Meh

So after a month of living, breathing, tweaking, and playing my space wolves I am officially bored with them. I have struggled to figure out why. Here are my best reasons:

• I always thought I loved Assault lists (my first love), but after playing all different types of armies I finally figured out that assault armies are pretty one dimensional.
• I settled very quickly into what I believe is the best list possible (given my already painted units)
• Allocating ICs and Wolf Guard between a mech list is confusing and annoying
• Lysander drop podded into my heart

More on the last later. But overall I have been very pleased with the way my wolves performed, very content with the viability of my list, and very bored playing it. I used to love setting up my Space Wolves for battle, they sat on my side of the table mocking my opponents "Do what you want, but my wolves are coming across to whop your ass!!" Now when I set up I feel like I am on the losing side of a battle of wits. My opponent has all kinds of tools at his disposal (reserve forces, combat squading, deep striking) and I am just looking to meet him in the middle without losing to many transports.

On another positive note, I like my list. I have a healthy number troops and some real punch in close combat without having to spend 750 points in HQ choices. The units all fit into my great company scheme (one of these days I'll get around to finishing that). But that cut out one of my favorite parts of the game, critically thinking about the list and doing some hard core tweaking.

Lastly, I do really like the ability to attach wolf guard. It's a poor man's combat squad. But trying to figure out between 4 squads which 3 should get a leader, which of those should get the special weapons, and then try and figure out which should get ICs, oh and also some are in razorbacks and some are in rhinos.....it all gets pretty confusing. I always end up just throwing some units together and deploying them haphazardly, which in turn I feel like I am always screwing up deployment.

For all of these reasons, I am Meh on my puppies and have shelved them for now.

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

Pack Mentality

Before I delved into my Space Wolves Army list I wanted to give a rundown of the different wolf packs and how I think they are best used. The following are the organization of the packs that most space wolves will spend their entire lives in.

Blood Claws

For those unfamiliar with the fluff, as soon as a group of initiates can wear power armor they are sent out with the main army as assault troops. The blood claw pack represents the marines they will be with until they die or individuals are selected for special assignments. Blood claws can have pack sizes up to 15 marines to represent the large size of initiate units before they start to take casualties.

I like to take one unit of blood claws as my main assault force. I figure no matter what I do with the rest of my army their is always going to be one unit who hits a line, even on defense. Yes they are easier to hit, yes they shoot like crap, but I am getting an extra 10 hits if I charge. I want to front load as much damage as possible.

I always put mine in a land raider so you can pretty much guarantee the charge. I like the power fist over the power weapon, I figure 3 str 8 hits on the charge are better than 4 str 4 hits. I also give one a flamer, mostly because its free, but its a good way to thin out infantry if I am against a horde army.

Grey Hunters

After a good amount of campaigns under their belt, and some character building casualties, the blood claws pack will graduate to be grey hunters. They are blessed with the holy bolter, and are the main maneuver force for the Wolf Lord. Usually they number 5-10 marines at this point

For my army they are my objective takers, fire support, and decent assault support. Without combat squads I rely on they to be the versatile part of my army. As such they are all essentially armed the same and any one squad can fulfill any number of roles.

I think a good commander needs at least 3 grey hunter squads. I like mine at 5 marines in a razorback, so I can add a wolf guard veteran. My standard load out is power weapon, melta gun, and mark of the wolfen. I do switch out the melta for a flamer every other grey hunter squad. I figure if I am holding objectives they are cheaper, but it can be invaluable against horde armies. I also usually upgrade to the twin-linked lascannon...its so expensive, but its usually the only long range firepower I have.

Long Fangs

As the pack grows older and more experienced, they are eventually entrusted with the company's heavy weapons. They understand the ebb and flow of battle and are expected to be resolute under all battle conditions. At this time the pack is usually down to 2-5 members.

I don't usually use long fangs, I think they are to static and my Space Wolves are based on mobility. If I did I would either go for the cheap 2-3 man tank killing squad (ML or LC), or the bulky 5 man split fire squad. Then I would probably mix lascannons and plasma cannons.

Lone Wolves

This is a new edition in the Space Wolf codex. The lone wolf represents the last man of a pack that was either whittled down by attrition or decimated by casualties. Since a pack never gets new recruits it is on the lone wolf to find a glorious end.

Most of the net traffic has lone wolves in terminator armour with thunder hammer and storm shields. From a fluff perspective I don't like the idea of a non-wolf guard taking terminator armor. I equip mine with nothing but a melta bomb, because it makes them cheap as hell. The idea is simple, he is going to wade into battle and force your opponent to direct some attention to them.

Rix

Space Wolf Review

I will admit that I haven't played with my space wolves very much. The two games I played I won handedly, even prompted the ever elusive RC post. I will focus this post on fluff and what seems to be general playability.

Overall

I like the codex. I think it is a step in the right direction from the no fluff, bland codices of yesteryear. I know everyone is in the OMFG mode right now, but I think they will generally fit in line power wise with the last three codices.

Army Organization

I think they are a good trade off between the tactical flexibility of the codex marines and the strong assault forces you see in other codices. In my mind you trade:

• Combat tactics for counter charge
• Combat squads for either a close combat weapon or a +2 charge bonus
• A heavy weapon for a power weapon

As I build my lists I kept on getting the feeling that I had to rely on assault to make my marks. Assault is a funny thing. If you do it well you can have great success...till you meet someone who does it better than you. Then you have a lot of points sitting in transports. Or worse, someone who is good at taking out vehicles. Then you have a lot of points sitting in the middle of the board trying to leg it to make up their points.

I don't think that they can go pound for pound in a shooting war. Granted I can make a Grey Hunter/Long Fangs/vehicle list that is arguably more cost effective than Codex Space Marines, but the lack of tactical heavy weapons really hurts. I miss being able to add a combat squad of marines to the list of shots from the backfield, while maneuvering a Sgt and 4 other marines under fire to snatch objectives.

Favorite Things from the Codex

Lone Wolf - I think it is a really cool idea, and fits the fluff nicely. I wish they didn't have terminator armour, I don't think it really fits the idea that they come from a non-wolf guard pack

Wolf Scouts - They were always a favorite, I like how they made it fit with the current scout rules.

Sagas/Oaths - Most people like the sagas and hate the oaths. I like having a player a player be somewhat accountable to the fluff without having it be a huge detriment to the game. Rules come and go, we play lots of games, but your damn strait I still make fun of RC for running his Khorne Bezerkers away from Ragnar 8 years ago.

Fenrisian Wolves - Purely from a play perspective I think a cheap outrider choice that can get into close combat is exactly what any space marine army needs.

Dislikes

Thunderwolf Cavalry - I think they are a cool idea, I like the fact that the fluff says they are mythical, but I dislike the fact that they are just a normal unit in the army. In fact, most of the Internet buzz I am hearing right now involves using them. I think they should have been a unique or 0-1 choice. I think they should have been a strong unit but maybe a little less tactical (e.g. less weapon options, headstrong, or maybe some sort of injure yourself roll that has to be passed).

Pack Fluff - There seems to be some inconsistencies on the way they describe the packs in the fluff. Sometimes they talk about packs staying together for life (the way it was in the old codex), sometimes they mention things like individuals getting promoted to Grey Hunter. Its a little annoying, but I am a fluff whore, I make no apologies for it.

No Wolves - There are no less than 6 unit choices that can have or are wolves. There is not one acceptable wolf model in the GW lineup right now. I guess I will have to look cooler because I actually still have two old school dire wolves.

Next post, my sample army list,

Rix

Overpowered?

Recently, I had a heated discussion with Rix about his Space Wolves and how they absolutely destroyed my Thousands Sons in our last two games. I called them "overpowered" and Rix called me a whiner. That got me thinking about when is something overpowered and when is it just sour grapes.

Well, that's a good question and one that I've had a hard time quantifying. Well, obviously something is overpowered if it has an unfair advantage but what does that mean in 40k? When does something become unfair and is there any such thing as a fair advantage?

An army with 2 Land Raiders has an advantage against an army with little to no heavy weaponry but finds itself at a disadvantage against armies with lots of tank busting goodness. So, is the advantage fair because it's balanced out by other army compositions or is it situationally unfair depending on the opponent? What if the Land Raider were mis-costed at fraction of it's current points and simply led to a balanced game against heavy tank busting armies? Would it be unfair then, even though it still led to balanced games against certain armies?

Well, all of this leads to a lot of relational comparisons and leads to nothing more than opinion really. Whereas I might think my Thousand Sons are balanced considering that I've suffered both crushing defeats and stunning victories with them, that's not the way it appears to the poor mech space marine army I just tabled on turn 3 (and it wasn't amazing rolling either). It doesn't make a difference if I tabled them with my "balanced" Thousand Sons or my Army of Space Lazer Doom, he got tabled and it didn't feel like much of a fight. So, obviously the determination of something being "overpowered" is really just a perception that differs by person.

So back to the thing that started it all, my discussion with Rix about his Space Wolves and their trashing of my Thousand Sons. The first game we played was a 2 Land Raider list against my all infantry line up. I knew that the game was going to be a loss simply due to the compositions involved (I have a hard time with armor 14) and the fact that I am troops light. I lost by a good margin and accepted the loss for what it was, a learning experience.

The next game was something else entirely, enter Njal Stormcaller ("Nigel"). Ahriman and his cabal were single handedly shut down by Nigel and to add insult to injury Ahriman's impotence was answered by being inta-killed by Nigel's storm power. This game literally made me angry, I felt like not only my army was raped but so was the fluff behind it. After taking multiple showers I still couldn't get the feeling of violation off me or my plastic army men.

So, I cried foul and made what I thought was the shockingly obvious call that Nigel was "overpowered". Rix simply called me a whiner and told me to man up. This led to the heated debate with both of us trying to quantify why we were right and the other was wrong. Rix ended up agreeing to never play Nigel against me again and I grudgingly accepted the fact that he'd still play a rune priest (which has Nigel's abilities, but watered down a little).

So in the end, it didn't matter whether or not that Njal was overpowered (which he is, btw). It simply mattered that I did not enjoy playing against him and got nothing but frustration from my game against him. Rix, as a good opponent, has agreed to my request never to face him again with my Thousand Sons. However, the jury is still out on whether the rest of the wolves are overpowered as well. If I can't win a game against them with any of my armies, I don't think it will be too long before they too are shelved or Rix needs to find some new opponents.

The Grand Return

After my month long vacation base jumping with the spider monkeys off Guadalajara (hey it’s the internet I can say anything right!!), I am back to update you all about my 40k projects. I know that you all have been waiting with baited breath to find out how I organized the rest of my Imperial Fist Army.

Squad Severus



When I first started making my Imperial Fists I wasn’t sure that I was going to expand it to be an entire army. I started with a tactical squad and I figured at worst it would look good in a display case. Because I hand’t quit thought about tactics yet, the load out was not very optimized for the army. It was more just the standard option from what I have seen other vanilla marines take over the years (mostly during 4th edition). I took a power weapon, a plasma gun, and a missile launcher.



In retrospect the squad is not very optimized for the way it plays in the army. The plasma gun is way overpriced, and without a melta or power fist I need to add melta bombs to the Sergeant. I like the missile launcher as a tactical heavy weapon but overall doesn’t pack enough punch to be a stand back heavy weapon.

Overall I see this squad as having an identity crisis. It is not quit strong enough to charge in, not quit powerful enough to stand in the backfield, not quit enough single punch to split 2/3 special weapons into a combat squad. In creating my army I tried to give all of my squads some personality. With such a non-focused weapon load out I decided that this was the youngest squad, and specifically had the youngest Sergeant. The Sergeant hasn’t quite figured out his identity and as such his weapons are non-optimized. In effect he has the “standard” tactical load out. I chose this to be the 6th tactical squad being the lowest on the pecking order.



In trying to give more personality to the Sergeant I tried to remember how I was back when I was a young/new leader in the military. In short, I was an asshole. I imagine the Sergeant as a strict authoritarian, but this masks his lack of experience. He is in no way inept (I mean he is a freaking space marine Sergeant by god), but against his other Sergeants he hasn’t quit found his way.

Tomorrow (OK maybe next week) my 2nd tactical squad.

Rix

Quality Control

I am officially done with GW primer. After spraying half of my assault squad I noticed some cracking in the primer. Thinking that it must have been my spraying technique (to far, to close, or something), I went about stripping those models and soon afterwords sprayed my razorback. SAME F!@%ING THING. If I'm anything I'm persistent. So I tried it again on a devastator squad. Yea you guessed it, imagine that.

After finally wising up I pulled out some random bits and attempted lots of different spraying styles. The conclusion, the primer was bad. I could understand if it was an old can, but I had just bought it. In my mind this is just inexcusable. For a company to put so much effort into putting out great models to then allow the PRIMER to destroy them......

Thank god for simple green. I think the models will come out OK, but the vehicle has too many long flat surfaces and I don't think it will come out right. We'll see.

Anyone know any good primers?

Rix