HQ Options

[Martonias]

Hey, I'm new to Wolves and after some advice:

 

Seeing as the Space Wolves are allowed up to four HQ choices, how many poeple actually take advantage of this? and should people take advantage of this (more Hq's, less everything else)??? B)

 

And how tooled?

 

Should you specialise HQ's (tank buster, troop tearer, HQ hunter etc.) or get a nice allrounder?

 

How should (or how do) people use their HQ's with a Space Wolves army, seeing as they are allowed four and there are a number of tasty options???

 

Thanks in advance. :D

[Simo429]

Don't take too many. Its troops on the table that win games for you not kick ass HQ's.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

Don't take too many. Its troops on the table that win games for you not kick ass HQ's.

 

*Gasp* Blasphemy!

 

What I like to do is some mathhammer :rolleyes: but instead of hammering you with math, I'll ask you this question [in terms of shooting, assaulting and survivability]:

 

For x pts, what does your Hero do?

Now what does the same points worth of Grey Hunters do?

 

Rune Priests are much like a living gun. What would the same points worth of Fangs do?

 

Now life is never that simple ;)

 

Whilst a Grey Hunter pack will do better than a Lord, for example, when you hide the Lord in the pack, his weakness to shooting is mitigated. His higher initiative attacks that ignore armour, whilst fewer than the GH, help kill of other things that would be killing your GHs.

 

His high leadership buffs the squad, stopping them turning tail, and improving chances to counter attack, etc.

 

Built in leaders [anyone who is not an IC] are especially brilliant at this, as they cannot be targeted. Arjac trumps Lysander because you must kill x GHs to start hurting him. Likewise with WG, and perhaps even Lukas [though BCs are weaker than GHs].

 

My BT list does better since I dropped my 170 pt Marshal in my 1500 pt list.

 

Don't mistake Spectacular for Dynamic.

[Grey Mage]

*shrugs* I usually take a Rune Priest or a Wolf Priest for my first HQ. Why? Because they improve the units theyre with and the units around them. The main priority in the choice? Did I bring bloodclaws- if so, I wont run them without the Wolf Priest.

 

After that Ill often take Bjorn, who I think is incredibly useful. I dicker between the PC and AC options, but both have worked well for me.

 

The other options Ill run is the other priest, a WL on rare occasions, and a Pair of WGBLs- Hunin and Munin, who are god awfully expensive, but perhaps the single most vicious thing my army can throw down in planetstrike.

[Freman Bloodglaive]

I take two HQs, a Wolf Priest with jump pack for my Skyclaws, and a Rune Priest for general psychic shenanigans. Though the Battle Leaders and Lords are extra killy, under most circumstances an equivalent points value in Troops is more use.

[PKAwolf]

Usually one or two rune priests with choosers and one in TDA (ony cause they have to be different) depending on the size.

But when Im feeling frisky.... ThunderLord. How tooled? Well if your ThunderLord costs less than a Land Raider, you did it wrong.

[Skirax]

I usually take Ragnar, a Wolf Priest and maybe a Rune Priest. Helps to have one of everything on the board.

[Karack Blackstone]

Wolf Lord:

Excels at CC, not great at shooting, best on a TWM

 

Wolf Priest:

Great with Blood Claws where numbers plus all those attacks on the charge really work in our favor. (WG with Wolf Claw Death Stars can also get nasty)

 

Rune Priest:

Stick with Long Fangs, Living Lightning.

Stick with GH's, Jaws the hell out of stuff.

 

WGBL's:

They're our "Joker" card if you will. Can do anything, just maybe not as well as a Lord.

Recently lost Assault Cannons due to codex edition updating. (Required TDA, of course)

 

Named:

The heroes that really excel in our chapter, each is worth their points, but more than one at or below 2000 pts is not that efficient.

At 3K+...

HQ slots are meant to be filled, what and how is another post for me, or others.

[Martonias]

So it generally seems that people don't really take advantage of the four available HQ choices. Does anyone forfeit Long Fangs/Tanks for powerful tank hunting HQ's, like a Lord with THammer and Jump Pack?

 

Which type of HQ would people say is the "best" overall (WLord, RPriest, WPriest) IMO the WLord seems the best, extra wound way more killy and I don't think the other two can equal that with their abilities. But then again, i haven't used them yet.

 

PKAwolf mentioned an incredibly tooled up Lord, how many do this? Will a HQ like this make up it's cost by the end of the game?

[Anpu42]

I usally take One per Pack until I run out, then its onto the Wolf Guard.

[Martonias]

I'm starting to collect and gonna run 3 units of GH accompanied by 3 WG w/PFist and either a Lord or RPriest. 10 models in all, run each in a Rhino at enemy. Does anyone drop pod in their powerful HQ's???

[Freman Bloodglaive]

So it generally seems that people don't really take advantage of the four available HQ choices. Does anyone forfeit Long Fangs/Tanks for powerful tank hunting HQ's, like a Lord with THammer and Jump Pack?

 

Which type of HQ would people say is the "best" overall (WLord, RPriest, WPriest) IMO the WLord seems the best, extra wound way more killy and I don't think the other two can equal that with their abilities. But then again, i haven't used them yet.

 

PKAwolf mentioned an incredibly tooled up Lord, how many do this? Will a HQ like this make up it's cost by the end of the game?

 

A tooled up Lord, frostblade, storm shield, runic armour, wolf tooth necklace, meltabombs, thunderwolf mount, saga of the bear at 270 points will probably not make back his points in a smaller game. He will deny the enemy points if he stays alive (which he probably will) but I couldn't justify him in a smaller game.

 

The "best" HQ is the one that supports your army the best, in my opinion.

 

Rune Priests provide psychic powers that can hurt enemy units, or protect your own, their ability to nullify enemy psykers also protects your army. There would be top of my list of "best" characters. My Space Wolves box (old GW case) always has three of these guys plus Njal (power armour), naked, terminator, and jump pack for various game sizes. I'd only field one or two, but they're always useful.

 

Wolf Priests make a unit fearless, so you don't have to worry about casualties at range, and allow them re-rolls in combat against a designated unit type. I have two, naked and jump pack, which also occupy my box. Generally I'll only field one.

 

Wolf Lords are killy, tooled up they become killy to the max, but they are expensive especially if you take Saga of the Bear, which is the only one I'd use. Taking a force weapon/power fist/some other instant death weapon to the face and coming back smiling is worth the cost. Meanwhile the question has to be asked, would taking another Grey Hunter squad of equivalent value (at 270 points you get a Grey Hunter unit, plus a Razorback) worth more? In general I take the Grey Hunters. In my box I have a selection of Wolf Lords, Santa Claws, a model with twin power fists, and a more conventional guy with a frost axe (both with jump packs) as well as Ragnar (who I've never fielded). In fifth edition I've used a Wolf Lord (my twin fist guy) once, he doesn't add enough to the army.

 

Wolf Guard Battle Leaders are in a difficult boat. They aren't as killy as a Wolf Lord, but they add little to a normal squad that couldn't be supplied by a Wolf Guard Pack Leader. They do have higher initiative, which is good, but the Pack Leader can't be targeted so gets to swing longer. If you're tooling him up, for the points (if you're taking terminator armour) you may as well take Arjac who can be treated like a Pack Leader, but swings as hard (or harder) than the Battle Leader. I have one model, with jump pack, frost blade and storm shield who used to lead the Skyclaws, but was retired once I painted my jump pack Wolf Priest.

 

Basically that's how I sum up, and use, the various characters.

 

Also in my box are, four 10 man Grey Hunter packs, one 15 man Blood Claw pack, two 6 man Long Fang packs, one pack of Wolf Guard terminators (plus a couple of power armoured Wolf Guard) one 10 man Skyclaw pack, a couple of Lone Wolves, and a couple of Wolves. Along with Gotrek and Felix who I'm painting to use in a (one day) future Empire army.

 

It's actually quite surprising how much I can fit in there.