Monday, February 22, 2010

Escalation League, Round 1: vs More Space Wolves and Eldar

Two more Escalation league battles against... well, more Wolves and Eldar. Enjoy!




Click me to read spoilers

So, welcome to another 500 pt battle report, this time against another Space Wolf army.

My list: as before (Vendetta, AS with AC, Psyker Primaris, Vet squad with 3 melta, Vet squad with 3 grenade launchers)

His list:
2*10 Grey Hunters with 1 meltagun, 1 plasma gun, 1 mark of the wulfen, and a wolf banner
Rune priest with JotWW, Living Lightning (with Squad 1)

Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War

He gets first turn.
Turn 1a: His troops move and run forwards.
Turn 1b: My forces enter the board. The Vendetta kills two members of Squad 2 and the Chimera kills two members of Squad 1. The AS hides behind a hill waiting to charge forwards.

Turn 2a: Squad 1 moves and shoots at my Chimera but fails to damage it, Squad 2 runs towards the Vendetta.
Turn 2b: The Vendetta turboboosts away from Squad 2 while the Chimera advances slowly towards them. The Sentinel charges Squad 1, and only krak grenades and the MotW can scratch it. The Wulfen rends, scores a penetrating hit but only manages to shake the vehicle.

Turn 3a: Squad 2 runs away from the Vendetta while Squad 1 shakes the Sentinel yet again thanks to the Wulfen.
Turn 3b: I fire at squad 2 but do nothing to it. In assault, the Wulfen explodes the walker and squad 1 consolidates towards my Chimera.

Turn 4a: Squad 1 shoots at, then assaults my Chimera and explodes it, leaving 2 meltaguns, the sarge and a mook in a crater. One Grey Hunter dies from the explosion. Squad 2 continues to run from my Vendetta.
Turn 4b: The squad in the crater meltas a Grey Hunter in squad 1 while the Vendetta kills two more members of Squad 2.

Turn 5a: My melta vets are wiped out by shooting, and Squad 2 continues to flee.
Turn 5b: My grenade vets and the Psyker unload and fire on Squad 2. In combination with the Vendetta they manage to kill 3 more members of Squad 2.

Turn 6a: Squad 1 hides in a crater, Squad 2 hides behind a rock.
Turn 6b: My shooting picks off 3 members of Squad 1 thanks to some failed 3+ cover saves.

Turn 7a: More hiding.
Turn 7b: I fail to do anything.

Space Wolves win, 3-0.

NEXT BATTLE: vs Eldar

His list: 2*10 squads of Dire Avengers with Exarch (two catapults, bladestorm), Farseer with Doom (attached to squad 2) and 7 fire dragons.

Mission: 3 objectives
Deployment: Table corners

He gets first turn, I fail to seize initiative.

Turn 1a: Squad 1 moves into some ruins and are very tightly packed, Squad 2 and the Dragons hide behind LOS blocking cover.
Turn 1b: Exceedingly lucky shooting on my part kills all of Squad 1 with grenade, lightning and lascannon fire from my disembarked Vets, Primaris and the Vendetta. Everything else moves up.

Turn 2a: The remaining Eldar hide more behind LOS blocking cover.
Turn 2b: Vets and Psyker re-embark in the Vendetta, but shooting fails to do anything.

Turn 3a: The eldar move up, DAs providing cover to the Dragons while the Farseer attempted to Singing Spear my Sentinel. It hit, but failed to pen.
Turn 3b: My shooting takes out 4 dire avengers.

Turn 4a: Eldar continue to advance, but the Singing Spear still fails to do anything.
Turn 4b: I wipe out the Dire Avenger squad while the Vendetta moves towards the top right-most objective.

Turn 5a: Fire dragons blow up my Chimera, killing 7 of the passengers and causing them to flee.
Turn 5b: Vendetta moves onto the objective, Sentinel charges the Dragons.

Turn 6a: Fire dragons meltabomb the sentinel and move towards the objective.
Turn 6b: Vet squad disembarks, combined fire from my forces wipe out the Dragons.




Click me to read spoilers

So, After Action Report. In the Space Wolf battle I really didn't use my range and firepower to my advantage. Tons of firepower was left sitting in my Vendetta where it could have been hammering away at the Wolves with huge numbers of shots every turn. The Meltaguns in my Chimera also never got a chance to shoot because I was too conservative with the tank's movement.

I also relied way too much on the Sentinel to hold the close combat.I should have either moved my troops as quickly as possible away from that area or I should ahve engaged the squad later with the Sentinel to increase its chance of holding. Really, I think it was just the Rending from the MotW that got me. In cases where there is a power fist or just no rending I can count on either losing or winning the combat, but with Rending there is always the question of "Am I going to lose this time or am I going to keep on being safe?" It's such a small chance of happening, but it happens more often than you would think and often at inopportune times.

If I had sent my forces more quickly after the other Grey Hunter squad I might have fared better for me.

In the Eldar case, I got extremely lucky on the first turn. Also the Eldar player wasn't playing my fear of meltaguns well enough against me. Squads of DAs on the objectives are really tough for me to move if they are backed up by Dragons. My Vendetta can't tank shock and my Chimera would be annihilated if it got close. He also packed his DAs a bit too tight, causing my grenade launchers to be supremely effective. If I hadn't been able to get them all I would have been open to a bladestorm the next turn, which from even 4-5 DAs could have wiped out my squad.

Overall I still have a lot to learn about running Valkyries/Vendettas as I am far too used to keeping my troops safe in their little metal boxes. Now that they can't shoot out I need to know when to unload them to make the most of their firepower. Hopefully I'll learn this before too long as at 750 I am hoping to run a fully airborne list. We'll see how I run that, as it should be fairly interesting.

There might be another two 500 pt battles before next round, but other than that that's all for now. See you next time.

2 comments:

Dverning said...

Looks like you had some good learning experiences from those battles. Cheers and looking forward to seeing what you do with a larger force!

Max said...

Thanks- it's definitely been a learning experience.