Wolves of Winter Discussion

It certainly blew my LoS lost out of the water when I was in that unfortunate mirror.

I haven't actually played it myself but I have run against it with CG, and even with that spray-party it was hard work killing all if them before they could kill my dudes.

It helps that even a single reaver is a pretty substantial threat, overall the list has issues surviving "enough dakka" but you only get one turn.

It's our best single wound whack-stuff-dead list, I'd it's not working, look at what you usually see across: if it's good enough matchups it's probably you.
If your local meta makes single wound infantry regret ever being deployed, that might be it.

The theme does live by having a chunky second list so your opponent can't simply drop a lawnmower list. But that goes for most squishy-heavy lists.

Like that guy that had a WGI list coupled to a Kayazy list in mk2... And ran into a Gaspy1 matchup :v

I really need to reply once I’m at a regular keyboard, but I have time right now and so I’ll share what I can with my thumbs only.

I will say with certainty that l never once piloted this theme with the following casters. So if they’re like the magical panacea bullet, okay, that’s on me. Otherwise, I probably used each other caster at least once, and likely more than once for the better casters.

Strakhov2 (obvious reasons)
Zerkova2
Old Witch 2 (still haven’t painted mine)
Irusk2
Vlad3 (obvious reasons)
Sorcha3 (obvious reasons)

I am certain I faced the following themes, at minimum, with Wolves. I played somewhere between 50-75 games with the theme over the course of June 2019 - March 2020. I didn’t record all the exact details because, honestly, this is a game and a hobby, not a job.

Anyway, I have clear memories of playing against these themes:

Mercenaries — Llaelese Resistance
Skorne — Exalted
Crucible Guard — both themes multiple times
Protectorate — Exemplar Interdiction and Faithful Masses
Legion — Primal Terrors and...others, I forget which. They all look the same.
Circle — Devourer’s Host (multiple times)
Grymkin— one of them, I forget which

Out of these, the only ones I went into and felt like I had an even or favorable matchup in was Exalted and Exemplar Interdiction.

Exalted felt favorable because DEF 11 ARM 17 is easy pickings for Doom Reavers. The Supreme Guardian was a pain, but it was the worst I had to deal with. Fellblades countered the incorporeal tricks and Reavers and Outriders easily out-threat Immortals.

Exemplar Interdiction was similar, because DEF 12 ARM ~16’s are also theoretically easy pickings for Reavers. The Shrine’s gun did a lot of work. Errands did a good job of shooting down Reavers. I don’t recall if I won or lost (I’ve played this theme many times) but I at least felt this was a game.

The Legion games were miserable and I’m pretty sure I decisively lost every single one. I distinctly remember facing Thagrosh1 many, many times, and trying to crack Legion beasts and the Throne with an effective -4 damage swing really is miserable. Reavers just got scooped off the table in droves, and charges — which is the only thing this theme can do — bounced ineffectually off Legion beasts at effective dice -10 damage rolls. Meanwhile the various sprays just cleaned up dudes. It sucked repeatedly. I legitimately do not see a way for this theme to beat a Thag1 beast+Throne(s) list. It doesn’t have the hitting power.

The Crucible Guard games were guns, guns, guns. No contest. One of the games was a local John Rando scrub who literally borrowed a CG army from another guy who was there that day, and blew Wolves out of the water on the strength of “guns, guns, guns” alone. Maybe I lost the deployment roll, or maybe it was a bad Steamroller scenario, I don’t know. I just remember having Railless activate and sighing in disgust as I picked up and packed away handfuls of Reavers each time.

Llaelese Resistance was a simple matter of “2 archons = win.” Doom Reavers that need 9 - 11+ to hit are useless. Half the army bottlenecked on a terrain-and-scenario-assisted brick of CG Assault Troopers + Morrowan Archon, and the other half just got bombed to death by Rocketmen, while a Thamarite Archon corralled the Reavers with Eruption clouds and a gun that couldn’t roll less than 3 shots each turn. I am actually not sure I killed more than 5-6 of his models. It was brutal.

On paper — and definitely prior to the Circle Tharn CID — Wolves was a favorable drop into Tharn, for me. Post-CID, it’s a joke. One unit of Tharn Ravagers with CA can mow down droves of Reavers in ways that put Reavers to shame. Yes, yes, Tough stops their rampage temporarily, but odds are that you’re going to miss more Tough rolls than you make, and all that theme needs is a few corpse tokens (which they conveniently begin with!) to start the slaughter and keep it rolling. I know I faced the Storm Raptor a few times and it turns out it’s really good at killing ARM <=14 single-wound dudes. Who knew! ... This was one of those aforementioned times when both my opponent and I tried to figure out a path to victory for Wolves (and the player piloting this is a very strong opponent) and we simply couldn’t find it.

I don’t remember much about the Grymkin game besides a Rattler chewing up a line of Reavers, and losing on scenario. But attrition was going poorly too.

Typing on a phone has taken 3x longer than a regular keyboard, so my attention is waning. That’s all I have for now.