjoyable game against a mate and I'm sure I will get my revenge next time! I just need to keep playing and become more familiar with the new Space Wolves army.
Stay tuned for more battle reports coming soon!
12 comments:
April 16, 2010 at 1:06 PM
Hi Alex;
I can't help but feel that, in your 1500pts list, the best thing to lose would be the Wolf Lord.
He must have cost you most of, what - 270+ points?
My own 'Lord only gets the nod at 2000pts, as he needs to be properly supported with a unit of Thunderwolf Cavalry to keep him going.
I think you could lose him, and greatly increase the shootiness of your list by:
1) Taking another Typhoon.
2) Personally, I find the las/twin plas Razorback so much more effective, especially against Daemon princes and Greater Daemons appearing all over the place; same cost as a twin-las, but much more flexible.
3) Personally, I always run 2 lone wolves, configured as you have them. They are great "speedbump" units that are not a blow to lose, and can (with a little luck) really swing combats with lots of big beasties.
4) Having a dreadnought to hold up units like fiends and Blood crushers (who will struggle to kill it in CC, even with Rending) makes this a great unit against Daemons; one of the main reasons he is always in my tournament-lists.
Hope some of that was useful!
Tony
April 16, 2010 at 1:06 PM
Ooops, I meant 1750 list... doh!
April 16, 2010 at 2:08 PM
Hi Tony,
Thanks for your comments :)
I'm trying out a slightly more tweaked version with the land raider dropped and 2 units of scouts and another unit of long fangs. I've kept the wolf lord in for now (he is 245 points) as i like what he offers but he is vulnerable to weight of attacks.
I ran the math on charging the fiends and figured he would die in 2 turns but was going to use that 2 turns to focus on the other parts of the daemon army. Of course with 30 attacks it only takes a bit of a swing of luck to kill him in a turn but i was a bit stuffed with what to do with him after the lord of change died. What i should probably have done with hindsight is not charge so if the fiends wanted to kill him they would have to advance a maximum of 3 or 4 inches rather than getting a free consolidation when they killed him in a turn which let them get to the razorback.
I'm not sold on the typhoons. I like their mobility but they are 180 points for 4 missile launcher and 6 heavy bolter shots. A pack of long fangs with 4 missile launchers (the weapon that really does the damage) is only 115 points.
Cheers,
Alex
April 16, 2010 at 6:45 PM
"Looking at my list, I lacked in long range firepower. While it's never a Space Wolf army's strong point, it's now partially solvable by the cheaper Long Fangs."
Never? Partially? My 1500 pts list with 3 Long Fangs squads, 2 Iron Priests w/ Heavy Bolter Servitors and Razorbacks kicks out a quite horrific number of shots per turn...
April 16, 2010 at 7:34 PM
Id definately consider dropping that wold lord. He has no ablative wounds (fenrisian wolves) or a squad to attatch to I.e. cavalry etc. I would instead take 4 thunder wolves with a p.fist and 1 with storm shield and 1 with meltabombs for 260pts. Much more worth while, effective, more wounds, more attacks etc. Unlucky on the game, some of the things you did I certainly woundlt of done but you live & you learn. Plus that's a harsh daemon list D:!
Cheers
Alex harrison
April 17, 2010 at 4:30 AM
What would you have done instead Alex? :)
I can see another couple of things i wouldn't have done with hindsight but always welcome thoughts from others.
The problem i have with normal thunderwolves is that they are only ld 8. Oh and i would need to find a way to model 4 of them lol.
Cheers,
Alex
April 17, 2010 at 5:22 AM
Ok, for a start I would of deployed in a corner. This draws him further away from his own objective. I wouldn't of acted as quick as you did with your wolf lord. You had a good shooting round so another one would of helped without the fiends bieng able to consolidate towards you. The lone wolf I would of hid behind the raider, scaring the griblys from it. When the reserves come on I would of flanked him on the other side, countering his advance followed by a rush to his objective. The raider on the move will be hard for a daemon army to take down, so rather than use it defensively, I believe it should of been used agresively.
Only a few thoughts tbh but could of changed it around.
As to the models, search for them online, there are plenty of different types of thunderwolves in production now I'm sure u will find some nice ones :).
Cheers
Alex
April 17, 2010 at 10:27 AM
Hey Alex,
I enjoyed the game. Personally I am not sold on Thunder wolves. There are no models yet and I agree they have potential but I would rather bring a screaming mob of Wolf claws with a priest then those guys. Seem to do more for the points you spend. I have never fought against just deamons and I don't look forward to it to be honest. They have never looked sporting to me. And I think the people I live around agree. Sorry you got robbed. That stinks.
April 17, 2010 at 4:06 PM
Alex,
Interesting thoughts.
Would you have put your objective in the corner as well then?
The issue i see with deploying in the corner is that the fiends and, more importantly, the crushers would have an easy job pinning my army in place and they on top of the daemon princes and fiends would be too much to handle i think.
With my army in the centre i could move either side of the crushers to avoid them and save them until last.
That was my theory anyway!
Vagorin,
Cheers glad you enjoyed the read.
Cheers,
Alex
April 17, 2010 at 4:07 PM
Alex - Enjoyed your Batreps as always!
Wolf lord is a fun unit to have isnt he? I bet he has played very well for you in other games! But, Being a lover of TWC i had to drop my lord (sniff) he was the same as yours but had warrior born and a wolfclaw and was the bane to pretty much everything without an armour value! Now I use 5 TWC (infact I think you know my list from Vanquish thread on the WHF) The LD does suck a bit but they should be nice and close to the enemy from the get go - I use 2 stormshields and its pretty effective - I have to lose 7 wounds before I take a leadership test and in combat They tend to spank! But only run them into stuff you know they have a chance against. TWC vs n0bs is a bit too close to call and they need that support (in the form of a runepriest in a rhino with a fully tooled up squad to get them out the poo and give some psychic defence)
I do like the typhoons but not for SW - vanilla's can do well with them but as you say, WE can do it better and cheaper with the LF! ALso a LR? not sure if this fits the army - its like your giving him the targets to hit with your own choices (ooo a raider - il hit that with melta's and lassies! ooo a rhino/speeder - il hit that with my S5/S6 stuff!) What i guess im saying is its easy to plan to hit your army using what is pretty common for most 'top' armies (ie tank guns and transport gun and lots of them)
What i may try in the future is swap the powerweapon in my GH squads for another fist - that 5 fist attacks on the charge re rolling 1's (i normally spunk my banner in the 1st round of my 1st combat) I think it could work well.
DEMONS! I seem to play these buggers every bloody tourney - they make fun opponents but tend to be easily contained imo - as the other alex suggests - a few moves could have swung it in your favour!
Let me know how you like the TWC if you want to proxy them for a bit. I used bikes for like 3 months then got myself some High elf lions and green stuffed them up! THUNDERCATS! HOOOO
April 18, 2010 at 4:33 AM
Yes the lord has been brilliant in most of the games i've used him. I remembered a conversion for them i want to do from the thunderwolf post on here a while back, i really like the fur on bloodcrushers idea. I'll try them out and definately end up taking them at one point just because despite their ld i think they are viable and would be good fun to use. Maybe make them interchangeable with the wolf lord as they would be similar points give or take.
I hear what you are saying about having a mix or armour types. Its not something i had considered before but its true. The raider sticks out a bit like a gleaming melta target!
The problem i have with daemons is if you close up then the fiends and, more likely, crushers get you but wolves can't really stay away as its not playing to our strength.
Cheers,
Alex
April 18, 2010 at 5:35 AM
What I tend to do is move right up close with a rhino (12 inch into cover) get out and rapid fire, psychic power from the rune priest - Jaws killing 2 bloodcrushers was awesome! there was 6 to start with. Then when they charged me in cover i went first and managed to kill another 2 whilst some fiends charged the unit from another direction. I think I lost combat by 1 but that was against 2 nasty units (remember the runepriest wounds demon models on a 2+ hitting on 3's with a re roll and wounding on 2's makes combat res a bit better!) the real coup was having my squad remain in place so i could charge my thunderwolves into them. Now i could hit the demons freely while they have to hit the remaining gh (runepriest dies easy) 22 rending attacks at S5 and 5 th attacks at s10 put a dent into them - leaving 1 each of the crushers and fiends - seeing as they caused 3 wounds and I caused 4 with normal guys and 2 with the hammer - I won by 3 so the rest died to fearless saves. (1 crusher and 2 single wound fiends) supported well and staying in cover will help lots - try to never get in a fight you cant win - dont be afraid to 'make a trap' by falling back to where support is waiting - you never know you may get another turn of shooting! LF love demons! (cept fiends when they eat you from 23 inches away...)
Mix of armour or target priority? if i can get my opponent to fire everything at the TWC then its great. leaves my 2 rhino's and razorback unscathed or my long fangs unmolested - dont deal with them quickly then they get to charge (charge anything just for the extra 12 inch move!)
I wish I could get my lord back in the army... he was soo awesome. Have been thinking about making a mini lord with a WGBL but its still not that cheap - I have TWC so the torso's come off. That means i can replace what goes on top easily - great when you can make the most of magnets (or bluetac in my case :S )
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