2012.07.14 Space Wolves v. Grey Knights

This is my second game of 6th! It was pretty good and again definitely showcased a lot of the changes from 5th. I played against a fellow I'd never met before who was pretty chill, though we were all bummed because there was supposed to be a tournament that day but not enough players showed up.

The Challenger:
Drive me closer so I can hit them with my demolisher cannon.

Logan, the Great Tax

Rifleman Dreadnought x3

5x Wolf Guard x5
- 1x TDA, 1x CML

3x Thunderwolf Cavalry
- 1x Stormshield

Vindicator x3


The Defender:
I have a unit worth half your army.

Lord Faggo
Inquisitor (?)

Vindicare Assassin

10x paladins
- psycannons, halberds, daemon hammer or two

5x Grey Knight Terminators

Stormraven
-Las/MM

Rifleman Dreadnought x2

We got the hammer & anvil deployment (corners) with purge the alien (fuck). Going in, I've got 13 kill points, he's got 8, which is a god damn travesty for me. I resigned myself to just killing everything that that wasn't a paladin and minimizing losses.

I castled up on the corner, while my opponent just took range across from me, putting his paladins as far forward as possible. The assassin is in the area terrain in the center of the picture above. I've got two units of WG in the tiny ruin with the other three spread about. behind them. This match I got the ruins strategic warlord trait, while my opponent got something that wasn't useful (or at least, was never used, so same difference). His psyker took some random powers that didn't do anything.

While I won our roll-off and elected to deploy first, he seized anyway.

TURN 1

Note: we forgot to play night fighting again the first turn, which would've made a big difference actually with the vindicator/dreadnought range bands, but oh well. The vindicare assassin super-pens a vindicator, but gets stopped by a 4+ cover (GG warlord traits). One of the dreadnoughts takes a hull point off of another vindicator.

I move the vindicators forward 12" and everything else stays put basically except for the cavalry, which move 12" towards his deployment zone. Two dreadnoughts take off two wounds from the assassin, thankfully ending his chicanery for the match. The last rifleman takes off two hull points from the leftmost dread, immobilizing and shaking him. Missile fire takes off two hull points from the other dreadnought and shakes it, while the vindicators can't shoot.

TURN 2

Both dreadnoughts pass fortitude (lame...) and the stormraven comes in. Dreadnought fire wrecks the middle vindicator while the stormraven immobilizes the far dreadnought and pops the demolisher cannon off of a vindicator. You'll note however, as I did later, that the facing of the stormraven was illegal. (It entered in Zoom mode but made a second >90° turn to shoot at side armors). So much for taking out paladins.


Three dreadnoughts unleash a hail of autocannon fire at the flyer and knock out three hull points with 12 snap shots. Kaboom! I roll up five wounds for the armor save-less terminators aboard but they all make their fucking invulns. Blarg. They scramble out almost 8" away from the stormraven.

My last demolisher cannon then wrecks a dreadnought while cyclone missiles finish off the other. 8 missiles later, one terminator dies.

Cavalry just move and run.

TURN 3

Psycannon shots wreck the last vindicator worth a damn while the terminators' 8 storm bolter shots manage a final glance on the cannonless vindi.

Cavalry move towards paladins, hoping to tie them up for one turn. Dangerous terrain test yields a wound that gets saved, thankfully. Putting missiles into the cluster of paladins yields three wounds and I take out the front model, the others passed down the line.

Cavalry make their charge! WAROOOOOOOOOOOOO. Paladins cast Hammerhand, and then the Hammer of Wrath puts a wound on the hammerdin which I specifically sniped out. Halberds and regular attacks put out 6 wounds, 2 of which get saved by the storm shield, but then my opponent says he's activating the NFW for instant death from brotherhood banner. Turns out this is pretty illegal since paladins aren't mastery level 2. Regardless, the TWC pop from instant death and he consolidates, thus wrecking my range advantage.

TURN 4

The terminators explode a dreadnought, I forget how. Psycannon maybe. Anyway, paladins take out three power armor bubble-wrappers off of a wolf guard unit.

I move all my guys max range away from the paladins (towards the terminators) and put 10 frag missile templates and 12 autocannon shots on the paladins, managing perhaps 40 hits or so and get a total of two wounds for my efforts.

TURN 5

My opponent moves his two units then multi-assaults two units of wolf guard. His halberds and NFW avail him nothing as I wreck their faces with counter-attack power mauls, routing the terminators.

Shooting sees a nearly identical allocation of shots to the paladins but only get two wounds this round. We roll to continue and it comes up 6.

TURN 6

My opponent finally gets the last wound onto a squad of wolf guard, giving him one last KP. In return I land 16 wounds on the squad from missile fire, and all but one are saved. Dreadnoughts pinch out one last wound which manages to remove a model. This does not remove him from my deployment zone :(

RESULTS  

Game ends with me having netted five victory points from the mission, along with first blood. My opponent killed one squad of wolf guard, three vindicators, the cavalry and a dreadnought for a total of six, but he also got Linebreaker.

I did a lot of stupid things in this battle and each of them got my vindicators killed or my cavalry dead. By RAW the cavalry would've survived another round of close combat, if only for the fact that halberds attack at I6 but pile-in at I4 (either this or models with unwieldy weapons die to Jaws on a 2+). I should have not engaged them in the first place though and simply gone for Linebreaker with the TWC. This would have assured me victory.

2012.07.14 Space Wolves v. Orks

This is my first game of 6th! It was pretty good and definitely showcased a lot of the changes from 5th. I played against a fellow I'd never met before who was pretty chill, though we were all bummed because there was supposed to be a tournament that day but not enough players showed up. It had been a while since I've played--January--so you'll note a lot of bad mistakes both tactical and otherwise.

The Challenger:
Drive me closer so I can hit them with my demolisher cannon.
Logan, the Great Tax

Rifleman Dreadnought x3

5x Wolf Guard x5
- 1x TDA, 1x CML

3x Thunderwolf Cavalry
- 1x Stormshield

Vindicator x3


The Defender:
Did you see his head? KABOOOOOM! Hahahahahaha!

Warboss
-PK

Big Mek
-KFF

19x Boyz
- Big Shootas

20x Boyz
- Rokkits

30x Boyz
- 'Ard Boyz

6x Nob Bikers
-super kit: PK's, cybork bodies, painboy

1x Deff Dread
- 4 DCCW

Warbuggy
- TL Rokkits

Battlewagon x2
- Deff rollas

Looted Wagon

We got dawn of war for our deployment type and the relic as our mission. The relic is the grey stone in the middle of the map. I rolled to go first and ended up deploying like a mong all along my table edge. I put my three dreadnoughts onto the plateau just off camera below, and then evenly spaced out my units along the deployment line. As you'll note, I am still mostly putting units down like I would in 5th with no concern for who is in front.

He put his parking lot in one big cluster, which was awesome for me, with his lootas in the area terrain next to it. The huge squad of 30 boyz and the warboss then deployed in the middle of the map, I'm guessing as a ploy to multi-charge my units.

My opponent rolled and failed to seize.

TURN 1

Note: we forgot to play night fighting the first turn, so all this shooting was getting just KFF cover saves. My vindicators roll up to get shots on his huge mobs, while the wolf guard basically shuffle for line of sight.

This pic kind of says it all: my first vindicator pops a shell at the middle of his deff dread and I manage partials on the battlewagon behind it and the one next door. KFF fails for the first two, and I roll very well for my pens (ordnance rules!). On the damage chart I roll a 5 and 6 respectively, which with the new AP2 means two explodes results. Booya, first blood! The 19 boyz clamber out of the wagon and take seven wounds, making only one save. We forgot to do random allocation on these, but considering how long that would've taken, fuck it. Also forgot to do morale checks on the lootas. Oh well.

So, first shot turn 1 I've just demolished (pun intended) about 250 points of nasty enemy units. I love my vindicators!

The second vindicator turns three lootas to dust, while the collective shooting from cyclones takes a hull point off of the looted wagon, two more lootas and kills one boy from the big ard boyz squad. My dreadnoughts fail to punch through armor and KFF saves.

On his turn he runs everything up, as orks are wont to do. Shooting knicks a couple of wounds from the TWC, while rokkits put 3 pens on my third vindicator from the 'ard boyz. Thankfully all are saved. He then launches his own demolisher shell at Logan, which kills all but one of the power armored wolf guard in the squad along with another in the adjacent squad.

TURN 2

TWC move 6" because I'm still playing 5th, while everyone else either shuffles towards the relic or LOS.

Vindicator Champion Prime takes a shot at the battlewagon but scatters onto the boyz, sucking down another four wounds from the diminished squad. Vindicator 2 takes the champ trophy from #1 as it pops the BW and kills two models from the nearby squad, then takes out 9 boyz from the disembarking unit. Meanwhile, Vindi 3 nails four 'ard boyz but no one notices.

Dreadnoughts take aim at the looted wagon but are mostly stopped by KFF, though one glance gets through but we forget to mark it, so note later that in this match the wagon has effectively 4HP. Wolf Guard packs 1 & 2 punch through the wagons armor to leave it immobilized with its boomgun destroyed, and packs 3-5 do minor damage to boyz squads. TWC fail their charge roll by a couple of inches.

On my opponent's turn, he rolls a 2 for his nob bikers coming in from reserve and declares a WAAAGH!!! Shooting from before the storm whiffs except for a shaken result on a vindicator. Excited about the ensuring WAAAGH!!! he forgets to shoot both his lootas and warbuggy. He does move his Big Mek next to the looted wagon in an attempt to repair, but fails.

The boyz who just lost their ride charge into the TWC, taking 6 wounds, though 3 get saved (!) by boyz. PK puts another wound onto the last TWC, giving them each 1W each now, but they fail leadership and get swept badly. TWC consolidate towards Logan.

Meanwhile, the 'ard boyz have taken to krumping Logan's tiny squad, who forgot to test for counter-attack. My opponent has no nob in the squad, so when he passes on issuing a challenge I do so with my terminator in order to protect Logan from PK attacks. Logan and his power armored buddy then take the fight to the mob, dealing 3 wounds with frost blade attacks. The challenge goes well for me, as I get 1 power maul wound on the warboss--now down to 2--while he gets 2 PK attacks that are both saved by my 5++. Awesome. I win combat 4-0, though at the time I forgot to include the challenge wounds in resolution.

TURN 3

Dreadnoughts take out the warbuggy and the looted wagon's 3rd (4th) hull point. Wolf guard either run towards combat/relic or take out a few more boyz from the unengaged squad.

The cavalry then charges into the fray, with HOW landing a single wound. Logan whips out four from frost blade attacks aided by preferred enemy, and the chump guard with him does nothing. Cavalry disappoint with only two wounds landing out of 15 attacks, but the challenge is a blowout when the terminator lands and wounds with both power maul attacks, leaving the warboss dead and drying in the mid-day sun.

On my opponent's turn, he rolls for reserves again but is blocked by my warlord trait that gives -1 to reserve rolls. In assault, Logan and his squad land only a single wound, while the cavalry pump out three. Sadly, the cavalry die to massed attacks, while Logan's unit saves three of four wounds it's dealt, leaving the power armored fellow dead and drying in the shade of the warboss' corpse.

TURN 4

Non-coms shuffle forward while dreadnoughts take out the last vestiges of the big mek's squad. In assault Logan cranks out four wounds and his buddy another two while they save all that are dealt in return. The boyz finally break.

The nob bikers finally arrive, and Logan takes a wound from pistol shots fired by the fleeing boyz.

The nobs charge and wreck the shit out of the vindicator


TURN 5 & 6

Nob bikers eat their way through a couple squads of wolf guard in an effort to get Logan's unit, which has taken the relic, outside assault range. After they finish their appetizers and start making their towards Logan, who gets bubble-wrapped by another wolf guard squad. Dakkaguns chew off another wound on Logan but assures the survival of the bubble-wrappers.

Vindicators and missiles pop a few wounds off the bikers each turn, though in one funny instance a demolisher cannon scattered on my own guys, killing four. They slowly whittled the squad down, though it went much faster once the painboy died. Dreadnoughts finish the squad off with massed fire and my opponent is tabled.

RESULTS


I hate tabling people, but my opponent seemed intent on getting to Logan's unit for the relic, and I figured there was a chance it might succeed. I finished with 3 points for the relic, 1 point for first blood, 1 point for slay the warlord and no points for linebreaker. Total: 5. My opponent had zero.

I don't really consider this much of a win, because my opponent started rolling to wound Logan as if he were T5 in close combat and I never bothered to check to correct him. I guess only Gay Knights get chapter masters with 5/5/5 statlines. So, my apologies there. I don't feel like this changed a whole lot, as I still had a ton of reach with tanks and all my scoring units.

There were tons of play errors and tactical errors on both sides, but again this was really only a test match for 6th.

Post match thoughts: I really fucking hate this mission. When I read it I thought it would be cool, like playing CTF Warhammer, but in actuality it's quite shit. First, there's no margin for victories because you can only rely on the secondaries, which are designed poorly and simply facile. So, either you massacre or are massacred by your opponent by 3-6 points or you tie because one of you got the relic and the other guy spent the entire game getting secondaries.