Saga of the Saga of the Hunter trials

[TiguriusX]

Like many of you I saw Linton Rowan took a SW Saga of the Hunter list and won a GT and was blown away...

 

I have no idea how he managed it...b/c that list and that detachment look like crap in the meta I play in

 

I had to know what I missed...so I decided to test it

 

I copied the list and did a few test games and tweaked it based on my experiences.

 

Time to throw it into a competitive environment and see how it handles the current meta

 

My list

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+ FACTION KEYWORD: Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Space Wolves

+ DETACHMENT: Saga of the Hunter

+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 2000pts

+

+ WARLORD: Char2: Wolf Guard Battle Leader

+ ENHANCEMENT: Swift Hunter (on Char2: Wolf Guard Battle Leader)

+ NUMBER OF UNITS: 15

+ SECONDARY: - Bring It Down: (3x2) + (1x4) - Assassination: 3 Characters

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Char1: 1x Lieutenant with Combi-weapon (70 pts): Combi-weapon, Paired Combat Blades

Char2: 1x Wolf Guard Battle Leader (85 pts): Warlord, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer

Enhancement: Swift Hunter (+20 pts)

Char3: 1x Wolf Guard Battle Leader (65 pts): Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer

 

6x Wolf Guard Headtakers (170 pts): 6 with Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted Power Weapon, Storm shield

6x Wolf Guard Headtakers (170 pts): 6 with Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted Power Weapon, Storm shield

6x Wolf Guard Headtakers (170 pts): 6 with Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted Power Weapon, Storm shield

 

6x Wolf Scouts (105 pts)

• 4x Wolf Scout

  1 with Bolt pistol, Runic Stave, Thunderclap

  1 with Plasma Gun

  1 with Combat Blade, Haywire Mine, Plasma Pistol

  1 with Combat Blade, Plasma Pistol

• 1x Hunting Wolf: Teeth and Claws

• 1x Wolf Scout Pack Leader: Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon

6x Wolf Scouts (105 pts)

• 4x Wolf Scout

  1 with Bolt pistol, Runic Stave, Thunderclap

  1 with Plasma Gun

  1 with Combat Blade, Haywire Mine, Plasma Pistol

  1 with Combat Blade, Plasma Pistol

• 1x Hunting Wolf: Teeth and Claws

• 1x Wolf Scout Pack Leader: Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon

 

10x Wulfen with Storm Shields (200 pts): 10 with Storm shield, Thunder Hammer

10x Wulfen with Storm Shields (200 pts): 10 with Storm shield, Thunder Hammer

 

5x Fenrisian Wolves (40 pts): 5 with Teeth and claws

 

1x Land Raider Redeemer (270 pts): Armoured Tracks, 2x Flamestorm Cannon, Hunter-killer missile, Multi-melta, Storm Bolter, Twin Assault Cannon

 

1x Predator Annihilator (135 pts): Armoured Tracks, Hunter-killer missile, Predator Twin Lascannon, Storm Bolter, 2x Lascannon

1x Predator Annihilator (135 pts): Armoured Tracks, Hunter-killer missile, Predator Twin Lascannon, Storm Bolter, 2x Lascannon

 

1x Impulsor (80 pts): Shield Dome, Armoured Hull, Ironhail Heavy Stubber, 2x Storm

Bolter

 

 

Changes from the original GT winning ilst

 

Added

(270) 2xPredator Annihilators

(70) Combi LT

(40) 5xFenrisian wolves

 

Removed

(200) 1xWulfen brick

(100) Infiltrators

(65) WGBL

(15) True Grit enhancement

 

Why did I make these changes?

-The list badly needs ranged threats. Without any threat all my test opponents simply parked their vehicles in the open with firing lanes with zero fear of reprisal. Predator annihilators are cheap and should prevent those moves. This list also does NOT need oath so my annihilators are free to get the shooting buff

 

-Infiltrators are expensive if their sole job is to sit on the home objective. The entire army is made to rush forward leaving infiltrators behind...so the 12" bubble doesn't even zone out the backfield. I replaced them with combi LT + wolves. Lone op means they can't easily remove LT from home objective and the wolves give an extra zone out bubble if my opponent has 6" DS tricks. If my opponent can't threaten my backfield then they are an extra chaff unit / action monkey for the mid board. Bonus...I get to reroll 1s on one of the objectives as well.

 

The WGBL and Wulfen brick were point casualties...I wish I could keep it all but I need those guns on the predator annihilators

[TiguriusX]

 

*Image upload is NOT working like I remembered in the past...I will put the text report first and see if I can get the screen shots added later

 

Pod 51

Round 1 v Necrons

A-2

 

His army

Spoiler

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+ FACTION KEYWORD: Xenos - Necrons

+ DETACHMENT: Obeisance Phalanx (Worthy Foes)

+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1995pts

+

+ WARLORD: Char2: The Silent King

+ ENHANCEMENT: Eternal Conqueror (on Char3: Overlord)

& Warrior Noble (on Char4: Overlord with Translocation Shroud)

+ NUMBER OF UNITS: 15

+ SECONDARY: - Bring It Down: (5x2) + (1x6) - Assassination: 4 Characters

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Char1: 1x Imotekh the Stormlord (100 pts): Gauntlet of Fire, Staff of the Destroyer

Char2: 3x The Silent King (400 pts): Warlord

• 1x Szarekh: Sceptre of Eternal Glory, Staff of Stars, Weapons of the Final Triarch

• 2x Triarchal Menhir: 2 with Annihilator beam, Armoured bulk

Char3: 1x Overlord (110 pts): Resurrection orb, Voidscythe

Enhancement: Eternal Conqueror (+25 pts)

Char4: 1x Overlord with Translocation Shroud (100 pts): Resurrection orb, Overlord's blade

Enhancement: Warrior Noble (+15 pts)

 

5x Flayed Ones (60 pts): 5 with Flayer claws

5x Flayed Ones (60 pts): 5 with Flayer claws

10x Lychguard (170 pts): 10 with Hyperphase sword and dispersion shield

10x Lychguard (170 pts): 10 with Hyperphase sword and dispersion shield

5x Triarch Praetorians (90 pts): 5 with Rod of covenant

3x Canoptek Scarab Swarms (40 pts): 3 with Feeder mandibles

1x Canoptek Reanimator (75 pts): 2x Atomiser beam, Reanimator's claws

1x Doomsday Ark (200 pts): Armoured bulk, Doomsday cannon, 2x Gauss flayer array

1x Doomsday Ark (200 pts): Armoured bulk, Doomsday cannon, 2x Gauss flayer array

1x Triarch Stalker (110 pts): Stalker's forelimbs, Heat ray

1x Triarch Stalker (110 pts): Stalker's forelimbs, Heat ray

 

 

That is a nasty list…

DDAs are always scary and he has solid melee backing them up

He can do damage -1 and has resurrection trips

I am the underdog here...especially on an open map 2

 

 

I deploy first

 

I put both predators and 1 wulfen brick in reserves

This goes against my entire range threat deterrent but I have identified those DDAs as a high priority threat. By putting the predators in SRI can bring in both predators and focus fire on 1 target using oath.

 

Headtakers all go in transports

 

Scouts take up aggressive positions but can fall back to safety if I go 2nd

Impulsor is gonna use scout and get up into safety

LRR is on the left flank and safe on turn 1…DDAs can’t get LOS even if I go 2nd

 

 

 

 

I lose roll for first turn

He pushes his stalkers up b/c he has no predators to worry about

I move scouts back to safety

I drive impulsor up as well

 

 

Start of battle

I put quarry tokens on his lychguard...LRR group targets the mid squad....impulsor group targets back right squad

Combi LT marks top right objective

 

Turn 1A

He draws RECOVER ASSETS and NO PRISONERS

He pushes up and scores 3 on RECOVER ASSETS

He marks my right side scouts with +1 to wound

Held NO PRISONERS for a future turn

 

 

 

Turn 1B

I draw MARKED FOR DEATH and CLEANSE

He marks stuff safely out of reach

I put baby mark for death on left stalker

I have to make a major game decision right now…do I push my right scouts out and let his stalker overwatch me with a buff or do I go left towards middle objective and avoid the overwatch

 

After lots of thinking I decided to shift left and mid and ignore the right objective for now

If my turn goes well I can kill 2 flayers and a stalker all in melee and complete the saga

 

My right scouts walk around the OW range of stalker and prepare to charge middle flayers

 

I push all in on left flank…LRR goes onto objective and both headtakers hop out

 

I push wolves to mid objective and they get OC from headtaker WGBL on left and cleanse middle

 

I make all my charges but a mistake has been revealed. He HEROICALLY INTERVENES with his LG brick in middle...costs him 0 CP b/c the lord in the group 

 

Wolf scout melee in the middle fails miserably…I don’t kill the flayed ones

This has a massive domino effect

-I fail my cleanse action with wolves

-He holds an additional objective

This is an 8 point swing

 

 

The good news…I kill stalker and flayed ones on left flank with melee (LRR softened it up with shooting before I went in)

 

2/3 hunter goals achieved

 

After the turn I am wondering if I should have simply sent my scouts to RIGHT and risked his overwatch

 

The wolves in middle could have stood there and still done cleanse if I put more bodies on it

 

 

 

Turn 2A

Draws OVERWHELMING FORCE and retained NO PRISONERS

 

He moves right flank DDA to get LOS on my left army and kills 4/6 Headtakers from green squad (not worth a cleanse…should have stayed safe)

LRR tanks the Menhir and makes 1 save…still alive

 

He pushes the LG from midfield (where I gave him free HI movement) and makes a charge into my impulsor

Impulsor survives the LG assault 

 

 

 

Turn 2B

I draw EXTEND BATTLELINES and RECOVER ASSETS

 

I am losing this game right now...to get back in I need to make a bold move

This will be my GO turn…my predators were in reserves for this very moment

I put oath on his DDA on the left and bring in both predators with LOS to shoot it

 

I arrange multiple charges so my melee forces can hurt him on the right flank...if I sequence it right I will unlock my saga before swinging some units as well

I go ALL IN with melee right side…Wulfen have a 7” charge but I can reach the silent king and need to do it

Impulsor crew hops out and prepares ot charge the LG unit that is NOT their quarry

The left side HTs all hop back in the LRR and the LRR drives midfield to flame the LG that surrounded my impulsor

Impulsor falls back from combat

 

Shooting is ABYSMAL…predators roll a bucket of 1s and 2s. I don’t even wound the DDA after all predators have fired

LRR kills 3 LG with shooting

 

Good news...my dice try to make it up for me in the charge phase and I roll 9+ on all charges

 

Now the bad news…he has enough CP to interrupt and do his tricks

 

First...he uses the resurrection orb and brings back all casualties that the LRR caused earlier (rolled a 6)

 

I activate Wulfen first b/c I want anything that can kill my LRR to be removed

He activates -1 damage and I only get 6 wound through on the silent king

I kill 1 menhir and damage the other…awesome (minus damage strat is terrifying)

 

The LG on the right now blow up my entire turn

He activates interrupt and kills 3 of the head takers cutting the damage potential of the unit

I only kill a few LG in melee when the survivors activate

 

I'm not feeling good about this army at all right now

 

What else should I have done?  This is an entirely melee based army...and it has no tools to stop interrupts

 

 

 

 

Turn 3A

He draws MARKED FOR DEATH and DEFEND STRONGHOLD

 

He pushes his rear LG group up and my LRR overwatches them

He uses orb and reanimator and they all come back…

 

Silent King, stalker and DDA maneuver to shoot LRR and he kills it without having to fire a DDA

He can ignore cover and this detachment has no armor of contempt...I am a sitting duck

The remaining DDA smokes the HT that come out and leave me with 1 WGBL and 1 head taker 

 

Melee goes about the same and he just erases my army...4++ saves mean nothing because of the volume of attacks hitting me

 

He even makes his DS charge and steals objective from predator on the left flank

 

The good news?  I was able to bring wulfen in top right corner using rapid ingress

 

If I wasn't doing a batrep I would concede right here...my army has been gutted and I whiffed miserably on my go turn

 

 

 

Turn 3B

I draw SABOTAGE and BRING IT DOWN

Wulfen kill the DDA in the rear

I send all surviving HT into the LG unit and kill the unit but leave character alive

 

Predator fails to damage silent king

Predator 2 puts 5 damage on the stalker (only target in his LOS)

 

 

 

Turn 4A

CLEANS and BRING IT DOWN

He starts tabling me 

 

No further notes needed

 

 

Final thoughts

I was expecting to lose...how it happened just hurt more

Any list with decent shooting shreds this list

Any list with decent melee can also interrupt if you charge multiple units

 

I honestly have no idea how you make this list work into a meta environment

I will try again round 2

 

 

 

 

Edited December 6 by TiguriusX

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

I do think for what it's worth that

 

1) From a playstyle perspective, I think that list has to be played in yolo style. You just have to convince yourself that you have first turn before rolling for it. 

 

2) I think the digital meta is going to be a lot more competitive than a typical event. New players are a pretty common at tournaments in my experience, and in addition you don't have to worry about buying (if you can find stock), building, and painting the minis. 

 

3) It was a pretty small event according to goonhammer. Not knocking the accomplishment because I haven't won a tournament with over twenty people (I've been top 3 a handful times over the years), but an event of that size isn't going to reflect meta (my lists certainly didn't lol).   

 

edit: I kind of wish I emphasized the second point more, because I really feel like you go up against tougher competition in these pods than normal events. Cause I tend to agree with all of your skepticism towards this list, but I've been in so many tournaments where there just aren't a lot of meta lists.

Edited December 7 by Jorin Helm-splitter

[jpwyrm]

On 12/6/2025 at 1:57 PM, TiguriusX said:

 

Like many of you I saw Linton Rowan took a SW Saga of the Hunter list and won a GT and was blown away...

 

I have no idea how he managed it...b/c that list and that detachment look like crap in the meta I play in

 

I had to know what I missed...so I decided to test it

 

I copied the list and did a few test games and tweaked it based on my experiences.

 

Time to throw it into a competitive environment and see how it handles the current meta

 

My list

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+ FACTION KEYWORD: Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Space Wolves

+ DETACHMENT: Saga of the Hunter

+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 2000pts

+

+ WARLORD: Char2: Wolf Guard Battle Leader

+ ENHANCEMENT: Swift Hunter (on Char2: Wolf Guard Battle Leader)

+ NUMBER OF UNITS: 15

+ SECONDARY: - Bring It Down: (3x2) + (1x4) - Assassination: 3 Characters

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Char1: 1x Lieutenant with Combi-weapon (70 pts): Combi-weapon, Paired Combat Blades

Char2: 1x Wolf Guard Battle Leader (85 pts): Warlord, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer

Enhancement: Swift Hunter (+20 pts)

Char3: 1x Wolf Guard Battle Leader (65 pts): Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer

 

6x Wolf Guard Headtakers (170 pts): 6 with Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted Power Weapon, Storm shield

6x Wolf Guard Headtakers (170 pts): 6 with Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted Power Weapon, Storm shield

6x Wolf Guard Headtakers (170 pts): 6 with Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted Power Weapon, Storm shield

 

6x Wolf Scouts (105 pts)

• 4x Wolf Scout

  1 with Bolt pistol, Runic Stave, Thunderclap

  1 with Plasma Gun

  1 with Combat Blade, Haywire Mine, Plasma Pistol

  1 with Combat Blade, Plasma Pistol

• 1x Hunting Wolf: Teeth and Claws

• 1x Wolf Scout Pack Leader: Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon

6x Wolf Scouts (105 pts)

• 4x Wolf Scout

  1 with Bolt pistol, Runic Stave, Thunderclap

  1 with Plasma Gun

  1 with Combat Blade, Haywire Mine, Plasma Pistol

  1 with Combat Blade, Plasma Pistol

• 1x Hunting Wolf: Teeth and Claws

• 1x Wolf Scout Pack Leader: Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon

 

10x Wulfen with Storm Shields (200 pts): 10 with Storm shield, Thunder Hammer

10x Wulfen with Storm Shields (200 pts): 10 with Storm shield, Thunder Hammer

 

5x Fenrisian Wolves (40 pts): 5 with Teeth and claws

 

1x Land Raider Redeemer (270 pts): Armoured Tracks, 2x Flamestorm Cannon, Hunter-killer missile, Multi-melta, Storm Bolter, Twin Assault Cannon

 

1x Predator Annihilator (135 pts): Armoured Tracks, Hunter-killer missile, Predator Twin Lascannon, Storm Bolter, 2x Lascannon

1x Predator Annihilator (135 pts): Armoured Tracks, Hunter-killer missile, Predator Twin Lascannon, Storm Bolter, 2x Lascannon

 

1x Impulsor (80 pts): Shield Dome, Armoured Hull, Ironhail Heavy Stubber, 2x Storm

Bolter

 

 

Changes from the original GT winning ilst

 

Added

(270) 2xPredator Annihilators

(70) Combi LT

(40) 5xFenrisian wolves

 

Removed

(200) 1xWulfen brick

(100) Infiltrators

(65) WGBL

(15) True Grit enhancement

 

Why did I make these changes?

-The list badly needs ranged threats. Without any threat all my test opponents simply parked their vehicles in the open with firing lanes with zero fear of reprisal. Predator annihilators are cheap and should prevent those moves. This list also does NOT need oath so my annihilators are free to get the shooting buff

 

-Infiltrators are expensive if their sole job is to sit on the home objective. The entire army is made to rush forward leaving infiltrators behind...so the 12" bubble doesn't even zone out the backfield. I replaced them with combi LT + wolves. Lone op means they can't easily remove LT from home objective and the wolves give an extra zone out bubble if my opponent has 6" DS tricks. If my opponent can't threaten my backfield then they are an extra chaff unit / action monkey for the mid board. Bonus...I get to reroll 1s on one of the objectives as well.

 

The WGBL and Wulfen brick were point casualties...I wish I could keep it all but I need those guns on the predator annihilators

 

 

I had a similar thought concerning lack of fire power and made a list with two Vindicators instead of Predators. Kept the the WGBL, downgrade Infiltrators to Incursors and added a Phobos Lt. I can either attach him to the Incursors or run him solo. There's only one brick of Wulfen though and it was only a theoretical build, I couldn't test it out yet.

 

That first game looks like it was a rough start. I hope you can find a good play for the build in your next games.

[TiguriusX]

I'm gonna kill this saga before it goes any further.

 

I have time for approx. 1 game a week and I want to use my limited time on the new grotmas detachment instead.

[Prot]

Sounds good. You gotta go with what you know. I do play Saga of the Hunter, and I play it as a swarm list with very little ranged myself. But so many armies can play top tables now it's impossible to replicate success with certain lists. (In my experience anyway.)

 

I find it's always interesting to know the track of opponents the person faced on their way up. It's amazing how many times you can thread a needle. Thanks for reporting your finings though. Appreciate it!