Blood for the Blood God

I really need to get it into my head that while killing stuff is lots and lots of fun, it doesn't really mean anything if after everyone's dead you're still not on the objective. Okay, so statistically last night's game shouldn't have ended at the end of Turn 5. However, statistically, I should have been able to take Lysander's last two wounds in combat instead of shooting him. I made a very poor tactical choice. Looking at it in the cold light of day, I should have charged so that my Wolf Scouts were in base to base so that he could only attack them and then position Ragnar, my Wolf Priest and Blood Claws so that they could all hit him back. Then, if by some miracle he survived he could only kill Elites and not my precious Troops. Plus I could have used Ragnar's Wolf Howl to give the Scouts Furious Charge as well. I'm going to have to write out 100 times, "remember the objective".

I also need to find a better way of dealing with Drop Pods. I tried to be too re-active by going 2nd and then castling up. At least this left Lysander and his squad a long way away from any of the objectives. In retrospect I should have gone first as this would have given me a turn shooting at the rest of Andy's army. I didn't as I was worried about the Drop Pods dropping in behind me and blowing up my vulnerable rear armour. As it was he just dropped into Melta range and blew up my two Predators anyway. Actually I was a bit surprised (and relieved) that he didn't drop next to my Land Raider. 5 BS4 Melta shots (4 from the Sternguard, 1 from the Ironclad) could have seriously ruined my day. I would have had to get out and kill Lysander and the Sternguard but this would have left me a long way from the objectives and I would have been on foot.

Speaking of Ragnar, he's a beast. I still think he's going to work better at 2000 points plus because he is very pricey but he, his squad and their Land Raider (all in all the best part of 800 points) took out a Librarian, 25 Tactical Marines, 5 Terminators, a Rhino, a Razorback and a Land Speeder Typhoon. They also immobilised another Land Speeder Typhoon and took Lysnader's 3rd wound with shooting. Phew, not bad for a day's work. And, to top it off there were still half of the squad left at the end of the battle. now that's the definition of a hammer unit.

One other very small mistake I made was in wound allocation. After being charged by the Terminators Ragnar killed four but the Sergeant with the Power Sword survived to strike back at the squad. Obviously the squad finished him off but he scored one wound back. I took this against a Blood Claw which meant that he died. However I should have taken it against the Wolf Priest as not only does he have an invulnerable save but he has 2 wounds so he would have survived anyway. So, that's yet another lesson learned.

Looking at Andy's tactics, his Drop Pod assault was brutal. Backed up with his Terminators' Cyclone Missile Launcher and Land Speeder Typhoons, it meant that by the end of his turn 2 I'd lost 2 Predators, 5 Grey Hunters, a Dreadnought, a Razorback and had another Razorback immobilised. I was feeling a bit downhearted at that point. Then he made two crucial mistakes. He backed his Librarian and squad away from my Land Raider and he dropped his third Drop Pod too close to where that squad had moved to. This meant that I could multi-charge and take out all 16 men in one round of assault. He would perhaps have been better sacrificing the Librarian's squad to Ragnar and co. I didn't have space to drive around them so I would have had to either get out and assault which would have left me vulnerable to being shot up or I would have had to shoot them with the Raider which would have meant that I couldn't have moved as I would probably have needed all of the shots. The Librarian could even have left the squad leaving him alive for at least another turn. I think that this is the best way to deal with a hammer unit; feed them small units just to slow them down (as I did with Lysander). The Drop Pod Tactical squad would then probably have been better over by one of the central objectives; out of harm's way.

However the one thing he really got wrong was rolling a 2 at the end of Turn 5! Especially after being so good at rolling 3s all game!