Long rambling post about the armies I play… Part 1…

Mkay, so the most annoying armies I actually play… In no particular order… And since this is going WAY long I'll break it up… Yes, I play a lot of armies…

 

Eldar: I've had the most success with what I called my "Mobile Castle"… The army consists of:

Eldrad

Squad of Wraith Guard maxxed w/ Spirit Seer (Singing spear, conceal)

Wraith Lord(s) with heavy weapons

Avatar

And probably Scorpions and/or Harlequins

Basically, cover saves and armor re-rollable, sit on objectives and just outlast the other guy… Harlies run to the front, giving cover saves to the Guard while being tough to shoot at themselves via their seer. The Wraith Guard give cover saves to the Avatar, though he really does not need it with the 4++… But he in turn gives cover to the Wraith Lords a cover save since they lack an Inv save…

Neat, and different than the standard "Mechdar" that most successful Eldar players use… I like to use Pathfinders, Aspects, etc… Usually I like to try different "neglected" elements of the book to see if I can make them work… Some like Scorpions, War Walkers (Scatter lasers for everyone) and a few others work well… Some like the Banshees and Swooping Hawks "not so much so"…

Imperial Guard… Ah, my old Praetorians… Well, I usually play:

Company Command Squad with Master of Ordinance, Las Cannon team, a few GL's and usually some assorted other bodies… Camo Cloaks or Carapace armor if I can fit in the points.. Medic and Standard have also hit the field a lot for me…

 

Infantry Platoon with:

Platoon Command Squad, usually I run either 4 GL's for mobile fire support or 4 flamers to ride in the Vendetta for "flames of obnoxiousness" with them being a scoring unit riding..

 

Platoon consisting of 3 squads, each with the SGT's power weapon, GL or Melta and Missile Launcher or Autocannon and a Commissar w/power weapon

Heavy Weapon Teams… I have a metric crapton of Missile Launchers, so I like to field a few HWTs… Without a Lord Commissar they are a bit difficult to give orders to, but…

Usually a Mech Vet squad in Chimera w/ Melta and I like Demo and sometimes the Carapace armor… Mobile scoring, rapid reaction force to melt things that come close…

Vendetta/Valkyrie… Hmm, I can have the best skimmer in the game so far? And it carries troops? Magnetized mine for the TL Las cannon and Missile pod swap… Honestly though I think I've always fielded it as the Vendetta and the 3 TLLC pods…

Then… Well, I like Hydras (with the Heavy Stubber being my standard addition to all Chimera hulls) for 85 points, the Artillery rocks, Basilisk is the "safe" choice, but I've run most of them by now… Have to admit the MLRS (Manticore?) is one I have not tried, but likely will… Leman Russ? I really kind of like the bog standard ones more than the rest, seldom it doesn't have a good target for its fire…

 

Sentinels… Ah, one of the non-standard things I bring a LOT of the time… I like the Scout version to flank and really just go forth and cause havoc… Sometimes they actually win me games, but seldom do they fail to at the least pay for themselves… And it's amusing seeing my ancient "Death Chicken" models hit the table…

 

Ogres… Points permitting, I really like them as a linebacker unit. Sit back and tie up anything rushing at the Thin Red Line keeping the enemy from my vehicles. Again, the Lord Commissar makes them really difficult to remove, though the Grey Knights will I think simply destroy them while barely breaking stride…

 

Tough army, but I think for me the most boring. Both painting and playing… Sometimes I get that nostalgic feeling, watch "Zulu" and break out the lads or get back to painting more of them… But with so many bodies in the old Light Rifle Company, all of them more or less identical? And a lot of my games involve me setting up, shooting and removing casualties or packing up at the end of the game… They are easily the most powerful army I play, at least the way I play them. Not to say unbeatable by any means, but barring a Dawn of War mission and a dedicated assault army on the other side… Well, I can't imagine it is fun for the folks on the other side of the table either…

 

Wolves

Ah, my first 40K army… They have changed a lot over the years. Of course, I still field the Spartan Class Land Raider I built back in 89 or 90 along with the mess of ancient lead "assault marines"… In 2^nd Edition they got pretty insane if you went down that path. Terminators armor equipped with Assault Cannons, Cyclone Missile Launchers and Storm Shields? Me, I used a bunch of Grey Hunters backed with my Blood Claws in Jump Packs and a Wolf Guard squad running in Power Armor and loads of special weapons… 3^rd edition became what we called "Hero Hammer", causing me to more or less pack up the Wolves until… Well, 5^th edition when Warmachine local stalled… I started using the 3^rd ed Codex and actually did quite well, once I leaned the new rules… Things like not being able to assault jumping out of a Rhino… Would have been bad for the lads if it were anything other than Dire Avengers over there, but even after getting shot to hell, the last 2 lads were able to win HtH and break the enemy… I think one died while escorting the squad off the field, but… In any case, I actually enjoyed the challenge using a badly outdated Codex against some of the more modern ones and actually did quite well in the local leagues and tournaments…

Then came the 5^th ed codex… Well, it is good. Damn powerful if you build the army right. Probably not a major surprise that the Wolves were really well represented in the Adepticon rankings, etc… But it is different as an Army than I remember them being or would like them to be at least… I do long for the days of having actual assault troops (probably jump packs) that do not suck. Stuck with WS/BS 3 and restrictions on when they can even fire? So, let me see if I am getting this correct, they are actually WORSE than IG Vets/Stormtroopers? Um, thanks… Yes, I believe that the Grey Hunters are the best basic Infantry in the game, and my armies are really based around them… Long Fangs for whatever reason got a serious discount on some of the best heavy weapons in the game, and so a lot of folks out there started taking 3 squads of Fangs loaded out with missile launchers as "it's the most efficient"… Maybe they're right, but to me that army is just boring and what happens when you go up against armies on either extreme from the Wolves? To explain this, Wolves are by and large a 3+ armor save force, smallish in number, etc… The extremes from that I would consider a horde of light, cheap troops like the IG and something like the Deathwing with all 2+ armor saves. But no one plays those armies, right? :-) Since I play one and play against the other… When the 5^th ed codex came out I was already running my Wolves in a "mostly Mech" format with razorbacks full of Hunters and DNs to support… This got cheaper and better with the new book. Not quite as stupidly powerful as the BA codex or as good as the GKs, but still it was a REALLY good build, really tough for a lot of folks to take on.

 

I'm also apparently weird in that I like to really tool out my Hunters with all of the options I can get like Mark of the Wulfen, Power Weapon/Fist, Plasma Pistol, Special weapon (Flamer is free, Melta is nice to have on the assault elements), etc… And a Wolf Guard is assigned to each squad for the leadership, extra Power/Frost weapon and likely a combi weapon of some sort… Yes, expensive, but when you care enough to send the very best… So, I'd been running the "MSU" before it really became known as that… Not really I think, I'm not trying to min/max with just enough bodies for the special/heavy weapons and Razors… I call it a "Combined Arms Army", not to be confused with the Soviet formation of the same name… Mech Infantry, Tank/DN support, some Artillery

 

With the Wolves, I tend also to bring along a few of the "less often seen" heavy support choices… Vindicator and Whirlwind tanks… Very different vehicles, the vindi is just a rush at the enemy, usually in a "V" formation with Rasorbacks full of Hunters and simply overwhelm the local defenses and count on "Counter Charge" and some damn good Infantry to hold the objectives until time runs out… The WW is just there to deal with Eldar Pathfinders, Tau Scouts and annoying IG silliness with command squads hidden in a giant mass of bodies, HWT's in cover, etc… Pin chacks on the LD 7 of the HWT fails a fair number of times, to say nothing of the "just die" of the no cover save round against the scout types… A bit pricy, and against a straight Marine force mostly useless… But still, even there, throwing down a bunch of Str 5 (ORD) hits will sometimes actually do something…

HQ, the Rune Priest is awesome… Cheap, effective support, great selection of powers. Hard to beat for the points… Honestly I haven't much used the other ones… I tend to throw more points into Units than HQ models…

 

So, the way I play my Wolves is fairly "unsubtle", but it is fairly effective against most forces… Hordes, I can deploy from the Razors, rapid fire and dare them to come in and assault counting on my Counter Assault to keep my higher number of attacks… Others, loads of heavy/special/power weapons to throw out the wounds…