Today's game sees my World Eaters take on Mark's Space Wolves in a league game for Didcot Wargames Club. This mission was Scorched Earth using Dawn of War deployment.
My army consisted of:
Angron
Kharn the Betrayer
Lord Invocatus
10 Berzerkers
Rhino
5 Berzerkers
5 Berzerkers
5 Berzerkers
10 Jackals
3 Exalted Eightbound
6 Exalted Eightbound
3 Eightbound
2 Chaos Spawn
This was the army from a recent tournament, but with the Lord on Juggernaught replaced by another unit of 5 Berzerkers, to give me another unit for holding objectives or trading.
Mark's army consisted of:
Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf
Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf
Battle Leader on Thunderwolf
Battle Leader on Thunderwolf
6 Thunderwolf Cavalry
6 Thunderwolf Cavalry
5 Infiltrators
5 Infiltrators
Gladiator Lancer
Gladiator Lancer
Ragnar Blackmane
6 Bladeguard Veterans
Land Raider Redeemer
A tough match up for Mark, as I had a fight on death ability, -1 damage stratagem and a lot of combat ability to counter his army.
I deployed similar to my last dawn of war battle. The Jackals went in the centre objective, along with the Eightbound, Exalted Eightbound with Lord and Berzerkers. The Rhino, Spawn and Berzerkers went on the left flank, while on the right behind the big ruins went Angron, the 3 Exalted and 5 Berzerkers.
Mark put one Thunderwolf Cavalry unit on each flank, while the Infiltrators went on his home objective. One Lancer went on each flank and the Land Raider (with Bladeguard and Ragnar) went on the right. He placed the last unit of Infiltrators in the middle objective behind the ruins.
I won the roll off for first turn.
TURN 1
For the first turn, I drew Cleanse and Deploy Teleport Homers. I moved the Khorne Berzerkers up towards the Infiltrators, while the Eightbound moved up to do the Cleanse, while the Spawn moved up to do the Cleanse on the other objective, supported by the Rhino. I moved the Eightbound and Lord Invocatus up towards the central ruins to do the Teleport Homers secondary.
The Berzerkers charged the Infiltrators, but only managed to kill two of them, suffering no damage in reply. I scored 8 pts on my secondaries.
In his first turn, Mark drew a Tempting Target and No Prisoners. I chose the objective in front of Angron to be the tempting target. The two Thunderwolf Cavalry advanced towards the objectives, while the Land Raider moved up on the central objective. The Infiltrators fell back from combat.
The Land Raider fired at the Berzerkers, killing three of them. I used the Blood Surge roll to get into combat with the Lancer in front of them. However, the Lancer fired at them, wiping out the squad. The rest of the army was out of sight, so suffered no damage. Mark scored Tempting Target and 2 points for No Prisoners.
TURN 2
In my second turn, I managed to get advance and charge on my blessings. I drew Storm Hostile Objective and Bring It Dow. On the right flank, Angron, the Exalted and Berzerkers advanced on the Thunderwolves on the objective. I moved the oher Exalted Squad and Eightbound up on the Land Raider. Mark overwatched with the Land Raider and managed to kill the Eightbound with the Flamers.
In the charge phase, the right flank charged into the Thunder Wolves, while the Exalted charge the Land Raider. On the right flank, I managed to kill all but the Wolf Lord with my attacks, taking him down to 1 wound. I used the For the Skull Throne strat on the Exalted to give them +1 to wound against the Land Raider and was able to kill it with the Lord Invocatus and Exalted Eightbound.
In his turn, Mark drew Area Denial and Cleanse. The Wolf Lord fell back from combat, while the Thunderwolves on the left moved up. Ragnar and the Bladeguard moved up on the Exalted Eightbound. The Inceptors arrived beside the Angron objective on the right.
The Inceptors killed three of the Berzerkers. Both Lancers fired at Angron. One put 9 wounds on him, while the second faileed to do any damage.
Ragnor and the Bladeguard charged the Exalted in the centre, while the Thunderwolves charged the Rhino. The Wolf Lord went back into the Berzerkers on the left.
The Rhino was easily destroyed, the Berzerkers and Kharn spilling out. In the centre combat, I used the -1 damage strat to blunt the attacks of Ragnar and the Bladeguard, only losing three of the squad with the combined attacks. The Exalted struck back, killing all but one of the Bladeguard. The Wolf Lord failed to kill the Berzerkers, and was slain in reply.
Mark scored no secondary points at the end of his turn.
TURN 3
In my third turn, I drew Area Denial and Investigate Signals, so probably wasn't going to score much this turn.
On the right, the Berzerkers chose to begin to burn the objective. I advanced the Jakhals onto the central objective. I decided to give up on Area Denial, moving the Exalted back to support the Berzerkers on taking on the other Thunderwolves. Angron and the Exalted moved up on the Lancer in front of them.
In the charge phase, I made all my charges. Angron easily killed the Lancer. The Jakhals managed to kill of the Infiltrators on the centre objective, while the Berzerkers and Exalted killed all but one of the Thunderwolves.
In his turn, Mark drew Assassinate and Extend Battle Lines. Ragnar moved up on the Jakhals. Mark brought in his reserves, using the Eliminators to steal my home objective, while the Inceptors arrived in my deployment zone on my left.
The Inceptors fired, killing two of the Exalted. The Lancer fired at Angron, doing a few wounds, but failing to kill him.
In the fight phase, the Thunderwolf Lord used Epic Challenge to kill Kharn. Ragnor and the lone Bladeguard killed all but one of the Jakhals.
TURN 4
In my turn 4, I drew Overwhelming Force and Behind Enemy Lines. The Spawn moved up to get to the Eliminators, while Angron and the Exalted went to the enemy objective.
The Berzerkers charged the Inceptors, managing to kill 2. Angron killed the Infiltrators on the home objective.
In his turn, the Lancer managed to take Angron down to 1 wound. The Eliminators moved onto the ruins to kill the lone Berzerker that was going to burn the objective. The Inceptor had fallen back from combat.
TURN 5
In my turn, it was time to mop up. The Berzerkers killed the lone Inceptor, while Angron took down the Bladeguard and Ragnar in the centre. The Spawn failed to get into combat with the Eliminators.
In his turn, Mark scored 5 on the Primary, but scored no secondaries. He did manage to kill Angron with the Lancer.
At the end of the game, the score was 92 to 58 for the World Eaters.
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to Mark for a fun game, this showed the power of the World Eaters into combat armies. Being able to stop the Thunderwolves from charging me was very useful, as it stopped them getting the extra damage from charging and also allowed me to kill a lot of them without taking damage in reply.
Using the Tempting Target to get Mark to take out the Thuderwolves was also useful, as this allowed Angron to butcher the squad, for little loss in reply. The other unit of Thunderwolves was also only able to take out a Rhino, before being taken out by Kharn and the Berzerkers. I was sure to keep the Rhino out of sight of the Lancers, as if they were able to destroy it, the Berzerkers would have been easy pickings for the Thunderwolves.
The -1 damage strat was also key to keep the Exalted alive, as it meant Ragnor and the Bladeguard only were doing 1 damage with each wound. The Thunderwolves probably would have cleaned them up a lot more with the 2 damage attacks.
Overall, another league win for the World Eaters.