Battle Report - 1000 Versus Raven Guard and Astra Militarium

             

Welcome back brothers! I have for you another tale of adventure and battle. Please excuse the noise; we are having to make haste from this planet to the next field of battle in which we are needed. Bjorn is still being secured and we are repairing one of Gymir’s fists after this battle. But more on that later my friends--allow me to tell you my tale.

            New to our pack is Geir Thunderhowl, a gifted Stormfang pilot who is in command of what has been dubbed The Black Boat, a Lightning Bolt Pattern Stormfang with an exterior as black as night itself. My pack was called upon to exterminate a group of rogue Raven Guard and Astra Militarium that were inhabiting the ruins of an old loyalist communications outpost. Our Venerable Bjorn demanded we bring the Emperor’s justice and Russ’ wrath to the traitorous scum, and no wolf would ever turn down the chance of glory at the side of the Fell-Handed. Initial surveillance and scans indicated two groups of Assault Marines with jump packs, a group of Stern Guard, a Leman Russ Demolisher, and a Leman Russ Vanquisher (both equipped with Lascannons). The revelation that the renegades would be using tanks named for our Primarch against his own sons is despicable enough, but the act of intercepting important and classified communications through old outposts can only be answered by one thing. Death.

            Olaf Goldfist made planet-fall first, taking cover behind a defensive tower. Bjorn and Asmund’s drop pods landed near their brother Dreadnought, setting up rallying positions and taking cover themselves. The Raven Guard then made their advance; Jump Packs roared to life and commands issued from the Raven Guard’s vile commander to charge forward. The scum looked at our ancients as large predators would prey--a grave mistake on their part. The thump of boots and shouts of “fire!” signaled the renegade Astra Militarium dogs to open fire on Bjorn’s drop pod, leaving a large hole in one of its support frames with little other damage to be reported.

            However, the traitors must have had a vox jammer in their arsenal because we lost contact with both Gymir and Geir. Neither of them able to join the battle quite yet left our ancients outnumbered. The three Dreadnoughts fanned out, Bjorn taking the north and Asmund taking point with Olaf, offering fire support south. Olaf’s Plasma Cannon flared to life as a large ball of super-heated matter shot across the battlefield like a comet, plunging into the enemy lines and melting two of the Assault Marines where they stood. Bjorn met with similar success against the group to the north, freezing four of the traitors in place and melting the remaining four with great gouts of flame from his heavy flamer. Asmund took a ready stance to face off against his foes, a growl of challenge emanating from his vox-grill. Our foe took shots at Bjorn; however, the All-Father protects and the shot barely glanced across Bjorn’s ancient hull. The Raven Guard became overzealous, believing their meager chain swords and power sword to be a match against Asmund Shieldbearer in one on six combat. The initial bout saw Asmund cleave through three traitors with ease, the Raven Guard commander literally tossing one of his men into the axe’s path to save his own disgusting life. The commander left a second gift for Asmund, a meltabomb that followed his now halved subordinate. However, Asmund has seen thousands of battlefields and simple tricks are nothing against a master of shield warfare, and the melta charge hissed uselessly as heat and bitter cold met on the Venerable Dreadnought’s shield.

            The vox communications were still being tampered with when the second call for aid was issued to Gymir and Geir. Bjorn made a strategic retreat behind the cover of the drop pods to protect himself from the onslaught of the enemy Leman Russes. Asmund held combat with his enemies and Olaf fell back as well in hopes to reach a safer point with which to relay with our brothers. The Leman Russes fired again at the drop pods but shot too wide and missed the targets completely. Asmund continued his assault, the cowardly sergeant throwing more of his men under the axe of the ancient warrior. In his haste to escape Asmund, the enemy commander failed to hit the Dreadnought with his melta charge; great gouts of magma erupted in the newly-formed crater where the grenade landed.  

            Then, Russ and the All-Father be praised, the vox communication channels became clear and our brothers made a glorious entry onto the battlefield. Geir screamed onto the battlefield on the side of the Leman Russ Vanquisher and Gymir landed behind the Raven Guard in ruins; the dark ruin lighting up with cold, frosty blue and the deepest recesses of the former facility glowed menacingly as Gymir’s murderous howl rang out over the battlefield. Flame escaped Gymir’s fist and engulfed the enemy commander in righteous fire, but his artificer armor proved a good ward against Gymir’s rage. However, Geir lived up to his name and lit up the sky in a rainbow of blues and reds. Multimelta’s screamed into the Leman Russ Vanquisher as the frozen rays of the Helfrost Destructor attempted to freeze the Demolisher. The Vanquisher exploded in a fiery hellstorm of shrapnel and debris, none of its crew surviving to report back to their masters. The Demolisher, however, was lucky, as the intense flames and smoke that erupted from the ruined hull of the Leman Russ Vanquisher proved enough cover for Geir’s aim to be slightly amiss with the larger cannon. The enemy then moved forward and opened fire with two combi-meltas, missing with one and hitting a piece of the ruin with the other. The commander of the Leman Russ Demolisher must have been shocked after the loss of his companion because he forwent his shots and instead a command of charge was heard. Gymir was assaulted by the Raven Guard Chapter Master and his Stern Guard escort. The Ice-Fisted challenged the traitorous dog to one-on-one combat and dealt what would have been six grievous wounds to his foe if it hadn’t been for the powerful refractor field that the Raven Guard was putting forth from his Iron Halo. The enemy commander then proceeded to assault Gymir, punching through the Dreadnought’s hull and ripping an arm free from the metal warrior in a sickening shower of sparks and oily fluids.

            However, the powers of the warp intervened and before any of our ancients could react the enemy vanished. With no enemy in sight and the communications relay secured, the ancients and Geir called for a Thunderhawk for extraction. Our brothers are still commending each other in the Thunderhawk as we speak--I can hear Bjorn telling part of his saga as I speak into the vox recorder. Next time, brothers, we will hopefully meet in The Fang where I can properly tell you of our deeds this day with a pint of ale and Fenrisian Elk ribs, but for now my saga will have to be replayed through this recording. Fare thee well brothers. For Russ. For the All-Father.  

List

Champions of Fenris Supplement

HQ - Bjorn with Helfrost

Drop Pod

Gymir the Ice Fisted: Elite - Murderfang

Drop Pod

Asmund Shieldbearer: Elite - Venerable Dreadnought with Fenrisian Great Axe, Blizzard Shield, and Extra Armor

 Drop Pod

Olaf Goldfist: Elite - Venerable Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon

Geir Thunderhowl – Stormfang Gunship with Twin-Linked Lascannon and two Twin-Linked Multi-Meltas

Tactica - Venerable Dreadnought with Fenrisian Great Axe and Blizzard Shield

Today, brothers, we speak of the ancients who bear the shield and axe to battle. These durable battle brothers are a lumbering force to contend with on the battlefield. However, the Venerable Dreadnought with Axe and Shield require that care be placed in how one uses the unit. 

            This variant of the Dreadnought is one of the tougher units in the game to harm, requiring a weapon to be at least strength six in order to even begin scratching the paint of the great mechanical warrior. What makes the unit even more durable is the combination of Venerable (since it is a requirement for the Dreadnought to take the Axe and Shield) and the 3++ conferred to the ancient warrior’s front facing. Most units that will be able to harm him reliably will have either a ballistic skill of 3 or 4 which at best gives a 50-66% chance of success in harming the Dreadnought; depending on the strength of the fire power that is brought to bear further determines, as it always does, the survivability of the unit. Your opponent will need to bring either melta weaponry or strength 9 or above weapons to reliably harm your glorious beast of war, or, conversely, several strength 6 to 7 shots. The Venerable Dreadnought deals best with small amounts of high strength fire power and actually does worse against massed out shots at strength 6 or 7. If your opponent brings a pack of 6 long fangs equipped with 5 Lascannons to fire on your Dreadnought then the run down would be, on average, your opponent will hit 3 times and will more than likely get either 2 penetrating hits or a glancing hit and a penetrating hit. More often than not your Blizzard Shield’s 3++ will prevent the enemy’s shots to harm your Dreadnought. However, if you are faced with a unit that is capable of massing out strength 6-7 shots then the amount of glancing hits may overwhelm your shield and glance your Dreadnought into oblivion, and you won’t gain the benefits of the Dreadnought’s venerable status to mitigate the damage as you would with penetrating hits.

            To bring death to your opponent and allow the Dreadnought to demolish his or her lines then you should give your Venerable Dreadnought a drop pod and extra armor. The drop pod allows you to ignore the need to slog up the field with your Dreadnought; even though your Dreadnought is fully capable of doing this because of his defensive capabilities, he is more suited to present an immediate threat to your opponent’s line and act as a distraction. Your opponent will have to make a decision with this mechanical monster on his front lawn: either he will need to destroy the Dreadnought before it gets stuck into combat or allow him to run rampant across the field and allow it to destroy important units, such as vehicles. More often than not your opponent will target the Dreadnought since 4 strength 10 AP 2 attacks on the charge with master-crafted does not sound appealing to many people, and in there lies the trap. Your opponent, if they choose to run this route, will more often than not be wasting their time with the Dreadnought because of his 3++ save. Your Dreadnought should have the extra armor upgrade for those times where you would have received crew stunned so that he can still make charges and attacks. Use this Dreadnought in conjunction with other deep striking units to present a real problem for your opponent.

            Though, for as great as this ancient warrior is, he is not without his faults, the first of which is that he must choose his targets carefully. He will not do well in combat with marines or any other unit that is equipped with a large number of high strength attacks or krak grenades (or equivalent). As stated earlier, you will at some point fail saves and you get no benefit from your venerable status from glances. Send your Venerable Dreadnought after targets that he can easily demolish with his 4 attacks on the charge such as tanks and transports. Once he is out of combat he has a greater chance to move on to his next target and destroy it better than your normal Dreadnought. Go forth brothers and conquer! For the Wolftime! For Russ! For the All-Father!

Battle Report - 750 against Tau Crisis Suits

Gather ‘round brothers and let me tell you a tale. A saga filled with grand deeds and acts of xenos murder that have not been seen in long a while for the sons of our great primarch, Leman Russ. Today I began a great hunt; a four week excursion that, within the first round of the tour, saw me square off with enemies that could turn a mortal man’s stomach upside down. Accompanying me were Bjorn the Fell-handed, the Venerable Asmund Shieldbearer, the Venerable Olaf Goldfist, and Gymir the Ice-fisted. Bjorn, Asmund, and Gymir rode to battle in the screaming stars of drop pods to bring forth the wrath of Russ and the justice of the Emperor. My foe employed the aid of Tau, a Crisis Suit Commander and his trusty pair of shield drones and Fusion Claws, his loyal Crisis Suit teams divided in two teams numbering three men and four men equipped with a fearsome array of missiles, plasma, and fusion weaponry, and a group of Broadsides with monstrous Rail Cannons and missile clusters.

                The Sons of Russ took the initiative and brought down Asmund Shieldbearer on the first turn next to the Broadside squadron. Bjorn, in his great wisdom, decided that his presence was not yet necessary on the battlefield. Normally I would question those who disobey a direct order, but when then wisdom of ancients speak it is unwise for one not to listen. Olaf Goldfist brought searing plasma fire against the Broadside team and dealt a grievous wound to one of the xenos scum. When my opponent returned fire he did so against Asmund. The Venerable ancient weathered a storm of Rail Cannons, plasma, missiles, and molten fusion rounds with his trusty Blizzard Shield, only suffering from one glancing blow during the fire storm.

                That was when the sky cracked and two lightning bolts hit the ground in the form of Drop Pods carrying the unstoppable wrath of Gymir the Ice-fisted and Bjorn the Fell-handed. The enemy Broadside team attempted to stop the arrival of Bjorn to no avail; the Fell-handed is not stopped by such petty tricks as intercepting shots. The two Dreadnoughts created a choke point that required the Tau to take immediate action: either the Tau would stand, fight, and lose to mechanical fists of the wolves, or they would run. Bjorn unleashed a torrent of flame upon the shield drone in front of him that proved ineffective against the alien metal. Gymir attempted the same torrent from his heavy flamer against the opposing broadsides but met the same results as Bjorn. However, Olaf was able to wound another Broadside with his Plasma Cannon. Asmund attempted to bring the fight to the xenos and his axe to their flesh, however, the combination of booby trapped gravitation devices on the tactical objective and uneven terrain prevented the Dreadnought’s axe to cleave his enemy in two. The cowardly Tau took the opportunity to run from the fury of the wolves as well as bring in reinforcements to threaten Olaf in the back field. The commander was able to score a penetrating hit on Bjorn, but the talismans and runes inscribed upon his mechanical body shrugged the fusion shot off as easily as one of our brothers is able to down a mug of ale. Olaf stood defiantly against the newly arrived Crisis Suit team and was rewarded for his heroism with the glory and honor of ignoring all of their fire.

                Our brothers became fed up with the futile struggle that the Tau forces were putting forward. Bjorn opened fire with his heavy flamer and Helfrost Cannon and killed a single Crisis Suit. However, the speed of the foe proved too swift for the ancients and all of the Dreadnought’s fire missed. Yet, the rancor of the wolves is not easily stymied and charges broke out across the battlefield. Gymir launched a vicious assault and slammed into the enemy with the force of a great typhoon, launching 9 lethal attacks against the Broadside team; 8 of the attacks found their mark and caused massive damage to the Broadside team, wiping them out in one turn of combat. Bjorn charged into battle and decided to forgo challenging his foe, killing 3 enemies and becoming immobilized in the grand melee. Olaf attempted to charge the xenos threat but was unable to make the distance necessary to crush his enemy. The next turn however brought an end to the enemy’s struggle. The xenos who were not embroiled in hand to hand combat took fire on Olaf Goldfist but found their shots ineffective. The Crisis Suit Commander decided to stay in combat against Bjorn, accepting the challenge of the Dreadnought and losing in grand fashion for his trouble. Bjorn’s mighty claw ripped not only through the commander, but through his two subordinates as well. At this point the xenos commander decided to flee the battlefield, leaving all of our brother Wolves intact and in need of minor repairs, the sound of mechanical howls filling the air as the Dreadnoughts awaited extraction. Next week will see more of our brothers convene for the murdermake and a new group of enemies will feel the claw and cannon of the Space Wolves.

List

Champions of Fenris Supplement

HQ - Bjorn with Helfrost

Drop Pod

Gymir the Ice Fisted: Elite - Murderfang

Drop Pod

Asmund Shieldbearer: Elite - Venerable Dreadnought with Fenrisian Great Axe, Blizzard Shield, and Extra Armor

 Drop Pod

Olaf Goldfist: Elite - Venerable Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon