40K Rules Review: MURDERFANG

SPACE WOLF DREADNAUGHT KIT

MURDERFANG

Wolf Brothers, Feast yo' Eyes Upon This....

Click Image for bigger Picture.

What? What? Did that read 135 points for a death train o' destruction!?
Yep. That is exactly what it said. A cheap aggressive model with so many special rules on it that it reminds me of the Chaos Space Marines Maluerfiend. Only this one has freak'n Relics of Murder on it. Makes me wonder if they put them on the wrong model in the wrong codex?

 OK, the comparison isn't perfect, because the Maulerfiend has Move Through Cover, a 12" move, ignores terrain and has Fleet. Murderfang is, unfortunately, much less maneuverable. I would have been happy if he had just gotten Fleet, but he didn't. What this means is that when taking Murderfang to battle a Drop Pod is an automatic buy for him; it is the only way you should ever try to deploy him unless you can find a way to give him Outflank.

OK, lets break it all down.

SPACE WOLF FLYER: STORMFANG, Yes, it is a Thing.

SPACE WOLF FLYER: STORMFANG

 Yes, it is a Thing.

Woah.

I've said it earlier today and I will say it again here:

" Only the Space Wolves can put some engines and oodles of guns on a flying brick, bling it out Wolf style, and make it look great! "

It's for Reals.

Since this appears to be real and no longer a rumor I have taken the information from the reputable Faeit 212 blog and present here:

via an anonymous source on Faeit 212

The Stormfang Gunship has the look of half of a Caestus Assault Ram, and is on the cover of next week's White Dwarf. The previous rumors really list out its abilities well. It comes with a Helfrost Destructor, two twin-linked heavy bolters, two stormstrike missiles and ceramite plating, with power of the machine spirit.

Heavy bolter upgrades to skyhammer missile launcher or two twin linked multi-meltas

stormstrike missiles can be upgraded to a twin linked lascannon.

Helfrost Destructor

Dispersed 24" S6 AP3 Hvy1, Helfrost, Large Blast

Focused 24" S8 AP1, Hvy1, Helfrost, Lance

Stormstrike Missile 72" S8 AP2 hvy1 Concussive one shot only

Well as a Space Wolf player I am stoked. I love the look of it and as I would expect from the Wolves it is an aggressive gunboat teeming with weapons including the new Helfrost Destructor. From rumors (and I guess it still is) is that the Helfrost special rule means that if you take a wound from it you must make a strength check or die! Nice.

I've also seen reports that this thing has options to carry models inside. YES! I've been wanting this for a long time. Since we can't teleport our Terminators into battle I have so been waiting for a way to get them there without having to walk them or land raider them.

The bad side of all this seemingly awesomeness is the fact that the Stormfang costs around 215+ points. Ugh! Well I suppose we will be paying for all that awesome. I was thinking the Wolves would make a sleek, light and aggressive fighter for about 130 - 150 points but it looks like when the Wolves throw in they throw in BIG for flyers. Hah!

Color me excited yet cautious.

YES, PLEASE!

Aiming for That Sweet Spot with Chaos: Part II

Tapping that Chaos Sweet Spot, Part II

The Angry Red Tide

A 7th Edition Chaos Assault Army & Tactics

The Second Act.

Greetings again, last week I discussed what I thought was the Sweet Spot for my new Chaos tournament army. You can read about it here: Aiming for that Chaos Sweet Spot, Part I.

As promised, this week I am presenting my tournament list to illustrate all the sweet spots that I like to touch upon. And without further ado, I present to thee:

The Angry Red Tide

PRIMARY CAD: Crimson Slaughter Chaos Space Marines

HQ

CHAOS LORD of KHORNE

Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut of Khorne, Sigil of Corruption, Melta bombs, Power Fist, Lightning Claw, Daemonheart

CHAOS LORD of KHORNE

Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut of Khorne, Sigil of Corruption, Melta bombs, Power Fist, Lightning Claw

TROOPS

Chaos Cultists x10
Chaos Cultists x10

FAST ATTACK
Chaos Spawn x5
Chaos Spawn x5

HEAVY SUPPORT
Maulerfiend w/ Lasher tendrils
Maulerfiend
Maulerfiend

ALLIED CAD: Chaos Daemons

HQ
SKARBRAND

TROOPS
Plague Bearers x10 - Instrument of Chaos
Bloodletters x10 - Icon of Chaos

FAST ATTACK
Flesh Hounds of Khorne x15

Total Points = 1850

Tactica Overview
This list, if anything, is all in for the assault phase: it's hard, it's fast, it steals candy from babies and hits like a wrecking ball to the face.

It's the bomb stoopid.
OK, so this list isn't so single minded, you see there is a Skarbrand bomb in there to act as a force multiplier. The bomb hits when your tide charges into the enemy chumps on turn 2. That is the secret to the list's hopeful chances in a competitive environment.

For those of you not in the know, and I will forgive you if not because Skarbrand is often the red-headed stepchild of Chaos, Skarbrand has a special rule called Rage Embodied. What this rule does is give Skarbrand a 12" bubble of pure, unadulterated ANGER. Any unit, friend or foe, within that 12" bubble gains the universal special rules of Rage and Hatred. Imagine landing that force multiplier into the middle of your assaulting front lines and you will start to see the obvious rewards; an extra attack per charging model and you are re-rolling misses to hit.

To give myself a little bit of insurance I have my Plague Bearer unit sitting in deep strike reserve with an Instrument of Chaos. This will double my chances of getting Skarbrand in turn 2. Perfect! Then to make sure I can put Skarbrand exactly where I want him I have a unit of Bloodletters, with an Icon of Chaos, following just behind my charging front lines. With all that other scary junk charging the enemy I'm thinking that the Bloodletters will avoid being targeted, thus being able to deliver Skarbrand exactly where I want him to be.

When he does comes in, try to place Skarbrand in a spot to benifit as many of your units as possible without giving the enemy the same benefit. Remember you can still Run after deep striking - just in case you need to move a little more.

So there is a bomb but what else? Kill, Murder, Maim.
Pair your Chaos Lords with the Spawn units and hurl them towards the enemy. The Lord with the Daemonheart should seek out the toughest to kill units. The Lords must watch out for S 10 and Force Weapons and be sure to drop wounds on the spawn escorts because they have 15 to spare.

Khorne dawgs are useful for distraction and running down infantry. On the charge they can bring down vehicles with their Furious Charge and can operate outside of the Skarbrand bubble just fine. Use them to flank so to help your other assaulting units or get back behind the enemy lines and wreck havoc. Because you have so many other assaulting things in your army the Hounds will have the luxury of being the utility unit that they always wanted to be.

The Maulerfiends are your anti-vehicle weapons. Use the magma cutter Fiends to slice up anything from Rhinos to Land Raiders and everything in between. Don't forget to use your Daemonforge ability because it is easy to forget just like your It Will Not Die roll at the end of your turn. If facing Knights gang up on them with your Maulerfiends and tear them apart. Don't fear Monstrous Creatures either, they can only Smash you once this edition. If no good targets present themselves for the Fiends then think about running one up each side of the board to flank.

The single Lasher Tendril Maulerfiend is best used when helping other units assault as the tendrils will cut down the attacks against you. Don't assault the Lasher Maulerfiend by himself, he usually needs help because of his paltry few attacks and WS 3.

And lets not forget Skarbrand! He can't move fast so try and move him towards the biggest and baddest unit in range and DESTROY them. It's Skarbrand after all - things die easily to him. The only thing Skarbrand fears is lots of shooting. Doh! Try not to make him a target, that is his weakness along with his slow movement.

Lastly are the troops. The Bloodletters can be used to mop up behind the main assault. All other troops are  pretty much for objective taking once the tide has washed over the board.

Weakness of The Angry Red Tide
This list will live and die on match ups. Either the opposing army will fold up and perish or they will have an army that can out maneuver you or spit out so much torrent of fire that it destroys your big push. Going first helps and going second sucks, it gives them more time to shoot you off the table.

If you fail to get the Skarbrand bomb in on turn 2 then that is not according to plan. This will happen on average about once every five games. Suck it up and rethink your plan for when he arrives next turn (hopefully).

Flyers are another weakness, you have no way to deal with them. This is a consequence of going all out on the assault phase. Hopefully you can ignore them, which you can up to a point. Extreme flyer armies like the Necron air force will spell almost certain doom for The Angry Red Tide.

Have Fun.
Win or lose I believe that I'll always enjoy playing this list. It is the kind of list I've always wanted to play and 7th Edition is the time for it to step forward. Sweet spot found.

Aiming For That Sweet Spot With Chaos

Tactics for a 7th Edition Chaos Assault Army

Tapping that Chaos Sweet Spot

Bow chicka wow wow.
IMHO this seems to be how it is for the current 40K meta: there is a plethora of shooting armies that shoot very well and then there is the rest. How do the rest compete? Well they have to aim for that special sweet spot where their army does very well. For Chaos that sweet spot use to be the Flying Circus and ScreamerStar. And I was well into the beginning stages of putting together my Flying Circus tournament list when low and behold 7th broke and turned my Chaos sweet spot upside down. ( <-- did that sound dirty? Eh, probably just me.)

It was a real shame too, I was enjoying playing the Flying Circus; all the flying and swooping; all the psychic powers; all the very fast models; all the assaulting monstrous creatures and it played fast too. I was having a ball until 7th took that proverbial ball away and poked big angry holes into it. Oh well! Looking on the bright side of the situation one thing can be said about 40K - it is always evolving. It might be a slow evolution at times but it constantly changes and that is a good thing.

My personal feeling.
After about a month of reevaluating Chaos I tossed out the Flying Circus and came to a personal conclusion: The only thing Chaos (especially Chaos Marines) still has going for it in 7th is either a Nurgle list or an all in rush assault. That's it. Neither Chaos army can shoot very well unless you want to argue a daemon Tzeentch list. And I'm not even so sure about the Nurgle list being able to hang against prolific shooting but I do feel much more confident about the rush assault being competitive.

So what do you mean 'rush assault'.
Here are three rules that I believe a successful assault oriented army has to abide by:

1. Be all in.
Pretty much what it says. Forget psychic phase, forget the shooting phase --> live for the assault phase. Basically you are focusing your army all on one phase to increase your potency in that one area. You either sink or you swim so do your best to make sure you swim. Now I'm not saying to completely avoid having psykers or support fire in your army I'm just saying those should be a side dressing at best. Just remember whatever you do you want to hit 'em hard and hit 'em often.

2. Fast, fast and faster.
This is a no brainer really. You want the majority of your army in the enemy's grill turn two, turn three at the latest. Wait any longer and you probably have been shot off the table by then. Your army must live in the Fast Attack section of your codex and I'm not talking about flyers. Then branch out and grab all those fast assault units not found in your Fast Attack section. Chaos players you know what your good fast units are already, for everyone else here is a quick list: chaos spawn, chaos bikers, raptors, maulerfiends, flesh hounds, screamers, daemon princes (winged), daemonettes.

So to elaborate on the mantra from Rule 1; hit 'em hard, hit'em often and hit 'em fast.

3. Have a knockout punch and don't hold back.
To deal with the enemy lynchpin/deathstar/super HQ you must have an answer. You are playing to be all in remember? If you don't have a unit powerful enough to defeat their most powerful unit then you have already lost the battle. At the very least you must be able to weaken, stall or tarpit the enemy super units while the rest of your army murders the rest of the bums.

The knockout unit must be fast so that it can keep up with the rest of the army. Don't let your best unit be left out in the open to be shot off the board - ram them into the enemy immediately. Not only will this put pressure on the your opponent but with so many dangerous units charging them in a hurry your big scary unit has a better chance to make it into the assault. That's what the smart peeps call target saturation. That's what I call bum rush tha' lot and murder 'em all!

The likely prospects for your knockout punch? Take a gander at some of these fast and mean guys: Chaos Lord on Juggernaut/Bike, Chaos Lord in Land Raider, Daemon Prince, Bal'akor, Blood Thirster, Thypus or  Abaddon in Raider, Skulltaker on Juggernaut, Karanak with flesh hound pack. Can you tell I like Khorne? Heh.

To elaborate even further on our mantra; hit 'em hard, hit 'em often, hit 'em fast and hit 'em in the jimmy!

Let's build a tournament list.
Alright, I found a sweet spot that I like and it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to play with. And after many revisions I have come up with a new army that I'm happy with. Win or lose I know that it is the type of army that I enjoy playing. It is fast playing, all in for assault, steals candy from babies and hits like a bowling ball to the solar plexus.

To be continued.

Coming Soon: Part II
The Angry Red Tide.

Found the Sweet Spot!

40K Rumors: UPDATE! - Space Wolf Codex May be Coming

40K Rumors: Fenris Rising Again

UPDATED

Updated material at bottom, headed in RED.

Ever since I read Norse mythology in middle school I was hooked; fascinated; couldn't get enough. I was a Norse fan for the rest of my life, long before Marvel films made Thor and the Norse mythos (their version) a thing in popular culture today. So naturally I gravitated towards the Space Wolves when I was looking for a second army to expand into. Really, it was a no brainer for me. The Wolves culture is based on the Norse mythos I so love, they can excel at assault (which I prefer) and well, just look at the models - made of pure awesome.

So when I start to hear rumors about the next Space Wolf codex coming out I predictably start to get excited and I have been hearing these rumors since last year. I've hear rumors that we were going to get a new codex late last year and of course, that didn't happen. With this in mind you may not be surprised that I look at GW release schedule rumors with skepticism. Unless I start to hear the same rumor from many different sources I will not put much credence into such rumors. Well, two of the big boys of the 40K blogosphere are now reporting rumors that a new codex is in the works for release. They both list different codex time frames but generally right now, rumors point to a Space Wolf codex in the Fall or Winter.

The rumor roundup:

UPDATES:

From: BOLS
Dateline: 7/5/2014
Author: Larry Vela
Story: breaking-white-dwarf-24-and-7th.html

The Rumor:
Space Wolves vs. Orks boxed set called Stormclaw to be featured in upcoming White Dwarf Magazine.

My Take:
Nice to see some Wolf Love. Yes, Wolf fans (like me) will buy this set then promptly sell off the stoopid Orks to stoopid Ork players. But what we really want is the codex. Does this hint to a new codex sooner on the horizon than later? Maybe. The stock certainly has risen for it. But so far I still see the codex on schedule with the other rumors for this Fall or Winter. The balance has tilted towards Fall over Winter but not by much IMHO.

From: Faeit 212
Dateline: 7/5/2014
Author: Faeit 212
Story: 7th-edition-starter-set-is-here.html

The Rumor:
7th Edition Starter Box pre-orders beginning next week. Faeit 212 believes this is proof of the Space Wolf codex being next.

My Take:
I'm much more cautious about saying this is proof that we get the Space Wolf codex next (Fall or sooner). I've been burned by too many SW codex rumors in the past. I hope it is true and if it is I'd like to see it in mid to late Fall so to give the Ork codex some breathing room to play itself out first.

Rumors from Last Month:

From: BOLS
Dateline: 6/27/2014
Author: Larry Vela
Story: 40k-rumors-of-wolves-and-vampires

The Rumor:
Space Wolves codex will be out this fall in a strange sharing of release times with Blood Angels.

My Take:
Hmm. Odd and peculiar to release two codex in such a tight window? Goes against the recent GW trend of slowing down the release schedules from the whiplash pace of last year - which I loathed. I applaud the slower pace and I hope they keep it up. I suspect that GW will either push one or the other codex this fall and shoot the other one around Christmas time. Christmas Wolves!

From: Faeit 212
Dateline: 6/27/2014
Author: Faeit 212
Story: release-schedule-slight-push-back

The Rumor:
Space Wolves out in February of next year. They list a long litany of releases for the rest of the year.

My Take:
This rumored release schedule is too ambitious to pan out but like all rumors there is some truth in the pudding. What strikes me is that Dark Eldar are rumored to release in November, ahead of Space Wolves in February. I mean really? Does anyone even still care about the stoopid Xenos Dark Eldar? Space Wolves around Christmas time makes much more sense - they are popular and can drive sales for Xmas gifts. After Christmas everyone is broke.

In Conclusion:
Hoping for Wolves for Christmas but sooner (Fall) is just fine with me! As more rumors hit I will post them and hopefully we can start putting together the puzzle to find a truth in all these rumors.

Updated: With the new rumors I'm leaning towards a Fall codex release. But you never know.

40K Eyecandy - The Hellsquid by Cataphract

40K Eyecandy - The Greatest Heldrake Conversion Ever

Check out this amaaaaaaazing conversion from Cataphract from over at Independent Characters. I don't know Cataphract but I hope he doesn't mind me sharing his work - something like this has to be shared.

Behold! The Hellsquid!

Best. Heldrake. Conversion. Ever.

The Hellsquid - I SO want one.

I know you want one too!