Sshhh...can you hear a distant cry? The baying of Wolves...

I thought about 40k this week.

I thought about Wolves.

I thought about how to improve my tournament play with them.
The obvious answer is to of course play with them.
Practice makes perfect after all.

But I am enjoying my skirmish games too much for that! lol.

I'm in the very exciting process of setting up a club in Cambridge too, in order that the community here might have somewhere else to play than GW (with 2 tables for 40 dudes) or Inner Sanctum (a great place, all game systems, but only once per week)...once this is up and running (3 weeks) I'll have something exciting... new players to play against!!

That is what this post is really about. I've got a Brighton Warlords tournament coming up in November and Blog Wars 2 in December, I'm going to eschew practice games in favour of just playing for fun, which for me also includes being competitive. But with the new club I'll have new opponents and that makes 40k fun again!

I am familiar with Wolves and I've played more than enough gams with and against GK to have a good knowledge of all the kids on the block.. so I just need to refine my list and go from there.

Earlier this year I played for the tournament on the top table with Wolves and also placed 18th with them on another occasion. Two different lists.
Some areas of success and some areas of failure.
I'm going to try and blend these areas into one force.
Let's have a look, its 1750 btw...list and thoughts after the break:

Rune Priest Fafnir - Chooser Living Lightning, Jaws

Wolf Guard - x 10; 1 x TDA/CML with CPlasma, 2 x Fist and CMelta, 2 x CMelta, 1 x CPlasma and 4 x CM in Drop Pod (see units below for WG allocation)
Lone Wolf - TDA,SS,CF
Lone Wolf - TDA,SS,CF
Grey Hunters x 7 (RunePriest, WG –CM/Pfist go here), Melta, Rhino
Grey Hunters x 7(WG- CM/Pfist) , Melta, Rhino
Grey Hunters x 5, Meltagun (WG -CM), Razorback (Machine gun)
Grey Hunters x 5 (WG w Combi Melta), Razorback (Machine gun)
Grey Hunters x 5, (WG w Combi Plasma), Razorback (Machine gun)

Grey Hunters x 5 (WG w. Terminator, PW, CPlas, CML)
Long Fangs 4 ML
Long Fangs 4 ML
Long Fangs 4 ML

So let's discuss a couple of things here.
1) Lone Wolves: I love these guys. Together, they are a great unit that will mess up most things. But they need to be together. I cannot state this enough...of course they can go after tanks on their own, but for all other targets, it is my firm belief they need to tag team up...just think of them like the Legion of Doom! Whilst they are very survivable thanks to 2+/3++/FNP/2W they are not indesctructable and whilst they could easily chew through a combat squad sized/MSU unit, they require their buddy for daemon hunting etc.

I will happily throw one in on its own to swing a combat that a unit of Grey Hunters are in with though. THe idea behind this force is that the 2 larger packs of GH will take on the brunt of the CC duty, with a Fist in each, the Rune Priest in one and a Wulfen in the other, it is my hope that when backed up by one of the Lone Wolves, they can hold their own and break a combat. Of course, having so many little units around as well means they can throw down and join in if needed.

2) Home Sitters - never had them before and in that Bore Draw, always have to leave a good sized unit home to keep the ranch safe. This has the disadvantage that I am not pressing forward with all my force, but the advantage that I can fight off an unforeseen and unblocked push on the objective.
I do of course, typically, have 15 Long Fangs who can and have jumped in to swing things in the past..
So with that in mind, I am leaving a 5 man token squad behind to grab the objective. However, with a CML Terminator attached to them they can very successfully reach out and touch the enemy at range, contributing from Turn 1 through to death.. In addition, they are equipped with a Plasma and a CPlasma, for mid range fire versus transports (primarily conserving the Combi) and for a rapid fire burst versus tough 'leet troops or against a unit of marines. Not forgetting of course that the CML would be firing too! Versus MEQ, that's a very nasty volley of fire.

It also allows me to have another unit of GH pushing forward as I now have a full compliment of Troops

3) Razorbacks - had 15 points left. Had 3 unit that typically want to be so close that they may as well hop out and that would still fit in a Razorback. I personally think that this is a crap weapon, have said so before, have seen the below-expectation performance on YTTH etc etc...and yet, knowing all of this, I still like this in play testing..it allows me to just ping off a few shots at units on foot and combined, they don't do too badly. Great range and just useful as an option. For 5 points and opportunity cost of 'top hatch action' I'll take it. The way I play, I typically disembark from the safety of rhino triangles or am lining up to multi assault 2 small units into the transport meat of the enemy, so want to be on foot anyway.

we'll see...

4) Drop Pod of Doom - except versus Warp Quake... know what most GK builds are at tournaments? Purifiers and Coteaz spam..with of course some Draigowings and 'all rounders'..in this case it's the all rounders that have the Warp Quake and I'll just drop midfield near decent terrain and use the boys as an advance scouting force...taking up position and just threatening with a 12"-18" bubble of melta, slowing or at least second guessing the advance of the enemy transports, allowing my units to push and dominate midfield and board control.
Still useful.
Against every army that is not GK? Yeah, I can drop in and smash something. I have had issues in the past with swift destruction of Land Raiders or heavy tanks at range, where 20 Missiles (not in this list..) just bounce from a unit... or simply where I can kill it, but not until it's in midfield and the cargo can reap havoc on my force.
So let's kill it before it can go anywhere.. the boys will die of course in most cases.. but in others, I can drop in and kill isolated units etc and just have fun with it..
Will it be useful every time?
Nope. Full reserve, bubble wrap and Warp Quake...
I know the internet tells us this is going to be present all the time...
Want to know how often you actually see decent bubble wrapping or proper deployment with no juicy targets and no isolation?
Not very fucking often.

Let slip the Hounds of War brothers!!

Thoughts and opinions please peeps, come on..I've given you a decent 40k article rather than that Infinity shit I know you all skip over!! lol.