We played Retrieval Mission with Search and Destroy deployment
The Lists
Astra Militarum
Battalion Detachment
Company Commander with boltgun, chainsword, Grand Strategist and Kurov's Aquila
Primaris Psyker with force stave, Nightshroud and Psychic Barrier
Infantry Squad with chainsword and lascannon
Infantry Squad with chainsword and lascannon
Infantry Squad with chainsword and lascannon
Tech-Priest Enginseer
Commissar power sword and plasma pistol
Supreme Command Detachment
Tank Commander with Command Battle Tank, heavy bolters, heavy stubber and lascannon
Tank Commander with Command Battle Tank, heavy bolters, heavy stubber and lascannon
Tank Commander with Command Demolisher, multi-meltas, storm bolter and lascannon
Shadowsword with 2 lascannon & twin heavy bolter sponsons and storm bolter
Deathwatch
Patrol Detachment
Chaplain with bolt pistol
Watch Captain in Terminator Armour with relic blade and storm bolter
Veteran Kill Team with Biker with teleport homer, power sword & twin boltgun, Terminator with heavy flamer & powerfist/meltagun, Vanguard Veteran with a pair of lightning claws, Veteran with chainsword & power sword, Veteran with boltgun, Veteran with plasma pistol & power sword, Veteran with frag cannon and Watch Sergeant with combi-melta
Veteran Kill Team with Vanguard Veteran with hand flamer, Veteran with heavy thunder hammer, Veteran with bolt pistol & power sword, Veteran with frag cannon, Veteran with infernus heavy bolter and Watch Sergeant with combi-plasma & xenophase blade
Redemptor Dreadnought with heavy onslaught gatling cannon, icarus rocket pod, onsaught gatling cannon and 2 fragstorm grenade launchers
Vanguard Veterans with Melta bombs, plama pistol & power maul, bolt pistol & power maul, thunder hammer, bolt pistol & power sword and 2x power swords
Land Speeder with multi-melta
Predator with hunter-killer missile, storm bolter, twin lascannons and 2 lascannons
Razorback with lascannon & twin plasma gun
Space Wolves & Imperial Knights
Battalion Detachment
Bjorn the Fell-handed with heavy flamer and twin lascannons
Rune Priest on bike with bolt pistol, runic axe, twin boltguns and The Armour of Russ
Wolf Guard Battle Leader with storm shield and thunder hammer
Wolf Guard Battle Leader with storm shield and thunder hammer
Wolf Guard Battle Leader with a pair of wolf claws, the Wulfen Stone and Saga of the Bear
8 Blood Claws with power sword
7 Blood Claws with power sword
9 Blood Claws with power sword
9 Blood Claws with power sword
5 Grey Hunters
5 Grey Hunters
10 Wulfen with 5x frost claws, 2x great frost axes and 3x thunder hammers & storm shields
Landraider Crusader with 2 hurricane bolters and twin assault cannon
Rhino with storm bolter
Rhino with storm bolter
Super-Heavy Detachment
Armiger Warglaive with meltagun
Armiger Warglaive with meltagun
Knight Crusader with Knight Lance, heavy stubber, Endless Fury, stormspear rocket pod, thermal cannon avenger gatling cannon & heavy flamer
Deployment
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| Deployment |
We deployed pretty bunched up, because we weren't in an transports and had lots of units we basically filled the table quarter. We had two of my Infantry Squads on one side as a buffer around the Shadowsword and the Company Commander between them just in range to order both. My other Infantry Squad were on our flank to run for the objective at the top of the ruin. My Psyker and Tech-Priest were hidden behind my Shadowsword to buff it and keep it alive. Then I had my two battle cannon Russes at the back and my demolisher Russ in the centre to get closer and into range faster. The Deathwatch had a Kill Team and Predator up front and the Redemptor Dread, Watch Captain, Chaplain and Vanguard Veterans in the centre of our army. The Speeder and other Kill Team were with my Russes on the long side of our deployment zone.
The Space Wolves and Knights were in the opposite corner. Most of the stuff was in the centre to close distance as fast as possible. The Rhino's and Bjorn were between the Landraider and Knight along with the Rune Priest. One unit of Grey Hunters were in a ruin at the front to go for an objective and the other was at the back behind a ruin to run to the objective right at the back. The Wulfen were in reserve and the rest of the characters and Blood Claws were in transports.
The Game
Although the Knights and Space Wolves finished setting up first the Deathwatch and Guard got the 1st turn. Our movement was minimal for the first turn, the Vanguard Vets moved up and one Infantry squad moved forwards towards the objective. Apart from that most stuff just shuffled slightly to get line of sight on the units they wanted to shoot. Next up I case Nightshroud on my Shadowsword to keep it alive if we didn't kill everything we needed to.
My opponent used the new FAQ strat that gave him a cover save for all his non-titanic models. With our potential shooting it was probably a good idea because clearly he had wanted the 1st turn to avoid getting shot before he could move forwards.
We started shooting and were targeting the Knight, Landraider and Warglaives. Using the Knights ability to ignore wound rolls of 3 or less and rotate ion shields the Knight was able to save enough wounds to keep it alive after everything had finished firing at it so managed to survive with 5 wounds left. The Warglaive was the target of my tanks that couldn't shoot at the Knight, my Russes managed to take it out and score us 1st Blood. After that was gone the models that couldn't shoot the Knight went for the Landraider but didn't quite have enough shots left to kill it so it ended up on 3 wounds. It wasn't bad, although the Landraider and Knight survived they were both in their lowest bracket so were pretty badly reduced in efficiency. The few weapons we could fire that weren't big anti-tank went into either the Rhinos or the Grey Hunters in the ruins, we did manage to kill a few Grey Hunters so overall not too bad.
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| End of Deathwatch and Guard turn 1 |
It was a great 1st turn and it already wasn't looking good for the Space Wolves and Knights because 1 of their most expensive models was dead, the another 2 were very close to dead and were in the lowest bracket so they had lost a big chunk of their offensive ability before they got a chance. While using the new strat was good for trying to keep stuff alive, it might have been a little wasted since it didn't affect the Knights and other stuff was either in cover or being shot by high AP weapons.
To start the Knights and Space Wolves turn they just started by moving up. The majority of the army moved up towards the far side of the table going for the Predator, Shadowsword and the Kill Team that was over there. The Blood Claws and Warlord got out of the Landraider, which was now only moving 3" so they were faster out of it, and headed the other way towards my Russes and the objective in the centre ruin. The Grey Hunters in the ruin went with the Blood Claws and the Grey Hunters at the back started running from behind the ruin they were at to the other ruin with the objective behind it. The last Armiger went behind the ruin to get between the ruin and the containers that were there.
In the shooting phase the main target seemed to be the Kill Team by the Predator. A few shots were put into the dread, tanks and superheavy but not much, the majority went into the Kill Team and they managed to kill the whole team during the shooting phase.
During the charge phase the Blood Claws and wolf claw Wolf Guard Battle Leader charged my Demolisher and got round the side of it and behind it, only one squad made it in and they took a couple of casualties getting in. The Armiger also charged the Dread and Vanguard Vets, he had to charge the Vanguard Vets because he couldn't move past them without getting within an inch so charged both, it didn't charge my tank but did put itself so close that with the Blood Claws and Wolf Guard Battle Leader where they were I couldn't move out of combat without moving within an inch of the Armiger so I was stuck in combat and the Space Wolves in combat with me were safe from shooting until back up could get closer.
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| End of Space Wolves and Knights turn 1 |
For combat I took a few wounds on the the russ but not much, I managed to do a couple of wounds back to the Wolf Guard Battle leader with a lucky hit. The Armiger did plenty of damage to the Redemptor but not enough to knock it down a bracket. Between the Vanguard Vets and the Dread they were able to take out the Warglaive. This was what I needed because without the Warglaive in the way my Russ could back out of combat next turn and leave the Wolf Guard Battle Leader open to be shot by rest of our army.
That was the end of the turn and it hadn't gone well. A few Vanguard Vets had died, one Kill Team had died and wounds had been put on a few models. In exchange we had killed a Warglaive and a few Blood Claws and put wound on the Warlord. Their first turn had actually played into our hands a little.
For our second turn again we mostly just shuffled units around to get line of sight. The deployment meant that we were very close to each other straight away so the Wolves were coming at us so fast that we didn't really get a chance to move forwards because we were on the defensive. I did move my Infantry squad again towards the objective at the top of the ruin, there weren't quite there yet but it meant that next turn we should hold that one and we were in a good position to get two others by the end of the game so it looked good. I also moved my Demolisher out of combat since the Deathwatch had cleared space for me leaving the Blood Claws and Battle Leader in the open right in front of us.
During shooting we started with my Shadowsword and finished off the Knight. My Russes also finished off the Landraider. Finally the Redemptor Killed the Wolf Guard Battle Leader and scored us Slay the Warlord so we now had 2 VP to nothing.
The Vanguard Vets did try to charge Bjorn but with a lucky hit from his lascannon and a great roll with his heavy flamer Bjorn was able to kill the Vanguard before they reached him.
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| End of Deathwatch and Guard turn 2 |
The Wolves (because it was only Space Wolves at this point) would have to hold more objectives than us now to win the game. It was possible, they were going to get the objective at the back next turn and still had two Rhinos full of guys heading towards the one by the Predator and some Blood Claws and Grey Hunters by the centre ruin objective. It was still possible for us to lose the game and with a big squad of Wulfen still to come on it was possible that they could kill enough to reduce our firepower enough they could survive on the objectives.
This was the turn that the Space Wolves tried to turn it around and actually started to. They started by jumping out a unit of Blood Claws and a thunder hammer Battle Leader got out of a Rhino and went towards the Infantry Squad there and the Chaplain with them. The Rune Priest moved up to back up the Blood Claws as well. The empty Rhino moved to block the path between the ruin and the containers so that the Dread and Russ couldn't get through and would need to go round if they wanted to get behind the Wolves. Bjorn moved forwards so was blocked by the Rhino and the last Rhino moved up and grabbed the objective that is by the wall. The Blood Claws and remaining Grey Hunters made it into the ruin and got that objective and the last Grey Hunters made it to the objective at the back of the table. Space Wolves now held 3 objectives so if they could hold on they would be 9VP to our 5 (assuming we made it to the last objective next turn).
At the end of the movement phase the Wulfen came on. Lucky for us there wasn't enough space to fit them all in behind our lines because we hadn't been able to move too far out of our deployment. If they came in to go for my Russes they would have to deploy too far away and get through either the Speeder or my Infantry before they could charge the Russes. They couldn't get close to the Shadowsword so they deployed to go after the Predator and back up the Blood Claws that were there.
During the psykic phase the rune priest was able to put some moral wounds on the Chaplain and use their strat to give everyone around him -1 to hit.
During shooting enough firepower from the Blood Claw's pistols went into the Chaplain that they were able to kill him. Nothing else was worth mentioning with shooting, a few wounds here and there but nothing much.
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| End of Space Wolves turn 2 |
With combat came the Wulfen, they charged the Predator and with the thunder hammers at the front were able to kill it and only lost 1 to overwatch. The Battle Leader, Rune Priest and Blood Claws charged my Infantry Squad, the guard didn't stand a chance and ended up being slaughtered. The Blood Claws and Battle Leader consolidated into my Shadowsword.
By the end of the turn the Space wolves had grabbed 3 of the 4 objectives and started pushing down onto the flank.
For our turn 3 again movement was a bit of just shuffling around mostly. I did get my Infantry onto the objective so we at least held one.
During shooting we were able to take out both Rhino's one from the Shadowsword and that killed 6 of the people riding in it (it was a really unlucky roll to see who survived) and the other killed by my Leman Russ Demolisher. The Blood Claws that had killed my Infantry were basically wiped out by the units in our deployment zone. We managed to kill most of the Wulfen as well with my Battle Tanks.
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| End of Deathwatch and Guard turn 3 (taken before Moral phase) |
The Watch Captain charged into the Battle Leader and the Rune Priest heroically intervened and meant that the Watch Captain had to strike last because of The Armour of Russ. His terminator armour held out and he was able to survive the attacks from both Space Wolves and attacked back wounding the Rune Priest (he declared a charge against both but only rolled high enough to reach the Battle Leader).
In Moral the last of the Wulfen and last of the Blood Claws ran away. The Space Wolves were still holding more objectives but the big attack on our flank had been stopped.
With most of the army now destroyed and outnumbered the Space Wolves now just had to keep the units on objectives alive.
With so little left the turn was going quite fast now. Bjorn moved down to where the Rhino had been blocking the path and prepared to face off with my Russ and the Redemptor. Apart from that everyone basically stayed were they were since they were either in combat or on an objective.
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| End of Space Wolves turn 3 |
There was some shooting but again nothing memorable. Bjorn hit with his lascannon once but wasn't able to do a decent amount of damage (and by this point they were out of CP so couldn't re-roll it).
Bjorn changed my Russ and was able to kill it easily and the Battle Leader and Rune Priest managed to kill the Watch Captain. That was it for the turn, it was over and going into our turn 4 they still held the most objectives.
With our turn it was looking good, we needed to clear and take an objective before the end of the game so we were going for it.
The Redemptor moved to get closer to the Rune Priest than the Blood Claws and Grey Hunters that were on the centre objective so he could shoot him and the speeder shot round to get Bjorn in melta range.
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| End of Deathwatch and Guard turn 4 |
In shooting the Shadowsword was a bit pointless now, it has great powerful weapons but didn't have anything left that needed shooting with such a powerful weapon. It took pot shots at Blood Claws and killed a few but the Battle Leaders invun save kept it safe. The Redemptor shot and killed the Rune Priest. The speeder hit Bjorn with his melta and did a good amount of damage but he was just alive, the Russes then finished him off. The centre ruin objective had a couple of Blood Claws and a couple of Grey Hunters on it so the Kill Team split their fire and managed to wipe both squads out. This was what we needed, next turn the Kill Team would be on the objective and with Bjorn and the Rune Priest gone there was nothing that could clear us off either objective. Combine that with Slay the Warlord and 1st Blood and we were looking at winning even if we couldn't get the last Space Wolves off of the objectives. With that in mind the Space Wolves conceded the game and it was a victory for Deathwatch and Astra Militarum.
Post-Game
I enjoyed the game, I know it was a bit of a slaughter early on and we were almost always on top but at one point it did look like the Space Wolves could bring it back when they were heading down the flank and holding most of the objectives. I think the Wulfen were unlucky and left themselves open, they couldn't deploy where they wanted because there wasn't space but when they did they killed something and then ended up in the open and were free to be shot by the rest of the army.
Bjorn was a pain because we couldn't shoot him, he is a character and less than 10 wounds so can be screened so had to eat through the rest of the army to get to him.
We could have been a bit more aggressive and I might start trying some other doctrines so I don't feel like I have to stay stationary during the game to get the re-roll to hit from Cadian.
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