Thursday, August 5, 2010

Battle Result: Emo-Wing vs. Wolves

by SandWyrm


I had a good game tonight vs. a North Store regular who I'm nickname "Notdog". He had just won a game with his Nids and wanted to try his luck against the Emo Wing with his Space Wolves.


Of course, this immediately brought out the "Twilight" jokes. We even tried to find a proxy for Bella to fight over, but while Foodie was there with his Dark Eldar, he hadn't brought his slave models along. Damn!

I ran the usual 2K list. Here it is for reference.



SandWyrm's List
    HQ
225    Dante
250    Mephiston

    Elites
90    Sanguinary Priest w/Jump Pack, Power Weapon (Dante's Squad)
75    Sanguinary Priest w/Jump Pack 

    Troops
230    Sanguinary Guard Squad w/2 x Infernus Pistol, Powerfist
230    Sanguinary Guard Squad w/2 x Infernus Pistol, Powerfist
230    Sanguinary Guard Squad w/2 x Infernus Pistol, Powerfist
230    Sanguinary Guard Squad w/2 x Infernus Pistol, Powerfist
230    Sanguinary Guard Squad w/2 x Infernus Pistol, Powerfist

    Fast Attack
70    LandSpeeder w/Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta
70    LandSpeeder w/Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta
70    LandSpeeder w/Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta

Total: 2000 pts.

Notdog was running the following:

HQ
Runepriest w/Living Lightning, Tempest's Wrath

Elites
14 Wolfguard w/10 x Power Weapon, 4 x Power Fist, Land Raider Redeemer (w/Multi-Melta)

Troops
10 Grey Hunters w/Power Fist, Flamer, Melta, Land Raider Redeemer (w/Multi-Melta)
10 Grey Hunters w/Power Fist, Flamer, Melta, Land Raider Redeemer (w/Multi-Melta)
10 Grey Hunters w/Power Fist, Flamer, Melta, Land Raider Redeemer (w/Multi-Melta)

The Runepriest was riding with the Wolfguard, who split off 3 models, one to each Grey Hunter Squad. Giving them 2 Fists each. Looking at Notdog's list, I'm kind of amused that I had more models than him. :)

Once again, I didn't take any pics until the end. Part of the reason is that we started late and were in a rush. The other is that I wasn't sure how well I'd do against 4 Raiders.

The mission was a Capture and Control with a Pitched Battle Deployment. I rolled first turn but gave it to Notdog. Here's the aftermath at the end of turn 6:


That's me holding an objective in the center with a lone SangGuard and a SangPriest. While Dante stands alone next to the other objective. Giving me a 1-0 win.

The gap to the left of the blocked-in Raider used to be where the Runepriest's ride was. Mephiston killed it, then he killed the Runepriest's squad after they charged 2 of my squads (leaving the lone SG and SP alive), then he spent 2 turns hammering on the blocked-in Raider. Immobilizing it and knocking off 3 of it's weapons.


There's a Grey Hunter squad in this Raider, but it never was able to get out. Notdog tried ramming the speeder in front, but failed to damage it. He shot it up later, but only immobilized it.


This Raider was wrecked with a ring of SGs around it; auto-killing the Grey Hunter squad inside. It's the first time I've ever been able to pull off that trick. :)


I thought that Notdog played pretty well (as the body count will attest), but he did make a major mistake here that cost him the draw. This Raider had been sitting on top of his objective, but Notdog disembarked the squad inside and ran this Raider down the hill to shoot the ring of SGs around the wrecked Raider.

Now, he didn't need to move to shoot me up with his Melta and Assault Cannon, so I'm not sure what he was thinking. But I was able to jump 2 squads past it and assault the Grey Hunters who were now out in the open.

I was a bit too far away with Dante's squad, so I couldn't charge the 2 squads in together. This allowed NotDog to take advantage of my crappy rolling and wipe out the first squad in 2 rounds of combat. But then Dante's posse charged in and I won the combat by one wound.

There were still 6+ Hunters in that squad, but they failed their LD test and Dante ran them down. I won with 3 Speeders and 3 Infantry (one scoring model) left alive.


Conclusions

A lot of guys on the interwebs dismiss Sanguinary Guard because they lack an invulnerable save, but I'm convinced that this is more than made up for by their sheer speed. If you know what you're doing you can pull off all sorts of tricks that Terminators can only dream of. All while shrugging off most  anti-infantry fire. "Oh, you have AP3 Flamestorm cannons? That's nice."

This is also the first game where Mephiston really showed his fangs. I like guys that can kill Land Raiders with their bare hands. :)

And lastly, Speeders rock!

10 comments:

  1. Ooh, I like that blocking move. I'm a big fan of VV, but I may need to consider speeders now. Thanks jerkface.

    Blood/Emo Wing FTW

    ReplyDelete
  2. How do you kill the guys inside when blocking all doors in 5th edition.. because now he can just "emergency disembark" anywhere within 2 inches of the vehicle and be pinned. Secondly, how does Dante run down a squad of ATSKNF guys in combat? Wouldn't he just have taken more wounds? Unless he fell back, and Dante "escorts" them off, which I do all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Chumby

    What's your current list? I'm considering some VV with 2-3 Storm Shields and 1-2 Thunder Hammers as a swap for Mephiston. So I'd like to see what you're running.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Matt Varnish

    I killed all the guys inside the wrecked Raider because I literally had a ring of SGs around them (Dante's squad + one other). So there was no place for the squad inside to perform an emergency disembark to.

    Page 67 of the BRB says that any models that cannot disembark are destroyed.

    Now, had the Speeders killed their Raider, Notdog would have been able to disembark his squad to any gap between the Speeders, as I couldn't surround it with them in the same way. But he would have had to lose a turn with them for not disembarking through an access point.

    As for Dante at the end (looks up ATSKNF), you're right. I should not have been able to perform a sweeping advance and wipe out the squad (not that it would have mattered to the final score). What's crazy though is that I've never seen this rule used properly before by anyone. Thanks for pointing it out!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The pic only showed the three speeders, hence my assumption. Actually I assume most people didn't know about emergency disembark, since I didn't know about it until a kind person pointed out to me that my Squat Veterans were NOT in fact all dead after getting charged by snikrots boyz, that I could in fact dump them out through the front windows! Little did he know that I then could "get back in the fight" them and shoot back heh. Serves him right for being a good sport!

    As for ATSKNF, the ability to actually fall back and rally later rather than get stuck in combat is the reason why Space Marine Combat Tactics are so golden.. and why a lot of people don't take power weapons or fists in tac squads anymore, you get charged, lose, opt to fall back, rally due to ATSKNF, or shoot if within 6 inches, but most importantly, rest of army can shoot the assaulters rather than them being "safe" in combat with your guys. I used to run a Shrike Counts-As for my pre heresy Nightlords army, and kept getting small squads stuck in combat due to ATSKNF, now my Zso Sahaal model is just a captain with JP and claws to hold on to 'combat tactics'.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Right now it looks like this:
    Dante
    Libby w/ Lance, Shield, jump pack
    HG w/ 4 SS, 3 meltas, PF
    2 SP w/ packs
    SG w/ 2 infernus, chapter banner
    2x SG w/ 2 infernus
    5 man RAS w/ melta, infernus
    2x 5 VV w/ PF

    Dante and the HG are my ridiculous anvil unit, taking shooting and charges on the chin while using H&R to zoom away. VV are more for tying down units, particularly bubble wrap and stuff that has just lost their ride.

    I'm on the fence over 2 bare units of VV over 1 tricked out unit and the disposable melta RAS. Speeders could easily fit in.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Matt
    The emergency disembark rules actually say that the squad "can do nothing further this turn".

    This means that if an opponent blows up your tank and you emergency disembark, your guys can move freely again in your turn, there is no need for "get back in the fight"

    ReplyDelete
  8. It says the "rest of the turn". Emphasis on the, leading it to read as "game turn", not "player turn".

    If it was player turn, as it's impossible to destroy a vehicle on your own turn (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but outside of Apoc style Vortex Grenades and the like, I'm fairly secure in saying that) it'd be a completely useless penalty.

    As such, GBITF actually won't help you, because they're not pinned to begin with. They straight up can't do anything - so fearless or other special rules won't help you. It's the price you pay for having to claw out of those vision slits ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hmm, well, he was the one who said they were pinned, and GBITF gets you out of pinned. I stand corrected!

    Still, its not very often that this rule comes up, I've only used it that one time so far.

    ReplyDelete

out dang bot!

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