Wolf Guard Battle Leader point costs

[magnusthetraitor]

I've been under the impression that the Wolf Guard Battle Leader used the Wolf Guard points value for wargear in the armory, and have been quite happily loading him up with cheap Terminator armor and the occasional Thunder Hammer. My usual loadout of WGBL with Frost Blade, Storm Shield, Runic Charm, TDA, and WP cost me a light 103 pts, but apparently I was incorrect. While scanning the FAQ for something completely unrelated yesterday, I saw this:

 

Q. Does a Wolf Guard Battle Leader the Wolf

Guard column in the Space Wolf armoury when

selecting weapons and wargear?

A. No.

 

Erm, oops. So my usual loadout was instead 118 pts. Not a horrendous increase, but enough that I had to go back and retool several of the lists I've been playing recently. I looked around at lists I've seen on this site and elsewhere, and apparently I am not the only one who had this the wrong way about.

 

On a separate but related topic, how does the Frost Blade treat my fellow Wolves? I have had such dismal luck with it lately against both Marines and Orks, that I've been thinking of switching it for a Power Fist or Thunder Hammer, for the instant kill potential. I've even thought about using a single Lightning Claw with a Storm Shield, or switching to dual Lightning Claws for the increase in attacks and ease of wounding with the reroll. It seems Lightning Claws are still rather better at wounding T5 than a Frost Blade, given the extra attack. I've been using my WGBL to add a little spine to one of my Grey Hunter drop packs, primarily. Any thoughts?

 

Magnus

[Ryzouken]

Frost Blade wins games. Lightning claw is great, providing somewhere around a 5+% better chance of wounding than the Frost Blade, but cannot wound high toughness beasties like Wraithlords. Power Fist works better than Frost Blade on these targets, but makes no use of your I5.

 

Given the option of using Relic Blades, I'd still run Frost Blades on any models that don't carry Storm Shields and can purchase it.

[WG Vrox]

Pretty big fan of the SS/TH combo on a IC. Instant kills on multi wound model as well as being able to take on monsterious creaters with a chance of winning. I am not sure how the averages roll out but a WTN hit on 3+ and instant kill on a 2+ is hard to argue with, assuming you live to I-1 :D.

 

If I have a 11 pack of BC I give them all PF and take a FB.

 

WG Vrox

[Grey Mage]

The reason for that line in the codex is to let you know he can take the wolf gaurd only options.... the only wolf gaurd options are those for heavy weapons.... and thus you can take them, in addition to the IC weapons he can normally have.

[clanfield]

i realy like bolt pistol ,frost blade witha wolf tooth necklace nice cheap and choppy ,there was this one battle back in 2nd i was on the ropes the nids were closeing in id lost 4 in a row all my rped heros had been eaten so my last hero acting brother captain johanson led 20 wolf guard in termis with the full load of assult canons out on the field mad one hell of a impresion on them pesky steelers back in the day

[Wolf Guard Nostromo]

Frost blades are the way forward. While the lightning claw re-roll is great, at 20 points the frost blade is great value for a WS5 I5 A4 Wolfy character.

 

My favourite combo is to give pack leaders/wolf guard bodyguards powerfists and TH for instant death potential and big bugs etc while the IC hews everybody to shreds with his I5 Frost blade. WTN is also essential for 3+ hitting.

 

As WG Vrox says, give 11+ Blood claws 3 powerfists, stand your IC at the front with his frostblade and laugh as enemy units of all shapes and sizes crash against counter-attacking death. Bahh, its good to be a Space Wolf!

 

2 weeks ago my wolf lord slew Khârn the betrayer 1 v 1 using his trusty Frost blade so I may be a little biased towards them at the moment ;) . I suppose its really how many beasties of T5+ you come across regularly, but it always seems a shame to waste I5.

[hendrik]

let's tell the story of bran redmaw and the ultramarine who called out for him

bran lifted his head above his stromshield, when he saw the special never beaten ultramarine captain chargin his squad

since they were both I5 they attacked on the same moment, thanks to his wolf nooth necklace he hitted on a 3+ while the ultramarine didn't hit at all

thanks to the +1S bonus i scored 2 more wound then if i had had a frost blade, and bam, gone was the never beaten ultramarine captain

all in the turn my opponent attacked me, the look on his face was hilarious

[Grimtooth]

I run my 13th Co Wolf Lord with dual LC since he will get his d3 attacks when in CC. I run him with a Storm Claw pack that has two powerfist in the squad so no too worried about not having the ability to insta kill or wound high toughness models. Since the Wolf Lord and Wolf Guard Pack Leader have the Mark of the Wulfen, they and the squad are hitting on 3+ so good times.

[Gunnar Hamundarson]

Another observation: If you'd been using the (reduced) WG costs for your WGBL, how were you purchasing a Frost Blade for him (as the reduced entry is "dashed", ie: unavailable)?

[magnusthetraitor]

20 pts, as it was the only price listed. I knew it was an option because I've read a thousand lists and posts on this forum and others that showed a Battle Leader using a Frost Blade, much as I've seen many lists that use the incorrect Wolf Guard point costs for their Battle Leader's wargear. I'm not the first to make this mistake, I merely posted it here so that others could benefit from my mistakes. Personally, I'd rather learn about an error at home in front of the computer instead of in the middle of a game at a tournament.

 

On a side note, I've been having great luck with the following combo: WGBL w/ Frost Blade, Storm Shield, Wolf Tooth Necklace, & Frag Grenades. He has done far more damage to my enemies than his previous incarnations. His recent exploits include routing a squad of 5 TH&SS Terminators with a pair of Grey Hunters at his side, without taking a single casualty. I was very excited, although I wouldn't expect it on a regular basis!

 

Magnus

[Demogerg]

WGBL with FB SS WTN is one of the best price-per-killy characters in the game IMO.

one time a toon loaded with just the aforementioned killed a fateweaver, a demon prince, 5 out of 6 bloodcrushers, and held up with some nurglings and a nurgly-demon of some kind for an entire game.

he was charged on turn 2, and was locked in combat with the bloodcrushers all game. He made 24/25 saves and never died.

 

another time i ran a unit of 6 grey hunters with a WGBL into the main line of a blood angel force with a ven dred next to them, his assault squad jumped into my grey hunters one turn (he had 2 squads of 5, one did not make it all the way in), and because of the FB and counter attack my WGBL wiped out the whole squad before he could attack. the next turn i assaulted his helpless assault unit and wiped them out too. This went on for 3 turns untill I had killed all his troops, then a Baal pred ripped my WGBL to shreds.