Wednesday 29 February 2012

Painting Update - Thunderwolf Lord, Almost Complete

I thought I would post up the few shots I took of my almost complete Thunderlord. The weapon arm is magnetised so I can switch it between Wolf Claw and Thunderhammer, maybe even throwing in a Frost Blade at some point in the future if I fancy it.

As for what is left to complete, I need to finish off the eyes on each of the models and I need to add a couple more layers of snow (what you can see there is PVA glue and snow flock which makes it look quite voluminous, but once that dries will look like fur on the base). After all that is complete I will need to run around the bases with some Scorched Brown then varnish the models.

Having looked back at the pictures as well now I am not sure about the shoulder pad on the Storm Shield arm. I think I may go back over that with the gold to bring it in line with the other shoulder pad(s) on the right arm.

I've been quite impressed with how quickly I have managed to complete these models. I am normally very slow on painting, so to have these completed within 10 days is good for me given the time I have available to work on them.

As mentioned in the earlier post on the Thunderlord the idea is that the Thunderlord is yet to mount his wolf, scouting out the battle field ahead of them before they charge headlong into the fray.

In regards to what the unit will do, the Thunderlord with Wolf Claw would be a three wound, toughness 5 model with 6 power weapon attacks on the charge at strength 5 and initiative 5. As he looks now he will also have a 3++ save and depending on what saga he is given and upgraded armour could see him have a 2+ save with eternal warrior. So hopefully not to easy to take down, but could be a bit of a fire magnet.

Everything stays the same with the thunderhammer as the weapon, except for the initiative dropping to 1 and strength doubling up to 10, which will make the unit the primary force to use for smashing apart the various tanks that can be found on 40k battlefields. I am looking forward to giving him a run out very soon and will report back here on the outcomes.

Next up for me to get painting is my Chaos Daemon Prince, with construction of some Dark Eldar Wracks and a Raider also ongoing.

Tuesday 28 February 2012

Battle Report, of Sorts... Space Wolves vs Necrons

Last week I put a 2000pt Space Wolf force up against 2 1000pt Necron armies. The main conclusion I have drawn from this first combat is that Necrons are still very powerful at range, even more so than in their last incarnation, and while still slightly more durable thanks to the removal of the phasing out rule, are still relatively weak on the close combat side if you ignore the C'Tan shard that floated around the place.

As a new layout for this element of the blog, I am going to only comment on what I think worked during the battle and what can/should be removed and/or improved for the next game.

Space Wolves

Wolf Priest - Runic Armour, Wolf Tooth Necklace
Rune Priest - Runic Armour, Wolf Tooth Necklace

Wolf Guard - 8 men with Wolf Claws, Land Raider Redeemer (Wolf Priest attached)
                     1 man TDA with Cyclone Missile Launcher (attached to Long Fangs 1)
                     1 man TDA with Assault Cannnon

Grey Hunters - 2 squads with 9 men, Standard, Meltagun, Rhino (one had the Rune Priest attached)
                        1 squad with 8 men, Standard, Plasma Gun, Rhino
                        1 squad with 6 men, Standard, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol, Razorback

Land Speeders - 2 with Heavy Flamer and Multimelta

Long Fangs 1 - 6 men, 3 x Missile Launchers, 2 x Lascannon
Long Fangs 2 - 6 men, 5 x Heavy Bolter

Necrons (Using two Force Organisation Charts)

Imotekh the Stormlord
Nemessor Zahndrekh with Cryptek Royal Court

C'Tan Shard of the Nightbringer
Lychguard
Immortals

Warriors - 1 squad of 10
                2 squads of 5 (one with Imotekh attached)

Ghost Ark
Annihilation Barges - 2
Destroyers

Having little to no cover on the Wolves side and going second was always going to leave me open to the potential of taking a first turn pounding, but due to the night fighting rule in place and being able to stay out of range in the majority for the first turn of Necron shooting, meant most my army remained unharmed. One unit that took a huge bash however, was the Long Fang squad which had missiles launchers in it. This was quickly whittled down to just one lascannon Long Fang and the Cyclone Missile Launcher Wolf Guard. Deployment was relatively successful as none of the mech had been damaged.

Thanks to the remains of the Long Fangs squad decimated in the opening turn, their sharp shooting through the game removed an Annihilation Barge and the Ghost Ark from play in consecutive turns. Luck rather than tactics I think had a huge role to play in that, as AV 13 all round should be relatively optimistic of surviving against one lascannon shot and two krak missiles a turn for only two rounds.

The heavy bolters on the other Fangs and Razorback made light work of Necron Warriors, I was unaware their armour had been downgraded to 4+, leading to all wounds killing Necron Warriors left, right and centre. This initially lead to Imotekhs squad being reduced to 2 men and himself and trying to flee the board at the start of the second turn. Thankfully for the Necrons, the Ghost Ark swung into range and repaired one Warrior and allowed them to regroup just in time, given they were no more than 2" from the table edge.

The destroyers were taken apart initially by the plasma gun and pistol in the squad from the Razorback, with eventual assistance from the Assault Cannon TDA (once his squad had been wiped out), a Land Speeder and the Razorback itself. The destroyers kept on getting back up and were the only really persistent unit that really refused to die. Eventually a couple of rending shots from the Assault Cannon put an end to their existence.

Now for a quick report on the hammer unit of the army - Wolf Priest, 8 Wolf Guard all with Wolf Claws in a Land Raider Reedemer. 24 power weapon attacks on the charge from the WG with re-rolls on both the hits and wounds thanks to the Wolf Priests Preferred Enemy rule. The LRR got immobilised 10" from a squad of Immortals and Warriors who had tried to get out of charge range, but it wasn't enough for them. Within one round of combat the Wolf Guard and Priest had assaulted both units simultaneously, wiping out the Immortals completely and leaving four Warriors to be swept away in a 16-0 victory for the Wolves.

The consolidation move put the squad into terrain, but didn't stop it being assaulted the next turn by the C'Tan shard and Lychguard. I am sure that if it were a straight up battle Wolf Guard v Lychguard that I would've come out on top, but the C'Tan was pretty much unstoppable with what I had in that squad and as such the unit was wiped out in two rounds of combat, only claiming 3 Lychguard in return. Thunderhammer and Storm Shields are in order as you now also get invulnerable saves against the C'Tan. Alternatively you can just stay away from it and shoot it with high power weaponry.

Finally, Imotekh did fall in this battle to the Rune Priest and his squad of Grey Hunters. The Rune Priest had had quite an abysmal battle up to the last round of combat. Up to this point he had failed the psychic test twice (rolling 11 both times - very weird) and not really been involved in much. Then his squad dove into action against Imotekh and his remaining squad, killing the three warriors and forcing Imotekh into a leadership test that he once again failed and swept away in the process. Again in this combat no Wolves were hurt.

So, after my first skirmish with the new Necrons, I can definitely say that they are now a lot more competitive than they used to be. There is a lot in that Codex I did not come up against. For instance, if there were Scarabs on the table I would've feared a lot more for my tanks. As it was, the tank options helped to get me a lot closer more safely than if I had not had them. The C'Tan is still an obvious hard element in the Necron armoury and my army really had no possible reply to it outside of luck, which meant it went the game unscathed.

Based on kill points the game ended 9 - 9. Not a bad result and I enjoyed the game (which is what its all about really!).

Friday 24 February 2012

Painting Update - Thunderwolf Lord

Most of you now should know about the impending release of a metric ton of second wave models for both the Space Wolves and Tyranids. What isn't as widely known around the internet is that I begun (finally) painting the Thunderwolf Lord I had started planning around Christmas 2010. Damn my timing.

As I never play in any GW tournaments I have kept to my original idea of having the Lord being off the Thunderwolf while surveying the battle field, moments before he jumps on its back to lead his terrifying charge at the enemies of mankind.

I have also started three more Fenrisian Wolves (using the goblin wolf rider models without the goblin riders) to accompany the Lord and Thunderwolf, as you can see in the progress photos.

The general idea for the time being is to run them in the following configuration: (This is based on models I currently have or I'm planning on buying on, say, March 3rd..)

Based on Current Models: 313pts

Wolf Lord : 265pts
Thunderwolf Mount, Runic Armour, Storm Shield, Wolf Claw, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman, Saga of the Bear

Fenrisian Wolf Pack : 48pts
6 Wolves

Based on Planned Models: 367pts

Wolf Lord : 295pts

Thunderwolf Mount, Runic Armour, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman, Saga of the Bear, 2xFenrisian Wolves

Fenrisian Wolf Pack : 72pts
9 Wolves

I'll have a think about the rest of the army and how I can support the units above adequately and hopefully will post up my findings in the coming weeks. After that I will then have to consider mixing in the Thunderwolf cavalry as well....

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