Close Support

[Grimtooth]

Actually there has been no official ruling as to the sequence in which you purchase upgrades for your unit, and you are fully within your right to take a 10 man squad, take the free Flamer, and then by virtue of being 10-strong, take the Meltagun for free. Anybody who argues otherwise is simply arguing what they think should be done and have no actual ruling to back it up (unless GW has recently released a new FAQ that I don't know about).

 

That being said:

 

10 Grey Hunters: 210 pts

- Flamer, Meltagun (free because you took the Flamer as your first special weapon), Power Fist, Rhino

 

Wolf Guard + 9 Grey Hunters: 218 pts

- Combi-Melta, Power Fist, Rhino

- Meltagun, Rhino

 

The difference in points is marginal, and there are reasons for going both routes. HOWEVER, if you are taking a full 10-strong pack and not a Wolf Guard Pack Leader, always always always double up on the same special weapon. Both have different ranges and purposes, and it makes almost no sense to to mix and match.

 

There are pros and cons to both types of set-ups (that is, 10-strong versus 9 + Wolf Guard), but the way I see it, there are only specific situations where a 10-strong pack is advisable (assuming mech in all situations; footsloggers (that is, no transports, infantry walking) can have the best of both worlds).

 

1. Characters in transports (i.e. Rune Priests) - The moment you need to attach a Rune Priest to a Grey Hunter pack so that they can all hitch a ride together, automatically means your pack can no longer be 10-strong (because of the character). Thus, if the pack is already less than 10, you might as well attach a Wolf Guard if you intend to take a Power Fist. A Grey Hunter with a Power Fist is 40 points, only has 1 attack (2 on the charge), and Leadership 8. A Wolf Guard Pack Leader with a Power Fist is 38 points, has 2 attacks (3 on the charge), and Leadership 9. For an extra 5 points (total of 43 points) you can take a Combi-Weapon that will, in a way, "make up" for the loss of the second free special weapon. Yes, it is one shot, which is why I typically suggest taking the Combi-Flamer (although dependent on style, army list, and local meta, a Combi-Melta is sometimes good too). In most situations where you would be firing the Flamer, you'll only typically get one shot off anyways, so you learn to make it count. Likewise with the Combi-Melta (factor in the turns it takes to position your army, plus the possible turns where you will actually be able to fire the weapon, you'd really only reliably fire your Flamer or Meltagun twice or at most three times in a game anyways, barring certain situations). So the trade-off in shots for an extra attack in combat, plus the Leadership (for Counter-Attack and for Leadership/Morale tests) is MORE than worth it.
   
2. Not enough units to assign Wolf Guard - Smaller point games, or perhaps where you simply don't have enough units to assign Wolf Guard, are probably better off not taking them. Wolf Guard packs require a minimum of 3, and if you only have 1 or 2 packs that require Wolf Guard, you don't want a single Wolf Guard running around giving up free Kill Points. Additionally, squads of Wolf Guard tend to get pricey and unless you're running a Logan-army, are really more specialists you take to bolster other squads. This is rarely the case, since most games 1000 points+ tend to have at least 3 squads of Grey Hunteres anyways. Even the inclusion of Wolf Scouts, or Long Fangs (ablative wounds, or ALTERNATIVELY having 5 Wolf Guard, so you assign one in Terminator Armor with Cyclone Missile Launcher to the Long Fangs for extra pewpew) will see Wolf Guard Pack Leaders pull their weight around.
   
3. Drop Pod Assault - An Alpha-Strike squad designed to land in and vape a target on the first turn won't necessarily benefit much from having a Wolf Guard, since their goal is to simply land in, fire off their weapons, and then take the hits. That said, since it is only an 8 point difference, if you have the points, do it. Again given proximity to the enemy, unless you get lucky and manage to catch a unit or two off on their own, you'll probably only manage to fire your special weapons once anyways before you are either killed or locked in combat (and wiped away by superior numbers). Given that the Pack Leader doesn't forfeit any extra Kill Points, even an Alpha-Strike suicide squad benefits from a Pack Leader.
   

 

Now, that being said, having a Wolf Guard Pack Leader is not the be-all-end-all route to take. Can mechanized Grey Hunter packs work without Pack Leaders? Absolutely! It simply requires a different style of play than a pack that does, simply because it loses many of the advantages that having a Pack Leader brings.

 

@Ramses - Yes, you're right, and I pseudo-apologize for hijacking your thread with more advanced tactics. READER BE WARNED! :blink:

 

 

DV8

 

No problem with adding it at all DV8. If it opens the eyes of players to the depth of builds, all is good.

 

One thing that I look at with combi-weapons on WG pack leaders is the diminishing returns from it being a one shot weapon to then what value remains with the leadership and powerfist attack.

 

With how I use my GH packs, it is not uncommon for them to engage at minimum two targets a game. After the first, I am now down to one special weapon, of which I then need to overly rely on from that point on.

 

In the case of a melta for instance, after I have used the combi-melta and pack melta to pop a transport, I am now down to relying on the pack melta only for the next transport or tank I need to pop. This just flies in the face of my preference for redundancy builds in my GH packs.

 

However, I do have certain builds that despite me personally not liking, that combine my preference for redundancy builds with the WG pack leader concept, ie, MSU with close support redundancy builds:

WG pack leader w/pf and combi-melta, 5 GH, MoW, melta, pf, wolf standard, razorback w/TLPG/LC

WG pack leader w/pf and combi-melta, 5 GH, MoW, melta, pf, wolf standard, razorback w/TLPG/LC

 

I would run these two units so close together they could smell the other pack's breath.

 

They rely far more on each other then the basic 10man close support concept due to smaller numbers of each pack and the one shot weapons on the WG pack leaders, however in subsequent actions, we have the two special weapons like a normal redundancy build. Not to mention that you have the additional firepower from the Razorback to augment not only to each packs firepower, but as separate units able to fire on different targets from the packs as well.