1st 8th Edition Game - Flesh Tearers vs Space Wolves 50 Power Level Meatgrinder

So after getting Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition we played our 1st game.  We wrote quick lists based off what we had using power levels.  For our first game we went for 50 Power Level.  We decided to use Power Level just to speed up writing lists since we weren't doing them in advance.

We selected Meat Grinder as the mission with the Space Wolves as the attackers and my Flesh Tearers as defenders.


The Lists
Flesh Tearers
Sanguinary Priest W/Jump Pack
Chaplain W/Jump Pack
10 man Tactical Squad W/Missile Launcher and Plasma Gun
10 man Tactical Squas W/Missile Launcher and Meltagun
10 man Assault Squasd W/Jump Packs and Power Fist
5 man Death Company W/Jump Packs and Thunder Hammer

Space Wolves
Ragnar W/Wolves
10 man Blood Claw Squad W/Power Fist and Wolf Guard Pack Leader
10 man Blood Claw Squad W/Power Fist and Wolf Guard Pack Leader
5 man Wulfen Squad W/Frost Claws on everyone
Lone Wolf W/Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield.

The Game

So we set up ready for the game.  I set up a Tactical Squad on each flank, one behind a building (with the melta) and the other (with the plasma) in a ruin on the left flank.  My Assault Squad was set up at the back in the centre, they were their to react to any the Space Wolves deployment.  My Chaplain, Death Company and Sanguinary Priest were set up in high orbit to deep strike in.

The Space Wolves set up pretty evenly spread out.  With a Blood Claw unit on each flank, Wulfen and Lone Wolf in the centre and Ragnar on the right flank.

To win I just had to survive but the Space Wolves could attack in waves so could bring back destroyed units on a 4+ (2+ for troops).

So I got the first turn.  The Tactical Squad in the ruin opened fire on the Blood Claws causing a few casualties and the Assault Squad advanced to try and assist them.  My other Tactical Squad moved round the corner so they could see the the Blood Claws and open fire on them.

The Death Company, Chaplain and Priest arrived via deep strike on the right flank as close as possible to the Blood Claws.  They all attempted to charge the Blood Claws but the Priest failed the charge roll so didn't make it.  The Chaplain and Death Company however were able to make a few kills as they started hacking though the Space Wolves.

The Wolves had to retaliate hard and they did.  On my left flank Ragnar and the Blood Claws Advanced towards my Tactical Squad but the ruins they were bunked down in proved to be highly effective and they couldn't cause any causalities.

Things did not go as well on the other side.  I had never faced Wulfen before and seriously underestimated them.  They joined the Blood Claws in combat with my Death Company and the two units made short work of both Death Company and Chaplain although the Blood Claws did take a few more causalities in return.  The turn had not gone well and I had learnt the hard way that not letting Wulfen charge is the best way to deal with them.

With my right flank in trouble I decided to try and tie them up as best as possible and concentrate on defending my left.  My Priest jumped back and got in position to support the Tactical Squad.  The Assualt Marines charged forwards and managed to wipe out the Blood Claws hiding behind the low wall while the Tactical Squad provided supporting fire.

On the right my Tactical Squad opened up with all the fire power they could to try and weaken the advancing Space Wolves before they were charged and managed to take down a Wulfen after firing with everything they had.  It still wasn't looking great for me on that side of the board but the left were in a really good position having wiped out the Blood Claws without a single lose in return, now they just had to deal with Ragnar...or so they thought.

The Lone Wolf, who so far hadn't made it into combat, started trying to run over to help Ragnar with the Assault and Tactical Squads and left the Wulfen (and what was left of the Blood Claws) to deal with the remaining Tactical Marines and Priest.  Unfortunately it seems Lone Wolves are not the best at running because he kept rolling 1's to advance so wasn't going anywhere fast.

It turns out that he didn't need to worry anyway.  I had forgotten about the advantage to getting troop choices back for the attacker and the unit of Blood Claws I wiped out last turn returned as reinforcements for Ragnar.

The Blood Claws and Wulfen charged the Tactical Squad and Priest.  My marines knew their time was limited but had to hold up the Wulfen for as long as possible to give my left enough time to survive.  6 of the Tactical Marines and the Priest were killed, but managed to finish off the Blood Claws in return.  The last of the Tactical Marines held out but didn't have long.

Ragnar wanted revenge for the Blood Claws lost to my Assault Marines and charged them.  Ragnar is a combat monster and manage to half the squad in one turn although did lose a wolf and get knocked down to 4 wounds in return.  With 5 attacks, hitting on 2+ and re-rolling 1's he was able to hit almost every attack and even power armour wasn't enough to help against them.

Things really went down hill for the Flesh Tearers from here.  My Assault Marines were able to finish off the last wolf but were wiped out by Ragnar.  The Wulfen finished the Tactical Marines off and started footslogging over to help out with the remaining Tactical Marines.

The Lone Wolf still hadn't learnt to run and was slowly heading over around the central ruins.

So far my Tactical Marines had been using the cover from the ruins extremely effectively, while there hadn't been much incoming fire they still hadn't lost a man.  Now they had a choice, shot Ragnar or try and weaken the advancing Blood Claws.  Ragnar had taken a couple of wounds so I hoped that my plasma and missile launcher would finish him off and I could split fire and fill the Blood Claws with bolter fire.  It appears the the Emperor was smiling on Ragnar though, shot after shot failed to wound him and I ended up concentrating fire on him and using all the bolters on him as well.  Although he survived he was left with just 1 wound.

Things weren't looking too bad. That was my 4th turn over and the game could end at the end of turn 5.  The Space Wolves had 2 turns to kill off a full strength Tactical Marine Squad that was still making the most of the cover in the ruins.  Ragnar was the biggest threat, but only had one wound remaining.  The Wulfen and Lone Wolf were too far away to be a threat and the Blood Claws would need a really good charge roll to get into combat or would need to finish the Flesh Tearers off in one turn to ensure a win.

With The Emperor still smiling on the Space Wolves, the Blood Claws and Ragnar managed to make a charge into the ruins.  These Tactical Marines didn't make as good an account of themselves as the other squad and failed to kill anything in the returning combat but were taken down to only a few men.  The remaining 4 had to survive 2 rounds of combat (my turn 5 and the Space Wolves' turn 5) in order to stand a chance of winning the match.

My choices were clear, fall back from combat and risk a charge on the Space Wolves turn or try and kill a few this turn and minimise the number of return attacks.  In hindsight running away and hoping for overwatch/failed charges might have been a better idea, but we are Sons of Sanguinius and do not run from combat, so I stayed and fought.  The resulting combat finished off my Tactical Marines but they did manage to take down a couple of Blood Claws with them.

Post Match
I enjoyed the game.  We were learning the game and I'm sure we made some mistakes and it took longer than normal because of having to look up rules and stats all the time but that should speed up with practise.  Overall 8th seems to be a good change, cover is a lot more important especially using the ruins rules which made it very hard to clear 3+ save marines from them with shooting.  Ragnar and Wulfen are both really powerful and I am not sure how well Power Levels balance armies, especially when units like the Space Wolves' Wulfen were given lots of upgrades.