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!
