Kallas' Adventures In The Snow

[Kallas]

Hello folks and welcome to my battle report thread. I decided to separate this into its own thread so as to not detract from others with different purposes (and I can transpose relevant thoughts anyway).

 

For those who care: I don’t play actual Space Wolves, my Chapter is the Howling Griffons who are technically Ultramarines successors; but the Ultramarines rules don’t really appeal to me as representative of the Howling Griffons, so I use the Space Wolves Codex (and prior to the SW Codex release, I used Blood Angels for the same reason: their rules were more appealing than the vanilla SM Codex). The Space Wolf Codex fits with the background for Howling Griffons pretty well: Griffons swear oaths to perform various deeds (such as revenge; doing something awesome; etc) and are a pretty flexible Chapter (unlike the Ultramarines, we’ve actually read the Codex and use like camouflage!). Anyway, enough justification, on to the battles!

 

Here are the links to my first few battle reports, for those who give a damn about them, and I’ll post each new report in its own post, and link them here for reference:

 

Game #1: Pre-League Friendly, vs Dark Eldar (September 2018)

 

Game #2: Pre-League Friendly, vs Tau (September 2018)

 

Game #3: League Game #1, vs Death Guard (October 2^nd 2018)

 

Game #4: League Game #2, vs Necrons (October 9^th 2018)

 

Game #5: League Game #3, vs Craftworld Eldar (October 16th 2018)

 

Game #6: Mid-League Friendly, vs Imperial Soup (Dark Angels and Imperial Guard) (November 13th 2018)

 

Game #7: League Game #4, vs Imperial Knights (November 20th 2018)

 

Game #8: League Game #5, vs Tau (December 4th 2018)

 

Game #9: Friendly ITC Champions, vs Genestealer Cults (December 18th 2018)

 

EDIT: Game #9 posted!

[Kallas]

Ok, so Battle Three for my Spowling Griffolves. Er, wait…nevermind.

For full information:

I’m currently playing in an ITC League at my local club. It’s 1750pts (which is working out pretty well) using the ITC Champions missions (I think that’s a specific ITC format; could just be a tweaked version of the core ITC stuff, not sure). I’m currently in the Third Division (ie, Baby’s First Division) because I’m new/got stomped last season. A key rule with the League is that once we’ve submitted our lists we cannot change them until we lose a game, which makes for some interesting late League counter teching!

Here is my list, for those not familiar:

Battalion:

Captain ‘Wonderboy’ Obregon (Wolf Lord: Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Jump Pack)

Codicier Galvez (Rune Priest: Runic Sword, Jump Pack)

Ancient Venegas (Bjorn the Fell-handed: Twin Lascannon)

3 Inceptors (Assault Bolters)

3x5 Grey Hunters (Bolters and Chainswords)

Rhino (2x Storm Bolters)

Razorback (Twin Assault Cannon, Storm Bolter)

Battalion:

3x Lieutenants Cazalla, Quiros and Santillian (Wolf Guard Battle Leaders: Thunder Hammers, Storm Shields, Jump Packs)

3x5 Grey Hunters (Bolters and Chainswords)

Rhino (2x Storm Bolters)

Razorback (Twin Assault Cannon, Storm Bolter)

I took the Wulfen Stone (on Captain Obregon) and the Armour of Russ (on Codicier Galvez). I also chose Storm Caller (to try and reduce damage on the way in) and Jaws of the World Wolf (as Death Guard have low movement, so it could be very useful for adding damage to specific units).

My first Division Three opponent was running Death Guard:

Battalion:

Typhus

Malignant Plaguecaster (between the two they had Plague Wind [1d6 per model, 6s cause a MW], Blades of Putrefaction [+1 to wound in the Fight Phase, 7+ cause MW], Miasma of Pestilence [-1 to hit on a friendly unit] and Putrescent Vitality [+1 S&T on a friendly unit]; I can’t remember which had which!)

2x 6 Plague Marines (2x Blight Launchers, Plasma Gun on Champion)

1x Plague Brethren (2x Bolter, 1x Meltagun)

2x 15 Poxwalkers

2x Plagueburst Crawlers (Entropy Cannons and Rothail Volley Gun)

Outrider:

Lord of Contagion (Warlord – Arch-Contaminator [reroll all to wound rolls with Plague Weapons], Fugaris’ Helm [+3” to aura stuff], Plaguereaper)

3x Bloat-Drones (2x Plague Spitters)

Secondary Objectives:

Death Guard:

You probably guessed it:

Headhunter (because I have eight million characters)

Big Game Hunter (because I have nine million vehicles)

Recon (because he’s going to move up aggressively anyway)

Spowling Griffolves:

Big Game Hunter (those Drones are going to get close anyway, might as well get some points for splattering them)

Recon (I’ve got much better mobility and I need to close the gap with my characters anyway)

Marked For Death (I chose Typhus, the Lord of Contagion and the two Plague Marine units, as the other secondaries are a little awkward and those are all problem units that need dealing with. I couldn’t really go with The Reaper or Headhunter, as I couldn’t max those out, so MFD gives me that possibility)

For mission/deployment we rolled Mission 6: Crucible of Champions (5 objectives in a cross; control 3 different ones with characters for the bonus point) with Spearhead Assault (lengthways pointy). I started deployment and finished first for the +1.

Important Deployment Notes:

My opponent put both Typhus and the Lord of Contagion in to Deep Strike, meaning that if I get first turn his Poxwalkers will be quite a bit easier to kill, and his shooting will likely be less effective early on. Inceptors went in to Deep Strike too, because Primaris are severely allergic to multi-damage weaponry.

Here’s a picture of my opponent’s first turn with annotations to try and show deployment (I’ll get better at taking pictures before T1 movement…eventually!)

First Turn Roll Off: My opponent won and I failed to Seize. Ruh roh. Generally speaking, I’d prefer first turn, as it would allow me to begin the advance and put up Storm Caller and/or Cloaked by the Storm. Oh well.

DG T1

Movement: The Drones float forward, all advancing and not in range to spooge all over my tanks. Crawlers stay still to spooge over my tanks better. All of his infantry advance up, getting a few possible shots around the central ruin with some Plague Marines. His forward-most unit of Plague Marines gets Cloud of Flies, so I can’t target them, which is a good move.

Psychic: All of his powers fail. Nice!

Shooting: Here comes the spooge! Crawlers open up, splitting some fire across my left/bottom Rhino and Razorback but they do successfully crack the Rhino open, killing three(!) Grey Hunters inside. The targeted Razorback makes it out relatively unscathed (only took 1 wound).

SW T1

Ok, could have been much worse. I feel like my opponent made a mistake in not focusing down my Razorbacks.

Movement: Push up, but don’t advance anything. The forcibly disembarked Grey Hunters push up to take the middle objective to give me more. Characters spread out a little, and I feel like I made a bit of an error in how I moved them up as they were a little vulnerable to the Bloat-Drones, potentially. I drop a unit out of the undamaged Razorback to hold my back objective.

Psychic: I manage to cast Storm Caller…on a double six. Gah! Thankfully Galvez only takes a single Mortal Wound (as opposed to his usual 3). That’s fine. Jaws kills I think three Poxwalkers (to help thin them for the Razorback).

Shooting: I can’t hit my preferred target of Plague Marines, so I unload most of my guns into his front Poxwalkers, who are thankfully only T3 (as Typhus is in Deep Strike: I feel like this was a mistake on my opponent’s part). Through judicious Assault Cannon (including Keen Senses for accuracy), Storm Bolter and Bolter fire the front unit is destroyed. The Drone on my left takes two damage from Bjorn’s Lascannons.

Round One Score: DG 3: SW 3

We both scored 1 for Kill 1; 1 for Hold One.

I score Hold More; he scores 1 on BGH.

DG T2

Movement:

More upfield movement from his blob. Drones scoot up, with one nipping over the central ruin to possibly spooge on my characters. One stays near the middle to spooge on the Grey Hunters in the central ruin.

Psychic: Blades goes on the Poxwalkers, but I let it slide as I doubt they will get to do anything this round. Plague Wind goes off and I let it (because it’s targeting three models, and 6s to proc is horribly unreliable). Putrescent Vitality is cast, but I managed to Deny it with Cazalla up front, thanks to Talismanic Shield (actually a waste of CP, as my RP’s Denial didn’t get used, because his last Smite attempt failed; oh well).

Shooting: Let the spooging commence. Left Drone splooshes all over my foremost WGBL, who tanks it like a champion. The Grey Hunters in the ruin get vomited on and shot by Plague Marines, killing all but one. The four Grey Hunters also get a bile shower, but cover sees them survive handily. The damaged Razorback get targeted again by the Crawler, bringing it low; then the Plague Brethren, who had advanced up just into Meltagun range, put it out of action (with a rerolled damage roll: 1 -> 6, urgh!). Two more Grey Hunters die getting out, bah! The remaining Rhino takes some damage, bringing it down to 4 wounds left.

Charge/Fight: I make sure my opponent is aware of Space Wolf Heroic Intervention shenanigans, and he’s ok with it. He charges the left Drone into the vomit-covered WGBL, and promptly gets dogpiled by all of the characters (bar Bjorn), who put it down easily – it then, of course, deliberately explodes, finishing the Grey Hunters and damaging a bunch of stuff around it. Hmm.

SW T2

I did not enjoy getting showered in Nurgle gunk, but then who does (other than Nurgle worshippers)?

Movement: Bjorn moves to the right to engage that Drone. The WGBLs and RP jump up to engage the middle Drone. Rhino moves up alongside to possibly soak some overwatch, although my RP is tucked into the ruin to charge the Drone without taking overwatch anyway. Obregon stays back to avoid the probable explosions. The Grey Hunters from the Razorback advance up on to the left objective. The last Razorback tucks itself into the same place, pretending to be dead like its brother. The Inceptors drop down next to Obregon and one WGBL, with two able to see the grey Plague Marines.

Psychic: Smite is Denied, but Jaws goes off on the grey Plague Marine unit (who importantly didn’t have Cloud of Flies on them), killing two. I do pop Cloaked by the Storm again, as most of my characters are pretty exposed here.

Shooting: Krak grenades fail to do anything to the Drone. Inceptors and Razorback finish off the Plague Marines. Bjorn does a little damage to the right Drone.

Charge/Fight: RP charges the middle Drone, shutting down its overwatch, then the WGBLs dogpile it. Bjorn makes his charge into the right Drone, taking no damage. I use Armour of Russ on the middle Drone and Bjorn drops his Drone down to a single wound remaining (bah!); then the Death Squad…fails to live up to its name, leaving their Drone on three wounds. The Drones do nothing in return, thankfully.

Note: This is actually just as he started his movement, hence why the right Drone is actually nowhere near Bjorn. Sorry.

Round Two Score: DG 7: SW 8

He scores another BGH; Kill One/More; and Hold One.

I score Kill One; Hold One/More; a BGH (Drone through Heroic Intervention!); and one on MFD (the Plague Marines). Taking the lead feels good.

DG T3

Movement: Drones fall back, with the right one jumping back behind the ruin and on to the objective there; the middle one leaps up on to the central ruin. His remaining Poxwalkers advance around his Plague Marines to make a fleshy, diseased castle. The Plague Brethren move up again. Plague Marines and Typhus stay put, with the Lord of Contagion joining them at the end of the phase. The Plaguecaster advances up to the central ruin.

Psychic: He gets Blades, Vitality and Miasma up on the Poxwalkers, making them a damn tough, rotten meat shield for his more important units. I do shut his Smite down, at least (he rolled high for those powers, so I didn’t want to waste my Deny).

Shooting: Brethren Melta my Razorback, rolling another 6 for damage! Crawlers finish it off and damage the Rhino (dropping it to 1 wound left). Drones spooge some more, doing some damage to the Inceptors, along with the Plague Marines, and nothing to the Rhino (degraded down to S4!)

Charge/Fight: Brethren charge the Grey Hunters on the left objective, killing one; middle/left Drone charges the Inceptors, but thanks to its fat butt can’t stay away from Wonderboy, who puts it down after it kills another Inceptor. The explosion kills off the last Grey Hunter on the left. His Plaguecaster gets caught by the RP and one WGBL who smush him into a stinky paste with easy.

SW T3

Alright, it’s bottom of the ninth, and the ball is in the park, time for a slam dunk.

I don’t know American Football terms…

Anyway. His putrid castle contains a lot of important stuff (LoC, Typhus and Plague Marines) so I need to break it up ASAP. Thankfully, he didn’t put Cloud of Flies up, so I have a bit of an opening there.

Movement: WGBLs jump up on to the ruin next to Fort Stench. RP manages to jump over the Poxwalkers and get closer to the Plague Marines. Wonderboy jumps forward. Rhino advances up into cover near the Crawler, after the Grey Hunters jump out: one heading for the Crawler, the other heading for Chateau la Pong. Bjorn heads round to run down his noxious quarry.

Psychic: Smite kills a Plague Marine and Jaws gets Denied.

Shooting: Krak grenades rain down on the Plague Marines, killing four! Bjorn kills the Drone with his Lascannon and my opponent makes it explode, killing off the Rhino…who explodes too! Damn! Thankfully it only kills on Grey Hunter, and Bjorn is lightly amused, rather than damaged. Some errant Bolter shots kill one of the Brethren on the left; a couple of Poxwalkers are killed with the other unit of GH.

Charge: The least injured WGBL charges the stinky blob, holes opened up thanks to the exploded Plague Marines. Typhus causes two wounds in overwatch (urgh!) but he makes it in, locking the PM and Typhus down for everyone else to charge in. Wonderboy falls a little short, not quite making it to Typhus, but into the middle anyway. RP locks down Typhus and the other WGBL jump in. Grey Hunters charge the Poxwalkers; and the others charge the Crawler, losing one to overwatch. Unfortunately for my opponent, he had accidentally tri-locked his own LoC, meaning he couldn’t Heroically Intervene!

Fight: Typhus gets locked down and promptly smushed into a sticky brown mess (three TH wounds; failed all his 4++ saves and made only 1 Disgustingly Resilient save!). Plague Marines are finished off and the Poxwalkers are brought down to 9 models. Poxwalkers bring down the most wounded WGBL but fail to damage Obregon. Grey Hunters lock the Crawler in melee.

Here’s the rundown of the Siege of Castle AwfulsmellscomingfromJimIthinkhe’ssick:

Round Three Score: DG 13: SW 16

He scored: Kill One/More; Hold One; BGH; HH (WGBL); and Recon.

I scored: Kill One; Hold One/More; 3(!) MFD; Recon; and 2 BGH (Drones)

That round of combat was a big swing in hitting power. If I can get a little bit of luck in my opponent’s next turn, I should be set to sweep the game in the next three turns.

DG T4

Movement: LoC gets ready to charge in. Last Brethren stays put to hold the objective.

Psychic: A ha! His psykers are dead!

Shooting: Meltagun melts a random Grey Hunter on the middle objective.

Charge/Fight: LoC charges the RP and the WGBLs. We forgot about his Nurgle’s Gift ability (and also I don’t know if we checked for Death to the False Emperor either, not sure if any 6s came up), but this turn I forgot about Armour of Russ (doh!). Rp gets ripped apart, but the LoC goes down to multiple Hammers. Obregon weathers a bunch of (thankfully much weaker) Poxwalker attacks and they’re in turn brought down to only five left.

SW T4

Ok, so I made out like a bandit. The last two Fight Phases went heavily in my favour, with Typhus and the LoC going down very quickly, which is not exactly easy!

Movement: Characters scatter, getting away from the danger, as they are two more potential points for my opponent. Bjorn moves up towards the Crawler engaged by the Grey Hunters.

Shooting: Grey Hunters shoot up the Poxwalkers some and try to kill off the last Brethren, but fail.

Charge/Fight: Grey Hunters and WGBLs kill off the last few Poxwalkers and Bjorn fails his charge, bah.

Round Four Score: DG 16: SW 22

He scored: Kill One; Hold One; and HH (RP)

I scored: Kill One/More; Hold One/More; Recon; MFD (LoC, Typhus, PM).

Big leap in points. Holding those objectives has kept me quite even, and his mobility is a bit low for Recon while my mobility has let me hit him where and when I needed to.

DG T5

My opponent doesn’t have much left: one Crawler, one Crawler stuck in melee, and one lonesome Brethren.

Movement: The unengaged Crawler moves up to unload on my various Grey Hunter squads.

Shooting: He kills some Grey Hunters, but they pass their Morale so he doesn’t get any kills.

SW T5

I’ve got a significant lead in points, I just need to not give him unnecessary points.

Movement: Bjorn moves closer to the Crawler in melee, as does the least damage WGBL (he has two wounds left, so can’t die to the explosion)

Shooting: I try to pry off the last Plague Brethren, unsuccessfully.

Charge/Fight: Bjorn and the WGBL charge in and…leave the Crawler on 4 wounds.

Round Five Score: DG 17: SW 25

He scored just one for Holding One.

I scored Hold One/More and Recon.

DG T6

Shooting: Unengaged Crawler tries to finish off some of my damaged GH squads, but fails again.

Fight: Crawler gets crushed by Bjorn and explodes, but that fails to finish off anything.

SW T6

Nothing of note, as the Brethren clings to life.

Round Six Score: DG 18: SW 31

He scored just 1 for Holding One again.

I scored Hold One/More; Kill One/More (I don’t think I actually get the Kill One, so really only scored 30 total, oh well); and my final Recon and BGH points.

Thoughts on the game:

• Grey Hunters: I’m constantly impressed at the ubiquitous nature of completely basic Grey Hunters. They’re not all-star units like Wulfen, but six units of barebones Grey Hunters have been consistently extremely important in securing victories by holding objectives, body-blocking for characters and just generally being a little bit more resilient than expected: they were constantly taking fire from the Crawlers and Drones’ Plague Spitters, and shrugged them off well (quite a lot thanks to ruins). Considering their cost, they do decent work when they get to grips with chaff units: when the Poxwalkers had their buffs dropped, five Grey Hunters did a good amount of damage. Would highly recommend building a core of a force around 3-6 units of basic Grey Hunters.
• Bjorn: Got to do some solid work this game, chasing down the Drones. Didn’t get hit much thanks to character protection, so he was rolling around late-game pretty healthy. Trueclaw is devastating and the Twin Lascannon helps to just trim down things a little before the Hammers reach the enemy, making them just a little more easily killed.
• Rune Priest: An integral part of the Death Squad, the Armour of Russ is truly incredible. He, along with a Hammer-Buddy or two, crushed Typhus, the Plaguecaster and was instrumental in breaking down the gates of Castle Deadcatandpoopsmell. Jaws of the World Wolf was also a solid pick against Death Guard and helped me trim a few more kills from various units – especially useful as it doesn’t need LOS and can choose who it targets, not just the nearest, which helped against things like Cloud of Flies.
• The Death Squad: I don’t know about The Wolftime, but it’s definitely The Hammertime. They definitely can touch that, and whatever they touch tends to end up spread out over a much wider area than preferred. The TH/SS WGBLs are a damn solid workhorse every game; if I had to iterate, I’d probably try to make it two Battle Leaders and two Wolf Lords, simply because the Lords have more attacks and wounds. It would be hilarious to run three WLs/three WGBLs, and by hilarious, I of course mean devastating.
• Obregon: Wonderboy. He has the power…to move you, generally off the mortal coil. The Wulfen Stone is great, and it really helps his damage output be just right. His kill count this game: A Bloat-Drone, many Poxwalkers, a Plague Marine (Krak Grenade!) – not too many this time, but he was still a solid beatstick that killed whatever he came into contact with. He is certainly vulnerable to mortal wounds, which is one of the reasons he didn’t achieve too much this game but he still operated as a good enabler (the Wulfen Stone and rerolls definitely helped put Typhus and the LoC to bed!)
• Inceptors: Didn’t do a whole lot, but they contributed to the death of one of the Plague Marine units and took the focus of one of the Drones (which was probably a mistake on my opponent’s part: if he’d gone for Obregon, he may have come out a little bit better). Would consider dropping them in future iterations, but they are nice to have in the bag of tricks.
• Transports: I still feel like these are integral to the list. Shielding the Grey Hunters early on gives me a little bit more of an opportunity to whittle down enemy anti-infantry firepower and/or tie it down with melee units/get the Grey Hunters in to the meat of the enemy. For iteration, I would consider four Razorbacks instead of two Razorbacks/two Rhinos, as that makes it harder to remove the volume of fire, but it does expose two Grey Hunter units to early fire – that could be ok, as they could initially hang back, watch over the backfield objectives and then push up. Will see how this list holds up.
• Death Guard: They’re tough! I think my opponent was pretty unfortunate in his saves/DR saves, but they were still pretty tough even with that. The Drones are damn resilient, and the Plague Spitters kick out some solid firepower even as they degrade (and Fly, of course, makes them a constant threat/irritant). This game did make me lament my dearth of long ranged anti-tank firepower, as his Crawlers were essentially unmolested turns one through three, but I’m not sure how I could go about squeezing more anti-tank into the list without either compromising the core Grey Hunters/Tranports or the Death Squad make up.

Ok, I think I’ve rambled on long enough, and Word says that this is almost 4,000 words long, so that’s probably 5,000 too many already…

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it! Any comments are welcome!

Cheers,

Tom.

[Kasper_Hawser]

Sorry didn't read whole thing yet apart from your Final Thoughts, but I thank you for your refreshing feedback.

[Kallas]

Here’s another battle for you fine folks, since Brother Argos’ misfortune delayed my posting of this thread! This one is my second league game so far, and was against Necrons this time. Currently 1-0 in the league and top of my (the bottom/starting) division so far.

For full information (again):

I’m currently playing in an ITC League at my local club. It’s 1750pts (which is working out pretty well) using the ITC Champions missions (I think that’s a specific ITC format; could just be a tweaked version of the core ITC stuff, not sure). I’m currently in the Third Division (ie, Baby’s First Division) because I’m new/got stomped last season. A key rule with the League is that once we’ve submitted our lists we cannot change them until we lose a game, which makes for some interesting late League counter teching!

As the new Big FAQ 2 has dropped, we've consolidated all of those rules (including the Beta ones) and they'll be part of the League's landscape. Personally, I don't like a lot of it: it didn't actually do much to fix the issues with the game and hurt a lot of other things in the process.

Here is my list again, for those not familiar:

Battalion:

Captain ‘Wonderboy’ Obregon (Wolf Lord: Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Jump Pack)

Codicier Galvez (Rune Priest: Runic Sword, Jump Pack)

Ancient Venegas (Bjorn the Fell-handed: Twin Lascannon)

3 Inceptors (Assault Bolters)

3x5 Grey Hunters (Bolters and Chainswords)

Rhino (2x Storm Bolters)

Razorback (Twin Assault Cannon, Storm Bolter)

Battalion:

3x Lieutenants Cazalla, Quiros and Santillian (Wolf Guard Battle Leaders: Thunder Hammers, Storm Shields, Jump Packs)

3x5 Grey Hunters (Bolters and Chainswords)

Rhino (2x Storm Bolters)

Razorback (Twin Assault Cannon, Storm Bolter)

I took the Wulfen Stone (on Captain Obregon) and the Armour of Russ (on Codicier Galvez) again, as they’re excellent relics. Storm Caller and Tempest’s Wrath for psychic powers – Storm Caller should be obvious if you’ve read my previous reports; and Tempest’s Wrath I felt would be solid as it’s a good take-all-comers choice, especially if the opponent has a key unit or two (in this case: Destroyers and Wraiths, specifically). For Wonderboy’s Warlord Trait, I went for Saga of the Wolfkin as Beastslayer didn’t have enough targets to be worthwhile (only two Vehicles/Monsters) and the others weren’t going to be impactful (I considered Hunter, but figured that his fast units wouldn’t be far enough out of reach to make it worthwhile, whereas Wolfkin’s bonus attack(s) would come in handy to help rid me of any Reanimating Necrons!)

Necrons:

Battalion:

Dynasty: Sautekh (ignore Heavy moving/Advancing Assault penalty – I believe this may have been played wrong, as rereading it, it instead allows non-Assault to fire as if Assault when Advancing, but oh well, didn’t make much of a difference to the game all things considered).

Cryptek (Chronometron [5++ for Dynasty Infantry within 6”] and Staff of Light)

Overlord (Warscythe, Warlord – Hyperlogical Strategist [5+ CP Regen])

10 Immortals (Tesla)

2x 5 Immortals (Tesla)

Tomb Sentinel

6 Destroyers

Doomsday Ark

Outrider:

Dynasty: Novokh (reroll hits in the Fight phase if charge/charged/intervened)

Destroyer Lord (Warscythe, Phylactery/Relic Phylactery [heal d3 at the start of every turn and a 4+ roll to reanimate the first time he’s killed, with d6 wounds remaining])

2x 3 Scarabs

6 Wraiths

Thoughts: The Destroyers and Wraiths are a concern, as they’re solid units, but overall he has little anti-tank weaponry which means my base plan of “Drive up, be hard to kill” should serve pretty well, but I do need to deal with his more powerful units ASAP.

Secondary Objectives:

Necrons:

It’s getting to be a little like déjà vu…

Headhunter

Big Game Hunter

Recon

Yeah…My list is kind of easy to choose Secondaries against, but oh well.

Spowling Griffolves:

I had a hard time choosing secondaries, as my opponent’s list was quite difficult to pin down. Eventually I settled on:

Recon (I figure I’ll be the aggressor in this game, and I have the mobility to achieve this quite easily)

Kingslayer on the Destroyer Lord (He’s got 6 wounds base, so a guaranteed 3 points, and if he resurrects with 2 or more I can get the final point)

Marked For Death on the Destroyers (key dangerous unit that I need to kill anyway); Wraiths (they’re going to be in my face, so might as well get points for them eventually!); Tomb Sentinel (not particularly dangerous, but it’s quite fragile by Necron standards, so should be relatively easy to take out); and the big unit of Immortals (it’s not a hugely resilient unit, and I can dump my anti-infantry firepower into them when the other threats are taken care of/untargetable for whatever reason).

For mission/deployment we rolled Mission 2: Cut to the Heart (1 central objective, 1 placed in our own deployment zones) with the Frontline Assault (long table edge, pointy middle) deployment map.

Important Deployment Notes:

I deployed…as I do: centrally and in a block. I feel like I made a little bit of an error with my deployment/turn one moves, as the Big FAQ 2 change to FLY only working in the Movement Phase (which, by the way is utterly dumb!) still hasn’t fully seeped into my unconscious brain processes, so my characters weren’t positioned perfectly (in my opinion; and I’m certain that I could position them better in future/with a do over).

Destroyers are placed behind his central ruin; Sentinel and Destroyer Lord to the right (from my perspective) with some Scarabs screening; small Immortals flanking his centre.

I finish deploying first (as usual) and win the roll off, thanks to the +1. My opponent does not Seize the Initiative, huzzah!

SW T1

Ok, things are going to plan. That’s probably a bad sign…hm.

Movement: Rhinos move up, the right one moving somewhat on to the big hill so as not to block Bjorn in so much. Death Squad moves up on the left of the vehicles, which I come to realise in my opponent’s turn may be a mistake (as they’re far away from the safety net of the Armour of Russ!); Rune Priest in the middle (for buffs). One unit of Grey Hunters jump out to hold my objective.

Psychic: Storm Caller goes off on a 10 (so the Sentinel doesn’t attempt to Deny) and I pop Cloaked by the Storm. Tempest’s Wrath goes on the Wraiths (I rolled a 6, then rerolled the 1 for a 10 again, which doesn’t get Denied). Nice!

Shooting: Bjorn puts 4 wounds on the Doomsday Ark (2 2s for damage, so neither gets Shielded Quantumly). I put the Assault Cannons and one of the Rhinos in to the Wraiths to try and thin them out, as I don’t like their 3++ (pot, kettle, black – yeah…), bringing down one and putting 2 wounds on another. The front left-most Rhino (ie, closest to the Wraiths and Ark) pops smoke.

Necron T1

Movement: Wraiths slither forward towards my characters (Gulp. Left them a bit exposed). Destroyers hover out, ready to shoot. Big Immortal unit screens the Destroyers; the outrider Immortals protect the flanks from possible Inceptor deep strike. Scarabs and Destroyer Lord set a line in front of my vehicles; Sentinel moves up to get a line on Bjorn (though my opponent didn’t realise he was protected by the character keyword).

Shooting: Doomsday Ark opens up on my back-right Razorback, managing to only cause 3 wounds (thank you CbtS!); Destroyers and Immortals do nothing to the front-left (smoked) Rhino; Sentinel causes 5 wounds to the front-right (not smoked) Rhino. Ok, made out pretty damn well there!

Charge: Wraiths charge in against the Death Squad and nearby Rhino, taking no overwatch damage; Destroyer Lord goes in on Bjorn and the RP, just making it to Bjorn (after a reroll!). RP intervenes to get Armour of Russ in to play. Scarabs jump on the Rhinos to try and keep me back some.

Fight: Destroyer Lord gets locked down by the RP. Wraiths, still affected by Tempest’s Wrath, manage to kill one WGBL (split attacks with 4 on 1 WGBL; and 1 on another), who Only In Death’s and brings one down in return. Scarabs cause 1 wound to the already damaged Rhino. The other WGBLs bring down 1 more Wraith, and then Obregon smashes them all into itty bitty piles of inert metal, and then keeps hitting them until they phase out. Bjorn and the RP demolish the Destroyer Lord, who fails his Relic resurrection, can’t reroll that (he’d rerolled a Wraith save to try and keep the unit alive and locking me in combat for a round), but uses the Resurrection Protocols stratagem to keep him alive on 1 wound (which thankfully revives him at the end of the phase, so cannot crush my RP!)

Yikes, well that went pretty well for me!

End of Round One Score: SW: 5 – Necrons: 5

I scored Hold One; Marked For Death (Wraiths); and 3 on Kingslayer (DL)

He scored Hold One/More; Kill One; and 1 on Headhunter.

I didn’t score any for killing in my turn, but thanks to killing the Wraiths, we drew on Kill More!

SW T2

Ok, so I made out like a bandit in his Fight Phase! Knocking out the Wraiths was great, and the Destroyer Lord is essentially dead already, he just don’t know it yet!

Movement: Rhinos fall back, after 4 more units of Grey Hunters pile out to push the advance a bit/deal with the Scarabs. The Death Squad reunites and pushes forward to take on the Destroyers/Immortals in the centre. Razorbacks stay put. Important to note, the DL heals 1 wound, so is up to 2W remaining.

Psychic: Storm Caller goes off again (I figure it might be useful against the Immortals in overwatch/in his turn?); and Smite brings down a lucky three Immortals, with the Deny failing.

Shooting: Krak Grenades and Assault Cannons rain down on the Immortals to clear a non-FLY path (grumble, grumble) to the Destroyers, killing all but one. Bjorn puts five wounds on the Sentinel. Scarabs are shredded, with the unit on my left killed and the right ones dropped to one base on one wound!

Charge: WGBL absorbs the overwatch from the Destroyers, thankfully only taking one failed save and making it in on them and the Overlord. The other WGBL, RP and Wonderboy join in, with the RP attempting to also connect with the last Immortal but falling short. Bjorn charges the DL, and a unit of GH charge the final Scarab base.

Fight: Overlord gets locked down by the Armour of Russ. Obregon smashes three Destroyers out of the sky and consolidates around the Overlord, looking for a possible tri-lock. Good casualty removal sees one WGBL unable to attack the Destroyers. DL interrupts to try and do something before he gets smushed by Bjorn, but fails miserable (some seriously bad luck for that angry bastard!) – he then promptly gets smushed.

WGBL that can’t hit the Destroyers goes to say hello to the leftmost flanking Immortals; the other brings down another Destroyer and also moves to trap the Overlord. Rune Priest uses some cunning, moving so the Overlord is closer, but able to attack the Destroyers; he kills one more (down to only one left) and then pins the Overlord in place.

In return, the Overlord causes only two wounds to the RP (meaning he has been successfully trapped!) and no other damage is caused. I then use my final 3CP (yep, burned through all 13 in one and a half rounds!) to have Wonderboy bat the last Destroyer out of the sky: I do not want them getting lucky and having a bunch reanimate!

Necron T2

Things are looking grim for my opponent. My characters are in his face and mostly immune to retribution. He’s lost his three most potent units, and although four dead Immortals come back, he’s got little steam left.

Movement: Sentinel moves on to the central objective, hoping to drop Bjorn through shooting and melee. Right Immortals move up to try and get Recon with the Sentinel; left Immortals back away from the WGBL while the Ark gets ready to open up. Central Immortals move away from the Death Squad with the Cryptek.

Shooting: Tesla gets fired into my Grey Hunters, but only kills two. Ark destroys the damaged Rhino, killing one inside and annihilates the WGBL in the open. Sentinel whiffs and does nothing to Bjorn.

Charge/Fight: The Sentinel charges the other Rhino, but Bjorn intervenes. Overlord gets locked down again: Overlord gets hammered into the ground like a fence post, while Bjorn pulls the Sentinel’s legs off one by one.

Round Two Score: SW: 13 – Necrons: 8

I scored all four Primaries; the last Kingslayer; one on Recon; and two more on MFD (Sentinel and Destroyers).

He scored one on Kill One and one on Headhunter (the second WGBL) – he didn’t get Recon, as the Sentinel was the only thing in my back left quarter, and Bjorn didn’t leave enough bits left to count!

It’s all over bar the shouting at this point, and my opponent concedes. We tally up the concession scoring (but keep his points, because it’s just a formality) and the final score is:

SW: 29 – Necrons: 8

A quick game, and a brutal one. Thoughts:

• Grey Hunters: Didn’t get to do too much in this game, but they were fine in how they interacted. Reasonably tough given that they were all in cover whenever they were shot at, and they never got threatened by anything particularly dangerous. They’re not their as the primary focus of the list, they’re mostly just bodies and for that they did just fine.
• The Death Squad: So post-FAQ 2, I was very concerned about the FLY change; to be clear, I still think it’s a stupid, stupid, stupid change, but it didn’t hurt me too badly. It definitely made a big difference, and if my opponent had capitalised on my poor positioning a bit more it could have really made a big difference. That said, these guys were all-stars yet again. Their speed, resilience and power is simply brilliant.
  • To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t be against a small price increase for Captain/Lieutenants (and their various non-Vanilla cousins) as long as the rest of the Space Marine range were given a good once over to bring up to scratch. If basic Power Armoured Astartes were worth half a damn, I’d be happy to take a reasonable hit to the characters (though not too much!), as Astartes Characters are maybe (very maybe) too good for their cost, but as it stands right now they’re the only really good things in the various Space Marine Codexes
• Rune Priest: I think my Librarian has really found his calling as a Rune Priest! He hasn’t committed suicide once since I started using Codex Space Wolves and his abilities (both Psychic and Relic) have been absolutely pivotal. Tempest’s Wrath was great in hurting the Wraiths’ ability to kill my characters (I think about four attacks missed thanks to it!), Storm Caller was useful in warding off damage in various games (less so in this one, but still a little bit helpful); and Cloaked by the Storm has been huge – it’s a big resource drain, but it can be a major pain in the opponent’s arse, and as the crux of my list it has been super important.
• Wonderboy: Still amazing. With Saga of the Wolfkin he was smashing non-Vehicles/Monsters that bit more effectively, which I definitely felt (if I hadn’t had his +1A, one Wraith would have survived!), and he’s just a straight boss.
• Bjorn: Really got to flex his servo-muscles this game, killing the Destroyer Lord and Tomb Sentinel with great ease. Trueclaw is a devastatingly powerful weapon, and he will absolutely kill the out of anything you point him at. His Twin Lascannon also got to put out some damage, and while it didn’t make much of a difference in the two turns we played, it still was nice to have that extra damage in the back pocket, so to speak.
• Inceptors: Did literally nothing! Not their fault though!
• Transports: I mean, they’re central to the list, and they were super important. Their resilience/cost/output ratio is really solid: Rhinos are pretty cost effective for the amount they take to kill (especially once SC/CbtS are layered on top; and the Prepared Positions Stratagem is going to be useful if I don’t get first turn); and the Razorbacks are simply fantastic for their cost. I may have mentioned it before, but I am considering an iteration of this list which is four Twin AC Razorbacks instead of the two Rhinos and the Inceptors (plus a few spare points afterwards), which could be even better (as they’d bring twice the firepower with the same resilience; the only downside being they’re be slightly less mobile as the Rhinos can generally afford to advance/smoke T1 for no appreciable loss in firepower).
• Necrons: I think we (Space Wolves) are pretty good against Necrons. We’ve got the (accurate) hitting power to blow through their line infantry quickly enough, and Necrons are a bit mediocre. My opponent and I talked, and we feel like the Tomb Sentinel was a bit of a waste, and a second Doomsday Ark probably would’ve been a better choice, and it would’ve been nastier for me to be facing down. Outside of Destroyers, Wraiths and Tomb Blades, Necrons don’t really have the mobility to avoid the confrontation that Space Wolves want, however, so if you can get across the table, you should be able to smash them up pretty well.

Edit: Adding thoughts about the FAQ.

• FAQ: Urgh. It didn't have a huge impact in this game, but honestly the FAQ really, really missed the mark. They nerfed melee FLY units, yet ranged FLY is generally better; and soup is still dominant (not that it was present in this game, just generally speaking) with the "fix" being applied to the symptoms (eg, BA Smash Captains) and then having a ridiculous knock on effect (eg, the FLY change to stop 0" charges being the removal of that previous ruling...and then bludgeoning melee FLY units over the head for several days). I'm happy to play the rules, even if only to justify my anger/disappointment and be able to properly send feedback!

Thanks for reading folks, hope you enjoyed it!

Cheers,

Tom.

Sorry didn't read whole thing yet apart from your Final Thoughts, but I thank you for your refreshing feedback.

Thanks! I'm going to try to keep my thoughts condensed a little bit, considering that I'm not likely to have a radically different list during the league, but I'll try to get some different lists going outside of that which will hopefully give me the opportunity to write about some things other than what folks have already read about

[Krakendoomcool]

The fact your using the codex for your Howling Griffins is a great compliment to the strength of the Space Wolves codex.

 

What models do you use for the Wulfen out of interest?

 

Don’t know how you feel about Thunderwolves but could you convert some Howling Griffons Thunderwolves from Hippogriffs from the AOS Stormcast Eternals models.

[Kallas]

The fact your using the codex for your Howling Griffins is a great compliment to the strength of the Space Wolves codex.

 

What models do you use for the Wulfen out of interest?

 

Don’t know how you feel about Thunderwolves but could you convert some Howling Griffons Thunderwolves from Hippogriffs from the AOS Stormcast Eternals models.

 

Haha, it's both a compliment to the Space Wolves (who do have a solid Codex) and an indictment of the Vanilla Space Marine Codex (which is a steamy pile...)!

 

Wulfen, I haven't actually thought of how to model them yet! I've actually not built any lists with them in, so it's not been an issue so far, but at some point down the line I will likely want to try them out - so I'd better get my thinking cap on.

 

Thunderwolves: yeah, I've seen some conversions using the Stormcast stuff, and that's definitely a solid option. I'd also consider using the Gryph-hounds if I want to run Fenrisian Wolves, as they're cool little models. That said, I wouldn't necessarily go all in on the "Griffon" part of the Chapter: there's never been any real link to the mythological creature besides the name; the homeworld hasn't ever had mention of Griffons or Griffon-like creatures, so I could easily go with some other kind of mount (although what that would be, I do not know!)

[TiguriusX]

LOL did you have this written up and ready to go as soon as B&C went back online?

Excellent report and writing style

Alternative mounts

Age of Sigmar Evocators riding on "dracolines"

Look up the official GW images they are good looking models

Can make up whatever fluff you want for it

If I were a hobby person I would try and replace the head with a wolf head

[Kallas]

LOL did you have this written up and ready to go as soon as B&C went back online?

 

Excellent report and writing style

 

Alternative mounts

 

Yes, yes I did! I may have been a little sad while B&C was down, as it's my preferred way of wasting time! Thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it; I try to keep the reports reasonably fresh/quick so it's not too heavy for anyone reading it.

 

Dracoliths are a good shout, thanks. There's another mount too, isn't there? A drake type one, although that might be the really big one. Either way, Dracoliths are a cool option (and don't lean too much into the Wolfmen mounted on Wolves wielding Wolf Swords with Wolf Amulets...*sigh* I do like the Space Wolves, but their writers need a thesaurus!)

 

Edit: On a different note, I will have another report after Tuesday, as I've got my third league game lined up: this time, it's Eldar!

[Kallas]

Hi folks, back again with more tales of “Space Wolf” daring.

 

So, I got my third game in for my club’s League, this time versus Eldar.

 

My list, for reference:

Battalion:

Captain ‘Wonderboy’ Obregon (Wolf Lord: Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Jump Pack)

Codicier Galvez (Rune Priest: Runic Sword, Jump Pack)

Ancient Venegas (Bjorn the Fell-handed: Twin Lascannon)

 

3 Inceptors (Assault Bolters)

 

3x5 Grey Hunters (Bolters and Chainswords)

Rhino (2x Storm Bolters)

Razorback (Twin Assault Cannon, Storm Bolter)

 

Battalion:

3x Lieutenants Cazalla, Quiros and Santillian (Wolf Guard Battle Leaders: Thunder Hammers, Storm Shields, Jump Packs)

 

3x5 Grey Hunters (Bolters and Chainswords)

Rhino (2x Storm Bolters)

Razorback (Twin Assault Cannon, Storm Bolter)

I took the Wulfen Stone (on Captain Obregon) and the Armour of Russ (on Codicier Galvez). I also chose Storm Caller (to try and reduce damage on the way in, as my list is designed to do!) and Tempest’s Wrath (because it’s good!).

 

My opponent’s perfidious Eldar:

Battalion: Alaitoc

Farseer (Kurnous’ Bow, Doom, Executioner)

Illic Nightspear (Warlord – Puritanical Leader [Alaitoc Trait: 6” Morale immunity bubble])

 

10 Guardians with a Scatter Laser

5 Dire Avengers inc. Exarch

6 Rangers

 

5 Wraithguard

5 Fire Dragons inc. Exarch

 

Wraithlord (two Flamers)

Wraithlord (two Shuriken Catapults, Brightlance)

 

Wave Serpent (Two Brightlances)

Wave Serpent (Two Scatter Lasers)

 

Outrider: Alaitoc

Avatar

 

5 Warp Spiders inc. Exarch (with Two Death Spinners)

5 Swooping Hawks inc. Exarch (with Hawk’s Talon)

5 Swooping Hawks inc. Exarch (with Hawk’s Talon)

 

I was bit unsure of my opponent’s list, as it seemed a bit eclectic. Alaitoc, obviously (though to be fair it’s actually painted as Alaitoc!) makes it a bit more of a nuisance, but Keen Senses should be damn useful here. Spiders and Hawks shouldn’t be a huge threat, considering Storm Caller/Cover in general; Wraithlords should go down quite easily to the Death Squad; the Avatar could pose a real problem with the Avatar Resurgent stratagem bringing it back multiple times (potentially); and the Farseer/Illic/Rangers could hurt quite a bit if given the opportunity.

 

The mission we rolled was Mission 2: Cut To The Heart (one central objective; one placed in each of our own deployment zones – hold central/enemy objective for the bonus point) with the Search and Destroy (quarters) deployment.

 

Secondary Objectives

My opponent chose The Usual:

Headhunter

Big Game Hunter

Recon

 

I went for:

Big Game Hunter (Wave Serpents should be Hammerable, as should the Wraithlord)

Recon (I’ve got the mobility and, hopefully, the resilience)

Old School (A bit of a risk, might not get First Strike, but the others should be achievable)

 

Deployment

(I do have some pictures of the game, including deployment, but my iPad [urgh] is playing silly buggers, so I’ll just have to update this post later when it’s stopped messing about! Until then, it’s time for some imagination.)

 

I finished deploying first, as I usually do, with my usual central positioning. I made a little mistake here, I feel, as the diagonal really throws off my internal measuring and my Razorbacks (being deployed behind my Rhinos) were a bit far away from his objective base/where he’d be putting some of his infantry to hold it – which would make First Strike harder to achieve.

 

My opponent used Cloudstrike to put the Fire Dragon-loaded Wave Serpent (Scatter Lasers) into deep strike, alongside the Spiders and both Hawk units. The Brightlance Serpent, loaded with Wraithguard, started staring down the left of the central building, right at my transports. Guardians, Avatar and the Flamer Wraithlord were sheltering behind the central ruin, while the Rangers, Illic, Farseer and Dire Avengers were holding the fort at the back on his objective.

 

I won the first turn roll off (with my opponent rolling a 1!) and he failed to Seize! Let’s get rolling!

 

SW T1

For starters, my opponent declines the use of the new Big FAQ 2 Concealed Positions stratagem, as most of his stuff is already in ruins (it’d really only affect one Wraithlord and the BrightSerpent, and I don’t have much long ranged anti-tank anyway).

 

Movement: All of my transports advance up, ready to smoke. Two WGBLs jump up on to the first floor of the central ruins, potentially charging in to smush some pointy ears. This was a bit of a mistake, as the FLY-charge nerf meant that they’d need a pretty long charge into the Wraithlord, or they’d just be smushing some Guardians. RP, last WGBL and Wonderboy jump forward, sheltered by the ruin from the snipers. One unit of Grey Hunters pops out of the Rhino staring down the BrightSerpent and move to hold my objective.

 

Psychic: Storm Caller fails to go off (including a reroll); Tempest’s Wrath thankfully goes off, even through the Farseer’s denial attempt, and the BrightSerpent gets -1 to hit. Cloaked by the Storm goes off too.

 

Shooting: All four transports pop smoke (as I wasn’t in range of his Dire Avengers, unfortunately, to try and get First Strike – whoops!) Bjorn’s Keen Senses, however let him tag the BrightLord twice, but only pushes through 5 damage from both hits (rolled a 3 on the first damage roll, and didn’t feel it worth the CP to reroll them).

 

Charge/Fight: One of the two forward WGBLs jumps into the Guardians and brings down three and at least forcing them to fall back.

 

Not a particularly busy turn, mostly just getting set up to weather the storm, but not a turn to complain about!

 

Eldar T1

Movement: The Avatar and Wraithlord move towards my right-flank Rhino and the Wraithguard hop out to back them up a little. Farseer and Dire Avengers also move towards to coming scrum. Guardians fall back (no Feigned Retreat). The BrightSerpent moves around too, getting close enough to shoot either of the exposed WGBLs.

 

Psychic: I manage to Deny his Executioner and he kills fails to cast Smite! Excellent luck for me!

 

Shooting: His BrightSerpent starts things off by discharging its shield into the Guardian-smushing WGBL, knocking two wounds off. The Avatar knocks four wounds off the right Rhino, but a lot of his shooting goes into the wounded WGBL, who just barely falls after literally everything bar the Avatar/FlamerLord pump shots into him.

 

Charge: Avatar and FlamerLord charge the wounded Rhino, with the other forward WGBL intervening on the Avatar.

 

Fight: Avatar kills the Rhino (and three(!) guys die disembarking, urgh!) WGBL puts two wounds on the Avatar. FlamerLord puts one disembarked unit into melee.

 

Round One Score: SW 3 – Eldar 5

He scored one HH; Kill One/More; and Hold One

I scored one Recon; Hold One/More.

 

Not a bad start. I’m getting a good feel for the list now and dipping behind on points Round One isn’t an unusual feeling now. I’ve got some good positioning for a counter strike, Turn 2 should be pretty brutal.

 

SW T2

Movement: The rest of the Death Squad jump over the ruin and in between the Avatar and FlamerLord. Bjorn moves up behind, while the transports move up to get good LoS/range to most of his stuff. One unit of GH jump out to try and threaten his Farseer (if I can clear out his Guardians). One of the forcibly disembarked GH units advances across the gap and into the nearby forest/crater thing, where the Inceptors also drop down to join them (but the Dire Avengers manage to bring one down with Forewarned! Gah!) WGBL and Grey Hunters remain in melee with the Avatar/FlamerLord, respectively, to keep them from firing overwatch.

 

Psychic: I do nothing. Tempest’s Wrath (on an 11) gets denied ( ! This always happens when I roll high!) and Storm Caller fails to go off.

 

Shooting: I ask if my opponent wants to use the Alaitoc Pathfinders stratagem (as that has to be used at the start of the shooting phase) but he declines. I use Keen Senses on my left Razorback to try and blow them away, but some decent saves sees only three die. Bjorn manages to hit twice again (on 4s this time) and kills off the BrightLord. The left Rhino and Grey Hunters trim down the Guardians, with the right Razorback chipping in to bring them down to only one left plus the Scatter Laser. Inceptors put some fire into the Dire Avengers, killing only one.

 

Charge: Here’s the important bit. Left Rhino makes a long charge to put the Farseer and remaining Guardians into melee, giving the GH a bit of breathing room. Unfortunately, they still have to charge the Wraithguard to be able to reach the Farseer. They lose one to overwatch, but make it in (with 3 capable of attacking the Farseer).

 

Rune Priest charges the Avatar to lock it down. The unengaged WGBL charges the BrightSerpent (taking no damage in overwatch); Wonderboy charges the Serpent, Avatar and Lord for options, deciding to go for the FlamerLord. Bjorn makes a nice long charge and makes it to the Serpent.

 

Fight: RP locks down the Avatar with Armour of Russ. Wonderboy is wonderful: he smashs the FlamerLord to bits and consolidates forward a little, staying on the ruin. My opponent declines the opportunity to interrupt (can’t with the Avatar anyway); WGBL and Bjorn rip the Serpent apart, with the WGBL consolidating into the Wraithguard and Bjorn in to tri-lock the Avatar. RP and WGBL put only three more wounds on to him. Grey Hunters rip apart the last Guardian and put three wounds on the Farseer; the Rhino scoots up, tri-locking the Farseer and rolling over her foot for another wound!

 

In return, the Wraithguard and Farseer kill a couple of Grey Hunters, and put one wound on the WGBL nearby. The Avatar, however, kills Bjorn! Gah! But I do have the CP, so Bjorn fights on In Death, bringing down the Avatar…who revives on four wounds! Grrr…

 

Ok, so a little bit of a mixed bag; mostly good, but losing Bjorn is a blow! I hadn’t quite registered just how nasty the Avatar is in melee (he’s not quite as high STR, but he has much better Damage).

 

Eldar T2

Movement: I’ve made a bit of a mistake with my positioning here, as my opponent uses Feigned Retreat to pull the Wraithguard out of melee and close enough to go for my Wolf Lord! (He didn’t actually need to use FR, as they have Implacable but he chose to not take back the CP when I offered! I feel like this is a mistake, but more on that later…) Avatar stays stuck in. Dire Avengers move back a bit to take on the Grey Hunters flanking around towards the Inceptors.

 

A lot of reserves arrive: One unit of Hawks appears near my objective (killing three with their grenades! Ack!) The other arrives behind the flanking Grey Hunters (killing two! AACCKK!!) The Spiders appear in between the Inceptors and his Rangers. The ScatterSerpent with Fire Dragons on board appears behind my right Razorback.

 

Psychic: He gets Smite off, thankfully only killing one of the two remaining Grey Hunters there; Executioner gets denied.

 

Shooting: Lots of shots incoming. The backfield Hawks bounce off the ruin-dwelling GH; a similar story plays out across the field, with the Spiders, Avengers, other Hawks and ScatterSerpent managing to strip only a single wound from the Inceptors! Go-go Gadget Cover! Rangers and Illic target Wonderboy, as do four of the five Wraithguard (one was closer to the Rhino, but could still go for the WGBL). Through his powers of sheer AWESOME!, he survived unscathed, as did the WGBL. Phew! Some good luck for me there.

 

Charge: The Wraithguard (having actually used Feigned Retreat) jump on the WGBL (who would’ve intervened on them anyway). Wonderboy jumps on the Avatar.

 

Fight: Avatar gets locked down again. Wraithguard bounce off the WGBL’s Storm Shield. The remaining Grey Hunter (who I totally should have Lone Wolfed!) managed to cut down the Aeldari Witch, netting me Slay The Warlord! WGBL, Wonderboy and RP beat the living metal incarnation of Khaine into a big steaming pile. (Here’s where I feel the CP spent on Feigned Retreat was wasted: he could have revived the Avatar again here with the stratagem – I would have crushed him in my turn anyway, but it would have cost me time/resources to do so, which could have had a ripple effect further down the line. The other WGBL brings down two of the Wraithguard for having the temerity to try and kill him! They’re already dead, they should stay dead!

 

Round Two Score: SW 11 – Eldar 8

He scored Hold One; Recon (thanks to his reserves!); and Bjorn for Headhunter.

I scored Hold One (I accidentally got carried away and forgot to leave anything on the central objective!); Kill One/More; Recon; Big Game Hunter (two Wraithlords, the Avatar and the BrightSerpent for all four in one round!)

 

Big swing to put me in the lead – that’s how this list tends to run, from its four previous games so far! At least it’s consistent.

 

SW T3

I’ve got a pretty solid handle on the game at this point, but by no means am I guaranteed victory if I’m careless.

 

Movement: Wonderboy and an attendant WGBL move to intercept the freshly arrived Serpent. Razorbacks stay still for accuracy, while the remaining Rhino moves up to threaten his castle. Inceptors move further around to close in too. The right flank GH pulls away to deal with the Hawks there, while my backfield GH pair scoot into Rapid Fire range of their threatening Hawks. RP moves over the Wraithguard, ready to help out the WGBL there. The lone GHPL who killed the Farseer moves toward the castle (I made a mistake here, hungry for another charge – I could have popped him into the Rhino to keep him safe and get a pocket-ObSec unit ready for next turn).

 

Psychic: Finally, I am unchallenged by the sorcerous Xenos! I cast Tempest’s Wrath, and put it on the Warp Spiders (they’re his fastest unit and can put out the most shots at this point), but fail Smite on the Wraithguard.

 

Shooting: Left/top Razorback, sans Keen Senses, and the backfield GH kill off all of those pesky flappers. The flanking GH and right/bottom Razorback’s Storm Bolter kill four of the five Hawks on the other end of the battlefield; the Razorback’s Assault Cannons massacre the Dire Avengers (with some pretty rough saves for him!). WGBL/Wonderboy fail to grenade the ScatterSerpent. Rhino kills one Avenger with its Storm Bolters, and two Spiders die to the Inceptors.

 

Charge: WGBL charges the Serpent, followed shortly by Obregon. RP charges the Wraithguard to lock them down. Rhino puts the Rangers in melee (one is on the ground floor) and the Inceptors charge the Spiders.

 

Fight: Wraithguard get Russ’d. WGBL and Wonderboy knock the Serpent out of the sky, but can’t quite put the Fire Dragons in to melee. Unfotunately, it also explodes, putting Wonderboy down to two wounds remaining! Ruh Roh. Spiders lose another to the Inceptors in melee and the Wraithguard get knocked for six by the angry WGBL, leaving one.

 

Morale: The last Swooping Hawks sees three angry Grey Hunters bearing down on him and books it (Ld9, rolled a 6+4!)

 

Eldar T3

Ok, so he’s heavily on the ropes at this point. He’s got five Fire Dragons, Illic, three (in melee) Rangers, one Wraithguard and two Warp Spiders.

 

Movement: The Warp Spiders jump 27” away into the central ruin. Fire Dragons slip around the characters on to the ruin/crater/forest thing. The lone Wraithguard Implacably falls back.

 

Shooting: Illic bounces for the third turn in a row (thank you 3++!) Wraithguard also bounces off the WGBL too. Warp Spiders kill the lone GH going for his objective. The Fire Dragons…this could hurt! Four hit Obregon, with three wounding: he makes… ALL OF HIS SAVES! Wonderboy! What is the secret of your power?!

 

Charge: The Fire Dragons make a last ditch attempt to bring down the Wolf Lord (he’d intervene on them anyway!)

 

Fight: Dragons flub miserably and get smushed.

 

Round Three Score: SW 16 – Eldar 11

He scored: Recon (Warp Spiders just got across the centre line); Hold One and Kill One.

I scored: Recon; Hold One/More; Kill One/More.

 

At this point my opponent concedes (as it’s getting late). We theorise the remaining turns and figure that he’s tabled on T4 anyway, with the final score being something like 25-11 (I’d pick up the last Recon, kill Illic for Slay the Warlord, clear the Rangers and Warp Spiders and get the bonus objective, as well as Linebreaker/Last Strike).

 

So, another victory for Wonderboy and his Merry Men! That makes 4-0 for this version of the list (and actually unable to change it due to the League rules!) so not too shabby at all!

 

Post-Game Thoughts:

• Grey Hunters: I’m still impressed with these guys. I’ve said it before, and while they’re not all-stars like the Death Squad they are integral, as they just provide enough firepower with just enough resilience/presence to make them more hassle to take out than they’re worth.
• Wonderboy: Living up to his reputation, he’s consistently good. I misplaced him quite a bit this game and had way too many nasty shots coming at him than I should have allowed, but he tanked it like a champion. 3++ is really good y’all!
• Death Squad: As above, I misplaced these guys a bit. The first turn charge from the two WGBLs was a bit of a dumb move, but they absorbed a lot of firepower before going down (well, one went down anyway!). I actually felt the pain of the FLY charging nerf here, as I had wanted to put them both into the Wraithlord that was exposed, but by jumping on to the first floor they would have had to make 10-11” charges, making that not really feasible: had that nerf not happened, they would’ve only need 7-8” charges (assuming diagonal, not horizontal-only, which is stupid).
• Bjorn: Big B went down hard to the Avatar this game, but he was still a beast. He might not have killed the Avatar himself, but he drained my opponent’s CP reserves and did contribute quite a bit to the destruction of the Avatar (and killed the BrightSerpent himself). His Lascannons were also great, killing off even an Alaitoc Wraithlord at range (while moving!). I doubt I’d ever get rid of him, except maybe for a stupid Razorspam list I’m considering (which would be packing multiple Twin Lascannons in compensation anyway).
• Transports: I’m still tossing up whether more Razorbacks would be better than two Rhino/two Razor, but I’m undecided. The Rhinos are really nice because they’re so disposable/annoying, able to just jump into the fray without particular worry about getting stuck in melee, whereas the Razorbacks would just ramp up my firepower (which is obviously useful). It’d be a relatively simple change (drop Rhinos and Inceptors, add two more AssBacks), but would leave me with some exposed footsloggers. Not sure, any comments/thoughts/ideas?
• Aeldari: I’ll freely admit, I was a little cocky going into this battle; my opponent’s list seemed a bit of a mish-mash, and I felt that I could handle things quite easily. It turned out that, even with that (probably decently well-founded) belief, the Eldar still had a lot of tricks to pull. His list was definitely far from optimised but it still had plenty of teeth. Wraithguard are nasty, and while he allowed them to get entangled quite a bit, they’re a nasty unit. The Avatar is also a serious beast, especially if you have enough CP to keep it living time and again. He also invested very little in Psychic power, and I feel he would’ve probably been better served with one or two Warlocks instead of a single Farseer (he never cast/successfully cast Doom!) as their buffs could’ve made an enormous difference (Quicken on the Avatar, or Jinx on Wonderboy could’ve been some big swing effects). Regardless, Eldar are a nasty army, even when far from optimised and I need to respect that – despite winning, I think that this game has helped to rein in some cockiness I may have accrued from four convincing victories, so that’s good!

Thanks for reading folks, I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any comments/criticisms/questions, I’d love to hear them.

 

Cheers,

Tom.

[TiguriusX]

Your list is very interesting.  No ranged AT besides Bjorn.  Without LFs you are missing out on the Wolf's Eye stratagem.

 

However...you guys definitely make up for it with melee power and it doesn't seem to slow you down.

 

Was your RP too far away from a friendly unit to use chooser of the slain on the eldar reinforcements or do you not consider it worth it?  I think the razorback has the most dakka for you but it would be hitting on 4's with COTS

[Kallas]

Your list is very interesting.  No ranged AT besides Bjorn.  Without LFs you are missing out on the Wolf's Eye stratagem.

 

However...you guys definitely make up for it with melee power and it doesn't seem to slow you down.

 

Was your RP too far away from a friendly unit to use chooser of the slain on the eldar reinforcements or do you not consider it worth it?  I think the razorback has the most dakka for you but it would be hitting on 4's with COTS

 

The lack of ranged AT is a slight worry of mine, and I could definitely see it becoming a weakness vs multiple Armigers, for example. Some of my possible iterations of the list include some Lascannon Razorbacks to add some extra firepower; and some have Land Raiders (although that's a little more "out there"!) Long Fangs I do like, but they're a little harder to reconcile with the armoured spearhead feel I'm currently working with - if they pick a high perch, they're reasonably exposed compared to the rest of the list (which can usually hug ruins/cover and get protected by the Rune Priest bubble) and could lead to them simply getting picked off early. Will need to test them out in variations though.

 

Yeah, the melee power is pretty intense, and I mentioned that I usually dip on points then pick up and (usually, so far) overtake once I've closed the distance. With character protection, enough friendly units to keep them reasonably shield, and their Storm Shields/Invulnerables the characters are pretty hard to pick off, especially when they're running close together to have the RP lock something dangerous down with the Armour of Russ then pounding it into the dirt with multiple Thunder Hammers! And Bjorn, of course, is a monster. I'll see how long I can keep the melee pain train rolling!

 

Chooser of the Slain: yeah, a little bit far away/no LoS, meant that it wasn't really worth the expenditure. I may have been able to use it to have a Razorback shoot at the Warp Spiders, but I'm not certain about that. Either way, not spending those CPs meant I had them later for a Deny reroll (cancelled out hit Executioner/Smite, I think) and for a reroll on my Wolf Lord which kept him alive vs the Wraithguard!

[jerrys]

I'm loving these -- please keep it up.

 

What do you think about putting a jump pack wolf priest in there, to heal the characters (and provide to-hit rerolls in melee)?

[Kallas]

I'm loving these -- please keep it up.

 

What do you think about putting a jump pack wolf priest in there, to heal the characters (and provide to-hit rerolls in melee)?

Glad you're enjoying them! :)

 

Wolf Priest is a bit of an odd one. He provides utility in healing and the Mentor's Guidance stratagem, but his reroll bubble is majorly bad (in vanilla SM a Chaplain is pretty bad; but for Space Wolves it's worse, as most of the time we're hitting on 2s, meaning the Wolf Lord reroll 1s is just as good, but also affects shooting).

 

But the healing (and stratagem) is worth thinking about; the main detriment, from my POV, is that he can only have a Power Fist (which isn't bad but...Thunder Hammers :P ) and isn't quite as versatile as the others. I'll give it some thought, but I'm not sold on Wolf Priests (or Chaplains in general!)

 

Have you put them on the table? Do you have any advice or thoughts about them that might them a more compelling choice?

[jerrys]

I thought he was good with wulfen (hitting on 3s or 4s with the hammers).

And they're pretty cheap.

 

It is pretty demoralizing to your opponent, when it took him 2 turns to get 3 wounds past your storm shield, and now you erase all of his progress (with homeopathic tundra herbs, no less).

 

I was thinking not everybody will be in range of the wolf lord all the time, so it would still be useful in practice to have multiple +hit auras. I guess Bjorn has one too -- maybe it is starting to get redundant, to have 3.

 

I think the crozius isn't bad? I almost prefer a 2 to a 1D3 ... But I guess it's harder to wound, and you have the reroll to hit anyway so you might as well go with the unwieldy weapon. Maybe it is a good idea to take the fist.

 

But, i don't know -- your guess is better than mine. Just a thought.

[Kallas]

Crozius is good, and the ability to have a Power Fist paired with it is nice, it's just his support that I find lacklustre. I suppose I'm not really running Wulfen yet, so everything I have is hitting on 2s most of the time, with only some of the time being on 3s, so I value the reroll all to be of less value - and as you mentioned, I do currently have Bjorn and a Wolf Lord for rerolling hits.

 

The healing is, I think, his biggest selling point. I've used Apothecaries before, and it certainly is nice to heal a dinged up character (and could have been very useful vs the Eldar snipers to keep my guys a bit safer!) but it's certainly got some opportunity cost associated (ie, taking him is basically not taking a WGBL; so it's swings and roundabouts IMO).

 

I do appreciate the thought, and I definitely think it's a viable choice (as you say, Wulfen Hammers hitting on 3s/4s with full rerolls is nice) - I just don't think I need him for this list (and I currently don't own a Chaplain/Priest model, as I only picked 40k back up after about a 6 year hiatus, and 8th Ed Chaplains are :cuss !) I definitely liked the discussion, and wouldn't be against trying a Priest out.

[jpwyrm]

That is quite an interesting list you got going and it looks like it's doing very well also. I'm tempted to try it out with my group but I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask:

 

- How do you think it would scale to 2K pts? I'm on the fence wether to add Thunderwolf Cavalry or Long Fangs/other fire support units...

 

- Do you think this kind of list would work as well using Eternal War missions? It seems to me that a progressive scoring mission format is better suited for MSU lists like this one.

[Kallas]

- How do you think it would scale to 2K pts? I'm on the fence wether to add Thunderwolf Cavalry or Long Fangs/other fire support units...

That's an interesting question, short answer is I'm not sure!

 

Longer answer: it kind of depends.

 

Personally, I think I'd look at expanding the core force with some more flexibility; something like inserting more Razorbacks, probably with Twin Lascannons for more ranged anti-tank. Alternatives could include adding a Chaplain Venerable Dreadnought with Twin LC, so a similar reason, with a similar role to Bjorn (and alongside him would form a secondary Death Squad!).

 

You could trade out the existing Razorbacks for (firstly a replacement Rhino) a unit or two of Long Fangs for rearguard duties and long range, probably Missile Launchers (not quite as potent as Lascannons, but more flexible, and they can utilise the Stratagem more often) and/or Heavy Bolters.

 

Another option could be increasing the Inceptor forces, as both Bolter and Plasma Inceptors I have generally found to be excellent. A unit of 4 Plasma Inceptors can do some pretty solid work against all targets, especially if you can protect them from return fire (eg, Storm Caller/CbtS).

 

I think the main thing would be to keep the core of the list intact: it's got relatively expendable troops that protect and support the more powerful characters. Adding a big unit of Wulfen, for example, would immediately compromise (in my opinion) that structure by adding a very high value target that can much more readily be targeted (IE, it's not a character and transportation is expensive for them outside of On The Hunt, which carries its own limitations). Three reasonably cheap Predators (probably PAC/HB) would be quite a solid addition, as they're providing additional target saturation with the transports, aren't too expensive and aren't quite as high profile targets as, say, the Annihilator (4 LC) variant.

 

Bit of a ramble, I know! But it honestly would depend on your preference. My recommendation would be to upgrade the core: more Razorbacks for their firepower and to give further potential to split off your central base if you need to send units to outlying objectives.

 

-- Do you think this kind of list would work as well using Eternal War missions? It seems to me that a progressive scoring mission format is better suited for MSU lists like this one.

Honestly, I'm not that familiar with Eternal War missions, I've pretty much only played ITC and Maelstrom missions. From a quick glance, I think it would do fine. Some missions are a bit nastier (eg, Kill Points, because it has a lot to give away), but it's been a very flexible list so far and it has the redundancy to withstand casualties for the long haul.

[TiguriusX]

Triple vindicator would be interesting as well. 

 

It would draw the fire turn 1 on a T8 chassis (leaving your troops and transports safe which is actually where your strength lies)

 

If you get turn 1 you can advance forward and still use the stratagem to get mortal wound bombardment off (double check FAQ but I think its legal)

[Kallas]

Triple vindicator would be interesting as well. 

It would draw the fire turn 1 on a T8 chassis (leaving your troops and transports safe which is actually where your strength lies)

If you get turn 1 you can advance forward and still use the stratagem to get mortal wound bombardment off (double check FAQ but I think its legal)

Very good idea there, hadn't reconsidered Vindicators in a while, but they'd probably fit the list's general framework well!

 

With Storm Caller/CbtS and Advancing/Smoke, they'd be tougher than the transports (and as far as I'm aware, they can still Advance/Smoke and use Linebreaker Bombardment, I don't think that got FAQ'd) and would put the hurt on blobs, particularly tougher blobs. They're not particularly amazing outside of LBB, but they're not awful, so they'd help some with the anti-tank, especially once they got set up in the midfield.

 

Hmm...now I kinda wanna try that! I've even got a 1750 list with 3 Rhinos/3 Predators that could easily switch to Vindicators - just need the Vindicators to actually try it out!

 

 

Edit:

Scratch that, by swapping in the Vindicators, I could even go with 3 AC Razorbacks, 2 Rhinos and 3 Vindicators! Wall of steel!

[Rune Priest Jbickb]

A couple times (pre codex) a buddy allowed me to use the space marine stratagems as we assumed (correctly) I would get access to all of them eventually anyway. That vindicator stratagem was devastating. People forget not to clump up because so few things work like templates so I found you get alot of bang for your buck.

[jpwyrm]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, that's much appreciated!

 

I had not given a very long look to Vindicators but now you're making me want to! The game is Friday, so I got to make up my mind by then. I gave Predators a try in my last game with marines and was impressed by the dmg output they could throw out so I'm leaning towards that a little. I'll come back to post feedback if you want.

[Kallas]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, that's much appreciated!

 

I had not given a very long look to Vindicators but now you're making me want to! The game is Friday, so I got to make up my mind by then. I gave Predators a try in my last game with marines and was impressed by the dmg output they could throw out so I'm leaning towards that a little. I'll come back to post feedback if you want.

No problem, and please do let me know how it goes! I'm very interested to see what the list (and similar ones) can do for other people!

[Knightsword]

 

Dracoliths are a good shout, thanks. There's another mount too, isn't there? A drake type one, although that might be the really big one. Either way, Dracoliths are a cool option (and don't lean too much into the Wolfmen mounted on Wolves wielding Wolf Swords with Wolf Amulets...*sigh* I do like the Space Wolves, but their writers need a thesaurus!)

 

 

I can recommend the bigger Dracoths as suitable Thunderwolf stand-ins. Below is how I've managed to model it.

 

Really enjoying reading all your wolfy shenanigans.

[Kallas]

Really enjoying reading all your wolfy shenanigans.

Thank you, glad you are enjoying it!

 

I can recommend the bigger Dracoths as suitable Thunderwolf stand-ins. Below is how I've managed to model it.

That looks very good, thank you!

 

Could you give me some detail on how you got the rider sorted out? That's one of my current concerns about converting up some Thunderwolves, as, even though I don't mind Stormcast models, I would want to get the riders as Power Armoured as possible, with a minimum of leftover Stormcast.

[jerrys]

I don't want to derail your thread (sorry), but I did some beefier (if perhaps more heretical) thunderwolves like this: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/gallery/image/211106-cavalry/

I thought that the normal ones looked a little too dinky to have a 3+ armor save and carry around a power-armored frost giant.