Lions and Wolves vs renegade Guard
My first game of the new year turned out to be a doozy - 3000pts to a side, my Night Angels and Sheri's Space Wolves vs Dan's renegade Imperial Guard. We had such a huge game because we have 2 tables at the cave, and 5 people wanted to play. Dan had a list he was keen to try out. His list comprised of basically every Guard mini we have in the cave. Which, as you can see, is quite a lot of Guardsmen.
The army was built around a couple of Emperor's Shield Infantry Platoons, who brought along three Heavy Weapon Squads, along with a CAD with a couple of Company Command Squads in Chimeras (one with an Astropath, Officer of the Fleet, and Master of Ordnance), Vets in Chimeras, a Stormtrooper platoon with 3 full squads of Stormies and a Stormy Command Squad with 4 meltaguns, a big squad of Rough Riders, a Bane Wolf, and a Leman Russ Eradicator. One of Dan's Company Commanders was his Warlord.
Sheri's half of the list comprised of Harald Deathwolf, Njal Stormcaller, an Iron Priest, Bjorn the Fell Handed, 3 units of Troops in Rhinos - I was a little unclear on what was what because Sheri's still kind of making do with assorted minis at this point, but at least one was Blood Claws, because Lucas the Trickster was with them. And, naturally, there was Sheri's Thunderwolf Cavalry. Sheri chose Harald to be our Warlord.
My half of the force was more geared towards shooting. I had Interrogator Chaplain Gideon on a bike with the Mace of Redemption, a Ravenwing Command Squad with an Apothecary and single grenade launcher, two Rhino-mounted 10-man Tactical Squads with combi-melta, meltagun, and grav cannon, Venerable Dreadnought Ancient Absalom with twin linked autocannon and power fist with heavy flamer, a Dark Shroud, a Whirlwind, my Relic Sicarian, Fusilier (yes, I named my tank), and putting in its first appearance on the table, my brand new spiffy Dark Talon.
For those that have read up on the Cave's house rules, you'll note I don't actually have 40% Troops. I fielded Ancient Absalom in the place of a Scout Squad under our new diversity guidelines. It's been a dog's age since I've used a Dreadnought, and I wouldn't unless I could use him towards the compulsory 40%.
Our mission was the Scouring, so objectives worth their face values when turned over. When we turned them over, Sheri and I had the 4 and the 1 in our zone, Dan had a 2 and a 3 in his, and the other 2 and 3 were in the no-man's-land in between. As you can see, we got Hammer and Anvil deployment. Dan chose to let us deploy first, but then he Seized the Initiative! That cheeky git!
Of course, before the battle started, the Night Angels and the Space Wolves had to have champions duke it out to honor their respective Primarchs. Both chapters chose their venerable Dreadnought as their champion. Ancient Absalom is seven thousand years old, and of course Bjorn is over ten thousand, so they decided they were too old for such shenanigans and settled the matter with rock-paper-scissors. Ancient Absalom threw paper to Bjorn's rock in the second round. Glory to the Lion!
Turn 1
Dan led off by having his big blob platoons advance out of their deployment zones, along with some of his vets, his Leman Russ, and his Bane Wolf. In his first round of shooting, he wrecked the Rhino I had screening my Sicarian and stunned the one I had on our right flank. He also put a couple hull points on my Dark Shroud with Ignores Cover shooting.
Sheri's and my first turn largely comprised of moving up with everything, except my stunned Rhino, which popped smoke, and my forcibly-debussed Tac Squad, which combat squadded. The half with the grav cannon stayed up front to swat vehicles, and the half with the meltas wrapped around behind the Sicarian to bubble wrap it against DSing Stormies. In the shooting phase, my Whirlwind killed a passel of Guardsmen, Ancient Absalom killed a missile launcher team and forced the rest of the squad to go to ground, I wrecked a Chimera with the grav cannon, and my Sicarian wiped out Dan's lascannon heavy weapon squad.
In the assault phase, Sheri and I managed to pull off first-turn charges, me with my Ravenwing Command Squad,
and Sheri with her Thunderwolves.
As you can imagine, they caused massive carnage, but Dan's habit of putting Commissars and Priests in his blobs kept them from routing. The Thunderwolves actually killed their way out of combat again.
Turn 2
On Dan's second turn, his Stormtrooper platoon came in, but the Command Squad took a bad scatter right onto my grav cannon squad and went back into active reserves. His other squads landed behind the Thunderwolves, Sheri's Rhinos on our left flank, and the third came in behind the Sicarian, but had a massive scatter and wound up in Sheri's and my right rear corner.
Dan moved the wolf-mauled remnant of a blob platoon up to take a crack at assaulting my Dark Shroud, he moved his rough riders for a counter-charge on my Ravenwing Command Squad, and positioned a few other things for shots. His shooting phase underwhelmed. He dumped a lot of fire into the Thunderwolves, who largely shrugged it off, and succeeded only in immobilizing Sheri's midfield Rhino. His assaults were similarly unspectacular, failing to finish the Dark Shroud, and his Rough Riders expended all but 2 of their explodo-lances, and killed only 1 Ravenwing Knight for their trouble. The RWCS then Hit & Ran out, heading to midfield.
On our second turn, Sheri had her Grey Hunters get out of their immobized track, and Njal hopped out with Blood Claws to deal with the Stormies. She hooked her Thunderwolves around the rock formations to roll up the right flank and had Bjorn stomp up the middle. I had Ancient Absalom lumber over the ridge line, scooted my Whirlwind back a few inches to draw LOS to the Stormies that had scattered back into our corner and had the RWCS plunge right towards one of Dan's command Chimeras, moving the Dark Shroud up to give them its anti-Overwatch bubble. Disappointingly, my Dark Talon did not come in this turn.
Njal killed some the surrounding Guardsmen with a nova power. In the shooting phase, my RWCS lit up the command Chimera with plasma talons, blowing it up. My Whirlwind had the best Whirlwind shot I've ever had with one, killing 8 of the 10 Stormies in our back corner. A little bolter fire put paid to the rest. My Sicarian wiped out Dan's autocannon heavy weapon squad. Ancient Absalom killed most of the squad that came after my Dark Shroud.
In the assault phase, both Sheri and I went for multi-charges, her bringing the pain to the blob squad and Sentinel on the right flank, me charging Dan's Company Command Squad with Ravenwing Knights, while having Interrogator Chaplain Gideon charge the Leman Russ.
The TWC, predictably, butchered. My RWCS killed all of the advisors in the CCS and most of the squaddies, leaving the Company Commander, the medic, and one other guy. Gideon took two hull points from the Leman Russ, shaking it in the process.
Turn 3
Dan's third turn took a toll on the combined Space Marine forces. He wrecked my Dark Shroud by ramming it with one of his Chimeras - which I'd fully expected to happen when I put it there.
His Bane Wolf scooted out from where it had been lurking, its chem cannon coming to bear on the Space Wolf squad in the center of the battlefield. His Leman Russ reversed away from my Interrogator Chaplain. The Rough Riders and a blob squad readied a counter-charge on the RWCS, with Priest and Commissar from the mostly-butchered platoon breaking off to join the Rough Riders, leaving just a pair of sergeants as the sole survivors of their platoon.
Upon writing this, I realized Dan made a modest mistake - a Commissar isn't supposed to be able to leave the unit he's assigned to. Didn't make a difference on the overall result though.
During his Psychic Phase, Dan cast Misfortune on my RWCS, so all attacks against them gained the Rending rule. Uh oh.
In his shooting phase, Dan's Bane Wolf melted most of the Grey Hunters in the center of the battlefield, his Stormtroopers gunned down about half the Blood Claws with Njal, and he managed to wreck Sheri's left flank Rhino.
In his assault phase, Dan piled onto my RWCS with the Rough Riders and a blob platoon. The sheer volume of attacks he brought to bear brought them down.
On our turn, my Dark Talon came in! Pretty pretty plane! I had it do a bombing run over Dan's Stormtroopers as it came in, but the stasis bomb only killed one of them.
I had the hot idea to drive my Whirlwind up onto the ridge line to get LOS and reduced scatter on the units in Dan's deployment zone, but rolled a 1 on the Dangerous Terrain check. Oh well, there are worse vehicles to have immobilized than a Whirlwind. Sheri moved Njal to join the Blood Claws that were further forward, sending her other Blood Claws towards the Stormies, her Grey Hunters towards infantry, and Bjorn up the center. Ancient Absalom came down off the ridge line next to him.
My Dark Talon's first round of shooting was a little disappointing. I targeted a Vet squad that had just come out of a Chimera, getting 4 of them and the track under the rift cannon's blast, but when I rolled to wound/armor pen - four 1's and a 2. The hurricane bolters picked up the slack though, chewing up most of the squad. Bjorn immobilized the Bane Wolf with his frost cannon, which you'd think would make it easy meat for my Tac Squad's grav cannon, but nope. Whiff. My other Tac Squad whittled down the Stormies on the right flank, and my Sicarian wrecked the damaged Leman Russ. I'd hemmed and hawed a bit on whether to target the Russ or the Bane Wolf, but Sheri pointed out it was way less dangerous immobilized. Plus, we figured Bjorn might finish it off with a charge.
However, in our assault phase, Bjorn failed the charge, and so did the Blood Claws. My demi-squad did manage a charge on the right flank Stormies though, and wiped them out. And, of course, the TWC chewed through another bucket of Dan's Guardsmen, killing all of them and blowing up the Sentinel in the process.
Turn 4
Dan's Stormtrooper Command Squad finally came in. He landed them squarely between Bjorn and Ancient Absalom. He moved his remaining Rough Riders towards the Grey Hunters with Njal, and maneuvered units to bring firepower to bear on the TWC. His Stormptroopers back in our left flank went over the ridgeline towards the 4-point objective. His Stormie officer ordered his unit to Split Fire.
In his shooting phase, Dan's Stormie command squad fired one meltagun at Bjorn, immobilizing him, and three at Ancient Absalom,blowing him up! He poured fire on the TWC, who absorbed it like bosses. He also put a lot of snap shots on my Dark Talon. He got a lucky 6 with a missile launcher, and penned it for a Shaken result. After that, I had no reason not to have it Jink, and the rest of the units shooting at either missed or had their hits Jinked away.
His Rough Riders, with the Priest still jogging along behind them, charged the Blood Claws Njal had joined. Unfortunately for them, they'd already expended their explodo-lances on my RWCS, and Lucas the Trickster was in that squad. He chewed up a bunch of them.
On our turn, I swung my Sicarian around to the right flank, and had demi-squads move to objectives, sending the one that had been guarding the rear of my Sicarian to intercept the Stormies coming over the ridgeline. I had my Dark Talon zoom off the board, since all it could do is snap-shoot hurricane bolters this turn. Sheri moved her last functional Rhino to make a run at one of the no-man's-land objectives.
In the shooting phase, the Iron Priest tried but failed to re-mobilize Bjorn, but Sheri didn't get the roll. Bjorn did kill most of the offending Stormies with his frost cannon though. My shooting was underwhelming. Despite targeting the Bane Wolf with both my Sicarian and a grav cannon, I failed to do a thing to it.
In the assault phase, the TWC assaulted a couple squads. Njal, Lucas, and one last lone Blood Claw cut down all but two of the Rough Riders, Lucas taking out the meddlesome Priest with a challenge, and they cut down the last two when they tried to flee.
Turn 5
Dan threw more units at the TWC meatgrinder, sending his Primaris Psyker with them. He moved a Vet Squad embarked in a Chimera to one of the no-man's-land objectives midfield, and continued having his remaining Stormies hoof it over the ridgeline to the 4-point objective. He tried to cast Misfortune on the TWC, but Njal denied it this time. His shooting phase didn't accomplish much, and in his assault phase, the TWC cut their way clear again.
On our turn, Sheri broke Harald Deathwolf off from the TWC so they could assault two separate targets. She had Njal hop in her last functional Rhino, and it moved to contest the 3-point no-man's-land objective. My Dark Talon came back in. I had it zoom to the center of the table. I hooked my Sicarian around the rock outcroppings on the right flank, and had a melta+combi-melta demi squad clamber into it to claim the 2-point no-man's-land objective. My other melta demi-squad headed towards the Stormies on the ridgeline.
My Dark Talon whiffed in our Shooting phase, but the Sicarian opened up a Chimera full of Vets, and my Whirlwind whittled the Vets. I'd intended to have my melta-demi squad shoot at the heavy weapon team on the rise in Dan's deployment zone, but Sheri wanted me to destroy the Bane Wolf. I didn't think it would pan out, but sure enough, they blew it up, which goes to show that listening to Sheri is always worthwhile.
In the assault phase, my demi-squad assaulted the last Stormies, wiping them out.
And Harald and the TWC brought the pain to the renegades on the right flank.
Dan's roll for Random Game Length came up a 2, ending the game.
Results
When the game ended, I had demi-squads sitting on the 1-point objective, the 4-point objective, and the 2-point objective sitting in no-man's-land. Dan had units on the 2-point and 3-point objectives in his deployment zone, and he'd scored First Blood. We'd both killed a Fast Attack unit, so we each scored a point there, and the 3-point no-man's-land objective was contested. Final score, 8-7 in favor of the Space Wolves and Night Angels!
Afterthoughts
I was disappointed with the Dark Talon, but it only spent 2 turns out of 5 on the table, so it didn't get a chance to give a good showing. The Sicarian has been a reliable performer ever since I got it, and this game was no exception. My Whirlwind had one of its better games, frequently having bunched up targets to drop pie plates on, and Ancient Absalom put in a decent showing as well.
Sheri's Thunderwolves were obvious star performers, easily the standout unit in her list. The rest of her list struggled to be as useful, but they were hampered throughout the game by Sheri's inability to successsfully roll a charge. At one point, she even failed a 5-inch charge, which was very disappointing.
Dan's list sure forced us to chew through a lot of Guardsmen, and in spite of the picture above still had some fight left in it. His clever use of Priests made his blobs able to inflict some damage, and he had his Vets waiting to catch units out in the open. I don't think the big Stormtrooper squads performed as well as he'd have liked though. Probably next time, they'll bring some special weapon upgrades with them.
Overall, it was a fun game. Dan always gives a good game, and Sheri's enthusiasm is infectious. I tend to shy away from such a big game because they're so time consuming, but I had time for it on Sunday, and playing it was a blast!
