Wolves in Sixth?

So, looking at the Wolves codex again...  I do not think that I have ever really given it a long enough look in the Sixth Edition.  Probably not the best way to write this, but overall it is just bad. 

I'll start with what works...  At least until they get FAQ'd off the table.  The only things I see people bringing Wolves for are the Rune Priests.  Getting 2 for each HQ slot, they are the ONLY thing left in the game to stop Psychics and they still have non "book" powers that might be somewhat overly powerful against some things...  So, the Rune Priest is good...  And...

No real way around the basic facts and reality of the current game.  I will dig a bit deeper in a bit, but this was clearly written for a very different game.  Lots of things are too expensive and a lot simply do not work.

For instance the army wide rule for acute senses?  Neat when it worked against Night Fighting...  Which was itself rare, but now it only works for outflanking units...  Which I can have up to two if I take a specific HQ and buy the upgrade.  Yes, the Scouts still have the uber flanking.  But they have FAQ killed the ability to bring along a Wolf Guard to lead them.  Also the removal of the ability to Assault on entry from Reserve means they HAVE to be a shooting unit.  In 4+ armor.  With every army getting access to Interceptor, most with Twin Linked doubled up Auto Cannons...  Shooting 4 shots at Str 7 and AP 4 to effectively wipe out the 5 man Scout squad when it does show up.  Yea.  Not even touching the Tau with all of their Intercept.

So, Claw...  It seems to translate to "Craptastic" for this entire Codex.  Wolf Claw?  An overpriced Lightning Claw.  Blood Claw?  Craptastic Assault troops who despite being Marines are WORSE than the IG I see.  BS/WS 3 with restrictive rules making them act stupidity.  Oh, they can also have Jump Packs or Bikes...  Jump Packs are expensive and even more stupid.  There was a brief period where I could lead them out with a Wolf Guard a mitigate their stupidity, but that FAQ change was reversed long ago...  Bikes don't suck, but with Heldrakes even White Scar and DA bikes are unusable and cheaper/better...  So, there it is really...

Grey Hunters are still OK, but overpriced Basic Marines really.  Too many things are too good at killing Marines these days.  MSU was where the Jaegers were their best I think, and with First Blood being simple with just killing a Rhino Hull...  Not really viable.  I have had some success running a maxed out squad as a Flanker...  But really it is a single use trick that doesn't even work against Tau.  If I could shoot then Assault it might, but...  So, overall they have some useless special rules that are relics from the old editions unlike the Vanilla Marines who have a load of good and free updates.  More importantly they have no real way to survive the modern environment.  Too many Str 6+ massed shots, and too many things that ignore 3+ armor and/or cover.  The pendulum has swung too far away from the Marines as far as the game is concerned...

Experimenting with Imperial Armor a bit...  Bran Redmaw from IA 11 is expensive but allows me to do a bit more with a Squad of Grey Hunters gaining the Scouts rule for "Behind Enemy Lines" and Bran himself having the "Mark of the Hunter" which should allow him to flank and lead another unit in a regular Flank move...  Problem was until the Stronghold Assault rules hit, there was simply no way to keep the stuff I HAVE to deploy onto the field alive long enough.  Now I get to play with the Void Shields and the Defense Networks...  Probably NOT the way I had thought to run the army...  The AAA weapons are another thing out of the IA books that are a possibility and I HAVE a bunch of ancient resin missile turrets...  So, lacking ANYTHING in the AAA or Aircraft native in the Codex IA is pretty much the only option.  The Spartan class tank (I REALLY still want to call them Land Raiders) is one option...  Bringing Logan is another option with a lot of Drop Pods I guess...  Just so few viable options.  MAYBE a pack of actual Wolves as beasts to actually GET to HtH and the Wolf Cavalry?  Eh...  I just don't see it happening...  But, hey, maybe I missed something?

Tyranids and the Local Group

So, the new Tyranid book hit...  While I AM happy for the two local players who actually played the army, I am less sure overall.  Of course, I haven't seen it in action yet as both local players have extremely busy work schedules and have little time for gaming at the moment.  Some things look pretty good and it seems like it is a fairly well written book...  Despite the massive cut/paste from the previous book and the obvious missing models that got cut rather than allow a third party model take the place of the non-existent GW model.  So, no Tyranid drop pods for the players. 

Psychics look good, and losing the crutch of Biomancy is probably a good thing...  AA is going to be an issue, but they have fliers of their own to dogfight.  No Allies is a problem.  The ability to break the Force Org chart is now REALLY unequally applied.  And the Tyranids are not I think powerful enough to stand against the current top tier uber lists...  Hive Guard might be able to deal with Serpent Spam, but I am just not seeing the answer to the Tau silliness.  Even the Eldar answer is by no means a guarantee against a competent opponent.  Now, it does seem very well balanced again say, Marines or anything else...  Just nothing to threaten the top tier.

Wound up picking up a Land Raider Crusader from one of the locals paring down their collection…  One of the original ones with the metal sponson guns, etc…  I’ll need to order more Grey paint I think as I have finally decided that all 5 of my LRs will be Wolves…  Or at least 4 of them with the last Spartan Class (Original, MK I) probably staying black for Fleshtearers Death Company/Consecrators (DA) use…  And since no one EVER expects Deep Striking Land Raiders J  Might be hilarious to drop on a Tau army…  So, back to painting and assembling my stuff I guess.  No clue what the real order of releases will be, but I’m pretty happy to be back working on my original Wolves again.  Found a number of truly ancient Rhino track parts and need to manufacture the internal hull parts to get myself another 4-6 Rhinos.  I have some “cash” in the form of a pre-paid Amex card that I’m going to be spending at the Gopher…  Guessing I will have no problem finding enough to spend it all between the one thing I’d like to order and maybe some Magic or Star Trek stuff…  Maggie (My Amazing Wife) has started playing MtG with me again, so perhaps we’ll make it to one of the casual events soon…  I still have a bunch of ancient cards and glancing over the costs of some of them, am frankly amazed J…  Not “I can sell this and retire now amazed mind, just way more than I had dreamed these things would be worth…

Looking at the local group I am surprised to see (NOT including my own armies in this):

2 Eldar players, one Iyanden and one more old school Craftworld/Ghost…  Neither really playing the uber lists, more interested in playing a fun game than a win at all cost sort of thing…  I have a huge collection of ancient Eldar, so could probably play most of the lists….  Just that I got sick of playing the now massively overpowered (IMO) army and feeling like no one really has much a chance against me…

2 Tau players…  One with the Riptides of doom, one more Broadsides.  Powerful armies, good players, so…  Well, I try to steer newcomers away from that J.  But the armies ARE beatable and not really the insanely overly optimized tournament forces you might see as a big event.

One IG tread head…  He is THRILLED to have the Baneblade legal now and loads of LR tanks make up the basis of his normal army.  A few other IG players, one who just found the store last night and with this on the short list for the next book out…

Tyranids…  2 I know of, but neither of them is playing much.  One works for the Public Works Dept, so drives a snow plaw…  Overtime is good I guess J…  Hoping they both get back at some point, good games are had against them…

Marines?  One ACTUAL Ultra Marine player with his stuff fully painted in the colors…  Honestly, other than my brother painting up a squad or so of them I have NEVER actually seen anyone play Marines as Smurfs J…  Is kind of nice to see though, was beginning to think they were a myth.  3-4 others who have various vanilla or at least Codex Marines lists.  Even Ted getting back in with his Iron Hands… 

One other guy playing BA…  Mostly Death Company…  So, pretty close to my Flesh Tearers.  ‘course, he is one of the Eldar players now, so this is being built/painted now.  Another guy now playing Tau who used to play BA, so potentially he could come back J…  But pretty much not an army you see on the table anymore.

Wolves?  One guy who sometimes plays them…  2 of us also HAVE the army and I intend to bring mine back to the table despite it being pretty much hopeless in the modern environment.

Chaos of all sorts…  One Demon player, 4-5 Chaos Marine players…  Pretty mellow group overall.  Mostly themed lists, etc., so more fun than win at all costs…

Necrons…  One, playing a Croissant heavy force.  Tough army, really good player, but always a good game against him in my experience.  Another old time player who no longer gets out, and his Tyranids I think will see the table first…

Grey Knights?  2-3 who at times do play…  One who plays mostly Inquisition, but he works in the local theater group who have a production going now, so have not seen him much recently.  But a LOT of nice conversions in his force…  Again, more themed than focused overall for this group as well…

DA?  Well, I have mine…  One other guy who played, but his job takes him on the road frequently.  Another person was building an army, but has not yet played in a League locally…  Looking forward to seeing more Terminators though J….

So, yeah, not really counting my: VI Legion, Wolves, Consecrators (DA), Flesh Tearers (BA), Crimson Fists, IG (Praetorians), Eldar or Grey Knights in that count :-)...  As my wife says I have too many armies...

So overall now that I have actually written it all in all we have a VERY diverse group of armies being played locally.  Most of us are actually pretty happy with 6^th edition and the expansions…  NOT being a very high stress/competitive place, we are actually growing with more people showing up and actually buying stuff ever week it seems…  May not be seeing the wider picture, but if there is a summer campaign, I would expect that we could get a fair number of folks in to play it…

1500 Wolf Legion list

So, getting the core of my force ready, playing locally against 30K and 40K forces…  Mostly 40K, but most of the locals are just fine with me running my weird ancient Marine lists.  So, VI Legion (Wolves) but pretty much just a generic setup.

Legion Praetor (Cataphractii Armor, Combi Plasma, Paragon Blade, Pride of the Legion)

Legion Veteran Tactical Squad (10, HB, ML w/Flak, SGT in Artificer)

  Rhino

Legion terminator Squad (10 Cataphractii, Reaper, Plasma Blaster, mix of weapons with a CF and LC)

  Spartan (Ceremite)

Mortis DN (2 * TL Las Cannon)

And…

 I had been running the Forge Lord with the Rad Grenades in my 1850 lists, usually with the Siege Breachers, but seems like it makes the Spartan nigh un killable at times.  I like the Apothecary (Medic) in the big squad, so would love to have one in the Cataphractii, so perhaps a Primus Medicae?  Honestly I’m not really sure what else to do with the 200 or so points…  Any thoughts?  Thinking that 1850+ is the place to play Legion lists…

Finally some model work...

Finally got in a bit of work on my armies...  5 Siege Breachers and 5 Cataphractii Terminator suits assembled tonight...  No pictures or anything, but getting used to using the wine corks Maggie gave me to hold the figures as I paint them.  The Spartan is getting cleaned up, next to assemble it.

Snowed in, so no League tomorrow.

Legion List at 1500...

So, with the League running at 1500 points, I will give these lads a try...  Using the "Pride of the Legion" Rite of War making Terminators and Veteran Squads Troops (Mandatory 2 at least).  The disadvantage being that if I lose ALL of my Vet/Terminators, I give up an extra VP.  But at 1500, I might well have only the two squads, so getting wiped out I've already lost...  Not a real disadvantage as far as I can see.  And with the FAQ giving the unit with Sniper rule wounding on 4+, Rending, picking Targets...  

Legion Praetor (Cataphracti Armor, Paragon Blade, Combi Plasma)

Veteran Tactical Squad (Missile Launcher with Suspensor and maybe Flak?, loads of Bolters otherwise), SGT with Artificer, attach a Medic?

  Rhino w/Havoc Launcher ?  Maybe...

Terminator Squad (10, mix of weapons)

  Spartan Transport, Cermite)

And...  Mkay, that comes to 1200 or so points...  Maybe a Mortis class DN for the Wolves?  The Las Cannon option is pretty powerful...  Maybe keep the Forge Lord and maybe try out the Medic?

Not sure, the Void Shield Generators in the Siege book seem pretty darn good... Thinking they might well be the one thing that stops fliers and the superheavies...  So may well be something that becomes semi required...  Will have to come up with some terrain to become a Shield Generator...

Stronghold Assault ideas...

So, looking at the Stronghold Assault book…  The Bastion got a LOT better with the ability to bring a Void Shield.  So, Icarus Las Cannon and the Quad gun both look good, and the new book has a “Fortification Network” which counts as a single Fortification.  1-3 Bastions, 1-5 Aegis lines, 0-1 Skyshield…  So a Bastion and an Aegis, each with an AA gun of some kind for the single “Fortification” slot choice.  So 75 for the Bastion, 25 for the Void Shield, 35 for the Icarus combined with the 50 for the Aegis and 50 for the Quad Gun.  235 points, so NOT cheap.  But it would I think be survivable for the people inside.  

My Crimson Fists with Tank Hunter would be brutal, even my Wolves with Long Fangs would be a very hard strong point to remove quickly…  Especially with Grey Hunters providing building security…  And with the “Behind Enemy Lines” saying they can come out from ANY board edge, that would include my own if my own lines get crashed…  So, I guess this becomes my AAA option for armies that do not otherwise have such options.  Thinking that I can go complete overkill with a Legion list and bring the Heavy Support Squad with Missile Launchers and Flak missiles. Would be a way to sweep the sky against the Necron/chaos air force army…  And not be totally useless otherwise…  Just not nearly so much so against the Tau MC lists…

So, my painting of Wolves goes slowly with Christmas and the like taking priority...  Spartan is on-hand now, so I need to assemble it and paint it up in my VI Legion colors such as they are (Grey with Bronze/Red trim).  Stripping and repainting a lot of old Lead figs, manufacturing Shields for use as Siege Breachers...  So a VERY Legion specific unit, but fun to play...  Maybe I'll get to play a game sometime soon...

So, is it 40K version 6.5 now?

So, here we are…  Looking for all the world like the mid-point for 6^th Edition.  Mind, I have no idea how far we really are into the current edition’s life span, but it really is feeling very much like we are at or about “version 6.5”.  The major rule updates coming out in Escalation and Stronghold Assault really ARE game changers.  On one hand, it has the potential to make the game silly/stupid with a Titan backed up with minimal “other” to make a legal army.  Is it bad?  On some levels, yes…  The local game store does not in general sell those things being Armorcast/Forgeworld or DIY/Home Made stuff…  CAN be amazing, beautiful models and has the potential to pull more people into the game…  Or it can look like crap, drive people away and deny sales to the FLGS… 

 I have to admit I am still on the fence about it.  On one hand it does seem like it will have a leveling effect IFF it serves as either an answer or a deterrent to some of the completely legal but horribly abusive lists.  I do not think you will find many people arguing that the “Screamer Star” or the “Jetseer Council” are NOT abusive lists.  They take things to an extreme, and while technically legal have the effect of simply killing all enjoyment of the game.  The same effect that the Grey Knights had on the previous edition I think.  The 4+ giant Monstrous Creature lists including, but by no means limited to the Tau silliness, Eldar mixed or the Flying Circuses of the Tyranids/Chaos.  Simply NOT fun to play against with a “normal” army anymore.  So, where does that leave us?  Everyone HAS to bring the same very small subset of “broken” lists or be relegated to just losing?  In the bigger events, the prize support, etc. makes this a game with money on the table in my opinion.  When there is money on the table, “friendly play” simply does not exist…  Eventually.  Sure, you will occasionally run across the equivalent of the gun toting Amish vigilante, but the reality is that the ones playing the most broken and obnoxious (to those of us who are just there to play a few games) lists are the odds on favorites to win it all.

I know that a group of the larger TOs out there are working to create something in a “Tournament 40K” rule set for lack of a better term.  Mike Brandt over at the “Whiskey & 40K” blog details that here (http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2013/12/better-mission-design-more-proactive.html) …  Will it work?  I don’t know.  I DO wish them luck and hope that it does.  As of right now I have less than zero interest in going to a major event with any army I would like to play.  There are only 2 times I very nearly lost my temper playing a game, once was when I played uber-competitive 40K back in 3^rd Edition.  Would have been very late 2001 or early 2002.  I was just out of the Army a few years, just married, etc., and playing in a RTT up in Joliet.  Wound up playing my Fleshtearers against his IG.  His Tallern IG painted up as Al Qaeda with “Bin Laden” themed and pictured banners…  Kid said he did it just to piss off his opponents…  Worked for me, don’t think I ever played a more brutally effective and vicious game in my life.  See, when I get pissed off, I get far more dangerous.  I was methodical, and to be honest, the BA were horribly broken in that edition, so the kid never really had a chance as I could easily Assault  his army on turn one, and with the Sweeping Assault rules, just keep going.  It was over by the bottom of turn 2, with him being completely wiped from the table.  Got chipmunked on my “Sportsmanship” score, but whatever.  Good thing an old friend of mine was there (Dennis Smith) and was friends with the TOs or it would have really screwed up my score.  So, “Best General” it was, not overall winner…  And that was the last big event I went to. 

I guess I saw where it would go in time.  And let’s be honest, from about the mid-point of 5^th Edition to now it seems that as a competitive game it just does not work.  The ideas about 2 different “Victory Conditions” and giving each player a choice is neat, but….  Well, I’ll wait and see I think.  The old Mob quote to the effect of “Every law they pass just creates more businesses for us” comes to mind.  Seems that we are all acknowledging that there are truly broken things, and to fix them we will introduce more rules and more potential for breaking things further.  NOT the intention of course, and like I said I really do hope that it works out and becomes a fun game again on that level.  This is probably the most frustrating thing about it all…  Forgeworld as part of GW actually I think HAS balanced the “Lords of War” stuff in the Heresy rules…  A single line of “no more than 25% of your points may be spent on this slot”.  And that’s it.  The things with the most potential to break 40K are all too expensive to be 25% of any list size we use in the games we play.  Yeah, doesn't help with what I consider the broken stuff but it combined with say “One Force Org Chart, allies and Detachments must adhere” and the silliness with the Taudar or 3+ Broadsides, etc. all goes away.  Does it hurt game balance?  I don’t know.  But why bother with the FOC or frankly ANY rule if it will not be equally applied for all parties?  Night Fighting is one that irks me now that it is in every mission I think.  Some armies simply ignore it (DE/Tau for the most part), some (Necrons) can cause it to only affect their enemies and for a longer time in the game…  Others still have lost their traditional keen senses that would allow them to deal with the night fight (Wolves)…  With the Wolves, I just feel there is simply no point bringing them to a 40K game unless I do something completely silly like a Bran Redmaw army or the like…  Depend on Behind Enemy Lines and Outflank to get my Wolves in close…  I have tried it before and it was mostly effective, but even still, NO defense against a flier, not much long ranged firepower, dependent on a “Hero Hammer” style of play to be effective.  I always liked how effective my basic Grey Hunters were, now in this edition…  Eh, they are just expensive casualties like the Guard.  But lacking all of the IG advantages. 

J  Guess that is why I started looking at the Legion stuff to be honest…  “This Battle is lost….  But there is time for another”…  The repaint project on my ancient ACTUALLY pre Heresy Wolves continues…  And I am building “Siege Breachers” out of some other Marines I have around to test that…  Needing the full 20 for the real sized Squads would be too expensive otherwise…  Mind, the FW resin are BRILLIANT minis and I’d love to have them…  But things like the broken furnace and other real life issues keep me from spending that kind of money on the game…