Planetstrike with Space Wolves: Bark at the Moon!

Our store recently started its second attempt to run a Planetstrike campaign, since the first one began when school started and people didn't show up. It is a nice "good vs. evil" mash and I'm fielding my Space Wolves on the "good team" - my other teammates are Space Wolves, Tau and Eldar and we are against Tyranids, two Blood Angel traitors and Chaos Space Marines. The whole set-up is a legal 2,000 pt. list with the option to have a 1,500 pt. core and then add 500 pts. of units depending on whether you are attacking or defending. The whole event is meant to be fun and is focused on writing an interesting narrative at the end.


My list for my first game was pretty straightforward with just a small change to my usual 2,000 pt. list that I field. The only difference is that the Rhinos are gone (I put my guys in the FREE Bastions) and instead I field a second x5 Missile Launcher Long Fang squad.

Planetstrike Space Wolves: DEFENSE

Skarvald the Troll-faced - Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf Mount with a Frost Axe, Belt of Russ, Saga of the Beastslayer, Runic Armor                                                                                    Rune Priest with Living Lightning and Murderous Hurricane
Rune Priest with Living Lightning and Jaws of the World Wolf

Two units x9 Grey Hunters (Melta gun, Mark of the Wulfen, Standard) led by a Wolf Guard with combi-melta and power fist.
Two units x8 Grey Hunters (Melta gun, Mark of the Wulfen, Standard) led by a Wolf Guard with combi-melta and power fist. (Rune Priests go here)

5 Thunderwolf Cavalry (CCW/Bolt gun, Bolter, Meltabomb, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer) for maximum wound allocation.

Vindicator

6 Long Fangs (Sergeant, x5 Missile Launchers) with a Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor with a Cyclone Missile Launcher
6 Long Fangs (Sergeant, x5 Missile Launchers)

  While the Space Wolves codex lacks a lot of units that can take advantage of the whole "You can Assault the turn you Deep Strike if you have the DP special rule already" our units are GREAT at defending objectives. When you get to put your Grey Hunters in what is essentially an immobilized Land Raider for free AND you get to set up the terrain to bottleneck your opponent and be able to redirect your forces where your units need help.. well... It's awesome! If you play your cards well you won't even need half of your army!

I was playing against a Blood Angels player who was fielding "shooty" terminators kitted out with Chain Fists, two crazy Dreadnoughts, Death Company in a Rhino, Death Company with Astaroth the Grim in a Land Raider and Sternguard Veterants in a Drop Pod. A pretty elite and hard-hitting list... but it was not a challenge for my wolves.

Especially since I definitely went overboard while placing the terrain. All of the bastions were close to each other with building in between that would prevent Deep Striking or easy assaults. Automated Quad-guns and Lascannons were all over the place and so were the many craters and trench networks. And one of the bastions that I fielded was deemed "the beardiest thing I've ever seen". Why? Well, because it had a Void Shield on it. And it was behind the Shrine of the Aquila which gave it a cover save.

The Emperor Protects!

After 14 (!!!) Firestorms one of my bastions was damaged and left without any weapons and my Vindicator was wrecked. Oh and I lost a few Long Fangs. The Emperor's bastion was immune to the orbital bombardment because of its void shield and not even a single shot was fired at it during the whole game. The Grey Hunters inside were pretty bored.. 

His turn he only deep struck his Terminators which didn't do anything to my Bastion. Instead my Thunderwolves came from reserve (mmm delicious re-rollable 3+) and on the side I wanted them to be, which mean an easy assault against his Terminators. Woot! Since his Terminators were pretty much out of line of sight I just charged them and killed everything but the Sanguinary Priest who resisted and remained in play. Good! It meant that my wolves were safe during his turn from any shenanigans that he had up his sleeve.


Next turn he brought two Dreadnought, his LR.... and pretty much everythign else. His Sternguards DP'd between two of my bastions which meant that they were now isolated from the rest of his army. Two bastions were destroyed that turn - one by a Dreadnought (the other one died to one of my Stratagems) who got immobilized by a Quad-gun which shot his rear armor. My Grey Hunters used an Escape Hatch and disembarked inside a conveniently placed bunker. The other bastion fell to the Sternguard. Whatever - now they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. In the assault phase the Sanguinary Priest died to my Wolf Lord on the brave riders consolidated towards Astaroth's Land Raider.
Long Fangs turned around and shot the rear armor of the immobilized Death Company Dreadnought making it explode. A lascannon from one of the bastions exploded the Death Company's rhino and 2 of them died from the explosion. 4 more died to krak missiles. One squad of Grey Hunters fired rapidly their bolters and meltas at the Sternies and my disembarked squad shot their pistols, some Murderous Hurricane and charged.
My Thunderwolves charged the Land Raider but failed to do anything. ; (

It's Ozzy singing "Bark at the Moon"

In His turn he only had a Death Company squad and his Death Star - Astaroth the Grim with a bunch of Death Company chumps in a Land Raider Redeemer. However he got greedy and deep struck his Land Raider really far way from my bastions which meant that even if he dealt with MY Death star he would be useless in the long run. Because he would have had to run for a long time. Hehe. Some meltas, AP3 Flamers and relentless rapid fire pretty much wiped my Thunderwolves. Well, sort of. The charge was what got them - Astaroth's tons of S6 power weapon attacks killed the rest of them, which mean that my Thunder Lord Skarvald the Troll-faced was left alone against the might of the Death Company. The Lord managed to kill SIX Death Company marines actually winning the combat and the Thunder Hammer guy who tried to hit him missed with all of his attacks.

His Death Company assaulted my Long Fangs on top of the building on the far left flank and actually failed to kill anyone. The battle was a tie. Skarvald the Troll-faced directed his attacks towards Astaroth, hitting with 5 and wounding with 4. Astaroth managed to wound him with two attacks and Skarvald lost a wound after having to reroll his 4+ invulnerable save. However, Astaroth suffered 3 unsaved wounds and died a heroic death.

And that was pretty much the end of the game. I was controlling all 4 objectives but we pretty much agreed that the game (save for his Land Raider) was going to end in a tabling in my favor.

Here's a song for all of you Space Wolves enthusiasts!

Man, Ozzy totally looks like Astaroth the Grim! Hahahahaha!