Adam's BOTCH: Spaces Wolves VS Space Wolves

In the final round of BotC 2011 I found myself drawn against Space Wolves Blog reader Andy and his force of Grey Hunters, Long Fangs, compulsory Rune Priest and a Wolf Lord riding Thunderwolf as well as a Wolf Guard Battle Leader riding Thunderwolf. Then I spotted the Drop Pod full of Wolf Guard armed with combi-plasmas!

The mission was Kill Points with a Dawn of War deployment.

One look at all of his Grey Hunters and those Thunderwolves and I knew I couldn't beat him in close combat. I simply didn't have enough men.

But if there was one way I could beat him, it was at range with all my extra lascannons. So I planned to play like a Tau and fall back firing. It was Kill Points after all.

The Wolf Guard in a Drop Pod didn't concern me in the slightest. But if they'd had combi-meltas, then this could have been a different story.

I gave Andy a hearty handshake and wished him the best of luck before the game began.

THE GAME
I won the roll off and elected to go first, choosing the table edge that would favour my cowardly strategy. Everything would arrive from my board edge on Turn 1.

I brought the Land Raider on in the centre with everything else spread along the left. The Long Fangs got out of their Razorback transports and ran into the tower on the left flank to take up firing positions for the game.

Meanwhile my Land Speeders zoomed up the right flank.

Andy deployed his force right of the centre. Deploying directly opposite wouldn't have given his tanks much of a cover save past turn 2, so this wasn't such a bad decision.

The drop pod full of Wolf Guard slammed down in the middle of my army and the Wolf Guard got out and fired their combi-plasmas at the nearest Rhino, but only managed to immobilise it.

All my Grey Hunters got out and messed them up!

Meanwhile Andy needed another turn to get his Long Fangs into position, but which time he came under fire from my Long Fangs and a torrent of Krak missiles.

Once his long range capabilities had been eliminated, it was a case of my mobile units falling back while trying to destroy as many of his Rhinos as I could before he could finally close with me and bring his superior numbers to bear.

But, as the Land Speeders closed in on his right flank, dangerously close to 2 of his Rhinos he took the bait (aka: the juicy bone!) and steered both transports, packed full of Grey Hunters, towards them.

Sure, both Land Speeders died, but that bought me an extra turn of keeping his Grey Hunters out of the fight and nicely divided up his army.

The game ended on Turn 5 with a mountain of Kill Points on both sides.
I won 10 - 8 in the end and despite the way it looks, the game felt very close. However, by the end Andy's army was in tatters while mine was closing for the kill.

CONCLUSION
I felt slightly ashamed in playing this game like a total coward. I wanted to charge in and turn the game into a massive drunken brawl -and what Space Wolf player wouldn't? But there was no way I could beat 4 Rhinos full of Grey Hunters, a drop pod full of Wolf Guard and Thunderwolves in close combat with what I had.

So instead I shot him up...and ran away.

I really liked Andy's army, but I had made things difficult for him. I knew how hard it can be to set up your Long Fangs if they have to come on from the board edge and then come under fire.

The gambit with the Land Speeders acting as a bait unit worked better than I'd imagined. I was surprised he didn't take them out with his Long Fangs. Two Rhinos were drawn away from the right, essentially halving his army and making my target selection much easier.

Although the Thunderwolves were closing very quickly...until a Vindicator shell killed the Wolf Lord outright! Well, I guess the Vindicator did something in the end, even if it took 3 games.

The mission and all my lascannons favoured me in this game. The Wolf Guard Terminators didn't even get out of their Land Raider, although they were ready for a counter attack. But by this point I'd got fed up of them dying to bolter fire.

Although it was rather one sided, it was a good game with plenty of laughs and Andy was a fantastic opponent to play against. I'd definitely like to play him again with a more aggressive Space Wolves force so we could have a proper ruck!

Thanks for reading. Now for me to go away and think about improving my army.
I've got a great idea for a Space Wolf Assault Terminators substitute which might just work...