Bjorn To Be Wild: Space Wolves vs Black Legion

Bjorn the Fell-handed is taking the Primaris pups out to chew on some heretics.

The Black Legion are waiting for them.

This is my first game hosting 9th Edition, and joining me on this journey will be Monkey, who will be giving the Imperial Guard a well-deserved rest, and taking command of my Space Wolves once again (I'm still trying to convinced him Space Wolves can be Primaris).

The Unkindest Cut - Black Legion

I'm very exited by this list. When I first started the Black Legion, my vision was for a fast-moving, hard-hitting 'Tip of the Spear' formation, with Bikers, Rhinos and Raptors at the heart of it. The poor Bikers have been sitting in their undercoats for the best part of two years (I'm easily distracted), but now they're in a decent enough state to hit the field.

Usual suspects everywhere else: melta and plasma squads to crack those primaris; Helbrute and Berserkers to beat them at their own game, and finally Strato with his trusty jump-pack and daemon chainsword to charge with reckless abandon.

Battalion Detachment - Black Legion

• Strato of The Cabal - Chaos Lord (HQ) (warlord)
  Chainsword, combi-bolter
  Warlord: Black-clad Brute
  Relic: Ghorisvex's Teeth
• Flavius Sicklyforth - Chaos Sorcerer (HQ)
  Combi-bolter, Force stave, Mark of Nurgle
  Powers: Miasma of Pestilence, Warptime
• Varro Bloodearth - Exalted Champion (HQ)
  Combi-melta, Power axe
• 5 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
  Combi-plasma, 3 x boltguns, plasma gun, 
• 5 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
  Combi-melta, 3 x boltguns, melta gun
• 10 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  Autoguns
• Helbrute (Elite)
  2 x Helbrute fists, 2 x combi-bolters, Mark of Nurgle
• 8 x Khorne Berzerkers (Elite)
  Icon of Wrath, Plasma pistol, Power fist, 3 x Chainswords, 4 x Chainaxes, 7 x bolt pistols
• 5 x Chaos Bikers (Fast)
  Combi-bolters, Power sword, 2 x Melta guns
• Chaos Rhino (Transport)
  Combi-bolter, Mark of Nurgle
• Chaos Rhino (Transport)
  Combi-bolter, Mark of Nurgle

Level: 59 | Points: 999 | Battle-forged + Battalion: 6 CPs

Bjorn and the Boys: Space Wolves

A very solid Primaris list, with some serious anti-infantry firepower and a lot of dreadnought punch. Redemptors are not to be underestimated, and Bjorn is, of course, a legend.

One of the Intercessor squads is being fielded as Assault Intercessors (we don't have the models yet - blame GW for not sending me a preview box). Tthe rest will be tough to shift off the objectives - which is what it's all about in 9th Edition.

The warlord is not Bjorn, but the Battle Leader (he must be in-training), tooled up with the Saga of the Bear and Armour of Russ, which is going to make him deceptively tough to kill in melee.

• Hallbjorn, Primaris Battle Leader (HQ) (Warlord)
  Power axe and bolt carbine
  Warlord Trait: Saga of the BearRelic: The Armour of Russ
• Bjorn the Fell-Handed (HQ)
  Assault cannon, Heavy Flamer, Trueclaw
• 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
  Bolt rifle. Power fist
• 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
  Auto Bolt rifle. Power fist
• 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
  Bolt rifle. Power Sword
• 5 x Assault Intercessor Squad (Troops)
  Bolt pistols, Astartes chainsword
• Honoured Brother Víðarr, Redemptor Dreadnought (Elite)
  Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Icarus Rocket Pod, 2 x Storm Bolters
• 5 x Aggressors (Elite)
  Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets/Fragstorm Grenade Launcher

Points: 1000 | Level: 58 | Battle-forged + Battalion +  Bjorn: 7 CPs

Mission and Deployment

We're playing Eternal War - Incursion - Divide and Conquer. This has four objectives in a diamond pattern 10" from the centre of the 4x4' table.

As well as the usual Primary objectives (in your Command Phase: 5VP for controlling one, 5VP for controlling two, 5VP for controlling more than your opponent), there is a bespoke secondary objective: Lines of Demarcation. You get 2VP if you control the middle two objectives at the end of your turn, and 4VP if you control the both the ones on edge of the deployment zones.

The Black Legion secondary objectives were:

• Lines of Demarcation (as above)
• Linebreaker (4VP for having two units in the enemy deployment zone at the end of your turn)
• Slay the Warlord (6VP)

The Space Wolves secondary objectives were:

• Lines of Demarcation (as above)
• Assassinate (3VP for each character slain)
• Attrition (4VP for destroying more units than the enemy that battle round)

The Space Wolves use Cunning of the Wolf to place the Aggressors 'on the hunt' (a superior version of strategic reserve) and centre the battle line with both dreadnoughts and two squads of Intercessors.

Another squad of Intercessors takes the high ground to the left of the line; while the Battle Leader Hallbjorn commands the Assault Intercessors in the ruins to the right.

The Black Legion pile into their vehicles: Berserkers & Exalted Champion, Helbrute, plasma and melta squads, with Strato and the Sorcerer close behind.

The Chaos Bikers are in the far corner of the left flank, ready to race forward. The Cultists are cowering behind the yellow containers, hoping this nightmare will one day end.

I win the roll-off and the Black Legion are going first!

Black Legion - Turn 1

With only five turns, there's no time to mess about - I race forward with most of my line, hoping to offer more threats than the Space Wolves can deal with.

The Berserker Rhino and Helbrute advance up the right side of the centre. The Chaos Marine Rhino and Strato advance up left of the centre. The Bikers turbo-boost up the left flank.

Both vehicles pop smoke and the Sorcerer casts Miasma of Pestilence on the Helbrute, so everyone is now -1 to hit (with the cap on modifiers, there's no point in loading up just one unit).

There's not much that can shoot, but the Black Legion trait allows Rapid-fire weapons to become Assault, so the Helbrute has a few speculative shots with his combi-bolters - and takes out an Intercessor!

No Primaris available in the first turn, but I do grab 2VP for the lesser Lines of Demarcation secondary.

Objectives secured: Lines of Demarcation (2)

Black Legion 2 : 0 Space Wolves

Space Wolves - Turn 1

The Rout respond equally aggressively (this is going to get bloody, I can already tell), with a push against my right flank.

The Redemptor leads two Intercessor squads against the Helbrute and Berserker Rhino, with a view to using heavy weapons to crack the shell, keeping their small-arms free to mow down the nuts inside.

Bjorn and one pack of Intercessors hold their home objective, while Hallbjorn keeps the Assault Intercessors in the ruins.

The Shooting Phase falls a little short: there just aren't enough heavy weapons to shoot through the Rhino's smoke launchers and damage the vehicle. Once the guns have all fired, it's left on four wounds.

Undaunted, the Redemptor charges into the Helbrute and smashes it effortlessly into the ground.

Two squads of Intercessors, both of them with power fists, make the charge into the damaged Rhino, and promptly rip it to scrap metal.

And then, out from the hellforged piñata, spill all the Berserkers and the Exalted Champion, none too happy about what happened to their ride.

For smashing two of my units this turn, Monkey scores the Attrition secondary and takes an early lead.

Objectives secured: Attrition (4)

Black Legion 2 : 4 Space Wolves

Black Legion - Turn 2

Here comes Turn 2 - always the favourite one of a melee army. The Berserkers nudge closer to the Intercessor packs, revving their chain-weapons. 

I was initially trying to skirt around the Redemptor Dreadnought, but Monkey informed me of the new Counter-Charge stratagem that allows any Space Wolves unit to perform a 6" heroic intervention. So, if he wants in on the action, there's no stopping him.

"Hello!"

On the other side of the field, the Bikers race all the way into the enemy deployment zone, ready to unleash fire into the Assault Intercessors in the ruins. The Plasma Squad jump out of the Rhino (the Melta Squad stays put for now) and move towards the central pack of Intercessors.

Strato flies close enough to charge his opposing warlord, and the Sorcerer hangs on the back objective, surrounded by Cultists (I'm aware they should be screening against the incoming Aggressors, but these new coherency rules have me worried, so I'm bunching them up).

The Sorcerer Smites puts Miasma of Pestilence on the last Rhino, and Smites some wounds off the Redemptor. The Exalted Champion follows this up by unslinging his combi-melta and blasting six more wounds off him. The big beast is now down to five wounds, and I'm getting ambitious.

The Sorcerer loads up a Daemon Shell and knocks off two more wounds. All the Berserkers unload with their pistols (I knew there was a reason for taking them!) and scratch one more wound, although the krak grenade bounces off.

Only two left. Time for the Berserker Champion to be a hero. He overcharges his plasma pistol - and hits! The Redemptor is down!



On the other side of the field, the Assault Intercessors are targeted by the Chaos Bikers, and I use the stratagems Veterans of the Long War for +1 to wound and Despoilers of the Galaxy to reroll 1s to hit. It pays off and three Intercessors are slain by small-arms (although one does shrug off a melta shot).

In the spirit of overconfidence, the Plasma Squad also overcharge their guns and aim at the Intercessors next to Bjorn. The champion is immediately slain when his gun overheats (despite rerolling for being next to Strato), but I do kill three Intercessors, and then a fourth with humble bolter fire!

Now we kill them all! The Berserkers charge into both packs of Intercessors (the Exalted Champion hangs back so he can offer his aura unmolested), and with Veterans of the Long War in play once again, mow down the first pack of Intercessors in their first round of combat, and then slaughter the second pack in the second try.

Choppy-chop.

Strato flies into the ruins to take on the Battle Leader - and when I'm reminded that the Armour of Russ means he will fight last, I pile in the Plasma Squad too for some moral support.

The Plasma Squad split their attacks between the Battle Leader and Intercessors, doing only a wound to each (which is a shame - I'd rather have killed on Intercessors, considering the attacks each one can kick out, but they didn't have enough distance to reach them).

That leaves Strato to ride his Sigil of Corruption save to survive. Hallbjorn the Battle Leader goes first, and Monkey uses the Touch of the Wild stratagem to explode attacks on 4+. Sadly he only manages to cleave two wounds from Strato (I did warn Monkey that Battle Leader wasn't called 'Rubber Axe' for nothing).

The Assault Intercessors go next (and eve just two of them come with an eye-watering number of attacks - these are going to be awesome for Space Wolves!) and thump another two wounds off Strato. My warlord is left clinging on to one wound and, with a sigh of relief, revs Ghorisvex's Teeth and butchers Hallbjorn into bloody chunks.

That was breathtakingly effective - 16 Intercessors, a Redemptor and the warlord slain.

I also grab the lesser Lines of Demarcation, and two Primary objectives. I don't quite have enough units in the backline to score Linebreaker yet, but the Bjorn the Fell-handed (who seems to find himself almost alone against the tide of heresy) will have hill to climb here.

Objectives secured: Primary 1&2 (10), Lines of Demarcation (2) Slay the Warlord (6)

Black Legion 20 : 4 Space Wolves

Space Wolves - Turn 2

Wasting no time, the Fell-handed heads towards the Berserkers, while the two survivors of the Assault Squad fall out of combat (although with the dense terrain of the runs slowing them down, they don't get very far).

Interestingly, if this were 8th Edition, they'd have a good chance of killing my warlord in close combat, but in 9th Edition, I would get to fight first.

And then come the cavalry! Not the actual cavalry (I'm not getting Thunderwolves, no matter how often monkey requests them), but the big pack of Aggressors appear in the centre of my deployment zone and ready to unleash hell.

Although the hell they unleash is somewhat lacklustre. The only viable target is the Rhino with Miasma of Pestilence on it, so what few bolt rounds manage to hit usually bounce off the hull.

Bjorn warms up the Berserkers with his flamer and assault cannon, and then charges into what remains, shredding them with Trueclaw. He consolidates into the Exalted Champion, then laughs off any of the power axe attacks.

The Aggressors make their long charge into the Cultists (with a double-six - they really knew things were desperate!) and beat them effortlessly to death before consolidating into the Sorcerer.

But it doesn't end there - at the end of the Charge Phase, Strato was close enough to heroically intervene back into the two Assault Intercessors who slipped away. Not being the forgiving sort, he hacks them down for the injuries they gave him.

It's a strong response, and with the single Intercessor (who immediately become a Lone Wolf, because of course he did) on the home objective, and the Aggressors on my objective, Monkey scores the major Lines of Demarcation.

No Attrition scored this turn (not after the number of units I killed), but I suppose the silver lining is that I won't be able to out-kill him going forward, because there's just so few Space Wolves left!

Objectives secured: Primary 1 (5), Lines of Demarcation (4)

Black Legion 20 : 13 Space Wolves

Black Legion - Turn 3

Forgive the lack of action shots, this round - things were getting exciting.

After the counter-offensive, I find myself on holding one Primary objective, so I need to push back - but I'm also up against it in all my fights, so a bit of retreat is called for.

The Bikers continue their circumnavigation of the board, and the Plasma Squad moves into the deployment zone portion of the ruins, joined by Strato (who will probably nurse his last wound in safety).

The Exalted Champion falls out of combat with Bjorn and hides behind the Plasma Reactor. The Sorcerer falls out of combat with the Aggressors and just manages to jump inside the Rhino.

He's a dirty lad, but he's got a clean pair of heels.

As soon as the Nurgle Sorcerer jumps into the Rhino, the Melta Squad jumps out (must be the smell) and move to the craters in my deployment zone where they can shoot at the Aggressors (and hopefully have some protection against charges and return fire).

I use the Veterans of the Long War and Despoilers of the Galaxy combination (it's quite good, that) to fire the Melta Squad at the Aggressors and kill three of them.

Everyone else in my back line fires at the Lone Wolf Intercessor, who is easily gunned down.

Not as dramatic as the last turn, but with three units in the deployment zone, Linebreaker is looking good to score from now on.

Objectives secured: Primary 1 (5), Linebreaker (4)

Black Legion 29 : 13 Space Wolves

Space Wolves - Turn 3

I see you.

There's a lot of work to be done with just three models, but they Space Wolves do start out on two Primary objectives. The Aggressors advance off to the central objective, while Bjorn goes hunting the Exalted Champion.

The Aggressors and Bjorn (shooting his Assault Cannon over one shoulder) both target the Melta Squad - but they duck and cover in the crater and only one is slain. This is important, as it means Monkey isn't going to kill more units than me (I only got one last time) and is so denied the VP for Attrition.

However, there is one guaranteed kill: Bjorn leaps into the fray against the poor Exalted Champion, inflicts enough damage to fell an Imperial Knight, then consolidates back on the objective, wiping the remains of the heretic from his feet.

So that scores the lesser Lines of Demarcation and one Assassinate (technically, these are added at the end of the battle, but it's more fun this way) - it's almost level!

Objectives secured: Primary 1&2 (10), Assassinate (3), Lines of Demarcation (2)

Black Legion 29 : 28 Space Wolves

Black Legion - Turn 4

I thought I was in a good position, but I start the battle on no objectives, and a very angry Bjorn to deal with.

The Melta Squad advance out of the crater and jump back on my home objective. The Rhino moves to secure the enemy objective, while the Sorcerer jumps out and into the ruins.

The Biker squad race onto the enemy objective too, but I don't intend to keep them there, as they're close enough for the Sorcerer to Warptime them forward..

... or they would be if I didn't fail my psychic test. Using a Command Point to reroll it - and I get a Perils of the Warp! Not a great start, but I do manage to Smite away one of the remaining Aggressors.

In the Shooting Phase, only one of the Bikers' melta guns are in range of Bjorn, and not even all of the combi-bolters. However, I play Veterans of the Long War one more time and cross my fingers. The melta scores a hit, and so do a number of the bolt rounds. However, with Bjorn's ability to shrug off damage, he's left alive on three wounds.

I'm very tempted to go after Bjorn will my remaining firepower, but I can't leave that last Aggressor out there. The Plasma Squad take away two wounds (with Monkey using Transhuman Physiology and a timely CP reroll to save the final wound) and it comes down to the combined fire from the Rhino and Sorcerer to remove that last wound from him. Phew!

With the major Lines of Demarcation and Linebreaker firmly in my hand, I pull back into the lead.

Objectives secured: Linebreaker (4), Lines of Demarcation (4)

Black Legion 37 : 28 Space Wolves

Space Wolves - Turn 4

So much for showing the Primaris Marines the ropes - the only one left holding the line is the most ancient Space Wolf of them all.

After scoring his Primary objective, Bjorn heads straight to reclaim the home one, gunning down one of the Bikers as he does so.

I know he's a beast in combat, but I couldn't imagine even Bjorn would be able to take out this amount of units in one round. Nonetheless, Monkey charges in him, and plays the Call of the Wild stratagem once more.

Splitting his attacks between the Rhino and Bikers, the Fell-handed gives something of an underwhelming performance. However, even an underwhelming performance is enough to obliterate the Rhino and kill three of the Bikers. The last Biker wisely spins his wheels and gets out of there.

Both units are destroyed, the objective is secured and where did my army go?

The scores are exactly even as we head into the fifth and final turn.

Objectives secured: Primary 1 (5), Attrition (4)

Black Legion 37 : 37 Space Wolves

Black Legion - Turn 5

One wound or not, this is going to be settled by my warlord.

Strato flies directly for Bjorn and, after the Sorcerer has taken off two wounds with a Smite, he orders the meagre remnants of his army to hold fire - he wants this kill personally.

Usually, this is a part of the story where I eat my words, but this time it pays off for me (luckily Monkey had no CP left to Overwatch me). The Black-clad Brute ability kicks in and inflicts the final mortal wound to Bjorn.

The Space Wolves are wiped from the table, and I get the major Lines of Demarcation and Linebreaker once again.

It was close all the way, but that secures the win for the traitor legion!

Objectives secured: Primary 1 (5), Linebreaker (4), Lines of Demarcation (4)

Black Legion 50 : 37 Space Wolves

Result: Victory to the Black Legion!

Locker Room

That was a roller-coaster! I thought I has this comfortably in hand, but Bjorn nearly turned the tide of the battle single-handed (as well he should, the legend). Were it not for the Black-clad Brute's mortal wound ability, his attack could have easily bounced off Bjorn, and then I think the trusty Dreadnought would have killed both remaining characters and turned the tide.

Really enjoyed the challenge of playing these multiple objectives. It gives you plenty to think about, and aim for, while still keeping the battle really aggressive. There were only seven models left on the table by the end!

For my new units, I really like the Bikers. I see lots of players use Bikes to alpha-strike (usually me when I'm playing Mantis Warriors), but they have the speed to race from backfield, and I think their mobility is going to be a great asset (as well as the Black Legion being able to fire and advance).

The Berserkers did not disappoint, and the Rhinos proved their worth too. In this kind of objective-grabbing game, a couple of sturdy transports seem to be high on the list of picks.

Great game, thoroughly enjoyed that. Thanks for Monkey (although this probably hasn't convinced him to bin his firstborn Space Wolves just yet).