We chat to Alex Harrison who came 3rd with his 1500pts Space Wolves army at his first UK Grand Tournament.Having fought off Imperial Guard, Chaos, Eldar and lots of Orks, the dice gods would be young Alex's undoing. But having won 3rd place using the new Space Wolves army, Alex has done a fantastic job.
We don't have any photos of Alex's army, but as he insists he's not much of a painter, we shan't worry about it! I've taken a quick photo of my almost finished Blood Claws instead.
Alex Harrion's 1500pts Space Wolves Grand Tournament Army
Rune Priest [Living Lightning, Jaws, Chooser of the Slain] 110
Rune Priest [Jaws, Murderous Hurricane, melta bombs] 105
Rune Priest [Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane] 100
5 Wolf Guard [3 with power fist and combi-meltas, 1 with combi-melta, 1 with chainfist, terminator armour and cyclone missile launcher] 230
6 Hunters [meltagun, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen, rhino] 155
6 Hunters [meltagun, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen, rhino] 155
6 Hunters [meltagun, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen, rhino] 155
5 Hunters [meltagun, razorback] 120
2 Speeders [multi meltas and heavy flamers] 140
5 Long Fangs [4 missile launchers] 115
5 Long Fangs [4 missile launchers] 115
Total - 1500 points
Adam: First of all; congrats on coming 3rd. I see you're only a mere youngster at 19, have you been playing for long?
Alex: I've been playing since I was 13, always been a competitive player. This was my first ever Grand Tournament, but I have won 3 tourneys with my wolves before hand! One 1000pt one, one 1750pt one and one at 1500pts. Now I've got 3rd place at the UK Grand Tournament as well as the 'blood thrister award' for scoring the most Victory Points, which was awesome!
Adam: Looking at the army list, it's pretty straightforward, using the most cost effective units from the Codex. What kind of ideas did you have when it came to crafting your Space Wolves army list for the GT?
Alex: The army is tough, but takes some finesse to use. The rhino squads NEED to back one another up. Splitting your force is dangerous. Perhaps in some cases, I would break of one rhino squad to go for an objective with covering fire from long fangs, and the other 2 and the razor and speeders provide my main assault. Speeders are great, and can hide behind your rhinos, or go in reserve for later assistance, especially when facing an army which is rushing you like orks.
Long fangs should be kept to the back board, not deployed 12 inches on. Utilise that 48 inch range, its scary.
Marines love to push midfield and try and counter their way through opponents, rather than a pure rush or a pure defense. By mixing your tactics, this list covers it all.
I can hold back in Killpoints, or even rush in objectives. In sieze ground I can cover ground to mid field, then let lose the wolves The rockets stay back and provide covering fire. Even in dawn of war, they walk on and get into the right position.
Speaking of which, in Dawn of War, I deploy 2 empty rhinos with their rear hatches 8 inches from the board. I then walk on my 2 selected units and priests 6 inches, which are 2 inches from the hatch. They then embark and I move the rhino 12 inches. Im now in the middle of the board if need be, or if facing an army pushing forward, I then pop off powers to slow them down.
Having something to hold your own base is key, in which I had a unit of hunters in a razor back. I originaly had a lascannon on this which is very helpful, but instead dropped it for the cyclone on the wolf guard terminator. I have a wolf guard with a combi-melta and meltagun in there. This is for added measure when players like to try and fly onto my objective, I have a nice unit to blow it up!
The selection of powers for the priests is compulsory. Living lightning is fantastic at all time, Murderous huricane is a must with the large amount of ork players out there, and jaws is an obvious choice. Its great, yet having those 3 powers is extremly versitile. Jaws isnt always the best choice, I'd rather living lightning a daemon prince than try and Jaws him!
The speeders are fantastic. It gives me that fast melta option to go for those raiders, or battlewagons. They rarely get shot at, as they have rhinos to contend with. If they do, then fine, but half the time, well in my case most of the time, they do fantastic.
Adam: What kind of armies did you come up against at the GT, what was in them, how did you deal with each challenge?
Alex: First game was Seize Ground, Spearhead against a Valkyrie themed Guard army.
He had the following:
Primus psyker.
5 vet squads of 10, 3 with 3 meltas, 2 with 3 plasmas. Not sure whta had what but I know some had demolitions etc.
4 valkyries in squads of 2. 2 had missile pods, 2 had 2 of those strength 8 missiles.
1 Vendetta with triple lascannons.
Rather small, but very powerful. He had first turn and there was 4 objectives, one in my corner, 2 in his and one in the top left zone.
As a space wolf player I had never faced this type of army before so it was rather new to me, yet I know how devastating it can be with its scout move, then first turn bombardment. The best thing to do against this is reserve, yet there was also the problem of arriving peicemeal. I decided to deploy 1 priest in a rhino with the hunter squad, and 1 long fang squad, and the rest stayed in reserve. I then...siezed the initiative...Wow! The shock of his face!
But yeh, I then went on to move my rhino up, pop a valkyrie and then pop another with the rockets. His turn he took out my rhino squad, all that was left was my rune priest. In my turn, long fangs and speeders and a grey hunter squad turned up, and popped another valkyrie, and took down two of the vendettas lascannons. The rune preist went on to wipe out a veteran squad himself. The game bassically from then on went down hill for my opponent. I flanked him on both sides and with missile shots coming from all directions, he had to split his force up.
He said after the game he didn't expect me to rush him with rhinos. I felt this puts pressure on him as with his squads of 10, he likes to advance and go where he wants, rather than be pushed back into corners, which was the best way to go about it. In the end I tabled him by turn 6, he had nothing left.
Man of the match being the wolf guard with chain fist and cyclone who blew up a valkyrie with the cyclone then demolished another with his chain fist!
As his army was only 1495pts, I was thinking to myself I shouldn't be facing anyone too harsh, as Im sure they'd be on the full 1500. To my dismay, I was to face Eldar...and not just any Eldar, but the eldar army which won Heat 3. I was not only worried about this army, but the mission! Annihilation...against eldar..BAH!
So onto game 2, Ahnihalation, pitched battle.
He had:
Eldrad in a wave serpent with 5 fire dragons
Wave serpent with another 5 fire dragons
2 units of 3 walkers with scatter lasers
8 man bike council with embolden, enhance and a farseer with fortune
2 units of 5 dire avengers.
Now this game was interesting.
He chose to go first, so he deployed everything to his right, behind a huge plot of trees. I then deployed in the opposite corner, with only the council infront of me (I knew he was going to redeploy with eldrad). I left my speeders and razorback in reserve. 1 unit of long fangs take to the woods, the other is on the back of the board. Huge terrains peice will annoy me this game!
He then rolls for his repositions, rolls a 4, so 3 movements. Eldrads wave serpent moves to face my army, as does the 2 units of walkers.
I fail the initiative, so he goes first. He guides both units of walkers and fortunes his serpent and the farseer fortunes the council. For some reason, he is very scared of jaws, so holds his council back. The walkers move into firing positions, and both wave serpents turbo boost to cover the walkers (or try to).
He opens fire on my fangs squad and kill ...yes 4 marines from 48 guided shots lol! My saves were amazing. Left me with 1 rocket long fang and the wolf guard with cyclone attatched. My turn, I moved my rhinos into position, 2 moving up and 1 trying to flank on the left. I move one of the rhinos into terrain. Shooting was very minor, I destroyed one walker, and stunned eldrads wave serpent.
His turn, this is where it gets interesting! He first tries to guide both fire dragon squads (who are in wave serpents) with eldrad who is in another serpent. This is of course imposible, yet he tries it, and I have to get a judge over to show that he can't. In the end he fails the guide on the dragons and then fortunes one of the walkers. He also fortunes the council. He then tries to only get his fire dragons out from eldrads serpent, and leave eldrad in. I promptly tell him he can't do that, which his supposedly never heard of such a rule. He therefore decides to keep them inside. The other wave serpent moves a little, then he starts to shoot me! One unit of walkers pop my rhino on the right out of vcover, and the other destoys the one in the terrains storm bolter off. The explosion kills one of my marines.
My turn, time for payback. I move the unit without a rhinos squad up and prepare to fire and engage eldrads serpent. The rhino in terrain then...immobilises itself...great! The one on the left revs up to flank his army and pops smoke. Shooting is better this turn. I manage to immobilise eldrads falcon with the rockets, and stun the other serpent. I popped one of the walkers from the other squad, so he's down to two units of 2. I then assault eldrads falcon with the grey hunters and blow it up. 1 dragon dies and the rest and eldrad pile out.
His turn, he fortunes his council, fortunes eldrad, guides the dragons squad he's with, and guides one of the Wlker squads. I only stop the fortune on eldrad. He then moves his dragons to face my squad on foot and disembarks the other to go for my flanking rhino. Walkers get ready to open up, and the council flies next to my unit on foot. Oh and of course one unit of 5 avengers turn up, ready for more shots lol.
I then take a hell of amounts of shooting into the squad on foot, with only 2 guys and a rune priest alive, who then got charged by the council and was destroyed. The dragons also poped open the flanking rhino, and the squad inside lose 2 marines in the explosion.
My next turn was quick, moved the squad inside the immobilised rhino out and went for the council, rockets popped a unit of walkers and the flanking unit took cover behind eldrads poped wave serpent ready for next turn. The flanking priest assaulted the 3 man dragon squad (due to living lightning) and was killed in combat by the dragon! That shouldn't happen.
I assaulted the council with my disembarked unit and was just in range. Managed to kill 2 bikers and he killed 2 in return, drawn combat. His turn was again quick; stunned serpent stayed where it was, walkers and avengers shot up my squad behind eldrads unit and I had 2 men left. Eldrad guided the walkers and doomed that squad, but forgot to cast Fortune on the council!
Combat, I kill 4 of the council with no fortune, eldrad kills 1 marine, the council kill 1 marine, I win by two, both the council, farseer and eldrad get cut down in his turn!
My turn, (now this is the pivot) my reserves arrive, speeders turbo up. 2 man squad goes on to kill the 2 dragons, rockets kill the other dragon squad and stun the serpent. Unit which killed the council and eldrad rush into 5 avengers and kill them.
His turn was extremely short, other avenger squad and walkers move up to shoot and then asdsault my advancing unit of 5 men including the priest, kill 3 and then I kill 3 avengers and do nothing to the walkers, drawn combat.
My turn my speeders pop the serpent and finish off everything in combat except a walker. Turn 5 is over and I have tabled him bar for one walker. What a turn for events.
Game 3 : Dawn of war, Capture & control.
I was to face a friend of mine, Courtney Rhodes. I lost this game and it was a very straight forwards game! I killed loads, he killed loads, we both had each others objective, yet due to him having last turn, he managed to wipe out what I had on mine, and then rolled a 1 to end it. If it went on another turn I would of had him. Jaws killed the mad doc on turn 1 which was comical.
His army was:
2 wagons, 1 with 5 mega nobs & gaz, the other with 20 sluga boys & claw. 2 killa kans, 15 grots with slaver, 1 unit of 20 shoota boys with nob, 30 shoota boys with mad dok.
At the end of day 1 I was 2 wins & 1 loss.
In this game my rolls were attrocious. For example, 8 wulfen attacks (after rolling a 6), 4's to hit, not 1 hit. Rune priest assaults the 1 ork and nob with klaw with 1 wound on his objectyive (my main chance to properly hold his objective for a draw at least). 4 hits, no wounds....klaw turns around kills my priest. I assault 20 boys with a full hunter squad, only kill 6 orks, they knock me down to 3 men. Was rather frustrating. Gaz passed 3 jaws attempts. If the game went on to turn 6 or 7 I would have won or at least drawn.
Adam: How did the games on the second day go?
Alex: I will quickly tell you what and who they were against:
Simone De Tomaso with chaos lash.
Alejandro with horde orks and Gaz and wagon with rolla.
Spanish guy I can't spell his name, but he had 6 nob bikers and warboos, gaz in wagon with mega nobz, unit of 15 lootas, wagon with 20 boys, 10 gretchin.
I tabled bassically all 3 of these opponents. Simone had 2 oblits left and an immobilised raider, Alejandro had 9 grots left, and the Spanish guy, well I tabled him on turn 3...and I had first turn..so yeh! Ended up with 7941 VPs overall out of the possible 9000!
Adam: So where are you going from here? Continuing to expand your Space Wolves army or looking a new challenge?
Alex: From here on, I have a Land raider to paint, a few more termies, and I might be ordering some thunderwolves from MrDaddy or whatever the company is called.
I will also be starting the new Blood Angels. I have a few tourneys upcoming, there is a brighton warlords tourney mid april, I may go to the Open IX in Nottingham in may and perhaps Mayhem if I have the time off.
Adam: Thanks for talking to us about your time at the Grand Tournament and your fantastic Space Wolves army.
Hopefully our readers will get a lot out of it. I'm certainly eager to try out your Dawn of War deployment for myself as well as having the Wolf Guard with cyclone missile launcher and chainfist wandering off on his own and causing havoc.
31 comments:
March 25, 2010 at 4:14 AM
Nice article, but if possible could you give Alex's SW 1500 army list.
I'm painting my army and don't have much of playtesting so I'd like to see what others came up with...
March 25, 2010 at 5:31 AM
Woops, knew I'd forgotten something.
His list is now included above :)
March 25, 2010 at 6:04 AM
For a more detailed battle rep (which you could use adam) look here) Sorry I didnt get any pics as I have been busy, but may try getting sme this friday!
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250092
March 25, 2010 at 7:03 AM
That DoW deployment with the Rhinos is just genius.
March 25, 2010 at 7:10 AM
I can't wait to see the look on my mate's face when I pull that out of the bag! :D
March 25, 2010 at 8:55 AM
hehehe it did make me smile as well. An interesting list, it has certainly made me want to try more than one Rune Priest.
March 25, 2010 at 9:01 AM
I'm a little slow. Can someone explain the benefit of that DoW trick to me?
March 25, 2010 at 10:27 AM
Can anybody tell me why eldrad couldnt stay in the vehicle after the dragons got out? I just read the rules for indepenant characters and embarking/disembarking and it appears that either or both can get out of a transport regardless. Is Alex playing it wrong? does anyone know something i cant find? great idea with the rhino's btw - will be stealing that bad boy!
MJayC50
March 25, 2010 at 1:37 PM
Don't all the models in a unit have to be within 2" of the door to embark in a vehicle?
And can a unit move the full movement, embark, and then the transport move? I thought that the transport can only move if the unit embarking didn't move at all before getting in.
If those two things are true, (don't have rulebook on hand) then how would that DoW trick be at all advantageous?
Please help me out here.
March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM
Okay, let me explain how the Dawn of War 2 Rhino set up works.
You choose 2 Rhino transports as your starting 'troop' units and place them on to the board with their rear hatches 7" on or with their side armour facing 8" on.
In your first turn your army arrives from your table edge. 2 units can move 6" on and have all of their models (in tight formation) within 2" of the Rhino when they end their movement. This allows them to 'embark'. The Rhino may then drive at full speed towards the centre of the board, firing its smoke launchers.
So you're looking at deploying the Rhino 11" to 12" on before getting a squad in there and moving another 12", which gets you to the centre of the table.
March 25, 2010 at 3:17 PM
@ MJC50: I stated on warseer that I was wrong. I always played that independent character rule at my shop because my store manager told me it was played like that and I never brought it up. I asked one of the refs and they actually agreed with me so I assume not only was I mistaken, but so was the ref.
As to the Dow trick, as explained above, thats how its done :) Glad I have given some useful insight to my fellow Russ players. Shame I will see everyone doing that at the GT's though now :(! Maybe i should of kept it to myself lol.
March 25, 2010 at 3:41 PM
Main rule book, page 67 top right paragraph:
'They can disembark separately by either the unit or the characters disembarking while the others remain onboard...'
Didnt call a judge on this one did he?
March 25, 2010 at 4:46 PM
MJayC50
You are correct, it clearly states on page 67 that an IC can stay inside a tank while the squad gets out. I am surprised the eldar player didn't contest that and just look it up. It's written pretty plainly in the top right paragraph.
March 25, 2010 at 6:00 PM
We both called the judge and he said I was right :S
I later checked it up out of interes and we were both wrong, but as stated, wouldn't of made much difference, as he would of gone for the imobolished rhino, which would of been infact better for me as Id be closer.
March 26, 2010 at 5:28 AM
Good to know. Being as Alex is the best space wolf player in the country. Everything he says is golden. now my hero has proven to be fallible after all :P
these things happen all the time. multi editions and all that. suprised that the judge said no. I really wish they would get better judges. I always try to avoid getting a judge over unless i know they are good and fair and will look at the rules rather than the spotty little power hungry geek who just decrees! been on the wrong end of that a few times.
Rhino trick is awesome. Going to steal that mate. Sorry,. you should have kept it to yourself. like all great things. its so obvious nobody knows why they didnt think about it!
MJayC50
March 26, 2010 at 5:48 AM
I'm hurt MJayC50, I thought you were my fan-boi :P
Anyway, get ready for the next UK Grand Tournament when "Team Space Wolves" take to the field!
March 26, 2010 at 7:29 AM
I still want T-Shirts
March 26, 2010 at 9:10 AM
Sorry Adam! I will be there with my 1500 point 5 x thunderwolf army! Anyone going to wet their claws at the Bristol Vanquish event next weekend? If so i will see you there! (with my rhino tricks and wolf standards - on a side note has anyone noticed how you dont roll 1's when you use it?) GT 2010 is going to be full of wolves - pound for pound the best codex yet! (everything past ours has been pricey but good)
Plus shouldnt we be getting wolf pelts instead of T shirts? failing that im sure we can get some mink handbags from oxfam :S
MJayC
(must get an id...)
March 26, 2010 at 9:13 AM
ooo there you go :D Bout time I came out of my shell, im on here daily...
March 26, 2010 at 4:13 PM
Thank you for Army list
I've added your banner to the my blog, if you don't mind. http://spellscape.blogspot.com/
Here is mine
March 28, 2010 at 5:25 PM
This list looks poor for me, but you may play little different than we play in Poland. Are you coming to etc? Maybe you'll face Team Poland.
March 29, 2010 at 2:15 AM
Having nearly qualified for the GT final with my terrible Tau army, I believe that virtually any army played well can beat even the strongest lists.
I need to look into the ETC and other 40K tournaments. Maybe we'll see you there.
March 29, 2010 at 5:21 AM
Please feel free to outline how it is poor? I would love to hear polsh tactical insight o.o! I can't actualy find any weakness with it, and I don't know what you mean by "how we play". We use the same codex and rules so :S. Etc doesn't allow harsh special characters such as eldrad & Gaz, which makes my time even easier (ive beaten ghaz lists and eldrad lists many a time). Im not saying im a great player, but this list certainly has done me proud. I would accept it if you could actually provide information behind you saying this is a poor list? If you are in the UK any time soon, feel free to challenge me and we will see ;)!
March 29, 2010 at 7:07 AM
What I meant by different rules is that we in Poland basically use victory points system, and we don't play typical rulebook missions. I don't know how you play in UK, and that's why I said we may play different rules.
To the list, so I can't see how you can win ~10 chimera / hydra / manticore, + vendettas list, it would open you rhinos in 1-2 turns, and long fangs cant their tanks fast enough.
You have no real close combat butchers, so the 120+ orks lists should march over you.
And don't get me wrong, I only speak having in mind polish rules and polish lists. So you in UK may play different. For example you score 1 more objective, and despite everything else you win, kinda like on ETC. So the army might be better for this kind of rules.
Cheers and no offence ;)
March 29, 2010 at 2:04 PM
In the UK, we play the rule book missions and the victory conditions outlined in the rulebook missions.
And it's 1500pts.
March 29, 2010 at 2:07 PM
We play custom missions with objectives worth victory points + victory points for destroyed/halfed enemy units, or doubled destroyed halfed units in "annihiliation".
That might explain the list differences.
March 29, 2010 at 2:08 PM
Yeah, that's a pretty BIG difference alright! lol :)
April 16, 2010 at 12:00 PM
Im the eldar player alex beat in game 2 at the gt final and it is certainly an interesting battle report from Alex's point of view. lots of interesting rules being used. Lets just say my lack of playing experience (None) beween heat and final really showed. Learnt a lesson not to rush and check the rules though :). Learn from my mistakes and play your own game all.
Look forward to meeting you all at future games.
July 9, 2010 at 2:17 PM
Why do you have a Chainfist on the TDA Wolf Guard (which I am assuming sits with the Long Fangs?) If he isn't getting into CC? Seems a waste of points to me!
February 23, 2012 at 11:35 PM
Can you talk a little more about how you advance your tanks? I understand the Long Fangs stay back. When I try this army list, my Rhinos get popped half way across the field and the marines get chewed up. What do you do when you get to the center of the board?
June 9, 2012 at 2:42 AM
I know this article is a bit old, but I am a new player to space wolves and am about to try out this army against my friends orks. I was wondering if you had any reasons for going combi-melta powerfist on your wolf guard instead of terminator armor and powerfist since they are the same cost.
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