Battle Barn 01-13-12 (Batrep, Pic Heavy)

Well, I had my first game with my 1500 point Space Wolf list, and it did better than I expected.


The board had four multi-level ruins, one in each corner, and a large LOS blocking hill in the middle, random difficult/area terrain scattered about in the blank spots.

This ended up being my deployment zone...

Pre-battle terrain pictures. My opponent deployed in the ruins on the right hand side.

The battle was against a Codex Space Marines army lead by Shadow Captain Shrike, we played a Capture and Control Mission and had a Spearhead Deployment. My opponent, Kyle, rolled higher than me and opted to deploy and go first. He chose the ruins mentioned in the above picture, leaving me to defend the ruins across the board from it. My rune priests placed their Chooser markers in the two undefended ruins, preventing my opponent from infiltrating his scouts.

My initial deployment.

Overview of both deployments.

Kyle's inital deployment, which was very intimidating in person.

I rolled 6 to seize the initiative, and I would like to note, going second was a very dangerous position for my opponent. I advanced my tank column up cautiously and marched my dreadnought, Tolsimir, forward. After that, I unleashed Hel. Unfortunately, most of my units had no targets in range, but my long fangs were... A salvo of 16 missile launcher shots later and five whole squads suffered casualties. Oddly enough, four out of five suffered only one or two casualties total, but the fifth (and most unfortuante) lost seven out of ten assault marines. They did, however, pass their leadership test. That ended my turn.

Kyle spent most of his first turn advancing troops and running to get them closer, a most of his weaponry was still out of range. He did however attempt to launch missiles at my tank column, shaking one rhino, and doing nothing to anything else. That ended his turn.

The start of turn two.

His side of the field at start of turn two.

The hill that hid Shrike's advance from me.

Turn two started and ended very similarly to turn one, I advanced my tanks and the wolf guard squad I had hiding behind them. I also hugged the table edge with my land speeder, blowing crap up along the way, I also moved Tolsimir the dreadnought closer to the enemy lines. Unfortunately for me, in doing so Tolsimir was too far away to block melee threats to my long fangs, which I would pay dearly for later on in the game. The long fangs shoot another salvo dropping quite a few more marines, I shot with Voja the predator, and one of my rune priests struck a squad with living lightning. My opponent passed all his leadership tests and I ended my turn.

His turn two was more eventful, as he moved most of his stuff close enough to be able to shoot with it. He ended up immobilizing my lead rhino, and doing nothing else to anything in his shooting phase. Shrike and his assault marines jumped over and assaulted one of my long fangs squads, whittling them down to two members. They failed their leadership and were cut down in their attempt to run away, even ATSKNF didn't help in this situation. That ended his turn two.

The small Assault squad on the left of the ruins ate my long fangs!

His side at the start of turn three... that poor little jumper survived only because he ducked.

This is what was left of his stuff after two rounds of long fangs shooting.

Turn three was the point the battle became very dangerous for me. Shrike and his goonies were lurking around my objective, my other long fangs were looking very tasty, and my lead rhino was a sitting duck, having been immobilized. This was also the moment that I realized I didn't have a baby sitter for my objective, and aimed to correct that. I moved my rear rhino backwards, swiveled Voja to shoot at the tactical squads coming over the hill at me, and advanced my wolf guard to intercept the incoming troopers. This shooting phase was less-that stellar for me, especially considering I lost almost 1/3 of my firepower in one assault. Voja killed two of the marines on the hill, and my Landspeeder skimmed around the ruins and took a couple shots at his rearmost tactical squad, he took one casualty and passed his leadership checks.

I actually forgot to move Tolsimir to intercept Shrike until after I had declared shots, but Kyle was quite gracious to me and allowed me to move him in for a better position. I unloaded my heavy flamer and assault cannon into the Shrike squad but only killed off the goonies and only managed to graze Shrike with his assault cannon. The rune priest in the rear rhino also helped to kill Shrike's squad.

Tolsimir assaulted Shrike, and managed to not land a single blow on the nimble space marine, however, Shrike could not penetrate the dreadnought's thick armor with his lightning claws, locking them both in combat.

His turn three did not bode well for me... He advanced his tactical squads on the hill, and took shots at Voja, doing no significant damage, but he used his other squad to rush my previously immobilized rhino, destroying it and forcing the squad inside to escape. They passed their leadership test and stood their ground.

The battle between Shrike and Tolsimir raged on. Tolsimir was just too slow for Shrike's quick reflexes, and seizing an opportunity, Shrike used his lighting claws to cut the cooling hoses going to Tolsimir's power plant triggering a massive explosion. Shrike ducked out unscathed and moved to intercept the long fangs in the ruins. That ended turn three.

This is the last round for the long fangs up top there...

Shrike Lurking in the shadows while my rhino passes by...

This is the summary of what was left at this point.

My turn four starts, the wolf guard close in with the lone assault marine.Voja stayed put to shoot the squad on the hill dropping it to only one member, which is then picked off by the wolf guard that was attached to the long fang squad. The grey hunters that were in the rhino that was destroyed gunned down the marines that destroyed their transport, leaving them open to sniper fire from the scout squad. The long fangs attempt to target Shrike as he made his way up the ruins to assault, but the Shadow Captain lived up to his name and evaded the missiles. The rune priest in the rhino offered covering fire, and though he managed to hit Shrike with lightning, Shrike ignored the pain and continued his ascent. The lone assault marine died to a hail of pistol fire from my wolf guard. The land speeder moved to intercept the tactical squad taking cover behind the Leman Russ wreckage.

His turn four begins with Shrike moving to attack the long fangs. The snipers hiding near the tank traps took their shots and killed a grey hunter. The tactical squad behind the Leman Russ shot down the landspeeder, and the tactical squad that was in his ruins shot and killed two more grey hunters. Shrike assaulted the long fangs, and killed three of them. They just weren't able to inflict any damage in return, and lost two more marines in the process, leaving them locked in combat.

My turn five I know is going to be hectic trying to shift the tactical squad at his base, so I send the rhino to a position that the rune priest could call lightning down on them, which took out two marines. I also advanced my grey hunters (what was left of them anyway) up to the tank traps and gunned down his snipers. I moved Voja and the wolf guard squad up to help deal with Shrike, who killed another long fang on my turn forcing the other to flee from combat and moved to attack the rhino.

His turn five was spent trying to kill the grey hunters in the tank traps and he sent every possible shot into them and was only able to kill three more in that round. Shrike meanwhile apparently decided to install an over sized can opener into his lightning claws. He manged to rend the rhino three times and caused it to explode, and again just walked away from it.

Shrike the human can opener!

Before moving to intercept Shrike.

What was left of my land speeder and grey hunter squad.

Turn six and seven are a bit of a blur to me as it was incredibly stressful realizing I hadn't had a squad anywhere near an objective the whole game. I know I advanced the grey hunters, and ran them into the open, which I assumed would be their death. Shrike shrugged off a hail of bolter fire, multiple melta blasts and a lightning storm from the grey hunter squad. He took all the shoots Voja could throw into him, and stood there... then the wolf guard shot him with their pistols, and he finally died! My guess is Shrike's middle name is Teflon.

His turn sixish included again shooting everything he could at the grey hunters and though he killed one, I still ended up with more than enough to both claim his objective and assault him causing his marines to fall back off of it. I ended the game with both objectives controlled!

The survivors.

What Kyle had left... ten tactical marines, across three combat squads.

The battle was incredibly bloody and well fought by my opponent. I made three very dangerous errors during the course of the battle that, had the dice not loved me, should have caused me to lose this match. All in all I think the list is pretty good, but I have to do more testing to see how it will fare in March.

Vaya con Dios,

Timothy