Tyranids VS Space Wolves Batrep

In the first round of Open War it was Space Wolves VS Tyranids as I was drawn against old friend Simon Thorne and his beautifully painted bugs.

I chatted with Si for a good 5 minutes until he realised I was playing him. He didn't seem too happy about it -and who could blame him when Space Wolves are practically designed to tear apart Tyranids?

Since our last game in the Ork Scrap Yard, Simon has been busy building plastic Tyrant Guard, Hive Guard and a large Tervigon. The dreaded Shrikes were also back, as was the Tyrannofex and Trygons.

After exchanging army lists and explaining special rules, we took out our Tournament Packs and began reading Mission 1. I was soon to discover that the missions combined Kill Points, Objectives and Victory Points into a system which rewarded utterly crushing your opponent in every way imaginable.

1750 Points Space Wolves Army
Rune Priest:
Wolf tooth necklace, chooser of the slain
Psychic powers: Jaws of the World Wolf & Living Lightning

Rune Priest:
Wolf tooth necklace, chooser of the slain, wolf tail talisman, saga of the beast slayer
Psychic powers: Living Lighting & Murderous Hurricane

Rune Priest:
Wolf tooth necklace
Psychic powers: Jaws of the World Wolf & Murderous Hurricane

Wolf Guard:
3 Wolf Guard with Combi Melta and Powerfist (18, 5, 20 points (X3)

Grey Hunter Pack:
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

Grey Hunter Pack:
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

Grey Hunter Pack:
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

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

Land Speeder:
Multimelta and Heavy Flamer

Land Speeder:
Multimelta and Heavy Flamer

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

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

1750 Points Tyranids Army
Hive Tyrant with bonesword, lashwhip and psychic stuff (?)
2 Tyrant Guard with boneswords

2 Hive Guard
2 Hive Guard
3 Warriors with deathspitters, scything talons and a barbed strangler

10 Termagaunts
1 Tervigon

4 Shrikes with lashwhipes and scything talons

Trygon
Trygon
Tyrannofex


MISSION 1: Cleanse/Seize Ground
Players of the previous two Warhammer 40K editions will remember Cleanse. Some loved it, other hated it.

In this instance, both players could deploy their forces 12" on from their board edge and gained 1 Victory Point if they claimed their own table quarters and 2 if they claimed their opponent's.

Claiming and contesting could only be done with Troop choices.

We rolled for set up and table sides with Simon winning the roll.

He set up his Tyrant, Tyrant Guard, Trygons, Hive Guard, Termagaunts and Tervigon fairly central while the Tyrannofex and Shrikes set up behind a building on the right flank.

In return, I deployed Long Fangs packs in the ruins to the left, in a building to the right (for crossing fields of fire) and all my tanks full of Grey Hunters in the centre, along with the Long Fang Razorbacks who would be able to drive around to aid the fire of the Long Fangs were needed. Finally, I deployed both Land Speeders on the far left flank.

"If you seize the initiative I'm conceding" said Simon.
I rolled a 1 and the game got under way, lol!

TURN 1
The Tyranid army advanced. The Tyrannofex and Hive Guard opened fire on the Space Wolf transports, inflicting minimal damage or none at all due to the covering ruins.

The Tervigon spawned several Termagaunts which scuttled towards the left flank.

The Space Wolves armoured column advanced as krak missiles screamed overhead, into the nearest Trygon critically wounding it, leaving the twin linked lascannons of the Razorbacks to finish it off.

The Termagaunts took some light wounds as the Land Speeders and Grey Hunter Razorback advanced up the left flank, firing its heavy bolter.

Meanwhile the combined psychic powers of the Rune Priests annihilated the nearest due of Hive Guard.

TURN 2
The Tyranids advanced once more and their shooting was equally ineffective as before thanks to the smoke launchers of the Grey Hunter Rhino transports.

The Tervigon spawned yet more Termagaunts while on the left, the Tyranid Warriors, Tyrant and Guard, along with 10 Termagaunts made their way into the ruins.

The second Trygon became stuck in difficult terrain and could barely move towards the Space Wolves.

The Long Fangs fired their missile launchers at it, spectacularly missing, but still managing to inflict 4 wounds along with the highly accurate Razorbacks.

The Rune Priests and Grey Hunters blasted the Tyranid Warriors in the ruins with all manner of psychic barrages and melta guns, but could only kill 2 of them.

Meanwhile the Land Speeders closed in, burning the Termagaunts and wounding one of the Tyrant Guard with their multimelta.

TURN 3
Rhino transports exploded as the Hive Tyrant and enraged Trygon charged in while the Hive Guard finally found their aim.

The Shrikes flew into the open, ready to charge the Long Fangs next turn!

The Tervigon spawned yet another swam of Termagaunts, this time 10 strong.

Suffering a handful of casualties in the explosions, the Grey Hunters led by their Rune Priests held their ground in the Rhino wreckage before charging into the ruins, blasting apart the Warriors and Tyrant Guard before charging whatever remained and tearing it to pieces.

The Space Wolves poured into the ruins while the Long Fangs and Razorbacks eliminated the wounded Trygon and the Shrikes which had dared to fly into the open, expecting the Long Fangs' firepower to be desperately needed elsewhere.

TURN 4
From this point on, it was all over for the Tyranids. With their best units wiped out, the Space Wolves sprinted across the open ground, taking light casualties before crashing into close combat with the gaunts.

In the following turn, the Jaws Of The World Wolf opened beneath the Tervigon and Tyrannofex, plunging them into a chasm and down to the fiery heart of the planet.

CONCLUSION
Poor firepower in the early Turns cost Simon dearly. However, he did feed his army piecemeal to me. Rather than force me to sacrifice units, he let me pick my targets at leisure. Nothing seemed to rush me all at once.

If I'd had both Trygons and the Shrikes coming straight at me, then I'd have had difficulting in fighting them all off. But I didn't.

I've said it before, but that Tyrannofex is a huge waste of points which could have been far better spent on increasing his Hive Guard, getting a Mawloc or another Tervigon to swamp the table with cheap Gaunts to claim objectives.

While my Rune Priests and Grey Hunters caused absolute carnage, the real stars of the show were the Long Fangs whose overlapping fields of fire allowed me to bring my big guns to bear wherever they were needed, even if one squad were forever firing through a building and giving their targets cover saves.

Stay tuned for next Friday's battle report against Tim King's Imperial Guard!

Rune Priests True Potential

Recently there has been a huge increase in the amount of psykers we see on the table top.

With the new codex’s including new horrid powers (using ours for an example), we can see a large increase in anti-psyker as well.

One of the benefits of our army, is that our rune priests not only have very effective offensive spells, but also fantastic anti-psyker abilities as well.

Now some people assume that having a rune priest is good enough to stop those pesky psykers and run them forward to stop them, but here is a little tactica which explains how to effectively make use of it.

First and foremost, you need to know exactly what you’re up against. Some armies such as lash chaos rely on coming close; whereas psyker battle squads in guard armies can sit back all day.

It also relates to the army overall, mephiston led armies will move towards you, whereas eldrad gunline armies will not, and instead counter your movement with their own. Positioning of that rune priest is vital.

Many a time have I drawn/lost that game where I have not been able to get my rune priest in the right area (mainly small games) where he can effectively nullify or slow down that enemy psyker. Make sure that you foresee what your opponent will do with his psykers.

Lash princes will probably hide behind that raider/rhino and advance with cover, waiting to lash your infantry forward, so try and flank it with your own rune priest. Lash works from 24 inches away, and so does your rune priest. By having him nearby where the prince is heading to, you can effectively nullify your opponents advance. An example of this is my GT game. Simmone Di tommaso took 10 minutes to deploy on his 1st turn during dawn of war due to my effective coverage of my Rune priests, covering most of the board. This can almost completely hamper your opponents advance and make them reconsider their usual plans. This straight away works with your army. Since such an army is meant to advance, it gives you the chance to counter his original offensive plan.Others also make use of this by throwing them down unit a drop pod.

I personally sometimes take a drop pod unit in larger games. When facing a threat far away, this can be a great delivery system for that nullification. With the independent character rule, you can make sure that nullification is at the right place at the right time. Some people may be worried about throwing a 100pt character into enemy lines, but remember, he will be in a unit so can’t get picked out, and those 100pts could be made back by simply stopping those psyker battle squads reducing your suicide squads LD, or getting off a juicy Jaws or Living lightning.

Don’t commit too early. Your rune priest has great powers which act as a gret hinderance to your opponents plans. Commiting too early leaves your rune priest dead or ineffective over the coruse of the whole game.

An example was a game I played against a nid player. A chance for a first turn Jaws to take down a Tervigon was too good to pass up. I moved up the Priests rhino 12 inches up, dropped out the rune priest and went to cast jaws. Rolled a double six, lost a wound and then died in my opponents turn. This not only cost me a killpoint, but now I had nothing to stop him casting FnP on his army, or the warp blasts from his Zoanathropes, which was rather frustrating.

So look at the overall balance between dropping an opponents model early and then dieing, or keeping up the defence over the course of the game, taking pop shots later rather than sooner.

Remember one thing though; don’t fall into the ‘power trap’. Some people like to put a rune priest with their long fangs with a chooser of the slain and pop off living lightning. With this, your nullifying your most strongest of aspects, and that’s the rune priest himself. With a LD of 10, he can provide those much needed counter attacks. With a rune weapon, that force weapon can tear asunder those mawlocks. Wounding on 2’s is always nice against those blood crushers, and mostr of all, getting that 4+ against your opponent can completely reduce their plans. Rune priest assume the offensive roll, not defensive. Offense comes with defense, but only to a degree, bare this in mind when using a Rune priest next time.

Try new things out, such as in a foot slogging army, use one in the middle to give everyone a 5+ cover, but keep the priest back so your powers last longer rather than get bogged down in combat. Perhaps give it Termie armour, pop him in a raider with your Termies to provide extra punch and make sure no psychic damage becomes them. There are many things to watch out for in this new 40k realm, and psykers is certainly becoming one of them. So remember, position, objective and aim. Position your rune priest where needed and give him an objective, then aim to keep him heading that way. Don’t worry about losing him, as if his in that situation, his objective should have been accomplished, or if not, the dice gods have failed you!

Back from Open War 14

I haven't played for a while and it really showed this weekend. Although being ill, having to deal with whacky missions and difficult deployment didn't help either.

However, reading the rules pack and playing the missions in advance would have been a huge help. Sadly I didn't have the time.

In the end I came 20th out of 66 while James came 26th.

Open War was a 3 game tournament using 3 unique missions. You got points for Objectives, Kill Points and old school Victory Points a la 4th edition.

Tyranids
In the first round I played Simon Thorne's Tyranids. Space Wolves seem to be designed to slaughter Tyranids with their wealth of krak missiles and Jaws Of The World Wolf. A slaughter ensued and Si conceded at the end of Turn 5. Although, had he persisted, he could have easily scored himself 2 Objective points.

My deployment was pretty top notch with the Long Fangs providing a fields of overlapping fire to take down anything that stepped into the open. Meanwhile the Grey Hunters were ever ready to pounce.

Stay tuned for the battle report massacre!

Imperial Guard
In the second round, I found myself on Table 1 against Tim King's Imperial Guard. With multiple objectives, a strange kind of deployment that forced armies right into the corners and the Imperial Guard having won the first turn, I knew I was in for a rough ride.

I deployed the best I could, against an army with every advantage in this scenario. Despite heavy losses, I soldiered on, slowing picking the Imperial Guard apart...until we ran out of time on Turn 5! I needed all 6 Turns of the mission to win this one and despite having an awesome game with Tim, felt robbed of my prize.

Stay tuned for a very tense battle report as Vendettas, Demolishers and Medusas rain fire down on the Space Wolves!

Chaos Daemons
In the third and final round, I was drawn against Chris Price's Chaos Daemons. This time deployment consisted of an 18" wide line diagonally across the board. The objective was to get as many units as possible into your opponent's deployment zone.

Chris' Daemons army was perfect for this, meanwhile due to the cluster of scenery in the centre, I had nowhere to deploy my Long Fangs at the start of the game. Worst of all, I lacked the speed to get across the board.

So once again, I was facing an army that was favoured by the mission, deployment and terrain.

I couldn't deploy effectively due to the terrain and because the Daemons had the first turn, I couldn't use my first turn to correctly deploy either. And the Daemons came for me...

Stay tuned for the battle report and see how the terrain can really ruin your day! lol.


FINAL THOUGHTS
Although my second game could have gone better and I was doomed before I even started in my third, all three of my opponents were fantastic and I'd love to play them all again.

There were some splendid armies at Open War 14, from an exceptionally bright Bad Moonz Ork army to some dark, gritty Space Sharks which really should have won 'best army'.

I took some snaps of a young chap named Jack's Space Wolves, as he had a nice, consistent scheme. With some pack and company markings, this army should look really impressive.

There were quite a few Space Wolves armies in the tournament and all of them quite different.

The chaps from the Claws & Fists team had a mixture of Thunderwolf Cavalry and even Razorbacks with twin linked assault cannons!

The final score sheet shows far more Space Wolf armies than I saw on the day. It makes me wonder how many people are doing the all in one space marine army

In the meantime, my 1750 points Space Wolves army list could do with some tweaking. A lot of stuff performed well, while other things could have performed better.

Stay tuned for some army revisions as well as Battle Reports from the Open War weekend!

I wonder how Alex got on at Starsmash?

Starsmash Weekend

Hey guys and (maybe) girls. Off to Starsmash this weekend, a 1500pt 2 day tournament in Reading. Adam will also, as some of you may already know, be heading to the Open war 14 held at warhammer world. It should be an epic weekend for us both.

Now, onto more important matters, Starsmash. This will be a great weekend and im really looking forward to it. No comp and simply a 5 game weekend, awesome. Plenty of big names should be turning up aswell, so will be nice to put faces to names. As some of you know, I havn’t posted my recent 1500pt list for a while, as to be honest, its been in huge development since the GT. Ive playtested and playtested, and come up with the following which I shall be taking. Im sure all my opponents will be studying this, but so be it ;)!

HQ

Rune priest: 105pts

Jaws, Murderous huricane, Meltabombs.

Rune priest: 100pts

Jaws, Living lightning.

Elites

3 Wolf Guard: 109pts

2x Power fists & Combi-meltas.

1x Combi-melta.

5 scouts: 85pts

meltagun.

Troops

6 Grey Hunters: 140pts

Meltagun, Wolf banner. Rhino.

6 Grey Hunters: 140pts

Meltagun, Wolf banner. Rhino.

5 Grey Hunters: 155pts

Meltagun. Razorback with Lascannon & Twin-linked lascannon.

5 Grey Hunters: 155pts

Meltagun. Razorback with Lascannon & Twin-linked lascannon.

Fast Attack

2 Landspeeders: 140pts

Multi-melta & Heavy Flamer.

Thunderwolf: 70pts

Wolf claw.

Thunderwolf: 70pts

Wolf claw.

Heavy Support

5 Long Fangs: 115pts

4 Rockets.

5 Long Fangs: 115pts

4 Rockets.

Grand Total: 1499pts

As you can all see, It’s very similar to my GT list. I’ve tried razor spam, I’ve tried rocket spam, I’ve tried thundrwolves, I’ve tried wolf lords and none of them work out well enough as my rune priest list. Hopefully it will work well as I havn’t used my old list in a while, but know It shouldn’t fail me too hard.

Shame this isnt a 1750pt tourney as Im really loving that point level at the moment. Really gives me plenty of options to take the things I really want. I will be posting up my possible future 1750pt list soon, so stayed tuned for more.

-Killswitch

Off to Open War 14

I'm off to Open War in Nottingham this weekend. Wish me luck!

James is driving and bringing his Dark Angels and together we have formed a two man team "The Lion and The Wolf".

Very in character, and most importantly, it means we won't have to play one another!

I'll be chipping in for petrol and be an awesome wingman during the 2 hours and 30 minutes it takes to get there. A good front passenger always holds food and drink at the ready whilst spotting signs and speed cameras (and the rozzers!) for his driver.

Open War is a 1750 points Warhammer 40K tournament based around 3 specially crafted scenarios.

I still have no idea what these scenarios are, as life has been incredibly busy of late. I'll probably read them on the drive up. But apparently they all have something to do with table quarters and killing lots of things, which suits me down to the ground!

Anyway, here's my list. Perhaps I'll see you there?


Rune Priest:
Wolf tooth necklace, chooser of the slain
Psychic powers: Jaws of the World Wolf & Living Lightning

Rune Priest:
Wolf tooth necklace, chooser of the slain, wolf tail talisman, saga of the beast slayer
Psychic powers: Living Lighting & Murderous Hurricane

Rune Priest:
Wolf tooth necklace
Psychic powers: Jaws of the World Wolf & Murderous Hurricane

Wolf Guard:
3 Wolf Guard with Combi Melta and Powerfist (18, 5, 20 points (X3)

Grey Hunter Pack:
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

Grey Hunter Pack:
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

Grey Hunter Pack:
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

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

Land Speeder:
Multimelta and Heavy Flamer

Land Speeder:
Multimelta and Heavy Flamer

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

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


Stay tuned for pictures and battle reports. I'll let you know how I did on Monday.

PS: I'd better finish this last Rune Priest quick!

Email In: Dual Raider list?

Hey guys, email in from a fellow wolf player. “Hi Alex, Im looking for a new list which uses raiders as the main force. Im sick of seeing the usual rhino rush with rune priests and so want to bring something else to the tabletop. Any ideas? Thanks a lot, Grant Cooper”.

Thinking of ideas outside the box for wolves eh? Awsome! A pure rush army which could be fun to play with., with some drop pod support.

Here’s what I’ve got:

Wolf Priest: 100pts

Wolf Priest: 105pts
Meltabombs.

5 Wolf Guard: 190pts
2# Power Fist & Combi-melta.
3# Combi-melta.
Drop Pod

3 Wolf Guard: 104pts
3# Combi-melta.
Drop Pod

10 Grey Hunters: 180pts
2 Meltaguns, Wolf banner, Mark of the wulfen.

10 Grey Hunters: 180pts
2 Meltaguns, Wolf banner, Mark of the wulfen.

5 Grey Hunters: 110pts
Flamer, Rhino.

Land Speeder: 70pts
Multi-melta & Heavy-flamer.

Land Speeder: 90pts
Heravy Bolter & Typhoon Launcher.

Land Speeder: 90pts
Heavy Bolter & Typhoon Launcher.

Land Raider Redeemer: 265pts
Extra Armour, Multi-melta.

Land Raider Redeemer: 265pts
Extra Armour, Multi-melta.

Total: 1749pts

Now this is a complete change from your usual Wolf lists. Why the wolf priests? Because they are pure epic win. When those grey hunters spill out, have you not found yourself stuck in combat for longer than necessary? Well with the wolf priest, by assigning preferred enemy to certain types depending on your opponent, you will be re rolling to hit all through those locked combats. I think anti-tank is hardly lacking and with 2 drop pod units of 3 combi-meltas, one can slam down turn one and the other comes in reserve to be placed where needed. Multi-meltas and meltaguns are in high supplies, and the typhoons give you some mobile rockets, with the raiders giving them some nice cover.

The rhino squads there to hold back in reserve then move on to claim home objectives, always nice when most of your army is moving. The redeemers are scoring, so if you want, you can simply park them on objectives, and dare your opponent to come near them with the deadly cargo inside.

Only problem is the new dark elder. As some of you have seen, they have a plethora of lance weaponry, and I would not advise taking this list against such an opposition. Its really fun to play with, and works a treat. Smash through your opponent and you shouldn’t have much of a trouble. FNP Blood angels will also be a pain, but if you position yourself ready for a charge, most jump pack units should fall due to weight of attacks. Mech guard and marine lists could mean gtrouble. Those drop-cide units will really need to be going after only the most biggest threat, for example, the manticore hiding in the back table edge will give your raiders a headache? Throw that drop pod unit down and take it out. They perform differently to wolf scouts, in that they can go anywhere on the board, and shouldn't scatter too much due to the drop pods rule. They can also be thrown infront of your opponents lines to reduce movent. See that Ork battlewagon list? Throw asome drop opods infront of them which will slow them down for a turn, if not more due to some lucky melta shots.

Speeders are great for objective contesting in later turns. The lack of scoring units shouldn’t be too problematic because of this. They are actually very survivable believe it or not. Hog behind a peice of terrain and pop off missiles at side armour, whilst the MM speeder can hide behind the raiders!

Now what makes this list special? Well apart from having two raiders containing nasties, its the fact that you don't need the rune priests, who needs em with this list? Lash won’t bother you much, Seer councils can be taken down through sheer weight (a whole unit of grey hunters with a banner isn’t going to fall apart anytime soon) and to be honest, jaws or lightning isn’t needed with this list. Have a play around and you may realise you need the priest for your local meta, but Its always nice to see a wolf list without the usual. Perhaps play around with the drop pods, and if you don't like them, drop them for the scouts (1 melta and wolf guard with melta for 108pts)

Remember, any thoughts you have feel free to post them.

- Killswitch

ThunderWolves Are Go!

Hey guys, Killswitch here with some thoughts about thunderwolves and how people are using them.

Lately, theres been a huge rise in the use of thunderwolves. This could be because they are not only producing results in games, but because there are more and more models to use out there.

From ebay, to private sculptors, or the simple use of converting chaos knights, there are plenty to choose from.

But we are not here to talk about conversions. How do thunderwolves work?

Well after extensive playtesting, I think they perform multiple roles on the battle field, and you must adapt your play when facing certain armies. There are also many builds when making a unit of thunderwolves. Problem is, there isn't 1 build to rule them all, so before making a list, consider what you want them to do.

In larger point games, its possible to spend more points on them, more goodies to help their roles broaden, but do you want to do that only because you can? Lets have a look at some builds:

5 Thunderwolves: 310pts
1# Powerfist
2# Storm Shield
3# Meltabombs
4# Boltgun
5# Standard

This is a well known layout for a unit of 5 thunderwolves. One thing to consider is alway make full use of wound allocations, like I have done above. This unit not only smashes through units of troops, but MC's and vehicles alike, with 5 STR 10 attacks from 1 wolf, and rending attacks from the rest. Now how do you use them you ask. Well that depends on your opponent. If your facing an on rushing army, hold them back and let them cover your rhinos whilst your opponent moves up. If you push them out too early, they will be isolated and zerged. By the time your opponents reached your lines, hopefully your Long fangs, speeders, meltas etc have dimnished most of your opponents armour. Now I know what some people are thinking, why not use that str 10 fist to smash vehicles. Well the problem is, some rushing armies, such as orks, can pile out and put a lot of hurt in combat to your unit. Don't think that the thunder wolves can hold their own against large sums of attacks, because they will whittle you down. Let your abnti-tank do what they were paid to do, and then rush your thunderwolves to captitalise on the escapee's.

Take into consideration the large charge radiance, and perform flank attachs where possible. This may distract your opponent to consentrate assault your big wolves, ratehr than your battle line of grey hunters etc. By this time, if your opponents gone for the bait, you should be able to push through and secure those objectives or go for the easy killpoints. This is the best use of thunderwolves, bait. But don't think they can hold up much if commited too early, and don't expect them to destroy everything they touch. Some hammer units, such as TH/SS termies and tervigons, will still hurt. Either whittle them down before assault, or try and concentrate your wolves to other aspects of your opponents army.

One thing to consider is using them as a meat shield. In 1750+ games, you may fidn that you have quite a lot of armour in your army, such as large amounts of MSU rhino/razorback squads. These can be covered on turn 1 by thunderwolves, by the following build:

5 Thunderwolves: 340pts
1# Powerfist
2# Storm Shield
3# Storm Shield Meltabombs
4# Boltgun
5# Standard

As you can tell, there is an extra storm shield. This is because they will be focused on more, for being in the way. They can now act as a great put forward unit, so throw them at your enemy, litterally, and force them to deal with them. Don't worry about losing wounds, or a thunderwolf or two on the way, because then you know your bait is working. All your tanks and troops should be left unscathed, while your thunderwolves and taking all the damage, whilst retaining the ability to simply soak it up due to the storm shields.

Now lets look at single thunderwolves:

1 Thunderwolf: 70pts
Wolf claw

These are fantastic for supporting your grey hunter units. Deploy them behind a rhino and move up with it. They are cheap and expendable, but a huge nuisance to your opponents battle plans. Do they put up not only to deal with grey hunters, but an anti meq wolf, with a re rollable to hit or wound str 5, 5 attack load, not nice, especially for the amount of small marine squads out their *cough* razorspam blood angels *cough*.

1 Thunderwolf: 105pts
Stormshield & Powerfist.

These perform similar roles, but instead of deploying behind your rhinos, stick them infront. They are great fire magents. Use them as you would lone wolves, but in my oppinion, much deadlier. Throw them at the biggest, nastiest creature you can find and go toe to toe with it. This build is great for fginishing off things such as daemon princes or tervigons or small squads. They are also fantastic speedbumps, or a back up plan for taking out that impenetrable landraider (or at least holding it up for a turn). Mini Daemon princes is what I call them, hard to budge and a huge neusance.

Bare in mind that both these builds stack up your killpoints, so in killpoint missions, use them carefully. When facing a gunline, I would suggest useing them to draw firepower away from things that can stack you up a few killpoints, such as a full grey hunter squad in a rhino. Park it infront of the rhino or at certain angels, to provide it with a cover save whilst moving up. Obviously if the terrain is better suited, then by all means move the thunderwolf up in an attack role, utalising LoS blocking terrain.

Thats all for this time folks, next time I will delve deeper into Wolf lords on thunderwolves, and from there produce some lists for you guys to use or consider.

Orks VS Space Wolves Batrep

This Space Wolves Batrep was submitted by John Archer.

Johns Space Wolves vs Kennys Orks
Points Level: 2000 points
Mission: Capture and Control
Deployment: Spearhead

The Wall of AV14
Kenny and myself set up our first ever single game encounter and it was a blast of a game. I've played so many orks lately I should have preferred enemy as standard, but what I really needed in this game was a way past AV14...

The Carnage Begins

The space wolves deployed around their objective, a ruined building of obvious massive importance. The long fangs covering the approach backed up by the rest of the force, The Thunderlord and wolf cavalry went into reserve. A couple of grey hunter filled rhinos made a flanking dash for the ork objective, which was way off and well guarded.

Rockets began to bounce off as the ork wall of steel advanced menacingly, but thankfully orks cant drive and one got itself immobilized while another was stunned by a lucky krak missile. The big mek hopping out as his ride slowed down too much for his liking.

The thunderwolves arrived and were caught out by the orks speed, and were still waiting for some wagons to explode and spill the contents. Meanwhile the advancing rhinos were caught out as one got immobilized on the left while the one on the right exploded taking down hunters and orks alike with burning shards of metal. The orks declared their waaagh and were upon the wolf line, wrecking the dreadnought and wiping out the fen wolve around the objective building.

The rune priest on the left flank managed to see the vulnerable side of a battlewagon and ignited it with living lightning. The big mek and his boyz got out angrily, but before they could react they were charged by the thunderlord and his cavalry. Short work was made, with the wolf lord personally dispatching the big mek before turning at full speed towards the ork objective and guarding wagons.

Combat erupted all over the field as the boyz and nobz met the thunder wolves head on in the center, while the space wolf back line prepared to try and push back the rampaging warboss and his nobz. The fire base poured bullets into them and multiple rifts in the ground opened up as the rune priests took aim, but the orks showed surprisingly quick reflexes and most survived the jaws.

In the center the thunderwolves, nobz and boyz tore into each other over several turns of combat. The wolves taking several wounds but the wolf lord himself refusing to take even a single one while carving through the greenskins. The storm shield bearing thunderwolf took many powerfist attacks and he too refused to fall, while nob wounds were slowly ground down.

The defense became desperate as melta, rocket, bolter fire were thrown at the warboss in a bid to shake him off the wolves objective. In the end he was charged by hunters with power weapons but still lived, although he was alone all but one wounded nob. The orks had pulled away from their objective to meet the thunderwolves and the game ended in a bloody draw.

CONCLUSION
Really fun game, and the combat in the center went on for quite a while as the thunderwolves and nobz refused to be beaten. I had to throw everything at the warboss and his nobz to try and keep my own objective, while AV14 wagons proved horrible to bring down. Kenny also passed a ton of jaws rolls, but in return rolled low for many things other things that were not so beneficial!

Tough player and tough list so I was happy with the draw, and came away with a few teaks so all round good time. Plus I love those battlewagon conversions!

Fenrisian Wolves Conversions by Brian Carlson

Back in the early 90's I remember looking at the original Leman Russ model with his two Fenrisian wolves and got hooked on Space Wolves. The latest release of miniatures has re-awakened the kid in me and is really driving me to put my heart into making a new army of Russ. The idea of having a big pack of Fenrisian Wolves is great opportunity to field something different that other marine chapters can't take.

The challenge for me was the goblin wolves only contained two poses and looked too "happy". They didn't have that feral beast about them. I found the chaos warhound box as a great substitute. Not only are they reasonably priced, they have all unique poses. Here is how I went about making them in a fairly easy manner.

First, it was hacking off any chaos bits. Horns were chopped off along the top of the back, and any scales on the flanks were shaved down. I also clipped some of the bottom teeth and trimmed off any horns on the legs/ankles. I put on the tail, but shaved it down to a simple cylinder without any spikes.

I then added greenstuff to the back and top of the hindquarters as well as rolled it around the tail. Fur was achieved by starting towards the front of the model and working towards the tail pulling with a sculpting tool. Remember, keep the tool wet (yes, I've ingested my fair share of greenstuff).

Then I plugged the two spots for the old "ears/horns" and rolled a small triangle for an ear. Using the pointed end of the citadel sculpting tool I made the interior of the ear. Some of the warhounds had stunted noses, which required a small dot to be added at the end.

Here are some of the trial color schemes I attempted to add some variety to the pack.

I'll be painting more of these along with the rest of my army here.

Cheers,
Brian

One Space Marine Army to Rule Them All

I've often thought there should be 1 Army Book to represent all the colours of the Space Marines.

Ironically, it's becoming more common to see 1 Army that represents all of the Space Marine Army Books, including Chaos Space Marines.

Does that bother me? Sort of, especially when I see someone fielding Blood Angels on Bikes counting as Thunderwolf Cavalry. Although I am seeing a lot of Chaos Marines riding the new plastic Juggernaughts, which I definitely approve of.

The thing is, how much of a difference is there really between each colour of Space Marines army? Also, when you consider that they all started off being pretty similar during the Crusades and Heresy era, should they be so different?

Pick a Colour
Long term readers of the blog (from back in May 2009) may remember my first Space Wolves colour scehme inspired by the artwork from Prospero Burns.

They were grey Space Marines with a few wolf details attached. The new Space Wolf plastics weren't even out then. I kind of wish I'd continued with them, but they really did take a month of sundays to paint. Getting all those edges perfect was extremely time consuming. Either way, I wouldn't be able to paint them now after my back injury.

But now when you look at all the other Chapters, are they really any different to my first batch of Space Wolves? They're all based on the standard Tactical Marines box with some extra bits of bling here and there -usually only on squad leaders or special units.

So why should every Space Marine Chapter get a special character to define it or get its own Codex. I feel sorry for the Chaos Marines who lost it all with their latest Codex.

If anything, GW should have stuck with the format of the 4th edition Space Marine Codex that allowed for plenty of variation. The 'traits' system was excellent and let you customise your army in all sorts of characterful ways.

So, what really makes Space Wolves so distinctly different to other Space Marine Chapters in the 4th edition Space Marine Codex?

Thunderwolf Cavalry - bit weird anyway
No Apothecary - not too major
Pet Wolves - use as wound markers
Lone Wolf character - bit of a weird unit that's usually overpriced
Extra close combat weapons in squads - 4th ed Codex had something similar
Counter Charge - a good rule that never used to be as nasty as it is now.

I guess the Space Wolves wouldn't really loose that much and the units they do lose aren't the core of the army anyway.

The same goes for Blood Angels. In fact, a lot of their new toys like the Storm Raven could/should be fielded by any Space Marine Chapter. Same goes for Sanguinary Guard. I fail to see what makes the Blood Angels so special in this regard. I remember when they were just like any other Chapter but with the Death Company.

Then you've got the Dark Angels. Once again, standard Space Marine Codex, but you can field a whole army of Terminators or Bikes.

GW Profits
Space Marines are the bread and butter of Games Workshop sales. So it's natural to argue that more Space Marine armies equals more Space Marine sales.

However, what if all of these options were available to every single Space Marine Chapter under the one Universal Space Marine Codex?

Dark Angels could launch their Assault Squad strike force, landing as one like a 'descent of angels'. Blood Angels could launch a 1st Company assault force of nothing by Terminator armoured troops into a Space Hulk. Or a Space Wolves fast attack force of nothing but ferocious Blood Claw bikers supported by Grey Hunter Land Speeders could strike the enemy from an unexpected quarter.

A Universal Codex of this kind would give every Space Marine army so much more scope. Also, it would allow for easier entry to the hobby.

Don't have much money to spend on an army, but love the Blood Angels? Then get a 1,500pts Space Marine Terminator army online for as little as £125!

See, that's not so bad as having to fork out £250 to play at the 1,500pts level like everyone else.

As long as the Character leading the army was on a Bike to make Bikes Troops, in Terminator armour to make Terminators troops or wearing a Jump Pack to make Assault Squads Troops, it'd work out well.

Same goes for Chaos, although you'd have the Marks involved as well.

Short Term Solution
Unfortunately, until Games Workshop see the light or employ me as their Director, if you're serious about winning games of Warhammer 40K in the long term, or simply being able to play a wide range of armies, then look no further than Goatboy's infamous Space Goats.

He plays them as Space Wolves one day, Blood Angels the next, Chaos at the weekends and if he's taking it easy, then just plain old Space Marines.

This is a growing trend. I've seen people play Blood Ravens using Space Wolves rules and the tournament organisers have been perfectly cool with it, even though it doesn't feel quite right to me.

But, once you start mixing the themes or do something completely different it's almost exceptable some how. Like a 13th Company themed Space Wolves army that could be run either as a Space Wolf list or a Chaos list. If they're all on foot and you've got no Psykers, I'm sure you could blag it as a blood crazed Black Templars force too.

Final Thoughts
Ultimately, there needs to be balance with the Space Marine armies. Sure, give them lots of toys, give them tons of options. But if all the Chapters have them, I'm sure Games Workshop will still sell buckets of models. Probably even more models than ever as the more financially flamboyant gamers tend to Buy Everything. With all the units combined into one Codex, buying Everything just got a lot more extensive!

What About You?
It seems as though players fit into one of two categories. Those that like to win and those who like army background.

While I love the background, I like to play competitive and I like to win games. It's why I started a Space Wolves army -I knew they were going to be sick!

So are you reading the Space Wolves blog because you're fielding your 'red marines' as Space Wolves today and you want to win. Or are you a Space Wolf through and through, caring not whether you win or lose so long as you have fun?

And whoever you are, what would you say to one unified Codex for all with all the toys and a choice of 'traits' to customise your Space Marine army?

The Most Boring Game Ever!

Actually, it was still quite interesting, but in the grim darkness of James' attic, we did play the most boring game ever. Even so, it was incredibly close fought right up until the end of Turn 7!

This game had been a long time coming and finally James' infamous Castling Marines were out on display at 1750 points, complete with Dreadnought wearing a sweat towel after a hard work out at the gym!

We rolled for set up and mission, getting the Annihilation mission (James' favourite) and a Spearhead set up (also James' favourite). I guess this would get me into good practice for the Open War special missions which mostly involve table quarter deployment.

Even so, I knew how this game was going to go. James would 'castle' in the corner and shoot me from a distance. Meanwhile I'd struggle to close with him while trying to maintain enough shots to fire back with. Worst of all, due to the nature of my army, putting my units in reserve to attack him directly from the table edge would only result in me feeding my army to him piece meal.

We'd just have to shoot each other and see how it worked out...

James' 1750 Points Space Marine Army

Chaplain with jump pack
10 Assault Marines: Sgt with power fist, flamer

5 Scouts: sniper rifles

1 Dreadnought: plasma cannon and extra armour

5 Marines: Sgt with power fist, melta gun
Razorback APC: extra armour
5 Marines: lascannon

5 Marines: Sgt with power weapon, plasma gun
Razorback APC: extra armour
5 Marines: lascannon

5 Marines: Sgt with power weapon, plasma gun
Razorback APC: extra armour
5 Marines: lascannon

1 Thunder Fire Cannon

1 Vindicator: siege shield and extra armour

5 Devastators: 4 missile launchers


Adam's 1750 Points Space Wolves Army

Rune Priest: living lightning, murderous hurricane, chooser of the slain, wolf tooth necklace

Rune Priest: living lightning, jaws of the world wolf, chooser of the slain, wolf tail talisman

Rune Priest: jaws of the world wolf, murderous hurricane, wolf tooth necklace

Wolf Guard: powerfist and combi-melta
7 Grey Hunters: melta gun, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen
Rhino APC

Wolf Guard: powerfist and combi-melta
7 Grey Hunters: melta gun, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen
Rhino APC

Wolf Guard: powerfist and combi-melta
7 Grey Hunters: melta gun, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen
Rhino APC

5 Grey Hunters: melta gun, wolf standard, mark of the wulfen
Razorback APC

1 Land Speeder: multimelta and heavy flamer
1 Land Speeder: multimelta and heavy flamer

6 Long Fangs: 5 missile launchers
Razorback APC: twin linked lascannon

6 Long Fangs: 5 missile launchers
Razorback APC: twin linked lascannon

Note: Yes, I am proxying 2 Rune Priests.


THE BATTLE
I won't bore you with an turn by turn account, so I'll just summarise instead.

James won the roll off, setting up first and firing first. I bunched my tanks up hoping they could give one another some cover saves, but I should have just accepted that I was going to get shot.

My Land Speeders were in reserve and James' Assault Marines were also in reserve.

I lost a few things on the first turn, putting me on the back foot.

Bar a closing Vindicator , the battle was between:
1 plasma cannon, 3 lascannons, 3 heavy bolters, 4 missile launchers and a thunder fire cannon on James' side.
2 lascannons, 1 heavy bolter, 10 missile launchers and two Rune Priests with living lightning on my side.

-Basically anything with good range that could hurt a tank counted.

My tanks exploded left right and centre while his remained fairly unscathed due to poor rolling on my part. But once the major threats, like his Dreadnought, Vindicator and Assault Squad had been dealt with, I turned by attention to his Combat Squads for some quick last minute kills.

Even with the dice going against me, I managed to scrape a win with 6 Kill Points to his 5 Kill Points. Even so, it was an incredibly close game. James typically passed countless armour saves and cover saves while blowing up my tanks.

His first round of fire made things hard for me and even with 10 missile launchers firing away, I still struggled to do any real damage.

It may have been boring, but it was still a good game, it was still tense and hard fought. More importantly, there was a lot to learn. Most importantly that my approach of targeting units by their Threat Level opposed to how easy I can score Kill Points in an Annihilation game seems to be a much more effective strategy through the full length of the game.

In fact, it's only in the last few turns I start thinking about Kill Points. Certainly something to bear in mind if you find yourself struggling in these kinds of missions.

Even so, I can't help thinking that things would have gone differently had I had the 1st turn. Would James have been able to take the first hit and fight back as effectively?

Blood Claws Suck!

No really, they do! Blood Claws are a terrible unit because in order for them to be any good, you have to take lots of them, have them led by a Wolf Guard and even better, a Wolf Priest to ensure that they inflict some damage in close combat.

But what really makes them difficult is that they're going to eat up a lot of points and probably be on foot.

This has a knock on effect for the rest of your Space Wolves army who will have to support them.

Not only that, but your army is going to be weaker as a whole when you could have spent those points on something better.

I discovered this at my expense after a disastrous game against James' infamous Castling Marines.

They're actually painted in a Dark Angels scheme and 'counted as' a regular Codex Marines army. The reason I call them Castling Marines is because they Castle -that's all James every really does. But it works for him, even if it is boring as hell.

In our latest game the Blood Claws had to be rescued by some Grey Hunters, who then in turn needed to be rescued by the Blood Claws. So much for going easy on James!

It was one of those games when the Dice Gods turned against me and I could roll nothing but 1s and 2s...until that pinning check for the Grey Hunters getting out of their wrecked Rhino. Double 6. Although let's be honest, this is nothing new and I've often managed to turn these games around using good tactics.

Then the Blood Claws failed to get out of the terrain and couldn't even charge the nearby combat squad.

Had the Grey Hunters been fine and the Blood Claws been fine, then the Assault Squad and Combat Squad you can see in this photo would have been wiped away, then the mass of Space Wolves would have got a Demolisher round from the Vindicator and a Plasma blast in the face, plus god knows what else from James' firebase.

Sure, I could have played better. There were a lot of things I could have done better. But the bottom line is that the Blood Claws forced me to change the way I play in order to make their 400pts of footsloggers do something for their points. As a result they got themselves into trouble and to make matters worse, got another squad into trouble as well.

Seriously, just stick to Grey Hunters in Rhinos and you cannot go wrong!

In my next game against James I had a far more well rounded 1750 points list as part of my warm up for Open War in October. But could I out-shoot the Castling Marines? Tune in tomorrow and find out!

Who's Afraid of the Dark Eldar?

You've seen the new Dark Eldar rules and they're not so scary. If you haven't, then check them out here.

It's the usual bag that Dark Eldar always were, which is lots of Dark Lances, power weapons and poison attacks. Okay, they didn't have so many poison attacks before, just lots of Agonisers. So what's really changed for armies like the Space Wolves?

Not a lot really. Sure, all the Dark Eldar units got better. But they also got a lot more expensive in many ways while the standard Dark Eldar Warrior became cheaper over all.

There's only one thing that scares a Space Wolf player in the new Dark Eldar Codex and that's Lelith Hesperax. (Stunning model, maybe one day she'll lead my Escher Necromunda gang?) But even then, your Dark Eldar opponent has got to get her into close combat. Good luck with that!

I feel that regardless of how fast and flashy the Dark Eldar may be, Space Wolves will continue to hold the mid-field, blasting their Armour 10 skiffs out of the sky, then mopping up their lightly armoured infantry with some concentrated bolter fire.

If the Dark Eldar can survive all that, then we've got Counter Charge, so even after loosing a few Grey Hunters, we'll get our hits in and mop up all the same.

All the same, we'll have to watch out for all those energy weapons, plus 36" zooming Reaver jetbikes could become a problem for last turn objective contesting.

Other than that, the Space Wolves can merrily continue doing what they do best -beating all the other armies senseless!

Pre Heresy Space Wolves

These pre heresy Space Wolves were inspired by the cover artwork of Prospero Burns by Dan Abnett.

As you can see, I've gone for a more unified, less bling colour scheme the metals are much darker, as is the armour on the whole while the Space Wolves Chapter badge is in its original Heresy era red. It really goes to show what a simpler colour scheme can do for your army.

I commissioned Golem Painting to build and paint 30 pre heresy Space Wolves Grey Hunters for me as part of an on going commission which would eventually end after 9 months with a completed Space Wolves army. I would of course pay for this by doing extra hours for work at the weekends.

Unfortunately due to my back injury, I can't stay sitting for long to do the extra work hours which would in turn pay for Golem's Warhammer 40K painting service to build and paint more Space Wolves for me.









They're really awesome. Sadly, they're now in My eBay Shop to help pay for the treatment for my back injury. Still, I'll be happy if these can go to a good home.

Toy Soldier Battle 5: Space Wolves vs Tyranids

I finally had a victory under my belt which boosted me up to 6th spot which is probably the highest I've been in a tourney so far so I was quite chuffed. My little songs of joy soon turned into cries of terror as I looked at the final posting sheet and saw that I had been matched up against Tim King and his rather unpleasant Nid list.

I had initially drawn Tim in round one but he had grudge matched someone so I ended up playing Blood Angels, I found it quite ironic that my last game should be against Tim. Tim's list looked like it was designed to munch power armour and I knew Tim was no slouch at 40k as he is captain of the Scottish ETC team.

The mission this time round was a domination type mission where players had to contest an area 6" from the centre of the board with scoring units. Before we deployed however the tournament organisers announced that they had changed the radius from 6" to 12" due to people complaining about the small area! WTF?!?

Anyway I won't bitch and moan about that so here is Tim's List:

Tyranid Prime, Boneswords
Tyranid Prime, Boneswords

2 Hive Guard
3 Hive Guard
3 Zoanthropes

10 Gaunts
10 Gaunts
Tervigon
Tervigon

Trygon
Trygon
Trygon Prime

Deployment
After roll offs for first turn which I lost again as usual Tim took first turn and set up his army in a horrible looking mass of teeth of claws. This army looked like it was just going to drive straight into me head on and start chewing. The Zoanthropes were deployed in a unit with both Tyranid Primes screened by Gaunts with the terigons lurking behind.

I had some decent terrain on my side of the board and I managed to deploy the Long Fangs into a three storey building with excellent lanes of fire.

I then deployed the Rhinos in a bit of a box formation which turned out to be a mistake but more on that later. The Wolf Lords again deployed behind the Rhinos out of harms way ready to counter attack.

Turn 1
Tims turn started with the Trygons snaking forward towards my Rhinos, the Prime on the other flank began to shift towards my lines as well. His Gaunts moved into cover followed by the Thropes and the Tervigons. The Hive Guard also shifted forward nicely into range of my Rhinos. Meanwhile the Tervigons pooped out some more Gaunts one of them pushed a little too hard and ended up straining itself so it could not poop anymore.

After a bunch of things getting Feel no Pain from the Tervigons the Hive Guard opened up and wrecked one of my Rhinos forcing the crew to spill out into the gap I had left for my Wolf lords to dash through! see my mistake? yes I am a muppet.

In my turn I shifted my troops around but didn't really advance, I wanted those Trygons in open ground for a bit so I could soften them up. The pack now on foot advanced forward making themselves a nice target for a Trygon charge next turn.

They then opened up on a Trygon with meltaguns and managed to knock a wound of the critter. Some more wound were knocked off it by Krak missiles from the Long Fangs leaving it on 2 wounds. Sweat began to bead off Tims head as I pointed at my Rune Priest and declared I was casting Jaws of the World Wolf at the other Trygon, the spell goes off and hits the Trygon and a Hive Guard stood behind it. The Trygon managed to duck out of the way but the dim witted Hive Guard behind it was too busy shooting spikey things about and fell to its doom

With most of my army consisting of short range firepower my shooting phase ended at that, my lack of firepower was going to hurt me this game I thought to myself.

Turn 2
The Nid wall advanced again closing the gap between our armies, the Hive guard remained in cover whilst the Gaunts scurried around. The Prime covered some ground this turn to join its two counterparts. The two Trygons only just made it out of difficult terrain in front of my Grey Hunter pack on foot.

The shooting phase started with a hail of spikey things hitting my Rhinos from the Hive Guard, despite lots of hits none of the Rhinos were destroyed but took plenty of stunned and shaken results.

The Trygons then screamed forward one charged the Grey Hunters and the other tried to charge my Wolf Lords but just clipped the Grey Hunter pack, those poor souls were now in close combat with two Trygons with Furious Charge. The combat was a massacre as expected the Grey Hunters did not even get chance to strike back before being cut down by scything talons and claws.

In my turn I disembarked a pack of Grey Hunters from a stunned Rhino while the Wolf Lords cleared the wreckage's and made it into open ground ready to face off against the monsters approaching.

My scouts arrived this turn but instead of bringing them on behind the enemy lines I decided to use them to bolster my own attack as I felt I would need every meltagun I could bring to turn things my way.

The Grey Hunters who disembarked this turn opened up on the wounded Trygon hitting it with a Meltagun and then then killing it with a lucky Bolter shot through the head, the critter swayed on the spot before toppling over in a cloud of dust. The Long Fangs ignored the closest Trygon and targeted the Prime which was racing across the battlefield. A salvo of Krak missiles slammed home and took two wounds off the creature.

The two Wolf Lords nodded in salute to each other and parted ways knowing it would be last they saw of each other. Raising his Thunderhammer high the first charged headlong into the nearby Trygon his battle oaths dictated he defeated the toughest creatures he could get his paws on. The Wolf Claw Lord slammed into the Gaunt Screen in front of the Zoanthropes hoping to work up a tally of kills for the tougher fight the turn after.

The Trygon lashed out at the Thunderwolf but the Wolf Lord was as quick witted as a Fenrisian Ice Mamba and parried all the attacks with his Storm shield. He then hefted his Hammer high and rained down Thunderous blows on the creature smashing through its carapace 6 times nearly causing the creature to explode with thunderous force. He had slain his first monster pulling on the reigns of his Thunderwolf he turned to face the Trygon Prime approaching.

The other Wolf Lord charged into the Gaunts and was lost in a sea of carapace and claws as they swarmed all over him, re rolling his missed to hit rolls he cut down 6 of the critters but he was held in combat.

Turn 3
Seeing his brother cut down the Trygon Prime let loose a high pitched scream as he closed in on the Wolf Lords. The rest of the Nid army must have been inspired by the Trygons Primes warcry as they surged forward. The Zoanthrope hovered forward into cover of a nearby ruin while the Tervigons trundled forward.

The shooting phase saw another Rhino explode under fire from the Hive Guard causing the pack inside to spill out into cover. One of the Tervigons had moved close enough to use its blast weapon on the Grey Hunters on my left flank. Luckily for the me the shot scattered back towards him and hit a unit of Gaunts nearby killing half of them. I didn't laugh too much.

In the assault phase the two Tyranid Primes left the Zoanthropes and charged into my Wolf Claw Lord whilst the Trygon Prime slammed into my Thunderhammer Lord. He was not going to take this lying down as he counter charged and met the monster head on at full tilt.

The Wolf Claw Lord was facing two mighty Tyranid warriors instead of lowly Gaunts this turn. With both sides being initiative 5 they swung at the same time. The Wolf Lord was on 11 attacks this turn and split them between the two Primes, one was cut to shreds whilst the other managed to dodge the killing blow. The flurry of attacks back though was too much for the Wolf lords Storm Shield and he was cut down in return.

The Trygon Prime and Thunderhammer Lord hit head on with the Prime striking first cutting into the Wolf Lord several times, despite being quick with his Storm Shield a few blows got through and he took two wounds. The Thunderhammer had fed on Nid blood previously and was now hungry for more as again 6 mighty blows rained down on the monster smashing through bone and chitin. After the dust had cleared the Space Wolf army cheered when they saw the Wolf Lord stood victorious over the corpse of the Trygon Prime his Thunderwolf howling in triumph.

My army was starting to thin out a little, I was a Wolf Lord down and had lost a full pack of Grey Hunters already I needed to conserve my troops and start working on his.

My Packs shifted around into cover, The Rune Priest split off from his pack to try and get a flank shot down the Nid line with Jaws whilst his pack mates took cover in the ruined temple. My smaller pack of Grey Hunters turned their Rhino and headed over to my left flank with the Wolf Scouts trying to stay out of range of the Hive Guard.

This turn my Long Fangs switched to Frag Missiles and began to target Gaunts killing all but one of the large unit lurking back field with some excellent marksmanship. My Rune Priest let loose with Jaws taking down another Hive Guard and some Gaunts, not brilliant but better than nothing.

At this point I reckoned my Thunder Lord was about 10" away from the Zoanthropes in cover but because of this I needed to roll for difficult terrain. I jumped for joy when I rolled a 5 and it got me into combat with the floating brains, my Thunderhammer was going to taste more Nid blood this turn! Or not as it turned out. The Lord charged in but because of initiative 1 the Zoanthropes hit first, one hit, one wound! Its ok I though I've got Runic armour I just don't need to roll a 1, guess what I rolled? Yup a 1.

His mighty Saga of Beast slaying was ended by a lowly floating brain who headbutted him to death. Tim didn't laugh, much.

Turn 4
This turn things started to look bad for me, I had Nids running around everywhere and to make matter worse the Tervigon pooped out a huge unit of Gaunts but in the process did it self in and would poop no more!

The Zoanthropes were now in range to start blasting things so stayed where they were whilst the Other Tervigon and Gaunts closed in on my Grey Hunters on the right flank. The Tyranid Prime lurched towards my Grey Hunters in the Temple. He was obviously intending to chop them up but he ended up not needing to as the Zoanthropes wiped the pack out with their template blast.

The Tervigon and Gaunts began to work on my Grey Hunters on the right flank hitting them with fleshboarers and the Tervigons Blast Weapon killing 6 Grey Hunters! I was down to two small pack of Grey Hunters now, not good.

My mobile pack of Grey Hunters raced around the back of the temple whilst the scouts plucked their way through the terrain trying to get in range of the Zoanthropes. My two surviving Grey Hunters on the right would not be able to get away from the Tervigon and the Gaunts so they stood thier ground.

The Long Fangs carried on killing Gaunts this turn splitting fire to try and maximise damage which workd as they reduced another unit of Gaunts down to just 1 Gaunt again! The Wolf Scouts to tried to blast the Thropes with Meltafire but the creatures 3+ invulnerable save saved them.

In a final act the Grey hunters on the right flank decided to charge rather than be charged and slammed into the Tervigon. The big creature failed to hit any of the Grey Hunters as they leapt on it, in return the Powerfist dealt two wounds to it.

Turn 5
This game was getting close now but the Nids still had the advantage over me with more troops. Tim had two units consisting of one Gaunt each lurking in cover whilst his Tervigons counted as troop choices too, I was going to struggle to deal with both.

His Zoanthropes left the safety of cover and made straight for my Grey Hunter pack in the Rhino. While the Tyranid Prime tried to get through terrain to get my Wolf Scouts but rolled really low and failed to make progress.

The Hive Guard then opened fire, one unit targetting a Rhino and the other unit the Rune Priest. My poor old Rune Priest was skewered by 8 foot long spikes that even his power armour could not stop. The other shots stunned the Grey Hunters Rhino much to my relief. My celebrations were cut short when the same Rhino was then wrecked by Warp lance fire from the Zoanthropes. Doh!

The assault phase consisted of the large unit of Gaunts charging into my Grey Hunters to save the Tervigon. The little buggers must have been on drugs because they ripped my Grey Hunters apart before I could try and swing the fist to finish the Tervigon off.

My turn was pretty quick, I had two empty Rhinos working so I sped them forward towards the centre of the table for some tank shock action if needed.

My Scouts moved into position to try and take out the Zoanthropes but despite having move through cover I rolled stupidly low on my terrain check leaving them dangerously close to that Tyranid Prime.

I disembarked the Grey Hunters from my Rhino and closed in on the Zoanthropes, they fired at them with Melta and pistol fire but again failed to do any damage due to that awesome invulnarable save.

The Long Fangs finished off a pack of Gaunts again with Frag missiles leaving the Nids with 3 small packs of Gaunts.

I then assaulted the Zoanthropes with the Grey Hunters but the combat was a complete wash out with both sides failing to do any wounds.

We rolled to see if the game ended and got another turn.

Turn 6
The Nids now moved towards the centre of the board to get as many scoring units in the centre as possible. The Tyranid Prime finally got through the terrain and caught up with my Wolf Scouts.

Shooting saw the Hive Guard trying to pop my empty Rhinos but they were off form this turn and failed to do anything.

The Tyranid Prime charged the Wolf Scouts and wiped them out in a flurry of Bonesword attacks before any could strike back. he then consolidated towards the Zoanthrope combat.

My Grey Hunters dragged a Zoanthrope down in close combat but again they were held up in combat.

My Rhinos sped into the centre of the board aiming to run down the Gaunts if we got another turn. My only shooting this turn was the Long Fangs who split fire at the lone Gaunts trying to kill them off, despite hitting them several time the critters went to ground and made all the cover saves they needed!

In the assault phase the Zoanthrope combat resulted in another stalemate as my Grey Hunters could just not get past those invulnerable save resulting in yet another draw!

With that combat the game ended at this point, Victory to the Nids!


Conclusion
To say that was my first game against Nids I think that could have gone worse for me depsite losing anyway. My lack of Long range firepower really hurt this game as I felt that I could have doen with kiting them for a turn or two to thin out the nasty bugs.

My Thunderhammer Lord was doing so well before getting cheap shotted by those Thropes, he saw off two Trygons and would have probably made a mess of those Thropes if he passed that armour save.

My main mistake this battle was my deployment. I depoyed too close to the Nids and too close together which meant I neded up boxing my Wolf Lords in, I should have just let them run off and cause carnage from the word go.

However despite this I had the best game of the tourney against Tim and it was one of those games that I didn't mind losing. As I already said I ended up finishing in 11th spot which I was very pleased with and took the best Sportmans award which took me by surprise as well so I didn't walk away empty handed.

Thanks for reading Wolf Fans.