Hey there, so it’s been a few weeks since the Reading Warfare event and I have had a lot going on so this post has been delayed a few times in favor of hobby updates but I finally pulled my finger out and got all the images ready so here goes.
I was going to rock up this year with my 1500pts of Drop Pod Space Wolves but due to some logistical issues I went with something with a smaller model count. I wanted to buy a bunch of stuff and can only carry so much as I don’t drive and if last year was anything to go by I would need some overflow for purchases. I only live 20mins walk from this event which is supercool so anything I bought would not take long to get back home so I set too putting together a list that would not weigh me down and would all fit in a single Kaiser Card case and then my Kaiser 2 transport bag.
I came up with the following, yes I know it has no fire-power and no air support but I wanted to test it out and really work out the kinks so I could make informed changes to the list moving forward.
Wolf Lord – RunicArmour, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Fellclaws Teeth, Melta Bombs, Thunderwolf Mount.
Wolf Guard Battle Leader – Runic Armour, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Melta Bombs, Thunderwolf Mount.
Wolf Priest –Runic Armour, Bolt Pistol, Crozius Arcanium, Melta Bombs, Bike.
Rune Priest –Mastery Level 2, Runic Armour, Bolt Pistol, Runic Staff, Melta Bombs, Bike.
Iron Priest –Runic Armour, Bolt Pistol, Thunder Hammer, Servo Arm, Thunderwolf Mount, Cyber wolves x4.
Iron Priest –Runic Armour, Bolt Pistol, Thunder Hammer, Servo Arm, Thunderwolf Mount, Cyber wolves x4.
Iron Priest –Runic Armour, Bolt Pistol, Thunder Hammer, Servo Arm, Thunderwolf Mount, Cyber wolves x4.
Thunderwolf Cavalry x5 – Power Armour, Chainsword x5, Storm Shield x5, Melta Bombs x5.
This lot comes in at exactly 1500pts and did indeed all fit in one KR card case so it was game time.
Round 1Opponent: Adeptus Mechanicus
Mission: Tactical Escalation
Deployment: Dawn of War
My fist game was Vs the Mechanicum, I gather it was one of the formations that where if the big robots score hits then the rest of the army get buffs to shooting. This force was all on foot so quite slow compared to my force and despite having a crap ton of fire-power I was not worried as my army has resilience.
Turn one I sent my Wolves forward but did not run, I then took a ton of fire but managed to hold, then in turn two I broke up into enough units to kill or lock down as many enemy units as possible in close combat.
By the end of my turn four my opponent was tabled and I had scored 10 maelstrom points so that was a very good start to my weekend.
Round 2Opponent: Eldar
Mission: Purge The Alien
Deployment: Vanguard
This opponent had a tight list, no Wrathknight which was strange but that was his personal choice which was fair enough but everything else was standard issue Jetbikers and Warp Spiders and lots of Skimmers. It was clear to me that this army was going to pull back and shoot the crap out of me as I pushed forward and then once cornered they would all turbo boost over my head and start all over again. Going into turn one I tested the water and took some fire and then decided to run and hide until the end of turn six when I finished the game with one model left on the table. Needless to say I lost this game having only scored one victory point from Line Breaker.
Round 3Opponent: Tau
Mission: Spoils of War
Deployment: Hammer & Anvil
I played this guy last year and beat him with my Drop Pods wolves and Knight Errant combo and this year he had a few upgrades, namely the Stormsurge giant robot thingy. I was out gunned for sure but it was a Maelstrom mission so it was all about holding objectives and it was an even split with three in each deployment zone.
I setup most of my force out of line of site and well back and then had a small team headed by an Iron Priest go forward up my right flank to test the enemy guns. The guns proved to be keen so charging up the field seeking combat would have been vainglorious suicide. I instead opted to hide and avoid the tau guns as much as possible and hope that my cards were favourable and let the Tau sit back and do nothing all game.
It was turn three before my opponent noticed what I was doing and started to move his units forwards to try and get closer to me. Every time a unit came too close I would rush out and destroy it which I could tell was very frustrating for any army so used to camping back and dominating though ranged firepower. The Tau spent the whole game either shooting nothing or foot slogging across the table and by the end of turn six I did have a Stormsurge in my deployment zone but I had managed to win pull out a win with the final score 15 to 11 to me.
Round 4
Opponent: Dark Angels Double Battle Demi Company shenanigans
Mission: Cloak & Shadows
Deployment: Vanguard
When I saw this list I knew it was going to stretch my ability to be everywhere all at once, my Death-star is composed of eight individual units and with resilience and speed on my side I had options. I started by moving my whole army as one giant unit in a long line towards the halfway mark and then ran/boosted everyone, I was now a little vulnerable but I had maximised my 24” potential threat range across the table top. It then began to rain Dark Angel Drop Pods but each Pod only contained a minimum five man unit with a single special and matching combi weapon so vs my Death-star little or no damage was inflicted. Thanks to a crappy reserves roll on my opponents turn two I was afforded some wriggle room and going into my turn three I broke up my Death-star into its constituent parts and set to destroying everything in sight. I kept being literally just a few Marines away from tabling my opponent right up until the game ended at the top of turn six. By the end what remained of my force was spread butter thin across the table top but I was ahead and managed to pull off a very convincing win with the final score being 12 to 6 in my favor.
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Round 5Opponent: Dark Eldar
Mission: Emperor’s Will
Deployment: Hammer & Anvil
Going into round five I had already achieved my personal goal of winning three of my games so when I sat down across from Dark Eldar I was like “this will be a short game” sure enough I was blasted with poison for seven straight turns until after about 58mins I was tabled. There was now a 90min wait before the final scores and awards but I was shattered so I packed up set off to take some pictures of the other tables and games systems before heading home.
Here are the pictures of the final round games
And here are what I considered to be the two best painted armies, my vote went to the Grey Knights despite the Dark Eldar army being amazing, I just think the Grey Knights look wicked.
And finally the scoreboard which I had to wait nearly a week for as I did not hang around for the awards. I am very happy with a ranking of 7th over all, not winning my round 2 game gave me some breathing room going into rounds three and four and going 3 & 2 and getting into the top ten was a very good result.
On my way out I popped round and took some pictures of some of the other game systems that were still playing.
Well that's Reading Warfare done for another year, I learnt two important lessons during this event, the 1st being that a Thunderwolf Death-star is amazing when it's got Endurance cast upon it and 2nd that Eldar are very competitive regardless of the comp or points limit. Next year I would like to see less comp so the rest of us can turn up the heat a little and redress the balance.
