Hey There, this weekend I managed to get in a game of Zone Mortalis with a mate of mine, this was the first game I have hosted since my accident and it's always cool to break out this amazing table
We ran our armies at 1250pts which is a little more than the usually fielded 1000pts but there was more than enough room on the 4x4' table.
Company of the Great Wolf Detachment
Wolf Lord - Terminator Armour, Kraken Bone Sword, Storm Shield, Fellclaws Teeth
Rune Priest - Power Armour, Bolt Pistol, Runic Staff
Wolf Guard Terminators x5 - Thunder Hammer x1, Frost Axe x4, Storm Shield x5
Contemtor Dreadnought - Plasma Cannon, Heavy flamer
Grey Hunters x10 - Flamer, Meltagun
Grey Hunters x10 - Flamer, Meltagun
Grey Hunters x10 - Flamer, Meltagun
Eldar Primary & Harlequin Allies
Avatar
Wraith Guard x5 - D-Scythes
Jetbikers x3 - Shuriken Cannon
Jetbikers x3 - Shuriken Cannon
Wraith Lord - Sword, Scatter Laser, Bright Lance
Solitaire
Troupe x5
Sky Weavers x2
Sky Weavers x2
Mission: Capture Ground
Secondary Objectives: First Blood, Slay The Warlord
The Eldar won the toss and decided to setup and go first making sure that all the slower units were on the table early so they would have time to get across the table before the faster units arrived from reserves.
I deployed all three Grey Hunter packs and the Rune Priest up front which is counter to what I would normally do. I would normally deploy my Terminators and Dreadnoughts up front to tank fire but too often my first units that engage the enemy roll nothing but 1's for their first round of armour saves. You might scream SUPERSTITION! but I have lost my Terminators more times than I care to mention.
I did not manage to seize so the Eldar moved off and covered as much ground as possible during turns one and two and seemed hell bent on destroying me in my own deployment zone.
I spent my first few turns getting everyone into a defensive positions. I did not manage to get any of my reserves at the start of turn two so I was facing an overwhelming enemy force with none of my heavy hitters.
At the end of the Eldar turn three things started to look really bad for me as the enemy were quite literally right at my door and would walk up and knock on their turn 4 and I still had no reserves.
Luckily on my turn 3 my reserves arrived just in the nick of time as the Eldar were literally ready to launch an all out assault in their next turn.
The Eldar turn four was a regular assault fest that started when the Harlequins broken from cover and assaulted the Grey Hunters on my right flank.
The Avatar assaulted the Grey Hunters which could have ended in them being nothing more than a speed bump but as luck would have it my reaction fire landed six wounds on the Avatar as he charged in, four of which he failed to save so he entered combat with only one wound remaining.
My Left flank Grey Hunters dove out of the way shortly after the Wraith lord opened the blast doors and failed to damage my Contemptor so an epic battle was setup for my turn four.
When my turn four rolled round my Contemptor boosted by prescience landed six wounds on the Wraith Lord but sadly the Wraith Lord rolled extremely well and the battle ended in one round with a double KO.
My Grey Hunters finished off the Harlequin's while the Terminators made a B-line for one of the objectives in the Eldar table half.
My Wolf Lord split off from the Wolf Guard pack and charged in to finish off the Avatar in a challenge saving the remaining Grey Hunters from an inevitable fiery death at the hands of the God of War.
Now this is where the photo's cut out for a turn so I will explain the Eldar turn five. With the destruction of the Wraith Lord and the Contemptor the Wraith Guard were clear to match into my DZ and attack my left flank Grey Hunters and the Rune Priest. But and this is a big but I had repositioned the survivors of the Avatar combat so they would distract the Wraith Guard and the plan worked. I had one Grey Hunter exposed to the D-Scythes while the other 4 hid out of sight, the D-Scythes killed the exposed member of the pack due to terrible dice leaving the rest of the pack safely out of sight so they could not be assaulted.
The Solitaire assaulted my Wolf Lord after a blitz move which meant he was effectively out of action which was not cool but I guessed that if anyone could fight the good fight it was my Wolf lord.
So rolling into my turn five I had managed to fend off the worst of the Eldar forces but the Jetbikers and Wraith Guard still needed dealing with and it was clear that if the games ended after turn five the Eldar would win.
My Terminators moved up the right flank towards an objective but would need the game to run until turn seven to enable them to reach it. The Grey Hunters on my right flank held position on an objective. In the shooting phase I unloaded a torrent of Boltgun shots that were aided by Prescience into the Wraith Guard killing two of them.
In the assault phase I declared a charge with the smaller four man pack of Grey Hunters hoping to goad the Wraith Guard into action so my larger pack could avoid the D-scythes wall of death attacks. The bait was taken and more bad dice saw all four Grey Hunters make it into combat followed by a full ten man pack that included a Rune Priest that was still under the influence of prescience.
The Wraith Guard scored one wound which I passed and I went in with nothing but Krak Nades across both of my packs which was fifteen in total eleven of which were re-rolling to hit and when all the saves were rolled the Wraith Guard were reduced to a single model.
Sadly my Wolf Lord would roll nothing but 1's and was killed by the Solitaire which sucked but hey ho what you gonna do?
So my opponent rolled the dice and got us a turn six, the Solitaire moved up to within assault range of my Rune Priests Grey Hunter pack while one of the Jetbikers squads moved onto an objective. The second of the Jetbikers units shot at my Terminators causing no casualties. During the assault phase the Solitaire ended up in a challenge with the Rune Priest ending in no wounds caused to either side while the last of the Wraith Guard folded but the Grey Hunters were unable to move as the Solitaire had them tired down.
My Turn six saw my Terminators moving closer to their objective but they were blocked by a unit of Jetbikers while the Right flank Grey Hunter continued to hold their ground. In the assault phase the Terminators rolled right over the Jetbikers and consolidated close enough to the objective that if there was a turn seven they would capture it. The other combat swung my way and ending in the deaths of my Rune Priest and the Solitaire so my Grey Hunter packs were both free to consolidate into the mid-field.
If the game had ended now it would be a draw but my opponent rolled the dice and turn seven was on.
The Eldar were running low on units by this time but still held onto two objectives one of which was the centre objective which was worth three points rather than the regular one but they would have to hold them as we went into my turn seven.
My turn seven was brief, I moved my small Grey Hunter pack onto an objective while the larger pack moved towards the center objective, the Terminators were able to finally secure their objective. When the assault phase kicked off the the Grey Hunters did not have any trouble securing the center objective for the win.
The last of the Eldar units held one of the objectives worth one victory point.
The Center objective was held by my larger Grey Hunters pack.
The right flank Grey Hunters still held the objective they had defended Vs the Harlequins.
The survivors from the Avatar combat managed to hold an objective.
The Terminators ended the game at full strength for the first time EVER! and had an objective to boot.
Final Score
Space Wolves
First Blood = 1VP
Slay the Warlord = 1VP
Center objective =3VP
Objectives = 3VP
Eldar/Harlequins
Slay the Warlord = 1VP
Objective = 1VP
So a solid win for the Space Wolves after a very shaky start where for once the long game actually helped me out. I am sure that had my reserves been delayed for one more turn the out come would be very different as the Wraith Guard/Lord and the Avatar would have walked all over my Grey Hunters. I realised after the game that I had forgotten to use my Wolf Lords Fellclaws Teeth wargear for re-rolls to hit in combat and completely forgot that my Wolf Guard Terminators had +1 WS.
Anyway thanks for reading and be sure to check back soon.
