Need help with my Wolf Guard loadout

[Master Commander Ajax]

So I recently got bought the new Tartaros Terminator set and the Terminator Weapon set from Forge world. Soon Ill be getting the Storm Eagle as well and was planning on having the Terminators plus Ragnar Blackmane ride around in it.

 

Can someone suggest a good load-out? Im hoping to be able to assemble them just from the pieces I've got but will buy extra bits if I have to.

[skeletoro]

I've been thinking about this quite a lot, so I'll do my best. Long post incoming; sorry!!!

 

I made a crappy excel workbook for close combat. Here you go! :) I hope it makes sense.

 

My loadout table

 

The calculator is in the top left, and you can figure out how to use it. To the right is a table I've built up with some typical loadouts. Above the red line are TDA loadouts, below are power armour.

 

What it gives you is the wounds per point that various loadouts will cause vs. a few possible targets: a guardsman, a vanilla marine, a terminator, a terminator with toughness 5, and something with toughness 7 (but no armour save). Those last 2 were just to illustrate some situations in which higher strength weapons really start to shine rather than necessarily reflecting anything that exists in the game.

 

Obviously, you can use the calc in the top left to derive your own values :)

 

The cells are shaded according to relative standing within the column (separated for TDA and PA). The most cost effective options against a given target will be darker, while the worst value will be white.

 

The top 4 rows are storm bolter + (1. power sword, 2. wolf claw, 3. power axe, 4. power fist). The next 4 are the same, but with combi weapons instead (unsurprisingly, less cost effective in melee). Ignore the 9th and 10th rows. The 11th row has wolf claw + power fist. As you can see, it's the most bang for buck purely in terms of wounds caused (it loses out narrowly to power axe, vs. a guardsman).

 

The blue column on the right indicates how many models you would have for the price of 5 wc+pf wolf guard. Although the purple cells already adjust for price, they don't take into account the fact that 7.3 wolf guard are harder to kill than 5 wolf guard. And you can buy 7.3 SB + PA wolf guard for the price of 5 PF+WC wolf guard. Then again, a drop pod only fits 5 terminators!

 

Lastly, the red text indicatea attacking at initiative 1.

 

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I'm not sure what the take-home message of this calculator is. There are too many criteria. Each loadout seems to have its perks! But it helps illustrate them.

 

• power sword: strike at initiative, killy against marines or worse, more bodies therefore more durable, you have a ranged weapon
  
• wolf claw: as sword, significantly more killy vs marines, slightly less durable
  
• axe: very killy against all but the toughest foes, cheap/durable, ranged, but you strike last
  
• fist: as axe, slightly less killy for points cost, and more expensive and therefore a bit of a glass cannon.
  

 

• 2x wc or 2x pf: No benefit over wc+pf, so don't.
  
• wc+pf: overall the most killy terminator loadout, but also the costliest tied with cw+pf. Also, you completely miss out on shooting, and I think it's therefore probably not worth it.
  

• Combi-weapons? I think it's worth getting at least a couple. Put them on your cheaper models (e.g. power weapon rather than power fist).
  
• Side note: heavy weapons? Give them cyclone missile launchers and attach them to long fangs packs (this makes them character status, so you can allocate wounds on a 6 with krak missiles!).
  

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What about mixed armour?

 

Ultimately, I think mixed armour has a few potential advantages.

1) Wound allocation through Look out, Sir! If you put an IC in the squad, they could potentially divert lascannon shots to the power armour guys. Str 9 will insta-gib most ICs, so it's worth diverting these to cheap models or power sword + storm shield models (who might be twice the points of a power armour guy, but will only die to lascannons about 1/3rd as often).

2) Cheap source of attacks. They cost less, and they potentially have more close combat attacks than a standard WG terminator. On the other hand, it's a cheaper source of an extra storm bolter or combi weapon.

3) more models. Less expensive and take up half the space in your dropship/land raider. Also, qualify for your 2 heavy weapons choices with a lower total points investment!

 

The downsides:

1) Not relentless. A major strength of terminators, imo, is that they can shoot their combi weapons/storm bolters, and then charge. Combi plasma (or support your melta with bolter fire) the rear armour of that rhino and then charge the occupants! Rain plasma death on your foes before charging them! This is a big deal, IMO. However, power armour models cannot do this. And sadly, storm bolters cost 3 points. This means that combi weapons are a tantilizing 2 points extra!

Solution: always pack a pistol. That way if you plan on charging, you can still fire. For example, combi + bolt pistol is strictly better than combi + chainsword. Otherwise, pay the 3 points for a storm bolter.

2) Most loadouts are too expensive. I don't think it's worth it to spend many points on these models. For example, a power sword costs 2/3rds as much as TDA + sword + storm bolter!

Solution: Don't go overboard. I'd advise leaving the bolt pistol there and upgrading the close combat weapon only.

 

As you can see in the excel, power armour wolf guard seem to be quite competent in melee when just equipped with a power axe (in fact, point-for-point, they kill guardsmen, marines, terminators, and t5 terminators better than any of the TDA loadouts). Of course, they're not very shooty. plasma pistol + power axe wolf guard aren't too shabby either, but they're extremely fragile due to the high number of points invested in a 3+/- model.

 

The table doesn't illustrate this, but obviously, a model with a combi weapon + bolt pistol or a storm bolter will add cheap fire power, but won't be great in melee.

 

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What do I take from all this?

 

Firstly, use guns. You have counterattack, and storm bolter + power axe is still pretty good for melee too. Throw in some combi weapons. With relentless, you can do a lot of damage with a volley of storm/combi fire before charging, and enemies are unlikely to touch you with their overwatch fire. On the other hand, if they charge you, you get overwatch in addition to counterattack! Good deal!!

 

If you want power armour guys, you have a choice between shooting, melee, and both but expensive:

 

Shooting: Combi + bolt pistol; storm bolter; plasma pistol + bolt pistol.

Melee: Power sword; Power axe

Both: plasma pistol + Power sword; plasma pistol + power axe. I haven't checked storm bolter + power weapon because it loses the extra attack, but it might be viable (however, why not just get a TDA with the same loadout for the same points cost?)

 

If you go the both route, only buy a couple and keep them behind your terminators.

[skeletoro]

Anyway, the loadout I'm planning on equipping my first 5 cataphractii is the following:

 

Combi-plasma power sword

Combi-melta power axe

storm bolter wolf claw

storm bolter power fist

storm bolter chain fist

 

I'm considering switching to 4 combi plasmas (2 of each) though. And swapping the power fist for a power axe might not be a bad idea. I just like having variety!