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Thunderlords: First impression


Grimtooth

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So I got to run my thunderlord list yesterday and was completely impressioned by not only their performance but of what they could have potentially done if I more versed in their tactics.

 

1. Speed!! An eldar opponent could not believe how fast I got across the board to his wave serpent and jet bikes and IG opponent thought his tank gunline was safe on his table edge. I mean 6"+run roll+12" charge really shocks people to the point they ask to see the rulebook and then just say "wow" after reading the rule.

 

2. Toughness!! Between T4 fenrisian wolves and T5 with +2 runic armor, there wasn't much able wear down the unit. I lost wolves to the anti tank ap weapons but was saving like crazy with the runic armor.

 

3. Fear!! The attention paid to the thunderlord crew left full squads of GH and a rune priest to run amok claiming objectives and stalking down enemy units.

 

Overall, with a few more games to tighten up my tactics, I am going to be bringing some hell to the table in the name of Russ.

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just dont place too much faith in a shock and awe tactic. one your opponent realizes that multi tiered buildings negate your lords im sure they will start using it

 

Opponents are not going to be putting the types of units they NEED on the table into multi tiered buildings.

 

Those units being placed into buildings are exactly what mechanized squads of GH are perfect for to take out.

 

I can't even think of a unit/army list that would be on a multi tiered building that I would be so important over other things that I would be stumped with my thunderlord because I could not get to them yet could not be taken out with GH.

I'm wondering how much the "plastic" juggernauts are going to be. Knowing GW it'll be a box of one for £12-£15. I ordered a set of the Mr Dandy wolves which worked out to around £68 for five (including postage) which is about £13.50 ish. Solid resin good quality casts which look awesome once painted. I know they're not GW legal if that's what you need but for non GW tournaments/venues they're better than stand-ins.
There's not a lot of scoring units that my GH's are too afraid of. As for long range fire power, if they can shoot me, I can shoot them back.

 

 

well i was referring more to my list.

 

theres two players in my group one is the thunderlords of doom list and my logan wing. ive always told him that if we played i would just deploy in buildings and easily blast what few troops he had and wait out the thunderlords

theres two players in my group one is the thunderlords of doom list and my logan wing. ive always told him that if we played i would just deploy in buildings and easily blast what few troops he had and wait out the thunderlords

 

Buildings aren't going to stop Thunderlords, worse you just leave yourself with nowhere to run when they do get to you.

Buildings aren't going to stop Thunderlords, worse you just leave yourself with nowhere to run when they do get to you.

 

 

well since cavalry cant climb stairs i have to disagree at least where my list is concerned. ill blow everything out the water hold my objectives in 2nd and 3rd floor and continue to blow his army up

well since cavalry cant climb stairs i have to disagree at least where my list is concerned. ill blow everything out the water hold my objectives in 2nd and 3rd floor and continue to blow his army up

 

Why can't cavalry climb stairs? There's no rule against it, just because you are in a building doesn't mean you are safe from being charged.

I can't even think of a unit/army list that would be on a multi tiered building that I would be so important over other things that I would be stumped with my thunderlord because I could not get to them yet could not be taken out with GH.

15 LF on tier 2-3 with RL first floor GH and charge blocking rhinos ?

well since cavalry cant climb stairs i have to disagree at least where my list is concerned. ill blow everything out the water hold my objectives in 2nd and 3rd floor and continue to blow his army up

 

Why can't cavalry climb stairs? There's no rule against it, just because you are in a building doesn't mean you are safe from being charged.

 

Page 83 of the Rulebook:

Moving Within Ruins

Only certain troops are capable of clambering to the upper levels of a ruins. Accordingly, only infantry, jump infantry, jetbikes, monstrous creatures and walkers may move on the upper levels of a ruin - and only if the model can physically be placed there. Other units may only move on the ground level of a ruin.

 

It's an obscure and poorly placed single-sentence that prohibits any types of cavalry, beasts, or bikes from ever moving above the ground floor of a building.

 

 

DV8

well since cavalry cant climb stairs i have to disagree at least where my list is concerned. ill blow everything out the water hold my objectives in 2nd and 3rd floor and continue to blow his army up

 

Why can't cavalry climb stairs? There's no rule against it, just because you are in a building doesn't mean you are safe from being charged.

 

Page 83 of the Rulebook:

Moving Within Ruins

Only certain troops are capable of clambering to the upper levels of a ruins. Accordingly, only infantry, jump infantry, jetbikes, monstrous creatures and walkers may move on the upper levels of a ruin - and only if the model can physically be placed there. Other units may only move on the ground level of a ruin.

 

It's an obscure and poorly placed single-sentence that prohibits any types of cavalry, beasts, or bikes from ever moving above the ground floor of a building.

 

 

DV8

Yep. I ran into that in the last round of the 'Ard Boyz preliminaries last year against my biker army. Guy placed an objective on top of a building along with a unit to hold it, didn't say a word until I tried to charge him with my Command Squad, left them more or less in the open. Still pulled a major win against him, but it was annoying to say the least.

 

That's the only time I've had anyone try it against my bikers or Thunderwolves, though, so I'm not too worried. Rarely do I wind up fighting on maps with more than one or two multi-level ruins, let alone against an opponent in an objectives-based mission who even utilizes those upper levels.

You can't win games by hiding in buildings. How do you expect to take objectives otherwise?

That's the whole point: put your objectives in/on buildings where non-infantry units can't get to them and then turtle. Of course, everything else on the ground is going to get annihilated, and there's still a chance the other player is going to have enough firepower to shoot you down without needing to assault you anyway.

Except you can't gurantee that you'll have that kind of control of objective and building placement (and if you do have that kind of terrain control that you can plop a few ruins in your deployment zone, you're not setting it up fairly). it's a poor strategy to rely on, especially when you are discounting the rest of your opponents army.

 

And that only goes for ruins. A building is certainly assaultable with a s10 powerfist.

That's the whole point: put your objectives in/on buildings where non-infantry units can't get to them and then turtle. Of course, everything else on the ground is going to get annihilated, and there's still a chance the other player is going to have enough firepower to shoot you down without needing to assault you anyway.

You can put *an* objective on the upper floor of a building. In multi-objective games they must be 12" away from another objective so unless you happen to have a table covered in multi-tier ruins you're not going to be able to put them all up high. Even if you do you'll be spreading yourself thin and liable to get shot/assaulted and easily destroyed if isolated.

 

You make is sound as if his entire army is a Thunderlord. Getting up a level is a problem but that is something fairly minor. Thunderlords have for me been rock-solid so far - I've had 3 games where I've held off a pair of Daemon Princes and a Greater Daemon, a Daemon Prince and a squad of Berzerkers and another where a ClawLord held off a Thirster and 2 Princes all for a number of rounds of combat.

 

Their speed means that they'll be striking out at targets usually on turn 2 as you move 6" x 2, Fleet x 2 and have a 12" assault. That's an average of 31" and when deploying 24" from the enemy on a 48" wide board you should be able to cover most of it and seeing as the enemy has to move even a small bit to give himself fire arcs and to get to objectives he can grab onto things very quickly.

 

I was running TWC but I've found that Lords are harder to kill and less likely to run so I've got 2 of them in a Wolfblob at the moment: one with Saga of Majesty and another with Bear and a Hammer. The Wolves take all the wounds until the unit gets close to assault and they go their seperate ways. With Storm Shields they can take hits from big things while they can hit them back with their WS6 and lots of high S attacks.

 

In short, with the right support they're deadly.

Interesting to see the response to thunderlords, as if I was running a one trick pony and could just be wiped by placing models on a second floor.

 

If you read my post, nothing that the thunderlords devastated were able to be placed on a multi level building (tanks, jet bikes, wave serpents). The only thing that would be able to was a squad of guardsmen in a chimera running for a objective on the ground in some ruins which was wiped out with the wolf clawed thunderlord.

 

Notice how some people completely ignored this:

The attention paid to the thunderlord crew left full squads of GH and a rune priest to run amok claiming objectives and stalking down enemy units.

 

Sure my thunderlords were a wrecking crew. However my GH, rune priest, and Long Fangs had an even more impressive kill tally then the thunderlords all while claiming and also contesting objectives:

 

Wave Serpent and all the Fire Dragons

Falcon and over half the Banshees

Squad of Rangers

Almost entire squad of Harlequins

Hellhound

Valkyrie and half the Veteran squad

Leman Russ Punisher

Chimera and almost all the IG in it.

 

So go ahead and castle in buildings from my thunderlords, I have plenty of other stuff to root you out.

At the now-closed GW store I played at, most of the tables had heavy amounts of multi-level ruins made from those building kits GW makes. But yeah, that's the only place I've played at with enough ruins to put multiple objectives on higher floors. Not that anyone at that store was good enough to keep from always getting massacred by my Thunderwolves anyway. :(

 

I completely agree it's a poor strategy. In my army, even if you negate the threat of being charged by my Thunderwolves, I still have three squads of Grey Hunters riding around in Land Raiders that would be more than capable of hammering them hard enough to dislodge any Troops you could put in there.

well honestly many people place alot of points into models that are negated if your not on the playing ground and people who think that a few power armour marines in rhinos will win the battle are loco. a competent player will have no trouble at all batting them aside.

 

like it or not thunderwolves are simply a shock and awe tactic. keep your head and they arent as scary as alot of people want to think even though im sure ramses will argue with this for the sake of arguing

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