"Air-support Incoming" Flesh Tearers Vs Space Wolves 2000pts Cloak and Shadows

Back up against the Space Wolves again (they are clearly very bitter about Honour's End).  This time we were playing 2000pts Cloak and Shadows with Front-Line Assault deployment.  This would be the 1st time using Tactical Objectives in 8th Edition and also the 1st time I'd brought out my new toy, a Stormraven Gunship.  This was played pre-Chapter Approved and Blood Angel Codex so we were both still using the Index lists only.

The Lists
Flesh Tearers
Battalion Detachment
Librarian with jump pack, bolt pistol and force stave
Sanguinary Priest with bolt pistol, chainsword and jump pack
5x Scouts with 4 sniper rifles and a missile launcher
10x Tactical Marines with missile launcher, plasma gun, chainsword and combi-plasma
10x Tactical Marines with heavy flamer, flamer, hand flamer and power sword
10x Tactical Marines with heavy bolter, grav-gun, chainsword and storm bolter
6x Assault Marines with jump packs, powerfist and melta bombs
Baal Predator with twin assault cannon, 2x heavy bolters and storm bolter
Stormraven Gunship with 2x stormstrike missile launcher, twin heavy bolter, twin lascannon and 2x hurricane bolter

Vanguard Detachment
Chaplain with bolt pistol and jump pack
5x Death Company with jump packs, thunder hammer and powerfist
Furioso Dreadnought with frag cannon, furioso fist, heavy flamer and magna-grapple
5x Terminator Squad with power sword

Space Wolves
Outrider Detachment
Ragnar Blackmane with Svangir & Ulfgir
10x Fenrisian Wolves
10x Fenrisian Wolves
5x Thunder Wolf Cavalry with 5x thunder hammers and storm sheilds
5x Long Fangs with 2x missile launcher, lascannon, plasma cannon, chainsword and plasma gun

Battalion Detachment
Logan Grimnar on Stormrider
Ulrik the Slayer
Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf with a pair of wolf claws
6x Blood Claws + Wolf Guard Pack Leader in terminator armour with a pair of wolf claws
6x Blood Claws + Wolf Guard Pack Leader in terminator armour with thunder hammer and storm shield
5x Grey Hunters with bolt pistols, chainswords and bolters
Lone Wolf in terminator armour with thunder hammer and storm shield
Vindicare Assassin

The Game

Deployment

I deployed with both my ranged Tactical Squads in ruins holding objective markers and my Scouts forward in another ruin holding a 3rd.  My Stormraven was in one corner and my Baal Predator was in the centre/left with my flamer squad.  A 4th objective was outside my deployment zone in front of the flamer squad but I had deployed them back a bit behind the ruin in case I lost 1st turn.  My Dread and Terminators were in the Stormraven and everything else was in reserve.

The Space Wolves set up spread out with Grey Hunters and Long Fangs in the central ruin holding an objective and Blood Claws in ruins on either flank (one containing an objective).  The Fenrisian Wolves were set up as a screen either side of the central ruin.  Ulrik was on their left flank, Ragnar on the right and Logan and all the Calvary were in the back hidden behind the ruin to try and avoid 1st turn fire.  The Lone Wolf and Assassin were kept in reserve.

I finished deploying 1st and got 1st turn.  I drew Kingslayer and Secure Objective 4 twice.  Objective 4 was already held by me, in the back centre by my missile launcher tactical squad.  Kingslayer would be harder since Logan is hard to kill in his chariot but I knew I would have been aiming for him early anyway since I have seem how devastating he can be if he catches you.

I started by pulling my Stormraven, Predator and flamer squad forwards.  I wanted to get the Stormraven into place to put down the maxium firepower this turn and have it in a good place to drop it's transported troops, the issue however was the Long Fangs, they were the biggest threat to my armour in the board so I wanted to deal with them fast.  I decided to split my fire between priority targets straight away.  I started with my Stormraven, I put my stormstrike missiles and lascannons into Logan, the heavy bolters into the Long Fangs and hurricane bolters into the wolves.  It was a very successful turn.  I managed to knock a lot of wounds of Logan, kill 4 wolves and 2 Long Fangs.

Next my snipers opened up with everything into Logan.  The chariot was a bit of a double edge sword putting Logan over 10 wounds mean I could hit him with everything despite the screening units.  My fast moving flyer and forward Scouts meant I have plenty of fire power in range of him turn 1, it wasn't enough to kill him but I had knocked him down to 2 wounds.

End of Flesh Tearers turn 1

The rest of my army opened and concentrated on the Long Fangs and the Predator was able to finish them off.  I was also able to use one of my missile launchers to take out one of the Cavalry (I was hoping to use it to finish Logan but he was just out of line of sight).

That was the end of my turn, I had scored 1st Blood for the Long Fangs, scored Objective 4 twice and reduced Logan to 2 wounds.  I was very happy with the round and admit I was rolling very well doing more damage than expected.  I had also taken out the only real threat to my Stormraven.  Finally the Fenrisian Wolves lost 5 more to moral.

The Space Wolves started their turn by advancing on me.  The remaining wolf, Battle Leader and Ragnar heading towards my scouts and remaining Calvary and the full pack of wolves heading towards my Predator.  Finally the Assassin and Lone wolf arrived.  The Lone Wolf dropped just behind my Baal Predator and Assassin on top of a ruin.  We did realise something at this point when Ulrik tried to heal Logan but we found out he had the vehicle keyword when in his chariot so wasn't able to.

Shooting was rather unsuccessful, not that there was much shooting in the army anyway and what there was was mostly short range so couldn't reach yet.  What shooting was in range was mostly only in range of my Stormraven but they weren't able to do any damage.  A single Scout was taken down but nothing else.  In a final show of defiance Ragnar shot at the flyer with his bolt pistol and actually managed to do a wound to it.

End of Space Wolves Turn 1

The charges started with the Lone Wolf trying to go into the Baal Predator.  The huge number of shots it was able to put out on overwatch knocked a few wounds off him and then the Wolf failed the charge.  The Fenrisian Wolves tried to charge the Predator as well and lost 4 to overwatch.  They were successful and reached the Predator stopping its firepower.  The remaining Calvary also tried to charge but were blocked by the wolves so weren't able to get make it in.  Alone the wolves did manage to knock a few wounds off the tank with their teeth and kept it locked in combat so it would have to fall back next turn and lose its shooting.

Objectives are kept hidden in this scenario so I don't know what objectives the Space Wolves had but they did fail to complete any and discarded Scour the Sky's now they knew taking out my Stormraven would be difficult without the Long Fangs.

At the start of my 2nd turn I drew Mission Critical Secure Objective 3 (which was currently held by my Scouts) and Secure Objective 2 which was in the centre of the board, just behind the wall close to my Baal Predator, in addition to Kingslayer which I still needed to get.

I started by moving my Stormraven across the board to my left flank with the aim of getting back in line of sight of Logan and its other guns in range of other targets.  I fell my Predator out of combat onto Objective 2 to hold that.  My flamer squad moved up and got into range of the wolves and the Lone Wolf.  I opened fire with all the flamers putting bolters and heavy flamer into the lone wolf and hand flamer and flamer into the wolves.  I did a good job and killed a couple of wolves and killed the Lone Wolf.  Bolters from my Tactical Squad finished off the wolves.

End of Flesh Tearers turn 2

My Stormraven opened up into Logan who I didn't want to risk failing to kill again so used both stormstrike missiles and lascannons again killing him.  The heavy bolters and hurricane bolters went into the Calvary killing another of them.

On the Opposite flank I used my snipers to kill the remaining wolf that was stopping my heavy weapons targeting the two characters behind him.  They killed the wolf and clear the way for a couple of shots to damage the Battle Leader but wasn't overly successful.

I ended my turn scoring both Secure Objectives I needed, Kingslayer and Slay the Warlord putting me up to 7 points.

My Opponent then decided to concede.  He was 7-0 down and had lost key units. He had nothing that could deal with my Stormraven anymore, he had lost his warlord, Lone Wolf, Long Fangs, 2 squads of Fenrisian Wolves and a couple of Thunder Wolf Cavalry members.   He was outnumbered on the board and I still have half my army in reserve ready to drop in on my next turn.

In fairness he had forgotten to bring his Landraider with him which was a key part of his list and didn't realise until the last minute when we were actually deploying so his list needed to be re-written last minute based on what he had with him.  This also reduced his ability to deal with my Stormraven and to protect troops from it as well.

It was also the first time I had used a flyer and the first time he had played against one so neither of us were really sure what to expect with it.  In earlier edition flyers were too difficult to deal with without bring actual anti-air because they were always hit on 6's otherwise so because none of us had anti-air we never brought flyers so it was fair and fun for everyone.  Now they are just a -1 to hit it isn't such an unfair advantage to bring flyers to fight when people don't have dedicated anti-air so it wasn't until 8th that we considered buying and using flyers.

I enjoyed that game and I am really glad the Stormraven and Baal Predator did well because it was my first time using both.