Wolves again, maybe it will work again...

Well, Bran Redmaw worked well in his own way...  OK suspect that it would be far better at higher point levels though.  210 for one figure in a 1000 point game is a LOT...  So, replacing him with a Wolf Priest who has "Saga of the Hunter" is 110 points.  This gives me preferred enemy against one "type" and frankly the Chaplain types are all fairly well equipped for whatever they face...  The WGBL could come close and likely be better if slightly more expensive...  But the loss of Fearless and Preferred Enemy for the Grey Hunter squad makes it far less likely for me...  So, I tool out a full squad of Jaegers...  Bring a Wolf Guard and the Priest for the 12 man squad with a mess of special weapons and rules to hit a flank...

The cost reduction also gives me the ability to field a squad of Scouts...  More bodies and "Behind Enemy Lines" with Meltas huge locally with so many tanks...  Until people figure out that an Aegis line with Quad Gun kills the Scouts as s they deploy...  But for now not seeing many of them...

Another note...  I bring all of my Jaegers with MotW and special weapons...  Plasma and/or power weapons if I can as well...  Yes, fewer bodies overall but the lads are there to fight not just bring the Razorback and be technically scoring...  Everyone shows up to fight in my lists...  I guess I am also not so averse to bringing Plasma weapons, just that they cost a LOT more than I think they should given the cost of Melta...  And since I actually have some of the ancient Wolf Scouts w/ Plasma pistols, guess I field them in place of my old Power Weapons that used to actually be quite good...  Just not being able to assault out of Reserve these days means we're kind of stuck for at least a turn...  MotW on the other hand...  I'm going to have to modify the lone Sniper I have for the lads in some way I think...  Spending the 3 points on the SR seems silly at times, but 36" range is nice later in the game or if I just roll REALLY badly on the board edge roll...  And it's not like I am actually giving up a HtH attack with the d6+1 attacks for the Werewolf...

So, Wolves for the win, but...

Well, we won...  so good I guess.  But just not so sure, I fielded:

Bran Redmaw
10 man Hunter squad with 2 melts, MotW
2 x 5 man Hunter squads w saw, MotW in Razorbacks...
 Long fangs w 4 ml
Wolf guard, 3 with combi weapons...

So essentially I have the one squad go behind enemy lines an Bran riding a flank with the second...  Kind of counting on slow opponents who cannot take advantage of 2/3 of my points starting off the table...  So, can win but still have some doubts...  still, getting the lads painted...

Outflank rules question

So, Bran Redmaw has the saga of the hunter...  Allows outflank.  So, were I to deploy him in say, a Grey Hunter unit in a Razorback...  Would the reserved unit be able to flank?  I am thinking so, but not sure that declaring the IC to be with the unit makes it "part of" the unit...  If so, neat...  I just have to keep at or above 50% deployed normally with one Grey Hunter unit getting Wolf Scout deployment rules (behind enemy lines)...  So need 3 things at least to deploy...

Liking the Werewolf aspect...  Doubt he'll be worth the 210 points, but might be fun...

300th post, Wolves and Praetorians... Back to the beginning...

So, repainting the ancient lads...  Playing a few more weeks at 1000 points, so I am thinking the Wolves come out to play...  Not really enough points to field a cohesive force, but...  Grey Hunters in Razorbacks for my Troops, a few Scout Squads I think for the "Behind Enemy Lines"...  Not sure if I will bring Long Fangs, Rune Priest in Terminator Armor or Bran Redmaw :-)  IA 11, Werewolves everywhere?  Might be amusing...

Repainting and digging the lads out...  I forgot how many of them I had...  For larger games I have the ancient Land Raider, I can field Logan Grimmar and his Guard, Njal, Ragnar, Ulric, etc...  Found my full GW hard fig case of the old army and still more in other boxes and on the painting table...

Repaint is coming along, I have to say I really like how they are turning out.  Going in the old Legion colors of Grey with Yellow trim and helmet stripe...  The bulk of my force in the MK VI "Corvis" Armor with a number of MK II thrown in there...  Even a few of the very first Marines in the most ancient armor...  And my Scouts are led out by Leman Russ himself...  :-)  I find it a fine joke, and think that will be the way he returns to us when the time comes...  Just slipping into the battle with the Scouts, showing up exactly where and when needed the most...

Still painting a few of the Praetorians as well...  Really liking how they are turning out, but since I only have 30 or so finished of my 120 or so...  May be a while yet before the Light Rifles hit the field...

Are monkeys writing the FAQ for 40K? Do they even play the bloody game?

Thinking about fielding my Wolves, so I snagged the January FAQ (latest for them)...  The one change is that if a Wolf Scout unit has an IC OR an assigned Wolf Guard Pack Leader, they lose the ability to go behind enemy lines.  Understandable if it is the IC, this was the case in the previous edition, but now the WGPL?  Wow, it wasn't enough to take away the ability to go to Assault and actually use the Melta bombs they can buy or be safe briefly and give every army out there the ability to probably kill 3-4 of them with the Quad Guns firing Interceptor as the Wolves have NO BLOODY FLIERS of their own.  Oh, we CAN get an ace :-)  For all the fliers we do not have...  All I can say is wow.  GW had an excellent opportunity with the "Death From the Skies" book to get fliers out to all the armies and some form of AA to the armies lacking it but instead we get a $37 FAQ adding the Fliers to SOME armies, but not fixing anything really and being really a disappointment overall for the players out here.

So, no Fliers, no AAA, neutered Wolf Scouts and Wolf Guard...  Hmmm, wonder how well the Wolves will do in our local environment?  Not really.  No defense whatever against the Heldrake or tank lines I see across the table, no really compelling reason to field them really...  A bit of a caffeine inspired rant as I am snowed in, but really kind of confusing and disappointing...

So... Wolves and Praetorians? Maybe Eldar?

Yeah, the Fleshtearers are OK, but 1000 points is stifling...  The Storm Raven is amazing, as long as it stays a Flier...  Landing to have the lads and DN assault is the turn before it dies...  So, have to learn a bit better when to actually works out in my favor to fully commit...  Something to work on, but REALLY only something I think comes into effect at levels over 1500 points...  Means I am committing ONE of my assault elements, not the bulk of my army...  And with my usual attack involves several elements all going at the same time, so it will not be the same guarantee that the Raven dies...  VERY vulnerable of course, but not just waiting to die.

Brings me to what I am thinking about...  Probably going to switch out my army.  Wolves are interesting, and seeing more than a few Tank Line armies locally, I think the Wolf Scouts are going to be brutal.  My initial response was they are shelved with almost every army fielding the Aegis line with the quad gun...  Now, not really seeing the Quad guns or Aegis lines, so the Scouts appearing in the backfield with Melta and Plasma would be a very good thing...  The Rune Priest is still the only real psychic defense Marines have, and it till wounds Daemons on a 2+...  Long Fangs are OK, but with the Heldrake roaming everywhere, I do not have  the same confidence I once had.  Maybe with a Wolf Guard and Rune Priest in Terminator armor in the squad...  Just seems a LOT of my points in one small squad.  Grey Hunters are a solid choice and I am liking  the Razorbacks with small squads these days...  Probably helps that I snagged the last metal Njal at the Gopher and Munin sent me the last of my Wolf Scouts, but we'll see if I can make them work...  And I am REALLY liking how my new paint scheme test mini came out, so the lads will be getting repainted...  Or painted :-)  Some of the lads haven't ever really been finished since they hit the field in the ancient pre Heresy days of the RT edition...

Praetorians and Eldar are also starting to make their way back to the top of the list...  With my Praetorians, I am thinking I could abuse Artillery and just win by shooting and Arty sniping...  So, potentially devastating  but ultimately boring I think.  Eldar will be more of a challenge, but mostly because I do not believe they are competitive in the current edition.  OK, I didn't think they were competitive in the previous edition either, and it has really just gotten worse...  Farseer or Eldrad look like they'd be good, and I can put out a metric crapton of Str 6 shooting...  Neat, but...  For Troops, the Pathfinders are good, but only until someone else locally figures out that there are a lot of things that ignore cover saves...  Once someone else figures it out, well, the Pathfinders will evaporate...  HtH is limited and the Vehicles by and large are overpriced...  Oh, and unless I use IA, nothing close to a Flier or AAA...  OTOH, excellent flier in IA 11...  So, I think I could make something work...

1K Team League starts tonight...

So, I'm bringing my Fleshtearers...  I toyed with a few other armies, and I think we CAN change it during the league, so not a big deal...  Just that the Eldar are nigh unplayable in this edition unless I am playing one of the IA lists like the Corsairs...  Even the Nightwing Flier they have in there is really quite good at 145 points...  But the IA lists are probably overpowered, and a single Flier is not so much fun to bring to the table...  If Pedro Cantor changed Sternguard to Troops rather than just making them Scoring, I'd be using that again, but the "tax" of having to bring at least 2 minimum sized squads of crap troops is just too much I think.  DA I just played, and while I think they are OK, the parts I want to play would not work well in small 1K games...  That and frankly I was tired of playing the same army every week...  There really are some things it does well against and some it is incapable of dealing with barring insanely good dice.  So, the game devolves to a "Rock Paper Scissors" game that takes several hours to play out, but that most of the players know what will likely happen before Deployment...

/rant off :-)  So, I am bringing a nice "Team Friendly" force, either my Roddy Piper force ("We're here to kick ass and chew bubblegum...  And we're out of gum") being the first:

Reclusiarch (Jump Pack)
Death Company (5, 2 Power Axes, Jump Packs)
DC DN (Claws of Eternal Combat, HF)
Storm Raven (MM/TL LC)
Assault Squad (10, Flamer, Melta, PW SGT)
Sanguinary Priest (Jump Pack)

Aegis Line w/ LC

So, nothing at all subtle, the Raven loads up with the DC elements and comes in to hit the enemy on or about turn 3...  Assault Squad and Medic can combat squad and hide in ruins/Aegis line...  The line is just the extra 85 points...  I COULD bring the Whirlwind at 90 if I really wanted to, but given the DA version @ 65...  Just no where really to sink those points...

Second is a straight up stand and fight list...

Librarian (Jump Pack, Blood Lance and ?)
Assault Squad (10, 2 Melta, SGT w/ Inf pistol and PW)
Assault Squad (10 Melta, Flamer, SGT w/ ?  Flame pistol maybe)
Storm Raven (TML, TL LC)
Furioso DN (HF)
Attack Bike w/ MM

So, nothing subtle, just bringing scoring bodies, a Flier to dogfight and ....  Well, that's about it.  Should be a good "half" of another Army for a team...

All in all, nothing TOO overpowered...  Should be interesting at least.  I still have the Death Company squad I won in the Tournament a few leagues back...  Might have to paint them up as Honor Guards...  Think I have enough DC with 25+ Jump Troopers...  Or I'd be happy to trade them for something else if someone is needing more DC...