Wolf Guard Vs Grey Hunters

[saphius]

So I know, or at least have been told, that Grey Hunters have a BP, CCW, and Bolter.

 

- Correct me if I'm wrong

 

Now I've heard that Wolf Guard are only equiped with a Bolter and CCW or a Bolt Pistol and CCW with the option of upgrading to other weapons.

 

If this is true, My question is - Wanting to run a thirteenth company type list using all wolf guard - why would you ever take Wolf Guard with Bolters and CCWs? They have the same amount of attacks as Grey Hunters (after the equipment bonus), can't shoot and charge, and cost more points. Is it just me or is it strange that Wolf Guard are less equiped than their troop counterparts? I hope that I'm mistaken about how they are equiped. Could someone please clarify this for me.

 

-Thanks

[Morticon]

So I know, or at least have been told, that Grey Hunters have a BP, CCW, and Bolter.

 

- Correct me if I'm wrong

 

Now I've heard that Wolf Guard are only equiped with a Bolter and CCW or a Bolt Pistol and CCW with the option of upgrading to other weapons.

 

If this is true, My question is - Wanting to run a thirteenth company type list using all wolf guard - why would you ever take Wolf Guard with Bolters and CCWs? They have the same amount of attacks as Grey Hunters (after the equipment bonus), can't shoot and charge, and cost more points. Is it just me or is it strange that Wolf Guard are less equiped than their troop counterparts? I hope that I'm mistaken about how they are equiped. Could someone please clarify this for me.

 

-Thanks

 

They have a bolt pistol standard. They may exchange either the BP or the CCW for a bolter.

Yes, they are less equipped- but only with their base weaponry.

Any wolfguard can get a slew of special weapons. Thats where the difference lies. GHs get the standard and one or two specials. Guard get the minimum but with junk loads of extras.

 

It is a bit strange fluff wise, but game mechanic wise, it prevents some abuse and confusion.

[Decoy]

Wolf Guard come barebones, but operational; Storm Claw equivalent of the 13th Company. However, they can be upgraded to high holy hells and back again, while Hunters have to stick to a general idea.

[Valerian]

Wolf Guard come barebones, but operational; Storm Claw equivalent of the 13th Company. However, they can be upgraded to high holy hells and back again, while Hunters have to stick to a general idea.

 

 

My input here on the replication of a 13th Company:

 

Just use Grey Hunters as your Grey Slayers - The new Hunters are actually better than the old Slayers were, minus the old-style Mark of Wulfen that you could put on your Power Fist Wielding WGL. New Hunters get 3 Attacks on Assault and CounterAttack, which is the same as old Slayers. New Hunters get up to two Special Weapons (one for free), which is the same as the old Slayers, but for less points. The new Hunters can get a Special Close Combat Weapon, Plasma Pistol, Wolf Standard, and new Mark of Wulfen on a regular Hunter, which the old Slayers didn't get. New Hunters can still add a WGL to make them even more powerful in close combat. In short, the old Slayers are nowhere near as effective as the New Hunters are. The only thing they are missing is the Scout and Move Through Cover special rules, but they are 6 points cheaper per model, so you should be able to live with that.

 

For Storm Claws, you will probably want to use the new Wolf Guard to emulate them. The Wolf Guard are 3 points cheaper but come standard with the same stat line and weapons. New Wolf Guard, however, have a ton of weaponry and wargear options that your old Storm Claws were limited on.

 

One place that will give you trouble is with your Storm Claws Bikers. Putting a Wolf Guard on a Bike now comes to 53 points, before any upgrades, which is about 50% more than you used to pay for your Storm Claws Bikers, and is not worth it in my opinion. I'd recommend using regular Blood Claws Bikers (now Swift Claws) and calling it close enough. If you are a purist, however, then you can just suck it down and pay the new elevated points to put your Wolf Guard on Bikes though.

 

You should be fine with your Fenrisian Wolves, as we now have packs of those in the standard list.

 

One place were you might have trouble is with your Wulfen models. If you just have a few, then these can be used as any Mark of Wulfen models that you might have in some of your packs. Another idea is just to use them as Thunderwolf Cavalry packs if you don't have tons. If you do have tons, and don't like these ideas, then you may have to stick with the Apocolypse datasheet (if that is even still in play) for them, or just let them sit it out.

 

The new Rune Priest's psychic abilities are great, and will certainly be effective for you. Gate is gone, which will certainly be missed, but there are other good options, and now you can even cast two per turn if you go with the Master of Runes upgrade option.

 

Your Wolf Lord can still be a holy terror, and I highly recommend the Saga of the Warrior Born to reflect a close combat monster 13th Company Wolf Lord.

 

Your Long Fangs do not have the ability to take Special Weapons (except for the Pack Leader), so you might want to redistribute some of those into your Hunter/Slayer packs. If you have Long Fangs with heavy weapons though, you are set. A bonus is that the Long Fangs and their weapons have all been reduced in price, so that will be a nice bonus for you.

 

 

One thing everyone will have to get used to is that the 13th company list isn't the same any more. Be prepared to adapt some. However, that being said, you can still build a pretty close approximation, and get some new capabilities, too.

 

Regards,

 

Valerian

[Ronin_eX]

Incidentally the WG have two base attacks so if you equip them with bolters then they come out to the same number as Grey Hunters. If you stick with the BP and CCW then they have 3 base attacks or you can do an overall improvement and give all the WG storm bolters if you want a shooty WG unit. Then they can fire off two shots each and charge into hand to hand and still get their base two attacks (making them better overall on the charge and making their mobile firing range much longer than GH).

 

Then that doesn't even get in to just kitting out WG for close combat where you can put their extra base attack to some real use. When I ran them with my variant list last night my WG squad was packing four power weapons and two fists in an eight man group.

 

So the GH are an excellent choice with some good utility but WG are by far more versatile and can perform any duty from shock trooper (DP mounted terminators) to assault troops (bikes and jump packs) and even a squad with awesome shooting (combi-weapons and storm bolters in a transport or mounted in a drop pod) and pretty much anything in between. They are pretty much the most versatile elite in any army to date.

 

So while it may seem weird at first it is simply because you probably wont be fielding a naked WG squad because the whole reason to take them is because they have options for almost everything.

[Death Dealer 101]

An interesting note is that, instead of adding a grey hunter with power weapon in squads it is cheaper to add a wolf guard with power weapon. A saving of two points and recieving the better leadership and an extra power weapon attack. Although in 10 man squads you are missing out on the second free special but it is not always possible to have 10 man, say razorback squads. 5 Grey hunters with flamer and wolfguard with powerweapon for a cheap effective unit that is far more effective than 6 hunters with flamer and power weapon. Although adding a mark of the wulfen adds more potential for killing, sometimes the rending can be unrealiable. Food for thought.