Hello and welcom to another battle report!
This game was played at my friends home on the 15th. I had nearly a 3 hour drive to get there!
This was one of the best games I have played in a very long time.
For what ever reason I have been in a Space Wolves mood lately.
My warriors were ready to sail the blood ocean that is the sea of stars and claim their glory!
WLK took the pictures and posted them in our group in face book.
Here the battle begins.
Maelstrom Mission 2
WLK: the Great Company of Lord Kjaran of the Red Sails
-Lord Kjaran with his 5 strong Thunderwolf retinue
-Rune Priest Ospak Farsight with 15 Blood Claws in a Stormwolf
-Wolf Priest with 15 Blood Claws in a Stormwolf
-2 10 strong Grey Hunters in Rhinos
-Predator Deimos with Plasma Destroyer and Lascannon sponsons
-Allied Imperial Knight Errant, the Bean Sidhe of House Macha
Steve Whelps in need of a thrashing (from memory, Steve can correct if i screw something up)
-Wolf Lord on TWM, (th+ss) with 3 thunderwolves
-3 10 strong Grey Hunter packs in Rhinos
-Vindicator Tank
-Rune Priest in TDA with 5 Wolf Guard in TDA
-1x7 Wolf Guard in TDA, all with combi-plasma
-1x3 Land Speeder Squadron
-2 6 strong Long Fang packs
-Stormwolf
-Dreadnought with plasma cannon, heavy flamer and extra armour
-Dreadnought with twin autto cannon, missile launcher and extra armour
--------------WLK----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Uberwolve
Turn 1........0.............................................................................................0
Turn 2.......Stuff of Sagas (3)..........................................................First Blood, Sec Objective 2, No Prisoners
Turn 3......Slay the Warlord (hah).....................................................Unleash the Wolves
Turn 4......Secure Objective 6.........................................................Secure Objective 3, Ascendancy (1)
Turn 5.....Witch Hunter, Secure Obj 3+5, Hold Your Ground (3).........Hunger for Glory (1), Recon, Psychological Warfare
...............Unleash the Wolves, Hunger for Glory (3), Line Breaker.....Line Breaker
Final...........15........................................................................................10
This turned out to be an incredibly, incredibly close game between Steve and myself. Until the last turn, I was expecting a tie at best but thinking how to mitigate the potential loss.
The cards werent friendly to either of us, but we both played smart and looked secure any advantage against each other.
I took an Imperial Knight for the first time, and while it's guns werent terribly useful, its ability to harm anything on the table helped me negate Uber's superior speed.
I also used the Wolves Unleashed detachment rather than the standard CAD, and there were 2 times when not having Objective Secured hurt me in the scores. I wont be doing that again. I rolled up (with re-rolls...) Monster Hunter and it was pretty useless as well. With the potential to outflank, I only had 2 units eligible to actually outflank. Frankly, giving up OS for a potential Outflank is plain stupid.
The most important thing of the game is that Steve and I have a great time. We laughed, commiserated together, cheered and made very inappropriate jokes. Today was a good day.
Coments
Uberwolve
Notes. My army list had two dreadnoughts.One with a twin auttocannon nd missile launcher the other with a plasma cannon and heavy flamer. Both had extra armour.
The wolf guard terminators were 3 with wolf claw and storm shields one with chain fist had storm shield. Body guards for the TDA master of the runes. I think that's about it.
WLK
i thought I listed the dread...hopefully I got it right on B&C
Steve's deployment.
Uberwolve "Crom sits strong on his mountain!
I set up first and tried to use the buildings for cover and to block some LOS. I wasn't exactly sure what kind of shooting was in Kieran's army.
He likes that Super plasma predator and I knew he had the knight."
WLK "yea, i havent gotten over the fun of the plasma predator yet."
Steve's deployment.
Steve's deployment
Steve's Reserves
Uberwolve " I like to keep my speeders in reserve to keep them alive beyond turn one..."
WLK " its a valid idea.
Deep striking them may be a good idea in the future, especially in Drop Pod heavy games
My deployment (WLK)
WLK deployment
WLK Reserves
View of the table!
Night fight? No.
Objectives ? 6
Draw one card on turn one.
Every turn after draw one card for every objective marker you control.
Turn 1 Steve: He rushes forward to clear LoS for his Long Fangs in the building
Uberwolve " I knew I had to move as much as I could. Had to gain objectives and get out of my deployment zone or be trapped there. I like that vehicles can move more during the shooting phase this helps out a lot."
WLK "yea, the mission requiring objectives held to get tactical cards is inventive, if a little frustrating at times
WLK "I move my Knight Errant and Thunderwolves forward to engage the Vindicator tank that took Hull point from Knight,both fail charge.
the Knight's gun hurts 2 of Steve's Rhinos, but fails to hurt them"
Uberwolve " The vindicator needed to get closer to shoot. the ruins ahead of him saved it from two charges! I also shot to attempt to scatter beyond the Knight who has protection from his ion field. "
WLK "using the stubber to allow cheap shot charges is interesting. Im going to remember that "
WLK Moving forward
Steve drops 7 combi-plasma Terminators infront of my Rhino and Deimos pred, and he destroys both in 1 turn
Uberwolve " I very nearly fielded all 10 of my Combi plasma! but decided 7 was enough. I've been running them this way for a long time, mostly to kill nid brain bugs. They weren't really a good match were they landed but it well fairly well. "
WLK "they did vape the plasma pred. if it wasnt for them, it would have raised some hell on the thunderwolves"
Steve's Turn 2, he continues his advance while shielding his Thunderwolves
Uberwolve "Not much to say here. Just wanted to keep moving. Taking that objective was a good thing too. Not one I had to go after but it kept me getting cards. "
WLK "very smart playing on your part.
Your constant moving made sure i had to work to nail your forces "
Uberwolve " I was mostly trying to get further away from the power of your knight and if he cam that way hope he stepped in front of my Long fangs! "
WIL "Good plan. That building was full of heavy weapon badasses "
Uberwolve "They so nearly knee caped him from the ground floor. it was a good plan but I think I only had one hit of the three shots. too much building in the way. "
Steve's Wolf Guard do 2 hull points to my Knight in CC, but the Knight's stomp kills the remaining Terminators
Uberwolve "This hurt! It's always painful to have watch helpless as one of your best units are eaten. My TDAWG were nearly able to slay his knight. Nearly."
WLK " I was damn lucky with that "6" on the chart. I think if the Wolf Guard stayed in combat I would have lost the Knight much faster"
Uberwolve " Part of me thinks I should have had a full unit of them. that would have had at least one more anti tank guy. maybe another power fist maybe a thunder hammer. I'll have to see what all I have already. Might have to add another might warrior to that unit."
WLK " A full 10 would be beast, but I would direct more hate at them.I would have hit them with the melta cannon then"
Uberwolve " Very true. It's hard to support units so far forward like that. I'll still be thinking on the thunder hammer. Not at the top of my to do list though."
WLK " If I ran Pods with beacons then I'd run terminators."
Uberwolve " I was very excited about planet strike so my collection was planned more or less around that so drop pods. Sadly(?) I never did play planet strike."
WLK " I dropped the fascination with planet when I saw the number of terrain needed to play good sized games of this"
Uberwolve " I got a good bit of it. I think a lot of people were turned off by the victory conditions but It would have been a cool way to kick off a map based campaign or something."
YEa, its getting nuts here
Uberwolve " Kieran's forces are all over the board now. My storm wolf turned up and lined up to take out it's opposite number but failed to do so. I was planning to use it as a gunship."
WLK " it was a good plan, I just got lucky with the Interceptor gun. If your wolf wasnt stunned, I would have lost the stormwolves with blood claws+wolfpriest before they could hit the Long Fang building"
the Icarus gun on the Knight penetrates Steve's stormwolf, but fails to kill it
Steve's Wolf Lord and Thunderwolves move to engage my knight after his shooting removes all but 1 hull point
Uberwolve " The TWC thunder hammer had killed the knight effectively the thunder Lord just added to the pile of pens! Better to live one day as an eagle, not a life time as a fly!"
WLK " I would have claimed the kill for your Wolf Lord. Swinging at same I with the same S,it really could have been either and its a great start to his saga"
Uberwolve " Ah, I thought if he died it didn't count.
WLK " It counts if you want it to count.
Just because the poison of Jörmungandr kills Thor doesn't negate Thor's achievement"
Unpredicatbly, a Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf mount with a thunder hammer is enough to kill the Knight...
Uberwolve" The Lords celebrations would be very short lived."
WLK " still a sweet one though"
who promptly goes nuclear, taking the Wolf Lord and another Thunderwolf in the following explosion!
Uberwolve "KA-BOOM! I had been hoping for a good drift...I really wanted that huge blast marker to drift back away from my unit and onto the rhino! But it was not to be."
WLK "
I was damn lucky with that explosion. Losing my Knight was tough, but it's killing of the Wolf Lord and thunder hammer armed TWC was essential to me"
Not having Objective secure hurt me here, as my GH move to engage the last of Steve's Thunderwolves
Uberwolve " The surviving TWC meant to cause as much trouble as he could!"
WLK " he did.
Not having Objective Secured hurt me in this game. I wont do it again"
My Wolf Priest and 15 Blood Claws come out of their Stormwolf, but fail the charge to the Long Fangs on the ground floor
Uberwolve " Looks scary! all those Blood claws with the wolf priest!"
WLK " luckily the Blood Claws got distracted by butterflies or something and left in a very, very bad spot"
Yea, the combat continues
Steve's Long Fangs make my Blood Claws for their advance, killing 9 in a single volley of plasma cannon and lascannon fire
Uberwolve "The long fangs tally the butchers bill. The cranky old fangs wish to slay all who challenge them!"
WLK " OUCH!"
Steve uses his Land Speeders to deny me the Objective
Uberwolve " Not sure I did this the right way. the plan was to draw Kierans army to this objective away from my own forced on his side of the board. this objective was named to be held for two turns. so I knew he would want it for the points. it was worth D3 and he also had a card for it. Its final value was 4 points! which was a huge prize to be had!"
WLK " it was a good plan for you. if you managed to disrupt me holding the objective, which you nearly did, i would have not gotten the 3 points for the objective.
again, not having Objective Secured hurt"
My Stormwolf moves behind Steve's Rhinos and unleashes hell
Uberwolve " My lower left rhino was immobilized. It was time to start making the harder choices. His Storm Wolf was still transporting blood claws in large number! And they would bring my doom!"
WLK " yea, i love cramming maxed out claws into the Stormwolf. Its the perfect delivery vehice"
Steve's Dread is laughing so hard at the Blood Claws that he fails his charge...now my Blood Claws move into the building
Uberwolve " Earlier the dred lost the use of his power fist. But I needed the charge to stop the blood claws from gaining assault with my long fangs! But he was far too busy to bother with it.
WLK " damn those butterflies..."
Lord Kjaran moves to engage the enemy Rune Priest and Wolf Guard escort
Uberwolve " The wolf guard are actually on the ground floor."
killing off the Long Fangs on the ground floor, the Wolf Priest and surviving Blood Claws move to the second floor
Uberwolve " Things had gotten grim for my Long fangs! the pack below killed and the pack above reduced to a single man. He would frag more blood claws, from the other Storm wolf be fore he was to die!"
WLK " "It is a good day to die""
a lone grey hunter standing among the wrecked land speeders, as they required both a melta gun shot (who's explosion killed 2 of his packmates) and his power fist
Uberwolve " My speeders lasted just a little longer than I thought."
WLK "Yea, they were probably the "Man of the Match"
they stripped hull points off of the Knight, and even in death killed 2 of 3 of a Grey Hunter pack"
Uberwolve" I need to reread fast skimmers. Just in case I missed out on moving further when they went flat out. I think if they had been able to move past your objective I might have had another turn of use from them. but I'm not sure they would have been far enough away from your TWC to have made a difference. So I guess everything happened as it was suppose to."
WLK " I am pretty sure they could have moved further, but then they wouldn't be denying me the obj I needed"
Lord Kjaran takes a wound, but kills off most of the Wolf Guard
Uberwolve "The Wolf lord is very tough."
WLK " He doesnt compare to yours.
a Thunder Hammer+Storm Shield thunder lord is probably the best kitted out Lord"
Johan Hegg approves of the violence
Johan Hegg approves of the violence
"impressive!"
I start to encircle Steve's surviving Grey Hunters
Uberwolve " Prior to this my Grey hunters had managed to destroy the near and threatening Storm wolf. But we were now trapped! Lots of shooting just to plink off a few of Kierans grey hunters."
WLK " I forgot about the melta'd stormwolf. That what happens when I upload stuff so late"
Uberwolve " Fair enough. It was a high point for me your "Gun Ships" had seemed untouchable previously."
WLK
The Wolf Priest charges toward the last Long Fang, takes a krak missile in the chest which is ignored by his armor, before killing the lone senior citizen
Uberwolve " The long fang fought as well as he could but his time in this mortal realm was up."
WLK " Yea, my Wolf Priest was on a rampage.
I think his Crozius needs it's own name"
Uberwolve " Head cracker! Skull Cruncher!
WLK " frankly, Im surprised the Ap4 weapon did so much damage"
Uberwolve "Just the luck."
WLK " And digital weapons helped"
THIS!
IS!
FENRIS!
Uberwolve " Wolf priest victorious!
WLK " It was a good end for his game"
Uberwolve " There was a heavy toll to pay for Objective 3."
WLK " damn heavy.
Frankly, I should have ignored it as well as you had it secured, but I got tunnel vision'ed on it.
the # of times you pulled "Secure Objective 3" was funny/irritating.
Uberwolve " Ya, I think twice. I don't know how many of those cards are in the deck but twice did surprise me!
We've had bloody battles for objectives before.
WLK " Yea, they are a blast
Rune Priest Ospak Farsight challenges and kills the Grey Hunter pack leader
Uberwolve " The duel! My pack leader leapt to the challenge banking on his shield and sword ability. His fury of blows deflected by the priests runic armour! My fearless hero laid low by the priests furious axe!"
WLK " I really love that Pack Leader. He's pretty badass looking"
Uberwolve " He was one of my early models, 5th edition."
WLK " he should become a Battle Leader"
an empty table despite having 6k of points on the table
an empty table despite having 6k of points on the table
an empty table despite having 6k of points on the table
"Not exactly empty..."
"The Battle draws to an end"
Uberwolve " Several combats occurred. My grey hunters collectively loosing 2 of the three. We won on giving us another point!"
WLK " My fleeing GH pack got you psychological warfare. Damn him, rather he'd die in CC
Uberwolve "But he'll live to run again another day!"
WLK " Not after the Priests get done with him.
COWARD! COWARD!
Where the last of the action is as the game is called
Uberwolve "My army would have been tabled had the game gone another round"
WLK " My Wolf Lord failing that last charge was critical. My understrength GH pack was supposed to support his charge, but instead got beat down by the larger pack"
Uberwolve " My grey hunters did their best to soften your squad up. At one point I thought I would have to charge them but with counter charge shooting seemed better...and it worked out ok.
WLK " It was a good trap.
I get too dependent on dual charges and such I planned for them connecting at the same time, With the Fleet re-roll I still failed.
Uberwolve "That was very unexpected."
Lord Kjaran thanks you for your time!
My Wolves may have lost this game but we had an outstanding time and a very good showing on the table!
It was a very close game until the end WLK managed to score. so many points on his last turn that my wolves were defeated!
Thank you for reading!
