Tales of an AWOL Gamer

So, it's been a while! I guess I ought to explain my absence from both the blog and the WHW gaming hall. My girlfriend's dad has been ill, and we've been spending time with him in Bristol while we could; unfortunately he died a couple of weeks ago, which meant more time away. Couple to that more working trips to Aberdeen and some forthcoming gigs (both on a Thursday) and it all means my opportunities for gaming have been limited, to say the least! Since I've not been able to play at WHW or post here on the world's premier blog-site, I've had to content myself with planning some new armies, and tinkering with my existing forces too. Firstly, my Chaos Marines - this is a working army, so only needed a small modification. I've bought more fantasy Ogres, for conversion into Obliterators, meaning I should soon be able to field three units of three if I fancy it!
Next, my Squats. Believe it or not, they are nearly finished! Problem is, you're never gonna see 'em - at WHW or any GW store, at least. Our gaming club is having a crack-down on non-GW models, which renders every single tank in my army redundant. So, I'm building my own sci-fi hanger-themed wargames table for some home battles, and I'm intending to start playing at Maelstrom on Tuesdays and/or weekends too in order to get some use out of my new army.
Next, I'm putting together a cheap'n'cheerful Heresy-Era World Eaters army. The design criteria here is that this 1,500pt force must be compact enough to fit in a single A4 box-file in order to fit in my suitcase ready to travel to Aberdeen with me! During my last trip north-of-the-border, I played two games at GW Aberdeen, and I must say what a friendly and welcoming bunch they are. These away-games have transformed rather dull work-trips into something a bit more satrisfying. The composition of this army isn't decided yet, but will be based around some vintage Space Marine Scouts (from the early-90's 'Tyranid Attack' game), plus a load of second-hand Space Marines and Rhinos won off ebay this weekend. The army will be a 'counts-as' Blood Angels list, using Berzerkers instead of Death Company and Kharn replacing Astorath.
My other ideas include dragon-riding Exodite Eldar and an Epic Space Marine force. I will of course chart my progress on this blog!

A rethink on the role of Long Fangs

So this could well be more self indugent pap but still I would welcome opinions on this. Yesterday evening I was home alone so after putting micromachines on the landing and tin cans on the banisters to deter burglars I got to having yet another think about what I could have done better last weekend and it led me to look at 3++ and their how to articles most particularly the ones on Suppressing Fire and Anti tank. So what is the anti tank in my current list? Well it has to be my Thunderwolves who can glance a landraider with rending although that's unlikely and their strength ten thunderhammer, my long fangs and my meltas.

The problem with this is (and its a problem with my play style in general) is that there is a lack of synergy, I generally charge my Wolves towards a land raider while my long fangs have pot shots at anything else that grabs my fancy and it leads me to not be aggressive enough with my Grey Hunters. When you only have 3 Grey Hunter units its scary to run everything forward and if you are trying to hold an objective and you leave one unit back that's over 200 points that isn't doing anything. So what does that mean when it comes to anti tank in my army?

The fact is that I have a massive imbalance when it comes to dealing with mech and to an extent monstrous creatures and it was this that cost me this weekend the most. Troops in the open I can deal with, the only thing my grey hunters really failed against this weekend was a squad of nobs with a warboss and feel no pain. That wasn't down to the unit but my own unfamiliarity with that codex. Grey hunters are believed by many to be the best troops in the game, surely then I should be taking more instead of a 545 point deathstar unit.

This then brings me back to my starting point which was the points made on 3++ and it comes down to this. To be a good Space Wolf player you have to control the middle ground in everything you do. You aren't blood angels or Eldar/ Dark Eldar with their speed, you aren't Orks or Nids with the numbers and you aren't the ultra elite of the Grey Knights or Deathwing. You are neither a shooty army or an assault army. You have to do what I have known for a long time but not put into practice enough, control the middle ground, soften up you enemy and then hit them. When I look back to the games when I have done well in it is because of this not because of my deathstar unit eating everything infront of them and in the games I have particualary done poorly in its because I completely fail to do this, I fail to make any sort of movement await the enemy and pay for it because I don't have any room to maouvre into. My use of longfangs is all wrong.

Take a rhino for instance, is it important to blow each one up or do I really just need to stop the thing from moving? This leads me to start thinking about lascannons. I am one of the only people I know that bothers putting a 25 point lascannon in over the 10 point missile launcher, is the extra point of strength worth it for 15 points when instead of worrying about land raiders my long fangs should be trying to make sure I control the movement in the middle of the board? There should be other things in my army to worry about the high strength stuff namely melta guns. Melta was designed to pop high AV targets so I need to use it as thus. So its good bye to the lascannons (thinking about using those points for extra armour (what does everyone think) and hello extra missiles.

As normal comments are what will make my thought process go further. Thanks in advance.

Going big or going home Simo style - reader contribution wanted please

So last night late on I got the email of the standings from this weekend and I came a disappointing 90th out of the 113 players there. To start with I sat there thinking, well if I had got the results I should have got I would have done much better but I then realised how stupid it was to think that. If I had have won my first game I would have been much higher in the second and then I certainly wouldn't have won my second by as big a margin as I did (If I did at all) and that would have had a knock on effect through the day so we need to ignore the ifs and buts and concentrate on the whys. Why didn't I do better, the answers are clear. Firstly, I still struggle with deployment, there are good articles out there and there are a lot of good players who I should be looking to for advice. No matter what the mission I generally deploy the same and its stupid. I need to think more. Secondly, placing of things like objectives. Only on one mission did I seriously think about where I was going to be placing objectives and that was one of the ones that I should have won. I need to think more like Darren who for one of the open war missions has figured out EXACTLY where to place objectives to get the best out of it, anal? Maybe. Smart? Definitely. Having played sports at high levels I was constantly reminded of small details being the difference, 40K is no different, unlike sport there is more luck involved at times so you have to be ready even more to take advantage of those small details. Thirdly, what I do with my list. I don't have dedicated jobs in my mind for my units. I don't have a unit that sits and grabs the objective, I don't have units who I always plan to move towards enemy armour. More and more I am noticing that games are won in the middle ground, unfortunately all I seem to do is sit, shoot as much as I can and hope that there isn't enough to take me when they get to me, not a good idea. Finally my list needs more synergy, I often leave my Thunderwolves isolated so they act as bullet magnets and eventually it tells. I'm stupid with it as well. Finally I started understanding that thunderwolves act as great cover for rhinos so why oh why haven't I been running them as such? So with that in mind I have come up with two lists both adapted from tinternet ones I have seen. In my current list anti infantry I have my grey hunters and thunderwolves principally and 4 Melta guns, Melta bombs 8 missiles and 2 Las cannons The first list being

Rune Priest

Chooser

Living Lightning

Murderous Hurricane

Rune Priest

Wolf Tooth Necklace

Chooser

Living Lightning

Jaws of the world wolf

Elites

Wolf Guard x3

Power Fist x 3

Combi weapons x 4

Troops

Grey Hunters x 8

Melta gun

Wolf Standard

Mark of the wulfen

Grey Hunters x 9

Melta gun

Wolf Standard

Mark of the wulfen

Grey Hunters x 8

Plasma Gun

Wolf Standard

Mark of the wulfen

Grey Hunters x 6

Flamer

Wolf Standard

Mark of the wulfen

Rhino x 3

Las Plas Razorback

Fast Attack

Land Speeder Storm

Heavy flamer

Multi Melta

Land Speeder Storm

Heavy flamer

Multi Melta

Heavy Support

Long Fangs x 6

Missile Launchers x 4

Lascannon

Long Fangs x 6

Missile Launchers x 4

Lascannon

Long Fangs x 6

Missile Launchers x 4

Lascannon

In this list I have 4 anti infantry squads, 1 holding squad for objectives + speeders. I then have 4 meltas, 12 missiles and 4 lascannons The second being a thunderwolf list but with more a lord tooled up like mine minus the runic armour and the saga a rune priest like mine minus the runic armour Scouts with melta bombs 3 squads of 5 grey hunters 2 las plas one rhino 3 lots of 3 thunderwolves 2 storm shields, 1 power fist and one with nothing 3 lots of three missiles In this one there is certainly less long range fire power than in my second list but comparable to my first and there are certainly more targets for the opposition. As normal I really need constructive criticsm.

Undefeated - UK GT day two round up

So I entered day two on table 35 and again faced another Space Wolf army. Three in a row for me. 2 objectives, pitched battle. Once again I found that games can be won and lost on deployment. I got it wrong even though I went second and it made it more difficult for me to win. In the end my thunderwolves butchered everything close to his objective. In the end it came down to whether he could shift me off mine, time was running out and we were only on turn 5, a good assault left me moved off my objective and the game ended in a draw. The second game saw me against a tau player with a crisis suit heavy list. Not something I come up against so I was on the back foot from the beginning. 5 objectives, spearhead and yet again another game I lost first turn. My thunderwolves were less than 24 inches away but unfortunately my run rolls were terrible (a common occurrence for the weekend), I also failed to hurt much in a couple of turns and by turn three it looked to be over.My one saving grace was that I hadn't lost any troops. My scouts came on and blew up a devil fish and then I had another real space marine moment, 1 scout running off one of his troop choices. This gave me the draw in the end even though I didn't deserve it. My final game was annihilation against an ork army, heavy with Killer Kans, lootaz and boyz. This was easily my most fun game of the weekend, lots of combat, a really great opponent (although they all were) and some fun turns of fate. The game again ended in a draw but a thrilling one at that. I dramatically underestimated how tough nobz were in combat, I had never faced them alone and these had feel no pain which made them tough. They went through a squad of grey hunters, charged a long fang pack and ate them until my thunderwolves got in. I rolled terribly and lost all my wolves bar my lord who was eventually able to dispatch them. So all in all 1 win 3 draws and 2 losses, not the weekend I wanted but not one that I am disappointed with, 2 of the games I probably deserved to win, 2 I definitely deserved to lose. So the question is what did I learn. Well what I didn't learn is what makes the difference between a top player and someone like me who constantly lies in midtable winning as many as he looses. What I have decided after this weekend is that if I am to move up I need to stop playing with just what I enjoy and start playing with a more optimal list. My thunderwolves cost too much 560 points is too much for 5 models. I could have a lot for those points and I plan to, open war will be the last time I run the Thunderwolf heavy list at a tournament. I hope all other attendees had a great weekend like I did.

UK GT Day 1 review

So as you all know yesterday I headed to maelstrom for the UK GT with a couple of other members of First company vets. Plenty of the blogging community there which was nice to see and lots of familiar faces from previous tournaments. Game one was 5 objectives dawn of war against a Dark Eldar army. I'd never faced one before, in fact I've arranged a game on Thursday night against one. I lost deployment but I had a good idea about what he would do so I tried to hide my long fangs behind rhinos. He had a Helion heavy army with the baron that provided Stealth. In the end I lost the game through a combination of a mistake, a bad roll for me and a good roll for my opponent. I made the mistake of getting my lord into combat with his couple of remaining helions that I had been picking off for the entire game, instead I foolishly went for the baron forgetting about his 2 up save they then were able to contest my objective. I should have had another chance to kill them but I didn't due to a bad run roll and a poor assault through cover roll. So it came on to whether we had a turn 6 and unfortunately there was none. I lost the game by a matter of inches while I'd got double the victory points but these things happen and I had a really good game. The second game was a pitched battle for two objectives and it saw me against a logan wing army which didn't have a massive amount of troops and in honesty it was a bit of a white wash. My opponent told me early it was his first tournament. Things went well for me early on and my idea was simple. I had more troops so I could throw one away in order to rapid fire into my opponent. My opponent certainly had bad look with loosing a wound on a lone wolf and a couple of terminators to rhino storm bolters. A big win, 30 points on the board and a difference in kill points of 1600 My third game was annihilation with a spear headed set it and saw me come up against Adam from the Space Wolves blog. It started badly when I lost the roll off so I set up in quite a defensive position but then seized the initiative. From there it went badly, I mistakenly attempted to pop transports instead of long fangs while Adam concentrated on my Long fangs. At the end of the game Adam pointed out what I've said many times on here, my list isn't a serious tournament playing list. There are too many points in my thunderwolves and I know I should drop them or tone them down but its difficult when you enjoy using a unit. So a good beating, a narrow loss and a good win. I'm still hoping for 3 wins out of the 6. This morning I find my self 69th (what a great number) out of 120 and I still have aspirations of finishing in the top half.

2 games full of mistakes

So as you saw yesterday was the final of the Winter(/autumn/spring) first company vets final but before that I played Tim (Caledonian Tim as he may be known to you) with his nids in a warm up game. He had three trygons, three of the buggers than spawn more gaunts, plenty of guants them self and 6 hive guard as well as some genestealers. So what happened? Well basically I was able to hand tim the victory fairly early on. We were playing the multiple objective mission in a spear head deployment and my deployment was fairly terrible. I managed to box my rune priest rhino in, I left my thunderwolves isolated and my long fangs didn't have the best fields of fire. I also realise that I haven't been challenging myself with the opponents I have been facing. I don't mean this with any disrespect to the people I have played in recent weeks but I have played guard, MSU Space Marines and Necrons. All of the players are very good but they are all lists that my list should beat. None of them have got anything that should bother me in combat and I generally have enough long range fire power to put a dent in them before I get there. Yesterday however this wasn't the case and its something that I come up against whenever I face a specifically orientated army. Space Wolves are jack of all trades, not bad at shooting or assault. Nids clearly are a close combat orientated army and I underestimated it. I'm that used to sending my wolves in and watching them roll over things in close combat that was never going to happen against two trygons and from there on it was purely a case of my own stupidity and naivety. The second game was the final against Darren's Orks and again I made mistakes. We both had instances of terrible dice so I certainly can't blame them although if I could have made one thunderhammer hit life may have been different. Now the main observation that Darren made after the game was that I got none of my units out of my deployment zone except for my OBEL wolf scouts, so was this a mistake against Orks? Because they went first I was penned in from the beginning, should I have tried to out manoeuvre him or should I have done what I did and hoped to shoot better and thin them out? In all I'm not too sure, Darren most certainly deserved his win and the winners trophy (hope he did his hair in the end so Gav could take a picture) I'm quite pleased with my runners up trophy a year on since I started playing (although it was a bit like Millwall got to the cup final, I managed to avoid all the big tournament players on the way there). I'm going to try and play someone new every week for a couple of months now, might try and make it down to Maelstrom on a Thursday night to see a few different faces, maybe we could have a claws and fists outing. Tomorrow is another day and at this tournament I'm looking to win 50% of my games. I'm not gav so there will be no live blogging so look out for results either and remember if you are there and you want to have a drink just let me know.

Finals night tonight

So it comes down to this.

Myself against the baron for the First Company Vets winter assault title which will hopefully be tonight if Darren gets his arse in gear and gets down on time.

This tournament has seemed to go on forever having started in September or October and many players have fell by the wayside to get to here.