It was good enough for Russ, but is it viable?

[kickingbird]

Hey guys, as a new space wolf player ive been playing around with different lists and getting a feel for how the army works. We all know that the meta game at the moment is all about mechanized armies (unless you are a horde of course), but the space wolf fluff is all about fighting on foot, as our bad ass primarch intended. But what I would really like to hear is peoples opinions on how viable a space wolf foot slogging list is and what people think are the best units/tactics for it.

This has probably been discussed elsewhere and if so im sorry for being lazy and not bothering to search it :lol:. Guess im just board and fancy a chat.

[Freman Bloodglaive]

With the ability to run all infantry isn't unviable, but the reality is that the Rhino and Land Raider (and drop pod for people who like that sort of thing) do offer options in terms of mobility that are needed when objectives and controlling the metagame come into play.

[Spacefrisian]

You could pair it with Thunderwolf cavalry, being cavalry they are faster than Bikes (unless they Turbo boost)

[kickingbird]

But if we count thunderwolves, bikes and fenrisian wolves as footslogging that does give us some objective contestors that have some speed. See the way i look at it is that mech is good, not just for mobility, but as a place to hide. I play Iron warriors as well as the wolves, and play guard regularly so am always glad that my opponent has to open the tin can before he can mash up the soft innerds.

[Lord Ragnarok]

What fluff is about fighting on foot? If anything the codex venerates the Rhino as "THE" way to kill in the name or Russ.

[Warhorse47]

Remember it's been a while since Russ was here, he was a warrior who wanted to close with his enemies. He would be in the fore front of quick strike!

[kickingbird]

Im not sure where it came from actually, i think its in the codex somewhere but ive deffinatly heard it around. Either way footslogging lists, are they viable and why? I want opinions people! :lol:

Take for example our codex's cheap meat shield, the fenrisian wolves, nice 4+ cover save and with the fleet movement will always stay ahead of your vital units.

Big units of blood claws 15 strong, they can take some hits and still come out swinging, especially if you have a wolf priest and a wolf guard.

[ttocsmot2000]

Well personally I have always had a unexplainable dislike of Rhinos... so I prefer a good footsloggin list. I usually go for at least 20 grey hunters and 15 blood claws in any force i choose to form the basic core of the army. however the only tactic which seems to work with this is the giving the enemy too many targets... i like to put a couple of dreadnoughts around to attract fire while the hard hitting units (the blood claws and the grey hunters) steadily advance as well simply giving the enemy too much to shoot at... oh and long fangs are incredibly useful in footsloggin lists. To make it even try and nail all of their transports early on so that both forces are at least footsloggin it and then just rely on the obviously supreme combat skills of the wolves :lol:

[Lord Ragnarok]

Im not sure where it came from actually, i think its in the codex somewhere but ive deffinatly heard it around. Either way footslogging lists, are they viable and why? I want opinions people! :lol:

Take for example our codex's cheap meat shield, the fenrisian wolves, nice 4+ cover save and with the fleet movement will always stay ahead of your vital units.

Big units of blood claws 15 strong, they can take some hits and still come out swinging, especially if you have a wolf priest and a wolf guard.

 

I think it started with the 3rd edition codex as a way to justify rules wise of taking away deep striking, speeders, and Jump Packers.

[Chodjinn]

Im not sure where it came from actually, i think its in the codex somewhere but ive deffinatly heard it around. Either way footslogging lists, are they viable and why? I want opinions people! :)

Take for example our codex's cheap meat shield, the fenrisian wolves, nice 4+ cover save and with the fleet movement will always stay ahead of your vital units.

Big units of blood claws 15 strong, they can take some hits and still come out swinging, especially if you have a wolf priest and a wolf guard.

 

I think it started with the 3rd edition codex as a way to justify rules wise of taking away deep striking, speeders, and Jump Packers.

 

 

You could take speeders and jump packs in 3rd IIRC . . . that was the last time i played properly and I have the old minis somewhere!

 

I think he may be refering to the 'prefer to keep their feet on the ground' quote in reference to the more mature SW, hence why only crazy Sky Claws use them.

[Lord Ragnarok]

Im not sure where it came from actually, i think its in the codex somewhere but ive deffinatly heard it around. Either way footslogging lists, are they viable and why? I want opinions people! :huh:

Take for example our codex's cheap meat shield, the fenrisian wolves, nice 4+ cover save and with the fleet movement will always stay ahead of your vital units.

Big units of blood claws 15 strong, they can take some hits and still come out swinging, especially if you have a wolf priest and a wolf guard.

 

I think it started with the 3rd edition codex as a way to justify rules wise of taking away deep striking, speeders, and Jump Packers.

 

 

You could take speeders and jump packs in 3rd IIRC . . . that was the last time i played properly and I have the old minis somewhere!

 

I think he may be refering to the 'prefer to keep their feet on the ground' quote in reference to the more mature SW, hence why only crazy Sky Claws use them.

 

Yes, we could take them but there was fluff in there to discourage it. (keep feet on ground) that started with the 3rd ed. dex.

[Grey Mage]

Hey guys, as a new space wolf player ive been playing around with different lists and getting a feel for how the army works. We all know that the meta game at the moment is all about mechanized armies (unless you are a horde of course), but the space wolf fluff is all about fighting on foot, as our bad ass primarch intended. But what I would really like to hear is peoples opinions on how viable a space wolf foot slogging list is and what people think are the best units/tactics for it.

This has probably been discussed elsewhere and if so im sorry for being lazy and not bothering to search it :huh:. Guess im just board and fancy a chat.

To make a good footslogging list you need to do three things:

 

1) Capitalize on your points saved by not buying transports to get more bodies.

2) Find other ways of getting "speed" into your units- via bikers, jump packs, speeders, etc.

3) Find other ways of preserving your units- stormcaller, FW screens, impressive use of cover, etc.

 

If you can do these three things, then yes footslogging is viable. Long Fangs become a greater nessecity than ever, and whirlwinds can help with some LR anti-infantry firepower. Landspeeders and BCJP/Bikers become more vital parts of a list, and I wouldnt ever leave home without a Rune Priest with Stormcaller for every 750pts I was fielding.

 

Another good trick is taking WGTDA Pack Leaders to absorm AP 3 shots, often with storm shields to help stop AP 2 if your feeling lucky. While the lack of Runic Charms makes this a riskier proposition than before it can be extremely helpful, especially when combined with stormcaller.

[Jaarl Stormfang]

I think part of the problems comes from the fact that you just don't save that many points by going foot slogging. Even if you ditch 3 rhinos thats only just over a hundred points. 100 points is hard pressed to buy you the speed and protection that 3 av11 12" moving transports gave you. Back when rhino's were 50pts and everyone bought extra armour, and you had to pay for smoke launchers, 3 rhinos was pretty close to 200pts which was getting on for a good chunk of a 1500pts army.

[Warhorse47]

It could also arise from the fact we can't/don't teleport fluff.

[Wildfire]

Back before bloodclaws were nerfed, at the beginning of 5th, I thought an army of 75 bloodclaws running across the table would be fun. And probably very scary. That would have been, what, 20 powerfists (when you include the Wolf Guard leaders). Meaning 12 powerfist attacks each on the charge, along with 48 normal attacks. Ouchie.

[rodgambit]

Ya I've been trying really hard to create my 13th company and keep them a foot slogging list, however, the more games I play the more I see the use for rhinos. I've seen my squads get wiped by Marbo (IG) and Bladestorm(eldar) when I had to run them out in the open to get to my opponents. I've played other games where my opponent never even popped my rhino and my squads never disembarked and I was able to contest and capture objectives without a scratch.

 

I'm trying to build a list that uses scouts and fen wolves/TWC to put a pinch on my opponent while I move my footsloggers up to capture objectives or support my assault but atm I'm having trouble fitting it all into a 1500 point list.

[mike208]

Ya I've been trying really hard to create my 13th company and keep them a foot slogging list, however, the more games I play the more I see the use for rhinos. I've seen my squads get wiped by Marbo (IG) and Bladestorm(eldar) when I had to run them out in the open to get to my opponents. I've played other games where my opponent never even popped my rhino and my squads never disembarked and I was able to contest and capture objectives without a scratch.

 

I'm trying to build a list that uses scouts and fen wolves/TWC to put a pinch on my opponent while I move my footsloggers up to capture objectives or support my assault but atm I'm having trouble fitting it all into a 1500 point list.

 

 

I was thinking along the same lines. But falling intot he same problem you are having. If you would be so kind to let me know what you come up with it would be much appreciated. Thanks

[rodgambit]

To the above poster:

 

I have 2 different list I think I'm going to try at 1500. I can't seem to fit everything I want into 1500, but if I play a 2000 point game I can.

 

The first list has no TWC or Fen wolves support and looks like this:

 

Rune Priest (standard 100 pts.) (storm caller to keep the sloggers safe and maybe murderous hurricane or jotww)

3 Grey Slayer packs with flamer/melta 150 pts. each

2 10 man scout packs with MotW+melta gun 175 each

1 wolf guard pack 275 pts.

- 2 combi melta+pf (attach to scouts)

- 3 in TDA with ss+cf (attached to grey slayers)

2 long fang packs (2 lc/3hb other is 2lc/3ml) 155 / 170 pts.

 

Idea I was going to go with was to move up the grey slayers using cover and storm caller while the long fangs try to clear a lane with their fire support. Then I'm hoping that one of the two scout packs get OBEL so I can attempt to put the pinch on the enemy.

 

2nd list uses two 3 man packs of TWC and fen wolves and a wolf priest but no long fangs or pack leaders or rune priest. I want to keep the scouts because I think the ability to outflank on any table edge can keep your opponent on his toes.

 

Wolf Priest (Saga of the Wolfkin, wtn, wtt, melta bombs) 135 pts.

3 Grey Slayer packs with flamer/melta/pf (175 each)

2 10 man scout squads with MotW+melta (gotta watch what you enage without a pf in the unit) 175 each

2 3 man TWC units (melta bomb on 1, 1 standard, 1 with TH) 185 each

1 fen wolf pack 15 strong. Keep them within 12" of the TWC units to act as a screen and get the leadership reroll improving success to 87%. 120 pts.

 

Without long fangs you'll need to get the two TWC units into CC fast and use their str 10 TH's to take down vehicles. Again with the fen wolves running a screen for the TWC and the TWC running a screen for your troops you should get some decent cover saves and still try to put the pinch on the enemy with OBEL.

 

The wolf priest is swapped out because he can take saga of the wolfkin. I feel if your going to run fen wolves as a screen you should do something to improve on their poor leadership, so with a 7 ld and re-rolls being near TWC it should give you better odds to keep them from falling back.

 

I plan on running both these list at least 3 times each so I can compare their strengths and weaknesses and then figure out if they work or if I need to go back to the drawing board.

 

Hope that helps.

[rodgambit]

I went with the first list tonight in a game against my buddy who plays Eldar. We had capture and control and I ended up winning 2-0. A few things I noticed in this particular game was the TDA pack leaders did not come into play with their SS+CF and I lost 2 of them by taking armour saves on them and got a 1. Unlucky dice rolls I guess. Storm caller was only used once where it benefitted me to have the 5+ but I think overall its a good idea to have it. The heavy bolters in the long fang pack didn't seem to useful either, i'll probably swap that unit for 2lc+3ml or just go 5 ml's. Overall, I thought the list played well and I might try to squeeze in my 1 whirlwind to give me a bit more variety.

 

As far as my opponent he's still new to Eldar and made the mistake of having too many eggs in one basket with an expensive warlock council on jetbikes that didn't really do much and I was able to pop his two fire prisms without them doing too much damage to my footsloggers.