Loganwing List, 2500pts

I had an interesting game recently against my friends Blood Angels. I wanted to try something I had never tried before while gaming, namely a Loganwing army, packing as many terminators armoured warriors as I had models for.

The one thing I could guarantee before even thinking too much about the list was that there would not be too many models on the table on my Space Wolf side. As it turned out neither side had a huge amount due to the list selected by my Blood friend, but we'll have a quick look at that list later on (from what I can remember of it!).

The only other stipulation I had on my list was that it had to WYSIWYG, which would also help to push up the cost of each model as I seem to have alot of terminator models with either a thunder hammer, chainfist or powerfist. So, without further ado, lets take a look at the list I fielded for this game:

Space Wolves 2,500pts Loganwing

The Great Wolf Logan Grimnar.
Rune Priest - TDA, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman.

Lone Wolf - TDA, Frost Blade, Storm Shield, 2xFenrisian Wolves.

Wolf Guard Squad 1 (TDA) - Heavy Flamer/Power Weapon, Combi-Melta/Chainfist, Combi-Plasma/Power Weapon (x2), Combi-Melta/Wolf Claw, Drop Pod.

Wolf Guard Squad 2 (TDA) - Wolf Claw/Storm Shield (x2), Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield (x2), Assault Cannon/Chainfist, Land Raider Redeemer.

Wolf Guard Squad 3 (TDA) - Storm Bolter/Chainfist, Storm Bolter/Power Weapon, Storm Bolter/ Powerfist, Combi-Melta/Powerfist, Storm Bolter/Chainfist/Cyclone Missile Launcher.

Wolf Guard Squad 4 (TDA) -  Combi-Melta/Wolf Claw, Combi-Melta/Powerfist, Storm Bolter/Chainfist,Heavy Flamer/Chainfist, Wolf Claw/Wolf Claw (x2).

Thunderwolf Cavalry - 3 Men, Storm Shield/Melta Bombs, Storm Shield/ Frost Blade.

Long Fangs - 6 Men, Missile Launcher (x3), Lascannon (x2), Razorback with Twin-Linked Lascannons.

Predator - Lascannon Sponsons, Twin-Linked Lascannons.

And that is that. 39 models in total, the majority 2+/5++ saves, with a small range of vehicles to accompany them. Logan started with the Redeemer while the Rune Priest joined the fourth Wolf Guard squad. Everything was deployed from the start except the Drop Pod which came in on turn one.

The Blood Angels list -

Captain in power armour with inferno pistol, power fist and jump pack.

Honour guard with Sanguinary priest (bolt pistol and chainsword), Blood champion (bolt pistol, combat shield

and power weapon), 3 honour guard with power weapons (1x bolt pistol, 1x hand flamer, 1x inferno pistol) all 

with jump packs.
 
Death company dreadnought with blood talons, storm bolter and melta gun
 
The above in a storm raven with extra armour, twin linked lascannons, twin linked multimelta and hurricane 

bolters.
 
Sanguinary Guard
5 men with 4x Glaive encarmine, 1x powerfist, 4x angelus Boltguns, 1x infernus pistol, chapter banner and 

jump packs.
 
In a Stormraven identical to the above.
 
Death Company
5 men 5x bolt pistols, 4x power weapons, 1x powerfist and jump packs.
 
Furioso librarian  Dreadnought 
Blood fist, force weapon, storm bolter, blood boil, might of heroes.
 
Both in a Stormraven as above.
 
Assault squad
Sergeant with plasma pistol and power weapon. 9 marines 8x bolt pistol and close combat weapon, 

1x plasma pistol and close combat weapon.
 
2x vindicators, 1 with extra armour.

Which meant the Blood Angels had 37 models in total on the table top. It was quite surreal how 5,000pts were taken up by only 76 models.

The main thing that went right in this game was my dice rolling. Never before have I made so many 5++ saves. It was good having invulnerable saves against everything for a change, rather than just two or three models throughout an entire army.

The Long Fangs took down two Storm Ravens and a Vindicator and immobilised the Librarian Dreadnought. The other Storm Raven was taken out by a combination of the Predator and Razorback.

As for the troops, Logan was a beast for a short while, killing six Assault Marines out of six attacks and watching as his unit cleared up on the remnants, then took down four Sanguinary Guard at the same time as taking all as many wounds from their attacks back.

Victory was the Space Wolves even with Logan finished, as the Thunderwolves finished off the Death Company and the Honor Guard as well as the remaining Vindicator.

While this was a successful first run of a terminator army, I would by no means call it as conclusive that it would be all conquering. I suspect that against larger forces the sheer weight of numbers will leave a heavy toll on the Wolves. There is however enough firepower and strength in there to deal with pretty much anything. This was only a fun run game to try out high points value models and it was fun, but would need a fair bit of tinkering with if it were to be used in anything but those fun and friendly games.

Next up I will be using exactly the same list against Blood Angels again, but a completely different list entirely. From the sneak peek I've had of it, it has a few more men, less vehicles and Mephiston. Hopefully my dice rolls will remain good!

Space Wolves v Eldar Army List

From Warhammer 40k Wiki

Last game I had was against Eldar who, along with the Tyranids, I have struggled against. However, before the game I sat down in the sun with my dog (who was no real help really, she just likes lazing in the sun) and set about writing a list I felt was going to be able to handle my Craftworld opponent.

The battle was set at 2,000pts. Knowing I was up against Eldar also meant I needed to be able to lay down a fair amount of shots per turn, so Heavy Bolters were going to feature heavily.

My friend also runs Wave Serpents, therefore negating the need for high strength shots as all weapons are counted at Str 8 so Missile Launchers were the most cost effective anti-tank weapon I could field.

He also runs Dark Reapers with an Exarch, which can be troublesome to any units in cover as the exarch has the quick shot/crack shot which also ignores cover saves and is AP3, which means trouble for your basic Marines/Long Fangs. The Pathfinders he usually fields also needed to be closed down early due to the rending they have on their sniper rifles.

Bearing all this in mind, here is the 2,000pt Space Wolf list used:

Rune Priest - Runic Armour, Master of Runes, Chooser of the Slain, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman, Living Lightning, Tempests Wrath.
Wolf Guard Battle Leader - Runic Armour, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman, Saga of the Beast Slayer.

Wolf Guard Squad - Frost Blade/Combi-Melta, Wolf Claw/Combi-Melta x 2, Powerfist/Combi-Melta, Power Weapon/Combi-Plasma, Razorback (WGBL with this unit).
Dreadnought - Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer, DDCW, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman.

Grey Hunters 1 - 10men, Rhino, Standard, Powerfist, Meltagun x 2.
Grey Hunters 2 - 10men, Rhino, Standard, Power Weapon, Flamer x 2.
Grey Hunters 3 - 6men, Razorback, Standard, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol.
Grey Hunters 4 - 6men, Razorback, Standard, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol.
Blood Claws - 15men, Flamer x 2 (Rune Priest with this unit).

Long Fangs 1 - 6men, Missile Launchers x 5
Long Fangs 2 - 6men, Heavy Bolters x 5, Razorback.

Obviously the deployment and general rolls of the dice had a huge effect on how the battle turned out, which hopefully should be reported on once the campaign my friend and I are playing through at the moment is complete. For the time being I can say that the WGBL can be a monster having seen him destroy a Wave Serpent, survive a fair few Fire Dragon melta shots, before slaughtering that same entire 10 man Fire Dragon squad. Your general Grey Hunters will also take apart the standard Eldar squads as I had 4 men take down a squad of Pathfinders and two squads of Guardians before the battle was finished.

Next up in the campaign is a massive 3,000pt final showdown. Should be interesting to say the least. 

The Army List Series Part Two - Creating Your Lists

Where is the best place to start when looking to put together your list for an upcoming battle? There is no right or wrong place to start, but it is worth having a good idea about what you want your army to achieve before you begin putting it together. The aim of this segment is not to tell you what units you must have in your army, but is more of vocalised thought process of what you could consider whilst preparing an army list.

In the opening part of this series, found here, there are a few different builds you can go for.Each list you create you would like to think had a chance of victory given a bit of luck and sound tactics and so I believe that a solid approach to writing any sort of list can at least get you moving in the right direction.

Whether you are confined in your list to what models you have available, or if you have the freedom of being able to use a large amount of 'counts as' models, each and every unit within that list needs to be in some way compatible with the next.

To start with a good knowledge base of your army in general is a must, knowing their strength and weaknesses such that you can then aim to reduce weaknesses while maximising the strengths. For instance, Dark Eldar are exceptional in close combat, while poor at range, while Tau and Necrons rely more on their fire power generally than slicing the opposition up in hand to hand fights and as such these armies will be aligned accordingly.

Knowing your army should happen eventually regardless of whether or not you spend every second studying your army's codex. Knowing your opponents army is a whole other kettle of fish but, simplistically, can be generalised down to help you with your army. Going against horde armies, you want to be packing as many template weapons as possible, while against Marines and similar, plasma weapons and other high AP weaponry is a must, while for mechanised armies you may want to also consider high strength weaponry as well to help blast through that armour. Helpful advice I read somewhere is to always shoot the choppy stuff and chop the shooty stuff.

Once you have considered your army's weaponry you need to think about their delivery system to the forth coming battle. Deep striking elements of your army on to the table, in drop pods for example, could leave units isolated and destroyed within a turn of arriving. So you either need to allow for more units to deep strike with them, enough long range guns to cover them or have fast moving units move to their position to support them. Either way your list will have to accommodate these factors.

Of course, deep striking armies aren't the only way to have your army. If you want to be assaulting as quickly as possible, you need vehicles and mechanisms that allow you to achieve that. However, sending a lone Land Raider up against your enemy will most likely see that Land Raider wrecked before it gets close enough. Sending two would increase both their chances of surviving but the points cost would be very high, but with an improved chance of at least one of them hitting home.

You may also try the foot slogging approach, but to me this relies heavily on their being plenty of cover on the table and units that can move quickly and face up to a lot of shooting before they get into position. For a foot slogging army you will need plenty of ranged fire power to provide covering fire and to find all the cover available, possible using cheaper units to shield your more expensive units running behind them. 

A good, solid army list will not be created without some experimentation, but this very experimentation can lead to many a situation where you can discover more about your army than you thought you knew. An army list compiled with a particular aim (with a back up just in case!) will have more success than a random collection of units that combine with multiple objectives in mind. It makes sense when written down, but how many people starting out would have one maybe two units running around on their own trying to flatten their opponent, while having the rest of the army sit back and try picking things off at range, just to see their whole army get wiped out pretty quickly? Possibly not that many, but I did and have now evolved my early lists to give me more balance and support than I originally had.

What makes you decide what units you are going to take, or do you only have one list and make that work against all armies? Do you consider what you want to aim for before writing your list, or does it change depending on your opponent? Id like to hear more from you guys, so please feel free to leave a comment.

The Army List Series Part One - Types of Lists

There are a large number of ways in which you can approach creating an army list. From 'fluffy' builds all the way up to competitive tournament lists, everyone wants to see their list, their miniature heroes, their army at the very least succeed in some area of battle, if not stand victorious once the last shot has been fired and the last punch thrown.

What I am going to look at next are the type of lists I have seen produced. Firstly we have the fluffy type list. By this I mean the type of list where a named character from a codex is chosen then, based on the information given from any sources to do with that character. For instance my Ragnar fluff list there is the closest I have to a fluff list. The young Wolf Lord is known for using drop pod assaults and that list was written with that fact in mind. These types of list may not be the most competitive and won't turn up on many tournament tables, but they are certainly fun and add to an element of realism (as far as that is possible when imaging the goings on in the 41st Millenium!). They help tie your battle into the established background of the grim dark future, making you a part of the long and detailed story.

The next type of list is not too different from the fluffy list. This list I like to think of as the experimentation list. In this type you try out new units, see what they can do, how they work with other units and, ultimately, whether they are worth another chance on the table. This type of build can be great fun if that new unit does really well for you, but can also be hugely frustrating and disappointing if the unit fails to live up to your expectations. This list from a Space Wolves/Imperial Guard v Necron battle has not just one experimental unit in it but two, as both Ulrik the Slayer and Arjac Rockfist were both untried by myself prior to that game.

It won't take long for an experimentation list to evolve into one of three directions. Firstly you will have lists developed for fun and friendly games. This can be a combination of a fluffy list with an experimental list with a healthy dose of units thrown in that you just enjoy using. Many an enjoyable Friday night has been spent using this type of list. For me it allows the greatest amount of diversity in my lists and really opens up all units in a codex.

Following the experimental list you may develop what is known in certain areas as a 'deathstar' list, in which you will normally find an armies best units and individuals coupled together to form a super unit that can tear huge chunks out of the opposition if they can be deployed successfully. They also tend to be rather difficult to take down and while their points cost may be rather high, the devastation they can cause is phenomenal.

And now we reach the pinnacle, the final, the ultimate type of list there can be - the tournament list. There are a million different types of tournament and all will be crammed full of people who have honed their lists specifically with the aim of being the best. They will have removed all units that have limited use, all units that are very hit and miss with what they can achieve and instead fill the lists with units they know will perform with weaponry that can take on all comers. And this is where I believe the main difference between the fun lists and tournament lists lays. Tournament players have to have a list that will take on anyone at any time in any situation. Fun lists are generally set up for one opponent and can be tailored to suit that opponent as the list writer pleases.

So there we can see five different types of list that I have come across so far in my year or so back in 40k. If you have any further types of list I'd be interested to hear about it and how it fits within the five talked about here. The next part of the Army List Series will look at writing the list itself, what to look out for and how to set it up so you are approaching the table on the right foot.

2000pt Ragnar Drop Pod List

Having spent the last couple of days looking at the modelling and painting side of 40k, its time to get back into the gaming side of things I think.

The following list is one that I have used a couple of times against Imperial Guard armies, with great success in defeating them through destroying their tanks early on and roasting the men hiding in cover. And that's before any close combat could be made.

So without further ado, here is the 2000pt drop pod army list I used:

HQ
Wolf Lord Ragnar Blackmane (will join Grey Hunter Pack 1)

Rune Priest (Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane), chooser of the slain, Runic Armour (will join Long Fangs Pack 1)

Elite
6 Wolf Scouts, 1 Meltagun

Dreadnought, Heavy Flamer, Assault Cannon, Extra Armour, Drop Pod

4 Wolf Guard - 1 PA, Wolf Claw, Combi-Melta (will join Grey Hunters Pack 1)
1 PA, Powerfist, Combi-Melta (will join Grey Hunters Pack 2)
1 PA, Power Weapon, Combi-Melta (will join Grey Hunters Pack 3)
1 PA, Combi-Melta (will join Wolf Scouts)


Troops
8 Grey Hunters (Pack 1), 1 meltagun, Wolf standard, Drop Pod

9 Grey Hunters (Pack 2), 1 meltagun, Wolf standard, Drop Pod

9 Grey Hunters (Pack 3), 1 flamer, Wolf standard, Drop Pod

10 Grey Hunters (Pack 4), 2 flamers, Wolf standard, Drop Pod


Fast Attack
2 Land Speeders, Heavy Flamer, Multimelta


Heavy Support

6 Long Fangs (Pack 1), 3 missiles launchers, 2 Lascannon

6 Long Fangs (Pack 2), 2 Plasma Cannons, 3 Heavy Bolters, Razorback

Total : 1997

The set up of this army is to get to the enemy quickly and neutralize the main threats as quickly as possible. You will be dropping three pods on turn one, so as long as you have set up your target priorities you can land pretty close and be able to take them out no matter where your opponent deploys them on the table.

The remaining reserves should hopefully arrive in time to help clear up the units that are too far away from you initial landing party to be taken out by them, either through the deployment of the remaining drop pods, deep striking your Land Speeders or using Behind Enemy Lines with your Scouts. You could also deploy the Land Speeders from the start, with their speed and multi-melta range you can be looking at a good range for taking out tanks with them from turn one.

And through all of this you will still have plenty of covering fire from the two squads of Long Fangs and the Rune Priest who, if positioned well, should have all your forward units covered.

The fighting may not last long if you play this aggressively and with the dice gods on your side, but I personally enjoy using drop pod armies for the high risk carnage that ensues.