Mayhem 3 of 6: Space Wolves Vs Space Wolves

With a win and a loss for the Space Wolves, I reckoned I was back where I started in the tables and still had a chance to claw my way up the tables.

After some more Ale (Bugmans Beer is awesome!) I went to check out my third opponent for the day.

I shoved my way to the front of the horde trying to find out who I'd be playing next, found my name and saw that I was playing Space Wolves again. Great!

When my opponent deployed his army, first thing I noticed his Wolves were painted red! Heresy!

Here's my 1500pts Space Wolf list to save you looking for it.

My opponents list
Wolf lord, Thunderwolf, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, bits etc

3 Grey Hunter packs in Rhinos, Powerfists and Flamers
Grey Hunter pack with Fist and Meltagun

Dreadnought, Twin linked Lascannon

3 Thunderwolves, Mixed Weapons

5 Long Fangs, 2 Missile Launchers, 2 Lascannons
5 Long Fangs, 2 Missile Launchers, 2 Lascannons

Deployment
Mission :- Deadzone, a 6" radius from the centre of the board counts as the primary objective with two secondary objectives placed 12" from the corner of opposing boards. The Primary is worth 6 pts and the secondaries are worth 2 points.
Deployment:- Pitched battle.

I win the roll off and decide to take first turn and choose deployment side. I did this because one side of the board was more favorable to my army than the other. The dead zone was a nice wide open space in the centre, my opponent placed his objective on a hill to my left whilst I hid mine in some ruins on my right flank.

I place my Long Fangs in the centre in some ruins giving them all round fields of fire and the Predator takes up position on my right flank again with good fire lanes, both units were covering the deadzone making it a killing field. I then deployed my Grey Hunters in position to advance and meet the enemy head on and hopefully flood the dead zone with scoring units, the Razorback unit held in reserve to come on and grab the secondary objective.

My opponent mirrors my deployment with the same battle plan as myself. His Long Fangs get into cover and the Dreadnought hides behind some trees trying to stay out of the way of my Predator. Finally the Wolf lord and his Chums set up ready to charge headlong into my lines.

He tries to steal initiative and fails.

Turn 1
I rumble all three Rhinos forward 6" pop smoke on one giving the other two behind cover from any shots from the Long Fangs. Everything else in my army sits tight and takes aim.

I decide the Thunderwolves must die so I start by throwing two Jaws of the World Wolf at them catching the Lord and some of buddies in the line. The Wolf Lord makes two Initiative tests and passes them but the Thunderwolf behind him fails to dodge and falls to his doom.

The Long Fangs then open up with Krak missiles and pound the Thunderwolves managing to kill off two and wounding the third. The Predator then targets the Dreadnought and blows it sky high with two well placed Lascannon shots.

The enemy counter by advancing full speed with Rhinos, the Wolf lord and his buddy tuck in behind the Rhinos to get cover.

The Long Fangs target my Predator and manage to stun it into inaction. The rest of the Long Fangs split fire and target my Rhino's, smoke saves most of the shots but one gets through and pops Ulfs Rhino making his pack disembark.

Turn 2
I shuffle Ulfs pack into a better position ready to receive a Thunderwolf Charge. I dismount Skalfs pack and move them to support Ulfs pack should they get into trouble. The third Pack moves to the left flank to try and hold up the Grey Hunters there.

The shooting phase is pretty naff with my Long Fangs trying to take out his in a missile duel and failing. I pop two Jaws at the Wolf Lord and he again passes both, I was desperate to kill him.

With nothing to assault I get ready for the next round.

My opponent empties his Rhinos and moves into charge range with pretty much all of his Packs. His Thunderwolves come out of cover and as expected make a bee line straight for Ulfs pack.

His shooting kills off a few Grey Hunters and his Long Fangs dont do much apart from hit the Predator a few times all of which fail to penetrate.

The assault phase starts with his Thunderwolves and Grey Hunter pack charging Ulfs pack, The Wolf Lord rips into the pack with his Wolf Claw killing six Grey Hunters ouch! The Thunderwolf and Ulf then throw themselves at each other killing each other in the process in a gigantic exchange of blows. The Grey hunter pack then kills off the rest of my Pack before my Powerfists could get into action resulting in a complete massacre.

Turn 3
With one pack so easily killed I was in a bit of trouble, I moved Skalfs pack to intercept the pack that had just killed Ulfs. My other pack disembarks and move to attack the two remaining Grey Hunter packs.

Last turn the Wolf Lord consolidated back into cover so despite my best efforts I failed to kill him with Missile and Lascannon fire.

Skalf sends another Jaws at the Wolf Lord whilst his pack opens up at the Grey Hunter pack providing him with cover. Again the Wolf Lord dodges the attack but the Grey Hunters manage to drop half of the enemy pack with firepower.

My third pack hit a Rhino with Meltaguns but only manage to immobilise it.

I then charge Skalfs pack into the Grey Hunters the combat is short and brutal with Skalf and the Grey Hunters emerging victorious. I then consolidate towards the Wolf Lord and the Deadzone objective.

My opponent disembarks the two Grey Hunter packs and moves them into charge range of my Grey Hunters. The Wolf Lord shifts over to support them in the upcoming assault.

His Long Fangs send volleys of fire into the Predator causing it to blow its turret sky high destroying it.

The assault phase begins and both units of Grey Hunters slam into my own pack along with the Wolf Lord, again his Wolf Claws rips a bloody swathe through my pack whilst the rest falls to sheer weight of attacks. I do manage to cripple one of the packs with my own attacks before the combat ends. He consolidates into the deadzone with both packs.

As it stands at the minute we both have scoring units in the deadzone.

Turn 4
I decide to execute a cunning plan should I lose my final scoring unit in the upcoming turns. I move my surviving Rhinos and form a "U" shape with them and the wreckage of a Rhino I had already lost. More on this later.

Skalfs pack fall back to the edge of the Deadzone and then double tap the large Grey Hunter pack reducing their numbers. Again Skalf manages to catch the Wolf Lord in a Jaws attack but his high initiative saves his ass again.

My Long Fangs cannot target the Grey Hunters because of the Rhino wall but they kill a few enemy Long Fangs instead.

The enemy close in on Skalfs pack as he needs to remove them from the deadzone to win.

He kills some Grey Hunters with shooting and then charges in with both packs and the Wolf Lord. Luckily this time despite re rolling hits the Wolf lord does not cause any wounds! I take heavy losses but Skalf and a few Grey Hunters survive locking them in close combat.

Turn 5
This is it, its looking grim in the deadzone as I doubt Skalf and the Grey Hunters will last another turn of combat.

I move the Long Fangs out of cover directly into the centre of the Rhino "U" wall and more importantly into the deadzone.

With nothing to shoot we go to the assault phase, The Wolf Lord manages to rip Skalf in two then Grey Hunter fight Grey Hunter in a fight to the death. With a final lunge the Wolf guard in my unit smashes into the Wolf Lord killing him with his powerfist, my pack finally falls.

The enemy has about 5 Grey Hunter left in the deadzone but he still cannot win as my Long Fangs are contesting. He climbs over the wreckage of the Rhino and gets within charge range of my Long Fangs.

The Grey Hunters charge into combat but due to a poor terrain roll he only gets two into combat with my Long Fangs, the combat ends in a draw.

We then roll to see if the game ends, I am sweating buckets as I am forcing a draw as it stands. We roll a 6, the game goes on.

Turn 6
The only thing to do this turn is the assault, he manages to get the rest of his pack into combat, The Grey Hunters do nothing to my Long Fangs but his powerfist kills two leaving me with two Long Fangs. I kill a Grey Hunter but still lose the combat by one however the Old Dogs stay in combat holding for one more round of combat.

In potentially the last turn of the game it all boils down to the Long Fang combat. We roll for initiative 4 attacks and I lose a Long Fang leaving the pack leader alone he make his armour save and I do not kill anything back.

This is it, his Wolf Guard fire up his Powerfist...takes aim...swings...and misses with both attacks!!

I make my morale check and pass, the Old Dog has held the enemy and is still contesting the deadzone, we roll too see if the game ends and we get a 3!

Game over, result Draw.

CONCLUSION
That was a good game I don't think I've sweated as much during a game as I did in that one, maybe it was the man flu taking over my body.

My opponent Will was great although I had a little issue with his army. Will was using Space Marine on bikes to represent his Thunderwolves. This in its self was fine but he had them mounted on bike bases. It didn't bother me that much but on the turn he killed Ulfs pack if he had 60mm bases he would have had to make a terrain check and he could have possibly not made it into combat. As it turned out he could squeeze the bike base through a gap and get into combat.

It may or may not have effected the outcome of this game but when things come down to a fine line at the end you notice these things.

Anyway I was pleased to turn a potential loss into a Draw, we both held a secondary objective and the Deadzone was contested by the Long Fangs pack leader, what a guy!

Stay tuned for the next Space Wolves battle report from Mayhem!