Wolf and Sister Part 17

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Brad's BOTCH: Space Wolves Vs Space Wolves

After my spanking in the last round by the Flesh Tearers I was hopeing for a bit of an easier game to claw some points back. Even though I had lost I still managed to score 9 Tournament points thanks to my secret mission and victory point difference which wasn't much when we totted things up, so essentially I was just short of 10 points which I would have scored if we drew.

The missions for second round were announced and it was a variation of the Bore Draw mission Capture and Control. IN this mission each side had a home objective but there was a third objective in the centre of the board worth two points. Brilliant I thought! my army loves scrapping midfield so I stand a good chance of grabbing that middle objective. My opponent then turns up with a Space Wolf army not too far off my own, this is going to be a punch up.

This time round the table was quite nice with plenty of area terrain and some nice lanes of fire for Long Fangs. My secret mission was to kill the enemies most exspensive unit which after a quick glance at his list I decided was either of the Long Fang Packs. My opponents list was (from memory so may be a bit off):

Rune Priest
Jaws + another power

6 Grey Hunters
Mark of Wulfen
Meltagun
Banner
Rhino

6 Grey Hunters
Mark of Wulfen
Meltagun
Banner
Rhino

6 Grey Hunters
Mark of Wulfen
Meltagun
Banner
Rhino

6 Grey Hunters
Mark of Wulfen
Meltagun
Banner
Rhino

6 Long Fangs
5 Missile Launchers

6 Long Fangs
5 Missile Launchers

My immediate thoughts on this list was that he had the ranged supremecy by having more Long Fangs and he had the same amount of bodies to throw forward at me too to comtrol that centre objective. We rolled for deployment and thankfully I lost the roll and my oppoenent took first turn, I say thankfully because I was now able to see where those Long Fangs would be setting up and hopefully avoid some firepower to even things up.

The Game

The game started off a bit dreary for me as my Razorback copped for some rockets and went up in flames, I really needed that Plasma gun this game to thin those packs out a bit. Both sides advanced to the centre on a head on collision course.

One of the enemy Long Fangs packs had set up on my left flank in some ruins but the lanes of fire from that spot were poor so I was able to position myself out of sight and only have to endure one salvo a turn from the remaining pack who had deployed out in the open. I assigned my own Long Fangs the task of killing off this pack and netting the secret mission bonus points.

The game looked like it was going well I had a full pack of Grey Hunters blow up a Rhino and then assault the contents in turn 2. With superior pack numbers and a Fist in each one I was hoping to domiante the close combat pahse easily. My whoops of joy turned to cries of horror as my pack charged in, killed nothing, lost two in return and then fled the combat with 6 angry Grey Hunters right behind them! This was not good, my pack was going to be escaorted off the board now with ease leaving my other two pack to fend for themselves.

It was around turn 3 when the real fighitng began, I lost my Rune Priest to a Jaws snipe (God damn that is annoying when it happend to you lol!) and by the end of the turn pretty much every Grey Hunter on the board was in close combat.

I managed to kill off the Long fang pack on my right flank by about turn 4 but by this time I was started to realise the combats in the middle were not going my way. A couple of bad rounds saw my numbers thin out drasticaly, I had managed to beat off the Grey Hunter swarm but they packs had escaped with one or two surviving in each one which meant they could still claim objectives.

I only had three Grey Hunters left in the centre and my pack that which had fled earlier had finally re grouped and was able to claim my deployment zone objective. At the start of turn 5 the game was draw, we both held our own objectives and the centre was contested but I only had three Grey Hunters and a Rhino to do so.

It was a pretty decisive finishing blow on my opponents part, he sent his Rune Priest and a couple of Grey Hunters into my pack and blew my Rhino up with his long fangs. The close combat was pretty much one way with the Rune Priest killing off my Grey Hunters with his Runic Axe thus ending the game in a loss for me.

Conclusion
Damn that was a close game! It was almost a repeat of the first game Vs the Flesh Tearers, I lost a pack early on to a failed morale test which meant my other packs had to fight on thier own. We both played well in my opinion and the game came down to a punch up in the centre that I ended up losing. I had bagged the secret mission and thanks to victory points I walked away with 9 points again. My opponent Andy was a great guy and he told me he was a regular reader of the blog so he deserved to win!

I was looking forward now to some bigger games with my 1500 point list. I always seem to struggle with 1000 point games, my 1k list was a solid choice and I think I just got really unlucky in both of the games I had with it, hopefully my luck will return in the upcoming games.

Adam's BOTCH: Spaces Wolves VS Blood Angels

In the second round I was drawn against Brett's Blood Angels. This beautifully straightforward jump pack army was just wanted I wanted -a force that would come to me for a good punch up!

Fortunately Brett didn't disappoint, but first we had the bizarre mission to deal with.

The deployment was Pitched Battle, but we had an objective in the centre as well as an objective each to put down.

Brett won the roll off and made me go first, which was exactly what I wanted.

I put my objective 12" on from my board edge, exactly 12" away from the objective in the centre. This create a nice area for me to defend.

Meanwhile, Brett placed his objective in the top right hand corner...and the game began!

THE GAME
I circled the wagons with the Long Fangs on a hill in the middle and waited...

Turn 1 passed and I advanced my tanks into a Z formation which would allow the Grey Hunters within to disembark and charge en masse in any direction. All my tanks fired their smoke launchers and waited...

Brett rolled for his reserves, which he tried to keep off of the board with his Descent of Angels rerolls, but everything turned up, much to his frustration.

He had planned to stay off the table til Turn 4, hold me up while claiming his objective in the corner, but now he had to commit everything.

The Blood Angels landed on my right flank and fired their melta guns to little effect. Through the smoke the best they could do was blow the storm bolter off the nearest Rhino.

However, the Librarian and his Assault Squad gunned down three of the Long Fangs who broke and fell back towards the board edge, only just avoiding running straight off the table.

Meanwhile a 5-man Assault Squad landed in the top right hand corner, claiming an objective I'd never be able to reach.

The Long Fangs regrouped and fired krak missiles into the Assault Squad while the Grey Hunters disembarked as one, advanced on the Blood Angels and fired their melta guns before calling on the power of their Wolf Standards and crashing headlong into close combat.

3 rounds later and I'd lost a Grey Hunter pack while the Blood Angels had been wiped out.

The Grey Hunters advanced to claim two objectives while the Rune Priest, Razorback and Long Fangs gunned down the 5-man Assault Squad sitting on an objective from afar with lightning bolts, lascannon blasts and screaming krak missiles.

With the Blood Angels wiped out, the Space Wolves had scored a massive victory!

CONCLUSION
There wasn't much else Brett could have done in this game. I knew what was coming for me and so I prepared accordingly.

The mission didn't help him either, because I could simply sit on 2 objectives within close proximity of each other.

It's always a huge brawl between the Space Wolves and Blood Angels, but with his Assault Squads vulnerable to being charged, he was on the back foot right from the start.

However, his plan to hold up my units in the later turns of the game was a pretty good one, although some of his units were sure to turn up earlier than others. Shame his Blood Angels had other ideas!

But despite the game being rather one sided, we had fun rolling buckets of dice and I bought him a beer afterwards.

Wolf and Sister Part 16

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Brads BOTCH: Space Wolves Vs Flesh Tearers

This is the first of my Battle of the Chumps 2011 Battle Reports. For those who don't know BoTCH is an escalation tournament with games being played at 1k, 1.5k and 2k. After a coffee and a catch up with some faces I hadn't seen in a while it was time for the first round. The mission announced for this round was kill points with the Spearhead deployment. This was no big deal for me right up to the point I saw my opponents army list.

My opponent was running a Descent of Angels style list, this is all well and good but those kind of armies are low on kill points compared to my Mech style list. The situation got worse when I saw the table we were playing on. It was littered with Ruined walls with two large LoS blocking buildings on the far end, this was going to be tough.

The Flesh Tearer list was:

Librarian, Jump Pack
Unleash Rage + another power

2 Sanguinary Priests
Power Weapons

10 Assault Marines, Jumps Packs, 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist

10 Assault Marines, Jumps Packs, 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist

10 Assault Marines, Jumps Packs, 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist


We rolled for deployment and I lost but I was given the opportunity to choose deployment zone and take first turn. I play against DoA quite a bit and know how to handle these buggers and I think that made me go into this game a bit too confident. There was no way I could deploy near those two large building or those marines would drop in out of LoS and then be all over me turn 2 so this forced me into the maze of ruined walls on the right flank.

The best way for my army to beat DoA is to circle the wagons with the Long Fangs nearby and wait for them to drop in and Melta my transports. Then it is a case of launching a counter attack and catching them flat footed and hopefully reduce the number of Marines to deal with the following turn.

The Game

So I set up in my Wagon Circle, I placed the Long Fangs just off to me left as a bit of a bait uni seeing as they would struggle do do much this game with all of that terrain blocking LOS. Turn 2 and the Flesh Tearers all descened onto the field, the wind must have been good as they all landed on target.

Last turn I had smoked my Rhinos expecting some close range melta action so I was pretty confident my plan was working. That all went down the pan when the first shot of the game exploded a Rhino and pinned the pack inisde!

My bad luck continued when another Rhino went up in smoke giving the Flesh Tearers some nice cover from my Long Fangs. I decided to stick to my plan and go for the throat early, there was a large squad nearby with the Librarian lurking inside and a Priest. If I could bag this unit it would give me three kill points and my secret mission which was to assassinate the enemy HQ.

I did a bit of shooting bu not much as I did not want to leave my units stranded so went onto the assault phase after popping my Wolf Banners. The first pack made it into combat now all I had to do was get my Rune Priests pack through some terrain and into the same melee. I declared the charge and measured the distance which was 5" I
rolled for difficult terrain and rolled double one! No worries I'll re roll with the Wolf Banner....Double two.

It was at this point I realised the game was pretty much over for me, the pack that made it into combat stood no chance alone and took a beating. The Flesh Tearer counter strike was devastating and wiped out over 50% of my surviving Grey Hunters and then after that it was a Grind to the finish line. I did manage to eventually kill the Librarian and get my bonus points and by the time we had finished there was about 15 Flesh Tearer Marines left so they had taken some flak too.

Conclusion

Like I said before I don't know if I went into this game too confident or not, tactically wise I don't think I could have made any different decisions. The table and the scenario was against me from the word go and I had the most unlucky game ever. I think in one combat I rolled 15 to hit dice and didn't manage to cause a single wound.

Overall it was a good game and my opponent Rob was a top bloke so I didn't feel cheated of miffed that I had lost, this game just showed that ina game that is decided on by rolling dice the best army list and battle plans can sometimes mean nothing if you don't roll well.

Adam's BOTCH: Spaces Wolves VS Imperial Guard

In the first round of BotC I'd been drawn against Michael Bolton. No, not that Michael Bolton sadly, but he was still a smashing chap and we had a great, if rather simplistic game.

At 1,000pts games of Warhammer 40K are very simple. In this case it was Space Wolves against a mass of Imperial Guard infantry and heavy weapons.

The mission was Kill Points and deployment Spear Head. So we all knew how this game was going to play out.

He won the roll off and went first, laying down a nice gun line.
Meanwhile I had the choose whether I wanted to set everything up and get shot.
Or put everything into reserve, arrive piecemeal...and get shot!

THE GAME
In the end I chose to put down the Rune Priest, Long Fangs and a Razorback (to block line of sight) while my 3 Grey Hunter packs in Rhinos went into reserve to drive on closer to him and fire their smoke launchers.

Well, the Razorback got blasted apart and the Long Fangs gunned down for their troubles. However, their return fire was pretty good with krak missiles and the Rune Priest's Living Lightning psychic power killing a Missile Launcher team.

They managed to hold out for another turn before 2 of the 3 Grey Hunter packs arrived.

The Imperial Guard opened fire on the Rhinos, but failed to do any real damage.
Then the Space Wolves drove up to the Imperial Guard lines, got out and fired, took some casualties back, then got stuck in!

By this time the third pack was advancing behind them and it was pretty much all over.

CONCLUSION
I felt that Michael had deployed his units really far forward. Too far forward in fact.

Perhaps lining all his heavy weapons along the back of the board would have been a better choice?

Then he could simply gun down my Long Fangs from afar, pop my transports and then sit tight until the game ended with 5 kill points to his name.

Meanwhile, I'd been silly leaving the Long Fangs and Rune Priest out, thinking they could weather the fire. They took a lot of casualties and were nearly wiped out.

I didn't feel confident throwing everything down and getting shot at. However, I could have put the Long Fangs into reserve too (in their Razorback) and just driven everything at the Imperial Guard. After all, Long Fangs can kill Imperial Guardsmen in close combat too!

Michael was a pleasure to play against, although I feel that we both could have done a lot better.

The second game however, was incredibly quick and extremely bloody! So stay tuned for that.

Best Space Wolves Elites Choices

So today I want to talk to you all about Elite choices, what works and what doesn’t. The Elite section for us is the most diverse and hotly contested of all out Force Organization Slots (FOS). We have so much diversity in selection, that there isn’t what I would call a “take at all cost” unit choice, bar perhaps Wolf Guard.

What I will be going over is each of the most solid choices, how it compliments your army, and its versatility compared to its units cost.

Wolf Guard
These compliment your Grey Hunter squads more than anything. LD 9 is a huge boost and should be always considered over a 2nd special weapon choice in your units. With options for cheap combi-weapons, your Grey Hunter packs still have the option to take 2 special weapons which is fantastic. All their options are relatively cheap until we start looking at Terminator upgrades. A common load out for Grey Hunter squads is the Combi Melta & Power fist. The Melta provides additional anti-tank firepower & the fist provides you with a weapon to hurt even the most lethal of MC’s/Characters & Vehicles. For 43pts this is a great buy, but bare in mind this isn’t always the best choice.

Look at the army your fielding. Is it a large horde on foot and you want a wolf Guard to lead your squads? Why not take him with Terminator armour and use those few points to give him a Chain fist? This is also a great addition for Drop pod squads.
Small 5 man units used as suicide squads or sitting on objectives? Keep him cheap and give him a Combi weapon. What about those Wolf scout units that you like attaching them to? Perhaps giving him Meltabombs and Mark of the Wulfen gives the unit even more versatility when facing none mech armies, but still gives you additional anti-tank.

I won’t cover how this unit can be used in Logan Wing forces as that could be an entirely new post itself.

Point for point, Wolf Guard are a great buy and since their options are also relatively cheap, I can’t see why any army who uses a fairly large base of Grey Hunters would leave without them. I would however say it’s not worth taking in Razorback armies. I have rarely ever needed a Wolf Guard with a Combi weapon or the like within a razorback as they tend to be stationary or move 6 a turn, keeping at range rather than getting up close. Try not to get too carried away with these options as you don’t want your Grey Hunter units costing you an arm and a leg.

Point for Point rating: 8/10
Effectiveness: 7/10
Diversity: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

Fairly strong rating overall here as their large amount of options gives them a great use in most armies. Little else is needed to be said for these guys as they are more of an addition than an Elite “choice”. Shame they take up a slot, but such is life.

Dreadnoughts
These are a tough cookie. I like Dreadnoughts, but why don’t we see these much? Well let’s see what they bring. Large mounted weapons which are relentless, option for long range or short range guns, Power fist as standard, AV 12 mobile platform & option for Drop podding. We can also take venerable dreads which are a fair amount of points but gives us a fairly solid, hard to kill walker. Now for 105pts, they aren’t too dear, but they tend to fill 2 roles despite their options, fire support or dropping into enemy lines.

Now what else in a wolf army already does this well? Wolf scouts, also in Elites, can fulfil our “in your face” approach, perhaps more effectively than dropping a 140pt Dreadnought which has 1 chance to pop a tank, and then die.
Scouts do this cheaper, and threatens even the most hard to reach places, which I will explain later. Fire support, well where do I start? Rune priest living lightning, Long Fang packs, Melta support from GH’s, Lascannons on our Razorbacks, Typhoon Speeders etc.

What do dreadnoughts do best then? Well they don’t do anything “best” they support, as I said at the beginning. There is nothing wrong with additional firepower is there? I wouldn’t mind having an extra twin-Lascannon or dual Autocannons pumping out solid shots whilst in a building giving me cover. AV 12 mobile platform which is hard to take down isn’t all that bad? Sure they don’t have the lovely Fortitude like GK Dreads do, but there are bigger targets in our Wolf army already. This means that our Dreadnoughts are less likely to be shot early on.

I prefer to use them as an additional Fire support element to an already fairly solid shooty army. Dual Autoannons or Twin Lascannons & Rocket launcher does this well. I can’t see them seeing too much combat, so leave the fist at home. Bare in mind, they also act as great speed bumps. Have you ever wandered how to stop those Blood Crushers racing through your lines? Well welcome to the Dreadnought, your most humble speed bump which can only be hit in combat on the front armour facing. Brilliant is it not?

Now, are they worth 105+ pts? I think overall, no. I would prefer to see them a few points less but in a codex which already has so many cheap units (Long fangs & Grey Hunters, we all know they shouldn’t be THAT cheap right?) it doesn’t hurt our lists as much as it would to other Marine lists.

Point for Point rating: 7/10
Effectiveness: 6/10
Diversity: 9/10
Overall: 7/10

Standard option, again it really depends on the list you’re running. Do you want to make a fairly shooty army or perhaps just fancy running a Dread bash list? Then these boys are for you.

Wolf Scouts
Behind Enemy Lines (BEL’s) is fantastic, but is it dependable? How many times have your Scouts arrived late, or even on the off chance on the wrong side of the board? Well it’s the risk which comes with them unfortunately. Against, what is now seen to be as a very common thing, mech armies, Wolf Scouts are a fantastic addition. Melta support which has a fairly good chance of arriving behind your opponent can be very psychological. This ability alone could dictate your opponent’s deployment & movement throughout the early turns of the game. I personally used to take 2 units of these with meltaguns, but recently dropped them due to their biggest weakness, arrival.

If Space Wolves had a way of dictating their reserve rolls, these could almost be an auto addition, but unfortunately we don’t, so now my Scouts are sitting on their shelves catching dust. Some players swear by them, and rightly so. As stated they bring something which a Wolf Army lacks, disruption.

Not many opponents out there would really like you bringing models, lethal or not, behind their army. Wolf Scouts brings that threat with a heavy load out. Options for meltabombs, Mark of the Wulfen, Power weapons & special weapons, this unit can be equipped to take on anything from Devastator squads or Manticores hiding in the backfield out of reach from your own army.

Cheap, small and efficient, there’s nothing wrong with the cost for these guys. They also have the option of adding a Wolf Guard to them, but this is where in lies the problem. Without a Wolf Guard, they are fairly weak. 1 Special weapon tends to not fulfil much, as we all know. To bring out the most of this unit, you need an additional Wolf Guard to effectively double their output. To do this, you’re using another Elite Choice. This effectively means that it’s all or nothing with Wolf scouts. 1 Unit doesn’t cut it and I would confidently say they should be run in doubles. 2 Units of scouts with Wolf Guard support, as we all know 1 will either arrives late or on the wrong side of the board. Using all 3 Elite slots on these boys can really push a lot of those other juicy options aside, so have a good think about whether you really need these guys.

The best use of these guys is bringing meltaguns to bare upon your opponent, so ask yourself, does your army need this or not? Does that risk of coming on and potentially not doing anything appeal to you? It’s a risky tactic that doesn’t always get pulled off, so bare that in mind.


Point for Point rating: 9/10
Effectiveness: 5/10
Diversity: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

I’ve given them a lower “Effectiveness” rating due to their random nature. In some games they might not do anything, in others they could potentially win the game.

Lone Wolves
Adam had a small talk on Lone Wolves recently. To some extent, I agree with him. Lone wolves are very characterful and are a great addition to a fun force, but how well do they run on the tabletop? Well I personally think very well. Something which most lists lacks is something to literally throw down someone’s neck and take on something which the rest of your army cannot. A Lone wolf is just this. It requires little finesse and should simply be used as a large bullet magnet, taking on as much as possible before he is finally brought to its wounds. They should be equipped with as much as they need to fulfil this role, as there is simply no other role for them to fulfil. I tend to equip them with a fairly common load out: Chain Fist, Terminator Armour & a Storm Shield. Why? Because he is now rock solid in terms of survivability, and can take on almost anything bar a Monolith (what’s stopping you trying eh?)

So some people like to give him other wargear, perhaps Mark of the Wulfen, perhaps a pair of Lightning claws, perhaps no Terminator armour at all so they can steal a Long Fangs Transport, but are any of these really what your army needs? Grey Hunters and Thunder wolves’ deals with close combat if needed, and stealing a transport means you’re putting not 1 but 2 models in danger.

This is even more important in KP’s where you want the Lone Wolf to die, but hopefully not before he takes something down with him. To this end, the above load out is perhaps overall the most effective point for point. He remains a cheap and affordable 85pts, and you lose nothing if he dies. Charge him forward and let him speed bump whatever lies in his path. His an irritation and should be used as such. He is one of the few Elite choices we have which fulfils a role that we don’t have in any other FOS, or in fact the army, so perhaps that’s something to consider.


Point for Point rating: 10/10
Effectiveness: 7/10
Diversity: 3/10
Overall: 7/10

For his points, it’s hard to see why you would not take him. The only reason people don’t is because of the Elite slot choice, but isn’t that what this post is about? I’d say try a Lone wolf out in a Hybrid/Mech army and see how he fares. With Long fang support, there’s little reason to not take him as he can support your army’s advance in midfield effectively. Due to his weaker options, I have given him a 3 for diversity as there is little to no other reason than fluff to take anything but the Load out I mentioned. A Thunder Hammer is an option over a Chain fist, but why stun a vehicle if you can kill it dead, and why make a Character I 1 when you will perhaps only have 1 chance to kill it in the first place?

CONCLUSION
So there you have it, what I see available in our Elites section. Hopefully some of you out there will look at each choice differently and try out some new combinations to better your list.

For anyone who wishes to further discuss these choices and your armies, feel free to contact me on alexflyf@hotmail.co.uk and I shall try and be prompt with a reply.

Killswitch

Wolf and Sister Part 15

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Brad's BOTCH 2011 After Action Report

Woo Hoo what a weekend! As your all aware we're back from the Battle of the Chumps 2011 and I'll say it again what a weekend, I loved it. I've never had such an up and down tournament as far as game results go.

So on day one I lost my first two 1000 point games but managed to score top bonus points through achieving my secret missions and scoring lots of victory points. The games then went on to 1500 points where I managed to get two major wins and score nearly maximum points for both games which boosted me up to table six and back into the tournament. After fours games in one day I was well and truly knackered but the sun was shining, the beer was flowing nicely and to top it all off Maelstrom Games had organised a BBQ in the courtyard to finish the day off. I got to catch up with Adam and James(Dark Angels Beatstick) as well, we talked crap and drank beer. Overall it was a great day.

Day two did not start well for me at all. Firstly our Hotel was full of drunken morons who spent the evening running around the corridors shouting and screaming. Wehn I finally got to sleep at 3am they set the frikkin fire alarm off! So as you can guess I was very very tired and ill tempered.

My first game was against Space Wolves, at this stage of the event the games were now being played at 2000 points. This game was an absolute bloodbath on both sides but in the end I made a gamble and it cost me dearly. The final game was saw me lined up against an awesome Nurgle Themed army with plenty of Forge World goodies. The game itself was pact full of tactical maneuvers and unbelievable feats of arms which swung the game several times. The game ended with the Space Wolves having the upper hand and smashing the enemy.

All in all I took 10th place which I am extremely please with to say that I lost 3 games. I always aim to get into the top ten at least nowadays and if I manage that I'm happy. I'll finish for now by saying thanks to Neil Kerr for hosting the event, the staff at Maelstrom for staffing the bar all day! (that's one hell of a shift guys and gals) and finally to all my opponents for some great games.

Stand by for some Battle reports.

Adam - Back From BotC 2011

Just got back from the Battle of the Chumps tournament weekend with 3 wins and 3 losses, but I learned a heck of a lot.

The first lesson was the read the rules pack and not print it off the morning of the tournament before driving for 3 hours up to Mansfield.

The second was to plan and write my army list well in advance and do some play testing. Instead I got an email from the organiser when I got home late from work and hastily bashed out an army list 1 hour before the submission deadline.

But despite my god awful army list, I played the best I could, apart from 1 game where I really screwed up on strategy. But more on this in due course.

The Armies
Grey Knights, Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Imperial Guard dominated the tables. There was the odd vanilla Marine army here and there. An Ork army, a Tau army, an Eldar army, a Tyranid army and a Dark Eldar army. Tyranids did rather well actually with Carnifex and Genestealer spam!

But it was clear to see which armies were on top of the meta game.

However, none of them were the same. Everyone took something a little bit different. But I guess that's the nature of BotC due to the escalation of the army building. Plus, due to army list restrictions there were no Battlewagon Ork armies, so I'd expect to see more duplicate lists at the next UK 40K GT.

My Games
To my surprised, there were 4 games scheduled for Saturday and 2 for Sunday, which meant that Saturday was going to be an intense day!

In the first round I was drawn against Imperial Guard in a Kill Points mission with Spear Head deployment. He won the roll off for first turn, while I reserved everything but my Long Fangs and Rune Priest. Was this a bad idea?
Mitch was an awesome opponent and great fun to play against.

In the second round I found myself facing a Blood Angels jump pack army. The mission was a variation on the old Take and Hold mission from 4th edition with an objective in the centre, 1 objective each and a Pitched Battle deployment. My opponent won the roll off and made me go first. I deployed my objective 12" away from the centre Objective, circled the wagons and said "come get me"...and he did. Brett was a really great guy and I bought him a beer afterwards.

In the third game I was facing a beautifully painted Pre Heresy World Eaters force which used Blood Angels rules. Tim was a good laugh, a great sport and had the luck of the devil!

In the fourth game I was drawn against James (aka: Dark Angels beat stick), so we asked if we could switch opponents. I then found myself against a stunning Sisters of Battle army. The mission was 1 objective each with a Pitched Battle deployment. Unfamiliar with Sisters of Battle, I went to go beat face and got spanked for my troubles. In hindsight my strategy would have been very different. But you live and you learn. Or in this case die and learn. Gary was superb to play against and got my 'best sportsman' vote (although Tim came close).

On Sunday, my fifth game was against a Blood Angels army. I lost this game because my opponent brought his reserves on from his board edge while I had 'circled the wagons' in preparation for a Descent of Angels from his jump pack troops. However, he insisted that he hadn't declared that they would be arriving by Deep Strike at the start of the game. I did not enjoy the for this and a number of other reasons. However, I chose not to make a formal complaint to the judges, because I don't feel it's worth the hassle, nor do I feel it would produce a positive result. And to avoid any accusations of defamation I will not be reporting on this game. Sorry guys.

Finally, for the 6th game, I was drawn against another Space Wolves player (hooray!). The mission was Kill Points, the set up Dawn of War (my favourites) and my opponent was fantastic to play against. The game went on for 7 turns and as kill points rapidly racked up on either side, it could have gone either way. But a sneaky bait tactic aka 'the juicy bone' won it for me. Andy was a pleasure to play a game with and turned my day from a bad one into an awesome one!

Overall, I came just below the middle of the pack while Brad came 10th. But I'm sure we'll hear Brad's side of things shortly.

Taking a Break
A lots been happening in real life and I've decided to take a break from 40K for a little while.

Don't worry, because we won't leave you hungry for more! There's at least 6 months of content in the schedule for the Space Wolves Blog.

So in the meantime, you can look forward to a regular stream of battle reports, special character strategy guides, themed army lists to match and fresh new pages of Wolf & Sister every week. And stay tuned for pre heresy space wolves conversion guide coming soon.

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You all liked the navigation and have been finding your way around the site very easily, which is great news. This was actually our biggest worry!

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A common question was people asking why their comments haven't appeared or take a long time to appear.

This is because after 24 hours of a post being publish all comments on that post require manual approval.

The strategy has been phenomenal in reducing bot comment spam. So please be patient fr your comment to be manually approved.

If you have an important question about an old post, please email us for a direct response.

Wolf & Sister
While everyone (who likes comics) loves the artwork, the English got a bit of a battering. That's my bad, not Nacho's. Sometimes I just can't meet editing deadlines, so I have to get it out on time regardless. Fortunately I've been on top of the later pages, so we'll be back to proper English in no time.

Social Media
It seems that on the whole wargamers aren't that fussed about social media. Still, many of you like facebook and YouTube. I'm not a huge fan of Twitter either, but I'll see how it goes.

The Space Wolves facebook group is pretty good for discussion though.

Special Characters
I've written a third of the special character tactics articles so far and they're really in depth.

Meanwhile John is following each one up with an army list themed around each special character. Sound good?

The armies are going to be quite fluffy, but fairly competitive at the same time. As you know, we like to have it both ways and then fill in the gaps with some solid strategy.

Conversion Guides
More of these on the way, especially for my new pre heresy Space Wolves army, as I make them.

On the list of tutorials are:
pre heresy grey hunters
pre heresy wolf guard terminators
pre heresy dreadnoughts
pre heresy rhinos
sunwolf razorback

Then there's going to be 1 huge painting guide for all of the above. This is because I'm doing pretty much the exact same scheme on everything and so far it works really well.

Battle Reports
We recently changed the format for our battle reports, because of time, remembering everything and taking photos while trying to concentrate on winning the game we're playing. This seems to be working really well.

However, I'm also working on a new video format for battle reports. It'll be much the same as the current format, but with a 5 minute video that you can watch as well.

Armies Gallery
Will definitely look into this! A gallery where you guys can submit your own photos would be even better.

Submitting Your Work
Many of you said you'd like to send us articles. We'd be happy to receive them, so if you have a great post about painting, conversions, battle reports or something we haven't covered yet that you want to shout out to the world about -email us and get your name up in lights!

spacewolvesblog@hotmail.co.uk


Thanks again for all your feedback. We truly appreciate it.

Please continue to support the Space Wolves blog by clicking on the banners and buying from our sponsors. They work hard to make this hobby more affordable for everyone and help us to buy tournament tickets so we can keep pumping out battle reports for you guys.

All the best

Adam, Brad, Alex, Nacho, John & Dave

Battle of the Chumps 2011

Its been long.... too long since my last tournament. The last event I attended was Vapnartak back in February and boy am I feeling it. I should have attended Open War in April but a couple of days before I got a call out to work the Saturday and I just couldn't turn the overtime down.

I've also had a bit of a 40k low period. I'm sure you've all had it when you just can't be arsed to paint or even sight of an un built model just makes you cry well that's been me for the last month or so. There's no better motivation for getting an army built and painted than the looming deadline of a tournament. Because of this I've got my Mojo back and I've been busy painting.

The tournament in question is the Battle of the Chumps hosted by Neil Kerr and the Flame On team. I missed this gig last year and boy was I gutted when Adam told me how good it was so I made a vow that I would attend this year. The event is at Maelstrom Games and for those that don't know it is a two day escalation tournament meaning battles will be fought at a variety of points levels.

The first two rounds are played with a 1000 points Recon force after which armies receive an extra 500 points to add onto the previous force used. For example the 1500 point list must include new units, points cannot be used to upgrade units from the previous force. The last two rounds are played at 2000 points with the same rules as before. Finally armies are restricted to a maximum of the same two Elite, Heavy and Fast Attack choices and only one of each HQ choice.



So as you can see I've had to do a bit of thinking about my list as my regular army list is 1750. The first thing that came to mind was three Long Fang packs which would easily take me to 2000 points but sadly I can't take three packs so that was that idea screwed. Not being able to take three Long Fang Packs meant I had to find my firepower from somewhere else, I don't own any Predators or Vindicators and to be honest I think they are naff in a Space Wolf list so they were out of the question. This left me with two viable choices, Riflemen dreads and Typhoons.

"A WIP shot of my Typhoons"



I really wanted to take two Lone Wolves but the extra firepower those Dreads bring can't be ignored and besides they can do what a Lone Wolf does to a certain degree in combat too! I had about 200 points left to spend so I decided to go for even more firepower and take two Typhoons in a squadron. I've been really into Speeders lately and what they bring to a Space Wolf force so the Typhoons were an easy choice, they have got the firepower of a pack of Long Fangs and some kick ass mobility which comes in dead handy. Here is my 2011 Battle of The Chumps escalation list:-

1000 points

Rune Priest
Living Lightning
Jaws of the World Wolf

3 x Wolf Guard in Power Armour
3 x CombiMelta
3 x Powerfist

7 Grey Hunters
Meltagun
Wolf Banner
Mark of Wulfen
Rhino

7 Grey Hunters
Meltagun
Wolf Banner
Mark of Wulfen
Rhino

7 Grey Hunters
Meltagun
Wolf Banner
Mark of Wulfen
Rhino

6 Long Fangs
3 x Missile Launchers
2 x Lascannons
Razorback, Lascannon and Twin Linked Plasmaguns.

+500 points

5 Grey Hunters
Meltagun
Razorback, Lascannon and Twin Linked Plasmaguns.

2 x Land Speeders with Multimelta and Heavy Flamers

6 Long Fangs
5 x Missile Launchers
Razorback, Lascannon and Twin Linked Plasmaguns.

+ 500 Points

5 Grey Hunters
Flamer

Dreadnought with 2 x Twin Linked Autocannons

Dreadnought with 2 x Twin Linked Autocannons

2 x Land Speeder Typhoons, Typhoon Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters.

So there you have it folks, perhaps not what I really wanted to take but but should be fun to play. I'm off to Botch this weekend and plan to write you guys some bat reps when I get back, wish me luck.

"And finally a sneak peak of what I have planned for my Great Company."

Wolf and Sister Part 14

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Give Us Your Feedback

That's right, we want your feedback. It's a dangerous thing to ask for, but what the heck!

This blog is written for you guys and we really appreciate all the support we receive online as well as when we rock up to tournaments.

So I wanted to ask which bits of the site you like, what you think could be improved and how you're using this resource.

I've received a lot of emails lately asking me for painting guides, conversion tutorials, tactics and battle reports which are right there on the side bar.

So perhaps usability is an issue? Or maybe those fancy dividers with red wolf logos and squiggly text are too hard to read?

How are you finding your way around the blog?
Do you drop in and read the latest posts, then go?
Do you used the 4 suggested articles at the bottom of each entry?
Do you click on the side bar navigation?
Do you only click on the top level navigation?
Do you browse using the labels?
Do you browse using the archives?
How far back in the history of the blog have you ventured?

What's your favourite bit about the blog and why?
Could this be improved at all?
What else would you like to see?

What's your least favourite bit about the blog and why?
Could this be improved at all?
What would you like to see instead?

Do you visit us every Wednesday to read Wolf & Sister?
What do you think of it so far?
What do you like best about it?
What would you change?

Do you follow our social media?
Facebook?
Twitter?
YouTube?

If we announced a tournament for 160 players, would you go?
We talked about the "Wolf Time" tournament a while back. It got pushed back til next year, but we'd really love to run it and meet you all. Obviously, you can bring any army, it doesn't have to be Space Wolves, although we'd expect a strong Fenrisian turn out.

And give us your final thoughts...about anything!

Thanks for your feedback, we really appreciate it and will continue making this the best dedicated Warhammer 40K army blog ever!

Draigo Must Be Stopped...No Matter The Cost

Marc's Draigo led Grey Knights army is running riot all over my gaming table.

It's an army that shouldn't work. But it does, oh so beautifully. At 1750pts and up only though, otherwise he simply can't get the right numbers for would allocation and loses a good chunk of his psycannons in the process.

I've played against it 4 times now and every time I took a pounding. I gave as good as I got with my Space Wolves, but lately we just seem to be mauling one another, then falling back to the objectives and the game ends in a draw.

Kill Points is not fun at all, because he only has 3 Kill Points to give away. So I need to wipe him out in order to win.

Instead, because his deployment and movement isn't dictated by objectives, he just rocks up and murders me.



1750pts Draigo Paladin Army

Kaldor Draigo
10 Grey Knights Paladins:
Mixture of halberds, swords and hammers for wound allocation
apothecary
4 psycannons

10 Grey Knights Paladins
Mixture of halberds, swords and hammers for wound allocation
apothecary
4 psycannons

Notes:
Every model has 2 wounds and gets Feel No Pain.

The huge Terminator Phalanx puts out 12 storm bolter shots per turn and 32 psycannon shots per turn.

Any lascannons are allocated to Draigo and usually deflected with his storm shield...or he just takes a wound. He has 4 and Eternal Warrior.

Thoughts:
I can't out shoot this army. The psycannons just tear through all my tanks and my troops.

I can't outmanoeuvre this army, because the Grey Knight Paladin Terminators simply form a big phalanx and spread out...or Deep Strike. This also means I struggle to claim objectives.

I can't beat this army in close combat. I just get stabbed in the face by lots of force halberds.

So I need to combine shooting and assault in order to take down just 1 of these units effectively.

Marc and I did some set ups for pure close combat between the Grey Hunters and Grey Knights. It didn't end well for the Space Wolves.

The Plan
This army has a maximum shooting range of 24". However, I can only stay away for 2 turns at most before I feel his firepower.

The guns that really count against Paladins are lascannons and melta guns.
In close combat it's power fists.
So basically anything that instantly kills one of these suckers!

With 2 wounds each, optimised wound allocation and feel no pain, basic firepower is hardly going to make a dent.

From previous games, I've seen how Grey Hunters using their Wolf Standard have been able to stand up to the Grey Knight Paladins in close combat thanks to the power fist and mark of the wulfen. However, they taken a hell of a lot of casualties doing this.

To get a good result, I need at least 2 Grey Hunters packs to charge a single Grey Knight Paladin squad (with or without Draigo) on the same turn, both using their Wolf Standards for ensure those power fists make a difference. Meanwhile the rest of the army fires everything it's got at the same unit!

Where Are The Battle Reports?
Someone asked why we haven't done any battle reports about this the other day. Truth be told, it's because the games were boring as hell.

If we were bored playing it, then you'll be bored reading about it.

Marc was telling me how fed up he is with the army, because it's just mindless. He doesn't have to really think. He just puts it down, rolls dice, stuff dies and he wins...until he comes across an army with lots of high strength, low AP weaponry. Or spades of poison weapons. Then it's a complete role reversal. So it's very rock/paper/scissors.

I've just got to work out how my rock can beat his paper. I have to beat this with STRATEGY, which is what the Space Wolves are really all about.

But perhaps it's just a happy coincidence that I'm painting up a Vindicator as part of my ongoing army evolution? Although I didn't have Marc's Draigo Paladin army in mind when I bought it.

The Best Game Ever

We played the best game ever yesterday. I got invited round James' place for a 2,000 points game of 40K to warm up for the tournament next weekend.

James had been working on his Space Marines army (in Dark Angels colours) for the past month or two, while I had quickly tweaked last year's BOTCH list at the last minute.!

Unfortunately, I didn't pack my camera, so no photos. I'm gutted because not only did the game look spectacular, the sheer level of strategy involved made it seriously close fought from the start of Turn 1 to the very end of Turn 7.

Anyway, the point is that having both been destroyed repeatedly by Marc's Draigo led Grey Knights Paladin army, we were up for a fun game and looking to experiment with different units in our armies.

I was taking a Vindicator for the first time. James was taking more Space Marine Assault Squads and I decided to Deep Strike my Land Speeders to 'see what happens'.

The game was 5 objectives with a Spear Head deployment.

Game highlights:
Space Wolves Seizing The Initiative, the Wolf Guard Terminators in their land raider driving up and getting a 1st turn charge (after firing their combi-weapons) on the Chaplain led Assault Squad.

The Dark Angels charging Grey Hunters with as many small units as possible, then pummelling them with lots of powerfists from the surviving veteran sergeants.

Then one Grey Hunter pack lost close combat (by 1 point), I failed my morale check, they ran, didn't get caught and fell back 5". Whoo!

James them used a variety of units for the next 4 turns to herd them almost the full 48" across the table before they finally rallied to claim on objective on Turn 7. That was amazing to see, but very frustrating for me at the same time.

For the first time I Deep Striked my Land Speeders into the heart of the Space Marines army, blowing up a Dreadnought on Turn 2 and blowing up a Razorback on Turn 3. Then the Land Speeders simply wouldn't die!

CONCLUSION
Wolf Guard Terminators don't seem to be so hot lately. They took a few casualties fighting the Chaplain led Assault Squad, then got hosed down by a bunch of bolt pistols by the other Assault Squad in the following round. Bad times indeed.

I'm wondering if Arjac Rockfist leading a pack of Grey Hunters in the Land Raider might be a better option? Especially when 3 Grey Hunter packs seems to be too little when it comes to objectives, or simply just holding the backbone of the army together.

Long Fangs were awesome in this game, even though they struggled for targets early on due to all the vehicles.

Vindicator didn't hit a thing.

Land Raider did okay. A Redeemer would have been amazing in this game. Instead the Land Raider wasted turn after turn firing at a single guy with a meta gun in cover who wouldn't die and I couldn't allow to get close. A Redeemer would have simply driven up and burned the single Space Marine to ashes!

The Land Speeders were great Deep Striking in. I'll definitely do this in future when I don't think I can get them safely across the board.

Anyway, it was an awesome scrap between the Space Wolves and Dark Angels.
I apologise if this post is a little empty though. I would love to have done huge a turn by turn account with loads of photos.

That said, there was so much going on in this game that it took us over 3 hours to play!

Sun Wolf Razorback

This is what I call the "Sun Wolf" Razorback. Just a little something I cooked up over the weekend.

I'd spent quite a lot of time looking at the Horus Heresy illustrations of Rhino APCs and was determined to create something similar for my growing Pre Heresy Space Wolves army.

The starting block was an illustration of a 13th Company Rhino with the front track armour stripped down.

This gave it a much more 'tank' like look, rather than a metal box full of metal super soldiers. So I went with that to start.

This required an extra bit of track of course.

I stuck two crates on the back of the tank, like the Rhino APC kit of old.

But then I needed a front plate to match. Or at the least, look distinctly different.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Heresy style front plates. I wanted a large, flat surface to build up armour and detail on.

So I turned the regular hatch upside down, filled in the gaps around the vision slits with green stuff and smoothed it over.

Then I cut one of the trims on the armoured vision slits off and glued that where a vision slit could go (top left).

Then it was a case of armouring up the front.

I trimmed the top of the autocannon ammo box from the Predator tank kit, cut off the skull icon and once glued flat to the hull, trimmed a wolf symbol from the Space Wolves box flat and glued it in place of the skull.

Either side, I trimmed and glued a small shoulder shield from the Wolf Guard Terminator box. To cover the rest of my green stuff work, I trimmed the back of two wolf tails flat and glued them beneath the small shields, as though they were dangling from the shields.

Finally there was the turret mounting and the hatch.

I made the decision to move the turret forward, like modern APCs with turret cannons for a more military 'real tank' feel.

I took the Predator hatch and carefully cut the turret mounting ring off with my modelling knife. This was really hard work and the ring I got was a little warped, so I had to bend and trim it until it was perfectly flat again.

I then had to trim the top of the tank where the ring was going to go. This was also really hard work. Especially when the little discs that go into the two cupolas at the front needed to be trimmed down as well.

The ring hung over the back of the cupola area, so I built up the back using trimmed down pieces of the front track armour I'd removed at the start of the conversion.

Obviously, I made sure none of these piece overlapped the hatch on top.

Once everything was flat and the ring fitted are flatly as possible, I glued it in place with polystyrene cement. I'll have to come back later and green stuff around this and cut it flat to cover all the gaps and keep the model looking clean.

Lastly, there was the top hatch. I turned the Predator hatch over to get the Razorback hatch on the other side and aligned it so that the small doors would be at the back of my tank.

Meanwhile I had a large circular hole to cover.

So I took a spare Rhino door (luckily I was using Forgeworld doors for this!), flipped it over to reveal two grills. This would be the 'vents' on the back of the tank.

I trimmed off the 3 stubby bits that normally poke out the top, plus any other details, so it would like flat over the hole.

I also trimmed any details on the Razorback hatch to ensure a good, flat, central fit for the reversed door.

I glued it into place, but there was a small gap at the side. A piece of cut down tube (from the spare Predator autocannon barrel) covered this nicely and maintained the technical tank appearance.

I'll glue the completed hatch in place once I finish the green stuff work around the turret ring mounting.

Make Your Own Sun Wolf Razorback
All you need is a Predator Tank, 2 plasma guns, some extra Rhino tank track, 2 extra Rhino doors, plus Space Wolf accessories to decorate the tank in.

Stay tuned for a complete tutorial including how to make the las/plas turret as well as the rest of the tank itself.

Be warned though, this is a tough conversion and requires a lot of skill and patience. It took a long time, it was very tiring and I've got to make two more of these...

...Should look awesome when it's painted though!