Battle Report: Scrap Heap Slaughter

Space Wolves VS Tyranids battle report in an Ork Scrap Yard. The final climatic battle to a great day spent at Warhammer World!

I've always been a massive fan of Simon's armies. I also knew I simply had to play on the Ork Scrap Yard board at Warhammer World at least once before they chucked it out and put a new themed board in its place. It seemed like a good day to try both!

Instead of rolling for mission and set up, we chose Annihilation and Pitched Battle deployment. It was the end of the day and we wanted something we could both sink our teeth into.

After some debate, we set the level at 2000 points, which suited me fine. I brought out my Battle Of The Chumps List. Simon threw something together on the spur of the moment, which looked like this:

Simon's 2000 Points Tyranid Swarm

Warrior Prime, lashwhip, bone sword, scything talons
Doom of Malantai in Mycetic Spore
Deathleaper
5 Tyranid Warriors
9 Genestealers led by Brood Lord
9 Genestealers led by Brood Lord
12 Gargoyles
8 Shrikes
Trygon Prime
Trygon Prime
Tyranofex

SET UP
I won the roll off, and knowing I couldn't defend a whole table side, deployed everything to the left of the centre. The Land Raider with Wolf Guard Terminators was in the centre, the Rune Priest with Grey Hunters in his Rhino behind with a Land Speeder and some Long Fangs on a nearby platform for fire support.

Further left, two more Grey Hunter filled Rhinos were deployed around the scrap and ruins while the small Grey Hunter pack in a Razorback and the two Long Fang Razorbacks with lascannons deployed far left. Finally, a second pack of Long Fangs set up firing positions atop the large building on the left.

Now to see what kind of targets I would be presented with...

On the far left Simon set up his Warriors, led by Prime and two Trygons. The Tyrannofex took centre and to the right his Gargoyles and Shrikes flapped on.
The Doom of Malanthai went into reserve. I could just imagine the carnage he'd wreak with one well placed deep strike.
One swarm of Genestealers also Outflanked and would no doubt jump on my Razorback parked on the far left flank.
Finally, the second swarm of Genestealers Infiltrated on the right flank, alongside the Rune Priest's Rhino, next to a suitable mine shaft as their hiding place.

Simon rolled to Seize The Initiative...and failed.

TURN 1
Long Fangs and Razorbacks let loose a salvo of missiles and lascannon blasts into the slithering Trygons, but the terrain was too dense to see even these enormous creatures and both continued forward, sustaining a wound or two each.

Meanwhile the Grey Hunter Rhinos advanced through the scrap and up the hill towards the centre, as did the Land Raider full of Wolf Guard Terminators and between them laid down a thick cloud with their smoke launchers.

On the right flank the Rune Priest casts Murderous Hurricane at the Infiltrated Genestealers, killing two of them with shards of deadly razorhail.

A multimelta blast from the nearby Land Speeder kills another while the second Land Speeder Tubro Boosts across from the left flank for more fire support next turn.

The Genestealers sprint through the scrap and razorhail towards the Rune Priest's Rhino and sustain more casualties under the Murderous Hurricane before finally reaching the Space Wolf transport and failing to damage it.

The Tyranid swarm advance as one. Trygons slither in between buildings, scattering wreckage in their wake. Tyranid Warriors sprint behind, meanwhile a flapping swarm of Gargoyles sweep around the Wolf Guard Land Raider, closely followed by the deadly Shrikes.

The Tyrannofex fires it's enormous bio-cannon at the Land Raider, but the vehicle's thick armour and smoke screen keep it safe from harm.

TURN 2
Two Grey Hunter Razorbacks to the centre, advance towards the Trygons, firing their storm bolters at the monstrous creatures.

Another salvo of krak missiles tears one of the Trygons apart in a gory splatter of chitin and ichor as the warheads detonate within its carapace. Lances of energy from the lascannon Razorbacks slice through the other Trygon, but it slithers on despite its heavy wounds.

Meanwhile the Rune Priest and his Grey Hunters disembark from their Rhino transport which drives off, exposing the Genestealer brood. Before the Rune Priest can cast another Murderous Hurricane, the Genestealers are incinerated by the nearby Land Speeder's heavy flamer. A charred Brood Lord is left roaring its defiance, until it is blasted apart by the other Land Speeder's multimelta.

The Rune Priest and his squad turn their attention to the Tyranid Gargoyles, but are only able to kill 6 of them.

The Land Raider smashes through vehicle wreckage and across the battlefield, the assault ramp slams open and the Wolf Guard Terminators storm out, combi-weapons raised. Melta blasts, plasma fire and krak missiles cause the air to shimmer as the Tyrannofex faulters and explodes into fire. The battle hardened Space Wolves surround the towering behemoth and set to it with their power weapons, wolf claws and the deafening whirr of a bone sawing chainfist. The hulking creature is torn apart and the Wolf Guard lift is head aloft in victory! But their victory is short lived...

Seeing my chance to wave a 'juicy bone' at Simon, I consolidate the Wolf Guard Terminators just within charge range of his Shrikes. I want to get his winged Warriors into the open where I can hammer them with my heavy weapons rather than try to shoot them through a screen of terrain and Gargoyles.

Simon takes the bait and the Shrikes sweep away the Wolf Guard with no resistance. He then rolls poorly for his Sweeping Advance and the Shrikes are out in the open.

The Outflanking Genestealer brood appears on the left flank and charges the Long Fangs Razorback, immobilising it.

The Death-Leaper appears behind the small building to the left of the Rune Priest and Long Fangs stood above the winch shaft.

The Tyranid Warriors get stuck advancing through the scrap.

Meanwhile the Gargoyle swarm descends through the Murderous Hurricane unscathed and into close combat with the Long Fangs atop the winch shaft. With little room to manoeuvre, the old Space Wolves fail to Counter-Charge and can only kill a single Gargoyle before two of them are cut down. The pack fails its morale test and falls back. However, the Gargoyles are unable to catch them and consolidate behind some nearby scrap.

TURN 3
The fleeing Long Fangs automatically regroup. A salvo of krak missiles and lascannon blasts from the Long Fangs on the ground, the Long Fangs on the roof of the large building on the left, the two Long Fang Razorbacks and the Land Raider obliterate the flapping Tyranid Shrikes. Only a single Shrike soars above the explosions and sweeping lances of energy.

The top hatches of the two Grey Hunter Rhinos slam open and the Wolf Guard armed with combi-meltas and Grey Hunters armedwith melta guns turn their weapons to bear on the wounded Tyrgon towering above them while krak missiles scream overhead, towards the Shrikes. The Space Wolves fire isn't very accurate and the Trygon is left screaching its defiance with a single wound.

On the right flank the Rune Priest and Ghis rey Hunters advance on foot, cutting down the Gargoyles with their boltpistols before they can charge.

At the back of the battlefield the Grey Hunters Razorback fires at the Death Leaper, but its shots go wild.

A Mycetic Spore falls from the sky and bursts apart like a rotten fruit. The seething creature within eerily levitates out and instantly the regrouped Long Fangs fall to the ground with a clatter of armour, their souls silently devoured by the Doom Of Malanthai.

A torrent of acidic bile, followed by a blast of raw Psychic power kills 6 of the Grey Hunters accompanying the Rune Priest, but the Space Wolves hold their ground.

The wounded Trygon charges into one of the Grey Hunter Rhinos while the Shrike swoops down from the sky to charge the other. One of the Rhinos is wrenched apart by the strength of the Trygon's scything talons, exposing the Grey Hunters within.

The Tyranid Warriors continue their laboured advance through the ruins. Low difficult terrain rolls can really ruin your day!

On the left flank, the Genestealers turn their attention from the immobilised Razorback to the Long Fangs on the roof, leaping upon the Space Wolves and ripping them apart in a frenzy of rending claws and burning venom. Only the sergeant bravely battles on.

TURN 4
The Rune Priest, Wolf Guard and Grey Hunter hastily embark in their Rhino transport and drive away from the Doom of Malanthai. The Rune Priest casts Jaws Of The World Wolf and the ground splits assunder. The Doom of Malanthai floats silently above the chasm while the Mycetic Spore behind it crashes into the bottomless depths.

The nearby Land Speeder blasts the Doom of Malanthai with its mutlimelta, but the heat washes harmlessly over the creature's psychic shield.

The Grey Hunters gun down the Trygon with their melta guns, the Razorbacks kill the last Shrike with their lascannons and the Land Raider hammers the Tyranid Warriors with deadly accurare fire from it's lascannons and heavy bolters.

The Genestealers finish off the last Long Fang in close comabt before leaping from the building and back to the immobilised Razorback.

Death-Leaper assaults the Grey Hunter Razorback, but fails to inflict any damage.

The Tyranid Warriors hug cover and fire at one of the Grey Hunter Rhinos, but with no effect.

The Doom of Malanthai casts its psychic blast once more, but the shot scatters wildly away from the Rune Priest's Rhino.

In the following turn the Genestealers tear apart the immobilised Razorback, the Doom of Malanthai seems impervious to damage and the mechanised Space Wolf army advances across the board, away from the Death-Leaper and towards the Tyranid Warriors.

Space Wolves Kill Points: 7
Tyranid Kills Points: 5

CONCLUSION
"Too much Mech" Simon said at the end of the game. He was right. Without Tyranid Hive Guard or Zoanthropes there was little he could do against a mechanised Space Marine army, let alone a mechanised Space Wolves army. He got shot -a lot!

This battle report may read like I sat back and blew him away, but it was surprisingly tense. The Gargoyles were the perfect screen for the Shrikes, who proved to be the bane of all infantry with their lash whips, bone swords and scything talons.

Even so, for me the stars of the show were the Wolf Guard Terminators in their Land Raider. Both were brilliant! First the Wolf Guard rampaged across the board, firing their combi-weapons into the face of the Tyrannofex before cutting it down with their power weapons. Unfortunately, they became an expensive piece of bait (aka: the juicy bone!) that I knew Simon couldn't resist.

As soon as the Shrikes were drawn into the open, I hit them with every krak missile and lascannon I could bring to bear. It's this that really won the game for me. Otherwise I'd have struggled to take them out while they could make short work of my infantry once they'd dug them out of their transports.

I look forward to playing Simon's amazing Tyranid army again. Hopefully next time with Hive Guard, Tervigons and a Hive Tyrant joined by Hive Guard. After all, I need something tasty to cast Jaws Of The World Wolf on!

Preview: Scrap Heap Slaughter

"I don't like it!" Thorstein barked into the face of Vargas 'Iron Fang', the Rune Priest. He was the best military mind on the field and Vargas damn well knew it. He wasn't elevated to the position of Wolf Guard for his subtlety with a power fist either. But he was still playing a dangerous game disrespecting the word of a Rune priest.

Vargas had felt a "Calm in the storm" as he'd put it. Thorstein knew an ambush when he smelt it and in the baking heat the Ork scrap yard reeked.

Leaning out the top hatch of their Rhino transport and dazzled by the low sun, the landscape of rusted metal and crooked structures spanned as far as the eye could see. They would have no choice but to cross it if they were to rejoin the main force in good time. Haste decided their route through the scrap. Thorstein signalled the battle group to procede with caution, hatches open and weapons at the ready.

Soon all sense of formation was lost as the maze of metal divided the Space Wolves convoy, but they pressed on. Vargas leaned on his totem headed staff like a walking cane, lightly swaying in meditation. Meanwhile Thorstein scanned the horizon, then to the Long Fangs Razorback on this left behind a mound of mutilated Imperial Guard tanks while the Grey Hunters Rhino to his right crashed through a stack of barrells which crashed, rolled and spilt their inky contents across the dry ground.

There! Thorstein's eyes caught the slightest movement before a pale Ork scrambled out from a ramshackle tank with a snort. Before he could raise his bolter, the scrawny greenskin was wrenched back into the darkness with a pig like squeal.

Vargas' staff clattered to the floor.

An enormous multi-limbed creature burst out from the road ahead, snaking upwards, scattering scrap and wreckage in all directions. Casting tank wrecks aside as if they were toys. Storm bolters blazed orange fire, missiles screamed over head. Wide mouthed and wide eyed, Thorstein raised his combi-melta.

The Rune Priest gathered up his staff and tightly held it to him. There was a flash of power in his eyes as frost gathered on his armour and a chill wind hardened his features.

Everyhwere, hissing creatures crept and crawled out from wrecks, ruins and the sun baked earth.

"Tyranids" Vargas snarled and the skies darkened as swarms of winged creatures descended through wind and rain of the gathering storm.

See you tomorrow for the battle report!

Space Wolves VS Chaos Daemons Batrep

Although I was raring to play Simon's Tyranids, Graham Apperley challenged me to a game instead before suggesting we flip a coin to see which armies we'd be playing. I got a feeling that after Botch he didn't fancy playing against me and my Space Wolves.

We flipped a coin and I was playing his beautifully painted Chaos Daemons army against my 1500 points Space Wolves list from Botch. I was scared to touch his models, let alone face my own army!

We rolled for mission and got Capture & Control with a Spear Head deployment.

1500 Points of Space Wolves

Rune Priest
Jaws of the World Wolf & Murderous Hurricane

(X3) Grey Hunter Pack:
Wolf Guard with Combi Melta and Powerfist
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

Grey Hunter Pack:
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun and Mark of Wulfen
Razorback APC transport

(X2) Land Speeders:
Multimelta and Heavy Flamer

(X2) Long Fangs Pack:
1 sergeant, 5 Long Fangs with Missile Launchers
Razorback APC with twin linked lascannon

1500 Points of Chaos Daemons

Blood Thirster
Great Unclean One, wind of chaos
6 Blood Crushers, icon, standard, rage
6 Fiends of Slaanesh
6 Fiends of Slaanesh
5 Pink Horrors
5 Pink Horrors
9 Pink Horrors + Changeling

SET UP
I won the roll off and opted to go first, choosing the corner with some small line of sight blocking scenery, while forcing Graham to deploy behind a large hill covered in battlements in order to make it difficult for him to bring his numbers and fire power to bear.

Having killed Chaos Daemons a few times with my Space Wolves I knew that only the big guys could really win against the Space Wolves in close combat, but I'd need some buildings to hide behind for all those missile launchers.

I then placed my Objective behind the small ruin closest to the centre of the table.

Graham placed his Objective in the top right corner, then deployed his forces forward, encircling the left of the large hill. A small pack of Grey Hunters in a Razorback sat on the Objective at the rear.

Unless I could somehow fight my way to his Objective, this game was going to be a draw -his cautious set up had pretty much ensured that.

TURN 1
I divided the Daemons into two waves. The first consisted of all the HARD stuff. The second consisted of all the squishy stuff. I rolled to see which one I got and sighed as the squishy stuff showed up. Oh well.

The first pack of Pink Horrors scattered wildly away from the Objective hidden behind the small ruin left of the centre and out, into the open ground.

The second pack of Pink Horrors landed on target.

The third pack of Pink Horrors lead by Changeling landed to the right of the hill and a pack of Slaanesh Fiends appeared beside them.

My shooting was appauling, while the Grey Hunter squad that advanced through the fortifications atop the hill gunned down the Pink Horrors in the open while the two Landspeeders doused Changeling and his Pink Horrors in flame, killing a few and wounding one of the Fiends.

TURN 2
The Blood Crushers arrived from reserve, appearing to the left of the fortified hill and ran into a dispersed formation.

Changeling and his Pink Horrors advanced around the hill and missed with everything!

The 5 Pink Horrors hiding behind a ruin to the left, continued to hold the objective and fired a Bolt of Tzeentch at one of the Land Speeders and missed.

Meanwhile the Slaanesh Fiends galloped over the barricades on the hill and into close combat with the Grey Hunters only to be mercilessly cut down by the Space Wolves' counter charge!

The Rune Priest and a pack of Grey Hunters rocked up in their Rhino and disembarked while the rest of the Space Wolves brought their firepower to bear on the Blood Crushers. Some clever wound allocation later and almost every model had taken a wound -then the Grey Hunters that had butchered the Slaanesh Fiends charged in, killing 2 of the Blood Crushers before being wiped out in return. Space Marines should never charge units with lots of power weapon attacks!

TURN 3
The Blood Thirster, Great Unclean One and the last unit of Slaanesh Fiends arrived from Reserve. Now things were going to get messy for the Space Wolves!

I used the Blood Crusher's Icon to safely land the Blood Thirster behind one of the Bastions, out of sight from all those Long Fangs and their missile launchers. Meanwhile the Great Unclean One landed to the left of the Blood Crushers, his triple barrelled toxicannon at the ready.

The second pack of Slaanesh Fiends emerged in front of the Grey Hunters Razorback parked on the objective and ran towards it.

With a gurgling chuckle the Great Unclean fired his toxicannon (aka: Wind of Chaos), and several Grey Hunters screamed as the corrisive slime ate away at their armour, flesh and bones. Only the Rune Priest who was hiding behind the Rhino wreck and a handful of Space Wolves remained, who were in turn charged and wiped out by the Blood Crushers, who then consolidated back on to the hill.

Changeling and his Pink Horrors advanced around the hill and missed with everything!

The Rune Priest dashed behind the Rhino wreckage and cast Jaws Of The World Wolf at the Blood Crushers, but all of them easily cleared the gaping casm that appeared beneath them.

Meanwhile the two Land Speeders fly alongside the Blood Crushers, dousing them with chemical fire and blasts from their multi meltas while Grey Hunters and Long Fangs in the woods to the North added their firepower to the attack. But not a single one of the Blood Crushers fell to their combined fire!

TURN 4
The Great Unclean One charged the Rune Priest, taking a wound from the Rune Axe before smashing the Space Wolf to pumped metal, blood and meat with his bloated fist, then waddled around the Rhino wreck to take cover from the Space Wolves in the wood.

The Blood Thirster leapt into the sky, landing in amongst the Long Fangs over the other side of the bastion and set about them with abandon, killing four, but the veteran Space Wolves held their ground.

The Blood Crushers charged the Land Speeders, immobilising one.

The Fiends of Slaanesh charged the Grey Hunter Razorback top right, wrecking it.

Changeling and his Pink Horrors advanced around the hill and missed with everything!

One of the Space Wolf Land Speeders sped towards the 5 Pink Horrors holding an objective behind a small ruin that obscured line of sight to them. It fired it's heavy flamer, killing one of them.

The Blood Thirster finished off the Long Fangs while the rest of the Space Wolves could only look on in horror as the Greater Daemon of Khorne left their mangled bodies behind and advanced towards the Grey Hunter Razorback wreck with 5 Grey Hunters cowering behind it!

TURN 5
The Blood Thirster took to the skies once more, landing just short of the Grey Hunters sitting on the Objective to charge them.

The Fiends of Slaanesh charged into the tank wreckage, only to be cut down by the Grey Hunters as they called on their Wolf Standard for inspiration and a particularly ferocious warrior with The Mark Of The Wulfen!

The Great Unclean One waddled towards the Land Speeder harassing the Pink Horrors and fired his Toxicannon, which melted through the skimmer's anti-grav engines, stalling it in mid-air, before closing in and pulverising the crew with his swollen club of a fist.

The Blood Crushers smashed the other downed Land Speeder beneath their iron hooves.

A deadly accurate salvo of krak missiles from the Long Fangs in the wounds slammed into the Blood Thirster, banishing him back to the warp.

Changeling and his Pink Horrors advanced around the hill and missed with everything!

The game ended at a Draw with 1 Objective in the possession of the Chaos Daemons and 1 Objective held by the Space Wolves.


CONCLUSION
As soon as Graham set up his Objective in the corner, I knew how this game was going to go. But he did make it easy for me. His units were tripping over each other at times, while at other times they were too sparse and poorly supported to offer any real resistance. Had my first wave of Daemons arrived instead of my second wave, I doubt he could have held them off. In fact, he barely moved all game, which is just as well when he made mincemeat of my Slaanesh Fiends in close combat!

From previous experience, I've learned that Space Wolves tend to eat Chaos Daemons for breakfast due to their Counter Charge ability and the Counter-Attack nature of the army. Essentially you hole up in the centre, then kill stuff as it arrives.

I don't think that there was really much more I could have done with this Daemons army against the Space Wolves -especially with that many krak missiles. If Graham had chosen to occupy the hill instead of avoid it, he could have hammered me, then waited for my guys to get into charge range, or simply let himself be charged and clean up.

Maybe it's just as well we swapped armies for this game? Either way, we had a great time and I'd definitely like to play Graham again. Hopefully he'll break out his Eldar again.

Warhammer 40K Doubles Games Rock!

This weekend I played my first Warhammer 40K doubles game. Games of 40K are all about the synergy of your army, but what about synergy between two armies and two opponents? When it works, it's brilliant and now I can see why Warhammer 40K Doubles tournaments sell out so fast!

I was paired with 'best painted' and 'best sportsman' winner extraordinaire Graham Apperley against old rival Simon Thorne. Graham had 750 points of his stunning Chaos Daemons, I had 750 points Space Wolves and Simon had 1500 points of his awesome Tyranids.

Until my Daemonic allies arrived, I'd have to fend off 1500 points of Tyranids with just 750 points of Space Wolves. So I did what I always do -deploying my Long Fangs in cover with a good view to the whole battlefield while placing my Grey Hunter Rhinos as far forward as possible and firing their smoke launchers.

The Long Fangs inflicted a lot of damage early on while the later arrival of the Daemons allowed our units to 'team up' on some of the Tyranid units.

There was some discussion between Graham and Simon about Space Wolves being far too hard, so as this was a friendly game, I charged all my Grey Hunters out into the middle of the battlefield, cutting down the Trygon just as he turned my Rune Priest to mush.

Then the Tyranid Shrikes swooped down from the skies, charging the Grey Hunters and tearing them all to bloody rags! That's right, Tyranid Shrikes -keep an eye out for these, they are Space Marine killers without equal.

Having done serious damage to the Tyranid army with my Long Fangs, my Daemonic allies arrived just in time to prevent the Space Wolves from being wiped out while the Fiends of Slaanesh tore the remaining Tyranids to peices.

In the second doubles game of the day, Simon's Tyranids tore apart James's Dark Angels and Glenn's Word Bearers. So it sems that a single 1500 points list can successfully take on two 750 points lists and win. Although I can imagine that at a more competitive level, Character spam and a well co-ordinated combination of abilities between two armies could crush a regular 1500 points tournament force.

I'll have a chat with James and see if he's up for some doubles games of Warhammer 40K with his Dark Angels and my Space Wolves. It'll be fun if nothing else!

Have you been to a doubles tournament?

Warhammer World Week

Just got back from a day of games at Warhammer World with a couple of guys I know through the tournament scene. Had a fantastic time and played my first doubles game since I was a kid, swapped armies for another game and rounded the day off with a grudge match that had been 5 years in the making!

If you've never been to Warhammer World before, it's well worth rocking up with a group of friends for a day of games. But check their Calendar before you set off or you may find a tournament taking up nearly all of the tables!

They've got some stunning tables to play on as well as the standard tournament style set ups. In my final game I was able to grab the incredible Ork Scrapyard table for my grudge match against Simon Thorne's Tyranids in a 2000 points blood bath!

So stay tuned for my thoughts on Warhammer 40K Doubles games, a Daemons VS Space Wolves battle report where we swap armies, something spontaneous on Thursday, and we round off the week with an incredible Tyranids VS Space Wolves battle report on Friday!

Blood Angels VS Space Wolves Battle Report

Another Blood Angels VS Space Wolves battle report! This time my Space Wolves take on Alex Ley's Blood Angels. Having never played his army before, I went easy on him. And having never played against Blood Angels with my Space Wolves, I was interested to see what the bright red space emos could do.

Well, I found out when they charged me!!

Fortunately the Space Wolves were made of sterner stuff and could hold their own with some deadly counter charges. Still, the Baal Predators were deadly -but that could come down to my inability to pass armour saves or cover saves.

We rolled for mission and got Annihilation with a Pitched Battle set up. At least things would be nice and simple for our first game.

I offered Alex the choice of my Nasty 1500 Points Space Wolves list or my Friendly 1500 Points Space Wolves list. He chose the 'friendly' option and ended up facing:

Adam's Friendly 1500 Points Space Wolves Army

Wolf Priest
Wolf tail talisman, wolf tooth necklace, saga of the beast slayer
Wolf Guard
Terminator armour, combi-melta, chainfist
15 Blood Claws
2 Melta guns

Wolf Guard
Combi-melta, powerfist
9 Grey Hunters
Melta gun, power fist, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen
+ Rhino APC

Wolf Guard
Combi-melta, powerfist
9 Grey Hunters
Melta gun, power fist, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen
+ Rhino APC

Wolf Guard
Combi-melta, powerfist
9 Grey Hunters
Melta gun, power fist, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen
+ Rhino APC

Wolf Guard
Terminator armour, cyclone missile launcher
6 Long Fangs
5 Missile launchers
+ Razorback APC with twin linked lascannon


Meanwhile, I was facing a list based loosely on the Blood Angels Jump Pack Army discussed a while back.

Alex Ley's 1500 Points Blood Angels Army

Librarian
Jump pack, blood lance, sanguine sword

6 Sanguinary Guard
Including sanguinary priest, banner and fusion pistol

Sanguinary Priest
Jump pack (he joins one of the Assault Squads)

10 Assault Marines
Sergeant with power fist, 2 melta guns

10 Assault Marines
Sergeant with power fist, 2 melta guns

10 Assault Marines
Sergeant with power fist, 2 melta guns

Baal Predator
twin linked assault cannon turret, heavy bolter sponsons

Baal Predator
twin linked assault cannon turret, heavy bolter sponsons


THE GAME
I won the roll to go first, battle lines were drawn and Alex kept his Baal Predators in reserve, Outflanking. Alex then rolled to Seize The Initiative, failed and the Space Wolves army advanced, disembarking from vehicles and getting into firing positions.

I had to see how much firepower I could lay down and how many casualties I could inflict before he charged me.

There wasn't much Alex could do but advance right into my guns. The Grey Hunters advanced into rapid fire range while the Blood Claws ran into a bunker.

The Long Fangs fired missiles into one of the Assault Squads. The Razorback killed 1 Sanguinary Guard per turn with its lascannon.

Other than that, the Space Wolves firepower was woefully ineffective and the Blood Angels crashed into the grey armoured line.

When the dust cleared, one Grey Hunter pack had been wiped out, the Long Fangs squad leader and Wolf Guard were fleeing and the Blood Claws had been butchered by the Sanguinary Guard. Only the Wolf Priest, Wolf Guard and a handful of Blood Claws heroically battled on!

The Wolf Priest and Wolf Guard managed to kill the Librarian and the Sanguinary Guard, but the remaining Blood Claws and Wolf Priest were dragged down in the combat.

The Grey Hunters charged into the Assault squads while the remnants of the Long Fangs pack automatically rallied and charged in as well.

A slow battle of attrition began over the following turns with the Space Wolves having the upper hand thanks to a mass of attacks from the Wulfen and the extra powerfist in each Grey Hunter squad.

By the end of the battle, the two Baal Predators were chasing round 2 Rhinos and a Razorback while a pack of Grey Hunters were firing their melta gun out of the top hatch at the nearest Baal Predator.

The Razorback exploded. One of the Baal Predators exploded and the game ended.

5 Kill Points to the Blood Angels
7 Kill Points to the Space Wolves


CONCLUSION:
Once the game ended, Alex and I shook hands, said "good game" in the traditional manner and then he thanked me for letting him charge in, but still giving him a challenge.

Sure, I set myself up to get charged and I took a weaker list. But Alex needed to learn how to play his army while I had to learn what the Blood Angels could do and how to play against them with my Space Wolves.

Like the Space Wolves, Blood Angels are devastating in the first round of combat -if they charge. Plus, Feel No Pain confered by the Sanguinary Priests is a real headache. Add the Sanguinary Guard's banner which gives everyone in range an extra attack and things get even tougher.

But once both sides have taken some casualties, the my Grey Hunters seemed to win out thanks to the Wolf Standard, extra Power Fist and Space Wolves with the Mark Of The Wulfen to increase the volume of basic (and sometimes rending) attacks.

Statistically (unless you're basing it on my terrible dice rolling), Feel No Pain and the Wolf Standard do the same thing for a single round when it comes to armour saves. That gives you 1 round to gut the Sanguinary Priest in an Assault Squad.

However, if the Blood Angels get charged, then they die, because they don't get any of their bonuses. They still get Feel No Pain, but when most of my opponents never seem to fail a 3+ save anyway, it's not such a big deal. Then the rending attacks and Power Fists guarantee the kills.

I'm looking forward to my next Space Wolves VS Blood Angels game, when I'll take a stronger list and play a little more tactically.

+ BONUS BATTLE REPORT +

Having played against Alex Ley's Blood Angels army, I was keen to have a game with it. So when James was up for a game, I graciously excepted.

The mission was Annihilation with a Spear Head deployment. James won the roll off and set up his latest 'castling marines' list. I kept the Baal Predators in reserve while all of my jump troops would be Deep Striking in.

I rolled to Seize The Initiative, won it and left James with just 1 turn to get everything in position.

I rolled for my reserves and pretty much everything showed up. Then I rerolled for my Assault Squads thanks to the Descent Of Angels rule and my whole army was on the board -which began blasting away at his Assault Squad led by his Chaplain. (Often referred to as "the Cheese Vicar".)

His army advanced and opened fire...and I failed pretty much every armour save and every 4+ Feel No Pain save. This left me with half an Assault Squad and the Sanguinary Guard led by Librarian. But I played on!

In my phase the two squads charged his Chaplain led Assault Marines and cut down all but the Cheese Vicar himself.

Then the two Blood Angels squads bounced from unit to unit, cutting them down one by one while the Baal Predators gradually wittled down the smaller combat squads.

With James's best unit out of the game, nothing could stop the Sanquinary Guard with their 2+ save, 4+ Feel No Pain save and sheer plethora of master crafted power weapons.

Although it has to be said that James was a bit daft breaking his units into Combat Squads and the best he could have done after the initial slaughter of my Deep Striking troops would have been to charge in his marines en masse in an attempt to drag down my guys. But with his lack of power weapons, the Sanquinary Guard would have been nigh on invincible.

If you play Blood Angels and don't have a unit of Sanguinary Guard yet, Get Some Now!

Since this game James has vowed to give his sergeants Power Weapons and get a Vindicator in his list.

I have a funny feeling I'll be seeing more of James' "Castling Marines" strategy in the weeks to come...

Space Wolves Vs Blood Angels Battle Report

Brad's Space Wolves take on Yukka's Blood Angels in this tense Space Wolves vs Blood Angels battle report!

Yes, the time has come for Spaces Wolves to feature a Battle Report versus the new kids on the block, the Blood Angels. In this battle report Space Vampire will battle against Space Wolf in a centuries old mythical grudge match, no punches will be pulled in this titanic clash.

In this battle report my 1750 Space Wolf army will do battle against Yukka's 1750 Death from above style Blood Angels list which consisted of:


Yukka's 1750 Blood Angels Army

Librarian
Jump Pack
Blood Lance
Sword of Sanguinius

5 Honour Guard
3 Meltaguns
Sanguinary Novitiate

3 Sanguinary Priests
Jump Packs
Power Weapons

5 Sanguinary Guard

10 Assault Marines
2 Meltaguns
Powerfist

10 Assault Marines
2 Meltaguns
Powerfist

10 Assault Marines
2 Meltaguns
Powerfist

Land Speeder
MultiMelta
Heavy Flamer

Land Speeder Typhoon
Heavy Bolter

Land Speeder Typhoon
Heavy Bolter


Brads 1750 Space Wolf Army

Rune Priest
Wolf Tail Talisman
Living Lightning
Jaws of the World Wolf

Rune Priest
Murderous Hurricane
Jaws of the World Wolf

Wolf Guard, Combi Melta, Mark of Wulfen
6 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun, Mark of Wulfen

Wolf Guard, Combi Melta, Powerfist
8 Grey Hunters
Powerfist
Wolf Standard
Meltagun
Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC

Wolf Guard, Combi Melta, Powerfist
8 Grey Hunters
Powerfist
Wolf Standard
Meltagun
Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC

Wolf Guard, Combi Melta, Powerfist
8 Grey Hunters
Powerfist
Wolf Standard
Meltagun
Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC

Wolf Guard, Combi Melta, Powerfist
8 Grey Hunters
Wolf Standard
Meltagun
Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC

6 Long Fangs
Pack leader
5 Missile Launchers

6 Long Fangs
Pack Leader
5 Missile Launchers

5 Long Fangs
Pack Leader
2 Heavy Bolters
2 Plasma Cannons


Deployment
We rolled the Seize Ground mission with a Dawn of War deployment. We then roll for objectives and get four. Three are placed centrally while I place the fourth on the left side out in the open making it a risky target.

Yukka wins the roll off and gives me first turn. Knowing that his army will be in reserve I decide to hold every off table and move on in turn one, as expected the Blood Angels hold their entire army in reserve.

Turn 1
My entire army rocks on in the first turn, I deploy the Rhinos in the typical Boars Snout formation and move a Long Fang pack onto each flank placing them out on their own to make them look tempting to any roving assault squads. The Plasma Fangs deploy behind the Rhinos to make use of their slightly shorter ranged weapons.

From the Blood Angels side of the battlefield there was silence....

Turn 2
I move my Rhinos into better positions and pop smoke on them all whilst all three Long Fang packs get into cover and prepare their weapons.

With a shriek and a roar Blood Angel Thunderhawks swoop over the battlefield and drop their deadly cargo in a shower of Red and Gold. I smiled as it looked like the Blood Angels had taken the bait and decided to land on each of my Flanks going after the easy Long Fang packs. On my left the Sanguinary Guard and a couple of Assault Squads land behind the ruins whilst on the my right the Librarian and his Honour Guard land near my Rhinos supported by a full 10 man assault squad.

In support of the Assault troops two of the three Land Speeders roar onto the field, one of the Typhoons sets up in the deployment zone on my left flank whilst the Multi Melta speeder lands near the Librarians squad.

The choice of juicy targets is too tempting and the Honour Guard and Assault squad nearby get busy with Melta guns blasting apart a Rhino leaving the pack inside in the wreckage but un pinned. The right hand pack of Long fangs are fired upon and lose three of their number.

Over on the right flank the Sanguinary Guard and Assault troops make use of the run move and close in on my flanks.

Turn 3
So far my plan was working, Yukka had taken the bait and divided his army to go for my Long Fang packs. My turn started off well with my Wolf Scouts coming in from reserve and rolling 3+ on the OBEL roll. I decide to use them to attack the Sanguinary Guard and slow down their advance on my left flank.

The Grey Hunter pack that had lost its Rhino closed in on the Librarians Honour Guard unit to A) get closer to assault and B) open up a lane of fire from my Plasmacannon toting Long Fangs to the huge assault squad tightly packed together that had landed last turn.

The rest of my packs shuffled around and stayed in their transports waiting for the right moment.

In the shooting phase the Wolf Scouts opened up with Melta fire but failed to kill any Sanguinary Guard. The Grey Hunters fired on the Honour Guard but only killed one. The the Plasmacannon long Fangs charged up their guns and let rip across the board at the Assault Squad killing seven of them outright.

The two Long Fangs with Heavy Bolters opened fire on the Land Speeder Typhoon hitting its grav engines causing it to glide to the ground immobilised.

Meanwhile Skalf sees the danger closing in on the Long Fangs to my right so tries to cast Murderous Hurricane but the fledgling Rune Priest tries a little too hard and fries his mind with warp energy failing to cast the spell.

In the Assault Phase my scouts plough into the Sanguinary Guard and between them the two Wulfen manage to get 13 attacks! My luck runs out there though as I only manage to get two rending hits killing two Sanguianry Guard. In return the Veteran Blood Angels kill two scouts ending the combat in a draw.

Over on my left flank the Grey Hunters charge the into the Honour Guard, the Space Wolves rip into the unit losing a few of their number but manage to wipe out the Honour Guard leaving the Librarian all alone.

In the Blood Angel turn the final Land Speeder comes on and takes position behind its counterpart. The rest of the Blood Angel army closes in on the Space wolves preparing to strike.

The Long fangs on the right flank take heavy fire reducing the pack to two veterans.

With little else to shoot the Blood Angels begin their assault phase. The Librarian summons the power of Sanguinious and casts the Sanguine Sword, he then proceeds to wipe out the remaining Grey Hunters he is in combat with without taking any wounds back.

The Wolf Scouts get charged by an assault squad but manage to kill off another Sanguinary Guard before they are all cut down.

My Long Fangs on the right flank get charged by an Assault Squad overcome by the red Thirst, the old dogs are too slow to react in time and take heavy casualties but the last surviving member hold his ground against the beserk vampires.

Turn 4
With the scouts no longer holding up the left flank its only a matter of time before I get charged. I stick with plan and use my firepower advantage, my Long Fangs stun the second Typhoon while the Plasma Cannons finish off the Sanguinary Guard despite them being in heavy cover.

Ulf tries to cast living Lightning but is shut down by the Pyschic Hood of the Blood Angels Librarian. Skalf again try to cast Murderous Hurricane but this time he has mis judged the distance and it has no effect. Back to Rune priest camp for him I think.

The only combat this turn is my lone Long Fang who is swmaped by Chainsword and Power weapon attacks but somehow manages to survive, he swings his missile launcher in wide arcs fending off the Blood Angels. The ferocious attack must have put the Blood Angels Sgt off as he misses with both his Powerfist attacks. Once again the combat is a draw and the Long Fangs hold the unit in place.

The Blood Angel turn starts off with the final assault squad coming in from reserve, desperate to get into the action it Deep Strikes right next to Ulfs Rhino missing it by a few millimetre.

The Librarian leaps across the ruins towards Ulfs Rhino and joins up with a nearby assault squad.

The two Land Speeders fire krak Missiles at a Grey hunters Rhino blowing it sky high but luckily non of the passengers are killed.

The Grey hunters from the destroyed Rhino are then charged by the Librarian and his squad, they manage to muster a counter attack quick enough and meet the charge head on. On his way in the Librarian once again summons the Sanguine Sword and slices through the Grey Hunters with ease. Despite heavy casualties the Grey Hunters hit back hard and wipe out the Blood Angel squad leaving the Librarian alone again.

On my right flank the Long Fangs are charged by two assault squads and massacred without thought.

Finally my heroic Long Fang who has bravely held off the enemy assault squad is overcome and falls, a heroes welcome awaits him in the halls of Russ!


Turn 5
With the end of the game looming I start to think about the objectives, Ulfs Rhino guns it engines and moves to contest the objective in the open.

My Plasma cannons lock onto the assault squad that deep struck in last turn and kill 4 out 5 with more ace shooting. The Heavy Bolters pepper the Multimelta Land Speeder causing it to explode.

Skalf once again tries to cast Murderous Hurricane but it blocked by the Psychic hood once more, damn that Librarian!

My Grey Hunters Wolf Guard decides he has had enough of the Librarian messing up the Rune Priests and puts him right with a Powerfist blow the face finally finishing him off.

The Blood Angels make their last attempt at crippling my forces. Ulfs Rhino is blown sky high by a well placed melta shot, Ulf and his pack are then Charged by the same squad. The combat is brutal and four Grey Hunters are cut down but Ulf shows the boys once again that he isn't past it and kills 4 Blood Angels in return. Having hit a brick wall the Blood Angels lose momentum and are cut down.

The assault squad on the left flank charge into my Plasma Long Fangs but get a shock when they fail to do any damage whilst getting three of their own battered to death by heavy weapons.

We roll to see if the game ends but we roll a 4 so the show goes on.

Turn 6
Ulf and whats is left of his pack secure the objective, he then tries to cast Living Lightning on the land Speeder close by but suffers a perils of the warp attack, not my day for casting powers.

In combat the Long Fangs manage to hold off the Blood Angels again losing one of the pack. In the Centre my Grey Hunters finish off the last of the small assault squad and then consilidate onto the central objective capturing it.

With the blood Angels all but spent the last Assault Squad still active jumps into cover capturing an objective in the ruins near the enemy deployment zone.

As it stands I am winning with 2 objective to one, we roll the bones and a get a 6! Turn 7 it is.

Turn 7
There is little to do this turn Ulf and his pack open fire on the Land Speeders with Lightning and bolter fire getting another immobilised result.

In my final act of the game my two Grey Hunters holding the centre ruin open fire on the Assault squad holding the Blood Angel objective killing both Marines thus ending the game for the Blood Angels.

Victory to the Space Wolves! 2 objectives to none.


Conclusion
That was tough game but I was confident all the way through. This Blood Angels army relies on being in your face and getting the charge. By taking the bait and splitting his force it allowed me to engage one half at a time whilst I held the other up with a disposable unit, like the Wolf Scouts.

If they get the charge on me I'm dead so I stay in my Rhinos as long as possible and only get out when it suits me.

The Blood Angels Librarian really ripped me a new one with that Sanguine sword just showing how dangerous it can be. I have had a bit of contempt for my Vampiric counterpart but I will be taking him more seriously in future.

Best Blood Angels VS Space Wolves Posts

Now the hysteria over the new Blood Angels Codex has quietened down, I thought we'd take a look at the best Blood Angels VS Space Wolves posts from the past few months.

It's a fun progression of opinions about the Blood Angels and Space Wolves, especially where Alex is concerned. At first he become a true emo vampire fanboi, to the point where he threw down the gauntlet to Brad over Live Messenger that Mephiston could kick Logan Grimnar's teeth in. As bystander to the conversation, it was up to me to be the referee.

After a couple of rounds there was no clear winner. In fact, the victor seemed to always rely on how many invulnerable saves Logan Grimnar could make. If he passed just enough to remain on 1 wound, he always splattered Mephiston with his mighty Axe Morkai. If he didn't make it (and it was always close!), then Mephiston cut him down before he could strike back.

Check out Logan Grimnar VS Mephiston. It's well worth a read.

But it wasn't long until Alex had turned his back on the Blood Angels and returned to the ale guzzling embrace of the Space Wolves, decreeing that Blood Angels are rubbish. Actually, he didn't say that, he compared various units points for points and concluded that the Space Wolves were most cost effective, but also far more forgiving. Whereas, if Blood Angels don't get the charge, then they're in trouble. Meanwhile Space Wolves stand there and shout "Come on them if you think you're 'ard enough!"

Check out his Space Wolves or Blood Angels comparison for yourself and see if you agree.

Personally, I couldn't play a Blood Angels army -which is just as well really when I've written this blog. But that's because I'm more of a defensive player by nature rather than an attacker. But if I were to field a Blood Angels army, it would have to be a Blood Angels jump pack army. Themed, fun and very competitive against the right armies. In fact, stay tuned for this Friday when I rip James's Space Marines apart with just a handful of Blood Angels!

Check out the awesome Blood Angels Jump Pack Army submitted by Kris. If I had some money to spare, I'd play this as a fun throwdown army.

Finally, I'd like to present the Space Wolves escalation army list that I won 3rd place at Battle Of The Chumps with. While las/plas Razorbacks with small Grey Hunter squads seem to be doing the rounds at the moment, I've always found that the core choices are the real back bone of the Space Wolves army. Besides, nothing seems to shift a sizeable Grey Hunters pack with a Wolf Guard, Wulfen, Wolf Standard and Melta Guns. I'm also rather partial to the Rhino melta gun drive-by.

Check out my Space Wolves Botch Army Lists which have been built around the core Space Wolf units. In fact, you can look forward to a round up of my favourite Space Wolves units very soon.

See you tomorrow for Brad's Space Wolves VS Blood Angels battle report!

Vampires VS WereWolves Week

It's Vampires VS WereWolves Week at the Space Wolves blog as Brad and I dissect the Blood Angels on the table top with our Space Wolf armies.

The Blood Angels Codex has been around for a few months now and the army isn't nearly as disgusting as everyone thought it would be. Sure, if they charge you, you're in trouble. But if they don't get the charge, they loose pretty much every bonus that the Blood Angels player paid a fair few points for.

Brad's Space Wolves fight off a Blood Angels attack on Wednesday while on Friday I let the Blood Angels charge my Space Wolves and see what happens. Finally, I borrow the Blood Angels army for a quick game against James's infamous 'castling marines' army.

The sheer lack of Blood Angels armies at recent tournaments compared to Space Wolf forces has been surprising. Perhaps it's because the Space Wolves are far more versatile? Alex Harrison seems to think so and he plays both!

What do you guys think?

Imperial Guard VS Space Wolves -Botch 6 of 6

The final round was Space Wolves VS Imperial Guard.

Having played a new Imperial Guard army a couple of times, I had a rough idea how it all works, but having never played them with Space Wolves, this could be quite challenge.

To top it all off, Imperial Guard is often referred to as the Leaf Blower in the US due to the higher point games they play, which allow Imperial Guard players to bring incredible amounts of firepower to bear.

As this was a 2000 points game, I hoped my Space Wolves would be a particularly stubborn leaf.

This turned out to be one of the toughest games of Warhammer 40K I've ever played and despite some truly disastrous dice rolls, I was still able to give me opponent a run for his money. Or did I just cling on to the objectives and sell the lives of my men dearly?

2000 points of Space Wolves

Rune Priest
Jaws of the World Wolf & Murderous Hurricane

(X3) Grey Hunter Pack:
Wolf Guard with Combi Melta and Powerfist
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

Grey Hunter Pack:
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun and Mark of Wulfen
Razorback APC transport

(X2) Land Speeders:
Multimelta and Heavy Flamer

(X2) Long Fangs Pack:
1 sergeant, 5 Long Fangs with Missile Launchers
Razorback APC with twin linked lascannon

Wolf Guard Terminators:
1 Wolf Guard in terminator armour with combi-plasma and wolf claw
1 Wolf Guard in terminator armour with combi-plasma and power sword
1 Wolf Guard in terminator armour with combi-melta and power sword
1 Wolf Guard in terminator armour with combi-melta and Chainfist
1 Wolf Guard in terminator armour with cyclone missile launcher, storm bolter and power sword

Please Note: I packed the wrong Space Wolf terminator and left the cyclone missile launcher at home!

Land Raider:
Land Raider with extra armour, twin linked heavy bolter hull and twin linked lascannon sponsons.

2000 points of Imperial Guard

Command squad
Commander with power sword and 3 melta guns

(X2) Psyker Squads:
9 Psykers and 1 Priest

Imperial Guard Platoon:
Command squad with 3 melta guns
10 Imperial Guard with meltagun
10 Imperial Guard
Comissar with power sword leading 20 conscripts

Veteran Squad:
10 veterans, 3 melta guns

Veteran Squad:
6 veterans, 3 meltaguns

2 Valkyrie Vendettas
3 Valkyrie Vendettas

2 Manticores
2 Hydra flak tanks


DEPLOYMENT:
The game was Seize Ground with 4 objectives and a Dawn of War deployment. Between us we placed 2 objectives either side of a ruin in the centre, one by a hill top right and one between some woods centre right. Naturally, I had my eye on the 2 objectives in the ruins.

He won the roll off, choosing the table edge with the most cover and held everything off the board to arrive on Turn 1.

I placed 2 empty Rhinos on the board, just below the ruin with 2 objectives either side. It was 7" from the table edge to the rear hatch so that my Grey Hunters could walk on and embark in the 1st turn. The Rune Priest then went in one of the transports.

I rolled to Seize The Initiative, failed and the game began.

TURN 1:
On the left flank 10 Guardsmen ran through the rocks, closely followed by 10 robed Psykers. Behind them rumbled a Manticore missile tank which fired a barrage of 3 missiles at one of the Grey Hunter Rhinos. Strength 10 ordnance blasts rained down from the sky, scattered wildly in the poorly lit 'Dawn of War' first turn conditions. One barrage penetrated the hull, but only succeeded in shaking the crew and leaving it unable to fire next turn.

Left of the centre 2 Hydra flak tanks sped on, firing their smoke launchers while a pair of Valkyries screamed overhead.

The Commisar led his 20 brave conscripts over the rocks in the centre who were followed by another 10 Psykers.

On the right flank 3 more Valkyrie Vendettas swept low over the battlefield while the Manticore missile tank behind them launched a barrage of missiles at the Rune Priest's Rhino. Two of the blasts scattered wide, but one landed alongside, glancing the side armour of the Space Wolf transport and shaking the crew, leaving the tank unable to fire next turn.

I'd had a very lucky start and would need to make the most of it!

Two Grey Hunter squads walked on and embarked into the waiting Rhinos, which sped forward behind the ruins in the centre and fired their smoke launchers.

A third Grey Hunter Rhino appeared and sped alongside them down the left flank and also fired its smoke launchers.

One Long Fangs Razorback drove on 6" and the Long Fangs disembarked and ran into the cover of the rocks, which were flanked by the Wolf Guard Terminators in their Land Raider, which also fired its smoke launchers.

To the right, the other Long Fangs Razorback drove up alongside some woods and fired its smoke launchers while the Long Fangs inside got out and ran into the cover of the woods.

The small Grey Hunters pack drives up behind the woods in their Razorback and fire the smoke launchers while the two Space Wolves Landspeeders turbo boost down the right flank towards the 3 Valkyrie Vendettas.

With just one twin linked lascannon to fire, the Razorback in the centre blasts the Valkyrie by the ruins, but it passes its fast moving save.

TURN 2:
With every unit in the Imperial Guard army able to fire, this turn was especially paintful for the Space Wolves!

The command squad disembarked from the Valkyrie Vendetta on the left of the ruins, while the veterans disembarked from the Valkyrie Vendetta on the right of the ruins. One advanced into the ruins and blew up one of the Grey Hunter Rhinos while the others advanced and blew up the Land Raider. Neither of the Space Wolves packs were pinned thankfully.

Manticore missiles rained down on the Razorbacks, blowing the turret off one while the Valkyrie Vendettas fired as one into the pack of Long Fangs in the woods, killing 4 of them.

Hydra flak cannons spun around and blew one of the Landspeeders out of the sky.

I'd lost 2 tanks, a land speeder and most of a squad. Overall not too bad.

In retaliation the Wolf Guard Terminators marched forward, charged and killed the veterans in a very one sided close combat.

The Rune Priest's Rhino advanced and the Wolf Guard and Grey Hunter inside fired up at the nearby Valkyrie with their meltagun and combi-melta, blasting it out of the sky!

The Grey Hunters in the Rhino wreckage stormed the ruins and ripped the command squad inside to bloody rags.

Meanwhile the other Grey Hunter Rhino continued its advance towards the ruins. The top hatch slammed open and the WolfGuard and Grey Hunter fired their meltagun and combi-melta, but only succeeded in shaking the Valkyrie Vendetta crew, leaving the flyer unable to fire next turn.

On the right flank the remaining Landspeeder advanced and together with the Long Fangs in the Woods and the remaining Razorback lascannon blew two of the Valkyrie Vendettas out of the sky while immobilising another!

The Grey Hunter Razorback to the left of the woods took a sneaky shot over the hill as the side armour of one of the Manticores but failed to glance.

TURN 3:
The shaken Valkyrie Vendetta by the ruins swoops overhead, behind the Space Wolf line.

Manticore missiles rain down on the Rhino transports once more. The third Grey Hunter Rhino explodes just outside the ruins, killing 3 of the Space Wolves inside. Meanwhile the Grey Hunters in the ruins take a pounding from the Hyrdas and small arms fire from the conscripts in the rocks.

The Pysker squads cast their Soul Storm, reducing the Leadership of both Grey Hunter packs to 1. The Ruin Priest dispels one of the attacks, but the pack in the ruins turns and flees along side the nearby Valkyrie.

I'd have to take out that flyer or he could 'herd' my expensive Grey Hunters straight off the board!

The remaining Valkyrie Vendetta on the left flank fires its lascannons at the Landspeeder, blasting off the Multimelta.

In my turn, the Rune Priest leads his Grey Hunters out of their Rhino and across the open ground, into charge range of the Conscripts in the rocks. Two of the conscripts are out in the open. It's all I need to get a foothold in the middle of the enemy army.

Then disaster...

Because the Wulfen model is within 6" of a single model in Difficult Terrain, he must attempt to charge, forcing the entire squad to roll for Difficult Terrain. However, the Rune Priest needs only a 5 to be in charge range.

I roll a 3 and a 4, leaving the squad stranded out in the open.

Thankfully I had advanced their Rhino alongside to pick them up later, but instead it would shield the Space Wolves from my opponents Hydra flak tanks.

The Grey Hunters continue to fall back past the Valkyrie Vendetta, firing their melta gun. The aircraft is destroyed and crashes to the ground. Meanwhile the other Grey Hunters move back into the cover of the ruins and the Terminators continue advancing up the field.

My shooting phase is pretty poor with the Long Fangs blasting off one of the Hydra's twin linked autocannons. However, the Land Speeder on the right flank does toast 4 Veterans with its heavy flamer.

TURN 4:
Stuck right out in the open and tightly packed together, I expected the Rune Priest and his Grey Hunters to disappear. He fires both Manticores, each firing only a single missile barrage this time, which scatter wildly. Meanwhile the Hyrdra flak tanks and as many Imperial Guardsmen as he can muster fire everything they've got at the Space Wolves in the open. When the dust settles 5 of them are dead.

He casts Soul Storm on them with the Psyker squad. The Rune Priest dispels the power.
He casts Soul Storm on them with the other Psyker squad! The Space Wolves fall back 8" and automatically regroup in my phase 3", then move 6" to be back in charge range, but this time in a neat conga-line away from any models in difficult terrain!

My last remaining Land Speeder is blasted apart by close range Melta guns.

The Rune Priest leads the charge and is quickly surrounded by 20 Conscripts led by a Comissar. In an amazing display of 5+ rolling, my opponent loses just 4 Conscripts and strikes down 3 Grey Hunters while wounding the Rune Priest. The combat is a draw.

The Long Fangs continue to fire at the remaining Valkyrie Vendetta, as does the remaining Long Fang Razorback which advances up the field, slowly edging towards the ruins on the left.

The Grey Hunter pack to the right of the ruins moves into cover and does its best to hide.

The Grey Hunter pack already in the ruins can't see to fire at range, so spreads out to minimise the effects of blast weapons.

Once more, the Terminators advance up the field. Due to hugging terrain throughout their advance, they've been really slow, but are now out in the open.

TURN 5:
Having fired all of their missiles, both Manticores advance of the hills on either flanks and fire their smoke launchers.

On the left flank the 10 Imperial Guard advance and open fire on the Grey Hunters in the ruins before cthe Psykers cast Soul Storm once again, causing the Space Wolves top flee yet again.

The Grey Hunters to the right of the ruins are shot with every available weapon in the Imperial Guard army. When the smoke clears only 3 are left. Finally, the Psyker squad in the rocks casts Soul Storm and the Space Wolves flee -yet again!

On the rocks, the Conscripts kill the last Grey Hunter, but the Rune Priest fights on.

Both Grey Hunters packs automatically regroup in my turn and move back to where they were. Meanwhile the remaining Razorback drives up alongside the right of the ruins, while the Rune Priest's Rhino speeds back to the left of the ruins and the other pack of Grey Hunters embark.

Overwhelmed by the Imperial Guard Conscripts, the Rune Priest stays alive just long enough for the Wolf Guard Terminators to join the melee. They march in, power weapons cracking, wolf claws rerolling to hit and a chainfist to finish off any survivors. The squad is brutally massacred before the Rune Priest and Terminators sweep across the rocks.

The Long Fangs fire at the Hydras, but due to the cover, inflict no damage.

With each of us holding an objective, one unclaimed and one contested with roll the dice...and the game continues.

TURN 6:
On the left, his 10 Imperial Guardsmen surround my Grey Hunter Rhino, contesting the objective. The Space Wolves also can't get out of the tank without the tank having to move.

The Manticores drive down from the hills. On the right flank the Manticore contests the objective held by my small Grey Hunter pack in a Razorback...which promotly explodes under a hail of lascannon fire from the immobilised Valkyrie Vendetta top right and the Hyrdra flak tanks. Luckily only 1 of the Grey Hunters is killed in the explosion and the pack passes its pinning test.

The Psyker squads cast their 'big explosion' powers (can't remember the real name for it!), but both are dispelled by the Rune Priest.

A horde of Imperial Guard advance from the right flank to rapid fire the Wolf Guard terminators with lasguns. None of them fall.

in my turn the 4 Grey Hunters in the Razorback wreckage destroy the Manticore on the right flank with their melta gun and claim the objective.

To the right of the ruins, my remaining 3 Grey Hunters embark in the Razorback and claim another objective.

On the left flank, the Grey Hunter Rhino rolls forward, the Space Wolves inside get out and rapid fire the 10 Imperial Guard, but cannot kill enough to force them off the objective. In doing so they concede the objective.

Meanwhile, the Wolf Guard terminators move through the rocks, around the psykers and into close combat with the 10 Imperial Guard holding an objective by a wrecked Valkyrie on the right flank. They cut them down without any resistance and sweep on to the objective, contesting it.

Meanwhile the Rune Priest gets stuck into the psykers themselves, casting Murderous Hurricen and charging in. He dies bravely after killing 5 of the heretics.

My opponent is holding 1 objective, I'm holding 2 and 1 is contested. We roll the dice and the game ends in a Space Wolves victory!

To top it all off, I wiped out over half of his Troop choices, earning me +5 points. Meanwhile he completed his Secret Mission by killing my HQ choice.

CONCLUSION:
That was a tough game! Right from the start I expected to be shot to hell and back having heard of the Imperial Guard's reputation at 1750 points and higher.

I got disheartened in this one and when my one saving grace, which was to charge in the Rune Priest's Grey Hunters, was taken away from me, I had a proper sulk. Tanks were exploding, I was failing over half of my armour saves and had a bit of a strop.

Then I stopped, apologised to my opponent for being 'a bit of a nob' and we had a much better game. To be honest, I was disappointed at myself for taking it all so seriously. The again, it didn't help that I knew I could be battling for 3rd place.

Sure, the Imperial Guard are nasty until you can get your Long Fangs pouring krak missiles into their Valkyries. I knew there was no point in reserving my army. I had to get everything on, soak up as much fire as possible and get across the board and hang on to those objectives.

Had this been an Annihilation or Secure & Control mission, I doubt I would have stood much of a chance. But multiple objectives meant I didn't have to travel as far or worry about my transports exploding as much.

But when push comes to shove, I had a lot of Space Wolves on the board and when you've got plenty of Space Marines in cover or diving into transports, they require ungodly amounts of firepower to kill!

However, I'm glad the game didn't go on for another turn. I could have run out of Grey Hunters by then.

The close combat with the Rune Priest was a disaster. I've never seen anyone roll so many 5's in all my life. But it counted for naught by the time my Wolf Guard Terminators waded in. With plenty of attacks on the charge, power weapons and 2+ armour, my opponent could roll as high as he liked and still wouldn't be able to win.
Wolf Guard Terminators are truly badass in 2000 points games.

In this game I found myself playing not only the mission and the army, but also my opponent. I had to think about what he was shooting, what kind of bait he would take, how cautious he would be and most importantly which of his units would survive whatever I threw at them.

When you know some things simply aren't going to die or are about to blow you away with incredibly accurate firepower, your tactics have to change to incorporate tactical certainties and not statistical risks.

God help you if you charge 10 Space Wolves at 20 Conscripts and none of them die, before turning round and hacking apart your Grey Hunters like they were Grots. At least he didn't have much luck with the Scatter Dice, no matter how much he spun it.

With my victory, I nailed 3rd place be a solid margin and excepted my prize with a cheesy grin! Not bad since my last big win was 3rd place at the Portent Tournament in 2005.

Tired, hungover, sweaty and unshaven, I couldn't wait to go home, get some sleep and then start work on painting more Space Wolves!

The tournament had been a real blast where I'd met some great people, played some awesome games and put a lot of theory into good practice. Writing the Space Wolves blog has been a massive help in learning how to play the army better and to become a better player as a whole.

Warhammer 40K is all about Theory and Practice. Anyone can write a cheesy army list, but knowing how to play it in every mission, in every situation and against every army takes a lot more thought and familiarity. Sometimes you can wing it and scrape a win (against Imperial Guard), sometimes you completely fluff it and have to learn the hard way (against Tyranids). But it's an important learning experience and you'll be prepared for the next time you have to face that army, opponent or mission -And without having to tailor your army list to overcome it.

Thanks for reading my Warhammer 40K battle reports from Battle Of The Chumps and stay tuned for more exciting Space Wolves battle reports!

Space Wolves Deployment Tactics

There's a fine art to Space Wolves deployment tactics. When you set up your Space Wolf army you need to be able to play defensively and offensively. In fact, Space Wolves play like a defensive army, because you can only react to what your opponent does. If you try to lead the game from the start, you will get killed.

I played a game against James' cousin Alex who is fine tuning his Blood Angels. Anyway, don't look at his army, look at the set up of my Space Wolves.

Unintentionally I ended up with a symetrical deployment which began with my Long Fangs on the hill, the Razorbacks behind the hill and the Rhinos full of Grey Hunters on the flanks. Then the Landspeeders sort of fitted in alongside the Rhinos.

Alex had won the roll to go first while I had laid out my entire army.
But the point is that you can't reserve a Space Marine army, at least not a Space Wolves army. You need as much on the board as possible from the very start, because the action starts on Turn 1 and anything that doesn't arrive from reserve on Turn 2 will miss out on all the blood shed.

Alex could do one of two things. He could sit back and shoot, or come at me. As this was a Kill Points game, I didn't have to move anywhere.

He stunned and immobilised a few tanks and killed a few guys. In retaliation, his Land Raider died to a close range multimelta blast from a Land Speeder, his Vndicator died to Grey Hunters with melta guns and he lost a few guys to krak missiles, but not that many. I ignored his Baal Predators until they became a priority.

The Space Wolves are Counter-Attack by their very nature. It's what they're designed to do as an army.

As you can see from my set up, my army could go in any direction and the Long Fangs could bring their guns to bear in any direction. So I was able to defend, attack or counter-attack very easily. Anything that came too close would get charged. Anything that stayed away would get shot. If I had to advance, there would be plenty of supporting fire from the back.

This isn't a comprehensive Space Wolves Deployment Tactics article by any means, because your deployment will always vary depending on your own preference, army, the terrain, the mission being played and the army you're playing against. However, there are standard tactics when playing Space Wolves. You have to get them to come to you -if you can!

Often that means sacrificing units, even if they're units you'd rather not sacrifice. I often talk about "the juicy bone" to bait your opponent in and it's so crucial to help your Grey Hunters leap frog from combat to combat through the enemy army.

There's very little that can fight off a Space Wolves squad that's charging or counter charging. And quite often a Grey Hunters pack will hold the enemy up just long enough for another Grey Hunters pack to crash into the enemy, turning the battle into one huge drunken brawl.

The Space Wolves wouldn't have it any other way!

But what if they don't come to you?
Well, you have to go to them and support your advance with firepower to take out targets your Grey Hunters can't easily deal with up close.

There are a lot of tactics to master to get the most out of the Space Wolves: Getting in and out of Rhinos. Target priorities. When to charge in and when to hold your ground. But a good deployment can make all the difference between success and failure.

So go play lots of games, get in a routine for certain deployment tricks for certain missions and set ups and see how you get on. The greatest players only became great through familiarity with the game, their army and the armies they face.

Good hunting and good luck!

Big Jim's Space Wolves Kill Team Project

Hello loyal Sons of Russ,
I have been absent from the Space Wolves blog for far too long. Life has kept me pretty busy in the last few months. It has been tough enough managing my own blog, leaving me unable to contribute good content here. That is all changing staring today.

If you follow the crazyness on my Galaxy in Flames blog you will know that I am working on a skirmish variant for 40k called Special Operations Killzone. For those that have not seen or heard about, imagine 40k, killteam (both versions) and elements from Necromunda all mashed together.

I am modeling a Space Wolves skirmish force where each miniature will be a custom conversion. Some will be complicated other will be very basic. I have named each model as they will each be a character in their own right.

The made up premise behind the force; when a Space Wolves Great Company is required to send a group of warriors on a special mission they always send a force of twelve in number; one in honor of each of the Chapters Great Companies.

Halga = Wolf Guard with Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon
Roneth = Wolf Guard with Frost Blade, Stormshield
Olaf = Lone Wolf with Lightning Claws
Wulfgar = Wolf Scout
Edgtho = Wolf Scout with Power Weapon
Rethel = Wolf Scout with Sniper Rifle
Skeld = Long Fang with Heavy Bolter
Helfdane = Grey Hunter with Power Weapon
Hyglak = Grey Hunter with Plasma Gun
Haltaf = Grey Hunter with Flamer
Ulfendel = Grey Hunter with Mark of the Wulfen
Ragnar = Blood Claw with Power Weapon

Here are the first three conversions.







This is Wulfgar the Wolf Scout; he is done other than weathering the feet and lower legs and the basing which will be done when all 12 are finished, so they all have the same flow and color.

He is a pretty extensive conversion with bits used from the following kits: Khorne Berzerker chest and lower legs, Catachan Jungle Fighter upper legs, Cadian grenades, WFB Marauder arms, plus some Marine and Space Wolf bits for flavor. The shoulder armor is cut from thin plasticard. The back pack comes from the second edition Jess Goodwin wolf scouts which he is built in the style of.

I will also be using the second edition pack markings of white and red for all of the Wolf Scouts. I think my favorite thing about the conversion is that he really has that girthy feel of what I imagine a full blown Space Wolf without power armor would look like.




This is Halga the Wolf Guard and group leader; he is a revisited conversion I did ages ago. I replaced the old combi-weapon right arm with the plasma pistol one and added a Mk VI helmet to his belt.



The final model for this week is Skeld the Long Fang; he is pretty straight forward conversion using the legs from a 2nd edition Devastator marine. I still need to do the 3D Great Company badge before I can start painting.

Come back next weekend more conversions and painting goodness, as the Kill Team grows.