Local Tournament Batrep Round 1 - vs. SW

This was my first game of the day, and the first serious game since 2nd edition.  I roll up to the table and meet Mike, a very nice guy who had brought his nifty red and white Space Wolves.  After watching the amazing play with SW armies at NOVA Open, I was less than thrilled that my first game wasn't going to be against something soft and squishy like maybe a Tau battleforce army =p

Here's my list again:

2000pts
Swarmlord - 280
2x Tyrant Guard w/LW - 130
Parasite of Mortrex - 160
3x HG - 150
3x Zoans - 180
8x Ymgarl Genestealers - 184
8x Genestealers w/tox, Broodlord - 182
8x Genestealers w/tox, Broodlord - 182
8x Genestealers w/tox, Broodlord - 182
6x Raveners w/rending claws - 210
20x Gargoyles w/AG, TS - 160

The mission was pitched battle, annihlation; I saw drop pods on his tray and was worried about Jaws in a drop pod; fortunately no Jaws, no Murderous Hurricane, and what looked like a SW list I might have a chance against if I didn't screw up movement too badly:
RP - Chooser, Runic Armor
GH pack (9) - flamer, wolf standard, MotW
  Rhino - extra armor
GH pack (10) - flamer, meltagun, wolf standard, MotW
  Rhino - extra armor
GH pack (10) - flamer, meltagun, wolf standard, MotW
  Drop Pod
LF Squad (5+1 leader): 3x ML, 2x LC
LF Squad (5+1 leader): 3x ML, 2x LC
Wolf Scouts (5) - flamer, melta bomb, plasma pistol
Wolf Guard (5) - Melta bomb, TA SB - wolf claw (3), TA PW - wolf claw (3), TA SB - storm shield (2), TA PW chainfist (2); terminator armor
  Drop Pod
Dreadnaught - HF, MM, extra armor
  Drop Pod
TWC (4) - boltgun, meltabomb, powerfist, storm shield

The drop pod units, TWC, and the need to assault 3x GH squads with counterattack and MotW presented problems for my cunning plan to race across the board and eat his army like so much hairy biomass.  He won the roll and chose to go second.  I wound up deploying first, and bubble wrapped with my gargs, leaving holes near Swarmy and my HGs outside the wrap as pod bait on my right flank with partial LOS blockage, and infiltrating stealers on either flank to keep his melta scouts back.  Ymgarl asleep in the center hill.  He reserved his drop pods and scouts (surprise!) and the top of turn 1 looked something like this:

From Local tournay round 1 batrep

From Local tournay round 1 batrep

Pretty straightforward turn 1 - everything moved forward, but his guys were out of range of both Zoans and HGs and into his turn.  Bottom of turn 1 he had some mostly ineffective shooting, bounces off Zoan 3++ and maybe a couple stealers; he moved forward a bit with his TWC in the center.

Turn 2 continued my mad rush forward; stealers out left to draw in his rhinos into Zoan and Ymgarl range, everything else forward, leaving holes near the raveners and Swarmy in case he wanted to pod into my backfield.  Right flank stealers moved into threat range for his center long fangs.  Mostly ineffective shooting again on my part due to range - at this point wondering why I didn't take biovores or at least try to build a tyrannofex for Hive Fleet Krylon.  Bottom of turn 2 he managed to bring in two pods - his dread (right in front of my HGs) and a GH squad (anchored his front left corner - blocking my stealers); moved his rhinos forward, smoked 'em, disembarked, and proceeded to gun down my left flank stealers to just the broodlord left, and put a dent in my center stealer brood.

From Local tournay round 1 batrep

This was taken in the middle of his Turn 2; right after this, the dread and its pod manage to kill one HG and 1 ravener, and the long fangs manage to kill two more.  The podded GH squad gunned down 3 of my right flank stealer squad, and their pod killed another.  Then his other long fang squad lascannoned down my left flank broodlord, wiping out that squad.  He ended by charging my gargoyle/parasite brood in the center with his TWC.  The gargoyles took a beating, losing I think 8, but managed to kill one of his TWC.

Turn 3 and things are looking moderately decent for a battle contingent on KPs.  I'm down 0-1 on KPs, but all of his soft infantry, except the scouts, are on the board and out of their metal boxes, his low-model-count unit is already engaged, everybody is in charge or shooting range; and my Ymgarl come in, thanks to Swarmy's bonus.  Shooting sees the Zoans exploding the center rhino, despite hood attempts; his priest runs out the back but consolidates.  I hit the dread with all 4 HG shots, roll two 6s for pens, and then only manage to get weapon destroyed and stunned results; the latter he shakes off with extra armor.  No other shooting and the fun begins - Swarmy buffs the center stealers with furious charge and they hit the de-mech'd squad in the center, which thankfully isn't in cover since they debarked.  Stealers wipe out about half the squad and lock - perfect.  The few remaining stealers and raveners charge into the pod GH squad, which goes down to about 5, but successfully counterattacks and manages to kill everything but the broodlord and one ravener.  This is about the time I get the smart idea of b2b'ing the guy with MoTW with my broodlord - hindsight being 20/20.  The gargoyles and parasite mix it up with the TWC, losing a few more gargoyles, but killing another TWC.  Rending + instant death is a handy thing, but he passes the Toughness test easily and I don't get any rippers.  More's the pity.  Big fail on my part - I charge the left flank GH squad in the open with my Ymgarls, leading with +1S, put two of them onto the rhino, and then promptly rolled all my attacks into the squad.  His squad is down about half, breaks and runs but the Ymgarl don't manage to catch them (somehow).  Now my Ymgarl are wide open to counterfire, and I blew a chance at killing the rhino.  We're at 1-2.

Bottom of turn 3 - thankfully his terminators don't come in, but his scouts do, and they come in on the right flank, in range of my HGs, which they promptly put a wound on.  On the Ymgarl side, he backs the rhino up and shoots down a couple Ymgarl.  He splits fire with both his long fangs and puts the rockets into the Ymgarl and the lascannons into my Zoans; wiping out the Ymgarl and killing two Zoans, respectively.  In his assault phase, he charges my HGs with his dread, managing to kill one.  He assaults into my center stealers with his priest, but they manage to wipe out his squad and consolidate toward the long fangs.  My right flank broodlord and ravener manage to reduce the pod GH squad down to one guy, but both die.  The parasite manages to get multiple rends, and he failed the saves on the two remaining TWC, wiping out the squad.  At this point I'm down 3-4 on KPs, and the game is called for time.  His terminators count as a KP since they didn't make it into the game; and we end in a tie, but he's ahead on VPs.

Overall - very fun game.  Lessons learned - Swarmy never made it into combat and only managed to buff things; not the best use of points.  Only two shooty units is meh.  I missed several multi-assault opportunities that would have kept my broods alive.  Pretty upset with myself at my playspeed - getting a KP because his terminators didn't make it onto the board sucked.  Not bad for a first serious game in 5th edition though.