Lone Wolves

[Hear da Lamentation]

OK, so I would love to try a lonewolf or two in a fun army, but whenever I run them through in my head, I see them getting taken out really quickly. Maybe it's the armies I usually face. Anyway, I'm keen to see the error of my ways from the Wolf Brothers.

 

The way I am looking at it is this. (I do usually face Nids ... with some Deathwing and some Orcs)

 

vs anything really hard (MC etc.) - they will ignore armour saves (with whatever means) and so the 2+ save is gone, the feel no pain is gone - and he turns into a guy with 5+ save and 2 wounds (4 with wolves)

 

against anything hoardey (boyz, termigaunts etc) - he gets hit with LOADS of attacks. Sheer weight of numbers is going to take him out, being the only guy there.

 

Where am I going wrong with these assumptions Wolves?

[Karack Blackstone]

Please reread the SW Codex, in a KP mission or when KP are considered (Kill Points), I think Lone Wolves actually count against the enemy, not against the SW player, depending on the actual rules.

 

In other words, the SW Player WANTS a Lone Wolf to die in combat, just in the right way depending upon their oath.

[rodgambit]

If you plan to run them against MC or Walkers you must take a stormshield and CF or TH (2+/3++ at I1).

 

If you run him in power armour and plan to throw him in to support troops I'd maybe go with pistol+frost ax and ride him in a rb that you buy for longfangs or wolf guard.

 

I'm thinking of using 1 or 2 as a blockade unit to protect my midfield/backfield objective or put in the way of a tank shocking land raider.

[Elric the Silvercoat]

If you plan to run them against MC or Walkers you must take a stormshield and CF or TH (2+/3++ at I1).

 

If you run him in power armour and plan to throw him in to support troops I'd maybe go with pistol+frost ax and ride him in a rb that you buy for longfangs or wolf guard.

 

I'm thinking of using 1 or 2 as a blockade unit to protect my midfield/backfield objective or put in the way of a tank shocking land raider.

I am going to run mine with a Storm Shield, Storm Bolter, and Mark of the Wulfen in Power Armour. I want him to support my Grey Hunters.

[Blacksad]

I've run them once, in a black crusade. 3 naked Lone Wolves, constantly storming forward and assaulting anything that came close. I won massively, ty to my Lone Wolves ;)

[hendrik]

the thing is this, the lone wulf can tie up(especially when he has a SS) or even possibly kill nasty MC and things like dreadnoughts. he's litterally something to throw into your opponents army and see what damage he can do. so what if you happen to fail one op those armour saves if your opponent just used half his army to shoot at your lone wolf, that's half an army of firepower not aimed at the rest of your valuable units! against hordes you can use him to help out packs that got tied up, or even just create a tarpit. the point about the lone wolf is that he should die during your game

[Tsavong Lah]

I once took twelve Lone Wolves in Terminator Armour armed with Storm Shields and Chainfists/Thunderhammers in an Apocalypse game. They single-handedly accounted for two and a half Ork Stompas, an Eldar superheavy tank, and several smaller vehicles and MCs. About seven of them died—the rest got promoted to Wolf Guard.

[Simo429]

Storm Shield and thunderhammer

 

Against anything t5 or above rerolling to hit and deadly with that hammer

 

but the main benefit comes from your opponent not knowing what to do with them, ahh thats a kill point for me if he survives, yeah but by the end of the game he's took off 3 of your kill points so you've lost 2.

[saphius]

Do the math. Lets assume you do my load out. TDA, TH, Storm Shield (or Chainfist Storm Shield)

 

How many lascannon shots to kill 1 lone wolf? Ok, assuming you need 2 wounds on him to kill him that mean he needs to fail 2 invul saves. Statistically he needs to take 6 wounds (before armor saves) for lascannons to get through. Assuming your fighting space marines that means someone needs to shoot him 10 (1 failed to wound) times with lascannons to kill him. For the sake of time her's more math:

 

It should take:

 

About 20 missiles (you don't get FNP right? He has EW so I'm not sure... If so, it's about 40)

About 10 Plasma

About 64 Bolter shots

Etc....

 

You can transfer that to cc simply:

 

About 96 close combat attacks (48 hit, 24 wound, 4 failed armor saves, FNP passes twice)

About 24 Power Weapon attacks

About 14 Power fist attacks

 

All the while he's swinging his hammer away and killing about 2 models a round - his odds actually go up to do damage the bigger things get because of his rules.

 

Lone wolves are not huge damage dealers. They are a tar pit that has the benefit of being able to kill anything in CC. They are also awesome for swinging combat by working in tandem with your squads, or saving them when they are in to deep.

 

I use them to kill warbosses, wraithlords, tyrannid MCs (trygons are a little scary), but mostly to kill combat squads. They will walk all over combat squads and sometimes I'll even pit one up against a CC termi squad to delay them a turn. - Make sure you get the charge or you die.

 

You also should realize that if your dice are hot, they will not die. I've had as hard a time getting them killed at times as anything. If that 3++ doesn't want to fail, you never die. And if all your opponent has is small arms, or non AP 2, pick your target and go. He won't kill a ton but he'll kill enough. And if he dies, he has at least absorbed enough fire to make him worth it.

 

Sorry that was long winded. Short version - lone wolves are awesome when used right, and in the right list. Use them stoopid though and they will either get shot to death or tied up and cost you a killpoint.

[Simo429]

A t4 model doesn't get FNP against missiles as far as I am concerned, double toughness negates FNP with or without EW.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

A t4 model doesn't get FNP against missiles as far as I am concerned, double toughness negates FNP with or without EW.

 

FNP

"This ability cannot be used against wounds from weapons that inflict instant death (from having high enough strength or a special rule to that effect; even if the model is an eternal warrior). Neither can it be used against wounds from ap 1 or ap2, etc...."

 

The s8 krak missile inflicts instant death.

The Lone Wolf has eternal warrior.

This still means FNP does not work, as even though the Lone Wolf will not be instant death'ed, that the weapon would inflict instant death undoes FNP..

[Simo429]

A t4 model doesn't get FNP against missiles as far as I am concerned, double toughness negates FNP with or without EW.

 

FNP

"This ability cannot be used against wounds from weapons that inflict instant death (from having high enough strength or a special rule to that effect; even if the model is an eternal warrior). Neither can it be used against wounds from ap 1 or ap2, etc...."

 

The s8 krak missile inflicts instant death.

The Lone Wolf has eternal warrior.

This still means FNP does not work, as even though the Lone Wolf will not be instant death'ed, that the weapon would inflict instant death undoes FNP..

Thats what I assumed, FNP is one of them rules that people often get wrong, you will regularly see people claiming that you don't get FNP against something that is AP3 but not high toughness such as thousand suns bolter rounds.

[Inquisitor Kravin]

I use Lone Wolves with the bare minimum of kit. For only 5pts more than a Grey Hunter you get a model that is substantially better.

 

If nothing else he can soak up a couple of wounds - it takes the enemy the same amount of heavy weapons fire or twice as much small arms fire to kill the Lone Wolf as it does to kill 2 Grey Hunters - in terms of points spent in an attrition battle that's a saving right there.

Also, an opponent can fire a full squad at a Grey Hunter squad and kill multiple models. On a single model unit you're more likely to get wasted surplus wounds. If a Lone Wolf soaks up a turns shooting from a heavy weapons squad then they can achieve at most one kill where they might have killed 3 or 4 of your Grey Hunters.

Add to this that in a Kill Points game your opponent may not wish to kill him which leaves him free to roam around causing problems.

He's a speed bump. He can be used to distract units with Rage allowing you to lure threats like deep striking Death Company into a killzone where your heavy weapons and plasma can cut them down. Alternatively he can run forward and plant himself in the path of enemy units buying you an extra turn to re-deploy or shoot the threat.

 

For me Lone Wolves are the ultimate team players. They don't cut a swathe of destruction like a Wolf Lord but they die so that others don't have to.

[Hear da Lamentation]

Great answers guys.

 

One question on the fnp (which I think I had wrong) - would a MC (which ignores armour saves, but doesn't have instakill) negate the fnp? Or is it ONLY missile weapons with AP1 or 2?

 

Good point about the "basic" LoneWolf as well Kravin. I hadn't considered that.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

Great answers guys.

 

One question on the fnp (which I think I had wrong) - would a MC (which ignores armour saves, but doesn't have instakill) negate the fnp? Or is it ONLY missile weapons with AP1 or 2?

 

Good point about the "basic" LoneWolf as well Kravin. I hadn't considered that.

 

Do you have the BBB?

[dswanick]

Great answers guys.

 

One question on the fnp (which I think I had wrong) - would a MC (which ignores armour saves, but doesn't have instakill) negate the fnp? Or is it ONLY missile weapons with AP1 or 2?

 

Good point about the "basic" LoneWolf as well Kravin. I hadn't considered that.

Yep, MCs negate FNP.

[Hear da Lamentation]

Not on me Marshal, I'm at work at the mo. I thought MC did negate, but I was thrown by your post concerning the missile launchers. I guess you were only stating the specifics of the question, not the whole section on FNP

 

So MC negate FNP - which leaves the lone wolf as a lone terminator against a MC with probably 5 attacks - so likely to only last 2 rounds against even a tervigon....