Shadow War

[Yoyo ninja]

Now that GW have decided to make the rules for Shadow War available separately, I feel like I can talk about it without feeling smug about getting a copy of the boxed set.

So who else is keen on this? I have read the rules and they seem really good and like it will lead to some fun and fluffy games.

Also our scouts get some extra little bits because they are the elites of the company instead of the initiates, they get access to the same special weapons they can take in the codex plus some fluffy skills in campaign play.

 

It would be nice to see others ideas for killteams and progress on any models people are making. So I figured a thread for it might be cool.

 

I'm thinking a 5man scout team, but I haven't costed this stuff up properly yet, just roughly in my head.

I'm thinking pack leader will be a close ranged guy with a bolt pistol and power sword, maybe a shotgun thrown in for good messure.

Then two specialists, one with heavy bolter, a bolt pistol and a knife. Then the second with a plasma gun, pistol and a knife.

Then two regular marines, one with a a sniper rifle, bolt pistol and a knife and one with a bolter, bolt pistol and sword.

 

I'll probably model the knifes as axes because rule of cool and make them reasonably wolfy with bits from the standard kits.

 

I'm just rambling now, so post thoughts and ideas and pics and stuff.

 

Edit = changing my phones autocorrects.

[Wraithwing]

My starting Kill team is 5 Scouts.

 

Pack leader wth Power Sword and Plasma Pistol

Specialist with Plasma Gun, Camo Cloak and Clip Harness

3x Scouts with Bolt Pistols, Assault Blades and Frag Grenades

 

Frags are awesome, as the minute you hit with a template, you can pin everything under it.

 

Few minis, but lots of gear.

[Kasper_Hawser]

Already created my 5 man scouts, dusting them off after months of disuse.

 

1 Pack leader (sergeant) with bolt pistol and power sword

1 Scout with bolter and CCW

1 Scout with CCW and bolt pistol

1 Scout with heavy bolter

1 Scout with FLAMER!!!!!

 

........ and then I saw who else joined the party. Fully armored Grey Knights, Tyranid Warrior and Eldar Aspect warriors.......

 

 

...... and suddenly I feel I should go back to retirement until 8th ed. Apparently, the beat train still has no brakes.... I'm not pitting my veteran scouts against a bloody Tyrannid warrior.....

[Yoyo ninja]

I had the same thought, but we will see how it goes. I won't see any tyranids, but I feel some Eldar coming my way.

I'm trying to stay positive till I play the game and see how it all pans out.

I just costed up my list, to many toys, need to cut some points somewhere.

[Runefyre]

I too was lucky enough to snag shadow war from my FLGS (he was quite brilliant and managed to buy 6 additional copies from other retailers in the area at half price lmao).

 

Anyway, my starting kill-team is as follows:

 

Leader (sniper rifle, bolt pistol, camo gear, power sword)

Scout (boltgun, knife)

Scout (boltgun, knife)

Scout (shotgun, knife)

Scout gunner (melta-gun, knife)

 

Dont' have my list with me atm, don't remember if I left anything out.

 

I like the melta-gun because it's basically a shorter ranged, but highly mobile missile launcher. It should do wonders against tyranids.

[Kasper_Hawser]

I guess I should try the game first before I judge. I used a flamer for rule of cool actually. Like 40K flamers, I don't think you need to roll to hit.

 

Hopefully my powersword sergeant can kill something in combat. I purposely modeled one as that.

[TheDuck]

I've made a 5 man scout team, but honestly our stores meta is gonna be merciless. We've got a harlequins dude, 'Nid warriors, genestealers, chaos spess mehreens, and a dark eldar player, so I fear for my dudes.

[Yoyo ninja]

I do think scouts are going to be rather out matched, same with the guard and orks. The stuff in the book seems really well balanced, meh, just standard 40k stuff. We will see what happens.

[HvitrValdyr]

Still waiting on my game box, it's being mailed, but I was thinking of doing a counts as team based on the Chaos rules with a power armored "Wolf Guard" leader, a few marines and kaerls (cultists). Also will be putting together a Wolf Scout team.

[Stoic Raptor]

I've got a 5-man SW scout team with sniper rifles, camo gear, red-dot laser sights and photo-visors.  Comes in at a tidy 1000 points even.

Yes, SW get some cool options that other Chapters don't - plus they've got solid access to Guerilla, Shooting and Stealth skills across the board.

 

However, there's a huge issue that is easy to overlook - if one of your Scouts gets killed, you will be spending a promethium cache to replace him.  That's because a 100-point Recruit action will get you a Scout... with a knife.  Unless you feel like having him go through an entire battle with just a knife, you'll want to equip him - which means burning a cache.  

 

Any other Chapter could easily get a Novitiate with a Bolt Pistol for 100 points.. but we don't get Novitiates.

[Provocation]

Spotted the 100 points and only a blade as well, but I think that fits perfectly with the Space Wolf mentality. Here's a blade go and prove yourself. Also you don't have to loose a scout to recruit a new squad member, so you can shield the new members to a certain extent.

[Yoyo ninja]

Yea, that could still happen with your set up though. Out numbered by orks, can't keep them at bay with ranged weapons...

It's more than a possibility.

A mixed team will have more flexibility, i feel like a sniper rifle, some bolters with a heavy support option will be very versatile, giving you more options in game.

But I also have the luxury of owning a bunch scouts already and having the box game just have me 10 more, so I can build options out of them to give me choices. Then I can chop and change depending on what works.

[Kasper_Hawser]

I wonder if my old defensive assault thinking Space wolves can still apply. meaning don't rush into combat, let them come to you while whittling them down, then only counter attack once odds are in your favor.

 

to this end, I'm favoring the heavy bolter, bolter and flamer, leaving just two guys for close combat duty.

 

By the way, any idea if Shadow War takes place either in Second or Third War Armageddon? I'm rusty on the Armageddon fluff. Can't even remember if the famous Tu Shan scolding Malevolent marines happened in which one.

[Stoic Raptor]

Third War.  The fluff talks about the history of the Second War and its impact on the current situation.

[Runefyre]

I'm almost wondering if bolters are worth it compared to bolt pistols. You can never gain an extra attack for pistol+knife if you carry a basic/special/heavy weapon. All you get in exchange is a single 24" shot. You can also upgrade a bolt pistol with a telescopic sight (then it becomes about the price of a basic boltgun IIRC) is 22" range, but you still get the additional attack.

 

I played my first test game last night, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I found (at least against orks) that only having one attack in CC can really screw you over if you roll poorly. Shooting also isn't very dependable unless it's from a sustained fire weapon. My opponents orks were running (-1 to hit) almost all the time plus partial cover (-1 again), making my shots very difficult. But my heavy bolter did do wonders thanks to having up to 6 shots at 40" range, he was a game changer, mowing down two yoofs and pinning his boss nob.

 

My team leader had a sniper rifle with red-dot, that worked really well. Took a big shoota down (he wouldn't get up for the whole game) on the first turn.

[spacepup]

I bought the box set. I still have yet to play any games with it. The newer rules for the game are still trying to sink into my thick skull.

[quinnwolf]

Am i right in thinking Space Wolves scouts have a slight buff over other chapters in that they have access to an extra skill table?

[Yoyo ninja]

They definitely get an extra set of weapons to choose from. I can't see anywhere that they get extra skills though. We also don't get access to the cheap new recruit scouts, as wolf scouts don't work like that.

[Yoyo ninja]

I'm almost wondering if bolters are worth it compared to bolt pistols. You can never gain an extra attack for pistol+knife if you carry a basic/special/heavy weapon. All you get in exchange is a single 24" shot. You can also upgrade a bolt pistol with a telescopic sight (then it becomes about the price of a basic boltgun IIRC) is 22" range, but you still get the additional attack.

 

The telescopic sight can only be fitted to basic weapons and special weapons, not pistols. Would have been awesome though. I was just looking at getting my list sorted out and wanted to try that.

[Runefyre]

 

I'm almost wondering if bolters are worth it compared to bolt pistols. You can never gain an extra attack for pistol+knife if you carry a basic/special/heavy weapon. All you get in exchange is a single 24" shot. You can also upgrade a bolt pistol with a telescopic sight (then it becomes about the price of a basic boltgun IIRC) is 22" range, but you still get the additional attack.

The telescopic sight can only be fitted to basic weapons and special weapons, not pistols. Would have been awesome though. I was just looking at getting my list sorted out and wanted to try that.

 

That's a good catch. I still think the extra attack in CC is worth more than a single boltgun shot. The board is so small you'll almost always have someone in the opposing killteam in range.

 

My basic tactic will probably be BP/knife as the "grunts" with supporting fire from camo cloaked snipers and a heavy bolter.

[Runefyre]

They definitely get an extra set of weapons to choose from. I can't see anywhere that they get extra skills though. We also don't get access to the cheap new recruit scouts, as wolf scouts don't work like that.

We actually do get access to an additional skill tree over our peers. These differ between leader/trooper/specialist. Like our leader has access to muscle skills in addition to the other skills all other leaders can take. This is probably also to help reflect the elite nature of Wolf Scouts.

[Yoyo ninja]

Admittedly I did just peruse that section so far, I was going to get a few games under my belt before reading it properly. From what I could tell though it looked like each chapter gets access to different skill trees, to represent the different ways chapters fight. So other chapters will have access to things we won't.

 

I agree that an extra attack will serve better than a single bolt gun shot. I think I'm going with 2 cc guys, a flamer, a sniper rifle and a heavy bolter.

[Stoic Raptor]

I was dealing with that same question today as I was writing up a non-sniper list.  I also eventually arrived at the same conclusion - the extra range of a boltgun is not enough to make up for the loss of +1 to hit at close range and the extra attack in CC.

[Yoyo ninja]

Just played my first game of shadow war.

A few things I think about it...

It's very swingy. I was kicking some ork behind, keeping them pinned with a flamer and grenades. Then a random ork with a shoota rocks up from reinforcements and guns down two scouts, at which point the rest jump all over me and 4 of my 5 scouts are out of action.

Single shot weapons are a bit pants. Didn't do much damage with sniper rifle or bolt pistols. Heavy bolter and flamer were great though.

Frag grenades are so useful. Keeping things pinned makes holding orks at bay alot of easier.

It's alot of fun though, easy to pick up and play.

[Sentinel Guy]

I'm running a sarge and 3 scouts with sniper rifles, red dots and toxin ammo, plus a scout with a flamer. All have camo gear.

 

The snipers should be accurate damage dealers and the flamer is there to cover them.