So, had another fight with the Wolves. This time against a friend who proxied some models to become a Titan Legion.
Not knowing beforehand what kind of army I would face I build the usual assault force…
Legio Gryphonicus (NetEA v3.24 *APPROVED*)
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REAVER TITAN [625]
2 Gatling Blaster, Laser Burner
REAVER TITAN [675]
Laser Burner, Legate, 2 Gatling Blaster
WARHOUND TITAN [300]
Vulcan Megabolter, Turbo-laser Destructor
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [150]
2 Thunderbolts
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [150]
2 Thunderbolts
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [150]
2 Thunderbolts
WARHOUND TITAN [350]
2 Turbo-laser Destructor, Single Weapon System Surcharge
WARHOUND TITAN [300]
Single Weapon System Surcharge, 2 Plasma Blastgun
CRUSADER SCOUT MANIPLE [150]
4 Crusader Robots
CRUSADER SCOUT MANIPLE [150]
4 Crusader Robots
Space Wolves
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GREAT COMPANY [550]
6 Grey Hunters, 2 Blood Claws, Hunter, Rhinos, 2 Grey hunters, Wolf Lord
GREAT COMPANY [300]
6 Grey Hunters, Battle Leader
WOLF GUARD TERMINATORS [375]
4 Wolf Guard Terminators, Rune Priest
THUNDERHAWK [200]
Space Wolves Thunderhawk Gunship
THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [175]
2 Thunderbolt Fighter-Bombers
MARAUDER SQUADRON [250]
2 Marauders Bombers
LONG FANGS PACK [300]
4 Long Fangs
LONG FANGS PACK [300]
4 Long Fangs
LAND SPEEDERS [200]
5 Land Speeder
SWIFTCLAW BIKES PACK [200]
6 Swiftclaw Bikes
FENRISIAN WOLVES [150]
6 Fenrisian Wolves
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By protecting every titan behind a scout screen and having lots of fighters I did only see a small chance for my terminators to make an impact. So after winning the initiative I made a little “all or nothing” charge. Sending in my fighters to clear some scouts and then assaulting the biggest Titan on the board. Perhaps not the smartest move but I might have worked, they made 2 DC on the Reaver but forgot to take on their armour and were all killed from 5 hits… With the Thunderhawk blowing up as usual in the resolution. Well, well.
Once you start attacking a Titan it is often best to continue so I threw everything I could find at it, planes, bombers and Long fangs. They manage to do another DC, overloading all shields and break it. On the rest of the board there was not so much action. I double and triple moved forward with everything and the titans moved a little bit closer firing their guns. Generally they had little luck with their dice so by the end of the first turn I had only lost a couple of rhinos and some marines.
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TURN 2
The plan was to clear some scouts with my landspeeders so I could attack a Warhound with a little support. Failing to hit a single robot on 5 5+ shots made me rethink the plan and I assaulted another Warhound in the middle killing it with massive support only taking a couple of hits. This turn I focused on killing their smaller units but only managed to kill a wahound and both robots. One Warhound run away threatening my blitz and the other was broken but unhurt from an engagement. One Reaver slowly moved up toward the middle and the two objectives and the other stayed put, guarding the Blitz. Both reavers was extremely unlucky when they fired their guns. Often only hitting a couple of shots and only to see me saving most.
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TURN 3
Trying to protect my blitz I made an attack on the Warhound with my speeds and some Wolves. They manage to break the titan but the rest of the turn did not go so well. The two Reavers secured their blitz and two of my objectives and I lost most of my assaults. I really lacked any unit to take on the big Titans. By the end of turn 3 no one had 2 VP so it went on to turn 4
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TURN 4
I had a slim chance to win this if I could secure all my objectives and in the same time sneak in behind the reaver and take their blitz. I also had 4 one-man formations that could contest objectives. Sadly it did not work out and the Titans won 2 points against 1 after hunting down my lone surviving BTS unit with some planes and by barely seeing a lone wolf behind a wood with a reaver.
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Conclusions:
Marines are tough, if you have the number of activations available to do some stalling it is no problem to just run a formation or two straight across the board to set it up for a turn 2 assault. Their 4+ save and TSKNF make them stick around fairly well.
The Gray Hunters lack of firearms is beginning to feel like a big drawback, perhaps the 25p reduction is to small…
My marauders did very well in this game, mostly because the opponent didn’t do too well with his fighters.
The Fenris Wolves is a strange unit, I buy them for a cheap activation and that they have ATSKNF. But in my mind the unit plays more like a unit of boars, perhaps they should be more deadly and not as tough?
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