Battle Report 007 on the way!

I recorded another 1850 Battle Report last night and should be able to edit it and post it to the YouTube page tonight.

I ran my stock Space Wolves list, the list I am play-testing for the Legions tournament at the end of this month. This was a bad game for me overall. First, we had Dawn of War deployment, which screws me always. For starters it basically eliminates one round of shooting for my Long Fangs because they have to run on to the board and lose that round of shooting. Second, my dice hated my guts last night! I hate saying this because I am a firm believer that you can almost always, with good tactics, eliminate dice rolls from determining the outcome of the game. That being said, Sean played a great game, his tactics were sound and despite having some god-awful dice rolls I was still in the game int he end.

It was a good game and I learned how much I hate Dawn of War!

I'll let you know when it posts!

Ed

Project 2011: Space Wolves - My Current 1850 Point List

So for those of you who have been kind enough to check out my weekly YouTube Battle Reports (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheEvilEd209) you know that for the year of 2011 my army project with be Space wolves. Last year's project, the Tyranids, were fun and I had loads of fun playing them and painting them (I still need to finish that) but I found that they are on the lower to mid rung on the competitive scene, and I was tired of getting my butt kicked. I decided I wanted to learn one of those nasty armies I always read about online, and with a ton a Marines sitting around gathering dust in my basement, I decided to go with Space Wolves. I have been running the army for about a month and a half now and I am securing some firm believes about the army. First, here is my Current 1850 Point list and some of the tactics I am using:

Space Wolves - 1850 Points

HQ
1 Wolf Lord with Frost Blade, Storm Shield, Runic Armor, Saga of the Warrior Born on a Thunderwolf Mount - 255 Points

This dude is awesome! With the exception of one game where he took a force weapon to the face and instant died, he has always bought his points back and has pulled off some pretty scary stuff. He is the slaughter of hundreds of points worth of troops. He devastates hoards and tac squads alike, and with the unit that he rolls with, they are the a steamroller.

Troops
5 Grey Hunters with a Flamer and a Razorback transport with T-L Lascannons - 150 Points each (3 of these)

These guys server two obvious purposes, holding objectives and anti-tank. I was running these units with meltaguns, but in all of the games i have played with them, they never used them. They are too far away to really melta a tank so this felt like 15 points wasted. I gave them a flamers which is free!

10 Grey Hunters with Two meltaguns and a Powerfist in a Rhino - 215 Points

One of the very first thing I learned about this Codex is that Grey Hunters are no joke, one of the most solid Troop Choices in the game. The ability to have a CCW, Bolt Pistol, Boltgun, and ATSKNF with Counter Attack makes a 10 Man squad pretty tough and can Rapid Fire and still get the bonus attack for having charged if they do not wipe out their target. I was running duel flamers for awhile but the duel melta guns is just scarier. This is a good anvil unit and the powerfist can cause some real problems.

10 Grey Hunters with Two meltaguns in a Rhino - 190

Same as above, except this unit does not have the powerfist.

6 Long Fangs with 5 Missiles Launchers - 140 Points each (Three of these)

Point for point one of the best units in the game. They can pop transports pretty easily, bring down monstrous creatures from range, and split fire to increase the fun. Oh, the power of the cheap missile launchers!

4 Thunderwolf Calvary with 3 Storm Shields, 1 Powerfist, and 1 Melta Bomb - 320 Points

This unit eats everything it touches. Yes, I have lot one or two to rapid fire but overall, 320 points is not that much to pay for a unit that, with the lord, will steamroll ever unit it touches. They are the hammer of this list and a pretty good one too.

So that's it, that's the list.

In my next article I am going to show off my Space MArine Quads that I am using for Thunderwolf Calvary and show you how to make them!

Ed

40K Battle Report - 1000 Points Tyranid Swarm vs. Space Wolves

So, on to week two of the 4 week mini-tournament at my local game store. This week the swarm met with a rather broken Space Wolves army. My opponent, Andrew, had some rather bad luck in the previous week and lost one of his two Vindicators for the game which he subbed in a Grey Hunters squad for, one unit of Grey Hunters did not come on the table until turn 2 and one did not come on until turn 3. His army consisted of three units of Grey Hunters with two meltas and a Powerfist, a Dreadnought with Autocannons and heavy bolter, one Vindicator, and his HQ with the Grey Hunter Squad on the table, which was a named character I can not remember at his time, and means very little to this report. I ran my stock list, A Tervigon HQ, two, 30-man termagant squads, a 30-man Hormagaunt squad, a unit of Hive Guard, a Unit of Zoanthropes, and sitting n for the second Hive Guard squad, I went to the side bar and pulled a Gargoyle squad. We rolled Seize Ground with 5 objective with a Pitch Battle Deployment. We did a good job of scattering the objective all over the board (a mistake from my opponent) and I set up first.

With so many models I really was able to setup so that every unit in my army would get a cover save as they advanced, which turned out to be a key to the game, and was holding 3 objective to start the game to his one. He boxed up the units he deployed and put the Vindy, Dread, Grey Hunters and HQ in cover in one corner of the board, the furthest away from most of the objectives I might add. He stole first turn and his tactics went right out the window. I thought he was going to run a Marine gun-line on me and make me come to him through a hail of bullets. However on turn one he moved the Vindicator out of cover to take a pot shot at some gaunts (allowing it to be in charge range of my Gargoyles who had adrenal glands) which only manged to kill two thanks to cover, moved his HQ squad out of cover to move toward the closest objective, and moved and shot with the dread, killing a handful of Gargoyles.

My turn one consisted of a lot of maneuvering to control objectives, as I knew I'd have an easier time holding objective with that many scoring units on the table and his three total. I also moved the hormagaunts into cover but within charge range for turn two on his HQ squad, Tervigon spitting out more gaunts, and charging the naked vindicator with Gargoyles and blowing off the main gun. A huge victory for me. I figured the gargoyle for dead anyway, so to take out one of the two major threats on the board to my army on turn one was sweet.

His turn two was alright, he walked on the other Grey Hunter squad but was too far out of range to do anything with them. He moved the Vindicator in order to wipe out the gargoyle and had some really bad dice rolls that managed to leave three of them still alive. His HQ Squad hunkered down on the objective and rapid fired into the Hormagaunts, killing only 4 thanks to cover saves and Feel No Pain from the Tervigon. 75% save ratio is awesome! And the dreadnaught moved closer to my gaunts which were on an objective and backed up by the Zoanthropes. Huh? My thoughts exactly!

My turn two was brutal. Zoeys stunned the dread, Trevigon pooped more which were left behind to hold an objective, and used Catalyst on the hormagaunts, 30-man squad was left behind to hold another in cover, and the gargoyles turned to shoot and assault the HQ squad. Hive Guard were still out of position to do anything and just ran. On the assault, I cleared out all but the HQ and a melta from the squad holding his lone objective by charging with two dozen angry hormagaunts. By the end of turn two I was holding four objectives and contesting one, his HQ squad was on the verge of dying, and he was pretty much out of the game.

There was some clean up on turn three, his HQ squad bit the dust, his last Grey Hunter squad in reserve moved in too close to the hormagaunts (foolish), his out of range Hunters moved and shot the termagants holding an objective in cover to no avail, and dread just sat there drooling. My turn three the horagaunts assaulted the new Hunters and won combat, Hive Guard cleared out the dread, Zoeys dropped AP3 small blast templates on ten marines, killing 7, they broke, and my now 4 gaunt squads were holding 4 objectives soundly.

At this point, Andrew had gone through enough and wanted to forfeit the game. However, by the rules of the tournament, if he chose to do so he would yield to me all 1000 victory points and have to roll to see if all of his units would come back in for the next game. He figured the game for a total loss anyway and gave it up. His dice were kind and only one unit of Grey Hunter will not be back next week, which he would have switch out for the now repaired vindicator anyway.

So, in review, again I could not be happier with my performance. I took my 5-year old son along with me this week as these are short games and we are limited to one per week. All I can say is watch out Vegas! This kid can roll some dice, and did a good job for Daddy rolling to wound.

Standings: 2 - 0 with 2000 VP, sitting in first. Now, three other people are at 2 - 0 right now so I suspect I'll be playing one of them next week. I'll keep you posted!