Star Eagles Battle Report - 2000 Points versus Space Wolves

Captain Taigana glared at the Space Wolf Battle Barge hanging above the planet.  Malice baked off the courageous III Company Captain.  Sergeant Chane shuffled next to him, unsure of what to say.  Fortunately for him, the Captain broke the silence himself.  "How did it come to this, Chane?  How is it that we find ourselves in this position?"

"The Wolves like a fight, sir."

"But how much longer must we entertain these... frivolities.  We have serious business to attend to."

"Yes sir."

"And the drinking.  Our supply of spirits has nearly run dry!  Have you ever seen such drinking?"

"Not ever, sir.  However..."

"However what, Sergeant?"  Danger! Danger!

"I was just going to say, it has been a treat to fight them. The 7th and 9th Company Brothers are learning a lot.  Their combat simulators are better than ours.  It doesn't hurt that they fight much like Chaos does."

"Don't let them hear you say that,"  Chane could hear the grin cracking across the Captain's face in his voice.

"Not a chance, sir."

"Well, let's make sure they are the ones supplying the drinks tonight!"

"Certainly, sir."

~ * ~

I had a game last night against Phil's Space Wolves.  We rolled up a regular mission, getting The Relic and Dawn of War.

Phil brought Logan Grimnar, a Rune Priest, a huge squad of Blood Claws, two units of Longfangs with missiles and Lascannons, a unit of Wolfguard in a Rhino, a separate squad of Wolf Guard as sergeant attachments, two or three Wolf Guard Battle Leaders, a unit of Grey Hunters in a Rhino, a Dreadnought, and a Vindicator.

(Remember, be sure to *CLICK* the images to see them larger!)

I brought Captain Taigana (Calgar), Mganga Moto Mwitaji (Level 2 Librarian taking Pyromancy - rolled Molten Beam and the Primaris), a squad of seven Assault Marines in a Pod with a power Axe and two flamers, six Tactical Squads in Drop Pods all with matching special and combi weapons (3 Melta, 1 plasma, 1 grav, and 1 flamer) and 2 Deathwind Missile Launchers, a 5-man squad of Kivuli (Legion of the Damned) with 3 melta, and a 6-man Devastator squad with 4 Heavy Bolters. 

Phil won the roll and chose to go second.  The Devastators deployed on a building.  He deployed his army in one large cluster on his left flank with one devastator squad alone on his right.  Phil rightly chose to reserve his Terminators and Vindicator.   As I nearly always do, I combat squadded the entire army.

I dropped in on turn one, putting the three Melta pods against the main firebase and the Assault Squad with my HQs against the single Devastator squad on his right flank.  I figured in this way, I could overwhelm him with the troops and save the command for counter-assault and tying up the bulk of his army while a late-game pod took the Relic.  I stunned a rhino and vaporizing the other, then blew both weapons off the Dreadnought.  

 I did some light troop damage throughout his army.

Phil manages to obliterate a combat squad and spread a bunch of damage around in both shooting and assault.  A couple of the Combat Squads are able to get away thanks to Taigana's (Calgar's) tactical acumen!

Sadly, the Blood Claws fail their charge.  This was a really unfortunate turn of events for Phil. 

More Star Eagles arrive and put lots of holes in the Space Wolves' lines.  

Mwitaji burns very large holes in the remainder of the right flank.

Several squads charge into the remaining Wolf Guard and Grey Hunters.

The Vindicator and Terminators arrive, destroying a Drop Pod and killing a few marines.  The Blood Claws assault into the scrum while the two Wolf Guard attached to the squad go after a different combat squad.

This happens.

The remains of a combat squad which had escaped from the clutches of the Wolf Guard Battle Leaders, with the assistance of a single, lonely Marine with a Meltagun, destroy the Wolf Guard.  

Taigana challenges Logan and the epic combat on the enemy lines continues!

The fight on the enemy's left flanks slowly grinds throughout the game.

"No you don't, Megatron!" The Brave (and probably nuts) Mganga pushes Taigana out of the way to fight the challenge for him!  Madly enough, Logan only does one wound to the insane pyromancer.

"Get out of the way, Hot Rod!"  Taigana jumps in and shoves the Mganga away only to be cut down by Grimnar!

The VII Company boys drop in and grab the Relic.  "Who wants a treat?  Come get your bone! Come get it, boy!"

With the remnants of the Space Wolf troops tied up in assaults or on the far side of the board, the game ends with a 5-1 Star Eagle victory.

Take-Aways

I've played four games with a Pyromancy Librarian so far and I must say that I quite like him.  This time, having the Level 2 upgrade on him was really nice from a utility standpoint and well worth the 25 points.

Of course, Calgar is an amazing choice.  I honestly love being able to basically use the old Combat Tactics.  I may have to add some bitz to better represent him on my Taigana model.  Right now, the model can have two fists magnetized on, but I need to add a sword.   Phil said he didn't see the guns on the fists, but I insist that the fists are the guns... they shoot off his arms with rockets, punch the opponent, then return to the character!  Fist Rocket-A-Rang!

The special weapon mixture seems to be working really well.  With two squads of flamers, a squad of Grav, a squad of Plasma, and three squads of melta, I seem to always have the tools I need to get the job done.

The small squad of heavy bolter Devestators was nice to have.  They made quick work doing cleanup throughout the fight, but they were useless for two or three turns as they watched on as the enemy was tied up in combat.  It was a neat way to try something new and fill my last block of points, at any rate.

Not having any anti-air might be a problem for this list.  It wasn't much of a problem the last time I took it against some other lists, but it still hasn't really been properly tested against a flyer-heavy list, particularly Heldrakes.