Howling Griffen force evolution and project blog

[Galron]

With the new points changes I am working on a drop pod force and am considering a successor chapter of Ultras or Sallies. This is mostly a painting project as I am painting quartered Howling Griffens or as my wife so eloquently calls them, the ketchup and mustard guys. I can easily alternate back and forth between the two parent doctrines. This force is also all Firstborn marines. If I go with Sallies I will simply stick with sally traits as I see them as pretty useful over all.

 

Captain-Chapter Master Relic Blade, Anvil of Strength, The Salamander's Mantle, combi-melta. (this guy has various ways he can go)

 

5 tacticals with multi-melta,  powerfist and combi plasma on sgt.

5 Tacticals with multi-melta, power fist and combi melta on sgt

 

Ironclad 2 hunter killers, assault launchers, hammer, IC combat weapon with heavy flamer, meltagun

5 Sternguard combi-plasma and plasma gun(models are built already)

5 Sternguard will build these as combi-melta

10 Terminators standard loadout + 2 Cyclone missile launchers

 

2 Assault Squads x6 guys with eviscerator and power fist + grav pistol on sgts

+1 dude in a squad with a flamer( I had excess points) in one of them

 

Dev squad with 4 lascannons + 5 ablative wound guys

Dev squad with 4 multi-meltas

Dev squad with 4 grav cannons

 

3 drop pods

1 dreadnought drop pod

 

I have to look up what I have to start on the board by the rules. Easily the assault squads and the lascannon dev squad will be there thus the extra wounds to help survive the first round. If need be I can have the grav squad on the ground as well as their weapon has good range. The rest fit on the four drop pods. Hopefully I would get first turn but I should be able to hide three squads. Most likely I will have the grav devs and a tac squad in a pod, a multi-melta and a tac squad in a pod, and the two sternguard in a pod but I can mix and match. I know a thunderhammer is more efficient for a captain but the model I have has a big sword. I might convert it or I might just call it a "Griffen Sword" and stat it like a Thunder hammer. The only difference is better AP on the relic and better damage on the hammer +the option of the Sally Hammer. I'll add a pic of the commander and buddy. Still waiting on decals as I am NOT freehanding that many rampant griffens.

Edited February 17, 2023 by Galron

[Galron]

[Captain Idaho]

Great paint scheme. 

 

So, are you talking competitively from a game play perspective? Ultramarines are the Primogenitor for the Howling Griffons so I'd normally go with them.

 

But using predominantly flame and melta weapons then yes I can see going for a Salamanders themed rule set will work best.

 

You can get nice and strong Salamanders Captains, so a "weaker" weapon like a Relic Blade will hit as hard as a Thunder Hammer Captain from other Chapters.

 

Jump Pack for the Captain?

 

I'd also consider giving him Forge Master for +2 Toughness. Combined with The Salamander's Mantle you're looking at S8 wounding on a 4 and S5 and below on a 6!

 

Wanna be really crazy and you can put him on a Bike, for T7. Give him the Angel Artiface Chapter Master Relic and now you're T8 with and 7 wounds. Give him a 2nd Warlord Trait, say Miraculous Constitution and have a 6+ for each wound and regenerate a wound a turn as well.

 

But that's going crazy...

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I'm a stickler for lore-based solutions, so I'd say Ultramarines purely because they are the Griffons' primogenitor chapter.

[Kallas]

Lore-based is Ultramarines.

Fun-based, I much prefer Space Wolves for Griffons.

 

Also, I love your paint job but it does bug me when I see Griffons with the colours the wrong way around 

That said, Howling Griffons have actually read the Codex Astartes and understand that you can use camouflage, so you could say it's a misdirect to confuse enemies 

[Galron]

FW's Badab HGs have red right shoulder and left leg. I guess I should have looked up RT era pictures.

 

The Captain is in Terminator armor. He is in the pic I posted with the big sword.

 

I mostly play leagues and crusades. The last Tournie I played was last year and came in second but was reminded why I dont like to play tournies. Prior to that was 'Ard Boyz which burned me out. This seems like a fun list to play and burns off a ton of my first born marine models that are taking up space. The goal with this one was to use a minimal number of models I have to buy which in this case is a lone assault squad box. I also ended up buying an Ironclad I saw at the store. Always wanted one :)

 

Problem is I was digging through my pile of shame looking for a box of Sang Guard to convert to HH DA deathwing and realized how much unbuilt crap I had. I need to sell something, this is getting ridiculous. Dont get me started on all the Bolt Action stuff I have.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Galron

[Galron]

Got my decals finally

Edited February 3, 2023 by Galron
Adding group shot

[Galron]

Going to give the Ultra version a try this weekend at my friends. 

Minor tweaks from the above list

terminator chapter master- Santic halo, Imperium's sword, relic blade

Apothecary with selfless healer

 

10 terminators with 2 cyclone missile launchers

Ironclad dreadnought geared up in a dreadnought drop pod

 

2 5 man tacticals with gear

 

5 sternguard with 4 combi-plasma +plasma gun

5 sternguard with 4 combi-melta + melta gun

I have them geared with the actual special weapons because A: I already have the models and B: I am enjoying the points cost for now but I see a change in 6 months.

 

2x 6man assault squads with power fists, 2 plasma pistols and chain swords, grav pistol on sgt, evicerators on a dude.

 

Dev squad with lascannons + 3 extra dudes

Dev Squad with grav cannons

Dev Squad with multi-meltas.

 

3 drop pods. The starting units on the board will be the lascannon squad with apothecary and one of the assault squads. No clue what my friend is bringing. I know he plays 1k sons very terminator and troop heavy and also plays nids. I know I am lacking anti-mortal but will have to shoot my way out of it I guess. The Apothecary will start with the lascannon squad but move towards the center on turn 2 where in theory my terminator squad will be. Or he will just hang out. Hopefully being in terrain and having more than the basic 5 guys and being at long range will allow the devastators to survive if I dont get first turn.

[Galron]

So I ended up changing my list before I left on my trip. Which was interesting since my opponent was actually a highly competitive player who was practicing for a GT with his IG army. In deference to me wanting a fun game and not a highly competitive one, he dropped 3 leman russes and brought a Doomhammer in their place.

His list was

Lord Solar Leonidas

A castellain with some relic or trait to allow him to give mech orders

a command squad

 

Kaskrin squad with Keys to something that let him port

3 DKoK squads

2 Cadian squads

 

2 Leman Russ Vanquishers with heavy bolters

2 Leman Russ Executioners with plasma cannons

Doomhammer

 

I fielded

My Howling Griffins with bolter Fulisade and Master Artisans(this one was key at several points)

Chapter Master with imperium sword and Santic Halo+ terminator armor and relic blade

2 tactical squads, one with grav cannon, one I dont remember + 2 power fists

2 6 man Assault Squads with power fists, eviserators, 3 plasma pistols

 

Ironclad with hurricane bolters siesmic hammer, meltagun, 2 hunter killers

Apothecary with selfless healer

sternguard x5 with plasma combis + a plasma gun

sternguard x5 with melta-combis + a melta gun

Terminators x10 2 cyclones, 2 chainfists

 

dev squad with 4 lascannons

dev squad with 4 multi-meltas

 

Stormraven- twin plasma, twin multi-meltas, hurricane bolters + the hammerstrike missiles

Dreadnought drop pod

2 razorbacks with tin assault cannons

 

We were playing long ways. He set everything up and very much had a parking lot with infantry spread out. I set up my tacticals near my objectives. Razorbacks sort of in cover, one assault squad on the right with a sterguard in that razorback. Lascannon devs with the apothecary in a building. I fgured the cover and apothecary would be enough for one round. The melta-sterns and melta devs were in the raven. Commander and terminators were in deep strike. One assault squad was in deep strike. I took bring it down, oath and shock assault. He chose poorly on his we came to find.

 

T1: I got first turn, two tac squads stepped foot on the objectives on my end trying to stay in cover as much as possible. Razorbacks moved to take infantry in sight. My sterngaurd lacking targets crossed the halfway point and set up explosives. Assault marines were behind them. My shooting cleared a Dkok squad and a cadian squad from the left side.and lascannons knocked an executioner down to 3 wounds. His T1: most of his army ended up with reroll either 1s or everything. He ported the kaskrin over along with driving a vanquisher into the far right. Nuked the sterguard with the kaskrin and took out the razorback and an assault marine with the vanquisher. On the left side, he knocked the tac squad down to two guys and his doomhammer nuked the lascannon squad. Oh and most of his infantry towards the center had the no deep striek within 12" order.

 

T2: I dropped the stormravenn and the dreadnought drop pod behind his lines getting around his 12" bubbles across the center. My terminators all dropped in front of his doomhammer. I forgot my assault squad but it worked out in the end. I jumped my existing jump squad 2" from the cadian squad sitting on his right side objective. Stormraven and ironclad dropped the undamaged executioner down to 3 wounds, the other one was at 1 due to poor rolling on his part. SR also killed the Castellain since he had him behind his tanks. My terminators cleared a center DkOk squad and dropped another cadian squad to 1 guy. I failed every charge except the assault marines and lost 2 terminators to the doomhammer. Assault squad cleared the cadian or dkok squad it charged and then moved over to the kaskrins. His T2: The kaskrins simply stepped away and thinks to some order were allowed to shoot and wiped my assault squad. The doomhammer killed 3 more terminators. All the other tanks killed the ironclad and stormraven who then killed 4 dudes inside dropped the sternguard to 1 guy who passed his check. Commander heroically intervened into the doomhammer since he had to move it forward to clear the road for one of the leman russes. The three wound leman russ actually killed itself since it was too far for rerolls. Commander wiffed his assault and took 4 damage in return.

 

T3: I brought in the assault squad behind a building on my left side and they did the action to set up explosives. The terminators shot up the command squad and charged the doomhammer. The apothecary also caught up with the termies and brought one back. The almost full tac squad maaged to toe on to the center objective.  The dev squad managed to nuke one of the vanquishers. The melta sternguard removed his banner from his left objective and then shot the 1 wound executioner who then avenged himself and killed three of the dev squad. The terminator assault + chaptermaster just barely managed to kill the doomhammer which thankfully did not blow up. His T3: He moved his vanquisher to the left and managed to kill two assault marines. Leonidas moved left and shot the dev squad killing both and then failed two charges on the sternguard dude. His kaskrin removed the explosive I set on the right side.

 

T4: Terminators walked forward. Sternguard moved to a window. Assault marines jumped behind the vanquisher about 2 inches from both leonidas and the vanquisher. The sterngaurd did 7 damage to the tank. The assault marines not only failed to wound the tank with their overcharged plasma but lost a dude in the process. The terminators krak missiles dropped the LR to its bottom bracket and bolters dropped Leonidas to three wounds. Assault marines charged Leo and the artisan masters reroll was the final hit that killed him. They then consolidated into the LR and my opponent called the game. It was still close but I could have done some point hikes after this.

 

Was a fun game. Ill post a few pics tomorrow. I won 50 something to 32. I am not sure however how well I would have done if he had brought three more leman russes instead of the superheavy. Combined with mass reroll orders, they are flat out broken in mass numbers. I definately see a points hike next adjustment. Granted I wasnt playing the most competitive list but just the mass fire one LR can put out is stupid.

 

I am wondering with the large numbers of mortal wounds out there whether it would be a good idea to swap out fulisades to Stoic for the 5++

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Galron

[Galron]

[Galron]

4 sergeants join the force. Knocking out squad leadership so they stand out as I work my way through. Sergeants to special weapons to regular Joes.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

They look great and I really like the terminator.

[Galron]

Played another game this past weekend vs an Ultramarine list. I didnt change anything in mine. He had Marnius, Tigerius, a techmarine, a chaplain, 2 assault intercessors, 2 regular intercessors, one rapid fire hellblaster squad, one heavy hellblaster squad, an impulsor, an executioner, vitrix guard, heavy intercessors, and blade guard and a storm raven.

 

I quit counting points by turn 2.

T1 I pushed my razorbacks with a plasma sterguard and a tactical squad forward aggressively with rapid redeploy, took an objective, whittled down a hellblaster squad to 2 guys and dropped the impulsor down to 1 wound with the lascannons, and dropped an assault intercessor squad to 3 guys. He moved his bladeguard and chaplain towards the center objective and generally moved forward. He knocked my plasma sternguard down to two guys who passed their leadership, dropped their razorback down to 1 wound, his execution dropped my taccticals on the primary objective down to 2 guys and killed their razorback. very predictable first turn aside from my other razorback still being on the board. 

 

T2 all my reserves came in with my dreadnough in the back corner where he should shoot boththe executioner and the techmarine behind it. Stormraven dropped in in front of the executioner and tigerious, the heavy hellblasters and some guys. Terms and HQ dropped in just off the center. I moved my remaining plasma sternguard and razorback towards the center to assist there. Lascannons and dreadnought nuked the executioner. Stormraven dropped the heavy hellblasters down to 1 guy. His bladeguard managed to barely survive the 40 shots from the terminators. The sternguard killed the impulsor and the two cyclone missile launchers killed the two rapid fire hellblaster guys. I failed a charge with my terms on his chaplain.  His T2 brought his stormraven into play. He shuffled guys around, got ready for a charge in the middle. Stormraven(armed identically to mine btw) failed to wound with every shot that hit my stormraven and even inflicted a mortal on itself from his plasma. His hurricane bolters and all other shots killed a single terminator. I overwatched on his assault intercessor squad and killed 2 guys. He got the charge off with them and his bladeguard. Thanks to poor placement on my part, I got lucky when he killed that one terminator so I could heroically intervene through that space. Combat went poorly for him, I lost two wounds on a termy and I wiped everything  else. His techmarine had charged my ironclad and did two wounds. Ironclad failed to wound back.

 

T3: cleanup. Dreadnought backed out of combat using the UM strat. I held the center but backed it up with an assault squad. Raven moved over behind his raven after dropping off the boys point blank into Tigerious and his escort's face. Dread shot the remaining hellblaster. The sternguard killed Tiggy's escort and the melta dev squad killed Tiggy doing something like 17 damage. Assault squad and commander shot up the chaplain. terms shot up the last intercessor squad they could see. The other assault squad shot and killed the tech marine while the stormraven shot and removed 4 of the 5 heavy intercessors. Assault killed that last intercessor. Lascannon squad nuked his ineffectual stormraven. My apothecary didnt heal  single wound all game.

 

Lascannon devs were MVP this game, killing a stormraven, an executioner and all but one wound on the impulsor. Go them. I know why he singled out the tac squad since it was sitting on a primary objective that was giving me 3(primary objective)+4 Primary points a turn but he should have sacrificed that executioner's shots to go for them.

[Galron]

Been working on trying to finagle my list to match the index. This is stupid. My tac squads cant ride in razorbacks, my sternguard cant ride in razorbacks or rhinos.  We dont have points on useful things like dreadnought drop pods. Thankfully my dread can still hitch with the raven. I will have to build a few models I have had sitting in boxes but oh well.

Captain in term  adept 

Terminator Chaplain Honor vehement 

Chaplain with jump pack  art armor

Assault Squad  x5

Assault squad  x10

Iron Clad 

Storm Raven 

Devastator Squad Multi-melta

Devs Grav cannons

Devs  Lascannons

Tactical grav

Terms x10 with cyclones

1990

How does this look? Really ticked my razorbacks have no real use nor can I put LTs in dev squads. Maybe when the dex drops