Adam's BOTCH: Spaces Wolves VS World Eaters

In the third round I found myself facing Tim Smith's stunning Pre Heresy World Eaters army presented by the Blood Angels Codex, complete with two Land Raider Redeemmers, 2 units of Assault Terminators and Mephiston! He also had 2 5 man squads, a Razorback and a Sanguinary Priest of course.

Space Wolves always seem to struggle against Land Raiders. Well, mine do at least. And having been roasted alive by a Land Raider Redeemer in the last tournament, I didn't fancy letting either of them get close.

So the plan was simple - pop the Land Raiders, kill what's inside, some how kill Mephiston (shoot him!) and advance up the board.

The game had 4 Objectives and the deployment was Pitched Battle. Not that it made a lot of difference in this battle.

Tim won the roll to go first and deployed a Land Raider either side of the fort in the centre, which Mephiston hid behind.

Meanwhile I elected to castle on the left flank and buy myself as many turns of lascannon fire as I could while setting my Grey Hunters up in a suitable counter attack position.

The Land Speeders went into reserve and would Deep Strike next to the Land Raiders and hopefully take them out with their multimeltas.

The Vindicator also went into reserve and would hopefully arrived just in time to land a big ordnance shell on some Terminators too.

THE GAME
As expected, the Land Raiders came speeding across the board. Lascannons bounced off them, multimelta blasts disabbled weapons, but they kept on coming.

The game came to a head when one Land Raider was met by a wall of Space Wolves Rhinos and as melta guns were fired from the top hatches, nothing happened.

The Assault Terminators disembarked and along with Mephiston charged the Rhinos, smashing them apart.

The Space Wolves staggered out, formed a line, opened fire with everything while Krak missiles slammed into the Terminators from overhead and the newly arrived Vindicator managed to fire a shell directly into the middle of one squad. Finally, a casting of Jaws Of The World Wolf before each Grey Hunter pack called on the power of their Wolf Standard and charged into close combat.

Not a single Terminator died.

Then it was time for my opponent to attack back.
Pretty much all hit, all wound, all dead.

Hmmm...

Then the World Eaters tore through my army like a hot Frisbee through butter.

CONCLUSION
Despite having made a pact with Satan when it comes to dice rolling, Tim was actually an awesome guy to play against. And it's not as if anyone could say there was something up with his dice, because they flew everywhere! I thought James had trouble keeping his dice on the table, lol.

The big combat in the middle should have gone in my favour. I've done this kind of thing a few times before. All the Ap2 guns going into the Terminators alone should have done something. But sometimes, that's just the way it goes.

Of course, had I won the close combat, no doubt the two Redeemers would have closed in and incinerated everyone with their dual S6 AP3 flame storm cannons. So the strength of Tim's list really is the two Land Raiders. Hence why his next game against the Grey Knights ended quite badly when he lost both on the first turn to rending psycannons.

As for me, my list could have been a lot stronger. The Long Fangs were both 6-men strong, when they only needed 5 and the Vindicator was a fat waste of points. Sadly, the Land Speeders didn't do so well either.

The cost of extra Razorbacks, Land Speeders and a Vindicator seems to be detracting from the core of the Space Wolves army, which is Grey Hunter packs. Lots of Grey Hunter packs!