Our first Crusade game promised to be very interesting. 10 Space Wolves vs 30 Orks sound like very bad odds against me, but I was dying to play my first game with the Space Wolves and a bunch of green skins were not going to ruin that.
The mission was Sweep and clear, from the Crusade missions. Players score points at the end of their command phases. 10 for one Objective, 10 for more objectives than your opponent and 10 for your opponent’s deployment objective to a maximum of 30 points per turn. Once an objective is held, you don’t have to sit holding it as it remains controlled unless the enemy takes it. Nice and simple.
The special rule for this scenario was Unnatural darkness, which made any shooting or targeting had to be within 18” or less.
The armies
Space Wolves
– Floki Ravenskull – Rune Priest in Phobos armour – Warlord Trait “Warrior Born” – Relic “Runic weapon” – Psykic powers “Living lightning” and “Jaws of the World Wolf”
– Odin’s Sons – 5 Assault Intercessors – Sergeant with Plasma Pistol
– Freya’s Bane – 3 Inceptors – Assault Bolters
– Bjorn Hellshammer – 1 Invictor Suit – lots of stuff plus a glorious Invictor fist
Orks
– Warboss – Relic Power Claw without penalty and lots of damage- Warlord Trait that give him T6
– 20 Boyz with shootas with a Nob
– 3 Bikes with a Nob
– 5 Kommandoz with a Nob
– 1 Deff Dread with lots of nasty stuff
Deployment
The Space Wolves army was the defender and decided to go second, with Orks going first. This was a meditated decision as I didn’t want to get in the Orks face too soon letting them charge me early game. I needed that extra space and turns, specially considering that I could barely thin out his big numbers with shooting from afar.
Both armies put a unit in reserves, Kommandoz and Inceptors.
Other than that, the rest of the army was deployed. Orks aggressively out in the open spread accross their deployment zone, while Rune Priest and Intercessors were hiding in a building in a corner, and the Invictor suit in the opposite corner or the deployment, facing the Bikes and diagonally opposite from the Deff Dread, good deployment move from the Orks if you ask me.
Turn 1
So the Orks started turn one advancing and trying to reduce as much distance as they could hoping for a turn 2 charge in the Space Wolves. The lack of targets in line of sight made hard for barely any action, other than the bikes shooting at the Invictor suit, managing to inflict just one wound. At this point, the Orks were holding just one objective, but close to hold 3.
In the Space Wolves turn only one unit moved and did something: the Invictor. He moved just 2 inches to be in range of all the bikes that were dangerously facing him or a next turn charge. He unleashed all it’s shooting on them managing to kill them all with some lucky shots and the last shooting literally killing the Mob. Turn 2 was going to be crucial for both armies.
Turn 2
The Orks kept moving forward, this time without advancing to be able to shoot, but holding 3 objectives and the whole middle table. The Kommandoz came 9” away from the Invictor Suit.
Their shooting unleashed hell on the Invictor suit, but with no luck on wounding it. The Deff Dread shoot at the assault intercessors but they managed to save all wounds.
In the charge phase, the Kommandoz pulled out a charge in the Invictor suit. In the fight phase they manage to wound it twice with a few lucky saves in the Invictor. In retaliation, he managed to wipe they whole Kommandoz squad after a command re roll in the 5th wound. 5 attacks and 5 kills was some lucky rolling that could prove decisive in the coming rounds, as it was leaving the suit out of combat and able to shoot.
The Space Wolves turn was nothing but devastating. Floki and the Intercessors moved out of the building to face the incoming Boyz and Deff dread, putting Floki within 18” range of the Boyz. Bjorn moved towards the Boyz and Deff Dread looking for a glorious combat. At the end of the movement phase the Inceptors dropped from the sky in the back line of the Orks, taking away their objective and leaving them with the Warboss exposed to their shooting.
The psykic phase proved to be CRAZY. Floki unleashed his Living lightning in the Boyz causing 3 mortal wounds on them, and 2 in the Warboss. After that, he casted Jaws of the World Wolf with a 10, rolling a dice for each model in the unit and causing a mortal wound on each 5+. 7 out of 17 bite the dust… 12 mortal wounds out of 2 spells was insane.
The shooting from the Invictor on the other hand was quite uneventful managing to only kill 1 or 2 Boyz and not wounding the Deff Dread at all. But the Inceptors, dropping right behind the enemy line, dropped their 18 shots in the Warboss, managing to kill him with some very lucky rolling, and unlucky saving rolls from 3 Colours.
In the charging phase, the Invictor pulled a YOLO and charged the Boyz, managing to kill another 3 and getting wounded enough to bring him down to 7 wounds. But I had the Boyz locked…
Turn 3
The Orks took a devastating blow in the face, but that Deff Dread was still running around loose, and the Score was 40 to 10 in favour of the Orks. The next tactical decisions would prove crucial.
In the Orks movement phase the Deff Dread moved towards the Invictor Suit to be able to charge him. The Boyz were still locked in combat, so no further movement.
In the shooting phase, the Deff Dread shoot at Floki, managing to wound him once. In the charging phase, the game changing event happened. The Deff Dread successfully charged the Invictor Suit. 4 attacks. Hitting on 3s. Wounding on 3s. 1 re roll from his Detachment, 1 command re roll. 0 wounds. The Invictor hit back and destroyed him inflicting 12 wounds. The Boyz hit and brought him down to 4 wounds. Only the Boyz were left.
The Space Wolves hadn’t lost a single model and had this in the bag. After some psykic powers and a charge, Floki killed all the remaining Boyz in combat by himself. The Space Wolves took the victory home putting the final score 90 to 40 in their favour.
After match
Some incredible lucky rolls at the most crucial moments made the Space Wolves take a major victory over their opponent, and it was time to spread the Marks for Greatness in each army, and see if there were any battle scars. The Space Wolves would select 2 units to mark for greatness, since that was the victory reward.
Luckily for 3 Colours, he didn’t roll a single 1, so his army was just a little bit bruised but no permanent damage, other than their ego and pride. In the Mark for Greatness, he decided to give those 3 experience points to the Boyz squad, as, in his words, they were the only ones that did something in the whole game!
The Space Wolves on the other hand had no Battle scars rolls.
Bjorn Hellshammer fullfilled the agenda by killing the Deff Dread in close combat, scoring 3 experience points. Having killed 3 units himself and scoring an extra experience point from the game would brought him already to 5 Experience, and make him Bloodied with a Battle honour, but not giving him also Mark for Greatness after the numbers he pulled in the game was crazy! The second option was a tough decision between the Inceptors and Floki. The first ones slain the Warboss, but Floki defeated almost a whole squad of 20 Boyz by himself… in the end I went with the Inceptors, since they also captured the enemies objective and did exactly what I had planned for them.
Our next game will be the “other” 25 points in our army, with a narrative as well designed around these units.
Talking about narratives, I will be posting the whole story of this first chapter of the Crusade soon, so stay tuned!!
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