Underdog, Scalper, or Clubbed Seal?

So this weekend it's the Caledonian Uprising and the draw for the fist round was made a few weeks ago and I have been drawn against the UK Number 1 and England ETC Captain Josh Roberts.

Yeah....

hey you at the back there stop digging that shallow grave! I'm not dead yet!

So having had too long to think (yes I get that bored at work), listening to podcasts, and having a ponder at the mission pack here's my thoughts on what or what not to do but first what I can gather what josh's Grey Knights are packing:

 

 

Inquisitor Coteaz

 

10 Purifiers. 4 Psycannons, 3 Halberds, 2 Daemon Hammers, Knight of the Flame with Halberd

Razorback, Twin-linked Assault Cannon, Psybolt Ammunition

10 Purifiers. 4 Psycannons, 3 Halberds, 2 Daemon Hammers, Knight of the Flame with Halberd

Razorback, Twin-linked Assault Cannon, Psybolt Ammunition

Venerable Dreadnought, 2 Twin-linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition

Henchmen Warband: 5 Death Cult Assassins

Razorback, Twin-linked Heavy Bolters,  Psybolt Ammunition, Search Light.

Henchmen Warband: 5 Death Cult Assassins

Razorback, Twin-linked Heavy Bolters,  Psybolt Ammunition, Search Light.

Henchmen Warband: 3 Warrior Acolytes

Razorback, Twin-linked Heavy Bolters,  Psybolt Ammunition.

Henchmen Warband: 3 Warrior Acolytes

Inquisitorial Chimera, Multi-laser, Heavy Flamer, Search Light

Henchmen Warband: 3 Warrior Acolytes

Dreadnought, 2 Twin-linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition

Dreadnought, 2 Twin-linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition
Dreadnought, 2 Twin-linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition 

 

Give or take a few points or a slight change in transports.

 

 

Hell of a lot of dakka to take of care of a horde of foot slogging Guard but the mission is Dawn of War with a corner to corner line splitting the board, Primary mission is 5 objectives (8 points), Secondary Kill Points (4 points) and another 8 - 0 points based on the victory points diffrence.

But on the up side the recent batch of FaQ's for most of the 40k armies does mean that I can deploy 2 whole platoons in Dawn of War! But the big question is do I blob up or not as at first glance it seems like a 5 objectives and dawn of war mission but 14 of the 20 games points are to do with killing stuff so I could forget about the objectives and try just to blow stuff up.

If I blob up all it takes is just 1 unit of purifiers to make combat and I'm shafted due to cleansing flame, but I could try to match the MSU style by playing the platoons as normal, or have a couple of 20 man blobs with a few 10 man units as bubble wrap/chaff to get in the way.

If he wins the roll of to deploy and forces me to deploy first I will just shove 1 unit forwards to keep him back, but if I deploy second I can see where he goes before I deploy my full strength.

As for target priority it's Purifiers, Purifiers, Purifiers! And then the razorbacks, not fussed about the Dreadnoughts unless they try to make combat with me. I aim to use the Strom Troopers as disruption - hopefully they can bag a razorback and take out the acolytes inside if it goes boom. As for the assassins they charge a unit, kill it and then die to lasfire - happy days, but I think they will skulk around and mop up units or sit on objectives.

 

I reckon that the purifiers will combat squad and hijack other transports and try to rush me with 4 units in effect, most of the time purifiers will go into a shoot fight and mop up in assault but with so many bodies they cannot win a shooting fight so have to make combat IMO.

The problem (hopefully) for the GK will be that I can knock out razorbacks quickly and his work is left to the Purifiers who could be left isolated if I play for kills, but playing for kills is risky as the game points for the objectives is 8 for a win or 4 for a draw, but kill points is 4 or 2, and a variable scale on victory points so it's a hard choice to make because if I set up purely not to take objectives I could lose big as I'm set in one way but if I go for objectives I could be diluting my fire power.

I will have to wait and see how I feel is the best way to play it - plus this is only game 1 in a 6 game tournament so it's no good obsessing over this one too much. If I lose badly I should hopefully get a easy game in round 2.

 

Time will tell!

Oh and hi to Ben :p

I'm Back!

Hello again folks. Now since the Space Wolves blog is now officially in hibernation until the Wolf time it's now back to flying solo.

After the last year life has not been kind to my girl friend and I, but on the upside we are now living together and are keeping each other (in)sane. Oh and the spare room has been taken over my several boxes of plastic and metal toy solders!

Hobby wise I haven't played much, but I have had a few games in with my Ultramarines 1st Company (Deathwing) and my Space Wolves. But with a whole new Marine army to build the Wolves are taking a back seat for the foreseeable future. I have tickets to the Scottish ETC team's annual tournament The Caledonian Uprising, the Indy 40k UKGT in March and Open War 17 in April, and hopefully Blog Wars 3 in June, and some more Open Wars later in year.

In the last 3 months I have been to Open War 16 and got it's first ever Slaughter Award (first max points victory) against a double Jetbike seer council (remember when they where scary!?), and eventually came 13th out of 43. In December I went to Blog wars ran by Alex over at From the Fang and came 11th out of 22 - perfect mid table obscurity!

Despite my lack of social/weekly games due to crappy shifts at work (as well as working the odd night), I have gotten into pod casts, and at the moment my favourites are the 40kUK and 11th Company Pod casts, and non hobby wise BBC Radio 5 Live's Fighting Talk and Kermode and Mayo's Film Review. I have found the 40k pod casts to be really useful as I have not played against the new Necron Codex or much experience against dirty Grey Knight lists.

Despite working on a all new Marine army (Captain Model), for Caledonian I'm taking my first true love - Imperial Guard. But don't worry it's not leafblower - I don't even own a single Hydra or Vendetta! But I've gone mad and gone for pure foot sloggers!

HQ
Company Command Squad, Regimental Banner, Lord Castellan Creed= 155
Company Command Squad, Regimental Banner = 65

Elites
5 Storm Troopers, 2 Melta Guns = 105
5 Storm Troopers, 2 Melta Guns = 105
5 Storm Troopers, 2 Melta Guns = 105

Troops:
Platoon 1:
Platoon Command Squad, 2 Melta Guns = 50
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Plasma Gun = 75
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Plasma Gun = 75
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Plasma Gun, Commissar = 110

Platoon 2:
Platoon Command Squad, 2 Melta Guns = 50
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun = 85
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun = 85
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun, Commissar = 120

Platoon 3:
Platoon Command Squad, 2 Melta Guns = 50
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun = 85
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun = 85
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun, Commissar = 120

Platoon 4:
Platoon Command Squad, 2 Melta Guns = 50
Infantry Squad, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun = 80
Infantry Squad, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun = 80
Infantry Squad, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun, Commissar = 115

1850


Why I have I gone pure foot slogging? Well the "meta" is based around killing mass light transports or heavy armour with melta, or at least suppressing it, this leaves many lists lacking against large numbers. While mass St6 Razorback spam will hurt it's not going to kill 170ish models in a game. So hopefully I might be able to catch many people out. But also I'm a bit mad, but my IG have always served me well - even before they where cool!

Here's to a new year of oldish blogging!

My Space Wolf GT Autopsy

So here I am a week after the UK Independent Grand Tournament for 40k, and after 6 games with the same list, it's time to de-construct the list and rebuild it so it's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.

So I'm going to list my army out and go though how each unit performed and then a nice big summary at the end along with a new list.

So without further ado......

HQ's:

Rune Priest, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane, Chooser of the Slain

Rune Priest, Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf

Only ever 1 Rune Priest ever performed in each of my games. Powers wise I only ever used Living lightning and occasionally Jaws of the World Wolf, and that was only twice and the Priest died the following turn but it did always bag a big target (Old Zogwart and a Tervigon). I think I can just get away with the 1 Rune Priest as combat wise they where generally no better than a Grey Hunter with a power weapon. They performed best vs enemy psykers, minimising the impact of Alan's Blood Angels Libby, shutting out multiple Catalyst powers (grants Feel No Pain) vs Tim's Tyranids and making Thomas's Salamanders Terminator Libby useless. 

Elites

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun 

With the one exception against Tim's Tyranids the Wolf Scouts always made for a royal pain in the arse against everyone, and where one unit failed the second picked up the slack. The made Gary's Sister's castle up around his Exorsists, they won me the game vs Thomas, got the Wolf Guard power fist into place to kill Ben's Warboss, saved my Long Fangs against Gareth's Orks.

3 Wolf Guard: 2 armed with a power fist and a combi melta each, 1 with a combi melta and a bolt pistol

I need more. I need more power fists/weapons etc. The flexibility of placing the Wolf Guard where I like was always handy.

Troops

10 Grey hunters, 2 Melta Guns, Wolf Banner, Mark of the Wulfen

Rhino 

10 Grey hunters, 2 Melta Guns, Wolf Banner, Mark of the Wulfen 

Rhino 

5 Grey Hunters, 1 Melta Gun

Rhino 

6 Grey Hunters, 1 Flamer

Rhino = 35

I need a dedicated scoring unit. Having so much potential killing power waiting to be unleashed in only 4 units meant that I struggled to contest and fight over multiple objectives. As for the 10 man squads it's nice to have the 2 melta guns, but generally they would fire and then either hit the target or the contents in assault so obsessing over 10 men and double melta over 9 + Wolf Guard isn't a biggy for me any more as I always need the that "hidden" power fist more. Having the power fist lets me take on more targets, deal with characters, and combined with the banner will be great.

Fast Attack

Land Speeder Tornado, Multi Melta, Heavy flamer 

Land Speeder Tornado, Multi Melta, Heavy flamer 

Land Speeder Tornado, Multi Melta, Heavy flamer
 

Nothing wrong with these guys - I just got to learn to use them better. I was debating on if I should drop the heavy flamers, but in hindsight having a second gun makes it more flexible and able to deal with anything that pops out of what it shot.

Heavy Support

5 Long Fangs, 4 Missile Launchers 

Razorback, Lascannon, Twin linked Plasma gun

5 Long Fangs, 4 Missile Launchers 

Razorback, Lascannon, Twin linked Plasma gun  

Right I'm going to be honest here and say....

The Las/plas-backs sucked. With only two they where shooting target 1 and 2. For 150 points I would rather have a 3rd unit of Long Fangs to pick up the slack should the other 2 fail (which they did in 2 games). In fact for 150 points I can get another 5 man, 4 missile unit and have change for more Grey Hunters and Wolf  Guard. The power of the Las/plas-back is in numbers, and 2 is no where big enough, in fact I reckon it's a all or nothing choice.

The 'power' of this army over the weekend was it's balance, and how every unit was a equal threat, and the Las/plas-backs stuck out as a easy armour 11 thumb to shoot at.

So to recap:

I can get away with 1 Rune Priest,

I need a dedicated scoring unit,

More Wolf Guard!

Las/plas-backs are good but only if that's all you're using

So what has my army list evolved into now?

HQ

Rune Priest (Powers yet to be decided) = 100

Elites

5 Wolf Scouts, melta gun = 85

5 Wolf Scouts, melta gun = 85

5 Wolf Guard, all with power fists and combi meltas = 215

Troops:

8 Grey Hunters, Wolf Banner, Wulfen, Melta Gun = 150 (Rune Priest rides with these guys)

Rhino = 35

9 Grey Hunters, Wolf Banner, Wulfen, Melta Gun = 165

Rhino = 35

9 Grey Hunters, Wolf Banner, Wulfen, Melta Gun = 165

Rhino = 35

5 Grey Hunters, Flamer = 75

Razorback, Twin-linked Heavy Bolters = 40

Fast Attack

Land Speeder, Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer = 70

Land Speeder, Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer = 70

Land Speeder, Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer = 70

Heavy Support:

5 Long fangs, 4 missile launchers = 115

5 Long fangs, 4 missile launchers = 115

5 Long fangs, 4 missile launchers = 115

This leaves me with 10 points left which I am unsure what to spend (or tweak with) on. I might just chuck a Wolf banner on the 5 man unit. Making the 5 man unit 6 strong seems like a good idea but 6 makes them seem almost like a front line unit, but more importantly robs them the chance of the Rune Priest or a Wolf Guard to ride along with them in objective based games as I have seen many LD8 Marines run off a objective in turn 7. I would really like to get the Scouts up to 6 man squads (7 with a Wolf Guard) as the extra body will make them a longer lasting threat with more attacks/grenades to mess things up, but that's a bit more of a wish at the moment.

I'm stuck with the original list for Open War 15 for next week, but I'm wiser for it.

Oh I've been to the Forge World Open Day today and the rules for Bran Redmaw.........

.......Psycotic Ware/wuflen-marine......

.............. Behind enemy lines Grey Hunters anyone???

UK Indy GT: Game 5: Blood Angels and Game 6: Orks

So games 5 and 6 today. Which will both see me make a fuck load of mistakes!

Game 5 was 5 objectives and Spearhead deployment.

There are no pics as my opponent Alan didn't want any, which I was glad for as my batteries where dying, and this was the most tactically taxing game of the entire tournament!

Alan's list was:
Librarian, Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol, Shield of Sanguinius, Unleash Rage
Honour Guard, Jump Packs, Power Weapon, Trainee Sanguinary Priest
Furioso Dreadnought, Frag Cannon, Blood Fist, melta gun
Stormraven Gunship, TL Assault Cannon, Typhoon Missile Launcher, Extra armour
10 Tactical Marines, Sarg with combi melta and power weapon, Multi melta, melta gun, in a Rhino
10 Tactical Marines, Sarg with combi Plasma and power weapon, plasma gun, missile launcher, in a Rhino
5 Assault Marines, Sergeant with a power weapon and infernus pistol, remove jump packs for a Land Raider Redeemer with a multi melta
2x Predators with Autocannons and Heavy Bolters


Mistake 1:
I won the roll for deploying the objectives first and in a bout of madness tried to group some of them up to negate the BA's innate mobility and I thought it was Dawn of War, not table quaters - Do'h!!!

So naturally I lost the roll to choose deployment zone and Alan took the top left one:

The red blog is a 5 man combat squad with a missile launcher

So we set up, Alan kept his Melta Tactical Squad in reserve and I kept a Single Land Speeder and my Scouts in reserve. The Libby, honour guard and the dread where all riding in the Stormraven.

I saw this game as - "If I kill the Land Raider and the Stromraven - I win" which is true, but hard to do.

The game started of well but I just could not kill the Land Raider despite all the melta fire I was pouring on to it. I manage to block it in the middle with a rhino but just could not bust it open. I manage to get my scouts in on turn 2. One in form the left to pop the rhino and criple the combat squad inside, and the other rear shotted the Stormraven.

The unit in the blocking Rhino and their Rune Priest failed to kill the 5 Assault Marines who came out of the Land Raider. 2 Assault Marines ran away but I only had the Rune Priest left in the unit :/

Meanwhile the Libby and the Honour guard jumped from scout squad to scout squad putting out fires and then into a massive combat by the middle 2 objectives. His tactical squad in reserve came in on to the far right objective and took out the Razorback over there but not before grouping up in sight of the Long Fangs and losing 8 Marines to 4 frag missiles! But the 2 remaining marines ran back into their Rhino and camped the objective.

In the end he had two tactical marines on the top left and top right objectives and all I had was the bottom left - until I went for a massive gamble on trying to get a draw, but it failed.

My mistake in putting down the objectives cost me, despite it being a tactically brilliant game to play in. It was proper cut and thrust, with move and counter move, good luck and bad in equal measures for both players. Best game of the weekend for me.



Anyway game 6 vs Orks in Dawn of War, Annihilation

Game 6 saw me on the same table as game 4, but this time against Gareth Donnelly's Orks.

Gareth's Orks where:
Big Mek with Kustom Force Field
3x 15 Lootas :o
3x 12 Slugga Boyz, with a Nob armed with a Klaw and a boss pole. In a Trukk with a red paint job, grot riggers and a reinforced ram.
18 Slugga Boyz with another klaw and boss pole nob in a.......
Battlewagon, Deff Rolla, Red paint job, armour plates and grott riggers
3 Deffkoptas, all with Buzzsaws.

So ouch 45 Lootas EEPP!

Now I will admit now I saw the Lootas and just panicked like a noob.

So here's how we both moved on at the end of turn 1:

I huddle up in the corner hoping for the old left hook again

I push my Speeders forward to distract the lootas if possible

I brought everything in - even my scouts. The plan being they hijack the Long Fang's Razorbacks

Turn 2 sees 2 land speeders crash and burn from the lootas while a push up the left pretty much unmolested. A unit of Long Fangs pull of a miracle shot on the Trukk next to the Battle Wagon and destroy it.

Turn 3 sees me push up some more and the Deff Koptas come in and mess up a unit of long fangs. I bring back a unit of scouts to deal with them, but it takes 2 rounds of combat to kill them - even though they should of made the scouts mince meat.

Meanwhile I push the last Land Speeder in front of the Lootas daring them to shoot it and not my Rhinos.

Ye olde left hook

Now at the start of turn 4 my batteries died so my last pic of the Battle Wagon breaking to the middle of the board in hoping for a multiple ram with it's deff rolla:

The Orks back off seeing what big claws the Wolves have..

The Battle Wagon does indeed ram one Rhino and destroy it and the unit inside try to death or glory with the Wolf guard with a combi melta but roll 11 for their leadership and run! The rest of the game turns into the Orks throwing chaff infront of the Wolves so they cannot close the kill point gap, granted this does net me the large mob of orks, the Battle Wagon and the Big Mek but it's all too late in the day.

The game ends at the end of turn 6 with the Kill points 11-9 to the Orks

To be honest between panic, a dodgy stomach, and the disappointment of losing the Blood Angel game to my own stupidity - I freaked out like a noob.

I would like to think I am man enough to admit to my own mistakes.

So what have I learned over the weekend about me and the list:

Aggression pays off.
I need to put the pressure on from the word go - surprisingly I won both the "roll dice and draw" games by being the more aggressive and tactical player. I lost both the kill point games by playing like a sissy. My own natural fear of Orks lost me game 6 - I should of deep striked the land speeders and outflanked the scouts as normal, but T4, 2 attack orks in a unit of 15 seemed too much for my scouts. I was so hung up on the Lootas I forgot about the soft targets, the easy kill points - the trukks.

Having no Death Star messes up my opponents.
In a game where everything is an equal threat what do you choose to kill first? If I had a unit of Thunderwolves it would be obvious they would be target one for my foe.

The list needs fine tuning.
I am close to a great list, with a few tweaks here and there it can really grow it's claws and teeth to be a truly fearsome beast.

So come the Weekend (Sunday hopfully) I will be doing a post on what did and didn't work in the tournament as well as in all the practise games I have had since January in the run up.

So come back Sunday where I will cut thought each unit piece by piece CSI style!

UK Indy GT: Game 4: Salamanders

So Game 4 vs Salamanders (Vanilla Marines).

This will see me pitted against Thomas Jackson in Capture and Control (bore draw) and pitch battle - same combo as game 2.

Overnight the tournament organisers had the brilliant idea of reversing the table numbers for day two i.e. Table 1 is now the bottom table, the bottom table became 1. This was to stop the top players getting use to the same handful of tables and generally shake everything up for everyone.

So the Salamanders had:
Vulkan Hestan
Terminator Librarian in Terminator armour, storm shield, avenger and null zone
5 Assault Terminators (4 sets of hammers and shields)
Ironclad Dreadnought with a heavy flamer and a drop pod with a locator beacon
10 man Tactical squad with a missile launcher, flamer, melta bombs on the Sergeant. in a Rhino
10 man Tactical squad with a multi melta, melta gun, combi meta, all in a drop pod
5 Scouts with a Sergeant with a Power fist, combi melta in a.....
Land Speeder Storm with a Heavy Flamer
2 Vindicators
Thunderfire Cannon
Land Speeder Typhoon with a Multi Melta

So a real mix bag of units, but with multiple tools for every job.

So Deployment saw me shove my objective behind a building in my right hand corner while Thomas put his out in the open just over to my left - I would of gone for behind the 2 buildings on the left but hey and set up his army in a general gun line. I set up with the two 10 man units up on the left to go up and around to his objective (it worked in game 2!) and left everything else to defend mine in a anti deep strike set up (Thanks to Tom's Daemons) The Thomas I was playing Turbo boosted his Land Speeder Strom for his scout move.

Deployment out of shot on the far right are my 2 10 man squads

So Turn 1 saw the Land Speeder Storm fly in to try and toast up a Rhino. The Vindicators and the Terminators advanced at full pelt. The Drop Pod with Vulkan and a Tactical Squad went to land on the other side of the building my objective was behind but scattered 11 towards my board edge and off it! But where only delayed. My 1st turn saw my flanking units fly up the left hoping to make the most of the buildings in future turns. It takes all my shooting to kill the Land Speeder Storm and the scouts :/ but their Kamikaze attack run had to be stopped.

Turn 2 sees both drop pods arrive on time and spot on. The Vindicators open up on my flanking Rhinos but a combination of poor rolling and smoke launchers saved them. Vulkan's Tactical squad combat squads for multiple scoring units in my face while the Sergeant's combi melta wrecks a Rhino. The Thunderfire cannon lets rip on a unit of Long Fangs and kill all bar 2!

This is a problem....

My Turn 2 sees both my Scout units in and wanting to make up for their no show vs the Tyranids in Game 3. Not only do they blow up the Rhino holding the Tactical Squad camping his objective but also smash up the Tactical squad wholesale in combat as my flanking Rhinos start to reach cover. Meanwhile over near my objective a Land Speeder tryies to dish out some flamer based irony to Vulkan's combat squad to no effect, but my 2 Long Fangs brighten up and destroy the Thunderfire cannon while the 2nd unit take down the Ironclad before it became a really big problem.

The Scouts do what they do best - Surprise Attack!!!!

In assault the Grey Hunter Squad and the Rune Priest who was with them smash up a combat squad and the last man flees.

Things seem a lot rosier now

Turn 3 sees the Vindicators hit reverse as they lose contact with the Tactical squad in the back line, but the Scouts hide well in the Rhino's crater. The Terminators close the gap by charging a Land Speeder and Vulkan's combat squad charge the Grey Hunters and Rune Priest. Vulkan pretty much Solo's the entire unit in his and my assault phases. A Vindicator manages to stun a Rhino sneaking up the left, but the lead Rhino gets away and is ready to take his objective come turn 4. The Land Speeder Typhoon shoots the same Rhino but to no effect. I choose to pile in the unit of Long Fangs (who killed the Ironclad) into Vulkan's combat to a) slow him down, b) get more attacks on his few reaming Tactical Marines, and c) they had bugger all to shoot at. It's a good job I did as the last Grey Hunter legged it and left the job to the Veterans - with the heavy weapons! The Techmarine charges the Scouts only to be dropped with a sneaky blade into a soft spot.

Start of Turn 4

Turn 4 sees the stunned Rhino finally receive some real damage and become immobilised. The Rhino now near his objective is destroyed but the Grey Hunters remain ok. The Grey Hunters on my left jump out and melt the Vindicator with a sneaky shot under the Land Speeder as 2 scouts manage to take out the 2nd Vindicator. Vulkan finishes off the Long Fangs but the time they brought was vital.

Things on the left flank for the Salamanders go from bad.......

......... to worse

Turn 5 sees my Land Speeders form a line to block the Terminators who have had a rotten time as they keep on fluffing their rolls vs the lightly armed skimmers. My last Grey Hunter squad defending my objective jump out along with a Rune Priest needing only to kill Vulkan's two friends as they are his only true threat - as scoring models. The 2 Tactical marines die in a flurry of flame, melta, and psychic blasts - and Vulkan finally takes a wound. With the result of the game already decided I pile in my Grey Hunters and Rune Priest in an attempt to drop Vulkan.

Turn 6 sees me destroy his Land Speeder and continue on blocking his Terminators with my Land Speeders. Vulkan keeps on chopping up Wolves but the battle is lost.

Salamander objective - in Wolves hands

Vulkan keeps chopping away but he's all alone

So what did I learn from this game:
Same as Game 1 and 2 - Aggression
Don't be afraid what your opponent can do to you, concentrate on how you're going to mess him up
Sitting on objectives from turn 1 isn't always the smartest move - as long as you get there or jump the enemy by turn 5 you will be fine

Games 5 and 6 will posted together tomorrow as I have no pictures for game 4 (as my opponent didn't want any) and game 6 was really quick - but both are filled with stupid mistakes on my part.

So what will happen against the Blood Angles in Game 4? And can I repeat another massacre on the Orks again??

UK Indy GT: Game 3: Tyranids

So Game 3 then!

This round saw my Space Wolves pitted up against Tim King's Tyranids. Tim is the Scottish ETC captain so I knew this was going to be a close game.

The mission for round 3 was Annihilation, spearhead deployment.

Tim's list was:
3x Tervigon, Catalyst, Cluster Spines
3x2 Hive Guard
2x 10 Termagants
2 Trygons, Adrenal Glands
Trygon Prime, Adrenal Glands
9 Genestealers, Toxin Sacs

Tim won the roll for deployment, set up in the middle, but kept his 20 Gaunts in reserve and out flanked with the Genesteakers. I didn't seize the initiative.

Deployment

So turn 1 sees the Nids advance and the 6 Hive Guard only being able to stun rhinos at best. In my first turn my Long Fangs and Razorbacks team up to drop a Trygon as my Jaws Rune Priest attempts to Jaws a line of 2 Trygons and a Tervigon - with only the Tervigon falling down a hole.

Turn 2 sees the Hive Guard turn things up a notch a take out 3 of my Rhinos in a flurry of death along with a Land Speeder and many Gaunts coming in from reserve to fleshbore the Jaws Priest for killing their mummy. While in reply I drop a 2nd Trygon (leaving only the Prime) while one of my Land Speeders dish out some flamer based death on the Gaunts who came on from reserve. Thankfully for me both remaining Tervigons spawn a unit but run dry!

Start of my 2nd Turn

Turn 3 sees the Genestealers come in and combi charge a unit of Long Fangs and a Razorback (whihc is destroyed). The Land Speeder from turn 2 kept on buring Gaunts and effectively made both of his 10 man units flee alone. Sadly the Genestealers finished of the Long Fangs in my turn 3 and the Trygon Prime started to eat Grey Hunters :(

Genestealers arrive eyeing up lunch

Turn 4 sees me trying to kill the Hive Guard and then realising that they are T6, S5, WS4 and with a 3+ save!!!! The Trygon Prime moves into another unit of Grey Hunters after my Long Fangs goes on strike, but as he drops the last Grey Hunter and my last Rune Priest, my Rune priest manages to wound the beast and drop it with his force weapon despite being in Shadow of the Warp range and testing on 3D6!

My Wolf Scouts finally turn up to pick on the Genestealers but not much else as the game was over bar the shouting.

The Wolf Scouts turns up - the lazy blaggards!

Turn 5 sees Tim closing in for the kill as I try to keep away and drop anything that was vulnerable enough.

The game ends at the end of Turn 5

Tim wins 15 - 9 on kill points but in Victory Points there was only a 7 point difference!

A good game against a really great guy in Tim who knew how to use his army.

So what did I learn in this game:
I set up too aggressive and being in Hive Guard range from turn 1 did not help me one bit!
After practise games against Nids I didn't see the Genestealers as a threat due to being in cover - wrong!
I need to play better Nid players - 4th edition Nidzilla is dead
Hive Guard hurt, and for a shooting unit are really tough
Maybe more Long Fangs, a 3rd unit can really pick up the slack when 2 of them fail
When the Scouts fail - they fail big time!

So after day 1 I'm set in mid table obscurity with a Draw, a Win and a Loss.

Saturday night saw the traditional pub quiz where I, Tim (who I just played), my mate Walter and seemingly most of the Scottish ETC team managed to come 2nd in the quiz and get a pint each! :D

Game 4 Tomorrow will see my pitted against the only Salamander army in the field, controlled by Thomas Jackson, in another game of Capture and Control (bore draw), pitch battle (again).

Come back tomorrow to see who wins - Vulkan and friends or the Wolves of Fenris?

Hear me Ramble

Well I finally got a decent microphone so after so long of threatening to bore you all to death with my monotone voice here it is.

40k For Old Men Episode 11: Hungry like a (tic tac) wolf

This is pretty much me talking about the history of my Space Wolves and their not some humble birth from a bath full of Dettol.

I hate the sound of my own voice..........