"The Wolf Knight Rises" Flesh Tearers Vs Space Wolves & Imperial Knights 2000pts Scorched Earth

This was a game of firsts, my first game with the new Blood Angels Codex, my first game against an Imperial Knight, my first game against the Chapter Approved Space Wolves and my first game using a Chapter Approved mission.  Exciting times.

We decided to do a new mission from Chapter Approved so rolled for it and got Scorched Earth.  This is an interesting mission because you can score an objective at the end of every turn for 1 point or burn an objective in your opponents deployment zone for D3 points and remove it from the game.  It is interesting not only because you can remove objectives from the game but also that you score every turn not just at the end of the game.

We also rolled for deployment and got Spearhead Assault.  Seems I've played a lot of games using the short table edges for deployment instead of the long table edges recently.

The Lists
Flesh Tearers
Battalion Detachment
Chaplain with bolt pistol, the Angel's Wings and Artisan of War
Librarian with force stave, jump pack and plasma pistol
5 man Scout Squad with camo cloaks, 4 bolters and heavy bolter
5 man Scout Squad with camo cloaks, 4 sniper rifles and missile launcher
5 man Scout Squad with bolt pistols, 4 combat blades and 1 chainsword
10 man Death Company with jump packs 1 thunder hammer, 1 power fist, 9 bolters and 8 chainswords
4 man Sanguinary Guard with death masks, 3 angelus boltguns, 1 inferno pistol, 3 encarmine swords and 1 encarmine axe
Baal Predator with hunter-killer missile, storm bolter, twin assault cannon and 2 heavy bolters
Vindicator with hunter-killer missile and storm bolter
Stormraven Gunship with 2 stormstrike missile launchers, twin heavy bolter, twin lascannons and 2 hurricane bolters

Vanguard Detachment
Sanguinary Priest with bolt pistol, chainsword and jump pack
Furioso Dreadnought with frag cannon, furioso fist, heavy flamer and magna-grapple
Sanguinary Ancient with angelus boltgun, death mask and encarmine axe
5 man Terminator Squad with 5 storm bolters, 4 power fists and 1 power sword

Space Wolves & Imperial Knights
Battalion Detachment
Logan Grimnar
Njal Stormcaller in runic terminator armour
5 man Grey Hunters with 4 chainswords and a power sword + Wolf Guard Pack Leader with a pair of wolf claws
5 man Grey Hunters with 4 chainswords and a power axe
5 man Grey Hunters with 5 chainswords
5 man Wolf Guard in terminator armour with 5 combi-plasma, 4 power fists and a frost sword
5 man Wulfen with frost claws
Land Raider Crusader with 2 hurricane bolters and twin assault cannon
Rhino with storm bolter

Super heavy Auxiliary Detachment
Knight Crusader with avenger gatling cannon, heavy flamer, heavy stubber, rapid fire battle cannon with heavy stubber and twin icarus autocannon


I did know the Knight might be showing up in this game but when I wrote the list I wasn't 100% sure.  I knew that with the new ability to get +1 to wound rolls on the charge I was confident that I could certainly take the Knight down to a lower profile with a good charge from the Death Company with just weight of attacks.  Combined that with some lascannons, stormstrike missiles, missile launchers, Vindicator and hunter-killer missiles I knew that I could kill it if needed but I didn't want to write a list just to kill the Knight that might or might not be involved.

I also wanted to try something new with the list and dropped my normal Tactical Squads for much cheaper Scouts to allow me to take more heavy hitting units in the list.

Deployment
Quick note, I realised part way through it was better to take photos from the other side of the table because the terrain was blocking some of the action from the side I started.  It was either photos that don't show the action or swapping side so you are looking at it from another angle part way though. 

Deployment

The objectives were on the top of the two tall ruins on the far side of the table, the top of the ruin right in the centre of the board, the ruin in the centre of my deployment zone, the ruin on the back left of the Space Wolves deployment zone and just outside the ruin on the near side of the table just inside the Space Wolves half.

The Space Wolf force had a lot fewer drops than I did so I had to assume they would be getting the first turn and deployed rather defensively.  I had the Stormraven as far back as I could with the Terminators and Furioso inside.  My tanks were again both deployed as far back as possible to try and avoid an alpha strike from the Knight.

The Scouts were deployed to bubble the tanks from 1st turn deep strikes and to hold the two objectives that were in my deployment zone.  The Snipers were on the top of the tall ruin holding an objective, the bolters in the centre ruin holding an objective and the bolt pistol Scouts in the ruin on my right flank out of line of sight.  Everything else was held in ready to deep strike in where I needed them.

For the Space Wolves the Knight and Landraider deployed back using the ruin to block some line of sight.  The Wulfen and Grey Hunters with the Wolf Guard Pack Leader were inside the Landraider and the other two Grey Hunter packs were in the Rhino which was deployed at the back on their left flank.  Njal, Logan and the Wolf Guard Terminators were in reserve.

We rolled off to see who got 1st turn and as I predicted Space Wolves and Imperial Knight would go first.

The Game
Turn one started with the Space Wolves.  The Knight and Landraider moved over to get some targets in range and line of sight.  In the back the Rhino dropped off the bare unit of Grey Hunters who moved onto the objective in the back of their deployment and then moved forwards up the flank with the other unit of Grey Hunters still inside.  The rest of the Space Wolves stayed back in reserve since they couldn't get a drop site they liked or needed to counter my own deep strikes.

Their shooting phase started and the Imperial Knight had a clear target in mind.  It split it's fire with all it's main weapons going into my Stormraven and the smaller anti-infantry fire into my bolter Scouts holding the objective.  The heavy stubbers didn't do much considering they had camo cloaks and were in cover, but did manage to kill one.  Similarly the anti-aircraft icarus autocannon wasn't that effective against my Stormraven and in fact the gattling cannon caused more damage.  The real issue for the Stormraven was when the rapid fire battle cannon rolled for it's number of shots and got 12 shots against the Stormraven.  With some good rolls the battle cannon got enough hits and enough wounds to bring down the Stormraven before it had even moved.  To make matters worse for the Flesh Tearers, I rolled really poor to determine casualties from the flyer being destroyed and only 2 of the Terminators that were inside and the Furioso survived.

End of Space Wolves turn 1

The Landraider was the only other thing that could fire this turn so it opened up on the same Scouts the Knight had targeted.  It was able to kill another 3 Scouts and the final one would run at the end of the turn.

The Space Wolves scored one VP for holding objective 4 and another for 1st Blood for killing the Stormraven.

That had been the thing I had really hoped wouldn't happen, I had not only lost one of my biggest assets but also a large part of my anti-armour that I would need to tackle the Knight.

To start my turn I had to make some changes to my plan.  Originally I had planned to damage the Knight and Landraider as much as I could with shooting before dropping my reinforcements as a second wave.  I wanted the Wulfen out of the transport so I could charge them instead of being open to being charged before I dropped most of my units and also hoped the Space Wolves would spread out more so I could make the most of my mobility to pick targets rather than being forced into a brawl.  Without the mobility and fire power of the Stormraven I couldn't afford to do that any more.  So I came up with a new plan.

I started by moving my Furioso up, it's short range meant it had to get close and I figured I could use it to take the objective close to the Space Wolf Rhino.  The Terminators I moved over towards my tanks.  The lose of the Scouts had cost me the anti-deep strike bubble so the tanks would need back if the Space Wolves decided to drop their Terminators in my deployment zone.  Both tanks also needed to move up to get in range.  The Baal moved up towards the objective that the Scouts had lost but was just out of range to claim it and the Vindicator moved up to get the Landraider in range.

Then I dropped my reinforcements in to try and take back control of the game.  My Sanguinary Guard dropped right at the back of the battlefield aiming to take out the Grey Hunters on the objective there and claim that for my own (which I would probably burn if I got for the D3 VP and allow my Sanguinary Guard to move off and not just camp an objective).  My Librarian landed on the objective at the top of the ruin in the Space Wolves half meaning I claimed that and had him just in range to throw out some powers to back up my guys.  The Chaplain, Sanguinary Priest, Sanguinary Ancient and Death Company all dropped by the Knight ready to take him on.

In my Psychic phase I managed to get both Unleash Rage and Shield of Sanguinius off both on my Death Company.  This boosted them up enough I though I could do some damage to the Knight.  In the shooting phase the Sanguinary Guard managed to kill one of the Grey Hunters they were planning to charge.  No other infantry fire was overly effective mainly because everything else was currently hiding in transports or a huge walking Knight.  The tanks both shot into the Landraider with their main guns because that was what was in range and put both hunter-killer missiles into the Knight, I wanted to wait on the hunter-killer missiles until I hadn't moved but was worried if the Knight didn't die this turn I would lose at least one of the tanks and then lose the hunter-killer anyway.  One of the missiles missed the Knight and the other wounded but was saved, the main guns were better and knocked the Landraider down to 9 wounds remaining.

My Assault phase started and I tried to charge with the Sanguinary Guard but they failed.  I know that Blood Angel's new codex gave us some new Stratagems to get into combat more reliably but I had much more important charges to make that I was saving them for.  Next up the Chaplain charged because his relic meant he could re-roll his charge, which was lucky because I needed it, and also meant that the Knight could not fire overwatch against him.  He got into combat and then I tried to charge in the rest of my characters, the Priest and Ancient both failed as well.  Finally it was the Death Company and I used the Decent of Angels Stratagem to get them easily into combat with the Knight.  I did leave a few members of the Death Company back a bit in a daisy chain so they were still in range of the buffs from my Priest and Ancient that hadn't been able to move.

End of Flesh Tearers turn 1

In combat the Death Company lived up to their reputation, even those with only chainswords were effective in forcing saves out of the Knight with all the buffs they were receiving.  Those with the power fist and thunder hammer were far more effective and by the time they were done the Knight was down to just 3 wounds remaining.  There had been some lucky rolls and with plenty of re-rolls and bonuses to attacks and wound rolls they were very effective.  The Knight then interrupted combat to attack my Chaplain but some really poor rolls meant that the few attacks that managed to hit and wound were saved by the Chaplain.  That left just my Chaplain to fight, his warlord trait meant his attacks were 3 damage each so only one had to get through to kill the Knight, he managed to force two saves and the Knight failed one so was dead.   I think that counts are revenge for last turn right?

The turn ended and I scored 2 VP for objectives 2 & 5 making the score at the end of turn 1 2-2 with each of our single most expensive models dead.

Space Wolves turn two started and the counter attack I had wanted to avoid before my Stormraven was destroyed was getting set up.  The second set of Grey Hunters got out of their Rhino and moved towards my Chaplain, The Wulfen got out of the Landraider and headed towards my Death Company and the last Grey Hunter unit also moved out of the Landraider and headed towards my Priest and Ancient.  The Landraider was also moved round towards Priest and Ancient.  The empty Rhino moved up to claim the objective my Furioso was moving towards.

The deep striking units for Space Wolves came in.  Njal came in on the ruin in the centre of the board to claim that objective and offer psychic support to the rest of the army.  Logan and the Wolf Guard Terminators dropped in my backfield looking to target my tanks.

Shooting started and the Landraider opened up on my Death Company causing a quite a few casualties.  Next one unit of Grey Hunters shot my Chaplain, another unit shot my Sanguinary Guard and the last unit shot my Priest.  My Priest and Chaplain each took a couple of wounds and I lost one of my Sanguinary Guard.  Logan tried to shoot at my Scouts but failed to kill any of them while his Terminators shot their plasma at my Vindicator, they caused some wounds but didn't overcharge so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

In the charge phase Logan's Terminators tried to charge my Vindicator and failed, instead losing one of their own as the Vindicator's demolisher cannon scored a direct hit on them.  Logan also failed his charge but wasn't hurt by the tank.

End of Space Wolves turn 2

On the other side of the board the Wulfen charged what was left of my Death Company, my Chaplain was charged by the Grey Hunters, my Ancient was charged by the Landraider which did damage with it's frag assault launchers and then the Ancient and Priest were multi charged by the Grey Hunters.  This was what I had wanted to avoid, getting stuck in a position to be charged after destroying a unit, it was why I wanted to wait to drop my reinforcements but the lose of the Stormraven meant getting the Knight off the board fast was more important.  The Space Wolves cleaned up in combat, the Wulfen were able to finish off what was left of the Death Company and the Grey Hunters managed to kill all my injured characters.

That had gone bad for me, the Space Wolves had scored 3 VP for holding objectives 1, 4 & 6 and another for Slay the Warlord making the score 6-2 to them.

My turn started and I moved my Furioso and combat Scouts towards the Rhino to get it off the objective and claim it for myself.  My Baal also moved to take the objective it was by to score that was well.  My Librarian stayed put on his objective for the turn and my Terminators moved towards Logan.  My biggest choice was what to do with my Sanguinary Guard.  I had dropped them there to clear the Grey Hunters off the objective and take that for the point but if I did that now they would be charged by the Wulfen next turn and probably wiped out.  My other option was to get the charge on the Wulfen and hopefully take them out before going back for the objective.  That was what I decided to do, I moved them towards the Wulfen ready to make an easy charge.

In my shooting phase I managed to drop the Landraider into a lower bracket with a shot from my Librarian's plasma pistol and one of the Wulfen was killed by my Inferno pistol.  At the other end the Baal and Vindicator both shot at the Wolf Guard Terminators and managed to kill another 2 of them.  My Snipers all targeted Logan hoping to knock a few wounds off it but he was able to save the few that hit him.

End of Flesh Tearers turn 2

In my charge phase I had two charges to make, my remaining Terminators charged Logan with the intention of taking him out or at least holding him up another turn and my Sanguinary Guard charged the Wulfen.  I started with the Sanguinary Guard and they managed to kill 2 of the Wulfen and leave another on just one wound, in return I only lost one Sanguinary Guard.  At the other end Logan's new Warlord Trait meant he struck before my Terminators because I had chosen my Sanguinary Guard, I actually didn't know what his warlord trait from Chapter Approved let him do and if I had realised I might have picked the Terminators first so at least if the Wulfen wanted to attack first it would have cost him CP.  As it was 1st time playing with Chapter Approved warlord trait I had messed up and my Terminators paid for it as Logan killed them both before they could attack.

End of my turn I scored 2 points for holding objectives 3 & 5 and then burnt objective 2 with my Librarian but only rolled 1 for my D3 VPs.  It didn't matter I wouldn't have been able to hold it much longer as the Grey Hunters, Njal and Landraider were all going to be looking at my isolated Librarian next turn so burning it meant I could move and at least they couldn't claim it.  This made the score 6-5 to the Space Wolves.  It was still pretty close and I had plans to take 1 of the 3 objectives the Space Wolves were holding off them next turn which would mean I'd be scoring more points per turn than they would be hopefully.

Space Wolves turn 3 and they started to move towards their targets.   They Grey Hunters by my Librarian moved into the ruin and the Grey Hunters on the other side that had killed my Chaplain moved into the ruin on that side to help the Rhino hold it's objective.  The Terminators moved towards my Vindicator and Logan moved on my Predator.

Shooting started with the Grey Hunters that had moved into the ruin shooting at my combat Scouts that were heading towards the objective.  They were joined by Njal and the Landraider and between them managed to kill 3 Scouts.  The Terminators and Logan decided to shoot at my sniper Scouts and managed to kill 3 of them as well.

End of Space Wolves turn 3

When the combat phase came round the Grey Hunters charged up the ruin to get my Librarian, who lost a few wounds but killed a Grey Hunter in return.  At the other end Logan charged my Baal and lost a wound to overwatch before he got into combat.  He then managed to knock it down to only 8 wounds remaining.  His Terminators had more luck against the Vindicator and didn't lose anything on overwatch and then managed to bring it down to just 3 wounds left.  The Wulfen and Sanguinary Guard continued their combat with each side losing a single model so it was one Guard vs one Wulfen.

At the end of their turn they had scored another 3 VP for holding objective 1, 4 & 6 taking the score to 9-5 to the Space Wolves.

I knew what I needed to do this turn and that was to try and hold grab a few objectives.  I knew my Furioso could clear the Rhino off it's objective and take that and it would be too difficult for the Grey Hunters to move so would be able to hold it against them.  My Snipers were fine holding their objective for now.  That gave me two objectives but I needed to be holding at least 3 of the remaining objectives really.  I decided to move the Baal Predator round to the other side of the ruin so it was still just holding its objective giving me 3 of the 5 objectives left on the board for now.

In my movement phase I did just that with the Baal swinging round out of combat and the Furioso and Scouts moving towards their objective.  The Vindicator also moved out of combat to free up the Terminators to be shot at and my Librarian left combat with the Grey Hunters and moved as far as possible back towards my table half hoping to back up my tanks. 

Shooting started and not a lot could shoot.  My Scouts failed to do any damage to the Terminators below them and the Furioso's frag and flame weren't super effective against the Rhino but did cause a few wounds.  Everything else had either left combat or was still in combat so couldn't shoot this turn anyway.

End of Flesh Tearers turn 3

My Furioso charged into the Rhino and was backed up by the remaining scouts.  Smashing it with it's Furioso fist the Dreadnought managed to knock the Rhino down to just 2 wounds left and with the Scouts and Dread on the objective I had claimed it from the Space Wolves.   My last Sanguinary Guard was finally killed and that was the end of my turn. 

Scoring objectives 3, 5 & 6 I had brought the score back to 9-8 to the Space Wolves.  My plan at this point for the last 2 turns was to hold the objectives I had and get my Librarian back to help the tanks and Scouts take out the Terminators and Logan.  If I could do that I think I could have held my half long enough that the score would have switched in my favour.

The Space Wolves started moving on the objectives I was holding.  Logan gave up on my Baal Predator and instead moved towards the more damaged Vindicator.  The Terminators decided to deal with the Scouts holding the objective.  The Grey Hunters moved towards the objective my Dread and Scouts were holding using their Objective Secure rule to claim in off me from inside the ruin.  The Landraider moved over to help the Grey Hunters deal with my Furioso.  I wasn't too worried about the Grey Hunters taking the objective from my Dread, with the frag cannon and heavy flamer I was confident I could move them off it and re-claim it on my turn.

Njal managed to cast Smite on the Librarian trying to run to support my tanks and even with my psychic hood I couldn't deny it and was killed.

In shooting the only casualties were the last two combat scouts who were shot by the Grey Hunters through the windows of the ruin.  The Landraider and Rhino did shoot at my Furioso and did a bit of damage to it but not enough to really worry me.  It really turned around in the Combat Phase.

End of Space Wolves turn 4

Logan charged my Vindicator and was able to kill it which I did kind of expect to have this turn, unfortunately it didn't explode.  The Terminators managed to charge my Scouts and wiped them out claiming the Objective there for themselves.  This meant I only had 2 units left, my Baal Predator and Furioso Dreadnought.

The Space Wolves held objectives 1, 4 & 6 for 3 VP and then the Terminators burnt objective 5 and rolled a 3 for the number of VP taking them to a 15-8 lead.  They had really pulled ahead at this point.

I looked at the board and looked at what I could do and worked out it was impossible for me to come back.  Even if I killed Logan this turn for Slay the Warlord and cleared the Grey Hunters off the objective with my Furioso to hold that I would hold two objectives and so would the Space Wolves.  If on turn 5 I could kill Njal so they lost that objective as well the remaining turns I couldn't get enough points per turn to over take them.  We decided to call it a game at that point and I conceded giving the Space Wolves a final score of 16-8 because they had Linebreaker as well.

Post Game
I had real fun playing this match.  I was on the back foot for a lot of it but was always just a couple of points behind and the end of each turn right up until turn 4 when the Space Wolves pulled it away. 

I feel into a trap that I had wanted to avoid early on my having my drop units get counter charged after they had killed the knight.  I wanted to do more damage with the tanks and Stormraven before dropping my jump troops hoping the Space Wolves would be better spread out by then and I could use the Furioso and Terminators to back up the jump units.  As it was I had to change my plan because without the Stormraven I didn't have the firepower to deal with the Knight.

It also meant my Terminators an Furioso were left stuck in the back of my deployment zone and so were worthless for a lot of the game, had they been dropped somewhere a little better I might have got more mileage out of them.

The firepower of that Imperial Knight is scary and I know the roll of 12 shots for the battle cannon on turn 1 was lucky but I wasn't expecting that much firepower.

As for my forces I was really impressed with the Death Company, with the right back up they are a really killer unit and the Red Thirst is an amazing army wide special rules, especially if you need to take on high toughness targets.  Combined with the +1 strength bubble from a Sanguinary Priest they were wounding the Knight on 4's with chainswords.

Our new ways of getting more reliable charges off deep strike also really helped.  Overall I am impressed with the codex and look forward to using it some more.  Long term I think I will need to change up my list a little to take advantage of it but I think it is a codex that suits the style of play I like.