UK 40k GT game 3

My third game on the first day of the GT was against a player named Neil. This just showed me exactly how tough the competion is at the GT final, everyone has earned their place, and so that leaves every game being a tough one. He was running Space Wolves as well, but it was a very different kind of list.

He had the 2 packs of Long Fangs, although they were 5 man, he also had 4 Hyperios Missile Launchers (Forge World cheese) and a Whirlwind, which was interesting, although for 85pts barrage is pretty good. He then had a Thunderfire Cannon (as did every marine player in the room) and a Captain on a bike. He then had a squad of scouts, and 2 minimal squads of Grey Hunters. The interesting part of his list however were the Thundercav. He was running 5 of them, with 1 Storm Shield and Power Fist, with a Lord with Saga of the Warrior Born, Power Fist Storm Shield, and 2 Rune Priests on Bikes.

The mission being Vanguard Strike and Big Guns Never Tire.

The first obstacle that I needed to overcome in this game was the board.

A Mounted Hunt is on

Literally everything on it was Line of Sight blocking, making it difficult for me to shoot his Thunderwolves before they got in. However, my opponent was clever, and the placement of the objectives ended with most of the objectives ending up in the far side of the board, so I had to choose between better Line of Sight and more objectives when picking my board side. I chose the objectives. He then chose to go second, and deployment commenced.

I placed the Long Fangs around the area terrain on the far side, and stuck Wolf Guard at the front, for 2 reasons. Firstly, the Long Fangs were more important in this game, and 2, I knew that they'd be engaged in a shooting war with his Long Fangs, and so due to the fact that he had better cover they needed extra help.

The Manticore hid behind the tall piece in the middle centre of the picture, although a little was poking out the side, with Grey Hunters nearby to hold an objective, with a Wolf Guard this time. The other squad went inside their Rhino on the left to take another objective behind some impassible, whilst the blob and Lone Wolves, pushed to march up the centre to take an objective behind the impassible piece there.

First turn, my Drop Pod came down, and died to Interceptor fire from the Hyperios', gifting him first blood, and then failed to hit the Whirlwind with the Meltagun, the most useful thing here was forcing the Thundercav and co to come and deal with them before they got another chance, which they did. The Manticore was Magnificent, mashing 3 Thundercav and the Space Marine Captain. Whilst the Long Fangs opened up on the squad of enemy Long Fangs in the tall ruin and killed a couple. The blob advancing slowly due to its spread out state trying to avoid the Thunderfire Cannon.

His turn was a little disappointing from his perspective, he killed the Grey Hunters and started chipping away at the blob, but the Manticore passed the cover saves that were required. My turn 2 was a little less effective, the blob moved a little more hesitantly because I know how fast Thundercav are, and the Lone Wolves moved to block them. The Manticore whittled down the Thundercav a little more, taking one out. Before it died in the next opposing shooting phase.

The Thundercav then smashed through the Lone Wolves and due to the LoS blocking terrain, I couldn't get enfeeble or misfortune off on him due to a combination of him using it well and his Runic Weapons. They charged the blob and they remained in combat until the end of the game, with only the Wolf Lord remaining with 1 wound, the Whirlwind turbo-ed up to claim the objective. He then brought both his Grey Hunter packs onto the objective near my Rhino, and despite their leadership 8, tank shocking and 7 other Grey Hunters with a Wolf Banner, not only did they managed to claim the objective, but also run over and contest another one. (2 squads).

Essentially, I made a couple of mistakes, and can't blame my third loss of the day on the terrain. I should have taken extra measures to help the Rhino squad, I admit that I'd completely forgotten about the Grey Hunters coming in from reserve. Secondly, I shouldn't have been so conservative with my blob, I had overestimated the hitting power of that Thundercav squad, and should have pushed forward to at least force the combat to happen on the objective contesting it.

But hey, I didn't expect to do well, I expected to get my arse kicked and learn a lot, and although I didn't really get clubbed (at least not too hard against Josh) I definately learnt a lot and enjoyed all 3 of those games anyway.

I did make it back tomorrow, and I decided not to go out with the guys as I felt I needed rest in order to not lose all my games, and not being in a hungover/still drunk state in the morning, I felt I had a good chance. Plus, Emperor's Will in the morning. Getting ready to rumble.