Siege of Sussex - List Development

The Final List

Before I post the first battle report, I'd like to to go over the development of my army list. Firstly, I must say that my list was ok, but far from optimal. I knew this at the time, but I had to go with not only what was available form my model collection, but also how much I could get assembled and painted in time!

When I signed up for the tournament, I had approximately 1000pts painted with three colours (I build up the power armour in about 6 different stages, so it takes me a while!). That meant that I had about 5 weeks, therefore 5 games, to finish building, painting and getting the hang of the list, so I decided that I was only going to be able to make minor tweaks as I went along. Now I'm not the greatest painter in the world, but I think I do ok. The thing is, I get easily demotivated if I think a paint job isn't as good as it could be. Because of this, I wasn't prepared to rush just to get a poor finish to play in a few games, only to have to repaint the models at a later stage. Anyway, on to the initial list!

Siege of Sussex - SW v1.0

HQ
Rune Priest (Living Lightning, Tempest's Wrath)

Elite

Dreadnought (2 twin-linked autocannons)

Dreadnought (2 twin-linked autocannons)

5 Wolf Guard (Drop pod, 4 combi-meltas, Cyclone Missile Launcher)

Troops

3x 7 Grey Hunters (Rhino, melta, banner, mark of the wolfen)
5 Grey Hunters (Lasplas razorback, melta)

Fast Attack
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Wolf claw)

Heavy Support
5 Long Fangs (Lasplas razorback, 4 missile launchers)

Total 1465pts

8 hulls

27 marines (1 TDA)

1 Cavalry

15-16 Kill Points

At this stage, I hadn't decided on how best to use the last 35 points. I could have just given the TWC a storm shield and melta bombs, or gone for another WG with combi-melta plus extras.

WGBL - Work in progress

Looking at the list, the thunderwolf stood out. I do have 3 more models, but since they are non-GW, I wouldn't be able to use them! I had thought about keeping him in reserve, as he is really a counter-assault unit, especially with the 19-24" charge range. I was reluctant to give him the storm shield (gotta love magnets!), as I expected he'd get cover from the rhinos, or be torrented to death anyway!

Thing is, I liked the Thunderwolf as a supporting element for my Grey Hunters, who didn't have any power weapons. They did have the Mark of the Wolfen, but nothing makes MEQ cry like a power weapon (ok, there are lots of other things too, but you know what I mean)! I could use the last few points to buy two squads power swords, which with the Rune Priest's force weapon would balance out nicely. Certainly an option.

I had considered replacing the regular thunderwolf with a Wolf Guard Battle Leader, but that would require nearly a hundred points I'd have to find from somewhere else in the list. I could take out the banners, MotW, and/or a few marines and this would certainly save me some painting time! It would also give me a better initiative and weapon skill, but not an extra wound, so would still die fairly easily to massed firepower. Generally, I think it's better to go with more cavalry to support a WGBL/Wolf Lord if you're going to take a thunderwolf HQ, or at least some Fenrisian Wolves, but sadly neither was an option.

As an alternative to the thunderwolf as a counter-assault unit, I had considered a Lone Wolf or two. I'm working on a couple with the typical thunderhammer/storm shield in terminator armour set up, but my problem was that my Elite slots was filled by my Dreads, and I didn't have enough Long Fangs to balance out the loss of long range suppression/light mech destruction. I did have an assembled Vindicator and Godhammer Landraider, but neither fitted the bill really. So Dreads it was!

'Rifledread' 01 - Work in progress

I also struggled to decide how to make the most of the drop pod.

I liked having a projected threat during deployment, giving my opponent something to worry about. For example, I expected to usually use the combi-melta wolf guard with the grey hunters, possibly swapping in the CML for the small squad and a wolf guard as an ablative wound for the long fangs. However, there was the option to put three combi-meltas/CML/Rune Priest (or combination thereof) in there as an alpha strike if there is a particularly juicy target. This might work better if my second power was Jaws?

I also like the idea of having the option to 'feint' with the pod, forcing my opponent to deploy defensively to counter the alpha strike threat, then either dropping it empty or at mid/long range with the CML and a couple of friends. I think this 'threat/feint' pod idea works better at 2000pts, when I can get double CMLs in, but was struggling to get it working comfortably in this list (I also didn't have a second CML either!).

CML - Work in progress

Giving the list, particularly the cavalry and pod, further thought, I realised I could loose the thunderwolf entirety and use the points for a second Rune Priest with LL/Jaws. Good for added pod threat and other obvious goodness, including a replacement force weapon having lost the wolf claw.

Then I thought, well what if I removed the marines with the banner and MotW, as I had considered earlier? This would give me enough points for a TW WGBL! Reduced my scoring reliability, but nice extra threat, albeit a bit exposed without any cavalry support...

After much thought, and no play testing whatsoever, I settled on version 2.0 of my list:

Siege of Sussex - SW v2.0

HQ

Rune Priest (Living Lightning, Tempest's Wrath)
Rune Priest (Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf, bolter)
Wolf Guard Battle Leader (Thunderwolf, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, melta bombs)

Elite
Dreadnought (2 twin-linked autocannons)
Dreadnought (2 twin-linked autocannons)
5 Wolf Guard (Lasplas razorback, 4 combi-meltas, Cyclone Missle Launcher)

Troops
3x 5 Grey Hunters (Rhino, melta)
5 Grey Hunters (Drop pod, melta)

Heavy Support
5 Long Fangs (Lasplas razorback, 4 missile launchers)

Total 1500pts

8 hulls
32 marines (1 TDA)
1 Cavalry
17-18 Kill Points

Two Rune Priests - Work in progress

Swapped the pod to the hunters, added more pod threat, and loaded up on HQ, primarily to minimise how much I had to build and paint!

First trial of the list was vs a good (nearly net list, but with minor modifications) Blood Angels jumper list and I was pretty pleased. We called it after a couple of turns as we ran out of time, at which point I was loosing by one objective (out of 5), but had just killed Mephiston in one turn of shooting (he'd failed to charge my bait with a mediocre run roll and was left standing in the open...) and only suffered minor casualties, so was looking good for the following turns!

After further play testing, and painting, I decided that I'd prefer to model both my rune priests with bolt pistols. I was thinking long term here, so rather than have a bolter on one, I decided to move the melta bombs from the WGBL over to the Jaws priest (the one with the two headed axe!). Not likely to use it, but hey, I had run out of magnets and was happier with the models.

So, the final list was:

Siege of Sussex - SW v2.1 (Final List)

HQ
Rune Priest (Living Lightning, Tempest's Wrath)
Rune Priest (Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf, melta bombs)
Wolf Guard Battle Leader (Thunderwolf mount, wolf claw, storm shield)

Elite
Dreadnought (2 twin-linked autocannons)
Dreadnought (2 twin-linked autocannons)
5 Wolf Guard (Lasplas razorback, 4 combi-meltas, Cyclone Missle Launcher)

Troops
5 Grey Hunters (Rhino, melta)
5 Grey Hunters (Rhino, melta)
5 Grey Hunters (Rhino, melta)
5 Grey Hunters (Drop pod, melta)

Heavy Support
5 Long Fangs (Lasplas razorback, 4 missile launchers)

Total 1500pts

8 hulls
32 marines (1 TDA)
1 Cavalry
17-18 Kill Points
3 + 1 troops
1 threat/feint drop pod
-
2 LL
JotWW,
6 missiles
4 tl-autoconnons
8 melta (4 single shot)
2 lasplas
-
2 force weapons
1 wolf claw
1 power weapon
1 melta bomb

As I said at the start, not my ideal list and certainly not optimised, but good enough for a start!