CSNS Battle Report #1: Deathwatch VS Space Wolves 1500pts

Ahoyhoy internets, today we have something I've been wanting to do for a while but never found the time for, A BATTLE REPORT. -Woop woop- A proper beer and pizza game was set up played and won -and a lot of beer and pizza consumed too- and a great time had by both parties. Here's the story of that game:

The Players

DaveHowitzer's (Dave's) Deathwatch  =][=

Pedro Kantor 175

Librarian 100
Null Zone, The Avenger

Sternguard Vets x5 125
Lascannon x2 30
Rhino 35
(190)

Terminator Assault Squad 200

Tactical Squad 90
Razorback 40
Las 35
165
x2

Tactical Squad x10 180
Flamer
Combi Melta
Multi Melta/Missile Launcher (1 unit with each)
Rhino 35
225
x2

Attack Bike
Multi Melta
50

vs

Rogal Dorn's (Dan's) Space Wolves

"We're Wolves...honest..."

Ragnar Blackmane 240

Dreadnought 105
x2

Grey Hunters x10
Meltagun
190

Grey Hunters x10
Plasma Gun
195

Blood Claws x15
Power Weapon
240

6 Long Fangs
Missile Launcher x5
140

Land Raider Crusader
Storm Bolter, Multimelta, Extra Armour
285

The Set Up

Since he was a guest in my house I let Dan roll for setup and mission, we ended up having a Seize Ground game with 3 objectives and Pitched Battle setup. We rolled for first turn, I ended up rolling a 6 and Dan rolled a 1, but being a generous host I offered him first turn and first setup...mawhahaha.

Note...improvised terrain to tourney standard

Dan decided to split his force evenly accross the field, with his Long fangs covering the majority of the board from the "bulding" on his right flank. In the centre he had his two footslogging Grey Hunter units covering the Crusader with his big Blood Claws and Ragnar. Covering his middle force were the two flanking Dreads.

I on the other hand castled up, not wanting to feel the wrath of those long fangs, I used terrain to hide my armoured force, ready to spring them come my movement phase. I set the footslogging assault termies up on that flank to try to draw his fire. I wasn't using my preferred 1500pts force, not having the models to field it I ended up bringing Pedro into the list and the termies to fill points, something I would later be pleased about! The plan from my point of view was to weather the first turn storm and move to take the objective my armoured force was close to and contest the centre. The terminators would tie up his flanking Dreadnought and anything else coming their way whilst sitting on the leftmost objective to contest it should he manage to get his marines accross the field. It would work...at least in theory. Didn't Sun Tzu say if all was going according to plan it was a trap?

Turn 1

I rolled to sieze...surprise surprise...I failed.

Dan:

Dan moves defensively, advancing his middle force towards my armour, hiding the  plamagun Grey Hunters behind the Crusader and moving the Dreads to cover his foot marines. The melta unit and one Dread move onto the middle objective.

He shoots the assault cannon on the crusader at my leftmost Rhino, containing a Kill Team with the Multimelta. He manages to penetrate and explode the Rhino, killing one of the passengers, but failing to pin. the centre Dreadnought shoots at my Terminators and kills one of the Lightning Claw members. Just as I'm thinking that was bad luck, the Long Fangs set their sights on the same target with 5 Krak Missiles and fell two of the Tactical Dreadnought Armoured Marines. The only plus here was they passed their morale, and their fire was drawn away from my fragile armour on the right field.

Dave:

Reeling I recalculate my objectives. I think he's playing for the kill more than the objective because he didn't shoot my Rhinos when he had the chance, so I tried to use that to my advantage in movement, baiting his rightfield (my left) my moving the Termators directly towards him and away from the closest objective. I moved out my armoured force in a fan, putting the razorbacks to either side of the bulding (pile of Ravenor books) along with the Sternguard/Pedro/Libby Rhino and moved my remaining Tactical Marine Rhino forward towards the rightmost objective. The Attack Bike turbo boosted forward towards his lines

Putting the Raider in my sights I unloaded with all the lascannons, barely scratching it, bar the Sternguard who managed to stun it. The remaining Tactical Squad in the Rhino fired with their Missile Launcher at the closest Dread, but missed. Uneventful, and I had the feeling it would be one of those games.

Turn 2

Apologies for quality.

Dan:

He keeps his guys pretty still with the exception of the Grey Hunters behind the Crusader who move past it's left flank into rapid fire range on the Attack Bike. The central Grey Hunters move in to take the objective beside the Manufactorum (Friends box set and Tulip Shaker).

Dan then unleashed the wrath of the Crusader's Machine spirit guided Assault Cannon and the Grey Hunters on my poor Attack Bike, the two riders valiantly avoiding any wounds which is AWESOME. The Terminators howevever lost another man from the Dreadnought's shooting. Adding to my woes, the Long Fangs unloaded more missiles on the Kill Team who had had their Rhino blown up in the previous turn, killing two.

Dave:

Hoping against hope, I turned the Attack bike towards the Crusader to attempt a shot with the Multimelta come the shooting phase and in another similarly insane move, moved my remaining Terminator forward to face off with the Dread and the Grey Hunters in centre field. Whilst doing this with the Terminator, I was all the while thinking what the best thing to assault would be; the Dreadnought strikes first with DCCWs which puts me to a 3+ save and I need at least 4s to do anything to him should I survive his attacks, but at the same time, the weight of attacks from the Grey Hunters could put me down. The Dreadnought looked like the best option..but what about when the Hunters counter assault and get 30 attackd on my Termy. He was going down, but the question was what should he take with him.

Guns blazing (and failing to do much yet again) the Multimelta on the Bike unloaded at the Raider and managed to...glance. Thankfully though, the Raider ended up Immobalised, ensuring that the meaty goodness within would have to plod through no mans land into my deployment zone and get shot up, as opposed to being safe in their box of death. However, rather than be thankful and change target, I got tunnel vision and fired every anti tank weapon -and even Pedro's Orbital Bombardment- at the wounded Raider and achieved...nothing.

In assault, the Terminator and the Dread bounced off each other, totally not according to plan.

I clenched my cheeks and prepared for the $%*t storm that was coming my way...or so I thought...

Turn 3

Again...quality I know...seriously...

Dan: 

Dan prepared for a mass assault, readying his central Grey Hunters to assault the lone Terminator and the rightmost Grey Hunters to assault the Attack Bike. Oh yeah...and 15 Blood Claws led by Ragnar jumped out the Land Raider and began to look a bit too close to my lines.

Those Long Fangs refused to let up their rocket attack on my exposed Kill Team and managed to explode two of the Deathwatch, but the group remained strong and passed morale. The Raider and the Dread shot at my rightmost Rhino and failed miserable, merely stunning the transport. Aww yeah -Jersey Shore style- Finally, the Attack bike absored all of the shooting the Grey Hunters could throw at it...and prepared for a hard assault.

First, the Terminator formally known as "Terminator Sgt" and now "Sgt Badboy" felt the awesome power of the Dreadnought shrugging off the metal beast's onslaught along with 29 out of the 30 Grey Hunter attacks, but was finally brought down by the force of the Wolves assault. -well...one attack- They consolidated back onto their objective to ensure it's capture. The Attack Bike met a similar fate going down under the massive force of the Grey Hunter assault.

Dave:
Now...tactically speaking there weren't a lot of options open. On a squad for squad basis, I still had more guys than him, but they were better in combat than me one on one. But then, the though occurred to me: Kantor gives Inspiring Presense. So, with hesitation I called on the wargamer's bread and butter of "Plan B".

Driving all the transports that could into position- leaving only the 5 man squad in razorback to the left out of the equation, they moved up to cover the open Kill Team- I unloaded the Sternguard with Kantor and my Librarian, the other 10 man Kill Team and a 5 man kill team, all of which unloaded with pistols, flamers, Dorn's arrow and the Avenger, felling 5 of the Hunters.

All 22 members of the Deathwatch who shot at the Wolves then assaulted the central mass of Blood Claws and Blackmane. the Wolf Lord tries to fell DW Kantor but fails to scratch his armour. The Sternguard fail to make an impact, but the Librarian manages to fell a Blood Claw. Man of the match, Brother Hammet (see "Man of the Match") Missile Launcher of the 10man Kill Team manages to use all of his 3 attacks to kill 3 Blood Claws, whilst the rest of his unit manage to kill another 2. The 5 man Kill Team show their stripes by killing two of the Blood Claws, who in their dying throes kill the two Lascannon Sternguard and 3 of then larger Kill Team. Finally, in a fit of anger at the loss of his brothers, DW Kantor throws his powerfist into the face of Ragnar, and decimates the Wolf Lord with a single punch. Booya -again...insert Jersey Shore voice-

All that remains are two Grey Hunters who somehow manage to pass morale. Just. From my point of view things started to look better. If I could get rid of the oncoming Grey Hunters, all I needed to do for a win was to get the Kill Team with the Multimelta onto the rightmost objective and screen them with the Rhinos/Razorbacks and send the 5 man unit still embarked up against the central objective to contest it. Simple in theory.

Turn 4

 

Dan:

By now we could both see the finish line and were thinking about the best result. He never mentioned it, but I had the feeling at this point he was playing the draw, but you'd have to ask him. The Grey Hunters who had previously taken out the Attack Bike now prepared to assault the embattled Deathwatch in the centre whilst missiles and assault cannons rained  down on my Rhinos and Razorbacks, achieving little bar destroying the lascannon on top of the left Razorback. 

The assault was more deadly than anticipated, felling 3 of my larger Kill Team and another member of the Sternguard, but for their insolence, I only took two of the assaulting Marines out with the Librarian and DW Kantor, bad times. Fortunately, morale saves were made.

Dave: 

I really wanted this now, the turns were closing in and he was definately playing the draw. The Razorback with the embarked squad came over to the centre and the unit disembarked on the right side, rapid firing into the squad on the objective, achieving nothing.

The stars shone however in the assault phase. The 5 man unit managed to take out the remaining Grey Hunters -who took the large unit down to 1 man...Brother Hammet- and my other Kill Team with the remaining Sternguard and the characters took the Hunters down to 4 men. We paid the price though, as in retaliation they slew one more Sternguard. finally the Wolves turned tail and fled 9 inches, the Sternguard following 3" and making sure come the next turn they'd still be running, whilst the 5 man Kill Team went towards the contre objective, leaving Hammet to face down the Land Raider alone.

Man of the Match

Turn 5

Dan:

With those Hunters still running, Dan managed to roll low enough that they were still in range to rapid fire my Sternguard, killing the remaining two and leaving my characters to face off with them. The Dreadnught got the Razorback in it's sights and proceeded to scrap the transport, with the Grey Hunters rapid firing the proverbial crap out of the 5 man Kill Team, eliminating them completely.

Dave: 

All my hopes for the win lay with the 5 Man unit running past the Land Raider who didn't have any support to hand. Thus, the dice Gods were to be my only tool for victory. Cementing my right objective, I reformed the Kill Team on it into a more tactical formation (so if the Long Fangs had a shot, they couldn't frag) and covering them with the Rhinos and Razorbacks a little better.

Hammet launched a missile at the Raider and failed miserably to get a glance, but I hoped his annoying presence would draw attention away from the 5 Man team going for the middle.

The Most epic fail happened in the assault phase where after the Librarian felling 3 of the running Grey Hunters, Kantor managed to fail all of his saves and died a horrible death. Thus, it became 1 vs 1 at the top of 6.

Turn 6

Dan: 

Short turn here, Dan shot the Crusader's Assault cannon at Hammet, who failed his save -he didn't die though...tis but a scratch- and with it's Machine Spirit shot at the 5 Man team running up it's flank, felling 3 of them. Fortunately for me, they passed morale. The Dreads manouvered to shoot at my Kill Team on the objective to the right, killing 1 member. Finally in a fine show of stupidity, the Libby and the Grey Hunter managed to punch each other in the face and both died.

Dave:

I re-arranged the armoured screen for the right objective just incase we got to 7 and moved my boys beside the Raider onto the central objective, rapid firing the Grey Hunters, killing two for good measure. Short turn, I just clenched my bum and crossed my fingers for the end....AND IT CAME.

End!

Dave 1 (1 Contested) - Dan 0 (1 Contested)

So I managed to pull a win out the bag somehow there, Dan was a real gentleman and took it in his stride and we both commented after how fun it was to play each other again. -I think it's been over two years since we last met on the field of battle- I would have loved to have had the DW painted for this, and I think it's got me into the mind set to make that happen, along with getting some decent terrain for home.

In terms of what I would have changed, I can't really comment as it's not the army I had really wanted to use at 1500pts. Kantor was a great asset, taking out Blackmane but the Orbital Bombardment that I'd been excited amount didn't have the effect I'd wanted, scattering off the board. Perhaps I should have played my transports a bit more offensively rather than hiding in the corner for the majority of the game but I'll see what happens when I get the Predators into the list.

Great game, and I'll definately be playing Dan again -you can play Dan and other great players all you Scottish boys at the Hallowed Halls Gaming Club at the Ayr Citadel on a Saturday from 12pm -5pm-

Game Winning Move

Look out for more Battle Reps soon guys. What are your thoughts on the fight, what would you have done?

Love, Dave