My Blog Wars Army List

Well since you lot have all been kind enough to submit your lists for Blog Wars it seems only fair that I should post my up here too. I have to say I'm pleased that the majority of the lists have embraced there spirit of the compulsory special character. I know that some of you might not have been keen on the idea initially but it seems from reading various blogs that people have had fun trying out different combinations. It's made people think about their army selection a bit more rather than just churning out the same old tournament list.

Anyway, here's my offering:


1749 pts of Space Wolves

Ragnar Blackmane
Rune Priest (Jaws & Lightning)

Lone Wolf w/ TDA, chainfist and storm shield
Lone Wolf w/ TDA, chainfist and storm shield
3x Wolf guard w/ combi melta & power fist

8 Grey Hunters w/ meltagun, Wulfen & standard in Rhino
8 Grey Hunters w/ meltagun, Wulfen & standard in Rhino
10 Grey Hunters w/ flamer, meltagun, power weapon, standard & Wulfen

Land speeder w/ multi-melta & heavy flamer

5 long fangs w/ 4x missile launchers
5 long fangs w/ 4x missile launchers
Land Raider Redeemer w/ multi-melta

Well nothing too shocking there. Ragnar and a full strength grey hunter squad go in the redeemer and are my "hammer" unit. It's sickening how many attacks they can put out. I had a test game against Matt's grey knights and Ragnar took out Draigo's bodyguard of terminators on his own and the rest of the squad would've finished off Draigo and a dreadknight (that I multi-charged) were it not for some good saving rolls by Matt. As it was Ragnar finished Draigo off in the following turn. I ended up losing the game but it was certainly memorable for a number of reasons. When you get a decent roll for the extra attacks from Ragnar and combine them with a Wolf Standard your opponent may as well forget it! Furious charge means they strike before most things too so it keeps them pretty safe. They completely rely on the charge though so that's where the Redeemer comes in.

The redeemer seems to get overlooked in favour of the other variants but I think the flamestorms are brilliant. It's not so much the number of marines they can kill but the fact that your opponent has to try and guess the range of a flamer template when he's trying to manoeuvre around it.

The rest of the list is pretty standard. I've never used lone wolves until recently and I have to say I love them. There may be a few groans around the blogosphere but they're in the codex same as anything else. It's amazing the amount of punishment they can take sometimes and they scare most vehicles and monstrous creatures. The long fangs are essentially there just to soften up targets for them.

Well when I got back from honeymoon I had 22 footsloggers and a land raider to paint. I've got the models sat in front of me as I type this and they're all done apart from the washes and basing. I've still got Ragnar and the Redeemer to paint but I've got plenty of time. It's a shame I've not had chance to convert up a better Ragnar. The old school model I have has no presence on the field and I'd love to try my hand at something like this.

The entire army needs free hand company logos adding to it but I think that will only happen if I've got time spare once the raider and Ragnar are done. I might even do a quick tutorial if I can. I reckon the basic logo can be broken down into shapes and it shouldn't take too long.

Well not long to go until Blog Wars now and hopefully you've either got your army painted or you're frantically getting it there. I've got a few practice games on Thursday against Matt & Scott but I'm pretty happy with the list and how it plays so it's just a wait and see. It's a good all round list but there will obviously be armies it struggles against like Grey Knights. Have to wait and see I guess. Just over 6 days to go!

They're all a little bit special!

Just a quick post to say I've been looking through the lists that I've been sent so far for Blog Wars and I'm pleased to tell you that so far of the 16 lists I've checked no-one has taken the same character as anyone else! Granted this could change and there's been a couple of people who were exempt from the rule. Anyway, I just thought it was pretty cool that everyone had gone for something different dispite there being a few races who are represented several times!

Sadly, so far, no-one has come back to me saying they're playing Dark Eldar. I suspect this is probably because it's a relatively new codex and most readers of a Space Wolves blog like mine are unlikely to field them. Having said that I think they've got some of the coolest special characters both in models and rules so its a shame. I've decided I'm going to have to get me a DE army because those models are just too gorgeous to pass up.

My current plan is to finish off the bulk of the painting for my Space Wolves so I can field a decent sized, fully painted army. After that I'm turning my attentions to the green skins and maybe towards the end of the year I'll start to build up my DE army. I don't want to rush into it like I have with my other armies. This is for several reasons such as that I don't want to have a pile of unpainted miniatures so that it seems like a massive task that I'll never complete. I also don't want to end up with models that I'm never going to use (here's looking at you skyclaws). Incidentally I might sell some of the redundant units from my wolves army to fund the DE one.

I'm not going to be completely retiring from playing SW but I'd like to try something completely different and away from power armour for a while. Might see what the next codex is to be done. I'd love it if it were Tau because I've already got a nice sized army for them and some new models would go down great. I suspect it will be Necrons though which is an army I considered before choosing SW but I was put off my a severely limited codex.

Anyway, enough rambling, I'm off to sort a few more Blog Wars things out before bed.

Blog Wars Tickets - 48 HOURS LEFT

The title says it all. In 48 hours your chance to participate in what is probably the first (until someone commments and tells me otherwise) blogger against blogger tournament in the 40K universe will be gone. The event is on the 5th of June (a Sunday regretably) at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield, UK. If you're not a blogger don't feel like you can't attend. The aim was for a meet and greet of bloggers but anyone is welcome.

To those of you have already bought tickets. Firstly, thank you for supporting what I'm trying to do here. Secondly, I'll be contacting you all by email soon to let you know what exactly is happening on the day and what you'll need. Please let me know if your PayPal email isn't suitable for this (I know of a few ppl where this is the case). Thirdly, if you have any special dietary requirements let me know by email so I can tell the venue and finally you have 48 hours to get your army list in so DO IT NOW!!

If there are any issues with your lists I'll email you back sharpish so we can figure it out. If you don't send me a list then I may be forced to deny you dessert at the buffet and nobody wants that so don't make me do it! 

I had a test game on Tuesday night and I'm pretty pleased with my list. I'll fill you in on the details in another post but suffice to say I'm not changing it so I'll be posting it up here on Sunday. That means I won't be making any changes based on your list.

Finally, if I do end up participating i.e. if we have even numbers on the day then I'd like to point out I won't be eligible for any prizes. If I come third for example, then the prize would go to 4th place. I won't be entered into the raffle but I do still get lunch (which I'll pay for whether I enter or not). Other than that I in no way benefit from this tournament in a monetary way and in fact if I don't end up playing I'll lose £7.50!! 

Either way, I'm really looking forward to it and I hope those of you with tickets are too. Get testing, get painting and get ready cos it's gonna be a great day. To those of you without a ticket yet get your act together. There's still time and since it's the end of the month you've probably been paid. £15 is nothing. Join in!

Honey, I'm home! - Blog Wars Update (again)

So you may have noticed From The Fang has been quiet over the last couple of weeks. You may not have noticed but I'd prefer to think that you have! Anyway, I'm back from my honeymoon now and I've just finished wading through all the Blog Wars emails I've received whilst I've been away. The current number of attendees stands at 24 (including myself) which I have to say makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm amazed that people are actually getting on board with this.

Anyway, ego stroking aside, we're only just over two weeks away from the big day so I hope you're all frantically painting so that everything looks pretty. I personally have a crapload of painting to do between now and then, not to mention a bit of play testing too. I've had army lists from a couple of people but I'm going to set a deadline of one week before the tournament for final submission of your list. Please try and get them in ASAP so I can find time to check them all in between painting up my army.

The final deadline for list submission will be before the end of: SATURDAY 28TH MAY

This will also be the point when I take the ticket link down. If people want tickets after this time then I'll do my best to sort it but there are only 40 spots in total so it may not be an issue.

This should also hopefully give me time to sort out any special character issues that people might have and clarify any rules or FAQ stuff. Now is the time to do it.

From reading various posts it seems like people are really embracing the Special Character thing. I was worried at first that this would alienate some of us who prefer truly competitive lists. However, the whole point was to try and encourage people to have a bit of fun with their lists and work out an army based around a character leading it. Now, I'm not naive enough to think we won't see Imperial Guard armies with Marbo or Grey Knights with Vindicare assassins but it'd be nice to think at least some of the players had properly got on board with the idea. I really hope we see a wide range of characters too as I'd love to see how some of these guys perform in battle.

I don't know about anyone else but I'm really looking forward to it. Granted I'm hoping everything goes alright on the day but basically I can't wait to get stuck in and fight some interesting armies for a change. As I've mentioned before if there's an odd number of people then I may not compete but I'll still love wandering around during games and seeing how people are using their characters.

Finally, I'd like to highlight a few sites and people who are doing their bit for Blog Wars.

Firstly, Sons of Sanguinius, the original idea for Blog Wars came from a comment form discussion between C&F, the Sons guys and myself but also Venerable Brother has been prolifically (is that a word?) writing posts about ideas for army lists. Thanks for supporting the idea guys and for flying the logo on your site.

Secondly, Andy bG from Iron Wolves has set up a Google Group to help people sort out their transport for the day. I appreciate that Sunday isn't great for travel so if you're having difficulty try using this to help you sort out lifts etc. If you're driving and might be able to give someone a ride then please join the group and volunteer. I might have space if someone is coming from the Sheffield direction?

Lastly, Brian from the Roll With It gaming club has recently set up an online t-shirt store which sells 40K related shirts of the kind you see people wearing at tournaments. It's an impressive range of designs and they're using the shop to help fund their club. We've talked about a couple of Blog Wars shirts but watch this space for those!