Space Wolves vs. IG

So, I got in a 2,000pt game against a friend of mine's IG list.  He took a fairly standard IG mech list.  From memory (I never saw his list), he had:

Company Command Squad- with 4x meltas, in chimera with multilaser

Vet Squad- lascannon, melta, chimera with multilaser
Vet Squad- lascannon, melta, chimera with multilaser
Vet Squad- lascannon, melta, chimera with multilaser
5 Ogryn- chimera with multilaser
Hellhound
6 Ratling Snipers
2 Leman Russ battle tanks in a single squad
Leman Russ Exterminator
Basilisk

This is a cool army because my friend has been playing since GW has been around.  All of the models are old school and no longer made.

I took the newest edition of my Space Wolves list. I have to say, I don't feel that it has as much punch as taking a  thunderwolf WGBL or even a thunderwolf lord. Here is what I took:

Rune Priest- chooser, living lightning, jaws of the world wolf

5 Wolf Scouts- melta, wolf guard with combi-melta, power weapon
5 Wolf Scouts- melta, wolf guard with combi-melta, power weapon
Wolf Guard unit- 4 pistol/power weapon, 2 combi-melta/power weapon, 1 terminator with cyclone missile launcher (See units for their wolf guard)

5 Grey Hunters- melta gun, wolf guard with pistol/power weapon, riding in a TL lascannon razorback
5 Grey Hunters- melta gun, wolf guard with pistol/power weapon, riding in a TL lascannon razorback
5 Grey Hunters- melta gun, wolf guard with pistol/power weapon, riding in a TL lascannon razorback
5 Grey Hunters- melta gun, wolf guard with pistol/power weapon, riding in a TL lascannon razorback
10 Grey Hunters- 2x melta guns, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen, riding in rhino

Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer
Thunderwolf Cav- thunderhammer, storm shield
Thunderwolf Cav- wolf claw, storm shield

5 Long Fangs- 4x missiles, Cyclone missile)
5 Long Fangs- 4x missiles
5 Long Fangs- 4x missiles

So, I have a lot of stuff to throw at my opponents.  This is very much a counter attack army.  It relies on bringing my opponents to me.  IG don't come to you....ever.  This was a tough game.  I have a bit of a self-imposed fear of IG after being totally wasted by a leafblower in this year's 'Ardboyz tourney.

I have wanted to implement some of the scenario missions from the NOVA Open into a tournament circuit series in my area.  So, we tried out one such scenario.  We rolled randomly for primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives.  Primary was victory points (actual VP for destroyed units), secondary was 5 objectives, and tertiary was table quarters.  If no winner was defined by these criteria we would go to true VP.

We rolled dawn of war for deployment.  My opponent won the first turn.  He put down his CCS in chimera and two vet squads in chimeras.  I kept everything off the board.  Looking back, this was probably a mistake.  It kept me from getting across the board to him. 

This game was very back and forth.  Nothing happened until turn 2, but we ended up playing through turn 7, so it was a full game.  In the end, I blew up 2 chimeras on my right flank, but his vet squads emerged largely unscathed and it took me all game to whittle down a single squad.  They basically stood and shot my right flank to pieces gaining a long fang squad and my 10 man grey hunters.  I never could close with them.  They ended up claiming the objective on their side and shooting away my squad holding mine.  The one vet squad that died did so due to sustained fire from a long fang squad with rune priest that operated from the middle of my deployment zone the entire game. I was able to get wolf scouts behind his leman russ squadron and take out one of the two tanks, but couldn't stop the other before they were shot to pieces. 

In the center my thunderhammer thunderwolf got shot down early by torrents of enemy fire.  The wolf claw managed to get rid of the ratling snipers, but ended up dying to melta fire from the CCS.  These two guys didn't do much this game, but I think that was largely my fault. His hellhound lost its inferno cannon, turn 1 and managed to survive until turn 6 ramming a razorback and exploding it and then immobilizing itself as it tried to ram another.  My terminator finally blew it apart.  A squad of grey hunters made it up to the middle objective but couldn't finish off the CCS who finally contested it.  My landspeeder ended up on top of a ruined building when it mishapped from deepstrike.  It got immobilized and stay put the entire game and shot melta fire at targets of opportunity. 

On the left, some wolf scouts took the gun off the basilisk allowing it only 1 shot at the top of turn 2.  It finally died to a melta from a grey hunter squad.  The scouts then went on to assault the vet squad over on that side after their chimera was popped by long range fire from razorbacks.  They were beaten, ran, passed morale and then engaged again.  In the end, he had a lone sargeant holding the line.  His exterminator survived the game immobilized with all of its guns blown off.  I just could not get a lucky 4+ on melta fire.  The ogryns' chimera was blown up in short order and they were assault by 2 grey hunter squads and finally broken and run down.  One squad moved forward to force the issue on his side of the board while the other made its way back to claim a home objective.  My third long fang squad took a ton of heat early on and only the cyclone terminator stood at the end of the game. 

In the end, we were within 100vp of each other with him taking 1080vp and me taking 980vp.  To win we needed a 250pt swing.  For the secondary objective we tied as well with each claiming 1 objective and having 2 objectives contested.  For the tertiary objective we tied as well, each having 2 table quarters.  So, we went to true VP and my IG friend won with a 100pt. advantage. 

All-in-all, it was a fun game.  I still sweat IG a lot, but I realized that I need to be a bit more aggressive. A rhino is a metal box meant to deliver chainsword death to wimpy IG squads.  I played too defensively and it cost me.  If I had put my 10 man grey hunter squad up onto the table on turn 1, I could have possibly moved into his side quickly causing him more trouble.  I also played like a mook with my thunderwolf cav.  I consistently rolled low run/fleet rolls, so they didn't move very fast and I didn't aim them at solid targets.  In the end, they just couldn't handle the small arms fire with 3+ saves.  With this in mind, I may go back to using a WGBL on thunderwolf and an additional thunderwolf unit. At least then, I could choose to either stick together as a huge threat or split up and take on different targets. 

Your comments and questions are welcome.  Thanks for reading.