1250 DE and Wolves vs Guard and Templar

Got a game in at the local GW store on Tuesday and figured I'd try my hand at making a battle report. Now the idea was to take pictures and make notes during the game of which I ended up doing neither, oops. Anyway we ended up playing a 2v2 on a 4x4 board with 1250 points each, in short it was a little cramped but it was an enjoyable game and I got to try out my list for an upcoming tournament. So after playing around with battle chronicler for a few days, the following is what I ended up with, hope you enjoy it!

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire – 3 objectives
Deployment: Dawn of War
1st Turn Night Fight: No
1st Turn: IG/BT
Warlord Traits: none of any use
Combat Drugs: Splintermind (Pain Token!)

The Armies

DE:

HQ
Archon – SF, VB, Blaster

TROOPS
10 Warriors – SCannon
Raider – Splinter Racks
8 Warriors – Blaster
Raider
5 Warriors
Venom – 2xSC

FAST
9 Reavers – Arena Champ w/VB, 3 Heatlances
9 Reavers – Arena Champ w/VB, 3 Heatlances

HEAVY
Ravager
Ravager

SW:

HQ
Rune Priest – Runic Armour, , Wolf Tooth Necklace, Force Axe. Living Lightning, Storm Caller
Wolf Priest – Runic Armour, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Saga of the Hunter
Wolf Priest – Wolf Tooth Necklace, Saga of the Hunter

TROOPS
10 Grey Hunters – 2 Plasma Guns, Power Sword
10 Grey Hunters – 2 Meltaguns, Power Sword
HEAVY
6 Long Fangs – 5x Missile Launcher
6 Long Fangs – 5x Missile Launcher
6 Long Fangs – Missile Launcher, 2x Lascannon, 2x Plasma Cannon

BT
HQ
Emperors Champion – Accept any challenge (Gives the army rage)
Chaplin

ELITES
5 Termies – 3x TH/SS, 2x LC

TROOPS
10 Initiates – Power Sword
10 Initiates – Power Sword

HEAVY
Vindicator – Power of the Machine Spirit, Storm Bolter
Vindicator – Power of the Machine Spirit, Storm Bolter

IG:

HQ
CCS – 4x Meltagun
Chimera – Heavy Flamer, Heavy Bolter

ELITES
7 Battle Psykers
Chimera – Multi Laser, Heavy Bolter

TROOPS
10 Veterans – 3x Meltagun, Autocannon
Chimera – Multi Laser, Heavy Bolter
10 Veterans – 3x Plasma Gun
Chimera – Multi Laser, Heavy Bolter

HEAVY
2 LRBT
Demolisher
Exterminator – Heavy Bolter Sponsons

I’m pretty sure the guard list is spot on and the BT and SW lists are correct minus some wargear items on the HQ I think.

Deployment

The guard and BT players both stick to their own sides of the board mostly due to space around the table I assume (it was pretty cramped) and cluster around the buildings to try and claim some cover. Neither player had anything in reserve.
The SW player placed his 3 long fang squads on the hill with his rune priest joining the centre squad and his 2 grey hunter squads each with attached wolf priest in reserve to outflank due to saga of the hunter. I deployed my Ravagers centrally behind a bastion to try and get them a cover save and then my raiders and venom in the bottom corner with the venom giving cover to my archons raider. My Reavers went in reserve due to lack of decent cover for them and an abundance of pie plates on the opposite team.

I roll to steal the initiative and get a 3.

T1 BT/Guard

Everything advances up the board with the vindicators going a full 12" (I made the mistake of assuming this meant that they couldn't shoot and breathed a sigh of relief) my opponent then reviled his vindi's had PotMS and could in fact fire their Demolisher cannons, oh dear! The first vindi took aim at the right hand Ravager and then scattered onto my other Ravager and destroyed a lance. The other fired at some long fangs and missed. The plasma vets then fired on my damaged Ravager and three pens later my Ravager exploded! The LRBTs fired at the left most long fangs taking out 4. My raider was then penned once and stunned by the executioner. Both initiate squads ran and the chimeras took some pot shots at my venom which failed to do anything. The PBS tried to soulstorm some more long fangs but missed and the Demolisher was out of range.
For all that firepower the SW/DE alliance had not taken too may casualties, fortunately.

T1 DE/SW

The venom moved over to cover the Stunned raider and shot across the board at some initiates killing three. the archons raider moved up to get the Blasters into range of the LRBTs and the Ravager moves over to fire at the Russ’s too. 4 DL and 2 blaster shots and a snapshot DL from the stunned raider later the LRBTs had taken no damage at all, damn!
Long fangs fire 2 Lascannons into a vindi and do nothing and the plasma cannons split fire into the initiates on the right killing 3. The 6 long fangs and rune priest fire missiles and lightning into a vindi to no avail and the 2 man long fangs fire 2 missiles into a chimera doing nothing, sensing a theme yet? The 10 and 5 man warrior squads are out of range of anything.

T2 BT/Guard

Termies make a ballsy deepstrike in front of the long fangs and don't scatter. The initiate squads move and run again, vindi's move up, LRBT and chimeras advance a bit. The Executioner moves up slightly and takes out venom killing one warrior. Some Chimeras, the LRBTs and the CCS fire at the Archon raider which, after a lot of jink saves, is unscathed. The left hand vindicator then explodes my other Ravager and the Other vindi scatters off the long fangs again but unfortunately doesn't hit the Termies.

T2 DE/SW

One Reaver squad and neither grey hunter squad arrive from reserve. The Reavers boost over the left initiate squad killing 3 and hide behind the rear bastion. The 10 man Warrior boat moves 12" over to the right and the warriors snapshot at he Termies doing 4 wounds but they make all their saves, the boat shoots a chimera but misses. The Archon and his squad in the raider shuffle up a bit and knock 1 hp off a LRBT which the 2 long fangs then shoot at get 2 hits. As the SW guy rolls to glance the front armour I shout "double six" and he obligingly rolls 2 six's and wrecks it. (Here I must apologise for using my Psyker powers I know we're not meant to). The las/plas Long fangs hen kill a vindi with their lascannons and one Termie with their plasma (one of which overheats but the guy is fine) and a frag missile. The other long fangs and rune priest fire at the other vindicator doing nothing. My 4 man warrior squad just chill out in their crater hoping to be ignored.

T3 BT/Guard

Ccs and Psykers disembark and move toward the reavers. Templars move up into assault range. Tanks shuffle around a bit and both the vindicator and the plasma vets chimera immobilise themselves on terrain.
Combined shooting from executioner, ccs, Psykers, Demolisher plasma vets and a chimera kill 3 Reavers even with the ccs ordering 'fire on my target' on itself, allowing to force the Reavers to reroll successful cover saves from wounds caused by the ccs. Here he left the psykers until last hoping to cause enough damage to force a moral check and then reduce them to LD3 but the Reavers could his plan by only taking 2 casualties before the Psykers were force to use soul storm instead. Melta vets explode the archons raider doing 6 wounds in the explosion. The archon tanks 5 then the SF gives out and a warrior makes the last save. Chimeras kill one warrior from both warrior squads. The initiates charge the centre long fangs and the Chaplin offers a challenge which is accepted by the rune priest. Nothing happens in the challenge, the initiates win combat but the long fangs stay thanks to atsknf. The Termies charge the right hand long fangs and one takes a Krak missile to the face and dies, the Termies win combat but the remaining long fangs hold.

T3 DE/SW

One grey hunter unit arrives on the right board edge thanks to acute senses and shoot the unengaged initiates killing 4. Reavers jump out and shoot the ccs killing 3 then multi charge ccs and PBS killing 5 Psykers and take no wounds in return. Both squads then fail their moral checks and are run down by the Reavers who consolidate behind the bastion and are now fearless. 2 blaster shots against LRBT from the archon and his squad do nothing, again. The 2 missile Long fangs stun the chimera with the melta vets inside. The raider moves 6 and the warriors shoot at the initiates doing nothing. The Termies kill the last of the long fangs but lose one more of their number, leaving one, and consolidate to the left. The long fang initiate combat grinds on and no wounds occur in the challenge, the long fangs hold.

T4 BT/Guard

The Lone Termie charges the two long fangs and kills them. The immobile Vindicator stuns raider. Shooting from the plasma vets, various chimeras and the executioner kills 2 more Reavers. LRBT fires at the warriors and archon, who go to ground, killing 6 warriors (I forgot my wrecked raider templates and hence forgot that they were still in the wreckage). The Emperors Champion and remaining initiates charge the grey hunters and the EC offers a challenge that is accepted by the wolf priest. The wolf priest succumbs to the Emperors Champion and the initiates are wiped out. In the Long fang combat the rune priest force weapons the Chaplin and the remaining long fangs are killed.

T4 DE/SW

The Reavers and Melta grey hunter automatically arrive from reserve (finally!). The Reavers move into Melta range with their heatlances and wreck the vindicator. The other Reavers move behind the demolisher and make it go boom! The Raider snapshots at the chimera and shake it and the warriors in raider kill the single Terminator. The Grey hunters move on from the left and explode LRBT with their meltaguns. The grey hunters then mob the emperor’s champion taking revenge for the death of the wolf priest and consolidate towards the objective.
The rune priest/initiate combat is uneventful. Both Reaver squads assault jump behind terrain.

T5 BT/Guard

The Melta vets chimera moves to the left, they disembark onto the objective and shoot and kill 2 Grey hunters. The executioner move up and kills another grey hunter. The Chimeras fire at archon and friend who go to ground and the warrior "bravely sacrifices himself" to save the archon leaving him on a single wound. The PBS chimera kills another warrior from the two man squad. The initiates finish off the rune priest and consolidate a couple of niches toward the bottom left objective.

T5 DE/SW

The right hand Grey hunters move to capture the objective and shoot and kill 2 initiates. The warriors shoot the last initiate and... fail to kill him, idiots! The Reavers are then forced to bladevane him to prevent line breaker. The other Reavers then move to heatlance a chimera and roll snake eyes to hit, so they try to charge, with furious charge, but fail to hurt it. The Grey hunters shoot and charge vet squad wiping them out and consolidate onto the objective.
The lone kabalite warrior, finally moves out of his crater and runs to claim objective.

The black Templar player has to leave so we call it there, although by then it was looking pretty one sided anyway!

Game ends
DE/SW 16 VPs - 4 heavy kills, all 3 objectives, both warlords, line breaker
Guard/BT 6 VPs - 5 heavy kills, first blood

Post Game analysis:
I was very worried for the first few turns that, with so little on the board and so much firepower on the other side, we were going to be wiped out before our reserves arrived. However with a fair bit of bad luck on both sides not much happened in T1/2. Once our reserves (eventually) arrived they couldn't hold us back and things started going downhill for the Templar/Guard team.

I have to say I'm really loving the big squads of reavers, the squad that arrived T2 drew a horrendous amount of fire over he course of the game and still managed to kill the guard warlord and pals, the PBS, a Demolisher and survived the game to get us linebreaker

Great game!

Glad you are enjoying the large reaver squads. My one concern with that many reavers at 1250 points 1v1 is that if you need to reserve both reaver squads, for whatever reason, it will bevery risky as it leaves the rest of your army seriously outnumbered. They may even get wiped out before the reavers come on, if your opponent is shooty enough. Have you run into that problem yet?

Thanks for sharing the pain (added the report to the sticky).

Mushkilla wrote:

Great game!

Glad you are enjoying the large reaver squads. My one concern with that many reavers at 1250 points 1v1 is that if you need to reserve both reaver squads, for whatever reason, it will bevery risky as it leaves the rest of your army seriously outnumbered. They may even get wiped out before the reavers come on, if your opponent is shooty enough. Have you run into that problem yet?

This is actually the first time that I've ever run more than 6 reavers and I was a bit worried about reserving 40% of my army. I would much rather have had them on the table hiding behind terrain but there was a serious lack of terrain in our deployment zone. Hopefully next week I'll be playing 1v1 on a 6x4 with more scenery since I’m going to head to the local club rather than the GW store, so I’ll give the list another run then.

Mushkilla wrote:

Thanks for sharing the pain (added the report to the sticky).

Awesome!

It's only really a problem if there isn't enough LoS blocking terrain and you are going second. It's just those reavers are so vulnerable if they get shot first (even if they are in cover), it's a round of shooting you really want to avoid. If you're unlucky you can lose three reavers and the whole unit can run off the board (one of the main reasons I take champions, but even on LD9 it happens). It will be interesting to hear how your next game goes. Best of luck.

As a fan of both DE and SW it was very fun to hear about them joining forces, have you thought about using scourges to deal with the tanks IG always bring.

I don't have the guard codex, but isn't that 4 heavies for him? 2 Leman Russ? 1 Demolisher and 1 Exterminator? sounds illegal to me unless the Russes are a squadron. Are they? Is that even possible? Hm, I don't know I just hate IG for I can never remember which unit name is what and why they have that stupid amount of tanks.

Anyway, great battle report and turn around, looked grim after the first 2 turns where the lances failed you. Cool game and a good write-up with all the pictures

Thanks guys

@Billy912 Yeah I've used scourges a few to good effect, times usually deepstriking with blasters, but tbh with the amount of blasters, lances and heatlances I had I don't think more anti tank was necessary at this points level.
@Dogmar The 2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks were a squadron and yeah it's totally legal. Lances are so temperamental sometimes, they really only work when they feel like it!

Great game. At the beginning I thought it looked bleak for you but was happy to see it turn around (Dark Eldar and Space Wolves are my 2 armies so it is always nice to see them win, not to mention together).

The only thing I have to say is that the Space Wolf player had an illegal set up in his list. The Wolf Priest with runic armour couldn't take Saga of the Hunter (it stipulates that the model must wear power armour and not be on a bike or have a jumppack).