Saltire Games Tournament-Quick write up

I went to the Saltire tournament with a "fun and fluffy" list. I wanted to play with mostly Thunderwolf Calvary. My list was:

TW Lord with Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, Runic Armor (2+)
TW Wolf Guard Battle Leader with Double Wolf Claws
Rune Priest with Storm Caller and Jaws

3 TW Calvary with 1 Thunder hammer, 1 W/SS and CCW, and 1 W/CCW and Bolt Pistol.
4 TW Calvary with 1 Thunder hammer and SS, 1 W/SS and CCW, 1 W/CCW and Bolt Pistol, and 1 with Bolter and CCW.

5 Man GH with Melta and WG with Combi Melta in Rhino

5 Man GH with Melta and WG with Combi Melta in Rhino

5 Man GH with Flamer on foot.

5 Man Scout squad with melta bombs and a melta gun.

5 Lonfangs with Missle Launchers

First Opponent:

Steve's Footdar, but being played by his Sweedish Friend.
The Mission was king of the hill for the middle ground. I gambled that he couldn't kill my TW's in 1 turn so put myself right up to the 12" line from the center. I fortunately seized the initiative and would get a test of that theory. Due to some really good rolls from him, bladestorm, doom, and guide, he killed my WG Battle Leader and 3 of the 4 Thunder wolves in the large group. Of course I totally failed my 4+ screw you against psychic powers 3 out of 4 times, but hey! The Thunderhammer TW lived and wiped out his wraithlord the next turn. My smaller unit of TW with the Lord moved in and wiped out pretty much half of his army. I used my Rhino's to tank shock one unit of dire avengers then watched them walk across the board. A unit of 5 GH shot and assualted another unit, beat them down in close combat and made them run off the board. Once I finally got to his army on turn well 2 and 3 it was pretty much over. I actually felt bad for him and didn't table the guy. Didn't feel great about beating the baby sweedish seal, but it was a win.

What I learned:
*Dire Avengers with blade storm ,guide, and doom are stupid! And effective.
*Wraith Lords don't like Crack Missles and Strength 10 Thunderhammers.
*Always bring a Rune Priest-He saved my Lord and my small Thunderwolf unit from getting guided by 10 fire dragons, allowing me to only loose 1 complete model. And he killed a farseer, and ... nevermind.
*Sweedish women are the hottest.

Where I screwed up:
*Always buy a wolfguard to go with the scouts. Hey 2 melta shots are better than 1. Even if you miss all 4 turns with them.
*When using 2 units of TW, ensure they have some sort of cover with low AP shots around.

2nd Opponent:
Scott Kennedy-Salamanders

The mission was 4 objectives. This will be short and sweet. I only had 3 troop choices, and so did he, but of course he can combat squad and well, I can't. I lost very badly because.....

5 TH/SS Terminators and Vulkan, made over 27 3+invol saves against my 9 Thunderwolves. Which is really statistically impossible. Yes his 200 + 195 point unit wiped up 75% of mine in 2 turns. Uhmmm.....Uhmmmm..... Where is my guard at?

Things I learned:
*Those types of saves aren't normal as you will see in the last battle against similar circumstances.
*Don't get pulled away or distracted by something that Thunderwolves don't need to worry about.
*Take more than 15 troop models in any game of 1000 of more.

Opponent 3
Pat-Bloodangels

Mission was annihilation with 3 paint pots as extra kill points on each side of the board.

Pat won and chose to go first. He had never played Thunderwolves so didn't know what to expect. I won this game because of deployement and the unknown for Pat. He had rough and dirty:

A Librarian attached to
4 TH/SS Terminators
3 or 4 LClaw Terminators
with a Sang Priest
(Nasty Unit)

1 Tac squad split.
2 Assault Squads. He combat squaded 1 unit. 1 with a Sang Priest.
1 Dreadnought with MM
1 MM bike.

I split my force in 2 with nothing in the middle of the board within my range of anything for him to shoot at. I reserved my unit of GH on foot and 1 Unit on a Rhino.

He moved forward and shot, and even moved his predator 12 to shoot into my longfangs but didn't do any wounds on turn 1. My unit of 4 TW and the Lord moved, ran 4, and assaulted thru 10 inches of difficult terrain to explode the predator. He was pretty shocked they could do that. My longfangs split fire and instantly killed his bike from across the board and immobilized his dreadnought and knocked off it multi-melta. I also tried to Jaws his terminators, but failed to do anything, I actually jumped my Rune Priest out of the RHino alone to get the line.

His turn he dropped 1 assault squad and shot everything including a melta gun at the Rune Priest only to roll a 1 and do no unsaved wounds. That was a 10 man assault squad with a melta gun.

On my turn the 2 units of Thunderwolf converged in the middle of the board to erase the entire unit of Blood Angels. I took more shots into the dreadnought and destroyed some paint pots.

His turn he didn't get his reserves and shot at a few things but did nothing. My turn I move towards his nasty squad but didn't get close enough to assault yet. I was waiting for the following turn. My scouts came in and assaulted his 5 man tac squad on the left flank with the WG Battle Leader killing the 5 men with ease. His next turn he just waited for me to come get him. I finally moved in with the WG Battle Leader moving on his own and the other 8 TH hitting the line hard. He had to make 9 invol saves just against the Lord and WG Battle Leader at Init 5. He made 8 of nine. That is with 3 or 4 lightinig claws also. All the other attacks did very few wound and we fought again in his turn. I killed the Sangpriest on the first turn so he lost his feel no pain. I finally killed him off on my turn and the unit of 4 tac marines which I multi assaulted ran. He ended up killing my 2 man TW unit and 0 of my 4 man TW unit. I finally destroyed the dreadnought from afar, and on the following turn he dropped his last assault squad who almost scattered off the table and killed 1 scout in shooting. I moved my WG BL and 4 TW to him and crushed him to the man. I finished off the last remaining models and paint pots on turn 5. Pretty brutal battle for him, but if I wouldn't have gotten all the kill points I wouldn't have been in the running for 2nd place.

What I learned:
*TW in 4's are much better than 3's.
*TW need more fire support from more longfangs, or units to pull shots away from them. Like Drop podding in GH or WG.
*I love my Thunderwolves.

Turns out I would have had 2nd place if not for Justin and Scott tieing the last game. In fact at first, Scott was declared the winner, but then Justin noticed they miscounted the killpoints and it ended up a tie. But, they tied, and I got pushed to 3rd. I had more kill points than Justin and I believe the same or one away below Scott.

Good tournament. I like Steve's banter at the locals. It was a fun day. I was a little down at the results of the 3++ Terminators, but overall had a great time. Hopefully we can help get that 40K crown going a little there!!

Thanks Steve