Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

First off, apologies for the many posts, but its the only way I know to intersperse text and pics.

 

The Spacewolves List:

Otso's Wolves (Scarab)

<?  

1 Jumalvasara (Godhammer) [Land Raider Crusader] @ 269 Pts

   Hurricane Bolters (x2); Multi-Melta; Twin-Linked Assault Cannon

   1 Power of the Machine Spirit @ [0] Pts

   1 Searchlight @ [1] Pts

   1 Smoke Launchers @ [3] Pts

 

4 Korpinsilmat (Raveneyes) [Long Fangs] @ 203 Pts

   Lascannon (x1); Missile Launcher (x3); True Grit

   1 Pack Leader @ [36] Pts

      Bolt Pistol & CCW; True Grit

 

12 Ravio (Fury) [Blood Claws] @ 192 Pts

   Bolt Pistol & CCW (x10); Power Fist & CCW (x2); Frag Grenades

 

8 Akkisurma (Quickdeath) [Blood Claws] @ 194 Pts

   Bolt Pistol & CCW (x6); Power Fist & CCW (x2); Frag Grenades

   1 Ahma (Wolverine) [Rhino] @ [58] Pts

      Storm Bolter

      1 Extra Armor @ [5] Pts

      1 Smoke Launchers @ [3] Pts

 

8 Suden Lapset (Children of the Wolf) [Grey Hunters] @ 234 Pts

   Bolt Pistol & CCW (x6); Bolter & Power Fist (x2); Frag Grenades; True Grit

   1 Karhu (Bear) [Rhino] @ [58] Pts

      Storm Bolter

      1 Extra Armor @ [5] Pts

      1 Smoke Launchers @ [3] Pts

 

1 Marko Myrskyvais (Stormcrow) [Wolf Priest] @ 107 Pts

   Wolf Tail Talisman; Bolt Pistol (x1); Power Weapon (x1)

   1 Frag Grenades @ [1] Pts

   1 Iron Wolf Amulet @ [0] Pts

   1 Wolf Tail Talisman @ [1] Pts

   1 Wolf Tooth Necklace @ [10] Pts

 

1 Mikael Kultahapsi (Goldenhair) [Wolf Guard BL] @ 93 Pts

   Wolf Tail Talisman; Bolt Pistol (x1); Frost Blade (x1); True Grit

   1 Frag Grenades @ [1] Pts

   1 Wolf Tail Talisman @ [1] Pts

   1 Wolf Tooth Necklace @ [10] Pts

 

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 65 Pts

   Multi-Melta (x1)

 

4 Ilvekset (Lynxes) [Scouts] @ 143 Pts

   Wolf Guard Leader; Bolt Pistol & CCW (x2); Plasma Pistol & CCW (x1); Meltagun; Frag Grenades; Melta-Bombs

   1 Ilmarinen @ [47] Pts

      1 Elite; Bolt Pistol (x1); Power Fist (x1); True Grit

      1 Frag Grenades @ [1] Pts

 

Total Roster Cost: 1500

 

The Tau List:

The RRF (Rapid Reactionary Force) (Ryu oh)

 

Shas?el Ri?O

Stealth Team (5)

Crisis Team (2)

Crisis Team (1)

FCW in Devilfish

FCW in Devilfish

FCW in Devilfish (6 Carbines)

Hammerhead

Hammerhead

Gun Drones (8)

 

Tau won the roll to go first.

 

The Setup Looked like this:

Turn 1a

The Tau shooting eliminated the Space Wolves? mobility, as they took out the Land Raider with a solid slug and the immobilized the Rhinos with the Stealthsuits and Battlesuits.  No Blood Claws died as they hauled themselves from the mangled LRC.

Turn 1b

The Space Wolves shooting proved to be completely ineffective and they spread out limit casualties while moving forward.  The Rhino crews tried to get their feisty machine spirits moving again, but to no avail.

Turn 2a

The Drones dropped behind the Wolves and killed two Blood Claws.  The Stealthsuits finished off the their Rhino.  The speeder died to Hammerhead fire.  The <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Battle</st1:place></st1:City> suits killed two Grey Hunters.  The other Hammerhead blew the Long Fang commander to <st1:place w:st="on">Valhalla</st1:place>.  As foreseen by the Tau Shas?el the Blood Claws and Wolf Guard Battle leader were pinned by the very scary Drone fire.

Turn 2b
The Long Fangs killed 4 of the very scary Drones, causing them to flee.  The Scouts stormed onto the table and fired into the back of a Devilfish, doing nothing.  They then assaulted it, knocking off it?s burst cannon and forcing the Tau out of the vehicle and killing 5 and pinning the Drones.  The rest of the Space Wolves advanced under cover.

Turn 3a

The FCWs from the damaged Devilfish joined by their brothers from another Devilfish opened up into the scouts, wiping them out utterly.  The Stealthsuits killed another Blood Claw.  A tougher Long Fang bounced a Hammerhead solid slug off his chest.  Four Blood Claws from the larger unit were killed by a Battlesuits and the Shas?el.

Turn 3b

The Long Fangs failed to damage the Hammerhead they fired upon.  The smaller unit of blood claws with the Wolf Guard Battle Leader managed to sneak in a charge against the Stealthsuits, killing 3.  Luckily for them, the suits chose not to flee.

Turn 4a

The Battlesuits, Hammerhead, Drones and Tau near the center of the table unloaded on the Blood Claws, killing many, but they remained steadfast.  Another Long Fang rode a solid slug to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:place w:st="on">Valhalla</st1:place>.  The remaining Stealthsuits were dispatched and the Grey Hunters made for the Hammerhead. 

Turn 4b

The Blood Claws attempted to go for the Battlesuits over the boulder, but could not climb quickly enough.  The Rhino crew took a break from their unsuccessful attempts to start the vehicle to destroy another drone and cause them to flee off the table.  The Long Fangs shot a Hammerhead, doing no damage.  The Grey Hunters assaulted the same vehicle, scoring two hits that failed to penetrate the thick front armor.

Turn 5a

The Wolf Guard Battle Leader and one powerfist equipped Blood Claw managed to survive the withering hail of Tau fire, but failed their pinning test.  The Long Fangs lost a member to the Hammerhead again and also decided to retreat a short distance.

Turn 5b

The Long Fangs again failed to affect a Hammerhead.  The Grey Hunters charged the other Hammerhead, one fist catching a vital controller and sending it crashing to the ground.  The Rhino crew finally got their vehicle going again.

 

(No pic, sorry)

<?  

Turn 6a

The Tau finished off the Blood Claw and Wolf Guard Battle Leader.  The Hammerhead destroyed the last of the Long Fangs.   Two Grey Hunters also died.

Turn 6b

The Grey Hunters climbed over the wreckage of the Hammerhead and charged the Devilfish in their home quarter, destroying it and killing several Tau.  Thus the Grey Hunters were able to retain control of their home quarter.  As the Tau had the remaining quarters and many more models left, the outcome was clear.  The Grey Hunters mounted up in their Rhino to seek reinforcements.

 

It was a very good day for the Greater Good. 

AWESOME batrep! I love when the pics actually show the flow and the carnage of battle.
Thanks fo rsharing this scarab, when are you doing the rematch? You know you have to defend the home turf

Apparently, I lied when I gave you my username, scarab.. I couldnt remember which of them I'd used to sign up. Anyway, I'm the Tau commander of this batrep. I'll soon have another batrep to post with another new user, also with pics that scarab was kind enough to take for us. (I'm modifying them a bit since there is some terrain in the way of the pics so it would be hard to follow otherwise)

Yup, nice one. Big probelm with tau(and the game in particular). If they go first, kiss your mobility goodbye. Happened Wensday night in a 2800pt game of marines vs tau, I went first and cut his mobility in half in the first turn, then killed all but the assualt squad the second one. After that its a duck shoot.

Great battle report and photos. Is there going to be a rematch in the near future? I think carmachu has hit the nail on the head. If the Tau get the first turn kiss your mobility goodbye. It's happened to me the last two times I played against them. On the other side though when I went first the Tau were toast. The Tau just couldn't hold up to a sustained assult. Admittedly my last game against them was before all of their new toys came out.

Oh, I think there is a distinct possibilty of such. We have a small group that we play fairly often (almost weekly. Occasionally there are other events that keep such from happening). While our next games may not be against eachother, I'm sure there will be a Tau / Space Wolf rematch sometime in the future.

great report, any after battle thoughts/suggestions?

Hmm. Well, my plan, such as it was, is probably pretty obvious from the pics. Since I got 1st deployment (by losing choice of table quarters), I stuck one of my hammerheads as forward as possible to keep the wolves as far back as possible. I then kept everything else out of easy striking range. I also tried to set up so that I could rotate my army either direction around the table (since I certainly didn't want to go strait-up through the center) I kept two cheap units capable of taking quarters (the drones and a single-man crisis "team") and my Shas'el in reserve to drop as opportunities presented themselves. The idea was this: if scarab had gotten the first turn, in which case his army would have been much more significantly forward, I could have had the space to drop them in his quarter closer to his longfangs and make a general nuisance of themselves, with a good chance of perhaps eliminating the fangs as a threat, and forcing him to either give up his own quarter or move one of his combat units backwards to deal with my dropped units.

As it was, I got lucky (getting 1st turn and dropping the LRC with two hammerheads should happen about 1/6 games by our estimate: 1/2 win roll to go first, 2/3 hit, 1/2 penetrate due to AP1, 1/2 destroy, x2 shots). With how the dice rolling was going, when I picked up the dice (on turn 2) for the drones, I stated "if things continue like this, I'll kill one guy, but your units will fail their pinning test" or somesuch. Which, of course, then immediately happened.

As for mistakes, I can only point out two of my own myself (feel free to add more so that I can improve, please). The one that was bad was the stealthsuits. I completely failed to see a model of the unit that charged them hidden behind the immoble Rhinos, so I allowed myself to drift too close. Next turn (3b), I was shown the error of my ways. The next turn could have been also bad as I left my crisis team this time a bit too close, and could have been charged had scarab gotten a couple of good difficult terrain tests. Ah well. Something I really should be exactingly careful about. Still my general plan that I use almost every game (find an exposed unit, drop as many FCWs as possible nearby, blast the ever-living heck out of them with anything and everything available, lather, rinse, repeat) worked well enough this time around.

 

(edit: something that you can't see necessarily is the unit of FCWs in the painted transport was brought to exactly 6 models, which is why I crammed them back into their transport and just kept them in the back of my quarter.  They were no longer an effective fighting force, but were still useful as they could deny scarab my own quarter, so off the line they came.)

Great batrep. Great picts! Great terrain! The only thing that would make it better would be having all the models painted. Minor gripe though. Capt K

Heh. I was wondering when I'd start getting flak for that. I've no excuse that is worthwhile. I'll work on it sometime, I promise

A little post mortem from me:

My army was not designed for 4E, but I have actually had modest luck with the modified Rhino rush (Setup: start behind Rhino wall, Turn 1: get in, ride, pop smoke, Turn 2: ride, get out behind the Rhino wall, Turn 3, move Rhino wall and charge). I should probably go over to a drop pod army to be more effective.

As far as mistakes go, not sure. Ryo was able to seize the momentum before I went and my choices tended to be dictated by that going forward. I guess I could have tried to stay back and let him come to me, but there was not all that much cover and he probably have just shot me to pieces (as he did anyway).

We have actually has several battles between these armies. One of which I lost without killing a single Tau. I have also had some good games againt them, though. If I really want a shot, I play my Eldar instead. We have had some excellent close games between the Tau and Eldar.

Anyway, thanks for the comments and kind words! I will keep after Ryo on the painting.

Excellent report! and two nice looking armies! When do we get to see some city fight?

Even adding a pod or two could make for some nasty surprises and the army more suitable for v.4. All pods could be very strong. Space Wolves look like the best podder army on paper, but I haven't seen one yet.

Say hello to mrs!

Thanks Migs.    The city table is coming along well.  A few weeks perhaps?  Then you will see some city fighting action!