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For the Wolftime - Dysartes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Two months down the line from the last update, and the Wulfen have been going to war. Admittedly, as you'll see below, not very successfully, but they've been going to war. The force has also grown over the last two months, adding to areas where using the army had shown I had weaknesses, as well as expanding upon its undoubtable strengths.GeneralshipI've played few games with this army, thanks to a combination of University, actual work, and a desire to have a unit painted before I use it. This means that, over the course of two months, I've played about two games with them.And lost both of them. The first game I played, after beating up Yellowfish's Noise Cult back in March was against Mendelev. At the time he had recently had his Blood Angels army stolen from his University flat, and borrowed the firepower-heavy Ultramarines army of Ahmed 1. I could tell this was going to be a problem, even at 1000pts, when the army showed up with a Predator, 2 Dreadnoughts and a Devastator squad. I was ok with the fact we'd only be using half of a 6' by 4' board, as there'd be less distance for me to leg it to get to him. However, it went even further downhill when I found we were playing Patrol 2, and crash-landed when I saw how little terrain there was going to be on the table. While Mendelev would probably have been fine with having a bit more, Ahmed (who happens to be a staff member), decided we were fine and wouldn't get any more terrain out. Git. So, despite this set-back, I made the best of it and tried to do what 13th Company do best - gribble, and punch people in the nose. However, it was not to be, especially when it turned out I was playing not one, not two, but three opponents for this game. While I did get some guys to close combat, and they ate a Dreadnought and one of his squads, I'd lost too many men before I got there to do any real damage. Lessons from that game 1 - I need some ranged anti-tank firepower to deal with tanks and dreadnoughts before the swarm hits them. 2 - Just because we're in power armour, we're not invincible. 3 - Always insist on more terrain. 1 major defeat down, and I decided to face Sodit and his Tau. Now, we'd tried a couple of times to get 40k in 40 mins games in, but had always started too late, or one of us had forgotten our army, meaning that the game never got played 3. So, instead, we had a 1000pts game instead. And, just my luck, on the same board where I'd been hammered by Mendelev and his Ultramarines. To just prove it, all the terrain around was in use, so I was having to basically hit a Tau line in a Night Fight over a terrain-free board. Not being one to accuse my opponent of cheating, but it was a little odd that Sodit didn't have an army list with him, especially when some of the upgrades were a little too convenient when the scenario came out as Night Fight 4. Having said that, he has admitted in his month 4 Tale of Three Gamers article that his list did have some extra stuff in it 5, which just goes to show the importance of having a written army list. But I digress. To cut the the chase, I lost again, gunned down by massed fire from pulse rifles and crisis suits. I did destroy a Hammerhead and a squad of Fire Warriors, and got my Wolf Lord to the edge of the board to escape the ambush, but other than that there were no success for me in this game - but I do claim the moral victory! Lessons Learned 1, While 2 meltaguns are nasty, they only work if you can get in range - need long-range AT support as well. 2, The free move at the start of the game helps, but I still suffer on manoeuverability. 3, Power armour is not invincible. Purchasing ReinforcementsSo, armed with the painfully armed lessons from the games I've played, I look to the possibility of reinforcements. My first stop is a box of Storm Claws, to boost my close combat potential. Thanks to the bits on the Space Wolf sprue in the box, two of the Storm Claws are armed with power weapons, to get the bite on any heavily armoured target they face - while masses of close comba attacks helps, being able to ignore your opponents armour save helps even more.As I've noted above, one of my main problems with this army at present is the lack of long-range anti-tank firepower. If my opponent fetches tanks, I have to either get within 12" (to fry them with meltaguns) or, worse, assault them (to rip large chunks out with power fists). It's doable 6, but I tend to lose a lot of people on the way there. So, it's time to call out the fire support of the 13th Company, the Long Fangs. Our resident painting and modelling staff member, Ahmed 7, has been building some Adeptus Custodes and other early space marines,using the Mk 8 armour plate forund on the Space Marine Sergeant sprue from the tactical squad box. Armed with this knowledge, and a little "persuasion", I managed to secure 4 of these sprues, missing only the Mk 8 chestplate. So that's 4 missile launchers, then. One tactical squad box later, combined with bits from the two Space Wolf accessory sprues I bought, and I've got 2 squads of Long Fangs - one with 4 missile launchers, 1 with four flamers. The flamer squad should be useful at burning a hole through enemy lines to allow my assault units to break through and gribble at people. The final purchase for the month was a Rune Priest, as I needed a third HQ choice to field all my army, thanks to the Retinues rule. He'll also be able to teleport Storm Claws, Grey Slayers and/or the flamer Long Fang pack around with impunity, adding a greater degree of mobility to the army. The final reason for buying the Rune Priest is that it's a really nice model, that I've wanted to paint for a while.
So, out of the £70 I could have spent this month (thanks to what I've saved as I've gone along), I've spent a mere £43, leaving me with £27 spare. Some of this will be being invested in 2 more bikers, but that's outside the remit of this article. So, to date, the army list looks like this....1,910pts of gribbly Wulfen. That's it for Tale of Three Gamers for now, until we have the final battle. Until then, good gaming! 1 - Also known as "that git who paints too well". 2 - So no Reserves rules to slow my opponent down with. 3 - A shame, as I'd've probably hammered him in that game. 4 - Still no Reserves, then. 5 - An entire battlesuit, IIRC. 6 - As a Dreadnought and Hammerhead have found out..... 7 - See 1. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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