Monday, February 10, 2014

Battle Report: Space Wolves/Ravens vs Ravens

So I always take pictures of battles with the intent to write up a batrep and I always forget so this time I'm making it a point to write this up. Bear with me as this is my first time writing one up. This was the first League mission. It was Vanguard Strike, Big Guns Never Tire. We rolled for 3 objectives

My List:
Wolves:
1 Rune Priest in Runic Armor with Jaws and Living Lightening (warlord)
2x 8 man Packs of Grey Hunters with Melta gun and Power Sword with a Rhino
1x 5 man Pack of Grey Hunters with a flamer and a TLLC Razorback
1x 5 man Pack of Long Fangs with 4 Missile Launchers
1 Speeder with Multi Melta and Heavy Flamer
Ravens:
1 Captain with Jump Pack and two lightening claws
1x 5 man Tac squad with Power sword and TLLC Razorback
1x Assault Squad with Plasma pistol, Thunder Hammer and Combat Shield
1x Storm Raven with Assault Cannon and Multi Melta

His List as best I can recall:
2x 10 man Tac Squads with Missile Launchers, Plasma Rifles and Plasma pistols
1 x Dev Squad with heavy bolter, 2 plasma Cannons, 1 lascannon
1x 10 man scout squad with sniper rifles and a missile launcher
1x 10 man scout squad with bolters and a heavy bolter
1x Grand Master ( warlord)
1 x Librarian
1 x 10 man Sternguard squad.


Objectives:
We both placed an objective in some woods in our own deployment zones with the third being placed in the middle of an Ork Village in the middle of the table towards his board edge.

Deployment:


You can see here how far back his Tac Squads were.
Scouts all up in my business
When in doubt hide your tank behind a wooden wall.
       He deployed first. He placed his Devs on the objective in his deployment zone, his sternguard with librarian and grand master were right next two it. He then put his two tac squads behind a hill to give them some cover. This would later come back to bite him in the butt. His two scout squads he held back to infiltrate.
      I deployed next deciding to place my long fangs with rune priest on the objective in the wood line. I then deployed a razorback and rhino behind each of the two villages to give them some cover from his devastators. My speeder was also tucked behind a wall to hide it. My storm raven with assault marines was held in reserve.
     He deployed his scouts. The sniper scouts deployed onto the objective in the middle of the board and the bolter scouts deployed into some woods a little too close to my objective for comfort. He then used his Chapter Tactics Scout move to move his tac squads and sternguard another 6 inches towards me.


1st turn:
      We rolled for night fighting and I failed to seize the initiative. I settled in for a lot of shooting. He targets my rhinos and speeder hoping to knock them out. He lobs missiles, plasma, sniper rifles rounds and probably a freaking bathroom sink as well at them. I somehow manage to make my cover saves on the rhinos but my speeder dies an inglorious death before it has a chance to roast any scouts. He then runs his sternguard forward a bit more.
      With my speeder dead I decide those bolter scouts need some attention quickly before they seize my home objective. I move the razorback with the flamer grey hunters towards them and lob 4 frag missiles at them. I manage to get my grey hunters out and manage to get in flamer range. 8 scouts die a painful fiery death. The other two scouts will later fall back. Deciding that there's no way I'm going to get to his home objective I decide to move the bulk of my army towards the middle objective to take it away. I take a few pot shots with storm bolters but don't manage to do much.


Roasted Scouts make me smile.



 Turn 2:

     He moves his tac squads up to the crest of the hill where they start lobbing missiles towards my vehicles. His snipers shoot up my rhinos and manage to knock off a hull point. More importantly his devs knock out one of my razorback lascannons cutting my long range firepower in half. His stern guard unit keep moving towards the middle ork village and towards my objective. His bolter scouts regroup and move back towards the tree line their brothers and just been cremated in.
   I decide enough is enough and its time to do what Wolves do best which is kill things with Bolter and Chainsword! I bail out all my units behind their rhinos and razorbacks and get them into cover behind the ork walls. My storm raven arrives from reserve and immediately targets the enemy devastators killing the squad leader and heavy bolter. I unleash a hail of bolter fire on the sniper scouts taking down a few of them. My long fangs and priest target one of the tac squads and try to thin it out. He manages to make all of his saves while my rune priest manages to wound himself with a perils of the warp. The 5 man pack with the flamer move in and charge the last two bolter scouts and commence the murder make. The scouts die quickly and I consolidate into the trees.

Turn 3:    
      He unloads with fire from all of his units but surprisingly doesn't move his tac squads up. A few marines are picked off from my big squads bringing them both down to about 6 marines each and the small 5 man flamer unit is whittled down to 3 marines.
      My Grey hunter pack my left flank moves up prepares to assault his sniper marines. I move my 5 man tac squad up further to provide fire into his sternguard and my other 8 man grey hunter pack moves up behind them. I again unload missiles against his large tac squads and manage to pick off two marines. I hover my Storm Raven and have my assault marines get out and move into the ork village for cover. My storm raven, tac squad and grey hunters engage his sternguard killing a few and his Librarian caught a melta beam to the face killing him instantly. I assault his sniper scouts with my left flank grey hunters and slaughter all but 1 while losing only two wolves to the overwatch and close combat. That scout immediately falls back. I consolidate onto the objective and claim it in Russ's name.
That tape measure forshadowed the buttload of bolt shells headed my way




 Turn 4: Things get ugly for the imposters....
           He moves his tac squads up a bit further and lobs few more missiles my way. He manages to kill one of my long fangs and kills one of my assault marines with his plasma fire. His devs open up on my grey hunters on the middle objectives killing 1 and his stern guard and the lone scout charge them. I actually end up losing combat and my unit falls back down to only 3 grey hunters.
        I move my grey hunters back onto the middle objective, my tac squad up to help hold it and my middle grey hunter pack up the middle with the rhino shielding them from the enemy tac squads. I move my flamer grey hunter pack back towards my objective to help hold it should his tac squads get too close. I assault his sternguard with my grey hunters first to draw the overwatch and 2 of my wolves pay for it with their lives (stupid vengeance rounds). I then move my assault marines into charge as well. I challenge his grandmaster with my Raven Guard Captain and they duke it out with his master losing a wound. His sternguard are all but wiped out by my combined units and are down to 2 marines.


Death to the Imposters!


Turn 5:
      He opens up on my units again and picks off a tactical marine but I make the rest of my saves. His tac squads move up with one heading towards my objective and the other towards his own.  We continue the combat and his grandmaster is slain as well his remaining sternguard. I lose one assault marine in the combat. I consolidate my assault marines towards his devs and my grey hunters towards the objective.
     I consolidate my units onto the two objectives I hold. On my objective I have my long fangs and 3 grey hunters. On the middle objective I have 6 grey hunters and 4 tactical marines. My Raven Guard captain and Sergeant Assault his devs and quickly polish them off. I decide to consolidate them towards his tactical squad in hopes of tying it up in combat if the game goes to turn 6.


 We roll for 6 and the game ends. I hold 2 objectives and have slay the warlord and linebreaker. He has first blood and no objectives. He did however have a full tactical squad and another one with 6 marines left in it. Overall I feel his placement of his tactical squads are what did him in. Had he deployed them further forward and marched towards my objectives or just castled up on his own it would have been an ugly fight. As it was he didn't move them up until it was too late for them to affect the game. I also feel his target selection could have made a difference. He shot at my rhinos and razorbacks when he could have been killing my troop choices. I made few mistakes of my own as well. I should have been more aggressive on the first two turns and gotten my troops out of the vehicles and into the cover of the ork villages. I could have put a lot more fire on his units that way and probably killed them off faster. Overall it was a fun game and its always interesting to see other players take on an army I play.

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