Suffer Not the Cincinnati Reds

I just watched the San Francisco Giants crush the Cincinnati Reds 16-5 from the comforts of the Diamond Suite. I’ve lived a block away from AT&T Park since moving to San Francisco in May, but this was my first Giants game.

I’m glad I waited!

The Diamond Suite is unreal. It’s on the press level and has an unbelievable view of the field. The game was hands-down the most action packed baseball game I’ve ever watched — with SEVEN home runs (a new record for the stadium’s 11-year history). Sandoval and Torres both scored four RBIs. Posey and Uribe powered in SIX runs in the fifth inning alone.

Today was the hottest day I’ve experienced in San Francisco (94 degrees in the city). So it’s only fitting that I ended it with the hottest baseball game I’ve ever seen. It was definitely the kind of game that rekindles your love for baseball.

Rogue Trader Campaign: The Seed

I love the beginning of a new campaign! Here’s an excerpt from the introduction to the setting I’m creating. Enjoy!

“There are many versions of the story of Solon Fortunatus Wolf and his pursuit of the Sextant Pacificus. My favorite starts with a girl and a prophecy.

The stars are her home
But Heleroia her destination
Mothered by the void
Her Father’s salvation
The price of her dream
Shall be the ruin of Man

The prophesy was spoken by a dying Eldar named Tuireann and written down by a bloody-handed explicator named Czervak. At the same instant, halfway across the galaxy, twenty-seven autosavants each wrote a distinct word of the prophecy twenty-seven times. The incident, now called the Tuireann Charade, was studied for decades. Most concluded that the Eldar was referring to a star-spanning apocalypse and the autosavants a coincidental error, but a few believe he foresaw a human child with a perilous destiny.

Seven hundred twenty-nine years after Tuireann took his last breath, a beautiful human child took her first. Born an orphan on the same Ecclesiarchy ship that interrogated and executed Tuirreann, she was named after the ship that was to become her home.

They called her Lucky Sally.”

Comments are welcome!

First Steps: Rogue Trader Campaign

A little more than a year ago, we released a campaign book called the Macharian Crusade. The local version of the campaign led to endless hours of fun and exploration at our local gaming store involving more than 30 players (and expanding the Imperium by hundreds of conquered new worlds).

In a very real way the Segmentum Pacificus became familiar to us. We knew our path along the stars and the dangers between our army group and those of our friends. Dozens of weekly battles really helped us define the Segmentum Pacificus during the time of Solar Macharius.

When we decided to give Rogue Trader a spin, one of the big hurdles we faced was a setting located just beyond the Segmentum Obscurus. There were all kinds of neat things there, but it lacked something. While planning out the next game, I pulled the old Macharian Cruade book off the shelf and thought, “wouldn’t be awesome if we could play Rogue Trader here?”. Then that rarely-heard good idea bell went off in my head. So I decided to abandon the default setting for one in the galactic Old West.

What excited us setting a campaign in the Segmentum Pacificus is now we get to explore has happened in the 1,000 since our last visit. Here are some of the questions we hope to answer:

1. What happened to the Crimson Guard after the defeat of the Orks of Calverna? Did they continue to experiment with their zygote program to rebuild their numbers? With Cathas destroyed and their enemies scattered, did they leave Calverna space for a new battleground?

2. The Il-Kathe has had 1,000 years to recover from the blow landed by Lord Solar and the Black Templar’s 745th Crusade Fleet. The Il-Kathe Craftworld was never found, so what has the High-Bonesinger Kheyladon been up to for the last ten centuries?

3. After his rival Matteus Wolf disappared near the Halo Stars, did Rogue Trader Ichabod Thrift create a lasting dynasty? Has anyone seen the lost Flying Duchess or the mysterious Sextant Pacificus?

4. Chem-Lord Maharana and Penal-Colonel Savoy almost certainly stayed behind to plunder the newly conquered Crusade worlds, but did any of the other generals stay behind to create their own segmentum fiefdoms?

5. To the woe of the Mechanicus, Lord Solar saw that the riches and technology of Adrantis were completely destroyed. Did anything (or anyone) survive the purge?

We are fortunate to walk the path of Lord Solar and the greatest heroes of the Imperium. We get to see the famous battlefields scattered with ships of legend. We get to stand beneath the monuments to the fallen and the victorious. We get to set foot on conquered worlds to find that flourished or failed. We get to see what new dangerous await in the Segmentum Pacificus.

How cool is that?

Here’s an early version of the campaign map. If you compare it to the campaign map, you’ll see we’re focusing on the south-west area of the segmentum, roughly centered on the missing location of Rogue Trader Matteus Wolf’s Flying Duchess.

Comments are welcome!

Postcoital Rogue Trader

We had our first Rogue Trader session last night and it was a ton of fun. We spend some time building characters (love the Origin Path) and building a ship (also a lot of fun).

After the creation effort was complete (which ended up being a lot more cooperative and fun — thanks to the Origin Path innovation), we ran through two test combats. A group of warp-possessed servitors on the bridge of their ship and a space combat against a trio of pirate raiders.

Our first impressions are that some of the flaws of Dark Heresy remain (full auto-fire is still broken), but overall the game has taken a huge leap in the right direction. Space combat is fun and thought-provoking and the setting is top-notch.

I’m writing a full review for BOLS, but so far the experience has been very positive.

Rogue Trader is on the shelves, so you should definitely flip through it.

Reading: Rogue Trader

So the folks at Fantasy Flight Games were nice enough to send us a preview copy of the new Rogue Trader RPG. I’m only going to say a few words about the game here, but look for a more in-depth review for BOLS soon.

It uses the same rules as the popular Dark Heresy RPG. Dark Heresy is a gorgeous game and the background is deep. I loved to read the Dark Heresy book, but nothing in that beautiful game made me want to play it.

Rogue Trader is a completely different experience. I’m itching to play the game. Why the difference? It’s tough to put my finger on, but it has something to do with the role of the players in Rogue Trader. Sure, there’s more exploration, and more exploitation - which is awesome. But I understand a rogue trader more than I understand a member of an Inquisitorial retinue. I get the desire to generate profit, capture glory and create a lasting dynasty.

Rogue Trader makes sense to me.

Howdy, Njal!

Our FLGS owner asked me to playtest a 2,000pt four Rune Priest Space Wolves army against _heavy_ tournament armies (more details on that later) and I was lucky enough to get in THREE games last night with some of the local top players.

I can sum up all of the games with Njal Stormcaller is the best character in the game. Bar none. He’s surprisingly abusive.

I’ll put up a more detailed copy of the list today, but here’s the short form:

Njal + 9 Grey Hunters + Drop Pod
Rune Priest + 9 Grey Hunters + Drop Pod
Rune Priest + 9 Grey Hunters + Drop Pod
Rune Priest + 9 Grey Hunters + Drop Pod
Dreadnought + Drop Pod
Dreadnought + Drop Pod
Dreadnought + Drop Pod

Although I probably won’t do battle reports, I’ll talk more about the games in the next couple of Flywire posts.

1. Jwolf’s heavy Chaos Space Marines list.
Highlight: Njal killed Huron in close combat without taking a scratch!
(expect a video battle report of this game in the next few weeks)

2. A 2,000pt version of “The Leafblower” played by Nick Rose.
Hightlight: Njal’s Stormcaller power managed to destroy 4 Chimeras, a Medusa and kill 20 Guardsmen in a single turn!

3. Josiah’s (2009 ‘Ard Boyz finalist) new heavy Space Marine army (geared specifically toward dealing with Space Wolves.
Highlight: Pedro Kantor called down an Orbital Bombardment which scattered so far that it killed 14 of Josiah’s own marines and left me untouched.

Three great players! Three great games! Three tables trashed by Njal Stormcaller!

Bitter Nick-Shaped Pill

Congratulations to Fly Lord Nick Rose (a.k.a. Darkwynn on the forums) for winning ‘Ard Boyz 2009! Nick worked hard, played smart and deserves a collective pat-on-the-back from all of us! I feel particularly vindicated because I was one of Nick’s stepping stones on his crushing path to victory. It was Nick who knocked my super-cheaty™ Space Wolves army out of the first round with his equally-cheaty Imperial Guard army.

This is another major achievement of our little gaming group here in Austin (the Fly Lords of Terra). Jordon won the last WFB ‘Ard Boyz, Jwolf won the last Adepticon Gladiator event (following Bigred’s 2nd Place from previous year), and now Nick brings home the 40K ‘Ard Boyz win.

For the record, that’s a total sweep of all of the major _heavy_ tournaments in the USA for our little local gaming store. Not a comp or painting score in the bunch — just tough armies and tougher players.

In honor of Nick’s win, (as a public service for those who want to detract from his win), I’ve compiled a quick list of ten excuses of why you didn’t win. You can use these free-of-charge on your blog — they not only cover Nick’s win, but for your own poor performance. :)

Top 10 Excuses for Not Winning

10. “The tournament is broken.”

9. “The __________ codex is broken.”

8. “The missions were broken.”

7. “I was broke. If I had more money, I could afford the broken units to win too.”

6. “I had family committments, but would’ve won if I went.”

5. “It’s all just luck anyway.”

4. “I was disturbed by own reflection in Wrecking Crew opponent’s reflection.”

3. “I wasn’t really trying to win.” 

2. “I became disoriented by my opponent’s bad moves.”

1. “I was following a BOLS tactica!”

Congratulations, Nick!

I Heart Mark of the Wulfen

I spent most of my week at the local game developers conference, so I haven’t had a lot of time to respond to comments, PMs and emails. I’m trying to get caught up this weekend.

I did manage to sneak away from meetings, parties and dinners to get a game in on Thursday. And to top it off I got to play some new Space Wolves units! The game was against a “heavy” Eldar list (a practice game for our local, monthly Heavy Tournament) and it was hard fought. I had more than my fair share of good dice rolls, but I can tell that mechanized Eldar may be the “rock” to the Space Wolves “scissors”. Runes of Warding shuts down Rune Priests and in that game I lost BOTH of my Rune Priests to Perils.

NEW UNITS (FOR ME)

“Far” Rune Priest (+ Grey Hunters): The Rune Priest was decked out with Master of Runes, a Wolftooth Necklace, Chooser of the Slain, and the Living Lightning and Storm Caller powers. I put him in a unit with 9 Grey Hunters (Meltagun, Power Fist, Mark of the Wolfen) in a Rhino. I called him the “far” Rune Priest because a second (“near”) Rune Priest was deployed in a Drop Pod.

The Rhino(s) provided cover for the Skyclaws and Storm Caller gave them some extra protection. The Rune Priest shot BS5 Living Lighting while the unit advanced.

Although I didn’t need the anti-infiltration function of the Chooser of the Slain, it was worth the 10pts to effectively upgrade my Rune Priest to BS5.

Highlight #1: The Rune Priest (and a large pack of Space Wolves) assaulted the Avatar. The Rune Priest hit on 3s against his WS10 (Wolftail Necklace), wounded on 2s against his T6 (the Avatar is a daemon) and killed the Avatar with one lucky shot (even with Runes of Warding). Sure, it was a fluke (the Avatar whiffed), but what a fluke!

“Near” Rune Priest (+ Grey Hunters): This Rune Priest was decked out with Master of Runes, Chooser of the Slain, and the Murderous Hurricane and Tempest’s Wrath powers. I put him in a unit with 9 Grey Hunters (Meltagun, Power Weapon, Mark of the Wolfen) in a Drop Pod.

The Rune Priest used Tempest’s Wrath to screw with my opponent’s skimmers and jet bikes and BS5 Murderous Hurricane to pile wounds on the soft stuff (and provide some additional dangerous terrain tests).

Highlight #2: Around turn three, this unit (now down to four or five guys) was set upon by a Wraithlord with two wounds remaining. The unit made it’s LD8 counter-attack roll. My Mark of the Wulfen Grey Hunter rolled a 5 on his attacks (for a total of 7) against the Wraithlord. Those seven attacks resulted in two Rends and killed the Wraithlord! That’s the first time in my many years of WH40K where a regular “dude” took out a Wraithlord at I4!

Wolf Priest (+ Skyclaws): I’ve been itching to field this unit for a few weeks. I gave the Wolf Priest had a Jump Pack and Wolftooth Necklace. The Skyclaws had a Flamer and a Power Fist. This unit ended up being a lot of fun to play. The Preferred Enemy easily made up for the WS3 and the extra attacks on the assault packed quite a punch.

I’m thinking about adding a second unit of Skyclaws. I’ll have a Rune Priest and Wolf Priest with Jump Packs that can move between units as needed. It’s going to take some work to keep them intact, but I’m 100% it will be fun.

Hightlight #3: This unit managed to survive a lot longer than I would’ve expected. It finally died (after engaging three units) on my opponent’s board edge about 36” from their starting point.

Space Wolves Dreadnought: Space Wolves Dreadnoughts can take a Wolftail Necklace for 10pts, which allows them to always hit on 3s in close combat. How can you pass that up?

Highlight #4: I was short on points (and time to put together a list) so I took a Venerable Dreadnought in a Drop Pod. After doing his job and getting his close combat weapon blown off, he was assaulted by a Wraithlord with a pesky Wraithsword. To his credit (and my opponent’s consternation), the Dreadnought held his own through six Assault Phases and tied up the Wraithlord for the entire game.

WHAT I LEARNED
There’s still a lot that I want to try, but I learned some valuable (and a couple of paintful) lessons. First of all, I was way too aggressive with my Rune Priests. With only W2 and no invulnerable save, these guys aren’t much tougher than a regular trooper — and very susceptible to torrents of fire. Although I was lucky with my Rune Weapon against the Avatar, it would’ve been a lot smarter to keep that Rune Priest at a safe distance.

Secondly, I also learned that Mark of the Wulfen is a fantastic unit upgrade and should be part of EVERY unit that can take the option.

Finally, I learned that you don’t need Jaws of the Winter Wolf to make an effective Rune Priest. Murderous Hurricane and Living Lightning are both very effective powers — and Tempest’s Wrath is devastating to many armies.

I plan to post a couple of variations of the army list for feedback. As always, I’d love to hear your comments!

How Did I Miss This???

 

Ah, how I love new codex shenanigans!

So a Wolf Guard Battle Leader on Thunderwolf can buy Saga of the Hunter. This let’s him Scout or Outflank. This also means he can join a Wolf Scout unit and deploy Behind Enemy Lines.

Am I reading the codex right? Did I miss something?

Soft Score Solutions

 

I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for me to weigh in on the “Soft Scores in Tournaments” issue, lol. Believe it or not, I actually agree with many points on both sides of the argument.

For those of you who don’t know, a soft score is a player-judged (or sometimes organizer-judged) score added to a player’s battle score to determine overall placement in a tournament. Soft scores are generally ingnored when determining the best general. These scores are generally made up of a Painting score, a Sportsmanship score and (rarely) a Composition score.

So here’s the issue in a nutshell:

PRO-OVERALL: The pro-overall side feels that there’s more to the hobby than just winning games. Assembling, painting, basing and displaying models is a huge part of the game and many players spend as much time preparing their army as they spend playing it. They also feel that sportsmanship is an integral part of any game. The pro-overall side also recognizes that army building (“composition”) is also important, but is decidely less vocal about composition.

Side Note #1: It’s worth stating that very few tournaments award prizes for painting, sportsmanship and composition. There are also very few independent painting competitions that aren’t linked to a tournament. When there are prizes for Best Painted and Best Sportsman, these prizes are usually eclipsed by the prizes awarded to the Best Overall and Best General winners. So although important to the game, Best Painted and Best Sportsman always get the short end of the prize pool.

So the pro-overall player wants the event to reward the best overall player and, to them, ”overall” includes important skills like sportsmanship, painting and army-building.

Side Note #2: It’s also worth saying that unpainted and/or badly based (or badly built) models can actually impact the game. When you are looking across the table at a sea of base-coated models, it’s almost impossible to determine which has an icon or a special weapon. WYSIWIG is pointless when you can’t distinguish model-from-model or unit-from-unit. So we can agree that some level of painting and basing is important to every game.

ANTI-SOFT: The anti-soft score side isn’t saying that painting isn’t important — they want to see painted armies too. And they aren’t saying that sportsmanship isn’t important. They are saying that a tournament is a contest of skill (match-up and luck) and that subjective soft scores are fallible.

Side Note #3: Most of the issue with soft-scores is that they are player-judged. Since players are competing against each other, it behooves every player to attempt to minimize his opponent’s soft score. Even organizer-judged soft-scores are suspect, because they are subjective and often inconsistent.

COMMON GROUND
There’s actually a lot of truth to both sides. Ignoring anecdotal examples, we can all agree that a system that allows a player to secret score his opponent in a competitive tournament is flawed. But we can also all agree that painting and sportsmanship are important parts of the game.

Large tournaments have been evolving the way soft scores work for years. I’m going to use BOLSCON as the latest (and I think the best) example of this evolution.

1) BOLSCON Composition: Like most major tournaments, BOLSCON has eliminated Composition scores. They are just too subjective and feel more like a “handicapping” system than of an integral part of scoring. Instead BOLSCON gave bonus points to players who submitted legal lists in advance of the tournament. So composition shifted from a subjective “well-built” army to an unbiased “legal” army.

Post BOLSCON Thoughts: This was awesome, but way too much work for a major event. I think all of the organizers agree that we’re going to have to find a better solution, like spot checking.

2) BOLSCON Painting: BOLSCON deviated from the Adepticon and GT method of scoring painting and dramatically narrowed the impact of painting on the scoring (and used a single judge to score it). A single judge and rigid scoring criteria made the range of score very narrow. If your army was fully painted and based, then it got 90% of the available painting score. Since painting was only 6% of the overall points available in the tournament and because the overage player got almost all of the painting points, the difference between an top painted army and a basic paint job was only a few points (less than 1% of the total battle points available in the tournament).

Post BOLSCON Thoughts: This worked very well. Painting had almost no impact on placement in the tournament and exceptional armies got a few extra points. There has been some feedback that allowing unpainted armies made the tournament less fun for some participants, so we’ll be looking at the painting scoring critically for next year.

3) BOLSCON Sportsmanship: BOLSCON also had an innovative Sportsmanship scoring mechanism. While it remained player-scored, there was a narrow and rigid range of points you could award. A Bad game scored 2 points, a Good game scored 6 points and a Great game scored 8 points. If you gave a Bad or Great score, you had to justify it to a judge.

Post BOLSCON Thoughts: This worked flawlessly on the first day. We averaged one Bad game per round (usually involving the same player) and we had very few Great games. On the second day, we had more Great games creep in because investigating Great games became a lower priority. We’ll probably look into something similar for the next BOLSCON. I wasn’t 100% happy with the system, but it worked well for a medium-sized tournament.

I feel that BOLSCON had a handle on Composition and Painting. I think the scoring systems will evolve, but overall the results were promising. But we still have Sportsmanship as a potential problem.

POTENTIAL SPORTSMANSHIP SOLUTION
With the risk of another “Mkerr’s Equalizer” thread, I have a model that I’d like to try. If any tournament organizers are reading, I’d love to get your feedback — especially if you try out the system in a local event.

SHARED SPORTSMANSHIP: “Players may score the game as Bad, Good or Great. BOTH players are awarded the lowest score given by EITHER player for the game. Players score no points for a Bad game, and 4 points for a Good and 6 points for a Great game.”

We’re putting a little game theory into practice here and it completely eliminates the problem dinging your opponent to gain an advantage. It also incents both players to do their best to make sure the game is fun.

“If a Bad game is scored, both players will be approached by a judge — if the judge determines that one player is at fault for the Bad game, then the judge may choose adjust the not-at-fault player’s score appropriately. Both players will be notified of the score change.”

Let’s be honest, the fault of most Bad games lies on the shoulder of both opponents. But there are times when one player woke up on the wrong side of the bed and just can’t be nice. We need a mechanism to protect a player that’s trying his best to get along and go along.

“Additionally, a game may not be scored as Great if either opponent is late to the table, if a judge was called to settle an issue, or if the game was not finished before time was called. Any non-Bad game turned in at least 10 minutes before time is called will automatically be scored a Great game.”

This gives the players some guidelines on scoring to encourage players to be on-time, resolve conflicts without help and finish their games. It also encourages players to turn in their results early — this makes scoring and pairing go faster which helps the tournament stay on time.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on my Soft Score Solution! Comments are welcome!

TSHIFT Event Report on Blood of Kittens

 

Blood of Kittens has a nice review of the games that happened at TSHIFT (an 1,850 point WH40K tournament) in Seattle.

He was also kind enough to give us army lists for the overall winners:

In addition to the army lists, we have battle reports from the three players as well:

Koyote’s Blood Angels: This is a great example of a tough, well-rounded list designed to deal with a wide variety of opponents. Led by Dante and Corbulo (to take advantage of the Jean Claude Venn Diagram of Death), the army has 20 Jump Packs, 20 Tactical Marines (mounted in a Rhino and a Razorback), 10 Devastators, 2 Attack Bikes and a Whirlwind.

Although Koyote focuses 400pts on a very nasty close combat unit, he’s spread the rest of his points out to give him an answer to anything he’s likely to face. Just enough melta to deal with heavy armor, just enough long-range high-S shots to deal with mechanized armies, just enough rending to deal with assault terminators and monstrous creatures, and just enough long-range anti-personnel shots and vehicles to give his advancing assault forces some cover. I love “Goldilocks” army lists like this.

It’s a very clean list and looks like a lot of fun to play. Of the three winning lists at TSHIFT, this is my favorite (and closest to the BA lists that I play). Great job and congratulations on the win, Koyote!

Dusldorf’s Space Wolves: At first blush, this army seems to have a focus problem. HQ on a bike, Terminator HQ, Rhino with Blood Claws, Blood Claws on foot, walking Venerable Dreadnought, Drop Pod Dreadnought, 2 MM Attack Bikes, a MM Speeder, outflanking Wolf Scouts and a Leman Russ.

But. If you look at the deeper cut, you’ll see some sense to the madness. Dusldorf holds pretty much everything in reserve in almost all of his games. When his army starts coming in, he focuses on easy kill points to give himself an advantage. Then he counts on the sheer durability of his individual units to deny his opponent kill points. This forces his opponent to play the entire game defensively and from a hefty kill point deficit. That kind of pressure is tough for even the most veteran of players.

Look at how he assembles the pieces. He attaches his T5 2+/3+ (re-roll first failed armor save!) HQ to his attack bikes (making them an even bigger threat and also making them very survivable). The Terminator HQ goes into the Grey Hunters drop pod (giving them some much needed firepower and more durability). The Land Speeder is generally held in reserve to deep strike behind tanks.

The only unit that’s really out of place is the 14-man Blood Claws unit, but I suspect that is a very tempting target to his opponent — drawing critical fire away from other elements.

Very crafty list, Dusldorf! I’d love to hear if regular opponents can adapt to the army and the play style. Does it get harder to win once they figure out how your army works?

Warlord_Fluger’s Orks: I feel like I’ve played this army a few times! Big Mek, Boyz in Trukks, big Loota squad, Storm Boyz, Warbuggies and a couple of big 30-man Boyz units. I was happy to see a Lobba battery and some Killa Kans in the list (I love walker squadrons in 5E). This army has a ton of shooting (15 Defffguns, 3 Lobbas, 5 Rokkit Launchas and a handful of Big Shootas) — most of it’s BS3 or twin-linked.

What I liked most about Warlord_Fluger’s army is how he played it. I’ve played a lot of Ork players that just throw their boyz at you and hope to kill you in assault. But Warlord_Fluger never lost sight of the mission objectives and played very smart. He focused his shooting on elements that put the mission in danger. He hid decimated squads to retain kill points. An Ork player that can think ahead is a really dangerous opponent!

It sounds like a great event and congratulations to all of the winners! Great lists and great battle reports. I expect to see all of you at BOLSCON next year!

The OTHER Space Wolves HQ Choices

 

Let’s talk a bit about Space Wolves HQ. I think everyone’s envisioning “all Rune Priests - all the time”, but there are some darn good HQs that just aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

WOLF PRIEST
What You Get: Think “Chaplan ++” when you hear Wolf Priest. They are nearly identical to the standard Space Marine Chaplain (exact same price, stats and wargear) with a few minor changes.

The most important of which is Oath of War. This little ability gives the Wolf Priest (and attached unit) Preferred Enemy against one type of unit (infantry, monstrous creatures, etc.) named at the beginning of the game. This is SOOOOO much better than Liturgies of Battle. 

They have a few more wargear options (Runic Armor, Wolf Tail Talisman and Wolftooth Necklace) and a few different wargear prices (Terminator armor is 10pts cheaper, combi-weapons are 5pts less and jump pack is 10pts more). They also have the ability to take a Saga (Beastslayer, Hunter, Wolfkin and Warrior Born).

What to Expect: You are going to see the Wolf Priest most often with a jump pack attached to Skyclaws (Power Weapon/Fist, Meltagun and MotW). Less often you’ll see him on a Bike with some Swiftclaws. Both units combine Berserk Charge with Oath of War into something like the 40K equivalent of a threshing machine.

Dirty Trick #1: Saga of the Hunter is a nice addition to the Wolf Priest and the Wolf Guard Battle Leader. This let’s them to outflank with Wolf Scouts. If you feel lucky on that 3+ die roll, you can bring a Wolf Priest, Wolf Guard Battle Leader, some Wolf Scouts (2 Power Weapons and MotW) with a Wolf Guard buddy (MotW) into your opponent’s backfield for a pretty reasonable price. Ouch.

WOLF LORD
What You Get: This is Space Wolves equivalent of a Space Marine Captain. Same price and similar statline (+1A), but no 4+ Invulnerable. The Iron Halo is definitely missed but can be purchased for a hefty 25pts in the form of a Belt of Russ.

The wargear is pretty similar with some very strange changes. Storm Shields have doubled in cost for a power-armored Wolf Lord. (A pretty good indication that GW feels they underpriced the Storm Shield.)

They have different options (no digital weapons, no hellfire rounds, no relic blade but you can have a Wolftooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman and a couple of Fenrisian Wolves instead). Plus a Saga.

A couple of other minor surprises Wolf Claws are 20pts (instead of the expected 15), Runic Armor is a bit more than I expected, and Mark of the Wulfen is a hefty 15pts (very expensive for a model with a base Attack of 4). I was also sad to find Saga of the Hunter missing from the Wolf Lord and also disappointed that a second Wolf Claw is so expensive (unless you are in Terminator Armor). Thunderwolf Mounts are 10pts more than bikes; giving you an interesting but pricey option for your Wolf Lord.

What to Expect: There should be a cheap Wolf Lord in most armies, but don’t expect to see them until the “shiny” wears off of Rune Priests. When they come, they’ll come in two varieties: The power armored version with a Frost Blade, maybe Belf of Russ with Saga of the Bear (or Warrior Born). This is a pretty cheap killing machine. The second is the Wolf Lord in Terminator Armor with twin Wolf Claws (and generally Saga of the Bear, Beastslayer or Warrior Born). The former in a Reedemer with Grey Hunters and the latter in a Crusader with Wolf Guard.

Being able to have a 2+/4+ character with Eternal Warrior is an awesome option, but it’s expensive. Space Wolves are going to LOVE Apocalypse!

I’m hoping to see a few Wolf Lords on Thunderwolves (mostly because I think they’ll look awesome). A S5 T5 Rending Wolf Lord with Fleet and a 12” assault is attractive, but he’ll definitely need a Belt of Russ to survive (although Wolfkin and Warrior Born would be fun too).

Dirty Trick #2: Arjac is a Wolf Guard. That means you can attach him to other units for some nastiness. Grey Hunters and Blood Claws can both benefit from this Thor cline. Were your sense “acute” enough to notice that he’s Stubborn? As an upgrade character he doesn’t lose Stubborn when he joins a unit, so it looks like a nice little perk for spending the mega points on Arjac.

Edit: Fixed a reference to Wolf Scouts. Arjac’s Terminator Armor prevents him from joining Wolf Scouts.

MY 2 CENTS
Don’t miss out on the Wolf Priests. They are awesome.

I’ve been tinkering with a few Space Wolves lists and I’m becoming really partial to the idea of having a Wolf Priest and two Rune Priests (with Jump Packs and maybe a Chooser of the Slain) in a 2,000pt army. I’m trying to put more models on the table in my next couple of lists (just to see how Space Wolves do en masse), so that means no Land Raiders and no special characters.

I also want to see how the 18pt Skyclaws work (Assault Marines with a Meltagun? Yes, please!), especially with a Tempest’s Wrath (or TWO!) playing havoc with my opponent’s ability to maneuver.

Last Thought: Is it wrong of me to want to buy a transport for my Long Fangs just so my Lone Wolves have something to ride in? I’m dreaming of an Eternal Warrior, Feel No Pain monstrocity (with a Thunderhammer or Power Fist that re-rolls to-hits against walkers, monstrous creatures and T5+) barreling toward your lines for less than 100pts.

Edit: that last paragraph originally included a comment about using the Long Fang’s Drop Pod. That was a brain fart on my end — my greedy eyes missed the “dedicated” word in the transport heading.

If you are crafty enough to find the Flywire, then I’d love to hear your comments!

2000pt Space Wolves List (New Codex)

For those of you expecting a Witch Hunters list, sorry. Soon, I promise. But tonight I have something special. Yes! New Space Wolves!

While I won’t say that the new ‘dex has passed through my grubby little hands, I can chat with you guys about this list magically appeared on my Tumblr site. How awesome is that? Now I’m sure you can squeeze a lot more from this juicy piece of fruit (and, brother, I will do just that), but here’s an army that looks like a blast to play.

HQ
Ragnar Blackmane
Rune Priest (Jaws of the World Wolf, Storm Caller)

ELITES
7-man Wolf Scouts Pack (Power Weapon, Meltagun) w/Wolf Guard (Wolf Claw)
Lone Wolf (Meltabombs)

TROOPS
9 Grey Hunters (Meltagun, Power Fist) w/Wolf Guard (Wolf Claw)
— Transport: Drop Pod
9 Grey Hunters (Meltagun, Power Fist) w/Wolf Guard (Wolf Claw)
— Transport: Rhino
9 Grey Hunters (Meltagun, Power Fist) w/Wolf Guard (Wolf Claw)
— Transport: Rhino
12 Bloodclaws (Flamer, Power Fist) w/Wolf Guard (Wolf Claw)

HEAVY
5 Long Fangs (2 Heavy Bolters, 2 Lascannon) w/Wolf Guard
5 Long Fangs (2 Heavy Bolters, 2 Lascannon) w/Wolf Guard
Land Raider Crusader (Multi-melta)

DEPLOYMENT: You put Ragnar, Rune Priest, Bloodclaws and their Wolf Guard buddy in the Land Raider Crusader.

Your Long Fangs squat in your deployment zone and put out a decent amount of shots (especially considering their really cheap price tag). Your Wolf Scout Pack, Lone Wolves and Grey Hunters (in the Drop Pod) are all held in reserve. Behind Enemy Lines, Pack of One and Drop Pod Assault, respectively.

TACTICS: This is “easy-peasy, lemon squeezy” army. You take your Land Raider (obscuring it with the Rhinos, if needed) and ram it down your opponent’s throat. While it’s moving in that direction, you use Drop Pod Assault to get some Grey Hunters in your opponent’s deployment zone and pop some vehicles (you want to make sure Ragnar has something to eat when he gets there). Your Wolf Pack and Long Fangs (and Lone Wolf) help. The key is to have some fleshy bodies ready for the Ragnar all-you-can-eat buffet.

Yes, Ragnar and his friends will kill ANYTHING they touch. If everyone gets there intact, you are looking at around 60 attacks on the charge (and a decent amount are really GOOD attacks). I haven’t done the math, but I know there’s not a lot that dish out that much pain.

NOTES: You’ll notice that I have a decent number of Grey Hunters in the army. Why, you ask? Because they are awesome now! With a full set of equipment (Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon and Frag/Krak Grenades) and awesome special rules (Acute Senses, Counter-attack and ATSKNF), they are just about the best troops choice in the game.

You’ll also notice the two Long Fangs squads (historically a terrible choice). Well, not so much anymore. They are dirt cheap and with the horrifying advance of Rangar, the Rhinos, the Drop Pod and the ambushering Lone Wolf (master-crafted meltabombs??), your opponent just won’t have time to shoot at them.

All in all, I’m in love with the Space Wolves codex and expect to have some great games in the next few months. I’ll post more army lists as they appear…

As always, comments are welcome here or on the Lounge thread.

2000pt Chaos Daemons

So I’ve been building a Chaos Daemons army since the codex came out, but I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to field it. It seems that I’m always under the gun to represent the Emperor’s Finest. I’ve made a promise to myself to get a few games under my belt with the army. I hope you’ll bear with me while I learn the army’s ins-and-outs.

If you follow BOLS, then you’ve probably seen the models including Gentle Ben’s gorgeous Fateweaver and Skarbrand. Since the army is one of my prettiest (thanks again, Gentle Ben!), I’ll make an effort to Twitter some screenshots.

For reasons that I won’t go into, I’m going to stick to my Khorne and Tzeentch daemons (which means I’m spending more on upgrades than I normally would). I’m going to use my Daemon Princes instead of my Soulgrinders. 

I’m making the first wave all Tzeentch Daemons (Fateweaver, Horrors, Flamers and my Tzeentch Daemon Prince). The second wave is all Khorne (Bloodthirster, Bloodletters and my shiny, new Khorne Daemon Prince).

HQ
Fateweaver
Bloodthirster (Death Strike, Blessings of the Blood God)

ELITES
3 Flamers of Tzeentch (Bolt of Tzeentch)
3 Flamers of Tzeentch (Bolt of Tzeentch)

TROOPS
10 Bloodletters

10 Bloodletters
12 Pink Horrors (Bolt of Tzeentch, Chaos Icon)
12 Pink Horrors (Bolt of Tzeentch, Chaos Icon, The Changeling)

HEAVY
Daemon Prince (Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne, Death Strike)
Daemon Prince (Mark of Tzeentch, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch, Daemonic Gaze)

THE PLAN: I’ll deploy Fateweaver in a good location, out of rapid fire reach. Then I’ll deploy the Horrors as a picket around him to provide a strong firing base (I’m a big fan of Warpfire). The Daemon Price is a shooter and designed to stay 18”-24” away from my opponent. The Flamers go where they’ll do the most harm (Breath of Chaos is your friend).

The Khorne Daemons come in using the two Chaos Icons. I’ll work to deploy the Bloodthirster and Daemon Prince in Fateweaver’s Oracle of Eternity, so they’ll draw some fire.

THE TRICK: No real trick with this army besides the vast amount of shooting. I’ve even put Death Strike on the Khorne Monstrous Creatures to take advantage of their first turn. I’m hoping that an impressive amount of shooting, combined with re-rollable saves brings my opponent out of his shell (and into reach of my Khorne daemons).

Since this is a new army for me, I’d love to hear from some Daemon experts (especially the few Tzeentch players out there). As always comments are welcome and here or on the thread in the BOLS Lounge.

Blood Angels 2000pt List

After the highs (and even higher highs) of BOLSCON, I’m going to take a week off and go back to my roots. Seeing Jawaball’s gorgeous Blood Angels army reminded me that I haven’t given my Blood Angels much love in 5E.

So here’s a list sure to make our local IG players sweat a bit:

HQ
Dante
Honor Guard (Sanguinary Priest, BA Chapter Banner, 2 Power Weapons)
Corbulo

ELITE
8-man Death Company (Jump Packs)

TROOPS
10-man Tactical (Power Weapon, Meltagun, Lascannon)
Transport: Rhino (Extra Armor)
10-man Tactical (Meltagun, Lascannon)
Transport: Rhino (Extra Armor)
10-man Assault Squad (Jump Packs, Power Weapon)
10-man Assault Squad (Jump Packs, Power Weapon)

HEAVY
Baal Predator (Heavy Bolter Sponsons)
Baal Predator (Heavy Bolter Sponsons)

TACTICS: This army is pretty easy to use. Use the vehicles to shield your approach. Keep your Death Company near Corbulo’s Rhino to counter Rage. Keep as much of your army in the Corbulo and Dante’s overlapping “Jean Claude Venn Diagram of Death”.

Combat Squad your tactical marines and put the Lascannon in cover with good fields of fire (preferably near an objective or two in your deployment zone). Put Corbulo in one of the Rhinos. Don’t be stingy with smoke and be careful with your overcharged engines (make sure that it won’t ruin your day if you get an Can’t Move result).

I tend to talk trash and tell my opponent how bad it’s going to be when my Death Company reaches his lines (so he’ll ignore my Honor Guard). If he focuses his shots on the DC, Feel No Pain and two Exsanguinators will usually keep them standing. Nothing takes the grin off your opponent’s face faster than using Exsanguinators on your Death Company.

PERKS: Dante grants Preferred Enemy status to all units within 12” (as well as making any enemy within 6” -1WS — meaning you usually hit on 3s with re-rolls). Corbulo grants Furious Charge to all units within 12”. This makes your standard Assault Marine a pretty scary model (fast, S5, I5, effectively WS5 with Preferred Enemy — ouch).

CONS: Neither Dante nor Corbulo are immune to Instant Death, so you need to be smart with your placement and lucky with your 4+ saves. I prefer to keep them inside units for the added safety (it’s just too easy for you opponent to drop/outflank/scout a meltagun and take Dante out). That makes Baby Jesus cry.

As always, comments are welcome here or on the List of the Week thread.