Stormin' Stompa
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Played my first games with the new Space Wolves codex today. I am happy to report that I managed to pull a win against a local opponent I've never managed to beat before.
His list was approximately...
Skulltaker in Chariot
The Masque
15 Bloodletters w/ Icon
11 Daemonettes of Slaanesh
12 Daemonettes of Slaanesh
4 Fiends of Slaanesh
5 Fiends of Slaanesh
6 Fiends of Slaanesh
Soulgrinder w/ Phlegm, Tongue and Harvester
10 Khornate Warhounds (or whatever the hell they are)
11 Khornate Warhounds including the 'Champion' one with Rending
My list was as follows...
Logan Grimnar 275 Attached to Wolf Guard
Rune Priest; Jaws of the World Wolf, Tempest's Wrath, Meltabombs 105 Attached to GH in Rhino
Wolf Guard Battle Leader – Terminator, 2x Wolf Claws 130 Attached to Wolf Guard
Wolf Priest, Saga of the Warrior Born, Melta Bombs 140 Attached to Blood Claws
7 Wolf Guard
Terminator Armour, Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield 63
Terminator Armour, Assault Cannon & Frost Blade 73
Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter and Chainfist 48
Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter and Frost Blade 43
Terminator Armour, Storm Bolter and Wolf Claw 38
Terminator Armour, 2x Wolf Claws 53
Bolter, Power Fist 38 Attached to GH in Razorback
14 Blood Claws 210
9 Grey Hunters 155
Meltagun, Mark of The Wulfen,
Rhino Transport, Dozer Blade 40
5 Grey Hunters 95
Meltagun, Mark of The Wulfen
Razorback Transport, Linked Heavy Bolters 40
Venerable Dreadnought, Multi-Melta 165
Drop Pod 35
TOTAL 1746
The mission was Spearhead/Capture and Control, and I won the roll and elected to go first. I immediately regretted this, as I remembered I would not be able to counter-pod the Soulgrinder with my Multimelta dread. One objective was almost precisely centre-field, and the other two were about 15 inches to either side of it.
I deployed a transport to either side of my corner zone, the Wolf Guard in area terrain toward the centre, and the Blood Claws+Wolf Priest spread out to cover the flank presenting the least terrain.
Turn 1:
I dropped the Dreadnought near to my cluster, and it scattered to the top corner of a small building. The Dread was placed next to the building, back to the wall. I cast Tempest's Wrath and drove my Rhino+Rune Priest to the centre of the field (Tempest's Wrath forces all Deep Strikers, Skimmers and Jump Infantry that ends its move within 24” of the caster to take tests for Difficult and Dangerous terrain). The Wolf Guard+Logan moved forward, and the Razorback deposited its contents into area terrain on the other side of the central objective. The Blood Claws spread out to threaten the large open area above my deployment zone.
My opponent dropped his Soulgrinder, Bloodletters, Chariot, two units of Hounds, and the unit of four Fiends. The Soulgrinder scattered off table and was delayed, the bloodletters lost a wound to Tempest's Wrath, and the hounds scattered out of range but into terrain and also suffered a wound. The chariot landed in area terrain as well, which was overall quite fortunate.
Turn 2:
I deposited the Rhino pack into the same terrain as the other Grey Hunters, moved the WG toward the centre (into range of the Bloodletters), and turned the dread to face the fiends (came down on my long table edge). Maw of the World Wolf tagged five Bloodletters including the Icon, but only killed two of the regulars. Both squads of Hunters rapid fired the Bloodletters, and the Terminators added their fire to bring the unit down to four models. The Dread wounded a fiend, and the Blood Claws pretty much stayed where they were.
My opponent managed to bring down the other pack of Hounds, one of Daemonettes, the Masque and the Soulgrinder. The Masque missed the WG but pushed the larger Hunters unit out of cover and the smaller one into charge range of the Bloodletters (still in cover). The Hounds in the corner got out of terrain but that was about it, and the Chariot rolled snake eyes and remained in terrain. The Soulgrinder shook the Razorback with its mawcannon. The Bloodletters got into the smaller unit of Grey Hunters and the Fiends charged the Dreadnought. The Dread lost it's DCCW, but caused two wounds in reply (and another for winning the combat by 1). The Grey Hunters wiped out the Bloodletters before they could respond.
Turn 3:
Logan And Friends moved a little closer to the centre, gunning down several of the newly arrived Daemonettes. The smaller unit of Grey Hunters killed a few more with pistols, and the larger unit fired at the Chariot but did nothing (Maw did similarly nothing). The small unit of Grey Hunters engaged the Daemonettes, taking a casualty or two but wiping them out after Combat Resolution. The Dreadnought was shaken but caused a wound to the fiends.
The last two units of Fiends came in, the 5x where the first arrived, and the 6x unit tried to land on my corner's objective but scattered to the table edge and only barely avoided a mishap. The last unit of Daemonettes scattered far away, beyond even where the Chariot had gone, and took a wound to terrain. The hounds w/ special hound multicharged my rhino+hunters, shaking the vehicle but only killing two Hunters, and being wiped out on cambat resolution. The other hounds charged the Razorback and knocked off its gun. The Dreadnought was shaken again but finished off the fiends, consolidating toward the new pack of fiends nearby. It would buy me time if nothing else...
Turn 4:
The Wolf Guard dashed toward the Masque, failing to shoot her down but tearing her to pieces in combat. The Dread wounded a fiend with it's multi-melta (as did the Drop Pod's stormbolter) and engaged them, causing three wounds total after combat res. The larger unit of Grey Hunters shot and charged the chariot, taking several wounds and an additional casualty after failing morale. The Rune Priest caused two wounds on the Chariot, however. The smaller unit of Hunters headed down to engage the Hounds surrounding their Razorback, killing all but two. The Rhino drove out to block off the newly arrived Daemonettes from getting too near the closest objective next turn.
The Fiends near my corner's objective came up half an inch short of charging my Blood Claws. The Soulgrinder charged Grimnar's unit, killing the Assault Cannon but falling to the Thunder Hammer. The Daemonettes managed to run well to the objective, and after some unfortunate saves the smaller unit of Hunters died simultaneously with the remaining Hounds. The Chariot tore up the Rune Priest and flattened the routing remainder, consolidating toward the objective the Daemonettes held. The Dread polished off yet another pack of Fiends single handedly and consolidated six inches, to hold the central objective along with the Blood Claws.
Turn 5:
Logan and Friends shot and charged the Daemonettes on the objective, killing them all and consolidating to hold it. The Blood Claws wounded a Fiend with a pistol round and got ready to receive the charge that would decide the game.
The Chariot moved to within 3" of the objective held by the Wolf Guard, contesting it, but did not charge. The unit of six fiends smashed into the Blood Claws, killed four... and took six wounds in response. The combat resolution wounds took them down to a single model, so I couldn't consolidate back to hold the objective contested my the dreadnought. With two contested objectives and one open, the game was up to whether or not there was to be a sixth turn...
The dice turned up a sixth turn, and my opponent resigned. Logan and his mates would have shot and ripped the Chariot to pieces, and the single remaining fiend would not last against ten Blood Claws.
Mark of the Wulfen made my modest Grey Hunter units incredibly good in combat (despite the fact that rending rarely helps against Daemons... but the extra attacks sure did!), and the fact that I did not fail a single Counterattack test probably helped a lot. 15 point marines with three attacks each despite receiving the charge are brilliant.
Maw of the World Wolf and Tempest's Wrath accounted for little, but the lowest initiative I was facing was 4, and I had better opportunities to employ the Runic Weapon against daemons rather than sit back and toss spells out.
I was very proud of the young Blood Claws, doing nothing for most of the game and defending the central objective very successfully, despite not getting their Preferred Enemy bonus due to the fact that they were not fighting infantry. The only squad buff I used from Logan was the Preferred Enemy rule, and that made his squad absolutely devastating (particularly with 12 Wolf Claw attacks rerolling hits as well as wounds).
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