My opponent for game 2 was a guy named Brent. I had played him once previously at the preliminary round of 'Ard Boys. He had used his Tyranids then, but I knew from that game that he was a good player and that I was in for a tough game. I also knew I was in for a fun game as our previous meeting had been full of good conversation and laughs.
The mission was another objective mission, but with a twist. The objectives were Servitors that could join units that 'controlled' them, and could move with the unit once it had been claimed. In addition if you had controlled any of the objectives from the previous game you could use them to nominate non-scoring units to count as scoring for this game.
Brent army was as follows:
Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf Mount, Belt of Russ and, Wolf Tail Talisman
Rune Priest with Murderous Hurricane and Jaws of the White Wolf
Rune Priest with Murderous Hurricane and Storm Caller
2x 5man Grey Hunter pack with Flamer in Las/plas razorback
2x 5 man Blood Claw pack with Flamer in Las/plas razorback
2 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 1 with melta bombs and frost axe, one with storm shield2x Long Fang Pack with 4x missile launchers
5x wolf Scouts
I won the roll to go first and passed it to Brent. He selected his table quarter and deployed his entire force with the exception of the wolf scouts. He castled up deep in the corner with the Long Fangs in some area terrain, his Razorbacks lined up next to each other to benefit from Storm Caller and his Thunderwolves in the back for counter attack purposes. We placed the objectives and began the game. Brent did nothing during his 1st turn, preferring to wait for my troops to begin arriving. The 2nd turn saw Brent casting Storm Caller and popping smoke on all of his Razorbacks. He passed the turn to me and I began to roll for reserves. It is at this point that I think the game was truly decided.
I rolled first for one of the Sanguinary Guard squads and failed. I used the re-roll from Descent of Angels and still failed to see the unit arrive. I rolled for the 2nd Sang. Guard and saw them also fail to arrive despite the re-roll from DoA. I rolled for the Assault Squad with the flamer and Librarian and saw them also fail to come in despite DoA. After that I rolled for the melta gun Assualt Squads but when neither of them came in I opted not to re-roll and just left my entire army still in reserves. Brents smoke launchers had just been wasted! Furthermore in his turn 3 he opted to remain castled up against my drop and just cast Storm Caller. Then on turn 3 my entire force arrived en masse. I opted to combat squad the Assualt squads and split them so the melta guns would be with three regular assault marines, while the sergeant and priest would be together with 4 regular assault marines. The Librarian landed and was able to hit three of the razorbacks with his blood lance. The front razorback made it's cover save and the third one I was unable to roll high enough to penetrate, but the center of the three I managed to penetrate and got an 'explodes' result. This was one of the razorbacks containing a Rune Priest. They passed their pinning checks and none died in the explosion. One of my melta squads landed right in front of his line of razor backs and promtly rolled a 1 and a 2 to hit, while the other scattered poorly and misplaced on the mishap table. Brent placed them far enough out that they would be doing no damage, but would give him a nice squishy target in his next turn. I landed one of the sanguinary guard near his long fangs and placed everything else in positions where they would either be out of sight or would be getting cover saves until my next turn when they would move up to begin assaulting the space pups.
In Brents turn 4 he moved up the Thunderwolves to get into the action and began to fire upon my newly arrived forces. The razorbacks openend up on the sanguinary guard unit near the long fangs, killing all but the one with the power fist. With such an imminent threat in their face the long fangs also opened fire on them, but their krak missiles proved no match for the golden warriors artificer armor. The Rune Priest and his grey hunters moved up on my librarians squad and opened fire on them with murderous hurricane and a handfull of bolt pistols, but my power armour and feel no pain proved too much for the Space Wolves fusilade and I didn't lose a single model. Also his wolf scouts showed up in turn 4 and he moved them on from my board edge near one of my assualt squads. This would actually prove a bit costly for him as from his perspective they ended obscured by a building and for me I was standing right over them where I would have to look straight down in order to see them. They ended up being forgotten. The assualt phase saw the thunderwolves assualt one of the meltagun toting combat squads while the Rune Priest and his squad assaulted the Librarian and his squad. The thunderwolves easily wiped out the meltagun unit and consolidated back into some cover and out of my charge range. With my pile in move I was able to get my sergeant in base to base with the Rune Priest and kill him. He killed three of my assualt marines in return and I failed morale and ran. He consolidated towards my squad and got within 6" again, meaning I would have to continue falling back in my turn.
In my turn 4 the Librarian and his squad continued to fall back and landed near Brents Wolf Scouts. This is when we realized his mistake. The squad containing the flamer positioned itself to open up on the wolf scouts but failed to cause any casualties in shooting. One of my other squads with a sergeant and priest also moved up to assault the wolf scouts to ensure their demise so my Librarian and his squad would be able regroup in my next turn. I also moved up a squad to assualt the Grey Hunter squad that forced the Librarian to run in the 1st place. Elsewhere the melta squad that Brent had placed moved up to take aim at the other Razorback that contained the other Rune priest and wrecked it. The lone powerfist Sanguinary Guard moved into terrain to assualt the Long Fangs killing two and winning combat. The Long Fangs failed their morale check and got away, running off the board edge. The other Sanguinary Guard squad moved up behind some cover setting up their move for the next turn. The assaults saw the end of the Wolf Scouts and the Grey Hunters and I passed the turn to Brent.
In Brents turn 5 the Rune Priest and the Thunderwolves moved up and assaulted the melta squad wiping it out. The Razorbacks and Long Fangs took care of the lone remaining Sanguinary Guard from the one squad and three from the other squad.
In my turn 5 I moved the Sanguinary Guard move back away from Brents army and collected the objective in the center of the table and moved into some area terrain in the running phase. Meanwhile one of my assualt squads grabbed up the objective in the neutral quarter on my side of the board. The rest of my army moved up to act as screening/counter assaulting units to keep the Thunderwolves away from the objective. I had the win, now I just needed to hold on!
In Brents turn 6 he moved up the Thunderwolves and assaulted one of my assualt squads, but due to some terrible rolls on his part he failed to wipe them out and I was able to remain locked in combat. Meanwhile he was only able to kill one of the two remaining Sanguinary Guard so I was able to hold onto the objective.
In my turn I moved the Assault squad with the objective as deep into the corner, and as far away from the Thunderwolves as possible. The Sanguinary Guard meanwhile moved deeper into their terrain to try to get completely out of line of sight of the Razorbacks just in case we had a turn 7. The Librarian and his squad moved up and joined the fray against the Thunderwolves. I was hoping that with enough power weapons and furious charge I would be able to wipe them out, but I failed to do much damage. Fortunately for me Brent also had some terrible rolls and we ended up with a drawn combat to end the turn. We rolled to see if there would be a 7th turn, but the game ended giving me the win two objectives to none. In the end I also managed to secure the secondary objective (though I don't recall what it was!) and one of the battle point modifiers for 16 of 17 total battle points.
This was the second time I had played Brent and both games were very fun. In both of the games he managed to wreck face on my armies, but I was able to keep a keener eye on the mission objectives to secure the win. I really believe that if I had gotten my army in on turn two though that the game would have gone horribly bad for me. Keeping Brent in his defensive position for an extra turn in an objective mission such as this was a vital element to my victory. I look forward to my next game against Brent as I'm sure I'll see him across the table again. I just hope to keep landing objective missions against him!
Oh, almost forgot, the pic up top is a pic of Brents army. It was actually the top vote getter in the painting competition, but Brent went on to take second in the tournament and could only get one of the prizes. So congrats to Brent on 2nd place and on having a beautiful army!
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