Wolf Pup here, questions asked, advice needed.

[CatSmasher]

hello fellow wolfbrothers,

 

I am new to the game and have enjoyed looking through the great info on this board. I have read through the "stickied" resources and learned a lot about constructing my wolf army.

 

I have started with buying some units from a filthy Xeno who now runs a Tau army. I am hoping for some tips/advice from the more experience players on the board. To start, I have the codex and rule book, and have read through each of them. A lot of the jargon is over my head, but I have an basic understanding of game play (yet to play my first game)

 

So far I got a bunch of regular looking units (assembled and primed, some painted), and some that are larger with hammers and shields, which I assume are terminators, they are built and primed carry shields and hammers, or a storm bolter, and one guy has another big weapon. From my limited understanding I have

 

15 grey hunters (variety of weapon loadouts - at least two have a plasma gun)

10 wolf guard in regular looking armour

5 terminators

Ragnar Blackmane

Njal Storm caller.

 

My same friend has offered to buy me something else to add to my army. We are trying a game this Sunday, and he wants to help put my points count up a bit (750) so he can breakout some of his new units.

 

What should my next step be? Here are my thoughts based on what I've read around here

 

I want more GH because I don't like how these ones are equipped, and I know that they are a strong versatile option (considering mixing one space wolves tac with one standard marine tac for a bit of variety in weapons

 

Tau scum has offered to buy me a Drop Pod, rhino, or land speeder ( or something in that price range)

 

Long Fangs/devastators -  this one seems tough because the preferred load out seems to be ML but the kits only come with one.. (perhaps I could just proxy?)

 

I also really want Thunderwolf cavalry because I like the idea of maintaining fluff integrity

 

What do you think about the progression here? Is it bad form to proxy my njal as a rune priest for now? 

 

SInce he's my only friend who plays is there a way to maximize my efficiency against tau? I've read his codex and it looks like he is perfectly designed to crush the type of force I can muster right now.

 

thanks in advance for any help/tips

 

-D

[MailOrderHero]

Also a new Wolf player here, but my advice is buy/build all the grey hunters you can, that box is your lifeblood for wolves, it builds everything you need

[Fytharin]

Alright so for tau for the sake of this conversation, if you can lock them in close combat the sooner the better. Drop pods are good right now because it gets you into close combat the only downside is he can potentially shoot dead your unit in the first turn they are unable to charge in. I would have him get you the drop pod and more grey hunters is definitely something you want to look at getting. My general rule is you want a pack of 10 GH's for every 500 pts.

 

Long Fangs you can probably proxy ML's for now, it all comes down to your opponents permission or not. Most players are fine with proxy as long as you clarify before the game what is what.

 

TWC are pretty pricey so I wouldn't start looking at them until you're past 1000pts but I love running a squad of three as a flanking unit to intercept my opponents melee beater squad. Best advice is to get into close combat fast with Tau because they can and will out shoot you.

 

Proxying Njal as a normal RP is fine, I do it all the time with Ulrik. Just once again make sure you clarify what's happening.

[CatSmasher]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure what to do about a lonesome DP. I do think it wll get shot to ribbons upon landing. Should I put GH in there with two plasmas? or my Termies and try to get them in close on a rush?

 

Is there an optimum weapon to use against his battlesuits? I know he has a bunch of awesome looking broadsides.

 

We have agreed to meet at my place and play. He is a close friend (unless he beats me) so I'm sure he would be happly to allow proxies and we have not set a point limit as yet. 

 

This will be my first game and we will probably play with the "cards" face up.

 

I have seen the WG termies on GW site and they only seem to have close combat weapons, is this a function of the fluff? Are there more efficient ways to equip them with different weapons.

[Jarl of Wulfen]

There terminators with shields and hammers have some of the best chance of surviving the incoming fire. Consequently the hammers are the best melee weapon against the suits. I'd say put them in the pod and drop it close to his line and pray

[Rift Blade]

As Onyxguard said. Put the Termies in the DP & pray to the All Father. AS  the others have said, GH's. After that, I would look at LF's. I usually run mine with 2 LC's & 3 ML's. Whatever you decide for weapons for your LF's, try to keep the ranges similar. Makes life easier. I hardly hear of proxiing being a problem so you should be fine. Play some ganes withthat stuff & see where you want to go from there. Good Luck.

[Leif Bearclaw]

As far as the Hammer and Shield Terminators go, despite being pretty good, ours are massively overcosted compared to other Marines (63 vs 45). The GW kit does indeed only have storm bolters and some heavy weapons (doesn't have the cyclone, which is damn shame), this has nought to do with the fluff, just the nonsensical dictates of the design studio. If you want to Pod the terminators, then combi weapons are a good idea, otherwise you run ther serious risk of not doing enough/any damage on your alpha strike, then being murdered by the return fire.

Fytharin's right, no need to worry about using special character models as their generic equivalents. My PA Njal has never been used as Njal, always Rune Priest Leif Bearclaw, likewise Ragnar as a WGBL/Wolf Lord is perfectly OK.

For tackling broasides, you really need AP2, high strength gear, plasma, melta, lascannons and Vindicators are the go to weapons for dealing with this sort of thing.

Tbh, I don't fully get the obsession with ML Fangs here, I always run a mix of weapons in mine (2 HB, 2LC ML and 2 ML, 3 PC).

Personally, I don't really rate TWC, I think the fluff is stupid, and they have never seemed to be worth the cost, more troops and tanks always seemed a better use of my points.

You're basically facing the problem that current Tau are cheesy as all hell, they take an edition of the rule already massively favouring shooting armies over assault, then make them even better at it, with ignore cover markerlights and multiple unit overwatch. You really want either multiple pods (which you may have noticed are a favourite on this forum), or something completely different. Only one pod makes enemy target priority very easy, guarnteeing that whatever comes out of the pod will be taking all his firepower in his turn, whereas giving him multiple, dangerous looking threats may cause him to split his fire and fail to take any of your units out of the game. Depending on your friends list and table size (I've had best results with this tactic of 4'x4' rather than 6'x4'), at 750 points footslogging may be a good shout, get some Fangs for fire support, use your PA WG as more Grey Hunters, run forward and beat face (Leif Bearclaw accepts no liability if following this advice lead to turn 3 tabling without causing notable casualties on the opposition )

[SnakeoilSage]

Personally I prefer Meltaguns over Plasma, but I've had some terrible luck with the Get's Hot! rule.

[spjaco]

I put plasma on tanks and dreads.  I give my GH either melta's or flamers.  Once in a while I throw in a plasma to keep the enemy guessing.  For my LF's I go with either a pure (all 5 carry _____) or a 3 and 2 split.  Seldom go with Heavy Bolters unless I am expecting Orks.

 

Haven't gotten any TWC yet.  I have gotten a lot of good results from Ragnar Blackmane so there you have that.