Taking a knife to a tank fight

Okay, I'm stealing Andy's idea here to talk a bit about rules; specifically assaulting a vehicle. On Wednesday I assaulted one of Andy's Razorbacks with my Lone Wolf. Now, the vehicle was immobilised so I hit it 3 times and then, because I wasn't locked in combat, walked away and re-assaulted it in my next turn, hitting it 3 more times. We forgot two key things. Firstly my Lone Wolf forgot how to use his Thunder Hammer and failed to destroy the Razorback. Secondly, and more importantly for this article, I forgot the rule about vehicles that don't move. It's there on page 63 of the Big Rule Book - if a vehicle doesn't move (or just pivots) you get to attack it in the vehicle's assault phase. Okay, I might have done nothing with the additional 2 attacks but I could theoretically have destroyed the Razorback, letting me charge the squad inside in my next turn. It would have made no difference to the overall result of the game but this sort of oft forgotten rule could make the difference in a close run game.

1750 Space Wolves

So, I've got a game against Andy tomorrow, which will be his last warm up game before the Warp Storm tournament at the weekend. Now, I'm slightly tempted to use my list from two weeks ago but I feel that it's just too much of a hammer army. Hence, I've put together a more balanced list, the kind that I'd probably take to a tournament myself. Also, I thought I'd actually post some of my thoughts that went into this selection rather than just posting a list in a vacuum. So, without further ado:

Rune Priest, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane

Rune Priest, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf

The best psychic defence in the game (apart from the soon to be nerfed Inquisition) and D6 S7 infinite range shots per turn. Nice. The Choosers stop infiltrators and add 1 to the Rune Priests' BS. Murderous Hurricane is awesome if only for its Difficult/Dangerous Terrain effects. Jaws of the World Wolf can be a bit hit and miss, especially against armies with good Initiative values. However, when it's good, it's very very good.

5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Rhino

5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Rhino

The Rune Priests go here and Living Lightning out of the top hatch. First targets are AV10-12 or Heavy Weapons teams on the board edge (especially if they have poor armour and Leadership. LL can really do a number on Lootas and once they fail that first test, it's goodnight from them) The Plasma Gun offers even more S7 goodness.

5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Razorback

5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Razorback, Twin-Linked Assault Cannons

5 Grey Hunters, Razorback, Twin-Linked Lascannons

The meat of the army. While the two rhinos can quite happily sit on objectives all game, these are to force the enemy off their objectives and do some killing. If I had the models I'd probably go with Lascannon/Twin-Linked Plasma Gun turrets as they are so badly affected by a weapon destroyed result. The Lascannon Razorback gives some really good range letting me hit threats before they get too close.

6 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun

One of the best units in the Codex; these guys are just so versatile. If the enemy has something in their backfield that you need to take care of then you can operate Behind Enemy Lines. They can do the same if you think you might need some back-up near any of the board edges. Or if there aren't any good targets (ie against a horde list) they can Infiltrate and act as a speed bump.

Lone Wolf, Terminator Armour, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer

This is one of my counter charge units. He runs up behind the wall of armour and then jumps out and either kills vehicles or Independent Characters or he tarpits squads. With Eternal Warrior, Feel No Pain and Saga of the Beastslayer, this guy is a bargain for 85 points. Plus if he is killed he doesn't give up a Kill Point.

Dreadnought, Assault Cannon

Another counter charge unit, primarily to deal with other dreadnoughts, especially ones who enter via Drop Pod.

6 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers, Lascannon

6 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers, Lascannon

Some more long range fire power. Krak Missiles will Instant Kill nearly all of the main infantry in the game (and more importantly, the Doom of Malantai!) plus these guys have awesome range to take out vehicles.

2 Land Speeders, Multimelta, Heavy Flamer

I'm still not sure whether to run these as a pair or separately but they stay as a pair for now. These guys are AV14 hunters or against certain armies they can use the Flamers to really ruin someone's day.

Vindicator, Siege Shield

Still not sold on this but I think that most people will see this and be worried enough to shoot at it leaving the rest of my vehicles alone for a turn. It's got short range and is vulnerable to a single weapon destroyed result taking it out of the game but it can work as pure area denial, especially for anyone Deep Striking. For 5 points less I could have a Predator with Lascannon Sponsons which feels like a more logical but less fun choice.

So, there it it. The plan is to pop transports at range and then shoot the enemy as they walk towards you. When enough are dead jump out of the transports, finish them off and hop onto an objective. Obviously no plan ever survives contact with the enemy but hopefully I've got just about enough firepower and assaulty capability to see it through.

One final word on this list; it's 18 Kill Points which does feel like quite a lot at this level. Mitigating that I do have 5 scoring units, all meched up and hopefully enough killing power to take out more than I lose. Hopefully...

Tournament WIP

It's been a few days of manic painting so I just thought I'd share a couple of pics of the objectives I've made (Tournament rules require that you bring at least two objective markers with you) and my Librarian HQ along with the two very nearly finished Sanguinary Priests.



I've just got a couple of small details to do on the Priests, then I have to just finish of my Land Raider Melta Gunner. Last of all I have to paint two Dreadnought arms and file down my Blood Talons (green stuffed last night) and paint them and I'm done. Should be no problem :)

Know your rules

It may seem an obvios statement but if you want to enjoy the game then you need to know the rules! Now the BRB is, by definition, BIG so it's not really practical to try and memorise the whole book in one go. What you need to do is to ensure you know the basics of movement, shooting and assault and then tackle the more obscure rules as the situations occur. The imortant caveat to this is that you must take the time to ensure you interpret the rule correctly.

This week I was asked about tank shocks by my opponent and I explained how I thought it worked, he was happy about the explaination and we played it as I described. However when I got home and re-read the rule I realised i'd got a key part of it wrong. So as a result I feel inspired to do an occasional post on uncommon rules and/or interpretations of unclear rules. I think we'll start with Tank Shocks!

The idea of a tank shock is to force a morale check on an opponent's unit or units in an effort to move them. It is declared in the movement phase and may be performed by any vehicle described as a tank by its stat line. In order to perform a tank shock you must declare how many inches you intend to move (at least the vehicle's cruising speed) and move the vehicle in a straight line.

Any enemy units that the tank passes through must take a morale test. If the test is passed then the tank passes through the unit with no effect, if the test is failed then the unit falls back towards their table edge. If the unit passes the morale test then one member of the unit may elect to make a "death or glory" attack against the vehicle's front armour, however if the attack is failed the model is removed.

Those are the basics of the tank shock rule, as always though read the section in your main rule book again to ensure you have fully understood it. It never hurts to read the main rule book again!

-- Posting on the go.

Location:Richmond Terrace,Radcliffe On Trent,United Kingdom

Clash of the Titans

I didn't think I was going to make it to Warhammer World this week so I didn't pack my camera. However I did get this pic on my phone of Graham's Defiler taking on Andy's Dreadnought. The Dread managed to hold the Defiler up for a turn which was a two-edged sword as it meant that Andy couldn't shoot it during his turn.

Commitment

Well the deadline for submission of lists for the tournament next weekend was Friday and I duly sent in mine. It's always difficult for me to commit to a list as I think there's so many options with the Codices that it's hard to know whats going to work best. In the end it's all about synergies and playing the game the way that best suits you so I've tried to put together a balanced list with uints that I enjoy playing:

Sons of Terra (Codex: Blood Angels)

Librarian
Epistolary, The Sanguine Sword, Unleash Rage

Furioso Dreadnought
Blood Talons, Melta Gun, Storm Bolter; Drop Pod
Sternguard
(7) 4x Combi Melta. Power Fist, Rhino
Sanguinary Priests
(2)

Assault Squad A
(8) 1x Meltagun, Power Weapon; Land Raider w. Extra Armour, Searchlight & Multi Melta
Assault Squad B
(5) Flamer; Power Fist; Razorback w. TL Assault Cannon
Assault Squad C
(5) Meltagun; Razorback w. TL Lascannon

Baal Predator
TL Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolters

Dreadnought
2x TL Autocannon, Drop Pod

The basic idea here is to balance anti-mech with anti horde but with a bias towards anti-mech as that seems to be the run of play in 5th ed at the moment (Tyranids excepted). So in that vein I have 3 TL Lascannons, 2 TL Assault Cannons, 2 TL Autocannons and a fair amount of Melta. The anti-horde gear is a little more tenuous due to the lack of templates but I am confident that the Blood Talons on the Furioso will make an impression which should support the remaining Heavy Bolter firepower. I'm sure the Assault Cannons and Autocannons will chip in with a good contribution vs Horde armys as well.

I've elected to put the Sternguard in a Rhino this time as I feel they are a bit too hit and miss in a Drop Pod, and with the BA Rhinos being fast they should be able to get to where they are needed with the minimum of fuss. The Last major change to the list was to upgrade the Librarian to an Epistolary, this was a tough decision but I just feel that the combination of Unleash Rage and the Sanguine Sword in the same assault phase is going to be worth the investment.

Anyway, I'm cracking on well with the painting in fact I have all the Assault Squads finished appart form their bases. All I have left to do are 2 Sanguinary Priests (1 day), Conversion for the Blood Talons (1 Day), Land Raider Multi Melta (1/2 Day) and a Twin Linked Lascannon Turret for the Razorback (1 hour). Should be do-able ... if I can just settle on a scheme for the priests!

To Do Lists

Inspired by this post by Rusty Dice (which I think was actually inspired by this post by Lamenter), I thought I'd talk about what armies I'd like to do in the future. So, I'm happy with my Razorback heavy MSU force at 1500 points (still not sure whether to upgrade with Dreadnoughts or more Razorbacks for 1750) although I do occasionally think about replacing the Predators with Long Fangs. Actually I'll stop there before it becomes a 'What have the Romans ever done for us' scenario. Anyway, in short I'm happy with that army, so next up:

1) Space Wolf Cavalry list

Canis, Wolf Guard Battle Leader on Thunderwolf, lots of Fenrisian Wolves, 3 units of Thunderwolves. Very fast, very nasty. I think we might see a few of these lists once GW releases the models.

2) Dual Raider Space Wolf List

Not sure if it will be yesterday's list but I definitely want to put together a Dual Raider force. When the Space Wolf Codex came out I remember putting together an army that was Logan, Arjac, Njal, 2 Land Raiders and about 10 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour. Not very competitive but it would be a fun list.

3) Space Wolf Drop Pod list

Something nice and fluffy, along these lines

4) Grey Knights

These guys just look awesome. If rumours are true we'll have plastic miniatures before long as well. From the 1st war for Armageddon fluff, they're pretty friendly with the Wolves so I'd love to add a couple of units to my current army. I'm not sure I'll do a full GK army, maybe a small Inquistion force when the Codex comes out. Oh, and definitely a Power Armour Grey Knight squad for Kill Team.

5) Sisters of Battle

Again, I don't think I'd do a full army, just a couple of squads to represent Sisters of Silence to go with my Wolves. It would also give me a break from painting grey.

6) Tyranid Horde

I quite like a couple of the xeno races but for me Tyranids are the coolest. I remember how hard Genestealers were from the first time I played Space Crusade and that has always stuck with me. I'd like to put together a real mass of bodies - lots of 'gants and 'gaunts, some Gargoyles and of course a good number of Genestealers. It would get wiped out pretty quickly by a good mech army but it would be fun just covering the board with troops and it's always good to roll a lot of dice.

It will be interesting to see what Andy makes of this as in the 6 months that I've know him, he has talked about starting Space Wolves, Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons, Eldar, Orks and Blood Angels...

Help us Brother Cobulo, you're our only hope

So a few things changed and I managed to spend an hour or so at Warhammer World watching Andy's Blood Angels against Graham's Chaos Marines. Now, Andy's initial list had Corbulo in but last night he had swapped him out for two regular Sanguinary Priests. They were playing the Vanguard mission from the Battle Missions book and at the end of turn 6, it was 1 objective each. Andy had two Sternguard in cover on one objective and a large Assault Squad (with Librarian and Sanuinary Priest) about to attack some Havocs that were contesting another objective. Graham had 3 Plague Marines on the third objective out in the open but they were staring down the barrel of a Land Raider Redeemer. Graham picked up the D6 and rolled a 4 - game over. Of course this is where Corbulo's re-roll any one die in the game skill comes into play. Yes, he is expensive but the ability to go first or to extend the game as necessary could prove invaluable.

PS Actually after re-reading his rule I'm not sure whether he would have worked here as the way that it is worded, it sounds like you can only re-roll your own die, not force your opponent to re-roll his. If that is the case, you'd need to make sure that, if you had Corbulo in the army, you always take the end of game roll yourself.

PPS Andy and Graham did actually play a turn 7 just for fun. Andy couldn't kill the Plague Marines while Graham tank shocked the Assault Squad off the objective (this is what Andy should have done with the Plague Marines tbh plus he should have tried Death or Glory if only for a laugh) and Graham's Defiler killed the two Sternguard (although the Sergeant did kill the Defiler as well). So a draw became a loss for the Blood Angels. Maybe Corbulo isn't such a good idea after all...

Dual Raider 1500 Points

No game this week due to real life getting in the way. However, I have put together a Theoryhammer list. After kast week, I was thinking, 'what could be better than a Land Raider?' Well, 2 Land Raiders obviously:

Ragnar Blackmane

Wolf Priest

Rune Priest, Chooser of the Slain

14 Blood Claws

9 Grey Hunters, Power Sword

2 Land Speeders, Multimelta, Heavy Flamer

Land Raider Crusader, Extra Armour, Multimelta

Land Raider, Extra Armour, Multimelta

Rune Priest will probably take Living Lightning (because at some point I have to roll more than 2 shots on a D6) and Jaws of the World Wolf (to snipe those pesky Power Weapon/Power Fist troops). He will ride with the Grey Hunters in the standard Land Raider while Ragnar, the Wolf Priest and the Blood Claws go in the Crusader. The Land Speeders fly around taking out any AV14 that the enemy might bring or popping transports so my troops can assault the squad inside.

Wolf Claw

Wolf Claws are an excellent weapon, not only do they look good but they're good in game too. Just like a standard Lightning Claw they count as a power weapon and you only get an attack bonus if you have two, but they have the bonus that you can choose to re-roll your to hit rolls or your to wound ones. You have to decide before each round of combat which you're going to re-roll which leaves the question, 'when should I re-roll misses and when should I re-roll failed wounds'?

So, the guys who can take a Wolf Claw have Weapon Skill of 4 (Wolf Guard), 5 (Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Canis) or 6 (Wolf Lord) and have a standard strength of 4 unless on a Thunderwolf in which case it is 5.

So, let's look at opponent's WS less than ours and toughness is at least 2 less than our strength:

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(wound)
= 2/3 x 5/6
= 5/9

Re-rolling hits = 8/9 x 5/6 = 20/27

Re-rolling wounds = 2/3 x 35/36 =35/54

Re-rolling hits is better

Now, let's look at opponent's WS same or higher than ours and toughness is at least 2 less than our strength:

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(Wound)
= 1/2 x 5/6
= 5/12

Re-rolling hits = 3/4 x 5/6 = 15/24

Re-rolling wounds = 1/2 x 35/36 = 35/72

Re-rolling hits is better

Opponent's WS is less and toughness is 1 less than our strength:

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(Wound)
= 2/3 x 2/3
= 4/9

Re-rolling hits = 8/9 x 2/3 = 16/27

Re-rolling wounds = 2/3 x 8/9 = 16/27

Exactly the same

Opponent's WS is the same or higher and toughness is 1 less than our strength:

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(Wound)
= 1/2 x 2/3
= 1/3

Re-rolling hits = 3/4 x 2/3 = 1/2

Re-rolling wounds = 1/2 x 8/9 = 4/9

Re-rolling hits is better

Opponent's WS is less and toughness is the same as our strength:

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(Wound)
= 2/3 x 1/2
= 1/3

Re-rolling hits = 8/9 x 1/2 = 4/9

Re-rolling wounds = 2/3 x 3/4 = 1/2

Re-rolling wounds is better

Opponent's WS is the same or higher and toughness is the same as our strength:

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(Wound)
= 1/2 x 1/2
= 1/4

Re-rolling hits = 3/4 x 1/2 = 3/8

Re-rolling wounds = 1/2 x 3/4 = 3/8

Exactly the same

Opponent's WS is less and toughness is 1 higher than our strength

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(Wound)
= 2/3 x 1/3
= 2/9

Re-rolling hits = 8/9 x 1/3 = 8/27

Re-rolling wounds = 2/3 x 5/9 = 10/27

Re-rolling wounds is better

Opponent's WS is the same or higher and toughness is 1 higher than our strength:

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(Wound)
= 1/2 x 1/3
= 1/6

Re-rolling hits = 3/4 x 1/3 = 1/4

Re-rolling wounds = 1/2 x 5/9 = 5/18

Re-rolling wounds is better

Opponent's WS is less and toughness is 2 or 3 higher than our strength:

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(Wound)
= 2/3 x 1/6
= 1/9

Re-rolling hits = 8/9 x 1/6 = 4/27

Re-rolling wounds = 2/3 x 11/36
= 11/54

Re-rolling wounds is better

Opponent's WS is the same or higher and toughness is 2 or 3 higher than our strength:

P(Cause a Wound) = P(Hit) x P(Wound)
= 1/2 x 1/6
= 1/12

Re-rolling hits = 3/4 x 1/6 = 1/8

Re-rolling wounds = 1/2 x 11/36 = 11/72

Re-rolling wounds is better

Phew! That's a lot of numbers! It should be noted that I've not included WS 5 vs WS 9 or 10 and I've not included any Space Wolf bonuses such as Wolf Tooth Necklace or Saga of the Beastslayer.

So, what does it all mean? Well, basically if you need to roll a lower number to hit than to wound re-roll our wounds and if you need a lower number to wound than to hit then re-roll your hits. If it's the same, for example if you're up against Space Marines and need a 4 followed by a 4, I'd always be tempted to re-roll hits and you want to maximise the number of dice you're rolling when you come to wounds. However I am notoriously bad at rolling my to hit dice.

Angels in progress

There's nothing like an up-comming tournament to stir the painting muse! This weekend I scoured my bits box and managed to scrape together 20 assault marines from combination of left-over plastic marines and butchered 2nd edition (I think) Space Wolf metal minis.



First I base the minis with some PVA and sand, then I spray them with GW Skull White primer.

The core colour of the army is yellow so I use Iyanden Darksun as a basecoat. In order to get good measures for mixing and thinning the paints I transfer paint from the GW pots to Vallejo dropper bottles. I also mix up a dropper bottle with 10 parts water to 1 part acrylic flow release, it's just a little better than plain water at getting a good consistent flow to your thinned paints. I usually mix it about 4 paint to 3 water.



Stage 1 complete, I put the first coat on quickly and not too neatly but making sure to only apply the paint thinly, not too tricky if you thin the paint properly.



Next stage is to apply Scab Red to the shoulder pads. Properly thinned the red does not go on smoothly over the yellow so you will need a couple of coats to ensure a smooth finish.



I spent about 4 hours on Monday night and managed to get the first yellow and red stages done. I also got the first coat of yellow down over my Baal Predator turret. It's a little different in this case as the turret is primered in black so as I thin the yellow down it will take a number of coats to get a decent coverage.



To be continued...

The Curse Of The New - Review

So, I talked about how new units can be difficult to use the first time that you try them and I was worried for my Land Raider last week. Of course it went on to do a lot of damage. However, in that review I didn't talk about the other new unit that I tried: a "Rifleman" Dreadnought. He managed to kill 3 Sternguard but Lysander's Thunder Hammer had turned him into scrap metal before the end of turn 1. So, what went wrong? Well, I forgot what the Dreadnought's mission was - killing transports. 4 Twin-Linked strength 7 shots a turn are the last thing that Rhinos, Razorbacks and Land Speeders want to see. However, I tried to use it reactively after Andy had podded the Sternguard in. Had I used it more proactively I could have taken out the Land Speeder on Andy's left flank and thus kept my Assault Cannon Razorback alive longer.

I think the key learning I'm trying to take out of this is have a plan for your units. By that I mean at every stage, right from list building until the end of the game. When I put the list together, the Dreadnought was there to take out transports not shoot at troops. In fact if Andy hadn't failed a couple of saving throws, it wouldn't have killed anything. Have a role for everything in your list and stick with it and only change if another part of your army is destroyed and you need to make do and mend or if there are no viable targets. So, my Dreadnought could have switched to killing Space Marines if all of Andy's transports and speeders had been destroyed or if there was nothing else in LOS or in range.

Sabotage

"I can't stand it, I know you planned it"

The enemy are up to something and it's up to you to stop it.

Objectives

Place one objective marker at the centre of the table.

Army Selection

One player is designated the attacker and one the defender. Both select an army of equal value using the standard FOC.

Deployment

Both players roll a D6 and whoever rolls higher selects either of the short board edges as theirs. The defending player deploys first and must deploy all of his HQ and Troop units within 12" of the objective marker. All other units are placed into reserve. The attacking player deploys 1 HQ and 2 Troop units within 6" of their board edge (NB for this mission a Troop selection and any dedicated transport they may have count as one choice). All other units are placed into reserve.

Reserves

All units in reserve are rolled for as per the rules on page 94 of the Warhammer 40,000 main rule book. The attacking players reserves enter on via their board edge. For each defending unit entering by reserve roll a D6, on a 1-2 that unit enters play via the long board edge to the player's right, on a 3-4, they enter play via the long board edge to the player's left, on a 5 they enter play via the player's short board edge and on a 6 they may enter play via any of these three edges.

First Turn

The attacking player rolls a D6. On a roll of 2+ the attacking player goes first. On a roll of a 1 the defending player has heard the attempted sabotage and steals the initiative.

Game Length

This mission uses variable game length as described on page 90 of the Warhammer 40,000 main rule book.

Victory Conditions

At the end of the game you control the objective if there is at least one of your scoring units, and no enemy unit within 3" of it. Always measure this distance from the centre of the objective.

Designer's note: this is meant to be a very narrative mission and the idea is that something very important is happening at the objective. Maybe it is an attempted daemon summoning and if they manage to control the objective for 3 full turns they manage to bring on a daemon as a reinforcement. Or maybe it is the control pad for a missile relay and for every turn someone controls the enemy they get to fire an orbital barrage at the battlefield. Or it could be an injured high ranking officer that they are attempting some triage on. It's entirely up to you.

Lusting over the Angels

With Thursday's game not going exactly to plan I have decided to commit to the new Blood Angels Codex and have come up with the following list which I shall be play-testing on Thursday and probably be taking to the Tournament in a fortnight:

HQ
Librarian - 100
Shield of Sanguinius, Unleash Rage

Elite
Furioso Dreadnought - 185
Blood Fists, Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Magna-Grapple; Drop Pod
Brother Corbulo - 105

Troop
Assault Squad A - 465
(10) 2x Meltagun, Power Fist; Land Raider Redeemer w. Extra Armour & Mult Melta
Assault Squad B - 180
(5) Meltagun, Power Weapon; Razorback w. Twin Linked Lascannon
Assault Squad C - 180
(5) Meltagun, Power Weapon; Razorback w. Twin Linked Lascannon
Tactical Squad - 235
(10) Flamer, Plasma Cannon, Power Fist; Drop Pod

Fast Attack
Baal Predator - 150
Twin Linked Assault Cannons, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Dozer Blade

Heavy Support
Dreadnougt - 150
Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod

The only things I'm undecided about still are the Lascannon Razorbacks, I'm tempted to take Assault Cannons; and Brother Corbulo, I could swap him for 2 regular priests. For the time being however, it stays like this.

I think Corbulo is important as the list will benefit greatly from getting first turn and his re-roll could come in handy there. The Baal Predator can move up quickly to support my two drop pod Dreads, creating a pretty devastating AV13 alpha-strike. Then there's the hammer unit in the Land Raider to worry about not to mention the two Lascannon Razorbacks and the late game objective taking Tac Squad in the Drop Pod. It feels like a strong list to me.

Unfortunately I'll have to pull my finger out in terms of painting as I have no Apothecaries or Assault Marines painted yet! I have just spent this weekend putting them together along with a Baal Predator turret and I also need to think about making 3 objective markers!! Plenty to do over the next two weeks, I'll keep you updated on my progress.

That Was Then, This Is Now

My dad is in the process of sorting his house out with the intention of selling it. So, he's given me some boxes of my stuff that I probably should have taken with me when I actually moved out (some 6 years ago!) One of these boxes contained some of my really old 40K stuff including a 1st Edition/Rogue Trader army list for the Space Wolves. Just for fun, I thought I'd post that army list and then have a look and see how many points it would be worth in 5th Edition.

So, here it is a 2000 point (well, 1999) Ragnar Blackmane list:

Ragnar Blackmane 175

Ulrik the Slayer 150

Njal Stormcaller 225

Wolf Guard Sergeant, 4 Wolf Guard, Terminator Armour, 2 Chain Fists, Power Sword, Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer 450

Grey Hunter Pack, 4 Chainswords 303

Blood Claw Pack, 4 Power Fists, 3 Power Swords, Power Axe, Plasma Pistol 345

Long Fang Pack, Power Axe, Upgrade Heavy Bolter to Lascannon 351

A lot of the choices were based around what came with the models rather than actual effectiveness in the game. The game also wasn't so mech heavy as is it now even though Rhinos were only 25 points!

I've put in the points value for each squad, hopefully GW won't unleash their lawyers over 18 year old points values but I will happily remove if asked.

So, in 2010 we'd have:

Ragnar Blackmane

Ulrik the Slayer

Njal Stormcaller

5 Wolf Guard, Terminator Armour, 2 Chain Fists, 2 Power Fists, Assault Cannon

10 Grey Hunters, Power Sword

10 Blood Claws, Power Fist

5 Long Fangs, 2 Missile Launchers, Lascannon, Heavy Bolter, Power Weapon

Total 1315

The characters have all gone up in points but the squads have nearly halved plus they can get some free special weapons now. However, the Wolf Guard have lost their Heavy Flamer and the Blood Claws have lost a lot of close combat weapons. Plus, these days a Power Sword and a Power Axe are the same thing in the game.

Looking Good

As you may have seen from the pictures on this blog my painting backlog is very long indeed. This is due to a combination of lazyness and lack of skill. However, Master Darksol makes it all look so easy here. I think I might start with a slightly darker basecoat but otherwise that's how I want my Rune Priest to look.

Blood for the Blood God

I really need to get it into my head that while killing stuff is lots and lots of fun, it doesn't really mean anything if after everyone's dead you're still not on the objective. Okay, so statistically last night's game shouldn't have ended at the end of Turn 5. However, statistically, I should have been able to take Lysander's last two wounds in combat instead of shooting him. I made a very poor tactical choice. Looking at it in the cold light of day, I should have charged so that my Wolf Scouts were in base to base so that he could only attack them and then position Ragnar, my Wolf Priest and Blood Claws so that they could all hit him back. Then, if by some miracle he survived he could only kill Elites and not my precious Troops. Plus I could have used Ragnar's Wolf Howl to give the Scouts Furious Charge as well. I'm going to have to write out 100 times, "remember the objective".

I also need to find a better way of dealing with Drop Pods. I tried to be too re-active by going 2nd and then castling up. At least this left Lysander and his squad a long way away from any of the objectives. In retrospect I should have gone first as this would have given me a turn shooting at the rest of Andy's army. I didn't as I was worried about the Drop Pods dropping in behind me and blowing up my vulnerable rear armour. As it was he just dropped into Melta range and blew up my two Predators anyway. Actually I was a bit surprised (and relieved) that he didn't drop next to my Land Raider. 5 BS4 Melta shots (4 from the Sternguard, 1 from the Ironclad) could have seriously ruined my day. I would have had to get out and kill Lysander and the Sternguard but this would have left me a long way from the objectives and I would have been on foot.

Speaking of Ragnar, he's a beast. I still think he's going to work better at 2000 points plus because he is very pricey but he, his squad and their Land Raider (all in all the best part of 800 points) took out a Librarian, 25 Tactical Marines, 5 Terminators, a Rhino, a Razorback and a Land Speeder Typhoon. They also immobilised another Land Speeder Typhoon and took Lysnader's 3rd wound with shooting. Phew, not bad for a day's work. And, to top it off there were still half of the squad left at the end of the battle. now that's the definition of a hammer unit.

One other very small mistake I made was in wound allocation. After being charged by the Terminators Ragnar killed four but the Sergeant with the Power Sword survived to strike back at the squad. Obviously the squad finished him off but he scored one wound back. I took this against a Blood Claw which meant that he died. However I should have taken it against the Wolf Priest as not only does he have an invulnerable save but he has 2 wounds so he would have survived anyway. So, that's yet another lesson learned.

Looking at Andy's tactics, his Drop Pod assault was brutal. Backed up with his Terminators' Cyclone Missile Launcher and Land Speeder Typhoons, it meant that by the end of his turn 2 I'd lost 2 Predators, 5 Grey Hunters, a Dreadnought, a Razorback and had another Razorback immobilised. I was feeling a bit downhearted at that point. Then he made two crucial mistakes. He backed his Librarian and squad away from my Land Raider and he dropped his third Drop Pod too close to where that squad had moved to. This meant that I could multi-charge and take out all 16 men in one round of assault. He would perhaps have been better sacrificing the Librarian's squad to Ragnar and co. I didn't have space to drive around them so I would have had to either get out and assault which would have left me vulnerable to being shot up or I would have had to shoot them with the Raider which would have meant that I couldn't have moved as I would probably have needed all of the shots. The Librarian could even have left the squad leaving him alive for at least another turn. I think that this is the best way to deal with a hammer unit; feed them small units just to slow them down (as I did with Lysander). The Drop Pod Tactical squad would then probably have been better over by one of the central objectives; out of harm's way.

However the one thing he really got wrong was rolling a 2 at the end of Turn 5! Especially after being so good at rolling 3s all game!

Battle Report - 15/04/10 - Andy's perspective

In my typical style I was pondering lists all week and had a sudden crisis of faith in my Blood Angels list so I decided to swap back to a good old familiar Lysander list for Thursday’s game against Gav:

Lysander – 200
Librarian – 100
Null Zone, Machine Curse

Ironclad Dreadnought – 180
Heavy Flamer, Meltagun; Drop Pod
Sternguard – 250
(8) 3x Combi Melta; Drop Pod
Terminator Squad – 240
(5) Cyclone Missile Launcher, 2x Chain Fist

Tactical Squad A – 240
(10) Meltagun, Plasma Cannon, Power Fist; Drop Pod
Tactical Squad B – 215
(10) Flamer, Lascannon; Rhino
Tactical Squad C – 145
(5) Power Weapon; Razorback

Land Speeder Typhoon – 90
Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Speeder Typhoon – 90
Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher

Total – 1750

We rolled up Seize Ground with Spearhead Deployment, 4 objectives. Gav won the roll off and made me deploy and go first.

My “alpha strike” intentions played out as well as I had hoped, I targeted what I perceived to be his major threats (his two Predators) and took them both out first turn with my drop podding Ironclad and Sternguard. Shock and Awe tactics certainly looked to have gotten him demoralised but he should have taken heart in the fact that it took 4 crack missiles to immobilise his Lascannon Razorback and I missed his Land Raider with Machine Curse, these were the first indication that my luck was about to change.

Gav’s first turn started positively, he began whittling away at my Sternguard unit, blew up my Ironclad with a couple of well placed speeder melta shots and took out the Librarian’s Rhino with his Land Raider’s Multimelta. Sadly his Dreadnought’s charge into my Sternguard unit ended in clobbering time for Lysander and he saw it off in short order. Things were looking good but the Landraider was looming large on my left flank and with pretty much all of my melta power gone I was going to have a hard time dealing with it.

At the top of the second my Drop Podding Tactical Squad came in and I made a huge mistake in deploying them on the left flank to reinforce my librarian’s tactical squad, now sans Rhino. If I had just popped them on top of an objective on the right flank they may have been able to hold out … The squad’s meltagun did, however, pop the Assault Cannon Razorback and the Sternguard rolled amazingly well and polished off the squad inside in a flurry of AP3 bolter fire. The Librarian’s Squad backed away from the approaching Land Raider and again failed to hit with the Machine Curse, this wasn’t looking good.

Gav actually had very little left on the board that was actually mobile at this point, the Land Speeders continued to whittle away Lysander’s Sternguard but the real action was about to unfold on the left flank. The Land Raider rolled up 12” and out popped 14 Blood Claws, a Wolf Priest and Ragnar Blackmain. The resulting multi-assault wiped out 16 marines, two complete squads with wounds to spare. Special note should go to the brave Tactical Squad Sergeant with a Powerfist who did manage to retaliate with a wound of his own before dying to combat resolution wounds. A 6” consolidation move towards my lines was the last thing I needed but at least I would have a turn of shooting to try and make the unit more manageable.

The concentrated firepower of two Land Speeder Typhoons, a Razorback 5 Terminators and a combat squad did little to thin the horde of rabid Blood Claws closing on my lines so I thought throwing my Terminators into assault and denying them their furious charge would be a good idea. Sadly Ragnar was up to something like 11 attacks and his Frost blade made short work of the Terminator squad. Again my Sergeant did get to at least swing but the remaining Blood Claws finished him off in some style, leaving them free to continue their charge. If I had my time again I would have just move the terminators or, even better, a vehicle in the way to block their advance, slowing them and limiting the damage they could do in the next assault phase.

At this point the game was pretty much over, Lysander took another turn to finish off the Grey Hunter squad, who decided to leave their immobilised Razorback and try and get some shots on him. He then began the long slog back towards my board edge which was where the action was! Ragnar was busy running amuck in my back lines ably assisted by the Wolf Scouts who finally turned the map the right way up and came in on turn 4. together they wiped out a combat squad and their Razorback and immobilised and destroyed both weapons on the remaining Land Speeder. I was down to Lysander and 3 Drop Pods with only 2 working Stormbolters.

On turn 5 Lysander was moving to within charge range but Ragnar’s squad move to intercept him and took him down in a hail of bolt pistol fire, however this moved them out of range of any objectives. With my uncanny ability to roll low I pulled out a 2 which ended the game as a draw but frankly it had been a total blood bath and Ragnar had seen out the day with a fair proportion of his Blood Claws still standing so the wolves had done themselves proud, one for the sagas I reckon.

-

Looking back on the game I think I really hurt myself with a couple of bad targeting decisions, and the placement of my reserved Drop Pod was a complete brain-fart. Gav did well to recover from a devastating first turn but recover he did and in quite some style. A lot of the buzz on the forum warns against the hammer/point-sink unit but on the evidence today, Ragnar+Wolf Priest+Blood Claws+Land Raider = a lot of dead anything. I suppose that If I’d played against the unit differently, such as dropping the Ironclad to take it out first turn or if my Machine Curses had hit it might have been a different story, but there’s no denying that Land Raiders bearing any king of payload similar to that cannot just be ignored in favour of “playing the mission”, they are game changers.


-- Posting on the go.

Location:Clifton Blvd,Nottingham,United Kingdom

Clash Under Ash

Ragnar looked up at the sky, it was covered with ash following the volcanic eruption. Father Njal had told him that this was a good portent for the forthcoming battle, that the violence of the earth itself reflected the violence within the very heart of every Space Wolf.

We rolled up a Seize Ground mission with 4 objectives and Spearhead deployment. I won the roll off to go first but I passed it to Andy.

Ragnar's battlegroup rumbled onto the field of battle. Surveying the scene on his Land Raider's internal monitor he saw how small the arrayed enemy force was. Ha! He thought, the four power cells would soon be in Space Wolf hands. However, he knew that he has sent a squad of Wolf Scouts to operate behind enemy lines and he was sure that the enemy must have something up their sleeve.

Turn 1

With a roar, the two Drop Pods screamed through the atmosphere and landed right in the Space Wolf lines. Heading for the two Space Wolf Predators, they landed bang on target. The Sternguard and the Ironclad Dreadnought exited in good order and trained their Meltaguns on the battle tanks:

One Meltagun and four Combi-Melta shots later and the Predators had been destroyed. From the other side of the field a Land Speeder and the Terminator Squad's Cyclone Missile Launcher took aim at the Lascannon Razorback immobilising it. On the other flank, the other Land Speeder, a Lascannon and the Librarian with Machine Curse all took aim at the Land Raider but failed to do any damage.

The Space Wolves mechanised assault was in danger of being wiped out without having the chance to strike back. The Land Raider moved right towards the Librarian's Rhino and blew it up with its Multimelta. The Assault Cannon Razorback moved behind the trees to try and avoid the fate of its brother by hiding behind the trees.

End of turn 1:

Turn 2

The cloud of ash overhead parted and the third Drop Pod landed in the middle of the battlefield. The combat squad with the Librarian backed away from the Land Raider, while behind them the other combat squad fired their Lascannon at the Land Raider, destroying its Assault Cannons. The nearby Land Speeder also fired at the Raider but couldn't penetrate its thick armour. The second Land Speeder just about managed to draw a bead on the undamaged Razorback and while one missile crashed into the intervening trees the second blew the vehicle to pieces. As the squad inside emerged from the debris they were cut down to a man by the disciplined fire of the Sternguard.

On the Space Wolf left flank, the two Land Speeders moved round to douse the Sternguard with their Heavy Flamers but only managed to kill a couple. However, the real action was happening in the middle of the battlefield as Ragnar Blackmane and his squad charged out of their Land Raider:

Erik the Red, the Wolf Priest hacked down the Librarian while Ragnar himself cut down 5 Tactical Marines. Only the Marine Sergeant was left standing and even though he managed to kill a Blood Claw with his Power Fist he was cut down as he tried to flee.

End of Turn 2:

Turn 3:

Since the Sternguard couldn't get past the Land Speeders to get to the Razorback they decided to charge the Speeders instead. They struggled to hit the fast moving vehicles and only managed to blow the Heavy Flamer off one of them. Meanwhile everyone else in the army shot at Ragnar's squad. Even though a few casualties were caused, they held their ground, made Fearless by the Wolf Priest's Fang of Morkai. The Terminators, realising that something had to be done to prevent that squad claiming the objectives charged into hand to hand combat. However Ragnar was too fast and cut down four of the heavily armour behemoths before they knew what had hit them. The Sergeant was only saved by his Crux Terminatus and managed to strike down a Blood Claw with his Power Sword even as he was being ripped apart by the rest of the squad.

In the Space Wolves deployment zone, the Grey Hunters finally emerged from their immobilised Razorback. As the two Land Speeders provided covering fire they charged into the Sternguard and managed to kill the last of them. Lysander was not so easy to kill though and he crushed the skulls of two of the Fenrisians. The other three were resolute and the combat remained locked. On the Space Wolf right, the Land Raider downed a Land Speeder with its Multimelta and killed most of the Tactical squad using its Hurricane Bolters. Meanwhile Ragnar left his squad and swung his Frost Blade at the other Land Speeder. He managed to immobilise it and cut off its Typhoon Missile Launchers. Erik led the Blood Claws against the Razorback but only managed to blow the Heavy Bolters off.

End of Turn 3:

Turn 4:

The Blood Claws had been rampaging across the battlefield so the Razorback driver did the only thing he could think of to stop them - try to run them over. The Wolf Priest managed to shout at them just in time and they managed to jump out of the way. Meanwhile Lysander killed another Grey Hunter but took a wound himself. He was needed elsewhere, he could not afford to be stuck in this combat much longer.

The Wolf Scouts finally made an appearance and they managed to blow the Heavy Bolter off the already immobilised Land Speeder leaving it practically useless. The Land Raider finished off the last of the Tactical squad on the Space Wolf left with its Hurricane Bolters. In the centre the two Land Speeders sped to help Ragnar and managed to immobilise the Razorback. Ragnar, having re-joined his squad charged the vehicle and blew it apart. Lysnader finally killed the last of the Grey Hunters and stomped up the battlefield towards where the real action was.

End of Turn 4:

Turn 5:

With only Lysander left able to move, he charged into the Land Speeders and managed to destroy one with his Thunder Hammer. The Drop Pod in the centre of the field again fired its Storm Bolter into the Blood Claws but did no damage. The remaining five Tactical Marines knew that their time was up and chose to stand and fire their Bolters instead of charging. However, they failed to cause any wounds.

The Land Raider fired its Multimelta at the Drop Pod in the centre and managed to destroy its irritating Storm Bolter. The Land Speeder and the Razorback both fired at Lysander but failed to take another wound off him. Ragnar lead his squad into combat once more and due to his speed managed to kill all 5 Tactical Marines before the rest of his squad even had the chance to swing their Chainswords.

End of Turn 5:

Turn 6:

In forlorn hope Lysander ran towards the Space Wolves shouting eons old curses. The entire remaining Space Wolf battleline calmly moved to take up better firing positions and let rip with every weapon at their disposal. The Land Raider wounded him and then the Wolf Scouts did likewise. Ragnar raised his Bolt Pistol, an ancient heirloom that had belonged to his predecessor as Wolf Lord. He fired a single shot. Lysander tried to raise his mighty Storm Shield but he was a fraction too slow and he was dead before he hit the ground.

End of Turn 6:

Andy picked up the die and ended the game there. With neither of us having any units within 3" of the objective markers the game was a draw.

Ragnar looked down and saw that the power cells had burned themselves out. He let out a loud curse, he had failed in his mission. His only hope was that his saga would sing of the 14 foes he had personally slain in hand to hand combat and not of this stain upon his record. He knew that Ulf Ironheart, his companies Iron Priest, would be disappointed at not getting any of these precious power cells. Then Ragnar saw it, the mighty Thunder Hammer that the enemy's leader had carried. He bent down and picked it up. Surely Ulf would be more impressed with a gift such as this rather than a dull old power cell? Ragnar smiled and made his way back towards his Land Raider.

1750 Space Wolves

With Andy preparing for Open War, I've put together this list at 1750 points:

Ragnar Blackmane

Wolf Priest, Saga Of The Warrior Born

Dreadnought, Twin-Linked Autocannon, Twin-Linked Autocannon

6 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun

14 Blood Claws

5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Razorback, Twin-Linked Lascannon

5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Razorback, Twin-Linked Assault Cannon

2 Land Speeders, Heavy Flamer, Multimelta

Predator, Lascannon Sponsons

Predator, Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Land Raider Crusader, Multimelta, Extra Armour

Ragnar, the Wolf Priest and the Blood Claws go in the Land Raider and beat face with preferred enemy; it's as subtle as a sledgehammer. I think that it might be a bit too much eggs in one basket for me to run at a tourney - a Dark Eldar Lance spam list would ruin your day very quickly. Still, I think there will be quite a few Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminators running around in Land Raiders at Open War.

Marines Thursday 15th April

After much deliberation I reckon I'll try a Blood Angels spin on the Marine list I was going to take to Warp Storm 2.

HQ
Librarian - 100
Shield of Sanguinius, Unleash Rage

Elite
Furioso Dreadnought - 160
Blood Talons, Meltagun, Storm Bolter; Drop Pod
Sternguard - 195
(5) 4x Combi-Melta, Lightning Claw; Drop Pod
Sanguinary Priest - 65
Lightning Claw

Troops
Assault Squad A - 170
(5) Power Weapon; Razorback w. TL Assault Cannon
Assault Squad B - 170
(5) Power Weapon; Razorback w. TL Lascannon
Assault Squad - 455
(10) 2x Meltagun, Power Fist; Land Raider Redeemer w Extra Armour

Fast Attack
Land Speeder Tornado - 90
Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Speeder Tornado - 90
Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher

Heavy Support
Predator - 100
Autocannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Dreadnought - 155
2x Twin-Linked Autocannons; Drop Pod

Total 1750

With enough Bolters we could change the Galaxy

A couple of months ago I played against a very good player from our club, Gav, and his Tyranids. I got a bit downhearted with my inability to wound hit Trygon with my Twin-Linked Assault can and in the end stopped shooting it. However, this meant that is pretty much rampaged through my lines. I figured that I had a better chance of wounding some Tyranid Warriors and hence taking out a scoring unit. That didn't quite work either as the Trygon ripped the Razorback to pieces. In retrospect I should have kept shooting the Trygon and I should have consoled myself with how difficult it would be to take it down with bolters. Although you could still kill it with Bolters...

P(Wound Trygon) = P(Hit) x P(Wound) x P(Fail Save
= 2/3 x 1/6 x 1/3
= 1/27

So I'd only need 27 shots on average to take a wound off. So that's 162 shots to kill it. Hey, that's only 81 guys if they're rapid firing. Ah well, could be worse, could be using Imperial Guard.

New contributor

Gav has foolishly given me permission to add my own content to this Blog so I guess I should start with a little introduction.

I'm Andy and I play vanilla Space Marines and Orks. Currently I have a collection of yellow Marines of a custom Chapter I like to call the Sons of Terra. I had written some background for them but it was mostly done to justify a list containing 6 Dreadnoughts which I thought would be cool at the time; however, I've gone off the idea since. At the moment you'll usually find Pedro and some Sternguard in my lists along with at least two Land Speeder Typhoons, they're my staple choices.

As far as the Orks go I've got a little less than 1500pts worth at the moment and am slowly painting them up, it's quite a struggle, for the bulk of the boyz I have used a white undercoat and used washes to get the skin the way I like it, I then have to go back and paint up the rest of the model! On the Elite and more characterful units I've started with a black undercoat and am building up the colours in the traditional way. With 60 boyz and 40ish other models it's going to be a long slog.

I play Gav on a regular basis and have build up a healthy dislike of Space Wolves in the process, basically every time I face off against them over the table I prepare some cheese and crackers to go with my whine. But all us non-Wolf players know the codex is basically broken, we just don't like to go on about it.

As well as playing Gav I like to enter tournaments. Not because I'm some uber, hardcore win-at-all-costs type of player, I just like to cram as many games as possible into a day. This month I'm playing in Warp Storm 2 at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield and at Open War 13 run by 1st Company Veterans at Warhammer World in Nottingham. I'll be doing my best to take pics and notes so I can write up some reports right here so stay tuned for more in the near future!

Tank Commander

When I was young, tank commander was the game you played by sticking your top half outside of the sunroof of a moving car. I stopped playing after my friend's girlfriend nearly killed me when she braked suddenly for a rabbit. Anyway, I decided that my new Land Raider deserved a tank commander and so I came up with this:

Yes, he's one of those classic, 'drive me over there so I can hit them with my sword' guys!

The Curse of the New

Why is it that you spend your hard earned cash on a model, spend good time putting it together, spend more time painting it (or in my case 5 minutes undercoating it) that when you finally get it onto the battlefield it fails completely? Vindicator that I thought would be a threat to anyone coming out of a Drop Pod killed about four men before it was blown up. My Land Speeder missed with a Multimelta shot and then was downed next turn. My Wolf Priest had his Rhino blown up and only made it into combat in around the 5th turn. My Rune Priest on a bike couldn't hit a barn door with either his psychic attacks or in combat (and while the others have got better, he still can't).

I think that the issue is two-fold. Firstly some of it is just bad luck. However, that's mitigated by the fact you don't really know the unit. In my mind the Vindi would take on all comers and survive by virtue of its AV13. Of course it only took a few good cover saves and one Meltagun hit to prove me wrong. Now when I use it, I'm not quite so blase about driving it forward and firing at whoever I can. I use it more as an area-denial tool and I use that S10 balst on things that need S10 and don't ahve cover saves. I admit I'm still getting used to using my 2 Speeders but I'm slowly getting better.

So what does this mean? Well, I'm planning on using my new Land Raider Crusader next Thursday. It's going to be full of Ragnar Blackmane and some Blood Claws and in my head I just need to drive it down the line of least resistance killing anything that gets in the way. I doubt it will be that easy and it will take me a couple of games to learn the finesse required to use the unit properly. I'll be really gutted when it doesn't work first time but as long as I learn from my mistakes, I'll be happy.

Beachhead

This is inspired by a mission our friend Graham invented with a couple of minor changes.

Objectives

You've made planetfall but you now need to establish a beachhead so that other troops can be brought to bear against the enemy.

Army Selection

One player is designated the attacker and one the defender. Both select an army of equal points value using the standard FOC.

Deployment

Both players roll a D6 and whoever rolls higher selects either of the short board edges as theirs. The defending player deploys first and may place units anywhere within their half of the table. They may place units into reserve as normal.

The attacking player deploys their units within 12" of their board edge and may also place any units into reserve.

Reserves

Any units placed in reserve are rolled for as per the rules on page 94 of the Warhammer 40,000 main rule book.

First Turn

The attacking player rolls a D6. On a roll of 2+ the attacking player goes first. On a roll of 1, the defending player has stolen the initiative.

Game Length

The game lasts five turns.

Victory Conditions

The attacking player gets 2 points for each infantry squad (including jump infantry) that ends the game in the defending player's half of the table and is above half strength. They get 1 point for any squad that is below half starting strength and in the defending player's half.

The defending player gets 1 point for each enemy infantry squad that finishes the game outside of their half of the table. They also get 1 point for each infantry squad reduced to less than half of its starting strength. (NB this means that the defending player gets 2 points is a squad is completely wiped out. Attacking units that fall back off the table are considered to be wiped out)

In addition both sides get 2 points for each enemy HQ they kill as they attempt to destabilise their enemy by killing their leader.

Special Rules

Atmospheric interference - Due to the overhead conditions, attacking units that wish to enter play by deep strike may only deep strike into their deployment zone. However it is fine if they scatter into no-mans land. Units that use tunnels to deep strike such as the Trygon are unaffected by this rule.

Return of the Heroes

Those of us who remember the 2nd edition Space Wolf codex fondly remember the special characters that were contained within. Well Big Jim over at Galaxy in Flames has created some rules for three of these almost mythical heroes. While they're not quite the herohammer legends of yore, they do seem to be much better balanced for 5th edition. So, without further ado we have:

Kyrl Grimblood

Durfast Of Mordak

Wolf Guard Ranulf

Death From Above

No game this week but still a new army list. Since I've finally managed to put together my first drop pod, here is my drop pod assault force:

Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Frost Blade, Wolf Tooth Neckalce, Melta Bombs

7 Wolf Guard, Drop Pod
inc 1 with Power Fist
1 with Power Weapon
1 with Wolf Claw
1 with Combi-Melta
1 with Storm Bolter

Dreadnought, Multi-melta, Drop Pod

Dreadnought, Assault Cannon, Drop Pod

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Meltaguns, Power Weapon, Drop Pod

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Meltaguns, Power Weapon, Drop Pod

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Meltaguns, Power Weapon, Drop Pod

2 Land Speeders, Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer

2 Land Speeders, Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer

Total 1499

Drop the two Dreads and a squad of Grey Hunters first to take care of any big armour. If the enemy reserves everything I'd be tempted to still drop the Dreads in their deployment zone but I'd drop the Grey Hunters in midfield. Of course there is always the option to drop empty pods. The Land Speeders can either start on the table or can deep strike in as required.

Assault Cannons

I love assualt cannons. Always have. From my first exposure to Citadel Miniatures with Space Crusade when you were allowed to take them on your power armoured marines, they have always been on of my favourite weapons. Plus, I'm not quite sure why, but they've always seemed "wolfy". I got a box of Wolf Guard Terminators for Christmas many moons ago and I still love the guy with the Assault Cannon. Now, there is a rumour going around t'internet that the assault cannon is better at penetrating AV14 than a Lascannon. Let's look at the maths...

Lascannon

P(Penetration) = P(Hit) x P(Pen) x Number of shots
= 2/3 x 1/6 x 1
= 1/9
= 3/27

Assault Cannon

P(Penetration) = P(Hit) x P(Rend) x P(Pen) x Number of shots
= 2/3 x 1/6 x x 1/3 x 4
= 4/27

So, it looks like an assault cannon is better. However, as they say, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. One of the few things I remember from stats at university is they are meaningless without some sort of context. Now, the Lascannon has one big adavantage - range. 48" will let you reach out and touch that enemy vehicle with little reprisal. If you've got a vehicle mounted one, you've even got an effective range of 54". The Assault Cannon has a listed range of just 24" but since every platform you can mount it on (namely Razorback, Terminator or Land Speeder) can move and fire it becomes an effective range of 30".

Now, the main issue is that neither of these guns are that good at reliably taking out AV14. However, Lascannons are brilliant at taking out AV11 and AV12 (ie most transports in the game) and Assault Cannons are brilliant at taking out infantry (and so-so at taking out those other transports). I take twin-linked versions of both weapons in my army and I try and remember what their main targets are. Only shoot at AV14 if there are no other targets available or if you're having a day where your dice are really hot.

Deathwatch

So, after playing Andy at the Kill Team mission from the Battle Missions book the other week, I had the idea to put together a Deathwatch Kill Team. For those who don't know, these guys are chosen from different Space Marine Chapters to join the Ordo Xenos - a chamber of the inquisition specialising in killing aliens. The Deathwatch were originally set up to find better ways to kill Tyranids and with that in mind they had specially modified bolters that could fire different types of ammunition. Hmm, different types of bolter ammunition? Who could we use to represent them? Aha! The Sternguard; perfect. So, here it is, 200 points of alien killing goodness:

7 Sternguard Vets
inc 2 with combi-meltas
and Lighning Claw on the Sergeant
200 exactly. Combi-meltas are in case anyone brings any dreads or vehicles, although these may get swapped out for combi-flamers

Easter Egg

Now, I got this when the 5th Edition Space Marine Codex came out but I've only just got round to putting it together:

The reason for this is that I think if you're going to run a drop pod army you have to go all or nothing, having just one or two just won't cut it. I've still only got this one but since I've got a four day weekend I thought I'd assemble it anyway. The front door has one of the Forge World Space Wolf icons on it and the other doors just have the regular Space Wolf icons from the drop pod kit:

Now I've loved the idea of a Space Wolf drop pod assault since reading Bill King's story about Ragnar podding into a Tyranid force that was printed in White Dwarf (and re-printed in the 2nd Edition Space Wolf Codex). One day I'll put together an army but it might have to wait until I've mastered my MSU list and put together a cavalry list.

Too much of a good thing

3 Predators don't half give you a lot of firepower. Thing is, with 3 Razorbacks and two Rhinos in my army as well, I find that I'm getting in my own way too much and cutting down firing lanes. So, let's lose a Pred. Now what can we get for 85 points?

Option 1 - Whirlwind (85 points)

I've never used on before but I've seen Andy killing quite a lot of things with those big templates. It keeps the army fully mech and can fire without line of sight. However, to fire indirectly it has to remain stationary which leaves it a sitting duck in combat. It's also a bit fragile only having the same AV as a Rhino - 11. I worry that it would suffer the same problems as a Vindicator in that a single weapon destroyed result leaves it almost useless.

Option 2 - Lone Wolf, Teminator Armour, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield (85 points)

I love this guy - great model, fluffy, eternal warrior, feel no pain. If I could make any of his 2+ normal saves he'd be in every list. I have used him before and in some games he has been awesome and in others he's struggled to get into combat. Plus with only two attacks he's very easily tarpitted.

Option 3 - 5 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun (85 points)

I have used a unit a six Wolf Scouts quite a bit in the past and they are without a doubt Andy's favourite unit lol. They were given last week off after they attacked a land speeder the week before and ran off when it exploded and killed two of them. Five guys with only 4+ saves sounds like quite a fragile unit. However, as a suicide disruption squad operating Behind Enemy Lines they work really well. If they can detroy a tank or hold up a unit for a couple of turns then they have done their job. Plus against armies that don't really have a backfield such as tyranids or horde Orks you can always just infiltrate them as a spped bump. Or you can bring them onto your own edge if your need anywhere reinforcing.

So, it feels like a choice between the Scouts and the Lone Wolf. I think I might go with the Scouts for the next couple of games and see how they go. Although I'm still tempted by the Blood Angel 6 Pred army...

Last Stand

After trying out one of the new missions from the Battle Missions book last week, I was inspired to write one of my own. This is based on an old WFB battle report that was in White Dwarf 268...

Objectives

The planet has been overrun and the ememy have harried you from your last bastion to this throne-foresaken place. You are doomed, it is only a matter of time before you are wiped out completely. Your only hope is that you can take out as many of the enemy as you can before you are destroyed.

Army Selection

The defending force selects a 1000 point army using the standard FOC. The attacking force selects a 2000 point army also using the standard FOC.

Deployment

The defending player sets up his army within 6" of the centre line of the table (the centre line being defined as a line equidistant from the two short board edges). The defending player may not put any units into reserve.

The attacking player splits his force into two parts. One part is placed within 6" of one of the short board edges. The second part may either be placed within 6" of the other short board egde or may be placed in reserve.

Reserves

Any units placed in reserve are rolled for as per the rules on page 94 of the Warhammer 40,000 main rule book.

First Turn

The defending player rolls a D6. On a roll of 2+, the defending player goes first. On a roll of a 1 the attacking player has stolen the initiative.

Game Length

The game lasts until the defending player is wiped out.

Victory Conditions

This game uses victory points as described on page 300 of the Warhammer 40,000 main rule book.

If the attacking player wins by at least 200 VPs, they win the game. If the defending player wins by at least 100 VPs, they win the game. Any other result is a draw.

Special Rules

Nowhere to run to - All defending units have the fearless special rule.

Surrounded - Attacking units that enter from reserve may enter play from either short board edge. They may not enter play from the long board edge even if they have a special rule that would normally allow it (eg Space Wolf Scouts' Behind Enemy Lines rule).

What a Fool

The Space Marine Rhino is a brilliant bit of kit - it's a mobile bunker that's pretty surviable under the 5th edition rules and for the low, low price of 35 points it's an amazing force multiplier. However, there is one rule about the Rhino that I always, always forget - the repair rule. So, in lieu of shooting you can attempt to repair an immobilised Rhino, succeeding on a '6'. I forgot this rule yet again last night, although it wouldn't have had any impact on the actual outcome of the game. However, it's good to get in the habit of using this rule so that you remember it for when you need it for that last turn objective grab/tank shock or even just to keep it alive in case you get another immobilised/weapon destroyed in a kill point game.

What I'm going to start doing in future is make some notes in the stressfree quiet before the game starts of things I might forget once battle is joined. So I always forget Rhino repair, Andy always forgets to fire his storm bolters on his drop-pods. These might not make huge differences but in a close run game you never know.