Back from 1st Tourney with the new Codex

[littlbitz]

Thanks BDS, most of the changes I'm planning are for me, not really anything crazy.

 

I really want a pack of LongFangs, a Wolfpriest, and I want a ride for my smaller GH pack. Thats about the only changes I'm going to make for now.

 

If I were to change it anymore than that, I would have to start removing Bikes, and I'm not going to do that. It's what makes my Great Company different.

[Jaarl Stormfang]

Brilliant, thanks for that response littlbitz it's exactly what I was hoping for. Awesome to hear your thoughts. Well done on the second game too!

 

Good to hear you're so at one with the bikes. What do you think it is about them that fits your play style so well, that say skyclaws (maybe with a wolf priest w/JP) couldn't accomplish? Turbo boosting? (what my money is on) The extra toughness? TL bolters?

[littlbitz]

All of the above Jaarl.

 

Let me list the pros for the bikers, 1. Twin-linked bolters, overcomes low BS

2. Higher Toughness

3. Turbo-boost, gives cover save, and lets me choose when and where to fight

4. The abilility for the whole Pack to take Melta-bombs

5. Basically for 5 points more one of my Bikes gets an extra attack, and extra wound and a Heavybolter, a real deal if you ask me.

 

But mainly its the speed. I used to field just one Biker pack, but that wasn't enough, which is why I switched to Two packs. I also used to run a Pack leader with them, but they are so pricey now that I use the ICs to accompany them.

[littlbitz]

Game 3 was against a fella named John, he had an Eldar list which included;

Eldrad, a unit of Dire Avengers with Exarch in a Wave Serpent, a unit of Fire Dragons with Exarch in a Wave Serpent, 2 Squads of Guardian Jetbike squads, a unit of Shining Spears with Exarch and Autarch on a Jetbike, and count em' THREE Fire Prisms.

Have I mentioned yet that I hate the Eldar? :P

The mission was a Sieze Ground mission with 5 Objectives and a Pitched Battle Deployment. John won the roll for board sides, and chose the board edge which had 3 objectives lined up across his front just a bit out side his deployment zone. He deployed the majority of his army across his front with good lanes of fire and held his Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent in Reserves.

Found in another situation where I felt that if I deployed too much I would get shot to pieces, I only deployed my large GH pack hidden behind the only real piece of terrain worth hiding behind, especially since there was an Objective marker on the other side of it.

He asks if I would like to steal initiative, after pondering this for awhile, I decide to go for it. I roll a six. This may have been a mistake, but my thought that was if I stole initiative I could get the jump on one of his Skimmers before they had a chance to start moving fast and maybe take one down.

I decide to drop my Pod on my far right side of the board by a ruin, right on top of an Objective and right next to a Fire Prism, my Termies get out and position themselves for attempting to take down the Eldar Grav Tank. My large GH pack moves up onto the Wooded hill they were hiding behind and then makes a "run" move to take the Objective, if he wanted this one, he would have to work for it.

Six Plasma shots unload into the Fire Prism, I only manage to Blow off its Cannon thing. This ends my first turn.

In his turn, he Flies everything away from the Terminators except his Shining Spears who begin to move towards them to prepare a charge next turn. He is moving all across his board edge in order to stay far away from my Wolves. All of his tank move fast this turn, so he has no shooting.

In my turn 2 I roll for my reserves, only my Predator decides to arrive. I bring it on six inches just to the left of my large GH pack with a good field of fire in order to support them. My Terminators move into the ruin, as everything is too far away from them for them to do any good.

I fire my Twin-linked lascannon but to no effect, ending my second turn.

In his turn he rolls for his reserves and his Wave Serpent with Fire Dragons arrive, he brings them on right on the other side of the ruin and disembarks lining them all up for shots against my Wolfguard. His Shining Spears move in for support incase the Fire Dragons shooting is not enough, it is...they get shot to pieces.

He moves his Jetbike squads to his far right behind a ruin to hide, far away from where he figures I will be concentrating my deployment and attack as reserves arrive.

His Fire Prisms combine fire and drop a Template on my Large GH pack but to no effect.

In my Turn 3, I roll for reserves and the rest of my forces arrive. I take my Wolf Lord with Frost Blade, along with the Battle Leader and one of the BC biker packs and Turbo-boost them right up my left side, heading towards his Jetbikes in an effort to flush them out. I sigh as I see no choice but to just march my other GreyHunter pack right on the board in the open, trying to make for the center Objective as fast as they can. My Rhino comes on and moves 12" I manage to place it in a pretty good spot this first turn and conceal it enough that I wont need to pop my smoke yet. My other Bike pack comes up just right of my center and Turbo boosts onto the board.

I take some pot shots into the Fire Dragons with my Predator as they are the only real target from his position, but have no effect.

In his 3rd turn I feel like I'm in a shooting Gallery, He does some shifting along his lines, moving those Jetbikes away from my bikers and begins to shoot. I lose 2 Grey Hunters from my large GH pack and 3 from my Smaller GH pack. He takes a couple of pot shots at my Predator but has no effect.

My small GH pack takes thier leadership check and promptly fails! and falls back 5 inches (good thing I ran the turn before) His Fire Dragons Blow the Drop Pod off of the board, with all thier Melta-madness.

In my 4th turn I turn my bikers on my Bikers on my far left towards board center, and I hook my other pack to the left, I spread them out and dominate the board center. My small GH pack rallies, turns around and begins thier march back towards the Objective they were heading to. I rush my Rhino up another 12" heading for his lines and another Objective and Pop smoke. My predator fires but has no effect and my Large GH pack doesn't have any Range.

I knew the game he was going to play right from his set up, but at this point I gotta say, my Wolves are getting frustrated at not being able to get to grips with these slippery pointy eared types.

In his 4th turn he again shifts around along his board edge, positioning himself to take objectives in the 5th turn. His Grav Tanks open fire. I lose a Few more GH in my Large pack taking them down to 6 models, they easily pass thier Leadership check. Firing on my other GH pack, they lose 2 more, with just the Plasma gunner and one other GH they pass thier check this time.

A few pot shots at my bikers, causes the loss of one, His Fire Dragons attempt to halt my Rhino, but he finds im just out of line of range.

In my 5th turn, I turbo boost my Bike packs, they bypass each other as they each move 20+ inches and both pack contest Objectives. My 2 remaining GH in the smaller pack make for the Objective they were heading to take, firing the plasmagun at the Wave Serpent that was also contesting it, I manage a cannot shoot effect, but I overheat the Plasmagun and lose him. His sacrifice however will take away any chance of him killing that lone GH though and he will be able to stay on that Objective.

My larger GH pack holds fast, in the cover of the wooded hill, holding thier Objective with Grim determination.

My Rhino drives right onto an objective right in front of his deployment zone.

A crowd starts to form at the first couple of tables, with people watching our games, Harry, one of the club regulars had been watching the whole game and commented, "Man Ted, it looks like you are just fighting to stay alive here". Not afraid to give away any secrets, I told Harry my plan out loud. I'm forcing my opponents hand, right now I am holding 3 objectives. He has one, he has been saving his forces all game for the 5th turn move. He has to go for it now if he wants to win.

Thats just what he did, moving the majority of his forces, he deploys his Dire Avengers with Eldrad from thier Wave Serpent onto an Objective and move one of the Jetbike squads in for support, the Shining Spears squad moves towards my Bike packs, towards another objective. The Grav tank on the center objective in front of the lone GH stays put. He flies a Wave Serpent fast across the board to right in front of the other GH pack to contest the other objective. And his other Jetbike pack moves to secure the objective in the ruin where my Pod once stood.

His shooting phase is all about trying to take down my Rhino sitting on the objective and right in front of his Dire Avengers, Eldrad and a Jetbike pack. The smoke helps, he immobilizes it, and takes its Stormbolter off.

At the end of the 5th turn, John has 1 Objective, all of the others are contested. He picks up a die to roll for "End game" As he does so, I tell him (jokingly of course) that if he doesn't roll a 1 or a 2 that I was gonna destroy every one of his stinkin' Eldar.

He rolls a Six.

Now, I finally get a turn worthy a Saga! The Eldar had to commit, and now they are within reach of my Claws!

My BloodClaws exit thier Rhino and spread out preparing to assault the Dire Avengers with Eldrad, My Wolf lord, with Battle leader, and one of my Biker packs make ready to assault the Shining spears, the other biker pack with thunderhammer Wolflord and Lone GH prepare to take down the Grav tank. And the other GH pack in the wooded hill with the help of the Predator prepare to take out the other Gravtank that is right in front of them.

The Bloodclaw Biker Meltagun drops the Gravtank, and my Lone GH successfully takes his Objective, the combined firepower of the other GH pack and Predator finishes off the other, allowing the GH pack to take that objective. My Wolflord, Battle leader and Bike pack charge the Shining spears with thier Exarch and Autarch and destroy them, forcing the Autarch to flee for his life.

My BloodClaws shoot flame and boltpistol death at the Dire Avengers, but thier Fortune from Eldrad save them. I assault them, AND the Jetbike squad. Its such a crowded combat that Eldrad cannot make base to base. I lose one BloodClaw to a Dire Avenger attack, even with my massed attacks on the Dire Avengers I only manage to kill two, but they weren't the real target. I attack the Jetbikes with the other half of my Squad, and the Powerfist, killing them all. Eldrad and he Dire Avengers have to make a Leadership Check a -4! which they promplty fail, he tries to escape, but rolls a 1, I roll a 6! they all die.

I consolidate on the Objective.

In his turn his army is a mess. the only thing he can really do at this point is try and shoot my Bloodclaws off the objective which he fails to do thanks to the cover of the Rhino.

We roll to see if the game goes another turn, it does, but now its just a matter of clean up for the Space Wolves. In the end I have 3 Objectives to his 1.

An 18 Point win for the Wolves!

All in all not a bad day, I scored 54 out of a possible 60 Battle points. Right about where I was at the last Tournament with the old Codex, when I went to Pa. to compete.

I ended up 2nd over-all and won a Canis Wolfborn for my efforts.

Next up, some thoughts on list changes.

[Oldenhaller]

really enjoyed these batreps - cheers for those. Really maanaged to pull it out of the fire on thaat last game too - riviting stuff, and I can see why people would want to come over to watch.

 

~O

[Lord Ragnarok]

Congrats bitz! Lovely read. That last one was very gripping. I needed some popcorn.

 

I've had some of my most dire wins and losses versus the pointy ones.

 

 

Oh, and I know you don't want that Canis, so you can just ship him to me :P

[rodgers37]

Really good, bet they where all embarised they said your lsit was week, it just shows what a solid list, and knowing what you are going to do does, shame you didn't win but you still got a really cool Model :lol:

Nice Reports there as well ;)

[Mar Bloodaxe]

I share the hatred of Eldar as well! Good showing! Enjoyed the battle report!

[BDS]

Very nice read! Congrats on 3-0 with your "sub par" list vs 2 Eldar and CSM. I too put the Eldar at the bottom of my list of armies I like to face.

 

Thanks for a demonstration that competent generalship will most often eclipse an "optimal" list.

 

Interested in hearing your thoughts on your proposed changes and how you intend to implement them.

 

Congrats.

 

Oh, and your army looks excellent as well!

 

BDS

[Harald Fairmane]

awesome read, very inspiring. maybe i have to get some bikes after all... ;)

[Malleuss]

Grats on the Canis!! I'm sure there are some adjustments coming to your list now^^

 

Your list screams White Scars, but not in a bad way. I've never seen someone use that many bikes in a Wolf list. I don't even wanna know what that cost you in real dollars, lol.

[Valerian]

All of the above Jaarl.

 

Let me list the pros for the bikers, 1. Twin-linked bolters, overcomes low BS

2. Higher Toughness

3. Turbo-boost, gives cover save, and lets me choose when and where to fight

4. The abilility for the whole Pack to take Melta-bombs

5. Basically for 5 points more one of my Bikes gets an extra attack, and extra wound and a Heavybolter, a real deal if you ask me.

 

But mainly its the speed. I used to field just one Biker pack, but that wasn't enough, which is why I switched to Two packs. I also used to run a Pack leader with them, but they are so pricey now that I use the ICs to accompany them.

 

Littlebitz,

 

Thanks for posting your excellent battle reports, well done, and congrats on the tournament. I used to run a unit of 6 Bikers (2 with Power Fists, and 1 with a Plasma Gun) + a Wolf Guard Leader (with Power Weapon). Instead of just retiring one of the Power Fist models, based largely on your lists, I've decided to split the unit into two smaller Swift Claw Packs. I do not have a second WGL on a bike yet, and probably could stand to a an Attack Bike in each, but I'll see how it goes for now.

 

Regards,

 

Valerian

[littlbitz]

Thanks again for reading men, and thanks for the comments, it makes the effort seem worth while.

 

Rags, I think that the Canis Model is screaming for a Frost Blade and a Storm shield. I think I'll try it a few times as a Pack of one Thunder Wolf Cav. Just for some kicks.

 

Thanks Valerian, I have recently dropped the Pack Leaders from the Bike packs, because they just cost soooo many points. I'd like to put them back in though, it would take some serious adjustments to the list. Mainly Dropping 1 of the Wolf Lords, hmm... I may have to make some more Tweaks.

 

That last game was a tough one, to tell you the truth, it gave me a headache. A little luck was with me though.

 

I am on a bit of a streak with the new codex, even though, overall my list changes from the last codex have been minimal.

 

Anyways, here are the Proposed changes for my list:

 

I am planning on dropping the Wolfguard Battle Leader on a Bike with Lightning Claws, this will free up 150 points (I like him, but only find him useful about a third of the time, for those points, I'd like something useful most of the time).

 

I am going to drop the Wolftail Talisman, and the Saga of Warrior Born from the bike mounted Lord with Frost Blade. I will replace the Saga with the Saga of Majesty, he will also lose his Melta-bombs, saving 30 points (Saga of Warrior Born is great, but I often feel pressured to try and do something rash to get him into combat to make the Saga worth while. Saga of Majesty will help the Bikes weather the fire, and help prevent failing that leadership check that so often comes just when you really, really don't want to flee. Also, I am finding he wont miss the Melta-bombs that much because he typically breaks off from the Pack if I sent them tank hunting, because he is so good at killing infantry)

 

The Wolfguard in the Drop Pod are all getting Combi-meltas instead of the Combi-Plasma, I think this helps define the packs role. I am also going to drop the Wolfclaw on the one Termie and go with just a Power weapon, just to save the 5 points.

 

I am going to try dropping the Predator, saving 130 points (I like the Pred. its tough, but its just not performing the way I'd like. Besides I really, really want to try a Pack of Long Fangs, I haven't had any in my Army since 3rd Ed.)

 

The BloodClaws pack will be losing a Plasma pistol and one Bloodclaw this will save 30 Points.

 

The Smaller GH pack will Drop to 6 Grey Hunters, I am going to swap thier Plasma Gun for a Melta gun

 

The Larger GH pack will get 2 Plasma guns instead of the Melta guns.

 

With the saved points I will add the following: 6x Longfangs with 5x Heavybolters, 2x Razorbacks with twin-linked Lascannons, and either a Wolf Priest OR a 5 man Scout Pack with Melta-bombs.

 

My thoughts on the Razorbacks is that its only 10 more points than the Pred. and I get two units (weaker front armor though) and I gain in fire power. The big question is, Are these two Razorbacks going to be able to last like the one Predator? I can math hammer it all I want, the only real way for me to find out is to try it on the field.

 

The Dakka-Fangs are definately in, I just gotta get the unit assembled, then of course painted...

 

As for the Wolfpriest and Scouts? well, I really want both, if I missed anything in those battles it was these two. I may have to fiddle with things a bit more and try and squeeze them both in.

 

So, what do you all think?

[JamesI]

littlbitz, well done at the tournament.

 

I like the changes your considering. The Long fangs will do more for you than the pred, I think.

[Lord Ragnarok]

I like the changes as well. I feel you on adding the scouts though. I'm really miserable with my own lists because they do not have scouts. And I think it is that last angle of attack that can really squeeze opponents. (especially in your list which has a good mix of avenues of attack/mobility).

[Ramora]

Love the posts.. Grats on the 2nd place.. If you don't mind me asking who came in first? Army wise that is..

 

Cheers,

 

Ramo

[littlbitz]

Ah, no worries at all Ramora.

 

It was a Necron list, he had a clean sweep with 60 Points. I really wanted to face him, especially since he was talking smack all day. (He has never beaten my Wolves in all the years we have been playing against each other at Tournaments, and he said he finally had the list to do it.)

 

His approximate list looked like it had: 2 Monoliths, 2 large Warrior squads, the Deceiver, Lord/Orb, Immortals, Destroyers

 

Not sure on the exact break down, but armies were falling. In the second game, (I was on table 1, he was on table 2. With 4 of us at that point with 20 points each it was luck of the draw we didnt face each other) I saw him crush a mean Chaos Marine list: 2x Lash/ DPs, 3x Defilers, and 5x Plague marine squads with 2x special weapons in Rhinos. All his vehicles were possessed. It looked tough as well.

[the great beaver]

i have to be totally honest here, i agree with your local club members. you don;t have a very competitive list, but i wouldn't go as far as mocking you. the eldar from a few glances looks less competitive than yours.

thanks

antique_nova

 

but you're wrong...he doesn't have a mathhammer list, but those don't matter when the dice hit the table and your not in a vacuum

 

 

This was a great read and terribly inspiring..I'm very excited to get myself to a tournament as soon as possible so I can start writing my own 5th ed saga.

 

thanks littlebitz

[Warhorse47]

Congrats on the win and thanks for some excellent reports!

[Ramora]

Wow that necro list sounds scary.. many because of the 2 Monoliths and the Deceiver.. I would have liked to hear how you faired against that.. but anyways congrats again and thanks for the reply.

 

Cheers,

 

Ramo

[Brother Dano]

Excellent battle reports! Inspiring for a new player, as are your photos and minis. Good times.

[Alpha Wolf]

thanks for the reports, made for good reading

[Wildfire]

Re: the dakkafangs, the only misgiving I'd have is that they're static. Your list appears to be built around mobility, and I'd worry that the dakkafangs would suck up resouces from elsewhere in your list to support them. I also would note that in 2 of your 3 battles here you chose to put everything in reserves. This would definately limit the utility dakkafangs, as they'd end up useless the entire first turn. I don't know how typical this tourney was with regards to your tactics, tho.

 

I will say that the new SW 'dex is really making me want to play again. Too bad my stuff is in storage until my house sells...

[antique_nova]

i have to be totally honest here, i agree with your local club members. you don;t have a very competitive list, but i wouldn't go as far as mocking you. the eldar from a few glances looks less competitive than yours.

thanks

antique_nova

 

but you're wrong...he doesn't have a mathhammer list, but those don't matter when the dice hit the table and your not in a vacuum

 

 

This was a great read and terribly inspiring..I'm very excited to get myself to a tournament as soon as possible so I can start writing my own 5th ed saga.

 

thanks littlebitz

i don't get what part of my comment is wrong? can you evaluate for my brian please? :D. it was a good report, if i haven't mentioned it yet.

thanks

antique_nova

[Morticon]

Lilbitz- have you given any thought to Las/Plas Razors? The twin-linked is nice and reliable, but the added firepower of a mobile plasma shot is nice nice.