Lone Wolves

[Myxx]

I am building a small Wolf army and want to include 2 Lone Wolves. One is a TDA Lone Wolf with 2 thunder hammers, the other is a PA Lone Wolf with 2 wolf claws and 2 Fenrisian wolves. Fluffy? Tactically sound?

[Marshal Wilhelm]

I am building a small Wolf army and want to include 2 Lone Wolves. One is a TDA Lone Wolf with 2 thunder hammers, the other is a PA Lone Wolf with 2 wolf claws and 2 Fenrisian wolves. Fluffy? Tactically sound?

 

A pair of Claws is not good value for money. Though it does look very cool :)

Better off making the second one a Storm shield, to be honest.

 

Likewise with a pair of TH. You've paid X points to get the first one, and then you pay the same price again, but for only one more attack. For efficiencies sake, not a great idea.

 

Competitively, a TH SS or Chain Fist SS combination are the most popular set of options.

 

Chain fists are not all over the place in Marine lists, and add a mêlée MELTA weapon into your arsenal. Considering you attack rearAV, which is usually AV10, that is almost a guaranteed Pen.

What makes the CF better than the TH, in terms of AV, is that it has no issues when fighting the frontAV of walkers or trying to hurt a Land Raider.

s8 just is not reliable enough to be risking the Lone Wolf against, say, a Furioso Dreadnought, imo.

[Wulfebane]

I always field a Lone Wolf in my games. Previously I had him loaded with TDA chainfist/ss and 2x fen. wolves. Super survivable... in fact, too survivable to the point where in several matches, despite holding up 2+ full squads of nids/IG, etc, he still didn't manage to die by the end of the game. I never had the misfortune of using him for a killpoints match, but considering his survivability, I now know not to. Now, I've been giving him a TDA wolfclaw/ss loadout and sending him after troops/ICs and it seems to work better...

 

The reason it works better for me now is due to me footslogging him. Since my Landraider is usually jam-packed and cratered somewhere near the enemy gunline around Turn 3, I never manage to get a transport for my TDA Lone Wolf, so when I had him with the chainfist, he never really managed to reach any of the enemy tanks before getting swarmed by troops (which still wouldn't kill him) and hold him up for most of the game.

 

Since he's still somewhat mediocre in eliminating the troops I now send him after, I'm considering clearing out his Elite slot for a dread or tank-hunting scout pack. However, if you want to frustrate the hell out of your opponent and it's not a killpoints match, an 85pt single model charging out into the open to soak up enemy fire is quite a bargain...and tons of gleefully giggling potential.

[Guest Drunk Guardian]

Another option to keep him cheap and have good synergy with other elements of your list is to run a vanilla loadout (CS/BP) with 2x Fenrisian Wolves and stick him into your Long Fang's Razorback. Obviously this configuration doesn't provide nearly the amount of punch that a TDA/CF/SS configuration would - but it is more mobile, saves you a lot of points that could be valuable elsewhere, and makes him useful as a tarpit in objective missions. I think a Las-Plas Razorback (or Bolterback if you're trying to save even more points) with a PA LW +2 FW would make a very durable objective contester at relatively low cost. It gives you a reason to get that twin-linked plasma gun into enemy lines rather than simply act as an "extra" piece once your Long Fangs are established. Also, the PA configuration makes him much more likely to die, so you can more successfully be suicidal in killpoint missions (though I'd still try to make him useful somehow).

[Perpetual Dawn]

I always wondered if SS and TDA could be subbed for PA and SS.. As the SS gives the best invuln save?? Good call on the chainfist as I hadnt seen it that way.. My lists were based around SS and Wolf Claw or Hammer but PA not TDA (as it gives the advantage of grenades).

[WG Vrox]

Fluff wise I always like the concept of a lone space wolf accompanied by a lone fen wolf, the two of them bound in loss and death. For me a lone wolf should have the MotW as he is seeking death or glory which would push the feral nature of a space wolf to a frothing rage.

 

In PA with MotW and Fen Wolf 45 points. Modeling the pair of these guys could be a cool project as well.

[Guest Drunk Guardian]

Fluff wise I always like the concept of a lone space wolf accompanied by a lone fen wolf, the two of them bound in loss and death. For me a lone wolf should have the MotW as he is seeking death or glory which would push the feral nature of a space wolf to a frothing rage.

 

In PA with MotW and Fen Wolf 45 points. Modeling the pair of these guys could be a cool project as well.

 

That would be really cool if Lone Wolves were allowed a Bolter. Honestly, the Bolter is the iconic weapon of all Space Marines... seems a bit silly they can't use it.

[WG Vrox]

That would be really cool if Lone Wolves were allowed a Bolter. Honestly, the Bolter is the iconic weapon of all Space Marines... seems a bit silly they can't use it.

 

I guess the lone wolf could come from a blood claw unit as well as a Grey Hunter, so they have to revert to the lowest common denominator.

 

If I was to model I think I would have a magnet option for a SS as at times I have ran him as described above but with a SS for the added protection.

[RunningWolfFenris]

So how effective do you find the LWs to be, they usually worth their points?

[muadib02]

The best part about lone wolves (i have been known to run 3) is that if you use them properly they have to be dealt with. I run a footslogging army and with 3 Lone Wolves in the mix they support any assaults/counterassaults i need to make/deal with. In that context they are great because in a KP game the enemy cannot just let them live because they start to rack up many KP by themselves, and in objective games they just hit stuff.

[Valerian]

When on the offense, the attacker typically prefers to attack a vulnerable position with multiple units simultaneously. The objective is to overwhelm the enemy force at that point and then move on to exploit the advantage gained. If the attacker can isolate the defending force at the point of its attack from supporting units, all the better (there are a few handy techniques to achieving isolation that I will discuss some other time). The attacker is attempting to use mass by bringing his numbers and combat power to bear against a weaker and therefor vulnerable force at the point of penetration.

 

The desire to overwhelm the enemy is why most players adopting an offensive scheme of maneuver will send everything they've got at the defender at once, rather than sending in units one at a time in a piecemeal fashion. The defender would love that, as they could focus the fire of all defending forces upon each unit in turn as they approached in succession; this would place the advantage of achieving mass on the defender's side, rather than on the attackers. However, it is unlikely that an attacker would operate in such a way, intentionally handing the advantage to the defender. Therefore the defender must attempt to disrupt the enemy's approach, causing the attacker to assault in succession when he doesn't want to.

 

In the real-world, this effect is often achieved with Disrupting obstacles (as opposed to Fixing, Blocking, and Turning obstacles), which are designed to disrupt attacking enemy formations, causing them to lose synchronization at the point of attack. On the battlefields of the table-top, however, we have few such obstacles (other than the occasional piece of difficult terrain) to use for this purpose. Instead, we have to look elsewhere to achieve our goal; enter the Disrupting Force.

 

 

Disrupting Force:

As explained just above, the purpose of the Disrupting Force, is to disrupt an enemy's attacking force, preventing them from bringing an overwhelming number of units to bear on your defending forces at one time. Achieving disruption will allow the defender to focus the fires of his forces on the attacking units as they approach in succession, rather than together.

 

The Space Wolves have a few good alternatives for techniques to achieve disruption. The first by taking advantage of weapons that can cause the Pinning of enemy units. Pinning is one of the few ways in which a defender can halt the forward progression of an enemy unit, and our Pinning options include Barrage weapons, such as the Whirlwind launcher, and Wolf Scouts using Sniper Rifles. Don't forget that you can force an enemy unit to take multiple Pinning tests in a single turn, and it is an excellent way to force them to go to ground, disrupting their forward movement, and potentially separating the unit from others in the attack.

 

A second alternative toward achieving disruption is in the Spoiling Attack. Other than Pinning, one of the only other ways to stop an enemy unit's forward movement is to Lock it in close combat. Relatively easy to do, choosing to make a Spoiling Attack, is often a difficult one for the defender, because it usually means the sacrifice and loss of the unit sent forward to execute the mission. Desirable attributes for a good Spoiling Attack force are that the force is small and cheap enough that it won't be missed when it has ultimately been destroyed, and that it isn't a critical part of the main defenses. Additionally, the force should have enough Protection to keep it around long enough to effectively Lock the enemy unit in place for a turn or two. A minimum-sized Swift Claw pack makes a pretty good Spoiling Attack force; it has good Mobility, decent Protection (with the T4(5)), decent Close Combat capability, and don't cost so much that they will break the bank. However, there is an even better alternative at your disposal - the Lone Wolf. The Lone Wolf is probably the perfect unit with which to conduct a Spoiling Attack, and therefore achieve disruption of the enemy. Firstly, equipped properly, the Lone Wolf is robust enough to Lock down an enemy unit by himself, and probably do some significant damage before ultimately being overwhelmed. Secondly, even with a TDA, a Storm Shield, and a Thunder Hammer, he only costs 85 points, so his loss will barely be noticed. Lastly, and this is the fun part, it's our goal for this guy to eventually get him killed anyway! I don't think we could ask for a better man to do the job.

 

Valerian

[WG Vrox]

Disrupting Force:

..........I don't think we could ask for a better man to do the job.

 

 

Well said Valerian

[Valerian]

Disrupting Force:

..........I don't think we could ask for a better man to do the job.

 

 

Well said Valerian

 

Thanks WGV.