Wolves on the Rampage!

Skoal Wolf Brothers!

First post on this great blog and I thought I would cover the performance of the latest addition to my Pre Heresy Space Wolves army during the recent South East Rampage mini doubles tournament at Warhammer World.

I have not played in any tournaments and would like to enter more so I saw this as a first step.

I say mini tournament as this wasn't a tournament attended by many advanced gamers - I think it is intended to be an intro to tournaments - that's not to say there were not some power gamers scattered around - but it depends what you think of two Land Raiders in a 1500pts list!!

Anyway, it was a doubles tournament and with each partner supplying 750pts.

My partner was my mate Mark who has been working on an awesome Adeptus Mechanicum themed army using the Imperial Guard codex. His list included:

• Primaris Psyker (with the Veterans)
  
• Veteran squad - shotguns and melta guns coming out of their ears mounted in a Chimera
• Penal Legion squad
  
• Two Vendettas (lots of lascannons and heavy bolters that could outflank)
• Two Hydra flaktanks

One of Mark's favourite franchises of all time is the Terminator series and this has had a great influence on his army but, enough about exoskeletons in robes - this is a Space Wolf blog!

I was really looking for inspiration for what to take and when I read this very blog's 750pts list for Wolves I had found it. The problem was it required four Thunderwolves and I had none! This led to one of my biggest projects - building four Thunderwolves using Canis as a base so I could use them at any GW sanctioned event.

With the Thunderwolves built and a new Rune Priest to lead the army I was ready to go on the Rampage!

I'm really just going to concentrate on the performance of the Thunderwolves during these games but if you would like more details let me know.

Game One Vs. Necron and Necron, Seize Ground (two objectives) with Pitched Battle deployment
Our first game was against a Necron double team. Their lists were pretty similar meaning they had two Necron Lords (one with a Destroyer body), two full units of Necron warriors, two units of four Destroyers and three Heavy Destroyers.

They won first turn so decided to hold much of our army in reserve and run on at full pelt to prevent a turn of free shooting. On hindsight I think I should have probably just braved it with the Thunderwolves and got into combat earlier.

Turn two my Thunderwolves arrive and run screaming at the Necrons Warriors hiding in a bastion. They reached it in turn three and the powerfist ruined it utterly - those five strength 10 hits are awesome! The Necron Warriors in the bastion were stunned and would have been smacked by the Thunderwolves in the following tuern but we ran out of time!

I should note that during this game the Necron Lord with Destroyer body would just not die despite out best efforts until the very end - thanks to a face full of Long Fang missiles! But this image pretty much sums up the effort we went to before hand!

As the game was objective based with one on each side the game ended a draw (we had the moral victory though as we would have won if it went to victory/kill points)

Game Two Vs. Ultramarines and Ultramarines, Seize Ground (four objectives) with Dawn Assault deployment
Our opponents during this game were very young but cool guys and we had a laugh discussing how best they could use their army. Turn one my Thunderwolves ran on and up the cover on the right flank. By turn three they charged a full ten man Ultramarines tactical squad that were falling out of a wrecked rhino (thanks to Mark's shooting) and annihilated them in one round.

Now behind enemy lines the Thunderwolves then went on to wreck a Whirlwind and 5 man combat squad (with an annoying missile launcher) in turn four and the final combat squad on the Ultramarine held objective in turn five.

Game Three Vs. Eldar and Eldar, Annihilation with Spearhead deployment
Our opponents this time were more seasoned and we were currently placed fifth in the tournament (out of 43 teams).

The Eldar guys won first turn and we chose to hold everything in reserve to give the Vendettas a chance to get into position to outflank the Eldar.

Unfortunately due to poor deployment, as I was worrying too much about my Thudnerwolves surviving shots from sneeky Eldar weaponry, they never really made it into the game.

Turning point of the game was when an Eldar wave serpent carrying Yeriel (apparently he is pretty nasty???!) and a full unit of Howling Banshees ramming my Rune Priest's rhino and not damaging it but instead wrecking themselves and killing all occupants! The Eldar players were not happy!

The Hydra flak tanks were solid and kept up their volley of autocannon fire, managing to keep wrecking or stunning the Falcons/Wave Serpents.

In conclusion
Thunderwolves are awesome and you should not be afraid to get them stuck in - you need to be agressive with them. Thunderwolf charges are horrendous - the shear amount of rending attacks followed up my five strength 10 hits from the powerfist is something to behold. Topped off with the toughness of five means retaliation attacks often cannot do enough damage. I cannot wait to use the Thunderwolves again and look forward to playing in more tournaments.

I met Phill Kelly while at Warhammer World and he asked how the Thunderwolves were performing - he left with a cheeky smile!

To top off a great event Mark and I won best painted army too! Somewhere in GW HQ there is now a photo of two grinning idiots who managed to fuddle their way through their first mini tournament (with a little help from Codices Space Wolves and Imperial Guard AND this very blog!)