40K10E - Exercise WOLF HAMMER

 4.979.018.M42

Before embarking on the voidships that would take them to the Xoxigar System, the Tallarn Task Group participated in a series of Military Excercises amongst themselves, and also with a detachment of Space Wolves who happened to be in the system. 

Armed with non-lethal paint-marking ammunition and blunted melee weapons the forces met at a remote desert ruin with orders to seize and hold a number of objective areas. 

I played my first game of Warhammer 40,000 (10th Edition) this week. My friend Orion had, a week earlier, been looking for a partner for an upcoming tournament in February... and I'd been feeling like it had been a long time since I played 40K... and i like playing with Orion... and volunteering to be her partner would mean I get to play a few games over that weekend in February and IDEALLY A FEW PRACTICE GAMES BEFOREHAND!?!? So this was the first of those practice games... Orion is bringing Space Wolves and I'm bringing a detachment of my Tallarn Imperial Guard, so we played with those. 

For the tournament, we are toying with the idea that Orion will bring a detachment very similar to the one played in this game. I'm going to finish painting up a bunch of self-propelled artillery I have (Manticores and Basilisks) and bring those (along with a few Scout Sentinels and all the mortar-armed Heavy Weapons Teams I have and sit back and provide artillery support while the Space Wolves to their CHARGE UP AND WRECK SHIT thing... 

Now, I don't have the Basilisks and Manticores painted yet... and that would be a terrible force to play on it's own.. so I just rolled out with a mix of Infantry, Cavalry (because I thought it would be funny to have a bit of a cavalry battle with the Thunderwolf Cavalry!), the three Heavy Weapon Squads and a tank.... 

I don't remember what the scenario was, exactly... there were objective markers in the middle and one in each players deployment zone. Points were scored for holding objectives at certain times... other objectives were determined by drawing cards each turn... it was a lot to keep track of! 

(I always think it's a bit silly when Imperial Forces fight each other... sure... one of them could have been "corrupted" or just mistaken as enemy by overzealoused combatants... regardless, I suggested this could be a training exercise and we went with that...) 

All set up and ready to go! 

My force consisted of a Tank Commander in a Leman Russ Punisher, front and center, flanked by two squads of Tallarn Roughriders (there was a third squad of roughriders that I kept in strategic reserve... but it turns out I probably didn't need to do that...). Beyond the roughriders on either side were VERY LARGE squads of Infantry (Guard can be taken in squads of 10 or 20 now... and so I had two squads of twenty - each with a Platoon Command Squad attached, making the unit 25!).

 Behind all of them were three Heavy Weapons Squads (armed with Mortars) and Castellan (they're called Cadian Castellan in the rules which SUPER ANNOYS ME - why not just call it a Castellan - or Captain, for that matter?! Are ALL guard commander by Cadian commanders now!?) 

In the centre across from me was a large unit of Thunderwolf Cavalry with a Wold Lord and some other Character attached - all armed with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields . There were Terminators (with lightning claws) and a Librarian in terminator army facing my right flank, and some Primaris Reavers facing my left flank along with some special character with ALL THE SPECIAL RULES!? 

(or... maybe it was just the Wolf Lord with the Thunder Hammer and the rest had some other sort of nasty melee weapons...?) 

The Space Wolves went first and on that first round, Orion drew a secondary objective card that scored bonus points for taking out monsterous creatures or tanks... so the tank had to go! During the movement phase the Thunderwolf Pack came tearing across the table... 

And in the Charge Phase piled right into the tank - AND the roughriders!? I spend one command point to do some overwatch fire... I dont recall it doing anything particularly useful... 

The Wolflord himself took out the tank...!? 

The Tank Commander had a special rule - Death Befitting An Officer - that says when the model is destroyed, one D6 is rolled and on a 2+, before removing it can shoot as if it were the Shooting phase and as if it had its full wounds remaining.

Of course, I rolled a one... 

Then they piled into the Infantry squad (platoon?) on my right. 

The Infantry contacted in the pile-in move, piled in themselves and attacked... with little success... I think they were overwhelmed at the sight of the Wolflord and were too busy asking for autographs and selfies to remember they were supposed to be fighting a mock battle... 

On my turn, the ROughriders fell back... and then charged back in... 

At SOME point during round one... either during the Wolves initial charge or during this counter charge... I did actually take out two of the Thunderwolf Cavalry... and I THINK it was roughriders that did so, with their Melta-tip-armed lances... I think... 

And that was the ONLY damage I did to this unit all game... 

The roughriders were wiped out...

Also on my turn, the engaged Infantry squad fell back from the Thunderwolves... and could not do anything else that turn. The other Infantry Squad advanced on - and seized - the objective marker on their flank! The three Heavy Weapons Squads all fired their mortars... which I don't think did a damned thing against all these ridiculously armoured marines...?!  

During the consolidation move, after wiping out the roughriders, the Thunderwolf Cavalry surrounded the Mortar Squad and Castellan that were holding 

On the Wolves second round, the Primaris Inceptors arrived! (and the character with ALL THE RULES) moved up on the Tallarn Squad that had seized the objective! 

The Primaris Inceptors opened fire and knocked out almost HALF of the Infantry Squad!? 

Over on the other flank, the Terminators charged the other Infantry Squad! 

And the Thunderwolf Cavalry overran the Castellan and Heavy Weapons Squad in the middle (after throwing grenades at the Heavy Weapons Squad on my right flank - nearly wiping them out!?) 

The Reavers (Hounds of Morkai?) and the Characters with ALL THE RULES charged the Infantry Squad and sent even more of them back to the dead and injured area... 

the terminators took out EVERYONE except the Lieutenant and the two sergeants in the Infantry squad that they attacked (that's 22 infantry from this squad... in ONE turn...) 

One my turn, I brought back one of the Roughrider Squads... The Astra Militarum now have a Strategem called REINFORCEMENTS! which allows you to spend two command points whenever one of the regular units with the REGIMENT key word to moved them into the Strategic Reserve instead of the dead pile... The charged in on the right flank and - briefly - seized THAT objective... 

This was "success" was very short-lived as the Terminators just turned around, on their next turn (Round Three), and charged them and sent them back to the reserves before they could even claim any victory points for holding it... but don't worry... THEY'LL BE BACK!!!

The Thunderwolf Cavalry rode down the remains of the infantry platoon and Heavy Weapon Squad as well... 

And the last few Guard on the left flank were finished off the rest of the other Infantry Squad...

Because I'd already spent two command points to put the roughriders back in reserve, I wasn't able to do so with either of the Infantry Squads... had I been a bit more with it, I probabably would have let the Roughriders go and called in one of the infantry units - and brought them right back in to contest this objective on the left again... alas... 

On MY Third round I brought on the Roughriders I initially put in strategic reserve AND brought back the ones that were taken out by the Terminators... 

The ones at the Wolves rear charged and overran the small group of allied Voidsmen that were holding the objective in the Wolves rear... 

This "success" was also short-lived as the Primaris Inceptors just pivoted slightly and opened up with their non-lethal paint-marking ammunition covering the roughriders from head to hoof in vibrant blue paint and sent them back to the reserves... how they will EVER be able to clean all that paint out is anybody's guess... 

The Thunderwolf Cavalry had also come charging back across the field... but were clearly not needed!!

On my end of the Fourth Round... I brought MORE Roughriders back on... seizing the objective in MY Deployment Zone

The other Roughriders tried to charge the Hounds of Morkai... but three were splattered with paint rounds from the Primaris Inceptors who fired overwatch as they moved up... 

The three remainind charged the Hounds... and.. did nothing but get sent back to the reserves... 

on the final round the Thunderwolf cavalry wheeled about and charged back towards the Roughrider... 

...and sent them galloping back to the reserves!!

Also in the final round the Character with ALL THE RULES tried to take out the remaining Heavy Weapons Squad, that has been firing away every turn and... just not hitting anything... 

They DID manage to take out the Character! (by finally using the GRENADES! Stratagem, that Orion had been using all game!? I will have to remember to use that every damned turn... as it was FAR MORE EFFECTIVE than ANY of my regular fire?!

Orion sent me along this report of the game which tallied up all the victory points... 

Yeah... 98- 26... and ten of those points were just for having a fully-painted force... and another seven was because I drew the Assassin and No Prisoners secondary objectives in the final round and happened to take out that Character... 

It was a fun game - largely because Orion is a riot to play games against (and a very patient instructor!). I like what's going on in 10th edition, so far... It all seems very streamlined and simplified which makes for fairly fast play - or what I imagine will be fast play, once I remember all my own damned stats and special rules.. (there aren't THAT many!?). I imagine once more codexes get released, there will be more and more special rules to keep track of... 

The game is really about scoring objectives and I didn't LOVE the constant changing of objectives every turn with the cards... but that's largely because I was trying to keep track of so many things, each time I drew a card and tried to read it, I felt like I recognized all the words on the cards a "definitely English" but could take no meaning from any of them... or those that I could, it was clear there was NO POSSIBILITY of MY force being able to DO any of those things... 

I feel like the guard MAYBE had possibilities... if it were in the hands of someone who actually KNEW all the special rules and knew what to DO with them. Hopefully we'll get some more games in SOON. And, now that I've PLAYED it, I'll be able to re-read the rules and have a better understanding of it (I had read the rules in advance... but often when I do that, my brain does not retain much of it or understand its meaning until I've actually PLAYED a game and re-read them!!)