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| A shot from my last outing the the Outpost |
Let's get my list out of the way first and then I'll talk about the custom scenarios they're using.
1,500pts of Space Wolves
Rune Priest (runic armour, JotWW, LL)
Wolf Priest (plasma pistol, Saga of the Hunter)
3 Wolf Guard (2 CM/PF and Arjac)
8 Grey Hunters (melta, standard, MotW) in a drop pod
2x 10 Grey Hunters (plasma, melta, standard, MotW)
3 Thunderwolves (storm shield, power fist)
2x 5 Long Fangs (4 missiles)
As you might expect the wolf guard split up and join the grey hunter packs. Arjac jumps in the drop pod and the other two slog around on foot. The wolf priest will join one pack and allow them to Outflank should they wish. He also makes them Fearless and gives them Preferred Enemy which I usually specify as being towards Infantry.
The rune priest has a bit of flexibility. If my opponent has flyers then he'll probably join the long fangs and help them with Prescience to give them a hope of killing a plane. Otherwise he's more likely to join the other big grey hunter pack and either use his stock powers or give them Prescience instead.
Not really a hugely 6th edition list but there's plenty of bodies for 1,500pts, 46 in total. There's also only 9 KPs which I don't think is bad. There could probably be less but I'm happy with the list balance as a whole. As ever with one of my lists there's some armies that it'll slaughter but most will either be challenging or impossible to fight!! There's some interest for me in the form of the TWC and Arjac. Two units who I'm extremely fond of. I've also included my outflanking Wolf Priest who's becoming somewhat obligatory in my lists.
Looking at the list now I wish I'd given the other two wolf guard some terminator armour. This would've allowed them to stand at the front of their grey hunter packs and tank fire. I'd have either had to lose the Rune Priest's runic armour or else give them claws instead of fists though. Probably would've been worth it but we'll see if it makes a difference. Either way, the list deadline was a couple of weeks ago so there's nothing I can do about it now.
The Scenarios
In their wisdom the organisers have decided to use some custom missions rather than the rulebook ones. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have been very well thought out. I get the impression they're 5th edition ones that've been ported across. No offence to these guys but on the face of it they look like they've been needlessly complicated.
Game One
Game one will be "Strategic Decimation" on Dawn of War with 6 turns automatically. This is basically Purge the Alien but with the difference that for the first unit you kill from each FOC slot you gain an extra point. For example, if my opponent has two squads of Necron warriors the first one I kill will be worth 2 pts because it's the first Troop I've killed whereas the second squad would give me just 1 pt. Unfortunately, my list has one from each FOC except Elites (as my wolf guard will become Troops). Hopefully that won't be an issue but you can see that depending on who you face there could be a lot of easy bonus points up for grabs. Ultimately I think it'll just be case of killing them all (if I can) and working out the points later. Incidentally, a difference of 0-2 pts counts as a draw anyway! Can't really see why but whatever.
Game Two
Game two will be "Escort" with essentially Dawn of War deployment but with the "ends cut off" in that you must be 12" from the short edge too. This is the mission that I think is the worst of the three. Each player nominates a model as the "Escort" who must try to leave the board by their opponent's board edge. This must be a character or independent character. If he's part of a squad when he leaves the squad leaves with him. Initially the mission was over as soon as one player got their character off the board. Obviously they had to change this so he's now worth 2 VPs if he leaves and an extra VP if he gets killed. He can't deep strike, outflank, infiltrate, etc and he can't move in the shooting phase. Essentially he's got to slog it forwards from one edge to the other. Clearly models on bikes or with wings/jump packs have a huge advantage here. Otherwise it's kill points (i.e. Purge the Alien again). I think what's essentially going to happen is both players will kill their opponent's "Escort" before he even gets close to the opposing board edge and the game will be reduced to Purge the Alien.
My army doesn't really have a suitable candidate for an "Escort" as I don't really want to reduce my army's effectiveness by walking my rune priest or wolf priest off the table. Nor do I really want to walk an entire grey hunter pack off with Arjac or any of the wolf guard. As I say, I think it'll come down to killing each other's "Escort" and then fighting it out for KPs.
Game Three
Game three is a little better mind you. It's called "Hold the Centre" and uses Vanguard deployment. There's 3 objectives on the centre line and if any player ever holds all 3 at any point after turn 2 they win by default. At the end of turn 4 one objective randomly disappears. If someone controls the remaining two they win by default. I actually quite like the idea of this mission as it forces you to play for the objectives from the start. No holding back and snatching them at the end. In this mission I might consider not Outflanking so that I've got all my guys fighting it out from the start. Don't really want a situation where I wait until turn 4 before they show up.
Anyway, time will tell how these scenarios will play out and as I said, as you're reading this I've pretty much finished playing them. I think it's a shame when TOs try to overcomplicate things and make a tournament confusing to play. I've been a bit guilty of this in the past at Blog Wars but since then the scenarios have just been slight variations of the rulebook ones. Ultimately if you change things to much you get a situation where one player gets a natural advantage or a pair of players interpret it differently to everyone else. Keep it simple is the best approach I reckon unless you can come up with something brilliant.
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