Tuesday 9 November 2010

There is no such thing as right or wrong there is either fun or boring!

So starter for ten - that was the tag line to which 90's movie?

While you mull that one over I should probably write something at least slightly hobby related so let me bring something up that is close to my heart and rarely mentioned on here ;-) List building.

When you are building a list there are a lot of variables you have to consider but I think the main one has to be how competitive are you going to be. Are you going to go with those choices that you just can't not take out of your codex or are you going to go for the units you find fluffy and fun?

I hope that when I build a list I come to have a healthy balance. As a long term tournament player said to me before I headed to Open War 'No matter what people say getting tabled 3 times in a day isn't an enjoyable affair.' and of course he is totally right. So where to start with list building.

With the Wolves of Russ there is only one place to start. Your troops. For me the Grey Hunters are the best point for point troop choice is in the game. The combinations and options available seem endless. Their shooting is good, they are excellent in combat and you can always boost their leadership by chucking in a Wolf Guard later on. They also have the option of taking what I see as the best and most underutilised piece of wargear in the game, the Wolf Standard. 10 points to reroll any 1 in an assault phase. 1 more kill and its made its point, 1 armour save re rolled and its made its points. However I digress, I could wax lyrical on the joys of the wolf standard forever I think but back to the blog in hand.

A difficult decision is how many troops choices to take. Greymage a respected poster from the Fang area on Bolter and Chainsword once gave me a piece of sterling advice for this conundrum. One squad of Grey Hunters for every 500 points and I have to say I stick to it pretty religously. We are also left with the issue of how many to go for? I know a lot favour 5 or 6 in a Razorback but I always try and go with 10 in a rhino. Why? I love the raw hitting power of them. Chuck in a MOTW and you have a minimum of 30 attacks on the charge.

So its from here where I concentrate on what I like using which brings me to thunderwolves. I know a lot of people don't like the fluff on Thunderwolves they think the idea of Giant Space Soldiers riding on Alien (or maybe not) wolves is a ridiculous concept. I however love it. Ever since I picked up the codex I wanted some. My first attempts at making them were as Giant Wulfen made from Skaven Rat Ogres with Goblin Wolf Rider heads. These were then demoted when I finally got my hands on some of the Mythicast models which I still believe are the best suited to the job. A wolf lord with 4 wolves is a given for me. They rarely come against anything they can't eat.

I also enjoy using Rune Priests. They have a great range of powers (although I will admit to never trying some of them. The two spirit wolves for example just seems pointless.) So that leaves my HQ sorted.

So its back to making it a competetive list (although of course a Thunderlord and a Rune Priest is hardly something to be sniffed at) which leads me to long fangs. Honestly how good are these units? The cost, the options, the split fire. A truly fantastic choice in any army. So good in fact I take two. Love them and the look when an unsuspecting oponent (sadly not as frequent as they used to be) say's 'You can split your fire'

I'd be interested to know your reasoning on list composition. Please comment on what you have read.

3 comments:

  1. I think the hardest thing is deciding how you want your list to play. I went through several unfocused iterations of my Wolves list before I came to the standoffish Razorback list I have now.

    It's also a problem I'm having with DE. In isolation every unit looks good but the key thing will coming up with a list that works as a whole.

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  2. As you know from my blog I tend to build a list around special characters. I still use grey hunters in rhinos though.

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  3. I've been really enjoying your Special Character reviews over on From the Fang. Any chance of sample army lists for each one?

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