Vengeance Long Awaited: Thousand Sons vs Space Wolves

Oh boy, am I ready for this one.

The Sons of Prospero take on the Wolves of Fenris ... and everyone's out for blood.

We get another new opponent for the blog: meet Monkey, jarl of the Vlka Fenrika and fellow alumnus from the Winters SEO School of Hard Knocks.

Space Wolves - The Rout of Nivag Troshvik

This is the kind of army I remember reading about in the mid-90s White Dwarfs - right down to the solid metal Bjorn the Fell-Handed. There's a lot of conversions in here to personalise each and every Space Wolf, capped off with a lovely old-school grey scheme.

In terms of its set-up: Bjorn himself is a combat beast, with some aura buffs and a resistance to damage. And that's nothing compared to the Wolf Lord, who's basically the wolf-riding equivalent of a 'smash captain', only with more attacks!

The Wolf Guard on jump packs are going to be a nuisance: mobile, packing a punch and hard to put down (they seem like the opposite numbers of my Tzaangor Enlightened).

The actual tactical squads are tooled-up, and given a solid combat backbone by their Wolf Guard leaders. The armoured vehicles are going to be a job to crack, and then there is all that firepower inside the dreaded Stormfang gunship.

So a mobile list that strikes hard - this should be interesting!

• Nivag Troshvik - Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf (HQ) (Warlord)
  Storm shield, Thunder hammer
  Warlord Trait: Saga of the Wolfkin
  Relic: The Wulfen Stone
• Bjorn the Fell-handed (HQ)
  Assault cannon, Heavy flamer, Trueclaw
• Hei-Mann and Yfir-Handleggr - 10 x Grey Hunters (Troop)
  Wolf Guard Pack Leader (Combi-melta, Frost sword), Pack Leader (Power axe), 1 x Melta gun, 7 x Boltguns, 8 x Chainswords
• Plasma team - 6 x Grey Hunters (Troop)
  Pack Leader (Power sword), 1 x Plasma gun, 4 x Boltguns, 5 x Chainswords
• Flamer team - 6 x Grey Hunters (Troop)
  Pack Leader (Power sword), 1 x Flamer, 4 x Boltguns, 5 x Chainswords
• Wolf Guard (Elite)
  Jump packs, Pack Leader [(Power fist & Storm shield), 1 x Frost Sword & Storm Shield, 1 x Chainsword & Storm Shield, 3 x Chainsword & Storm bolter 
• Predator (Heavy)
  4 x Lascannons
• Naórlopt - Gunship (Flyer)
  2 x Lascannon, 2 x Twin heavy bolter, Helfrost destructors
• Razorback (Transport)
  Twin assault cannon
• Rhino (Transport)
  Storm bolter 

Points: 1,487 | Battle-forged + Battalion: 8 CPs

Thousand Sons - The Court of Miracles

I'm going for a shift in my playstyle here - taking more guns and less in-your-face units like Mutaliths and Spawn. So lots of Rubrics (some of them freshly painted), Scarab Occult and a shooty Helbrute. I want to see what massed Inferno Boltgun fire in this new age of Bolter Discipline - and it doesn't hurt that it's better to deal with Space Wolves at arms' length.

I'm not completely holding back. While one of my HQs (the founding member of the Court - he wasn't going to miss this one) will be hanging back with the guns for buffs and rerolls, I'm also taking an Exalted Sorcerer on Disc so he can get in close with the Space Wolf heroes and lock swords (literally, as I'm spending a CP to give him the Seer's Bane relic).

Other than that, I'm sticking with my two packs of Shaman+Enlightened, who are just the more versatile part of my army, and a big pack of Tzaangors, who may be teleported across the field via the Dark Matter Crystal. The 'Tzaangor bomb' seems to be a popular tactic, but it's not one I've used before, so I'll see how it goes.

And finally, my warlord is the Daemon Prince, with Otherworldly Prescience to boost his invulnerable save. This guy seems to be a staple in my list, so maybe I need to mix it up next time. But for this one, I'll been needing all the Death to the False Emperor attacks he can bring.

• Yr'bith Fulred - Daemon Prince with wings (HQ) (Warlord)
  2 x Malefic talons, Wings
  Diabolic Strength, Gaze of Fate
  Warlord Trait: Otherwordly Prescience
  Relic: Dark Matter Crystal
• Montu Atash, Cutter of Threads - Exalted Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch (HQ)
  Two Power Swords, Plasma pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
  Death Hex, Warptime
  Relics of the Thousand Sons: Seer's Bane
• Scynthius Ekurah, the Visionary - Exalted Sorcerer (HQ)
  Force Stave, Inferno bolt pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades,
  Prescience, Temporal Manipulation
• 19 x Tzaangor (Troop)
  Icon of Flame, Brayhorn, Tzaangor blades
• 7 x Rubric Marines (Troop)
  Force Stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol, 6 x Inferno Boltguns
  Glamour of Tzeentch
• 7 x Rubric Marines (Troop)
  Force Stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol, 6 x Inferno Boltguns
  Temporal Manipulation
• 5 x Scarab Occult Terminators (Elite)
  Force Stave, 4 x Inferno Combi-Bolter, 4 x Power Sword, 1 x Soulreaper Cannon, 1 x Hellfyre Missile Rack
  Tzeentch’s Firestorm
• Helbrute (Elite)
  Twin Lascannon, Missile Launcher
• George - Tzaangor Shaman (Elite)
  Force Stave, Weaver of Fates
• Mildred - Tzaangor Shaman (Elite)
  Force Stave, Temporal Manipulation
• 4 x Tzaangor Enlightened (Fast)
  Fatecaster Greatbow
• 4 x Tzaangor Enlightened (Fast)
  Fatecaster Greatbow

Points: 1,499 | Battle-forged + Battalion + Vanguard - Relic: 8 CPs

Deployment

We choose Cleanse & Capture (basically the ‘standard’ Maelstrom mission) and roll up Vanguard Strike deployment. I won the roll to choose sides and picked the table edge I was standing by (who doesn’t?)

There was a quite a disparity in drop – the Space Wolves built an armoured castle of Predator, Razorback (with the Plasma squad), and Rhino (with the Melta squad). Bjorn and the Wolf Lord stood in the centre to buff their shooting. In the far corner was the Stormfang Gunship (with the Flamer squad). The Wolf Guard went into deepstrike and that was it!

On my side, I had more objectives in my line, so spread out to claim as many as I could. In a rare move for me, I didn’t put anything into deepstrike, since I wanted all that firepower available on Turn 1.

One squad of Rubrics were on Objective 4 (in the far-left ruin), with a unit of Enlightened+Shaman hiding behind them. The Scarab Occult Terminators sat on Objective 6 in a crater, then the Daemon Prince and Exalted Sorcerer on Disc, another unit of Enlightened+Shaman, the Helbrute (who carefully deployed to stay hidden from the Predator), with the foot Exalted Sorcerer and second Rubric squad on the extreme right flank.

The big pack of Tzaangor flooded the backline, hopefully leaving no spaces for the Stormfang to land next to my characters.

We roll off to begin. Monkey gets a 6 and chooses to go first.

Turn 1 – Space Wolves

The cards are interesting: Secure Objective 3 (in the centre ruin), Supremacy (not impossible, but three objectives are a tall order as so few actual boots are on the ground right now). But the third one is the doozy: Priority Orders Received: Witch Hunter.

So basically, the Space Wolves are not messing about and have ordered their warlord to kill a psyker. That’s over half of the units in my army, and the combat monster only has to kill one of them to rack up a massive four VPs. Unleash the Wolves!

The movement phase is quite conservative, the Wolf Lord runs around to threaten my left flank, and the Stormfang follows behind, still staying in its own deployment zone (anyone would think he didn’t want to get into Smite range).

The Rhino speeds onto Objective 3, Bjorn the Fell-Handed backs up up and busts through a dreadnought-sized hole in the ruin.

"HEEERE'S JOHNNY!"

The combi-bolter opens up on the right-flank Rubric and somehow fells one of them (with a 2+ save, which is ominous). Then the Predator blasts the Terminators with four lascannons. Their invulnerable save means that only two die, but the firepower is already worrying me.

The Stormfang is less impressive, and only manages to take out a single Rubric in the left-flank squad (at least they can make their saves).

And that’s the turn over. A cautious start, but there’s a lot of points stored in up that Warlord’s thunder hammer and almost thirty space marines who have yet to make their appearance.

Space Wolves Objectives scored: Secure Objective 3 (1)

Turn 1 – Thousand Sons

I get a fairly good draw: Secure Objective 4 (I’m already on it), Defend Objective 5 (in the centre ruin) and Area Denial (never going to happen).

I keep a lot of my units still, now that Bolter Discipline is a proper rule, I’m keep to try it out with Inferno Boltguns. Tzaangor Shaman George advances onto Objective 5, and the Tzaangor Enlightened go in front of him as a screen, so he’ll hopefully stay alive long enough to defend it.

My really punchy units – the Daemon Prince and Exalted Sorcerer on Disc – can’t really get into range of anything good, so I hide them behind the central ruins to bide their time.

And the big move: I use the Dark Matter Crystal to jump the Tzaangors over to the far end of the table, ready to threaten the Predator.

The Psychic Phase does not begin auspiciously – I don’t roll any Perils, but I am rolling well below average and struggling to cast anything. In the end, I think my sum total is Prescience and Glamour of Tzeentch on the Hellbrute, and a Smite or two on the Rhino.

The Shooting Phase picks up a little more – the Inferno Boltguns and Enlightened bows really open up the Rhino, and a Krak Missile from the Helbrute finishes it off. That gets me First Blood and spills out Hei-Mann's Grey Hunters into the ruins (they’re caught between shortening the charge of the Daemon Prince or the Tzaangors – and wisely choose the Tzaangors).

The rest of the Helbrute’s lascannon fire was sent into the Stormfang – it wounds, but this gunship proved very adept at making 6+ saves.

On the left flank, the Rubrics and other Enlightened scratch the paint of the Razorback, but fall just short of bringing it down a bracket.

Only one charge – and the Tzaangors make it easily to both Predator and Grey Hunters. My good fortune ends there, as the Tzaangors have the most awful hit rolls – despite playing Veterans of the Long War and Cycle of Slaughter, I only manage to take out half the Grey Hunters, and lose a good chunk in return. But at least the melta squad and lascannons will be shut down next turn, so I’ll take it.

Thousand Sons Objectives scored: Secure Objective 4 (1), First Blood (1)

Turn 2 – Space Wolves

It’s time to get aggressive, and the Wolves do just that. There’s only one new card to draw: Defend Object 1. That’s within range and the Razorback guns its engine to land on it. With a squad inside, that’s going to be tough to shift.

The Predator breaks from combat, but the Grey Hunters stay in the fight with the Tzaangor, as Bjorn lumbers up to threaten the Enlightened. The Wolf Guard land on Object 2 on my extreme right flank, where they can threaten the Rubric squad and claim another objective (Supremacy is still in play)

And then the big moves – Lord Nivag Troshvik decides he wants a date with Tzaangor Shaman Mildred and lines her up for a charge. The Stormfang flies over to my lines and trains its formidable firepower on my characters – this could get rough.

In the Shooting Phase, the Grey Hunters pistols take off another Tzaangor, but the combi-bolters of of the Wolf Guard fail against the Rubric armour. Bjorn opens up on the Enlightened with flamer and assault cannon, killing two of them (I remove the ones on the ground floor, which means he won’t be able to lay a fell-hand on the survivors).

The Razorback is still very much in the game, and spools up its assault cannons on the Enlightened. One of them dies, and getting cunning with casualties once again, I remove the one closest to the Wolf Lord, to lengthen the charge.

And then the big guns. Monkey deliberates whether to shoot the Stormfang at the easier target of the Disc Sorcerer, or the big prize of the Daemon Prince. He goes for the Daemon Prince, and is rewarded by a very frustrating round of shooting where I make every one of my 3+ saves. That Stormfang is looking a bit vulnerable now.

In the Assault Phase, Bjorn – having been denied the rest of the Enlightened – consoles himself with a charge into the Tzaangor. A few more Grey Hunters and a lot more Tzaangor get chopped down in combat, but the fight goes on.

More critically, the Wolf Lord multi-charges the Enlightened and Mildred and falls short! No bumper stack of points for him, and he’s also looking ripe for a counter charge.

No new points gained, but there’s a potential 2 VP for defending Objective 1. Speaking of which, I pick up 2 VP for Defending 5 and nudge into the lead.

Space Wolves Objectives scored: none

Thousand Sons Objectives scored: Defend Objective 5 (2)

Turn 2 – Thousand Sons

The seers have clearly noticed the threat posed by the Wolf Lord – my first fresh card is Kingslayer. We’re also not too amused by the Stormfang’s antics, but I get Scour the Skies as well. My final card is Secure Objective 1, which the Razorback is currently sat on.

I have a couple of choice targets in my grill and I have a good think about where I need to go. In the end, I decide that the Daemon Prince is best equipped to take down the Stormfang while the Disc Sorcerer will kill the enemy warlord (he didn’t bring Seer’s Bane all this way for nothing).

Making my moves accordingly, I surround those targets, while keeping my shooting units still (and threading one unit of Enlightened towards the backfield, as they’ve drawn the ‘tie up the Predator’ straw).

In contrast to last turn’s Psychic Phase, pretty much everything goes my way this time. I have enough psykers to Smite the Wolf Lord to pieces – but where’s the fun in that? So instead I use Cabalistic Focus to take away his invulnerable save and throw in just one Smite to drop half his wounds and soften him up.

Other psychic powers involve buffing up my Daemon Prince with Diabolic Strength and also Glamour of Tzeentch (in case the Stormfang survives and gets any funny ideas). The Helbrute gets Prescience, and most of the rest puts mortal wounds on the Stormfang and Razorback.

In shooting the Helbrute hits the Stormfang again (and he makes the 6+ save again). The right-flank Rubrics take out one of the Wolf Guard. The Scarab Occult Terminators finish off the Razorback, which spills out Grey Hunters. They lose a few in disembarkation, and a few more to the bows of the Enlightened and other Rubric’s bolters.

Also, to get his attention, the Disc Sorcerer shoots the Wolf Lord with a plasma pistol. Now it's personal!

There’s drama in the Assault Phase – the Daemon Prince leads the charge against the Stormfang and gets hit twice with Lascannon Overwatch. One wound gets past his invulnerable save, despite my reroll, and causes two wounds. Monkey decides that damage score is worth rerolling, and promptly turns the 2 into a 1.

Now that the gunship is tied up, Shaman George and his two Enlightened also join the fray.

It doesn’t stop there – when the Disc Sorcerer charges the Wolf Lord, he decides he’s not going quietly and hits him with a krak grenade in Overwatch. It bounces off the power armour and the Exalted Sorcerer gets into combat. He’s joined by Shaman Mildred, who wasn’t happy about being targeted last turn.

Finally, the other Enlightened charge the Predator, who snapshots one off his disc (it’s been a good round for Overwatch) before getting locked down again.

No messing around in combat – I go straight for the Exalted Sorcerer, who thumbs the activation rune on the Seer’s Bane and unleashes a flurry of attacks on the Wolf Lord, who discovers his Storm Shield isn’t working just as an ensorcelled blade is driven deep into his chest.

Oh, this is a victory for Montu Atash, Cutter of Threads. He's going right to the top of the Court’s enumerations! That’s Slay the Warlord and Kingslayer right there. And I’ve also denied the 4 VP that Wolf Lord would have gained. That is such a massive boost to my side…

… hang about, what’s going on here?

With a Fenrisian growl of ‘You should have gone for the head’, Nivag Troshvik rises up for one last feat of strength and fells the Montu Atash with a swing of his thunder hammer.

Double-slaying! The two fallen champions are carried away from the battlefield by their respective steeds – wolf and daemon disc – and the victory points start spilling out like coins from a fruit machine.

Not to be outdone, the Daemon Prince rips his talons into the Stormfang with a screech of Vengeance for Prospero! (and I finally get to use that stratagem!). He takes the gunship down to three wounds, which is just the right amount for George to jam his force stave into the jet intake and send it crashing down.

As the Grey Hunters scramble from the wreck, I consolidate the Enlightened into them – I can’t fight, but it will shut them down next turn. But they’re not as dazed as they appear, and immediately kill both Tzaangor, as well as knocking George down to half wounds.

Completing the carnage, the Grey Hunter Hei-Mann is slain by the Tzaangor (I guess he didn't have the power), and the fight in the ruins comes down to his Wolf Guard brother Yfir-Handleggra, a lone Tzaangor, and Bjorn himself, who has yet to be scratched.

That was a big turn!

Thousand Sons Objectives scored: Kingslayer (2), Slay the Warlord (1), Scour the Skies (1)

Space Wolves Objectives scored: Defend Objective 1 (2), Priority Orders Received: Witch Hunter (4)

Turn 3 – Space Wolves

Time is against us (and most of both armies are dead), so we agree that this will be the last turn. But there’s everything to play for.

The Rout just took a huge bump in victory points, but they lost a lot of material to do it. Having discarded Supremacy last turn, their fresh cards are Advance, Mission Critical Objective (Objective 2) and Oath of Vengeance (I get to pick one of my characters and dare him to kill it – I pick the Daemon Prince. And laugh).

The Predator once again breaks from combat and gets out of the deployment zone. The Wolf Guard zoom forward on their jump packs to engage the Rubrics. The Plasma Grey Hunters huddle in their crater and everyone else stays in the fight.

Shooting is minimal – although the Grey Hunters do drop a Tzaangor Enlightened with an overcharged plasma shot. And it’s straight to the fighting. Despite playing The Emperor’s Executioners, the Rubrics withstand the chainswords of the Wolf Guard quite handily, until the pack leader with the power fist crashes in and kills half the squad.

The Grey Hunters who escaped the Stormfang bring down George the Shaman, which allows me to fight first in the ruin with my Tzaangor champion and slay the last of the Grey Hunters. Victory! He’s cheering wildly until Bjorn takes one pace forward and steps on him.

It's another couple of points to pull the Space Wolves into the lead. My only stroke of luck is that I had so few Tzaangors on Objective 3 that Bjorn only gets 1 VP for claiming it, not D3 VP for taking it off me.

Space Wolves Objectives scored: Advance (1), Mission Critical Objective (1)

Turn 3 – Thousand Sons

I need points from somewhere, but the cards are not kind. Assassinate (Bjorn is the only character left), Secure Objective 1 (currently occupied by Space Marines) and Domination (oh, come on!)

I decide that I need to clear my back lines, because that seems achievable and I just want to kill a lot more Space Wolves. It will also deny a Linebreaker VP to Monkey and that seems critical.

So my last surviving Tzaangor Enlightened flies onto Objective 1, and wait patiently for someone to remove all those pesky Grey Hunters from it. Mildred zooms into the enemy deployment to score Linebreaker for myself (had the game continued, she would have probably gone to tie up the Predator again, but that’s now redundant).

My Scarab Occult Terminators move against the Flamer Grey Hunters, while the Rubrics drop out of combat with the Wolf Guard so my Daemon Prince and Exalted on foot can get a clear run at them.
The Psychic phase is another bust – I manage to get Diabolic Strength on the Daemon Prince, but fail to put Prescience on the Helbrute and fail nearly all my Smites (including one that Perils and blows up two Rubricae). I was hoping to dent that Wolf Guard squad a lot more, since mortal wounds are my best route around their Storm Shields.

In shooting, all my firepower goes into removing the Grey Hunters from Objective 1, and then its into the Assault Phase. I make all my charges, but three remaining Scarab Occult Terminators fail to kill all of the Flamer Grey Hunters and get one of their number punched down in return.

In the main event, I spend my last command point to give the Daemon Prince Vengeance for Prospero again, and he lets rip with a bucketful of malefic talon attacks.

The Wolf Guard make the first save on the Storm Shield. And then again. And then again. And then a few more times and now I’m getting a bit worried.

Turns out 3++ invulnerable saves are less fun when they’re not yours.

Finally, one of the wounds goes through and all but two of the squad are slain by the remaining hits.

The Exalted Sorcerer knocks off another, but the Helbrute (who, to be fair, was geared for shooting) can’t kick away the last one. I still have a couple of Space Wolves in my deployment, and they’ll score Linebreaker.

The game ends there. The Thousand Sons standing over the carnage, and Bjorn the Fell-Handed holding the centre like the absolute boss that he is.

Thousand Sons Objectives scored: Secure Objective 1 (1), Linebreaker (1)

Space Wolves Objectives scored: Linebreaker (1)

Result: 10 : 10

Let the Skalds sing the sagas!

For a three-turn game, that was epic. It's fair to say the narrative took over with this one, and both armies were tearing pieces out of other with no quarter given. And to have it end on a draw only sets up the grudge match - watch this space!

On the subject of dumb things I did in the service of narrative: it would have been wiser to Smite the Wolf Lord to pieces, rather than face him in single combat. But there's no sagas to be had from that, so I have no regrets.

More tactically, it never occurred to me that I could have just flown a couple of Enlightened on Objective 1, and so outnumbered the Razorback - denying the Space Wolves the points for defending it, while picking up one for myself. I have to remember to think more obliquely - cracking the Razorback open just made the job of taking the objective harder.

Also, I'm not sure I could have managed Domination on my last turn (it would probably have involved Warptime going off and a few favourable advance rolls), but I know that I didn't even consider it. But my blood was up, and I was in the mood to kill Space Wolves, not scatter all over the board (and in fairness, I was racing to catch my train home, so that final turn was played exceptionally quickly).

Overall, I'm happy with how the army did. I felt that I dealt with the vehicles well (although may have underestimated the potency of the marines themselves). The Tzaangor underperformed, but that was partially my fault for not buffing them. The Helbrute was also underwhelming, although there wasn't much it could do about the Stormfang's saves. But it does make me play in a static fashion that and I could get a Mutalith for the same points, which can throw out all sorts of benefits to my combat troops.

I really liked the Space Wolves army (I want a Bjorn!), and the playstyle looked a lot of fun: having all the troops starting out in vehicles gave it real Viking marauder feel. There's a huge amount of old school charm in the army, and it was great to face it on the field.

Bring on the rematch!