Flesh Tearers Vs Space Wolves 1000pts

This was our first battle under 7th Edition rules, 1000pts against a Space Wolves army.  It was also our first try at tactical objectives.  The primary objective was to complete as many tactical objectives as possible with Linebreaker, First Blood and Slay the Warlord as secondary objectives.

So I brought my 1000pts list

• Librarian with Jump Pack
• 6 Death Company with Jump Packs
• 10 Assault Marines with Power Fist
• 10 Tactical Marines with Meltagun and Missile Launcher
• 10 Tactical Marines with Flamer and Missile Launcher
• Dreadnought with Multimelta and Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon (Storm Bolter)

My opponent brought a Wolf Priest, 9 Wolf Guard with combi-plasma guns, 4 power fists and a Rhino, 2 Dreadnoughts with assault cannons, 1 Lone Wolf with terminator armour, lightning claws and 2 wolves, two 5 man Grey Hunter packs and a Fenrisian Wolf Pack.

So we are deploying using the long table edges.  He deployed in one quarter of the board while I spread out a little tucked behind buildings to give me some cover for the opening turn.

Sorry for unpainted models on my part, I haven't finished the army yet.  The Tactical Squad on the right have the flamer, the assault squad are the unit between two tactical squads and the Librarian is with them, Death Company are on the left.

Match starts and both sides start moving forwards.  My Tactical marines move towards two ruins, my Death Company and Assault marines move forwards.  My Dreadnought stayed put for this turn to hold the objective marker he was next to, we were using Steal The Loot rule and my opponent had rolled that objective as one of his so I wanted to keep it to steal a Victory Point.  My Death Company killed off the Lone Wolf but lost 2 of their own to shooting, I did have first blood though

Things were going well.  Both sides were constantly running about to grab objectives and try and claim as many VPs as we could, one of the grey hunters units ran forward to the chaos shrine one turn to claim that only to have to run back to his own deployment zone next turn for the "hold the line" and then back to the shrine again for another objective.

One round of shooting managed to do enough casualties to the wolves to cause the beasts to break and run.  The Grey Hunters had taken a few wounds as well.

This was were things went a bit pear shaped for me.  My Death Company were charged by the Dreadnought and couldn't hurt it's armour (but fearless meant couldn't leave with "our weapons are useless").  They held for a couple of turns at least holding the walker up.  I was trying to move my own Dreadnought forward to free up what is left of my Death Company.  I know I should never have left my Death Company in a position where they could get stuck in a combat they can't win, I jumped too far forward to take out the Lone Wolf and wasn't quick enough getting out of the way.  I also learnt how devastating a squad of combi-plasma guns can be against space marines.  The Rhino moved to the centre of the board next to my assault squad and dropped off the Wolf Guard.  The whole squad used their plasma shots and the volume of shots with the Wolf Priests special rules giving them re-rolls managed to wipe out my HQ and Assault squad.  It wasn't looking good.

Both Dreadnoughts moved in to combat with each other.  In the first round of combat mine was reduced to 1 hull point while his had 2 left.  I also had my multimelta destroyed.  Second round we ended up destroying each other, I came out slightly better as killing his dreadnought completed one of my active tactical objectives.

The Wolf Guard moved around to my tactical squad on my left flank.  One failed charge and moving on foot meant I caused as few casualties with shooting as they moved towards me.  At this point we had worked out it was unlikely that I could win, I was behind of VPs and the tactical objectives that I held were difficult or impossible for me to complete while he held a couple that were quick and easy Victory Points.

It reached the last turn.  The Wolf Guard assaulted my tactical squad and were locked in combat although my shooting and combat had reduced their numbers.  Despite last minute attempts to try and claim a few Tactical Objectives ended up losing.

As you can see, he still had both Grey Hunter packs (although the one on the Chaos Shrine in the middle was at half strength) and the Dreadnought my right flank was still alive.  His Wolf Guard are still alive locked in combat with my tactical squad inside the ruin on the left.

Final Victory Points were Flesh Tearers 6 - Space Wolves 10.  So another loss but a fun game, I underestimated a squad of combi-plasmas and maybe should have tried to deal with the Rhino they were using as transport to stop them getting into a position that they could almost turn the whole tide of the game in one shooting phase but taking out my Warlord and Assault Squad almost single handed.

I really like the tactical objectives.  They add a interest dimension to the game were you are constantly changing plans to try and complete as many as possible.  Tactics have to change almost every turn based on what you roll.  I would say that rolling for them and remembering them all was time consuming (maybe it was just our first game) and I will be considering getting them on cards to draw from a deck instead of roll on a table.