Space Wolves: the Bully Way

Compared to most modern codices, the Space Wolves book is fairly weak and outdated. Specifically, no litanies of hate, no rites of battle, and no Ld 10 psykers puts them at a distinct disadvantage against their vanilla counterparts as well as almost every other race. Nonetheless, the sons of Russ still have access to a great set of special rules: no matter the odds, counter-attack, wolf pelts, frost blades, Storm Caller, and the ability to put up to two power fists in each squad, not counting any attached Wolf Guard. Together, they mean that almost every Space Wolf model will have the advantage in close combat against anything but specialized assault troops. Even then, however, the packs will fight to the last man, and that last man has probably been waving his power fist around for at least two or three phases, hopefully long enough to bring their opponents below scoring as well. The main liabilities of the army list (high point cost and low model count) must be countered by tactical deployments that concentrate their own strength while diluting the enemy’s, as well as wise micromanagement to maximize objective-taking and minimize casualties. To this end, my general strategy with Space Wolves is to make a coordinated assault on just enough objectives to put me ahead and use the units in the best combination to hold on for dear life. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's always entertaining if I can just remember all the special rules. I wrote up a few thoughts on the application of the various units I currently use or have used in the past.

Grey Hunters

I choose to put my Grey Hunters in drop pods for a couple of reasons. Without access to jump packs, using them in a pure assault role is less attractive and it would waste true grit besides. Instead, I prefer to give them a lot of bolters and plasma for an initial burst of shooting, and count on their special rules and multiple power fists to defend their location from counter-assaults. Pods are great for Hunters because they aren’t destroyed by scattering into enemy formations, and you can usually place them in fairly cramped quarters, ensuring at least one round of double-tap shooting from which the enemy cannot hide. If possible, I try to deploy the Hunters in cover and screen out the worst angles of enemy fire with the pod itself. Still, they don’t last very long isolated by themselves, so I usually try to place them near another friendly unit and reinforce the position as soon as I’m able. As far as target priority goes, I usually try to inflict the most casualties on the nearest, most dangerous assault unit.

Battle Leader, Rune Priest, and Blood Claws in a Land Raider

With a potential 20-inch charge and 12 frost blade, 24 normal, and 8 power fist attacks all striking first, this pack has the potential to make quite an impact. It’s taken me loads of games to figure out the best ways to use it without losing their scoring capacity in the process. Transport is the first issue. The time delay and potential exposure associated with drop pods makes them a poor choice for transporting a pure assault unit, and Rhinos are not that much better for basically the same reasons. Biker Claws are just too expensive and giving them jump packs instead just makes you pay for the +1 T and 24-inch turbo boost without actually getting it, not to mention you can’t send the characters along with them. For these reasons, I’ve become resigned to deploying my Claws in a Land Raider. Raiders are a big point sink, and their fat ass usually hangs out of both sides of any terrain they might be hiding behind, but they look impressive on the battlefield, are better anti-tank than a Long Fangs squad of equal cost, and the assault ramp makes for a very long charge range.

Ever since the last book came out, I’ve always dreamed about that ideal 20-inch Storm Caller-enhanced Blood Claws charge from the assault ramp of a fast moving Land Raider. Honestly, though, I don’t even remember the last time I was able to get their charge bonus. It’s hard to find someone who will sit still long enough for the Blood Claws to charge them, even with an assault ramp transport, so they’re usually charged themselves and only fight with two attacks. Their WS3 at I4 means several of them are probably going to die before their 4 power fist attacks strike back, and half of those usually miss anyway.

Recently, I replaced the Wolf Guard Leader from my Blood Claws squad with an HQ Wolf Guard Battle Leader. Even if the unit is charged themselves, the two HQ models will counter-attack and strike with 12 WS5 S5 power weapon attacks at I5, and since they’re in base-to-base (BTB) contact, at least one or two enemy models will usually be forced to attack the independent characters, meaning less attacks go into the Blood Claws, hopefully keeping the squad at scoring size for a bit longer. Maneuvering to actually get that counter-attack is a little tricky and can depend on your understanding of the following rules:

• Assault (p. 38): Once a model is in base-to-base contact, or within two inches of a model from its own unit in BTB contact, with an enemy model, it is said to be engaged. The unit that the models belong to is then said to be locked.


• Characters in assault (p. 51): Characters are treated as a separate unit when resolving close combats, following the normal rules for multiple combats on page 45. If the unit they have joined is locked in combat with the enemy, the character is locked with them.


• Counter-attack (p. 74): Unengaged models from a unit that has been charged by the enemy must move up to 6” to get into BTB contact with the enemy, taking terrain into account as normal.

So let’s say you have a unit of 8 Blood Claws and two HQ units with wolf pelts (Rune Priest, Wolf Priest, Wolf Lord, whatever) that just jumped out of a Land Raider. They’re too far away to charge anything but most likely are in range to get charged themselves. So long as you’re not pinned, this is not as bad a situation as it could be. The main objective is to minimize the chances of an enemy model being able to actually get into BTB contact with your HQ units, because when the unit is charged, the HQs will be locked but never engaged unless they actually come into BTB, since they count as a separate unit in close combat. As long as they’re not touching, they’re not engaged, and as such can make a counter-attack as described, not to mention getting that lovely 6th attack from their wolf pelt. Most of the time I’ll form up a single or double line with the Blood Claws spaced less than one inch apart, curving back away from the approaching enemy at the ends, with the HQs tucked away in the middle behind the line.

This leads to a subtle advantage that ICs have over a Wolf Guard “sergeant” in leading Blood Claws. Since the 30-point Wolf Guard leaders count as part of the same unit in assault, and can therefore be engaged if models within two inches of them are touched by an enemy model, it’s quite easy to deny them their counter-attack move and wolf pelt bonus unless they’re way in the back and the enemy barely made their charge distance. However, if you can pull it off, i.e., keep the Wolf Guard more than 2" away from any of his squadmates that have been touched in BTB by an enemy assault, he can earn the counterattack move and wolf pelt bonus, and thereby get 4 attacks - getting that wolf pelt bonus is the only way 4 attacks is possible for a bolter Wolf Guard "sergeant" because of true grit!

With such a big block of points tied up in such a fat (albeit strongly armored) vehicle, I will usually drive them toward an objective first rather than go balls-out toward the enemy line, and deploy either the squad or smoke launchers, if I’ve bought them. In my mind, it’s better to deploy riders too early and head them on foot toward cover than risk getting pinned, exposed to enemy fire, and out of their element (assault) even longer. I’ve never made points back from stranded Blood Claws – they are almost always shot up and destroyed having made no impact on the game whatsoever.

About the Rune Priest specifically... I'm surprised that I haven't run into any players who object to the idea that a squad with Storm Caller will strike at I 10 just like normal units in cover who are charged themselves, but then again like I said I rarely get to charge with the squad anyway. And not that the rule isn't very clear, which, to me it very much is, especially when taken with the statements in the codex FAQ, but it's still a pretty interesting effect that I expect will be translated into something new in the next codex, like Eldar Banshee mask rules or something. The Ld 9 is pretty weak, and besides Storm Caller farting every once in a while, his psychic hood (is also less effective. Still, he's just as good a fighter as the battle leader (himself a two-wound version of the overpriced Lord), and his Chooser of the Slain has helped the pack on many occasions.

Wolf Guard Terminators

Another very points-heavy unit that can inflict a good amount of damage, but cannot be left alone for long. In fact, since they have better range than the Grey Hunters I’m more likely to deploy their drop pod farther away from the enemy to avoid the Terminators being charged. If possible, I’ll put them into 4+ cover and try to get as many turns of shooting with the assault cannons as I can. Since my Land Speeders carry multimeltas, I switched my attack bikes to heavy bolters and used the points to make the AC’s master-crafted. A little dickish, maybe, but a) I’m paying out the ass for them and b) I wanted to milk the 4th edition rending rules a little bit more before they disappear this summer. I usually keep the Terminators in the same formation as the Blood Claws: a line curved away from the nearest enemy, the Battle Leader tucked behind with enough space for him to get out and around with counter-attack.

Wolf Scouts

The recent BFG hobby tournament inspired me to get off my ass and sharpen my wolf scouts squad. I had made a trade for some plastic space marine scouts so I assembled and painted up two of them, gave them plasma pistols and assorted space wolf icons, and added them to the four I'd been using. I've already seen an improvement in this squad's game effect in the 6 games I've had with them so far. Haven't lost one yet to a plasma overheat, so I guess I'm due for that, but those extra wounds in the squad let the power weapons stick around for longer and make more of an impact. Also they're not such a one hit wonder against vehicles - the plasma pistols took out a rhino full of noise marines last week, killing several and pinning the rest, after the meltagun trooper had missed. I give them frags since the static rear guard units that they're so good at attacking are usually hiding in cover.

Vindicator

I’m going to take a break from my cousin Vinnie for a while. Half of my games it’s been destroyed in the first couple of turns, and when it does survive longer, it rarely inflicts enough casualties to warrant the points. I might bring it back into a 2500 point army, but for my 2000 I’m going to replace it with a couple of melta/flamer Land Speeders instead. I think they’ll do as much or more damage than the single tank and be much better at objective management.

Long Fangs

Abandon all victory points ye who enter here. Just too freakin expensive. Split fire is just not that special in a numbers game and that stupid pack leader costs way too much. Maybe I'd bring them back in to a 2500 point list for more "wolfy" flavor if I was especially concerned with fluff, but otherwise forget em.

Leman Russ Exterminator

Could this be my next experiment? I could convert one up from a standard Russ using guard autocannons easily enough. Talking to Jay at the tournament on Sunday, I realized that I had almost all of their little tricks represented except for the quintessential Wolves tank. If I switched this in for my Land Raider and gave the Blood Claws a Rhino instead, I'd be taking away those bad ass lascannons, but then I could switch multimeltas back in on the Attack Bikes to try and make up for it. Then again, I do really like my Land Raider model... Maybe I should wait for the codex update to make sure it's even going to be available. Anyone have any rumors in that regard?

Tournament: Ninja Pirates 2-17-08

Having hastily finished my two landspeeders over a few evenings last week, I was eager to see if my new Space Wolves list was any kind of improvement over the last. For the points of the vindicator and swapping out the attack bikes' multimeltas for heavy bolters, I added the two skimmers and made the Wolf Guard terminator assault cannons master-crafted. I knew it would be tough going in, being on the bad side of the numbers game, but I've heard that sometimes you have to tame the beast before you let it out of its cage. That in mind, I boxed up the Brothers of the Blood Sea: Extreme Puppy Rescue edition, and with a couple of wolves as my objective markers, headed up to Ninja Pirates... and got a fucking speeding ticket on the way there! Blast the joyless Arbites and their accursed speed traps. That wouldn't have happened if I had been in a cult limo.

Game 1 - Tyranids

This was the first of three games against opponents I'd seen at Ninja Pirates tourneys for months but never actually played before. Cricket had over 100 models in his bug army, with an amped up flying CC hive tyrant (scything talons, toxic miasma, implant attack, toxin sacs, warp field, god knows what else), three squads of three warriors with twin-linked deathspitters, two squads of 12 genestealers with flesh hooks and maybe talons, a big squad of fleshborer gaunts, a big squad of spine fist gaunts, two 10-man squads of hormagaunts, a sniperfex and two dakkafexes with five wounds each. We both rolled Rescue for our mission. Unfortunately (idiotically), I had placed one of my objectives fairly close to his deployment zone and he was able to claim it with gaunts in the second turn. The land raider pulled forward and unloaded the blood claws and HQ into the center temple, hoping to make a stand with them and maybe rescue his objective marker located on the other side. Gaunts and warriors lit them up and over half of the blood claws died in one turn, leaving the survivors to fight off the subsequent gaunt and hormagaunt assault on their own. The Land Raider itself was immobilized early by a venom cannon shot, and then destroyed in the subsequent turn. The land speeders split up after one of them was shaken by a Hive Tyrant assault, the functioning one heading across the board to burn up some genestealers, only succeeding in killing three or four. The scouts arrived and charged into the remaining stealers, taking them down to three, then two, then one, before finally finishing off the last just by dogpiling him. Even in their great numbers, the gaunts were a breeze once I could get them out of synapse, but they proved a frustrating tarpit capable of slowing and diluting one of my baddest units for a fucklong time. I also underestimated the power of those goddamned deathspitters; he had what semeed like a continuous supply of the twin-linked S6 blast templates, and they were all over me as soon as the drop pod doors opened. Try as I might I only killed one of the three squads of those bitches. Along with some seriously poor armor save rolls they brought my numbers down the most, followed by the dakkafexes and the hive tyrant. I made two major mistakes: I basically gave away one of my grey hunter squads by isolating them in the middle when I should have consolidated my attack on the right, and later I forgot to move my attack bikes around the third or fourth turn and the hive tyrant's implant attack wiped them out before they could even blink. The big bug spent the entire game flying back and forth between his deployment and my own, swatting at land speeders and assaulting foot units with thorough impunity. The land speeders were eventually destroyed, but they lasted quite a while and overall I was very impressed with their debut performance. The Rune Priest had a good game as well, whittling down around 10 or 15 gaunts by himself over three turns after all his fellows had been killed. I finally managed to rescue one of his objectives with the Terminators after they blew away the heavy fex guarding it, but couldn't hold one of my own to accomplish my second mission. Tyranids win, 2-1.

Game 2 - Tau

Jason's got a unique-looking Tau army, with a lot of cool conversions, like the adapted predator turrets on the hammerheads, and the skull defiler heads on certain battlesuit units. He had three hammerheads, along with two squads of 6 fire warriors, a fusion gun piranha, two squads of battlesuits with rocket pods and plasma, two HQ battlesuits with a bodyguard each, also with rocket pods and plasma, 6 stealth suits with a fusion gun on the leader, and one devilfish transport. We rolled the big triangle deployment zones, and bridgehead for both our missions (capture one friendly and one enemy objective). I rolled to go first, and the bikes inflicted a couple of early casualties on the stealth suits before being utterly erased by plasma and rocket fire. I tried to flank heavy on my left with most of my units, except for one grey hunter pod which I sent to my right to attack his fire warriors and possibly capture one of his objectives in a big ruined building in his corner. Probably the low point of the game was losing the other grey hunter drop pod off of the board edge while trying to solidify my hold on the other ruined building where his second objective was located. Instead, the blood claws and terminators were left to hold it themselves, with the land speeders and scouts launching attacks in the immediate vicinity. The terminators managed to bring down a squad or two with their shooting, and the scouts toppled one battlesuit squad as well but got tied up for several turns in combat with the more senior tau HQ. Heavy fire from all the skimmers and battlesuits took a toll and eventually the land raider, one landspeeder, the blood claws and terminators were all destroyed. After wiping out two fire warrior squads in assault, the half-strength grey hunters hiding deep in his deployment zone couldn't get close enough to the objective they were trying to eventually capture. This was basically the same story as the first game with a slightly different flavor: shooty death for the Space Wolves, Tau wins, 2-0.

Game 3 - Chaos

Thor had a near pure Nurgle army, with a demon prince, Typhus, a greater demon, a squad of five or six nurgle terminators, two squads of 10 lesser demons, two big squads of plague marines, and two defilers. I rolled to get the rescue mission again, and he got firebase (probably the easiest mission - control any two objectives). He split his two plague marine squads, with one on each side hiding in cover, with the defilers in position on his left near his rear-most objective. He went first but luckily his ordnance ricocheted harmlessly off of my exposed land raider. I exploded one defiler and immobilized the other in the first turn with my land speeders, while the raider drove far forward and discharged the blood claws to "rescue" one of his objective markers. The scouts and both grey hunter packs emerged from reserve and attacked the plaguebearers hiding in the forest on his left side. The scouts were easily repelled, but T5 and feel no pain couldn't stand up to the combined power fist attacks of the grey hunters. The greater demon arrived and tried to fight off the hunters but was slayed by the rune priest and wolf guard battle leader. Eventually he made it across the table with the demon prince, Typhus, and a pack of demons to loiter on one of my objectives, but my land speeders, attack bikes, terminators, and land raider counterattacked and took care of them, securing me a win in objectives (2-0) as well as victory points.

The limitations of the Space Wolves list were quite evident in my first two games. I think it can hold up against other more compact MEQ armies, but it's much more difficult to use against mob or mechanized skimmer forces. I did make a few mistakes that hopefully I'll learn from in the future. I definitely preferred the 2 land speeders to the vindicator, and I think I'll stick with the melta/flamer armament rather than make them tornados. My main concern has to do with the land raider. It's so freakin expensive and fairly vulnerable considering all the high strength guns out there. I've considered a few other options, such as swapping in a predator annihilator or bringing the venerable dreadnought back in, but as the land raider grants both tough transport as well as decent anti-tank, I'm going to play a few more games with it and just try to improve my tactics.

Slow News Days

Sorry for the low post count lately, we're buying a house and moving and having garage sales and all that kind of shit. Nevertheless, I have been working on 40k stuff in the midst of all the chaos, I just haven't had much news worth blogging about. I finished painting up a couple Space Wolves landspeeders this weekend, and also wrote a long piece about my unit choices for that army that will appear here shortly. Today there's another 2k Rules of Engagement tournament at Ninja Pirates that I will be attending and shall describe in detail as always.

I get about 75 or so hits a day (tailing off after my recent slow supply of entries) and I know the Austin community is big, but not THAT big. So I think there's more than a few outlanders coming by here, probably BOLS referrals. I was interested in what they *you* might want to hear about. Obviously my approach to 40k blogging is different from BOLS, in that they provide tons of rumors, their own reference material, strategy, etc, while I simply and selfishly focus on my own games and armies. I thought in 2008 I might expand a little to give more coverage to the Austin 40k scene in general: the major players, some special events, and obviously continuing tournament coverage. What else would you turds like to hear more about? Leave me a comment if you have the time. Also, if you too have a 40k blog that you update fairly regularly and it's not listed in my sidebar section there, let me know.

Tournament: Battleforge Games 2-09-08

I played in the first Battleforge 40k Hobby Tournament last weekend and did pretty well without actually placing. I think I might have come in around 4th of 17 total players with two wins and a loss. It was a good mix, with plenty of marines (several pre-heresy armies), imperial guard, eldar, chaos, and even one ork army. There were only seven or so fully painted armies, not as many as I’d hoped to see, but maybe word will get around and more will show up next time. I brought the latest incarnation of my Space Wolves army, including two new scout models I had painted up over the last couple of evenings. As usual Brandon ran a great tournament, and I had three interesting games, probably rolling a little too well in each. Overall, the wolves performed a lot better than I had expected. The characters all did well in assault, except maybe in the third round due to user error, and the reserve elements usually managed to pour out some good shooting upon landing and survive long enough to earn their expensive asses back. The Land Raider shot and transported well, and the bikes knocked out some important targets on cue. The Vindicator got a few kills but wasn’t ever resilient enough for my taste. I’ll be dropping it for a couple of melta/flamer land speeders at the next tournament. Here’s the list I used:

Rune Priest – frost blade, runic staff, chooser of the slain, wolf pelt, frag grenades, belt of russ

Wolf Guard Battle Leader – frost blade, bolt pistol, wolf pelt, frag grenades

Wolf Guard Battle Leader – lightning claws, terminator armor, wolf pelt
Wolf Guard Bodyguard – 2 combiplasmas, 2 assault cannons, 3 power weapons, 1 power fist
Drop Pod

6 Wolf Scouts – meltagun, 2 plasma pistols, 2 power weapons, frag grenades

9 Grey Hunters – 7 bolters/ccw, 1 plasma pistol/ccw, 1 plasma gun
Wolf Guard Leader – power fist, bolter, wolf pelt
Drop Pod

9 Grey Hunters – 7 bolters/ccw, 1 plasma pistol/ccw, 1 plasma gun
Wolf Guard Leader – power fist, bolter, wolf pelt
Drop Pod

8 Blood Claws

2 Attack Bikes – multimeltas

Land Raider

Vindicator – power of the machine spirit, extra armor, smoke launchers

Game 1 – Pre-Heresy Emperor’s Children

For the first round I drew the bye and faced off against Brandon’s mean pink Chillens. I think this was the first game I’ve ever played against him when he wasn’t fielding his uber ass-can army. Saturday his force consisted of a jump-pack Epistolary with FotA and FoD, a jump-pack Master, a terminator squad in a drop pod, three 8-man las/plas tac squads with rhinos, a landspeeder with a multimelta, two dev squads with four lascannons and four heavy bolters, and a whirlwind. The primary objective was table quarters, and the secondary and tertiary were basically recon and assassinate. No victory points. He more or less played from a static gunline, laying in wait for my deep strikers and taking shots at my Land Raider as it tried to cross the battlefield. My scouts came in from his back right edge, pounced on one of his tac squads and proceeded to maul them unmercifully, making hella 4+ saves. Afterwards they segued into a second tac squad but were finally beat down. At the same time, my terminators dropped in behind the Master on his left side and opened up with assault cannons, killing him outright in the first blast. Secondary objective accomplished. Seeking revenge, his librarian came over to assist, handily breaking my terminator squad with fear of darkness, and escorted them away for a couple of turns. Run, little weenie wolves! When his own terminators dropped in nearby to finish them off, they got shot up themselves with combiplasmas for their trouble. Meanwhile, the blood claws and accompanying HQ badasses got pinned down for a couple of turns on my far left after he penetrated the Land Raider with his land speeder’s multimelta. Fortunately, the hit only destroyed one of the tank’s lascannons, and after the blood claws tackled the land speeder to the ground, they jumped back in the tank and continued their approach toward his right flank, avenging my dead scouts and taking care of the recon objective. On my own right side, the Vindicator was destroyed early on by his lascannon dev squad, but the attack bikes survived for quite a while and eventually reduced the librarian to a man-sized heap of melted slag. Since it was the bye, I automatically earned the primary objective (though I still accomplished it), and with the second and third objectives I went into the second round with full points. Space Wolves win.

Game 2 – Pre-Heresy Alpha Legion

My second game was on the ice board playing against Aventine's purple people eaters. The primary objective was to capture the hill terrain pieces, the secondary was field of battle with victory points dictating the winner, and the third was to destroy the enemy’s most expensive unit. To the best of my recollection, Chris had a command squad with two tank-hunting lascannons, a demonhunters inquisitor with the Emperor’s tarot and a psycannon, a vindicare assassin, a techmarine with a signum, a big cc-oriented veteran squad on foot, a small sniper/rocket scout squad, three melta/missile tactical squads, two melta/flamer landspeeders, and two predator destructors. The Rune Priest's chooser of the slain kept most of his infiltrators at bay, which was nice. He set up a big gun line with the veterans in the rear for the necessary counter-assault. I kept the Land Raider hanging out behind the hill on my right side, taking potshots across the field, and eventually knocked down a land speeder and a predator. The blood claws and rune priest occupied the hill there, staying deep enough in cover to be out of sight from his shooting. I was going to move up the raider and take the center at the end, but one of his tank hunters finally immobilized it in the fifth turn. Having had poor luck splitting the main army body before, I decided to concentrate on the left-side hill in his deployment zone and threw the rest of my army at it, wiping out the scouts, inquisitor, land speeder, one and a half tac squads, and most of a veteran squad, with about 50% casualties of my own in the process. However, at some point later I made the mistake of moving the surviving terminators to the edge of cover and they were finished off, costing me a ton of VPs for fairly little in return. He won the primary objective by holding his single hill and contesting both of mine by sidling up to them in the 6th turn with his land speeder and predator, perhaps a little cheesy, but I would have done the same thing in his place (and soon will with my own little jets!). I had killed or broken quite a bit of his army, but he had still earned more VPs from inflicting lighter casualties on my pricier units (something like 800 to my 600) and took the secondary objective as well. Killing off one of his tac squads did earn me the tertiary objective, so the final score was 17 to 3. One or both of us may have gotten some bonus points, too, but I don't remember. Alpha Legion wins.

Game 3 - Chaos

* File Accidentally Deleted by Servodolt *

In holding with a now time-honored 40kology tradition, I forgot to get a photo of the third game against Joe's Slaanesh-themed chaos force. He had a demon prince with lash, a greater demon, a lord with lightning claws, a big squad of possessed, two squads of noise marines, another squad of chaos marines, a big squad of lesser demons, a big squad of raptors, and a multi-melta dreadnought. This game was a little weird, we hadn't played before and I don't know if our styles were exactly matched, but the mood was tense at times. I may have ticked him off earlier in the day when I interjected a question/comment on a rule usage in his second game after mis-eavesdropping. I don't appreciate it either when people butt into my tournament games, but it's hard sometimes when you think you hear something flagrant. With strangers, it's probably best to just keep your mouth shut if it's not your own game. Anyway, the primary objective was victory points, with extra points for table quarters, the possession of which also determining the winner of the tertiary objective. The secondary objective was "suicide squad," where we both nominated one suicide unit and could earn the objective if they were destroyed in the battle. I missed seeing his roll for the possessed squad's ability; he said later that it had come up power weapons, but it was of little consequence in the end. He set up the noise and standard marines on his right side, with the raptors and more noisemarines in the middle, and the possessed and dreadnought on his left. Going second, I rolled up his right side with my Raider, Vindicator, and bikes, deploying the HQs and blood claws halfway up the table. Unfortunately for me, I goofed and forgot to cast Stormcaller - it would have come in damn handy in the subsequent assault. He counter-attacked with the dreadnought, thankfully missing the Land Raider at close range with the multimelta, as well as the daemonettes, who charged into the blood claws and characters. In return, the attack bikes moved up and destroyed the dreadnought with melta fire. Just as my blood claws started to fight the lesser demons back, his possessed jumped into the fray and finished them all off, including both HQs. The Vindicator and Land Raider managed to survive long enough to kill the demon prince with some clutch shooting, but were eventually destroyed. Most of my reserves came in early. The scouts emerged from his deployment edge, shooting up some noise marines to good effect, and I brought the terminators and grey hunters in on the left side of the table to attack his two marine squads advancing over there. In the fourth turn, the greater demon emerged and destroyed my terminators before following up into my second squad of grey hunters, who had themselves just broken his big raptor squad off the table. After several rounds of intense combat, where chainsword and powerfist dueled artfully with whipped tail and spikey boob, the Keeper of Secrets and grey hunters wiped each other out. The first unit of grey hunters dealt heavy casualties on their targets, reducing two marine squads to a man and breaking one of them off of the board. Some especially poor rolling on his part in the last two turns shifted the game strongly in my favor, and I took the primary and tertiary objective by capturing two quarters to his one, as well as a couple of extra bonus points for my suicide squad surviving and (I think) getting a unit into his deployment zone. Neither of our suicide squads were destroyed, so noone got the secondary objective. Space Wolves win.

Been Caught Stealing

Ok, please forgive the cheesy title, I've been listening to Jane's Addiction lately, and I couldn't think of anything better. My point is, I painted up 7 more genestealers to finish my first squad of 8 - the protypical "Pure" brood. Only 40 more to go, though theoretically they should take a little less time as there's less yellow to work on - each of the other five schemes has different black bodyparts. Before I crack into unit no. 2, though, I'm going to work on either the warriors or a big fex.

I heard Space Wolves is not on the radar for a 2008 release, hopefully not true. BOLS had some commentary from JJ that they were "high priority," but that's not precise enough language to truly inspire me.

Tournament: Ninja Pirates 1-20-08

Ninja Pirates played host to a 2k Rules of Engagement tournament last Sunday. I took the newly inked nids and 2 objective markers. If you haven't played the RoE rules before, I definitely recommend giving it a try; a large variety of possible scenarios coupled with the freedom from having to tally up victory points at the end is the main attraction. The rules do take some tinkering to include in an effective tournament environment. The tournament organizer had changed up things a little bit, most drastically the way you capture objectives (you needed the most scoring units within 3" instead of simply the most models), and the all-or-nothing type missions were split into two possible points, but everything else was essentially the same. All in all it made for a very interesting set of games, with tactics playing a bigger role than the usual kill-or-be-killed smashups. Here was my list:

• 1 Hive Tyrant - toxin sacs, wings, 2 twin-linked devourers, warp field, enhanced senses


• 1 Carnifex - 2 twin-linked devourers, flesh hooks


• 6 x 8 Genestealers - extended carapace, scuttlers


• 5 Warriors - rending claws, scything talons, wings, adrenal glands (+1 I)


• 2 Carnifexes - venom cannon, barbed strangler, extended carapace, enhanced senses, bonded exoskeleton, flesh hooks

I got two wins and a draw, Jay got first place, and I lost the tie roll-off for "best general" (2nd place) to Cricket. Best army went to Frank's Ultramarines, speaking of whom...

Game 1 - Ultramarines

I've played against Frank more than a few times now (he goes by Capt tyranus on B&C), but I haven't actually beat him since the very first time we were matched up in the 2006 citywide. Shortly thereafter, he perfected his infantry gunline, and he's thrashed my guard and witch hunters on several occasions in the last couple of years. This time, however, the dice gods cooked up the perfect storm for him from the very beginning. First off, we drew a board with plenty of dense urban terrain, rolled for the small L-shaped deployment zones, and I got to choose the corner with the most cover. Then for missions, I drew "Unconventional Warfare," which by luck required me to defend my own two objectives (placed conveniently in or very near my deployment zone), while he drew "Assassinate," requiring him to footslog into a tyranid deployment zone (yikes), kill my HQ, and capture at least one of my objectives. I rolled to pick to go second, which was another big advantage in this case. He deployed his 80 or so marines at the edge of his "L" and began to move forward as quickly as possible, pausing to take shots at what he could see - mainly my carnifexes - while his flying Librarian knocked a few genestealers down every turn with Fury of the Ancients. At the same time, his big scout squad and assault marines picked their way through terrain and prepared to pounce on my objectives. For my part, I just waited for his inevitable attack and tried to use the barbed stranglers to take some of the shooting heat off my stealer broods (to little effect). In the last turn, two of his small las-plas squads, one assault squad, and the big scout squad moved to contest one of my objectives. I counter-attacked with the hive tyrant, my flying warriors, and a few genestealer stragglers. The hive tyrant and stealers managed to bring the scouts and one mini-tac squad below scoring, and then it was down to the warriors vs. the assault marines. After the first round of marine fists were unable to inflict much damage, I lucked out again and rolled 6 rending hits. With my two scoring units to his one the objective was mine! He also tried to contest my second objective with a lone assault squad, but I had too many genestealers covering that one as well and I took the win, 2-0.

Game 2 - Necrons

Jay had a very diverse and well-painted Necron force, including the Nightbringer, a destroyer lord, two warrior squads, an immortal squad, four destroyers, three wraiths, two heavy destroyers, two tomb spyders, and a monolith. I rolled the "Hold Out" mission, and he got "Firebase." He split his undead mess up into two main wings, with the star god, wraiths, and one tomb spyder holding his right side, the monolith and wraiths roughly in the middle, and everything else slightly to the left. I put my flying warriors and half my genestealer squads into objective denial mode, while the rest of the bugs concentrated on holding my own objective markers. The Monolith, wraiths, and Nightbringer solidly fought off my stealer offensive, while the rest of his force marched slowly forward to shoot up my right side and deny me the objective in no-man's-land. I tried to circle his far right flank with the warriors, but eventually the Nightbringer got in their way and I decided to charge in headlong. This time, the nightbringer was out of cover and the warriors got to go first, their rending claws luckily scoring just enough wounds to bring him down before he could retaliate. Now that's a trophy kill! On my right, I moved up the hive tyrant and several genestealer squads to assault his tight firing lines. The tyrant smashed into the front warrior squad, killing just enough of them to force a morale check, which they failed, and the big bug ran down the survivors with a sweeping advance. My genestealers ate up one of the tomb spyders and his accompanying scarab swarms, and then moved into combat with the immortals, killing a few of them before he teleported them away to safety with the monolith. It ended up a draw, with Jay and I each capturing both of our objectives.

Game 3 - Eldar

The third and final game was against Ames and the "Grapes of Wrath" Eldar. Maugan Ra led her usual two squads of pathfinders, howling banshees in a wave serpent, harlequins, eight or so warp spiders, three war walkers, and two fire prisms. My mission was "Unconventional Warfare" again, while she had to capture both of her own. We had the big triangle deployment zones. I figured I'd be better off closing the distance with Eldar rather than try to hold back and defend, so I lined everyone up on my deployment edge and hauled ass out into no-man's-land. The stealers on my right got stung early by fire prism and pathfinder sniper fire, and so instead I sent the flying warriors and big gun fexes to take that objective instead. Everything else, including the hive tyrant and dakkafex, jumped out into the middle to assault the oncoming warp spiders, war walkers, harlequins and howling banshees, and to take the eldar objective in the middle. One squad got in early with the war walkers but were tied up and couldn't inflict any rending hits to damage them. It would take another two or three stealer squads to gang up and bring them down near the end of the game. The harlequins lost half their number to shooting from the hive tyrant, and the rest were wiped out by a rushing stealer squad, who followed up into cover and were assaulted in turn by the howling banshees. Despite the initiative advantage gained from their masks, the banshees were repelled and fell back off of the table. Same for the warp spiders, who tried to take on the dakkafex only to get swarmed by more stealers. After some good low AP shooting inflicted some early wounds, Maugan Ra finished off the hive tyrant, but he too was brought down by the rest of the swarm in the end. She used the fire prisms to harrass my big gun fexes for pretty much the whole game, almost bringing them both below scoring capacity; a pity they couldn't return the favor, but for their thrice-damned holofields. After I had wiped out everything but her grav tanks, we called it in the fifth turn, with me succesfully capturing my two objectives to her one. I only realized on the drive home that the scoring stealer squad that had been assaulting her fire prism on her own objective should have contested the marker, as I had second turn and they were all clustered in the same place. No big deal, I just need to take my time a little more with the wrap-up. Chalk it up to the end of a long day, not to mention I was coming down with a cold (sucks).

Scattershot

I inked up my tyranids this week. Initially I tried using Tamiya flat base matte medium mixed in with the ink and water, but after it dried it left a pale white stain in all the crevices and I had to go over the 7 or 8 miniatures I had completed with another coat of simply ink and water. This resulted in both of my big carnifexes, one squad of genestealers, and half my warriors looking a little "extra crispy." No worries, it's nice to be one step closer to completing the army's paint job, and I look forward to a few games with it in the weeks to come before I continue with the next color step.

BOLS has been posting a series of 5th edition "rumor" collections over the last few weeks. I'd be inclined to pooh them off completely if BOLS' prophetic clips from Warseer haven't come true so often (as long as I can remember). I've gone back and forth on how I feel about the suggested changes. At first I was worried that they would make it a more complicated and slow game, but the more I think about it, it's probably time for some changes about now anyways. At the very least they won't be reverting to a 3rd edition-style revamp, where all the old codexes are void and the new rulebook includes basic (read: crappy) versions of the army lists. The cover saves for vehicles sounds like a good deal. Maybe the nerf for SMF will be mitigated by skimmers being able to hide easier in cover, firing from cover saves more easily than other vehicles. All the other vehicle rule changes (defensive weapons, movement and firing options) are too complicated for me to their really grasp their implications just yet. The scattering blasts will take some getting used to, especially the way multiple blasts will be scattered. At least we can forget about partials and centering the blast over a single model. Still though, I agree with one of the commenters on the BOLS article in that many of these rule changes seem made for the sake of themselves rather than directly focusing on improving the 4th edition set. They do seem to fit well with the style and nuances of the most recent codices (eldar, chaos, orks).

After dusting off the Space Wolves last week, I'm really eager for them to release their updated codex, White Dwarf version or no. Hopefully I won't have to break, convert, or paint too many models to update my army lists. I'm keeping my ears wide open for any rumors about the new shit.

Tournament: Battleforge Games 1-08-08

Today I played in the first tournament of the 2008 season at Battleforge. They might not be able to update their webpage worth a crap (ha!) but they definitely run a decent tournament, with thought-provoking missions and great prize support. The only downside is that there's usually a shit ton of power armies, and the 'eavy version of their competitions, which will be run in odd months, promised to be more of the same. I decided to start the year off with a painted army, and I've been tinkering around with a new guard/allied WH inquisitor and eversor build, so I took the green machine out for a spin, deep into hostile territory...

Game 1 - Tau

My first game of the day was against Daniel and his Tau. The primary objective was field of battle (essentially alpha recon), with secondary points awarded for holding table quarters and killing an enemy HQ. He had a battlesuit leader, two squads of elite battlesuits, a big squad of kroot, two fire warrior squads in devilfish, a pathfinder squad in a devilfish, a piranha, a hammerhead, an ion head, and two broadsides. In addition to all the smart and seeker missiles fucking me up from behind hills, he was finding all sorts of janky lines of sight across the board with his railguns. I failed every obscured roll I tried, and eventually my armor was whittled down to a lone demolisher. I managed to tank shock the kroot squad and send them running for a few turns, theoretically giving my eversor assassin cover as he launched a one-man assault into some crowded ruins in his deployment zone. I say theoretically because goddamned tau pathfinders managed to force five armor saves on the eversor, somehow only wounding him once, while his own poorly-rolled return attacks managed to kill just one measly pathfinder. The galactic badass died the next turn after only dropping a couple more. Daniel earned a shitload of battle points and I earned none. The end. And yes, I'm pissy about this game!

Game 2 - Eldar

Chris is like my personal "boss monster" right now, and there will be much rejoicing when I finally defeat him (and I will!). Besides his posting on BOLS, he's started his own blog at crusadedude40k.blogspot.com. I'm pretty sure he was using the same mechanized eldar list as last time, and I knew it would be an uphill battle so I just tried to use the opportunity to learn more about what worked and what didn't against his grav-powered rolling pin. The main objective was take and hold, with additional points for destroying the enemy's most expensive unit, and more for having your own uberpricey bastard destroyed as well. I was only able to shake a single falcon before his attack wing was knocking at my left flank, shooting my infantry core up with scatter lasers and shuriken and dumping fire dragons and harlequins, all the units doing what they do best in horrible concert. For my part, I managed to basilisk one squad of fire dragons into oblivion, kill about half of one of the avenger squads, and destroy another avenger squad's wave serpent. On the last turn I finally managed to bring down his star engined falcon (his suicide unit) with a miracle missile from my very last surviving infantry squad. Other than that it was completely one sided and he wiped out everything I had. More ouchy!

Game 3 - Black Templars

My last game was against a newcomer who brought his mostly painted Black Templar army. The completed pieces, like the champion for example, were quite nice. The list itself seemed like a characteristic templar mix: an emperor's champion, a sword brethren squad led by a chaplain, a venerable dreadnought, four neophyte/crusader squads including one that was twenty strong, a lascannon razorback, a land raider crusader, and a lascannon predator. It was an interesting game, but we were both moving a little slowly and only got three full turns done before time was called. I learned a lot about that big ass LRC - specifically about the machine spirit, and how it can fire a weapon even if the vehicle moves over 6". I was able to glance it a few times with my big guns but overall my shooting was horrible and his advancing army took few casualties before slamming into my lines. I don't know how competitive BTs are overall, but I was definitely impressed by their special rules in our game, especially the one that allows them to move closer to you when they take any shooting casualties. For a space marine army, there was a ton of bodies on the field and the cheap neophytes absorb casualties for what seems like fucking ever! The sword brethren on the other hand never really had a chance to get into the game; I only ever saw them shoot their bolt pistols a few times. For fun I talked him through getting the most victory points he could in the last turn we played. Another sweep for the sheisse Tiefwalders! Get fucked imperial guard!

Battle Report: Space Wolves vs. Necrons 1-10-08

Before my buddy Mack moves out west, we decided to get one more game in and so revived an old rivalry between his Necrons and my Space Pups. His army consisted of two lords, one with a destroyer body, warscythe, phylactery, and res orb, and the other with a res orb, staff of light, and veil of darkness, four squads of ten warriors, two tomb spyders, three wraiths, six scarab swarms with disruption fields, five destroyers, a heavy destroyer, and a monolith. The Wolves had a wolf priest and a rune priest riding with eight blood claws in a land raider, a drop pod of four wolf guard and a battle leader in terminator armor, four wolf scouts with a meltagun and two power weapons, an AC/HF venerable dreadnought in a drop pod, nine grey hunters and a wolf guard leader with plasma and power fists in a drop pod, two attack bikes with multimeltas, and five long fangs including two lascannons, two missile launchers, and a pack leader. For our random mission we rolled "recon." Mack rolled to win choice of table edge, but there was a pretty even mix of cover on both sides.

Turn 1

With the help of the venerable dreadnought's centuries of wisdom, I re-rolled to win first turn. Unfortunately there wasn't that much to do. The bikes and land raider wheeled around to my right flank, and the long fangs picked off a single wraith with their heavy weapons. Mack responded by moving everyone up and opening up on the aged wolves with a few of the destroyers, but his small opening volley bounced off of the space marines' armor.

Turn 2

Half of my reserves came in on the second turn, with the grey hunters dropping in on the necron right flank, and the terminators supporting the units moving up on the opposite side of the table. The grey hunters were able to drop several warriors with their extensive collection of plasma weaponry, but most of them got back up in the next turn. The land raider moved up and disgorged two priests and the squad of blood claws, and together with the terminators and bikes they destroyed both tomb spyders with shooting. Eager for revenge, Mack's destroyers moved forward and obliterated the long fangs with heavy gauss fire. Warriors and the heavy destroyer took the grey hunters below 50% and sent them fleeing for their table edge.

Turn 3

Unfortunately for me, the close proximity of a necron warrior squad meant the retreating grey hunters were unable to regroup as normal, and they continued to fall back a small distance. However, the wolf scouts arrived and pounced on the heavy destroyer, killed it in close combat, and ran to take cover behind a nearby building. The dreadnought also arrived and knocked down a couple of warriors with his assault cannon. The terminators moved forward into the woods and killed several warriors themselves with the same weaponry. The bikes and blood claws swept around the woods to be in position to help the dreadnought if he needed it. The land raider hung back for one last shot at any necrons trying to move into my deployment zone. The unit of scarab swarms and the monolith both arrived. The destroyers lit up the dreadnought but could only shake it for a turn. Most of the warriors downed by assault cannons got back up and managed to destroy a drop pod and kill off a wolf guard terminator with return fire.

Turn 4

With all the foot traffic in the area, I wasn't sure I would have enough turns to get the land raider into his deployment area, so I wrote off any more shooting and moved the tank forward. The grey hunters regrouped and managed to inflict a few wounds on the scarabs, the only target they could all see. The terminators shot ineffectually into one squad of warriors, and the dreadnought charged into another, killing one in the initial round of assault. The necrons continued to move en masse towards my deployment zone, shot up the grey hunters and another drop pod, and second warrior fell in combat with the dreadnought.

Turn 5

The bikes swerved around the melee for a couple of shots at the necron warriors moving away, completely missing their target for the third or fourth time in the game. The blood claws squad, terminators, and land raider pulled up further into his deployment zone, while the dreadnought grappled with the warriors for another phase with little result. The monolith teleported one warrior squad directly into my deployment zone, with the other squads not far behind. The dreadnought wrapped up the turn by ripping apart two more necrons in his assault phase and sending them fleeing off of their table edge.

Turn 6

Everyone basically cozied up in their opponent's deployment zone, except for a single confrontation on his side (my side now, bitch!) that threatened to put the kibosh on the draw I was trying to hold. The bikes and dreadnought poured fire into the destroyer lord and managed to inflict a single wound. The lord responded by charging into the bikes, his warscythe swinging wide on every attack. The bikes weren't able to inflict any wounds back, so the combat and the entire game ended in a close draw, with Mack scoring around 150 points more than me. Recon might have made the game a little non-confrontational, but we still both had a good time getting the kills that we did. I think the flank is a good tactic for the wolves but I would have liked to have seen the priests and blood claws get into it a bit more. They should have held back and launched out of the land raider straight into his big group in the middle; with high initiative power weapons, sweeping advances, and a little luck, I might have even been able to force a phase out after a couple of turns. I love the re-rolls for first turn and damage results, but the venerable dread rarely ever gets his points back, so I might swap a vindicator in for him next time.

Post-holiday roundup

I've played a home game or two against c2 using space wolves, who as usual have performed pretty hit-and-miss. The last game we played was very bloody, and c2 was ahead all the way up until the end, when her demon prince, bike sorcerer, and khorne bikers all charged into my drop pod terminator squad and somehow got their asses handed back to them. The wolf guard themselves were wiped out in the fray, but the battle leader with lightning claws survived to burst through cover and wipe out the last two survivors of her own big terminator squad, throwing enough points back my way to seal the solid victory. After being slaughtered by her army last week, it was good to see the wolves push back, if only a little bit.

Speaking of the chaos army, I finished painting the bike sorcerer and the 10th terminator. The black spray primer really screwed me on his bike's right side and clumped up good and nasty there. The other side looks ok, I guess, and at least his actual head and body had been fairly well painted before I ever cut him in half to mount him on the bike. Those terminators are a nasty unit - lots of power weapon and fist attacks, and not bad shooters to boot. Last match they wiped out 10 grey hunters with one round of firing. I was definitely a little stunned at that one. I'm going to try to use them at least a few times at tournaments this year; I just have to finish the thousand sons and their rhino and they'll be ready to go. I'm going to try to go to at least two tournaments this month. I want to give the Space Wolves a go, as they're the army I've played out with the least. Everything's overpriced, and their few numbers mean I have to be extra crafty and maintain concentration to have a chance against the more competitive builds.

I got a bunch of grey knights and gk terminators from a friend who was selling off his minis, so I'm going to try to get them painted (way down the line) to field a terminator squad and a fast attack knights squad as allies for my Imperial Guard army. Maybe much later I can work on an actual GK list, but I've got too much backlog as it is.

X-Boxes (not the fun kind)

If you're coming back here regularly, you've probably already seen all the pictures in my sidebar before. You may have noticed in the past couple weeks or so that some of these images are not being displayed. Apparently this is due to some very common but still unresolved issue with Picasa and Blogger. I may have to switch to an alternate image host if they don't straighten their shit out pretty soon. I'd complain, but it's free, so whatever. Happy new year to all my fellow armchair generals!