Bounding Black Templar Assault Marine
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Wolf Lord Magnar watched his wolves advance into the rubble and ruins that had once been the city of Corsus, lead by Ruin Priest Celious and the Venerable Dreadnought Woluff, the grey of their armor blending subtly and almost perfectly with the ash covered ruins. Magnar grinned at the Wolf Guard Ullif leading Pack Claw that accompanied him, his long white canines. It is now time to show those crimson armored fools what happens to those who fire on the Sons of the Great Russ! The battle for the city had been going on for months and multiple forces had become drawn in and embroiled in the massive confusion. It was this confusion that had lead to the current confrontation as a pack of Blood Claws had inadvertently fired upon and injured some of their erstwhile allies and rivals from the Crimson Lions Chapter and two of the Blood Claws had been cut down in the return fire. Blood had been spilled on both sides and now the engagement had slowly escalated as accusations of carelessness, stupidity and even treachery had been exchanged. The Space Wolves have never been known as reasonable and their impetuousness could not be checked now. So despite frantic vox traffic from Imperial headquarters demanding both sides to stand down, the Space Wolves advanced on the Crimson Lions position determined to show these upstarts exactly what it meant to cross a founding chapter, while the Lions carefully moved into position under the watchful eye of their Chapter Master McAlister, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to show what a lion could do to a mangy wolf.
This was a 2000 point battle between the Space Wolves and a Codex Marine Chapter called the Crimson Lions. The Space Wolves army list was as follows:
Wolf Lord Magnar – Bionics, Runic Armor, Runic Charm, Melta Bombs, Bolt pistol & Master Crafted Lightning Claw;
Rune Priest Celious – Psychis Power Storm Caller, Runic Armor, Runic Charm, Plasma Pistol, & Master Crafted Power Fist;
Venerable Dread Woluff – Dread CCW/Storm Bolter, Extra Armor, Multi-melta;
Grey Hunter Pack Claw – 10 Grey Hunters plus Wolf Guard Leader,10x Bolters & CCW, 1x Flamer, 1x Power Fist, Standard Bearer and Wolf Totem;
Grey Hunter Pack Fang - 10 Grey Hunters plus Wolf Guard Leader,11x Bolters & CCW, 1x Power Fist;
Blood Claw Pack Pounce – 14 Blood Claws plus Wolf Guard Leader, 12x Bolt Pistols, 14x CCW, Melta Bombs, 1x Plasma Pistol, 2x Power Weapon, Wolf Pelt;
Long Fang Pack Eliminate – 4x Long Fangs plus Pack Leader, 2x Heavy Bolters, 2x Lascannons, 1x Bolter;
Land Raider Crusader “Fangs of Russ”;
Wolf Scout Shadow Pack – 6x scouts, 3x Bolt Pistols, 2x Plasma Pistols, 1x Meltagun, 5x CCW and Melta Bombs.
The Crimson Lions list was as follows:
Chapter Master McAlister (AKA Pedro clone);
Sternguard Squad Rourke – 4x Sternguard plus Sgt. Rourke, 3xCombi-meltas, 2x Combi-Plasmas, 1x Lightning Claw, Melta Bomb;
Tactical Squad Aamon – 9x Tacticals plus Sgt. Aamon, 10x Bolt Pistols, 7x Bolters, 1x Plasma Gun, 1x Missile Launcher, 1x Chainsword;
Tactical Squad Quinlan– 9x Tacticals plus Sgt. Quinlan, 10x Bolt Pistols, 7x Bolters, 1x Flamer, 1x Missile Launcher, 1x Chainsword;
Tactical Squad Shondor– 9x Tacticals plus Sgt. Shondor, 10x Bolt Pistols, 7x Bolters, 1x Flamer, 1x Missile Launcher, 1x Chainsword;
Scout Squad Byrnes – 9 Scouts plus Scout Sgt Byrnes (aka Telion), 8x sniper rilfes, 1x Heavy Bolter, 1x Stalker Pattern Bolter, 10x Camo Cloaks;
Ironclad Dreadnought Boru – Extra Armor, Dread CCW, Meltagun, Storm Bolter, Chainfist;
Captain Rhiannon in Terminator Armor – Digital Weapon, PowerFist, Storm Bolter;
Terminator Squad Colin – 4x Terminators plus Sgt Colin; 3x Power Fists, 4x Storm Bolters, 1x Power Sword, 1x Chain Fist, 1x Assault Cannon;
Devastator Squad Keluch – 4x Devastators with Plasma Cannons plus Sgt Keluch;
Devastator Squad Gordun – 4x Devastators with Sgt Gordun, 2x Heavy Bolters, 1x Missile Launcher and 1x Lascannon.
Deployment: Space Wolves deploy first, Mission is Annihilation with Pitched Battle Deployment.
Basically Wolves deploy from his left to right – Grey Hunter Pack Claw with Ruin Priest behind large building on flank, facing the flank with the Venerable Dread next to them facing in toward center of table. About an 8” gap or so then on second floor of ruin his Long Fangs are packed in with line of sight pretty much across entire board. To the right of the building the devastators are in is the Land Raider, awaiting the Blood Claws surrounding it to hop in on their first turn. Lastly about 10” or so to the right is the Wolf Lord with Grey Hunter Pack Fang. The Wolf Scouts are in reserve.
The Crimson Lions deploy with slightly heavier forces favoring their own right flank. Devastator Squad Gordun is in a building on the far right flank near the back of the building and the scouts deploy into the upper floor of the same building but to the front. The Chapter Master stands behind a building by himself, speaking urgently with the Battle Barge orbiting above. Between he and the building with the scouts the Sternguard and Tactical Squad Quinlan deploy with views towards the center of the board and of the Long Fangs. To the left of the Chapter Master but behind the same building is the Terminator Captain and the Terminators and the Dreadnought. Devastator Squad Keluch with the 4 Plasmacannons is on a hill near the center of the board and deployed a bit further forward hoping to be able to close off certain avenues of approach. Tactical Squad Shondor backs up Squad Keluch in the middle and lastly Tactical Squad Aamon protects the far left flank by themselves.
Turn 1 and in the first dramatic turnabout which drastically changes the entire game the Crimson Lions seize the initiative and strike first. The Crimson Lion general calmly and coolly surveys the field and decides he likes where his troops are set up and forgoes moving to start shooting. (Alternatively he may have gotten too excited by actually managing to seize the initiative and forgets entirely to move his forces. However, since he is writing this we will go with the first version as official).
Calling down an Orbital Bombardment Chapter Master McAlister grins as a bright lancing beam of bright red energy punches straight through the top of the Land Raider, setting off its munitions in a cataclysmic fireball, a gear wheel removing the head from one of the unlucky Blood Claws as the rest of them hit the dirt. Most of the rest of the shooting is concentrated on the Long Fangs, who manage to avoid injury despite several missile launcher shots and sniper shots into the building as the armor and cover serves them well. The Missile Launcher in Squad Aamon drops a Grey Hunter on the far left but then in the center one of the Plasma Cannons overheats as the Devastator Squad unwisely targets a unit just out of range and the Crimson Lions lose their first man to a fatal equipment malfunction.
The Wolves, after standing back up and dusting Land raider bits off of themselves start howling and decide to charge forward. Unfortunately the longest run is only 3” from one unit and is not as helpful as hoped. The only shooting is from the Long Fangs who manage to vaporize a scout. At the end of turn 1 it is Crimson Lions 1-0.
Turn 2 Chapter Master joins up with the Sternguard as they advance into a building ruin, and the Dreadnought and Terminators move forward up into the middle of the field enticing the Long Fangs to lean out to get better shots at them. Deciding that the Wolves look a bit too eager to get to grips the rest of the Lions decide another round of shooting is in order. The Long Fangs luck runs out as while they target the Dreadnought after the Scouts shoot back at them and another missile explodes in their midst only a single Lascannon is left standing. The Venerable dread had its CCW torn off by a missile from Tactical Squad Shondor and Squad Aamon drops another member of the Grey Hunter squad accompanying the Wolf Lord.
The wolves fare a bit better on turn two as the Wolf Scouts show up behind the Crimson Lions lines and the rest of the Wolves continue their charge forward into the guns. The Scouts decide that the Dreadnought is too far forward to try and hit with their melta-bombs so they instead shoot at the terminators and then charge into them. The scouts actually melt a hole in one of the terminators with a plasma pistol shot and then succeed in punching one of their knives through a weak spot in the terminator armor, dropping a second one after the charge. The terminators retaliate but only kill 5 of the 6 scouts and the survivor decides to stick around and duke it out with the terminators. The Venerable Dread fails to hit the Crimson Lion Dreadnought with its Multi-melta but the lone wolf Lascannon manages to kill one of the Plasma Cannons in the Devastator Squad in the middle of the board. At the end of turn 2 it is still 1-0.
On turn 3 things start to get worse for the Wolves as the Dreadnought charges into the Blood Claws, a battle that will last until the end of the game. The Sternguard and Chapter Master after blowing the second arm off of the Venerable Dreadnought with meltagun shots, charge in and the Chapter Master rips the sarcophagus apart with his Power Fist and the Sternguard consolidate over towards the right flank and the Grey Hunters nearing the Snipers. Devastator Squad Gordun kills the final Lascannon in the Wolf Squad earning another point, the Terminators and the Captain kill the Lone Wolf scout, the Snipers manage to drop 3 members of the Grey Hunters on the right flank and the combined fire of Squad Shondor and Squad Aamon who had moved up to rapid fire the Wolf Lord and the Grey Hunters on the left flank, killing all but three of that group.
The Space Wolves long trek is finally over as on the right flank the Ruin Priest and the Grey Hunters charge the Sniper Scouts, The Wolf Lord and his remaining two Grey Hunters Charge Squad Aamon and the Blood Claws continue to slap Melta-bombs onto the Ironclad. The Wolf Lord kills 5 of Squad Aamon by himself and in return one Grey Hunter dies but the units stay locked in combat. On the right Flank the Scouts and Grey Hunters and Ruin Priest manage a draw with only 1 kill each. At the end of turn 3 the score is now 4-0 Crimson Lions.
Turn 4 is the final turn as we decide to call it after that. The Sternguard and Squad Quinlan assault into the back of the Grey Hunters attacking the Snipers and with the Chapter Master in tow after something like 42 attacks the Ruin Priest stands alone although he manages to kill all of the Sternguard over the course of turn 4. The Terminators join in on the fight in the middle between the Ironclad and the Bloodclaws and several Bloodclaws die and it seems like that fight will turn against the wolves now. On the far left the Wolf Lord annihilates all but Sergeant Aamon, who falls back from combat denying the point. Final score ends up being 5-1 the Crimson Lions defeating the Space Wolves. Here are some pictures from the battle.
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