List-Fu: Space Wolves and Imperial Guard, 1650pts and 1850pts

CoolMiniOrNot - HellDuck

Having umm'ed and ahh'ed for, I don't know, 6 months or so, I finally made up my mind what direction I want to take my Wolves+allies in, and the winner is - Imperial Guard! Thought long and hard about GK, Tau, and even moving to GK+Necrons. I was shakey about Forge World too for a number of reasons, but it is now decided, models have been ordered and are on their way!

So this is my list I'm currently looking at building for the Brighton Singles in July, at 1650pts. This also (currently, as they keep changing) meets all the comp rules too (although I would still run this list without the comp requirements). I have no hope of getting all the soft scores, but at least I will be well progressed for the 40kUK GT in October... 


1650pts Space Wolves and Imperial Guard

100pts Rune Priest, Jaws, Living Lightning (Warlord)
150pts Company Command Squad, Chimera (Heavy Flamer), 3 plasma guns

4x 125pts 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), plasma gun
2x 120pts 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), melta gun
150pts Platoon; Platoon Command Squad, 4 flamers; 2x Infantry Squads (no upgrades)

2x 140pts 4 Hyperios Missile Launchers (Forge World)
130pts Vendetta (PCS goes here)

100pts 2 Heavy Quad Launchers (Forge World)

1650pts


The RP will usually sit with the Quad's, making the most of Prescience and maybe the ignores cover power. This gives him effective toughness 7 due to the artillery rules, with 10 wounds to get through before he gets hit from direct fire (2x2 artillery, 6 crew). The idea is to hide this unit out of sight and pelt anti-infantry barrages at the enemy's backfield and densely packed formations. 2x4 S5 blasts with either re-rolls to hit or maybe ignores cover is very nice. I've been missing some kind of blast weapon when playing with SW+GK, and the Quads should force the enemy to spread out and even then they can't hide entirely thanks to the barrage rule.

The PCS will ride in the vendetta, and if they survive they can drop on a backfield objective and barbeque enemy troops. The vendetta shoots other fliers, vehicles and big gribblies until it gets shot down.

Further anti-air is provided by the two Hyperios units. These will probably sit on the flanks to try to get around any high midfield cover for enemy fliers, and unload their skyfire and interceptor krak missiles as soon as they are able. They also provide BS3 twin-linked goodness to try and get first blood at range, another thing my SW+GK combo struggles with.

The bare bones infantry squads reserve, come in and hit the dirt if they get shot at, boldly trying to hide out of line of sight as much as possible. I haven't, initially, given these guys any upgrades as their primary purpose is to score my rear objectives. If I'm shooting something, say with an autocannon, then I can get shot back, and these guys are too valuable to die/run off the board. I can always stick the RP in and blob up, but this is not my intention to start with. The CCS can also issue orders to rally these guys if they run, but the chances are they will be off the board before I get a chance to do so!

Finally there is the midfield element of the army, the MSU razor hunters and the plasma CCS in the chimera. These guys are to provide me with a decent force to push into the centre of the board (melta hunters first, plasma hunters next then CCS bringing up the rear). They can keep pushing forward if required or fall back to assist with objective taking, and have good mobility and a reasonable range of anti-infantry (from GEQ to TEQ) and anti-tank/MC thanks to the weapon load outs. I've also found that in numbers the razorbacks can offer a threat to AV10 rear armour fliers and also help a lot against helldrakes by offering my hunters somewhere to temporarily hide. An alternative, although probably rare, location for my RP is to join the hunters and try to Jaws a low initiative warlord or MC (say tervigons).

The CCS can give orders to itself for re-rolls to hit tanks/MCs, force re-rolls on enemy cover saves (nice with that much plasma), and can even issue orders to the quads or infantry if appropriate. I might cast prescience on them too, if in range and a priority rapid fire target shows up.

So overall that gives me 30 mobile scoring MEQs, 25 scoring GEQs (5 late game rear objective grabbers, 20 backfielders), and a fair range of close, mid and long range firepower to tackle infantry, vehicle/MC and flier targets, including some templates and barrage blasts. I have a reasonable change to take first blood and have a few good places to protect my warlord if required, whilst still contributing to the battle (something that can be a bit hit or miss with the SW+GK lists I've been running as prescience isn't great on small squads and getting out to shoot usually means getting killed the next turn!).

For 1850pts, I'd add 3x1 lascannon sabre defense platforms (again Forge World with interceptor and skyfire) and an aegis line for additional anti-tank/air, a few extra scoring bodies and some very good cheap cover for my backfield force.

It's taken me an age to find a balanced all-comers list with Wolves as primary. I wasn't kidding when I said it's taken me 6 months! The major problem was finding decent anti-air. The answer was Forge World (I don't think a vendetta squadron is a great use of points for this ally combo), but I wasn't comfortable initially as not all tournaments use FW and FW themselves have been known to suddenly change their rules without warning. However, the tournaments I'm interested in both short and long term (40KUK GT, Brighton, Walberton and in time Caledonian) traditionally allow Forge World. It also helped when I worked out how to scratch build 12 hyperios launchers for under £30 (hobby article to come)!

I think this list has the tools to take on most other armies and have a fighting chance. There are no threats that I think I don't have some sort of answer for, and I have most aspects in duplicate for some (limited) redundancy. I also have a reasonable amount of twin-linking or re-rolls available to help ease out the dice. It's still weaker against AV13/14 than I'd like (better at 1850pts), and any army focusing heavily on one aspect (e.g. mass heavy armour, hoards, large air force) will be a struggle. However, I'd prefer to play with a balanced list than overload one aspect and play paper/scissors/stone.

So any thoughts on the list? Any advice from IG veterans welcome!

CONCEPTS: Comp

shx

Composition scoring, also known as 'comp', essentially seeks to control the composition of each player's army, for example by limiting the number of times a unit may be taken or banning certain models. It is seen by some tournament organisers (TO's) as a tool to try to restore balance to a game where particular army builds, units or tactics are dominating the tournament scene.

This CONCEPTS: posts looks at the pros and cons of comp for the purposes of competitive tournament gaming, followed by my personal opinion as to if or when it should be used. What I'm not going to talk about here is terrain, missions or FAQ's, as while these can have an impact on your army (if you choose to tailor your list to an event), I will not class these as comp for the purposes of this article. This is also not a discussion related to custom or specialist tournaments, as these are by definition individual by nature. What I'm looking to discuss here is comp for general tournament play.

Pros

1. Balance - In an environment where a particular type of unit is very strong, but where not every army has access to said unit, comp is seen as an easy way to remove the 'problem', restoring balance and making it much fairer for everybody else.
2. Variety - Encouraging a variety of armies/units/play styles is good for the game.
3. Playing the game 'as intended' - Similar to the rules as written (RAW) vs rules as intended (RAI) debate, it could be argued that the game designers never intended the 'broken' units to be so powerful, and that it's no big deal to fix the game with comp.

Cons

1. Shifts the 'broken' units/lists/armies away from the perceived problem area and into another. Players who spend the time improving their armies/game play are probably aware enough to adapt to the restrictions to a greater or lesser degree, so after a period of adjustment the game balance appears 'broken' again. The restrictions can also penalise some factions more than others, with some armies able to work around the limitations with minimal difficulty and others finding themselves severely hampered, which may not have been the intention of the original comp.
2. Subjective and often not open to debate. The TO usually sets the comp and players either accept it and attend the event or not and don't go.
3. Doesn't give players a chance to find their own solution to the 'problem', which may turn out to be not that great after all when something even better is found as the game progresses (a common fix).
4. Theme armies - It can also stop people playing with themed lists like all terminators, bikes etc.
5. National/international tournament standard - It's harder to run a consistent competitive environment when individual TO's restrictions placed on a game system.

Opinion

Whist I too want a well balanced gaming system, I think introducing comp needs to be handled with extreme care.

I look to how Wizards of the Coast handle the various Magic The Gathering formats banned/restricted lists as a comparison. There is a centralised rules system run by the game creators, who actively seek to provide a worldwide accepted professional tournament capable game system. Dominating a meta (and I choose my use of the word carefully here) in MTG is not enough to ban/restrict a card. Generally speaking, only when it becomes apparent that a particular card makes the game almost completely unplayable over an extended period of time do WotC begin to consider comp.

On the other hand we have Games Workshop, who have clearly stated that they are a model company first and actively discourage competitive play. They now mostly run tournaments from Warhammer World with, let's say, unusual scoring, effecting leaving independent TO's to themselves. I have found that comp at a independent 40k even tends to be on a much wider level than MTG, often changing the fundamental rules of the game (not just banning a single unit), such as banning or limiting allies/fliers, because they think that they are too powerful without, I suspect, the depth of consistent playtesting that a company with a developed competitive scene such as WotC provide.

I believe that all games have certain biases and imbalances, some by design and others by consequence. As such there will naturally be stronger and weaker choices, and these will change if new factors are introduced into the system (e.g. new models, units, or armies). In a competitive setting, the stronger choices are much more likely to be taken more frequently, as they are often strictly better. If there are limited strong choices, these can become predictable, in which case a counter can be prepared. This can provide it's own balancing factor. However, if the counter is in turn predictable, a counter-counter might be possible. Without going into a separate discussion into knowing your enemy, Yomi, metagaming, or any of that stuff, suffice to say that comp removes the possibility of the players finding their own solution to the perceived problem.

Sometimes, however, there is a problem. Some games companies work hard to maintain a level of internal balance, and only when absolutely necessary do they step in with comp. There also other model companies who write rules for their models, and for whatever reason (sales? ignorance?), change the balance over time and leave it up to us to play nicely or roll-off (good name for a blog there!). Without central leadership, its up to the community to agree its own way forward in the event of a problem.

Summary
Personally I think that variety is good for the enjoyment of any game, and perhaps this can be provided by the various custom tournaments available. However, to develop a consistant competitive tournament environment, i.e. one where we're all playing the same game and can build, practice with and play with the same armies and they work the same everywhere, I suggest we need consistency, not comp.

Further Reading
Sirlin, Playing to Win  (seminal internet book on competitive gaming, free)
Ideas for Army List Restriction at Blog Wars 6 on From the Fang (see comments for some very good points on comp)

2013 - Looking Ahead

shx

So this isn't exactly a New Year's post, but hey it's done now! So, what do I want for 2013? I have two primary goals - to develop and promote the blog primarily focused on improving competitive gameplay and to qualify for the 40kUK GT final in 2014. I might not make it, but hey, I'm going to give it a go. Focus!

GAMING
I *just* missed out on a place in the 40kUK GT final this year, going 2-2-2 in Heat 2 at what was my first proper competitive event (did I mention I went 2-2-0 in the first four games or that I would have won the second draw if I hadn't clarified a rule with the TO to make polite conversation, not realising I was within earshot of my opponent and so costing me the game?). What I really need is more experience playing at tournament level. Sadly, I'm unlikely to make it to more than one non-club tournament before October, but such is life. I'm intending to make it to the summer Brighton Warlords singles tournament, along with as many club events as possible. Realistically, I'm unlikely to be able to go to many more, so I will have to make the most of the games I can get locally and go from there.

There seems to be a growing base of players at the club (Walberton Wargamers) who are becoming interested in playing harder lists (perhaps due to my corrupting influence?), so I'm hoping to get more breadth and depth of experience this year in playing a wider range of tougher armies. I'm also hoping to be able to make it down to Brighton Warlords on a few club nights at some point during the year to see if I can get some games in against some different opponents, but we'll have to see how this goes as this is difficult logistically!

Walberton Wargamers

Although I'm usually reading and thinking about 40k, I don't tend to get to play as many games as I would like (a few a month if I'm lucky?) or have unlimited funds to pump into my army (mouths to feed come first), so I tend to plan my lists and purchases well in advance, keeping the core of my lists the same and experiment with different units around what I know works. This gives me a familiar base or control group for comparison, so I can focus on the different aspects in game and analyse their impact after. Leading up to a tournament, I will fix a list and play with it constantly for about 6-10 games against different opponents. This means I know what the army is, or isn't capable of, and gives me a chance to paint everything up (a slow process). As they say, don't innovate on race day!

In terms of what army I will be running, I will continue to use my Space Wolves as my primary army, but they need reinforcements! For a while now, I have been at a crossroads with where I want to take my Wolves for 6th. I've been really struggling to build a balanced list that can deal with fliers (not a surprise for Wolves), mech and hoards (this will sound familiar to some who read the same blogs I do), and I'm still not entirely convinced where to go. When 6th came out I was hoping that GW would feed in anti-air a little more readily than has proved to be the case, and now that my beloved puppies are the only faction without a flier, I am really feeling the lack of flakk missiles on my Long Fangs. Perhaps a campaign is called for, 'Flakk for Fangs'!

So where to take my Wolves for 6th? Having invested in a few Grey Knights as some quick and dirty MSU allies last year, and I could continue down this route, which I'm sure could give me some strong options that can deal with mech and hoards, and try to mitigate the damage dome from fliers through MSU and mass scoring bodies. Not sure one this one yet, but may be worth a go.

Cool Mini or Not - Tzardauker

On the other hand, I could bring in some flier support of my own (I now have a vendetta, not the one above!) and some scoring backfield fire support with Imperial Guard allies. I've been working on lists with Guard allies for months now, but there's a few things that just stop me committing.

For example, as they say 'two is one, one is none' (couldn't find who's law this was), I'm not entirely sure that one vendetta is really enough, as if it comes on first, against another flier heavy army there is a decent chance that it will just get shot down before it gets to contribute. It might be better to save the points entirely, in which case, why am I taking Guard instead of Grey Knights? OK, there are still a few advantages, but enough? There's always strong Forge World options (sabre defence platforms anyone?), but if tournaments suddenly decide to stop allowing these, that's a huge amount of wasted money...

Also, I'm really struggling to motivate myself at the thought of putting together 100 odd Guard miniatures unless I really love the models. I'm not a mass infantry fan by nature, generally preferring tanks, so I'm naturally reluctant to leap into such a massive project without being totally convinced that it's going to work on the tabletop, for my wallet and be fun to create. As much as I want to do develop my game, I know myself well enough to know that I will loose interest in playing Guard if I'm forcing the hobby side.

Getting the army second hand, pre-assembled but not painted, could save some time, but I have a very specific aesthetic in mind (see Hobby below), so this isn't really an option unless I just give up any hobby interest in the entire force, in which case I loose all joy in playing the army and will only be using them to increase my chances of winning - If you hadn't guessed by the name of the blog, I play wargaming for the total immersive experience, so if I ever gets to that point, I'll probably stop playing miniature games and go and play competitive MTG instead. It looks like if I go with Guard, it's going to be a slow grow project. I could always go for the Grey Knights for now, then build up the Guard as a primary with three Vendettas. This may be the long term option.

Forge World, Death Korps of Krieg

HOBBY
So if I do go Imperial Guard, very loosely, I'm working on something along the lines of that they're a bunch of renegade guard, still loyal to the emperor but on the run from the authorities for not carryout some merciless purging of civilians (work with me here!). The Space Wolves, having empathy with their moral stand and a history of defying the powers that be themselves (see first war of Armageddon), use the group as allies when the need arises.

Visually, the infantry will all have masks/cloaks/hoods and I'm thinking of mixing together various models from the Forgeworld Death Korps of Kreig, Armageddon Steel Legion, Chaos Cultists and Forgeworld Renegade conversion kits. Partly this is because I really don't like painting faces (!) but also because I like this aesthetic for a fringe group of desperados.

The colour scheme will be quite dark, with greys, blacks and brown, and I will use the same deep red and mid blue as my Wolves for isolated highlights and accent colours. As the group will struggle to get supplies, any weapons and vehicles will have a rugged look with plenty of battle damage and weathering (eventually!).

Sample of my Space Wolves - Need details!

If I don't go Guard, then I hope to get my Wolves and Grey Knights up to the next level, taking them from their current 3 colours (including an 6-8 stage armour build up from undercoat to highlight, mind!), basic faces and crushed slate basing to include details, better faces, perhaps some squad markings - basically using Brighton Warlord's tournament soft scoring system as guide, although I'll never get the WYSIWYG with all the Wolves!

2013 Banner

BLOG
Given a reliable internet connection, this is the year that I hope to get the blog moving. I've already made a number of cosmetic improvements early in the year with a new banner, various graphic improvements and the links bar at the top. I'm regularly updating the links along the side bar as I find new sites, and I've been trying to but failing to get LinkedIn to work too!

Now that I'm happy with how the site looks and typically able to produce regular posts, I will start popping my blogging head above the parapet and see if anyone is interested. Having just broken the 1000 hits mark with 0 followers in my first year, January and February saw a massive jump thanks to From the Fang adding me to the recommended reading list and a cheeky link in the Warhammer Forum Caledonian post. At the time of writing the blog's doubled it's hits to well over 2000 in two months and now has 7 followers (thanks From the Fang, atr_127, Skcuzzlebumm, Ven, Peter, David and Aseldi!). Now I know I have a way to go, but compared to the begninning of the year, it's a massive jump!

My aim now is to register with a selection of the usual blog promoters, such as Imperius Dominatus' UK Blogger's Network and House of Paincakes, as well as boldly ask my favourite blogs to add me to their recommended reading lists (if your blog is on the links list, I'm coming for you - you know who you are!). Hopefully a few of them might even say yes.

Site Snapshot, February 2013

In terms of content, I will continue to focus primarily on improving and competative play. I intend to continue this though the CONCEPTS: analysis articles (currently working on Comp, Netlisting, List Writing and Tools, amoungst others), the short Food For Thought posts and List-Fu army list analysis. I would like to get better at putting together battle reports too - but I find that the level of detail I want to put into these to make them more than a simple storytelling excersice is massively time consuming and also likely TL;DR. I make a habit of taking photos of all my games and I'm profecient with Photoshop enough that a graphic solution might be a possiblity. Something to work on perhaps...

To break up the more serious content, I also expect to throw in the occasional blog review, hobby images, random web comics and whatever else I'm interested in at the time. This might include the odd PC game and I've started playing MTG online for a distraction, so I may break into a post or two about mana curves and pauper decks if I can tear myself away from 40k for long enough, but the chances of this look fairly slim at the moment to be honest - so many CONCEPTS: articles I want to write first!

SUMMARY
Phew! That was a lot longer that I thought it would be! Lots to get on with and think about and so little time. Need to play some games too! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of year with the blog.

Codex: Chaos Daemons Out Now

GW

For anyone who's missed it, the new Chaos Daemons codex is out.

Will this change up the screamer/flamer dominated lists we've been seeing since the White Dwarf update? Probably! Shame, as I never got to play the list and with my usual mech MSU Space Wolves and Grey Knights list this would have been an interesting fight (even if I lost!).

Either way, I look forward to seeing what the new codex holds in store.

Food For Thought: Owning A Game Store

House of Paincakes

Brilliant honest eye opener from Loquacious at House of Paincakes detailing the realities of running a friendly local gaming shop (FLGS). Well worth a read!

List-Fu: 1850pts Space Wolves and Grey Knights - Diffusion and Precision

40kUK GT Heat 2 Army

One of mine this time. This is an evolution of the list I took to the 40kUK GT, which I'll start with first to explain some of the thinking. The list below is really a slightly modified version to the one I actually took due to not completing two missile Fangs in time, but hey, you get the idea!

1850pts Space Wolves and Grey Knights, 40kUK GT Heat 2 (Slightly modified)

Rune Priest, Jaws, Storm Caller
Inquisitor

Dreadnought, 2xTwin-linked Autocannons
Dreadnought, 2xTwin-linked Autocannons
Dreadnought, 2xTwin-linked Autocannons

5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Knight Strike Squad, Psycannon, Razorback with Psybolt Ammo
5 Grey Knight Strike Squad, Psycannon, Razorback with Psybolt Ammo

6 Long Fangs, 5x Missile Launchers
6 Long Fangs, 5x Missile Launchers

1850pts

I still like this list a lot, but it has room for improvement. At first glance you might agree with Pete's pre-tournament passing comment of 'a bit 5th edition', but 3 games later I was on table 4 of 23, and then table 5 for the next game, so I think I did pretty well for my first competitive event!

Strengths for me are multiple mobile troops and cheap transports with guns, and psychic defense if I can roll more than a 4. What I knew I needed was better flier defense and more troops. It's also weak against long range AV13-14, particularly with decent side armour.

Whilst I love mobile flanking fire support units (the dreads), as these can take advantage of lines of sight and cover as the battle develops, with the advent of fliers and the change in vehicle rules these guys simply do not get a chance to fulfill their primary purpose against a flier army - i.e. shoot the fliers. Added to this, considering the maths, they are really inefficient at it, even with twin-linking (no surprise there). Put simply, they die before they get a chance to do much/any damage and are big expensive easy targets. Until I work out a better way of using them (even on a skyshield landing pad with a 4++ they won't last that much longer and this cripples their mobility), they're staying in the case. = (

I'd have never thought it, but next up on the chopping block are the Long Fangs. I will discuss this more in a dedicated post, but a big question I'm constantly asking myself when I write lists is 'can this role be fulfilled by a troop choice?'. I also found that at least once per game I was wasting a turn of shooting with one unit by blocking my own line of sight, but that's my fault entirely. Long range fire support is still required, but can be found through other means so we'll revisit this later. Fangs are out to make space for...

More troops. I have found that when playing 6th, especially with a MSU style army where your scoring troops are expected to do a lot of the heavy lifting, you get through a lot of them! In go 10 more GK SS with 2 more psycannons, taking the possible total of MSU units to 10, with the option to keep the GK SS in two larger squads if needed. I will also add in 6 Wolf Guard with combi-plasma's and melta bombs for land raider and bastion duties (and MCs as a last resort, although I don't intend to be getting into combat with these deliberately).

At this point I run into a dilemma. I think both Space Wolves and Grey Knights can struggle against fliers. Grey Knights do have access to the (weaker?) Storm Raven, personally I currently think that taking one of these with no reliable reserve manipulation can potentially be a bit of an expensive option. I've considered taking Coteaz and putting a minimum unit of henchmen in (in place of a unit of Strikes), but I'm not sure that this is a great option, especially when a vendetta or two can relatively easily ruin your day. Making the most of the GK upgrade options (psybolt ammo, hurricane bolters, keep the twin-linked assault cannons) gets pricey very quickly. That's a lot of points sitting off the board that might come on before the opponents fliers and get blown to bits before getting into a dogfight.

So what are the alternatives?

Although I don't like it, I think with this ally combination, the best I can do is build to the strengths of each codex, focus on the win conditions and consider the weaknesses of fliers.

In reverse order, the top-tier fliers (IMHO the vendetta, night-scythe, storm-raven, hell-drake) generally have limited access to weapons that can reliably and quickly take out AV14. Enter the bastion. Enough lascannons or twin-linked multi-meltas will do it, but at 75pts a pop, thats a price I'm willing to consider. Stormteks will also get nasty quickly, but that means they've taken the bait and disembarked with their troops ready for return fire next turn, and that's assuming that they can get close enough in the first place.

So how to use this ivory tower? I think it will fit quite well with my typical MSU strategy - By deploying everybody ready to push into midfield, it makes target priority harder for my opponent. With 10 similar units going forward with no obvious targets, some will survive to from my offensive wave. Any reduced units typically fall back to form my backfield objective sitters, and having a handy AV14 bunker with fire points, heavy bolters and a keg seems like a handy place to have.

Add to this that in some missions I will want to be protecting my warlord, and being able to cast powers from the relative safety of the tower seems like another good choice.

Having spent the points on the bastion, I'm going to drop another 35pts for the icarus lascannon. I have some decent mid-strength firepower spread throughout the list (plasma and psycannons), but a long range high strength shot with skyfire and interceptor is a reasonable choice in this context. And that's without the secret weapon...

I've been thinking a lot (I do a lot of thinking, I'd really like to do a lot more playing!) about how a lot of the stronger HQ choices are taken as force multipliers or tanks to greatly enhance their armies (e.g. buffed blobs, Fateweaver, destroyer lords, etc.). The common strategy is to hide or LoS! any overly threatening attack into the unit, then carry on buffing/tanking.

CNON - leprechaun studio

The previous GK FAQ introduced a note confirming that the vindicare assassin's player can always assign wounds. Add to this the usual spacial ammo (particularly the strip invulnerable saves one - I wonder how this interacts with the Dark Angel power fields?), AP1 and BS8 and things get interesting. I know that there will be others who will have used the combination of the vindicare in the bastion before (interested to hear from you if you have!), but I think the flexibility of the exodus rifle, emplaced heavy bolter and icarus lascannon, all the while with the AV14 or cover (with stealth) from the battlements seems worth a shot.

A few minor tweaks and there are enough points left over to bump the inquisitor up to a psyker to get divination (re-rolls to hit on a squad of strikes or perhaps the ignores cover for the vindicare?), leaving the rough list looking like this:

1850pts Space Wolves and Grey Knights 'Diffusion and Precision' (WIP)

Rune Priest, Jaws, Storm Caller
Inquisitor, Psyker

6 Wolf Guard, 6x Combi-Plasma, 4x Melta Bombs
Vindicare Assassin

5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Plasma Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Melta Gun, Razorback
5 Grey Hunters, Melta Gun, Razorback
10 Grey Knight Strike Squad, 2x Psycannon, Razorback with Psybolt Ammo
10 Grey Knight Strike Squad, 2x Psycannon, Razorback with Psybolt Ammo

Bastion, Icarus Lascannon

1848pts

Still vulnerable to fliers and later game objective grabs, but much better scoring presence, improved high AV threat and the sniper in the tower. Need to think about how I might move the units around the tower and make sure I'm not cancelling my own powers. Pesky allies of convenience.

Diffusion and precision. Something to work on I think.

Any comments welcome!

Dan Gilmore wins 3++Con with Chaos Daemons

3++Con Results

The 3++Con results are up over at, surprisingly, 3++! Chaos Daemons take the win with a very strong showing by Necrons after the first day. Congrats to Dan Gilmore!