Midfield General

I've been reading the chess column in the guardian (yes, I'm a pinko liberal lefty) for the last few weeks. Now, I know that chess is pretty different to Warhammer 40,000 - you have to take a maximum of the basic troop type, your opponent always plays the same list as you, you can only take two Thunderwolves (I think they're called Knights - ed) and you can't reserve any of your army. However, there is one important lesson we can learn - midfield control. For some armies, such as Imperial Guard, this isn't such a big deal, as they can sit in their deployment zone and shoot you to death from distance. However, for Marines, with their golden range of 12-24" you need to get into midfield to make your army work. Not only that, but if you're playing against Marines, you need to make sure they don't get into midfield.

With my Space Wolves, I use my Long Fangs and Living Lightning Rune Priests to strike at distance so that I can get my Razorbacks full of Grey Hunters into range. Then, much like chess, once you're in midfield, the endgame begins. Once I'm in that golden range, out come the Meltaguns, the Plasma Guns, Bolters, Jaws of the World Wolf and Murderous Hurricane. I can sit on any midfield objectives or push into the enemies deployment zone.

So, how do you stop this midfield push? It depends what sort of army you play but I would be tempted to place objectives in my opponent's deployment zone to keep them on the back foot while I can still move forward. Of course this is one of the best things about playing Space Wolves as you can play them as an army that shoots you as you cross the board and then use Counter Attack when you charge or can play more in your face. Hmm, maybe Andy is right, maybe they are broken.