Last weekend i got in another game of Warhammer 40,000 Tenth Edition with my friend Orion - whom I am partnering with for the upcoming Strange Bedfellows Team Tournament in... a little under two weeks now!!
Originally we'd planned to play Friday evening, but ended up playing Warhammer Underworlds at the new Warhammer Store... So we ended up playing Saturday Afternoon instead.
This was our first 2000 point match. I took the 990 points worth of artillery I'll be using in the tournament, and 1000 points of Leman Russ Tanks! (two of those being Tank Commanders).
I realized, as I set them out on the table... I USED THE WRONG KHAKI on the Basilisks and Manticores I've been working on!? GAH!?!?! I'd even brought a few of my tanks up to make sure I got the right one... but somehow in the light of THAT room, I hadn't noticed the difference!?
We were also having to toy with our respective lists as there was a new points update released the week before. My Manticores went up 30 points each - a total of 60 points, so I dropped one of the Scout Sentinels...
Orion also had to make some changes... I'm not entirely sure what those will be in the end...
Everything was really packed into the deployment zone!
Space Wolves deployment zone.
Round One - BAM! Wolves charge clear across No-One's-land and smash into one of my Tank Commanders and Scout Sentinels!? The Tank Commander was taken out of action...
And then they consolidated into the next tank!?
DAMN these Space Wolves are BRUTAL!!!
Then I just started POUNDING stuff with the guns. The Scout sentinels were amazing as Forward Observers! I'm considering adding one of those back in and dropping one of the Mortar Squads!?
Not only do the Scout Sentinels reduce the penalty for Indirect Fire on units they spot, they also allow the shooter to re-roll hits of one. Also, I'd originally though the scouts only conferred their bonus to ONE unit... but rather it gives the bonus to ANY friendly unit that fires on the target that's been spotted!!
That Combined with the Born Soldiers rule for all Astra Militarum (Each time an Astra Militarum unit from your army Remains Stationary, until the end of the turn, ranged weapons equipped by models in that unit have the [LETHAL HITS] ability. i.e. hit rolls of 6 automatically cause wounds!) I actually dealt some serious damage... to a few of the units... before they completely overwhelmed me!?
I must not have been taking a lot of pictures, because I'm pretty sure this jumps ahead to the third round when these guys dropped into my rear and blew apart that Scout Sentinel... by that point it wasn't really doing it's job anymore because most of the guns were being overrun!?
I think they survived to do one last spotting mission on the Thunderwolf CAvalry - which actually finished off the unit!
By the Third Round my shield of tanks was being destroyed by the Space Wolves.
And then they wree taking out the guns behind!?
One unit of Mortars taken out by a single Thuderwolf Cavalry dude!
Most of the tanks and artillery were destroyed right where they were deployed.
Except for this one deplyed on the Tallarn Right Flank... it peeled away from these Wulfen at one point hoping to blast some Space Marine Scouts off an objective and sieze it.. but it failed a battleshock test and couldn't do anything about it... before it was finished off by melta grenades tossed by the Thunderwolf Cavlary making it's way back after ALL of the artillery was utterly destroyed!?
Last stand of my Commanding Officer!?
AS a final act of defiance, I brought one of my sentinels back (using Reinforcements Strategem) and brought it on in the Space Wolves Deployment Zone where it promptly dropped some teleport beacons for a few points... not that it helped...
The Astra Militarum was pretty soundly defeated!? I'm not really sure what they COULD have even DONE!? With the Wolves on me in the FIRST TURN, I couldn't make any forward advance to take any of the Objectives in the middle of the table, leaving them for Orion to score EVERY TURN.. ALL GAME!?!? By the third turn, I couldn't even hold the one in MY deployment zone!? I did take out a couple of characters in the one unit of Thunderwolf Cavalry I destroyed... but wowsers, I bled a lot of points to her with every vehicle she took out!
On the plus side... hopefully the wolves will be doing that to our opponents in the tournament and I'll just sit back and lob shells on the squishier units that my Scout Sentinels call fire missions upon!
If this and the Friday evening games of Warhammer Underworlds weren't enough for one weekend... we played MORE Warhammer Underworlds on Sunday!? Should have a brief report of those shenanigans up shortly!
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No wonder you lost a close combat army vs a shooty army playing on a tiny table!
ReplyDeleteHmmmm ... blogger is not letting me reply directly to Phil's comment...?
ReplyDeleteExactly!
It's become a weird game. this is the standard size for play now - it used to be 4'x6'... but now it's 5'x3.75'...? And the tournament pack requires PILES of line-of-sight blocking terrain. I get the line of sight blocking terrain was to prevent shooty armies from just blowing an opponent completely away on the first turn before they even get to play... But now?! When there are close combat units that can charge clear across the table on teh first turn and be engaging - and destroying - tanks before they get a single shot off...?! Kind of feels like they've hamstrung one and given huge advantages to another...
Ah, well... At least these wolves are on MY side in the tournament!
Kind of makes me want to finish painting up my Daemon army... which is ALL close combat (and, conveniently, playable in BOTH 40K and Age of Sigmar!)
DeleteYears (decades) ago, when I thought I might get into 40K, Space Wolves were the army that attracted me. I started painting some up, but never got very far with painting and even less far with actual gaming.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, cool figures and all there!
Thanks!
DeleteSpace Wolves are what drew Orion into the game. She wasn't that interested and then some one said "Space Vikings" and she said SIGN ME UP!!
This was a pretty sparse table! But yes, 40K has changed a lot. You need to have a plan on how to screen and kill really aggressive armies like this. 1000 points of artillery isn't very useful if you don't get to use it before your opponent is in their face in your deployment zone, so you probably want to get rid of some of it for more mobile utility units.
ReplyDeleteBut! Guard have some pretty good screening tools. Catachans are efficient screens and initial objective grabbers, especially in Chimeras, and Kasrkin, Bullgryn, regular Ogryn, Rough Riders, or more Sentinels can get into position to help counterpunch a hard push.
Russes can be good some variants aren't. The gatling one is mostly a joke unit and the vanilla Russ is overpriced. Eradicators, Executioners, and Demolishers are all good (mainly because they have AP and/or ignore cover), and ofc commanders should be Demolishers. It's hard to get any significant number of vehicle orders, so Leontus and a Grand Strategist Tank Commander both help.
Armored Might is incredibly obnoxious against pretty much every elite melee army. They want to kill your important stuff with D2-3 weapons so -1 is a whole lot.
Hopefully this is some stuff to start with!