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Battlereport - 1850p vs Space Wolves

I played against my favourite opponent today and I wanted to share with you how it played out and what I learned.

Cleanse and Capture, Vanguard Strike deployment.

My list was inspired by Nick Rose and James Mackenzies tournament winning lists, but I had to make some compromises due to available models.

Batallion detachment
Magus, warlord, focus of adoration, might from beyond
Magus, mass hypnosis

Neophytes, shotguns flamer
Neophytes, autoguns
Neophytes, autoguns

Scout sentinel, H-flamer
Scout sentinel, H-flamer
Scout sentinel, H-flamer

Chimera, H-flamers
Goliath truck

Vanguard detachment - Anointed Throng
Abominant
Primus

6 Aberrants, picks
5 Aberrants, hammers
13 Genestealers

Batallion detachment - tyranids (Kraken)
Broodlord
Broodlord

16 Genestealers
5 Genestealers
3 Ripper swarms

His list had:
Wolflord on wolf
Runepriest
Ulric the Slayer

9 hunters + WGBL in a rhino
5 hunters + WGBL in a razorback
15 bloodclaws + WGBL in a stormwolf

land speeder
3 thunder wolves

whirlwind
6 longfangs + WGBL

Setup
I reserved a lot while he comitted to a firebase and routes of attack. Thanks to plenty of ambushers and a decoy scout sentinel his rhino and razorback was in the wrong place and missed out on all action for two turns.
I built a wall with my vehicles and placed Kraken genestealers + broodlords behind it. Truck transported pick aberrants, abominant and a magus. Chimera transported shotgun neophytes and magus.

He had first turn and moved agressively. Specifically his wolflord rushed forward a long way to complete a "priority orders"-objective to kill a vehicle, namely a scout sentinel that I had left out as bait. Psychic phase was uneventful. In shooting phase his whirlwind and stormwolf were not hindered by the chimera wall so they killed a handful of genestealers as well as the goliath truck. In fight phase his warlord failed the 8" charge, despite reroll, and was left in the middle of the field.

My first movement phase had everyone disembark and move forward. Major disapointment was rolling a 1 for my big unit of kraken genestealers advance, with no less than three dice and a CP reroll. A 1 in 1296 occasion... My plan was to charge+kill the wolflord with them and then use Overrun+Adrenaline surge to attack his thunderwolves, but that failed. Psychic phase I debuffed his wolflord, smited the stormwolf and was denied might from beyond. Shooting phase a scout sentinel and the shotgun neophytes (!) took the stormwolf down a bracket of wounds. My fight phase I charged his wolflord with two broodlords and the shotgun neophytes and sadly only got him down to one wound left (damn stormshield!)

His second turn began with bloodclaws deploying and wolflords moving in to join the fight around the wolflord. The razorback moved into firing position. The rhino dropped off grey hunters and both moved towards the center. Ulric healed the wolflord. Psychic phase was a smite on a broodlord. Shooting failed miserably, only a few kills among the kraken genestealers and the killing of the chimera that promptly exploded and took wounds of a handful of units from both sides. Great fun was had :-D In the fight phase one of my broodlords miraculously survived (on lucky invul saves) long enough to take out the wolflord. The bloodclaws assaulted and wiped the big unit of genestealers but failed to wound the abominant.

My second movement phase I positioned pick aberrants and small unit of kraken stealers for easy charges. Then i brought in all ambushers with a pretty lucky streak. Primus with stealers joined the big melee in the middle of the table. Hammer aberrants and a supporting unit of neophytes got up right next to his longfangs and whirlwind. Psychic phase was slow with denies and fails all over. Shooting only had a silly event where 10 ambushed autoguns killed half of the small grey hunter squad. In fight phase everything assaulted and severly hurt what they touched. Casualties were the landspeeder and two thunderwolves (by purestrains), whirlwind (by hammerants), most bloodclaws (by kraken stealers + abominant) Ulric (by broodlord), half of the large grey hunters squad (by pick aberrants). I lost the last broodlord.

Here I was a 4 vp and he at 3 vp. We were running low on time but decided to go for a third turn. I had a noticeable advantage where I were winning most melees and his intact units were few and/or far off.

His third turn he managed to position the rhino so my warlord was it's closest target. Razorback moved in a bit and the small grey hunter squad moved towards the unit of neophytes that had decimated them in my turn. Everything else except the stormwolf was locked in melee. Psychic phase had a smite on my shotgun neophytes and a -1 to hit debuff on my purestrains. The only thing he could shoot was the cocky unit of autogun neophytes who amazingly survived a bunch of shots from lascannons, frostcannons, heavy bolters, boltguns and a plasma gun. The last two of them were charged and killed by the remains of the small grey hunter unit. In the assault phase he lost most longfangs, bloodclaws and the last of the big grey hunters unit. The rhino charged my second magus to do some sort of damage and tie up stuff, and was rewarded by being staff-killed. That staff has a surprisingly nasty profile.

Now the store were closing, so we quickly estimated his remaining forces: One damaged stormwolf. One razorback (within easy chargedistance of pick aberrants). One runepriest (within charge distance of pick aberrants) Three grey hunters. Two bloodclaws (in melee with abominant and genestealers). One wounded thunderwolf (in melee with purestrains). Two longfangs (in melee with hammer aberrants). While I had plenty of functional units left. He conceded the game as we agreed I would probably table him (minus the Stormwolf ofc) by turn 5 or at least be able to score points at my leisure.

Things I learned:
- This type of list is great fun to play! It's highly agressive and feels true to the GSC fluff. It also rewards clever positioning and good priorities.
- Aberrants are worth their weight in gold. Even in small units they killed what they touched, often without buffs or synergies.
- Anointed Throng is useful. Both the Blessed Hammer and the +1 to charge ranges were useful. And there is definitely more potential for that specialist detachment.
- rolling four 1s in a row for the kraken genestealers was a bit of a downer and made me loose a lot of momentum.
- The chimera is a better transport than the goliath truck.
- The psychic buffs are powerful but fickle. I shall remember to not rely on them.

I think that's it. Thanks for reading!

Hey man! Fun battle report, sounds like a good game!

Was this pre chapter approved? I am a wolves player and don’t think your friend was playing the new points... I am fairly sure that would be blow 1850 points unless you stuffed every squad full of expensive upgrades but I could be wrong!

Might want to tell him to double check.

ArmchairArbiter wrote:
Hey man! Fun battle report, sounds like a good game!

Was this pre chapter approved? I am a wolves player and don’t think your friend was playing the new points... I am fairly sure that would be blow 1850 points unless you stuffed every squad full of expensive upgrades but I could be wrong!

Might want to tell him to double check.

Thanks!
Yeah, we had a blast!

This was post CA. I know he was glad he could squeeze in a few more things with the points drops.
I'm not quite sure exactly what were upgrades in his list, and I don't remember all his equipment... but there were lascannons on the razorback, plenty of special weapons and combiweapons, cool meleeweapons on the thunderwolves, and so on. But I'll ask him to check again, and be sure to offer him a rematch if necessary :-)

Excellent report! If I might make one small suggestion for next time, I would swap the passengers of the two transports. The biggest advantage the Goliath Truck has as a transport is its open topped rule allowing for full firepower each turn from the squads inside, so if you aren't taking advantage of that key ability it isn't going to perform as well. Admittedly it did get targeted for destruction early, but it might not have been such a priority target without the Aberrants on board.

 Strat_N8 wrote:
Excellent report! If I might make one small suggestion for next time, I would swap the passengers of the two transports. The biggest advantage the Goliath Truck has as a transport is its open topped rule allowing for full firepower each turn from the squads inside, so if you aren't taking advantage of that key ability it isn't going to perform as well. Admittedly it did get targeted for destruction early, but it might not have been such a priority target without the Aberrants on board.

Thanks! And thanks for the advice. I did consider swapping them around, but since the truck only transports 10 people I couldn't fit both characters and neophytes in it. And it felt like too many eggs in one basket to have all my characters +aberrants in one chimera... I think I'll simply get another chimera since it does what I need better. It's not like I expected the shotgunners to shoot anything useful anyhow :-)

Cool report.

Do SW's get the equivalent of the chapter master rule that allows them to re-roll misses if they're within x inches of their captain?

 privateer4hire wrote:
Cool report.

Do SW's get the equivalent of the chapter master rule that allows them to re-roll misses if they're within x inches of their captain?

Thanks mate!

I'm not sure about the chapter master stratagem. I know the named character Logan Grimnar has a similar rule, but I don't think wolves have access to the stratagem.

Understand. My Ultramarines opponent regularly shoots my GSC to dust using that stratagem.

 privateer4hire wrote:
Understand. My Ultramarines opponent regularly shoots my GSC to dust using that stratagem.

They do, it's the same re-roll 1's for captains and lieutenants. Only special characters give a complete re-roll for everything.