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Background
In my last game against Atlas' Blood Angels, my Wolves got ravaged pretty badly since it was an Annihilation game, handing me my first non-handicapped loss to Blood Angels. Poor Ratius couldn't believe it. Sick of losing Annihilation games, I put together a rather silly experimental list with Storm Shield Terminators everywhere and decided to duke it out with Atlas again (and pray it was Annihilation lol).

Space Wolves


Blood Angels


DEPLOYMENT
We rolled off to see what the mission/deployment would be and ended up with Annihilation (yay!) and Dawn of War. Atlas decided to use Dante's Death Mask to (infuriatingly) reduce Logan's WS/W/I/A by 1. Not cool. We rolled off to see who would deploy first, and Atlas won it. He decided to take the first turn, but left all his forces off the table just in case I seized the initiative (they would walk on Turn 1). After he did that, I placed Njal and the 5-man Wolf Guard unit on the table. Njal placed his Chooser marker (which I actually remembered to use for once!) near Atlas' table edge for the juicy BS5 bonus. With that taken care off, we began the bloodbath...



Turn 1 – Blood Angels
Atlas brought in both of his Furioso Dreadnoughts, but was hesitant to put them in front of Njal and his unit. Instead he dropped them near the forest to get some cover from incoming fire. The rest of his forces then blazed forward towards Njal, with only the Predator hanging back to rain down fire.

In the Shooting Phase, Atlas' Stormravens and Predator all fired at Njal's unit, and all but the Plasma Cannon Stormraven were able to see the unit (due to Night Fighting), rolling a tons of 6's. However, despite the concentrated firepower, only 1 Wolf Claw died.



Turn 1 – Space Wolves
I did not reserve any of my units, so they all walked onto the board. I decided to match Andilus and Arjac against Atlas and Dante, while the weakened Logan trudged after the Furioso Dreadnoughts and incoming Assault Marines. The Lone Wolf looked to bring down the Furioso Dreadnought and gain favour in the Great Wolf's eyes, or die trying. Also, Njal cast Tempest's Wrath, creating a 24” bubble of difficult/dangerous terrain for all Skimmers/Jump Infantry – in other words, pretty much all of Atlas' army (cue troll face).

In the Shooting Phase, my Long Fangs were unable to fire. Thankfully, I had a ton of Cyclone Missile Launchers, which peppered Atlas' vehicles. Njal's squad tried to take down the Lascannon Stormraven, but failed to damage it (and Atlas hooded Njal's attempt to cast Living Lightning). However, Andilus' squad managed to Stun the Plasma Stormraven. On the other side of the board, Logan's squad opened fire on the top Furioso and wrecked it.

In the Assault Phase I attempted to assault the other Furioso with my Lone Wolf, but was just short (I was considering assaulting the Drop Pod because I knew it would be in range, but the Furioso was worth the risk). With that done, no one else could assault.



Turn 2 – Blood Angels
Atlas rolled for his last Drop Pod's reserves, but it did not come in. Unconcerned, Atlas and his unit disembarked from their Stunned Stormraven and headed after Njal and his squad. Meanwhile, Dante and his squad moved to attack them, but the pilot was unable to see due to the raging tempest and crashed it, immobilizing the vehicle. Dante and his squad disembarked and prepared to smack down Njal in fury. Worried about having the same thing happen to them, the left-most Assault Squad moved to support Dante and Atlas, but were relieved to discover that they all passed their dangerous terrain tests. Meanwhile, the other 2 Assault Squads went after Logan's squad, while the Furioso Dreadnought moved to assault the Lone Wolf.

In the Shooting Phase, Atlas' units opened fire. His Predator fired at Andilus' squad, killing 1 of the Wolf Claws. Atlas and Dante's units shot at Njal's squad, killing another Wolf Claw and killing the Chainfist. One of Atlas' Drop Pods also shot at a squad of Long Fangs, killing their Sergeant. Finally, the Furioso fired at the Lone Wolf, killing both of its Fenrisian Wolves.

The bloodbath began in earnest in the Assault Phase. The Furioso Dreadnought assaulted the Lone Wolf and, to everyone's surprise, actually managed to kill it! I did not expect that at all! Meanwhile, Atlas and Dante's squads dog piled Njal. Njal managed to nullify Atlas' attempts to cast Unleash Rage and The Sanguine Sword. They didn't really need it though, as they slaughtered his unit, leaving only Njal standing after making 4 invulnerable saves. Njal directed his attacks at Atlas, and just barely managed to kill the Librarian by causing 2 wounds. The victory was short-lived though, as Atlas' Honour Guard armed with a powerfist turned Njal into a bloody wolf-skin rug immediately after.



Turn 2 – Space Wolves
Looking for revenge for Njal's death, Andilus and Arjac charged forward to attack Dante and the Honour Guard. Logan also charged to meet the incoming Assault Marines while the Long Fangs pointed their missile launchers at the best targets.

In the Shooting Phase, Logan's squad managed to kill 2 Assault Marines with their Missile Launchers. The Long Fang squads also Stunned the last Furioso Dreadnought, blew up the immobilized Stormraven and then immobilized the last one.

In the Assault Phase, Andilus and his squad decided to assault Dante and the Sanguinary Guard, risking the poor difficult terrain test to get across the river in order to multi-assault the two units. Luckily, they managed to roll a and charged into the fray. Unfortunately, Andilus himself was out of base-to-base, and so wouldn't participate in this assault. The Wolf Claws were able to kill the Honour Guard's Sanguinary Noviate, but one of the Claws was killed in return. Dante and the Sanguinary Guard also attacked, but were unable to get past Arjac and the Terminators' shields. In return, the powerfists and chainfists struck back, killing all of the Sanguinary Guard, 2 more Honour Guard (leaving only the Power Weapon and Chapter Banner) and Arjac slew Dante personally. The Honour Guard broke from combat, and the victorious Wolf Guard surged forward.



Turn 3 – Blood Angels
Atlas' last Drop Pod arrived this turn, and he dropped it just in front of Logan's squad to spray them with melta-fire. The blue and purple Assault Squads then moved to assault Logan as well, while the black Assault Squad prepared to assault Andilus.

In the Shooting Phase, the Stormraven, Predator, Honour Guard remnants and black Assault Squad all fired at Andilus' squad. The casualties were horrendous – a Wolf Claw, Cyclone Missile Launcher and 3 Powerfists were killed and Andilus was wounded once, which was waaaaaaay more than I could afford when staring down a full Assault Squad with Furious Charge. The other Assault Squads also fired on Logan, causing equally-horrendous casualties to him as well: 2 Wolf Claws, a Powerfist and Cyclone Missile Launcher were all killed. Ouch. That was NOT good at all... I am now in serious danger of getting tabled.

In the Assault Phase, only Atlas' blue Assault Squad could reach Logan, since the Drop Pod was in the purple squad's way. They managed to cause some more serious damage, killing Logan Grimnar (he failed 2/4 2+ saves!) and another Wolf Claw. However, despite losing the Great Wolf, the Wolf Guard rallied. They crushed the Sanguinary Priest and killed 6 Assault Marines, causing the Blood Angels to fall back.

Elsewhere, the black Assault Squad and Honour Guard charged Andilus to destroy the survivors of their shooting. The units swung their attacks at Andilus and his squad, but miraculously they only managed to kill the Wolf Claw and wound Andilus once more. In desperation, Andilus killed one of the Honour Guard, while Arjac and the last remaining Cyclone Missile Launcher only managed to kill a single Assault Marine... pathetic! The rest of the Assault Marines piled in to finish off the last remaining Wolf Lord and his cadre...



Turn 3 – Space Wolves
Things were still pretty desperate for me, but despite losing Logan, his Wolf Guard had rallied spectacularly and afforded me some breathing room. I considered going after the purple Assault Squad with them, but decided instead to go after the green one fresh from the Drop Pod since they had the Red Thirst.

In the Shooting Phase, the Long Fangs Shook the Stormraven (whoop-dee-doo ), Immobilized/Stunned the Furioso and Shook the Predator. Not bad! Logan's Wolf Guard also killed a pair of Assault Marines with their missile launcher before launching the assault. They killed 5 Assault Marines, but their Wolf Claw and Cyclone Missile Launcher were both killed in return (to be fair, the Wolf Claw had whiffed horribly and I wanted him to die in retribution ).

Meanwhile, in Andilus' assault, the Wolf Lord managed to kill the last Honour Guard with his greatsword. Arjac and the Cyclone Missile Launcher also were able to stave off the Blood Angels' attacks, dealing back only 1 wound in return however... BUT, it was enough – the Assault Marines actually failed their Morale check and fell back! I was not expecting that, but I'm not gonna argue with it either! Andilus and his squad consolidated to continue to pursue the fleeing Marines.



Turn 4 – Blood Angels
The black Assault Squad continued to fall back, but managed to stay close enough to Andilus' squad to shoot at them. Instead of helping the green Assault Squad, the purple Squad jumped over them and went after the Long Fangs.

In the Shooting Phase, the purple Squad fired at the Long Fangs, killing 2 Missile Launchers – I made sure that they were the ones left-most in order to draw the Assault Marines away from my other Long Fangs squads by a few more inches. The Stormraven and fleeing Assault Marines also fired at Andilus' squad, but they whiffed severely, failing to kill a single Terminator.

In the Assault Phase, the purple Assault Marines charged the Long Fangs and (predictably) slaughtered them. They consolidated towards the other Long Fangs. Meanwhile, the remnants of Logan's Wolf Guard continued to fight the green Assault Squad. 1 of them was killed, but they killed a single Marine in response, dragging the fight on.



Turn 4 – Space Wolves
Now that my precious dice daemons had turned their favour to their favourite servant, the game had begun to swing well into my advantage. Assuming the game didn't go to Turn 7, I was in a good position to win. Andilus and his unit pursued the black Assault Squad and opened fire on them, killing 2 with Arjac's hammer and krak missiles. The Long Fangs also blew an arm off of the Furioso Dreadnought and destroyed the Stormraven (I rolled 3 more immobilized results, just barely managing to destroy all its weapons).

In the Assault Phase, Andilus charged, killing 3 of the Assault Marines himself. The Assault Marines continued to fail to do any damage, while the Cyclone Missile Launcher killed their Sanguinary Priest. Arjac also killed one of the Marines, causing the last 2 survivors to flee. In the ongoing assault, Logan's Wolf Guard killed a single Assault Marine.



Turn 5 – Blood Angels
The fleeing Assault Squad was unable to regroup since Andilus was too close to them. Instead, they ran off the board. Atlas moved his purple Assault Squad to assault my Long Fangs and earn another kill point for the Blood Angels. He was careful to stay off the river though in order to avoid dangerous terrain checks. The Predator also backed up to avoid being attacked by Arjac. In the Shooting Phase, the Assault Marines refrained from shooting to ensure they would be able to assault the Long Fangs. However, the Predator shot all its guns at Andilus' squad, but once again it failed to kill anyone! In the Assault Phase, the purple Assault Squad discovered that it was barely in assault range, but would have to pass a difficult terrain test in order to make it. Unfortunately, Atlas rolled a 3 and a 1, and was unable to make it in.



Turn 5 – Space Wolves
Andilus moved to attack the Predator head-on, firing the Cyclone Missile Launcher at it (Arjac was out of range). However, the AV13 hull was too much to get through. The Long Fangs tried to chime in, but failed to scratch it as well. The right-most Long Fang squad had more success though, annihilating the immobilized Furioso.

The turn ended quickly, and we rolled to see whether there would be a Turn 6 or not...





AFTERTHOUGHTS
Sure, I won this game, but I don't think I'll ever run this list again. Terminator lists are fun, but I hate the lack of mobility, the high cost and my huge reliance on luck. This list really, really relied on luck, and if the dice daemons hadn't seen it fit to gift me with unnatural luck around Turn 4, I would have been tabled. That said, I also had terrible luck in the first couple turns which nearly sank me early on.

On the plus side, I hate Annihilation, so it's nice to win it for once. However, I had to stack the odds ridiculously in my favour (in regards to KP missions) in order to do that, and 2/3 times that would not be worth it at all. I think I'll probably gravitate back to my mech-Wolves in the future and figure out some way to avoid bleeding KP.

If you enjoyed this, be sure to check out my other battle reports!

haha, after however many times you beat me, I beat you once and then the next game is the grudge match


Automatically Appended Next Post:
oh, and the guard had the chapter banner, that's not mentioned in the list

Titan Atlas wrote:haha, after however many times you beat me, I beat you once and then the next game is the grudge match


Automatically Appended Next Post:
oh, and the guard had the chapter banner, that's not mentioned in the list

lol I had to make it EXCITING!

And ok, I'll edit that in.

Yeah, fair enough. After all, I called the last one a showdown, then again...I suppose I had intended for it to be significant as it was the second 3000 points game I tried and the first in quite a while, me feeling a little more confident at that point.

It really did look like you were going to get tabled. I like the board set up, too. Looks like a sleepy little town that just got drop-podded.

Oh, and Barloq, don't forget the Honour Guard in the list.

Ricedaddy wrote:It really did look like you were going to get tabled. I like the board set up, too. Looks like a sleepy little town that just got drop-podded.

Yeah, I was in some pretty dire straits in the first half of the game. I like the set-up too, I saved it as a default map for all those days when I get too lazy to make a new map. I accidentally deleted a pair of hills though during deployment which was pretty bad for me. Vassal was screwing up that night so it took us an hour just to get things up and running properly.

Titan Atlas wrote:Oh, and Barloq, don't forget the Honour Guard in the list.

Who is this "Barloq"

sorry, force of habit, I talk to your lizardmen from time to time.

VASSAL tends to have issues (not complaining, I'm grateful that it's free). You saw the issues I was having in my game against Atlas.

Ya, it's usually fine but it was annoying in that game.

it has been extremely annoying recently :/

Wow, I just realized my list was illegal, not allowed 2 chapter banners. That's alright though, that side wasn't exactly going unfairly well on my part anyways, but I'll remember that for next time.

Looked like total carnage guys!
Loved it and the "leader shots" at the start were a greqat touch!

Turn 3 I thought tabling for the Wolves? Still tryin to work out what happened TA!

AG, do you think it could have been even better for you if you targetted the marines rather than his vehicles, the Pred/SRs were only ever (with luck) gonna kill 2-4 marines a turn where as his AS squads could have ( and did) wreck some face?

Thanks Ratius, that's a good point about the Assault Squads. I think I just went after vehicles though for easy KPs, a single unit of Long Fangs might be expected to cause 2-3 casualties to the Assault Squads, while they could probably get a KP from targeting a vehicle.

Good point on the easy KPs dude. Like it

Only counter point was that the AS squads were going to cause much more carnage to you (except for AS's bad luck).

But GG anyway

Yeah, luck was not on my side :( oh well. We'll surely have another game sometime soon, and I'm feeling more and more confident in my ability to keep people on their toes.

Ratius wrote:Looked like total carnage guys!
Loved it and the "leader shots" at the start were a greqat touch!

Turn 3 I thought tabling for the Wolves? Still tryin to work out what happened TA!

Thing is, I was rather lucky early on, but luck then went supremely the other way for the rest of the game :/ I had a reasonable shot at winning, but at least what I went with turned out well, strategically.