Thorgrimm's Return! (a 40k post)

A little something different today, a 40k post.  Yesterday I went down to the corner store (AetherStorm Games) for a little 40k Tournament. 

This event was a little different from the standard fare that is usually run down there.  This event was an effort to raise some Toys for the local Toy Drive through Lower Township.

The event was a good turn out, one of the local radio stations covered the event and we had 12 players show up.  Which is good considering the local event usually only gets about 8 on average.

After much debate (with myself, which is quite a site) I decided to give the Iron Warriors a little break and dust off my Space Wolves.  With more than 10000 points painted, I thought I should be able to come up with something at least viable.

I must have left the list at the store, but here is the general make up from memory:

1850 Points

HQ: Wolf Lord Thorgrimm, in Runic Armor, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Space Marine Bike,

Saga of the Beast Slayer

HQ: Wolf Priest on a Bike

Troop: 10x Grey Hunters with a pair of Melta and all the other goodies in a Drop Pod

Troop: 10x Grey Hunters with a pair of Plasma and all the other goodies in a Drop Pod

Troop: 8x Blood Claws with a Flamer, Plasma Pistol, Power Axe in a Drop Pod, with a Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor with combi-PG and Power Fist

Elite: 5 Wolf Scouts with Melta

Elite: 5 Terminator Wolf Guard in a Pod with a couple of Combi-PG an Assault Cannon, and a Fist

Fast Attack: Bike Squad with Attack Bike, Melta gun, Melta Bombs, Power Fist, Wolfguard with Combi-MG and a Power Fist

Fast Attack: Bike Squad with Attack Bike, Melta Bombs, Power Fist

My Thought was to overwhelm my opponent and quickly cripple my opponents forces.  Well that was the thought...

First round challenges came up, and I was challenged by some young upstart named Brandon who also plays Space Wolves, the young man wanted to challenge the Alpha Wolf!

His list was quite different from mine.  Crusader with Blood Claws, Pod with Grey Hunters, 2x Long Fang packs, couple Rhino units. 

The game was an absolute blood bath as one would expect from a Wolf vs. Wolf battle.  My Wolf Scouts were actually the ones to gain me first blood with the destruction of a Razorback

At the end of the game I won holding 2 objectives, I also had First Blood, Line Breaker, and Slay the Warlord giving me a solid 12 points going into round two.

I should note here that for this tournament we were using the Mechanicon style points system for Battle Points.  I find this a superior system as Power lists are not as reliable, because we don't use a win-loss system.  It's all about the amount of Battle Points you manage to gain, and pairings are done that way.  This leads to interesting pairings, and interesting games.

Above you can see me pushing hard I don't think he managed to get out of his deployment zone the whole game.

The down side to doing well in your first game, is the pairing you have to face in game two.  In this case it was an Eldar list.  Farseer, and Council all on bikes, Dire Avengers x3 all in Transports, a Trio of Walkers, and 3 heavy support skimmers with the Torrent weapon thingy...   Now before I even continue, you should all know I hate the Eldar.  No, you don't understand, I really, really hate the Eldar.  I will never even paint one.  Now Josh (the young man playing this army) is a nice kid, he typically plays up the road at Jester's Playhouse.  He tends to play the flavor of the month and I swear he designs his lists just in an effort to stir me up.

Anyway, I won the roll off for first turn.  I decided that all was lost if the Farseer didn't die immediately so I deep struck my 2 pods in, bringing my Plasma GH pack and the Terminator pack and just pushed forward as hard and fast as my bikes would travel.

Then it happened, I caused enough wounds through his stupid invuln saves to force a break check, he responded with box cars and fled off the board.  Now the real problem is after first turn I chased over 800 points off the board and I still struggled the whole game.  The Eldar are stupid.  They break all the rules of the universe and is one of the reasons why I am so frustrated with 6th edition.  Anyway, at the end of the day no troops survived on either side and I won 3-2 with First blood and Slay the Warlord, his two points were from Slay the Warlord.

Well, after such a minor win I was looking forward to a relaxing 3rd game, maybe vs. the disgusting Mechguard list that was floating around.  

But nooooooo, I would have to face against Stephen's Eldar!!! fuck...

His list had a Farseer and a Council on foot, some Aspect Warriors in the form of Howling Banshees, Fire Dragons, Dire Avengers, two squads of Guardians, all the Transports he could manage, a Fire Prism, and of course that giant Knight thing.  Oh and his army Warlord was that special character Autarch guy.

His army is for the most part painted quite nicely (its not finished yet). but have I mentioned that I hate the Eldar?  Anyway, again I got the first turn and went for the same tactic.  Go for the Farseer and Seer Council.  I killed 8 of the 9 leaving his Farseer and 1 Warlock alive.  They however passed their leadership and stuck around. 

Oddly enough, Russ saw fit to reward our bravery and his last Warlock died to a perils of the warp also awarding me with first blood!

This game was another blood bath, with Thorgrimm taking out the big Knight guy in close combat, and ending the game locked in combat with his Warlord (we are now sworn enemies)

I held a 4 point objective and took another minor win with 7 points to 0.

So thus ended the day with 3 wins, but nothing convincing enough to place.  Not a bad day considering my match ups.

I have a bit of a rant to go on with my thoughts concerning the current state of affairs 40k is in with 6th edition, but sadly that is for another time as I must get to work.

Next up another Mordheim update.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

A New Start...

Well it has been awhile since my last post, but PC issues have kept me from blogging proper.  That however, does not mean I haven't been busy on the hobby front.  I have been quite busy, playing 40k, attending the Mechanicon GT and generally causing all sorts of mayhem with my Iron Warriors Chaos army.

It is now that time a year, when a specialist game takes up the vast majority of my hobby time.  Some of you may remember my Necromunda campaign from last year, well this year it's Mordheim.

No, I'm not giving up on Necromunda, I have lots planned for a future campaign, it's just time for something fresh, and I have a Fantasy itch to scratch and a good Mordheim Campaign always does the trick.

I have been hard at work on building a table, and will be running the campaign out of my local game shop, Aetherstorm Games.  Excitement is already being generated even though I don't plan on actually starting the campaign until after the holidays.

I will post some campaign details this evening, and will get some WIP pictures of my city, and its populace as well, so stay tuned, there is lots more to come.

The Colonial, Cold Wars, Necromunda, sooo much to talk about...

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since my last post.  Not because I haven't wanted to blog, but because I have been very busy.  No, not at work but on the hobby front for once.

Two weeks ago I attended the Colonial GT.  This is the 3rd year that Chris Nanry has owned this event, purchasing it from Matt York.  For many years this was a must attend event for WHFB players all over.  Chris however has done a wonderful job expanding the event.  This year breaking it up into two separate events.  Two weeks ago was the Warmachine and WH40k event.  (the WHFB event will take place during the Warstore Weekend the first weekend of November).
I took my Space Wolves and threw together a quick list as I haven't been playing much 40k lately being fully involved with Necromunda.

I took a soft list, with 3 Pods a couple of Razorbacks, some Scouts and LongFangs, with a mix of GreyHunters and Wolfguard leading the way.  All led by the Old Wolf himself.
Yes, I got my ass kicked.  Alllll weekend long.
Not that I really care mind ya, I specifically went with the purpose of hanging out with some old friends this weekend.  The gaming was really secondary to seeing those folks that I only get to see 2-3 times a year.

Gaming-wise the highlight of the weekend was Logan Grimnar defeating this Daemon Prince in Close Combat.
Was a great time, and I came away with 3rd best paint, and an idea for a new army that will remain top secret for now...

Last weekend, my buddy Matt and I took a day trip to Lancaster Pa. to attend Cold Wars.  What a great time.  I have said before that one day is not enough for an event like that and I am considering taking 2 or 3 days to go to Historicon this summer.

Check out the size of the dealers area!  You could spend a whole day just looking through all the gems tucked away here.

Ah, the Necromunda update.  We have had two gaming sessions since I last posted, the current campaign standings are:
Crusade of Fire: 5
Prophets of War: 6
Servants of Ruin: 7
Chaos is ahead, Plague Zombies are running amuck, and things are getting crazy!
Yesterday we played a 4 player game.  Zombies were found to be lurking around the Sludge River, and pushed the Sludge Sifters (my new gang) out of their territory, with the Cawdor hot on the heels of the Zombies, hunting them down in a Crusade of Fire, this pushed the Sludge Sifters into Sister Superior Christine's territory where her Sisters were in battle with the Brides of Chucky, a renegade group formerly of Christines band, and now worshiping Khrone.  Whew, our Multi-player games are great.

One of Sister Superiors Battle Sisters taking the high ground

The Cawdor, acting in support of their Under-Hive Scum guide, hunting Zombies!

Seems even the Sisters are not above employing some Under-Hive Scum.

Zombies seemed to be everywhere!

My new gang came out swinging, errrr, I mean shooting.
The battle was hard fought, but at the end of the day the I the Brides of Chucky were chased off by Sister Superior Christine's Battle Sisters, The Cawdor evacuated the area as well to regroup, and my Sludge Sifters managed to hold their ground, sending the Battle Sisters packing.  A victory to the Sludge Sifters and a campaign point to the Prophets of War!

Next week I hope to have my Chaos gang back up and running, but I have a thing about playing with unpainted models, so gave them the week off while I finish up 2 new models for the gang.

I have however gotten some new terrain up on the board

Above you can see my new Apartment complex, and some of the new scatter terrain I did for the board.  Still lots to do, but we are getting there.
Above you can also see the platform (landing pad) with the ruined building on top.  Playing and moving underneath it has been a pain in the ass, game play-wise.

So, I am fixing it.  I think closing off the bottom will make game play much better on our board.
Oh, one last tidbit. 

I got these babies from a company called "Litko" you can custom make game markers.  They took about 4 weeks to get, but we used them last week and found them to be much better than trying to use dice or chits, little gems ect.

Well that's it for today, (isn't that enough?)
Thanks for reading!!!

Yet another Necromunda update

Good news and bad for my Gang.  After being nearly wiped out, they went on a bit of a rampage.  My settlement pulled in 2 new Juves, and one of my Gangers (an inventor) made himself a Power Weapon.  I quickly set to work building and painting the new models for Murdoc's Marauders.  Only to have them totally crushed this past Sunday.  It wouldn't have been so bad if not for us trying out the event cards.  Someone played the "Live Wire" card on my last remaining Heavy, killing him, and I also lost a Juve and a Ganger to some bad rolls.  I hated to start over, but the losses were too great to make it worth continuing.
Story-wise, Murdoc made his escape, and is recruiting new Cultists to further his cause.

Our game last week was a great one, a 5 way free-for-all (games with multiple players is quickly becoming our favorite way to play).  At the end of the day, the Cawdor gang was the only one left on the field, chasing off 2 Chaos Gangs (including mine), a Pirate Gang, and of course the ancient Sisters of Battle gang, who was eyeballing the Cawdor for some kind of mating ritual.
The Cawdor, feeling confident that all Chaos Taint had been eradicated from this area of the Under-Hive returned to their encampments, to tend to wounds and repair equipment.
After the battlefield was empty a lone figure was found to still be alive, the Chaos Magus, "Weird Al" formerly in the service of Murdoc, made his way to the Sludge River, communing with the voice he heard coming from within.  Once at the rivers bank, a figure emerged, a Greater Daemon of Nurgle.  "You have done well Al, they all fell right into our trap, plenty of corpses, Papa Nurgle is pleased.  Have you brought the tome?"  Al could only respond with a nod.  "Good" the Daemon continued, "finish the spell, and raise the dead, they yet have a part to play in the spreading of the Plague of Nurgle..."  The Daemon then sunk back into the river from whence it came, leaving Al alone in the dark, with the evil tome in his hands, surrounded by the dead who would not be dead for long....

This weeks campaign tally:
Crusade of Fire: 5
Prophets of War: 5
Servants of Ruin: 6

I re-rolled my Chaos Cultist gang, so Murdoc is ready to go again and continue to pursue his quest for immortality.
I also finished my other gang, Sinclair's Sludge Sifters

Simply painted, with just a base coat and some wash, I didn't spend a lot of time on them anticipating lots of weapon swaps, and scarring through the course of the campaign. 
I also modeled up and painted a couple of Underhive Scum for some added muscle.

The River has also been finished

In progress, I have some more scatter terrain, another apartment building and another walkway to go across the river.

Sorry about the picture quality on those last few, but it was 5 am...

We continue to have a blast with this campaign, in fact we have all now started over at some point, except for Chris and his Sisters of Battle (Escher) enclave.  Sister Superior Christina is now a high priority on my hit list.

Whats next?  well, I am planning a heavily converted Goliath Gang, and my son is working on converting a Redemptionist Gang as we speak.  Still lots to do.

I am still planning a couple full fledged batreps as soon as some of the other players get their gangs fully painted as well as a full profile showing them off on the blog here, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading!

Week 3, some more terrain finished, and some more WIP

Firstly, some quick notes on week 3.  I thought we would try something different.  I assigned the scenarios to each player, with each having a primary opponent.  We then set up on opposite corners and we all played in turn on the same board.
The gangs could interact with each other, attack each other, or work out temporary alliances to accomplish their missions.  This made for a very exciting game.
After that first game a couple of the players, had to leave so we broke down into a few one on one games for some fast action.
I didn't move the actual campaign forward last week, but we did tie up some loose ends, with a territory being fought over, a rescue mission attempt (which was failed by me, causing the loss of not one, but two gangers!) and the introduction of a new gang to the campaign.
My son had started anew, and built a Chaos Cult gang using the Escher rules.  He decided they would be worshipers of Khorne, and were at one time members of the Sisters of Battle Cult that belongs to Chris.  They however have been consumed by a Bloodlust and have turned to Khorne.
At the end of the first game, I almost thought all was lost for my Chaos Cultist gang.  I had lost those 2 Gangers, and yet a 3rd died in the after action.  Not wanting to give up though, I gave it another go with the remnants of my gang, which was at that point at 7 fighters, including my Chaos Mage "Wyrd Al".

At the end of the night however, after a couple of lucky games things started turning around!  I gained not one but 2 Juves from my settlement! the first two the whole campaign.  And my 2 inventors made a Ratskin map, a Grapnel, and last but certainly not least a Power Axe!  I am back in action!

Currently our campaign status is as follows"
Crusade of Fire: 4
Prophets of War: 5
Servants of Ruin: 6

Servants of Ruin have pulled ahead a little bit, but to be honest that is mostly because of Chaos vs. Chaos games.  I give them the campaign point anyway, as I figure they are causing Chaos, and furthering the goals of whichever Chaos Daemon they are serving.  Besides it suits the plot-line for Chaos to have a slight advantage at this stage of things.

Now on to some new terrain, first up we have my freshly painted Hab-block.  Its architecture is quite different from the other pieces of the board.  But that is intentional.  I am using a mixture of building styles and types on this board, and once I build my second Hab-Block, repeating the style it wont look so out of place.

 It is quite a large piece and will be a great center piece blocking some lanes of fire on our already cluttered board.
Next up we have my very WIP  Toxic River, a 3' long river of sludge...

 Above you can see some of the little details I put into it, some barrels and drowning Gangers.
Below you can see it with some paint, tonight I fill it with Water Effects from Woodland Scenics.  Hopefully it will be hard by Sunday.

I have a lot I want to get finished by Sunday, I have 6 more Zombies to put the finishing touches on as the Plague of Nurgle begins to infiltrate the ruins of the Under-Hive, and I have my 2 new Juves and a remodeled Ganger to paint.  (gotta have my shiny new Power Axe for Sunday)

Well, I'm off to work.  Gotta get that out of the way to I can get to the important stuff in life, you know, like gaming...

Damn this plastic crack!

I have some serious issues.

I decided I needed a short break from painting Iron Warriors, so was messing with some bits that I had laying around, and thinking I wanted to paint a new "Vanilla Marine" army.

Choosing a Chapter is always a problem, so inspired by Dave Taylor, and Jawaballs I decided I wanted to do something a little different.  No, I am not doing the Lamentors, but damn, I do like the idea of painting the checks.  So old school, reminds me of the Rogue Trader days.

No, I thought I would try and leave my comfort zone, and paint some colors I really don't like to paint.  originally I was going to do Howling Griffons, but after some fiddling around this is what I decided on.

They are quite intimidating to paint, but just the thing I need to try and expand my painting ability, and hopefully take my work to the next level.  I do have to get back to work on my Iron Warriors sometime in the next week if I expect to get another 500 points done for St. Valentines Day Massacre in February, but this is a nice distraction as a side project.

I'm actually quite pumped to get a squad done, if not a whole army.

Tomorrow, The Mechanicon!

Well, I have just finished painting my Iron Warriors Army to 1500 points, and thought I would snap a few photos before I pack them up for their big debut at the Mechanicon.

I certainly don't think that they are my best work for a couple of reasons, I painted the entire 1500 points in less than 3 months, that's very fast for me, so some of the army feels rushed.
Also due to time constraints, I didn't do as much conversion work as I would have liked.
That being said, I am still very happy with the army, it has been a wonderful break from painting Space Wolves, and has given me a chance to experiment some more with free-hand work, and learning how to paint red.  Which I think may be very important for my next project.

Here are a couple of more pictures

 Above you can see my Terminator Squad, with some minor conversions making a mockery of the Grey Knights.

 I wanted to convert all of my cultists using Flagellants but just didn't have the time if I wanted to use the army for Mechanicon, so I painted up 20 of the models from the new boxed set.

Above you can see an example of a couple of the standard Chaos Marines in the force, there are only 15 of them forming 2 squads, but they set the standard for the army.

So, my son Chucky (who still isn't done painting), our friend Chris Hartman playing Dark Angels, and I will be heading out around noon tomorrow and meeting up with Jawaballs where I will try and get some revenge for the pounding he gave me on Friday night last year at the Mechanicon!

So Mechanicon is going to be great, and will be my first major tournament of 6th edition.  Truthfully, my list is quite weak in my opinion, but what the hell, I'm hoping for 2 wins through the weekend, and I'll call it a success.  I am guess my army is going to garner some mixed reactions in regards to its paint score as I went a bit non-traditional on a traditional legion.  One that has a strong following, I'm thinking some people will love it, and some will hate it.  But that is the chance you take when you try something new.

I am committed to this army for the year though, and this is going to be my main Tournament army into 2013.  I am going to be expanding it quickly to 1850 for their next big outing, but have not yet decided what to add, but that is for another post.

Till next time, wish me luck.
and Jawaballs, you had best look out, I have lots of Pie-plate lovin' comin' yer way...

It's finally here!

Last evening I finally got my hands on the brand new tome of ultimate evil that is Codex, Chaos Space Marines. Oh, and a Forge Fiend a Warp Smith, the New plastic Champion, the Psychic power cards, and a Dark Apostle...(I hate finecast)

Okay, so right off the bat I'm gonna say I love it.  Yeah, I know I'm a GW fan-boy, and my opinion on such matters means little, but the book is beautiful with lots of cool options.  But you can get discussions on the new book everywhere and that is not the true purpose of this post.

What I really want to take a few moments to do is discuss the progress I've made on my Iron Warriors project.  This project has unfortunately been woefully short on W.I.P. updates, but I have made a lot of progress.  In fact I had reached a stand still and couldn't progress any further without the new Codex in hand.

Here is a short list of what I have painted so far:
5 Terminators
Land Raider
Vindicator
15 Space Marines
10 Cultists
Defiler.

Prior to last night with a WIP rhino and my Aegis Defense line with Quad-gun, I was fielding roughly a 1250 list (using estimated points costs for the cultists based off what I knew from the White Dwarf)

Now with the new book in hand I could finalize my 1500 Point list for the Mechanicon.  When making this new list I set myself with a couple of rules.  Firstly, I promised myself I would take all of the models that I had painted thus far to the Tournament, it's only about 3 weeks away, and I have no time to start from scratch.  Secondly, the Warpsmith is a must take as is one of the new Daemon Engines.

Taking that into consideration, this is the list I quickly drew up and am currently working towards.

HQ: Warp Smith
Elite: 5x Chosen Terminators.  2x Power Lance, 2x Combi-MG, Chain-Fist, Combi-PG
Land Raider Transport
Troops: 10x Marines with 2x MG, Champion has Power Fist and Combi-MG
Rhino Transport with Havoc Launcher
Troops: 5x Marines
Troops: 10x Cultists with Auto-guns and a Heavy Stubber
Troops: 10x Cultists with Auto-guns and a Heavy Stubber
Heavy: Defiler
Heavy: Vindicator with Siege Shield
Heavy: Forge Fiend with Ectoplasma everywhere

So, in an edition where people are saying armor is dead, I'm going to saturate the board with it.  Well if it doesn't work well it's going to be cool to play, and I think it fits strongly with the Iron Warriors, Warp Smith theme.

The Jump to 1850 will either be a pair of Hellbrutes and a beefing up of the small marine squad, or a Hellbrute and Hell Drake with a couple extra marines for that small squad.

Check back soon, I'm hoping to snap some pictures this afternoon...

The Iron Warriors project...

Well, I have finally got some real work done on the Iron Warriors project.  I have always liked the Iron Warriors, and in fact this is the 3rd Iron Warriors army that I have painted.

The trick this time around was that I really wanted to try and do them justice, but how do you make dry-brushed bolt-gun metal, with yellow and black stripes, stand out and "pop" on the table top?  

Don't get me wrong, I have seen some very good Iron Warriors armies over the years.  Unfortunately I have also seen a lot of crap...

I did a lot of research, and talked to a few of my friends to try and come up with a solution to my problem, How do I paint an Iron Warriors army to my Tournament Standard?  To be honest, I didn't like what I was hearing, the most immediate answer was usually to do the entire army in a NMM scheme.  Ouch, that wasn't going to happen.  For a couple of reasons.  1. I like the look of metal paints.  2. I have never attempted NMM before and to attempt it on a whole army seemed a fools errand for me.  3. If it is not done well, it will just look like a "Grey colored Chaos Marine army"

Then it dawned on me as I was trying to figure it out and was looking at a test model I had done for the Grey Knights I was so intent on painting.  I just need to add a little more color.  I have done this in 2 ways throughout this first squad.

1st. I used a blue wash on some of the creases of the armor, this was to give the armor a highly polished look and a bit of a color tint.

2nd. I decided on using Red for my banding instead of gold.  The gold while a nice color blends to much with the yellow and black banding that is so common in most Iron Warriors armies.  Red I feel adds a nice contrast, and is the Color of the Mechanicus, and of US army Combat Engineers.  All of which fit in with the theme of the Iron Warriors.

Below we have the first five of these Warriors...

First up a standard Bolter Marine, no real conversion work here, just what I hope is going to be the "standard" for paint across this army

Next we have a Melta-gun armed Marine, one of two for this squad.  Note the old metal Legion of the Damned back pack with skulls, it was sitting in my bits box and I thought it too cool not to use.

Next we have the Squads Aspiring Champion, armed with a Combi-Melta and a Power Fist.  He wears Red Robes (as will all of my squad leaders) has the Warsmiths right arm, a Terminator Fist arm, a helmet from the possessed.  I really think that this model well represents the look and feel that I am going for through the entire army.

Next we have another Bolter Marine, this model was just assembled on a whim when I was bored one night, and he was elected to be the test bed for the paint scheme.

Yet another Bolter armed Marine

 
And above we have the whole squad formed up and ready for battle, well I guess I shouldn't say the whole squad, as I have the other 5 men assembled and in various stages of finish.  I expect they will be done by the end of the week.

Then its on to the first of the Rhino Transports.
I know that this paint scheme may not be to everyone's taste, but I really think that it accomplishes what I am setting out to do.
Of course all comments are welcome, and thanks everyone for reading.

6th Edition is here, and so is my first game

 Okay, so my son Chucky and I went down to the corner store to try out the new 6th edition rules.  We wanted to play a smallish game, so we could take the time to look up rules, but we wanted armies large enough to use some of the new goodies that were spread all through this new rulebook.  With that in mind we agreed on 1000 points a side.

Of course this being my first game of the new edition there was no other army to choose than my beloved Space Wolves who had been collecting dust for a few months while I've been messing around with some other projects.  My son who has decided to start a Tau army, borrowed some of my models so that he could try them out in this new edition. (I should note here, that I am not attempting to club a baby seal for this battle report, my son who is 19, has been playing WH40k for about 9 years, and is quite an accomplished player in his own right.)

Here is the list I decided on:
Wolf Guard Battle Leader, "Erik the Master of the Hunt" on a bike with a Frost Blade (sword)

The Blood Claws x7 with a Power Axe, and a Flamer, led by Wolf Guard Hagar, with Power Axe, and Flamer.  Rhino Transport

The Grey Hunters x10 with a Power Sword, Plasma pistol, 2x Plasma guns, Standard, Mark of the Wulfen, led by Wolf Guard Boris in Terminator Armor, with a Power Axe and Storm Bolter

The Long Fangs x6 with 5x Heavy Bolters

Blood Claw Biker Pack (sorry, can't get used to calling them Swift Claws) x3+1 Attack Bike with Heavy Botler, one pack member has a Power Fist, and another a Melta-gun, led by Wolf Guard Dorgar of the Hill People, on a bike with a Power Fist.

As a fortification choice I took the Aegis Defense Line with the Quad-Gun upgrade.

My son took:
Commander Shas'o, with 2x bodyguards and 2x shield drones with an assortment of Plasma and Missile Pods
A Battle Suit Team of 3 with an assortment of Missile Pods and Burst Cannons with some more Shield Drones
3x Fire Warrior Squads of 10 each
Hammer Head Gunship (which he used one of my Devil Fish as Proxy)

(Please note here that neither list is optimized, we simply wanted to take a variety of units in an effort to see how different units and rules interacted with one another during the course of game play while getting used to the new rules.)

We rolled for the mission and ended up with The Relic, that is a single Objective in the middle of the board, rolling for deployment type we ended up with Vanguard Strike (I like this deployment)

I rolled for my Warlord ability, taking the personal traits, rolling a one I got "Master of Defense" really? WTF?!!  So my Battle Leader on a bike, gets to give himself and the unit he is with (more bikes by the way) the Counter Attack Special rule (which they already have) while in their own deployment zone...

My son, being the sporting fellow, offered me a re-roll, but I declined, it is what it is.  Sometimes the ability will be cool, other times, not so much.


My son deployed with his Fire Warriors center, his Hammer Head in support behind them, and the Missile Pod, Burst Cannon Suit squad on his left, the Commander and Body Guard were in reserve for a deep strike operation.

Below you can see my deployment, I set up my defense line in the center with the Quad gun and the Grey Hunters holding the fort, my Blood Claws in their Rhino were on my left and the Long Fangs on the right.  My Bikers with the Battle leader were as far up and left as they could go, out of line of site to most of the Tau due to intervening terrain.

 Chucky Takes the first turn, Shifting his Fire Warriors (Fire Warriors got a huge boost in this edition, the ability to move and still fire at 30" is a great boon for this unit, maybe more people will start using them in their armies now) and his battle suits he then sends a massive amount of Fire Power into my Long Fangs killing four of them.  They make their moral check, Chucky makes a shift with the Battle suits in the Assault phase in an effort to prepare for the inevitable Biker attack.

In my first turn, I move my bikers forward 12" to behind the building right in front of them.  I rush my rhino forward and left to the far side of the Landing pad, attempting to place the Tau in a pincer move, hopefully causing him to split his fire power on the two units.
My Grey Hunters and the Long Fangs stay put.
I open up with my Long Fangs into the Fire Warriors that are hiding in the ruins, as I didn't have a good field of fire on his Battle Suits, I kill a couple, most making their cover saves.
The Quad gun opens up on the Hammer head, as I was able to draw a line of sight under the landing pad.

I had to take a picture of my shots, because I never roll like this...
He passes two of the cover saves afforded to the Hammer Head, and in the end I strip 2 hull points with glances (all four shots glanced) my dice were hot...
I then Turbo boost my Bikers around the corner of the Building preparing for what will hopefully be a turn two assault, and I also move my Rhino up in the shooting phase to take cover behind a wall and to prepare to get into his lines as quickly as possible.(I would have popped smoke, but I don't think I can if I move flat out)

Chucky then rolls for reserves, and finds that his Commander is going to come in and attempt to save the day, he drops him in Deep Striking right onto the landing pad in a position to turn my Blood Claws into slag.  

He then moves 2 Fire Warrior squads and the Hammer Head into position to support his Commander.  On the other side he commits his other Battle Suit squad and a squad of Fire Warriors to attempt to take out the Bikes (he knows all too well that those bikers need to die, if he is to have any chance of winning)

The fire power he unleashes on the Blood Claws in the Rhino is truly an impressive sight, the Rhino explodes, leaving nothing but a smoking crater, and after the support fire is finished only 2x Blood Claws remain, one with a Flamer and one with a Power Axe.  They pass their pinning check and their moral, so are still a threat to the Greater Good.

On the other side of the board the Tau did not fare as well, killing a single biker, and stripping a wound from the Attack Bike was all the Tau were able to accomplish on that side of the Battle Field.

In my Turn my Bikers go straight for the Battle Suit Squad with Missile Pods and burst, while the Biker Pack goes forward towards the Fire Warriors (I was careful here to split the Character off from the pack, I could have kept him with them and multi-charged, but I didn't want to lose my attack bonuses)

I positioned the last few Blood Claws to shoot with their flamers at the commander and then make a charge attempt.  While my Grey Hunters clambered over the Aegis Wall, and advanced on the Landing Pad, the Long Fangs would take some shots on the Battle Suits to soften them up for Erik.

My shooting being a little lack luster, I decide to do things the old fashioned way, with a howl, I charge with everything I can.  My Blood Claws roll box cars and make the assault to the Battle Suits on the Landing Pad (we made a mistake here, I was supposed to roll 3 dice and take the highest out, but as I was only seven inches away and rolled box cars we decided not to worry about it, as I would have made the charge anyway)
Erik, smashes into the Battle Suit Squad while my Bikers smash into the Fire Warriors, literally as one of them crashes his bike charging into the ruin...Over Watch takes a wound off of my Battle Leader, takes out a Bike from the Swift Claws, and kills the Wolf Guard in the Landing pad charge. (Over Watch is another great boon for some armies, even with needing sixes to hit, it is intimidating to have all that fire power come your way when you are trying to get into someones battle lines)

 Most of the combats were short and bloody, with Erik finishing off the Battle Suits, the Blood Claw bikers killing the Fire Warriors to a man (Hammer of Wrath is just a cool rule).  The Tau commander however, puts up a fight, killing the Blood Claw with the Flamer, I cause enough wounds however with my Power Axe to swing the battle into my favor, the Tau commander passes his leadership and the fight will continue.

As Chucky starts his next turn, he realizes he needs to do something about those damn Bikes.  He shifts his remaining Fire Warrior packs and his Hammer Head into a position to deal with this threat.  He pours everything he has into the Biker pack, when the smoke clears all that remains is my Attack Bike with a single wound remaining, who then promptly fails his leadership check and flees back about 11 inches.  At this point he is quite pleased with himself, but realizes this will cost him, my Battle Leader is still alive, as are 3 Long Fangs, all with Heavy Bolters.  Things are not looking so good for the Tau...

In the Close Combat phase he manages to finish off the last Blood Claw before he even gets to swing, freeing up his Commander and Bodyguards. ( like the new rules for Power Weapons, I really think this is a bad example, because I had so few survive to the combat, but in a larger combat the S5 AP2 will really come in handy I think.  as another note, I played another game after this with my DeathWing, and had a Sgt. with a Power Maul walk through quite a few Orks.  S6 AP4 isn't so bad)

The Tau are in trouble, I push hard with my Battle Leader and prepare to assault a large group of Fire Warriors, riding right through the ruin, a gamble I know, I have to remember that IC do not have skilled rider anymore.  My Lone Attack bike positions himself on another Fire Warrior squad out of the way of the Long Fangs so they can soften them up a bit before the charge.

My Grey Hunters continue their advance and climb onto the Landing Pad.

In my shooting phase the combined fire power of the Long Fangs and the Attack Bike kill 8 Fire Warriors out of the ten, they pass their Moral and decide to stick around for the face smash, I fire with my Bolters on the bike of the Battle leader to no effect, Erik just likes to swing his Frost Blade I think, (he is a lousy shot)

The Grey Hunters open up fire, trusting in their close range fire power to win them through the day, killing the Shield Drones one of the Body Guard and causing a wound on the commander. 

 
I declare my charges, the Battle Leader smashes into the full squad of ten Fire Warriors and my Attack bike, well, uhm, he rolls a pair of twos and falls short of making the charge.  This would prove fatal for the Attack bikers...(I originally thought I would hate the new charge rules, but I find the uncertainty exciting.)

 Of course Erik, wins combat, the Tau break and are promptly run down.  

Not much left, Chucky uses the Hammer Head to try and stop Erik, to no avail.  The remaining Fire Warriors do manage to kill the Attack Bike, but the Tau Commanders shooting isn't as effective against the Grey Hunters as he needs it to be.  In his assault phase he abandons the Landing pad in an effort to preserve the life of his commander.

In this last turn, I move my Grey Hunters onto the objective, and open fire on the Tau Battle suits, Erik finishes off the Hammer Head (it only had one hull point left, and didn't move in the previous turn), and my Long Fangs finish off the last of the Fire Warriors.

a Victory for the Space Wolves.  Not a bad first outing.

Chucky has since improved the list, his new 1000 point Tau list is much deadlier, I will post it here soon.

I am really not happy with the performance of the Rhino, very fragile now.  I think Mech may finally be dead.  Long live the Blood Claw Biker!!! 

Oh, and I know most of you disagree, but the Heavy Bolter is even more awesome than before.  Missile Spam? Pffft....  15 Heavy Bolters baby...

I do hope you all enjoyed the read, please feel free to post any and all comments you may have.  Especially if you note any rules mistakes, this was our first game with this new edition.