I also was unable to obtain a list from him as he only had his handwritten, so here is his list from memory:
Fateweaver
Bloodletters (7 I think) x2
Flesh Hound with a special upgraded character, and one without the upgraded character (I think)
Nurgle Prince
Winged Prince
Non-Winged Prince
Two squads of 5 Bloodcrushers with an icon in each
Plaguebeaers x2
Three nurglings (which were awesome to see by the way)
Greater Daemon of Nurgle
Anyway, Kevin spent about 10 minutes telling me, in detail, what each unit did. He was amazingly nice and cooperative with me as I told him this was my third month playing and first major tournament. After it was over I was still not sure what I was going to prioritize, but I knew Fateweaver was going to be scary and incredibly annoying. I was in for a challenge.
The Daemons, led by Fateweaver, poured forth from the depths of the Warp. Bjorn and his retinue realized the time had come to fall back with the rest of the Space Wolf forces on planet, but they needed to buy precious time for a proper defense to be mounted. This is it; the mission that the entire tournament has culminated into.
The Mission:
"Maul in the Mall"
Primary: "Kill em all"/Use Victory Points to determine winner/any non-HQ unit that is destroyed is immediately recycled from your table edge or may use the outflank (no matter what unit it is), or deep strike back in.
Secondary: "Cut off the Head:" Keep your general alive and kill theirs (highest point value HQ choice). A destroyed general counts double victory points.
Tertiary: Kill over 2k worth of units.
My list is as follows:
Bjorn with a Plasma Cannon
Rune Priest - Living Lightning and Storm Caller, w/Chooser of the Slain
2xDreadnoughts with TLLascannons and heavy flamers
3xWolf Guard(2xw/Combi-plasma, 1xw/Combi-melta and power fist)
9xGrey hunters(Mark of the Wulfen and Wolf standard, and 1xMelta gun) in a Rhino
5xGrey hunters w/1xplasma gun in a LasPlas Razorback
5xGrey hunters w/1xplasma gun in a LasPlas Razorback
5xGrey hunters w/1xFlamer
6xLong fangs w/5xMissile launchers, in a TLLC Razorback
6xLong fangs w/5xMissile launchers, in a TLLC Razorback
6xLong fangs w/5xMissile launchers, in a TLLC Razorback
Well, I had a 270 point HQ and he had a 333 point HQ. By the way, Fateweaver doubled is 666. Coincidence? Probably not.
I won the roll and opted to go first. I knew I was going to get swarmed, and this is a difficult misison for my army, as my Long Fangs can't move and shoot their rockets so if they die and come back they can't shoot and may wind up getting chain-killed. I took the middle first turn and reserve my Rhino with the GH squad.
A shot of my deployment. Notice Bjorn in the back and his bodyguard Dreadnoughts blocking assault to him. A deadly firing line and safe from outflankers. We'll see how this works as I've never faced a pure assault army in this mission type.
A better shot of my line. This little area was the Alamo of 40k. Notice the chooser of the slain in the foreground.
He drops right in with his primary wave and advances. He shoots with his princes and stuns a Razorback. My turn comes next to make a dent in his forces!
See that? Looks good, right? NOPE. That was Anathon Reinhold's psychic test to cast Storm Caller, which I forgot to cast last round. He takes a wound; I also have no idea why I chose to leave him out in the open like I did instead of putting him in a vehicle. I remember thinking about it but decided against it for some insane reason.
A shot of the culprit.
A better shot of his forces.
I open fire, not sure what I need to do. I decide to pour fire into fateweaver from my lascannons, and fail to do anything. I put some missiles and do some wounds to the bloodcrushers, but not much. I'm starting to worry about Fateweaver. I realize that he can't hurt my Dreadnoughts with those 245 point Bloodcrusher units that are bearing down on Bjorn, so one moves in to assault them and tie them up. I put some frags into his hounds off camera, killing a few.
And here he is! I get luck and my Rhino comes in. I decide to bait him into charging my GH squad and using their firepower for a turn. If he doesn't assault them they'll assault someone else, so it's worth a try I figure.
For his turn he gets some more reinforcements and moves up, destroying the weapon on the razorback and killing my Rune Priest. His hounds charge my long fangs.
His hounds assault the other LF squad.
A better shot; everyone is crammed in there.
My encroaching doom. Not looking good.
It's my turn now, so I ask him this: "What do most people do when fighting Fateweaver?" He thinks for a moment and responds with "Most people either ignore him or just focus on him a little. I personally think you need to do either all or nothing." I consider this and realize one of my goals for this tournament is to not get scared by a figure and realize that I have so much shooting that I can most likely kill something if I devote enough resources to it. In the past I have run away from scary units or ignored them as they kill my units, and I realize that if I let Fateweaver live I'll always wonder if I could have killed him and know that 666 points my way is a huge help (plus no more re-rolled invuln saves). All guns turn towards Fateweaver and it is decided that he shall feel the fury of the Steel Wolves detachment. I pour my lascannons, plasma guns, and remaining missiles into Fateweaver; the air is thick with smoke from the rocket contrails and the stench of blood and melted metal is pervasive. He rolls a one for a wound. Then another wound! He does, in fact, bleed! Even though he passes his leadership our morale raises slightly. Another volley, this time from the Long fangs, cause him to fail another save with a roll of a one and then a two. But....I'm out of guns. He has passed so many saves, but failed two (he gets really unlucky on those I have to say). He let out a sigh and I groan, realizing this might be the end. However, I realize I haven't shot...BJORN! He growls, deep inside his walking tomb, and fires his lone Plasma Cannon, the air shimmering with heat from the discharge of energy.
Worth a shot, right? It hits! He rolls a two....
AND THEN A ONE! Fateweaver has been slain! Combat pauses momentarily as the balance of power has momentarily been shifted. Kevin is actually pretty excited at what just happened in a different way, as it was a pretty epic shot from the old man. Kevin continues to be a great sportsman and graciously congratulates me on the kill. I also realize that I can't hold this position even with my recent kill and begin putting a plan into motion that will move my army to my left corner where a barricade of barbed wire exists-outpost B.
Grey Hunters before the charge.
His turn is vicious as his demons attack with renewed vigor in punishment for our slaying of Fateweaver.
He kills off two Long Fang squads and a Rhino.
He kills the Dreadnought, but it explodes and winds up wounding his Prince (I roll multiple 6s to wound-where was this luck earlier? Oh well.)
A shot of post-carnage/consolidation. He is coming for Bjorn next turn.
My turn! Time to head for outpost B.
Long Fangs and razorback set up defenses as Bjorn falls back.
The dreadnought is recycled back on and moves to block any movement towards Bjorn.
Bjorn runs and is surrounded by Grey Hunters. No assaults for you! My units fling their bodies at the enemy to buy Bjorn some time to fall back. Even though he's difficult to kill, my luck with him recently has been not so great, so I'm not taking any chances.
The dreadnoughts assault, tying up more units and at least double their point value. Tee hee!
His turn results in more dead long fangs and razorbacks.
A better shot of the carnage. He gets closer and closer, wiping out the Grey Hunter squad. My wulfen model winds up rolling a 6 on attacks and kills a bloodcrusher himself, surprising even them with his primal fury.
It's looking grim for the Space Wolves. He just eats what I throw at him, but it's stabilizing as my long range elements are setting up shop in my corner and are ready to rain destruction down upon the minions of chaos.
I recycle the Grey Hunter squad right back where they died. They are trying to buy more time.
Long fangs open fire on the bloodletters which had been killed off by the Grey Hunters/dreadnought earlier.
As you can see I've backed up into the corner, Bjorn safely behind my firing line again. We've paid a heavy price, but I think I can do something. I open fire on his Princes with everything I have all three die to a torrent of fire. With that salvo I have yet again tilted the scales of victory to my favor.
A better shot of it.
It's his turn! He keeps recycling units next to his icon, so units are dying left and right! He wipes the squad off the board save one; a Grey Hunter! This means that he won't get the points for them as it's the top of the 5th and were running out of time in the game.He draws a bead on Bjorn with a recycled Prince and rolls a 6 to hit, 6 to penetrate, and I fail my invuln. I'm about to do something rash at this point if he kills bjorn like this, but he rolls a 1 after I make him re-roll. Phew! My Grey Hunter kills off the last Bloodcrusher, giving me the points for them.
A shot of his recycled units. They're angry. Alas, the turn ends after I shoot some more, failing to kill anything of value.We shake hands and tally up the points; it's going to be close! I wind up killing 1752 points, and he kills 1609 points. Close!
I take 20 points total for my victory (primary and secondary objectives completed). Kevin was a great sport and very gracious in defeat; I'm glad he offered me his advice on what to do about Fateweaver, even though I was planning on doing just that-focus whatever I had on it. Kevin really gave me hope for the community with his great attitude.
The Space Wolves claimed victory over the Daemon horde, with the Steel Wolves emerging victorious in their first encounter with the Demon host. They prevailed over Grey Knights and Demons in the span of a few hours. Not bad for a day's work! We won't talk about the first game; routine training exercise. Yup.
Overall the tournament was a very fun experience. Boxersaint won all three games but failed to place in the top three somehow, and Legendary Gannon won two out of three. Shane put on a great tournament and I'm looking forward to the next one!
Well, thanks for reading! I hope my pictures weren't too blurry; next time I'll know what to look out for and what to record data-wise. I learned a great amount about my army and other armies from this, and am like the Tyranids in this-I learn from my battles and catalog my mistakes and victories to expand on later. Or so I hope! Time will tell; at least I have a good mentor-Boxersaint. Although he is a little of a noob.
Stormcrow out. Thanks again, Bjorn! You're a pimp.
Very impressive game. You made me proud.
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