Brad's BOTCH: Space Wolves Vs Space Wolves (again)

I’ll start by saying this was probably the most frustrating game of 40k I have ever had and I want to start by apologising to my opponent Wil because these frustrations got the better of me at times during this game. I will explain my frustrations as I go on but do not think in any way this is an attack on my opponent.

Things were not helped by the fact I was slightly hung over from the spending all night in the Maelstrom bar and the fact our hotel was like a zoo with morons running up and down the halls all night setting fire alarms off.

This was the 5th round and the points level had escalated to 2000 points, the mission was 5 objectives and the setup was spearhead. I had played Wil before when I attended Mayhem in 2010 and before I get started I will explain the cause of my frustrations. Wil was running a Thunder lord accompanied by some Thunderwolf Cavalry, the problem was his Thunderwolves are actually Space Marine bikes on the Games Workshop bike bases. The size of the model itself did not bother me as something that can give a bike cover would probably give a Thunderwolf cover too, the problem is the base. The smaller base not only allows the model to squeeze through gaps it shouldn’t really squeeze through but it also allows more models to easily get into combat with a shorter frontage.

I fell foul of this back at Mayhem when a Thunder lord was able to squeeze through some terrain avoiding a terrain check and charge my squad on the other side, not a problem me thinks I’ll just clarify this pre game with Wil and a judge. The outcome of this was basically ruled against me and the models were to be played as they are, oh well lets just rock on and see how this game goes.

Wils army consisted of:-
(Again from memory so may not be accurate)

Wolf Lord, Thunderwolf, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, gubbins
Wolf Priest
Lone Wolf, TDA, Chainfist, Storm Shield
8 Grey Hunters, Melta, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters, Melta, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Melta, Razorback TLLC
5 Grey Hunters, Melta, Razorback TLLC
4 Thunderwolf Cavalry, Thunderhammer, Meltabomb
Landspeeder, MM/HF
Landspeeder, MM/HF
Vindicator
5 Long Fangs, Lascannons, Missile Launchers
5 Long Fangs, Lascannons, Missile Launchers

The Game

The second contributing factor to my frustration was the board we were playing on, it was horrid. The terrain consisted of two huge Line of sight blocking pieces dead centre of the board with a gap of about 5” between the two which essentially created three valleys in which we could advance at each other for. Wil won the roll off and elected to set up and take first turn, he deployed his Long Fangs in some tall ruins in his quarter and then everything else pretty much hidden by those monstrous pieces of terrain. I was in a bit of a pickle the terrain definitely favoured a close combat army and really limited my long range advantage. The plan was to funnel those Thunderwolves into a kill zone and hopefully tie up that Wolf Lord with a Dreadnought as his Wolf Claw would be useless against it. I had a tall ruin in my tale quarter as well so I deployed my Lascannon fangs in there whilst the others deployed on ground level covering the left flank where I was hoping the Thunderwolves would come crashing through. The rest of my army made use of the cover the best it could maximising the potential of the three lanes of fire.

The game started with my bad luck returning with a bang, those Long Fangs could just see my Dreadnought and managed to clip him with a few Lascannon shots, I failed my cover save and the Dreadnought got wrecked. I also lost a Razorback next to the Dread to a lucky missile shot from the second pack. The Vindicator nosed forward into a dominating position covering the central “lane” and then opened fire on a Rhino blowing it sky high, killing three Grey Hunters and then pinning the pack inside. The Thunderwolves as expected made a dash for my left flank heading straight for my lines.

My retaliation fire was pretty poor with the Long Fangs doing absolutely nothing to that Vindicator and everything thing else failing to either hit or penetrate armour. My Typhoons however did manage stun a Rhino creeping up on the right flank around a building. I edged my Rune priests Rhino forward 6” and then let rip with Jaws at the oncoming Thunderwolves. The Jaws line clipped the Lone Wolf and two Thunderwolves, I was quite pleased to see the Lone Wolf and a Thunderwolf fall to their doom.
It was about this point I started to get a bit flustered, the Wolf Lord broke off from the Thunderwolf pack and then fleeted towards my Long Fangs 6”. He was then able to squeeze through a gap between the board edge and the wrecked Razorback I had placed to block such action, needless to say my pack of Long Fangs were wiped out. The Thunderwolves made for my Rune priests Rhino and despite it moving it was wrecked causing the pack inside to spill out.

The Thunderwolf unit was now the focus of my attention but I still had a Vindicator bombarding my lines and two Rhinos full of Grey Hunters creeping towards my firebase. I disembarked my Grey Hunters from the third Rhino and rallied what I could to join the assault on the Thunderwolves, I jumped my Rune Priest back into his Rhino alone, he had a task to complete. He then summoned his powers and blasted the Wolf Lord with the Jaws of the World Wolf, despite being an agile fellow he wasn't agile enough and was sent tumbling to his doom.

Two Grey Hunter packs then crashed into the Thunderwolves aided by the Wolf Banners, both sides smashed each other apart and then my Power fists finished off what was left. I had killed them off but now my Packs were really depleted.

Over on my left flank I the two Rhinos full of Grey Hunters finally hit my lines and it was looking bleak, I had a small pack of Grey Hunters and a Dreadnought to hold the line against the assault. One of those Grey Hunter Packs contained a Wolf Priest who would chew through my small pack if I wasn't careful. My only option was to pour all my firepower into those units and thin them out, both units were in cover but I managed to take out about 50% of the strength before they assaulted my lines. A lucky Power fist hit sent my Dreadnought up in smoke whilst the Wolf Priest set about my pack and killed them all.

It was around this point I realised I had taken too many casualties to stay in this fight. Wil had captured three objectives with his troops whilst I only captured one. It was the bottom of turn 5 and if I could get another turn I could get into position to contest some of those objectives with my Speeders and get a Pack of Grey Hunters onto another objective, alas the dice gods were being cruel ended the game with a roll of a 1 leaving the game in a defeat for myself.

Conclusion

Despite my frustrations I can't take anything away from Wil, he out punched me and out punched me good. My Grey Hunters were punished by that Vindicator and its dominating position mean't I could do bugger all about it. The battlefield favored a close combat army and forced me to engage his units head on which was never a good plan. If I had not dropped that Wolf Lord with a lucky Jaws hit the game would have been over a few turns before as he would have chewed through my remaining Grey Hunters with ease. All in all a good game with some ass clenching moments which could have swung the game either way.