New SW/40k player-seeking help!

[Sareve]

Hey, so I've recently decided to get back into 40k now that I have some extra time/money on my hands! I've decided to work on two armies, so I can play games around my house with my girlfriend/family/friends/whoever! I'll be starting two armies, with 500 points, then 1000, etc, and eventually using both armies for some fun at local clubs. Anyways, the first army was the choice of my girlfriend, who is still mulling between Eldar and Dark Eldar, which is fine with me since both seem fun to model, paint, and play in the future. Myself on the other hand, have chosen Space Wolves. I'm the type who does research and asks questions before making purchases, so I came here to straighten some things out before I get to making orders. The codex IS in the mail, but in the meantime, some question. So, here I go.

 

1. I imagine my first purchases should be a couple boxes of wolf packs, and a rune priest. Easy enough. Is there any difference between grey hunters and blood claws, in terms of painting/modeling?

 

2. Longfang packs with missles. How would I got about modeling these? I didn't see a box of them on GW, so what is the "standard" way to make them?

 

3. Wolf Guard Terminators. I really love how these guys look. I see a LOT of options for these though, and am a WYSIWYG kind of guy. Not having played 40k in over a decade, is there any way I should model these? Or perhaps, any combo I should seriously avoid that is useless or very much considered "less optimal" is the current edition?

 

4. Wolf priest/rune priest. Is there a difference between these two, model wise, or is one just an upgrade of the other?

 

5. Any other advice in general?

 

Thanks for taking a look, really looking forward to getting things underway!

[Arez]

Hey, so I've recently decided to get back into 40k now that I have some extra time/money on my hands! I've decided to work on two armies, so I can play games around my house with my girlfriend/family/friends/whoever! I'll be starting two armies, with 500 points, then 1000, etc, and eventually using both armies for some fun at local clubs. Anyways, the first army was the choice of my girlfriend, who is still mulling between Eldar and Dark Eldar, which is fine with me since both seem fun to model, paint, and play in the future. Myself on the other hand, have chosen Space Wolves. I'm the type who does research and asks questions before making purchases, so I came here to straighten some things out before I get to making orders. The codex IS in the mail, but in the meantime, some question. So, here I go.

 

1. I imagine my first purchases should be a couple boxes of wolf packs, and a rune priest. Easy enough. Is there any difference between grey hunters and blood claws, in terms of painting/modeling?

 

2. Longfang packs with missles. How would I got about modeling these? I didn't see a box of them on GW, so what is the "standard" way to make them?

 

3. Wolf Guard Terminators. I really love how these guys look. I see a LOT of options for these though, and am a WYSIWYG kind of guy. Not having played 40k in over a decade, is there any way I should model these? Or perhaps, any combo I should seriously avoid that is useless or very much considered "less optimal" is the current edition?

 

4. Wolf priest/rune priest. Is there a difference between these two, model wise, or is one just an upgrade of the other?

 

5. Any other advice in general?

 

Thanks for taking a look, really looking forward to getting things underway!

Welcome to the Fang!have an ale and seat and have some fun.

1)Grey Hunters are the best option unless you wanna swarm an enemy and take them down by sheer numbers.Grey hunters can be modeled with a bolter and or bolt pistol and or close combat weapon since they have that listed in their wargear.Claws can only have bolt pistol and ccw

2)get a box of devastators and use wolf bitz to make them look wolfy

3)if you're feel like it magentiz the arms so you can equip them with any thing.

4)Wolf Priests are our chaplains and apothecary,Rune Priests are our psykers.

5)look through the different threads to find more info and dont be afraid to ask questions,hope you enjoy your time here.also try to convert your girls

[CainTheHunter]

Devastators. tactocal space marines are your source for missile launchers. And bits sites of course.

[jeremy1391]

If you want all missile long fangs you have two options, ebay for missile launcher bits or a bit service like the warstore or bit kingdom etc. etc.

Throw them on some wolfy bodies and you should be good to go

[Wulfebane]

Hope you meant it when you said you like to do a lot of research.. because while these are very impressive and indepth compilations on the Wolves, they're both a lot of reading, but well worth it, IMO.

 

Valerian's Guide to Space Wolves Army Building

 

Tactically, just about everything you'd think to consider in regards to how to arrange and deploy a Space Wolves army, including advantages and disadvantages per unit(s).

 

Vash113's Comprehensive History of the Space Wolves

 

Just about everything collectively said about the Space Wolves in official GW documents and novels, albeit abridged. It involves lore from everything including the earliest codices to the latest white dwarf. It's also stickied to the top of the SW forum, should you want to find the link more easily later.

 

 

As to what you've mentioned so far, Arez has the right of it.

 

Magnetize your WG arms and you'll never have a problem. The sheer amount of variety our WG can have regarding wargear almost makes this mandatory, and will definitely save you on headaches.

 

Grey Hunters are considered (one of) the best tactical units in the game. They come standard with bolter, bolt pistol, and close combat weapon, so any combination of those three weapons modeled to a Hunter will be considered WYSIWYG.

 

The difference between Hunters and Claws, as mentioned, is Claws don't (nor should ever) come equipped with bolters. Even if they did, you wouldn't want them to. Blood Claws are our recruits, whereas other Marine armies send theirs to the Scout companies (our Scouts are in fact veterans). Since they're recruits, their stats reflect this; lowered BS/WS of 3. Due to this, you don't ever want to rely on a pack of Blood Claws to shoot the enemy from a distance. Nor do you ever want to spend points on plasma/meltaguns for them as, statistically, the points will be wasted based on how often they'll miss. Your best option is a flamer, since it hits automatically via template. Also, since they have a lowered WS, you want a lot of them to negate the volume of missed attacks. Generally speaking (and my personal preference), should you decide to take Claws at all, is to take 14-15 BCs in a Land Raider (Crusader) along with a Wolf Priest to allow for rerolls through Preferred Enemy. You never want to footslog a BC unit, as it absolutely needs to be in melee combat to be viable, so the quicker the better.

 

Long Fangs.. several options. You can buy a devastator box and mix'n'match wolf and marine bits, but you won't get a full complement of missile launchers - although this isn't a bad thing, it is not the most popular/efficient use of a LF pack, as they seem to benefit best with a full roster of MLs. Alternatively, you can scrounge around bitz stores or eBay in search of missile launchers, and eventually spend about as much on 5 MLs as you would the whole box of dev, and still will need to supply your own models to wield the weapons. Trades are very popular among local stores, as well.

 

As Arez said, Wolf Priests are our Chaplains and Apothecaries rolled into one. They don't function the same as those two units however, serving as more of a morale unit, and often very melee-centric in design. The Rune Priests are our psykers, and perhaps one of the better psykers in the game, under Eldar. As far as psychic defenses go, they are most definitely second to Eldar, but still have the potential of stacking psychic saves up to 4? dice rolls with various wargear options and situational circumstances. Their psychic powers are amazingly fluffy and surprisingly devastating to different armies depending on which you take. Jaws of the World Wolf, for example, can decimate an entire front line of Necrons, whereas Tempest Wrath can force jump infantry and skimmers to the ground. I believe, though, that Living Lightning, with its unlimited range, is the most popular choice.

 

With everything said so far, we all could go on and on about what to get after this, but without knowing your playstyle, we can't really say if you're better off with a pack of TWC or a squadron of Land Speeders, etc.

 

Best of luck and welcome to the Fang. Hope you and your girlfriend enjoy the game as much as we do.

[wolvesofrussblog]

A good start if you do not have templates and dice is the Assault on Black Reach box set. To round it out grab a Space marine Battleforce and one wolf pack box. You can mix and match the pices to give them a wolfy feel. Here is a basic look at what you would have with this set of things!

 

HQ

Rune Priest (Made from bits from the wolf pack box) -100pts

Wolf Priest (Made from bits from the wolf pack box) -100pts

Wolf Guard battle Leader, Power Axe, Storm Shield, melta bomb, Runic Armour (Space Marine BF, Made from bits from the wolf pack box) -140pts

 

 

Elites

Dreadnought (AoBR, wolf it up with tails and skulls from The wolf pack box) -105pts

x5 Wolf Guard Terminators (AoBR, wolf it up with tails and skulls from The wolf pack box) -165pts

x5 Wolf Scouts, melta gun, power weapon, plasma pistol (Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) - 100pts

 

Troop

x10 Grey Hunters, Flamer, plasma gun, power fist, wolf standard (AoBR, Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -185pts

x9 Grey Hunters, Flamer, power fist, wolf standard ( Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -170pts

Rhino ( Space Marine BF, wolf it up with tails and skulls from The wolf pack box) -35pts

x10 Greyhunters , x2 plasma gun, power weapon, Wolf standard (AoBR, Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -185pts

 

Fast Attack

x5 Sky Claws, plasma pistol, power fist (Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -130pts

 

Heavy Support

x4 Long fangs, x2 missile launchers, x1 heavy Bolter (AoBR, Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -85pts

 

Thats a 1500pt army list with lots of bits left so you could make this a few ways this is just one example. The cost new is $261.25 From GW, you will also have the Orks that you could sell or use as allies (desperate allies). Let me know what you think!

 

A good start if you do not have templates and dice is the Assault on Black Reach box set. To round it out grab a Space marine Battleforce and one wolf pack box. You can mix and match the pices to give them a wolfy feel. Here is a basic look at what you would have with this set of things!

 

HQ

Rune Priest (Made from bits from the wolf pack box) -100pts

Wolf Priest (Made from bits from the wolf pack box) -100pts

Wolf Guard battle Leader, Power Axe, Storm Shield, melta bomb, Runic Armour (Space Marine BF, Made from bits from the wolf pack box) -140pts

 

 

Elites

Dreadnought (AoBR, wolf it up with tails and skulls from The wolf pack box) -105pts

x5 Wolf Guard Terminators (AoBR, wolf it up with tails and skulls from The wolf pack box) -165pts

x5 Wolf Scouts, melta gun, power weapon, plasma pistol (Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) - 100pts

 

Troop

x10 Grey Hunters, Flamer, plasma gun, power fist, wolf standard (AoBR, Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -185pts

x9 Grey Hunters, Flamer, power fist, wolf standard ( Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -170pts

Rhino ( Space Marine BF, wolf it up with tails and skulls from The wolf pack box) -35pts

x10 Greyhunters , x2 plasma gun, power weapon, Wolf standard (AoBR, Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -185pts

 

Fast Attack

x5 Sky Claws, plasma pistol, power fist (Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -130pts

 

Heavy Support

x4 Long fangs, x2 missile launchers, x1 heavy Bolter (AoBR, Space Marine BF, Wolf pack Box) -85pts

 

Thats a 1500pt army list with lots of bits left so you could make this a few ways this is just one example. The cost new is $261.25 From GW, you will also have the Orks that you could sell or use as allies (desperate allies). Let me know what you think!

[CainTheHunter]

Btw, if You are totally new to 40k and have no collection of SM bits etc, I’d say that SW battleforce + SM tactical box are quite good and effective purchases both in terms of cost and contents. They will allow You to build three diverse packs of Grey Hunters, kitbash a Rune Priest, 5 Wolf Scouts with meltagun (these were awesome, now they are ok) and a Drop Pod. Add a box of Devastators and You are set for a small Long Fangs pack with 2 missile launchers (Dev box and Tactical marines upgrade sprue from their box) + Lascannon. Plus You can cut apart the multimelta barrels from Dev box to convert combimeltas.

[wolvesofrussblog]

I would skip the Wolves battle force and grap the marine, you will get great use out of the rhino while the drop pod can be good once and awhile.

[Runesch]

I would skip the Wolves battle force and grap the marine, you will get great use out of the rhino while the drop pod can be good once and awhile.

 

And nothing screams SW more then a full army of "standard marines"

 

And drop pods have increased in playable value in 6th, just saying.

 

 

 

Rune

 

 

P.S. Go for the SW battlebox!

[CainTheHunter]

And do not buy Rhino kits - buy Razorbacks instead (these are Rhino + extra sprue with turret options).

[Runesch]

Again CainTheHunter speaks the truth.

 

 

 

Rune

[Grimtooth]

Space Wolves buying guide...

 

The current forum FAQ is still a work in progress, but contains some useful info.

[wolvesofrussblog]

I would skip the Wolves battle force and grap the marine, you will get great use out of the rhino while the drop pod can be good once and awhile.

 

And nothing screams SW more then a full army of "standard marines"

 

And drop pods have increased in playable value in 6th, just saying

 

A good paint job will make them plenty wolfy, but like I said if you had read, SM:BF plus a Wolf Pack box to Wolf up the models.

 

Drop pods are good, Rhinos Are better, and yes you should buy a razorback if you buy it separately From the SM:BF

[wolvesofrussblog]

"Btw, if You are totally new to 40k and have no collection of SM bits etc, I’d say that SW battleforce + SM tactical box are quite good and effective purchases both in terms of cost and contents. They will allow You to build three diverse packs of Grey Hunters, kitbash a Rune Priest, 5 Wolf Scouts with meltagun (these were awesome, now they are ok) and a Drop Pod. Add a box of Devastators and You are set for a small Long Fangs pack with 2 missile launchers (Dev box and Tactical marines upgrade sprue from their box) + Lascannon. Plus You can cut apart the multimelta barrels from Dev box to convert combimeltas. " ya said

 

The SM:BF is better Than the Wolf one as it has jumpers and the tactical sprue, for a starter wolf army you dont need x4 wolf claws, x4 thunderhammer storm shields, and all the other ton of bits that will not be used on 2 grey hunter squads.

[Wulfebane]

The SM:BF is better Than the Wolf one as it has jumpers and the tactical sprue, for a starter wolf army you dont need x4 wolf claws, x4 thunderhammer storm shields, and all the other ton of bits that will not be used on 2 grey hunter squads.

 

You don't need jumpers either. Skyclaws are still crap compared to our other options. And the WCs, THs, and SSs are good for making Lone Wolves or WG or HQs. You get more "wolf" for your buck by getting the SW battleforce and mixing SM marines from a devastator box (which you'll need if you ever want to have LFs), than getting a huge amount of SM marines and maaaybe some of them having a slight amount of wolf bling.

 

That and drop pods are better in 6E than rhinos. Better than razorbacks.. that's something more readily debatable. And as was said.. buying a rhino over any other rhino-based vehicle is a waste.

[Sareve]

Wow, great replies everyone! Gave me some stuff to think about, that's for sure. As I am not new, but more of a returning player (sorry for the misleading info, worded poorly!) I would still rather go a more "traditional" route to start. I'm thinking grabbing a SW battalion (or two!), a devastator squad, rune priest, and box of wolf guard termies to start with. After that I'll find extra bits and pieces for making longfangs, and whatever else I may need to kitbash. Any suggestion for making wolf priests though? What is a slight turn off to me currently is that to make a "competitive" list, I need to make a lot of models that aren't "standard" I suppose. The eldar/dark eldar seemed nice since I don't need to get three different boxes to make a certain squad, but alas! Just something different, although a bit daunting to a "beginner". Since I don't have many mini's right now to work with, buying lots of boxes to get x part from this kit to put on y model from that kit, and adding z weapon from the other kit is a bit of a headache, but on the other hand it will be a good place to be sitting in the future if I ever need an extra arm, weapon, or maybe even torso for that one great idea in the future! Thanks again for the replies guys, very awesome information. Like I said, I'll start slow, get a battleforce and HQ for dark eldar and SW, then add up from there as I get more experience and really understand WHY I'm making the extra purchases other than "the internet said so". Any more advice is welcome, love hearing from you all!

[postal105]

Hey, so I've recently decided to get back into 40k now that I have some extra time/money on my hands! I've decided to work on two armies, so I can play games around my house with my girlfriend/family/friends/whoever! I'll be starting two armies, with 500 points, then 1000, etc, and eventually using both armies for some fun at local clubs. Anyways, the first army was the choice of my girlfriend, who is still mulling between Eldar and Dark Eldar, which is fine with me since both seem fun to model, paint, and play in the future. Myself on the other hand, have chosen Space Wolves. I'm the type who does research and asks questions before making purchases, so I came here to straighten some things out before I get to making orders. The codex IS in the mail, but in the meantime, some question. So, here I go.

 

1. I imagine my first purchases should be a couple boxes of wolf packs, and a rune priest. Easy enough. Is there any difference between grey hunters and blood claws, in terms of painting/modeling?

 

2. Longfang packs with missles. How would I got about modeling these? I didn't see a box of them on GW, so what is the "standard" way to make them?

 

3. Wolf Guard Terminators. I really love how these guys look. I see a LOT of options for these though, and am a WYSIWYG kind of guy. Not having played 40k in over a decade, is there any way I should model these? Or perhaps, any combo I should seriously avoid that is useless or very much considered "less optimal" is the current edition?

 

4. Wolf priest/rune priest. Is there a difference between these two, model wise, or is one just an upgrade of the other?

 

5. Any other advice in general?

 

Thanks for taking a look, really looking forward to getting things underway!

 

 

step 1 if you don't have the codex to look at well assembling models get it as that will help with most of the well what should this model look like for the most part questions. also read the codex carefully and thoroughly so that you can get an idea of what each units roll is in your army. then from their i would start working on the rest as it is silly to build a unit that you cant use because it is equipped wrong such as the stupid blunder they have in the codex of the wolf scout with a storm bolter scouts can not take storm bolters so it is a waste of a model. that is my advice

[wolvesofrussblog]

The SM:BF is better Than the Wolf one as it has jumpers and the tactical sprue, for a starter wolf army you dont need x4 wolf claws, x4 thunderhammer storm shields, and all the other ton of bits that will not be used on 2 grey hunter squads.

 

You don't need jumpers either. Skyclaws are still crap compared to our other options. And the WCs, THs, and SSs are good for making Lone Wolves or WG or HQs. You get more "wolf" for your buck by getting the SW battleforce and mixing SM marines from a devastator box (which you'll need if you ever want to have LFs), than getting a huge amount of SM marines and maaaybe some of them having a slight amount of wolf bling.

 

That and drop pods are better in 6E than rhinos. Better than razorbacks.. that's something more readily debatable. And as was said.. buying a rhino over any other rhino-based vehicle is a waste.

 

I agree that the jumpers are not that great but you can use the legs on regular dudes. The weapons in the SW:BF are good but you dont need as many as the starter gives you for your starter or core set. Grabing the SM:BF and adding one Wolf Pack box gives you the Weapons of the wolves box and you can have a three man Long Fang squad out of the SM:BF box, x1 Heavy Bolter(From scouts), and x1 Missile Launcher(Tac Spru). Also you get one of each special weapon (Flamer, Melta, Plasma) and then 2 more plasma from the Wolves Box. Flamers are great for overwatch in 6th. The rhino vs drop pod is a debate for how you plan to play your wolves in 6th, both make you weather a turn of shooting before you charge.