[Churlton]

This was the force I prepped with help from the Lists forum:

Chaplain + 8 DC with jump packs
6 man VAS (JP)
10 assault
2 full tac squads (plasma cannon, ML, plasma gun, melta gun)
Plus 5 assault (PF, pp)

and 500pt add on
Baal (HB, ea, HK-ml)
2 MM LS
1 tornado
2 MM attack bikes
(485 pts)

I ended up facing 1500pts of space puppies (blinged-up), and even though we ended as a draw (in his favour), I got pretty banged up and was lucky for that draw.

Effectively I had dropped the Anti-armour portion, and regretted it.

Facing his army:

Wolf Lord (term, tLC) with 15x Claws in a LR Crusader

2x Grey hunters (blinged with totems) in 2x Rhinos with a Rune Priest (blinged again)

Venerable Dred (that couldn't miss)

and a LS Tornado

Plenty of Power weapons and fists around the place as is expected of the SW.

He got all of the set up dice rolls and went first. I was having to react from the outset, so things weren't going smoothly for me.
Not knowing his army specials was a distinct disadvantage that was self-inflicted also.

He took an aggressive stance and moved towards me, judging distances and placements nicely, leaving me just outside charge range for most of my units.
Shot me up with the plenty of assault cannons etc at his disposal and forced on of my combat squads off the table ..... a tactical special weapon one.

Out of my 2 choices I did the one I shouldn't have (in hindsight). Instead of backing up a smidgen and waiting to see what he would do... I moved forward and set up a sacrificial combat squad to speed bump his army.

A cheap Tactical squad for his Crusader and a plasma pista assault combat squad for the 2 Rhinos bearing down the flank.

I had a pop at the dred (with ML & plasma cannon) ... nowt! and a rhino just in range with pistol ....... ping!
Then set for counter assault and prayed.

He dutifully obliged by disgorging "hundreds !" out of the Crusader and actually contacting 2 squads of mine .. Doh!
and sprinted out of the rhinos, one squad into cover and one into my assault squad speed bump.

I got lucky and the remnant of one squad held the massive claws/lord squad in a pile-in (just), and the grey hunters bounced off my assault troops, holding them in combat.
His Crusader and dred trashed my ML squad.

My turn:
The DC went at the Rune Priest squad in cover (with re-rolls and strength I thought I could carry it better than other options.) added another assault squad into the grey hunters and piled into the Lord/claws with everthing else spare (VAS and assault squad)

Took a casualty from the Lord (my VAS have combat shields.. hence only one) then killed his lord and started to strip the claws, no thanks to one of my power fist sgts who missed everything!!!
this was going alright.... on the other side it wasn't....

The assault squads did OK nearly clearing the hunters, but the rune priest wiped my Chappy (with Force weapon), the wolf totems allowed hitting on 3s at my DC who lost 4 in simultaneous striking of the hunters ... but did clear them & piled into the Priest.

Next round saw him trimming my available squads with the Tornado and crusader and his dred chewing and assaultin another tact combat squad (with PF in it).

Combat: his Dred left the PF who only managed to shake it (one less attack next time), the hunters were cleared by my assault squads, and the Priest gave one of the DC the Emperors Mercy.

My go: Reinforced the DC and sent the VAS and a PF assault squad into the Dred.
Lost a couple in one squad from the priest but killed him thankfully (With a 2+ armour fail).
The dreddy splattered the PF sgt from previous, and got nothing from the Krak attacks, but his world got rocked with the TH & PF, 2x 6 penetrating (re-rolled to leave a 4 destroyed... phew!)

With all his troops gone I then tried to "Hammer" the crusader (taking the assault cannon off it. and petty spite saw the DCs rip open a rhino that they could reach.

The end and a tenuous draw for me. I still had sufficient combat squads left as VPs (mainly the VAS), but would have eventually cleared the Crusader ... NOT!

Lots of blood n guts, and entertaining match and me outclassed and severly deficient in the anti-armour area.

I'll have to re-jig to at least include the Attack bikes in future outing and try this force again ... soon

 

[Alias2003]

Sorry if I didnt follow the report, but you lost cause you had nothing that could destroy the landraider? Overall I loved the battle as I am an avid BA player and I know the power they can lay down in CC even against another CC army like the Wolves of Fenris. Goodjob


Alias

 

[Mad King George]

i love the report sounds like a list i would field for my wolves maybe a bit different

 

[Churlton]

Alias: A draw, but definitely edging towards a minor win for the SW - yes because I didn't have an anti-armour capability.
The PFs would probably take out the Crusader, but a hell of a lot of luck would be needed.

MKG: The SW force was certainly good. I didn't realise what a difference the Wolf totems (bling!) make in combat, hitting on 3s with lots of power weapons hurts ... just not as much as rending DC ... only just.

I can also see that I was pretty lucky with his Ven Dred, all I could do was pile the odds in my favour ... hence throwing all available units at it instead of splitting against the Crusader as well.

 

[dvaston]

Yeah some kind of anti-armour is good if you can take it. Its a shame you werent able to take out some of his weak armoured Rhinos at long range to slow him down and allow you to get in a better position so you could try to charge him first.

They cant assault on the turn they disembark from a Rhino though right? And a BA force can have more jump pack equipped troops than SW's. I am thinking that would have given you more maneuverability than the SW's assault troops, and potentially allowed you to dictate where and when the close combats would take place?

I suppose the one good thing when facing space wolf blood claws is their low WS of 3. But its a pain that they get the extra 2 attacks each when charging, and lots of powerfists / power weapons. It would have been hard to use a "sacrifical" unit to try to tie up the blood claws in CC for very long I imagine.

Its kind of tricky having 2 CC focused armies facing each other. Unless you want a very messy fight, I suppose you need to figure out their weaknesses (i.e. ask if you can read his codex etc) and try to see how your BA's can counter that e.g. using more JPs than him etc.

I.e. all those +2 attacks and Power fists wont do those blood claws any good if your BA death company charges them first with furious charge and lots of rending with litanies of hate re-rolls etc.

Note: sorry if I am giving advice you already know - just trying to be helpful

 

[Churlton]

dvaston, I am grateful for any advice, thanks.

Yes, I did think that my lots of JPs would give me maneouvrability over him... but I think I let myself down with my usual faux pas ... deployment! (see thread... What is your critical point)

I didn't know which army I'd be facing beforehand, so took a chance dropping my anti-armour, thinking I could pop with PF, perhaps entangle into the bargain.
What little ranged was facing down his LRC and dreddy .. deployment! and he moved them just right ie at a tangent, to leave me out of range for charging whilst he was still embarked (a good tactic on his behalf).

I still tried to pop with a plasma pistol and use that squad to speedbump the other rhinos occupants .... but the pistol failed and .... well the results were in the rep....

But always good advice to research your opponant:good:

 

[MAD727]

Great report. I just started building a SW army so very helpful. One questions? You say here he had:
"Wolf Lord (term, tLC) with 15x Claws in a LR Crusader"..
I may be mis-reading the SW codex but 1st, it does not mention anywhere you can take the "Crusader" just the Land Raider and 2nd, if you can take the LRC, then it only holds 15 max. was the Wolf Lord outside the Raider or he had 14 BC's? Just curious, as you guys may know something that I don't since I am very new to this..
Thanks

 

[Churlton]

Great report. I just started building a SW army so very helpful. One questions? You say here he had:
"Wolf Lord (term, tLC) with 15x Claws in a LR Crusader"..
I may be mis-reading the SW codex but 1st, it does not mention anywhere you can take the "Crusader" just the Land Raider and 2nd, if you can take the LRC, then it only holds 15 max. was the Wolf Lord outside the Raider or he had 14 BC's? Just curious, as you guys may know something that I don't since I am very new to this..
Thanks

My apologies; it was likely to have been 14 claws, I honestly was too shocked to see so many that I didn't count them..... a blind-spot was noticing the amount of power weapons/fists and the "monster" with the TLC and Term armour suddenly appear in my lines. .......

Plus I would say that I was blinded by the "Bling" also. :grin: