Sunday 10 April 2011

The last ride of the thunderwolves

So I said after the GT that this weekend was the last time I would be using a near 600 point unit in my thunderwolves and the standings proved again why.

First game was against Paul who I happened to play 2 weeks ago in a warm up game, it was always going to be difficult having Dawn of War (or a variant of it) first turn so I couldn't bare my long fangs on his paper thin transports early on and obviously they had to walk on to the table. He had a wyche heavy army and in the end my thunderwolves were just used as a tar pit for them. It all came down to turn three when I gambled and it didn't pay off, my grey hunters were largely untouched but a bad round of shooting and an amazing amount of flicker field saves meant that I had too much fire power shooting at me. Because Paul wanted the climatic ending rather than the slow attrition of shooting me to death and it cost him leaving me with a scabby draw.

Second game was against a blood angels player and this game highlighted why I enjoy using my thunderwolves, he only had two vehicles, the rest were jump troops other than one squad of tactical marines and I just ate him. My long fangs and living lightening quickly dealt with the vehicles and it became just a quick issue of eating what was left. It was a nasty victory because it was an army that mine was designed to deal with. It did still highlight the problems with it which were compounded in the third game.

I had seen the army I faced a couple of times at Warhammer world and thought it looked rubbish. Loads of dakka not a lot of high strength. A nilla marines army with three melta dreads, 9 speeders, 3 dakka preds and a couple of troop choices. I don't know if I have ever been more soundly thrashed, there was just too much to deal with. I didn't have anything that could consistently pop the transports once he had dealt with my long fangs. I ignored the dakka speeders to my peril concentrating on the harder targets which was a mistake and in the end he tabled me early on.

So the thunderwolves had a mixed day as always and consigned them self to the shelf.

It was a great tournament, its really good now that I've been to a few events knowing people and being able to have a chat about where the hobby is going and what I should be doing different.

Maelstrom in my opinion is a far better venue than Warhammer World so i was delighted to see Open War move there, better and cheaper beer, better and more food and now I'm a little bit more used to the scenery and how much there was better scenery.

Next tournament for me is warp storm followed by open war doubles but before that its some more long fangs and some speeders.

So its adios to my thunderwolves, you have served me well and gave me some great moments, especially blowing up Grazer's thrice blessed land raider which will shrug off anything that's thrown at it and you will be allowed out for Apocalypse but you won't be gracing the tournament scene for a while still.

11 comments:

  1. Not coming to Blog Wars then?

    I've just started using TWC and I can already see the problems with them. However, I still enjoy using them and I love the models I have. They're a massive points sink though and I think termies are more dependable.

    Very interested by the Open War Doubles, was gutted not to be able to make it to Open War XV. Gonna try and get tickets for Warp Storm too so might see you there.

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  2. Hello mate, good to hear you had an enjoyable at the tournament yesterday. I was really miffed I couldn't make it!

    Anyway, I'm very happy to hear that you're ditching the one unit I'm absolutely terrified of. I never had a way of coping with it - even with my lucky Land Raider!

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  3. Thanks for the review of the thunderwolves performance. I'm a bit concerned as I've heard similar comments, and I'm just about to assemble my own thunderwolves.

    How about going in between and using about 300 pts of thunderwolves ? They can still do some of the things you liked without being so much of a points sink. They'd be relegated to more of a counter assault threat but could still be fun and useful.

    With your greater experience of using thunderwolves what do you think of the following unit (designed to either use cover or advancing behind rhinos to get a cover save):

    5 Thunderwolves - 285 pts
    Powerfist
    Bolter
    Meltabombs
    Bolter & Meltabombs
    Standard

    Rathstar

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  4. Glad to see that you're coming round to my way of thinking.

    http://touchedbygreatness.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-still-dont-like-thunderwolves.html

    I simply haven't been impressed with them in my games or in the tourney games I've seen over the past few months and they've been eliminated from my lists over time.

    I'm thinking that a solo guy with Wolf Claw or TH/SS has potential but at the end of the day I'd rather have more Long
    Fangs or Grey Hunters. I did try a Lone Wolf on his tod for support and they do alright, although they suffer from being on foot even if they're tougher than a TWC.

    The thing is I've had a gauntlet thrown down and I have to wheel out the TWC for one more weekend before they go into their nice boxes on the shelf. I'm not expecting much out of them though, as you, I and many others can attest to.

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  5. they can but thats a unit that will be at risk from running off the board with a min of wounds caused on it and has no invulnerable save, any wounds from vindi's ect. It also negates what I think is the best thing that Thunderwolves do, act as mobile smoke for your vehicles.

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  6. 3 TWC, 3 Storm Shields, 1 Powerfist, 1 meltabomb, 270 points.

    I will be running two of these in 2000 and 2500 for ard boyz, and two stripped down versions with 3 TWC, 1 powerfist and shield, one shield and one bare at 235 points for my half of a 2000 point team tournament.

    There is not reason to take more than 3. For 600 points you should have two squads. If I really wanted to for Ard Boyz I could take 3 of the above unit, but that would cut into grey hunters, long fangs, and rune priests.

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  7. If the thunderwolves are being cover for the rhinos won't they slow the rhinos dowm (unless the get a 6 for their run move) ?

    Why would my suggested unit be so fragile ? It has 5 models so 2 have to die to force a morale check (which could take up to 7 unsaved wounds to get 2 casualties). It should have a 4+ cover save from shooting. The only way to improve the resiliance from shooting would be start adding storm shields, but when you do that the cost of the unit zooms up, eg. the unit bryce963 suggests has 2 less models and is only 15 points cheaper.

    Not having storm shields does making attacking some units dangerous, particularly dreadnaughts and anybody with str 10 attacks. However even with the unit being weaker than a deathstar it I'm hoping it will be a good compromise on how to use thunderwolves without spending 600 pts on 5 or 6 models.

    I suppose to help against str 10 threats I could swap the bolter & meltabombs guy for a storm shield equipped thunderwolf, which would make the unit 310 pts.

    Rathstar

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  8. Michael Simpson11 April 2011 at 07:17

    You have to remember that we don't play those sort of sized games in Britain.

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  9. Michael Simpson11 April 2011 at 07:24

    Two thunderwolves isn't a lot when you are talking about missile spam, razorback spam and leaf blower guard lists and we all know that ld 8 is dicey. I think bryce is right, if you're going to run them you need mulitple units or maybe just single models, I defo think one or two thunderlords are a good buy in a list and I've seen them run well but to be competitive you can't rely on death stars because they aren't reliable enough

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  10. Then where is he getting the 600 points to spend on an ineffective thunderwolf squad?
    The two I am advocating are only either 470, or 540.

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  11. thats the point, they are ineffective in smaller points game. At ardboyz with a much bigger points level you could use them

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