Valerian's Guide to Army Building in 7e

[Valerian]

BATTLE PLANNING

 

The battle plan that you formulate, and the method that you intend to use to defeat your opponent should vary greatly depending upon your Mission, the Enemy you are facing, and the Terrain upon which you will fight. I caution you against buying units for your army with a presupposed plan on how you will use them before you have analyzed, and fully understand these three critical factors. I often see newer players submit an army list for critique, who will then describe the tactics with which they will use their forces, when they do not yet even know what enemy they will be fighting, or what the scenario will be. Instead, I recommend that you make choices that give you effective fighting forces regardless of the situation at hand. Unit selections that are inherently versatile will be the most effective in any given situation.

Although all players will come to the game with a few ready tactics and trusty techniques in mind, most battle planning will occur very rapidly, when analyzing the Terrain on the battlefield prior to deployment of forces, when the Mission is determined and any objectives are placed, and when you have the opportunity to ascertain the disposition and composition of Enemy forces once he has deployed them. Only then can you truly begin to determine how you intend to defeat your opponent.
 

 

YOUR MISSION OBJECTIVES

 

Five of the Eternal War missions require at least some offensive maneuver, as they are objective-based, and those objectives are placed either in the enemy’s deployment zone, or in the “no-man’s-land” between the deployment zones. These are generally good missions for Space Wolves when facing “shooty” armies, like Tau or Imperial Guard, who may be less willing, or less able, to go on the offense to control objectives in, or near, your deployment zone. Conversely, these missions can be troublesome when opposing “horde” armies, like Orks or Tyranids; at some point you will have to move toward those objectives, and therefore toward an enemy that generally has both superior numbers and superior close combat ability.

Purge the Alien, however, is all about destroying enemy units and claiming the Victory Points derived from that, thereby allowing maximum freedom toward picking either an offensive or a defensive scheme of maneuver. It should go without saying, but when given the opportunity, select a scheme of maneuver that gives your army the advantage.

Of the thirty-six Tactical Objectives associated with the new Maelstrom of War missions, most of those also require you to control objectives by the end of your player turn, in order to achieve Victory Points.  These, too, then require at least some degree of offensive maneuver to remain competitive.

 

I cannot overemphasize this point: always keep your mission objectives foremost on your mind.  Every movement made, psychic power attempted, shot fired, and assault initiated, should be in support of achieving your mission objective(s); don’t lose sight of your goal!

Schemes of Maneuver:

Offensive:
In general, you will usually want to adopt an offensive scheme of maneuver against a “shooty” enemy, such as the Imperial Guard, the Tau, and certain Eldar builds. These are armies that will typically attempt to fix you in place and destroy your forces with ranged firepower. Traditionally, these forces make their move toward objectives late in the game, when they have degraded adversary forces such that the opponent can no longer effectively oppose them.  Those “shooty” forces, however, are typically weak in close combat, thus you will do well to come to grips with them as rapidly as possible, and dominate them in an assault.

Defensive:
Conversely, you will usually want to be defensive when opposing “horde” armies, such as Orks and Tyranids, that are vulnerable to ranged fire, stronger at close combat, and bring strength in numbers.

These are not hard and fast rules, however, and sometimes the mission will dictate that you do otherwise. Regardless, you should always choose forces that can be effective in either an offensive or defensive scheme of maneuver, which I will discuss in greater depth later in this article.
 

THE ENEMY

 

Information:
Foremost, an effective commander must know his or her enemy. This begins with a detailed familiarity with the codices for all opposing forces, particularly if you plan on conducting open, or tournament play. For friendly games, you must at least be well-versed in the codex of your regular opponents. You should have a good understanding of their armies’ capabilities and vulnerabilities. Look carefully through your opponents’ manuals and try to determine how you would fight with their available forces. You might even consider lurking around the forums for those army types and get a feel for how others play with those forces, and perhaps even submit an army list or two to elicit feedback. Once you’ve gained some degree of mastery on the subject of your enemy, you will be well-armed to use your own forces to defeat him.

 

I will be the first to admit that this has become more difficult in 6e, and now 7e.  The expansion of potential adversary unit choices via the proliferation of supplementary codices, data-slates, and Forge World books, as well as the liberal use of allies, has made it much more difficult to gain a mastery of understanding over your adversaries’ available forces.  Still, do what you can to learn, and place yourself at an advantage over your opponents.

Observation:
The initial phase of deployment provides your first opportunity to observe some, if not all, of the forces that the enemy is bringing to bear. Understand first that your enemy will place forces in response to three factors: his mission objectives, the terrain, and your own placement of forces (if you have placed yours first). Regardless of who deploys first, your goal in this phase is to try to determine from the placement of enemy forces what the enemy commander intends to do with them. Understanding the intent of the enemy commander, and conceptualizing his likely scheme of maneuver (his plan for implementing firepower and movement to accomplish his mission objectives to defeat you) will better allow you to deploy and then use your own forces in a manner which is more likely to disrupt his plan, while at the same time developing your own scheme of maneuver for accomplishing your mission objectives. If, at the end of the deployment phase, you haven’t reasoned out why the enemy forces are placed where they are, or what he intends to do with each unit, then you are already in trouble.
 

 

THE TERRAIN

 

Although you may not be able to influence the Terrain upon which you fight, you must understand how it can, and will, affect the battle.

Open Terrain:
Open terrain, that offers plenty of long-range fields of fire and line-of-sight across the battlefield will generally favor the defender, allowing him to cause casualties on the approaching enemy force at the maximum ranges of his weapon systems. Any available cover in the defender’s deployment zone would only add to this advantage by offering protection from incoming fire from the attackers, and it would force the attackers to assault into cover to come to grips with the defending troops, which can affect the order of close combat, making a huge difference in the outcome of an assault. Units with Assault Grenades (e.g. Frag Grenades) can avoid this last disadvantage, but not all Space Wolves units have those (Terminators, for example).

Closed Terrain:
A cluttered battlefield that offers a variety of cover or concealment across the board generally favors the attacker, offering him a protected approach to the opponent’s positions. Any difficult terrain may hamper mobility somewhat and slow the advance, but the protection offered by line-of-sight blocking terrain is usually more than worth the costs of a slower paced attack. When you are fighting a mission that dictates you use an offensive form of maneuver, do your best to ensure that your opponent doesn’t shirk you on the proper amount of terrain on the table, particularly terrain that will obstruct his view and reduce his fields of fire into your approach.
 

YOUR AVAILABLE FORCES (UNITS)

 

Now that we have examined a few important details about how the Enemy, Mission, and Terrain will affect each battle, let’s discuss the one variable of the battle that we directly control – our choice of Units.

Versatility:
One should buy, assemble, and paint units that are versatile enough to be effective regardless of the situation that fate and the vagaries of war present you. This is particularly true of the tournament army, in which you will likely face a variety of Enemy types, and perhaps also conduct a variety of Missions, using a single, fixed, army list. However, even if you do not intend to fight in tournaments, most players want to buy, assemble, and paint as few units as possible, and still have an effective fighting force. Having thousands of points worth of units to select from is very resource intensive, in terms of both time and money. Therefore, whether you intend to use your army for tournaments, or just friendly play, you will still want to build a comprehensive list that is effective in both the offense and defense.

Army vs. Unit Versatility:
It is important to note at this point that I am a proponent for versatility of the entire army, rather than for each individual unit. Please allow me to explain. The army, as an entity, should be built in a manner that it has such inherent versatility that it can easily adopt either an offensive or defensive scheme of maneuver and be successful. To put it simply, every unit must ably fulfill a role in either scheme of maneuver. That is not to say that one should try to make every individual unit good at every role (for example, mixing heavy weapons for defensive firepower and special close combat weapons for offensive assault capability in a single unit). Such a unit may well be versatile and even effective in both roles, but it will not be efficient, as the assault capability will be wasted when the unit stands-fast to fire, while the ranged firepower will be forfeit if the unit is on the move toward the enemy. Instead, the versatility that I speak of is a comprehensive versatility that is inherent in an army list that is built with each unit having specific complementary capabilities that are useful in helping us accomplish our mission, regardless of whether we choose an offensive or defensive battle plan. It is okay to have units that are specialized; when they are used in a way that they support one another and combine effects on enemy forces, they will be much more deadly.

For example, a Land Speeder Tornado is an effective, and fairly points efficient, light support vehicle that can provide a significant contribution to our army whether we are attacking, or defending. Likewise, a dedicated assault unit (such as a pack of Thunderwolf Cavalry) is essential in an attacking force using an offensive scheme of maneuver, but also fills the vital role of a counterattacking or reinforcing unit in the defense.  Ultimately, regardless of the situation at hand, we want every unit in our army to have a clear job to do, and we want to give each unit the resources (i.e. the right options and upgrades) to do that job well.


Analysis of Units:

When making selections from a Codex army list, a player should conduct some analysis to determine which units will be most effective. Such analysis should help focus the player and aid him or her in making choices that are based on reason, and not on emotion (or good marketing). Such an analysis will aid the commander in selecting the units that are most helpful to the army, while helping him or her to avoid choosing units because they appear to be nifty. What follows are a few techniques that might be useful in conducting such an analysis.

A technique one can use in army selection is to conduct a point-by-point evaluation of potential selection choices to evaluate how effective the choice might be for your army. I’ll offer the following categories as a start for your evaluation: Firepower, Protection, Close Combat, and Mobility. Rating each of these categories using a simple scale from 1 to 5 is a technique that is easy to implement.

Firepower:
In the Firepower category, one can assign ratings for the amount of lethal, ranged fires that the unit or vehicle can place on the enemy. This category is probably the most subjective, as you will have to factor in multiple variables, including weapon ranges and strengths, AP ratings, and other effects (such as pinning). One might assign a Blood Claws pack a firepower rating of a 1, a Grey Hunter pack with Bolters a 3 (or 4 when within rapid fire range), and a Long Fang pack a 5.

Protection:
For Space Wolves, the majority of your forces will have similar Protection ratings, since the armor value is the same for most of your models. One might assign models with a 3+ save a rating of 2. Wolf Scouts might be rated as a 1, whereas Swift Claws might be a 3, considering the increased Toughness, and potential 4+ Jink save. Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor would be a 4. Vehicles, of course, have improved Protection, when compared to standard infantry models, thus we would assign most vehicles a rating of 5 (or use an extended scale, beyond 5, to account for the significant difference in Protection afforded by vehicle armor).

Close Combat:
In this catagory we assign value to the Assault potential of our units. Ratings could include a Long Fang pack at a 1; a Grey Hunter pack with Wolf Standard, Mark of the Wulfen, and a “hidden” power axe at a 4; and a Wolf Guard Pack with multiple Special Close Combat Weapons at a 5.

 

Mobility:
Mobility is arguably the easiest category to determine, as it is the least subjective, since every model already has a fixed movement rate. The standard movement for an infantry model is 6”, which we can rate as a 3 on the 1-5 scale. For most models, moving this distance does not significantly reduce performance. I would rate a standard Grey Hunter pack as a 3 in Mobility, while a Swift Claws Bike pack would be given a 5. A Long Fang pack, however, would earn a 1 for Mobility; although they have the same standard movement rate as the Grey Hunters, making such a move severely reduces the unit’s effectiveness for the remainder of that turn. Obviously, selecting a transport for the unit may improve its Mobility, but may have a negative impact on its performance (for example, Long Fangs can only Snap Fire their heavy weapons from a moving transport).

 

While we are on the topic of mobility, I’d like to take the opportunity to emphasize the importance of this attribute in 7e games.  A casual inspection of the mission scenarios (Eternal War and Maelstrom of War) should demonstrate how critical mobility is in the game: 5 of the 6 Eternal War missions require each player to move his forces to specific points on the battlefield to seize and control objectives.  A considerable number of the Maelstrom of War tactical objectives for each turn do, as well. Mobility is certainly necessary in an offensive plan, in which our forces speed forward to 1) secure mission objectives, 2) to deploy within rapid fire range of the enemy, or 3) to come to grips with the enemy in close combat (an assault). However, mobility is also necessary, albeit to a lesser degree, in the defense, where we will need mobile forces to reinforce threatened areas in our defensive lines. Mobility is also helpful in the defense in enabling forces to move forward or laterally out of our deployment zone to secure a piece of advantageous terrain, (such as a wooded hilltop, with good fields of fire, upon which we can establish a base of fire), to conduct a spoiling attack, or to allow reserves to exploit opportunities for advantage. Even with the option for infantry forces to ‘Run’ in the Shooting Phase, an entirely “foot-slogging” force will likely have a very difficult time under most mission scenarios due to an inherent lack of good mobility. Mobility can be categorized in multiple ways, but I will describe two of them here.

Operational Mobility:
Operational mobility encompasses the manner in which a commander deploys his forces to the battlefield, to dictate the terms by which he will engage the enemy. A Space Wolves commander’s ability to Deep Strike a large portion of his combat power, via Drop Pod, regardless of mission scenario offers him a tremendous degree of operational mobility. Additionally, with their Behind Enemy Lines unit special rule, Wolf Scout packs also have excellent operational mobility. Operational mobility is particularly important in the attack, and Space Wolves are therefore particularly well suited for that scheme of maneuver.

 

Tactical Mobility:
Tactical mobility describes the degree to which forces are free to move about on the battlefield. Forces with a large number of “foot-sloggers” have low tactical mobility, whereas jump infantry, bikes, and transports provide a great deal of tactical mobility to our forces. Tactical mobility is vital in allowing our forces to seize objectives, assault the enemy, or to reinforce threatened positions.

I would submit that versatile army lists should include a mixture of units that all come with some degree of either operational or tactical mobility.  Armies with low mobility are almost guaranteed to be outmaneuvered, outgunned, and outplayed.

 

BATTLEFIELD ROLES

The utility of following through with a classification scheme for units using the evaluation criteria of firepower, protection, close combat, and mobility should become apparent as one begins to determine which units to select to fill the various army list Battlefield Roles. When building a force, the commander should have an appreciation for the various roles that need to be filled in order to field an army that has mutually supporting capabilities. I will provide and discuss several of the Battlefield Roles immediately below, but it is important to highlight that the following list is by no means meant to be comprehensive.  You are very likely to identify specific Battlefield Roles that are unique to your own army, your play-style, or that are specific to the requirements determined by the adversaries that you routinely face. 
 

Consolidation Force: A unit that can effectively secure/control an objective. Assault Forces will often seize an objective then hand it over to a Consolidation Force, thus freeing themselves to move on to seize the next objective. In previous editions, this Battlefield Role was associated with a force organization chart limitation: typically, only Troops choices could control objectives (although other units could contest them). In 7e, however, almost all units have been designated as ‘Scoring’ units and now have the ability to control objectives. Nevertheless, Troops choices from Battle-forged armies have a new rule in 7e, ‘Objective Secured,’ that retains their distinct advantage in acting as Consolidation Forces; now only adversary units that also have the Objective Secured special rule can contest them.

 

Of all the Battlefield Roles, the Consolidation Force must be the most well-rounded, as all of the four attributes are essential in getting to, and maintaining control of an objective. Because of these requirements, the only good Consolidation Force unit in our current codex is a Grey Hunter pack that has a Transport (Rhino or Drop Pod). Thankfully, the "ultragrit" weapons load (bolters, bolt pistols, CCWs, and both frag and krak grenades), Countercharge, and the ability to add a special close combat weapon and/or Mark of the Wulfen, two special weapons, and the ubiquitous Wolf Standard, the Grey Hunter Pack is the ultimate Consolidation Force. Not only is it highly effective, it is also very reasonably priced. I recommend taking as many Grey Hunter packs as you can afford, as they can also fulfill several of the other Battlefield Roles quite admirably.

 

Base of Fire: A unit that establishes long ranged fires to destroy enemy forces, or to fix his forces in place, thereby limiting his opportunity for maneuver. The most important attributes for this force are Firepower, followed by Protection. Examples of good Base of Fire units include: Predator Destructors, and Long Fang packs with Razorback transports.

 

Thankfully, Long Fangs packs are very reasonably priced and make for a very attractive Base of Fire option; in fact, they are so capable in filling this role, they became the default choice in most 5e and 6e army lists.  I see nothing to indicate that this will be any different for 7e Space Wolves army lists.

Tank Destroyer: A unit tasked with protecting your force from the effects of enemy armored vehicles; usually this is accomplished by simply destroying enemy tanks and vehicles. Mobility is certainly helpful, for either getting the Tank Destroyer to the enemy vehicle to destroy it in close combat, or for getting flank shots on the enemy vehicle to destroy it with Firepower. Examples of good Tank Destroyers include: Swift Claws Bike packs and Wolf Scouts operating Behind Enemy Lines.  Long Fang packs can also serve as reasonable alternate long-range Tank Destroyers, depending on heavy weapons selected, but they do lack the mobility necessary to be a reliable primary Tank Destroyer force.

Rear Guard/Flank Security (RG/FS): A unit tasked with protecting your “backfield” from enemy outflankers, deep strikers, or any enemy forces that have successfully maneuvered forward on the battlefield and penetrated your lines. Generally, the Rear Guard must be able to protect either an objective in your deployment zone, or friendly units that are vulnerable to close combat, such as your tanks (Predators), artillery pieces (Whirlwinds), and similar Base of Fire forces (Long Fangs). The most important attributes for the RG/FS forces are Mobility and either Firepower or Close Combat. Examples of good RG/FS units include: Land Speeders, Swift Claws Bike packs, Thunderwolf Cavalry, and Sky Claws Jump Infantry packs. A Dreadnought can also make a good RG/FS unit providing that lateral mobility in your deployment zone is not essential for protecting your objective or Base of Fire units (i.e. by placing the Dreadnought near the unit/location that needs protecting).

Mobile Reserve: A unit that is available for the commander to commit to exploit any opportunity that might present itself. The Mobile Reserve can be held off-table, in “reserve”, or can be on the battlefield, conducting a secondary task until committed. The most important attributes for the Mobile Reserve are Mobility (obviously), and Firepower. Examples of good Mobile Reserve units include: Land Speeders, and Swift Claws Bike packs.

 

Assault Force:  A unit that will close with and assault an enemy force to destroy it (force-oriented), or that moves forward to seize an objective (terrain-oriented). The most important attributes for this force are Mobility (tactical) and Close Combat. The Space Wolves codex contains many options for decent Assault Forces. Examples now include: Thunderwolf Cavalry Packs, Swift Claws Bike Packs, Sky Claws Jump Infantry, Blood Claws Packs with a Transport (Rhino or Land Raider variant), Grey Hunter Packs with a Transport (Rhino or Land Raider variant), Wolf Guard Packs (in Power Armor or Terminator Armor) with an appropriate Transport, and even Fenrisian Wolf Packs.

 

Obviously, some selections will be more effective than others, and you must weigh in your personal preferences in addition to considerations of efficiency (cost versus value) and effectiveness when choosing your Assault Force(s).

Assault Force Note 1. It is probably appropriate to take the opportunity here to make an important point. Because of all of the excellent and attractive Assault Force choices available, it would be easy to become overzealous and go overboard with selections from this category. If you include multiple Assault Forces then you must sacrifice in other areas, weakening your ability to fill certain other important Battlefield Roles, and making your army less able to accomplish other tasks. Additionally, selecting too many Assault Forces might "pigeon-hole" you into a offensive scheme of maneuver that may not be to your advantage in every situation, or versus every Enemy.

Assault Force Note 2. I recommend trying to "manage" your close combat potential such that you do significant damage to an enemy unit on the turn that you charge, but do not destroy it. If you destroy it, then your expensive assault unit will be exposed to all of the enemy fire that they can muster in their following shooting phase (which will probably be everything they've got, and will be very bad for you).

 

Instead, design the unit to destroy about 7 or so Marines (or Marine-equivalents) on your charge, and expect that you ought to get the remaining 3 or 4 during the enemy's assault phase. Having destroyed the unit in the enemy's turn, your unit will then be free to Move and Assault again in your following turn, having been protected from enemy fire throughout.  Dedicated assault forces like to stay in the “safety” of ongoing close combats.

 

Disruption Force:  A unit designed to disrupt an enemy's attacking force, preventing them from bringing an overwhelming number of forces to bear on your defending forces at one time. Achieving disruption will allow the defender to focus the fires of his forces on the attacking units as they approach in succession, rather than together.  See below for an expanded discussion of this concept.

 

 

DISRUPTION

 

When on the offense, the attacker typically prefers to attack a vulnerable position with multiple units simultaneously. The objective is to overwhelm the enemy force at that point and then move on to exploit the advantage gained. If the attacker can isolate the defending force at the point of its attack from supporting units, all the better. The attacker is attempting to use mass by bringing his numbers and combat power to bear against a weaker and therefore vulnerable force at the point of penetration.

The desire to overwhelm the enemy is why most players adopting an offensive scheme of maneuver will send everything they've got at the defender at once, rather than sending in units one at a time in a piecemeal fashion. The defender would love that, as they could focus the fire of all defending forces upon each unit in turn as they approach in succession; this would place the advantage of achieving mass on the defender's side, rather than on the attacker’s. However, it is unlikely that an attacker would operate in such a way, intentionally handing the advantage to the defender. Therefore the defender must attempt to disrupt the enemy's approach, causing the attacker to assault in succession when he does not want to.

In the real world, this effect is often achieved with Disrupting obstacles (as opposed to Fixing, Blocking, and Turning obstacles), which are designed to disrupt attacking enemy formations, causing them to lose synchronization at the point of attack. On the battlefields of the tabletop, however, we have few such obstacles (other than the occasional piece of difficult terrain) to use for this purpose. Instead, we have to look elsewhere to achieve our goal; enter the Disruption Force. The Space Wolves have several good alternatives to achieve disruption.
 

Pinning:
The first alternative to achieve disruption is by taking advantage of weapons that can cause the Pinning of enemy units. Pinning is one of the few ways in which a defender can halt the forward progression of an enemy unit, by forcing them to go-to-ground against their wishes. Don't forget that you can force an enemy unit to take multiple Pinning tests in a single turn, and if they fail the test, it will disrupting their forward movement and will separate them from other units in the attack.

 

Unfortunately, the Pinning options that Space Wolves used to have available (including Sniper Rifles and Barrage weapons), no longer have the Pinning special rule in 7e; we’ll have to look elsewhere to achieve disruption now.

 

Spoiling Attack:
A second alternative toward achieving disruption is in the Spoiling Attack. Other than Pinning, one of the only other ways to stop an enemy unit's forward movement is to lock it in close combat. Relatively easy to do, choosing to make a Spoiling Attack is often a difficult one for the defender, because it usually means the sacrifice of the unit sent forward to execute the task. Desirable attributes for a good Spoiling Attack force are that the unit is cheap enough that it won't be missed when it has ultimately been destroyed, and that it is not a critical part of the main defenses. Additionally, the force should have enough Protection to keep it around long enough to effectively lock the enemy unit in place for a turn or two. A minimum-sized Swift Claw pack makes a pretty good Spoiling Attack force; it has good Mobility, decent Protection (with the T5 and 4+ Jink save), decent Close Combat capability, and does not cost so much that they will break the bank.

 

However, an even better alternative for this is the Lone Wolf. The Lone Wolf is the perfect unit with which to conduct a Spoiling Attack, and therefore achieve disruption of the enemy. Firstly, equipped properly, the Lone Wolf is robust enough to lock down an enemy unit by himself, and probably do some significant damage before ultimately being overwhelmed. Secondly, even with TDA, a Storm Shield, and a Thunder Hammer, he only costs 85 points, so his loss will barely be noticed. Lastly, and this is the fun part, it's our goal for this guy to eventually get himself killed anyway! I don't think we could ask for a better unit to do this job.
 

 

AIR DEFENSE

 

Prior to 6e, there was no need to dedicate forces to fill an Air Defense role in your army. The distinction between “ground-based” vehicles and those that “flew” was minimal, usually consisting of little more than ignoring intervening terrain during the movement phase. The publication of the 6e rules, however, brought the advent an entirely new class of units with unique rules and characteristics that now necessitate a different kind of response. Specifically, the new units of concern are Flying Monstrous Creatures, and Flyers (a Vehicle type).

 

The most significant issue with these new threats is that they are considered “Hard to Hit,” which means that all shots against them must be resolved as Snap Shots (i.e. only hit on a roll of a 6), unless the firing unit or weapon has the Skyfire special rule; additionally, Template, Blast, and Large Blast weapons cannot affect a Swooping FMC or a Zooming Flyer. Furthermore, FMCs and Flyers may choose to Jink for a 4+ Cover Save. These features make these specific threats incredibly resilient, and therefore much more difficult to deal with than any of the other types of units that you’ll face on the battlefield.

 

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, only units with the Skyfire rule, which allows units to fire using their normal Ballistic Skill at these targets, have any real chance of acting as an effective Air Defense unit. There is a downside to this special rule however, and that is that units with this rule can only fire Snap Shots at ground-based targets. In 6e, one could look for alternatives that also had the Interceptor special rule, which allowed the unit to shoot at ground targets at full Ballistic Skill, too, but this advantage has been removed in 7e.  Interceptor is still advantageous for Air Defense units, in that it allows you a to fire at enemy units that arrive from Reserves at the end of the enemy Movement Phase, however, the effectiveness against ground targets, and thus the flexibility of most Air Defense units, has been drastically reduced.

 

Unfortunately, our current Space Wolves codex hails from the early 5e era, so does not include any units with the Skyfire rule. Also, the GW designers haven’t seen fit to change this situation via an errata adjustment to our codex. One viable course of action, in light of this situation, is simply to assume risk in this area and not fill the Air Defense role within your force. This is actually a perfectly acceptable course of action if your assessment of your adversary is that he either 1) will not take any FMCs or Flyers, or 2) that he’ll take them, but they will be unable to prevent you from achieving your mission objectives, and/or will be unable to ensure that your opponent achieves his objectives. In other words, if the flying models aren’t going to win him the game, you’re probably safe in just ignoring them! However, there are certain armies in the current meta-game environment that have access to flying units that can win games largely on their own; often, choosing to ignore the Air Defense role simply isn’t an option, particularly in a tournament setting.

Knowing that there are no viable solutions within our codex, we have to look elsewhere for suitable alternatives to deal with the responsibility to defeat enemy flyers. Fortunately, the 7th Edition has opened up new possibilities outside of a player’s codex of choice; enter four new resources: Fortifications, Dataslates, Allies, and Forge World. The use of any of these is not only accepted, but expected in contemporary games. Just remember that the main thing to look for is the Skyfire special rule; then you should assess each alternative’s Firepower, Protection, and Mobility (with priority in that order), just as we have with the units filling the other designated roles within our army lists.

 

Fortifications:

The incorporation of a Fortification into your army can be a tremendous force multiplier; you are limited, however, to selecting only one Fortification per Combined Arms Detachment. With the purchase of an appropriate gun emplacement, these structures can provide enhanced protection for vulnerable units, while also fulfilling the Air Defense role for your army. A cheap and popular option is the humble Aegis Defense Line with Quad-gun, where a small points investment nets you four twin-linked shots at strength 7, with both Skyfire and Interceptor, while also providing a barrier large enough to provide a 4+ cover save (improved to a 2+ save if you choose to Go to Ground) for one or more of your units.

 

For slightly more points, you can select a Bastion with the same Quad-gun, which upgrades you to an AV14 building, with the additional protection that it affords you over the cover save of the Defense Lines. This is another excellent choice for protecting one of your Base of Fire or Rear Consolidation forces, while also providing an Air Defense capability.

 

The Stronghold Assault Supplement contains a score of additional choices, upgrades, and other rules for using battlefield terrain, obstacles, and fortifications in your games. Many of these provide weapon battery options, such as the aforementioned Quad-gun, or the popular Icarus Lascannon (both with the Skyfire and Interceptor special rules combination) as suitable alternatives to provide your army with an Air Defense unit.

 

Allies and Forge World:

I won’t go into all of the available choices, as the list of options is too large to do an exhaustive examination of the additional Air Defense alternatives available when you include the considerable Forge World inventory, as well as all of the units that become available with an allied detachment. The Space Marines codex alone (a selection that provides “Battle Brothers” synchronization with our Space Wolves) includes the new Hunter and Stalker vehicles (both cheap weapons platforms that are dedicated to the Air Defense role), but also offer their own Flyers, in the Stormraven and the Stormtalon Gunships; often, having your own Flyers to dominate the skies over a battlefield is the best form of Air Defense (all Flyers can choose to use the Skyfire rule at the beginning of each Shooting phase). The only requirement to including allied units such as these, is that you take a minimum of one Headquarters and one Troops unit from the allied codex; it is usually easy to pick units that provide capabilities that are absent in our own codex and exploit these to fill or augment the many other roles that need to be covered in our army (a Space Marine Captain on a Bike, with a Bike Squad (as Troops), and a Stormtalon Gunship would be one example of an allied contingent that would fill multiple roles for your army, including Air Defense). Additionally, as long as you have a consistent technique for distinguishing these allied units, you can even paint them as Space Wolves, and just pretend that they are a part of your own Great Company in your own fluff. It is vitally important, however, that you remember to not use Space Wolves special rules (such as Counterattack) with these units, but apply only the appropriate rules from the codex from which they were borrowed.

 

 

AUGMENTATION

 

Some units, particularly Independent Characters, usually found among the Headquarters selections of a codex’s army list, contribute to your army in what I’ll call an Augmentation role.  They typically are not able to fill a Battlefield Role by themselves, but are exceptionally well-suited to attach to another unit to increase that unit’s ability to do its assigned task much more effectively.  For example, a Long Fang pack executing the Base of Fire task transitions from an effective force to a potentially devastating force, when you’ve added a Rune Priest specializing in the Divination discipline.  Likewise, a Swift Claws pack acting as an Assault Force has its close combat effectiveness enhanced considerably, when you attach a Wolf Priest with an Oath of War that grants Preferred Enemy to the unit.

 

Keep in mind, however, that these Augmentation forces are relatively expensive, and therefore come with a rather large opportunity cost associated with their inclusion.  Thus, you should try to only include them when you have assessed that you really, really, need to add them to your other units in order to ensure that they can do their jobs.  If you think that a unit can do its job reasonably well on its own, then you should let it.

REDUNDANCY

 

Remember that any and every unit in 40k can be destroyed; nothing is completely invulnerable in this game. Furthermore, your opponent will (presumably) be a thinking and adaptive adversary who is using all of the assets at his or her disposal to destroy your forces and defeat you. With that in mind, it is essential that you build redundancy into your army when selecting units to fill the various battlefield roles. For example, if you field only a Land Speeder with a Multimelta as your sole Tank Destroyer unit, and the enemy manages to destroy that asset in the first turn, you might have a difficult game ahead of you, particularly if the enemy force has several armored vehicles.

There are a lot of Battlefield Roles that you may need to fill, and it is not likely that you will have enough points available to select two or more units to fill every role. However, certain units may be flexible enough to easily slip into accomplishing a secondary mission, when required. For example, a Swift Claws Bike pack makes an excellent Assault Force, but can easily transition to fill the Tank Destroyer role (if properly equipped), should the need arise. At the same time, however, if you do need to change its mission thusly, you must understand that you now have one less dedicated Assault Force than you started with (at least temporarily, until you can free them of this secondary task, and reorient them back to their original mission).

To reiterate the point on Redundancy, don't depend on a strategy that relies on a unit that might not be available anymore when you need it; everything can be destroyed in 40k. Instead, build your army lists toward filling the various Battlefield Roles, thus providing mutually supporting units, while achieving as much Redundancy as possible.

I encourage you to conduct your own analysis of these roles and any others that you can think of, and of the various unit types that you might select to fill those roles in your army.

SUMMARY
 

I have attempted to make it clear that one should pick forces for his or her army list that are effective in both offensive and defensive tasks. That is not to say, however, that every individual unit needs to be built to maximize firepower (for the defense) and at the same time close combat capability (for the offense), as such a unit is individually versatile and perhaps effective, but it will not be very efficient. Instead, my recommendation is that every unit chosen be able to effectively (and efficiently) fulfill a Battlefield Role in both offensive and defensive scenarios.

This versatility is necessary as we cannot create our battle plan, determine our proposed method for winning the battle, or choose our scheme of maneuver (either offensive or defensive) until we are able to examine, and gain an appreciation for 1) our Mission, 2) the Enemy we are facing, 3) the effects of the Terrain, and lastly 4) the capabilities and limitations of our own Units. Any of these may advantage either a defending or attacking force. Each of these four variables will combine to influence the game, and should assist us in identifying the appropriate scheme of maneuver in our battle plan.

We, as players, will only be able to affect in any real way the final variable, our Units, based upon the choices we make when creating our army list. Thus, I offer my final recommendations for versatile, mobile unit selections that avoid the pitfalls of the "points sink". In this way you will build an army list that can be effective when defending or attacking, as the true test of a formidable army list is one that can excel regardless of the given situation.
 

 

Valerian