Wolf and Sister Part 13

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To Las Or To Plas? That Is The Question!

Twin linked lascannon OR twin linked plasma gun and lascannon? Which is the best load out for your Razorbacks and why.

Razorwolves spam has been and gone, then come back again. To be honest, ever since the Space Wolves codex was released everyone and his wolf has been buying Razorback transports for their Long Fangs.

At the Space Wolves blog we swear by them. Not only for lending much needed fire support, but also to get your Long Fangs into position as quickly as possible.

Now I've seen all kinds of Razorback load outs, but for the Space Wolves only 2 really matter and that's Twin Linked Lascannon and Twin Linked Plasma Gun & Lascannon.

You can keep your twin linked heavy flamers and your twin linked assault cannons. What this army needs is more long ranged, high strength firepower with a low AP.

I'm even looking to squeeze some points out of my existing 1500pts army list to upgrade my 5 man Grey Hunter squad's Razorback to carry twin linked lascannons. The free twin linked heavy bolters simply aren't cutting the mustard -and I need MORE lascannons!

But with every tourney player harping on about las/plas Razorbacks, is the old skool 2nd edition Razorback really much better than the twin lascannon Razorback?

Time for some mathammer and real life reasoning!

TWIN LINKED LASCANNON
For 75 points the twin linked lascannon Razorback isn't a bad investment for your points.

Range 48", Ballistic Skill 4 and should you miss, you can reroll to hit.
It's the reroll that's really saved my bacon on numerous occasions and in the Space Wolves army you need all the lascannons you can get to take out anything with Armour 13 or above. Krak missiles simply don't hit hard enough when it comes to heavily armoured targets or even Space Marine Terminators for that matter.


TWIN LINKED PLASMA GUN & LASCANNON
Alternatively you can get a single lascannon and a twin linked plasma gun for the same points.

You've got the range, high strength and reliable Ballistic Skill for the lascannon.
Then you've got a second weapon in the form of the twin linked plasma gun. This is a weapon that's also rare in the Space Wolves army -and if it isn't, your Grey Hunters need to take more melta guns!

Stationary your Razorback can fire both weapons at light armoured tanks or heavily armoured infantry. On the move, the Razorback can fire a single weapon: the lascannon for tanks and the twin linked plasma gun for infantry or rapid firing lightly armoured vehicles up close.

CONCLUSION
Due to its versatility the Razorback with the twin linked plasma gun and single lascannon is superior for its points. It's also more survivable as it requires 2 Weapon Destroyed results before it becomes useless.

But on a personal note, my Razorbacks are always moving, so I'm only ever going to be firing 1 weapon and it's going to be the lascannon. I also need the reroll to hit quite often, although this could just be my poor luck.

However, with Grey Knights and other close combat Space Marine knocking on my door, 3 Razorbacks with las/plas is very appealing to help hold a point.

Preferably, the enemy will come within rapid fire range (the fools) and be on the receiving end of 3 twin linked plasma guns and 3 lascannons. That's 9 high strength, AP2 shots that's going to mess up monstrous creatures and Space Marines alike while providing the Space Wolves with some much needed AP2 firepower.

But as always, we leave the decision of what to take entirely up to you. We appreciate that no two players are ever the same and that their Space Wolves lists rarely are.

So what feels right for you? What do you field and why?

Noise Marines

Space Wolves are my main army and Noise Marines will be my 'side army' when the new Chaos Legions Codex comes out.

Once again, when it comes to enjoying the hobby I have to take my hat off to James. Because when he loses heart a little or simply gets tired of his Dark Angels (Deathwing and Ravenwing too) he turns to his little Thousand Sons army and gets them out for a couple of games instead -and cackles evilly all through the game!

I could have chosen Khorne, but my Space Wolves are good at chopping things up.
I could have chosen Nurgle, but my Space Wolves play in a similar way to Deathguard.
So that leaves me with Slaanesh (James has already taken Tzeentch) and Noise Marines.

I've always liked the idea of Noise Marines anyway and after seeing Nacho's incredible comic illustrations, I knew I wanted some!

Obviously, this is quite a way off, but if you think about it, a number of things are going to happen which should make Noise Marines very good.

Noise Marines should get a plastic kit

Noise Marines should have a lot of firepower

Noise Marines should be able to out-shoot Grey Knights

Seriously, do your maths on the latter point. It makes sense if the new Chaos Legions Codex is balanced against the books that went before it.

Sadly the Noise Marines won't get their own blog (Hey, you want me to keep writing this one right?), but they will make cameo appearances on the Space Wolves Blog.

In the meantime (which could be 2 years) I'm looking forward to painting pink!

Ultramarines VS Space Wolves Batrep

In the final round of Blog Wars the Ultramarines, led by Marneus Calgar were assembled in a strike force designed to drive straight down someone's throat and swamp them with Terminators while Tactical Squads claimed the objectives and an Ironclad Dreadnought using the Forgeworld Dreadnought Drop pod rules wreaked havoc from Turn 1.

So, the Space Wolves would have to use a lot of cunning to overcome this one.

As mentioned previously, the 1st rule of Blog Wars was that you must field a Unique unit in your army. The 2nd rule (not mentioned thus far) was that Forgeworld units were available to you.

No, I'm not a fan of this one either.

So when my opponent explained that he'd paid 50pts for a Forgeworld Dreadnought Drop Pod for his Ironclad and that it allowed him to disembark and Charge on Turn 1, I realised that this game could be quite tricky. And that's without 2 Land Raiders driving straight at me.

1750pts Ultramarines Strike Force
Marneus Calgar
5 Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield Terminators
Land Raider Redeemer

5 Tactical Terminators, Heavy Flaner
Land Raider

Ironclad Dreadnought, melta gun, heavy flamer
Forgeworld Dreadnought Drop Pod


Here's my Space Wolves List for Blog Wars in case you missed it. And yes, Njal Stormcaller is rubbish. More on this later...


THE GAME
The game was 5 objectives, the deployment was Pitched Battle. I made sure that the objectives were all nice and spread out.

We rolled off, I won and chose to go first to get my Long Fangs into position and start inflicting casualties. Plus, I wanted to get into a good formation for when that Ironclad slammed into my army.

Although my biggest worry was the 2 Land Raiders full of Terminators and Marneus Calgar, so I deployed far left in a big convoy line.

He set up in the opposite quarter (I thought he'd have been keen to close with me asap?), then failed to seize the initiative.

I rushed everything forward and popped smoke, the Long Fangs got out of their Razorbacks and started scaling the ruins to get into firing positions for the following turns.

The Ironclad Drop Podded into the middle of my army (as expected!), fired its melta gun at the Land Raider, but I passed my cover save. It then went to charge the Land Raider, but couldn't successfully hit it because the tank had moved 12".

The Ironclad then got a melta gun in the back for its troubles and exploded, meanwhile the rest of the Space Wolves army sat tight and pelted the approaching Ultramarine Land Raiders with lascannons.

Long Fang missiles rained down on the Ultramarine tactical squads, killing 8.
Meanwhile a pack of Grey Hunters advanced along the flank to attack another tactical squad hiding in a building.

Once the Ultramarine Land Raiders got into close range, the Rhinos moved forward, the Wolf Guard Terminators disembarked and both Land Raiders died to concentrated melta fire.

Then it was just a case of falling back from the foot slogging survivors. Although the Wolf Guard Terminators made short work of one Ultramarine Terminator squad and stood in the open, taunting Calgar to "Come on then if you think yer 'ard enough!"

The Grey Hunters that had surged up the flank butchered a whole tactical squad and went on to finish off another.

All the while Long Fangs blew squads of Ultramarines apart with a mixture of krak and frag missiles.

The game ended 1 objective to the Ultramarines, 2 Objectives to the Space Wolves.

CONCLUSION
Despite how it turned out, the game felt really close and my opponent was an awesome guy who I really enjoyed playing again.

For this game I used a tactic I like to call "Jaws Of The Wolf". You realise from the start that: (a) your opponent has to close with you due to his army composition, (b) you have lots more guns than he does, (c) both!

If this is the case you simply sit tight, blast away and get ready to jump on him when he gets close enough.

Although I was surprised by my opponent's deployment. We discussed this after the game and I suggested that he could have deployed opposite and driven both Land Raiders straight at me. Combined with the instant arrival of the Iron Clad, I may have struggled to fend it all off. Meanwhile his tactical squads could break into smaller combat squads and go claim the objectives.

Instead I was able to pick apart his army at my leisure and ignore the Land Raiders until they were in melta range. Okay, I still fired my lascannons at them, but what else were they going to shoot at?

In the meantime, stay tuned for more battle reports over the coming weeks!

Rune Priests Rules Update

Due to the new FAQs form GW there are some indirect changes to the rules for Rune Priests.

You'll have no doubt heard about having to roll to hit with Jaws Of The World Wolf and some of our other shooting attacks, but what about the units which are classified as a Daemon?

Without further ado, here's the summary for people with an attention spam as short as mine.

PSYCHIC POWERS
Anything that has range, strength and AP is classed as a 'psychic shooting attack' and requires a roll to hit. The same goes for any powers which don't have these typical stats, but are described in their entry as 'a psychic shooting attacl'.

Thunderclap:
In accordance to the rules update the large blast can now scatter. Just as well it only effective Enemy models.

Living Lighting:
No change here. We all knew you had to roll to hit, because it's just like firing a gun.

Storm Caller:
No change

Tempest's Wrath:
No change

Fury Of The Wolf Spirits:
No change here. We all knew you had to roll to hit, because it's just like firing a gun.

Murderous Hurricane:
Instead of inflicting hits automatically, you must now roll to hit.
This is a single roll, which then inflicts 3D6 hits.
It doesn't allow you to take 3D6 shots.

Jaws Of The World Wolf
Instead of drawing a straight line and making your opponent take Initiative tests, you now need to roll to hit the first target in the line.

No doubt a lot of opponents will insist that you must roll to hit Every model in the line. But this is not the case.

This psychic attack is a single shot and it doesn't specify any unit as a target. The description only mentions drawing a straight 24" line from the Rune priest.

So it's only a single roll to make sure the 'line' is accurate. He might miss by...pointing at the sky, or picking his nose I guess?

CONCLUSION:
Give your Rune Priests a Chooser Of The Slain for 10pts.
+1 Ballistic Skill and it can mess up the placement of infiltrating units.
You'd be mad not to take it.


WHAT'S A DAEMON?
It's the duty of rune priest to banish daemons and as well as being a force weapon, their runic weapons always wound Daemon models on the roll of a 2+.

So with a new list of models which are classed as Daemons, it's time for your Rune Priest to become that bit more effective in close combat.

The list of Daemons now includes:
Everything in the Chaos Daemons Codex
Chaos Space Marine Daemon Princes
Posessed Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Space Marine Obliterators
Chaos Space Marine Summoned Lesser and Greater Daemons
Chaos Space Marine vehicles with the Daemonic Possession upgrade
Inquisitorial Daemon Hosts
Dark Eldar Mandraks
Dark Eldar 'Decapitator' Mandrake special character
Eldar Avatar of Khaine

CONCLUSION
You probably don't want your Rune Priest in close combat with many of these anyway, but wounding on a 2+ will certainly help...so long as no one singles him out in combat and splats him with their higher Initiative.

Have fun and happy daemon hunting!

Wolf and Sister Part 12

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Lone Wolves - I Think We Missed The Point

Seriously, I think we all missed the point of a Lone Wolf in a Space Wolves army. When the Codex was fresh in our hands we spent so much time trying to get the very best out of every unit for optimum performance that we looked at the Lone Wolf as a tooled up lone hero.

Okay, he can still be a tooled up lone hero. But he's still not massively cost effective. Fewer people seem to be running Lone Wolves nowadays and I believe that's because we've completely missed the point regarding this unit.

Terminator Armour, Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield +2 Fenrisian Wolves

Terminator Armour, Chainfist & Storm Shield +2 Fenrisian Wolves

These two configurations quickly clawed their way to the top of the pile. Obviously, the Chainfist is better VS tanks and the Thunder Hammer is better versus any infantry models or monstrous creatures. Personally, I favour the Thunder Hammer.

The problem is that these are both 105 points. I'd rather spend 100 points on a Rune Priest or Wolf Priest. So you have to question whether he's worth taking at all.

Playing As Intended
The Lone Wolf is the last survivor of a pack. With his comrades slain in battle, he vows to bring their destroyer low -which is usually the greatest daemon or the largest xenos monster he can find.

But the point is that the Lone Wolf is the last survivor of a Space Wolves pack. He could be a Blood Claw, a Grey Hunter, perhaps even a Long Fang.

So instead of having a hulking great Wolf Guard in terminator armour, how about plucking a spare model out of your army and thrusting greatness upon him instead?

Is there any real reason you can't do this with any one of your Grey Hunter models?

Consider how often my Grey Hunter packs are wittled down to one man, often their Wolf Guard pack leader.

Having poorly led younger Space Wolves to their deaths he'll have to atone for his mistakes by becoming a Lone Wolf and seeking a glorious death in battle -With the equipment he led the Grey Hunter pack with in the previous battle of course!

I'm tempted to give this a go for a bit of fun. I also feel it could be an effective way of mopping up any left over points in an army without throwing away a Kill Point.

6th Edition Warhammer 40K Rumours

Rumours for 40k 6th Edition have arrived. But unlike all the other 6th Edition 40k posts, I'm just going to get straight to the meat!

There's LOADS of stuff, so take it all with a pinch of salt (and a flaggon of ale) as usual. But we're potentially looking at a VERY strategic game of Warhammer 40K. And you know how I'm all about strategy with my Space Wolves.

Frankly, I was wondering how the hell anyone was supposed to beat these Grey Knights, but anyway...

first real 6th edition codex: Codex Chaos Legions, really big release in three waves, doesn’t invalidate Codex Chaos Space Marines which gets extensive White Dwarf update as Codex Renegade Space Marines

two starter sets, each with rules, dices, movement markers, mission booklet, one with Dark Angels and fitting scenery, the other with Black Legion and Chaos scenery. You can combine both to play the campaign or use one set alone to play a selection of dumbed down scenarios against every other force, first starter set that comes with a model for a well established special character

All codexes since Codex Tyranids were written with the new rules in mind, especially the new mission and reserve structure

The main design goals are: one book to rule them all, heroic characters, visceral combat, streamlined mechanism, cleaned up presentation and strategy before chance

similar ballistic to hit chart as wound chart: compare BS to target’s speed and unit type. BS 3 hits moving infantry on 4+, but lightning fast jetbikes on 6+ and stationary tank on 2+

victory points are back, but with another twist: you get two victory points if an unit holds an objective for an entire game turn, if a scoring unit holds one, you get three and one if you destroy a squad leader or vehicle

before the game there is a bidding contest for the opportunity of the first turn, if you bid more strategic points you can go first, but the enemy can spent these points on stratagems as in Cities of Death: 22 generic stratagems – for example for one point you can decide on night fighting or place an automatic gun, for four you can shift your reserves, most expensive stratagems are at 12 points and are really drastic, every unspent point can be used once a game for a reroll

Even two identical armies will play completely differently due to A) the bidding effecting what the first turn player has left to spend and B) the player who didn't bid so hard, now has cards up his sleeve to deal with the fact that he is going second

Players can customize their tactics to fit their playstyle vice using units they otherwise would not want in their list to meet a "meta" standard

The stratagems being drawn from the same book means that there will be no calls of shenanigans and all players will have access, so there is no basis for a claim that you were beaten by codex creep instead of a better or smarter player

new phase “consolidate” phase for random movements, jetpack movements, pursuits, morale checks/effects and resolving shooting reactions

new turn sequence: prepare-movement-assault-shooting-consolidate

One rulebook for all

flyer rules are incorporated in the main rules

narrative rule section that expands core rules: formations, super heavies, gaining experience

modular rules, core rules can easily be expanded by narratives rules or another expansion set

Heroic characters:

independent characters more powerful, armour save and invulnerable save at the same time

squad leaders more important, no more 50% rallying threshold, unit can rally as long as squad leader lives

independent characters can snipe

More visceral combat:

standard cover only 5+ now, Feel No Pain (1) only on 5+

slow slogging units very vulnerable

some weapon types are specialized in taking out specific unit types and are incredible good at doing this (sniper vs. infantry without armour), but on the other hand ordnance vs flyer isn’t going to do much

streamlined:

no more random movement at all

5 general types of psychic powers

wound allocation like 4th edition on unit basis, but attacker can chose every 5th wound to go to a single model (sniper weapon every second wound)

artillery is normal immobile vehicle squadron, crew has no other game purpose than to be a counter for rate of fire and attacks

clean up of combusted rules:

there are tiers for most of the special rules. Instant Death (2) circumvents Eternal Warrior (1) for example. Feel No Pain (1) is 5+, Feel No Pain (2) is 4+ and Feel No Pain (3) is 3+. If no value is given, the special rule is tier 1.

no more difference between leadership test and morale test - more streamlining

terrain rules on a single page, true line of sight, non-vehicles models are ignored altogether, rules for special terrain like bunkers, ruins or deathworld mangroves in narrative rule section

less randomness, more strategic options:

more elaborate reserve rules, can nominate turn of arrival and has only small change to arrive earlier or later, or can intervene behind enemy lines, arrives randomly but can hinder enemy reserves, must be distributed evenly between turn two and three, later arrivals only randomly

This is pretty cool and reflects what battlefield reserves are meant to do and once again, like the assets, makes the player more of a factor than his list)

no more random game length

When looking at the bidding system for turns, this really means that the player who bids to get the first turn gets what he pays for and vice versa

no roll for first turn

deep striking units more than 18” from enemy away don’t scatter, but landing in 6” is much more dangerous

movement impairing effects from pinning weapons even if morale check is passed (if roll is above halved Ld), Fearless not immune to this, but only effected if rolled over full Ld

more reactions to shooting than going to the ground depending on unit type and special rules. bikes can evade (3+ cover as same as before, but cannot assault or shoot next turn), jump troops can fly high, units with Stealth can attempt to vanish

40K 6th Edition Thoughts

It looks as though Warhammer 40K 6th edition is going to be a lot more strategic.

From what's being said, it will be more about the player than the army they are playing.

Now, I'm all for that, because I play with strategy to win my games, not just the latest army. However, there are some elements of this which concern me.

Bidding System
I can see some strategic bidding going on to manipulate opponents into bidding it all in a desperate attempt to get the first turn. Also, does this mean that the first turn is so important that you simply must get it at all costs? I suppose if the best cover your opponent can get is 5+, then it really must be important. But what are the Stratagems? We'll have to wait and see.

Move - Assault - Shoot
If units cannot shoot before the assault phase, then you have to question why Space Marines have bolt pistols and why Assault Weapons exist. It looks as though we'll be forced to choose between shooting or assaulting. It wouldn't surprise me to see the return of the plasma gun to favour as a result.

Speed and Size
The bigger and slower something is, the easier it is to shoot.
The smaller and faster something is, the harder it is to shoot.

Hmmm, I think the Eldar armies are going to have a field day with this one while Land Raiders get put back on the shelf because Imperial Guardsmen with lascannons can hit them on 2+. Bad times indeed.

It certainly removes the need for so many melta guns though. Perhaps the plasma gun will reign supreme once again? Perhaps this is why they included 2 in the Space Wolves boxed set?

CONCLUSION
So there you have it. Lots of little changes which collectively amount to some very big changes.

I think that the most interesting thing is how every book since the Tyranids Codex was apparently written for 6th edition Warhammer 40K.

That would lead us to assume that Warhammer 40K 6th edition will bring balance between all the armies.

But I doubt it...

Tau VS Space Wolves Batrep

You'd think that in a game of Tau VS Space Wolves there'd be a clear winner, right? But throw Maelstrom's growing reputation for bizarre terrain layouts and anything could happen!

Having played Tau for a few years, I was looking forward to facing a savvy Tau player and see what it's really like on the other side of the table.

Then I saw the table. It was a Tau Battlesuit's paradise and a mechanised force's nightmare. Joy!

Then I saw his list, which had a whole lot of plasma, a lot of troops and a fairly good dose of rail guns. Also, only 1 vehicle. Tau had also been exempt from the Blog Wars rules about a single Unique unit choice being compulsory, so no Farsight here.

1750pts Tau Army List

Batttlesuit Commander (plasma/missile)
Batttlesuit Bodyguard (plasma/missile)

3 Batttlesuits (plasma/missile), 2 Drones
3 Batttlesuits (plasma/missile), 2 Drones
3 Batttlesuits (plasma/missile), 2 Drones

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

8 Pathfinders in a Devilfish

2 Broadside Battlesuits, 2 Drones
2 Broadside Battlesuits, 2 Drones

Here's my Space Wolves List for Blog Wars in case you missed it. And yes, Njal Stormcaller is rubbish. More on this later...

THE GAME
The mission with Annihilation, the set up was Dawn Of War. We rolled off, he won the roll and made me go first.

That was fine with me, because it gave me a turn to get across the board before the shooting started.

On the flip side, he could deploy to counter my army. Which he did.
He also held his Troops in reserve, because he knew all my Space Wolves would go charging into his centre...which they did.

Meanwhile I wasted 2 valuable turns driving around the terrain in the centre which was impassable to tanks. All the while my Long Fangs struggled to get a target the whole game. As you can see, the scenery really wasn't in my favour.

But I did manage to get my Grey Hunters across the board, along with the Wolf Guard Terminators and start beating face!

The game ended on a very close draw with 5 Kill Points each.

CONCLUSION
The conditions were perfect for the kind of army he'd created. Meanwhile I struggled with terrain which divided my forces, I then struggled with line of sight and I even struggled to fend off all of those Kroot in close combat!

With so much in his favour due to the terrain, he probably should have won it. But having played Tau myself for years, I knew that you had to get stuck in as quickly as possible and make every kill count.

Could I have played better?
Trying to out gun him at range would have been silly. Throwing everything down 1 flank would have been silly, because he could just fight me at range.

I did contemplate swarming the landing pad in the centre with infantry, but that would have turned the game into another shoot-out which the Tau would have won. Especially if they could focus their firepower on my Long Fangs.

So there wasn't anything else I could have really done.

Oh, and once again, Njal was a fat waste of points. More on how rubbish Njal Stormcaller is soon, lol.

In the meantime, stay tuned for game 3 of Blog Wars were the Space Wolves battle the mighty Marneus Calgar once again!

Arjac Rockfist Conversion

Behold, my Arjac Rockfist conversion!

This was made using parts from the Space Wolves Terminators boxed set, a Chaos Terminator torso and a large Storm Shield from the regular Space Marine Assault Terminator sergeant.

It's a fairly simple conversion that requires a bit of careful positioning and a little bit of patience for the final details.

When I was making this, I was constantly looking at the illustration of Arjac in the Space Wolves Codex.

So while I didn't put him in the same pose, or give him a left handed storm shield, I feel I've captured his essence pretty well. I've got him charging in, using his massive shield to barge enemies out of the way before swinging in with his Thunder Hammer and splattering their brains everywhere!

To reflect his Iron Priest based background, I chose a Chaos Terminator torso with a nice stove style grill on the front. Besides, he's already got enough wolf icons on him.

You're probably wondering why I haven't done anything to the Storm Shield. Well, this is because I like to include a few more typical Imperial symbols on my pre heresy Space Wolves. But it's also easy to forget that the Space Wolves are still Space Marines and an important part of the Imperium underneath all those wolf pelts and icons.

I'll paint his name on the scroll later.

I also swapped the head on his Thunder Hammer for a chunkier one with wolf head counter-weight on the back.

This is also because I needed the other Thunder Hammer head for the Anvil totem on his back.

The anvil is made from 2 cut down Thunder Hammer heads with some of the details trimmed down and reattached to create the overall shape. This was really tricky and I can't quite remember how I even did it. But it works!

Staying true to the Arjac illustration in the Space Wolves Codex, I needed two wolf tails dangling from the anvil as well.

For this my love of plastic miniatures and polystyrene cement really came to the fore.

I trimmed down the backs of the wolf tails and part of Arjac's armour so that sat fairly flat, while gently attaching them to some of the other details on the miniature with a tiny bit of polystyrene cement to get a good, strong hold.

The wolf tail on the right, for example, touched the anvil, the corner of Arjac's armour, part of the shoulder pad, the wolf skull broach in the corner of the shoulder pad and finally the tip of the wolf tail touches the back of the shield Arjac is holding. That's 5 contact points. So while it may look suspended in mid air, it's really quite sturdy.

Now he's done, I can't wait to paint him!

Logan Grimnar Conversion

Behold my Logan Grimnar Conversion. I went straight in at the deep end with my first Wolf Guard Terminator being the Space Wolves Chapter Master himself. This is because I knew he'd require the most important bitz before any of his soldiers grabbed them for themselves!

I've never been a fan of the Logan Grimnar metal model (or metal models in general) and wasn't keen on the illustrations of him either.

Instead I decided to base my conversion on Nacho's Warlord Of Fenris illustration, which looks suitably stoic, imposing and bedecked with all manner of trinkets and trophies.

I really took my time with this, matching different components, arms and weapons to different poses. I couldn't achieve the same pose as Nacho's illustration without him looking too static. I wanted an imposing, leading stance of some kind and eventually came up with this.

The Animal Skull
I've had an Ork Nob standard pole sitting in my bitz box for quite a while.
I took my knife and cut down the back of the skull until it was flat.
Once the legs and torso of my conversion had been dry for a good 24 hours (I needed to make sure they wouldn't come apart), I cut the model from the waist down, creating a smooth surface for the skull to glue against...and glued it on with polystyrene cement.

I then realised that the big wolf head dangling between his legs looked silly alongside it, so I clipped it off with my clippers, then used my knife to hack away at the remaining plastic, extending the fur pattern in the loin cloth.

The Frost Axe
Originally I made a double headed frost axe, but it was comically huge. Instead I went with the regular axe attached to the pole of a right handed Thunder Hammer arm.

I cut the Thunder Hammer arm off at the hand and did the same with the Frost Axe arm. This would ensure a good, clean and large area to attach the new component to.
I also made sure that I kept the Thunder Hammer cable, which was them glued (melted) with polystyrene cement to the underside of the new Frost Axe and helped to hold it in place for long term strength.

The Wolf Cloak
Now this is where things got interesting. And in hindsight, I should have done this before I attached the Frost Axe, but you live and learn.

I took a Chaos Warrior cloak (I tend to get 4 spare for every squad of pre heresy Grey Hunters that I make) and clipped off the shoulder pads, then carefully cut out the detail from the inside until it was nice and smooth. Any gaps or weird shapes were covered over in Green Stuff and smoothed out with a wet thumb.

I then trimmed the back of the terminator torso until it was flat for the cloak to attach. Then I used a lot of polystyrene cement to melt the two pieces of plastic together.

Once absolutely dry (a good hour or two), I got to work on the wolfy bits.

Fortunately I had 4 of the large wolf cloaks from the Space Wolves Terminator box.

I clipped the head off one, then trimmed the underside of the head until it glued down flat on top of the terminator torso.

I then took two of the wolf forward limbs and bent them carefully until they smoothly fitted across his shoulder pads. I glued them in place with super glue and to the top of the terminator torso, where possible, with polystyrene cement for extra strength.

I intended for the whole wolf to take up most of the cloak, so I took two more wolf forward limbs and bent one to smoothly lie against the left side of his cloak at the back, while the other was bent to lie on its side down the right hand side of the back of the cloak -like it was flapping in the breeze perhaps.

Finally, I took the wolf tail from the bottom of one of the Wolf Guard Terminator storm bolters, scraped off the upper detail with my knife, then trimmed the underside flat so it could also smoothly glue to the centre of the cloak a little way down. This would become the wolf's tail.

When all this had thoroughly dried (a whole day of drying to be sure nothing would bend, move of break), I broke out the Green Stuff modelling putting and my knife.

I was quite liberal with the green stuff and pressed lots of little bits on to make up the shape and bulk of the wolf cloak, then smudges some bits across the top of the limbs.

Then I made quick directional lines using the knife, from the bottom up, copying the fur patterns on the limbs.

I went across in horizontal lines.

Then the next row of fur texture up would overlay the one below for a more convincing effect.

Once done, I realised that I couldn't show off too much of my sculpted fur in a large area (I'm not that good a sculptor).

So I pressed a spare chain with trinkets (cut from a Space Wolf terminator torso) into the green stuff and stuck a Beastman shield (trimmed earlier) left of the centre.

This would break up the texture nicely with some detail and make my conversion look suitable Nordic.

Once dry (another day!) I removed the shield, which had made a flat impression and glued it back in place with super glue.


That's all the difficult bits. I hope this helps you with your own Space Wolves conversions -especially if you're crazy enough to make your own wolf cloaks!

For more inspiration, check out the rest of our conversions.

Making Slate Bases for 40K Models

Always wanted to make badass bases for your larger miniatures? Simply use a bit of slate, a mixture of flock and some spare skulls!

These pieces of slate were 'liberated' under the cover of night from the communal garden outside my flat. Someone had poured a huge bag of this stuff around the rockery, so there was more than enough. What I didn't need, I put back once I was done.

You can buy bags of this stuff from garden centres. Don't get suckered into buying 5 pieces for £1 on eBay or buying resin bases, when you can easily make these yourself.

I was very patient and took my time composing each of these, finding a good looking piece of slate and trying it in different positions on the base with a couple of terminator legs to check how the slate would interact with the pose of each model.

Once I was happy, I glued the slate in place with some super glue and left it to dry for a full hour. The slate seems to slide around very easily, so don't touch these bases once glue has been applied and you're 100% sure that they're dry.

Having collected all my spare skulls (mostly from the Chaos Warriors box), I covered my bases in PVA glue.

Now, I use 3 types of flock:
Small stones from the drive way shingle
GW sand (with grey modelling gravel mixed in)
old GW sand (which is really fine sand with the odd stone mixed in)

First I'd place the skull (or skulls) on each base at a slight angle, usually next to one of the rocks. Y'know, somewhere natural that a skull would roll to I suppose. It looks good anyway.

Then I carefully placed a couple of the small stones.
Then I'd pick out some of the tiny bits of gravel and stone from my second tub and sprinkle these over certain areas. Usually around the skulls, to support it from either side. This keeps the angle on the skull and stops it from getting buried in the fine grains of sand.

Once I'm happy with how rocky it's looking, I'll cover the rest of the base in fine GW sand. This will easily fill in any gaps, etc.

Leave to dry for 12 hours. Then turn them upside down and give them a tap on the underside over one of the sand tubs. This will get rid of any excess sand.

You'll find the odd gap here and there. Often where the PVA glue has dried up and shrunken down, leaving an empty bubble against some detail.

Simply get some PVA in there with a brush or a paper clip and fill it up with sand, a stone or similar.

Leave to dry for 24 hours (you need this to be absolutely dry and not just touch-dry) and you're ready for painting.

This is time consuming for just a few bases, but it really is worth it.

Battle of The Fang Book Review

Here's my book review of Battle Of The Fang, which takes place just roughly a Thousand years after the Horus Heresy and the Wolves destruction of Prospero.

I have to mention that Author Chris Wraight has absolutely nailed  his research and background for that era of the 40k Universe.

He takes elements from A Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns in such a manner that Battle of the Fang feels like the closing part in a trilogy of books, and there is even a nod towards the Ragnar Blackmane books with the mention of a Navigator from the house of Belisarius.

It's not just these little details that make it feel almost like a Heresy era book, but also how the Wolves and the Thousand Sons speak and think. Both sides are still reeling from the Heresy and the total corruption of the Sons of Magnus quite haven't come to fruition for some, while the Sons of Russ still see their escape as a massive failure and a dark secret.

As you would expect from any Black Library book the action is fast and brutal and no more so when the Wolves are involved. From the initial disruption of the early landings to the final fights in the Fang it self, the blood shed is unrelenting. We get to see the best and the worse of our favourite Chapter. Like I eluded to earlier with the Heresy era books we get a good idea of what it is to be a Space Wolf, and how they choose to face and fight their dark side, unlike the Thousand Sons who have now twice (at this point in the time line) chosen to avoid theirs, and this point brings us to a very unexpected cameo appearance of the Wolf Brothers Chapter - but I will mention no more about them!

Now if there was a weakness in Battle of the Fang it would be that there are so many interesting characters, but quite a few don't get fully fleshed out as others regardless of what their fate might of been, but in a book like this it's understandable. We see various parts of the battle from the point of view of a Lord, a few Wolf Guard, two Blood Claws, a Wolf Scout, Bjorn, a Wolf Priest, a Rune Priest, a Chapter Serf - and that just the from Wolves side!

The sections following the Chapter serf really do pick up towards the middle part of the book as she descends into parts of the Fang mortals are not normally aloud in we get to learn so much about Space Wolves act out of battle and in relation to non Astartes.

I won't go on any more or I will end up retelling the whole book, but I will say that it appears that Magnus had an ulterior motive for attacking the Fang other than revenge for Prospero, and did it work?

A damn good book, that any Hardcore fan of the Vlka Fenryka should read.

Wolf and Sister Part 11

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Logan Wolf Wing Terminator Army

We take another look at the Logan Grimnar Wolf Wing Terminator army, thanks to an email from one of our readers.

Hi, I thought I'd be cheeky and send an email as I'm a big fan of the blog and looking for advice and didn't know who else to turn to!

I play Space Wolves and have a 'Wolfwing' terminator army, which as I know isn't very competitive and would like advice on how to improve it. Should I just quit on the idea of an all terminator army and go for a more balanced list?

I play a footslogging style and thinking of playing them as a shooty army that sits back with cyclone missile launchers and assault cannons to thin out opposition numbers before moving forward and relying on counter attack.


Regards,
Daniel
Hi Daniel,

If you want a terminator army, the best way to do it is to 'do a Deathwing' but with Logan Grimnar leading the army.

A while back I said that Wolf Wing wasn't as good as the Deathwing. Well, that's not entirely true now.

Deathwing Assault seems to be pretty redundant now, because it takes so much more firepower to dent one of the newer armies. Unfortunately, Deathwing Assault was the only really good special rule of the Deathwing, aside from Fearless of course. Although it's worth rememebering that the Apothecary gives 1 squad Feel No Pain too, which is usually assault terminators.

The Space Wolves all-terminator army looked awesome on paper, but I had to question the long term viability of everyone having combi weapons while the storm bolter was a better long term weapon.

Not to mention that the Power Fist was noticeably BETTER than Initiative 4 Power Weapons in close combat! Striking first clearly isn't so important.

As a result, James' Deathwing has been beating the hell out of the Marc's Grey Knights thanks to the high strength of the Power Fist, which is something we really didn't expect.

I know I harp on about the best all round wolf guard terminator load out, and I'm convinced I've found it. But this unit only performs well in a regular Space Wolves army and while it could form a very aggressive template for an entire Space Wolves Terminator army, the classic storm bolter and powerfist is better all round on a larger scale. This is mostly because it requires far less micro management.

Anyway, here's my suggestion...

Logan Wolf Wing Terminator Army

Logan Grimnar
2 Wolf Guard Terminators with thunder hammer and storm shield
2 Wolf Guard Terminators with chainfist and storm shield
1 Wolf Guard Terminators with chainfist, storm shield and a cyclone

(X5)
5 Wolf Guard Terminators:
1 has storm bolter and power weapon
1 has storm bolter and chainfist
1 has storm bolter, powerfist and cyclone
2 have storm bolterand power fist

That comes to about 1800 points.

Thoughts
This is essentially James' Deathwing army substituted with the Space Wolf equivalents.

The Terminator army advances in a big blog, gunning down stuff by focussing its firepower while Logan and the thunder hammer storm shield terminators advance in the middle of it all.

Then once close, Logan pops his "everyone in 18" get +1 attack" special and they go mess people up.

My friend James is playing his Deathwing this way, but I feel that Space Wolves could do better thanks to their Counter-Charge rule. Because who in their right mind is going to charge into that? Daemons? Bring it on!

Room For Improvement
There's still a lot of room for improvement with the Logan Wolf Wing Terminator army. Becuase unlike the Deathwing you're not restricted to 5-man squads. You can have anywhere between 5 and 10. You may want to include some Lone Wolves if you're foot slogging too.

So there's a lot to play around with. The problem is that there's too much choice, which makes it difficult to figure out what the best size of squad is.

Although on the plus side, the points saved on the 'shooty' squads made purchasing the overpriced (63 points each!) thumder hammer & storm shield terminators a little easier.

But in the meantime, I'd recommend 'doing it like the Deathwing' for the best results. And if all else fails -pummel it with powerfists!

Thanks
Adam

PS: I'm constantly tempted to pick up a Deathwing army, because it's just so easy to build and throw down for a game. All you need is 6 boxes of terminators, maybe another box to make your characters in plastic. So that's £157 from Wayland Games. Mental!

Grey Knights VS Space Wolves Batrep

This Space Wolves VS Grey Knights batrep comes to you from the first round of Blog Wars 40K 2011.

I can't remember my opponent's name (I was a little hung over), but he was an awesome guy with a beautifully painted Grey Knights army. I wish that my camera and the lighting could have done it better justice.

Having battled Marc's Draigo Paladin army the day before, I wasn't looking forward to facing Grey Knights again. But when I read through his list I noticed a lack of long ranged firepower...which gave me an idea.

Here's my Space Wolves List for Blog Wars in case you missed it. And yes, Njal Stormcaller is rubbish. More on this later...

1750pts Grey Knights Army List
Draigo
5 Grey Knights Terminators with Halberds, 1 Psycannon

Inquisitor Corteaz
10 Henchmen with Hellguns, 2 with melta guns
2 Jokaero
Chimera

8 Grey Knights Purifiers with 2 Psycannons
Rhino

7 Deathcult Assassins, 2 Crusaders, 1 Mystic
Rhino

Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknight

Grey Knights Dreadnought with 2 Autocannons and Psybolts


The Game
We were playing the 2 Objective Mission (I can never remember the names of the objective missions!) with a Spear Head deployment. I won the roll off, stuck my objective down and he mirrored my objective placement.

I then put down everything in the bottom left corner, at a safe distance from his Psycannons, because I expected him to seize the initiative with Corteaz' re-roll.

Then, to my surprise he kept Draigo and the Grey Knight Terminators as well as the Dreadknight in reserve.

Suddenly his army looked very small from across the table.

I then placed my Chooser Of The Slain to deny his Vindicare Assassin setting up in his quarter, so he'd have to deploy nearer to my forces (and in firing range of most of my guns).

This forced him to place the Vindicare in the bottom right corner while the rest of his forces deployed in the top right corner.

He failed to seize the initiative and with the first turn my lascannons blew up his Psyfleman Dreadnought, Njal killed his Vindicare Assassin with Living Lightning and some more lascannons blew up the nearest Rhino while the Long Fangs pounded the Death Cult Assassins with frag missiles.

The game consisted of me sitting and shooting, taking very little in return and sitting tight until the Dreadknight and Draigo arrived.

It took the whole army to gun down the Dreadknight.

Then, in the latter turns of the game Draig arrived and I blocked him off with a tank wall.

Meanwhile the Land Raider of Wolf Guard Terminators and a single pack of Grey Hunters made their way towards the Grey Knights objective...but didn't quite make it.

One more turn and I would have won it, but there were lessons to be learned from this game, despite the Space Wolves gunning down absolutely everything!


Conclusion
My biggest mistake in this game was holding so much back for the arrival of Draigo and the Dreadknight. In particular, the one Grey Hunter pack who made a dash for the Grey Knights objective which was soon after followed by the Land Raider full of Wolf Guard Terminators.

I could have got a charge out of both units on Turn 5, but my rolling was pretty abysmal. Even the Terminators couldn't make it into combat. Bad times indeed.

I also had 2 whole packs of Grey Hunters, plus Njal sitting on my objective.
Could they have cut down Draigo and 5 Grey Knight Terminators in a single turn? I should think so. But it was a risk I wasn't willing to take. Although I should try it out some time against Marc, who is now my regular Grey Knights opponent.

Otherwise, I feel I played this pretty perfectly, but the game still ended in a draw with 1 objective each.

However, the victory points told a different story with over 1,000 VPs in my favour.
Given another turn, I probably could have wiped him out. Either way, I'm getting more familiar fighting the Grey Knights.


In the meantime, stay tuned for the second battle report from Blog Wars where the Space Wolves battle the Tau Empire...but first have to work their way around the biggest patch of impassable terrain you've ever seen!

My Computer Hath Exploded

Earlier this week my computer died and went to silicon heaven. Unfortunately it took my hard drive with it, along with all the images I'd had saved for conversions guides and tutorials.

I've still got some stuff saved on my camera, but things like the Las/Plas Razorback Turret conversion and the Sun Wolf Razorback tutorial photos are gone.

It's not so sad, because I'll be making more of these in the future anyway. But in the short term these articles will have to be pushed back.

I also can't show you guys photos of my new Pre Heresy Wolf Guard Terminator conversions, because they're now all under coated black. So I can only show you them once they're fully painted.

So I apologise for the wait on these articles and I'll be working throughout the weekend to bring the blog back up to speed.

On the bright side, I have just finished photographing a Pre Heresy Space Wolves Conversion Tutorial, so stay tuned for that, plus more comprehensive content for your favourite Warhammer 40K army.

Wolf and Sister Part 10

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Blog Wars 40K 2011

We're back from the 40K Blog Wars! And great time was had, despite Njal Stormcaller being the biggest waste of 245 points we've ever seen.

In fact, all 3 of my games were good and it was awesome to meet my fellow bloggers face to face and have a good ole' natter about the game we all love. Blowing up tanks and bludgeoning blokes was quite good fun too!

I didn't have time to work on my army or write a half decent list, so Marc and I rocked up, ready to play for a giggle and in the spirit of the game.

Playing In The Spirit Of The Game
I haven't played in the competitive mindset in a while. So I had a bit of a nasty shock in my second game when I encountered a player who was definitely wanted to win at all costs.

Ironically, I didn't follow my own advice about friendly 40K tournaments. But in my other games I'd reminded my opponents to move certain units, to shoot certain things and they'd reminded me in turn. We just had a laugh.

I've often said I envied James (aka: Dark Angels beat-stick) for occupying the middle tables throughout a tournament, because he gets some great games. Meanwhile I'm fighting for my life on the top tables.

But now I can also see why he gets really annoyed with some of his opponents -and for good reason.

When you're not playing in a competitive mindset, it comes as a big kick-in-the-teeth when you suddenly encounter someone who is.

I actually felt sorry for Marc, because he could have won his last game (and won the whole tournament), with his Draigo Paladin army, had he played in a competitive mindset. But I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes.

Battle Of The Chumps
In the meantime, Battle Of The Chumps 2011 is coming up. Which means it's time to get into that competitive mindset once again. I have a 3rd place to defend after all!

So for now, stay tuned for some quick battle reports from the Blog Wars 40K weekend while I find tune my army list. But one things for certain - I won't be taking Njal Stormcaller!

Wolf Guard Project 2

You're probably wondering what happened to my Wolf Guard Terminator army?

Well, I sold them to a friend. Yep, the whole lot. He was very pleased.

I wasn't happy with them y'see. I'd built them all in a hurry and felt that I could do better. Much better.

So rather than build a whole Space Wolf Terminator army, I've scaled it back to just 1 unit and I'll be taking my time to lovingly convert each and every one.

As you can see in the photo, I've built a few already, complete with wolf cloaks and dynamic poses. They're coming along really nicely!

I won't be able to do tutorials for these, because they're extremely involved. But I can show you my awesome new combi weapon conversions and how to make your own cool slate bases.

So stay tuned for more pre heresy Space Wolves with wolf cloaks, oversized weapons and badass poses. It's good to be a Space Wolf!

Space Wolves VS Grey Knight Draigo Paladins

Had a quick game last night using my Blog Wars list (meh!) against Marc's Grey Knights Paladin army led by Draigo.

Marc borrowed James' Deathwing army to represent it, as he's frantically building and painting all his Grey Knights terminators.

This was a friendly 'fool around' game to see what works, what doesn't, how and why.

The game was pretty short, so I'll summarise:

SUMMARY
We got 4 objectives and a pitched battle deployment. I won the roll off and set up first, deploying with Long Fangs on the flanks, Grey Hunters and Wolf Guard in the middle, with Njal (in a Rhino) and the Wolf Guard (in their Land Raider) to the right.

Marc placed Draigo and 10 Paladins opposite Njal and the other 10 Paladins to the left of the first unit, near to the cluster of 3 objectives.

Yes, I chose my table side rather poorly. But what the heck.

The Battle
Psycannons went through the Land Raider like a hot Frisbee through butter!
He shot the hell out of my army with so many psycannon rounds, so I had to close with him as quickly as possible, with as much as possible.

It was really tough getting enough units together to fire at and charge him at once, but considering I was able to give his depleted Paladins a good kicking with just 2 Grey Hunter packs (using their Wolf Standards) proves that they're not impossible to fight in close combat. You just end up taking a few casualties in the process.

I lost combat and all my Grey Hunters ran.

Had my Wolf Guard Terminators got into the combat as well, then it would have been a different story.

In the following round Draigo assaulted the Wolf Guard Terminators and cut them all down without any effort, then started herding the two Grey Hunter packs off the board. Joy...

While all looked lost, I realised that IF I could kill Draigo and his 1 remaining Paladin with my Long Fangs and Razorbacks, I could get the Grey Hunters back, then sit back and pelt Marc's other Paladin mob from afar, wittling down his numbers so he'd be unable to claim more than 1 of the 3 clustered objectives.

Krak missiles fired en masse. Draigo lost his last remaining wound and the Paladin beside him was blown apart too. No one could pass all of those 2+ saves - Death By Statistics!

Finally, the Razorbacks turned their lascannons on the other Paladin mob, killing 2 of them and forcing them to lose 1 of the 3 clustered objectives as they were forced to reform their squad coherency in the following turn.

The Paladins sat tight, hoping the game would end.

Njal and his Grey Hunters got into their Rhino and parked on one objective.
Krak missiles and lascannons killed more Paladins, forcing their squad coherency again so that they could only claim 1 of the 3 objectives.

CONCLUSION
It was late and Marc had to go home, so we called it a Draw there, but it had been a seriously tough going game, mostly due to Draigo deflecting (and absorbing) lots of melta gun and lascannon blasts that would have otherwise greatly reduced his Paladin mob.

I'm just glad Marc didn't run both Paladin mobs together in a big Blob. Although that's probably because of Jaws Of The Wolf, frag templates, etc.

Could I have played better?
This is something I always ask myself. In this instance, I could have sat outside of his 24" range for a turn to soften him up. But then I'd have to get stuck in next turn...only from a greater distance. So that wouldn't have been so good.

One thing's for certain, smoke launchers will not save your tanks from rending Psycannons. The Land Raider bought it straight off the starting line.

In hindsight, I could have arranged my units better to fire and charge together, not piecemeal. If the Wolf Guard Terminators had gotten into close combat, things would have been quite different.

I guess that's what making space for Njal casting JAWS gets you. I should have used one of his other powers instead. Wolf Spirits would have been good for the AP2.

Until next time!

Wolf and Sister Part 9

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