Bad Assery 101

www.redknuckle.com

So over Thanksgiving I was having a conversation with RC about Lysander. RC raved about how powerful he was and how he was really at the pinnacle of his power. His assertions were: Eternal Warrior and four wounds is unheard of, thunder hammer and storm shield are undercosted in SM codex and they tear shit up, and he works awesome with one of the strongest units around: assault terminator squads. I decided to give him some more thought for my Fist army.

My first concern was that I didn't want to break my fluff goals with the army. The army was made to be a half-company, and would not include any attachments. So I was not going to be adding a terminator squad. The only model I could see having some terminator armor was the Captain. Well the good news is that Lysander counts as a captain, so I can even keep my command squad.

So, I started to weigh the benefits of Lysander compared to the added cost. First off we know he is a bad ass stat wise, but being in a squad it gets watered down a lot. Compared to another commander the biggest difference is the strength 10 thunder hammer. Bolter Drill will be useful since my command squad all have bolt pistols. Bolster Defenses is another surprising good one with this army as I always have one squad in cover in the backfield (devastators or at least a combat squad). Lastly I was very interested in using Chapter Tactics, since I was relatively underwhelmed with Combat Tactics (at least for my style of play).

He seemed like a winner so I wrote up my list. I had to change out my command squad razorback because of Lysanders terminator armor, so I went with a drop pod. I also had to lose the devastators rhino to make up some points. No real bother as they are usually stationary anyway.

So after one game I was floored with how much of an improvement it was. The first thing that was apparent was how much better the drop pod was than the razorback. My command squad is meant to be very survivable (storm shields and an apothecary) but they weren't as big of an impact after my razorback got immobilized at half field. Now, turn one they are a factor. As survivable as they are I was not scared to unload in front of some pretty heavy firepower. The enemy was forced to deal with them. My rhinos zipped across the field at record speed. There was a lot of synergy going on there (yes I work a desk job). I will venture to say that I like the drop podding command squad more than I would like a deep striking assault terminator squad. The drop pod comes in first turn and doesn't have to worry so much about mishaps. So I don't need so much stand off distance.

The other big takeaway from the battle is how much more I like Stubborn than Combat Tactics. I know Combat Tactics can be very useful. Woe be the player who shoots at a combat squad before assaulting. I am just not the kind of player who dances around a board like that. I find that I am much more likely to go where I want to go and plant my squads. Seems like it falls in line with a certain chapter I know about. Every time I got into combat and had to roll leadership I was reminded how much more I like Stubborn. My army definitely feels more like Sons of Dorn.

And with that one game, I shelved my space wolves and started getting back to painting my Fists. I am actually in pretty good shape with my to-do list:

• Since I am not tweaking my space wolves anymore, I don't have anything on them to do (I'll chalk that one up as a painting win, since the codex came out a month ago)
• I only need to paint a drop pod, Lysander, and finish my assault marines to finish the 1500 points
• I only need to paint up one more tactical squad, their rhino, and five bolter wielding devastators to finish off the half-company

I think I will be set for a Jan tyranid release :D

Rix

The Burning of Prospero

Had my second round of matches with my Space Wolf force. This time I think my force was pretty close to final form. I am liking the direction it is heading.

My first two matches (a month or so ago) were strictly trial forces. I wanted to get the feel for the different units and characters. Both times I played against RC's Thousand Son force. The first was a two Land Raider army that hit you like a truck using The Great Wolf. I packed Blood Claws in one LR and Wolf Guard termies into the second. It was effective but very one dimensional and very light on the troops. My second was more of a medium infantry force with Grey Hunters in Razorbacks, some Blood Claw assaulters, and Njal. Best result from the game....making RC cry as Njal wtfpwnd Ahriman. While I learned I like the medium infantry army, I did admit that Njal is a little overpowered if he can beat Tzeentch's Champion so handedly.

I took the month to work on the list and update some of the painting on my older units. My list looked like this going into this weekend:

Rune Priest (Chooser of the Slain, Saga of the Beastslayer, Living Lightning, Wolf Spirits)
Wolf Guard Battle Leader (Wolf Claws, Saga of the hunter, wolves x2)
Wolf Guard x4 (Thunder Hammer x2, Combi-meltas x2, Power Weapons x2)
Lone Wolf (Melta bomb)
Wolf Scouts x5 (Meltgun, Plasma Pistol x2)
Blood Claws x10 (Power Fist, Flamer)
Grey Hunters x5 (Power Weapon, Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Razorback w/ TL Las)
Grey Hunters x5 (Power Weapon, Flamer, Mark of the Wulfen, Razorback w/ TL Las)
Grey Hunters x5 (Power Weapon, Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Rhino)
Land Raider Crusader (Meltagun)

First Game was an annihilation against the Thousand Sons. RC was attempting to move away from the heavy weapon prevalence in his army and add some more troops. We both felt that it did little to help him, as he had less capability to deal with transports and the massed troops was no match for the incoming of the Space Wolf fury. He called it after he had killed my Battle Leader, Scouts, Lone Wolf, a squad of Grey Hunters, and 3 vehicles. I had the advantage as I had killed most of his force and was wading around with about two turns to dish out some more punishment.

Lessons for the Game: Battle Leader with scouts moving behind enemy lines is cool, but you are not going to make up the points of losing your character after a turn or two. Also, the Lone Wolf seemed to suck.

Second Game was take and hold against a mech Dark Angel force. We rolled dawn of war. Night fighting came in handy....but I really sucked it up on my deployment. It was the first time in 10 years I didn't deploy my Space Wolves all together to charge the field. It threw off the rest of my game as I could never amass enough forces to push in his territory. I ended up fighting a tactically loosing battle as I couldn't even come close to his objective and he was all over mine. Good news was that my army was able to assault its way into re-securing my objective.

Lessons for the Game: My Lone Wolf sucks (and shall be removed). Living Lightning is an amazing vehicle killer. I could use a tinny bit more stand off firepower.

I am working on updating the list now. I am looking at dropping the Lone Wolf, Swapping the LR Crusader for a regular LR, somehow adding a three man Long Fang squad.

Cheers,

Rix

Diversity In Your Gaming Space

Results from the tournament are in…..I didn’t win. Not a big surprise, but I would have liked to have seen a little more details on how I placed overall. Biggest comment: I need to get out more. I defiantly felt the pain of playing against the same army over and over again in my casual games.

Game 1 – Dark Eldar
Results: Loss
This guy was really nice and fun to play against. He had an unpainted and not completely modeled army, but it didn’t bother me because he was so casual. We played a table corner kill point game. I chock this loss up to my own ignorance more than his tactical brilliance. The first thing is my setup was flawed….I completely didn’t account for dark shields. He was able to take out a lot of my anti-armor threats before he moved into range. Next was my lack of focus fire. I probably shot on 3-5 different squads in the early game, when I should have been shooting till completion. Last thing is we spent a lot of time looking up rules, and we ended up hitting the round time at turn 3. This really hurts my army, I run a shooting army so I am never going to win in one turn, I always need time to let my shooting work.
Game MVPs:

• Chosen – I caveat this by saying they never shot, and died trying to bury their noses in the ground. But regardless of their output they always sit on the board as 150 points of “Gotta Deal with Me” on a flank somewhere. They accounted for diverting half of the assaulting force just so I didn’t get around the back of my enemies transports.
• Demon Prince – He countercharged 10 Wyches and killed over half of them in two turns. Warptime >>> Lash of Submission, nuff said.
  

Poorest Performers:

• Vindicator – Taken out first turn....and it only took one shot

Game 2 – Eldar
Results: Win
He walked in thinking he was gonna lose….self-fulfilling prophesy. This was an objective based game, one in his deployment zone one in mine. I surprised myself by realizing that as an elder he could run the entire table to my objective but I would never get to his if it was far away. I set my objective as close to his as possible. I set around my objective and waited for his initial push. My game plan (for most of the tournament actually) was to wait for the first push, let it break over my shooting, then counter-push late game. He ran at me haphazardly, and I tore him up with my shooting. His striking scorpion infiltrators were murdered by noise marines, obliterators and a CSM bolter line. He then unloaded his transports with fire dragons, howling banshees, and his independent characters. Again they got murdered by shooting, mostly plasma cannons rocking on tightly packed troops. At the end, with his back broke, I secured my objective and ran a suicide run of a vindicator and a rhino to contest his.
Game MVPs:

• Obliterators – Plasma cannons rock

Poorest Performers:

• Vindicator – Scattered off with the first shot, got killed after. He seems to be underperforming.

Game 3 – Marines
Results: Win
This guy was cool, but was on the wrong end of a 20 hour gaming marathon. He played with a lot of troops, a lot of assault marines, predators and dreadnaughts. It was a dawn of war setup for kill points. I set up in a defensive position and let him come at me. By the end of the second turn I had almost my entire army was in position, he had very little on the table. As his army came on piece meal, I was able to hit his transports and force him to run. Then I was able to break him down with templates, even if the opponent is spread out, these rock. Especially when they are at least AP 3 like mine are. I broke him down till he capitulated, probably because he would have rather been sleeping, but I had him pretty much beat.
Game MVPs:

• Noise Marines – They killed transports, chopped out holes in marine squads, and then even pinned them. And that was just one weapon….when they get in close the sonic blasters are like supper bolters.
  
• Chosen – came in from the side killed fools with meltas and then locked up another squad.

Poorest Performers:

• CSM squads – Didn’t really do anything, that’s tough at 600 points total. I guess they would have done a lot more if he got closer, but you always like to see 255 of your force actually contribute.

I’m not sure if I will update this list because I doubt I will be playing a lot of 2250 lists. The only thing I am iffy about is my vindicator. He was always meant to be a close gun support on the defense or a column head on the offense. With my new wait out an attack and push later strategy I doubt that I will be using him as a column head. He seemed a little to fragile to really pump out fire support. It’s surprising because I have seen them used to great effect by other people.

Rix