How to Beat Deathwing with Space Wolves

Struggling to beat that Deathwing Terminator army with your Space Wolves? Then let me explain how you can defeat an army made entirely of 2+ save Space Marines swinging powerfists or the dreaded Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield combo with any Space Wolf army.

Deathwing are a small, highly elite, yet extremely tough army to play. This is a because they have a low model account which is ofset by the ability to Deepstrike, a good deal of anti infantry firepower and of course, access to Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields.

This also means that a Deathwing army has to be as versatile as possible to take on all comers. So while many competitive players have built Deathwing armies consisting of nothing but Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields (how imaginative of them!), they still need to be able to shoot you in order to win.

However, the Space Wolves are every bit as versatile and fierce in close combat. The main difference is that we have numbers on our side. But it's still going to be a surprisngly close match up.

Based on my gaming experience, I'm going to explain how to beat a Dark Angels Deathwing army with Space Wolves, while explaining what to look out for and how to best utilise your units to deal with each threat.


DEATHWING ARMY STRENGTHS

2+ Save
When everything has a 2+ save, only two things are going to kill those Terminators. That's AP2 or better weapons and sheer volume of shots and attacks.

Now while statistics should ensure that for every 6 armour saves taken, 1 would be a fail. However, this rarely seems to be the case (unless I'm rolling!). Instead only 1 in 12 Terminators seem to fail their armour save, which makes taking them out with massed firepower or lots of basic attacks in close combat a lot tougher than expected.

Terminators also have a 5+ invulnerable save, which is nice, but not something they should really count on to save them. Just bear in mind that 1 in 3 of these saves will get passed. If an opponent is particularly lucky, they may even pass half of their invulnerable saves. It's statistically rare, but just bear in mind that it can happen.

Powerfists for Everybody!
Everyone has a powerfist, except for the Sergeants, so if you don't kill what you charge before they can strike back, you're going to take some pretty horrendous casualties. Don't forget that the sergeant strikes at Initiative 4 with his power sword, so he's going to be the first casualty in close combat so the Deathwing player can clobber you with as many powerfists as possible.

Feel No Pain Command Squad of Death
If a 2+ save wasn't tough enough, there have been a number of Deathwing Assault Command Squads running about with all the trimmings.

Belial with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, a Librarian in Terminator armour, 5 Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, 1 of which is an Apothecary, granting the whole unit Feel No Pain, while another 1 carries the Deathwing Standard, giving them all +1 Attack in close combat.

A good Deathwing player will deploy their army in a mightly phalanx with this unit at the centre, often taking point and soaking up your firepower like an invulnerable sponge.

Deathwing Assault
Nobody really seems to Deathwing Assault anymore, because Space Marine armies typically need everything on the board right from the start. But it's worth remembering that Deathwing can do this.


DEATHWING ARMY WEAKNESSES

Low Numbers
Most Deathwing armies consist of 30 models or less. So every loss is felt, not only in domination of the table, but in the amount of firepower that the army can put out.
A few bad dice rolls for armour saves and the Deathwing are in trouble.

Slow
Because the whole army is going to me walking 6" and shooting, the Deathwing army is pretty slow. And because they rely so much on their firepower, running isn't an option that can be counted on to fall back or advance efficiently.

As a result the army tends to receive charges rather than make charges.

However, the offset of this is the standard Deathwing phalanx formation where if a single unit gets charged, it holds its ground, despite taking quite a few casualties, and then the rest of the Deathwing army piles into the close combat and punches everything to death with an obscene number of Powerfists!


TYPICAL DEATHWING ARMY LIST
If there's one Deathwing army that works and works really well, it's one comprised entirely of Tactical Terminator Squads with Cyclone Missile Launchers led by the Feel No Pain Command Squad of Death. You may wonder why the Command Squad doesn't have a Cyclone? This is because they're too busy running forward to fire it or any other weapons.

Grand Master Belial: Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
Librarian in Terminator Armour
5 Deathwing Terminators: 5 Thunder Hammers & Storm Shields, 1 Apothecary, 1 Standard

5 Deathwing Terminators: 1 Sergeant with Powersword, 1 Chainfist, 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher

5 Deathwing Terminators: 1 Sergeant with Powersword, 1 Chainfist, 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher

5 Deathwing Terminators: 1 Sergeant with Powersword, 1 Chainfist, 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher

5 Deathwing Terminators: 1 Sergeant with Powersword, 1 Chainfist, 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher

5 Deathwing Terminators: 1 Sergeant with Powersword, 1 Chainfist, 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher


Deathwing Strategy VS Space Wolves
The Deathwing are going to do what the Deathwing do best and that's deploy in a phalanx where each unit covers the other. So if one units gets charged, the rest of the army jump on that attacking unit and absolutely murder it. The Command Squad leads from the front and the army moves slowly as one to cover numerous objectives or to simply dominate a particular part of the board.

The aim of the Deathwing is to bring as many of their units together against as few Space Wolves units as possible. Meanwhile lots of Krak Missiles from their Cyclone Missile Launchers will be aimed at immediate threats from transports to Long Fangs.

The first priority it to knock out the Long Fangs to stop them pelting any tightly packed Terminator squads with frag missiles in order to create lots of wounds and kill some Terminators through sheer volume of armour saves being required.

Next up all those Cyclones will target 1 Grey Hunter transport at a time so that all those Storm Bolters can cut down the Space Wolves en masse once they're outside.

The Deathwing will them slowly advance up the board shooting while being ready for a counter attack.


Space Wolves Strategy VS Deathwing
Deathwing are a tough match for Space Wolves, because they function in a very similar way and have a lot of Missile Launchers too.

In order to win the Space Wolves will have to try and target 1 Deathwing squad at a time, firing everything at it until it's dead, then moving on to the next target.

Obviously the Deathwing Command Squad takes a lot more firepower to bring down.

Lascannons are great for picking off lone stragglers, but it comes down to pouring as many basic shots as you can into a squad before charging in to get even more hits on a squad. Your Grey Hunters are going to need their Wolf Standards when they charge in to do as much damage as possible in order to minimise the number of Powerfists coming back their way.

It's important not to attack the Deathwing phalanx head on. Instead, try to isolate one squad at a time. This is where getting out of your transports and rapid firing them can allow you to kill a squad while keeping just out of charge range from the other Terminator squads.

Once you've killed a Deathwing squad or two, you can start rolling up the army. Just be sure to not overstretch your units or expose them to too much Storm Bolter fire and you should be fine.


CONCLUSION
Don't be fooled, because a Deathwing army played well can be an extremely tough nut to crack. It doesn't help that Space Wolves are typically lacking in lascannons and plasma (unless you're playing Razorback spam), which makes it hard to take down all those Terminators.

Just be sure to strategically use your basic weapons to wittle down squads and then pick off stragglers (who will probably be in the open) with your lascannons or multimeltas from your Land Speeders. It's all about how you apply your firepower. The same goes for the Deathwing, which is why this is a tough match up.

As you might expect, Wolf Guard Terminators with combi weapons and power weapons do rather well against regular Powerfist totting Deathwing Terminators. They'll take a beating in return because of the Powerfists, but they can be effectively used to wipe out a Deathwing squad in a single turn on their own if they're jumping out of a Land Raider. But as with any unit in the Space Wolves army, don't let them wander off on their own or they will get jumped on by the whole Deathwing army and killed.

And whatever you do, do your best to stay away from the Command Squad, because they require a monstrous amount of attacks to bring them down. The only time I've managed to do it in a single turn was when I charged them with 3 Grey Hunter packs that had all used their Wolf Standard. Even then they took a lot of casualties before they could bring down Belial and the Librarian.

Just because Space Wolves are good in close combat, doesn't mean that they're great in close combat!

Wolf and Sister Part 28

<<BACK INDEX NEXT>>

How to Beat Imperial Guard with Space Wolves

If you want to beat Imperial Guard with Space Wolves you have to accept one undeniable fact. You're going to get shot -a lot!

So with this in mind, it's time to drive forward in your Rhinos, pop smoke and pray you can make it through the storm of bullets, shells and energy beams, leap out of the burning wrecks and beat puny humans to a bloody pulp with your Grey Hunters.

You're going to be outnumbered, you're going to be outgunned. But all you need is an armour save, some decisive close combats and a lot of luck.


Based on my gaming experience, I'm going to explain how to beat Imperial Guard with Space Wolves while explaining what to look out for and how to best utilise your units to deal with each threat.


IMPERIAL GUARD ARMY STRENGTHS

Mechanised Madness
If you ever get drawn against an Imperial Guard army that isn't all mounted in tanks, then it's a happy day for the Space Wolves. However, every competitive Imperial Guard army will be fully mechanised with Chimeras and Valkyries backed up by all manner of Manticores, Hydras and maybe even a Leman Russ or a Hell Hound.

More importantly, this gives the Imperial Guard lots of mobile heavy weapons which can make life hard for any army. So be sure to bring melta guns, lots of melta guns, 'cos you're gonna need them!

Thousands of 'em!
Always numerous, Imperial Guard armies will always outnumber Space Wolves. Sometimes you just feel like you're drowning in enemy units -especially when there are just tanks all over the place.

But just remember that the quality of Space Wolves troops will see you through and should make a bloody stain of even the best Imperial Guard units. You just need to get across the board and charge. There's nothing quite like the safety of not being shot at in close combat!

Unlike other armies, the Imperial Guard can't really pile everything into one big close combat to try and tie you up, because they will get slaughtered.

Shooting
As the kings of firepower, the Imperial Guard are all about shooting. So while you will be able to take out key targets like Valkyrie Vendettas and light vehicles with your missile-spam Long Fangs, at the end of the day, they are going to blast you off the board if it comes down to a shooting match.

So pick your targets as a means of giving your Grey Hunters covering fire as they advance. The goal is to get those Grey Hunters into close combat and by limiting the firepower coming their way with your own long ranged firepower is the best way to ensure success.


IMPERIAL GUARD ARMY WEAKNESSES

Poor Quality Troops
Imperial Guard only have one weakness and that's the quality of their troops. However, it's also a great strength of theirs because they have so many expendable units. Because these units will crumple in close combat, it also means that if you charge, you're likely to wipe them out and be stuck in the open to get shot at in the Imperial Guard player's turn.

However, by the time you get to them, your squads will have probably taken quite a few casualties. Regardless, you can still be confident that you'll win close combats. Or at the very least, you can sit tight in a nice prolonged close combat, safe from all those nasty guns, although you may need to be lucky with your armour saves to survive.

TYPICAL IMPERIAL GUARD ARMY LIST

This is what most of the Imperial Guard armies I have faced have been like. Manticores and Hydras with some Valkyrie Vendettas for lots of lascannons, plus Psyker Battle squads to make my squads break and run. It's really not any fun to play against, but if you can keep fighting your way forward with true Space Wolf tenacity, you will get there in the end!

HQ Command squad
Commander with power sword and 3 melta guns

(X2) Psyker Squads:
9 Psykers and 1 Priest
Chimera

Imperial Guard Platoon:
Command squad with 3 melta guns
10 Imperial Guard with melta gun
10 Imperial Guard with melta gun

Veteran Squad:
6 veterans, 3 melta guns

Veteran Squad:
6 veterans, 3 meltaguns

2 Valkyrie Vendettas
2 Valkyrie Vendettas
2 Valkyrie Vendettas

2 Manticores
2 Hydra flak tanks

Imperial Guard Army Strategy VS Space Wolves
When playing any army which relies on shooting, target priorities are what will make or break a game while praying for the first turn!

Chances are that the Imperial Guard player will be forced to ignore the Space Wolves Long Fangs for the first turn as they concentrate on taking away the Space Wolves' mobility by destroying all of their transports.

Once mobility has been limited, they will then turn to long ranged firepower threats, before finally turning their guns on the Space Wolf Grey Hunters while utilising the Psyker Battle Squads to force fall backs whenever a Grey Hunter pack has to take a morale check.

Any attacks using units with melta guns will be used to stop Space Wolf units dead in their tracks from advancing. These melta units will be sacrificed of course, but when the Imperial Guard army is fairly numerous, this is a small sacrifice to make.


Space Wolves Strategy VS Imperial Guard

Start by deploying those Long Fangs in cover and simply get everything on the board, regardless of whether you have the first turn or not. You need to bring everything to bear, so reserves really aren't an option.

Having the first turn gives the Space Wolves an important advantage as you can drive all your Rhinos forward, fire your smoke launchers and take down a few of the Imperial Guard high firepower units with missiles from your Long Fangs and lascannon shots from your Razorbacks.

If you don't have the first turn, sit tight and take the hits on your tanks. There's not much else you can do. Just get ready to run those Grey Hunters across the board, hugging over as best you can.

As I've said, you're going to get shot and get shot a lot. Simply accept it and push forward as best you can. Keep your eye on the mission objectives and you just might do it. But you will have a much easier time if you get that first turn.

Also remember that unless an Imperial Guard unit is on foot and totally unsupported, it is always best to assault rather than rapid fire them. Assaulting will ensure that a unit gets wiped out and if you're lucky you may even avoid a round of Imperial Guard shooting by having your Grey Hunters locked in close combat, which they will of course win during the Imperial Guard turn.

Finally, don't forget to send those Land Speeders zooming up the flanks. Their multimeltas are great for taking out heavily armoured vehicles (or just downing Valkyries) and they can also work as a great distraction to keep all that firepower away from your main force. They are your only expendable units, so be sure to expend them well while causing the biggest distraction possible!


CONCLUSION
Imperial Guard are hard for anyone to beat simply due to the sheer amount of mechanised units and the torrent of firepower that they can throw at you.

But when playing Space Wolves, being able to take the hits while striking back with your long ranged firepower to eliminate key threats is the real strategy for success. Just be sure to carefully pick your targets based on supporting your Grey Hunters.

Your tanks will explode. You need to accept this.
Your troops will get shot and die. You need to accept this.
Now that you've accepted that you're going to take a real pounding, you can get on with playing effectively.

Now get those Grey Hunters up the board and hug cover as best you can, while using your Long Fangs and Razorbacks to take out key threats and provide supporting fire. Once those Grey Hunters get into close combat, you'll make short work of all those Imperial Guard infantry.

Finally, if you take Wolf Guard Terminators or Lone Wolves in terminator armour, then you're going to have a field day if you're good at passing all those 2+ armour saves. So long as you don't get jumped on with a lot of focussed melta fire, they tend to do very well against the Imperial Guard thanks to being able to deflect a huge amount of firepower.

Wolf and Sister part 27

<<BACK  INDEX  NEXT>>

How to Beat Blood Angels with Space Wolves

How do you beat Blood Angels with Space Wolves? With a lot of cunning tactics, that's how. Contrary to our first impressions about everyone's favourite blood red emo vampire Space Marines with pretty angel wings, the Blood Angel players really got their game on to figure out their Codex and exploit the huge range of options available to them.

So now that Blood Angels are one of the best close combat armies in the game, it's always a complete blood bath whenever you get a game of Blood Angels VS Space Wolves. In a way it doesn't help that the Space Wolves are designed to receive a charge while the Blood Angels are designed to charge in, which kind of puts Space Wolves on the back foot.

Blood Angels are fast too. Their tanks are fast, they can field whole armies of jump pack troops, or failing that, they can speed Mephiston, Furious Dreadnoughts and Assault Terminators across the board in Storm Ravens and really mess you up before you've even had two turns of shooting.

All we know as Space Wolf players is that they are one of the armies which will be coming for us -and that makes it a little easier to figure things out on our part.

Based on my gaming experience, I'm going to explain how to beat a Blood Angels army (whether it's jumping, driving, flying or just throwing 9 Dreadnoughts at you!) with Space Wolves, while explaining what to look out for and how to best utilise your units to deal with each threat.


BLOOD ANGELS ARMY STRENGTHS

Feel No Pain
3+ save and Feel No Pain makes Blood Angels ridiculously hard to kill. Seriously, I'm surprised I haven't seen people fielding 'regular' Space Marine style lists using the Blood Angels Codex, spreading some Apothecaries around and just watching as the whole thing refuses to die.

Once you throw Feel No Pain into the mix, basic weapons become pretty useless, even basic attacks can become pretty useless as a statistically speaking a standard 3+ save Blood Angels efectively becomes a 2+ save Blood Angel.

So next time you decide you're going to attack 10 Blood Angel Assault Marines joined by an Apothecary, just remember that you're effectively attacking 10 Blood Angels Terminators! Wow, that really puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

Fast
Fast Predators, Fats Rhinos, Razorbacks, Storm Ravens, Attack Bikes and even Bikes: The Blood Angels trump most armies for mobile firepower and speed in general.

This makes them incredible versatile in terms of tactics. I also makes redelopyment and objective grabbing much easier as well.

Let's not forget that Assault Marines can be taken as Troops and re-roll their Deepstrike using 'decent of angels' too.

Furious Charge
Coupled with their speed, Furious Charge is what makes Blood Angels so dangerous. Initiative 5 and Strength 5 means that they're going to be hitting our Grey Hunters first and wounding them on 3+. It also makes their Power Weapon attacks even more devastating, because as Space Marines, Space Wolves die easily to Power Weapon attacks.

So whatever happens, try not to let Blood Angels charge your Space Wolves. And if it can't be helped, get ready with your Wolf Standards! You're going to need them.


BLOOD ANGELS ARMY WEAKNESSES

Blood Angels Players
No disrespect to Blood Angels players as a whole, but with so many advantages I'm still amazed at how people play this army so badly.

In competitive games all my victories have been down to the player being over aggressive and seriously over extending their forces when they could have simply waited another turn to maintain a cohesive force, then just hit me with everything they had.

I've heard people say that Blood Angels' weakness is if they get charged, because they don't get any of their usual bonuses. Well, getting charged is bad for anyone. It's like saying "my army doesn't like being shot at". Hmmm, let's think about that one...

But anyway, When I've been facing Blood Angels played well, I've had a really tough time. Mostly because they just won't die!


TYPICAL BLOOD ANGELS ARMY LIST
Is there really such a thing as a typical Blood Angels list? Not really. So I've decided to choose one of my favourite Blood Angels lists from a past tournament which really gave me a hard time.

Mephiston
Corbulo
Librarian
Assault Terminators in a Land Raider Redeemer with extra armour
10 Assault Marines with power fist and 2 melta guns
5 Assault Marines with melta gun
5 Assault Marines with melta gun
Storm Raven
Furioso Dreadnought with extra armour


Blood Angels Strategy VS Space Wolves
Pray for the first turn, so the Storm Raven (with Mephiston and Furioso) can speed across the board and multimelta something. The Land Raider Redeemer can speed forward, firing its smoke launchers. Meanwhile the Assault Squads wait in reserve ready to Deepstrike using 'decent of angels'.

In Turn 2, the Assault Squads arrive, land and blow up the Space Wolves Transports while the Storm Raven and Land Raider charge into the middle of the Space Wolf formation, blowing up more transports while disembarking Mephiston, the Furioso Dreadnought and the Assault Terminators.

Carnage ensues as Blood Angels use all their strengths to get into close combat quickly, deny any long ranged shooting and watch as their best units make short work of the Space Wolves, regardless of whether they charge or not.


Space Wolves Strategy VS Blood Angels
In order to take away their mobility, the Space Wolves need to take down the Storm Raven and Land Raider straight away. Obviously, this is much easier if they have the first turn, so that they can get 2 turns of shooting rather than just one.

Obvisouly, you'll prioritise your firepower according to how many turns shooting you have. If you've got two turns, take down the Storm Raven with everything on Turn 1 and fire everything at the Land Raider on Turn 2.

Then get all your Grey Hunters in position to form a wall of Rhinos and fire their melta guns and combi-meltas from out of the top hatches to nail the Furioso and the Land Raider.

Mephiston you have to ignore until you can bring lots of high strength, low AP weaponry to bear. Wolf Guard Terminators with combi-weapons are great for this.

Then the game will inevitably turn into a massive punch up. It's going to happen regardless. Just be sure to jump one one unit at a time with everything you've got.

For example, 3 units of 8-man Grey Hunter packs should be able to wipe out a squad of Blood Angels Assault Terminators in close combat.


CONCLUSION
Regardless of what kind of Blood Angels army you end up playing, due to their speed, the game is likely to turn into one great big punch up. But if you can ensure that it's the Space Wolves who get the charge and hack apart one of their best units en masse (like Assault Terminators), then you can control the enormous 'bar brawl' that's going to ensue.

Just make sure Mephiston gets a good dose of plasma to the face to keep him down. You don't want him getting into close combat, because he's pretty much unstoppable.

As for 9 Dreadnought armies. Just run away and keep shooting them as best you can.
And against all-jump pack Blood Angels armies, you're going to have great fun, because it's much easier to kill troops than it is tanks.

So to wrap up, when you fight Blood Angels, pick your targets carefully, plan out how many turns of shooting you're going to get and what you're going to do with those shots.
Most importantly, make sure that you are the one who is charging and charge as many of your units as you can against 1 of their units at a time to make sure you wipe them out quickly and efficiently in order to take as few casualties as possible.

And if you're going to get charged and there's nothing you can do about it, use your Wolf Standard! They might think twice about charging you then.

Wolf and Sister Part 26

<<BACK  INDEX  NEXT>>

How to Beat Space Marines with Space Wolves

Beating regular Space Marines with Space Wolves should be easy right? Well, you might be surprised!

What with all those Assault Terminators wielding Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields marching up the field while bombarding you with Thunderfire Cannon salvos, the basic Space Marine Codex can be quite tricky to deal with -and that's before you throw in all those special characters.

So while you may be able to outfight Space Marines with Grey Hunters, there are a number of units in any Space Marine army that can cause problems for the Space Wolves. Least of all, the greater number of heavy weapons and units.

Yes, you may come across a Space Marine Biker arny, but Ravenwing do that so much better. You are likely ot come across a Salamander's themed list led by Vulkan. But that's not so different either, you can just expect all melta and flame weapons to be far more accurate, as well as Thunder Hammers.

Anyway, based on my gaming experience, I'm going to explain how to beat a typical Space marine army with Space Wolves while explaining what to look out for and how to best utilise your units to deal with each threat.


SPACE MARINE ARMY STRENGTHS

MSU: Many Small Units
Due to combat squadding, a Space Marine army will usually have a high number of units. Plus, because they're all wearing power armour, they tend to be tough to kill too. Or you end up wasting huge excesses of firepower simply to wipe out a 5-man squad that's sitting at the back with a lascannon.

With 5 man squads and Razorbacks dotted about, all shooting at you, it can be difficult to focus your attack, especially if all these little units are well spread out.

Of course, you may be playing an MSU style Space Wolves army, if which case you can probably go toe to toe with each unit without a worry. But for a regular Space Wolves army, this can be quite a bother.

Battle Tactics
Becuase Space Marines can make a voluntary fall back move whenever they take a morale check, they can deny your Grey Hunters those valuable charges or even break off from a losing combat, leaving your Grey Hunters stranded in the open to get shot atif you cannot catch them.

There's not much you can do about the latter, but be aware of how many casualties you have to inflict from shooting before forcing a moral check.

After all, there's nothing worse than killing a couple of Marines with your bolt pistols only to see the squad fall back out of charge range, leaving your cluster of Grey Hunters out in the open and in line of sight of a Thunder Fire Cannon!

SPACE MARINE ARMY WEAKNESSES

Close Combat
The only real weakness that regular Space Marines have compared to Space Wolves is close combat. Aside from Assault Terminators swinging Thudner Hammers and deflecting blows with their Storm Shields, Space Wolves will tear through anything in a Space Marine army.

So while Space Wolves will dominate Space Marines in close combat, a Space Marine army will have a superior edge over Space Wolves when it comes to long ranged firepower.


TYPICAL SPACE MARINE ARMY LIST
I could have used something really dirty, like an army led by Shrike with 3 squads of 10 Assault Terminators and 2 sqauds of 5 Marines in Razorbacks backed up by 3 Thunderfire Cannons and 3 squadrons of Landspeeder Tornados. But I felt that James' standard Space Marine army was something you'd be far more likely to face. It's a deceptively tough army and plays very well too.

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

5 Scouts: sniper rifles

1 Dreadnought: plasma cannon and extra armour

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

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

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

1 Thunder Fire Cannon

1 Vindicator: siege shield and extra armour

5 Devastators: 4 missile launchers


Space Marine Strategy VS Space Wolves
Considering that they can't beat Space Wolves in close combat easily, they're going to go straight for your transports to slow you down.

Anything that falls out of transports (or ends up clustered together in an exploded wreck) is going to get hit by the Thunderfire Cannon.

Then it's down to the Razorbacks and all those heavy bolters to wittle down one Grey Hunter pack at a time.

Finally, the Assault Squad led by the Chaplain and the Dreadnought are nasty counter units that will go in and finish off or simply jump on and pound any Space Wolf squad which gets too close. The same goes for the Vindicator, which will also 'clear up' after any lost close combats.

This army is very mobile and mechanised, so moving forward to do all this isn't an issue either. The 5 man squads with lascannons simply sit back and pick their targets, as does the Devastator squad with missile launchers.

Space Wolves Strategy VS Space Marines
In the same way that the Space Marine army will pick its targets and use long ranged firepower to eliminate key threats, the Space Wolves army will be doing exactly the same.

The only real difference is the Grey Hunters who will need to go forward in their Rhinos with the intention of giving the enemy a good kicking. And that's what keeps this kind of game exciting!

In my last game against this kind of army I had a squad of Wolf Guard Terminators with combi weapons riding in a Land Raider too. So I was able to closely match the Space Marines in terms of firepower, but I was coming for them!

There was no way I could win a shoot out, so I did my best to turn the game into one huge brawl. Meanwhile my Long Fangs and Razorbacks took out the key threats to my Grey Hunters turn by turn, whether it was the Dreadnought (which my Grey Hunters cannot easily beat in close combat) or the Vindicator and Thunderfire Cannon which could cripple a Space Wolves squad after they've won a close combat, or simply the Assault Squad led by the Chaplain.

While identifying key threats, it's important to target the units which are the biggest threats to your Grey Hunters. Because ultimately, it's always the Grey Hunters which will cause the most carnage and win you your games.


CONCLUSION
With armies like Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Grey Knights, the Space Marine Codex gets looked over by many players, but don't be fooled, because a savvy Space Marine player still has plenty of tricks up his sleeves.

Whether it's the most numerous MSU army you've ever seen or simply has 3 Thunderfire Cannons, bog standard Space Marines have more guns than Space Wolves and can certainly give you a tough time.

As for dealing with big squads of Assault Terminators, the usual strategies still apply. And that's to just hit them with absolutely everything, all at once and pray that your opponent makes the statistical average number of failed saves (that's 1 in 6 for a 2+ save, and 1 in 3 for a 3+ invulnerable save). In this game, when all looks lost, mathhammer can really be your friend.

Wolf & Sister Season 2

Wolf and Sister Season 2 starts this Wednesday!
SPREAD THE WORD!


<< Back Index Next>>

Painting Space Wolves Space Marines Part 4

Greetings Wolf Brothers, and welcome to the 4th and final part of my painting guide.

In this final part I will guide you through the last two steps on painting this model, the final coat, and the highlights.

A second final clean coat will be painted on almost every area of this Grey Hunter, in order to brighten the model up giving it an impressive stand out look. This coat is the most important part of the whole painting procedure.

I like to start by painting the armor as it covers the biggest part of the model. Having finished all the wash jobs, and the drybrushing I can now paint the main armor color to clean the model. The color that I will be using for the armor is the infamous “special Grey” mix that GW uses on their wolves, the models that we all see in our codex. This color is a 50-50 mix of Space wolves Grey and Shadow Grey. I normally empty the two colors inside a small glass, mix them in there, wash with water their cups and then put the mix inside the now clean cups. This way I have two bottles of the mix. I like to start from the legs as I find that it is easier to find a tempo and get used with the color starting with a relatively big open area. I break down the model in small parts divided by the recesses and joints of the armor and paint each carefully. The paint needs to be watered down by 2-3 drops, and you must use only a small amount on your brush. Paint the area avoiding getting too close to the edges where the wash has settled. You need to leave that small line of shade made by the wash in order to keep the armor from the details separate and create the contrast needed. Keep in mind that wherever your sight can reach, your brush can, too. Also practice in using just the tip of the brush as it will make your painting more precise!

The change at the look of the model after this step will be huge!

The other parts that need a second coat are the following. Metal areas basecoated with tin bitz, Skull trophies, purity seals, tooth trophies etc. The paint that you will be using when painting these parts has to be a little more thick than before, meaning you only dilute it with one or at most two drops of water. This is because the surfaces on these parts are quite small and now we can’t afford the paint to be watery and run outside. Start by painting the skull trophies with dheneb stone. Paint the risen areas avoiding again some of the spots that the wash has settled. Use only a small amount of paint on your brush and use only the tip of the brush. Continue with the tooth trophies by painting a small line along the tooth. Moving on to the purity seals, use only a tiny amount of paint on the tip of your brush paint a coat of Bleached bone on the purity seals avoiding tears and the midpoint. After that you may need to apply a second coat because bleached bone is a relatively thin or I might say weak color and just one coat won’t be enough. After that, paint a touch of blood red on the wax parts of the purity seals to open up the color a little.

Finally, paint the metal decoration with shining gold. I normally don’t dilute the shining gold as I want a thick rich color on the gold areas.

Now, for the last part of the procedure. Highlights! Personally I am a fun of the lining technique on space marines as it really brings up the detail on the model and makes it stand out on the table. This technique is about applying small lines of a brighter color on the edges of some areas, representing the shine of light falling on it. I know a lot of guys can be intimidated by this being a difficult technique requiring a lot of patience and precision. This is only partially true, as you will find that if you try it a little bit you will eventually get better at it. You just have to follow all the rules mentioned in this guide. Small amount of diluted paint on the brush, small and steady-hand moves and you will get there. Also while on this guide I will highlight almost every part of the model, you don’t have to do this to this extent. Start by highlighting some parts and as you get better you can return and upgrade your work later! Also, while doing this you may draw too thick lines or they may not be smooth or straight. You can correct this by repairing with the base color, in this case the special grey. The color that I will use to highlight the armor is the classic Space wolf grey. Simply paint edge lines wherever armor ends or meets joint or anything else. Keep the lines as thin as you can. Use the same technique to highlight the silver metal areas (chainsword teeth and hilt, chains, grenades, and don’t forget the rings that hold the talismans) with mithril silver, use skull white to highlight the wolf teeth and the skulls and codex grey to highlight the black parts.

Finally if you want you can paint a small line with vomit brown to the lower half of the eye lenses to create a light effect on the eyes.

This is where I stop with my models. Of course you could go further and highlight the black joints on the armor, highlight the pack markings and the yellow or the red of the shoulder pad and even add weathering to the model. It is at this point however that I feel that the miniature is good enough for me and that I have devoted enough time on it. I now have to apply the company symbol on the left shoulder pad and after that is dry, give the model a thin coat of Varnish with the Army Painter’s Matt Varnish.

Read Part 1 of the tutorial

Read part 2 of the tutorial

Read part 3 of the tutorial

Wolf Lord on a Thunder Wolf AND Fenrisian Wolf Pack RAFFLE!!!!

$1 ticket buys you a chance to win a Games Workshop, new on sprue, Space Wolves Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf AND (as in the winner will ALSO receive) a Games Workshop, new on sprue, Space Wolves Fenrisian Wolves Pack. Please note: these are brand new, unpainted, unassembled two Space Wolves products!!!

The picture on the left is for illustration purposes only.

Here is how you play: Buy a $1 ticket via the DONATE button on the right (you can buy as many as you wish, the more you buy, the better your chances are), mention in your payment notes that this is for the Wolf Lord on a Thunder Wolf AND Fenrisian Wolf Pack Raffle.

People who submit articles which get published, will automatically be entered into that month's Raffle without having to make a donation (10 entries per article). Obviously, this does not relate to any paid writers for the blog.


WHAT YOU WILL RECEIVE IS:

&

WINNER OF THIS RAFFLE:

Chad Farley from Florence, AL