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Thursday, September 17, 2009

My first battle against the new Space Wolf codex!



Well yesterday I got my first taste of facing an opponent using the new Space Wolf codex. I played at my local game shop against one of the owners who was using the store copy of the Wolf codex. I am going to do an overview of the battle to the best I can as I don't have a copy of the list he was using with me.

The Battle was 1850 points Seize Ground mission with a Pitched Battle deployment. We rolled 5 objective markers placed as below on the battlefield.

Space Wolves
HQ:
Logan Grimnar
Njal Stormcaller

Troops:
7 Terminators: 2 wolf claws, 2 thunder hammer/storm shield, 2 power fists/storm bolter - Mounted in Land Raider Crusader with Logan Grimnar
4 Terminators: 2 wolf claws, 2 thunder hammer/storm shield - Mounted in Drop Pod with Njal Storm caller.
3 Terminators: 1 power fist/storm bolter, 2 thunderhammer/storm shield
3 Terminators: 1 wolf claws, 2 thunderhammer/storm shield
Elites:
Lone Wolf: thunderhammer/storm shield, terminator armor
Lone Wolf: thunderhammer/storm shield, terminator armor

Black Templars

HQ:
Marshal: Lightning claws, Iron Halo, Terminator Honors
Emperor's Champion: Vow-Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch

Troops:
Crusade Squad: 7 BP/CCW, flamer, BP/PW - Mounted in Rhino with Emperor's Champion
Crusade Squad: 8 BP/CCW, Meltagun, BP/PF - Mounted in Rhino
Crusade Squad: 8 Bolters, plasma gun, BP/PF - Mounted in Drop Pod
Crusade Squad: 4 Bolters, 1 Plasma Cannon - Mounted in Razorback with Twin-linked Lascannon
Crusade Squad: 4 Bolters, 1 Lascannon

Elites:
Dreadnought: Assault Cannon, Dread CCW, Heavy Flamer - Mounted in Drop Pod
Sword Brethren Squad: 6 BP/CCW, BP/PW, Lightning Claws - Mounted with Marshal in Land Raider Crusader
Deployment:

I managed to seize the intiative, but in hindsight I probably should not have even tried. I deployed my Rhinos in the center with My Crusader and Razorback off to the right in cover. I then placed one of my small crusade squads near the objective on the right in my deployment zone, While the other deployed near the objective on the far left.
The Space wolves deployed with a Crusader on the right near the objective in their zone along with a small squad of Terminators. Then another small squad of Terminators deployed in the center. Both Lone Wolves deployed near each other at left-center.

Deployment

TURN 1:

My Rhinos advanced on the center. My Crusader moved around the Left side of the building to Help support the center. My Razorback pulled forward to get line of sight on the Land Raider and both my small crusade squad moved forward with the squad on the right now occupying the objective. My Razorback took a shot at the landraider but had no effect.

Space Wolves: First they drop podded in Njal and the termies with him on the center objective. Then he moved his Crusader forward as well as his other Termie Units and the Lone Wolves. During the Shooting phase he ran his two termie units forward as well as his Lone Wolves. Njal used a psychic power that caused any deep striking unit to take a terrain test once they land. He then did some power that effected the weather but when he rolled for the effect there was no effect this turn. It was at this time I realized I didn't take my free move for Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch, but I did remember the ability to nullify the power on a 5+ but failed for.

End of Turn 1
TURN 2:

At the start of turn 2 my Dreadnought in the Drop Pod deep struck near the objective in the Space Wolf zone. He passed his difficult terrain test. The Emperors champion squad disembarked to get into position to charge Njal's unit. The Crusader lined up to open fire on Njal's unit. In the Shooting phase my dreadnought opened fire with his assault cannon on the 3 Terminators guarding the other center objective. I managed to hit and wound with all 4 shots. Then the Space Wolves failed all 4 of their 2+ saves. Next my Crusader opened up on Njals unit
I got 2 rending wounds from the assault cannon and 6 wounds from the hurricane bolters. For some reason my buddy decided to put a rending wound on Njal and then failed his save, so Njal took a wound but the rest of his squad managed to make their saves. Lastly my Crusade squad on the left fired 4 bolters and a lascannon at one of the Lone Wolves but he managed to make all his saves. The assault phase was a disaster as i failed to reach Njal's unit with my Emperor's Champion's unit and I knew that meant I would be facing a charge on the Space Wolf turn.


Space Wolves: Movement was pretty simple, he Moved Njal's unit as well as the 3 termie unit in the center to charge my Emperor's Champion and squad. He then moved both Lone Wolves towards my 5 man crusade squad on the left. In the Shooting phase his crusader shot at my crusader doing nothing. In anticipation of getting a charge with Njal and the terminators my buddy forgot to do any of his psychic powers. In the Assault phase Njal and his terminators as well as the other terminators unit assaulted my Champion and his crusade squad, The Emperor's Champion and Njal squared off and Njal managed a wound on the champion before succumbing to the Black Sword, this would be where my luck started to run out! my Crusade squad attacked the terminators, managing to kill off two but then the Terminators struck back kill 8 of my initiates in a flurry of Wolf Claws and Thunder Hammer attacks. I lost the fight by 5 with the templars being fearless in assault I have to take another 5 saves which I managed to fail enough of to wipe out my unit including the Emperor's Champion they even managed to destroy my empty rhino in the joint assault. The Wolves then consolidated toward my Rhino with a full squad.

End of Turn 2



TURN 3:


At the beginning of turn 3 my crusade squad in the drop pod showed up and landed near the center objective. My Dreadnought moved to assault the crusader and my other crusade squad disembarked from my their rhino. When disembarking I moved from the rear and left doors because he had a few Termies in front of the Rhino and 2 on the left side, so I tried to put myself in a position where he couldn't get both units attacking mine at the same time. In the shooting phase I blasted the crusader with my Assault cannons on my dread and my crusader as well as the Multi Melta on the crusader and the Plasma cannon from the squad on the objective. After all that firepower I only managed to get 1 Crew Stunned which the extra armor turned into a crew shaken. I then assaulted the crusader with my Dread and my crusade squad assaulted the Termies on the left of my rhino. This is where I realized how damn deadly the Space Wolves are. Even though I charged the wolves have counter attack so they get all their attacks as if they had charged. I managed to kill of 1 terminator with my regular attacks but then his thunder hammer took out 3 initiates if my power fist did not kill him I would lose combat again. I was only able to score one hit but lucky for me it was enough to bring down the last terminator of that unit.


Space Wolves: He moved his Crusader closer to my objective and deployed Logan and his large Terminator squad. He moved his 2 termies in the middle towards my land raider and the lone wolves headed for my unit from the drop pod. In the Shooting phase His crusader scored a wrecked result on mine using his multi-melta. The Marshal and Sword Brethren then dispersed from the wreckage only to be assaulted by the 2 termies left in the middle. None of my power weapons were able to get into combat so I caused no wounds to his 4. I then lost an additional Sword Brethren to my fearless saves. Logan and his unit assaulted my Razorback reducing it to a crater several times over. The game was starting to look grim for the Templars.


End of Turn 3

Turn 4:

I started Turn 4 by moving my Dred to assault the Crusader again. I also moved my Rhino to help my whole crusade squad get into combat. I fired my Assault Cannon at the Crusader and failed to do anything. I then fired my Plasma cannon at Logan's squad but he managed his Invulnerable saves. I then assaulted the terminators that were fighting the Marshal and Sword brethren. This combat was a complete disaster as I only was able to kill 1 of 2 Terminators, the space wolves then wounded 3 of my men in return and I lost another to my fearless rolls. The Dreadnought attacked the crusader and failed to do any damage. (At this point I had decided that my dice really enjoy the number 1)


Space Wolves: The crusader turned to face my dread Fired the Multi-Melta and missed in extreme fashion. Logan and his men moved then ran towards the close combat in the center. The only assault was a continuation of the battle in the middle. This time I was able to finish off the terminatos with my Marshal's lightning claws and the consolidated towards logan's and his crew. The lone Wolves assaulted my crusade squad at the drop pod where I lost 6 models and only caused 1 wound to a single lone wolf.


End of Turn 4





Turn 5:


I started by moving my crusade squad and my marshal and his sword brethren into assault position. I then fired my Dred's assault cannon at the crusader again resulting in nothing. I fired my plasma gun at Logan's unit only to scatter complete off of it. I then assaulted my dread into the crusader and managed to immobilize it. Then my marshal, sword brethren and crusade squad assaulted logan and his unit. This should have gone my way but logan used a special ability giving his unit an extra attack, the coupled with their counter attack roll gave them an awesome amount of attacks. Logan himself had 7. After the dust cleared only my Marshal remained with a single wound left which he then proceeded to lose to my fearless roll. Logan's unit then consolidated towards my last remaining crusade squad on the objective. The Lone wolves proceeded to kill off my remaining crusade squad at the drop pod.


Space Wolves: Logan's unit moved to be in assault position if we went to turn 6, one lone wolf moved towards my rhino the other moved towards my drop pod. At this point we rolled to see if the game ended. I would have won because I held one objective but naturally I rolled a 3.


End of Turn 5


Turn 6:

Well my turn was over quit quickly as I fired all I had in my unit, 4 bolters and a plasma cannon into logan's unit. I failed to do any damage. The end was near.

Space Wolves: The lone wolves attacked both my rhino and my drop pod but amazingly failed to damage either one. Then Logan and his unit assaulted y crusade and proceeded to slaughter them to a man, thus winning the game for the Space Wolves.

End of Turn 6



Conclusion:

Well all I can say is the Space Wolves definitely excel in the assault phase. I played way to conservatively in the beginning round as I was not sure exactly what to expect from the new wolves. I probably should have unloaded all my vehicles in turn 2 since he had very little firepower and I could have possibly overwhelmed his termie units with sheer numbers. This would have left me with more marines left over to assault Logan's big unit. I also got too distracted with my dreadnought trying to destroy the land raider.

The Space Wolves have some cool rules. The one I found most impressive was the counter attack. Even when I managed to get off an assault his unit still got all the attacks as if they had assaulted. The only time I did well in close combat was when I was able to cause 7-8 power weapon wounds using my marshal and the sword brethren, but it was too little too late and towards the end of the game my dice would only roll ones. The Lone Wolves were very hard to do anything too. I poured fire power into them with almost no effect. The Lone Wolf in Terminator Armor with thunderhammer and storm shield is a beast to deal with and my buddy took two of them.

Over all I had a blast playing them. The codex really seems to have some cool twists to it and I can't wait to see what other tricks that the wolf players will have up their sleeves. I apologize of this report is hard to follow, this is my first attempt at posting one on my blog so any suggestions on how to improve them are greatly appreciated.

-BJ

10 comments:

Gyro said...

Nice battle report, thanks for the inside scoop on the latest in the 40kverse.

Pacific said...

Thanks alot for the Bat rep and the insight into the new SW codex. The little diagrams are great also!

Charles said...

your opponants army broke the rules in several different ways. you cant use Grimnar and Stormcaller in the same army (they have the same saga), Terminators are not troop choices (cant believe you didn't realize that) and you can only have one lone wolf (hence the 'lone' part) in any given army.

Charles said...

and on a 2nd note... if you have a squad of all terminators, no two can have the same wargear. i have a feeling your local game store owner never really read his codex.

BJ said...

I can confirm that he never fully read the codex as we played the game the day he recieved it. The Grimnar and Stormcaller thing may be correct as far as I know. They are Wolf Guard terminators and I did read that with Grimnar Wolf Guard do infact count as troops. So unless I seriously misread Grimnar's rules he was ok taking them as troops.

For you mentioning that you can't believe I didn't realize it, what is so odd about it? If I play Dark Angels I can field an entire army of Terminators as troop choices with the Master of the Death wing as my HQ. From how I read Grimnar's rules it appears to me that Wolf Guard are troop choices with him in the army.

The Lone wolf means they are the last of thier original pack so they must go it alone on the battle. I don't remember seeing any limit on the number of lone wolves just that they have to be a single unit. He ran two single lone wolves near each other. Again I didn't fully read the codex but I don't remember seeing a rule that limited them to 1 per army.

I do now know of the Terminator rule but only because it was in the White Dwarf Battle Report. I didn't read the whole codex and my buddy only read through it while he waited for me to get to the store.

It was his first game with the new dex and I am sure after a more thorough read he will better know the rules. I myself will know them once I purchase my book later this week. So if he messed a few things up no biggie, the game was fun none the less and he got to see how some of the units perform in his new army.

-BJ

BJ said...

Ok so I got a better look at the codex and let me tell you what I found. Before I do that I do want to apologize for sounding like an ass in my last post but I was having a bad day and took my frustration out on my blog.

You absolutely can have Grimnar and Njal in the same army. If you read on page 69 it talks about not having characters with the same saga, but it also mentions that special characters are exempt from this rule, so fielding both is in fact legal.

Terminators and Troop choices, this too is possible in the new codex. It is covered in Logan Grimnar's rules (page 82 according to my notes)under the heading of Wolf Lord: This allows you to field Wolf Guard as troops and since Wolf Guard can wear Terminator Armor it is possible to have Terminators as a troops choice.

Under the Lone Wolf rules, there is nowhere at all that is says you can only have one Lone Wolf. They can't be part of a unit but there is no 0-1 unit limit for Lone Wolves you so can take two separate Lone Wolfs as 2 separate units.

As to the last one about the weapon options for terminators, I could not find that anywhere in the rules section. I am not saying it doesn't exist as it is also referenced in the White Dwarf battle report, I just can't find the rule for it.

Anyway I just wanted to clarify that while my buddy's army may have violated the weapon option rules, from what I have read everything else he did was legal.

-BJ

MonoManual said...

Hi!

Great read by the way, your buddy did fine, no rules violated. And eventhough you lost I like your BT list.

The rule Charles referred to is "The leaders of the Pack" rule on page 81 of the new codex, just under the force organisation chart. However, since wolf guard are not considered characters they need not abide by this rule. Then again, if you take fluff into consideration you can always opt to do so anyway :)

/MM

BJ said...

Thanks, I love my Templars. I am still trying out some variations of the list trying to see what performs best for me. I am in love with the Marshal with dual lightning claws though.

Raptor1313 said...

Yeah, the 'no-dupes' rule in the SW 'dex refers to your HQ choices; you can't have two with identical configurations.

Lone Wolves? No limit on the number, but they are always solo. You can't join them with an IC or anything like that. Honestly, they're kind of beastly, and I'm looking forward to probably running 3 of them.

Sagas are a one-per-army, UNLESS special characters.

The batrep...not bad at all. Pictures are a major requirement, though it would've been nice to be able to zoom in on them. They were a little harder to decode without larger shots.

One question...why not the Vow that grants you re-rolls in assault? It seems like the most reliably useful one you can get. If I recall correctly, the 'witch' vow gets you an extra move at the start of the game if the enemy brought psykers, which is cool when it happens. then again, I'm not so up-and-up on the Black Templar dex.

On your list...
The drop-podding troops squad seems a bit out of place. I'd almost suggest a second drop-podding dread, and recommend multi-melta/heavy flamer for them. If you're going to get a good, close drop you might as well take the top weapons for point-blank range.

Past that, I'd take lascannons over plasma cannons for your in-the-back camping squads. Most of the time you'll get more mileage ouut of the las for sniping things, as a good measure can minimize the impact of blast weapons like the plasma cannon.

BJ said...

Raptor1313,

Thanks for the post. I usually do take the Accept any challenge vow that gives you the re-rolls to hit. I changed because I was afraid of the Space Wolf pyschic powers. I have already changed back vows.

I like the idea of a 2nd dred but I have to pick one up first. I am thinking of ordering the Templar Venerable Dred from FW. I am also considering adding an assault squad instead of the drop pod unit.

Yeah I already switched out my plasma cannon for a lascannon for my 2nd small unit. The plasma just was not very effective for me at all in this game as well as others I have played.

Again thanks for reading the blog and thank you for your ideas on my army list, they are always appreciated.

-BJ

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