Regimental Reporting: Tank Company 'Righteous Fire" After Action Report

It's time for another well deserved trip to the Officer's Mess! I've mentioned recently that I've been thinking about taking some Leman Russ tanks to the upcoming Octoberfest tournament, and I've played a game to try out the draft list.  

This was the first run out for my newly painted tanks: 

Leman Russ Executioner

Executioner Tank Commander

It will also be the first 8th edition appearance of my Hell Hound "Lucky Lambda":

Octoberfest has some unusual army composition rules which I'm keen to try out. My 1250 point list is this along these lines:

Tallarn Spearhead:

• HQ: Tank Commander, Executioner Russ, Plasma Sponsons, Hull Heavy Bolter (CP farm Warlord Trait & Relic)
• Heavy Support: Executioner Russ, Plasma Sponsons, Hull Heavy Bolter
• Heavy Support: Battle Cannon Leman Russ, Triple Heavy Bolters
• Heavy Support: Battle Cannon Leman Russ, Triple Heavy Bolters
• Fast Attack: Hell Hound, Inferno Cannon, Heavy Flamer

Super Heavy Auxiliary:

• Knight Errant, Thermal Cannon, Heavy Stubber, Reaper Chainsword

My opponent is using a Space Wolves Battalion comprising: 

• Wolf Guard Battle Leader
• Wolf Priest with Jump Pack
• 3 units of Grey Hunters
• 2 units of Long Fangs (Missiles and Las Cannons)
• Reivers
• Terminators with an assortment of shooty and stabby things
• Thunderwolf Cavalry
• A rhino

And we are playing one of the previous Mayhem missions, a combination of Secure and Control (Eternal War) and Cleanse and Capture (Maelstrom). In this variation your Home Eternal War objective is worth 3 VP, whilst Away is worth 7VP.

The Wolves deploy split along their long board edge with Termies and Reivers in reserve. The Wolves' Home objective is beside the rhino, whilst the Guard Home objective is to the far left of the picture, in the open.

The Imperial Guard deploy in a castle to one side, opposite the Wolves Home objective. The Hell Hound is placed in reserve using the Tallarn Ambush Strategy.

The Space Wolves win the roll for first turn and the Guard fail to seize.  The Long Fangs deploy into cover whilst a squad of Grey Hunters jump into the Rhino to move mid table. On the other side, the Grey Hunters and Thunder Wolves sit tight. Shooting plinks a few wounds off one of the Plasma tanks.

The Tanks spread whilst the Knight stomps off; shooting is pretty successful taking out the missile Long Fangs and one or two of their Las Cannon wielding pack brothers and the Rhino.

Space Wolf turn 2 and the Terminators drop in, whilst the Grey Hunters from the wrecked Rhino move forward. 

The Space Wolf shooting and assaulting is very successful taking out both plasma Leman Russes. Meanwhile the Thunderwolf Cavalry advance across no mans land seeking out cover from where they can move onto the Guard's Eternal War objective later in the game.

Big Blue stomps back to deal with the Termies running amok in the back field.

There's also a bunch of Long Fangs still to deal with, and a sneaky unit of Grey Hunters lurking on my Away Objective. 

Luckily I have reserves of my own and Lucky Lambda rolls on from the back line to start drowning Wolves in promethium.

The Terminators are dealt with, but the Long Fangs remain in place. I recall the two Grey Hunters to the bottom right having a bad time in the following turn.

All this action has taken the pressure off my remaining tanks, but the Space Wolves have been racking up Maelstorm cards whilst I've been struggling to get off the starting line.

The Space Wolves drop the Reivers in their back line to intercept the Hell Hound, whilst the remaining Long Fangs nearly destroy one of the Russes. Both Big Blue and the Hell Hound strike into the Space Wolves on their Home objective and over the course of a couple of turns take out the Long Fangs, Grey Hunters and cause the Reivers to move back into cover. 

The two Leman Russes are now left to fire free, although the damaged tank requires 6s to hit anything!

The game moves into the last turns. Big Blue claims Away.

And the functional Russ scoots onto Home, taking the Objective from the Thunder Wolves as the tank is Objective Secured, and they can't kill it before the game ends.

The game ends with the Hell Hound and damaged Russ hunting the Battle Leader, seen here with just one wound remaining after the final dice was thrown!

With the Imperial Guard controlling the Eternal War Objectives, but scoring only one measly VP from Maelstrom cards, we nervously count up the Space Wolves Maelstrom VP total. Alas they are short by a few points and Victory goes to the Imperial Guard!

Final thoughts; I enjoyed playing the list and it's a definite contender for Octoberfest. I don't think it will win the competition, but it will be a lot of fun and it's great to use a bunch of units I haven't played on the table top in a long time. I guess I'll need to bust out the tin hat for the day!

Thanks for taking the time to read this (long) post; I can see more tanks on the table top in the near future.