Whoa, holy foreshadowing, Batman!
As stated in my last battle report from Game 2, my team really, really, really didn't want to face yet another Grey Knights team. Our opponents were fair and sportsmanlike with well-painted armies, but we were tired of facing the abominations of Matt Ward and we actually wanted to stand a chance for once. Besides, winning a game for once would have been nice, at least for me. A 0-2 streak is not fun..
So after nursing a few delicious Czech beers, one cold and one slightly toasty Corona, a shot of Jägermeister and a nice glass of Captain Morgan I realized I had a drinking problem was ready to face my new opponents and to ingloriously flip the table over and storm out like some kind of a bastard if I had to fight any more Grey Knights.
And whaddaya know, lads, Fate decided to grace my team with its 24-carrat smile once again, showing us that although MEQ armies were the 99% of Adepticon 2012 it was not all about jerks in silver. Enter team...
Mad Men, where you at? Look at them well-defined elbows, ladies! |
And whaddaya know, lads, Fate decided to grace my team with its 24-carrat smile once again, showing us that although MEQ armies were the 99% of Adepticon 2012 it was not all about jerks in silver. Enter team...
Da Boyz Wolfpack
.. who contrary to what it seems brought only Space Wolves to the fight. Oh, and what a fight it was. This time I was paired with my buddy Vince, who has been one of my regular opponents ever since our little group starter playing Warhammer 40,000. Him and I go a way back and as such we had some synergy... And by synergy I mean that we both played two very "Go for the throat" armies with few models and were slightly inebriated to boot. Now.. I didn't care much for Da Boyz' lists. Their army looked pretty sweet as you can clearly see above, painted the Old School way and what not. I liked that. I guess what I meant to say is that they were playing Space Wolves.
I wasn't going to lose to another Space Wolves army. I've played more than a 100 games with a list similar to what I was fielding without a single loss to a Space Wolves army. Today was NOT going to be my first loss against the Sons of Russ. Skarvald the Troll-faced was going to reap a great tally and his name was going to be remembered in the Great Halls as a VICTOR.
Da Boyz Wolfpack brought a pretty standard Rhino Rush list. Both players (Trevor and Jameson) brought two almost identical list with a total of 6 Rhinos filled with 6-7 Grey Hunters with your typical Wolf Banner, Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen equipment, although the addition of a Power Weapon in each squad was something I hadn't seen before. Each squad had a Wolf Guard in Power Armour with a combi-meltagun and a Power Fist and their HQ's of choice were Rune Priests - one with a Chooser of the Slain, Murgerous Hurricane and Living Lightning and one with Jaws the of the World Wolf and Murderious Hurricane. Oh, and 2 Long Fangs squads - one with x4 Missile Launchers and one with x2 Lascannons and x3 Missile Launchers.
The Flash (Vince) before the tournament.. |
Vince brought his beautifully painted Blood Angels. Three whole squads of 'em! Led by a Librarian with the Sanguine Sword and the Blood Lance, his army was bedazzled with Jump Packs, with 2 10-man (I think) blobs of Assault Marines with all their belts and whistles and then a mini Death Star of fully-decked out Honor Guard WITH a Sanguinary Priest attached to boot. I really like the paint-job of his Sanguinary Priest who has some pretty smooth-lookin' white power armor. Actually his Honor Guard is also all-sorts-of-awesome with their GOLDEN armor. Hm, I should have taken more pictures of his army. By the way, you can toooootally tell that Vince and I have played many, many games together.. We love our Death Stars. It's how we win our games, hahaha.. Oh, you'll see in a bit. You'll see...
Oh, by the way... I was a tool and forgot to take lots of pictures so enjoy some funny pictures of wolves..
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zcMJE3mFjWQ/T6y2gdqm8gI/AAAAAAAABG4/Lh2iVXjkFYs/s200/36iq3e.jpg)
There were 3 objective markers - One was the Alpha Objective (Primary) and two were the Beta Objectives (Secondary). Extra points were awarded for controlling the Beta objectives with a Command Token-bearing unit. +3 points were awarded for a Coalition Commander within 3'' of the Alpha objective at the end of the game.
Deployment
Da Boyz Wolfpack managed to roll higher than us and chose the side they were already on. Their deployment was quick since.. you know.. Dawn of War. They did the old trick with the empty Rhinos 8 or so inches away from the table edge, so yeah.. Two rhinos and what was it.
During our deployment I was the only one that could field anything, so I fielded the only eligible unit I had - the Rhino transporting my Rune Priest with his Grey Hunters. The rest of my army (The Longs Fangs and the Thunderwolves led by Skarvald the Troll-faced) were coming on turn 1 and all of Vince's Blood Angels were Deep Striking.
And then... I stole the Initiative!
Turn 1
Yeah, that game my dice were on fire!
My Thunderwolves came in first and rolled decently for their run move, without bothering to hide in cover since no shooting was going to be happening on turn 1 anyways. My Long Fangs derped with their difficult terrain and running so it was going to take them an extra turn to get on top of some cliffs in order to be able to see anything. Oh well.
Da Boyz Wolfpack then rolled out all of their vehicles: ALL SIX OF THEM. This is where it's important to say that we were outnumbered and out-vehicle'd with way more bodies and potential shots of all calibers. A game of Hide and Seek was going to be a lost game for us, so we had to bring the fight to THEM. One Rhino with the Rune Priest and some Grey Hunters rolled forward, trying to lure my Thunderwolves to get a risky charge at it. They knew we were going to go for it, simply because he had to. It was the way of Russ!
Turn 2
Vince's Death Star arrived and he positioned them pretty accurately on our left flank, behind enemy lines and near a nest of Long Fangs protected by two Rhinos. My Thunderwolves moved and ran forward, trying to create a wall of flesh that would prevent the four nearby Rhinos from going towards the Alpha objective. My Rhino then moved forward and if it attempted to shoot at anything I don't remember.. Oh, my derpy Long Fangs got on top of the cliffs but couldn't shoot.
Vince then rolled for a Blood Lance and the nearby Rune Priest failed to stop it (a common trend this game...). Then, on 4d6 Vince rolled a total of 18 inches, clipping 3 Long Fangs and a Rhino. The Long Fangs disappeared, but Vince rolled a 1 to pen the Rhino, so nothing happened there. Still, not a bad round of shooting, eh?
My Thunderwolves then rolled to charge the Rhino-bait and got a successful charge, needing 6's to hit. Skarvald the Troll-faced then rolled his 7 attacks and managed to immobilize the Rhino, allowing the Thunderwolves to wreck it with rending attacks before the Thunder hammer guy even got to swing. The Rune Priest and his posse disembarked just fine out of it..
And this is where the insanity begins!!!!
Like true Space Wolves, Da Boyz brought the fight to us.
The trap was sprung and after the Rune Priest's squad moved to the side three other squads of Grey Hunters disembarked and moved out of their Rhinos towards my Thunderwolves!!!
The two nearby Rhinos next to Vince's Honor Guard also disembarked next to the Blood Angels.
They then unleash hell on us.
A lonely Rune Priest inside a Rhino cast Jaws of the World Wolf on my Thunderwolves and I was too far with my Rune Priest to stop it, so the spell ended up devouring 2 of my Thunderwolves.A pack of Grey Hunters then shot 6 bolt pistols and 2 melta guns at the Thunderwolves.A pack of Grey Hunters then shot 6 bolt pistols and 2 melta guns at the Thunderwolves.A pack of Grey Hunters then shot 6 bolt pistols and 2 melta guns at the Thunderwolves.A pack Grey Hunters then Rapid Fired 6 bolt guns and 2 plasma guns at the Thunderwolves.A pack of Long Fangs then fired 4 krak missiles at the Thunderwolves.A Rhino then shot 2 Storm Bolter shots at the Thunderwolves.A Rhino then shot 2 Storm Bolter shots at the Thunderwolves.A Rhino then shot 2 Storm Bolter shots at the Thunderwolves.
The same happened to Vince by the two nearby Grey Hunter packs.
My Thunderwolves suffered a wound on everyone except for the Thunder Hammer guy who was extra pissed off since he couldn't even swing at the Rhino. He wasn't going down without a fight. Skarvald also had one wound on him.
Then 3 of the Grey Hunter packs used their Wolf Banners and charged into my Thunderwolves. Ugh, I was going to need some seriously broken dice rolls any minuted now.. Rolled and got my Counter Attack and then it was time for Skarvald the Troll-faced to swing at the invaders. All of his 7 attacks hit and wounded, leaving only the Wolf Guard in one of the packs... Okay, so far so good. Then everyone else except for the Thunder Hammer guy and the Wolf Guards with Power Fists swung and when the smoke cleared many more Grey Hunters were dead and only the Thunder Hammer guy and Skarvald the Troll-faced were left. Skarvald was then taken out after suffering a few unsaved power wounds and my Thunder Hammer guy, the lone survivor swung at the same time with one of the power fist guys. The hammer smashed 2 or 3 additional Grey Hunters and the Wolf Guard managed to score only a single would on my last Thunderwolf. So basically one Thunderwolf with only 1 wound remaining won combat against three Grey Hunter squads, winning by 5!!! Two of them ran away from the fight, while the third one was stuck in close combat with only a few guys remaining.
That was just.. so.. so.. SO lucky. A perfectly executed strategy by the book by Da Boyz Wolfpack gone wrong due to some bad dice-rolling on their part and some amazing saves and attacks on my part. That turn 2 was basically the deciding factor. Either the 3 squads of Grey Hunters were going to overwhelm my Thunderwolves and then camp the Alpha Objective or I was going to rend them to death and run around kicking ass and taking names.
And to top it off Vince won the assault against the Grey Hunters who were just obliterated by a ton of power weapons and many, many Feel No Pain saves, running off the table. So.. at the end of turn 5 Da Boyz had two Troops choices off the table, 1 big pack Falling Back, a 2-man pack Falling Back and, a severely damaged pack in close combat with my Thunderwolf and one unscathed pack in the middle of the board. WOW.
Turn 3
Vince's Assault Squads arrived - one behind what was left of the enemy's lines on our right flank and the other one.. wherever. It was time to make sure those two packs of Grey Hunters were runnin'. Vince detached his Librarian from his Death Star because only one model could squeeze through a wall of Rhinos while staying an inch away from them. My Grey Hunters occupied the Alpha Objective and Living Lightning popped a Rhino. Vince's Assault Squad popped a Rhino. The other one shot at something as well. The Librarian then cast a 20'' inch Blood Lance which was not blocked by the Rune Priest and killed 3 more Long Fangs. My Long Fangs didn't do anything.
The Librarian then assaulted the damaged Long Fangs and what was left of the Honor Guard with the Sanguinary Priest assaulted the other Long Fangs. Both squads were then dead and the Librarian moved within 6'' of the big fleeing pack of Grey Hunters. We couldn't really ensure that the 2 surviving Grey Hunters were going to be fleeing, though.
The Thunderwolf? He survived the few attacks against them and then smashed the Grey Hunters in the face, caused them to flee and then Swept them, getting a 1'' consolidation. What a bro.
On their turn Da Boyz did all they could. The big pack of grey Hunters fled off the table. The Grey Hunter/Wolf Guard combo regrouped and got inside the Rhino in which the Rune Priest was camping. The Rhinos didn't really matter, since they couldn't really block LoS or paths and there weren't that many of them to begin with. So.. the big blob of plasma Grey Hunters shot Vince's Librarian to death and the Rune Priest cast Murderious Hurricane on my Thunderwolf after a bunch of Storm Bolters failed to kill him. Aaaand.. turn!
Turn 4
The two blobs of Assault Marines started to move and surrounded the Space Wolves. One of them was going to have some fun with the big squad of Space Wolves. Shooting-wise we dropped a few Gey Hunters, immobilized the Rhino of the Rune Priest.Vince then assaulted the Grey Hunters and I assaulted the immobilized Rhino with my Thunderwolf rider with a Thunder Hammer. 5 S10 attacks later the Rhino exploded, but didn't wound my dude.
Recycling pictures... like a boss! |
On their Turn 4, one of the members of Da Boyz surrendered. There really wasn't anything that they could do, but I still didn't want him to surrender. I actually encouraged him to at least go all "Old Yeller" on my Thunderwolf and kill it. Before scooping the guy really did manage to kill my Thunderwolf and so.. the game ended.
VICTORY
Since our opponents surrendered we actually got full points for the game. It was a bloody massacre with many casualties and just.. overall Thunderwolf silliness. My Death Star died again but not without basically winning us the game on Turn 2. Add some crazy strategic shenanigans and the rest was just ensuring that as many Space Wolves died in battle..
Even though I hate it when people surrender I still had a blast. We all had a laugh about the ridiculousness. Da Boyz are actually quite a nice gang and it was very interesting to hear what they had to say about the game and just to chat with them in general. They also gave each of us a pair of their own fancy Orky dice. I've been using them ever since, especially while playing Warmachine.
Join me again next time when Vince and I face Gitsplitta (yes, Gitsplitta!) and Solar_Lion from DakkaDakka!