Help me build a Thunderhawk list

[Jackalwolf]

Hey guys I need some help. I've revisited many times how ludicrous the point cost of chapter approved for Thunderhawks is but I won't yield. I will keep using her.

 

What do you think about this list to make the most of the little points left I have:

 

- Thunderhawk with turbo laser destructor and cluster bombs

- Wolf guard battle leader with krakenborne sword

- 5x wolf guard Terminators, leader with power axe and SS, 3 with power fist and storm bolter and 1 with two wolf claws

- 5x wolf guard Terminators, leader with power axe and SS, 3 with power fist and storm bolter and 1 with two wolf claws

- 5x reivers with combat knifes (Viking axes) and grav chutes

 

The Thunderhawk arrives on turn one from reserve and messes something up with the turbo laser, turn two 2 squads of CC Terminators charge onto two other things and the Thunderhawk goes back to fly and shoot.

 

Reivers arrive in turn 1 or 2 to cull low strength units, contest objectives or annoy.

 

Exactly 2,000 points. It's also fluffy as hell with a small force of Astartes coming down in their Thunderhawk while the Reivers drop from orbit and makes me think of my favourite space wolf story: wolf at the door. Hence the list is called Kerunnos liberation strike team!

 

Would it work? Any advice?

[M.Redbeard]

Work for what? As a fluffy list it works because it fits the fluff nicely. As a conpetittive list? No it does not work.

Mainly beacuse your oponent can ignore the Thunderhawk and blow the 16 models you have on the table and he wins due to No Boots on the Ground rule.so wgile you will probably destroy a few units and look vool doing it, he only needa to spread wide, get as much plasma as possible and blow the Termiea and Reivers to kingdom come. Even if you make it to turn 3 or 4 there is no way to contest with objectives. If you play Only War it migh be fun whike he doesn't bring a ridiculos amount of Lascannons, but outside of custom or simple games the strategtmy is juat to sirvive turn 1 and then make you pay dearly.

[Vykes]

Aaah, but M.Redbeard, the No Boots on the Ground rule applies to battlefield role Flyers, the Hawk is a Lord of War with fly and airbrone.  But the point certainly remains: the Hawk can be easily ignored, and it's just 1 model so the only way it can hold an objective game is to pop down right on top of that one, single objective as its footprint is too large.  

 

Not that I actually disagree with any one of your other points either yeah... it's my issue too.  There's not quite enough maneuverability to threaten multiple objectives, and the hawk itself doesn't put out enough firepower to threaten many units.  More over, the Hawk's turbolaser lacks the macro rule of its titan counterpart, so dealing with other superheavies isn't as simple as it appears. 

 

In so far as wolves and termies are concerned, it's very much backed into a corner with flexibility to exert large scale battlefield control.  There's not a lot of ways around it because of the insane number of points the hawk eats up and its frankly weak and inflexible transport capacity (it can't carry dreads which can form cheap lynchpins, and can't transport bikes anymore, which would have given you the long range ability to land at one spot and have them advance to take a second).  I think you're about as well off as you can get without converting at least 1 unit of wolfguard over to grey hunters and thus having to drop from a Vanguard to a patrol.  Which isn't ideal. 

 

Best of luck, and if you can try it out and take some pictures, I'll try out a Blood angels Thunderhawk platoon and post up some pictures, too, then compare notes on what roles absolutely need to be present.  I just don't think the Hawk in a pointed matched game can work because it leads to an anemic amount of bodies to take and hold ground.  But I figure we can share the pain, eh? Ugh, maybe ask for a power point match instead?  It's not quite so ludicrous. 

[M.Redbeard]

Ah Vykes, you are correct. I didn't review the role and assumed Flyer due to the nature of the Thumderhawk. But a single model with 5 weapons will make very little impact in the long run. High model counts would make the brutal Thunderhawk weapons pretty inneffecrive. Whichmeans that after the WG are gone you'd be killing 5or so models.

 

Let us know how the Thunderhawk fares. It looks fun. And let's hope the enemy does not bring Shadowswords because they will decimate the Colossal Flyer.

 

Or maybe then play a higher point game like 3500 to have an army and still play the Thunderhawk.

[Vykes]

I got to pull that trick exactly once with the Thunderhawk, and I 'renegged on it' :P  It came up with that recent Konor campaign 'evacuation' mission where you couldn't use flyers to get off the table and win, but it didn't mention the Lord of War (and given that there's only four air-vehicles that I can think of that are like that, two of which are thunderhawk types and one of the others is the super-Hawk Stormbird, and the 4th is the Tau Manta, I'm betting it never came up in the playtest).  So I set up a fully loaded Hawk and just sped off with an advance move before saying, "So wanna play an actual game?"

 

You are absolutely right though, mate.  It's not enough guns, its not enough hull, it's not enough presence, and its opportunity cost is simply enormous. Absolutely, it's not gonna chew through enough hordes to clear out landing zones let alone actually controlling much in the way of tactical control.  Something like it is suited for non matched play (or matched play with power points instead as those were never altered).  I mean, I love the hawk.  Who doesn't?  And I used mine back before CA but it was more or less to offset how effective I'd found Storm Eagles and Xiphons in my air-cav themed company.  But since that change I just haven't been able to make it work.  It was barely hanging on before the CA alteration.  

 

Ugh, fear the Shadowsword and Falchions, they'll rip a hawk down like it's paper (as unfunny as it is, a Thunderhawk goes down just as easily if not slightly more easily than a Storm Eagle to those two.  A Hawk lloses Hard to Hit, but gains the invul, so it gets hit slightly more often but has a weak save.  yet its 2X damage chews through the Hawk's wounds faster than the regular wounds on an Eagle)

 

And yet I'm still thinking about another one for my Sons of Horus because they just look cool.  Ugh, conditioning. 

[Jackalwolf]

Haha yes it's always a tough proposition but just wanted to see which list could give me as much as a chance to have a fun game while using the hawk.

 

Problem with power level is all the insane shenanigans that can be done with CP and generating units you don't need to pay for.

[Vykes]

Aye, it's pretty hard to argue that.  I'd say I don't mind it, but I also don't do it if that makes sense.  

 

I think the list you set out really is about as good as one I can think of for the Nouveau-Fenryka, its got the ability to take at least a few pot shots on the way in and positioning wise the Hawk is about as good as you can get while the reavers give you that extra flexibility for a bit of tactical control (and in the right position, even a small unit like that will cause endless headaches). 

 

I would definitely say give it a try and I'd really like to hear about how it goes.  It's definitely a challenge list, no doubt about it.   

[Jackalwolf]

Cool thanks! I'll post the results as soon as I finish painting the Reivers. All I want is a list that is fun to play and not an auto turn 2 loose. Even if odds are 25-75 that can be fun.