'Ard Boyz Test Game #3 vs. Space Wolves

Game 3 vs. Wolf Guard on Foot

So I tweaked my army list a little prior to this game (original list is here). I changed one of the veteran razorback squads to a tactical squad with flamer and razorback. Then I used the leftover 20 points to give the other veteran squad a combi-plasma and combi-melta in addition to their flamer and missile launcher.
The plan with these squads was to act as home objective holders. I’d hold them in reserve in most objective missions and when they come on they would rush out to hold any objective near my DZ. Hopefully with their mix of firepower they would be able to clear any troops on my objective. This would allow my Deathwing squads the freedom to engage the forward objectives without worrying about back tracking to hold mine.


Enemy list

-HQ-
Logan Grimnar
Rune Priest – Terminator Armour, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane

-Elite-
3 Dreadnoughts – Twin-Lascannons, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour

-Troops-
4x 5 Wolf Guard – 1 w/Terminator Armour, Cyclone, Chainfist, 4 w/ BP & CCW
1x 10 Wolf Guard – 2 w/ Terminator Armour, Cyclone, Power Weapon, 8 w/ BP & CCW

-Fast Attack-
3x 1 Thunderwolf Cavalry – Powerfist, Stormshield

-Heavy Support-
3x 6 Long Fangs – 5 Missile Launchers

We played the Drawn and Quartered scenario from last year’s ‘Ard Boyz tournament. The scenario is a combination Capture and Control and Annihilation with spearhead deployment. The objectives would be placed in the centre of the table quarters not occupied by our armies.
The table looked seemed to be broken up into 6 2x2 squares. For both players the terrain was the same. The right 2x2 square had 2 forests, the middle 2x2 square had 2 ruins and the left 2x2 square had a tall ruin (so the square with 2 forests was opposite the square with the tall ruin).

My opponent got first turn and chose the quarter with the larger tall ruin. He deployed 2 of his long fang squads in the tall ruin, and the 3rd long fang squad in one of the middle ruins. 3 of his 5 man wolf guard squads deployed directly opposite the objective on my side of the board while he held the 4th in reserve. The large squad had Logan and the Rune Priest and they were deployed behind the screen of 5 man wolf guard squads. He put his Thunderwolves and Dreadnoughts as close as he could to the objective on his side of the board.
I opted to keep things in reserve, Deathwing Squad 1 was teleporting, Deathwing Squad 2 in the land raider and Deathwing Squad 3 in the crusader with Belial. Ravenwing were outflanking.

Not much happened until turn 3 and onwards. Then it devolved into one giant shooting match/melee over the objective on my half of the board. Belial and Deathwing Squads 1 and 2 fought to keep control of the objective but were shot to pieces by the multitude of frag missiles and then the survivors were chopped up by Logan. I almost held it though as I had my Crusader sitting right on top of the objective at the bottom of Turn 5 with one lone lightning claw terminator inside. Then one of the dreadnoughts got a lucky shot and wrecked the crusader and allowed Logan to finish off the last terminator. His big wolf guard squad were slowed down though and couldn’t circle the objective which allowed my other land raider and veteran squad to approach within 3” and contest.

The objective on his side was fought over by the wolf guard squad he held in reserve, one dreadnought and the thunderwolves vs. the Ravenwing, Deathwing Squad 1 and the tactical squad. The wolf guard squad coming from reserve wiped out one squad of bikes (the melta squad showed up on the other side and ate 10 krak missiles) and both attack bikes but were pounded into the ground by the Deathwing who were then in turn torn apart by one of the thunderwolf riders. The other thunderwolf riders were shot up by Sammy over the course of the game and only managed to account for one dead speeder and the tactical squad’s razorback.

So it ended up that no one held the objective on his side and the objective on my side was contested. Primary mission was a draw, but he had 12 KPs to my 9 KPs so he won the secondary mission. A minor victory for him and he would have also got a +1 bonus because he had a surviving HQ model (the Rune Priest, Logan was gunned down by the veterans after he separated from his squad to kill the last lightning claw terminator)

Conclusion:
A much harder list and as such a much harder fought battle. The huge number of missiles was incredibly worrying and part of the reason I kept everything in reserve. Logan giving his big wolf guard squad tank hunters basically gave him 4 mobile lascannon shots a turn so I didn’t want to face that kind of heavy firepower right away. One thing my opponent totally forgot about though was his Rune Priest's psychic powers. Admittedly there wasn't much to shoot at the first few turns and when things started showing up they were too far or too tough (i.e. S7 vs AV14)

Now the game could have easily been a victory for me if weren’t for two particularly bad dice rolls. The first was when one wolf rider charged into my Deathwing squad near the objective on his side. We were all rolling at the same time and he managed to hit and wound with all 5 of his attacks while I managed to wound once with my 10 attacks. No invulnerable saves made and he passed his storm shield save so I lost a full squad of Deathwing to a single thunderwolf.
Second was when his lascannon wrecked my land raider crusader which was sitting on my objective on his turn 6. If it hadn’t been wrecked or immobilized I could have tank shocked everything off my objective with my two land raiders (by the end both the terminators had died in the large squad so no chainfists to worry about) and claim it with my lone lightning claw terminator to take a 1 objective to 0 victory.

Frag missiles are way scarier than krak missiles against terminators. In one round of shooting two of the 3 long fang squads dropped 10 templates on Belial’s squad after they failed an assault through difficult terrain. I think all told the squad suffered an enormous 20+ wounds that round and only the lightning claw terminator survived even with wound allocation.

Logan is just scary when he gets into close combat. Other than that, he’s not that scary. Sure one USR a turn to his squad is helpful, but I think he is best utilized when in close combat. I will have to try to avoid engaging Logan in close combat to limit some of his effectiveness.

My army did well and this game could have gone my way if the dice rolled a little more average in those two situations above. Scoring fearless terminators are really amazing, just wish I could get bigger squads and/or better gear.