Mission: Cloak and shadows
We were lacking two sets of 8th edition objectives, so we played the cards face-up to check the rulebook for their actual text.
Lists: 1750 points
Daemons: Brigade Detachment
- Daemon Prince of Khorne with Wings, sword, warlord
- Skulltaker
- the Masque of Slaanesh
- 2x 10-man Bloodletters
- 2x 10-man Daemonettes
- 2x 3-man Nurglings
- 3x Beast of Nurgle
- 5-man Chaos Furies of Khorne
- 2x 5-man Flesh Hounds
- Skull Cannon
- Soul Grinder of Nurgle
- 5-man Havocs, 3 Lascannons
I experimented with multiple new things here, namely: departure from HQs doing all the work, killy infantry horde backed up by characters, cheap stuff filling up the detachment to get 12 CPs, and heavy long-range shooting.
Space Wolves: Battalion Detachment
- Logan Grimnar on Stormrider
- Rune Priest with axe and plasma pistol, warlord
- 6-man Blood Claws, 2x Power Fist, flamer, combi-flamer
- 8-man Grey Hunters, 2x Power Fist, flamer, combi-flamer
- 10-man Grey Hunters, 2x Meltagun, combi-melta
- 5-man Hellblasters
- Stormfang Gunship, twin multimeltas, twin lascannons
- 2x Razorback, storm bolter, assault cannon
- 2x Rhino, 2x storm bolter
Deployment
I rolled Spearhead Assault, which is perfect for a melee army. I kept dropping my shooting units in first, forcing the Wolves to make their important drops before me. We ended up concentrating most of our units in the center.
Soul Grinder and a unit of Nurglings on the left flank, Skullcannon, Furies and a Beast on the right. Other squad of Nurglings hiding in the opponent's deployment zone.
Ignore all the infantry in the Wolves' back lines; they are actually in their transports at this point.
All the infantry - Bloodletters, Daemonettes, Flesh Hounds, characters and Daemon Prince in the middle, facing off against the Razorbacks and Logan Grimnar.
I obviously took longer to deploy, and didn't bother to re-roll Seize the Initiative.
Space Wolves, turn 1
The flier came up and unloaded into the Soul Grinder, taking it down to 4 wounds.
The Hellblasters shot the Havocs, killing the two without lascannons. Everything else backed up and shot the Daemonettes, decimating both squads. I spent some CPs on auto-passing morale and rerolling another morale, but I managed to not give up first blood.
Daemons, turn 1
I thought I had enough firepower with the Grinder and 3 Lascannons to start doing damage. I concentrated all that into Logan (even ignoring the mission's long range shooting penalty with 1 CP) but only managed to inflict 1 wound. This was a severe blow to my morale. At least the Skullcannon managed to kill 1 Hellblaster.
Everything else advanced.
Space Wolves, turn 2
Everything backed up to the edge of the table.
Then opened fire on my massed infantry.
The turn's losses:
And what was left:
As an afterthought, the flier killed the Soul Grinder.
Daemons, turn 2
The situation looked dire. I had to get into combat, and soon.
On the right flank, the Nurglings came out of hiding to eat the overwatch and charge the Rhino. Then the Daemon Prince went in... failing an 8" charge, with a CP reroll.
In the middle, the Flesh Hounds charged into the Hellblasters. 1 died in overwatch.
On the left, the Flesh Hounds charged the Rhino. They rolled 11. Couldn't roll that for the Daemon Prince, now could I?
Skullcannon shot and did 2 wounds to a Rhino, Lascannon missed entirely.
Space Wolves, turn 3
Like true ambush predators, the Wolves jumped out of their transports for the killing blow.
The Rhino backed up, opening the way for a charge.
Grey Hunters advance supported by Logan.
Flamer squad jumps out, Rhino backs away.
The Daemon Prince, left out in the open after the failed charge, is greeted by the flier.
Miraculously, the flamers do no damage to the hounds. The Beast suffers some bolter shots, though.
Assault cannons and bolters kill the last of the Bloodletters.
Flier annihilates the Daemon Prince. Bolters and meltas tear through the Nurglings.
Flamer squad assaults the Hounds. This was the combat that I interrupted, killing some Marines and decreasing incoming damage.
Logan fails to kill the Masque. Hounds fail terribly against Hellblasters, and only 1 remains alive.
Nurglings are annihilated in combat.
Daemons, turn 3
At this point the game was already crumbling for me, though I did what I could to salvage it.
I didn't have luck with the objectives, so even though I camped everything in my deployment zone, we were about equal in points.
My heavy hitters - buffed Bloodletters, Skulltaker, Daemon Prince - were gone.
I tried to stall, hoping for better objectives to come. After all - we were in combat.
Beast charges in.
The Masque tries a desperate gamble, breaking away from Logan and charging the Rune Priest. This would score warlord kill and an objective for killing a psyker.
Furies charge in.
Hounds and Beast fiddle around with the Marines. The Beasts in general suck in combat, rolling low on number of attacks. The Hounds do OK, but only in the turn in which they charge, after which the superior armor of the Marines skews the odds.
I attack with the Furies first, but they do no damage. Hitting on 4+ really sucks, as well as no AP, even with the large number of attacks granted by Unstoppable Ferocity. The Wolves interrupt with the last 2 CPs, and the Rune Priest kills the Masque.
The Marines strike back, easily killing the Furies, as expected.
Space Wolves, turn 4
I wanted to play out at least turn 4, to see if there was any chance left. But in this turn, the Wolves scored 7 points, taking the lead and killing most of my standing army. I conceded.
Aftermath
The mission was unfavorable for me, as the -1 to hit affected all my shooting, but only affected the initial volley of the Wolves, who then decimated my forces at mid-range. I also had misfortune drawing objectives. However, there are some things to learn:
- Both the Soul Grinder and the Skullcannon are useless as static shooters. I might try them next time advancing along the other units.
- Lascannons might work, if you don't roll as many 1s. Havocs camping in cover are still a good addition to the army, as they attract fire and have 2+ save.
With the two above, I can say that shooting as a whole was very disappointing in this game.
- Infantry hordes might work, but only if there are other, bigger things distracting the enemy shooting. Assault cannons and regular bolters tear through T3. So instead of hiding all my characters behind squishy Bloodletters, I should have gone for a Bloodthirster rampaging in front, drawing all that S6 fire.
- Flesh Hounds are good but only in numbers. After the initial round of combat, the loose to Marines.
- Furies and Beasts of Nurgle don't do well in combat, and are only useful as slot fillers.
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