Double Trouble

Doubles tonight, myself and Michael, a fellow Space Wolves player verses Andy's Blood Angels and Graham's Squats, 1000 points each. Since I've never met Michael and I'm not sure what type of list he'll bring, I'm going to put together a balanced army and see how we get on. In fact, I've decided that the best bet would be if I cut down my regular 1750 list:

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

Living Lightning should hopefully be able to stun-lock any Airships that Graham brings and the Runic Weapon should make it more difficult for Andy to get off any psychic powers from his Librarian (Surely he'll take one in a 1000 point list?)

5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Rhino

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

5 Grey Hunters, Razorback, Twin-Linked Lascannons

The MSU heart and soul of all of my armies. Long range firepower and objective sitting, what more could a table-top general ask for?

Land Speeder, Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer

Land Speeder, Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer

Tankbusting, infantry burning, charge blocking, fast and can fly.

6 Longs Fangs, 5 Rocket Launchers

So, normally I take two squads with a Lascannon in each but due to points I've gone with just the one and the duality of the Rocket Launcher. Hopefully I can find then a decent vantage point this week unlike last week.

6 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun

Lone Wolf, Terminator Armour, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield

The fun, fluffy bit of the list. The Scouts go behind enemy lines and take out any heavy weapons teams and the Lone Wolf stands around in midfield and smashes anyone stupid enough to get close to him.

Not a bad little list for a 1000 points. I'm really looking forward to this evening as it's been ages since we played any doubles...

Dwarves in Spaaaaaaace

Playing Graham's Squats tonight. It's based on the Imperial Guard Codex with a few changes. Since, he's essentially playtesting I'm going for a balanced list:

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

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

Lone Wolf, Terminator Armour, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield

5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Rhino

5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Rhino

5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Razorback

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

5 Grey Hunters, Razorback, Twin-Linked Lascannons

Land Speeder, Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta

Land Speeder Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta

10 Fenrisian Wolves

6 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers, Lascannon

6 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers, Lascannon

I was slightly tempted to go with 4 Rune Priests all with Jaws of the World Wolf because the Squats all have low Initiative but I thought that wouldn't really be fair.

It's hip to be square

So, the new WFB Rule Book is out and I have to admit that in my weaker moments I am slightly tempted. I keep hearing that it's more tactical since you can't just move guys where you want but you have to pre-plan to set up charges etc. Hmm, I always like a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, it sounds like the boxed set will be High Elves and Skaven; armies I have no interest in so my square-curious side will have to remain just that.

Although, as a side note, since I intend to enter Open War in October, I should be spending the next 4 months practising at 40K...

Speed Bump

All of the Tau and Inperial Guard tactia online talk about the concept of bubblewrap. That is cheap, expendable units that stop your big guns getting assualted. So, for Tau it's Kroot and for the Guard, it's the humble Guardsman. Now it just so happens that the Space Wolves have a unit that would be perfect for this role - Fenrisian Wolves. Perfect for stopping your Long Fangs from being assaulted. Okay, they're quite easy to kill but if you're enemy are killing them then they're not killing the rest of your army. Plus, they're quick. If you're playing against a gunline you can send them off to tie up an enemy unit while you get the rest of your army into position. I'm not saying that they are the be-all and end-all in the Codex but they certainly have their uses and I'm going to give them a playtest over the next couple of weeks to see how well my Theoryhammer translates to the tabletop.

Oh, and they're awesome in Kill Team where there is enough cover for their 6+ save to not be too detrimental. Although they still aren't the most killy unit in the world.

The mustering of Waaggh! Mutt-Masha

It's been a productive weekend, all the Nob Bikers are built including a warboss on a bike, I converted a Big Mek with a Kustom Forcefield and built three Killa Kanz I even managed to make some progress on the painting, 5 boyz down ... 85 to go! I have two Battle Wagons on order frm Maelstrom Games in Mansfield. Once those are built the 1750pt army will be complete, bar the not inconsiderable task of paining it!

Here's some piccies:

Da Boss and his Boyz



Big Mek and a Killa Kan



The last of the Bikers, the Warboss and a PK Nob with a Waagh Banner



And, just so you don't think I've abandoned the Marines, here's the beginnings of a jump pack equiped Assault Squad:

Spearhead? No, it's just my ears

I've been away with work for a few days so it's time to get back to blogging. Before I went away, I picked up a copy of the latest White Dwarf with the Spearhead rules in it. Printing new rules in White Dwarf is always good but I'm not really sure what GW is trying to achieve with Spearhead. It's clearly the missing link between "normal" 40K and Apocalypse. The thing is, especially with the release of Battle Missions I think most people are happy with "normal" 40K. With the advent of 5th edition a lot of people (me included) have meched up anyway. Plus to get the most out of Spearhead, you're going to be playing at higher points levels (I'd say 2000+) which we don't seem to quite have time for at our club. I think that, like Apocalypse, it might get brought out occasionally but personally, I can't see it being a regular occurrence.

Having said that there are two very good things to come out of Spearhead:

a) The new Fire Prism model. It's pretty and it doesn't lean to one side anymore

b) The mission with the 3 point objective vs the 3 1 point objectives. I'd like to try that using one of the 3 regular deployments.

3 out of 1: Painboy

I was on baby-sittig duty last night while my wife went out for a pampering. So as the little chap was in a good mood and kicking away happily on his play-mat I broke out the Orks. I had a clear plan in mind to finish off my Nob Biker Squad, I already had 5 bikers built so I just needed to make a few minor tweaks to them to get them WYSIWYG then I set about building my Pain Boy.

I had the metal model so first I had to separate his legs from his torso ... not an easy job! I didn't want to loose any important detail from the top half of the model which included a cable going from his syringe to his back-pack vis his left butt cheek. I wanted to preserve the legs for my Big Mek conversion so it took a great deal of patience and a mixture of scalple and razor saw to perfectly separare the halves. In the end I got the result I wanted and I only needed to use a small amount of putty to tidy the joins on both the Pain Boy Biker and the Big Mek.





The Big Mek Model also uses a burner backpack and weapon, the pic below is still a WIP but I plan to add something similar to the ariels on the GW model to both the backpack and the end of the weapon. More pics as I progess with this.



Finally I had a the Buzz Saw arm of the Painboy left over s I wanted to give him a biker arm in it's place. With a little bit of trimming I think it makes a perfect alternative to a Powerclaw, what do you think?