Warpcon Game 2 – Space Wolves.

It’s been a while in coming, this report; I’ve been very busy doing not a lot of things really but haven’t had time to get these reports up. So here’s Game 2 from Warpcon.

Spearhead deployment
Primary Objective: : Capture and Control
Secondary Objective: Annihilation

Game two of Warpcon was against Space Wolves, one of my least favourite opponents as mech guard, stoopid Long Fangs!

The list looked something like this:

Rune priest with Jaws and Hurricane

Rune priest with Lightning and Hurricane

5 Wolf Guard with Power Fists and Combi Meltas

3 Long Fang Packs with 5 Missile Launchers

Transport of 3 Las/Plas Razorbacks

4 Packs of 7 Grey Hunters

Transport of 4 Rhinos

2 Squads of 5 Wolf Scouts with 1 Melta

The Wolf Guard were split up and attached to the Scout Squads and three of the Grey Hunter Squads.

The Scouts opted infiltrate, and 1 Rhino was held in reserve.

Objectives were placed, mine was in-between two hills, and his was close to the centre of the table.

The Wolves were going first and deployed aggressively in their table quarter, with two squads the Long Fangs sat back in a building in the rear corner ready to open fine.

I set up in a vehicle Castle in the corner, trying to cover my immediate access to my tanks by filling up the short edge with a conga line of guard and the long edge with tanks. The Lascannon Team went on the Objective and the Autocannon Team was set up with a field of fire over to the Space Wolf positions. All the Chimeras bar the one containing the CCS were ready to roll out towards the Space Wolf positions, the CCS hang back to provide orders to the weapons team and offer a reactionary blast of Meltas. The Vendettas were deployed further away from the army in preparation for a scout move against the first Turn shooting. Marbo and the BaneWolf were in reserve.

Deployment

Space Wolf Imperial Guard Turn 1: Initiative Stolen! Owing to 1 lucky dice, Initiative was stolen and Guard secured the first turn. The chimeras rolled forward towards the centre of the table and the Space Wolf objective, everything else hung back and opened fire. The Manticores managed to smash the Long Fangs at the back and dish out 6 deaths out of the 12 models in the Building. The rest of the army, I forget who did what exactly, shook the Razorbacks, destroyed one and managed to pick off a couple more Long Fangs.

Space Wolf Turn 1: most of the Rhinos move up into position towards the advancing Guard including the Long Fangs in a Razorback. The Long Fangs at the back opened fire but failed to take anything out. The rest of the army really didn’t have much to bring to bear as it had all moved about or was shaken.

Imperial Guard Turn 2: The Chimeras rolled up a bit more and prepared to open fire, the rest of the force did just that. The long Fangs were down to 1 Missile Launcher at the end of shooting, and a Rhino lost a weapon and a Razorback was destroyed.

Space Wolf Turn 2: The Rhinos moved up and a pack of Wolf Scouts arrived, in the worst possible place for them, the short edge at the other end of the table. On the Central terrain a squad of Grey Hunters hopped out and so did the Long Fangs, setting up fire positions. Shooting was more effective this round, taking out a Vendetta and shaking a Chimera.

Imperial Guard Turn 3: The Bane Wolf arrived and powered towards the centre, hoping to melt some pesky Grey Hunters, the Chimeras manoeuvred for position setting up the Melta Vets to deal some malty death. Shooting wasn’t so good, with a lot of missed shots but another Razorback was taken out and the exposed Long Fangs were whittled down to just 1 man.

Battle for the Middle

Space Wolf Turn 3: The second lot of Wolf Scouts arrived and exposed a serious issue with my wall of tanks, there was a gap, the Tanks had just enough space in front of them before the Autocannon HWT, the scouts snuck in, and this was bad news. The Rhinos Moved up and some Grey Hunters went to get involved with smashing up a Chimera or 2. Not much happened during the shooting phase. During assault the Scouts Multi charged the Hydras and the Autocannon team, killing the Autocannon Team and taking out 1 Hydra. A Squad of Grey Hunters killed a Chimera and the Vets inside made some decent saves and set up in the wreck.

Battle for the Middle

Imperial Guard Turn 4: Marbo arrives into the thick of things, facing off against the Grey Hunters and Rune priest that the BaneWolf was also heading towards. The Vets and Chimeras jostled for position again, a couple of the tanks being unable to shoot so they opted for a “reverse advance”. In the shooting phase the Wolf Scouts got dealt with by the rest of the castle and the PCS. The BaneWolf and Marbo took care of some grey Hunters and a Rune priest. This was the last turn of shooting for the Manticores; they killed a couple of Grey Hunters. The final Long Fang in the middle also bit the dust.

Space Wolf Turn 4: the Wolf scouts move through my line to set up for some more charges, targeting my Vendetta and the Lascannon team sat on the objective. A squad of grey Hunters load up and burn it towards the objective as well, lining up to contest. There’s a bit of shooting and Marbo goes down, the Banewolf also gets popped, having done its job. The Wolf scouts charge and Shake the Vendetta, extra Armour makes it a Stun, and clear up the Lascannon team, meaning the objective is currently in Space Wolf hands.

Castle holds strong

Imperial Guard Turn 5: I react with everything that I can, lining up to shoot at the wolf scouts and get as many models onto the objective as possible. The stunned Vendetta goes flat out towards the Space Wolf Objective and ends up on it. I shoot the wolf scouts to pieces with whatever firepower is left, by this time it’s not a lot with the Manticores having used all their missiles and the Hydra that is left having just its hull Heavy Bolter. I thankfully force enough saves that can’t be made.

Space Wolf Turn 5: The Wolf Scouts in the Rhino move up, hop out and charge my Objective holding Infantry squad. The rest of the Army shoots at the Vendetta, hoping to shift it off the point, the flat out save and some poor Armour Pen rolls keep it alive. The Wolf Scouts assault the squad on the objective but fail to cause enough wounds and the combat continues, the Vendetta is assaulted as well but the sixes to hit mean that it lives.

We roll for turn 6, and there isn’t one, final result:

Primary Objective - Draw.

Secondary Objective -Loss

It was a tough game and I was lucky to do as well as I did, in hindsight I think it would have been prudent to kill his troops more and forget about the Long Fangs. I was very lucky with the first lot of Wolf Scouts coming in from the wrong edge, and I am annoyed that I didn’t protect from the other squad properly as they really did the most damage to my force overall. The last minute Vendetta contest and ending of the game on turn 5 was thankfully just what I needed.