"Return of the Custodians" 2000pts Flesh Tearers Vs Imperium

My Flesh Tearers played another game, this time against the combined forces of the Space Wolves and Adeptus Custodes.  It would be my first time playing against Custodians but I had an idea what to expect.  I knew they were extremely elite and very hard to kill.  I hadn't seen their new codex yet though or watched any battle reports of them since the new codex was released when I wrote my list, so I didn't have any real details of what they would be able to do or how to counter them.

We rolled off for a random mission and got The Scouring with Front-Line Assault deployment.

The Lists

Flesh Tearers
Battalion Detachment
Gabriel Seth
Librarian with Unleash Rage, Shield of Sanguinius, Bolt Pistol, Force Stave and Jump Pack
5 man Scout Squad with 4 Bolters, 1 Heavy Bolter and a Chainsword
5 man Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher, Combi-Plasma and Chainsword
5 man Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter and Chainsword
5 man Tactical Squad with Heavy Bolter, Bolt Pistol and Chainsword
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 Lascannon and 2 Hurricane Bolters
Vanguard Detachment
Chaplain with Bolt Pistol and Jump Pack
Sanguinary Priest with Archangel's Shard, Bolt Pistol and Jump Pack
10 Man Death Company Squad with Thunder Hammer, Power Fist, 8 Chainswords and 9 Bolters
Furioso Dreadnought with Frag Cannon, Furioso Fist, Heavy Flamer and Magna-Grapple
Terminator Assault Squad with Teleport Homer and 5 pairs of Lightning Claws

Imperial
Battalion Detachment
Bjorn the Fell-Handed with Twin Lascannon and Heavy Flamer
Wolf Guard Battle Leader with Thunder Hammer and Storm Sheild
5 man Grey Hunter Squad with Bolters, Bolt Pistols and Chainswords
5 man Grey Hunter Squad with Bolters, Bolt Pistols and Chainswords
5 man Grey Hunter Squad with Bolters, Bolt Pistols and Chainswords
6 man Fenrisian Wolves Squad
Stormwolf with Twin Helfrost Cannon, 2 Lascannons and 2 Twin Multi-Meltas
Supreme Command Detachment
Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher, Auric Aquilis and Superior Creation
Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher
Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher
Supreme Command Detachment
Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher
Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher
Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher

As you can see the Imperial army is mostly made up of Custodian characters on jetbikes which was going to be a problem from the start.  It meant I wasn't able to shoot at the most powerful units provided the Space Wolves kept them screened.  The army had great mobility, possibly even better than my jump pack heavy Flesh Tearers.  I knew this was going to be a challenge from the start and wasn't sure how I was going to deal with the extremely tough and deadly Jetbikes.

Deployment

Deployment

One objective was worth more points than the others and that was on the top of the centre ruin.  The objective that was worth less than the others was in the ruin on the right hand side of my deployment zone.

I deployed spread along my line with firepower fairly evenly spread out to counter the fast moving bikes as much as possible.  I had the Scouts on my right holding the inferior objective with the Baal and Vindicator close by.  In the centre I had the Tactical Squad with heavy bolter in the ruin and my death company pushed right to the point of my deployment.  The combi-plasma tactical squad were to their left behind a small wall ready to push up to the ruin with the objective in it.  On my left I had the storm bolter Tactical Squad in the bottom floor of the ruin and the Stormraven behind the ruin.  Inside the Stormraven was Seth and the Terminators.  My Priest, Chaplain and Librarian were in deep strike.

The Imperial forces set up with the Space Wolves shielding the Custodians as much as possible.  There was a Grey Hunter pack in each of the ruins in their deployment zone and Bjorn was behind a low wall near the centre.  The Fenrisian Wolves were spread behind the large central ruin and the Stormwolf was on their flank.  The Custodians themselves spread across the board in pairs.

The Game
The Imperial side won the roll off for 1st turn.  I was really hoping to get to go first so I could hit hard before suffering any casualties myself but even with +1 to my roll I wasn't able to.

The bikes moved about a bit on the back line to keep themselves out my shooting and the Stormwolf moved forwards to get into range of my flyer.  The Wolves moved forwards as a screen for the bikes and Bjorn, I'm not sure he meant to position them quite so well but where they ended up meant that my Scouts, Tactical Marines, Baal and Vindicator were all closer to the Wolves than the two jetbikes.

End of Imperial turn 1

When shooting started Bjorn and the two Jetbikes on my right targeted my Vindicator and between them managed to knock it down to just 3 wounds left.  This was a bit of a blow to me since they dropped down to it's lowest bracket which meant it was going to struggle to hit anything on my turn, it also meant my hunter-killer missile was going to struggle.

The Stormwolf was next to shoot and fired at my Stormraven, it was outside of melta range but all of it weapons were in range.  It ended up able to take the flyer down to 8 wounds left, it was lucky that it wasn't in melta range or it could have been a lot worse.

That was the end of turn one since nothing else was in range and nothing wanted to charge me just yet so it moved onto my 1st turn.

I started my turn using Forlorn Fury on my Death Company to get them over the top of the large central ruin and right in front of the Space Wolves.  I moved the Tactical Marines that were behind the Death Company forwards slightly to get them onto an objective.  The Baal moved far out to my flank so that one of the bikes was the closest target.  My Stormraven moved right up into the Imperial lines, my plan was to have have Bjorn as the closest target so I could use my stormstrike missiles and lascannons on him.  I also wanted it close enough to drop Gabriel Seth and some Terminators back there at the start of my next turn.  I made a bit of a mistake at this point and forgot to drop the deep strike units.

I started shooting with my missile launchers and plasma into the Stormwolf but between them only managed to do a single wound to it.  My Scouts shot at the Fernisian Wolves to try and take them out so my Tacticals and Vindicator could shoot at the Jetbikes.  They managed to kill all a few but the survivors were still the closest targets so I couldn't shoot the Jetbikes.  I fired the hurricane bolters into them as well but still had enough survivors to block my shooting.  I decided to shoot the Death Companies bolters into the Wolves as well, I had planned on shooting the Grey Hunters so I could leave myself open to charge Bjorn and take him out as well.  In the end I decided that taking out the Wolves and allowing the other units to shoot the Jetbikes was a better idea so I shot the Wolves and wiped them out.

End of Flesh Tearers turn 1

The rest of my shooting was poor.  The Stormraven put his lascannon and stormstrike missiles into Bjorn but couldn't do a wound to him and it's heavy bolter shot into the Grey Hunters only killing one of them.  My Baal, Vindicator and the heavy bolter Tactical Marine fired into one of the Jetbikes on my right flank but between them were only able to do a single wound.  The Custodians are extremely hard to kill.

I charged my Death Company and they managed to completely wipe out the Grey Hunters and tie Bjorn up in close combat so hopefully he couldn't fire his lascannons into my Stormraven next turn.

At this point I really didn't know what I was going to do about the Custodian Jetbikes, I had just put a fair amount of fire into one and only done a single wound and they had 7 wounds each and there were six of them. 

When the Imperial turn started the bikes on my right moved over to support Bjorn and on the left the Grey Hunters spread out to block the two bikes over that side.  The Stormwolf moved over to engage my Stormraven.

The Stormwolf opened up and kill my Stormraven but everyone inside made it to the ground OK.  The Jetbikes then all fired at the Furioso Dreadnought killing it.  This was another blow because the Furioso and Stormraven were both dangerous enough to threaten the Jetbikes and Bjorn which I desperately needed.

End of Imperial turn 2

In combat two of the bikes made it into combat to help Bjorn and the other two failed their charge.  The combat was hectic, Bjorn struck at my Death Company and killed a few of them and the Jetbikes attacked my Terminators.  I interrupted with my Terminators to fight back against one of the bikes but they weren't very successful and ended up being taken down to just 1 left when the 2nd Jetbike fought.  My Death Company had to spread their attacks around between one of the bikes and Bjorn because they were attacked from both sides but ended up putting a couple of wounds onto Bjorn but nothing on the Bike.  It was Gabriel Seth that evened the odds for me, he fought one of the Jetbikes and managed to kill it without issue.  The Custodians then used one of their stratagems to fight once more when it was killed and killed Seth as well.  By this point I had lost 3 of my hardest hitting units and my 4th was in trouble with Bjorn, 3 Jetbikes and a flyer hanging around them.

I ended my turn with my Terminator failing his moral check and wiping out the squad completely.

I started my 2nd turn by moving two of my Tactical Squads forwards to get them in range and moved my Vindicator moved over slightly to get line of sight on the flyer.  I also dropped my Priest, Chaplain and Librarian down between the Stormwolf and Bjorn to back up the Death Company.

With the Librarian down I got my first psychic phase.  He managed to get Unleash Rage off on the Death Company and Smite onto the flyer taking 2 wounds off it.

I started shooting and was more successful than on my last turn.  Between the missile launchers and Vindicator I managed to drop the flyer to just 5 wounds remaining.  The rest of the Tactical Marines that were in range shot at the Grey Hunters on my left that were blocking two of the bikes and managed to kill one.  On the other side my Baal Predator and Scouts took out the Grey Hunters in the ruin on the right killing them all.

End of Flesh Tearers turn 2

I started by getting the Priest and Chaplain to charge Bjorn to back up the Death Company, the Chaplain was successful but the Priest failed.  I then struggled to decide what to do with the Librarian, I could try and charge the Stormwolf but would take a lot of overwatch off it but if I didn't charge I would probably get shot up by it next turn anyway.  My opponent did say that he would probably shoot the Librarian next turn if I didn't because most if it's other good targets were locked in combat.  With that I decided to charge the flyer figuring that at least it was harder to hit me on overwatch that regular shooting and with a force weapon I might be able to take the last few wounds off it.  As it turned out that didn't happen and my Librarian was wiped out by the overwatch from the Stormwolf.

In combat the Chaplain attacked and did a couple of wounds to him but then Bjorn interrupted and attacked my Death Company wiping them out before they could fight him.  This left me with my Chaplain in combat with Bjorn and the Priest 9 inches away then the rest of my army held back holding objectives in my own half.

At the start of turn 3 the Imperial side all advanced.  With the Bikes pushing forwards to engage as much as they could and the Stormwolf moving right forwards into my lines between two sets of ruins to target my remaining units it looked bad for me.

They started shooting and managed to kill my Priest with two of the Jetbikes.  The other Jetbikes that had pushed forwards managed to kill a Tactical Marine by the low wall.  The Stormwolf split its fire between my injured Vindicator and the central Tactical Squad killing the Vindicator and a few of the Tactical Marines.  The last Bike shot at my Baal but didn't do any damage to it.

End of Imperial turn 3

In combat Bjorn managed to kill my Chaplain before he even got a chance to attack.  The Bikes that could charged, one into my Baal and another one into my Tactical Marines.  The bike killed 4 Tactical Marines, wiping out the squad and the other did 4 wounds to my Baal.  Fighting back Baal only managed to get a single wound onto the Custodian.

Looking at the board I decide to finish it there and give up.  I currently only held two objectives (one of which was the inferior one) and had 1st blood.  I only had one and a half Tactical Squads left, a Baal locked in combat and a Scout Squad.  I would struggle to take out much more of the Imperial forces with what I had left and they could easily mop up my survivors at this point.  Even if I could hold on they had Slay the Warlord and 1 Objective already and could use their speed to pick up a few more objectives (including the superior one) and keep linebreaker on their last turn.

So the game ended at the end of Imperial turn 3 and I know I messed up on this one.  While the Custodians were powerful and using them all as HQs made them even more powerful I made some really stupid mistakes.

For a start I was way too aggressive with the Stormraven, I played this way because I wanted to drop my transported troops early into the back line to fight there and to get Bjorn as the closest target to shoot.  However I know I would have been better off flying back around my own half for a few turns getting more firepower out before getting aggressive with it.  I also forgot to drop my HQs that would have boosted my vanguard units.

I'm not sure if doing anything differently would have changed the outcome because the Imperial list was still very powerful but I defiantly would have done better.  Either way I had fun and it was great to play something other than pure Space Wolves or pure World Eaters, it seems way too long since I had some variety in armies to lose to.