Local RTT Report (with pictures!)

TThis last weekend I went to a local RTT at Gryphon Games and Comics in Fort Collins.  We had 12 or 14 people there (can't remember which), which is somewhat small for a tournament around here, but it's a great opportunity to play against people you've never played against, and get a lot of games in.  

(This picture is apparently Gryphons before they actually moved in, heh)

This tournament was 1750 points, a point level I never really play.  I usually try to get people to play at least 1850, if not 2000.  As such, it was somewhat of a dilemma on what army to bring- of the armies I have fully ready, I could have brought Wolves, Guard, or Chaos.  The Thursday night before the tournament I brought Guard down and, due to people seeing it and immediately making me feel like a douche for wanting to play with them, I decided on my (somehow less douchy?) Wolves.

Here's my list:

Rune Priest w/ Storm Caller and Jaws (I meant to get Living Lightning, but Army builder betrayed me, heh)

Wolf Lord w/ Thunderwolf Mount, Saga of Majesty, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield

Wolf Lord w/ Thunderwolf Mount, Saga of the Bear, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Wolf Tail Talisman, Wolf Tooth Necklace

8 Grey Hunters w/ Melta Gun, Wolf Standard, Rhino

8 Grey Hunters w/ Melta Gun, Wolf Standard, Rhino

5 Grey Hunters w/ Melta Gun, Wolf Standard, Rhino

3x Wolf Guard w/ Combi-Melta, Power Fist (always with the squads)

4 Thunderwolf Cavalry w/ 2 Storm Shields, Thunder Hammer (one had both SS and TH)

6 Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers

5 Longfangs w/ 4x Missile Launchers

I've had some success with this list in the past, here's my BoLSCON Tournament Report and my Tacticon Tournament Report, if you're interested.  They have pictures :)

Anyways, I've done well with this list, though in order to keep with the spirit of my 'Deathstar' I've had to trim the list around the edges.  Fewer Grey Hunters and fewer Longfangs made me feel more vulnerable, but I decided that since my main weakness is in trying to protect my troops, it was something I needed to force myself to work on.  Guess we'll see if I was able to do that.

 Game 1:  Wolfstar vs. 'Nilla Marines!

My first game was against Jon, and his Double-Raider list.  Jon is one of the younger guys in our club, though he's certainly no scrub as a player.  I know I never had that tough of a list when I was his age, and never even approached having a fully painted army.  Impressive on both counts!  Here's his list:

Librarian w/ Terminator Armor, Null Zone, Avenger

2x Terminator Squads w/ 1x Lightning Claws, 4x Thunder Hammers

Ironclad Dread w/ Seismic Hammer, and Melta gun, Drop Pod

3x 5-man tactical squads, in Las Cannon Razors (think one was a plasma/LC)

2x Land Raider Redeemers, with all the cool stuff. 

My list somewhat struggles against Land Raiders, despite my 6 meltas and 11 S10 attacks on the charge with my Wolfstar.  Everything else he has, I have an answer to, but if his Raiders refuse to die, I'm in for a rough game.

The Scenario:

Primary is control more objectives.  There is one objective (worth 3 'points') in the middle of the table, and 2 objectives in the center, 18" from either short table edge, each worth 2 'points'.  Whoever has the most 'points' at the end, gets the Primary.

Secondary is kill your opponent's HQ's.

Tertiary is have scored over half the kill points your opponent has.  I think Jon had 13, so I'd need to kill at least 7 in order to get this one.

He won the roll-off and gave me first turn, like he should have.  Dangit... I love going 2nd in objectives games.

Pregame thoughts: 

I needed to get rid of his termies and raiders as fast as possible.  The Longfangs (should) make short work of his three razors, and if I could bait the termies into charging my star, I was hoping to have that combat out of the way early on, so I could deal with the Land Raiders and other things.

Turn 1:  Wolves

Well, nothing much to do but walk up and challenge the objectives.  He couldn't really stand there and just shoot, so I decided to move forward, hoping he would meet me in the middle.  I figured if he charged me with his Terminators, it would make me slightly nervous, but I've fought that fight before, and I know the Wolfstar usually wins against 10 termies, even with Null Zone.  If they did lose, I still had Grey Hunters in range to counter-charge and clean up the mess.  One rhino stayed back, just to see what would happen.  Shooting stunned or shook a single Razor.

 

The center objective is right behind that weird portal thing in the middle.  The other two are in plain view, though the far one is tough to see- it's a little dog on a base.

Turn 1:  Marines 

He dropped his Ironclad down in between my rhinos, in the back, and wrecked on of my rhinos.  Dangit!  He also moved his Raiders up 12", disembarked his Termies, and charged my Wolfstar!  Luckily, I was able to block his Null Zone, or it might have been quite a bit worse...

The combat opened up, and though I was able to kill 4 Termies, he ended up causing 6 wounds to me, and winning the combat by 2.  I was happy I had the Saga of the Bear guy this game!  They stayed on the first roll however, and we were locked in. 

 

I really should have gotten a better picture of the big fight in the middle.

Wolves Turn 2:

I decided that the dread in my lines was too important, and disembarked my 'reserve' squad to shoot it in the back armor, and my already forcibly disembarked squad also marched up to deal with it as well.  My final Grey Hunter squad got out to go help with the Termies.

Longfangs shooting ended up weapon destroying one of his Razors and that's it.  Good job boys :)  The first Grey Hunters squad shot and whiffed at the Ironclad.  Ut-oh.  My second one hit once and penned once and... wrecked it.  Whew!

In combat, I ended up killing all but 2 of his Termies, one of whom ran, and the other stayed, but made all of his armor saves for ATSKNF.  Perfect result, since he wouldn't be able to fry me with Redeemer Cannons next turn :)

You can't really see here, but his last termie is actually surrounded by my guys at the portal thing.  His fleeing termie is already moved, and is behind his raiders.--->

Marines Turn 2:

Jon wasn't sure what to do, since all his preferred targets for the redeemer cannons were out of range.  So, he moved them around, and kinda just spread out, trying to pop my remaining rhinos (and failing, I think).

In combat, I was able to finish off his last termie easily, consolidating toward the center of the table with the star, and getting the Grey Hunters from that combat right next to his more-centered Raider.

You can see here that one of his raiders moved up to threaten my Long Fangs.

Wolves Turn 3:

Well, I decided this was the turn I needed to use to try and wreck his raiders.  My Thunderwolves sans the Majesty Lord moved toward his Raider on the right (since both had moved over 6") and prepared to try to Close Combat it to death.  The Majesty Lord decided to hunt down the fleeing Termie.  A Grey Hunter squad who had gotten out of their ride previously to kill the Ironclad, got back in, and the rhino moved less than 6" so I'd be within 6" of his raider.  Tricksy movement shenanigans FTW :)  The other Hunter squad got back in their ride, and moved 12" toward the far left objective, popping smoke.

Shooting as I remember it didn't do much of anything.  The two meltas into his center Raider bounced off, the single melta on his other raider missed, and the Longfangs also failed to hurt any Razors.  Sad face, lol!

In combat, my Star failed to even do anything at all to his Raider (maybe they shook it?) but my Majesty Lord hunted down and destroyed the lone Termie.

You can see that the Grey Hunters in the middle are ready to get BBQed for their failure.

Marines Turn 3:

Well, he decided to torch my Grey Hunters in the middle, which wasn't unexpected.  Not much more to be done by him at this point, really.  He rolled poorly(ish) for his Redeemer rolls, and my Rune Priest and a melta-gun stayed alive for the flamers.  His drop pod got the last laugh though, and killed my melta gun dude.  Dangit!  Sorry, no pictures of his turn.

Space Wolves Turn 4:

I moved my center-ish rhino up toward the closest raider, and shot a melta gun, and it again bounced off the hull.  The Wolfstar charged it, and though they shook it, didn't do much more.  The Longfangs *finally* killed a razorback, and immobilized the one on the far left, which was a big relief to me.  I needed at least one of those darn things to die!  My Majesty wolflord charged his center razor and... whiffed, despite it not having moved.  My rhino on the left moved up and grabbed the leftmost objective.

I can't hurt Land Raiders to save my life, heh.

Space Marines Turn 4:

Jon just shuffled his Raiders around more, getting ready to contest some objectives on Turn 5.  His remaining mobile Razor moved up 12", ready to contest the far left objective.  His shooting was mostly ineffectual, as it was for most of the game.  Our rolling vs. vehicles was terribad, the whole game.  At least it wasn't one-sided as far as that goes :)

The raider nearer to the center is where his Librarian has been hiding this whole time.

Space Wolves Turn 5:

We thought for some reason that the game had random gamelength, so I rushed my guys on the right up to capture the objective there, disembarking them, and hoping for the best.  My other Grey Hunters on the left objective just stayed in their rhino, shooting out the hatch and... immobilizing the raider!  Yes!  It's not in range to contest the objective yet.

The thunderwolves charged the immobilized Raider, and shook/stunned/weapon destroyed the heck out of it, but didn't wreck it, even with auto-hits.  The Majesty Lord walked up and killed his tac squad from the destroyed razor.  Hoo-ray for him :)  Long Fangs killed his one mobile razor.

Marines Turn 5:

He also thought it was random game length, and got his Librarian out to charge my Grey Hunters, who held the far objective.  His Tacticals from the destroyed Razor moved up to contest the far left objective.  He also started moving his tacticals from the Immobilized Razor up and toward the objectives for some reason.

In combat, my wolfstar, who is just sitting there in base to base with his raider, hit 9 times, and do... nothing!  I was able to smite his Librarian in the other combat, and consolidate onto the objective.  If the game ends this turn, I win...

And then we found out it was 6 full turns, so it was all for nought.  Got his Librarian out of his ride though :)

What a mess.

Wolves Turn 6:

The Bear Lord moved up and slaughtered the stray Tac squad who was wandering up to the objectives, while the rest of my Star backed up, wanting more attacks on the Raider.  My Grey hunters who have just killed the Librarian on the right move up to hold the objective, and miss again at killing the Land Raider.  My Grey Hunters on the left would need to finish off that 4-man tactical squad contesting the flag.  Easy, right?  I mean, they're combat marines.  They kill tacticals in the sleep, right?

So, they get out, and even kill a tactical marine with shooting.  They charge, and kill all but 1 tactical marine, who makes both fearless saves, and sticks in combat.  It's alright though, I have a fist for next turn.  Right?

Marines Turn 6 (last turn):

Not much to do, he zooms his Raider onto the right objective, and doesn't fail his Immobilized check, that would have won me the game.  His Tactical marine fights hard, and lives through my 6 initial attacks.  It's down to my fist, to kill his single marine.  I hit once.  All I need is to not roll a 1, and the game is mine!  The roll?  Should be obvious enough, I got a 1, and he stayed in combat, drawing the Primary.

Lucky, lucky man.

The Results:

We drew on the primary, and I had killed 8 of his 13 kill points, so I got  the tertiary.  The secondary was killing all of the opponent's HQ's, which I had accomplished.  So I ended with 22/33 total points.  Win, I guess?  A weak win, if it was one at all.  Just can't kill Land Raiders!

Game 2:  Wolves Vs. Ghaz and his Battlewagons!

My second game was against Frank.  He's a cool guy with a really nicely painted army.  He's just now restarting playing, so he didn't exactly know what the deal was with wolves, especially the Wolfstar.  I made sure he knew exactly what everything in my army could do though.  Here's his list:

Ghaz
KFF Big Mekk w/ Klaw, Squig, Cybork Body

5 Nob Bikers, w/ 4x Claws, complex, Pain Doc, etc.
18 Ork Slugga Boyz w/ PK Nob (in Ghaz's Battlewagon)
19 Ork Slugga Boyz w/ PK Nob (in Mekk's Wagon)
12 Ork Slugga Boyz w/ PK Nob in Trukk
12 Ork Shoota Boyz w/ PK Nob in Trukk

Battlewagon w/ Deff Rolla, other upgrades
Battle wagon w/ Deff Rolla, other upgrades

So, lots of Klaws.  And Ghaz.  And wagons.  This wasn't a weak list, if you ask me.  Maybe swap out the two trukks for a 3rd wagon of Boyz, and somehow get some lootas in there, but otherwise, a list I need to be careful against.

The Scenario:

Spearhead.  The primary was objectives again.  There was an attacker, and a defender.  Attacker got to go first, and place all 3 objectives in the defender's half.  If after turn 3 the attacker holds all 3 objectives, they auto-win.

Secondary was... get an HQ into combat or something? 

Tertiary was to retain over half your own kill points.

We rolled off, and I won.  I decided to make him the attacker.  It's more fluffy that way.  ;)

Pregame thoughts:

I was really happy to go 2nd.  It's objectives again, and I love having the final say about it.  I put both of my Longfang squads on extreme sides of the board, to get side shots at battle wagons when they came crashing in.  My Cavalry I just sat there, waiting for him to charge.  I wanted my Grey Hunters on the flanks, to counter-charge if they needed, since troops are more important than the Cav in this scenario anyways.  The first matter of business was to kill his Nob Bikers though.

Ork Turn 1:

He moved everything up, keeping the trukks well within KFF range.  The Nob Bikers zoomed out ahead, turbo-boosting. 

Wolves Turn 1:

I moved onto the table where you can see.  The objectives he had placed in a little rectangle in the center- you might be able to see all of them.  I made sure I was hugging one of them though :)  Jaws went off and failed to kill the single nob I targeted.

Behind the big silo thing on the left side, my other fangs and Grey Hunter rhino are hanging out, making sure the Nobz won't be able to charge anything though.  Next picture is slightly better for showing deployment.

Ork Turn 2:

He moved his Nobz 12", and shot at... something.  It didn't end up doing anything.  Otherwise, everything else moved up 13".

Wolves Turn 2:

I Jaws'd his nobz, killing the Pain Doc, and the Missile Launchers killed 2 more.  They failed their leadership test, and fled, never to regroup.  :)  Not much else to do but brace for impact next turn! 

I'm really glad the Nobz are gone at this point.  Makes my life so much easier!

Orks Turn 3:

This was his turn to hit me hard.  My wolves weren't exactly protected (by anything but themselves, of course), and my rhino next to them had barely moved at all.  He moved his guys forward, and disembarked *only* one trukk of boyz and the KFF Mekk/boyz.  The rest (Ghaz's squad, and the Shoota Boyz) he kept in his transports.  He declared Ghaz's waaagh! and got into combat with me, but about 7 boyz from the KFF Mek's squad ended up only able to strike my rhino.

The combat was fierce, though decidedly on my side.  I concentrated most of my hits on the trukk Boyz squad, and ended up wiping them out.  The KFF Mekk also went down to my 5 Thunder Hammer swings from the wolf.  I won combat by a slew, and since he was fearless from Ghaz's waaaagh, he took like 8 or 9 fearless saves (only saved one I think).  His squad was way way down in number.  Next turn it looked sure I'd wipe them out to a man.

Sorry I didn't get a better picture of the combat before it happened.  He ended up messing my rhino up something fierce too, by the way!

Wolves Turn 3:

It was time to kill the vehicles.  I ended up able to melta and missile down both wagons and the shoota boyz vehicles.  No assaults to be had from me, but I was able to win my fight started last turn, and consolidated up.  Note he has one healthy trukk, one largely unhurt Shoota boyz squad, and Ghaz' squad left.

You can't really see him, but Ghaz and co are sitting in a crater behind the silo thing

Orks Turn 4:

He didn't have a ton of options.  He got his shoota boyz into the unhurt trukk, and shot at some guys, I don't remember if they hurt anything.  Ghaz and his boyz moved in and wrecked my rhino that had only moved 6" on the left.  I passed pinning, and it was my turn.



You can see his remaining orks on the left.  The shoota boyz are in the trukk there in the middle.



 Wolves Turn 4:

I moved my Wolfstar up into position to charge Ghaz's squad, and my leftmost Hunters.  The Grey Hunters in the middle moved to shoot the remaining trukk and charge the boyz inside.

Shooting killed a few orks in Ghaz's squad, and blew up the trukk.  I assaulted and ended up wiping out his remaining guys.  Full points to me.

Here's the action shot of me charging his remaining guys.

Results:

I got full points (33/33 total).  It was a slightly bad matchup for him, and the mission sort of helped me know what exactly I needed to do.  The fact that he wasn't very familiar with Wolves didn't help him at all.  Nice guy though, I enjoyed the game for sure :)

Game 3:  Wolves vs. Kyle's Demonhunters!

This wasn't my favorite matchup by a longshot.  Kyle's one of the toughest players in our shop, and the fact that he wins most of his games with Demonhunters means he knows what he's doing.  Also, he had 2 Land Raiders, and a character who can negate my Eternal Warrior on my Bear Lord.  Here's his list:

Grey Knight Lord (don't know what you call him?) w/ Termie Retinue

5 Grey Knights w/ 2 Incinerators

10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons

Inquisitorial Storm Troopers w/ Flamer and Melta, w/ Rhino

Inquisitorial Storm Troopers w/ Flamer and Melta, w/ Rhino

Land Raider Crusader

God-Hammer Land Raider

It's really a small army.  Still, it has some potent stuff.

The Scenario:

Primary was to kill a higher percentage of kill points than your opponent.

Secondary was to prevent your 'target of contempt' or something from being killed.  The unit that gets the first kill in your army is that unit.  Not sure I like this rule, heh.

Tertiary was not having any enemies in your own deployment zone.

He won the rolloff to go first, and picked his Quarter.  We deployed like so:

I decided my missile launchers weren't going to do much in the game, and instead wanted to get good vantages on where his rhinos would come in.

 Demonhunters Turn 1:

Kyle just moved his Crusader forward, and kept his Godhammer within counter-charge range of me.  He ended up doing nothing with shooting, and it was my turn.

Weird board huh?  I liked it :)

Wolves Turn 1:

I wish I had pictures to show, lol.  I kinda forgot a phase of the game in taking pictures, so I'll try to explain.  My two rhinos moved forward to turn around and disembark their guys, to hopefully shoot down his Crusader.  One of them immobilized itself on its way over. 

In an attempt to make things right with me, the remaining Gray Hunters blew the Crusader up, making them his Target of Contempt.  I must confess I had entirely forgotten this rule, and would likely have played slightly more conservatively had I remembered it.  My Wolfstar only rolled a 2 for their fleet roll- if they had rolled a 4 they would have been able to get first turn charge.  Ah well.

Demon Hunters Turn 2:

He moved his Godhammer up, got his guys out, and prepared to wipe out his Target of Contempt.  His las cannon on the Godhammer blew up my immobilized Rhino, and in a fit of lucidity, I put my guys over where his Termies could charge them, to tempt him away from multi-charging his Target of Contempt.

It worked, and my Grey Hunters on the left were sadly butchered.  His Lord Demonhunter guy and retinue had to strike last because of charging through terrain, and I was able to kill 3 of his Termies before they got to strike.  He kind of whiffed his attacks back, and only killed like 3 guys, for a draw in combat.

Wolves Turn 2:

I was happy that my squad was still alive, and vowed to keep them so.  My Wolfstar positioned themselves to charge in and save the day.

The longfangs on the bottom left got scared of the rampaging Grey Knight Termies, and I charged my rhino over 12" so that they could get in, partially protected.  The Grey Hunters on the right, ready for battle, immobilized their rhino as well.  Great job guys :)

I was able to charge the Wolfstar into the termies, and only ended up killing 1 of them, with the Grandmaster (is that his name?) ended up making both his invulnerable saves to save him from being insta-deathed.  He ended up killing my Rune Priest (finally, heh)

Demonhunters Turn 3:

He moved his free Termie squad up to assault my rhino with the longfangs in it, and ended up wrecking it.  :(  In the other combat, my Wolfstar finally killed his Grandmaster, and consolidated.  His stormtroopers in rhinos just hung out on his back boardedge all game, and really ended up doing nothing, as did my longfangs and grey hunters on the right.

Here's the game after all the ridiculousness happened.

 Wolves Turn 3:

My target of contempt grey hunters moved up and melta-ed his Godhammer Raider with their single melta gun (which it turns out was my Target of Contempt).  The Wolfstar moved in and assaulted his Termies on the bottom of the screen, while the Longfangs looked on in fascination.  The star vs. Termie fight lasted for 2 rounds, after which I won the battle with few losses.

Here's after the 2nd round of combat.

Rest of the Game: 

Very little happened.  He took potshots at his target of contempt, but I rolled stupidly well for their saves, and nothing bad happened to them.  We rolled to see if the game ended on turn 4 (thinking it was turn 5) and got a 1, so it was over.

A final picture of the table!

 Results:

I ended up getting the primary by killing 50% of his kill points.  The secondary I luckily got by keeping my Target of Contempt alive, and both of us got the Tertiary, which was keeping enemy units out of our deployment zone.  I ended up with 33/33 total points, for an 88/99 total battle points possible.

3 hard-fought games, and it was time to announce the prizes.  I hadn't made it to the 'top table' and so I was nervous that one of them might max out on the other, in which case I might not win a prize at all, despite having won all 3 games in a small tournament.  However, their ending score was like 15-0, which netted me:

Best Overall, Tournament Champion!

It was a fun tournament, as it always is.  There were 3 total double-raider lists, as well as 2 Battlewagon spam lists out there.  Glad to see I could compete though. :)  Tell me what you think!