Logan's Hero's Hobby update

Over the last week I have made some decent progress on the Wolf Guard Terminators I will be using for my 1500 point Logan army . Here are a few quick pics of them.

(Left: Wolf Guard with TH/SS Right: Wolf Guard with SS and Frost Axe)

(Left: Wolf Guard with Frost Sword and Combi-Melta  Right: Wolf Guard with SS and Chainfist)

So far these guys have been a lot of fun to both build and paint. I am very excited at how the Frost Axe is turning out, as this is my first forte' into layered blending. I am looking forward to a game with this list, and Krox, from Mis-modeled Firewarrior, has requested a game so he can formulate a game plan vs drop pods and the famed Fritz Null-Deployment. Between Krox and myself there should be a good breakdown of both how the drop pods worked and his tactics to counter the pods. 

1500pt Logan's Heros list v1.0

I'm in the process of coming up with my 1500 point Logan Grimnar army list. The basic concept of this list is like any other Logan army, Hit 'em hard and fast. Here is the list as it stands...



HQ: Logan Grimnar, The Great Wolf

Troops: Wolf Guard Pack 
      1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour Close Combat Weapon; Combi-Meltagun
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Frost Weapon; Assault Cannon
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Thunder Hammer; Storm Shield
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Storm Shield; Frost Weapon
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Wolf Claw; Wolf Claw
      1 Drop Pod

Troops: Wolf Guard Pack
       1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour Close Combat Weapon; Combi-Meltagun
       1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Storm Bolter; Frost Weapon; Cyclone Missile Launcher
       1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Storm Shield; Thunder Hammer
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Combi-Meltagun; Frost Weapon
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Storm Shield; Wolf Claw
      1 Drop Pod

Troops: Wolf Guard Pack
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Wolf Claw; Wolf Claw
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Storm Bolter; Power Fist
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Storm Shield; Chain Fist
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour Thunder Hammer; Storm Shield
      1 Drop Pod

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack
   9 Grey Hunters Pack  Wolf Standard; Bolt Pistol x9; Bolter x8; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun
    1 Rhino


Troops: Grey Hunters Pack
   9 Grey Hunters Pack  Wolf Standard; Bolt Pistol x9; Bolter x8; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun
    1 Rhino



 The way I am trying to build each unit is so that they have a good mix of weapons to deal with anything that comes at them. I am also mixing in Storm Shields to help each unit survive. The Power Armored Wolf Guard split off and join the Grey Hunters, and Logan will likely join either the Cyclone Missile toting squad or the Assault Cannon squad to give them Tank Hunters the turn they drop.The Rhinos will race forward and try to get to the enemy and douse their rides with melta-goodness.


This is a very rough draft, and will likely change by the time it hits the table. Is there anything I should try to add or change?

Hobby update!

I have recently decided to open up the forges of Asaheim, and start building my Riflemen Dread. I used an ebay plastic dread, formerly with Twin-Lascannon / DCCW as the basis of the minor conversion. I had a spare Quad Gun model from the Ageis Defence Line Kit, so that made a perfect victim foe the conversion. I'm sorry to say that I did not take any pics during the build, so all you will get is the finished product.

I will post some more later, once I have some paint done.

Unit Breakdown : LotD

 User mail;

Hi there,

Saw your posting on the FTW group, and thought I would submit a unit I’ve been toying around with and trying to fit into a list. Space Marine Legion of the Damned. There’s a whole lot of very awesome new models for these guys recently released, and frankly I think the background fluff is interesting. It would be very interesting to see your take on how best to make use of them.

Thanks, 

Gareth H.

Thanks for the email Gareth, I will do my best to break down the pros and cons of the Legion Of the Damned and see how they stack up in a competitive environment.


First off, lets take a look at the special rules;
 Aid Unlooked for: Basically this says that the unit must always start in reserve, but can re-roll their deep strike scatter.

Unyielding Spectres: Makes their saving throw invulnerable.

Fearless, Slow and purposeful: See the USR's in the Main rule book.

What these special rules give you is the ability to deepstrike very close to where you need them and also the ability to take a lot of low AP wounds. Unfortunately with each model only having 1 wound and always having the same armor save, a bolter shot can kill just as easily as a lascanon shot. Being able to re-roll their deep strike scatter can either be a blessing or a death knell, as you are just as likely to roll a bad scatter the second time.

The unit has the option to take 1 special weapon and 1 heavy weapon no matter the unit size. To me this means that I would keep the unit size near the minimum to save on points, as each member is very costly! On the down side doing this means that the unit has less survivability, and that's not such a good thing either. With having the Slow and Purposeful USR this unit can stay on the move (though slowly) and still fire and assault after shooting Rapid Fire and Heavy Weapons.


The Sergeant has the basic upgrade options at about the same points as other Sergeants. He has an increased WS, so giving him a power weapon of some type means it will most likely hit home and do some damage.

If, and that's a big IF, I were to play these guys in a competitive game I would run them with a Plasma gun Plasma cannon and give the Sgt a Power weapon with only a 5 man unit(mind you that would cost 210 pts!).  I would also run them in pairs, that way I would have a better chance of getting a unit of them when I need them. With the ability to re-roll their scatter I wouldn't worry about having any locator beacons in the rest of my force, though if I had left over points it wouldn't hurt.

Now the reasons I wouldn't use them;
First off, the army doesn't have any way to control the reserve game so you will be left to the will of your dice as to when this unit enters play. Next we have the cost,  for about the same points you can have a 5 man unit of terminators that all have power weapons and the ability to have a 2+/3+i armor save. Last we have the slow movement, which means they may not get them where you need them or they could be left out in the open after an assault phase.

While the fluff of this unit is very cool, I just wish they would have been better on the table; which is the reason I suggest leaving them at home when you are playing competitively. If you are a beer and pretzels player and this unit peaks your interest, by all means play them but don't be surprised if they let you down from time to time.

What are your thoughts on the Legion of the Damned? Have you had some luck and think there is a way to use them in competitive play? Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions. 

Unit Breakdown

One of the most important things when sitting down to write an army list is knowing what units you want to include. You have to ask yourself some very important questions when determining you final list. Does unit 'A' offer alot of options or flexability? Is that unit worth their points? How do I plan to use that unit in the battle?

Sometimes these questions are easily answered, but sometimes the answer is more difficult to find. Over the next few weeks I would like you (the reader) to submit units you would like to discuss. With the help of the community, I will do my best to break down each unit and try to find the best fit for each of them. The end goal is to get us all to start thinking indepth about our unit choices and how we want to equip and use them.

Send your submissions to tactica40k@gmail.com

Support and You

A recent discussion came up with my normal gaming group about how to properly support units. While it was a new conversation we all soon realized that it was something that we all have thought about before, but never talked in depth about. We all have differing opinions about how to best support key units in our armies, but the over arching theme of supporting each unit is something we all can agree on.

I’m going to talk about a few of the different key support roles and how I think they can be used on the table. Keep in mind that these are just a few examples and how I would use them.

First off there is the ’Distraction’ tactic. This style of support can come in the form of a deep striking unit or a unit jumping out from a hidden deployment (such as from inside a Land Raider or a dreadnought in a Drop Pod). The ways these units support the rest of your force is by drawing your opponent’s attention away from your key units, and they are far more dangerous than your normal troops. Making your opponent deal with these units gives the rest of your army the time they need to get into position to win the game. Hammer units make great ‘distraction’ units, as they are a force that must be dealt with and they are also very hard to kill.  In my Space Wolves army I like to use Thunder Wolf Cavalry for this role because they are hard to kill and I am able to get them into the enemy's face quickly. I deploy them as far forward as possible, and in cover if that is an option. Doing this gives them the ability to strike quickly and be able to survive my opponents first shooting phase if I’m not going first.

The next type is the ‘Covering Fire’ support role. This support role comes in many different forms, from long rage fire support to two units working in tandem to provide each other covering fire. The key to this support role is mobility and range. If you are able to have both it gives your units much more flexibility, but that’s not always an option. Another advantage with covering fire is the ability to take away your opponents cover saves. When you have multiple units that can target the same enemy unit but use different firing lanes to do so, it makes it more difficult to assure a cover save for your opponent. For this role there are a few different units that I use. First is Long Fangs for long range cover fire. I tend to deploy them on opposite sides of the table and equip them with missile launchers, that way they are able to cover a large portion of the board from a safe location. For mobile cover fire I like to keep my Grey hunters close together. By doing this it gives me the ability to either assault with 2 units or rapid fire with one unit and assault with the other.

Another pseudo support role is to have a sacrificial unit that is placed before the enemies to tempt them into making the moves you want. A small unit of troops in a vehicle or a fast moving unit makes a great sacrificial unit, as you can maneuver them quickly into position. Sacrificial units should be cheep in points, the more points this unit costs you the more it hurts when you do sacrifice it.  The idea with sacrificial units is that the enemy will strike them first and wipe them out, leaving their unit stranded, which gives you time to either counter attack or unload mass amounts of fire into them. IG is best known for the latter due to their ability to out shoot almost every other army in the game.

 Each of these different styles forces your opponent to react to you, and that can put the control if the game in your hands.  Games are often won by the player who controls the pace of the game, and forcing your opponent to react to you is one of the best ways to do that. What are some of your favorite support tactics and the units that you find work best?

Why all the hate??

Why is it that in one breath we can call ourselves a community, and in the next we trash others that are trying to do the same thing; Better the hobby and game!

I listen to a lot of gaming related podcasts, and I also have gotten more active in the ever growing blogger community. It seems that as of late all anyone wants to do is bitch and complain about how the 'other guy' is doing it wrong or how the have 'jumped the shark'. Constant 'flame wars' run rampant all over the net, from forums to podcasts, and everywhere in between. What's so wrong with either keeping your mouth shut about the other guy or providing them with CONSTRUCTIVE criticism? Trying to belittle others just makes you look like the idiot!

A few days ago BoLS. changed the way the community leaves comments to their posts. Now you have to be a member of Disqus in order to leave a comment. I think this was needed because they get a lot of traffic and also a lot of  trolls who think its cool to hide behind the anonymity of the interwebs.

I just wish people could for one brief second drop their over inflated egos and just focus on what really matters; making the COMMUNITY a better place and making the GAME more enjoyable (no matter how you like to play). Is that really to much to ask?

40k-A game of tactics- Point totals edition

Having great tactics in 40k can mean the difference between a win and a loss, but where does your tactical thinking begin? Being able to play tactically begins with army list creation; the units you choose will ultimately affect your in game tactics. The point values you play have a direct affect on how you build your list and what kind of tactics you will be using during your game.

With the advent of 5th and the codex's being geared towards higher point total games (1850+) this means that players are able to run more 'core' units and/or more 'hammer' units. With more units on the table each tactical mistake means less to determine the outcome of the game; simply because you have more units to fall back on. At 2000 points I have the ability to have up to 6 full troop choices (1110pts for six 10 man units of grey hunters in a rhinos); losing one or two hurts a lot less because I have unit redundancy. Another issue that arises with higher point total games is trying to take objectives when your opponent has a horde of troops smothering each objective. Not only are you able to have more ‘core’ units, but you are able to have more ‘uber’ units like the ‘hammers’ and ‘anvils’ and in a lot of cases, the ability to have redundancy with your uber units. In my opinion having the ability to have all of these tools available to you in one list changes the game from having to make every unit count to throwing mass amounts of units at your opponent and hope something sticks.


At 1500 points you are forced to decide between a 'balanced' list and a hammer list because there just isn't enough room for both. Even if you do manage to add a hammer unit to your force it will be relatively small and will only affect the game for two to three turns. With fewer units on the table, you have less to fall back on when you make tactical errors, thus potentially costing you the game. 5th edition has made troops the only units able to claim objectives and at lower point totals each player has to rely on their troops to not only claim objectives but also to take them from your opponent. This makes the tactics for troops vital to your end goal, winning the game. If you make too many tactical mistakes with your troops and they don't survive, the best you can do is play for a tie!


With that being said, the game of 40k relies on tactics no matter what point totals you play at. The next time you sit down for a game or two with your friends, try and challenge your tactical ability and play a smaller point total game.