Another list change!

A buddy of mine and I went up to Fire and Sword last Friday for some games. Now, we only got in one between the two of us (not that unexpected given the TSHFT time frame), but it did open my eyes to a few things. One was that poor dice rolls can really, really fuck up my army. Now, I can already hear you saying, "poor dice rolls fuck up ANY army!" Well, yes, that is true, but let's look at this for a minute.

Now, in my current list, I have three very offensively geared units of Grey Hunters. These boys, without Wolf Guard or transports, weigh in at around 200 pts a squad. This is because I gave them all the best of the best in terms of equipment. They all have a meltagun, a standard, a MotW guy, and a power fist. It's obvious to tell that I'm of the opinion that squads in 40k need the ability to perform at the role I choose for them regardless of the enemy. What I mean is that these units are obviously meant for close combat and are able to take out ANY unit in that forum through their diverse weaponry. Bogged by a Wraithlord? I have two hidden power fists with counter attack and reroll ones once in a game. Squad I want to assault inside a hard shell like a Land Raider? Prepare for meltagun.

This ability to take on all comers in my chosen arena (close combat) is very nice when the dice behave themselves, but it also heavily weighs me down when they don't. What I mean by this is that these units can take out anything...on paper. Theory and statistics do not tell you what will happen in a real game because they're both based off of a graph that is infinitely long and has way more data gathered than I can possibly give in a single weekend of gaming. For me, this hadn't really been that impactful until I went and played a game at FnS. In this game, I played a very aggressive front believing that my superior armory would see me through. This was not to be as I rolled quite the gaggle of one's and two's. After the game, I didn't feel at all frusterated (mostly because my opponent still managed to give me a quite enjoyable experience), but I did start thinking about ways to tinker my list. Did I really need all of my toys in all of my units? What could I get if I took down some of the squads and swapped to a more defensive strategy? The answer is quite a lot, I've found out, but that's for later.

What I want you all to take away from this post is, what would you include in your list to combat bad dice rolling? Do you think your army could still play while rolling below average? Food for thought.


PS: This is how I changed around the list:

HQ:

Njal Stormcaller in termie armor

Elites:

Wolf Scoutsx6
-Wolf Guard w/Combi-melta and Power Fist
-Meltagun

Iron Priest:
-Thunderwolf Mount, Wolf Tooth Necklace
-4xCyberwolves

Troops:

Grey Huntersx8
-Wolf Guard w/ Combi-melta and Power Fist
-Meltagun, MotW, Power Fist, Standard
-Drop Pod

Grey Huntersx10
-Wolf Guard w/ Combi-melta and Power Fist
-Meltagun, MotW, Power Fist, Standard
-Rhino

Grey Huntersx5
-Meltagun
-Razorback w/ TL Lascannons

Fast Attack:

Swiftclaw Bike Squadx6
-Wolf Guard w/ Bike, 2xWolf Claws, and Melta bombs
-Meltagun, Power Weapon
-Attack Bike w/ Multi-melta

Heavy Support:

Long Fangsx7
-Wolf Guard w/ Terminator Armor and Cyclone Missile Launcher
-5xMissile Launcher

Predator
-Side sponsoned Heavy Bolters

Predator
-Side sponsoned Heavy Bolters

Total: 1850

The changes are that one of my 10 man Grey Hunters became a bare bones five man in a TL Lascannon Razorback while their Wolf Guard joined the scouts to give them a bit more tank busting and be able to keep my WG in the Long Fangs as-is. I also shaved off a biker to allow me points that I put towards another Dakka pred. This should give me a stronger fire base which I think my particular SW list would benefit from having. Finally, I gave the WG in the bikers melta bombs to help them bust tanks a little better should they need to (I also had five points that didn't make sense anywhere else).

As always, C&C are welcome.