War of the Relics; Enter the Wolf

The sky cracked open, lightning descended, and Gunvor and his men teleported onto the field below. Gunvor nodded in satisfaction. As the scouting report had suggested, there were indeed enemies present. Nor was he surprised that the techs had landed him so close to their objective. 

One Power-armored captain stood in front of them. Startled, he turned toward Gunvor and his men, making as if to raise his storm bolter. It was the last move he would ever make.

Assault cannons chattered and his well-trained if unruly unit reacted as trained. They saw a threat and dismissed it in a hail of Storm Bolter fire, obliterating the hapless Captain Aelius in mere moments.

The Space Wolf arrival was almost too easy for them. They had Objective 5. The massive 10" scatter landed three of them on the hill, which I treated as dangerous terrain for purposes of Deep Strike scatter even though I had not treated this hill as dangerous terrain for Captain Aelius.

With 2 Assault Cannons and 5 Storm Bolters, there was just so much gunfire it was too much for Aelius to withstand. He suffered something like 6 wounds. Had I given him the upgrade to Artificier armor he would have only suffered three...which still would have finished him off. A quick, almost guaranteed kill point on the softest target on the table (if a model with a 3+ armor save and 4+ ward is ever soft). First blood for the Wolves...

Tau: 3 VP
Space Wolves: 2 VP


I have been having each unit take a turn. I am debating how to handle this going forward as it will quickly become more and more confusing as to whose turn it is...yet I will try to keep doing that as long as possible. 

The way it works is this: The oldest unit available (in terms of when they entered the battle) takes its turn, then each succeeding unit in the order the arrived. Once each unit has had a turn, a new unit enters.

For example, because Captain Aelius is now deceased, the Tau Hammerhead has been on the field the longest. It will take its turn first, then the Berzerkers, then the Ultramarine Terminators, then the Space Wolves, then a new unit will arrive.

This gives units such as the deep-striking Space Wolf Terminators an opportunity to disperse lest a blast weapon hit them all and at least make a modest move towards their objective.

Had I altered turn order to say...all Space Marines first, the Terminators would most likely have slain the Berzerkers before the Space Wolves arrived and been able to either move towards their objective or towards the Wolves. I do not know if that would be better or worse, I am simply looking at the alternatives. For now...I will go with the longest surviving units in turn.

I have each unit on a 3x5 index card for easy stat and rules reference. Makes it easy to spin through them in turn order. At least, until they get mixed up when I drop them or something...