Valerian's Plans for 9th Edition

[Lord Blackwood]

aye , but why have you not mentioned the new Iron Priest brother D:  he is just as important 

[Valerian]

aye , but why have you not mentioned the new Iron Priest brother D:  he is just as important 

 

I had him in here at first, but then removed the post when I put pics of both in the main 9e thread.  Figured I didn't need the Iron Priest in here, since I really don't plan on incorporating him into my army/list any time soon.

[Lord Blackwood]

 

aye , but why have you not mentioned the new Iron Priest brother D:  he is just as important 

 

I had him in here at first, but then removed the post when I put pics of both in the main 9e thread.  Figured I didn't need the Iron Priest in here, since I really don't plan on incorporating him into my army/list any time soon.

 

Dont make me build one for you. 

 

Every Great Company needs a Surly Hammerer with blackened fangs who  just wants to have to stop  fixing his brothers abuses of their equipment. 

Edited July 4, 2020 by Lord Blackwood

[Valerian]

I've got an old-school Firstborn Iron Priest (the ancient original model).  I'm sure at some point I'll get the Primaris one, too.  For now, though, I'm just focusing on what I think I need, versus just buying up anything and everything.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Biker Chaplain looks good. Is he a new transfer- possibly a Terran-born Great Crusade veteran who was put in stasis after the Heresy, for Cawl's Primaris Project- who has yet to adopt Fenrisian culture? (That would explain why his skull helm is shaped like a human's instead of a wolf's, the lack of Fenrisian runes and wolf talismans on his wargear.)

[Valerian]

The Biker Chaplain looks good. Is he a new transfer- possibly a Terran-born Great Crusade veteran who was put in stasis after the Heresy, for Cawl's Primaris Project- who has yet to adopt Fenrisian culture? (That would explain why his skull helm is shaped like a human's instead of a wolf's, the lack of Fenrisian runes and wolf talismans on his wargear.)

Bjorn that pic is just from the initial preview released from GW today. When I eventually get mine upon actual release, I’ll give him additional, subtle, Space Wolves flavor.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I apologize for my misidentifying the model.

[Valerian]

Speaking of Storm Shields (in other recent threads), here are some great alternative options for any of you that want to build your own Bladeguard Veterans:

 

 

 

 

To get them, just go check out Liber Daemonica on Facebook, and send them a message.

[Valerian]

The Impulsors are ready.  All options magnetized.  The one with the Yellow marking is for Ragnar and his Wolf Guard, while the two with Red marking are for the Assault Intercessors.

 

 

[Bryan Blaire]

Damn, Valerian, those are some beautiful longships! :D

[Lord Blackwood]

cool longboats sir D: 

[Vassakov]

I'm still not sold on the design of the Impulsor, but those are about as close as anything's come to convincing me.

 

Excellent job brother.

[Valerian]

Thanks guys.  These Impulsors were painted by the same fellow that took care of my other Primaris Marines, Vasiliy Shipilov, from Liber Daemonica on Facebook.

 

I see that I lot of my earlier pics are now missing, so need to go back and fix the links.  I guess links to pics on Facebook expire after a while.

 

 

For now, everything can be found in this album:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/3AHuVr51TmrkEwXY6

[Valerian]

Had an almost perfect score play-test game yesterday.  Final score was 93 victory points for Space Wolves, to 31 vp for the Grey Knights (an army that has given a lot more trouble using 8e CA2019 mission scenarios, post PA: Ritual of the Damned).

I'll be able to provide more details on the game later today.

 

Space Wolves army was:

 

Bjorn

Ragnar

 

Judiciar

5 Wulfen

3 Aggressors

3 Bladeguard Vets

 

3 Packs of 5 Intercessors, with Hammers on the Pack Leaders

1 Pack of 6 Intercessors, with Hammer on the Pack Leader 

 

2 Packs of 3 Eliminators, this time all with Las Fusils

1 Pack of 3 Eradicators

 

3 Impulsors (with no upgrades - couldn't afford the usual Shield Domes this time)

 

 

Grey Knights list:

 

Voldus

Brother-Captain with Hammer

Librarian with Stave

2x Grand Master Nemesis Dreadknights

 

2x Apothecaries

Squad of 10 Paladins with Hammer on the Paragon, mix of Staves and Halberds on the rest, with 2 Psycannon

 

4x Squads of 5 man Strike Marines all with Halberds, with 1 Psycannon in each Squad

[jay170788]

Tried to pm you but you can't receive them. Do you mind me asking how expensive Liber Daemonica were to paint those Impulsors?

[Valerian]

Tried to pm you but you can't receive them. Do you mind me asking how expensive Liber Daemonica were to paint those Impulsors?

My inbox might be full. I’m out doing errands now, but will write you with the details on his pricing later this afternoon.

[Valerian]

Back from doing errands, so I can provide a few more details on the game.

 

Played the first Strike Force level Eternal War mission (Retrieval Mission), which uses 6 objectives, with usual (for 9e) Take and Hold (Progressive) Primary Objective of Hold1, Hold 2, and Hold More than opponent.  

 

Space Wolves' Secondaries were Assassinate and Abhor the Witch, which are both super easy to max out, just by killing the Grey Knights units that you want to be killing anyway.  You don't have to go out of your way to change any plans for either of these secondaries, and they grant a combined 8 vp for every enemy Character killed, and Grey Knights have, throughout 8th edition, been a very character-heavy army.

 

The final Space Wolves Secondary was Engage on all Fronts, which grants 2 vp per Turn for having units in 3 table quarters, which meshes very well with your Primary Mission of trying to "Hold More" objective markers than your opponent.  I might have been able to squeeze a few more points out of the Linebreaker Secondary, instead, (since Linebreaker awards up to twice as many vp per Turn as Engage on All Fronts), but I was confident I could manage the 3 Table Quarters more easily.

 

 

Paying the extra 60 points to upgrade all of the Eliminators from Bolt Sniper Rifles to Las Fusils was well worth it.  Every failed Save was a Dead Paladin, which was much more useful against this opponent than chinking the occasional Wound off of a Grey Knight character in Terminator Armor.

I put the Wulfen and the Eradicators On the Hunt with the Cunning of the Wolf Stratagem, which worked out wonderfully.  Those Melta Rifles are a real threat to everything the Grey Knights have - GMNDKS, Paladins, and GK Characters in Terminator Armour are all very vulnerable to 6x Melta shots per turn, and since these guys don't care about charging, it's easier to place them somewhere along a flank or rear table edge to do real damage when they enter the battle.  Outflanking them keeps them safe, too, while they work their way into position to attack.

I had been Outflanking the Aggressors with the Wulfen, but this time left the Aggressors in the Deployment Zone to guard the rear Objective, which worked very well.

 

Overall, was very pleased with this list.  I had to drop 2 Intercessor packs in order to fit the Eradicators and Las Fusils in, but having the extra heavy firepower really made a huge difference.  I'll play through it again trading 2 of the 4 Intercessor packs for 2 Assault Intercessor packs on the ones that go forward to enemy territory in the Impulsors and see how that works out.

 

V

[NightHowler]

 

Tried to pm you but you can't receive them. Do you mind me asking how expensive Liber Daemonica were to paint those Impulsors?

My inbox might be full. I’m out doing errands now, but will write you with the details on his pricing later this afternoon.

If you don’t mind, I’d love for you to copy me on those prices. Also, I went to his site, but couldn’t find the shields. How did you learn about them, and how did you request them?

[Dantay VI]

The shields look great, as does the new shoulder pads, but inless they has a UK distributor, the extra postage on top is a little bit  prohibitive.

 

Amazing pieces though and I have to say I am massively enjoying seeing your army grow and how you are playtesting them. 

[Valerian]

Ran another play-test of Space Wolves vs Grey Knights yesterday, and it was another blowout in favor of the Space Wolves.

I stuck with the exact same list as last time for the Space Wolves, with the only change being that I dropped the Wulfenstone Relic and took the Wolf Tail Talisman (on the Judiciar), since I figured that would ultimately have a much bigger impact on the game (which it definitely did!).  Grey Knights get an across the board +1 to cast, so changing that to a -1 to cast for every unit within 18" of that character made a huge difference in their success rate.

 

 

Space Wolves army was:

 

Bjorn

Ragnar

 

Judiciar

5 Wulfen

3 Aggressors

3 Bladeguard Vets

 

3 Packs of 5 Intercessors, with Hammers on the Pack Leaders

1 Pack of 6 Intercessors, with Hammer on the Pack Leader 

 

2 Packs of 3 Eliminators, this time all with Las Fusils

1 Pack of 3 Eradicators

 

3 Impulsors (with no upgrades - couldn't afford the usual Shield Domes this time)

 

 

Grey Knights list changed a little from last time, by splitting the Paladin blob in half and using them to go for the closer mid-board Objective markers, changing GMNDKs to regular NDKs to save points and CP, and taking a Purgation Squad to take advantage of Astral Aim and consolidation of the Psycannons that had been spread through the Strike Squads.  Grey Knights also used the spare 100 points to bring a Paladin Ancient.

 

Grey Knights list:

 

Voldus

Brother-Captain with Hammer

Librarian with Stave

 

Paladin Ancient

2x Apothecaries

Squad of 10 Paladins with Hammer on the Paragon, mix of Staves and Halberds on the rest, with 2 Psycannon

 

3x Squads of 5 man Strike Marines all with Halberds and Storm Bolters

 

2x Nemesis Dreadknights

1x Purgations Squad of 5 men, with 4 Psycannons.

 

 

 

 

Once again played the first Strike Force level Eternal War mission (Retrieval Mission), which uses 6 objectives, with usual (for 9e) Take and Hold (Progressive) Primary Objective of Hold1, Hold 2, and Hold More than opponent.  

 

Space Wolves stuck with the same Secondaries as last time, since they were pretty easy to accomplish:  Assassinate and Abhor the Witch were once again maxed out, and Engage on all Fronts, was another 2 vp for every Turn after the 1st (8 total).  So that was 38 points before considering any of the points from the Primary Mission to hold objective markers.

 

Grey Knights changed couple of their Secondaries from last time to see if they'd have an easier job of it, and went with:  Assassinate, Engage on all Fronts, and Mental Interrogation.  Indeed Engage on all Fronts was much easier to accomplish with a push from the deployment zone than Linebreaker was in the earlier game, and Mental Interrogation was significantly easier than the attempt at the big-payoff 15 vp Psychic Ritual (which scored 0 points last game).

 

1.  Big lesson was that it was ridiculously easy for my Space Wolves to screen out the Teleporting NDKs and Strike Squads.  In their Turn 3 the Grey Knights had to bring in several Deep Striking units onto the table more-or-less at the front edge of the GK deployment zone, because there was nowhere in the midboard, or in the SW deployment zone that didn't have a Space Wolves unit somewhere within 9".  There simply was no territory open in which to land, or even sneak onto a board edge.  I didn't even have to go out of my way to do it; just putting units on the back 3 objectives, and 2 Eliminator squads near the flanks of my DZ was enough to do it.

2.  Outflanking Eradicators were hella awesome, once again.  The Grey Knights, being more of an Elite army with less total models on the board meant that he couldn't screen out my Eradicators and Wulfen using the Cunning of the Wolf stratagem, and both units do significant damage.  What's great about the Eradicators, though, is they just want to enter within 24" (ideally 12") of a juicy target, and they don't care one fig about making a 9" charge.  These guys are quickly becoming one of my favorite new units, and they've honestly had way more of an impact than both Bladeguard Veterans or Assault Intercessors.

 

3.  The Judiciar has been working out wonderfully.  He's not much more expensive points wise, but is significantly more effective than the Battle Leader that I had been running.  His Executioner Blade is super effective and the free extra "Armour of Russ" ability is always welcome.

[Karack Blackstone]

How might Long Fangs compete with Eradicators at this rate?

 

If we can figure something out, it might help lists where people can try to at least keep some of the NorMarines around, and NewMarines, Primaris are not always that cheap!

[Valerian]

How might Long Fangs compete with Eradicators at this rate?

 

If we can figure something out, it might help lists where people can try to at least keep some of the NorMarines around, and NewMarines, Primaris are not always that cheap!

 

Long Fang with Multi-melta, in 9e, will be 36 points, I think.  They only get 1 real unit ability (Fire Discipline) which allows them to re-roll Hit rolls of 1 against a single enemy unit. 

 

 

Eradicators are 40 points.  Their Melta Rifle is exactly the same as a Multi-melta, except it is an Assault weapon, so no penalty to Hit when moving.  Their ability (Total Obliteration) allows them all to shoot twice, if they focus fire on a single enemy unit.

 

 

For a mere 4 points more, Eradicators get a better unit ability, Toughness 5, and Triple the Wounds of Long Fangs, and can move and fire without penalty.  There's honestly no way for Long Fangs to compete against this.  The 4 point discount isn't cheap enough to offset all of the advantages of their new Primaris counterparts.

[TiguriusX]

Your reports on eradicators have me convinced.

 

I am sad for my long fangs but 6 melta shots coming out of reserve should take down most vehicle threats

 

I imagine using two 3-man eradicators in the future (I was able to trade my necron half for another marine half)

[Valerian]

I imagine using two 3-man eradicators in the future (I was able to trade my necron half for another marine half)

I’m seriously thinking I’ll be playing 3x3 Eradicator packs at some point. Just think about how that’ll impact your opponent’s mental calculus, just knowing 18 Melta Rifle shots are coming his way in Turn 2, and there’s not a damn thing he can do about it (outside of Auspex, and a few other tricks that affect incoming reserves).

[Karack Blackstone]

Eradicators almost look TOO good...