My list was a variation on previous lists I have used recently:
- Librarian with Gallian's Staff, Jump Pack and Level 2 Mastery (Powers=Force, Blood Lance, Shield of Sanguinius and the Quickening)
- Chaplain with Jump Pack and Veritas Vitae (Warlord, Traits gave him Rampage and Descent of Angels)
- 2 Ten man Tactical Squads, both with Missile Launchers, one with Meltagun and one with Plasma Gun
- Ten man Assault Squad with Power Fist (Chaplain joined this squad)
- Five man Sanguinary Guard with Death Masks, Chapter Banner, 1 Inferno Pistol and 2 Encarmine Axe's (Librarian joined this squad)
The Space Wolves brought:
- Wolf Guard Battle Leader with Thunderwolf mount and Storm Shield
- Ulrik (Warlord)
- Five Grey Hunters in Drop Pod
- Five Grey Hunters with Wolf Guard and Standard, squad has Combat Weapons, Wolf Guard has Terminator Armour, Power Weapon and Storm Bolter. Squad in a Drop Pod with Locator Beacon. (Ulrik joined this squad)
- 2 Lone Wolves both with Terminator Armour, Storm Shield and Wolf Claw
- Three Wolf Guard Terminators with Storm Bolters and Power Swords
- 2 Three man Long Fang Squads each with Plasma Cannon and Lascannon.
- Six Wolves (Wolf Guard Battle Leader and Mount joined this Squad)
We set up along the short table edges. Space Wolves had the 1st turn. Because I had rolled Descent of Angels as a warlord trait I decided to hold all my jump infantry in reserve and deep strike them in. Space Wolves were holding both drop pods, terminators and lone wolves in reserve.
Both Tactical Squads are deployed with the Melta in the center and Plasma on my right. One long fang squad is in the white ruin at the back and the other is behind the wolves and wolf guard battle leader.
Space Wolves turn one and the 1st drop pod enters via drop pod assault rule. This was the pod with plain grey hunters in it. Both my tactical marines took heavy fire from the long fangs, drop pod and grey hunters with the centre unit taking heavy casualties. I had spread out to avoid plasma cannons but not quite enough although some bad rolls on my part were the biggest issue, I just kept failing save rolls.
As you can see at the start of my turn one of my tactical squads was already down to half. I moved the half strength unit toward the grey hunters, spreading them out more and returned fire at the grey hunters taking them down to three men. My other tactical squad moved forwards towards the ruin and took a snap shot with the missile launcher at the long fangs in the white building and missed.
In the Space Wolves 2nd turn the second drop pod landed and the Terminators come on (using the drop pods locator beacon). The Wolves used their shooting turn to run making there way down to the ruins and the grey hunters already on the table moved forwards towards my tactical squad. The drop pod shoot at my melta tactical squad killing one. The grey hunters shooting didn't kill anything but the terminators managed to kill a couple of the other tactical squad before they were charged by Ulrik and his grey hunters. Overwatch killed a one of the grey hunters but combat reduced my squad down to 3 members.
My turn starts and I manage to get both of my jump units to deep strike in. Because the fighting is all in my own end I dropped them in to back up my own men. Looking back this might not have been the best idea, I think I might have been better off dropping into the space wolves half and taking on his long fangs and see if my tactical marines can hold his deep strike units up, spreading them out a bit and allowing me to take a better position before we got into combat, making the most of my superior movement.
My Librarian managed to cast blood lance on the grey hunters on my left side killing one but suffered perils and lost a wound himself. I then charged my tactical squad into the grey hunters losing one to overwatch but returning the favour in close combat by removing all but one of them. My other tactical squad didn't do as well, getting wiped out by Ulrik and his grey hunters giving the Space Wolves 1st Blood. With both HQs on the board as well as my Sanguinary Guard and assault troops it looked like things might start turning in my favour, both forces were close together making him using blast templates risky and my tactical squads had done some damage so he was facing full strength close combat orientated units.
In his turn he got one of his lone wolves on and placed it between my Sanguinary Guard and his terminators to try and block them for my turn. One of his Long Fang squads couldn't get a clear shot at anything so moved towards the center of his table edge and used the shooting phase to run. My Librarians Shield spell saved a couple of his squad members from a plasma cannon shoot. In his assault phase his terminators, wolves and grey hunters charged my assault squad. Rampage came in handy since I was massively outnumbered in combat. My Chaplain was challenged by the Wolf Guard Battle Leader. He survived the challenge and reduced the Battle Leader to a single wound. The rest of the combat didn't go as well for me, my squad was wiped out and wounds carried over to my Chaplain killing him too and earning them Slay the Warlord, I didn't manage to inflict a single wound on his units, yet more proof of my poor rolling skills. His units moved towards my Sanguinary Guard. The combat on the other side of the board between my tactical squad and the last grey hunter was a no score draw with neither side able to get a single wound of the other.
In my turn I casted the quickening and shield on my Librarian and his unit and finally got lucky on my rolls and got +3 Attacks and +3 Initiative. I shot at the wolves and then charged them, the combination of the quickening, charging and the Chapter Banner left them really powerful and the fists full of dice meant that even I couldn't fail to kill the whole unit including the Battle Leader. I moved back to my right side of the board after killing them to make the terminator and lone wolf charges as far as possible although the distance wasn't that great. Still my tactical marines and the grey hunter were locked in combat with him coming out on top killing one of the Flesh Tearers.
The start of the Space Wolves 4th turn and it started well for me. My Sanguinary Guard survived the incoming shooting and a stray plasma cannon shot from the long fangs hit one of the wolf guard terminators and killed him. His final lone wolf entered the game as close as he could to the rest of the terminators. With a good Quickening my Sanguinary Guard were looking good for the expected combat. My unit was charged by the lone wolf and Ulrik and his grey hunters. The lone wolf challenged my Librarian and managed to kill him, even with so many attacks I didn't get a single hit on him. My dice rolling didn't improve Ulrik lost a wound and 2 grey hunters were killed but the return attacks killed all but one of my Flesh Tearers leaving just my Chapter Banner Bearer alive. Again my two tactical marines couldn't kill the grey hunter so the two of them were both left locked in combat.
I started my 4th turn without much hope other than taking a few of them down with me. We started straight into the assault phase since there wasn't much else I could do. My tactical marines lost the combat and the remaining marine was locked 1on1 with the grey hunter that seemed to have some Holy Relic Power Armor that couldn't be penetrated. My remaining Sanguinary Guard, striking last because of his axe was able to survive but only managed to take one grey hunter down. My turn ended and looking at the table I decided to concede, we were only playing to 5 turns and I was left with only two man left and with the evening getting on I thought it would be better to forgo the necessity of getting wiped out. The final score was 4 kill points plus 1st Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker to the Space Wolves and 2 kill points for me.
Looking back I think the idea to deep strike was a bad one. I only decided to because of rolling Descent of Angels as a warlord trait and not wanting to waste it but my army list wasn't designed to let me fully commit to a deep strike army and his drop pod assault, which I knew he would be doing, left me to vulnerable early on in the game and by the time my reserves arrived to try and even the playing field it was too late. I did have some bad rolls but this was definitely a lose because of how I played not because of luck. If I was to do it again I would have my full force on the field to start with, allowing my HQs to buff my army and use my speed to react quickly to deep strike threats as they appear hopefully dealing with them quickly before the next wave can arrive.
So chalking another one up in the lose column, but a fun game and great to finally try out the latest Blood Angels codex.
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