Tuesday 22 March 2016

Throne of Skulls March 2016 - Battle 4, Tyranids Vs Space Wolves

Chris was my opponent for game 4. Space Wolves and Wulfen so I was going to try the new furballs in the Grimdark

Psychic Powers
Winged TyrantTervigonZoanthropeBroodkin Magus
DominionDominionDominionPsychic Shriek
Psychic ScreamWarp BlastWarp BlastInvisibility
Catalyst
CatalystDominate
Broodlord
DominionThe Horror

The low down:
  • Into The Maelstrom - Deadlock
  • Warlord Trait - 3 enemy units must make pinning tests
  • Night fighting first turn, won deployment, elected to go first.
  • CARNAGE! effect:
    • Rage - 2A on charge
    • Counter Attack
    • Furious Charge
Now that's a compact army... [although some Termiantors are missing]

I deployed in a similar formation as last time, using the trees as cover for the Carnifex.


Chris only had three units on the battlefield at the start.


All I had in reserve were the Rippers in the pod


These were my 6 cards that would whittle down as the game went on, I hoped to achieve [I photographed them again so they would be clear] That 6VP Lord of the Dead for putting a wound on every unit in Line of Sight, seemed possible


So I swooped the Flyrant towards the Thunderwolves and advanced everything else.


I think I managed two out of the three, with the Hive Guard managing to get two wounds on the Land Raider with impressive twin 6s to hit, followed by twin 6s to glance! But it was to no avail


As suddenly I had Murderfang at my Back door and Terminators at the front.


Broodkin and Stealer took casualties.


But it was the Carnifex that would take the brunt


Chris managed to score 3 mission VPs and First Blood in his first turn, I think the lead Carnifex fell to the Terminators despite Catalyst.


In return I was able to wipe them out, thanks to all the Devourer shots and Flesheborer shots from the 11 spawned gaunts from turn 1 and 12 from turn 2. Only the Wolf Lord was left.


My Tyrranocyte managed put wounds on the Dreadnought.


While the Termagants managed to swamp the Wolf Lord, who saved out of his skin this turn.


Genestealers and Broodkin charged Murderfang


Rage and Furious Charge were just too much for it, I mean the Broodkin were doing 5 S4 Rending attacks each! The Purestrains managed to put a Hull Point on the Drop Pod.


Stealers and Broodkin scatter with my consolidation.


The Wolf Lord continued to hold off the diminishing gaunts


I manage to pull of these 5 VPs in the one turn, I'm back in the game!


The Stormwolf arrives from reserve, I'd fogrgotten about that.


I manage to save the Tervigon from the Las Cannon attack but when it comes to the Helfrost Cannon typically there's my toughness test, anything other than a 6! It suffers the one wound and is frozen solid.


I think I was lucky with Synaptic Feedack as there doesn't seem to be too many gaunts dead.


The Land Raider turned round and roasted the Rippers, giving Chris an easy VP


And I'm pretty sure this was good news


But infortuantely this was not as I think the Tyrannocyte got squashed by the Thunderwolves. Chris managed to go one better than me and secure 6 VPs this turn, taking him to 9 and leaving me on 5.


These were my four new missions, all achievable.


I manage to kill the Thunder Wolves, I think with the Carnifex.


The other Carnifex manages to destroy the Land Raider. Now I read that I'd get a VP for that with the 'Self Destruct Protocols' card but when I re-read it I only read the 'suffers an "Explodes"' result, not 'causes, or suffers an "Explodes"'. So I may well have got a VP that I didn't count for this. I ddi however get 3 VPs for killing it just with attacks and 2 VPs for destroying it in my assault phase. Unfortunately I couldn't kill the drop pod to make it 4.


Meanwhile the Wolf Lord STILL won't die!


But I did get objective 3, bringing my VP total this turn to 6 [although it was actually 7 with the Land Raider]. Current score - 11-9


The Storm Wolf deposits the Wulfen, again I'd forgotten about those.


And they Prove devastating, slaughtering the Carnifex like it wasn't there.


The Wolf Lord STILL won;t die and manages to kill the Broodlord too!


Turn 4 and these are my missions. Objectove 2 is a done deal, there are 5 Wulfen on the board and all those Genestealers MUST be able to kill the Wolf Lord.


Just in case I send in the Purestrains, who'd finished wrecking the Drop Pod to clear my DZ of Line Breakers. The Hive Guard manage to make a 10" charge on the Stormwolf but can't wreck it. As the dust settled I managed to do all three of my cards but the weight of numbers still wouldn't give up the 4 VPs, the Wolf Lord lived yet again! I was on 14 VPs [actually 15].


Chris was pretty much out of options and all that was left was to see if the Wolf Lord survived and finally he was rent asunder giving me Slay the Warlord.

Final score was 15(16)-11 but once again I'd lost on Carnage points, giving up 88 and scoring only 43. This had been a great game, with the wealth of cards it really opens up more options compared with the other Maelstrom missions where you're stuck with one or two cards that are difficult and your opponent is racking up easier objectives. The Wulfen were pretty brutal but so were the Broodkin, of course the Rage and Furious Charge helped raise their profile.

I was desparateky unlucky with the Tervigon but credit where it's due that Wolf Lord was insane, surviving almost 6 rounds of combat, more in part beacause I just didn't roll any rends but he saved out of his skin for every other wound. I sugegsted to Chris he be interred in the remains of the wrecked Dreadnought, hopefully to fight another day. Now onto the last game.

6 comments:

  1. OH wow, what a great game. Fair play to that wolf lord.

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    1. Thanks for that Rory, I often question how worthwhile Battle Rports are. They take a really long time to write and not an inconsiderable time to read either. I try to be brief but it never happens - the amount of pictures dictate this alongside those events that actually require more in depth coverage.

      As I mention in a future post I've written 116 reports now, and I wonder if my efforts are better spent elsewhere? The pictures were much better than usual though this time so even if folk don't read everything there's plenty to look at. Bottom line is if I'm ultimately doing this as a record of my games is it worth it? And if anyone else reads them that's just a bonus...

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  2. I really like Deadlock as a mission. It forces you to try and score as many points as possible early on as your chances of scoring diminishes each turn. Though it can be daunting if your opponent goes 5 or more points ahead in the first turn, feels like a big slope to claw back from.

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    1. Certainly better than the missions where you only have one or two options and if they're unlikely you can be stuck while your opponent is racking up points. However, I think my approach to Maelstrom is a little misguided. My tactic is to try and secure as many objectives as possible, both for the objective cards and the Maelstrom mission that is built around drawing cards per objective held. The fact is these Carnage cards only had one set of objective secured cards, the remainder were all killing focussed. So my camping tactic was pretty useles and even when it was relevant, in the Tau game I was outmanouvered and couldn't capitalise on the objectives I'd intended to secure.

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  3. those all look like really difficult games...
    I'm afraid I'd been wiped out really quickly!

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    1. Arguably this may have been the easiest list I faced, however it was the cards that had the most impact on how the game went. I've noticed how the Maelstrom cards influence you to do things you wouldn't normally commit to. Often you'll do something that'll leave you exposed and it ends up like trading pieces in chess.

      His list though was composed of glass hammer units so there wasn't too much to fear. Even the thunder wolves had been neutralised by an early pinning check and lower numbers than I've played before.

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