13th Co: Wolf Lord and Storm Claws

[Grimtooth]

So working on my revised army and such and starting out with my initial wolf lord hq choice and his run with unit.

 

HQ: Wolf Lord

 

Lightening claws

Runic Armor

Belt of Russ

Wolf Pelt

Runic Charm

Wolf Tail Talisman

Fenrisian Wolves x 4

 

Elite: Storm Claws

 

Powerfist/bolt pistol x 2

Plasma pistol/ccw x 2

Bolt pistol/ccw x 2

 

Now the goal of this unit would of course be a primary assaulting unit with limited armor busting and/or high toughness target kill ability. When I tallied up the totals this weekend compared to my troop costs, the percentages were pretty nice as far as army comp points. Any problems that anyone can see with this initial hq/running unit?

[Decoy]

Your army lacks the one inherrent thing needed in a 13th Company list; Speed. Your Lord will be safe with the Storm Claws, but the Storm Claws themselves are running fairly low on both Anti-tank and Anti-people wargear. Yes, your Lord should be able to quite handily deal with most of what's inbound, but let me just throw out a thought. If you use it and like it, great, if you use it and it fails, I don't know why, and if you use it and it works but you don't like it... I'll be confused.

 

Throw a Frost Blade on your lord, the Lightning Claws onto a Mark of the Wulfen Pack Leader in the Storm Claws, accompanied by the two Powerfists. If you have the points extra, throw a Meltabomb on both your Lord and the Leader, resulting in a dead-'ard, huge-attacky, anti-tank-y force capable of downing pretty much any squad in CC.

 

As an aside, I've found that if you try to "Tacticalize" Storm Claw squads, they, in the end, perform not nearly as well as if they were specialized. If you're using Grey Slayers, stick them in the Anti-Tank role. Long Fangs, obviously, are another plus for the Anti-Tank. Storm Claws, by their nature, are BEGGING to be given as much Close Combat gear as they can get. Don't let a Wolf beg; Give 'em what they want. Trust me, I swear by Storm Claws like some folk swear by Fenrisian Wolves. You'll not regret it.

[Grimtooth]

Hmm, good point on tacticalizing Storm Claws.

 

I could drop the plasma pistols to bolt pistols, add a pack leader with a frost blade, and meltas to wolf lord and leader.

 

The premise behind keeping the lightning claws on the wolf guard is a ton of I5 hits on a enemy squad to reduce return hits before the power fists can come into play. Granted I could be doing reduced hits at str 6, but if I do shift the frost blade to the pack leader, I am still getting some benefit of str6 hits on an enemy, just not at I5.

 

I do have 3 Grey Slayer packs with meltas in each squad as well to address the lack of tank killing and working on my Long Fang pack. 2nd HQ is a rune priest so I pick up some speed with gate.

 

Ideally due to lack of transports, I am basing tactics off of outflanking and advance via cover fire by running one or two squads while remaining stands and shoots.

 

Forgot to add that wolves will be coming in big numbers to tie up versus bikes.

[Wolf89]

Trust me, I swear by Storm Claws like some folk swear by Fenrisian Wolves. You'll not regret it.

 

I do swear by Fenrisian Wolves, the Storm claws are a nice addition, but I haven't used them effectively in anything less than 2000 points. They're an elite slot, a good chunk of points usually goes into them and they'll only really shine in HtH. Get a nice amount of grey slayers and give them meltaguns (the 5th ed. weapon for sure). Get a healthy amount of fenrisian wolves (I always go with 45, but people like their bikes, I don't care for them in 13th comp, but people like them), and a few squads of Long fangs.

 

Also, almost ALWAYS get a pack leader and upgrade with MotW... it's a no brainer, having up to 8 power fist attacks from one guy is nasty, hitting on 3's no matter what with that power fist is godly.

 

Also note that it essentially makes them fearless, which is good, since you won't run away from being shot at, and you'll get into combat faster, also once in combat, I feel it's better than taking armour saves like fearless provides and sometimes you want to run away.