Shadows of the Warp near Fenris

[Kasper_Hawser]

Brothers! The Rune Priests have sensed an ominous boding approaching Fenris. The astropath chatter between various systems and listening posts approaching Fenris has been replaced by insane gibberish as something is driving them crazy. Little can be made out of their insanity but finally, Njal Stormcaller himself finally heard the dreaded phrase "Shadow of the Warp". Without further ado, the fastest scout cruisers were sent in that direction of space and confirmed the threat: an unknown splinter hive fleet, completely unrecognisable in the Wolves war memories (databases) and heading towards a planet within the protection of the Vlka Fenryka: a not insignificant manufactorum of 1 billion souls.

 

This could not have come at a worse time as the Fang's defences is dangerously understrength. Although the combined manpower equals that or more than a Great Company, ALL of the Wolf Lords of the Fang are off planet, though the Sven Bloodhowl is relatively near, only a month away if the warp is clear. This leaves Wolf Guard Battle Leader Torfin Daggerfist as the highest ranking Space Wolf other than the wolf priest, rune priests, iron priests and by sheer luck, Arjac Rockfist himself who is recovering on Fenris after nearly being gutted by a Necron Wraith during the battle of Midgardia.

 

One month is too short however, as the splinter fleet is now approaching that system in scant weeks. With so much of the Wolves forces elsewhere, there is only one resource that is left in relative quantity: the Old ones, the venerable dreadnoughts, along with the mighty Bjorn himself. After a short but furious discussion, all reluctantly agreed to awaken Bjorn and ask his aid, though the system seem to hold little strategic worth. Torrin like much of the Champions of Fenris however, held to his Great Wolf's example that all peoples of the Imperium are to be defended no matter their worth, for all have the opportunity to become heroes and legends if only given the chance and time.

 

Fortunately for everyone, Bjorn agreed upon being woken up. In addition, due to the Eldest having limited experience with the Tyranids, he agreed along with his venerable bretheren to defer to the judgement of Torrin Daggerfist.

 

And so armed with a small force that consisting of the old ones, the Wolves left Fenris to cut the head of the Hive Fleet the moment it touched down on the planet.

 

Sorry mates, my writing seems to be as bad as Matt Ward or other codex writers you hate. Still, the geist is I have challenged a Tyranid player to a match this Thursday. I have no idea what he is bringing, but he promised to bring a beginner list for me to learn, and also won't be bringing any flyers.

 

In the end this is a fun game so I want to bring the one thing I have a lot now: Dreadnoughts. I've decided to use COF for this purpose. My initial list for 1500 is as follows:

 

WGBL with Armor of Stormwrack and Claws of Morkai

Arjac

 

Elites

4 WG termies with 4 combi meltas , powerfist and a drop pod from Fast Attack

Dreadnought with Wolf Claw, Heavy Flamer and Drop Pod

Iron Priest on Thunderwolf

 

Troop

1 Grey Hunter Pack - 7 Grey Hunters with plasma and Rhino

 

Venerable Formation

Bjorn with Hellfrost in drop pod/deathwind

Venerable Dreadnought with heavy flamer in drop pod with locator beacon

Venerable Dreadnought - axe and shield variety.

 

As I've mentioned, I have no idea what he is bringing. I can only think of two things: Nidzilla with carnifexes and excorines, or Swarm army with tervigons and warriors. In both cases, he will probably bring a flyrant or two. I know very well my list isn't that powerful but it is fun, and had a blast making the axe and shield dreadnought.

 

So my question is what to do if I come up against Giant monsters or Horde griblies? I know I should always kill synapse, but apart from warriors, Tyrants and Tervigons, I'm not sure what else is synapse that I need to kill. And even if I kill the synapse, does that mean I'm safe? I'm not clear of instinctive behaviour rules. My understanding is if they don't have synapse, 50% of the time they will end up doing nothing or damaging themselves.

 

Whatever the case, my alpha strike will be the 3 dreadnoughts in Bjorn formation. If so, what should I kill first? the Tyrant or the Tervigon? Or do I focus as much template as I can to thin out the heard? Or should I just stay the hell away, castle, and let them come to me? Problem with that is that I don't have a lot of ranged firepower.

 

How good are Carnifexes and Tervigons in CC and shooting anyway compared to dreadnoughts?

 

Advice would be good. Thanks.

[Rune Priest Jbickb]

Might be a fun list but I think the iron ppriest points might be better spent on a lone wolf or similar.

 

Haven't gone against new nids but old nids didn't like plasma or assault cannons much. Also personally I would target the tervigon of the 2. All 5 he dudes it pumps out are problematic

[Kasper_Hawser]

Iron Priest was an afterthought really, I was thinking of putting yet another dreadnought but thought that something to repair the dreadnoughts might come in handy. Not to mention the little known fact the Iron Priests hits like a ton of bricks.

[grouj]

You may want to consider bringing murderfang to squash those bugs =D

[DobbyKroket]

Just a small point on your fluff:

 

the fang would never be left by all of the wolf lords at the same time.

 

just saying, i understand the reason you had.

 

rps

[Ikken]

kill the HT 1st , it will give you slay the war lord and kill synapse in 1 go . the tervagon is good in CC but he probably won't up grade it much . so the HT will be the bigger CC threat .

if you can kill his synapse his army will fall apart , if he brings single carnifexs they can function fairly well out side of synapse range . same for trigon or mawloc , other than geanstealers ,which suck, his army won't function at all and will likely tear itself to pieces ..

if he has the tyranid data slates that were released after the bug book dropped there are several missions in them that you might both enjoy as they are themed around a bug invasion of a planet that space marines try to rescue .

[Kasper_Hawser]

Excellent idea Ikken. Will ask him if he has the Tyranid dataslaes. I can picture my four dreadnoughts back to back surrounded by all sides by griblies or carnifexes. :) LOL, if that happens, most likely I've lost.

 

Damn, I forgot about Trygon and Mawlocs. I know Mawlocs basically have an AP2 Blast attack as it tries to dig out of the ground under my units, actually doing so twice to try kill everyone, and if someone still alive, then it deepstrike mishaps. But what kind of guns does the Trygon have? does it have BS3 or 4 or twinlinked guns that can hurt my units and dreads?

 

If he has a horde of gaunts, is it wise to throw one of my dreadnoughts to tie them up while the others hunt for something more valuable? Either the non Axe Ven dread or the non Ven Dread with multi melta? Do gaunts have any rending attacks? If so, how much to glance and pen a dread?

 

Just a small point on your fluff:

the fang would never be left by all of the wolf lords at the same time.

just saying, i understand the reason you had.

rps

 

Yeah I know. the real reason I'm not using a Wolf Lord was that I was really strapped for points after stuffing 4 kitted dreadnoughts in my 1500 list, so I had to downgrade my Wolf Lord into a Wolf Guard battle leader. I did make a note that Logan and Sven Bloodhowl are actually nearby, and this takes place more or less in the aftermath of Midgardia since Arjac is recuperating.

[Kasper_Hawser]

I just found a crazy idea which may be exploiting the rules unfairly a bit but I want to get your opinions.

 

Rhinos have 2 fire points. I'm thinking a minimal squad of 3 Long Fangs with 2 Lascannons. Both Lascannons deploy in Rhino and can shoot out of their hatches and become fairly safe in their rhino from most weapons. However, I understand that units in transports do NOT become relentless, so in order to fire at normal BS, the Rhino will have to stay put in the shooting

 

The way around that suggested by 1d4 chan suggested that in the Shooting Phase, first one can fire the Lascannons out of the hatches, then the Rhino itself moves Flat Out to 6 inches in its own shooting. This will give the Long Fangs another 18 inches to redeploy in Turn 2, before firing at full BS at Turn 3 again.

 

If this is possible, then I'm thinking of fielding multiple small units of Long Fangs in Rhinos as opposed to 5-6 Long Fangs vulnerable to long range artillery and sniping.

 

Another question: Looking at the Pelt of the Balewolf, I'm wondering how many Tyranids are actually classified as beasts, and also if their monstrous creatures are fearless.

[Kasper_Hawser]

Sigh, sad to report that I got tabled by the Tyranids. My planned epic dreadnought vs Carnifex clash ended badly, although I did manage to take out 3 Carnifexes and 3 hive guard as a consolation prize. But everything else, from Bjorn to the Thunderwolves, got eaten. sigh....

 

His list was basically an elite list:

 

Flyrant with 3 Tyrant Guard - Ymgarl Factor, sword and whip, Paroxysm

3 Hive Guard with S8 Heavy 2 weapons

 

10  shooty gaunts X 3

2 venomtropes

Deathleaper

 

3 Drop pods with deathwind missile launchers all failed to do anything because not only everything was spaced out, but nightfighting and venomtropes gave EVERYTHING a 4+ cover. So nothing I had could punch through the slippery creatures. 2 objectives was on his side.

 

So in the end, I foolishly tried to shoot him while drawing closer to him. And turns out that one of his Carnifexes had armourbane.

 

Not to self: paitently wait and shoot from afar next time before going after useless griblies.