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| Oh, ironic Orks. When will you be 'Ard again? |
Howdy folks! Last weekend, as many of you know, was the 'Ard Boyz Prelim event, held in a ton of different gaming stores across the country. I was actually on vacation visiting my family in southern Washington when the event happened, and as such I was forced to play in a different store than my normal LGS- somewhere I had never before played.
The shop was called Guardian Games in Portland, OR, which was a pretty awesome shop, where you can drink beer in the back, and they play movies like Princess Bride and Spaceballs all day long on a big projector screen.
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| The shop is much cooler than their actual logo. |
So, let's start with a (very brief) history of my past 'Ard Boyz experiences:
2008 Prelims: 1st place w/ PDF Blood Angels
2008 Semi-Finals: 1st place w/ PDF Blood Angels (no batrep)
2009 Prelims: 1st place w/ Chaos Space Marines
2009 Semi-Finals: Didn't go :(
2010 Prelims: 4th place w/ New-Fangled Blood Angels
2011 Prelims: Betcha can't wait to find out :)
So, last year I failed at exactly the wrong time, with a list that really wasn't very good.
This year I intended to redeem myself, by not failing all over the place, but still with a list that really wasn't very good :-p
Since none of my other armies were extremely viable choices for a competitive 2500-point, no-holds-barred tournament (for various reasons, I won't get into it now), I took my Wolfstar out of semi-retirement, and added a few reinforcements to get it up to 2500 points. Let's jump right in.
My list, at 2500:
Rune Priest w/ Jaws, Tempest's Fury
Wolf Lord w/ Thunderwolf Mount, Thunderhammer, Storm Shield, Runic Armor, Wolf Tail Talisman, Wolftooth Necklace, Saga of the Bear
Wolf Lord w/ Thunderwolf Mount, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, Runic Armor, Wolftooth Necklace, Saga of Majesty
5x Wolf Guard w/ 5x Power Fists, 5x Combi-Meltas
9x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Power Weapon // Rhino (Wolf Guard goes here)
9x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Power Weapon // Rhino (Wolf Guard goes here)
9x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Power Weapon // Rhino (Wolf Guard goes here)
9x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard // Rhino (Wolf Guard goes here)
8x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard // Rhino (Wolf Guard and Rune Priest go here)
4x Thunderwolf Cavalry w/ Thunder Hammer, 1x Melta Bomb, 2x Storm Shields (fully complex unit- one model has the Hammer + Shield, one w/ Shield, one w/ Bomb, one sad with no upgrades)
6x Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
6x Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
6x Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
The Power Weapons on the various squads were just to soak up that extra 45 points I had floating around. I wished I had an extra Thunderwolf model, because that would probably have been overall more viable. Still, power weapons are at least fun, right? :-p
After a morning full of printer fail, getting lost in confusing one-way-street-centric Portland, and driving my little sister's dodgy Saturn, I finally got there, but like 10 minutes late. It wasn't a huge deal though, apparently, and I was shoved onto a table that myself and my opponent had to add terrain to, around a huge huge centerpiece. Well, you'll see in a minute!
Game 1: Wolfstar vs. Harley's Space Wolves!
His list:
Wolf Priest w/ Terminator Armor, Saga of the Warrior Born, Combi-Plasma
Rune Priest w/ Runic Armor, Chooser of the Slain, Jump Pack, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane
5x Wolfguard w/ Terminator Armor, various combi-weapons, CML
Venerable Dreadnought w/ Heavy Flamer, Plasma Cannon
Iron Priest w/ Saga of the Iron Wolf
10x Grey Hunters w/ 2x Flamers, Wolf Standard, Mark of the Wulfen, Drop Pod
10x Grey Hunters w/ 2x Flamers, Wolf Standard, Mark of the Wulfen, Drop Pod
6x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Mark of the Wulfen // Razorback w/ TLAC, HKM
6x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Mark of the Wulfen // Razorback w/ TLAC, HKM
9x Skyclaw Pack (Rune Priest goes here)
Typhoon Land Speeder
Typhoon Land Speeder
Land Raider Crusader w/ Multi-Melta, Extra Armor
6x Longfangs w/ 3x Missile Launchers, 2x Heavy Bolters
The Mission:
Annihilation
The Twist: Each player has to give the other a single troop choice model to act as their 'Traitor'. The Traitor was an IC, and if we killed him, we got 5 Kill Points. Funtimes.
Also, Night Fight Turn 1.
We rolled to see who got to go first, and I won, choosing to go first, since usually annihilation favors who goes first on Turn 1.
Pre-game thoughts:
Well, his list is kind of all over the place. I wasn't really sure what I thought of it- there were some really tough-to-deal-with elements, but at the same time there were things like a Rune Priest w/ Runic Armor. Not a terrible choice, but not something you see every day, really.
So, my plan was simple. I'd set the longfangs on the flanks as bait, and stick everything else in the middle, ready to react to where his Pods came in, since that would be where the Traitor was. Where the Drop Pods were, that's also where the majority of the Kill Points would be.
He tried to seize but failed.
Here are our deployments:
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| You can see his traitor in the center Rhino. Also keep in mind that there are two Longfang Squads on the far left, in some area terrain. |
I moved up. Mostly, I figured the Wolfstar wanted to be in the middle, to react to wherever and whatever they needed to. I chose to advance to the right, since that's where all his stuff was.
None of my Longfangs, even with rerolls for Nightfight, could see his stuff. Smoke popped, and it was his turn.
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| Now we wait to see where the pods come in... |
His regular Grey Hunter squad came in on the left, as did the Venerable Dreadnought. He (wisely) left his own Traitor in reserve with the final Drop Pod.
His shooting wasn't very good, and I saved most of my saves that I needed to. The lead Rhino's smoke was impenetrable- it wasn't even shaken once, despite all the missiles and assault cannons shooting at them.
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| Well, hopefully I can take advantage of the bad turn of shooting Harley had had. Notice the Longfangs on the left actually got whittled a little bit. Nothing else took damage, however. |
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| Look at all the stuff who shot at this Rhino, who was just fine with all of that shooting, apparently. |
The stuff drove forward again. I decided to send a single Rhino over to the left, hoping that the Grey Hunters would be able to at least delay that flank, along with the Long Fangs. Mostly, I wanted to take out the stuff in the middle/right. If the Wolfstar could kill the Skyclaws, maybe they could also bait the Terminators in the Raider out to play :-p
I also got a few Grey Hunter squads out of their rides, to try baiting the Traitor and his Flamer-laden Drop Pod toward me, as well as shoot some tanks if needed.
In shooting, I started off with a bang- 2 missiles shot at the Venerable Dreadnought. 1 hit, penetrated, rolled a "5", and then rolled a "6" for the reroll. Never ever done that before...
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| Heh... lucky me. VenDreads are extremely rough to kill, sometimes. |
In assault, the Wolfstar charged the Skyclaws and also got the hammers into one of the Razorbacks nearby, killing a bunch of the squad, and exploding the Razorback (killing 3 inside!). The plan was to kill a lot of the Skyclaws, but not enough that they would be entirely wiped out- and the plan worked. We stuck in, with the Rune Priest dead, and only 4 Skyclaws remaining.
Kill Point Count:
Wolfstar: 5 (Venerable Dreadnought, Typhoon, Typhoon, Razorback, Rune Priest)
Space Wolves: 0
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| Well, it went as well as could be expected. Could the Wolfstar hold against the onslaught of the Termies next turn? |
His Traitor Drop Pod turned up, and happily took my bait, ready to flamer some of my Grey Hunters toward the rear. His Grey Hunters on the left advanced toward the Longfangs nearby, and the Wolf Priest + Terminators got out of their ride, ready to charge the Wolfstar.
In shooting, he failed to kill much of my stuff- his flamers rolled extremely poorly against the Grey Hunters, and that was that.
His Grey Hunters on the left charged the Longfangs, who lost a bunch of dudes, but held. The Wolfstar fought the Terminators, with the Majesty Lord killing 3 of them at I5 before they could strike. The hammers also did some quick work and finished off the Skyclaws. In return, he was able to kill two of the Thunderwolves, but still lost combat and passed all his fearless saves.
Kill Point Count:
Wolfstar: 6 (Venerable Dreadnought, Typhoon, Typhoon, Razorback, Rune Priest, Skyclaws)
Space Wolves: 0
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| You can see that his (my?) traitor is sitting there in the back, with the drop pod. |
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| Here is the epic fight going on. Note that the Iron Priest is still in the Crusader, hanging out instead of joining the fray. |
Believe it or not, we were already running out of time. Harley wasn't used to playing in tournaments, and so I think he wasn't prepared for the quick pace required for them. To be fair, he was still somewhat new to the game, and I didn't want to rush him.
Still, Turn 3 would be our last turn.
As such, there was no possible way for me to get my own traitor into his deployment zone for the extra +3 bonus points.
Instead, I got every Grey Hunter out of his Rhino, and prepared to shoot/charge his Traitor/Grey Hunter squad away in a single turn. The Grey Hunters on the left also got out of their ride, prepared to charge in and save the Longfangs.
Shooting was interesting, with the Longfangs on the right being silly and exploding the pod w/ the Traitor, hitting almost every single Grey Hunter nearby (including my own).
Otherwise, I just wanted to charge on in. The Grey Hunters on the left semi-failed, and barely killed enough of their opposition to draw combat. The Grey Hunters on the top charged and killed his small 3-man Hunter squad. The Wolfstar/Terminator combat went well, with my Wolfstar killing all the Terminators, and the Bear Lord/Hammer guy finished off the Wolf Priest.
And in the most important combat, my Grey Hunters managed to kill his Grey Hunters, and the Traitor.
It was his turn, but he decided just to call it there- he had very little left.
Kill Point Count:
Wolfstar: 16 (Venerable Dreadnought, Typhoon, Typhoon, Razorback, Rune Priest, Skyclaws, Drop Pod, Grey Hunters, Grey Hunters, Wolf Priest, Wolf Guard, Traitor (worth 5))
Space Wolves: 0 :-(
Results: Win for the Wolfstar! 23/26 possible points!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, first I want to say that Harley was an awesome opponent. He had some pretty poor rolling, but he handled it like a champ, and we mostly just laughed a lot about various random things that happened throughout the game. I enjoyed some extremely fortunate dice rolls early on, and it was tough for Harley to recover from it.
I was a little disappointed that I had no option (due to time constraints) to get my Traitor into his deployment zone- those extra three points would have made a difference in the games to come, as you'll soon see. Just how things go though- the goal for this tournament was simply to qualify, and I was certainly still in the running for that to happen. :)
Man of the Match:
Heh... I don't really know. Grey Hunters I guess? They killed the Traitor, giving me the full-point Massacre, which was what mattered.
I was off to a good start, and was ready for Round 2 to begin.
After a lunch at a nearby Pub with Aventine (a dude who posts on BoLS and his own site (linked a bit later) Zen 40,000), I turned around to play:
Game 2: Wolfstar vs. Aventine's Lamenters (Blood Angels)
:-p
His List (from memory):
Sanguinor (went in a Storm Raven)
Mephiston (went in the other Storm Raven)
Honor Guard w/
Furioso Dreadnought w/ Blood Talons (Storm Raven)
Furioso Dreadnought w/ Blood Talons (Storm Raven)
5x Assault Terminators w/ 5x TH/SS
10x Assault Marines w/ 2x Meltaguns, Power Fist // Rhino
10x Assault Marines w/ 2x Meltaguns, Power Fist // Rhino
5x Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Storm Shield // Rhino
Baal Predator w/ Flamestorm Cannon
Baal Predator w/ Flamestorm Cannon
The Mission:
Spearhead
5 Objectives (4 at the center of each quarter, 1 in the center of the table), with modified values:
Center: 4 points
Quarters neither started in: 2 points each
Quarters we started in: 1 point each
The Twist(s):
Um... night fight on Turn 6? lol... not sure what the reasoning on that one was.
Also, only 6 turns, not random game length like the rest of them.
We rolled off to see who went first, and I won the roll, giving him first turn.
Pregame thoughts:
Well... yikes. There was a lot of stuff in this list that scares the pants off of my own list. The Flamestorm Baals eat my Grey Hunters, as do the Terminators, as do the Dreadnoughts. Meph and Sanguinor are always a pain to get rid of, and whereas his own troops aren't super awesome/resilient, they don't need to be- they simply need to be fast and supportive.
The plan for this one was just wait and see what happens. He would doubtless bumrush me, and I needed to present targets that would either be good matchups against him, or were expendable.
I'm not sure if it was a great choice to go second- the Longfangs would have been happy enough to shoot down the Stormravens right away but... in a weird way, I kind of wanted him in my grill right away. I do best when I'm in close quarters with someone, and having second turn on objective missions is really a very nice advantage to have.
Here are our deployments:
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| As it so happens, he decided to reserve/outflank his two Baal Predators. This was one of the few mistakes I think he made this game. You'll see that the Longfangs are just kind of sitting there, waiting for him to bumrush with (hopefully) all the stuff in his Storm Ravens. I figured the S10 + lots of melta would be enough to bring down the Ravens if they didn't go down first turn... |
He turboed up with the Storm Ravens, and advanced behind cover with his Rhinos.
**I should point out right now as well, that he had combat-squadded his two 'big' assault squads, leaving 5 normal marines in the ruins to the far upper left, and 5 more headed toward the far upper right quarter as well.**
His shooting (PoTMS) didn't do a whole lot, and it was my turn.
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| Heh, that's a whole lotta yellow coming at me. His army is really very well done. My pictures here won't do it service at all. |
Well... not much happened. I shook one of the Ravens, and I either failed on rolls or he saved his cover saves on the rest.
The Wolfstar decided to do something weird and charge the top 'defenseless' combat squad in the upper right, but got a short fleet and failed their charge roll. Not really devastating though, since my main goal was to not commit them yet.
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| Well, now the question was: would he take the bait and charge the Longfangs/Wolfstar with all his stuff? Notice that all the Rhinos popped smoke this turn as well. |
Well, he decided to take the plunge. The Sanguinor, Mephiston, and both Furiosos got out, ready to mulch my poor sacrificial Longfangs.
Otherwise, he kept most of his dudes back, not willing to fully commit to his attack (which was wise).
Oh, both his Flamestorm Baals came in, but on the left board edge. They simply turboed up to try and get in the fight asap.
Shooting was painful- he managed with only 2 shots, to pop a couple Rhinos, despite the smoke. You'll see which ones in a minute. One of them was by a Furioso, however.
In assault, the Sanguinor charged in against a Longfang Squad and killed them to a single man, who wounded the Sanguinor back, somehow, and stayed stuck in combat. Mephiston stuck in with a single longfang as well, but remained unwounded. A Furioso got in with the third Longfang squad, and killed them to a man :-p
The final assault I got lucky in, because the Furioso decided to try and kill my Rune Priest squad who had had their Rhino destroyed. However, he needed about a 4" charge move into terrain, and only got a couple of "2"s, which was just fine with me :)
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| Well, it was frustrating that Mephiston and the Sanguinor couldn't be shot up this turn. A lot went right for Aventine this turn. It was time to see if I could make the same happen for me. |
Wolfstar Turn 2:
The Bear Lord split off from the the rest of the Wolfstar, ready to charge one of the Furioso Dreads, while the others decided to charge in and try their luck against the Sanguinor. One Rhino moved up 6" to melta the other Furioso. Two Grey Hunter squads nearest Mephiston got out to get into a fisting contest with Mephiston.
Shooting was short and sweet- I managed to kill the Furioso Dread at the bottom with Meltas. Woot!
In combat, the mass Grey Hunter charge into Mephiston resulted in three wounds to the Hunters, and 4 wounds to Mephiston, who saved a *ton* of 2+ saves to stick around :-p
The Bear Lord crushed his target Furioso Dreadnought (S10 FTW vs. Dreads). The Wolfstar took 3 wounds (and failed all their invuln saves) against the Sanguinor, but killed him in return.
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| Chris' (Aventine's) wife watched this game- she was fun, and made everyone at the shop some cobbler to eat while they played. Very cool :) |
He needed to deal with my wolfstar, and quickly. So, he moved his Honor Guard up 6" in their Rhino so they could shoot out of it, as well as a single other Rhino w/ a single Melta in it. The Storm Ravens moved around, also ready to barrage the Star.
When the smoke cleared, the Wolfstar had failed every single invulnerable save required of it, and was severely whittled down (though the Bear Lord was ironically just fine, since he wasn't actually a part of the squad at the time).
In combat, my Grey Hunter fists/power weapons mega-whiffed, and he passed another 3 saves, killing off another 4 Grey Hunters. I somehow stayed in combat with both squads, however. This wasn't ideal, since if they had killed Mephiston (as they should have), they could have at least tried to deal with the oncoming Baal Preds. As it was, they'd just get fried after killing Mephiston the next turn.
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| Well, the Wolfstar wasn't going to do a whole lot any more, what with how many wounds they'd sustained. At this point, I'm worried most about the Flamestorm cannons on the Baals, and to a lesser extent, the Storm Ravens. |
Wolfstar Turn 3:
There wasn't a whole lot I could do about the Baal Predators- the Grey Hunters were just going to have to either mega-whiff again, or take it up the chute vs. the Flamestorms. Pretty far out of my control, to be perfectly honest.
As such, I decided to concentrate my efforts on the Storm Ravens and the Terminators. I shuffled the various Grey Hunters around accordingly, and moved the Wolfstar up close to the Termies.
In shooting, I managed to bring one of the Ravens down with melta fire. Woot.
In combat, the Grey Hunters again mega-whiffed, and stuck in combat with Mephiston, who was beginning to seriously whittle them down. One of the Grey Hunter squads charged in against the remaining Storm Raven, got a hit with the fist, who immobilized it (killing it, since it had moved flat out). Whew!
The Wolfstar hit and caused like 8 power wounds to the Terminators, who saved all 8, and caused even more damage to my Wolfstar- I failed all invulnerable saves once again. They stuck into combat.
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| Wolfstar Fail. Also, Grey Hunter Power Fist vs. Mephiston Fail. I was extremely happy to be rid of the Storm Ravens though. |
Blood Angels Turn 4:
Things were starting to move quickly now, as we both were reduced in model count. The Rhinos all kind of just moved up a little bit, ready to shoot at my stuff. The Flamestorms just sat there, only moving up a little bit, biding their time, and in no hurry to get shot in the side armor by nearby meltaguns.
Shooting didn't do a whole lot- I think a single Rhino died, and the squad inside passed their pinning check.
In combat, Mephiston *finally* died, after having killed an entire Grey Hunter pack. Whew! Also in combat, the Wolfstar lost everyone except for the Bear Lord, the Terminators made all ... 5? or their invulnerable saves again, and the Bear Lord fled away 13". lol. Wow, never had that happen before. Normally a Terminator squad who takes 13 3++ saves loses at least one guy. haha, it was funny though. Maybe those extra 5 points they pay for Storm Shields that the Vanilla codex doesn't makes them that much better? :)
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| Well, at least the Bear Lord would auto-rally this next turn. |
Wolfstar Turn 4:
The Bear Lord, seeing a few Baal Predators in his new part of the world, decided he wanted a piece of one of them on his Thunder Hammer. The Grey Hunter squad who had finally killed Mephiston moved up toward the other one. My other two Grey Hunter squads moved forward, ready to shoot a couple of Rhinos, who were inconveniently boxing me in.
And now for my favorite part of the game:
The Terminators, who had bested a (beat up, but still pretty strong) 800-point unit in the Wolfstar, were tank-shocked by one of my Rhinos. They failed their leadership, and started running. Lol. Rhinos are much scarier than Wolfstars, after all.
My shooting went well- I killed the Baal Predator the Hunters were shooting at, exploded a Rhino, and stunned another one.
The Bear Lord assaulted the other Baal Predator, and since it had only moved 6" or less, he hit it a lot, and though he didn't kill it, he stunned it into sitting there for him to auto-hit next turn.
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| The game at this point is extremely close- can I pull a win out now? Those Termies breaking was an enormous windfall, though to be fair, the Wolfstar should have done much better against them than they actually did. |
Chris did what he could- got his dudes out to prepare me for melta. His main target was going to be the Rhino nearest the Terminators, so that it wouldn't try to move up 12" to keep them from regrouping.
His shooting didn't go too well- the two meltas he shot at the Rhino both missed. Whew!
The Bear Lord made very short work of the Baal.
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| Things are starting to get a little better for me now. |
Wolfstar Turn 5:
I moved the Bear Lord up to assault his Rhino on the left, holding the objective in that quarter, while the Grey Hunters near him also moved toward that objective. The Grey Hunters in the right corner all got out of their rides, and decided to kill the rest of the Rhinos/troops inside of them. The lone unhurt Rhino moved up to keep the Terminators from Rallying.
Shooting failed to kill any Rhinos this turn. So...
Assaulting took place, and they managed to stun one Rhino, destroy another, kill one of the squads out in the open, and the Bear Lord also killed the Rhino on the left.
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| One more turn. Things are by now slanted in my favor, though certainly not impossible for him to win or draw me. |
Blood Angels Turn 6:
He did what he could- contested/controlled all the objectives, and shot a little bit.
In combat, the Hunters killed his remaining Rhino.
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| Here's an overview on who controls what objective. |
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| On the bottom left corner stood two brave lone souls, who had survived their nasty Rhino explosion. Worth 2 points. |
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| On the top left, his 'naked' command squad. Worth only 1 point. |
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| In the center. Remember, this one is worth 4 total points. |
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| Top right- 2 Points. Picture edited because I doubt the person who was in it would appreciate that particular shot, since they weren't prepared for the picture at all, etc. /shrug |
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| In my own deployment zone on the bottom right- worth 1 point. It's an honor guard on the damn thing. |
Wolfstar Turn 6:
Sorry, no more pictures, apparently.
I essentially went for the center objective, along with the bottom two. The rhino in the center was just outside of 3" contest range of the top right objective.
When the smoke cleared, I'd butchered a bunch of Marines, and stood in possession of the bottom two objectives, and the middle one.
Results: Win for the Wolfstar, 19/23 possible points!
Final score: 7-3 in my favor. I needed to win by 5 to get a massacre, and therefore only got a major win.
Post-Game Thoughts:
Well, it was well-played by Aventine. He had a lot of stuff that made me worried, and I was fortunate to be able to deal with the things I did when I did. Depending on a few key things, the game could have easily gone the other way around. Things like the Mephiston combat (which lasted two turns longer than it should have, one of those being beneficial for him, the other for me), the Wolfstar completely collapsing against the Terminators (but then the Termies running from the Tank Shock), etc. Lots of things were variable to the extreme.
It was very close, and I felt fortunate that the Wolfstar managed to pull out a win.
As it turns out, Chris also posts as Aventine at BoLS, and has his own blog, Zen 40,000. It's a cool place, go check it out :)
Man of the Match:
Well, despite the rest of the Wolfstar failing bigtime, the Bear Lord gets this one. He killed a Furioso Dreadnought, Baal Predator, Rhino, dudes inside that Rhino, and threatened lots of other stuff. If he had actually gotten those other Terminators to fail their saves, he would have done even better :-p
The state of the tournament:
Due to how late I had been running getting there, trying to take enough time for lunch, etc, I hadn't really seen a whole lot of what other armies were out there.
What I saw was a Dark Eldar army with lots of Venoms, a couple Razorwolf Spam armies (which I wouldn't have minded playing, actually), a FootWolf army (with Grimnar I'm sure) and ... not a whole lot else that interested me. A lot of people had their armies in their cases, and as such I didn't get to see what they had.
So, I decided not to even think about what I would play against next, and instead take advantage of how awesome it was that the store I was in actually allowed you to buy beer in their back room, and drink it while you were playing! How awesome is that!
I got a local brew, and me and Aventine sat down and rested before our next round.
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| It was pretty good- about what you'd expect from a Hefewizen I guess. Nothing too adventurous, but then again- who needs it to be? :) |
In the end, there were still two chaps who had higher scores than I did, since I hadn't really maxed out any of my games (total of 42/48 possible points thus far). So, I was to be matched up with... Aventine again, apparently? They quickly changed that however, and instead paired me with:
Game 3: Wolfstar Vs. Jeff's Dark Angels!
His list:
Belial w/ TH
Sammael w/ his AV14 Speeder
5x Terminators w/ Standard, Apothecary, CML, 4x TH/SS, 1x Lightning Claw
5x Terminators w/ CML, 4x TH/SS, 1x Lightning Claw
5x Terminators w/ CML, 4x TH/SS, 1x Lightning Claw
7x Bikes w/ Lots of Melta, Attack Bike, Sergeant w/ Power Sword
7x Bikes w/ Lots of Melta, Attack Bike, Sergeant w/ Power Sword, Apothecary, Standard
Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher, Melta
Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher, Melta
Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher, Melta
Venerable Dreadnought w/ Assault Cannon, DCCW
Predator w/ AC/HB
Predator w/ AC/HB
5x Devastators w/ 4x Missile Launchers
The Mission:
Dawn of War
Victory Points
The Twist: We each picked a general for ourselves, who was then worth double victory points
Pregame thoughts:
Well, this was one of the armies I hadn't seen as an option to play against, since he kept it in his army case. I hadn't played against the 'new-fangled' Dark Angels a whole lot, and was surprised to learn that the 'command' squads were actually scoring units.
The plan was simple enough- kill the Terminators as quickly as possible with the Wolfstar, and use the Grey Hunters to mop up what they could. The Longfangs should kill what they could as well, though to be honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of them.
We rolled off to see who would go first, he won the roll, and decided to go first.
After he had deployed his bikes, Belial + "special" Terminator squad up 24", I opted not to deploy anything, since I wanted to see where he would be going with his bikes and Belial.
Oh yeah, Our Generals:
Mine: Rune Priest
His: Sammael on his awesomesauce AV14 Speeder :-p
Dark Angels Turn 1:
He moved his dudes on, everything kind of spread out. The speeders all went forward the full 24", which I was happy to observe.
Just look at the picture :-p
Oh yeah, he also reserved/outflanked the command squad bikes.
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| Note that my guys aren't actually on the board right now- this is completely his own turn. Notice that Belial and company are on the far right side of the board edge, and there's a speeder in the center and on their far end of the board. Also, he had turboed his bike squad that he had deployed, up right next to my own board edge. I wasn't quite sure why... |
Wolfstar Turn 1:
The Wolfstar surprised the bikes, and came on right on top of them- convenient because Belial and crew were also on that side, and I wanted the Wolfstar to deal with them as quickly as possible.
One Grey Hunter squad moved on to the far left 12", turned the rhino around, and disembarked their full 2.9", to shoot at the speeder nearby. Another of the Grey Hunter squads did the same to the speeder in the middle. Everyone else moved on near the center to support, and see what would happen. You'll see ;-)
In shooting, I got through his cover saves with the speeders, but somehow rolled a "1" for each result, stunning the speeders without wrecking them.
The Wolfstar got off to a good start and chewed through the Biker squad.
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| Heh, one of my few games that I actually made use of the entire board, as did my opponent. Notice the Grey Hunter packs supporting each other. |
His Bike Command squad failed to come in from reserves.
He mostly just walked up and shot at me, with Belial's squad getting as close as possible to the Wolfstar. Deathstar vs. Deathstar- who will win?
The shooting didn't do a whole lot to me- I'm not sure if he managed to actually hurt anything of mine besides maybe shake/stunning a few Rhinos.
Belial and his mob charged in screaming. I managed to kill off Belial and a few of the other Terminators, whilst failing a lot of saves. We stuck in combat.
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| Not quite sure how to approach my oncoming turn now- probably like I always do- full speed ahead! |
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| Throughout the game, he made a lot of 3++ invuls. Way more than average, but... he was rolling poorly on other things, as is generally the case. Dice even out eventually, has been my experience- if you're patient, at least. :) |
Wolfstar Turn 2:
Wow, was it only turn 2? Wolfstar had already seen as much action as it wanted :-p
Well, full speed ahead! The Grey Hunters on the left moved up to assault the stunned speeder. The squad in the center did the same. Other Grey Hunters moved up to support.
After a bunch of shooting, I was able to down one speeder, the lone attack bike in the middle (which you probably never saw, since he was hiding behind the building), and the speeder on the far right (with missiles).
My Rhino movement/Longfang placement weren't very well coordinated, and I ended up having to shoot at awkward things, such as his terminators w/ Krak grenades. Not much got through, lol.
In combat, the Wolfstar killed all but a single Terminator. Grey Hunters charged and wrecked the speeder in the middle. Time for the reprecussions...
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| This game is going by so quick already! |
He rolled for reserves, and his Command Squad bike unit came on the left side of the Board. They apparently decided to kill off my encroaching (disembarked) Grey Hunter squad.
Everything else just shot at me, and moved up some. One squad of Terminators decided that Grey Hunters looked like they wanted a Hammer or two up the proverbial chute. Still, the shooting didn't do a whole lot to me again, which would be a recurring theme for him this game.
In assault, I finally managed to kill off the final Belial squad Terminator with the Wolfstar. The Command Biker squad charged in against my Grey Hunters on the left, who were slightly whittled down, but still put up a great fight- they ended up killing more bikes than they lost, and stuck into combat with only a couple bikes left. In the middle, the Terminators charged in and killed off the Grey Hunters, but lost a couple of their own number in return.
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| Well... good turn for me! Except for the poor Grey Hunters in the middle, lol! |
Wolfstar Turn 3:
The Wolfstar moved up to charge the next Terminator squad in line. The two other Grey Hunter squads in the middle got out of their rides, in order to shoot and charge the Terminators who had killed their brethren. On the left, I decided that the Grey Hunters could handle the Command Squad, and instead turned their sights on the furthest Predator on the left, disembarking and ready to melta it at close range.
Shooting went fine, with the Grey Hunters in the middle finishing off the Terminators before they could even charge in. Longfangs killed one of the Predators (side armor) but the Hunters on the left only killed the Auto-cannon on their quarry.
The Wolfstar charged in, killed a couple Terminators, took more wounds, and stuck into combat. In a major surprise to me (seriously, wasn't expecting it), the Command squad (who didn't even have their Apothecary left alive), killed all of the remaining Grey Hunters squad except for the fist , who whiffed, and ran away like a little girl. Not good....
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| Not great on the left, but I was still overall happy with how the game was going. If I could finish off the bikes on the left, I'd have a great chance to get a leg up on him in terms of victory points. |
Dark Angels Turn 4:
He really didn't have a whole lot to do. Killing my Rhinos became his shooting priority.
So he did, killing three of them, both on the left, and one in the middle.
In combat, the Terminators finally all died. By now though, the Wolfstar was whittled down to a single Hammer wolf, and both Lords.
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| Note that Sammael is on the right somewhere behind those pillars. |
Wolfstar Turn 4:
The Grey Hunters on the left wouldn't be able to do anything to the bikes on the left this turn, and so decided to turn their attentions on the already-injured Predator. The Wolfstar split up, having the Majesty Lord go toward the Devastators while the other two tried to track down the elusive Sammael.
Grey Hunters in the middle got in their rides and shot long-distance at the Venerable Dreadnought, as did all of the Longfangs who could see him. The end result was stunning him and knocking off his close combat weapon.
The Majesty Lord charged in and got stuck with the Devs, after killing only two of them. The Bear Lord + Hammer dude failed to reach Sammael this turn. The Grey Hunters on the left killed their Predator though finally, in close combat.
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| At this point, I've killed most of his stuff. He has the hurt VenDread, half the Bike Command Squad, the somehow detached MM Attack bike, and Sammael (and I guess the soon-to-be dead Devs in close combat) |
Rest of the Game:
I was able to shoot down the Bikes on the left with the Grey Hunters there, as well as missile fire. Missiles also finished off his Attack Bike. The Devs died quickly to the Majesty Lord. The final Hammer dude in the wolfstar died, but the Bear Lord charged in and auto-penned Sammael 6 times (since he had shot all his guns the turn before without moving at all) and destroyed him easily.
Sammael was the last to go.... and the last model in his army, I was somewhat surprised to find out, for some reason.
Results: Win for the Wolfstar, 23/23 possible points!
The final Victory Point tally was something like 2710 to his 970ish. I needed to win by 1100 or so for a massacre, and I got it. Woot!
Postgame thoughts:
Well, this one was an interesting one. Jeff was a cool guy, once he got over his hatred/resentment of my Wolfstar. He started off kind of surly and annoyed at me for even playing this list, and we had to talk a little bit before he finally warmed into the game. Once he did, everything went swimmingly, and he took his loss very well.
He admitted to making the mistake of moving his bikes into my own deployment zone before I even came onto the board, when the Wolfstar was able to get a first-turn charge in. Overall, I don't think I did a whole lot of things wrong, though my logistics between the Rhinos and Longfangs could have been much better.
In the end, a good opponent, a fun game, and I gained some experience against the Dark Angels :)
Man of the Match:
I'm having trouble with deciding this tournament, since all the units seem to be doing equally well. I'll go ahead and give it to the Wolfstar this time, since they ended up killing a lot: Belial, 10 Terminators, 5 Devs, 7 Bikes and Sammael, for a total of around 1500+ victory points (after Sammael is added as double for the scenario).
Overall Results:
Well, the Dark Eldar guy apparently trounced his opponent, and got nearly full points. He ended up with 67 points, which was just enough to edge me out, since my own total was 65.
The Third Place guy had something like 45 points, hahaha.
While it would have of course been nice to win the tournament, I was still extremely content with my results- I got $40 in prize support (box of Reaver Jetbikes for the Nova, lol), but more importantly, I was able to qualify for the next round, where the real prize awaits: a free army!
Thanks for reading, I hope you found it useful/enjoyable!
Questions/comments are welcome :)
How did you do in 'Ard Boyz this year? And for those of you from Colorado, who is moving on to the semis? I want to know what/who my opposition is :-p
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