As I have mentioned repeatedly here I have attended the Throne of Skulls tournament at Warhammer world this weekend, and I have to say that it was a fantastic event and I really enjoyed myself, all of my opponents were great people and all of my games were thoroughly enjoyable. So, to save you the pain of having to read through this entire post to find out how I finally performed in the event I'm just going to stick it here and get it over with, as it's not particularly exiting. I won 1, drew 1, and lost 3. This score looks, to be honest, pretty crap, for someone here spends their time assisting on army lists and posting articles on the metagame, and, to be honest, it is. I just seem to have the problem of translating theory into practice on the tabletop, as there are so many more factors to consider, as you never have the exact same situation twice. Basically, I'm definately still learning, and this event definately helped me to do that and I believe that I have come back a better player.
The list that I was taking is as follows:
HQ:
Rune Priest
-Chooser of the Slain
-Wolf Tail Talisman
-Jaws
-Living Lighting
Rune Priest
-Wolf Tail Talisman
-Jaws
-Murderous Hurricane
Elites:
5 Wolf Guard
-3 Power Fists
-2 Wolf Claws
5 Wolf Scouts
-Meltagun
5 Wolf Scouts
-Meltagun
Troops:
9 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard
-Rhino
7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard
-Rhino
7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard
-Rhino
Heavy Support:
5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons
5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons
5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons
My mind is fried as I'm doing this 3 hours after the end of the event so sorry if this all sounds stupid.
Game 1:
My first game was against an Eldar player. I won't drop his name as I haven't asked permission but he was a really nice guy. He also won the Best Eldar Player award at the event, which considering that it was his first Throne of Skulls was impressive. he had a squad of 3War Walkers with Shuriken cannons, a squad of 3 Vypers with 2 Shuriken cannons each, a Pathfinder squad, a Farseer, 2 squads of Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents with Shuriken Cannons, 2 squads of Fire Dragons in identical transports, and a squad of 5 Warp Spiders.
This was all looking good when I chose to go first, in The Scouring and Hammer and Anvil, all until he siezed the initiative and blew my Long Fangs away, leaving me with very little to hit him back with. He then dominated the shooting side of the game and eventually tabled me on turn 6, his speed allowing him to move around the Rhino wrecks that I had used for cover. First loss.
Game 2:
This was against a Space Marine player, who was also a very nice guy. He was running a Salamanders list with a 10 man squad of Thunder Hammer Storm Shield Terminators and a Librarian. My big mistake here was that I completely forgot about the overwatch rule. The remedy for this being not to stay up until the early hours of the morning painting your army the day before a tournament.
The mission was Vanguard Strike and Purge the Alien (or something like that, the new wierd Spearhead and Kill Points). My plan was to try and take down the Terminators, as I was confident that I could dominate the shooting battle and win the game that way. This is a bad plan if Terminators keep making saves. A dreadnought dropped in next to my Warlord and despite all nearby Melta being chucked at it there it stayed, before charging my large Grey Hunter squad and Warlord along with the undying Terminators before eating a second scout squads Melta next turn and succumbing. Simply, I shot everything at the Terminators while they refused to die and smashed their way through a Rune Priest, 2 Scout squads, 3 Grey Hunter squads 2 Rhinos and 2 Long Fang squads. Needless to say that I lost this game also.
Game 3:
Sieze ground equivilant and the new Dawn of War (pitched battle). If there is one faction that I know absolutely nothing about in terms of gameplay, it's Tau. Despite this, when I saw Tau across the board I was quite pleased, it gave me an opportunity to see a new army in action. My opponent won the roll to go first, but I got back from the first game and siezed it. We got night fighting, but despite this I shot a Pathfinder squad which promptly failed it's leadership check (twice) and ran off the board over 2 player turns.
When my opponent reminded me that most of his army had blacksun filters the first thought that came into my head was, 'oh crap, here we go again'. he then only proceeded to kill 3 Long Fangs and a Storm Bolter on a Rhino which gave me hope again. This was reminforced, when 1 scout squad came on and blew away his hammerhead, 1 Long Fang pack took down the Devilfish while the Phirana (that's probably spelt wrong but never mind) was reduced to a single hull point, the 2 remaining Long Fang packs brought down both a Broadside and its shield drone.
From here I had 2 objectives secure, bar 2 stealthsuit teams deep striking which were drove back by my Rune Priest and his Grey Hunters (the only successful charge in the game was initiated by a stealthsuit team charging them as a hail Mary). I then dropped many missiles upon Fire Warriors inside an Aegis defence line forcing both squads to go to ground to survive and ended up winning the game taking 2 objectives to my opponents 1, and 8 - 3 in victory points terms.
Game 4:
This was against a guy who had come all of the way over from Holland to play in the tournament, had a really great game here also. He was running a nice pre-heresy Iron Warriors army, along with some Steel Legion allies. This was big guns never tire and vanguard strike, and it was a pretty bloody game, most of both of our armies were dead, and at the end of the game he held 2 objectives. Giving him 6 points, plus 2 points for killing 2 of my Long Fang Packs. I only held 1 objective, but I had first blood, slay the warlord, a single linebreaker point and I had killed his vindicator, so it ended as an 8 - 7 victory to him, a very close game indeed. A result I was quite pleased with as he ended up racking up 4 out of 5 wins over the course of the event.
Game 5:
Both me and my opponent knew that we had nothing to play for in the competition, so in the end we just went to make the game as fun as possible. My opponent was playing a refreshingly different Eldar list, including Eldrad but 2 Wave Serpents full of Howling Banshees, some pathfinders, a bastion, Storm Guardians, etc. I ended up blowing up the bastian, killing a wolf scout, all of the guardian defenders, the pathfinders and wounding Eldrad twice, who then died whilst in combat with the wolf scouts to a perils of the warp. This was the relic and dawn of war, and although my Grey Hunters did grab the relic, they were eaten by Banshees, resulting in a 2 - 2 draw, with me getting linebreaker and slay the warlord, and my opponent getting slay the warlord and first blood.
So, as I say, I have definately learnt a lot from this experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the event. I will definately be attending again. I recommend it to anyone, whether you are looking to attend an event for the first time (most of the people that I met were doing this) or have been to many (there were a few European Team Championship players attending).
I plan on changing my list after getting more experience with wolves, and I've just edited it into this post. So, we'll see if this one is any better.
HQ:
Rune Priest
-Chooser of the Slain
-Living Lightning
-Jaws of the World Wolf
-Terminator Armour
Rune Priest
-Living Lightning
-Murderous Hurricane
-Terminator Armour
Elites:
5 Wolf Guard
-3 in Terminator Armour with Power Fists
-2 with Power Weapons
5 Wolf Scouts
-Meltagun
5 Wolf Scouts
-Meltagun
Troops:
7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard
7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard
7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard
Heavy Support:
5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons
5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons
5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons
Fortifications:
Aegis Defence Line
-Quad gun
Right, so I'm quickly going to run through the changes and explain why I have made them.
Rune Priests:
I have dropped the Wolf Tail Talismans. This is simply because they were 10pts of wargear that I never used (in total). My Runic Weapon already did the job and failing that Deny the Witch would have made it.
I have swapped out the psychic powers, taking 2 counts of Living Lightning. I've already tried out 2 counts of Murderous Hurricane and 2 counts of Jaws and both are quite situational, as many models have higher initiative making it difficult to tackle with Jaws and Murderous is quite short range. In Throne of Skulls I kept ending up in situations where I was thinking, 'I wish this one had Living Lightning', so, now they both do.
They now have Terminator armour, I was fed up with them dying and the Invulnerable save that it gives them is really handy, and the 2+ means I can reliably shove them at the front of a squad for some beardy wound allocation shenanigans.
Wolf Guard:
I swapped the Wolf Claws out for power weapons. As non-specialist weapons I get an extra attack for dual close combat weapons and they're cheaper. Plus, I've never seen anyone leave Terminators to guard an objective with the exception of a lone Paladin so the AP3 doesn't matter enough for me to want to use points doing something about it.
The Terminator armour on the others is to make the Grey Hunter squads more durable and pull more beardy shenanigans.
Grey Hunters:
Dropped the Rhinos and 2 Grey Hunters to save points. I liked Rhino walling but I think the Wolf Guard will pull the same tricks well enough to keep the squads alive.
Aegis Defence Line:
I know it is not a reliable way to kill flyers, it can only kill one a turn, max. But, it does give me at least something to shoot at flyers with, in an army that definately lacked that. Plus, many an opposing model was saved by an Aegis Defence line at Throne of Skulls, and if nothing else than for the psychological effect that your opponent thinks that a squad is extremely durable and the option to go to ground to get a 2+ cover save, I think that this could be a good addition to the army.
No comments:
Post a Comment