Wolf and Sister Part 22

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Killswitch's ETC Report Part 1

Apologies for leaving this so late. I have been awfully busy with my return to real life that I have had very little spare time. So as you all know, I attended the European Team Championships (ETC) in Switzerland – Montreux. I was elected as England’s Space Wolves player which I was very pleased about, and couldn’t be any happier than to represent the sons of Russ at one of largest 40k tournaments in the world.

Now before I start my epic long ramblings about how I did etc, I just want to give you all a brief description of the ETC Experience. I will be dedicating this post just for that, and you will all have to wait patiently for the bat reps themselves I’m afraid! I feel it is a large part of the event, and I should at least give it the justice it deserves.

Travel

So I wake up at 5am to the loud squawking of my bed side alarm clock. The birds are chirping, the seagulls are bomb diving the neighbours and my army is still loitering around the house being thrown around by my two mischievous kittens. I've had a good 5 hours sleep, 2 cups of coffee and I’m raring to go.

I set off and arrive at Dover, only to be told that the rest of the England team is running late, and they certainly were. I was left standing around for a good hour and 15 minutes before my transport arrived. We missed our first ferry, but were lucky enough to grab another one not too long after we arrived at the docks. Seventeen hours and 4 pit stops later, we arrived at Montreux.

Now I personally love traveling with a group of friends, talking 40k and life, having a few drinks and general musing about. However, I have never been so agitated in my life. Good god is it hard to travel for a total of 19 hours, and to say my legs and rear end was stiff is an understatement. For the price of travel, who can complain, but to say it was an experience certainly hits the nail on the head.

I think it is safe to say that next time, I may consider putting out for a more comfortable experience and take the Plane instead.

Montreux

What a beautiful city. No word can describe this place except clean. I was shocked to see hardly any litter lying around, clean buildings & streets, hell even clean people. Gorgeous designs were to be viewed within and without the cites, as the architectural structure & layout of the buildings were certainly a sight to behold. The bay was breathtaking. A beautiful lake spanned across the horizon, and opposite us were the sky-high mountains spanning across the width of the view.

Breathtaking views

The lake was clean with no rubbish or green muck which is commonly seen along the coasts of England. The water was fresh and they even had drinking water fountains loitered around the city which was a useful hang over cure for the team as we trekked over to the venue every morning.

The shops were plenty in number, but wow, the prices were steep. I heard Switzerland was expensive, but I never would have thought it would be that bad. For example, we found a McDonalds and decided to just view the prices, and we were quickly thrown back by the £11 Big Mac meals advertised in the shop window.

Average price for a can of coke was £2 and it just goes to show how hard it was to find a cheap shop for supplies. Luckily we had Tim, the Scottish ETC captain on hand and he managed to find a fair few shops which were nice and cheap for students like myself.

Venue

The hall which the event was held in was fantastic. There was the World Miniature Expo being held at the same time, so there was plenty to see and do whilst we was there. Being situated near the high street, local shops were within walking distance and the Lake was just outside for those who fancied a dip. Unfortunately this was banned after the first day due to a few streakers scaring the locals!

Food was decent. It was obviously in large supply for the 750+ gamers and refs at attendance, so I wasn’t expecting much. Processed meat in curries and a beef stew the day after. The bread was fantastic however, so good in fact that the English Fantasy team decided to take an entire loaf of it.

Terrain was in large supply, and every board was set out to have 25% covered before the event started. This was great and how all tournaments should be played, however this didn’t help the fact that there was a majority of LOS blocking terrain. Now I am one for LOS blocking terrain as I think it is great and promote tactical play rather than who gets turn 1, however this was just a bit too much. Even the small pieces of terrain were completely blocking Rhinos and Thunder wolves etc which was giving a slight advantage to some armies.

Hundreds of boards & sweaty gamers...yum!

Every board was similar, which reduced the tactical flexibility of being put forward and getting to select a table since all the tables were similar and all the tables had a large supply of BLOS terrain pieces. This in turn reduced the effectiveness of my Wolf army, which relied on its shooting to assist me over the course of the game. Fire lanes were still easy to get, but having to split your force meant that your opponent could capitalize on deploying on one side which usually wouldn’t be such a big deal. This is just a personal viewpoint, and I hope next years (if I attend) has a fair amount of both LOS blocking and standard area terrain.

The boards themselves were all smaller than 6x4 which was annoying. Two of my games required you to place a certain amount of objectives in specific places. This meant that you had to deploy then, for example, 12 inches away from the short board edge, and 18 from the long. The problem I had was that the board was not 6 foot long or 4 foot wide, so we had to play around with positioning to get it in the exact spot for fair of play. This wasn’t a huge deal, but something again which could be improved upon.

Games

Now I won’t go into much detail here as it will spoil my bat reps, but I thought I would give you a quick overview on how the games went at the ETC. Each team would roll a dice and the loser would put forward an army for the other team to play. The winner then puts a player forward an army fro the loser to put an army against, and this happens until 7 armies are paired off against each other. The army which has been put forward, gets its choice of board, as this is to balance the fact that they are most likely getting a harder match up. Both teams pop down a secret player called the “Champion” and are both announced at the end of the pairings. These two armies face off on the last available board.

This adds some tactical decisions which is different to normal Tourney play. At first I was skeptical, as it allows some armies to lose badly and others to win big. But after experiencing it for myself, it was awesome. It adds a completely different level of play and tactical decisions which could effect the outcome of the match. Having to play your best against tough match ups makes the game that much more fun as its down to all of you to pull your weight and do your best for the team.

I really enjoyed this and it’s something which you could never appreciate fully until you have whitnesed it yourself. I could not recommend this more to anyone out there considering joining in on the experience. It is something completely different to normal tournament playa nd you will see some very strange but interesting lists and tactics used. I for one was thrilled at this and it broadened my thoughts on how 40k can be played.

Conclusion

If you currently don’t belong to a country already entered in the ETC I suggest you make a team now and pop over next year, for it is worth the weight in gold. If you are part of a country which has already attended the ETC, I suggest you try out for the team, for you will never regret that decision. I had a fantastic time and enjoyed the social, gaming and visual aspect of the experience and I do hope that some of you would consider joining in on the fun.

Team England in all its glory

I hope to see you there next year if I am lucky enough to represent my country. Stay tuned for my Bat reps, and a detailed talk about the evolution of my Space Wolf list.

Killswitch

Logan Grimnar Tactics

As far as Space Wolves special characters go, Logan Grimnar tactics are anything but straightforward.

Chapter Master of the Space Wolves, Logan Grimnar is as hard as nails, hefting the mightiest of axes while enhancing the warriors around him with all manner of special abilities.

The perfect embodiment of the Space Wolves' playing style on the table top, he's good at everything without being great. Like the rest of the army, he's a supporting unit who in turn needs support from other elements of the force to function effectively.

But, if you can support Logan while he supports the rest of the force, you'll achieve a stronger army overall.

Equipment: Terminator Armour, Axe Morkai, Storm Bolter, Belt of Russ, Wolftooth Necklace, Wolftail Talisman.

Skills: Living Legend, High King, Stubborn, Eternal Warrior, Great Wolf, Saga of Majesty.

Full Fat Footslogger
Unfortunately, due to his compulsory suit of terminator armour, Logan Grimnar has trouble fitting into most transports and as a result, most units.

This means that there are only a handful of units in the Space Wolves army that he's suitable to lead. These include Wolf Guard, Grey Hunters, Blood Claws and Long Fangs.

Using the Axe Morkai
Logan Grimnar can use his Axe Morkai as either a Frost Blade or a Power Fist and you can split his attacks between the two. Also, thanks to his Wolf Tooth Necklace, he always hits on 3+ in close combat.

While many people tend to use all his attacks as a Frost Blade when he has a higher initiative than his opponents, or a Power Fist when he has a lower initiative, splitting his attacks between the two types also yields certain benefits.

Of course this depends on what the squad he's leading is armed with. In the case of leading Grey Hunters, he could make a couple of Frost Axe attacks, followed in initiative order by the Grey Hunters, then add to the Power Fist attacks of the Wolf Guard leading the Grey Hunters at the end of the close combat, allocating individual Insant-Kill wounds on many more models within a unit. It's a great way to kill off any Independant Characters or specially equipped models (Blood Angels Apothecary) more efficiently.

Foe bashing tactics aside, the real key to succeeding with Logan Grimnar comes down to which unit he's leading.


Logan Grimnar Leading Wolf Guard

As we've discussed before, the only Wolf Guard worth taking that aren't leading one of your Space Wolves squads are a pack of Wolf Guard Terminators.

I always arm mine with a mixture of combi-weapons, power weapons, a chainfist or thunderhammer (for anti-tank, anti-monstrous creature and last minute infantry smacking), a wolf claw to help with wound allocation and finally a cyclone missile launcher for long ranged fire power.

Its the optimum combination and the most rewarding in return on investment for your points. It also makes all 5 models unique for the purpose of wound allocation.

So once we add Logan Grimnar to the mix, we get a special character who gives the whole pack access to the Tank Hunter and Preferred Enemy abilities.

Tank Hunter is great for all the combi-meltas and combi-plasmas. Likewise, it's great for the cyclone missile launcher.

Meanwhile Prefered Enemy gives the small, elite pack armed with power weapons some serious combat clout -especially when Logan uses his once-per-game Living Legend ability.

The only downside is the limited room in Space Wolves transports which will often see the Wolf Guard Terminators losing their heavy weapon as they're forced into a 4 man squad to accomodate Logan Grimnar in a Drop Pod or Land Raider.

However, there's plenty of room in a Land Raider Redeemer and for maximum numbers a Land Raider Crusader can carry 7 terminators and Logan. But that's a lot of eggs in one basket at approximately an 800 points.

Logan and the 4 Wolf Guard Terminators in a regular land raider comes to roughly 650pts by comparison.


Logan Grimnar Leading Blood Claws

I think we've established that Blood Claws Suck, but many people still like them and regularly field them for fun.

To get the best from Blood Claws you need 15 of them with 2 melta guns led by a Wolf Guard. Normally we have a Wolf Priest with them as well, but Logan nicely fills this role and does it a bit better.

Unfortunately there are too many models to fit inside even a Land Raider Crusader, but that's not really what Blood Claws are for. They're there to cause a big distraction, soak up lots of firepower, run straight towards the enemy and cause lots of carnage.

Logan's ability to give the unit he leads Preferred Enemy obviously benefits the Blood Claws with Beserk Charge. If he uses his once-per-game Living Legend ability, the +1 attack for every model could give the unit some serious clout. But it all depends on how many Blood Claws you can get into close combat after taking the full brunt of the enemy's firepower. Based on previous experience, not that many seem to make it.

Want to cut the numbers down a bit and cram them all into a Crusader? That'll be 800pts please. Once again, not cheap!


Logan Grimnar Leading Grey Hunters

Combined with the re-rolls of a Wolf Standard, Logan Grimnar leading a pack of Grey Hunters is an awesome prospect. Unfortunately, you'll need a Land Raider or Drop Pod to get them into position. But we've established that with most of the other unit choices already.

Logan Grimnar
Wolf Guard with combi melta and power fist
7 Grey Huners: Mark of the wulfen, wolf standard, melta gun
Land Raider / Drop Pod

Logan Grimnar's ability to confer the Tank Hunter skill to the squad makes all the bolters great for bringing down Armour 10 targets.

Preferred Enemy is the obvious choice to give any enemy an extra hard kicking in close combat. Throw in the Wolf Standard for the Grey Hunters to reroll a 1 rolled for the number of Wulfen attacks, to wound rolls and armour saves and you can have a devastating round of combat.

Use the once-per-game Living Legend ability and they all get +1 attack with said rerolls at the same time. Now that's pretty tasty!

Finally, there's the overlooked skill 'Relentless'. This lets you rapid fire all those bolters before charging into close combat, especially if disembarking from a Land Raider.

For all this you're looking at just over 700pts. Compared to Logan and 4 Wolf Guard Terminators in a Land Raider for 650pts, this doesn't seem too bad.


Logan Grimnar Leading Long Fangs

When the new Space Wolves Codex was released, everyone wanted Logan Grimnar leading their Long Fangs jumping out of Drop Pods and firing off their multi-meltas. It's a no brainer choice for getting into the thick of things, but can the Long Fangs take much of a beating in the thick of close ranged combat? Probably not.

Relentless, Tank Hunter and even Prefered Enemy have their part to play when Logan Grimnar leads a pack of Long Fangs.

All you need to do is choose your heavy weapons, what to equip a Wolf Guard with and which method of transport will be best.

I always favour massed missile launchers for my Long Fangs because anything else is too expensive to justify. While lascannons with Tank Hunter might be a drool inducing prospect, at 40pts per model it's just not worth it. So here's my little line up:

Logan Grimnar
Wolf Guard in terminator armour with cyclone missile launcher
Long Fang Sergeant
5 Long Fangs with missile launchers

That comes to just under 500 points.

This unit can ride in a Land Raider or simply walk up the board, firing off missiles with Relentless before taking up a good position and turning their skills to Tank Hunters for a healthy barrage of 8 krak missiles with +1 to the armour penetration roll.

No one's going to want to charge them with Logan leading them. But is the Great Wolf wasted in this capacity?

Considering that the Space Wolves army seems to thrive on securing the midfield, this could be an excellent central unit.

Get them in the centre, surrounded by your Grey Hunters and Logan augments the entire army with his Living Legend ability while the Long Fangs lay down a surpressing fire with their missile launchers. If this tactic sounds risky, then maybe it's worth giving the Long Fang Sergeant a power fist for good measure? He does have the same stats as a Wolf Guard after all.

More aggressive players have tried to pair Logan Grimnar with a pack of Long Fangs all armed with multimeltas for the same points. This doesn't seem to fair any better against tanks outside of 12" than missile launchers and with a maximum range of 24", the missile launchers would probably be a better and more versatile choice with their longer range and frag missile options.

Is it worth putting them in a Land Raider? They can disembark and fire their heavy weapons -even charge into close combat if need be. It's not bad, but the Land Raider is a lot of points and anything close combat related with Long Fangs, even if lead by Logan, seems very risky.


CONCLUSION
Logan Grimnar can lead all of the best units in the Space Wolves army, so you're really spoilt for choice when it comes to placing him. However, he'll always need to ride in a Land Raider or Drop Pod if you want him to see close combat.

But whatever happens, Logan Grimnar is an augmenting character that's dedicated to close combat. Get him in the middle of your army and let him do what he does best -which is supporting the units around him.

Just remember all the skills at his disposal, even the lesser used ones like Relentless and Fearless. They all have their place in the theatre of table top war.

Personally, I plan to put him with a pack of Grey Hunters because they can make use of all the High King skills while Logan can make use of their Wolf Standard.

The Best Space Wolves Army List?

Perhaps this isn't the best Space Wolves army list, but it's certainly the most sensible.

In fact, as soon as Alex posted this, I scrolled through it and thought "Hey, that's actually a really good list". For a change it's not points optimised to the eyeballs and not everyone is in a minimal squad riding in a las/plas Razorback.

In fact, it's the kind of list that James (aka: Dark Angels Beat Stick) would come up with, because it's very forgiving and simple to play.


Here's the list again in case you missed it:

Rune Priest:
Chooser of the Slain
Jaws of the World Wolf & Living Lightning

Dreadnought:
2 twin linked autocannons

Dreadnought:
2 twin linked autocannons

5 Wolf Guard:
4 Combi-meltas, 3 Power Fists, 1 Terminator Armour & Cyclone

7 Grey Hunters:
1 Meltagun, 1 Wolf Standard, Rhino

7 Grey Hunters:
1 Meltagun, 1 Wolf Standard, Rhino

6 Grey Hunters:
1 Meltagun, 1 Wolf Standard, Rhino

5 Grey Hunters:
1 Meltagun, 1 Wolf Standard

6 Long Fangs
5 Missile Launchers, Razorback with lascannon and twin linked plasma gun

6 Long Fangs
5 Missile Launchers, Razorback with lascannon and twin linked plasma gun

6 Long Fangs
5 Missile Launchers, Razorback with lascannon and twin linked plasma gun


Army Philosophy
I know we call James "Dark Angels Beat Stick", but his army lists are generally very good. They're not meta army lists, but they're always tough, numerous and very well balanced.

Like I've said before, if James played more often and analysed the game better, he'd be kicking my arse all over the place.

Normally we're used to seeing Alex come up with the most meta spam army lists we've ever seen -gawd bless 'im! But you have to ask yourself whether it's better to take a shot at the top spots with a seriously optimised army that needs a lot of micro management, or to field an army that's more forgiving?

The real beauty is that anyone could play this army straight out of the box. All the units do one thing and do it well. And it's obvious how to use them the minute you look at the line up.

Footslogging Space Wolves

I spotted this photo up on Zen 40,000 alongisde the caption "The Lamenters are overwhelmed by a savage 13th Company force" and felt compelled to dig a little deeper.

Turns out this is from 'Ard Boyz a few weeks back. The army consisted of lots of Grey Hunters and Long Fangs joined by Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour and led by Logan Grimnar -all on foot.

Apparently there were just too many of them to kill.

We've talked about footslogging Space Wolves in the past, but never really tried it out for ourselves. We've been too content to hide our Space Wolves inside Rhino transports and drive forward, firing smoke launchers.

The thing is, a Rhino costs 35pts. So buy ditching the Rhino, your 7-man Grey Hunter packs (led by a Wolf Guard of course) go up to 9-man. Then for another 15pts you can buy 1 more Grey Hunter, giving you a free special weapon.

So overall you're spending 10pts on an 11th model with a special weapon in exchange for ditching your transport. Will those 3 models make much of a difference when it comes to taking casualties as you run across the board though?

Personally, I just see the army being slow and getting shot a lot. But when you pitch it against other Marine lists, which tend to drive down your throat at high speed...can you drown them in sheer weight of numbers?

But let's not forget that Logan Grimnar leads this mob of Space Wolves. That means he can sit back, giving Tank Hunter to some Long Fangs to pop any nasty tanks, before moving forward and using his High King ability to give all Space Wolf packs in 18" +1 attack for the turn. Combine that with Counter Charge and Wolf Standard and your opponent will realise it's best to let sleeping wolves lie. Or to just shoot them from afar.

Anyway, have you run a footslogging Space Wolves list lately? And how did you get on?

Wolf and Sister Part 21

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Brad's BOTCH: Wolves Vs Nurgle CSM

My final game of the day saw me up against Paul Scott and his fantastic Death Guard army. I'd seen Paul's army on the best painted tables and it looked awesome with a huge Greater Deamon converted from the Warhammer Giant and a pair of Nurgle Blight Drones.

The final Mission was kill points with the Dawn of War set up, kill points tend to be a weakness for my army because of the amount I can give away but at the same time Paul's army looked to ripe with them too so this could be interesting.

Paul's army consisted of:

Lash Sorceror

Deamon Prince with Warptime

6 x Terminators + Combi weapons

Dreadnought, Twin Lined Heavy Bolters

8 x Plague Marines + upgrades
Rhino

8 x Plague Marines + upgrades
Rhino

8 x Lesser Deamons

3 Obliterators

Vindicator

2 x Nurgle Blight Drones

The Game

As usual the roll off was lost, I must be cursed with these dice rolls, Paul took first turn. He set up a Rhino and Deamon Prince in cover and elected to move the rest of his army on first turn with the Greater Deamon and Terminators in reserve. There was a nice ruined building to provide cover for most of his army so when his army moved in he set up around this terrain feature. I was quite worried about the amount of high strength templates his army could chuck around which would mean if he got a decent lash off I would lose a pack a turn easily.

My army set up in a pretty standard fashion with the Long Fangs dashing for any available cover, the Razorbacks came into their own here as the extra movement allowed me to get into position ready to unleash hell in turn two. The Riflemen Dreads walked onto either flank accompanied by the Typhoons trying to set up a cross fire and get into the side arcs of that Vindicator. I took a chance and used my Rhino search lights to light up the Vindicator which allowed my Riflemen to let rip. Several glancing and penetrating shots later and I had managed to blow that big fat cannon right off the front of the tank, awesome!

The Chaos counter attack was rather nasty starting with a well placed Lash on one of my Long Fangs packs dragging the pack right out of cover and into the kill zone. The poor oldies were then subjected to a triple salvo of Plasma Cannon fire and evaporated, that will teach me to pick on the Vindicator. Meanwhile the Chaos reserves failed to come in and the Blight Drones failed to do any real damage to the rest of my army.

With a clear field of fire I could no use my superior long range firepower and hopefully weaken the Chaos Long range game. My priority target was the pair of Blight Drones, I had a bit of breathing space as none of the chaos reserves had landed yet. With the combined Long Fang and Riflemen fire power I managed to explode both Drones and knock out a Rhino containing some Plague Marines, my Grey Hunters pushed forward towards the Ruins, I needed to take out that Lash Sorcerer quickly and the only way possible was to get dirty and dig him out like a rat.
Turn 3 saw the Chaos Terminators come in from reserve, they landed right next to a Riflemen on my right flank and Melta’d him good and proper. I lost a Rhino to Obliterator Lascannon fire causing the pack to spill out right in front of the Sorcerers unit. Luckily my Warp-fu was strong and my Rune Priest stopped a pitiful attempt at lashing him around.

The Chaos Deamon was still jumping around in cover waiting to pounce, he was obviously waiting for his big brother to show up before he waded in. My shooting this turn was rather uneventful but I managed to knock a wound off the Deamon Prince and kill a couple of Terminators, this was important and you will see why next.

So its turn 4 and I’m ahead on kill points but I’ve got my blood up and the hunt is on, there’s no way I’m prancing around conserving my forces and waiting this one out I want the kill! This turn would see the most amazing feat of arms I have ever seen my lads achieve. Pauls turn started well with his Greater Deamon coming in from reserve using an Icon to land right in front of my Rune Priests unit on foot. He then jumped the Deamon Prince out of cover and into position to support charge. The Terminators advanced within charge range of my Long Fangs but did not fire as the distanced looked to be just about 6”, I could have easily remove a model and leave then floundering in the open.

I can’t remember what happened in the shooting phase as the assault phase was so epic. It started with the Terminators charging my Long Fangs, all five of them made it into combat and my Fangs counter attacked. The Power weapons swung in and not a single blow connected, looks like the old dogs still had a bit of pounce in them still. The Long Fangs counter assault was devastating, smashing four Terminators to the ground with the butts of their missile launchers leaving just a single Terminator with a power fist who managed to crush a single Long Fang in return. The Lone Terminator held his ground but things were looking grim.

Over in the centre of the battlefield the horizon was dominated by the Greater Deamon lumbering towards the Rune Priests Grey Hunters pack. Both Deamon’s charged in intent on wiping the pack out. The Deamon Prince swung first charged up by the Warptime power, after a flurry of blows he had managed to kill one Grey Hunter. Next up was the Greater Deamon who was swinging at Initiative 4 (I think) Lots of dice were rolled but no Grey Hunter fell as all the hits failed. So now it was my time to play slapsies. I sent the Rune Priest, Wulfen and Powerfist into the big lad whilst the rest of the pack piled into the Deamon prince. Four failed invulnerable saves later and the Greater Deamon was down whilst the Grey hunters tore the Deamon prince a new one and sent him packing back to the warp. Yes that’s right folks two bad ass Deamons defeated in close combat by a pack of Grey Hunters and a wrinkly old Rune Priest, that’s the stuff epic sagas are made of!

After that bloody round of combat the fate of the Death Guard was sealed, the game continued a couple more turns but it was a case of me finishing off the Nurgle Marines in the ruins. It was quite a grind with the feel no pain proving quite hard for my chain swords to get through but my weight of numbers prevailed eventually. At the end of the game all that remained of the Death Guard army was the Dreadnought who had not really contributed much as he had rampaged around for a few turns.

Conclusion

That was a really funny game, Paul was a top opponent and his army was absolutely superb. There were times during the game when I could see things going either way. My skin was saved by the one in a million combat which saw off both Deamon’s in a single round with very little damage in return alongside the Long Fangs who battered the Terminators to death. I had again achieved my secret mission which was to kill the most expensive enemy unit which gave me the points to sneak to 10th place overall. Not bad considering I had lost three battles.

So that was my last battle report from Battle of the Chumps 2011, I hope you all enjoyed reading them and find them inspiration to attend next years event. I want to say thanks to Neil Kerr for organising the event and to Maelstrom games for a superb venue and facilities.

I’ll hopefully see you all at BotCH 2012 if I don’t see you before.

Adam's BOTCH: Spaces Wolves VS Space Wolves

In the final round of BotC 2011 I found myself drawn against Space Wolves Blog reader Andy and his force of Grey Hunters, Long Fangs, compulsory Rune Priest and a Wolf Lord riding Thunderwolf as well as a Wolf Guard Battle Leader riding Thunderwolf. Then I spotted the Drop Pod full of Wolf Guard armed with combi-plasmas!

The mission was Kill Points with a Dawn of War deployment.

One look at all of his Grey Hunters and those Thunderwolves and I knew I couldn't beat him in close combat. I simply didn't have enough men.

But if there was one way I could beat him, it was at range with all my extra lascannons. So I planned to play like a Tau and fall back firing. It was Kill Points after all.

The Wolf Guard in a Drop Pod didn't concern me in the slightest. But if they'd had combi-meltas, then this could have been a different story.

I gave Andy a hearty handshake and wished him the best of luck before the game began.

THE GAME
I won the roll off and elected to go first, choosing the table edge that would favour my cowardly strategy. Everything would arrive from my board edge on Turn 1.

I brought the Land Raider on in the centre with everything else spread along the left. The Long Fangs got out of their Razorback transports and ran into the tower on the left flank to take up firing positions for the game.

Meanwhile my Land Speeders zoomed up the right flank.

Andy deployed his force right of the centre. Deploying directly opposite wouldn't have given his tanks much of a cover save past turn 2, so this wasn't such a bad decision.

The drop pod full of Wolf Guard slammed down in the middle of my army and the Wolf Guard got out and fired their combi-plasmas at the nearest Rhino, but only managed to immobilise it.

All my Grey Hunters got out and messed them up!

Meanwhile Andy needed another turn to get his Long Fangs into position, but which time he came under fire from my Long Fangs and a torrent of Krak missiles.

Once his long range capabilities had been eliminated, it was a case of my mobile units falling back while trying to destroy as many of his Rhinos as I could before he could finally close with me and bring his superior numbers to bear.

But, as the Land Speeders closed in on his right flank, dangerously close to 2 of his Rhinos he took the bait (aka: the juicy bone!) and steered both transports, packed full of Grey Hunters, towards them.

Sure, both Land Speeders died, but that bought me an extra turn of keeping his Grey Hunters out of the fight and nicely divided up his army.

The game ended on Turn 5 with a mountain of Kill Points on both sides.
I won 10 - 8 in the end and despite the way it looks, the game felt very close. However, by the end Andy's army was in tatters while mine was closing for the kill.

CONCLUSION
I felt slightly ashamed in playing this game like a total coward. I wanted to charge in and turn the game into a massive drunken brawl -and what Space Wolf player wouldn't? But there was no way I could beat 4 Rhinos full of Grey Hunters, a drop pod full of Wolf Guard and Thunderwolves in close combat with what I had.

So instead I shot him up...and ran away.

I really liked Andy's army, but I had made things difficult for him. I knew how hard it can be to set up your Long Fangs if they have to come on from the board edge and then come under fire.

The gambit with the Land Speeders acting as a bait unit worked better than I'd imagined. I was surprised he didn't take them out with his Long Fangs. Two Rhinos were drawn away from the right, essentially halving his army and making my target selection much easier.

Although the Thunderwolves were closing very quickly...until a Vindicator shell killed the Wolf Lord outright! Well, I guess the Vindicator did something in the end, even if it took 3 games.

The mission and all my lascannons favoured me in this game. The Wolf Guard Terminators didn't even get out of their Land Raider, although they were ready for a counter attack. But by this point I'd got fed up of them dying to bolter fire.

Although it was rather one sided, it was a good game with plenty of laughs and Andy was a fantastic opponent to play against. I'd definitely like to play him again with a more aggressive Space Wolves force so we could have a proper ruck!

Thanks for reading. Now for me to go away and think about improving my army.
I've got a great idea for a Space Wolf Assault Terminators substitute which might just work...

Killswitch Is Off To The ETC

So It's that time. The night before the trip to the ETC. Pretty nervous, more so due to the fact that the journey will take around 12 hours in total (we are driving! I know right..hardcore).

Really excited, and should be a great time. Seems there is also a change to the team. Due to unfortunate circumstances James Ramsay, our Nid player, has had to drop out last minute. Luckily we had a trusty Northerner to fill in the slot. In comes Courtney Rhodes with his Black Templars. Not entirely sure as to what he will be taking, but expect something similar to what he usually brings :)

Ill be there with my Wolves which have been painted over the last 2-3 weeks and STILL not finished (I'm a slow painter, sue me). For those of you who don't know, here is a recap of the list I am taking:

Space Wolves

HQ 1: Rune Priest (100) Chooser of the Slain (10) Jaws of the World Wolf (0) Living Lightning (0) – [110]

Elites 1: Dreadnought (105) Twin-linked Autocannon (10) Twin-linked Autocannon (10) – [125]
Elites 2: Dreadnought (105) Twin-linked Autocannon (10) Twin-linked Autocannon (10) – [125]
Elites 3: 5 Wolf Guard (90) 4 Combi-meltas (20) 3 Power Fists (60), 1 Terminator Armour (15), Cyclone (30) – [215]

Troops 1: 7 Grey Hunters (105) 1 Meltagun (5) 1 Wolf Standard (10) – [120]
Troops 2: 7 Grey Hunters (105) 1 Meltagun (5) 1 Wolf Standard (10) – [120]
Troops 3: 6 Grey Hunters (90) 1 Meltagun (5) 1 Wolf Standard (10) – [105]
Troops 4: 5 Grey Hunters (75) 1 Meltagun (5) – [80]

Heavy Support 1: 6 Long Fangs (90) 5 Missile Launchers (50) – [140]
Heavy Support 2: 6 Long Fangs (90) 5 Missile Launchers (50) – [140]
Heavy Support 3: 6 Long Fangs (90) 5 Missile Launchers (50) – [140]

Transport 1: Rhino (35) Transports Troops 1 – [35]
Transport 2: Rhino (35) Transports Troops 2 – [35]
Transport 3: Rhino (35) Transports Troops 3 – [35]
Transport 4: Razorback (40) Lascannon & Twin-linked Plasma Gun (35) Transports Heavy Support 1 – [75]
Transport 5: Razorback (40) Lascannon & Twin-linked Plasma Gun (35) Transports Heavy Support 2 – [75]
Transport 6: Razorback (40) Lascannon & Twin-linked Plasma Gun (35) Transports Heavy Support 3 – [75]

Sorry about the format, standard ETC layout :). I will try take a good few pics on my phone, so don't expect the best quality. I hear there will be lots of coverage over on rankingshq.com and people will be posting via Twitter and the warhammer.org.uk forums, so keep your eyes peeled for those interested.

Anyways, It's time for my well deserved nap. Wish me luck!!

Killswitch

Wolf and Sister Part 20

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Brad's BOTCH: Space Wolves Vs Space Wolves (again)

I’ll start by saying this was probably the most frustrating game of 40k I have ever had and I want to start by apologising to my opponent Wil because these frustrations got the better of me at times during this game. I will explain my frustrations as I go on but do not think in any way this is an attack on my opponent.

Things were not helped by the fact I was slightly hung over from the spending all night in the Maelstrom bar and the fact our hotel was like a zoo with morons running up and down the halls all night setting fire alarms off.

This was the 5th round and the points level had escalated to 2000 points, the mission was 5 objectives and the setup was spearhead. I had played Wil before when I attended Mayhem in 2010 and before I get started I will explain the cause of my frustrations. Wil was running a Thunder lord accompanied by some Thunderwolf Cavalry, the problem was his Thunderwolves are actually Space Marine bikes on the Games Workshop bike bases. The size of the model itself did not bother me as something that can give a bike cover would probably give a Thunderwolf cover too, the problem is the base. The smaller base not only allows the model to squeeze through gaps it shouldn’t really squeeze through but it also allows more models to easily get into combat with a shorter frontage.

I fell foul of this back at Mayhem when a Thunder lord was able to squeeze through some terrain avoiding a terrain check and charge my squad on the other side, not a problem me thinks I’ll just clarify this pre game with Wil and a judge. The outcome of this was basically ruled against me and the models were to be played as they are, oh well lets just rock on and see how this game goes.

Wils army consisted of:-
(Again from memory so may not be accurate)

Wolf Lord, Thunderwolf, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, gubbins
Wolf Priest
Lone Wolf, TDA, Chainfist, Storm Shield
8 Grey Hunters, Melta, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters, Melta, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Melta, Razorback TLLC
5 Grey Hunters, Melta, Razorback TLLC
4 Thunderwolf Cavalry, Thunderhammer, Meltabomb
Landspeeder, MM/HF
Landspeeder, MM/HF
Vindicator
5 Long Fangs, Lascannons, Missile Launchers
5 Long Fangs, Lascannons, Missile Launchers

The Game

The second contributing factor to my frustration was the board we were playing on, it was horrid. The terrain consisted of two huge Line of sight blocking pieces dead centre of the board with a gap of about 5” between the two which essentially created three valleys in which we could advance at each other for. Wil won the roll off and elected to set up and take first turn, he deployed his Long Fangs in some tall ruins in his quarter and then everything else pretty much hidden by those monstrous pieces of terrain. I was in a bit of a pickle the terrain definitely favoured a close combat army and really limited my long range advantage. The plan was to funnel those Thunderwolves into a kill zone and hopefully tie up that Wolf Lord with a Dreadnought as his Wolf Claw would be useless against it. I had a tall ruin in my tale quarter as well so I deployed my Lascannon fangs in there whilst the others deployed on ground level covering the left flank where I was hoping the Thunderwolves would come crashing through. The rest of my army made use of the cover the best it could maximising the potential of the three lanes of fire.

The game started with my bad luck returning with a bang, those Long Fangs could just see my Dreadnought and managed to clip him with a few Lascannon shots, I failed my cover save and the Dreadnought got wrecked. I also lost a Razorback next to the Dread to a lucky missile shot from the second pack. The Vindicator nosed forward into a dominating position covering the central “lane” and then opened fire on a Rhino blowing it sky high, killing three Grey Hunters and then pinning the pack inside. The Thunderwolves as expected made a dash for my left flank heading straight for my lines.

My retaliation fire was pretty poor with the Long Fangs doing absolutely nothing to that Vindicator and everything thing else failing to either hit or penetrate armour. My Typhoons however did manage stun a Rhino creeping up on the right flank around a building. I edged my Rune priests Rhino forward 6” and then let rip with Jaws at the oncoming Thunderwolves. The Jaws line clipped the Lone Wolf and two Thunderwolves, I was quite pleased to see the Lone Wolf and a Thunderwolf fall to their doom.
It was about this point I started to get a bit flustered, the Wolf Lord broke off from the Thunderwolf pack and then fleeted towards my Long Fangs 6”. He was then able to squeeze through a gap between the board edge and the wrecked Razorback I had placed to block such action, needless to say my pack of Long Fangs were wiped out. The Thunderwolves made for my Rune priests Rhino and despite it moving it was wrecked causing the pack inside to spill out.

The Thunderwolf unit was now the focus of my attention but I still had a Vindicator bombarding my lines and two Rhinos full of Grey Hunters creeping towards my firebase. I disembarked my Grey Hunters from the third Rhino and rallied what I could to join the assault on the Thunderwolves, I jumped my Rune Priest back into his Rhino alone, he had a task to complete. He then summoned his powers and blasted the Wolf Lord with the Jaws of the World Wolf, despite being an agile fellow he wasn't agile enough and was sent tumbling to his doom.

Two Grey Hunter packs then crashed into the Thunderwolves aided by the Wolf Banners, both sides smashed each other apart and then my Power fists finished off what was left. I had killed them off but now my Packs were really depleted.

Over on my left flank I the two Rhinos full of Grey Hunters finally hit my lines and it was looking bleak, I had a small pack of Grey Hunters and a Dreadnought to hold the line against the assault. One of those Grey Hunter Packs contained a Wolf Priest who would chew through my small pack if I wasn't careful. My only option was to pour all my firepower into those units and thin them out, both units were in cover but I managed to take out about 50% of the strength before they assaulted my lines. A lucky Power fist hit sent my Dreadnought up in smoke whilst the Wolf Priest set about my pack and killed them all.

It was around this point I realised I had taken too many casualties to stay in this fight. Wil had captured three objectives with his troops whilst I only captured one. It was the bottom of turn 5 and if I could get another turn I could get into position to contest some of those objectives with my Speeders and get a Pack of Grey Hunters onto another objective, alas the dice gods were being cruel ended the game with a roll of a 1 leaving the game in a defeat for myself.

Conclusion

Despite my frustrations I can't take anything away from Wil, he out punched me and out punched me good. My Grey Hunters were punished by that Vindicator and its dominating position mean't I could do bugger all about it. The battlefield favored a close combat army and forced me to engage his units head on which was never a good plan. If I had not dropped that Wolf Lord with a lucky Jaws hit the game would have been over a few turns before as he would have chewed through my remaining Grey Hunters with ease. All in all a good game with some ass clenching moments which could have swung the game either way.

Guns Don't Kill People, Power Fists Do!

As I won't be talking about my 5th game at BotC, I thought I'd explain some trends I keep seeing in the game when it comes to being able to kill stuff and kill lots of it.

Now there's been some debate lately about players fleeing the Space Wolves Codex like rats from a burning ship to go and play Grey Knights. Speaking for ourselves, we've seen nothing but a further increase in Space Wolf players and Blood Angels players these last few months.

However, with the tournament scene now full of Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Grey Knights and Deathwing terminator armies, the game is turning into a battle of the armour saves.

Now statistically a Space Marine should fail 1 in 3 saves and a Space Marine Terminator should fail 1 in 6 saves. But this never seems to be the case when I've been playing at tournaments lately. It's more like 1 in 6 and 1 in 12. That before you take Blood Angels' tendency to have Feel No Pain into account.

So all the kills really come down to power weapons and power fists. Especially power fists, because the inflict so many more wounds due to their high strength.

In my recent game against Brett's Blood Angels he said "My god, you have so many powerfists!" but as it turns out, I had just as many as he did. The difference was The Wolf Standard, which allowed me to get re rolls on my 1s for a single round. But this made all the difference when it came to kills.

Similarly, I played a game against James' Dark Angels where he charged 2 combat squads into a Grey Hunters pack. Both combat squads were led by a Veteran Sergeant with a power fist and boy did he give my Space Wolves a battering!

Sure, he died eventually, but not before taking a terrible toll on my squads over a couple of rounds of combat. And it was all down to him having 1 power fist more than me.

Also, with everyone getting a 3+ or 2+ save, is the Mark Of The Wulfen really as tasty as it once was? Even with re rolls using the Wolf Standard? Possibly not. I'd rather have the rerolls with the Power Weapon for the same points against all these Marines.

CONCLUSION
You'll be pleased to know that Space Wolves still have their place in the Marine Wars and it's still about playing defensively (or counter-defensively) and smashing people in the face with the Wolf Standard to give some added clout in close combat. That's whether you're charging Grey Knights or Blood Angels.

Obviously, Grey Knights give us a hard time, but they can be beaten in close combat...so long as they're not Paladins. In that instance, you just need lots of melta guns and lascannons hitting them instead.

I know I've talked about close combat, but my thoughts extend to shooting as well. Statistically you should be able to kill things with enough bolter fire, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. That's when you need the high strength, low AP guns to ignore armour saves and inflict those wounds.

So in conclusion, maybe now's the time to try out a Power Weapon in your Grey Hunters pack instead of the Mark Of The Wulfen? I'd like to take an extra Power Fist, but for +25pts and only 2 attacks on the charge, it's really not worth it.

I'm going to stick a couple of lascannons into my Long Fangs packs as well. Let's see how those Grey Knight Paladins like that!

Wolf and Sister Part 19

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Brad's BOTCH: Space Wolves Vs White Scars

With my luck picking up last game allowing me to pick up a solid victory things were looking a lot better for me now. My final opponent of the day Mark Stevens was running a codex marine with a lot of bikes led by the Biker King himself Khan. The table was actually quite nice with a good mix of area terrain and ruins and best of all some nice lanes of fire for my Long Fangs. The mission in this round was Capture and Control with the Pitched Battle set up. I cannot remember exactly what mark had in his list but it was something like this:-
Khan

Command Squad with Banner and weapon upgrades all on bikes

8 Space Marine Bikers, attack bike, Meltaguns and Power fist

8 Space Marine Bikers, attack bike, Meltaguns and Power fist

10 Tactical Marines, Lascannon, Meltagun, Powerfist, Rhino

5 Tactical Marines, Razorback Twin Linked Lascannon

3 Attack Bikes with Multimeltas

3 Attack Bikes with Multimeltas

The Game

Mark won the roll off but gave me first turn and allowed me to set up, I had a feeling he was going to reserve and outflank his entire army and this move confirmed to me it was what he intended to do. I had a nice piece of area terrain in the centre of my deployment zone and a ruined building on my right flank. I placed my objective on the second floor of the ruins on my right ( yes I am a naughty boy) which meant Marks bikes would not be capturing that and he would have to send his foot troops in. I then deployed a unit of 5 Grey Hunters into the building and the three empty las/plas Razorbacks around it to provide some fire support. The rest of my army deployed centrally ready to counter attack the outflank move from either side whilst the Long Fangs set their deck chairs up in the central rubble and cracked open the Pimms and Lemonade.

As expected the enemy was put in reserve and outflanked which was what I expected, what I did not expect was for everything except one biker squad to come in on turn 2 and arrive on my right flank right next to my objective! Doh!

The second turn was a mess with Razorbacks exploding left right and centre as a swarm of angry bikers bushwhacked them, it certainly was not looking good. I retaliated by sending in a pack of Grey Hunters to bail out the 5 I had left in the ruins whilst the other two packs raced across the board to Marks uncontested objective. The Long Fangs then got busy and started to punish one of the bike squads on my right, I could have targeted the Command Squad and Khan but they looked to be a little too far out to threaten anything next turn without turbo boosting.

My five lonely Grey Hunters took a real beating in those ruins forcing me to go to ground and weather the torrent of fire coming in at them, after the smoke had settled I still had 3 Hunters lurking in the rubble. Khan and his buddies decided to go after the Long Fangs ad as I predicted they were well out assault range and had now placed themselves right in the open. This ended in the only way it could have really, both packs of Long Fangs ranged in on the command squad and destroyed the entire unit with Krak missile and Lascannon fire and even dropped the Bike King himself.

Meanwhile my Grey Hunter relief force was getting to grips with the tactical squad in some trenches near the objective, in a short ranged trench fight there was only ever going to be one winner. I think it was around turn 4 when the final Biker squad arrived from reserve on the right flank. By this time I had two full strength Grey Hunters packs sat on the enemy objective whilst the rest of my army was going toe to toe with the initial biker assault. Mark sent this squad racing across the board in an attempt to contest his home objective from me supported by a Razorback but despite turbo boosting they still took a pounding from my Long Fangs who were on fire this game and rarely missing a shot.

I intercepted this last ditched attack with a pack of Grey Hunters and quickly saw off any chance of me losing that objective. Meanwhile over in the ruins he had dislodged my Grey Hunters and managed to get his small Tactical squad up onto the first floor but this put them in line of sight of my Long Fangs which allowed me in turn 5 to bombard them with every long ranged weapon I had available and wipe them off the board. It was at this point the game was well and truly over as there was nothing that could capture my home objective and certainly nothing to contest the objective I had captured, I had also bagged my secret mission which was to get more of my units into the enemies deployment zone than the enemy had.

Conclusion

Without wanting to take anything away from my opponent I was very comfortable about winning this match up from the word go. I anticipated a flank attack and prepared for it, he was going to struggle to take my home objective up in the ruins and once he had lost his command squad the wind had been knocked out of his list. The fact my Long Fangs were owning everything they shot at helped immensely and the firing position allowed them to dominate most of the battlefield. I salute my opponent because even when things were going wrong for him he kept a smile on his face and it was a pleasant game.

Adam's BOTCH: Spaces Wolves VS Sisters of Battle

In the 4th round I found myself against my regular opponent James "Dark Angels Beat Stick" Le Grys! But, because we play each other all the time, we asked if we could play someone else. Fortunately, the two chaps next to us were happy to oblige.

One had Space Wolves (painted red !?) and one had Sisters of Battle. We rolled for it and I got drawn against the Sisters.

Time to storm across the board and beat up a bunch of little girls! Or so I thought...

It turns out that Gary (smashing chap by the way) plays at the ETC as a specialist 'space marine destroying force' and boy, was I in for a surprise. My inexperience against the Sisters of Battle was about to be made all too clear.

The mission was 1 Objective each and the deployment Pitched Battle. He won the roll off and deployed everything in the top right hand corner along with his Objective.

THE GAME
I placed my Long Fangs and Razorbacks in terrain left of the centre and deployed all my Grey Hunter Rhinos and Vindicator opposite his convoy of tanks.

The Land Speeders went into reserve and would be arriving via Deep Strike to blow up his Exorcists up close.

The Vindicator exploded. The Rhino next to it exploded and as Grey Hunters staggered out of the wreckage the Sisters of Battle convoy rolled forward while the Seraphim led by a Cannoness and Paladin flew down the right flank.

The Space Wolf tanks struggled to get around the terrain. Meanwhile I found all my Long Fangs and Razorbacks to be out of range -disaster!

Gary applied the same 'drive up and melta out of the top hatch' tactics I use to good effect. Except whereas I would fire a melta gun and combi melta for 1 turn, then only a single melta gun in the following turn, he could continually fire 2. He also had 10 models per squad, not 8. These things made a big difference when it came to a shooting match and with my heavy weapons JUST out of range, I was unable to support the rest of the army.

The Seraphim were torn apart by one Grey Hunter pack, but then the Cannoness and the Paladin used their Faith Points to get 2+ invulnerable saves. They hacked through all of the Grey Hunters with their eviscerators over the course of the game. There was nothing I could do to stop them once they were stuck into the thick of the fighting.

CONCLUSION
In hindsight, now that I know how horrible Sisters of Battle can be, I would have played this game very, very differently.

For starters, I would have kept my distance and relied on my superior long ranged fire power to take out the Exorcists (or failing that, deep striking Land Speeders), then pop all the transports and sit on my objective.

Sure, the game would have been a draw. But I'd have won on Victory Points.

I've already said that my list could have been better, but in this game it really showed. I'd overspent on the Long Fangs and the Vindicator was unnecessary.

Gary was an absolute pleasure to play against and won my vote for best sportsman.
And I'll be sure to get him and get him good next time!

Wolf and Sister Part 18

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Brad's BOTCH: Space Wolves Vs Deathwing (Traitors)

This is the third battle report in my Battle of the Chumps 2011 battle report series. My day had started really poor with an absolute spanking in the first round against Descent of Angels Blood Angels and a loss to a rival Space Wolf army in the second, it was certainly not looking good for me.

The third round was announced and battles were now being fought at 1500 points, I was a lot more confident in my 1500 point army than my previous 1000 point army. This confidence was knocked back down to size when I saw that I was back on that horrible table from the first round. Things went even more downhill when I saw I was playing Paul Burke and his Deathwing army, Paul took 1st place at the 40k UKGT back in March and when I last played him back in February 2010 he beat me with a Sisters army so I knew I was in for a fight.

In this round the mission was five objectives with the dawn of War deployment, Paul's army consisted of:-

Belial with Claws

5 x Terminators
4 x TH & SS
1 x Chainfist & Storm Bolter
Cyclone Missile Launcher

5 x Terminators
4 x TH & SS
1 x Chainfist & Storm Bolter
Cyclone Missile Launcher

5 x Terminators
4 x TH & SS
1 x Chainfist & Storm Bolter
Cyclone Missile Launcher

5 x Terminators
4 x TH & SS
1 x Chainfist & Storm Bolter
Cyclone Missile Launcher

5 x Terminators
4 x TH & SS
1 x Chainfist & Storm Bolter
Cyclone Missile Launcher

Land Speeder Typhoon

Land Speeder Typhoon

The Game

I lost the roll off again as usual ( Regular readers will probably know I'm cursed and never ever win the roll offs) so Paul elected to go first and deploy. He set up two Deathwing squads and Belial right in the centre of the board threatening several objectives. It was clear the the rest of the Squads will teleport in close by in turn 1 using the Deathwing assault and I would have a phalanx of Terminators rampaging all over my lines. I did not deploy anything and elected to bring everything on in turn 1.















The game started and the first move of the game brought sunshine to my cloudy day. The first of the Deathwing Squads teleported in but ended up scattering into a friendly squad, I wasn't lucky enough for them to die but I was able to place the unit wherever I wanted.

I could have placed them right out the way at the back of the board and make them foot slog but they had a Cyclone Missile Launcher and would be still in the game. The only other option was to place them right in the open on my side of the board. Those Deathwing Squads were like a herd of Woolly Mammoth, safety in numbers and very dangerous whilst working as one, but a calf had strayed from the herd now and there were Wolves in the snow.
















My army raced onto the battlefield in their transports and pounced on the isolated squad of Deathwing, the Three packs of Grey Hunters jumped out of their Rhinos and lit that squad up like a Xmas tree combined with a healthy dose of twin linked plasma guns from the Razorbacks. Now I only had to deal with four Deathwing Squads, I could see that every single casualty hurt this style of army bad.

Despite the small victory the Deathwing counter attack was viscous as one of my Grey Hunter Squads was pounded with Frag and krak missiles reducing the pack to three members, the pack held firm though.














I was now facing four Deathwing Squads and I knew these boys could still wipe my army out of I was not careful, there was a squad on my left flank however who was a little too far out from the rest, again I had the mental image of the herd of Mammoth and again a calf had strayed too far. I embarked my Grey Hunter back into their transports except for the three survivors of the damaged pack and advanced everyone. In this turn my Long Fangs were ready to get to work, I directed all of my firepower at the stray unit and despite a sickening amount of heavy firepower I only managed to drop two of the buggers. I had a taste for blood at this point and thought to myself "sod it" so I declared an assault with my three Grey Hunters on the remaining Deathwing.

Now in this pack I had my Wolf guard toting a fist, my Wolf Banner and the Wulfen. It was a risky move but I was up for a laugh. The pack charged in and set about cutting threads, the Wulfen threw out 8 attacks and combined with the Wolf Banner bearers attacks I caused a lot of wounds. I looked on in amazement as two Terminators fell to the flurry of attacks, their armour failing them. The surviving Terminator swung his hefty hammer in retaliation but the swift wolves dodged the attacks avoiding harm, my Wolf Guard then smashed him to pieces with his power fist killing off the squad.

These Deathwing squads were looking much more manageable now but I wasn't going to get sloppy and let things slip as I still had Belial to watch out for. Paul sent two Deathwing Squads after my Grey Hunters whilst the third squad made for my Long Fangs. Battle was finally met in the dead centre of the board when my remaining packs crashed head on into Belial and his honchos. It was a bloody fight that lasted for two turns but thanks to my Wolf banners I was able to swamp the Terminators with lots of wounds and in my favour Paul was rolling lots of 1's. Belial fell in the first round with a fist to the face after which it was a battle of attrition that I came out on top of.

The game ended a Wolf Victory with my depleted Packs being able to capture several objectives in the centre of the board, the final Deathwing Squad had been so busy trying to kill Long Fangs they had taken themselves out of the game and well away from causing any threat to my troops.

CONCLUSION

I'd finally shaken off my losing streak and scored a comfortable victory. I couldn't help but feel my bad luck had turned into good luck and really turned the outcome of this game. Being able to wipe out that first squad and then another in the following turn inflicted the crippling blow to the Deathwing army as every casualty counts. On the other hand this game demonstrated how a couple packs of Grey Hunters are a deadly foe and when working together can take on anything and come out on top.

Adam's BOTCH: Spaces Wolves VS World Eaters

In the third round I found myself facing Tim Smith's stunning Pre Heresy World Eaters army presented by the Blood Angels Codex, complete with two Land Raider Redeemmers, 2 units of Assault Terminators and Mephiston! He also had 2 5 man squads, a Razorback and a Sanguinary Priest of course.

Space Wolves always seem to struggle against Land Raiders. Well, mine do at least. And having been roasted alive by a Land Raider Redeemer in the last tournament, I didn't fancy letting either of them get close.

So the plan was simple - pop the Land Raiders, kill what's inside, some how kill Mephiston (shoot him!) and advance up the board.

The game had 4 Objectives and the deployment was Pitched Battle. Not that it made a lot of difference in this battle.

Tim won the roll to go first and deployed a Land Raider either side of the fort in the centre, which Mephiston hid behind.

Meanwhile I elected to castle on the left flank and buy myself as many turns of lascannon fire as I could while setting my Grey Hunters up in a suitable counter attack position.

The Land Speeders went into reserve and would Deep Strike next to the Land Raiders and hopefully take them out with their multimeltas.

The Vindicator also went into reserve and would hopefully arrived just in time to land a big ordnance shell on some Terminators too.

THE GAME
As expected, the Land Raiders came speeding across the board. Lascannons bounced off them, multimelta blasts disabbled weapons, but they kept on coming.

The game came to a head when one Land Raider was met by a wall of Space Wolves Rhinos and as melta guns were fired from the top hatches, nothing happened.

The Assault Terminators disembarked and along with Mephiston charged the Rhinos, smashing them apart.

The Space Wolves staggered out, formed a line, opened fire with everything while Krak missiles slammed into the Terminators from overhead and the newly arrived Vindicator managed to fire a shell directly into the middle of one squad. Finally, a casting of Jaws Of The World Wolf before each Grey Hunter pack called on the power of their Wolf Standard and charged into close combat.

Not a single Terminator died.

Then it was time for my opponent to attack back.
Pretty much all hit, all wound, all dead.

Hmmm...

Then the World Eaters tore through my army like a hot Frisbee through butter.

CONCLUSION
Despite having made a pact with Satan when it comes to dice rolling, Tim was actually an awesome guy to play against. And it's not as if anyone could say there was something up with his dice, because they flew everywhere! I thought James had trouble keeping his dice on the table, lol.

The big combat in the middle should have gone in my favour. I've done this kind of thing a few times before. All the Ap2 guns going into the Terminators alone should have done something. But sometimes, that's just the way it goes.

Of course, had I won the close combat, no doubt the two Redeemers would have closed in and incinerated everyone with their dual S6 AP3 flame storm cannons. So the strength of Tim's list really is the two Land Raiders. Hence why his next game against the Grey Knights ended quite badly when he lost both on the first turn to rending psycannons.

As for me, my list could have been a lot stronger. The Long Fangs were both 6-men strong, when they only needed 5 and the Vindicator was a fat waste of points. Sadly, the Land Speeders didn't do so well either.

The cost of extra Razorbacks, Land Speeders and a Vindicator seems to be detracting from the core of the Space Wolves army, which is Grey Hunter packs. Lots of Grey Hunter packs!