My Blog Wars 2 List & Mission Updates

Since you've all submitted your lists to me for Blog Wars 2 I thought it was only fair that I posted mine up. Think of it as "I'll show you mine cos you've shown me yours" kinda thing! I toyed with a lot of different ideas and this is probably about version 12 of this list. I'm still tempted to change a few things but I think I should just stick with what I've got now! Here goes:

1,749pts of Space Wolves
Rune Priest w/ Chooser (Murderous Hurricane & Jaws)
Wolf Lord w/ Thunderwolf mount, wolf claw, runic armour, storm shield and Saga of the Bear

3 Wolf Guard (one Arjac Rockfist and 2x CM/PF)

3x 8 Grey Hunters (melta, standard, wulfen) - 2 in rhinos and 1 in drop pod

Thunderwolf cavalry (storm shield, power fist, melta bombs)
Land Speeder Tornado (HF/MM)

2x 5 Long Fangs (4xMLs each)

So no big surprises really. I think Arjac makes a great special character since he's pretty cheap as space marine characters go. He gets eternal warrior and is 2+/3++ but with only 2 wounds. The real joy is that he can't be targetted separately as he counts as a Wolf Guard Pack Leader. In my practice games I've been pretty expert at failing his invulnerable saves though!

I originally had Arjac in a squad of WG terminators mounted up in a LR Redeemer. Whilst I liked the idea of them piling out into combat with something nice and early on I found that in practice games I was too keen to get them into combat and hence often died cheaply. The other issue was that with combi-weapons I really wanted to be shooting stuff but often held back as I didn't want to risk missing the charge. I also found that Arjac was having to take too many saves in such a small squad which isn't good for any initiative 1 model. In general I just found them a little underwhelming. I therefore decided to swap the terminators and the land raider for a pack of TWC. Now, think what you will of TWC but frankly I just love the models I've got. They either have an amazing game or they succumb to heavy weapons fire but either way people find them intimidating.

There's a part of me that thinks I should swap the land speeder for a pack of Wolf Scouts to come on and upset heavy weapons teams etc but I think I'd just end up losing them cheaply. Realistically I don't expect to do particularly well but it's a fun list to play and I love how it looks on the table.

Mission Changes
In response to the discussion in this post I'm making some minor changes to the final mission. Instead of there being restrictions on how many units people can Deep Strike or Outflank I've decided that it'd be better to say that only units with these rules can be in reseve for either army. I don't want to limit people too much because I think it gets too complicated but it should mean that very few (if any) armies will be able to keep everything in reserve.

I'll email a new copy of the scenarios out to everyone this evening so that no-one is left in the dark but I'll also remind everyone of the change on the day.

Blog Wars 2 Rules Query - Response Needed

So I've been spending some time over the last couple of days checking out everyone's army lists for Blog Wars 2 (since they've got to be in by tonight). For the most part everything is fine, and I've emailled people about a couple of minor corrections, but it seems the third and final mission is causing a few problems. 

For those of you not familiar with it the last mission is an attack & defend scenario with some deployment restrictions. At the time of writing these missions I thought it would make sense for the defenders to be able to deep strike some of their units as if they'd called for assistance when they found themselves under attack. I didn't want people to reserve their entire army though as that felt a bit daft when the "attacker" was meant to be attacking someone! Similarly I prevented the attackers from having any deep striking at all and instead allowed them to Outflank some units (which the defender can't do). My only concern was that if there were any Chaos Daemons players that wanted to come then they'd find themselves with a problem because they HAVE to deep strike.

Luckily, (but also a shame too) there aren't any Daemons players coming to Blog Wars 2. However, since Imperial Armour (forge world) armies are allowed there is an Elysians (posh Imperial Guard) army coming along with a tyranid army with some mycetic spores. Both of these armies rely on their ability to deep strike as part of their strategy. This will work fine in the earlier missions but with the restrictions it will cause problems in the last one. So what to do?

The IA player suggested he mimic the aforementioned Daemons by splitting his forces into two "waves" and rolling to see which he gets on turn 1. Seems reasonable because most of his force is deep striking but for the 'nids player not all of his force is in spore pods. At the end of the day it'd be up to their opponents in that final game as to what they allow but as tournament organiser I really ought to come up with something to prevent any delays, disagreements or worse, full blown arguments!

Therefore I thought of just removing the restrictions completely but that brings me back to the problem of what if the defender decides to just reserve everything? Kind of defeats the point of having the attacker attacking! I suppose you could argue that they might be trying to capture a crucial point which they happen to find undefended (at first) and then all hell breaks loose. The other problem with just removing the restrictions is that perhaps people have designed their armies with them in mind? Mind you, since I know some people hadn't even looked at the missions until recently I doubt this would actually be a problem.

Right so what do you lot think? Here are the options:

1. Keep things as they are and let people decide on the day if they come up against an army that has problems in the last mission.

2. Make everyone follow the rules to the letter and therefore penalise people with Deep Strike "themed" armies

3. Only allow units in reserve (for both players) if they can EITHER Outflank OR Deep Strike

4. Scrap the deployment restrictions completely and see how it goes

Personally I think option 3 is the best since it stops the vast majority of armies reserving everything and still allows armies with special deployments to make the most of them. I'll go with the general consensus though!

Seriously, I'm wondering if the custom scenarios were worth the hassle!! I think next time (if there is one) I'll go with rulebook missions but keep the new scoring system.

Last Chance to Get Blog Wars 2 Tickets

Sorry to keep harping on about it but the ticket sales will close at midnight tonight so if you haven't bought your Blog Wars ticket then now's the time! 

Now's also the time to submit your army lists which should be in by midnight tomorrow. I'll check them through over the weekend and email back if there are any discrepancies. The tournament packs and scenarios will be going out tonight. If you don't receive them then please get in touch as I may have your address wrong. 

If you have any questions about the missions then you need to get back to me asap as there won't be much time on the day to discuss them. 

Once again, I look forward to seeing those of you that are coming along. I'm excited to see how everyone's lists pan out and how my list fares against them.