The Doomed 13th muster for war

‘When the sorrow is all gone it is buried in the sun
When the wolves howl their song and the whole earth is done
When the wolves howl their song and the wind still carries on’

So picking up the thread from my last Oath Of Moment entry, did I make it to Dark Throne with a fully painted Space Wolf army? Well I certainly didn’t have any bare plastic on the table (which ultimately was the point I guess) but embarrassingly I had to cut a few corners to get there. Here’s how it went down:

Maugrim The Reaver and his Wolf Guard retinue

The week before Dark Throne Ager and myself took our armies over to NWGC to have a sesh with some of the other lads from the crew, grab a slice of pizza and play test our lists. At this point my army was about 85% painted with only a few bases to tidy up and some simple highlights on pauldrons to complete. Sure my wolves were never going to win a Golden Demon award but considering they are the first army I’ve ever painted and are something of a learning curve, I felt that they collectively looked solid on the table.

Death from above

I played against Agers Crimson Fists in our first game and beat him on points. I always feel bad playing against Ager with his current list because his army is (in keeping with the fluff) vanilla as fuck. However I was running a cheeky list with two Rune priests. I thought I was being real fucking smart by creating a pincer field of psychic fire but that tactic didn’t quite work out how I expected it to. Either way, a wins a win right? Agers putting together an optomized Blood Angels army as I write this so I think my winning streak against him is about to come to a suitably grim and bloody end in a few weeks time.

Resolving to fine tune that approach in my next game I stepped up against Connor Boardman and his Grey Knights. Now Connor, despite his tender years, is one of the more experienced players in our group and what we refer to as a walking Rulebook. I was pretty happy with how our game went considering I’m very much a newbie at actually playing the game, succeeding in removing his HQ and Dreadnoughts from play early on and after taking a real roasting from that absurd flame thrower I got his Dreadknight off the table too. I learned a couple of new tricks for denying enemies objective stealing opportunities and how to use my units more efficiently, but I still got fucking battered.

It’s a unity ideal.

With some hard lessons learned I decided that I better change up my gameplan quicksmart if I was to stand any chance at DT. Connor suggested I swap out my squad of Bloodclaws for another squad of Grey Hunters, same points cost but with a better stat line. Makes sense. Drop the second Rune Priest and factor in some additional Wolf Guard to protect my HQ and a pack of Fenrisian Wolves to use as a meat shield/tarpit unit. All well and good but these were going to be fresh units and that meant a lot of painting and fast. I’m not a speed painter, as mentioned elsewhere I’m pretty green with all this painting stuff, I’m just happy if I get the paint in the right place to be honest.

I managed to beast through the pack of Grey Hunters way quicker than I had in the past and I’m really pleased with how they turned out given the short time I had to put them together. Part of the appeal of the Wolves to me is that they are all so unique and I like that defiant character to be reflected in my models. Much as I think the Space Wolves tactical boxes are cool one of the things I CANNOT ABIDE about them is the fucking whack hair styles on some of the heads. More on that in my next OAM post though. Simply by the addition of greenstuffing on a simple beard, some fur or giving them a mane of long matted hair it’s not to difficult to introduce a bit of hessian personality into your army. Whilst I was buzzing round trying to sort out my Grey Hunters some of the other guys in the crew pitched in to give me a hand…Adam helped out with the Fenrisian Wolves that Gaz gave me and Paul airbrushed my drop pods. Shout out to both of those guys for pulling my fat out of the fire.

New recruits for Dark Throne, squad of Grey Hunters led by a terran veteran pack leader.

So Dark Throne came and went. The fury of Fenris was unleashed upon the traitor and the heretic both, but sadly the howling arctic blizzard of rage I’d envisaged turned out to be more of a light flurry. Grudged against my arch nemesis Chris Kayes Iron Warriors in the first round and despite it being a real tooth and claw battle, the tin men of Olympia prevailed. Whilst it’s always a bit disappointing to take a loss in your first game I was pleased with the amount of threads severed on Chris’s side of the table and it was enough for me that he knew he’d been in a fight. That leaves us 2-0 to Chris so far, so whilst he basks in the dim glow of a hard earned victory I skulked off  back to my grim and frostbitten kingdom to lick my wounds and plot revenge.

Second round I drew Phil Newtons Daemons army. First time for me going up against these magical swines and despite vaguely knowing my Rune Priest could do some damage against these boys I was woefully unprepared. I’ll say this much, despite getting totally crushed it was a good time and another hard lesson learned. I managed to remove a squad of bloodletters, a squad of juggernaughts and a pack of Flesh Hounds off the table before Newt’s Bloodthirster reamed me good style. Forgetting to fire my Long fangs on turn one was a schoolboy error that I never recovered from. Fair play to Newt as well, a gentlemanly opponent as well as being a nice bloke and a pleasure to play against, I hope we get to roll dice again in the future.

Old fellas. Just noticed that the barrels snapped on that heavy bolter. Brilliant

Third round was against my man Kev Walsh and his Dark Angels. Despite being mates for over 15 years we’ve never played against each other before so it was nice to close out the day with a relaxed game. Neither us are competitive or arsed about much other than finding the amusement in any given situation so it was steady away. Obviously the Wolves and the 1st Legion have an axe to grind so I appreciated the fluff element in what turned out to be a fun little game. I actually rolled a lot better in this game and played a bit smarter and there were some nice match up’s on the table. Kev’s army looked stunning and after kicking lumps out of one another for an hour or so it was declared a draw. The feud between the Emperors 1st and the Sons Of Russ remains undecided it would seem.

Rune Priest kitbash by me. Paints by Vanus Temple

So my first 1000 points is done. That’s more than I thought I’d ever realistically accomplish and you know what? for a guy that took no joy in the prospect of painting or playing…I have absolutely loved it. I’m still a noob but I can see a lot of development from the models I started out painting last year and the stuff I’m working on now which is a reward in itself. With the new Space Wolves Codex looming on the horizon I want to get as much of my virgin plastic into play so I can justify dropping some wedge on what I hope will be some exciting new additions for my army. The next installment in my Oath Of Moment series will focus on using up the odds and ends littering my man cave and turning them into a fluffy but usable squad I’ve dubbed The Wolves Of Terra…….