Standard of Devastation becoming standard equipment.

A couple weeks ago, I played SeeJay87 up at the ol' game shop.  I ran my standard list from before, except I got rid of all the Librarian upgrades for an additional Speeder.  He was playing his fairly new-ish Space Wolves.  This is approximately his list, based on my memory and an older list I found on his blog:

HQ:
Logan Grimnar

Troop:
10 Gray Hunters, 1 plasma gun
-Rhino
10 Gray Hunters, 1 plasma gun
-Drop Pod

10 Wolf Guard, 10 combi-meltagun, 1 power fist
-Drop Pod

6 Wolf Guard in terminator armor: power axe and storm shield, thunder hammer and storm bolter, power sword and storm shield, thunder hammer and storm bolter, power sword and assault cannon, power axe storm shield
-Land Raider Crusader

Heavy:
6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers
-Razorback with TL lascannon

6 Long Fangs, 5 missile launchers
-Razorback with TL lascannon

100 pts Aegis Defence Line with quad gun




     The mission was The Relic with Dawn of War deployment.  He won the roll-off and chose to set up first.  He deployed one unit of 5 Missle Launchers on the second level of the ruins in the top right of the board and the other 5 Missle Launcher behind the defense line next to it.  Their transports were deployed nearby.  In the center of his deployment zone, he put his Landraider with Logan and the Terminators.  The Rhino with Hunters was on the left. 

     I deployed Sammy, the Librarian, the Command Squad and all 3 Plasma squads on the right flank.  I had a nice line-of-sight blocking building that I could hide behind by using my scout move.  This would keep me clear of the Long Fangs behind the defense line. 

     My two Melta squads and Attack Bikes deployed near the line-of-sight blocking building in the center, intent on scouting up behind it to get out of sight of both of the Long Fang squads.  All 3 of my Landspeeders were deployed as far back and to the left as they could go.  This kept them out of range of the long fangs.  Finally, the White Knights deployed in the ruins in the left side of my deployment zone.  My scout moves consisted of everyone moving closer to the enemy, but focusing on gaining cover. 

     My lucky butt rolled a 6, and I siezed the initiative!!!!  Sorry SeeJay......

Top of 1:  I moved up the command squad to keep the banner hidden behind the building, but then realized that I could get within 12" of the Long fangs in the ruins to hit them with a Rad Grenade.  The 3 Plasma Squads moved up into range of them as well.  The white knights moved up in front of the center building, looking to shoot up the (not-so) juicy insides of the Landraider that I planned on blowing up.  To do this, I moved both attack bikes in front of the Knights and within 12" of the Landraider.  One of the Combat Squaded Melta Guns moved up in range as well.  I used the other Combat Squad to provide a screen against the imminent counter-assault from the Termies that I would surely see.  The other Melta squad aimed themselves at the rhino to try to keep them at a distance.  The Speeders stayed in place, already in range of their targets.








Middle of turn 1.

     On the right side, my shooting saw the Long fangs hit by the Rad Grenade and going down to T3.  Two Plasma Talons and Sammy's Plasma Cannon cut them in half, and the first Salvo of bolter fire finished them off.  The second Salvo had tremendous luck against the second squad of Long Fangs, cutting them down to only the man on the Quad Gun.  The front squad, with no real shots remaining, simply turbo-boosted up behind the ruins, with the nearest Razorback in their sights. 





Middle of turn 1.

     On the left side, the shooting was not as effective, but not too bad.  My Multi-melta Attack Bikes either failed to hit, or failed to penetrate his Landraider.  Same with the Melta Guns, so my Knights had nothing to shoot at.  The first Speeder shot at the Rhino and took off a hull point and the second blew it up!  I managed to take out half of the squad with the two Combat Squads. 

Bottom of 1.

 Bottom of 1:  His movement phase started with the first Drop Pod full of Combi-meltas coming down right behind the Command Squad.  I knew to be looking for that, so I was glad I left my Librarian the furthest back to protect the Banner.  Next the Landraider moved up a bit and the contents emerged.  The remaining Gray Hunters moved toward the fight.  His shooting started with 10 Combi-meltas, hitting and wounding 8 times!  This was gonna hurt....   So I started rolling, and failed 3 of the first 4 Jink saves.  BUT THEN, I remembered that the squad has Feel No Pain, and I rolled their saves up.  Overall, I ended up only losing 1 wound on the Librarian and 1 on SammyDavisJr!!!  Sorry again...

Bottom of 1.

     In the center, his Landraider shot up the White Knights, along with the Quad Gun and one Razorback.  I ended up failing only one save.  I am loving their 4+ Jink from having Skilled Rider, but I did forget to turbo-boost since I had no target to shoot at.  The other Razorback penetrated the nearest Landspeeder and immobilized it.  Fortunately it was still pointed in a good direction.  The terminators shot up the  combat squad that I set up as a screen, but only killed one due to being mainly set up for hand-to-hand.  Then they charged in.  They went ahead and did a disordered charge against both combat squads.  They do lose their bonus attack for charging, but they have plenty of killing power to take them on.  I managed to take out one of the terminators, but lost the fight.  The terminators consolidated back towards the Landraiderto try to protect Logan. 

Top of 2:  I swung 2 of the Plasma Squads and the Command Squad around to get them all pointed at his Wolf Guard from the Drop Pod.  I focused on keeping the Plasma Gunners in front so he wouldn't get any cover saves.  They ended up taking them out with the help of another Rad Grenade.  The last Plasma Squad moved toward the Razorback, and managed not to even get a glancing hit against the rear armour.  My Librarian broke off and moved toward the Razorbacks.  I got his Puppet Master power to go off on one of them and shot at the Landraider, but failed to penetrate.  Looking back, I should've shot the other Razorback.

     In the middle, I swung the Attack Bikes around to get shots at Logan, while the Knights moved in to engage the rest of the Terminators.  The remaining bikes moved in, too, ignoring the Gray Hunters.  My shooting from the Knights, Attack Bikes and Melta Bikes saw the Terminator squad cut down to one man and Logan.  The charge did not have the the power I needed, due to his Counter-Attack and Logan's crazy attacks.  I don't remember the outcome, just that it was not good. 

Bottom of 2: His second squad of Gray Hunters came in on their Drop Pod right next to the relic.  Some more shooting slims down the remaining Combat Squads near the Terminators.  I lost an Attack Bike as well.  Assault saw Logan Killing another Bike or two.  I'm not too sure about the details, but it was feeling like a stalemate in the middle.  One of his Razorbacks took out my Librarian, who was now on his own.

Top of 3.

Top of 3:  I moved my Salvo blob into range of the Gray Hunters on the relic.  I took out all but 2 with my shooting.  The Plasma squad popped one of the Razorbacks.  Logan at some point finished off everything I threw at him.  I do believe that Logan was a pain in my side, but I feel like he could have been worse.  I think that CJ tried to use his S6 I5 attacks too much and if he had relied on the S8 I1, I would not have lasted so long against him. 

Bottom of 3, Rest of game:  I don't know the exact way the game went down, but I finally took out the Gray Hunters that started on my left, removing his last scoring unit.  At that point he conceded to me. 

Conclusion:  Overall, I got First Blood, Linebreaker, and the Relic to his Slay the Warlord.  Seizing the initiative was crucial to the level of success I had.  My shooting would have been reduced had he thinned them out first.  I also got pretty lucky with my saves in the first turn, losing only one White Knight and a wound on both the HQs.  I felt that I took advantage of the cover provided and of how much he spread out his army.  It allowed me to pick off a unit at a time on right side, but it did keep my Salvo blob away from his terminators.  I finally learned to keep the Speeders away from the action, and just sat back and shoot.  I would like to try to get 3 Multi-Melta Attack bikes into a list, because I have had horrible luck with their shooting.  I don't want to sacrifice the power of the speeders, so maybe I need to make the Bike Squads smaller.  I'm open to comments and criticism.  My biggest accomplisment for this game was to use half of the army without the aid of the Standard of Devastation.  I don't want it to be a gimmick army list, and I proved that I can still play it like I used to play my White Scars.  Granted, I lost every bike that I threw at the center of the table, but I did take out 6 Terminators (3 with Storm Shields) and all but 1 wound from Logan.  On top of that, I had a Rhino full of Gray Hunters to deal with.  I did realize that I should have mixed the Plasma and Melta squads between the sides.  I suppose I was thinking about trying to pop the Landraider, but I would have LOVED to have some more Plasma love in the middle in addition to the White Knights.  I almost never use the special weapons in the blob I keep near the Standard of Devastation.  I might drop one unit's Meltas and one unit's Plasmas.  I suppose I will see.  What do you think? 






Almost the end, just before the Gray Hunters fall to shooting.