the return of the Nightlords

This weekend was the return of me using my Nightlords at the local FLGS and I must say that even though they are seriously underpowered in today's metagame, they are still a blast to play with. As mentioned in my last post,I will be running a hammer unit of slaanishi iconed lightning clawed termies. Though these guys are not the ultimate in hammer units, for 465 points they are not that expensive considering they also are coming with a landraider. The mobility of the landraider will help in getting these guys into the best possible position, also providing me with a bullet magnet that is highly resistant to damage save for meltas. But that is only the beginning, in addition my entire army moves 12 inches so my opponent will have to deal with multiple units that will be hitting his lines by turn 2. In addition to the termies im also running a bike squad with a power fist and the icon of khorne. I know bikes are considered to be one of worst units in the codex but in my last games if anything they have been extremely fun to use. With 3 attacks base they are not slouches either and can assist the termies in taking out extremely tough units. Running my bikerlord in the squad makes it able to at least handle other IC's running around. Adding to them are the Raptors, again another unit that the internet hates and in fairness yes they definitively lost a lot of power in the 4th edition dex. In this army i run them in an 8 man strong unit with 2 meltas and the champ with lightning claws. I plan on running these guys as a counterattack unit as well as an anti tank unit. Will this list get past a tournament, hell no, it would probably get trounced but that's not the point, the point is to have fun and in my limited time of playing 40K each week, my number one goal is to have a good time. Now this is not to say that I don't like being competitive, I will still be as competitive as ever using my "fluffy" army. I drew an ork player this week, we played a 1750pts game and drew annihilation and dawn of war. He was running Gazi, squad of mega-nobs in a battle-wagon, 3 30 boyz squads, another warboss with PowerKlaw, and 15 lootas. The Nightlords took them apart, piece by bloody piece.

I accomplished this by not deploying anything and allowing him to put 2 of his 30 boyz squads and normal warboss way up front and giving him first turn. Though he deployed his whole army turn one, his 60 boyz were way ahead of the rest of the army and thus without support. I focused my whole army on each squad one at a time killing each one of them and by turn 2 he was down 60 boyz. I then took out Gazi's ride so he and and his friends needed to foot slog it across and focused on his last big squad. I killed this last 30 boyz and just shot at Gazi and his cronies and when he finally got close just ran away from him. I did lose my bikes, my Raptors, my Havocs and 1 Rhino but the rest of my army survived. MVP's were my Biker lord who was instrumental in killing all 3 squads and surviving and my Havocs who killed scores of orks with their autocannons and even managed to kill 3 of the 5 meganobs before they died. I'm hoping that next week will bring even more carnage for them...

Nightlords List...

As promised, listed below is the list I am currently working on. First a little History on the army. The Nightlords was my first army when getting into the hobby many years ago. Its the first army I painted completely and cut my teeth on the tail end of 3rd edition and 4th edition. As such the Nightlords have a special place in my heart and will always be my favorite army. With the release of the 4th ed Chaos Codex, my Nightlords army definitely lost a lot of its teeth. They lost their "elite" feel such as being able to grant veteran skills to any CSM unit, gone were my infiltrating Raptors with Furious Charge. Gone was my entire army gaining a +1 to cover saves due to the Stealth Adept special rule. No use crying over something that was though, the army is still fun to use and that's what counts anyway.

Nightlords - 1750pts
HQ: Chaos Lord (1#)
1 Chaos Lord, 160 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 30 & 92); Unit Type: Bikes; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Mark of Khorne; Bolt Pistol x1; Lightning Claws (pair); Fearless; Independent Character)

Elite: Chaos Terminators (6#)
1 Chaos Terminators, 465 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 28 & 94); Unit Type: Infantry; Terminator Armour; Icon of Slaanesh; Mark of Slaanesh; Deep Strike)
2 Terminator ((C:CSM, pp. 28 & 94); Terminator Armour; Mark of Slaanesh; Twin Linked Bolter x2; Power Fist x2)
3 Terminator Champion ((C:CSM, pp. 28 & 94); Terminator Armour; Mark of Slaanesh; Lightning Claws (pair) x3)
1 Land Raider ((C:CSM, pp. 44 & 101); Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Access Points: 3; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; 2x Twin-linked Lascannons; Twin Linked Heavy Bolter; Assault Vehicle)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (11#)
9 Chaos Space Marines, 250 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 26 & 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Bolter x7; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun x1; Plasmagun x1)
1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pg. 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Bolter; Power Fist)
1 Rhino ((C:CSM, pp. 42 & 96); Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Access Points: 3; Fire Points: 1; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Twin Linked Bolter; Repair)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (11#)
9 Chaos Space Marines, 250 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 26 & 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Bolter x7; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun x1; Plasmagun x1)
1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pg. 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Bolter; Power Fist)
1 Rhino ((C:CSM, pp. 42 & 96); Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Access Points: 3; Fire Points: 1; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Twin Linked Bolter; Repair)

Fast Attack: Bikers (5#)
4 Bikers, 235 pts ((C:CSM, pg. 27 & 99); Unit Type: Bikes; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Power Armour; Icon of Khorne; Mark of Khorne; Bolt Pistol x4; Close Combat Weapon x4; Twin Linked Bolter)
1 Biker Champion ((C:CSM, pg. 27 & 99); Unit Type: Bikes; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Power Armour; Mark of Khorne; Bolt Pistol; Power Fist)

Fast Attack: Raptors (8#)
7 Raptors, 220 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 34 & 99); Unit Type: Jump Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x7; Close Combat Weapon x7; Meltagun x2; Deep Strike)
1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pg. 96); Unit Type: Jump Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Lightning Claws (pair))

Heavy Support: Havocs (6#)
6 Havocs, 170 pts ((C:CSM, pg. 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x6; Bolter x2; Close Combat Weapon x6; Autocannon x4)

Will there you have it, let me know you guys think. Pics are of my newly re-vamped Raptors and some more shots of my hammer unit, the termies with their ride. Here's hoping that the next Chaos codex is written by Phil Kelly...thats what I'm wishing for anyways

End of of another era....beginning of a new one... oh and Nightlords..

Well, this weekend marked the end of an era at our local FLGS. The manager of the store just let us know that he will be leaving the store for a better job. While I can't blame him for moving on, without a doubt this manager has been one of the better ones we have had at the local store since my buddy Juan. This manager ran campaigns, tournaments, and was just a cool guy to hang out with. I invited him to join us when he can as it would be real shame if we didnt see him again. With him leaving, our April campaign has been cancelled, we did do a single day tourney however as I only had time for one game and only your best scores were taken I dint have a chance. I did tie my game against a Grey Knights player who used some pretty wicked tricks such as giving his dreadknights the scouting ability with his Grand Master, using the ghost terminators with Mordrak, killing my uber wolf lords with his uber paladins, and using the vindicare assassin to take out my invulnerable saves off of my lords. Seems like a fun codex to play and I have been tempted to try my hands on building a Pre-Heresey Thousand Sons army but for now I am content on finishing my dark wolves and playing with finished armies.

I plan on using my Nightlords again but plan on re-doing some of the paint schemes that I had already done. The Nightlords were my first army and as my skill with the brush has improved, whenever I pull them out, I can see the differences between old models and my new ones. I finally am comfortable with painting lightning bolts on their armor and adding in terror markings so I plan on adding these to my army. I am also just like my dark wolves leaving them as specific type of army. What I mean by that, is that they will be my fast attack army (with my dark wolves being a drop pod hero-hammer army)so the theme will follow that with all aspects of the army being able to move quickly, be it by transport, bike, teleport, or jump pack.

I plan on "revealing" a Nightlords list which will utilize a hammer unit in a landraider made of lightning clawed terminators with an icon of Slaanesh. I will post the list up in my next post along with some tactics that I will use in order to run it. During our last campaign, these guys were just fun to use with my Bikes and my Biker lord. Pics are of my newly completed lightning claw termies; I plan on running them as champs so they all have a base of 4 attacks with 2 power fisted termies to act as back up against tougher opponents. I plan on finishing their "ride" this week... A.D.D., here we go again....

My Skyrar's Dark Wolves Campaign List

Hi guys, well for the campaign I am settling on the following list. The list still utilizes my deathstar HQ unit but to a lesser degree, no 2+ saves due to trying to keep the point cost down and getting 2 heavy support choices. In my last couple of games using them, I really liked what drop pods brought to my list, it gave my troops the capability to contest anywhere on the table which is something that was lacking when I ran the pure foot lists. I really do not want to use Rhinos or the dreaded Razorback as then I'm just running a Net list. My list is as follows -

1500 Pts -Initial 1500pts Campaign Skyrar's Dark Wolves

HQ: Wolf Lord in Power Armour (1#, 215 pts)
1 Wolf Lord in Power Armour, 215 pts (Unit Type: Cavalry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Belt of Russ; Wolf Tail Talisman; Thunderwolf Mount; Bolt Pistol; Frost Weapon x1; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Independent Character; Rending in CC only; Saga of Majesty)

HQ: Wolf Lord in Power Armour (1#, 205 pts)
1 Wolf Lord in Power Armour, 205 pts (Unit Type: Cavalry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Thunderwolf Mount; Storm Shield x1; Thunder Hammer x1; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Independent Character; Rending in CC only)

Fast Attack: Thunderwolf Cavalry (1#, 105 pts)
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 105 pts (Unit Type: Cavalry; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Rending in CC only; Wolfkin)
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Thunderwolf Mount; Storm Shield; Frost Weapon)

Fast Attack: Fenrisian Wolf Pack (10#, 80 pts)
10 Fenrisian Wolf Pack, 80 pts (Unit Type: Beasts; Vicious claws and fangs; Counter-attack)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (11#, 205 pts)
10 Grey Hunters Pack, 205 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x10; Bolter x8; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun; Power Weapon; Plasmagun; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
1 Drop Pod (Unit Type: Vehicle (Open-topped); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Storm Bolter; Drop Pod Assault; Immobile; Inertial Guidance System)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (11#, 205 pts)
10 Grey Hunters Pack, 205 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x10; Bolter x8; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun; Power Weapon; Plasmagun; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
1 Drop Pod (Unit Type: Vehicle (Open-topped); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Storm Bolter; Drop Pod Assault; Immobile; Inertial Guidance System)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (11#, 205 pts)
10 Grey Hunters Pack, 205 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x10; Bolter x8; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun; Power Weapon; Plasmagun; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
1 Drop Pod (Unit Type: Vehicle (Open-topped); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Storm Bolter; Drop Pod Assault; Immobile; Inertial Guidance System)

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (5#, 125 pts)
4 Long Fangs Pack, 125 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Close Combat Weapon x4; Missile Launcher x3; Plasma Cannon x1; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Fire Control)
1 Squad Leader (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Fire Control)

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (5#, 155 pts)
4 Long Fangs Pack, 155 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Close Combat Weapon x4; Heavy Bolter x1; Lascannon x3; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Fire Control)
1 Squad Leader (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Fire Control)

Total Roster Cost: 1500

I might change the make up of my Long Fangs maybe adding a 4th missile Launcher or dropping a Lascannon for another Plasma cannon but we shall see. Let me know what you guys think...