That Guy @ Octoberfest - Space Wolves & The Blob

So I entered Octoberfest having played only a handful of 6th Edition games and none of them under  tournament condition.

Like the guys have been saying this is the big one for us - but it was hard trying to write a list for a tournament that historically is always so different to any meta generated from standard win lose draw rulebook missions.

Let me explain...

Mayhem/Octoberfest likes to be different.

They stand out due to their focus on troop selections in order to win big as you need to capture ALL the objectives in a game - not just 1 to score full points.

Same with Killpoints where each squad killed is awarded 1 VP if its worth 0-60 points, 2 if it was 61-160, 3 for 161-260 and so on. As an example you needed to have a net difference of 19 VP's in a game in order to win 20-0. 5 VP's got you a score of 13-7.

The tournament had 4 objective and 2 Kill point based missions.

What's different about this?

1. Right off the bat here there is an opportunity here for you to score points even if you are massacred during a game - For instance my Team Mate Mike managed a minor 8-12 loss whilst being practically table against an Eldar/Tau combination due to the fact that he killed his opponents troop choices.

2. Army List Criteria;
a) tough troops (MEQ, Terminators, FNP, T5)
b) if they're not tough, there better be a lot of them (Guard, Tyranids, Orks)
c) they need to be cheap and en masse so you can still afford the big guns
d) or be able to do the heavy lifting if they're going to be more of a points tax (Grey Hunters)
e) mobile units in order to capture/deny those objectives in the opponents table quarter

So my lack of games here means i can only really go by second hand info from the internets and the feedback from the rest of the team from the 1 previous tournament they attended at Brighton that i couldn't make. This was pretty dicey - the danger was i could take a pretty shocking list and get pasted for 6 games over the weekend.

My initial thoughts were lead towards a Space Wolf main army with some Imperial Guard allies. They tick off each of the above criteria.  I wanted to try the ignore flyers approach as i thought they would be less of an issue here due to the heavy troop scenario. I also wanted to see how good pyskers were ala taking 2 Priests. I also wanted to try some fortifications to see if they were any fun!

Here's the list I entered - It's quite interesting to compare it to my initial Criteria  - I'm not sure i ticked all the boxes!

Rune Priest - (Warlord) Jaws, Living Lightning Force Axe, Meltabombs
Rune Priest - Jaws, Murderous Hurricane
Wolf Guard Battle Leader - Power Axe, Meltabombs, Saga of the Hunter

5 Grey Hunters - Plasma Gun
5 Grey Hunters - Plasma Gun
5 Grey Hunters - Plasma Gun
5 Grey Hunters - Plasma Gun

5 Thunder Wolves - Power Fist, Stormshield

6 Long Fangs - 5 Missiles
6 Long Fangs - 5 Missiles
6 Long Fangs - 5 Missiles

Company Command Squad - Vox

Platoon Command Squad

Infantry Squad - Autocannon, Vox
Infantry Squad - Autocannon
Infantry Squad - Autocannon
Infantry Squad - Autocannon

Aegis Defence Line

So lots of MEQ bodies, the blob plus the characters (added ATSKNF and stealth) to form a nice midfield denial and fire support unit (pretty handy in combat too with all the sergeants to take any unwanted challenges).

6 Troop choices even if i blob the guard.

We've got some cheap fire support from the Long Fangs. Some AP 2 from the GH and a fast moving denial/threat unit from the Thunder Wolves.

Stay tuned for my next post with the battle reports and lessons learnt front the weekend...

Thanks for reading.