The Wolves of Fenris as allies for Sisters of Battle

[saturnine]

Greeting Wolf Lords,

 

I am an Arch Confessor of the Ecclesiarchy wishing to recruit some of the mighty Space Wolves to fight along side the Sisters of Battle against the enemies of The Emperor! 

I've been thinking about three list and would welcome the opinions of all the Wolves, from the fearless Blood Claws, up to the wise Long Fangs and Wolf Lords.

 

list #1

-Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf with a storm shield, wolf tooth necklace and a frost blade

-10x Grey Hunters with two plasma guns

-10x Fenrisian Wolves 

-5x Long Fangs with five missile launchers

The Thunderwolf Lord joins the Fenrisian Wolves and charge forth into the thick of battle. The Grey Hunters footslog forward to support the Battle Sisters and the Long Fangs sit in the back with the Retributors and Exorcist Tanks and bring down the fury from afar.

 

list #2

-Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf with a wolf tooth necklace, storm shield and a frost blade

-10X Grey Hunters with two plasma guns

-3x Thunderwolf Cavalry with one storm shield

-5x Long Fangs with four missile launchers

The Thunderwolf Lord joins the TWC and charges forward and the Grey Hunters and Long fangs do the same as list #1

 

list #3

-Canis Wolfborn

-10x Fenrisian Wolves

-10x Fenrisian Wolves

-3x Thunderwolf Cavalry with two storm shields

Canis join the TWC behind the two with the SS, flanked on each side by the Fenrisian Wolves and charge forward at the Enemy.

 

Nothing is set in stone nor have I bought any of the models yet. My local meta is semi competitive but also play for fun. I like really like the idea of Fenrisian Wolves and Thunderwolves but if something else runs better, as I am having difficulty deciding on one, please feel free to comment. Thank you 

[DanPesci]

Although Canis unlocks fenrisian wolves as a troop choice, he isnt that great as  1. they still don't count as scoring, 2. canis has no invunerable, 3. he also has no eternal warrior

 

Id go for the wolf lord, the storm shield/wtn/FB, its a good combo for killing infantry, but he'll have problems with anything with 2+. What can be nice is to run him with wolf claw and power fist, and take a belt of russ. It drops his inv save but means he can now take on a wide variety of stuff (S10 powerfist is nice ;)) - alternatively maybe just give him melta bombs so he can at least deal with armour.

 

5 fangs with missle launchers is a no brainer, solid heavy support choice, although id maybe try get it up to 6 (with 5 missle launchers) if you have the points, but guess it depends what else your taking as heavies in your list already. 

 

When it comes to TWC vs Fenrisian wolves, I tend to prefer running 15 wolves as a wolf lord escort these days, unless you spend a lot of points on storm shields, there is so much good shooting that will take down a single expensive pack of thunderwolves, whereas fenrisian wolves cost half the price, and can be underestimated (and if yo can keep them in cover etc the can survive). Id sya these days you need to run two packs of TWC to have them be effective, as one is too easily dealt with (especially if its running up the table alone whilst the rest of your force footslogs behind it)

 

The other thing id try to do is get a drop pod for the grey hunters, that way you can drop them in mid field, with the thunderlord charging up to support them. One other thing you may want to consider is adding a wolf standard to the squad, for 10 points, although one use, they can make a HUGE difference in one round of combat (reroll all 1's - but that is for your overwatach/save against enemy overwatch, charge range, to-hits, to-wounds, and armour saves)

[Rune Priest Jbickb]

Definitely better to pod your hunters than walk them as Dan mentioned above.

 

I think the first list is a better allies choice as you don't want to take too many points from your sisters. And it gives you access to a lot of wolfy goodness for around 600-650 depending on wargear load outs.

 

hope this helps

[Squark]

Podding your hunters might not be the best idea if you can't support them- Sending them in alone is likely to just get them killed, and hunters on their own can't do enough justice to justify their points and potentially giving up first blood. If you're running Rhinos or immolators, giving them a rhino would be a better bet.

 

Wolf lords are really expensive- they end up being nearly 300 points after you've bought the insurance plan (and you don't want your 200 point investment going down to a vindicator or death ray), and while they can do good work, they need a lot of support. I'd also recommend going for a wolf claw or powerfist over the frost blade. S10 solves a multitude of issues, while the wolf claw lets you keep I5. Alternatively, consider the Rune Priest- Sure, they're psykers (but don't remind them- its a touchy subject), but they're also one of only 2 psychic defenses in the game (and since the other option is a giant, disgusting bug, you're stuck with us). Plus, their psychic powers have a couple of useful effects (Jaws in particular is notable for being the bane of Tau, Tervigons, and Necrons).

 

Also, if you do take Thunderwolf cavalry, make SURE to give them a powerfist. 4 S10 attacks is... fantastic.

[Fytharin]

Personally I like #2 but I think you might be better off switching out the Lord for a Rune Priest as Squark was saying. Our priests are some of the best in the game and if you march him forward with your Grey Hunter pack it helps with some of the covering fire he was also mentioning. I've never played against Sisters before so I don't know what their strengths are but that's just my two cents. If you do go with #2 or any type of TWC be prepared to pay a lot for them but in my mind they are worth it. They are an excellent beater squad.

[saturnine]

Thank you all for the suggestions and after checking the points, I think I'll try out a rune priest. Now, to come up with a good narrative why the Sisters of Battle are working with a psyker, that's not an Inquisitor.

 

Rune Priest with Rune Staff, Storm Caller and JOTWW

10x Grey Hunters with Wolf Standard and two Plasma Guns

15x Fenrisian Wolves

6x Long Fangs with five Missile Launchers

 

A few more questions come up with this list though. Is the Chooser of the Slain worth it? Is Mark of the Wulfen worth it? How well do Rune Priest hold up in close combat?

[Squark]

Thank you all for the suggestions and after checking the points, I think I'll try out a rune priest. Now, to come up with a good narrative why the Sisters of Battle are working with a psyker, that's not an Inquisitor.

 

Rune Priest with Rune Staff, Storm Caller and JOTWW

10x Grey Hunters with Wolf Standard and two Plasma Guns

15x Fenrisian Wolves

6x Long Fangs with five Missile Launchers

 

A few more questions come up with this list though. Is the Chooser of the Slain worth it? Is Mark of the Wulfen worth it? How well do Rune Priest hold up in close combat?

1) Depends on the build. If you'd taken living lightning, definitely. As is, it depends no how heavy your metagame is with infiltrators. Also, keep in mind Storm Caller only affects allies, which sisters, strictly speaking, aren't (allies of convenience are treated as enemies for rules purposeS)

 

2) do you expect the Grey Hunters to get into combat regularly? If yes, MotW or a Power Axe is a good idea. if not, a wolf standard is probably all the insurance you need.

 

3) Depends. You can swap to Biomancy if you need to, so that helps, but he's still a T4 2W I4 character with no invulnerable (and the only way to get one is to take Terminator armor). That's not the worst profile in the world, but its not great either. Also, be aware that whether runic weapons are unusual force weapons (and thus always AP 3 at innitiative) or not is a long-running debate over RAW vs. RAI -Although I would point out that if you do say they are runic weapons, so is Njal's runic staff, since nothing actually says what the hell a runic staff is.

[Fytharin]

Not true on the Runic Staff, it's been clarified in our FAW as being a runic weapon that nullifies a psychic ability on 3+. I tend to run living lightning and JotW on my RP and it works really well. I can LL them until I get in JotW range. Both are great shooting attacks and LL tends to annoy your apponent yet they don't tend to target him until you start using JotW on their characters and that's when they really get pissed. Though the more experienced opponents know to attack sooner than that... 

 

MotW I think is worth it if you do plan on being in CC a lot like Squark said but to be honest I tend to run with both MotW and a standard but it will be hard to get more than one combat out of your GH pack if you are foot slogging it across the board.

[Reede]

Mark of the Wulfen can definitely be very hit or miss, but when it hits, it hits hard. I've had Wulfen do nothing in combat, to going and glancing an Iron Clad Dreadnought (also once had a Wulfen slay three bikers in a white-scars command squad alone). If you're going for fluff, adding it in is a lot of fun, but per practicality a power axe is probably better since it'll give you a more stable weapon that can go through 2+ armor and, here's the big one, can't be challenged out.

Rune-priests can be pretty beastly in combat and unlike our Vanilla brothers they have a big boon. They can roll on divination. With that you're getting a lot of twin-linked, a possible 4+ invul on the squad, or even ignores cover. Not to mention the Runic Weapon nullify on 24" is probably one of the best anti-psyker defenses in the game right now. The other thing, while in tournaments, yes the runic weapon is just a standard force sword, but if you're playing with friends or open minded enemies, you can use them as either a force axe or staff which is fun.

However you're not limited to taking a Wolf Lord or Rune priest, per our FoC you can take an extra HQ for every one you take (so in standard games, up to 4), the only limit being points spent, so you could possible get both if you've got the points for it.

Narrative-wise, there are plenty of reasons Wolves might get paired up with Sisters. A good book to read is Blood of Asaheim which deals with that exact situation. However when it comes down to it, they're working together, that doesn't necessarily mean they like it. Tension certainly provides for great storytelling. Not to mention Rune Priests don't see themselves as Pskyers (more as Shamans, drawing power from mother Fenris, not the warp. While this may not exactly be true, to say otherwise is a pretty big insult), which can also provide very interesting moments in the fluff.