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Compared to most modern codices, the Space Wolves book is fairly weak and outdated.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.

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.

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.

Whoever Pelt It, Dealt It

As I poked the embers of my old Space Wolves army, I noticed a rule nuance that bears mentioning, something I know I’ve played wrong in the past. It has weighty consequences on the use of a particular piece of wargear, namely, the wolf pelt. Fellow sons of Russ know this as a cheap way to give a character or wolf guard +1 attack when the squad gets charged. Maybe I’m just the last to know, but after I reviewed the specific counter-attack rules as written in the USR section of the rulebook, it appears that wolf pelts might be a little harder to use than I previously thought, especially for a drop-pod force like mine.

First of all, according to the counter-attack USR, only unengaged models from a unit that has been charged can move the 6” to get into BTB with an enemy model. “Engaged” models are defined as those being either in BTB or 2” away from a friendly model in BTB with an enemy. So a model with a wolf pelt would not be able to counter-attack, and thus get the +1 attack, unless it was farther than 2” away from an amigo in BTB. Unless you’re getting charged by only a few models, which seems like a foolhardy thing for anyone to do against space wolves, it will be difficult to keep your pelted model from being immediately engaged and having their wargear short-circuited, wasting *gasp* all of 3 points, but more importantly, an extra attack with a power weapon/fist. In previous games I was just moving characters/wolf guard into BTB and granting myself the +1 attack just as long as he was not personally brought into BTB by the initial assault (which, I now realize, was actually illegal).

It doesn’t say that you actually have to make it into BTB with your counterattack move to get the +1 attack, so it appears the main issue is to keep a pelted model more than 2” away from anyone in the squad who would come into BTB with an enemy assault. This might be a simple matter with a big spread-out foot squad of blood claws, but with a drop pod you only have so much deployment space to begin with, and keeping your choppy pelted guy far enough away to counterattack could be a problem. Taken with the fact that an IC has to be personally in BTB to even join the combat, and that he only gets a 6” move to do it, it appears that you have to be pretty tricky to actually benefit from the pelt.

Example 1 – A squad of asscan/boltplas terminators led by some kind of pelted character, in this case a Wolf Priest. I don’t see how you can ever keep the character unengaged by an enemy assault, pretty much regardless of size. Even if you put him on the end of the line, around the drop pod and possibly out of range/LOS for his shooting, he’s easily going to be within 2” of a friend in BTB when an enemy assaults them and therefore missing out on the +1 A. You really need to spread them all out 2” away from each other around the pod, with the character as far away from a charging enemy as possible, and your assault cannons and powerfists closest to the character. The larger terminator bases will help. Now I’m starting to think that I should drop my potion pouring, plasma pistol waving Wolf Priest that I had been running with my terminators and bring back my old black helmed WGBL with lightning claws. If he’s not going to be in LOS to shoot, he might as well be able to reroll wounds when he comes running around the other side of that pod (plus he’s much cheaper!).

Example 2 – A 10-strong squad of grey hunters led by a pelted wolf guard. Placing the guard on the farthest side of the drop pod from a nearby enemy might put him far enough away to stay unengaged in the oncoming assault, but that leaves him and possibly several other models out of range for shooting. Again I see folly in giving him anything other than a bolt pistol for a gun if I want to get the pelt love on the counterattack. I had given the Grey Hunters’ wolf guard a plasma pistol for one more AP2 zinger (to make a total of 5 plasma shots from the squad). The question is: what’s more important, +1 attack with a power weapon/fist if and when they do get charged, or an additional plasma shot (that costs 15 points and might overheat and kill him anyway)? My instinct tells me trying to get the extra counterattack is better.

Example 3 – A squad on foot. As I stated before, it might be simpler to keep the character/squad leader out of engagement range if they’re part of a big spread out squad. But against any hack shooting army on a board with 25% cover, this seems like suicide. I changed my wolves to be more mechanized for a reason: they were constantly getting caught out in the open and mowed down before they could have any effect on the game’s outcome. As it is, if I consolidate all the elements into one big push, I can sometimes hit real hard FTW, but any halfway mobile army can just stay out of the big push’s way and pick off squads at their leisure.

I haven’t actually played with my wolves in ages, but having gotten a little burnt out on Witch Hunters (except for my assassins, I still love you guys!), I think I’m ready to pick them up again. I need to really rethink my general strategy, retool some wargear loadouts, and I’ll definitely have to take a moment to think before placing anyone with a pelt in order to give them the best chance of actually using it. I’ll report back on my experiences as soon as I get a few games in.

Action Report: Space Wolves vs. Eldar 8-19-07

When word reached the Fang that a small group of Eldar pirates were ravaging farmland on the nearby titheworld Nipir, Trefain the Elder and Tor the Giant of Lors the Grim’s Great Company were dispatched to repel the invaders. The aliens were led by an enormous Avatar of Khaine, fighting side by side with an ancient Wraithlord. The few small squads of accompanying infantry were further supported by a fire prism tank. Though our heroes were briefly given pause by the appearance of such powerful entities and armor leading what appeared to be a small reconnaissance force, they nevertheless relished the chance for battle and quickly boarded their transports. Trefain and Baldur the Marked led a pack of Blood Claws and attack bikes towards the enemy’s right flank. Emerging from their speeding rhino in the midst of a thick fog of dreamsmoke, they cut through an entire squad of Dire Avengers with impunity. Then the Avatar joined the fight, immediately launching a flurry of blows at the aged Rune Priest. Several times the creature’s awesome flaming blade was deflected by Trefain’s antiquated force shield, but eventually the demon’s speed was too much and the old wolf suffered a grievous wound and fell. The rest of the pack fought on to the death, nearly bringing down their gigantic foe, but in the end the mighty Avatar strode away alone. On the other side of the battle, Tor the Giant and Hurki’s Grey Hunters descended into the midst of the enemy’s left. Emerging from his drop pod, Tor purged nearly an entire squad of aspect warriors with shot and flame, when a delicate eldar grav craft appeared suddenly behind him and disabled him with a single powerful shot. Hurki and his pack lasted longer, their plasma and bolter fire completely wiping out a unit of harlequins prancing their way through a nearby forest. When the towering wraithlord jumped into their midst, the most experienced grey hunters struck back hard with their powerfists. The pack was close to victory when the indomitable spirit inside the wraith construct surged one last time and wiped them out. A bitter defeat for the Space Wolves!

The Saga of Lors the Grim - Space Wolves 2500

This represents one of the armies I might take to the store championship tournament in September. It's an expanded version of my 2000 point list, with a powerful firebase, some good assault units, and drop pod plasma death. I'm going to have to do some heavy playtesting with this list, though, because it feels overpriced and small when I think about what other folks will be tucking into that extra 500 points... still, I think it might hold its own with some careful playing.

HQ

Venerable Dreadnought - assault cannon, heavy flamer/DCCW, extra armor
Drop Pod

Wolf Guard Battle Leader - power weapon, bolt pistol, frag grenades, wolf pelt

Wolf Priest - power weapon, plasma pistol, frag grenades, healing potions and balms, iron wolf amulet, wolf helm of russ, wolf pelt
4 Wolf Guard Bodyguard - terminator armor, 2 assault cannons, 2 bolter-plasma guns, 3 power weapons, 1 power fist
Drop Pod

Rune Priest - power weapon, runic staff, wolf pelt, chooser of the slain

ELITES

4 Wolf Scouts - 2 power weapons, 1 meltagun, frag grenades

TROOPS

9 Grey Hunters - 2 powerfists, 1 plasma gun, 1 plasma pistol, wolf totem
Wolf Guard Leader - power weapon, plasma pistol, wolf pelt
Drop Pod

7 Grey Hunters - 2 powerfists, 1 plasma gun, 1 plasma pistol
Wolf Guard Leader - powerfist, bolter, wolf pelt
Rhino - extra armor, smoke launchers

8 Blood Claws - 1 flamer, 1 powerfist, 1 power weapon, frag grenades
Wolf Guard Leader - bolt pistol, power weapon, frag grenades, wolf pelt

FAST ATTACK

2 Attack Bikes - heavy bolters

HEAVY SUPPORT

4 Long Fangs - 2 lascannons, 2 missile launchers
Pack Leader - bolter, CCW

Land Raider - smoke launchers

Vindicator - power of the machine spirit, smoke launchers

There's a few tricks involved with this list. The venerable dred lets me reroll to go first, increasing the odds quite a bit that I'll get at least an initial jump towards my foe. The chooser of the slain flits about ahead of the rune priest and lets me negate infiltration for enemy units on a 4+, not to mention giving him +1 attack (that's 7 power weapon attacks if he gets to use the pelt!). Use of the runic staff (psychic hood) is impossible if he's inside a vehicle, but for only 10 points it will probably redeem its cost at least once after he's disembarked. As always, the wolf scouts will come from... behind, ideally to jump a static squad in cover with frags and power weapon attacks. If none are available, a meltagun and a few bolt pistols could at least shake up a vehicle. The dred will look to start at the front line, wade through a center piece of terrain (if there is one), and jump out the other side, unloading his assault cannon and heavy flamer before assaulting. I can decide at the last minute which characters I want escorting which squads (rhino'd grey hunters or blood claws, possibly in the land raider). Most likely the rune priest will run with the grey hunters, and the battle leader will ride with the blood claws in the land raider. I'm going to have to buy a power-armored rune priest, and ditch his plasma pistol for a, um, staff-looking thing. Oh, and I need to dig up something to serve as a chooser of the slain. Everyone should group together so that storm caller can be given to the more assault-oriented blood claws, even if they're entangled in dead Land Raider (perish the thought). Toss in a drop pod delivering terminators and the wolf priest's helm of russ and that might make for an uber assault on someone's front lines (if I survive to make it that far). I think the healing balms will go well with a terminator retinue, preventing plasma suicides and other missed saves.

Blarg, its just so small.

Stormrunners

As the mass of dark figures approached, their corrupted weapons snarling with increasing fury, Trefain the Elder spoke quietly to himself in the ancient tongue. In his mind he recalled once again the darkest storm he had ever seen – one of the six-year typhoons that had come to his old home at Caer Nyss, the one that had taken his entire family – and felt the sudden buildup and release of pressure in his skull that always followed the invocation. Wisps of fog issued from the earth, the atmosphere thickening and expressing depth with moisture, and the wind began to scream as it wove paths around his armored frame and those of his battle brothers. Just as the storm became distinctly visible, taking the form of a swirling gray column amongst them, it whipped and pulsed outwards, towards their oncoming foe. They would need whatever advantage they could take against hardened savages such as these – Trefain had encountered such berzerkers before, and he knew they could be quite persistent in their endless pursuit of skulls for their patron. Through the fog and rain came several small objects, and though Trefain and his Wolf Guard identified them immediately, it was too late to substantively react. The fragmentation grenades exploded, scattering shards of fire and metal into the group, giving them pause ever so slightly, negating the precious few moments they might have otherwise stolen before the cresting wave of deadly madness descended and drowned them all.

Wolftimes

After this loss and another just like it, I was finally able to defeat c2’s witch hunters last night with my space wolves drop pod force (the 1500 point version). I was going to switch the terminators out for a venerable dreadnought and 5 long fangs, and that still might be the best way to go, but I wanted to give the 3-pod list one more chance. For the first two games, I think I was concentrating the surprise attackers too much in one place. The terminators, grey hunters, and wolf scouts can do good damage on their first turn, but often the surviving elements of the witch hunters would swarm me with flamers and divine guidance, reducing my best units to dust in less than 2 turns. One-on-one, the wolves are easily superior, but if the more numerous witch hunters gang up on isolated or crowded elements, they can combo almost anyone to death very quickly. For the last game, an annihilation scenario, I was a little more careful with my deep-striking. I tried to land them just far enough away from the sisters swarms, my major goal being to split up the major threats and refrain from needlessly sacrificing anyone to the mass flameage. In the end the wolf guard terminators were destroyed, but the rune priest hobbled away wounded and the blood claws and vindicator cleaned up the offending seraphim and cannoness to make it a crushing victory for the sons of Russ.

If I did switch out the terminators for a ven dred and long fangs, I would still have two drop pods of grey hunters, but it would amount to a much different kind of force. In that case I think the main strategy would be to hold back and snipe, make the enemy come to me, and then use the deep-striking grey hunters to capture objectives or join the wolf scouts for rear-echelon disruption attacks.

I changed out the 5 ratlings in my 2000 point imperial guard force (the 14th Tiefwalder) for a third sentinel, to be attached to the command HQ squad. That gives me three lascannon sentinels that operate independently, sniping at vehicles and heavy infantry and grabbing objectives at the last minute (if they survive). I eschewed any vehicle upgrades for them, so they’re still pretty vulnerable, but if folks are shooting at them and not the tanks, it’s all gravy anyway. That gives me 9 armored units and 73 infiltrating or deep-striking infantry, 3 ordinance weapons, 7 lascannons, 7 missile launchers, 9 heavy bolters, 5 meltaguns, 4 plasma guns, a couple of multilasers and flamers, and finally, a demolition charge in a pear tree. Mmm, that's good squishy.

The Saga of Lors the Grim: Space Wolves 2000 pts

HQ:

1 Venerable Dreadnought - plasma cannon, heavy flamer, extra armor, smoke launchers

1 Rune Priest - terminator armor, lightning claws, wolf pelt
4 Wolf Guard (retinue) - 4 terminator armor, 2 assault cannons, 2 bolter/plasma, 2 power weapons (combi guys), 1 chainfist (AC guy), 1 powerfist (other AC guy)
Drop Pod

1 Wolf Guard Battle Leader - frost blade, bolt pistol, wolf pelt, frags

ELITES:

4 Wolf Scouts - 2 power weapons, 1 meltagun, frags

TROOPS:

8 Grey Hunters - 2 powerfists, 1 plasma gun, 1 plasma pistol/ccw
Wolf Guard Leader - power weapon, bolter, wolf pelt
Drop Pod

8 Grey Hunters - 2 powerfists, 1 plasma gun, 1 plasma pistol/ccw, wolf totem
Wolf Guard Leader - power weapon, bolter, wolf pelt
Drop Pod

8 Blood Claws - 1 powerfist, 1 power weapon, 1 flamer
Wolf Guard Leader - power weapon, bolt pistol, wolf pelt, frag grenades

FAST ATTACK:

2 Attack Bikes - 2 multimeltas

HEAVY SUPPORT:

4 Long Fangs - 3 rocket launchers, 1 lascannon
Pack Leader - bolter/ccw

1 Vindicator - power of the machine spirit

The list tries to take advantage of the whole bag of Space Wolves tricks: spring into action, do moderate damage, and hold on tight: venerable dreadnought leader re-rolls for first turn, wolf scouts attack from behind, true grit, the mediocre yet enthusiastic blood claws, no Ld modifiers from being outnumbered, and counterattack, augmented by wolf-pelted squad leaders with power weapons. I will also typically use the drop pods to restructure the battlefield and close bothersome firing lanes.

There's two elements to this force: the ground contingent and the reserves. The ground forces are my heavy weapons, plus a squad of assault buggers in a rhino. I will typically break them down further into pack elements: dreadnought supporting the long fangs, vindicator and bikes supporting the rhino. The blood claws are the only ones in the army I really need to worry about charging, since all the other infantry units perform the same in assault whether they charge or not. Usually I'll try to grab an early objective with them while the rest of the elements take heat.

The drop pod elements (see this old post) are best against light to medium armored foes, and are almost guaranteed to get at least one good round of shooting, but they are always vulnerable to high initiative power weapon (also chainaxe/choppa) attacks. The multiple powerfists have to survive and triumph in the first round of CC or else they're usually finished off before they get a second chance to hit.

The main problems with this list? Low model count, everyone's on the expensive side (especially the Rune Priest's squad - 393!), plasma overheats (ouch), ever-present vunerability to high-initiative power weapons, and the Long Fangs only have one (expensive) buffer before I have to start removing heavy weapons. These are all issues I have to overcome with strategy, since the list includes virtually every Wolf model I own (excepting the land raider and a few others), and I'm pretty loathe to convert or paint any more of them.

A guy I met playing at Funny Papers back in the day hooked me up with a big box of old pewter Wolves models on the cheap, and I augmented that collection over the years with vehicles and bikes, as well as some of the new plastics. It's a mix of model generations - all but two of the bolter models are the new style, and the vehicles are all the old style - but I kinda like it that way. I converted the bolter-plasma guns from storm bolters, and used a catachan sword to turn an older generation terminator powerfist into a wrist-mounted power weapon, and the dreadnought's plasma cannon is actually ex-chaos gear. I actually did a decent job on my Ulrik the Slayer model (not pictured), but I never used him as the special character and I stopped using Wolf Priests after just a couple of games. Without all the special gotchas that other marine chaplains get, I don't really see the point. Rune priests and their cover generation ability are a much better value.

Battle Report: Witch Hunters vs. Space Wolves 5-19-07

Bully vs. C. - 1500 points - Cleanse (Wolves choice)

C.'s looking to start playing the Witch Hunters now, so we had a little 1500 point match-up this weekend for her to try them out. She had 1 cannoness, 1 callidus assassin, 1 inquisitor, 7 repentia with mistress and priest, 2 x 10 battle sisters, 10 seraphim, an exorcist, an immolator, and two penitent engines. Wolves had 1 wolf guard battle leader, 1 rune priest with terminator bodyguard in a drop pod, 4 wolf scouts, 2 x 7 grey hunters led by a wolf guard in a drop pod, 8 blood claws led by a wolf guard in a rhino, and a vindicator.

Turn 1

Witch Hunters: The penitent engines are irritated at starting the game off in the rear and they roll for holy rage and sprint forward a bit. One of the battle sister squads settles into the area around the statue in their adjacent quarter and the tanks also swing wide into the same quarter.

Space Wolves: The Vindicator pulls up even with the rhino as it turns a bit itself, trying to get in position for the blood claws to hop out next turn.

Turn 2

Witch Hunters: The repentia, urged on by their mistress's neural whips, roll for holy rage and charge forward another full 6" to make contact with the wolves' rhino. As they lay into it with their savage eviscerators, the rhino explodes and four are killed. The battle leader, wolf guard, and blood claws are entangled in the smoking crater left by their destroyed transport. The witch hunters tanks swing further out.

Space Wolves: The terminators decide to come in a bit early and their drop pod deep strikes next to the seraphim. Luck turns a cold shoulder and only one of the flying nuns is destroyed by their sizeable wave of plasma and assault fire. Even worse, one of the plasma guns overheats and kills its bearer. Lesson: don't mess with the daughters of the emperor. The rune priest does his best to call up a blizzard and give his squad a little cover. The vindicator flips a huey and hauls back to its former position.

Turn 3

Witch Hunters: The seraphim use divine guidance to wipe out the terminators in righteous flame and bolter fire, blizzard be damned. The callidus assassin slinks out of her hiding place in the ruined chapel and charges toward the pinned blood claws, killing four immediately with her neural shredder and laying down four more in close combat. The repentia and mistress also charge into the blood claws and battle leader, but without frags they are destroyed before they can do any damage. A blood claw armed with a powerfist manages to destroy the assassin in the end.

Space Wolves: Both squads of grey hunters and the wolf scouts arrive on the table, killing five battle sisters with their opening salvoes of bolter and plasma fire. The machine spirits of the grey hunter drop pods target the aged inquisitor and manage to kill him with their storm bolters. Another plasma gunner is overcome by a weapon misfire. The battle leader and blood claws stagger away from their rhino crater and take cover in the chapel ruins.

Turn 4

Witch Hunters: The battle sisters shoot up the grey hunters, killing three of them and forcing them to fall back. The pentitent engines get holy rage again and charge into the closest drop pod. They try in vain to make it explode, leaving it a hulking wreck that the grey hunters can still hide behind.

Space Wolves: The grey hunters and wolf scouts move around the side of the destroyed drop pod and bring down one of the penitent engines with plasma shots. The other grey hunters regroup, and the vindicator pulls wide to threaten the immolator.

Turn 5

Witch Hunters: The last penitent engine charges the grey hunters in holy rage and kills three of them. The powerfists are unable to hit him back. The seraphim move closer to the middle of the table, and the immolator moves next to the exorcist and fires off its smoke launchers for a little extra protection. The exorcist shoots one of the blood claws in the chapel.

Space Wolves: The battle leader and last couple of blood claws move back away from the enemy armor. The vindicator fires its demolisher cannon at the immolator, shaking it. The scouts try to kill just one battle sister and bring their squad below 50% but cannot make it happen. The penitent engine puts down two more grey hunters.

Turn 6

Witch Hunters: The exorcist takes one last shot at the vindicator, but even with 6 shots is unable to do any damage. The seraphim fly over next to a drop pod in an attempt to straddle the two quarters. The penitent engine kills another two grey hunters, leaving only the powerfist troopers who are unable to return the favor, only shaking it. They break and flee from the crazed walker.

Space Wolves: The vindicator finishes the duel of the tanks by shaking and destroying the main weapon of the exorcist. One squad of grey hunters kill one of seraphim and the other one shoots at the cannoness but can't pierce her 2+ save.

Witch Hunters win, solid victory.

Podiatrician

Here's the drop-pod contingent from my Space Wolves army. Lately I've heard various rumors about plastic drop pod kits to be released in coordination with some kind of 40k variant based on extra large games. But I got impatient some time last year and built three based on tips found here. I would probably still buy a plastic pod kit, assuming they look like the ones on this Forge World page. The best thing about drop pods is that they won't ever be destroyed by scattering on terrain or other units. The second-best thing is how they create instant cover for the passengers and can change the firing lanes of the battlefield suddenly and significantly. Sure, they can be destroyed pretty easily but most folks are more concerned with the squads that just disembarked - in my case, a Wolf Guard terminators or Grey Hunters.

I recently bought some medium bases and switched all the bases out on my Space Wolf and Chaos terminators. I think it makes the models look larger and more imposing, even though the actual models of the new plastic terminators are still a bit larger.

Roads to 40k

One of the first computer games I ever played with any real understanding was Breach for the early Macintosh, circa 1985. It was a 2-D turnbased action game, where you had a number of, yep, space marines, to attack a base or destroy different kinds of aliens, stationary guns... I don't actually remember too many details about it and I couldn't find anything at all on the interwebs about it; it's just too long dead. I think there was even a simple level editor with which you could create missions for yourself or others to work through. There were a couple of sequels but I don't think they ever did too well - I read that Breach 3 was pretty sloppy. It is strange to me that there's so little information online about the early macintosh games - Airborne, Captain Magneto, Enchanted Scepters (the World Builder showpiece)... In any case, it set the stage for my future love of all things space marines.

I became obsessed with Aliens sometime in early high school. The raw fear and suspense of the first movie was lost on me (I appreciate it more now), but the snappy dialogue, futuristic technology, and combat action of the sequel was apparently just what my doctor ordered. Not to mention the xenomorphs were given much more screen time - throw in the final confrontation with -gasp- an enormous queen, and it was a slam dunk. No matter what other roles they might inhabit from that point on, Michael Biehn would forever be Hicks, and Bill Paxton... "Hudson, sir. He's Hicks." The great appeal that the plot points and imagery of Aliens had for me would later transfer directly to the Tyranids. Such as it is, even a 'nid player can appreciate the smug satisfaction of an opponent as they blast apart your bugs; you know you're the bad guy, and anyways, you can take comfort in remembering that (usually) the tide will turn when you reach his lines and your depleted forces still tear his troopers limb from limb.

I didn't see Patton until years after I first started playing 40k, but it stoked my fire for playing Imperial Guard like no other war movie had done prior. After watching Patton's armor, infantry, and artillery reduce Rommel's column to chaos in a spectacular desert ambush, it set the wheels of my imagination working. This geargrinding would persist and finally culminate with the completion of my own guard army - the 14th Tiefwalder. Obviously, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket lent their own imagery. I always really liked the scene late in Jacket when a single tank arrives to assist the pinned-down soldiers, providing cover for the infantry and destroying the sniper-infested buildings one at a time.

Anytime I need extra inspiration to paint or play some Space Wolves, I turn to The 13th Warrior. Sure, there's some cheesy shenanigans (mostly involving Banderas), but the pitched battles between the enormous, fur-clad warriors from the north and the insane, primitive bear folk are great stuff to get the norseblood flowing. For the same reason, I was disappointed to hear bad things about Pathfinder. Oh well.