BR7: The Black Buzzards VS SW Mechanized - 1000pts

Another instalment, this time a rematch against Space Puppies!

The armies:

Black Buzzards (DE)

HQ
Succubus, venom blade
Succubus, venom blade

TROOPS
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Disintigrator

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade

Space Wolves (SW)

HQ
Rune Priest (divination)

TROOPS
5 Grey Hunters, flamer
Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, flamer
Razorback, Assault cannon
5 Grey Hunters, flamer
Razorback, Assault cannon
5 Grey Hunters, flamer
Razorback, Assault cannon

HEAVY SUPPORT
Vindicator
Vindicator
Vindicator

Notes: Lots of tanks!

The scenario:
The mission was The Scouring using Dawn Of War deployment. No night fight on the first turn. Warlord powers: I rolled Master of Offence (Furious Charge in opponents deployment zone), my opponent rolled Legendary fighter (Each character killed by the warlord in a challenge is worth a victory point). I lost the roll off and my opponent decided to go first. For combat drugs I rolled Grave lotus (+1S). For psychic powers he took prescience (re-roll to hit/ re-roll demolisher scatter dice) and perfect timing (psyker's unit ignores cover).

Deployment:
The Space Wolves deployed centrally in order to move into the midfield (as there are two high value objectives there), also his whole army had 24" range or less, so they needed a strong central position in order to maximise their fire power.

I deployed my whole army so that it couldn’t be threatened by any of my opponents army (24" range + 6" move).


Turn 1(SW):
Razorbacks moved forward 12" and snapfired (forgot he could do that!) fortunately the assault cannons only managed to remove a single HP from one of the raiders. The rhinos and the vindicators move forward. The space wolf army setting up a strong foothold on the middle of the board. Controlling the three central objectives (which have the highest values).


Turn 1(DE):
As my opponent had set up camp in the middle of the table I wanted to try and constrict his movement by attacking him from all sides. He would have problems repositioning as his own vehicles would imped him. The reavers turbo boosted behind the line of sight blocking terrain on my opponents flank. One of the raiders hid behind the terrain in the centre of my deployment zone. The second raider moved flat out towards my right flank again hiding behind terrain. The idea being that if my opponent moved away from one threat (eg: the reavers) he would be moving closer to another threat (eg: the haywire wyches).


Turn 2 (SW):
My opponent reshuffled his tanks in order to prevent their rear armour from being threatened. He deployed his infantry in order to create a bubble wrap around his tanks to prevent the the wyches from charging his armour. Four tanks that could be threatened by the reavers and were not going to shoot this turn used their smoke launchers (for cover saves). My opponents army now looked reminiscent of Custer's Last Stand!


Turn 2 (DE):
One reaver gang jumped forward and manage to stun a razorback before jumping back out of sight in the assault phase. The other reaver gang jumped out and managed to destroy a vindicator before jumping back behind cover (I needed 6" or more in order to get the reavers back out of sight). On the left the raider's disintigrator managed to peel back some of the bubble wrap by killing two grey hunters. This let the wyches multi charge the razorback and the grey hunters. Two wyches died to overwatch (flamer). The succubus was in contact with the grey hunters whilst the rest of the wyches attacked the razorback. The haywire grenades wrecked the razorback whilst the succubus killed a single grey hunter. The two surviving grey hunters failed to inflict any wounds. On the right the raider's disintigrator also managed to peel back the bubble wrap by killing three grey hunters (killing the flamer). This time letting the wyches multi charge the vindicator and the grey hunters. The wyches wrecked the razorback and the succubus killed a single grey hunter, the surviving grey hunter didn't inflict any wounds. Both grey hunter squads held.


Turn 3 (SW):
The two surviving razorbacks re-arranged and took out the two raiders. The wolf priest cast prescience on his squad. The vindicator and the rhino made sure they were not within heatlance melta range. To protect the grey hunters from bladevane attacks and to prevent the wyches finishing combat on my turn my opponent charged the wyches. The wyches and the succubus on the right killed two grey hunters. The grey hunter inflicted three wounds, I removed a wych and allocated the other two wounds onto the succubus. On the left the rune priest challenged, I accepted with the succubus. Thankfully she killed the rune priest before he could strike (revenge for their last encounter!). The grey hunters fought back killing all the wyches apart form the succubus. The succubus fell back and but was not caught. This left the grey hunters exposed.


Turn 3 (DE):
One reaver gang bladevaned the grey hunter squad of two killing them. The other reaver gang managed to kill a single grey hunter from the other exposed squad. The succubus rallied and hid behind a tree. The wyches and the succubus on the right killed three grey hunters, the remaining grey hunter killed a wych. The grey hunter held.


Turn 4 (SW):
The demolisher fired at the reavers, and rolled a hit, hitting all 9 of them, and managing to kill 3. The razorbacks and the rhinos fired into the reavers without feel no pain killing one. The grey hunters shot the succubus inflicting a wound (flamers are terrible against a single model) and then charged her (she had FNP from killing the Rune priest). She killed three before they got to strike! The last remaining grey hunter failed to wound. The grey hunter stayed in combat thanks to ATSKNF. The other wych squad killed the last grey hunter (earning them their second pain token).


Turn 4 (DE):
One reaver gang destroyed the vindicator. The wyches charged a razorback wrecking it. The other reavers moved behind the last surviving razorback and then missed with all their heatlances. The succubus killed the last marine and continued hiding in the forest.


Turn 5 (SW):
The razorback moved to get a better shot on the succubus (warlord) in the woods, who went to ground in are terrain to get a 3+ cover save, fortunately she passed all her cover saves, and would live to fight another day.


Turn 5 (DE):
The wyches secured one of the objectives.The reaver gangs targeted the rear armour of the two last surviving tanks, destroying them both. DE victory!


DE 7 (4 point objective, kill the warlord, first blood, line breaker) SW 0

Conclusion
That was an interesting game, the three demolisher were really intimidating, but fortunately thanks to DE mobility only a single demolisher cannon was fired. The 30" move with our skimmers is amazing for hopping from terrain to terrain. The man of the match would have to be the disintigrators as it was thanks to them peeling back the bubble wrap that the wyches were able to assault the razorbacks/vindicators. I think this is what makes venom/raider haywire wyches so effective as the splinter cannons/disintigrator can peel back bubble wrap units so that the wyches can get the charge on the vehicle.

Hope you enjoyed the report!

As always, thanks again!

Are you growing fond of Wyches + Succubi as support for the bikes?

Thanks for the support!

Well after changing the list constantly after Battle Report 3, I thought it might be a good idea to stick to something for a few games and see how it plays against different armies. But yes, I think wyches are fantastic this edition, haywire, PGL, plasma grenades and fleet just make them amazing (despite being so squishy), they are surprisingly adaptable too. I was a bit worried going into this game, but they pulled through just fine.

These are very interesting and make me want to shake up my list constantly.

As always you make me want to troll Ebay for bikes and more wyches (the wyches are something I never suspected I would want!).

Masterfully done. I had thought that the Dissies would have been safe way to go and you've pretty much confirmed my suspitions. Thank you.

Thanks for the encouragement!

If you already have enough anti-tank dissies are great.

Out of interest, how would you go about expanding your list to higher point values?

Great battle reports by the way. Makes me want to buy more Reavers!

Count Adhemar wrote:

Out of interest, how would you go about expanding your list to higher point values?

Well a third squad of reavers, and another raider full of wiches.

The problem being that it will be hard to keep that many reavers out of sight (considering that the amount of terrain will stay the same despite the increase in points). So this makes reserving anything that isn't out of sight the only option. As a result I have been considering fitting in some Eldar allies for an autarch (damn it why don't archons give you +1 to reservs, the new chaos lords do apparently, so I'm sure it will be standard on most HQs in 6th).

I have a 1500 point game scheduled next week against necrons. So I'll find out soon enough.

Count Adhemar wrote:

Great battle reports by the way. Makes me want to buy more Reavers!

This actually all a marketing plan by GW, I'm actually hired by them to write battle reports where models that don't sell well perform amazingly in order to increase sales.

Mushkilla wrote:

This actually all a marketing plan by GW, I'm actually hired by them to write battle reports where models that don't sell well perform amazingly in order to increase sales.

Not going to work with me unfortunately as I think the price of Reaver models is an absolute outrage. Might convert some of my old Guardian jetbikes though.

Count Adhemar wrote:

Not going to work with me unfortunately as I think the price of Reaver models is an absolute outrage. Might convert some of my old Guardian jetbikes though.

It is in terms of how much plastic/points you get, they really are quite expensive. Unfortunately all bikes are priced like that.

I might be geting hold of some reavers in a few weeks time at a reasonable cost, which would give me enough for two units of 6. Do you think that would be sufficient to emulate your tactics or are the 9-man squads essential?

Count Adhemar wrote:

I might be geting hold of some reavers in a few weeks time at a reasonable cost, which would give me enough for two units of 6. Do you think that would be sufficient to emulate your tactics or are the 9-man squads essential?

Two squad of six should be fine. The advantage of nine is more wounds/attack and three heatlances tend to guarantee a tank kill. If you have to chose between one squad of nine and two squads of six, I would go for the two squads of six, more targets, more lances, more models and two fast units that can contest. Just treat the squad like one large squad of twelve and you can't really go wrong.

EDIT: Posted my 1500pt list.

And to think that these bikes had the same mechanics in 5th! (although I know they are slightly better stat wise).

I love the larger squad sizes and your tactics - taking serious notes here, keep it up!

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

And to think that these bikes had the same mechanics in 5th! (although I know they are slightly better stat wise).

I used them in 5th (three squads of 6) and it took a lot of effort to get the most out of them, but they were not bad by any means. I think the three big changes are the increase movement, bladevaning in the shooting phase, and Jink. Before you had to do a lot more work to get that 4+ cover save, but with screening units, area terrain, and only 50% of the unit needing to be in cover it was still manageable. So in some way they played very similarly to how they do now, the big difference is being able to get all the benefits from larger squads without any downsides.

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

I love the larger squad sizes and your tactics - taking serious notes here, keep it up!

Thanks! As always I greatly appreciate your feedback (For the 1500pts list night shields were such an obvious choice yet I completely overlooked them!).

Mushkilla wrote:

This actually all a marketing plan by GW, I'm actually hired by them to write battle reports where models that don't sell well perform amazingly in order to increase sales.

And it worked, now I have got tons of revers

so do I...

For a minute there I thought you were screwed when he castled up like that. Very interesting to see indeed how you peeled back the bubble wrap with dissies. I think indeed the way you encircled him won you the game. That's how important 1 turn can be!