At long last, we have kicked off some campaign action between us and in an effort to keep it going, I am going to write up a brief report of the first two games here. This is more for our benefit than anybody else's, which is just as well, as nobody ever reads this!
Game 1
We played the standard Planetstrike mission first, with the Space Wolves attacking a reinforced Bastion under the control of esteemed Chaos Sorcerer, Joca the Rusty, and his foul minions of Nurgle. We used some fencing sections I'd recently put together to form a partial perimeter around the bastion, filling the gaps with a bunker, one or two storage buildings, some aegis defence lines, and the lava channels that run here and there on my modular board.
The Space Wolves attacked with speed and cunning from the west, having identified the weakest section of the Chaos defences. Concentrated fire from a team of Obliterators coupled with an assault by my Daemon Prince saw the Thunderwolf Cavalry cut down to a man - the General!. A team of Grey Hunters in their transport were ignited and plasma cannoned by a Predator and Obliterator salvo, and then it was time for the Imperials to breach the line. We ruled the fences could be breached by a tank shock or close assault, with penetrating hits at Arm-10 to smash them down. A Rhino failed to do the job, but half a dozen Krak grenades made short work of the task and the wolves were in!
I put up a fight at the base of the bastion with the remains of my terminators, but having lost my general to Jaws of the Wild Wolf, they were leaderless, and no doubt too busy worrying about whether they could take control of the others or not to pay attention to the battle! A team of Power Fist wielding Obliterators emerged from an escape hatch to finish the Space Wolf general with a flurry of heavy-handed blows. Then, a Space Wolf Rhino stormed forward and touched the bastion with its dozer blade to win the day. The Chaos left in an orderly fashion, knowing full well when they were beaten!
Chaos Afterword
I enjoyed the game. It was close fought and fun, despite losing my Daemon Prince and General to some bad dice rolls - that stuff happens in war! To date I've had the attitude that the Defender in Planetstrike is in for a tough deal and can only hope to bloody the Attacker's nose. To some extent this is true, and the designer's notes from the PS sourcebook agree with the notion. Adding the fences and barricades that I've put together recently though added more of a hurdle for the Space Wolves to get past which balanced the game and offered some reward for making the terrain in the first place. It made me realise how I miss the scenery on a gaming table having a real effect on the gameplay, and the atmosphere. I think we've lost some of that with 5th Edition, which basically says, if it's not impassable, roll a dice, and there's a 5/6 chance you can just walk/drive over it. Walls aren't walls anymore, fences aren't fences, and buildings aren't even buildings.
I don't think I made any mistakes, other than the usual error of taking on the Space Wolves! I targeted the biggest threat from early on, throwing my Daemon Prince into a fight I knew it wouldn't win at the expense of the greater plan - something I'm trying to do more of lately as I think it's the single change I can make to 'improve my game'. Having said that, we both had a good time, so it was successful all round!
Space Wolf Afterword
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