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Skyclaws


Spazmonkey

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has anyone run skyclaws and had success with them?

 

I love the idea of them, and love the models as well....

I have a unit of five kitted out with a 

plasma pistol

power fist

forst axe

and a wolf lord with lightning claws belt of russ and melta bombs with Saga of the bear or insert saga here.

 

How viable is this as a unit. i know its not the strongest way to run a wolf lord, but i love the concept.

 

I would love any thoughts and ideas on how to make this unit viable and how to use it.

i am also holding out hope that the next codex will make woldguard jump packs more viable and cheaper as well so i can go down that road.....

 

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You could use the one with a frost axe as wolf guard battle leader. The squad can take a plasma pistol, and a powerfist so all your upgraded models would work with one squad. The claw units tend to work better with more bodies so you get a lot of attacks so I would want the max squad size anyways, that said I'm not sure how good it would be. Typically that depends on your play group and how you approach the game (if my army accomplishes a couple of cool things I can handle a beating msn-wink.gif). Good luck

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they'd be pretty good at cutting up anything without a good armour same (as are all 'claws, incidentally).

People tend not to consider them in part because TWC overshadow them for a mêlée oriented fast attack option.

But they do have 5 attacks on the charge, if you include hammer of wrath (in this case, HoW is actually better than one of their usual attacks as they tend to be striking at strength user ap -, and HoW is at initiative 10). HoW also helps ameliorate the fact that many foes will hit back on a 3+ due to their low WS.

For the points though, a swiftclaw is a fair bit more durable, when you think about it, and arguably a bit more mobile too.

I can't say I've ever fielded either unit though. In fact, I am due to play my first ever game with blood claws in a few hours! It's vs. Orks, and I have two LRCs - one with wolf guard and the other with blood claws. I'm anticipating that the blood claws will do surprisingly well due to the volume of attacks at initiative 4 or better. The wolf guard have a mix of power weapons etc and I actually don't think they're optimal for this fight - I didn't have time to magnetize a bunch of power makes to tailor to my opponent, and arguably the power weapons will be a bit of a waste msn-wink.gif

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I love running skyclaws, but I run a wolf priest with them instead of a Lord to give them preferred enemy on a specific unit. that helps to counter the lower WS.

 

I also run a rune priest with them sometimes, just for poops and giggles.

 

Jump packs are a lot of fun, especially against nids who already have low WS, so they often hit on 4+

 

T

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no. Also worth mentioning: usually ws3 doesn't make blood claws less accurate than 4+. Mostly it means ws 4 hits blood claws on a 3+, and blood claws don't get an accuracy boost against ws3. That said, there aren't many other ws3 units claws need to fear in cc. So ws3 mostly just makes them squishier rather than less deadly in a meaningful sense.

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Dunno if this may be of some use but we had a chat about swift/sky/bloodclaws not too long ago and some of the comments may be relevant to you. 

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/288423-bloodclaws-skyclaws-and-swiftclaws/

 

Personally, I've run them as either blood claws and swift claws. The swift claws were with a wolf lord on a bike and I found it to be quite an effective delivery system. Also I found that a geared up lord on a bike (runic, SS/PF) was able to tank most of the shots himself keeping the swiftclaws alive much longer and if you're worried about losing the lord then just bounce them on a 2+ Look Out Sir.

 

I would very much like to try out the skyclaws, however, until the become more viable I'm not inclined to part with money just yet. Let's hope the new codex makes them cheaper.

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When ive run the in the past i go for

 

wolf priest - jump pack, runic armour (pref enemy infantry)

10x Skyclaws - melta gun, power fist.

 

Due to points cost ive never bothered adding in a wolf guard with jump pack. Even then, its still a fair pricey unit, and i only run in larger games.

 

Once had a game of apocalyspe where they managed to hold up 3 ork mobs across a small gap, 300 style -  (wolf priest challenged out and splattered 3 P.Claw nobs turn after turn).

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I have run a 10 man pack in the past with a wolf priest and a wolf lord with wolf claws and saga of the warrior born attached. They are basically a delivery system for the Wolf Lord. I have had the Wolf Lord up to 21 attacks. Nothing compared to Ragnar's 38 attacks but....not bad.
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Due to points cost ive never bothered adding in a wolf guard with jump pack.

Well, that and the fact that you're not allowed to attached a Wolf Guard Pack Leader to a unit of Sky Claws msn-wink.gif

But they do have 5 attacks on the charge, if you include hammer of wrath (in this case, HoW is actually better than one of their usual attacks as they tend to be striking at strength user ap -, and HoW is at initiative 10). HoW also helps ameliorate the fact that many foes will hit back on a 3+ due to their low WS.

It is worth pointing out here again, however, that you don't get HoW on Jump Infantry if you use their packs in the Movement phase. This isn't an issue for Swift Claws, who'll always get their HoW attacks.

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has anyone run skyclaws and had success with them?
 
I love the idea of them, and love the models as well....
I have a unit of five kitted out with a 
plasma pistol
power fist
forst axe
and a wolf lord with lightning claws belt of russ and melta bombs with Saga of the bear or insert saga here.
 
How viable is this as a unit. i know its not the strongest way to run a wolf lord, but i love the concept.
 
I would love any thoughts and ideas on how to make this unit viable and how to use it.
i am also holding out hope that the next codex will make woldguard jump packs more viable and cheaper as well so i can go down that road.....

 

I've had decent experiences using skyclaws, but not so much in the fashion you are describing.  My favorite use in a normal game has consisted of units of 5-10 with as many flamers as I can fit, DS versus eldar, tau, anyone who really loves cover, give melta bombs to taste.  Against a tau army, this unit not only killed off pathfinders with templates, but also managed to tie up a large firewarrior unit in combat, making them less than useful for their intended purpose.

 

For me, skyclaws are all first attack, then pretty much are reduced in usefulness for CC, whereas say thunderwolves, they don't really get reduced in usefulness in CC as severely after first turn.  SC can deep strike, which is good, making them great for messing up backfield campers or taking out the odd vehicle, but I'd not be surprised if they literally do nothing of use due to the leadership/charge rule if unaccompanied. 

 

Part of the problem with them is that they aren't so much a CC unit as a one shot generalist unit, in a really full FOC slot.  If you charge a heavy unit the turn after deepstriking and DONT kill it the first turn, you may end up losing the unit to attrition unless you accompany with unit with a wolf priest or somehting equally fighty/useful.

 

TLDR: not a terrible unit, overshadowed by their FA FOC competition of Twolves, speeders and Fenwolves, BUT can do certain things efficiently, like flaming out cover-dependent high damage units and tie up/disrupt enemy shooting with subsequent charges.  

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You can always use LRCrusader to transport your Skyclaws. Maybe not very smart, a little pointsink. But lots of fun and HoW will be used for all of the 8 I10 attacks (8because only 8 will fit in) smile.png

Interesting, but really not worth it points wise IMO for 8 S4 AP- hits, prefer to fill that crusader full of bloodclaws and get like 24 attacks at initiative instead ;)

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That what I normally do. With a flamer or two its a looooot of dead boddies on the opposite side:) Especially if you field in a WP with them.

 

But again, roaring engines, and blasts from the exhausts could give you a first turn charge. And yeah I will never do this in a competitive game :D

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You can always use LRCrusader to transport your Skyclaws. Maybe not very smart, a little pointsink. But lots of fun and HoW will be used for all of the 8 I10 attacks (8because only 8 will fit in) smile.png

Interesting, but really not worth it points wise IMO for 8 S4 AP- hits, prefer to fill that crusader full of bloodclaws and get like 24 attacks at initiative instead msn-wink.gif

Um, no offense, it's 4 times the number of Blood Claws in the LRC if the pack gets the charge off. As I run 14, that's what, 56 total attacks, 52 normal, 4 Power Sword swings? The WP and WGPL swing separately.

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I brought Skyclaws just because they were fluffy but here are a few things I have found out.

  • For what they do they are expensive.
  • Small squads will get chewed up quickly, a blob is better than two small packs.
  • Always always ALWAYS run a Wolf Guard or HQ with them, you don't want all those points going down the drain.
  • Use them against weak groups as a battering ram; throwing them against elite infantry to buy time doesn't give you long.
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