Wolf Guard on Bikes

[Freman Bloodglaive]

Those who played the 13th Company list can do a similar thing with Champions of Fenris now.

 

Storm Claws Wolf Guard with melee weapons

Grey Slayers Wolf Guard with bolters (unfortunately only combi-weapons though)

Storm Claw Bikers Wolf Guard on bikes

 

Unfortunately there's still no equivalent for the Wulfen.

[Freman Bloodglaive]

White scar command squads are another story and much more readily compared with wolf guard. The WS models end up about 2 points per model more expensive but can get storm shields 5 points cheaper - a squad of 5 with 2 shields costs the same. They can upgrade to an apothecary and take a company standard, and have access to combi-grav weapons, which are all excellent options (note, however, the lack of synergy between jink and that grav shot). They also get bonuses to jink, hammer of wrath and hit and run. However, the wolf guard have +1 WS (the company champion upgrade is 15 points, by comparison), access to +1 strength special ccw at a 5 point premium (perhaps not a huge deal, but nice) and more flexibility in terms of squad size and number of packs per detachment (assuming CotGW).

 

Space Marine command squads don't need to bother with combi-weapons. They can take the real deal.

 

Sadly that's something denied to Wolf Guard in power armour.

[Rune_Priest_Rhapsody]

I love the thematics of this idea, and the fact that it's affordable now makes it even more viable. As a distraction unit that also moves 12" could possibly be used as additional distraction from TWC or other in your face kind of packs.

 

I plan on modeling up a few to start off a pack, it seems like too much fun to not too!!
 

End of Line

[Sohail187]

News from the from the frontlines: Played against a buddy of mine in a slow grow league we currently having. He is using the champions of fenris suppliment and mass wg bikes with twc list. main warlord is a wolf lord with twin claws with a rune priest on bike and wolf priest on tw attached to a unit of 4 or 5 twc cannot remember + 3 squads of wg bikers and 2 sicarrons for fire support.

My god this army was devastating, at first i thought to ignore the wg bikers and to focus the wolves, but i seem to have forgot how tough the wolves were to kill !! everything on the table was in combat turn 2... and 5 wg bikers doing 5 hammer of wraths followed by 20 attacks.... and bolter shots before the charge!! just whittled down numbers immediately. On top of that entire army is hitting on 3's in cc as they are boosted to ws5. Unfortunately as its a league you cannot change your army lists, however I think WG bikers are going to be the start of something very cool!.

 

I think a army with WS primary and then Champions of fenris as allies you get your 1 hq 2 elites and fast attack, so you take the rune priest on bike or wolflord on twc x2 wg bikers and a unit of twc! and you get you grav spam in the back. cannot wait to test this out! 

[Leif Bearclaw]

Those who played the 13th Company list can do a similar thing with Champions of Fenris now.

 

Storm Claws Wolf Guard with melee weapons

Grey Slayers Wolf Guard with bolters (unfortunately only combi-weapons though)

Storm Claw Bikers Wolf Guard on bikes

 

Unfortunately there's still no equivalent for the Wulfen.

I'd be inclined to find a big werewolf-esque model (something like converted FW Skin Wolves), and use the TWC rules for Wulfen.

[Frater Cornelius]

WG bikes woke my taste in bikes but ultimately I am using them as WS allies now. The problem is that your shooting phase is barren bar a few pea shooters.

They may work well against low toughness armies but against necrons, wraith wings or other SM (bike or foot variant) they lose value rapidly unless you invest in weapons. You will be mostly relying on TWC to do the damage.

If no shooting and a pure beta strike is your thing, more power to you. It did not work for me though ;)

[Hear da Lamentation]

You can only have 5 guys in a Command squad - and only 1 such squad.

You can have up to 10 WG bikers in a squad - and as many squads as you like/can afford.

 

HDL

[Hear da Lamentation]

Given that this is the Fang so we should be talking more WG bikers than WS I guess ....

 

What's your favourite load out?

 

At this stage I am thinking of keeping it simple and cheap,

 

Pack of 5 WG bikers

2 combi plasma

 

Second pack with 2 combi meltas.

 

But - bearing in mind they are combat boys, even though they have jink - I'm thinking some storm shields would be good in there. . . .

 

I really like the WGBL biker too.  With fangsword, runic armour and storm shield, he weighs in at a sweet 130 points and makes a nice addition to the boys above.

[toonarmy]

Great thread!

 

I had been looking at WG bikers myself.  A while back I bought some bikes to start a WS army but now bikes are viable again for SW I will convert them to be wolfy.

 

As a unit I think they will provide a different alternative to TWC and I will be using them in the same list.

 

People are generally fearful of of TWC, and rightly so!  If a 5 TWC and squad of moderately tooled up bikers are bearing down on you what would you do?  I have a sneaking suspicion that many would shoot the wolves and leave the bikes.  The bikes will wreck face when they get into combat and if taken as part of the CoF detachment will be hitting on 3's as previously stated.

 

If they shoot the bikes then they have a TWC unit bearing down on them. And we all know what happens then ;)

 

The other thing to consider is that should either unit be whittled down to a few then any IC can jump over to the over unit with no loss to movement range.  Any negatives are outweighed by the fact that your IC (probably your Warlord) is in a new unit with loads of extra T5 wounds and still moving fast.

 

Regarding WS chapter tactics.  They are good but did take a little nerf in 7th thanks to the new rules for Jink.  The best things about WS is the scout move at the start, the access to Grav weaponry and Hit and Run.  That said they don't get access to anywhere near the same amount of special CC weapons and are limited to only 5 models per unit if you take the command squads which is the fair comparison with WG.  Hit and Run would be nice but in reality the WG bike unit would most likely kill everything 1st turn of combat or kill it the turn after.

 

I will be running bikes in a game on Monday so I will report back with my findings!

[logun]

they have actually been a bit better than my thunderwolves to be honest. my 10 man squad has been out performing my 5 man wolf squad. i can see the wolves doing better against big tough elite units though so still plenty of play time yet to see who is my actual favourite assault unit. but its that ability to shoot while still moving at good speed that kind of tip the scales for me. not to mention charging a unit, with 20 twin linked shots, 40 normal attacks and potentially 10 HOW. 

[Theduke08]

If you put storm bolters on bikers would they get to fire both the twin linked bolters and the storm bolters?

[Freman Bloodglaive]

No, page 63. A bike can only fire one weapon for each rider each turn.

 

It still means Sammael can only fire his plasma cannon or his twin-linked storm bolter.

[WG Vrox]

Update: Had a game using 10 WG and WL on bikes against Chaos.   2 SS 2 PA 2 CM 2MB and WL with RA - Black Death / SS. I rolled warrior born which didn't come into play in this game. As stated by others, the shooting of this unit was pretty substantial, I was both charged and did my own charging and either the twin linked overwatch or Hammer, seemed to tip the scales towards considering the unit viable and keeping it in my list and scheduled for a built project.  

 

I built the WL with the idea that he would split off and intercept any CC that I didn't want the WG unit to be bogged down with, keeping them mobil seems to be the key.  I must say the Black Death artifact is worth its points when used in this capacity.

 

Regarding the Black Death artifact, I want to make sure I am using the weapon correctly. He does NOT get the +3 attacks on the charge, rather he gets it on any assault phase thereafter in which he is outnumbered?  

 

I plan to keep this build for now and keep testing it. I do agree you have to pick your targets carefully or your wasting the considerable shooting capacity the unit has to offer.  

[Freman Bloodglaive]

He gets the +3 whenever he is outnumbered in combat. He gets +4 if he charges into a combat where he's outnumbered. To be locked in combat is to be actually engaged with the enemy.

[Frater Cornelius]

Now give him the Wulfenstone and let the slaughter commence ;D