Space Wolves Essentials

[Lupus Metallum]

New player here, looking for some advice. I want to start with Space Wolves (now that I know my first choice the DA Deathwing has been kind of wiped out by recent rulings and that the codex isn't very competitive) and I'm looking for some tips on force building and what minis I'll need for a good list.

My (loose) criteria:

I'm using 2000 pts. as my base list value. I like the idea of Logan Grimnar leading Wolf Guard terminator troops and would like to use them. I would like to build a shooty list that doesn't rob me of anti-armor or counter assault capability if that's possible. I'd like a list that could win a few games, I'm not building a tournament army right off the bat but winning is nice even if I had to throw out the Logan Grinnar idea. But I would like to play Logan . The local meta is Space Marines, Space Wolves, Grey Knights, Chaos, and I expect to see some Eldar and Tau on the table in the near future.

Which units are essential to a Space Wolves player?

[Grey Mage]

Grey Hunters are the only truely essential unit in the army, wich is part of why its such a good codex.

 

Want DPs? GHs, WGTDA, WG, Dreads, Typhoons, maybe some Long Fangs... scouts? All good solid investments. Might also consider some BC Bikers or Skyclaws for a fast moving character escort if you dont put them in a WG squad and pod them in.

 

Want Rhinos? GHs.... and just about anything else in the codex you could want.

 

Footslogging? Youll want maxed out Long Fangs, and plenty of Wolves, Thunderwolves, Scouts and Landspeeders to give you the speed edge youre losing elsewhere. Oh, and a Wolf Priest with Saga of the Hunter to give one unit Stealth is good stuff.

 

For 2k Id recommend that no matter what you decide on you have a core of 40-50 GHs, in either pods or Rhinos to start with. It gives you good solid firepower, and good depth of wounds to absorb enemy firepower. It also takes up half your points and then a lil. I recommend 3 Plasmahunter packs of 10 and 2 Meltahunter Packs of 10- but exactly how to set them up is personal preference. Many have had some success with five man squads, though I dont recommend using more than one of those in an army because they simply die to easily in my experience.

 

That being said, 2 of the same special weapon is the way to go in my experience. Gives them the most use out of those specials, and lets you easily pick their strategies and targets while knowing that they have a decent chance at getting the job done. I usually give Plasma squads a Powerfist and Meltasquads a Powersword, though these days its probably more worthwhile to just give everyone PowerAxes and Mark of the Wulfen if thats to taste, though slightly more expensive that way.

 

Some people like to put in Wolf Guard Pack Leaders- WGPLs- wich is fine and all, but means you miss out on that 2nd special weapon. If you find yourself in assault most turns- wich is an oddity in 6th I find, but depends on your tactics- its probably worth it. Two schools of thought here, wich revolve on wether or not to give the boy a combi-weapon. If so, match the rest of the squad and give him any special close combat weapon you like. If not, be sure to give him a powersword- make sure your GH has an axe for chopping down 2+ saves!- and get yourself a good duelist and troop muncher.

 

Now stapples youll see in many SW lists:

 

Long Fangs, particularly Missile Launcher Spamming Long Fangs- MLSLF ;) - though I like to run mine 2x ML and 2xLC to give me that extra punch vs heavy armor.

 

Rune Priests- good psychic defense, cheap as chips HQ option, utility powers for the whole family and access to some of the best lores out there. Yeehaw!

 

Things youll rarely see:

 

Small bloodclaw packs. Only thing more of a pain than a large bloodclaw pack is a small bloodclaw pack. IF and only IF youre meta contains a large number of IG blobs would I reccomend taking large units of bloodclaws- you can get 60 attacks on the charge that will rip those things apart in a single turn, but against anything else its just overkill and youll likely suffer from a disorganized charge wich will end up negating any and all advantage they had over the simple and capable GH.

 

Iron Priests- though I like him riding on a wolf with some cyberwolf buddies, many find him quite useless and frankly hes a niche unit at best. Use for fun, and sometimes hell do great things. Just dont expect the moon.

 

Skyclaws- Good unit, very little synergy with the list. More expensive smaller bloodclaw unit that loses scoring.... I own a full squad, and they see table play when Im in the mood- but again, just not a unit that works with most lists.

 

Predators- we EVENTED the predator Annihilator. Fancy that! And because long fangs are so darn good its hard to think of taking one, though some people do and find good use out of the 'combi-pred'.

 

 

 

So yeah... sorry, you asked a loaded question. If youd like more specific advice... what kind of wolves are you in the mood for? DP? Wolf Riding? Rhinos? Raiders? Footslogging? Stormeagle Special? *FW only, not available in all areas*

[Grey Mage]

Sorry, somehow missed the part with Logain- Logain usually means taking Wolf Guard troops- though Ill note you dont have to!- and that usually means drop pods.

 

A good start to the force would be 25 SW Terminators with a mix of heavy weapons- ACs and CMLs- and 10-20 WG in power armor that you can mix and match into those squads to keep costs down and numbers up. A unit of Long Fangs can go with Logain, using Relentless, if so desired- MMs are a favored optionf or that. I suggest adding in 3 single strength Landspeeder Typhoons for speed and long range firepower to help cover the lists weaknesses, and consider a dreadnaught or two for your elites section for heavy weapon support and all. You want an odd number of drop pods of course, 7 or 9 is what I shoot for, though youll likely not get a full 9 in with so many WG running about eh? Probably 6 packs of WG, and a single dread or LF squad to round out the numbers.

 

Scouts are good, though not as good as they used to be in many ways. Givem a plasma pistol, or two, and either a plasmagun or- my preference- a meltagun so they can walk in and break open important enemy artillery pieces or heavy weapon squads *like broadsides* that threaten your scoring units. Once theyve done that, just do what you can to wreak havoc in the back field until they die.

 

Now, if yer feeling a little more tactical you can bring more than one LF squad, and deploy them normally- and use their DPs as blanks to block charge lanes later in the game, deny objectives, or otherwise change the battlefield on the fly. Its great fun. For that matter you can do that with any of your WGs pods, though I find it rare I need to use more than 2 for that purpose in a game. *shrugs*

[Roma]

Remember though, if you are willing to convert a lot (or counts-as a bit), the dark vengeance box makes for very cheap:

 

Rune priest (company master, librarian)- conversions needed:none

Wolf guard/grey hunters (tactical squads, about 11 euro each on ebay)- conversion needed:weapons+upgrades

Wolf guard terminators (terminator squad, about 13 euro each on ebay)- conversions needed:weapons+upgrades

Lone wolves (terminators/tacticals)

Long fangs (plasma cannon tacticals)- converting plasma cannons into missile launchers

 

As you can see, every core unit. I made my 1500 points list by buying a DV box for 70 euro, and selling everything except for the rulebook, terminators, and tacticals. Then I just bought another 3 tactical squads, and spent about 3 hours converting the whole army.

 

This made a not very space wolf-looking army (which is fine, I dont really like all the fur, etc and go for a more disciplined look), for 70 euro+bits I had lying around.

[Roma]

Of course, if you really want a wolf look, buying 1 box of grey hunters should give you all the bitz you need.

[Lupus Metallum]

Roma I actually have extras for the Dark Vengeance set, bought a couple sprues of DW terminators on Ebay. I had not considered converting them. Maybe I'll save some $$ and go that route.

 

Grey Mage, thanks a lot. Looks like I'll need a bunch of drop pods. I didn't think of them as something that could block parts of the battlefield. How shooty is a list with a bunch of wolf guards? Looks like they can take a bunch of CMLs.

[spjaco]

The Space Wolves Battleforce will give you plenty of bits for two or three tactical squads so they can be suitable Greyhunters.

[skeletoro]

Speaking in general terms, grey hunters are a bit more "shooty, with a solid assault secondary" while wolf guard are generally more "want to charge into close combat immediately after firing their combi weapons" in my opinion. But there's no reason you couldn't take the max number of long fangs units, plus some shooty elites or fast attack choices (hyperios platforms are a good option from forge world, as are storm eagle transports, and land speeders are a decent enough heavy weapons platform too), and then sink your remaining points into Logan and wolf guard as your troops choices.

 

3 long fangs packs, 3*3 hyperios platforms... 735 points. That still leaves plenty of room for podding wolf guard (maybe swap one of the platform emplacements for a storm eagle, for a huge Logan-bomb ;))

[Grey Mage]

Skeletoro has the right of it- WG armies are going to rely more on assault that shooting as they have fewer numbers- its just harder to throw out more shots.

 

It should also be noted that you dont get parts for CMLs in the SW Terminator box. Its a sadness.

 

If you want shooty, I suggest GHs.

[skeletoro]

Yeah, if you were building, say, 20 TDAWG, I'd suggest maybe getting 2 regular space marine terminator squads, and 2 wolf guard terminator box sets. Then mix the bits up and maybe add a set of FW space wolf terminator torsos/shoulder pads for good measure. It'll still be wolfy enough and you'll have 2 CMLs. You might decide you want 4 - in which case you'd have to go to an online bits dealer, but they're surprisingly expensive to buy individually. There are some third party alternatives for CMLs, but personally I am not a huge fan of any of the available ones.

[Roma]

Wolf guard can be plenty shooty.

 

Logan Grimmar 275

Rune priest 100

4X10 WG, 2 with terminator army and cyclone missile launcher, 1 with termi armor and chainfist, wolf banner. 305

 

Just as an example, at a bit over 1500 points thats 16 missile launcher shots, plus logan's preffered enemy, plus rune priest living lightning shots/divination rerolls, and a very strong cc presence. By dint of everything being MEQ/terminators, and hopefully in cover, you could even out shoot a lot of armies (forcing them to come to you), and with such good cc units+logan grimmar and his inspiring presence (+1 attack for all for a round), thats just cake.

 

Grey hunters and wolf guard have the same number of attacks in cc, so if you are taking wolf guard, you are taking them for terminator armor, cyclones, and combi weapons. Kitting them out for pure cc (which they are good at anyway, being space wolves with a wolf banner), is a bad idea.

[Roma]

On a side note, land speeder typhoon launchers, missile launchers, space marine jump packs, and chaos havoc missile launchers are a cheap way to get typhoon launchers (generally on ebay).

[irwit]

Make your own cml from HKMs.   Look much better than real thing  :)  Lots cheaper from bits stores too!

[Roma]

Make your own cml from HKMs. Look much better than real thing Lots cheaper from bits stores too!

What does hkm stand for? I gather its some kind of pintle mounted missile launchers, but whats the exact words?

[irwit]

sorry!   BnC ( Bolter and chainsword)  turns you into an acronym abuser in no time!  

 

HKM = hunter killer missile

 

you know its bad when you are happily reading stuff like "WGPLTDA with CML and CF" and don't even notice someone has used an acronym.  

[Grey Mage]

You know you cant take a Wolf Totem in a WGTDA unit right?

[skeletoro]

Wolf guard with bolters? :/ that doesn't strike me as particularly worthwhile. You're paying 18 points per model, for starters.

 

The CMLs are good, but it's not like you couldn't just get some long fangs.

[Roma]

You know you cant take a Wolf Totem in a WGTDA unit right?

wolf totem 0.o?

 

Long fangs get shot, 1 dies (squad leader), now for every one that dies you lose at least 25 points, and your shooting power gets reduced.

 

On the other hand wolf guard, you have 8 meatshields before you lose firepower, and your wearing terminator armour.

[SW1]

For their points cost you can't do better then the humble Grey Hunter. They are masters of the medium/close range fire fight. Get within 12" rapid fire, take the charge snap firing and then counter charge.

Grey Hunters have a base 1 attack but come with Bolter, bolt pistol and CCW. So they have 2A to start off with taking the pistol and CCW into account with a 24" firing range.

Wolf Guard have 2 attacks with pistol and CCW. So they have 3A to start off with taking the pistol and CCW into account with a 12" firing range. If you want to extend the firing range and change the pistol into a bolter then they become a more expensive (3 points extra) Grey Hunter (with 2A + 24" range).

WG come into their own boosting other untils. GH's are Ld 8 stick a WG into the pack and they become Ld 9 which might not seem to be that big a thing but it does make a difference. Arm him to compliment the unit he's joining. :)

Lol ... But let's be completely honest and just put it out there that a unit of 10 WG all with wolf claws looks flippin awesome!!!

[dswanick]

Here are my "Space Wolf essentials":

1 Wolf Priest

1-2 Rune Priests

1+1 Grey Hunter packs per 500pts

1 Wolf Guard pack

1+ Long Fangs pack

[Roma]

Why do you consider a priest essential?

[dswanick]

Why do you consider a priest essential?

Which Priest?  :lol:  If you mean the Wolf Priest: 2+/4++, Saga of the Hunter.  Plus he's a good budget Warlord with an Invul.

[Ghostwolfalpha]

 

 

Why do you consider a priest essential?

Which Priest? :lol: If you mean the Wolf Priest: 2+/4++, Saga of the Hunter. Plus he's a good budget Warlord with an Invul.

Couldn't agree more. With our ability to field double the amount of HQs, cheap, effective HQs are gold, and bith the Rune Priest and Wolf Priest fit this role very nicely.

 

Must haves for me are:

Rune Priest

Wolf Priest

Grey Hunters (min 2 squads, should be 4-5 at 2k)

Long Fangs

Dreadnought (drop podding bullet magnet)

Drop Pods or other Transports.

Vindicator (favorite tank bar non)

 

Honorable mentions:

Thunderwolf Cavalry

TDAWG (which for you should be a must)

Whirlwind (for horde or static gunline armies)

[Ghostwolfalpha]

Oh and a Thunderwolf Lord to scare the crap out of any other HQ who thinks he is good in cc.

[Roma]

I don't really get the point of saga of the hunter, you get there faster walking. Plus his maul is sukkish :(

 

give me a rune priest as warlord any day, easy to keep alive with arjac, objective sitting, or biomancy.