A 2000 point 8th edition game between Space Wolves and the unlikely xenos alliance of Orks and Tau. We used the "Ambush!" narrative mission: an armored column of space marines on route to relieve a beleaguered group of Imperial Guard is ambushed on the ruined outskirts of the city.
The imperial force consisted of three squads of blood claws, a squad of wulfen, a squad of skyclaws, a wolf priest, a mounted iron priest and Lukas the blood claw hero mounted in a land raider and razorbacks, accompanied by a vindicator and a whirlwind.
The xenos force was made up of two large squads of ork boyz, a deffdread, a painboy, banner bearer and warboss; two squads of stealth suits, a squad of crisis suits, a squad of sniper drones spotted by a farsight marksman, and commanders Shadowsun and Farsight.
Deployment (14:40)
Deployment in the "Ambush" scenario is interesting. The xenos deploy around three edges, and the convoy along the central axis of half the board touching the fourth edge. The scoring is basically that if the convoy player gets a third of his force off the map on the opposite edge, he wins -- if he doesn't, then the attacker wins. The Xenos set up first, but using markers that indicated a unit was in an approximate location, but not which unit. Then the convoy set up, and then the xenos units were revealed. The ambush takes place at dawn, giving all sides a penalty to shooting for the first round.
Stealth suits creep up from one side of the narrow street, while a lumbering Ork machine smashes through the wall opposite -- the convoy is ambushed! The crafty Wolf Priest leading the column, however, had sniffed out a trap. Spending a command point on the attempt, the wolves manage to seize the initiative and attempt to turn the tables...
Wolves 1 (15:00)
The space wolves' warmachines advanced on the orks, massing fire into one of the two large squads and shooting it up pretty good despite the glare of the rising sun. The lascannon razorback in the back fired on the deff dread, damaging it significantly. The skyclaws forgot to drop in to help, and the iron priest did not consider going on the offensive.
Xenos 1 (15:30)
The stealth suits advanced, closing in on the rear of the armored column. Farsight used a homing beacon on one of the stealth squads to teleport in very near the iron priest. Tau shooting in the rear was largely ineffective, scoring just a couple of wounds on the razorbacks.
A tide of orks swarmed the front vehicles, destroying one of the razorbacks in a deadly explosion that damaged most of the Ork and Space Wolf detachments.
Farsight charged the Iron Priest, slaying him before he could land a counterblow, and then consolidated into combat with the Land Raider to prevent it from being able to shoot. The deffdread engaged one of the trailing razorbacks and damaged it.
Wolves 2 (16:10)
The tanks reversed, trying to get away from the tide of orks. Space wolves charged out of their tanks into the fray. The vindicator drove down an alleyway, looking for a path toward the objective that wasn't full of orks.
The Wolf Priest leading the convoy inexplicably vaporized himself while trying to fire his plasma pistol (despite reroll!)
The tanks with a clear shot fired into the orks, doing some damage.
The wulfen and blood claws toward the rear of the column engaged Farsight and the deffdread, slaying the beast but not managing to bring the tau commander down.
Lukas the blood claw hero made a rather headstrong decision and charged into a mass of orks, getting himself quickly disemboweled.
The skyclaws had dropped down into a building, thinking to attack the Ork heros in the back of the tide, but failed their charge.
Xenos 2 (17:33)
The painboy cracked under pressure and accidentally offed himself while trying to heal one of the other orks. Shooting from Shadowsun and her squad destroyed the whirlwind. Stealth suits damaged the razorback.
The blood claws were slain by orks. Farsight continued to fight on, holding his own against four of the dreaded Wulfen.
Wolves 3 (18:00)
The Vindicator made a break for it, driving around the Orks and killing off the farsight marksman along the way. Not much other shooting, since the remaining vehicles were mostly in combat.
The Wulfen finally slew farsight, and consolidated toward the orks. The land raider took some wounds from farsight before he went down. The skyclaws failed to do anything to the warboss, and were then slain.
Xenos 3 (18:22)
The Crisis Suits dropped in and shot at the wulfen, wounding one. Shadowsun blew up a razorback. The explosion caused another nearby razorback to explode! This chain reaction did a fair job of clearing out the chaff, but the Wulfen remained up.
Wolves 4 (18:45)
The Land Raider positioned itself to shield the Wulfen from the guns of the Tau, as they moved to finish off the orks. Shooting from one of the remaining tanks killed a crisis suit.
Xenos 4 (18:57)
Shooting from the Tau finished off the land raider but were mostly unable to damage the wulfen.
Wolves 5 (19:05)
The vindicator ran over some Tau drones and was positioned to make it off the board. The wulfen advanced down the street away from the pursuing Tau, but were heavily outnumbered.
Without the land raider, not enough of the Space Wolf force remained to make the victory conditions, so the wolves conceded. The game ended in a major victory for the xenos.
The Orks were wiped out, but the Tau detachment remained mostly intact. I'm sure the vindicator will be able to rescue those guardsmen. Everybody wins!
Edited by: Volkov on 10/25/17