40k Battle Report - Space Wolves (old Codex) vs. Eldar


This post is LONG overdue - I played an amazing game weeks ago, and just haven't gotten around to writing up the report. So! Here it is! (Sorry for the wait, Sterling!)
This was another game against a local Space Wolves player, playing a list he knew he liked before the new release changed all the units he loved. Although, since he loves Thunderwolves, things worked out well!


We played long table, I won the roll to Deploy/Go first, and the Wolves failed to seize. We were running the Maelstrom mission "Cloak and Daggers," with our usual House Rule that if you get an Objective you can't possibly score (i.e., "Kill a Flyer" when the enemy has no Flyers in their list) it can immediately be traded in for another one.


Here is half of my army, Guardian Jetbikes with both a Warlock and my Warlord Farseer. That Serpent is running Scatter Lasers (duh) and is full of ten Guardians with another Scatter Laser. Those Dark Reapers on top have an Exarch with Fast Shot and are all Starshots.


Here's the other half of the army. My favorite Seer Council bopping around with Eldrad's ghost, and a small unit of Warp Spiders, Cannon/Shield Wraithknight, and Serpent full of another full unit of Guardians.


My very first Psychic Test of the game, and I popped a Warlock in spectacular fashion. Not the best way to start. Not only that, but I rolled Dragged into the Warp, which cost me the Warlock and two other Jetbikes, including one of my three Shuriken Cannons. Ouch.


I did very little in my first turn, fired some pot shots, did a few wounds, but nothing terribly exciting (that plume of smoke is on the chair, not on the leftmost Wave Serpent, sorry about the angle!)
This was my first game ever against a Sicaran Tank, and my first against a unit of Thunderwolves with more than three models. This one had a Wolf Lord, and Iron Priest, and was maxed out on Thunder Hammers/Storm Shields.
Skip ahead through my second turn...


This is the Wolves second turn, I killed several Thunderwolves with pot shots from my Wraithknight, Serpent, and Reapers. I put a big dent in the unit, but the Lord and two others survived, posing a significant threat to every unit I have on the table.
I misjudged distances here, those last two "Thunderwolves" are within 10" of my Wraithknight. And they made their Charge!


The Wraithknight, predictably, was quickly slapped down by those wolves, and Grey Hunters started raining from the sky in Drop Pods around this point.


Bad moment. Our mug drop-pod unloaded a big unit of Grey Hunters into my lines, and they laid into my Warp Spiders, making them run a whopping 12" straight back. Adding to that, the Sicaran finally brought down one of my Wave Serpents...


Things looked bad here. I'd already lost a Guardian unit to Grey Hunters/Thunderwolves, my Spiders were hurt and running, Eldrad was threatened and had no support left, and the Sicaran was sitting with no HP lost, gleefully spraying lasers at everything on the table.


But then, my Spiders rallied, zipping up to wipe a unit of Grey Hunters. Eldrad, in an incredible show of just how much of a prick he is, had one of his Warlocks one-shot the Wolf Lord with a hail mary shot in Overwatch. Two shots, rolled a single six with a Singing Spear, it wounded, Wolf Lord rolled a 1 on his final wound!!
It was late in the game now, so I got crazy, and started sending Eldrad running up the table, sent my Warlord and his bike unit zipping across the table, and sent the Spiders face-first into enemy lines.


In a spectacular showing, the Ironclad scored a stunning two hits against Eldrad in overwatch, both wounded. And then in an equally spectacular showing, Eldrad failed both saves, dropping him to one wound!
What's worse? He had Fortune up. I rolled a 1 and a 2, and then a 2 and a 1 on the re-roll. Sad, sad day for the Craftworld.


In the end my Spiders wailed on the Sicaran's side-armor, blowing it up. My Jetbikes took Linebreaker, and with little left on the table, our final score was around 5 to 7 in my favor. The Wolves had First Blood (for a Wraithknight, of all things) I had Slay the Warlord from Overwatch (nice!) and Linebreaker from the mad-dash Jetbikes. The other points were various Maelstrom cards we'd been scoring all game.

What made this game awesome? It was back-and-forth, each side winning and losing multiple times. Units did incredibly unlikely things, both good and bad, and - most importantly of all - the game was evenly matched all the way through. I had an absolute blast!

I've got more long-overdue (and somewhat hazy, because they were ages ago) Battle Reports to do. I'll get on it soon as I can!

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