Thunderwolf Cavalry to the Rescue!!!

Greetings my Wolfy brethren… you wouldn’t believe how many times I get asked about how I outfit my Thunderwolf Cavalry (Heretofore we will be referring to them as TWC), the best way to deploy them… reserve or not to reserve etc.

I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how many times my TWC have pulled my ass out of the fire. More times than this old wolf has claws I can tell you. Let’s begin with my basic army composition, which is fairly standard for any wolf player, Grey Hunters in Rhinos and Razorbacks, maxed out missile fangs etc. Rune Priests with all the toys wielding JOTWW and Living Lighting.

Now, unlike a lot of you, who love the whole Deathstar Wolf Lord, on TW, with wolfy this and wolfy that, I NEVER take a HQ other than my Rune Priests, they are just too darned effective. However, I can see how one could be fun, if you really want to pile in and get some violent close combat going, at that, they excel.

Depending on points, I can usually field two squads of 3 TWC. Why two squads you say? Because splitting them down into two separate units, allows for a second special close combat weapon. I.e.: Your Thunderhammers and/or Powerfists. 5, Strength 10 attacks on the charge is nothing to sneeze at. Absolutely NOTHING can withstand contact with such a charge. Not Land Raiders, not Mephistion, not Purifiers, not a Monolith…. nothing.

Now a lot of opponents call them security blankets. Shield spam. I call them effective. What am I talking about? Storm Shields. I put on one every single TW in my army. Why? Because as soon as the TWC enters play, everything that CAN shoot at them, WILL shoot at them. Nothing is worse than a couple lucky meltagun shots, a stray round from a Vindicator or a railgun popping off a TW from 72 inches. It just ticks me off. So, I give all my TWC a better than 50/50 chance at flipping the bird those pesky railguns. At only Toughness 5, a railgun will insta-poof a TW without even trying hard. I love the look on a Tau or Eldar players face when every single thing they throw at my TWC bounces off, and they just keep closing the gap. C’mere little Xenos… I got a treat for ya…. I recall one time Maugen Ra and a bunch of Dark Reapers… ah well, you get the point…

We also need to talk about complex units and loadout. Vary them as much as you can. Obviously for wound allocation reasons. I give one a SS and a Chainsword, I give another a SS and a Chainsword and a Melta-Bomb, and the third always gets the special CC weapon and his SS.

Reserves. This is very much dependent upon what your opponent is playing. Gun heavy IG or DE, or maybe even Necrons? Let them come across the board and close the gap a bit for you, hopefully on or by turn 3, you can pop out of reserve, minimum 19 inch charge and lay right into them. I love that.

Is this a cheap build? Nope. Is this an effective build? You’re darn right it is. I can generally pull off these two units of 3 TWC at 1500 points. Yep, we are then talking about 3 Razorbacks with Grey Hunters, kind of minimal on the troops front, but these lists have almost ALWAYS treated me very well. Ask my local gaming group….

Until next time brothers...

Wolf Lord Paul

How to Beat Chaos Daemons with Space Wolves

It's not easy trying to beat Chaos Daemons with Space Wolves, because while the Wolves are a good close combat army, Daemons will quite literally tear them to pieces!

So in this instance, discretion is the better part of valour...including as many bolter as you can muster. Then choose what you charge and when very carefully.

The Chaos Daemons army is full of models with AP3 shooting attacks, power weapons, rending claws and lots of wounds, making them a challenge for the Space Wolves -especially when they could Deep Strike virtually anywhere on the board.

Based on my gaming experience, I'm going to explain how to beat Chaos Daemons with Space Wolves, what to look out for and which of the common Space Wolves units are the best for taking down some of the most common Chaos Daemon units.


CHAOS DAEMON ARMY STRENGTHS

Close combat
This army is designed for one thing and that's ripping through your Space Marines in close combat. In order to win the Space Wolves will need to employ a defensive strategy and only charge into combat when the odds are massively in their favour or as a last resort.

Attack Waves
Because Daemons always arrive via Deep Strike, they can arrive absolutely anywhere. So your Space Wolves need to be deployed in order to receive the first wave and neutralise it with firepower (and charges). Because once you get bogged down in the first wave, there will be nothing to stop their reinforcements from overrunning your army.

Remember that the first wave of Daemons arrives on TURN 1! So you will not always have a turn to get everything into position.

A clever Daemon player will do their best to win the roll off and screw your deployment. If you can't deploy effectively and the Daemon player gets the first turn, your firepower won't be as effective and you'll have a tough time fighting off the first wave.

But, if you get the first turn of the game and set up accordingly, you should be able to gun down the major threats which will put you in good stead for the rest of the game.

Just remember that a game against Chaos Daemons with Space Wolves can be lost on TURN 1. If the Daemon player can turn the game into a huge punch-up then you've lost.

MSU - Many Small Units
Small units of Plague Bearers are common sights in Chaos Daemon armies and exist purely for objective grabbing. This is because they are incredibly tough to kill and with Feel No Pain it will take a lot of resources to get rid of them.

Expect to see lots of Tzeentch Heralds riding Chariots zipping about the board and providing supporting fire. These are equally troublesome due to having 3 wounds each.

CHAOS DAEMON ARMY WEAKNESSES

Range
As mentioned above, if you can deploy an effective 'firebase' at the start of the game, you can start gunning down the Daemons as they appear on Turn 1 with your missile launchers, lascannons and bolters. Not to forgetting Psychic Powers of course.

Even with all those Tzeentch Heralds riding Chariots and Soul Grinders, they will have a tough time trying to match you for firepower -especially if you've sensibly deployed in cover.

Cover
Daemons don't have frag grenades, which is great news for Space Wolves. Simply sit in cover, keep firing and when they charge you, not only can you Counter-Charge, but you get to strike first too! That upsets Daemon players when they often have the higher Initiative. Just watch out for Slaanesh Heralds pulling units out of cover to get charged.

Deep Striking
If you've created an effective 'firebase', Deep Striking becomes a weakness for the Chaos Daemons, because they will want to arrive as close as possible to your lines, but without scattering on to your units. But if the Daemon player plays it safe and arrives a reasonable scatter distance away, it will take too long to reach your lines.

Once again, it all depends on you creating an effective 'firebase' from the start of the game.


TYPICAL CHAOS DAEMONS ARMY LIST
This is the typical kind of Daemons list you can expect to see. Although Khu'Gath The Plaguefather and Flamers of Tzeentch are also popular choices to break up any closely packed models in your 'firebase'. So watch out for those.

As you can see this list is really varied...not!

Herald of Tzeentch riding Chariot with Bolt of Change and Doom Bolt
Herald of Tzeentch riding Chariot with Bolt of Change and Doom Bolt
Herald of Tzeentch riding Chariot with Bolt of Change and Doom Bolt
Herald of Tzeentch riding Chariot with Bolt of Change and Doom Bolt

5 Plaguebearers
5 Plaguebearers
5 Plaguebearers
5 Plaguebearers

5 Blood Crushers

6 Fiends of Slaanesh
6 Fiends of Slaanesh

1 Daemon Prince with wings

1 Soul Grinder
1 Soul Grinder


Chaos Daemons Strategy VS Space Wolves
Getting into close combat is the objective. Trying to win the roll off and screw the Space Wolf player's deployment is key. The next step is to get as many tough units into the first wave as possible and dump it as close to the Space Wolves as possible.

Tzeentch Heralds will zoom about at the back firing at any Long Fangs. Because taking out the Long Fangs will remove the Space Wolves advantage of massed long range firepower.

Soul Grinders will take the midfield. Blood Crushers will land straight in front of the Space Wolves to cause as much carnage as possible and hopefully hold them up with all those wounds and 3+ saves.

The Fiends of Slaanesh will follow the Blood Crushers and do their best to get into close combat without being shot at.

Meanwhile the Plaguebearers will aid in swamping the Space Wolves and grab any objectives.


Space Wolves Strategy VS Chaos Daemons
A good deployment is the key to defeating Daemons with Space Wolves. You will need to deploy your Long Fangs in cover with a good field of vision. Meanwhile the rest of the army needs to be flexibly positioned to move in any direction and intercept any Daemons with lots of Rapid Fire weapons.

Bear in mind Chaos Daemon 'landing zones' when you are deploying. You need to position your units around the terrain to dictate where the Chaos Daemons are likely to appear. For some reason no Daemon player is willing to take Danger Terrain tests for any Deepstriking units that scatter into terrain. I have no idea why this is the case when most units have lots of wounds! But anyway...

Fire all your smoke launchers on the first turn, otherwise a smart Daemons players will nail your transports to limit your movement so that they can trap you and eventually bog you down with their reinforcements.

Also, plan two routes that you can fall back to. So deploying from the centre towards one flank will allow you to fall back firing in either direction.

The Daemons will come at you from both flanks, but if you can move your whole force to wipe out any threats that block your way with focussed firepower, you have the freedom to keep moving about the board.

In an objective grabbing game, it's likely that you will have to advance. So make sure you put those objectives in cover. Because if the Daemons charge you in cover, you get to counter-charge and strike first thanks to your frag grenades.

Grey Hunters are brilliant in this role, but don't forget that massed bolter fire can work wonders too. After all, Daemons only have a 5+ invulnerable save.

But ultimately your Long Fangs and any other long ranged units are key to your success. Long fangs should nail one target at a time with their krak missiles. Preferably monstrous creatures or chariots.

Living Lightning is amazing for reaching those sneaky chariots and can fry one in a single turn if you're lucky. Lastly, don't forget that casting Jaws Of The World Wolf on a tightly packed group of Blood Crushers is a great way to get rid of them!

So be sure to use all the guns at your disposal to remove the most dangerous (or closest!) elements of the first wave of Daemons. The more damage you can inflict early on, the better you will do later in the game.

And don't forget to charge in as an effective way of 'mopping up' if you know that your Grey Hunters won't become bogged down in close combat in the following turn.


CONCLUSION
In order to beat Daemons with Space Wolves you need to set up your firebase, gun down as much as you can and hug cover wherever you can find it.

The Chaos Daemons army will tear you apart in close combat. I know we're Space Wolves and we're awesome in close combat, but when you have no armour save and the Daemons are attacking first, then have 2-3 wounds each when you strike back, you're going to be in trouble.

Unfortunately so much relies on TURN 1. But if you can lay down a good dose of firepower and cripple the first wave the rest of the game will be much easier.

If you screw up your deployment, can't get your Long Fangs set up properly and as a result, can't really kill anything on the first turn, then you're in serious trouble. Unfortunately, that's just how it goes when Space Wolves fight Chaos Daemons.

I know its not very heroic, but sometimes it's worth playing Space Wolves like a Tau army against Daemons. Just keep falling back and firing. Let them chase you round the board as you wittle them down with your guns and only close for the kill when the odds are in your favour.

Lastly, don't forget that casting Jaws Of The World Wolf on a tightly packed group of Blood Crushers is a great way to get rid of them!

Painting Space Wolves Space Marines Part 1

Hello Wolf Brothers! I am Anestis from Greece. Most of you may know me from the Space Wolves Facebook page where I post photos of my army and models. I have been asked to share with you my techniques on how to paint Space Wolves models, a task I am very happy to take. This tutorial is addressed to new painters or anyone who is not expert or is looking to improve his painting skills Most tournaments require painted armies, and so tutorials on how to paint and put fast an army to the gaming table are mostly what people expect and need to see on the internet. My take however is not a way to paint your army fast. My goal is to show you how to paint your models very nice. I want to share with you tips and techniques on how to do that. Painting a miniature requires skill, effort and a lot of time and patience. Anyone can do it. Problem is: many people don’t believe in themselves. I recommend to everyone to give it a try with at least one model. If you follow these instructions, after a short while, will find that painting high quality models is easier than it seemed at first as you have improved your painting skills and precision with brushes. So, to start, choose one model you like and give it your best shot to make it stand out on the battlefields of Warhammer 40k. Follow my instructions as I I will show you how this can be achieved!

If you plan on painting an army like this, you must know that it will take you a lot of time to finish but it will definitely be worth it in the end. Space wolves also have very impressive models with a lot of detail and character and they end up looking incredibly nice when finished. While you are using this guide and painting your miniature, you need to keep in mind that in order for a model to be impressive, it needs to have contrast and different tones and shades of colors. HERE WE GO: There are three basic components to every painted model: Dark areas/ Bright areas/Highlighted areas. The model must be clean of Dust before any paint is applied on it. Use an old brush to remove dust, dirt or any hair from the model because you don’t want to find any of this under your basecoat later.

Basecoat

After you have decided the paint scheme of your army, No matter if it is blue, grey, black or some shade of the above, you need to basecoat the model with it. I personally use the WOLF GREY SPRAY by ARMY PAINTER for that. It is primer & basecoat at the same time. If you are using any other color you need to first prime the model with White for bright colors, or black for dark colors. Then use a large wash brush to apply the paint on your model.

This is our first rule

  ALWAYS DILUTE YOUR PAINTS WITH WATER.

The paint must be diluted to a point where it is thick enough to not run down the area you are painting, and fluid enough to be applied very easily. I have heard people describe the paint should feel like milk does. Don’t worry if it is so fluid that seems weird. It will be ok when dry.

When you are using diluted paint:

- You don’t leave Brush strokes and the result is smooth and even

- The paint is applied a lot easier

- It does not dry on your brush while painting

After the miniature dries up, we are ready to proceed with the next step.

Shading.

A miniature needs to have dark areas, so that the bright areas stand out. It also makes it look more realistic. On a space marine, the places where armor meets joints and recesses need to be dark. The armpits must be dark as does the neck and so on. Also there are places that your brush won’t be able to reach. Those areas should be darker than the rest of the model. This effect is easier to achieve at this stage. Use a large wash brush to apply watered down Badab Black on the model. The wash must be spread out around the model carefully not to leave too much on the armor. The emphasis should be on the parts that need to look dark later, not those which will be light later on.  Be sure that you won’t forget any dark areas, especially those that are harder for your brush to reach – This is why I water down the wash, the watered down wash is a lot easier to spread in those areas.

The model may look messy at this stage but don’t worry, when Dry, the model will look like this.
 

Pay attention on the recesses and craves of the armor; Especially the joints and the gaps. They should look almost pure black. In the next segment of the tutorial I will show you how to paint the talismans, skulls, weapons, etc. Please ask questions, I will provide answers in the comments section or, if I find that I missed something major, add it to the post.

I hope you find this article interesting.

Wolf Guard, Anestis!

How to Beat Tau with Space Wolves

How do you beat Tau with Space Wolves? Well, the concept is simple because you storm across the board as quickly as possible, blow up all their tanks with melta gun and punch everything else in the face.

The only problem of course, is actually getting across the board, then you have to catch them. Because while Tau aren't particularly fast, they can be tricky to pin down.

Based on my gaming experience, I'm going to explain how to beat Tau with Space Wolves, what to look out for and which of the common Space Wolves units are the best for taking down some of the most common Tau units.

TAU ARMY STRENGTHS

Strength 5 guns
Obviously, when a whole army is wounding your guys on 3+, you will be taking a lot of armour saves.

Fluid deployment strategy
The Tau army is one that deploys from reserve very well. Often a Tau player will deploy most of their force in the centre, then gradually fall back towards one flank firing. Meanwhile, units arriving from reserve will appear on the opposite flank, catching your army in a cross fire as it advances.

Railguns
The king of tank hunting guns has range 72", Strength 10 and AP1, so it gives Tau players +1 on the vehicle damage chart. So you can pretty much kiss your Land Raiders goodbye, unless you are very lucky with your cover saves.

Broadside Battlesuits which come equipped with railguns will typically sit in the corners of the board, just out of range of your heavy weapons, which makes them even more difficult to deal with.

TAU ARMY WEAKNESSES

They Suck in Close Combat
Tau are terrible in close combat. But that won't stop a group of Battlesuits backed into a corner from charging and beating face with their Strength of 5 once one of your Grey Hunter packs has been wittled down to just a few models.

Short Ranged Guns
While Tau have the range 30" Pulse Rifle and the range 72" Rail Gun, the rest of their weapons are fairly short ranged. This makes them susceptable to assaults from fast units which they are not fast enough to escape from.

Slow
While Tau Crisis Battlesuits can jump-shoot-jump, they can only move a maximum distance of 12". Meanwhile, Tau tanks are only effective when they move 6" and can fire all of their weapons. Often a Tau player will have to choose between moving a safe distance or trying their best to hose down nearby enemies with as many guns as possible.

Struggle to claim objectives
At the moment, the Tau Codex isn't particularly cost effective. Tau Troops are particular poor too with Kroot Carnivores and Tau Firewarriors as the only Troop choices in the Codex. Neither units are particularly cheap or durable, so claiming objectives can be challenging.

The Tau army as a whole doesn't have the firepower to hold a position, hence the fluid nature of the army. As a result, many Tau players take 2 squads of just 6 Firewarriors, then blow the rest of their points on Battle Suits simply to kill the enemy.


TYPICAL TAU ARMY LIST
This is the typical kind of Tau list you can expect to see. Although some people will drop the Kroot, take a another minimum squad of 6 Firewarriors and spend the rest of the points on more Broadsides. Tau Crisis Battlesuit Teams armed with twin linked Missile Pods and Flamers (or Targeting Arrays) are also a popular alternative to the standard 'Fire Knife' combination of Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod and a Multi-Tracker


Batttlesuit Shas'el Commander with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod and a Multi-Tracker
Batttlesuit Bodyguard Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod and a Multi-Tracker

3 Batttlesuits Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod and a Multi-Tracker, 2 Shield Drones
3 Batttlesuits Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod and a Multi-Tracker, 2 Shield Drones
3 Batttlesuits Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod and a Multi-Tracker, 2 Shield Drones

10 Kroot, 10 Kroot Hounds
10 Kroot, 10 Kroot Hounds
6 Firewarriors

8 Pathfinders in a Devilfish

2 Broadside Battlesuits, Advanced Stabilisation System, 2 Shield Drones
2 Broadside Battlesuits, Advanced Stabilisation System, 2 Shield Drones


Tau Strategy VS Space Wolves
The Tau don't want the Space Wolves to get close to them, so transports are the first thing to target.

All the missile pods from the Crisis Battlesuits are going to be aimed at any Rhino transports or Razorbacks.

The Broadsides will nail anything big like a Land Raider, or simply help with popping all the Rhinos or Razorbacks. Meanwhile the Pathfinders will provide Markerlight assistance.

The Kroot and Firewarriors will sit back until the Space Wolves get close.

Having destroyed enough transports, the Space Wolves will have to advance on foot and the Tau player will try and draw them out of cover so all the Crisis Battlesuits with their Plasma Rifles can quickly gun down whole packs of Grey Hunters with ease.

If it's an objective grab game, then the Battlesuits will probably advance to do this and Jump-Shoot-Jump in an attempt to stay out of Bolter range.


Space Wolves Strategy VS Tau
Drive everything forward, fire the smoke launchers and then sit tight and hope you pass a lot of cover saves for your transports.

Meanwhile, the Long Fangs will be doing their best to target Crisis Battlesuit teams with krak missiles. Because the Crisis teams are so few in number and krak missiles instantly kill them with no armour save allowed, they are vital in taking them out.

However, the Tau player will probably be too busy concentrating on all those transports to deal with them early on in the game. The Long Fangs need to be deployed very carefully at the start of the game, because they are so important when it comes to providing supporting fire as the Space Wolves army advances en masse.

Wolf Scouts are awesome for appearing right next to Broadside Battlesuits or Crisis Suits. Not necessarily to kill them, but to tie them up and prevent them from shooting for a turn or two, which can totally turn the tide of battle.


CONCLUSION
In order to beat Tau with Space Wolves you need to get across that board as quickly as possible, while trying to cover as much of the board as possible.

The Tau army is very fluid in nature and will quite happily fall back along the back of the board, and even back up the sides of the board towards the enemy deployment zone if need be. And they will be shooting all the way!

You are going to take a lot of casualties against a good Tau player. But you should win out once you get stuck into close combat. Then keep jumping from close combat to close combat in order to stay safe from their guns and beat them in ways they cannot compete.

Against a poor Tau player, you're going to rampage across the board, pretty much uncontested. The key to success with Tau is combining your firepower and annihilate one major threat at a time. And they have to totally wipe out your squads, because just 1 Space Wolf making it into close combat can prevent one of their units from firing for quite some time while they struggle to kill it.

But the best strategy of all is to play lots of games and keep learning from your experiences.

For more info on Tau, check out the Space Wolves VS Tau Battle Reports.