Wednesday 31 October 2012

Space Wolf Tactics: Predator Tanks

Unit Name: Predator
  
Unit Type: Heavy support Unit. Unit consists of one model. Construction: Using the predator kit.

Unit Deployment: Obscured or in a formation of tanks.

Unit in play: Fire support tank
  
Unit is most effective against: Armour/light infantry.
  
General Discussion:
Space Wolves recount with pride the tale of Skarath. It is a saga about their flexibility, ingenuity and how they created the annihilator pattern. From long before those lost days the iron priests have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the great companies are armed with the best tanks to crush the enemy. Do these gun carriages offer something to a space Wolf Lord in 6th edition?

What does a predator do?
Predator tanks are a fire support platform, they give you the ability to lay out a large number of shots into troops or seriously damage armour. What is a predator doing in a space wolves list you might ask? While long fangs are an interesting and excellent choice to give you fire support there are a range of situations currently where having a tank can prove advantageous. Due to the increased levels of terrain that the rulebook has tried to shoehorn into the game, having a more mobile fire platform is quite a boon. Due to the new rules a tank can move 12” and still fire all of its weapons as snap shots. In a situation where you have no units in line of sight this can be problematic for long fangs but the tank can overcome it quite easily and still make a go of shooting. Since there is a lot more mandatory night fighting in the rules this creates a boon for any player who brings a tank to the knife fight. With a search light the tank can speed forward and make an attempt at shooting before illuminating a target. If you manage to put the light on the right target in the early game this can cripple an enemy army but this is far too situational to rely on.

What armaments work best?
A predator has limited loadout options but even these options could be made effective. The tank can be built as a destructor armed with an autocannon or an annihilator with twin-linked. Coupled with the turret there are two classes of sponsons to pick from the slug chucking heavy bolters or the armour melting lazcannons. From these builds there are two types of predators, the troop killer or the tank hunter. The tank hunter is generally armed with lazcannon sponsons while the troop kilter is loaded out with the bolters.  There is a third type that should never be seen, an annihilator armed with heavy bolter sponsons. The reason the third type is never spoken of is that it manages to make itself incapable of fulfilling any role.
Since tanks are light on the field bar a few land raidars or Imperial Guard tanks, the need for a tank hunter has severely diminished. What you might think a predator can provide is something to deal with those pesky 2+ armour saves, you would be very wrong. It can punch 3 laz rounds into a terminator squad and you will average 1.5 kills a turn, that drops off rapidly with storm shields or cover saves. The few units that have a 2+ save and don’t come with an invulnerable save aren’t expensive enough to justify the cost of a tank to kill an average of two per turn when it is quite likely the tank won’t last beyond turn two.
When it comes to using the slug throwing weapons, autocannon with heavy bolter sponsons, the preadator does well at chewing light armour. If you get the ability to target a vendetta’s rear arc you can strip off a hull point but beyond armour 10 the tank isn’t impressive. When it comes to chewing through troops the tank doesn’t hit throw out enough hits to justify its cost. Even if the dice come up perfect you can only kill a maximum of 8 models a turn, usually you’ll be much lower. Going up against a squad of space marines will see 1.3 kills per round a pathetic total.

The optional extras
The optional equipment for the tank is not amazing. Extra armour is a complete waste. A hunter killer missile is a poor weapons choice if you are moving it replaces one of your main weapons and if you are stationary you are not  A dozer blade is a superfluous addition as you will never be crashing your tank through terrain to get in close to the enemy. It’s not a Baal predator with flamers and a firestorm so you have your range to work with. Even a storm bolter is a poor investment as if you are getting a weapon destroyed result you have probably gotten another hit or two and are on the verge of the vehicle dying. Save the points there are better ways to spend them, in fact that should be the motto of the day when it comes to predators.

Are tanks even worth taking anymore?
The ability to glance a tank to death has completely undermined their position on the battlefield. Just like in the modern field of warfare the role of tanks is extinct due to portable heavy weapons. The ability to strip hull points off imperial tanks is scarily easy. Even bolter fire has a chance of taking down a predator if it can hit from the rear, this makes them very fragile. Since every unit shall be toting a plasma or melta weapon if they are available to it the chance of surviving a turn up close to enemy infantry is next to impossible.
While in 5th edition you would often have a tank lumbering around after taking numerous crew shaken results this edition leaves a tank able to fire in almost every situation. I don’t see there being many situations where a tank has suffered a penetrating roll without having first suffered a few glancing hits.

Conclusion:
So what is a predator to a space wolf, or any other space marine for that matter? Unfortunately in the new edition it is not much. The meta-game has moved away from tanks like a leprous corpse, the tank simply cannot justify its cost and has no place in an army as things stand. Any tank with armour 10 anywhere on its hull is not going to last long in the battles of 6th edition and only av 14 or flyers will be touching the board in a GT list beyond a few guard armies. The number of outflanking units in the game has grown which leaves your flanks terribly weak. I would take the points that you would spend on a predator and use them to take the best heavy support option for the Space Wolves, Long Fangs. For the cost of a “decent” predator you could have a unit of heavy bolter long fangs which can pump out twice the hits and at two targets. Leave the tanks at home and just use men from now on.

Monday 29 October 2012

Space Wolf Tactics: Rune Priest



Unit Name: Rune Priest
  
Unit Type: HQ Unit. Unit consists of one model.

Construction: Using the space wolves pack or wolf guard terminator box. Alternatively the finecast models can be purchased.

Unit Deployment: In a unit in partial cover.

Unit in play: Support unit
  
Unit is most effective against: Light armour and low initiative models at range.
  
General Discussion:
When war is declared in the Fang the great wolf calls forth the rune priests to peer beyond the skein of fate and learn how destiny shall play out. These old dogs bring with them tools of war that are decidedly not psychic powers and you would be a fool and a heretic to say so.

There are many things that can be said about rune priests, they offer interesting powers to support your troops by denying the witch and can add a few shots to your army’s already potent profile. The character is suited however for a limited role in your army. They are not Mesphiton, a rune priest is not a combat monster that can blast apart your opponents and still cut them in two before anyone reacts in the assault phase. They are however a potent weapons platform and one that is easily mobile.

Would you follow him into the jaws of battle?
When you look at the priest’s stats you notice why he is not a combat giant. He has two attacks and an initiative of 4, this profile is no better than a wolf guard. While you may think that a force weapon can assuage these shotfalls you would be wrong, for combat get a wolf lord as they are suited for it immeasurably better.

In 6th edition force weapons have been altered slightly as the weapons form dictates how it behaves. However while the rules for different styles of force weapons are interesting, the fact is that a runic weapon is an unusual force weapon. This means that you are always striking at normal strength and initiative with an ap of 3. This is a fine weapon for cutting down light infantry but the real close combat threat for the priest is still going to any decent combat character. Squads that consist solely of multi-wound non character models are a minority in the game and those that do exist are better dealt with using a priests shooting powers and even paladins can be take down with weight of numbers and difficult terrain tests.
When it comes to challanges you will be unlikely to do any real damage against those characters that are combat orientated. Unless these characters are striking after the priest you will have little chance to kill them. The types of character you will deal with easily are the single wound squad leaders that are armed with power fists or the like and these exist solely to waste the few attacks you do have against a poor target.  The only target I foresee the rune priest doing well against in a challenge would be the great unclean one due to its daemonic nature and the application of a force weapon. For those that didn’t know a runic weapon wounds daemons on a 2+, this is great news against nurglings but irrelevant when dealing with a bloodthirster.

Where is the priests strength?
Rune priests continue to excel in making life difficult for other psykers, they have the greatest ability among space marine codices of negating a psychic power. Since you have only one shot at dispelling an enemy psychic power the rune priest must use the runic weapon with its 4+ to negate. While the runic weapon only works within a 24” bubble the majority of the army works best within that distance from the enemy. The librarians of other chapters are limited to unit’s within 6” of them when it comes to using their hood. Even at that they need to be a higher mastery level to gain a 4+ to deny the witch so in most cases they won’t have a chance of equalling the abilities of a rune priest.
If you would like to ruin an enemies day adding a rune priest to an elder army for or vice versa would be a great way of doing it since you would be forcing the enemy into taking psychic tests on 3d6 and trying to avoid getting caught in the rune priests area of effect.

What powers to choose?
As a psyker the priest has a range of powers available. Some of the selections are synonymous with the rune priests however others haven’t been seen on the board by most players. As always there is a limited utility for any power but as you have two to choose from the following, I think there are some better options available.

The first power of note is thunderclap. It is strength 3, ap 5 large blast psychic shooting attack. It is not to be recommended as it leaves your priest in a situation where he must charge to deny the charge bonus to the enemy.

Living lightening is a shooting power with D6 strength 7, ap 5 shots. These shots have unlimited range and are great for striping wounds off of large models or bursting light tanks. I can see this taking out tanks much easier now by glancing them to death. It turns your priest into shooting monster on his own while moving forward across the board.

The stormcaller power is no longer all that useful for footslog lists. A 6” bubble with a 5+ cover save is not much since the boards shall be far more filled with terrain.

Tempest’s wrath is a very niche power. After you throw away a warp token you get a 24” bubble of dangerous terrain for skimmers, jump infantry and deep striking units. If you face lots of dark elder or blood angels in your metagame then maybe it is a worthwhile power for you but it has a very limited scope in a tournament.

Fury of the wolf spirits is an odd power that give you five shots but with two different profiles. Freki is three strength five and ap – shots while Geri is assault two with strength four and an ap of 2. This power can do a lot of damage to a unit and maybe soften them up for the assault but it has a short range which leaves you wide open for a hit.

Murderous hurricane is very weak when it comes to shooting. 3D6 strength 3 hits with ap – are not likely to put much hurt on anything decent. While this power may be a leaf blower for hordes the space wolves have enough heavy weapons to do this anyway. The real benefit is slowing down dangerous threats, this leaves them open for another round of fire before you have to deal with them in hand to hand combat.

The last power is jaws of the world wolf. This power is still considered broken by a large number of 
people. It has a range of 24” and any model under that line is removed if it fails an initiative test. Not only does this power allow you to aim at specific models in a unit, it can tear apart monstrous creatures such the Carnifex. In general this is one power I always take just to be able to snipe characters and high power threats.

From that list of powers there are only three that I would take, jaws, lightening and murderous hurricane. Each of them offers a clear benefit to your army in almost every situation. I find that in standard armies taking two shooting attacks is best and as such one of these powers should always be living lightening. This gives you solid shots at long range until you close to be able to use jaws or murderous hurricane. Since taking two priests was the done thing until recently, you can have a perfect distribution of powers.
The other option that is popular is to take a rune priest and take divination powers from the rule book and using the primaris power boost the shooting abilities of long fangs or grey hunters.

Does my axe look big in this?
When it comes to wargear less is more with a rune priest. Taking any ranged weapons is a true waste; the only one I would take is the bolter as it fulfils the leaders of the pack rule. The armour options are now totally important. With sniper rules and precision shots you now need armour on your characters and since vehicles have taken a massive hit I think a foot slog list is the way to go. With this in mind, terminator armour is now a must in your army. Not only does this give you a save against most power weapons, it also allows you to have two 2+ saves against shooting, look out sir and the armour saves. The terminator armour does prevent sweeping advances but that is not a major concern for a rune priest.
The chooser of the slain is a mandatory wargear option for the rune priest. It bumps any shooting attacks by 1 BS when the chooser and the priest can both draw line of sight to a target. It can also keep infiltrators out of a large area of the board, 18” around the marker to be specific. This is often a priceless ability when you want to ensure a dangerous unit cannot tear into your flanks. With two choosers on the board the choices for infiltrators are severely limited.
As for the rest, the wolf tail talisman is a complete waste and the others aren’t worth talking about. While meltabombs might be a useful choice to differentiate characters, I wouldn’t bother unless you are running dual priests. Sagas are not to be touched for a priest as other HQ selections can do the job better. 

Conclusion:
While I might seem down on rune priests due to their lack of combat prowess compared to other space wolf characters I still see them as a vital part of your army. Not only do they fill your requirements for a HQ selection they give you extra firepower for your army. If there is one things space wolves do well it is shooting, take the war to the enemy and do it with a rune priest firing magic over your shoulder.

Eirtakon RPG's

I am involved in organising some RPG's for this year's Eirtakon. The RPG's will be run on the Sunday from two to five pm. I am happy to say that I shall be running one of the games and that each game shall be run by either the author or a very experienced GM where it is a published scenario. The games will be available to purchase tickets for on Sunday at the convention in the Blue Room. The tickets will cost €1 each. Each of the games will be for complete beginners up to seasoned RPG players. I shall be running my baby a Vampire game set in the fictional universe of the Legacy of Kain series of games. I also will be in the games room for the rest of the day making sure everything runs well. 
I would also like to thank DCU's Games society for lending its games to the event.

Tinker, Vampire, Soldier, Spy - by Declan Traynor

A Vampire:Requiem game for 4-5 players.
Nosgoth is about to be changed forever, Kain has marshalled the clans to forge his legacy. Now begins our war for control of this land. We strike out from Kain’s throne of the fallen pillars for Tyrosh before the new moon. Each of you has been chosen by your clan sire as the best for a mission of cunning, intrigue and moderate violence. While the clans skulk to the cities walls you shall creep inside and carry out a task of the highest importance. Will you be hailed as the heroes of the campaign or will your names be forgotten as you turn to dust in the morning light?

We Be Goblins! - by Dennis McCartney

A Pathfinder game for 4 players.
The Licktoad goblins of Brinestump Marsh have stumbled upon a great treasure - fireworks! Yet unfortunately for them, the tribe member responsible for the discovery has already been exiled for the abhorrent crime of writing (which every goblin knows steals words from your head). To remedy this situation, the Licktoads’ leader, His Mighty Girthness Chief Rendwattle Gutwad, has declared that the greatest heroes of the tribe must venture forth to retrieve the rest of the fireworks from a derelict ship stranded in the marsh. Those heroes are you!

12ft of Dungeon - by Liam Ó Táilliúir

A Pathfinder game for 4-6 players.
12ft, that's right, 12 whole feet of dungeon and only 3 hours to get through it. It’s an old school D&D dungeon crawl for up to 6 players in the Pathfinder system and we’ll be using an entire roll of gaming paper! The plot? Something far-fetched about a wizard kidnapping your family and holding them hostage to force you to tackle a dungeon for his amusement. Make it through and he’ll let you/them go. Fight the monsters, outwit the puzzles, dodge the traps and you might just make it out the other side in (mostly) one piece.

Catching the Red-eye - by Stuart Clarke

A Traveller game for 3-5 players.
"Welcome to Bigshot! Have we got something special for you guys today? Spike Speigal, one of you guys, has 8 million Wulongs on his head. Wow, someone wants him bad. Not only that, they say they'll double the bounty if.... hang on, can we say that...?"

Space Wolf Tactics: Long Fangs


Unit Name: Long Fangs.

Unit Type:
Heavy Support Unit, 2-6 man squad.
Construction: There are a few methods to make a squad of Long Fangs. Either kitbash a squad of devastators with some Space Wolf parts or purchase the heavy weapons from ebay and arm them on models made from the Space Wolf sprue.

Unit Deployment: In cover with the greatest vantage of the board possible.

Unit in play: 24-48 inch range, line of sight. 

Unit is most effective against: Depending on the load out the unit can be anti-tank, anti-infantry or both. Heavy bolters are for troops, lazcannon & mulitmelta for armour, plasma & missile launchers for both.

General Discussion:
The Space Wolves Codex has some fantastic choices in its Heavy Support category. The best choice is by far and away the Long Fangs. For fewer points than a Predator costs and you can have five guns firing at two targets. The only problem with Long Fangs is choosing what to arm them with, every weapon has a role but they also have disadvantages.

What to carry into battle?
The one man that is in every pack is the squad leader. This model should never have any wargear or upgrades as his role is solely to allow you to split fire. He is the one that you put as many wounds as possible on as he doesn’t have a heavy weapon and he can’t fire if you want to make use of Fire Control. Basically, if you have a situation where he could fire at a target you are doing it wrong. Long Fangs are supposed to sit on the sides and pelt the enemy with fire until there is nothing left, you should use the rest of your army to keep them free from being assaulted. So when you deploy always make sure that the squad leader is out in front.

For the rest of the squad the question is which guns to choose. Do you want to take on armour or mow down the infantry; do you mix your guns or take one type only? Firstly let’s look at the guns. You need to choose the role your Long Fangs will play and arm them to suit it. Each weapon has advantages and disadvantages so let’s take a quick run through them.

Missiles are the weapons conventional wisdom tells us are the best choice. The way I see it the missile launcher is the jack of all trades but king of none, it can do every job well but other guns can make a slightly better job of one or another aspect of the meta-game. You get two weapons for the price of one with missile launchers. The Krak missile is able to ruin light armour and Space Marines, very good for taking out any units caught in the open. Strength 8 weapons are good for Monstrous Creatures and for instant killing those pesky Space Marine characters. Frag missiles work on hordes and on bunched up units, they can cut down poorly armoured units like a chainsaw. When it comes to Tau who I play against regularly, Frag missiles take care of the Kroot and Crisis Suits love the kiss of a Krak. They have the range and strength to do what you want with decent armour penetration or a blast.
What are the weaknesses, you might ask? While only armour 14 will provide any trouble for the missiles the real problem is 2+ armour saves. With the new edition the ability to chew through terminators and their equivalents has been severely reduced, while this can be a major change to how you might play there is always a work around.

Plasma cannons are another mixed role weapon. These guns can take the light armour and drop a hard blast with great penetration on squads of units. The real use of these guns as I see it is to take out squads of terminators or other similarly armoured units. The plasma cannon has some drawbacks, it has less range, less strength and costs more than a missile launcher. It has AP2 and while it can take out terminators it hasn’t the stopping power I would like to see when dealing with grey knights. The lack of an instant kill makes me wonder about using it at all. The biggest problem I have with plasma cannons is that with five of them you are going to get some Gets Hot rolls and I prefer my guns to take out the enemy only. It is a small chance but gets hot has cost me models in their droves in the past. The final issue with the gun is that it has a lost more variance in its ability to hit over any other guns in the list, this coupled with its shorter range limits what it can really bring.

Lazcannons are the king of imperial weaponry as they have range, strength and penetration. They excel at taking out armour and heavily armoured troops. Lazcannons can instant death your grey knights and have the best shot at range of taking out heavy armour. The disadvantages are that they cost 25 points and can only ever take out one model at a time. Their cost is a major factor that lies against them; they drive the cost of the unit through the roof and offer only a minor benefit for their use. While they can punch through the toughest personal armour the ease by which infantry acquire cover saves these days makes them worth a lot less when it comes to taking out deathstar units or tackling a foot slogging army or killa can walls.

When it comes to multi-meltas you are rarely going to get the opportunity to get to use them to full effect, they have the shortest range of any of the weapons and while they will outstrip a Krak missile they will only do so at less than 24”. They can potentially kill anything from a penetration roll of a six plus but that is of little comfort when a target is thirteen inches away. The range is the biggest problem with these guns. They are not the weapon of choice if you want to take control of the board unless you stick them in Drop Pods and launch them all turn one into the centre of the board. While they can create a no go bubble on the board for armour, that is rarely going to stop a well-rounded 6th edition army. The meta-game has seen a swing back to plasma as the weapon of choice for special weapons and it appears the same is true when it comes to heavy weapons.

Heavy bolters are the most straight forward gun to look at; they throw out lots of shots every turn and by pure weight of numbers can chew up most infantry on the board even with good armour saves. They have limited power when it comes to armour, you can try all day but if you do take a hive tyrant out with one I’ll eat this article. Weak armoured mobs will rue the day they tried to run down five heavy bolters but they do nothing else. Any unit armed with 2+ & 3+ saves will have little trouble with heavy bolters unless the rolls go against them. Space marines and the like will still require something harder to wipe them from the board.

So when it comes to range, cost, versatility and efficacy I would choose missile launchers. Heavy bolters have their role too but I think they would be what I would put in a 2nd or 3rd squad definitely not my first choice. Lazcannons are great but you limit the guns to tackling the hard targets and not the large squads that can be just as dangerous due to sheer weight of numbers. The first time I played with 2 squads full of missile launchers I was shocked by how well they did, every tank on the board was dead by turn two and after that they went through squad after squad of space marines, that was a bit of luck but they are usually my star units in every match.

Should they all have the same weapon?
Now the biggest question is should I split my load out. I suggest not doing this, if you want to have an anti-tank and an anti-troop unit, that is perfect but unless you load out with missiles you can’t do both well. While the squad can split fire it is not something to build a unit around. It is folly to think that you can shoot your two lazcannons at armour and your heavy bolters at troops all game because the first man you want dead in that squad is the one that give you the ability to split that fire. I find that having the same gun on each man allows me to bring weight of numbers on a target to ensure that my target is dead. If you want to take on heavy armour and hordes of troops take two squads with two different loadouts. That being said if you want to have two types of weapons make sure that they can fulfil the same roll. Certain weapons complement one another, a squad of plasma cannons and heavy bolters would sweep through troops and when you have a chance you can shoot up some light tanks since the bolters can make a stab at armour 10 and 11. A pair of lazcannons can give you the anti-armour edge in a squad of missile launchers and can give two definite kills when shooting at troops. Be aware that range is an issue when you mix weapons, if you use missiles and plasma you will have lots of situations when you either loose the plasma cannons and snapfire the missiles while moving or sit and hope the missiles do the job alone.
Whatever you do make sure you do not take one of every weapon choice, this is something I have seen and it does not work out very well. You can’t bring the full wrath of the unit to bear on one target and ensure a kill as some of the weapons may be out of range or too weak to punch through the armour.

Should Long Fangs have a transport?
Long Fangs don’t really need a transport as they will probably spend most of the game in one spot. Drop Pods are a definite no from me; the squad is small and will be on its own in no man’s land, a hard round of fire will see them only make a round of snap fire shots before being killed outright.
Looking at the meta-game the transport would be a waste of time, with the ease in which a razorback can be torn to shreds those points would be better spent fleshing out a unit with more guns or  if you have multiple transports in your list taking another long fang squad.

What about flyers?
Flyers are a major concern these days, I don’t recommend longfangs for this role. Unless we see flack missiles come to every army I doubt that you will be able to take them. Since they are also weaker and more expensive when they do turn up I doubt that I will take them. What I would say is that as a Space wolf player look to your allies to fill the flyer killing niche in your army. Let the Long Fangs tear into everything on the board and if you have the time or a turn of shooting with no other viable targets then slam the fire into the flyers.

Conclusion:
Long Fangs are great fire support as they can fill whatever roll you want on the board when it comes to shooting. They can take any gun bar mulit-meltas and make them work for you. They are better than Devastators as you can have more guns and if you’re stuck for points you don’t have to take five men before you can have a heavy gun.
My personal choice for a load out for my Long Fangs is two squads of 6 men with 5 missile launchers. This means I can hit four targets with heavy fire in the first round of fire, when it comes to moving around the board I can still make snap shots. Leave the terminator slaying to all the plasmaguns in the rest of your army, these old dogs are there to pop armour and pulp troops. Take care of your Long Fangs, equip them well and you will be drinking mead in the halls of victory with them after every battle.