Another test game with the wolves…
Decided to try another drop list. Not my favorite as the game usually is determined by how the drop goes but I can see that this will be one of the wolves strong points, getting into assault mode quick, so we decided to test it some more.
The game turned out to be a slaughter…
Steel LegionREGIMENTAL HQ [550]
Supreme Commander, 12 Infantry, 7 Chimera, Hydra
SUPER-HEAVY TANK COMPANY [500]
3 Baneblade
TANK COMPANY [650]
10 Leman Russ
DEATHSTRIKE MISSILE BATTERY [200]
2 Deathstrike Missile Launchers
FLAK BATTERY [150]
3 Hydra
FLAK BATTERY [150]
3 Hydra
VULTURE SQUADRON [300]
4 Vultures
SENTINEL SQUADRON [100]
4 Sentinels
THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150]
2 Thunderbolts
ARTILLERY BATTERY [250]
3 Manticores
Space WolvesGREAT COMPANY [400]
6 Grey Hunters, Battle Leader
STRIKE CRUISER [200]
Space Wolves Strike Cruiser
WOLF GUARD TERMINATORS [425]
4 Wolf Guard Terminators, Wolf Lord, 2 Dreadnought
SKYCLAWS ASSAULT PACK [300]
6 Sky Claws, 2 Skyclaws
LONG FANGS PACK [300]
4 Long Fangs
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175]
2 Thunderbolt Fighter-Bombers
THUNDERHAWK [200]
Space Wolves Thunderhawk Gunship
FENRISIAN WOLVES [150]
6 Fenrisian Wolves
FENRISIAN WOLVES [150]
6 Fenrisian Wolves
SWIFTCLAW BIKES PACK [200]
6 Swiftclaw Bikes
THUNDERHAWK [200]
Space Wolves Thunderhawk Gunship
GREAT COMPANY [300]
6 Grey Hunters, Battle Leader
Setup.
Guards split their force into two, avoiding the Blitz and hopefully the big drop. To the left all the tanks and to my right an artillery nest.
I had planned the drop a little bit to the left of the Blitz so this would be a very bloody first turn. My three pods landing in front of a tank company and three Shadowswords…
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Not sure we did this right, didn’t find any rules. (See the end for explanation)
Turn1
Spaceship bombards the landing zone, killing a tank and a Hydra (making the formation flee). The pods land and kills a sentinel (making the other flee, killing one in the process.) The marines jump out and the Wolf guard terminators take on the tank company. After a tight fight without much losses the Wolf guard is in the lead with one for the roll-off. The Wolves manage to win with a devastating 6-2 so the entire tank company is destroyed in hackdown and for not being able to flee far enough (the commissar was killed in the fight.)
The Guards answered by killing three Terminators, amongst them the Wolf Lord, with the Shadowswords and then bombard the Great Company with the Manticores. The rest of the turn was just some movement while the Wolves out activated the now badly hurt Guards waiting for the HQ and Hydras to activate before sending in the air assaults. In the end I tried an all-out attack sending one Thunderhawk against the Super heavies and another against the activated HQ. The attack on the Super Heavies was succesfull after another close result before roll-off. Leaving a single running Commissar tank with one DC. The attack on the HQ with the Skyclaws failed and four battered Skyclaws fled to a nearby ruin after only killing three Gurdsmen…
Anyway, the victory was almost certain after killing almost half of the guards points in the first turn while not suffering too much.
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Turn 2
Rally phase didn’t go that great for either side so the turn basically became the wolves hunting down broken formations and the artillery side putting on Overwatch.
Turn 3
Guards trying to save the HQ and preventing a 5-0 victory…
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End of game
Wolves win with 4-0, fails to get TSNP because of slow units…
Conclusion:
Dropping against Guards (or other armies with lots of units) is always brutal. This time it was two big assaults that was decided on the dice roll in the end. Had the tank co or the superheavies been able to get away from my units they would have had a chance to fight back. Or if the dice would have favored the guards a little more…
Not much that the Wolves did that an ordinary Codex army would have been unable to pull off. Sure the extra units in the formations didn’t hurt but against the Tank Co the whole formation only did one kill due to armour rolls so nothing big.
So the game was a massacre but nothing that a vanilla marine army could not pull off. The lack of movement once on the ground is limiting. Next time I might end up a little further away from the army and be in another situation.
Rules question:
In a drop, when do formations actually move if they get broken? After Space Ship barrage, after dethwinds or after unloading the marines? We played it that they moved after every step, so first the Hydras fled after barrage, making room for a drop pod, then the Sentinels fled due to Deathwind fire making room for marines… Might be wrong…
The other question is how big the drop pod is and what you do if the units inside cannot enter play without moving into ZOC. When we played on pod was directed to the closest place outside ZOC and that was a “tiny” space in the middle of Guard formations so it wasn’t any room for the marines to exit without moving into ZOC. We played it that they could move out of the pod anyway, it was mostly a fluffwise decision. I know that the units can stay in the pod if they want to but didn’t find anything about ZOC…
