Creating My army

[Amarog]

Hi everyone.

 

First of all I just want to say hello as i'm brand shiney new here. I'm also brand shiney new to space wolves, i have decided after reading a certain amount and looking at the models that they're my kind of army.

 

I was just wondering if you could give me a little helping hand in what purchases i should go for initially to get my army off the ground (the bare necessities so to speak).

 

So far I have only got 1 unit of GH and a unit of fenrisian wolves. (Literally just started with them :)) I also have enough bits left from the GH box to amend some vanilla marines into some blood claws, maybe 5-10 of them.

 

Any tips etc is always greatly appreciated. thanks in advance :)

[Frater Cornelius]

I am not a big fan of Blood Claws. Two units of 10 GH, one unit with two Plasmas, the other with two Meltas in drop pods is how I would start. Rhinos will do as well. Beyond that, you want to look into what kind of army you like to run.

Is it Drop Pod heavy? Then you want around 5 pods with GH, PAWG, TDAWG and Dreads and some long ranged support like Long Fangs.

Do you want a fast moving army? Look into bikes, Jump Packs, TWC and Fenrisian Wolves.

You want mech? More Rhinos, a few pods, Vindicators and possibly a Land Raider.

 

You can also run a pure bike army, a pure TWC army, a pure Dread army and a pure Terminator army by using the Champions of Fenris Supplement.

 

So let us know what kind of army you have in mind. Between the supplement, our codex and SM allies, we can do pretty much everything out there with varying degrees of success.

[Amarog]

I was only looking into blood claws simply as a cannon fodder, wound sucking unit, 15 of them are bound to help as a blocker lol. but yea GH seem decent, the unit i've made has 2 plasma (would have done melta tbh but the box doesnt include them and didnt have any bits).

I definately like the idea of a minimum of 3 pods so i can bring the 2 down first turn and lay down some nice fire power!

 

I've got a couple of standard rhino's i used for my last army that i could re-paint and use for my wolves now. I used to find them handy to just flat out and then get out first or 2nd turn depending on where i was and where objectives were.

 

I also like the look of TWC although i hear apparently using them is cheese? lol to me they just seem beasty (in theory). And bikes as well simply for the added bonus of moving further up the field, HOWEVER ... from a personal way of playing, i like to be able to get a fair amount of wounds in from shooting before anything else progresses so long fangs are definately on the agenda.

 

appreciate the feedback bud.

[Frater Cornelius]

Cheese is a matter of perspective. I consider them balanced. Most mean cheesy is the sense that Wolf Riders are cheesy.

 

And if you want fodder, Fenrisian Wolves are better.

[Amarog]

good point, cheaper by far, just send a huge line out front to tank the wounds.

 

i love the TWC, look and feel of them. Great hulking ancient wolves (some of which more than likely failed aspirants), being ridden by skilled Sw warriors. What could be better? haha

[Z00Z]

You going down the right track. 2 units of GH is definitely a good start. Before buying another unit of GH, consider getting a space marine tactical squad box. You can wolf them up with your bits from GH box, spread it around and more importantly you will access to what i consider is a "must have" sprue. The tactical squad weapons. Drop pods you will always use and a rhino wont go misplaced. If you can get a hold of the old battle assault box, id recommend it. 

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T4ZLcoG4U0w/UiLQax0n7SI/AAAAAAAAZiw/vYD5V3VGwVc/s1600/tac-sprue-03.jpg

 

Use the melta for the other GH unit, keep the combi bits for when you need to make a PA or TDA WG. 

 

You also have access to a flamer should you wish to make a skyclaw jump pack unit. A unit of 5 allows you to equip 2 flamers on them and more importantly the flamer doesnt suffer from the lower BS over the GH or WG counterparts in power armor. I second everything Immerstum said. Definitely the way to go. 

[Amarog]

awesome, thanks for the tips both of you.

 

I'll definately get myself another standard tac squad box and wolf them up..

 

thank you :)

[benane]

Thats what i did myself too. Got one old starter box, a tactcal squad and a devastator squad box. I built a squad of blood claws as well, just for getting used to modelling and painting, allthoug they will most likely just sit on the shelf.

 

Now i was wondering if i should get some swiftclaws, a longfang box and another tactical box to get me some longfangs and swiftclaws with flamers

[Amarog]

from what i've been readin in this forum (which by the way has helped a hell of a lot), is running skyclaws then flamers are the way to go.

This is also what i love about the SW boxes, the amount of extra bits and bobs makes it so easy to convert standard models into sw's.

sorry you said swiftclaws ... my bad ... but skyclaws and flamers. 2 per 5 man unit ... bargain of the century!

[Z00Z]

85 pts for 5 skyclaws and 2x flamers is a win. Plus you get rage. 

2x templates and 18 attacks on the charge, plus a fast unit.

 

Bargain at 85 points

[benane]

Ah, yeah i meant skyclaws of course. I'm still confusing all the claws :D

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Don't discount the bloodclaws so heavily. They can be nasty, especially with a rune priest leading them, take divination on the rune priest and you can use prescience to give the blood claws re-rolls on to hit. Plunk that in a land raider crusader, or a stormwolf(which may be better since it doesn't take up a HS slot). Space wolves can benefit a ton from synergy. The great part about SW is the fact that it's a dynamic army and it will grow as you do. 

 

I have built my wolves up considerably since I started a few months ago, I'm now in Apoc points levels. My experience has taught me a very critical lesson, you can never have too much infantry at your disposal when building lists. Your army needs to have a strong foundation of Marines before you go and add toys.

 

Another fun way to build your army is to pick a theme, mech, drop pod, terminator, whatever, and build around that. I chose to build my army up around the champions of fenris formations, because they looked fun. They are tons of fun, but make sure your opponent is ok with it. Even if you don't use the formations, you still have a diverse collection of models to use when you build other lists, so I feel that it is a great place to start.

[tylerw]

Core of most SW armies:

2 or 3 GH packs with 10 figures, at least 2 meltas and 2 plasma gun figures. Could do up to four of each gun.

At least 1 transport for each GH pack, typically the same type, like 3 drop pods or 3 rhinos, although you can go with mixtures ofc.

 

After that, you start getting into a bit of personal preference.

if you like assault, TWC are extremely points efficient. Bikers are good, too, and assault marines are okay.

 

If you like more of a midrange, flexible force, rhinos wit grey hunter packs are fine, and then it is just a matter of figuring out if the rest of your points go into heavy support, elites, etc.

 

I am really partial to the 3 pod approach at 1500, sending a melta GH pack and a generic mm dread in on t1, supportEd by a mix of pred, vindicator, and rhino/rqzorback.

 

I don't enjoy relying too heavily on TWC as people feel prepared for handling them more often than not, while they seem

To struggle with a few pods meltaing their best units on t1.

[Amarog]

Thanks a lot guys. Plenty of things for me to consider when it comes to my next lot of purchases. Definitely going to get another GH pack and possibly a standard tac squad too for the weapons.

I really like the idea of the core being 3 pods, 2 coming down first turn is a always a distraction to the enemy, especially when packing melta or plasma.

 

Thanks all :)

[Frater Cornelius]

Skyclaws have the problem of sharing slots with TWC and Drop Pods.

 

Bloodclaws are decent, but their delivery method is abysmal. Footslogging will not get them past the center. Land Raider will be stopped after 1-2 shooting phases. At the very least immobilized. Stormwolf will appear T2 at best, which means T3 charge at best. Most games are done by T3. Besides, these days most armies like to be mobile. After BC disembarked and killed whatever they charged, they will be stuck with 6" movement, while most others will just use their 12" movement to bugger off.

[Amarog]

so possibly stick with things i can crank forward quickly. i.e GH in DP's, bikes, wolves, possibly TWC when i expand more. Then perhaps keep the BC's back of the field in a couple of rhinos / razorbacks to follow up and claim objectives / take care of any enemy DS's trying to out flank me / do me from the rear...

[benane]

I'm looking into Landspeeders as well. They look like fun

[tjdudey]

My two favourite units in my army are 10 Skyclaws with a Jump Pack Wolf priest, and 15 Bloodclaws With a Wolf Priest in Stormwolf.

 

I know these are expensive units but I usually only play fairly big games 2500 points minimum. Both these units have the ability to wipe out almost any other unit in the game when they charge. The number of attacks is simply ridiculous. I find they will always wipe out their initial target with ease, and then they may take down another one or two units, but sometimes after the initial devastation they cause they become excellent distraction/objective grab units. I tend to send these against large blobs of troops, or pick a high value asset like an MC or Multiwound HQ with a retinue or something.

[rgr_maddog]

My two favourite units in my army are 10 Skyclaws with a Jump Pack Wolf priest, and 15 Bloodclaws With a Wolf Priest in Stormwolf.

 

I know these are expensive units but I usually only play fairly big games 2500 points minimum. Both these units have the ability to wipe out almost any other unit in the game when they charge. The number of attacks is simply ridiculous...

I wanted to try 15 BC driving up the middle of the board in LR Crusader, then have the stormwolf arrive with 15 more plus Ulrik for PE bubble on both squads and crash them into a 1000 point invisible death star and see what happens. 120 attacks with prefer enemy (everything).

[rgr_maddog]

But we digress, 30 BC is not a good start for an Army. The one thing I wish I would have started early on is to magnetize to get more out of each model.

[tjdudey]

HAHA

 

Those BCs could multiassault several squads of enemies each. With some special CC weapons hidden in each pack they could wreak absolute havoc.

 

Who cares about points or cost, that sounds like epic fun.

[Z00Z]

Yeah, I know skyclaws weakness is the fast slot. I cant however ever see me building a DP TDA unit. A locator beacon on 2 pods is almost the same points and I feel taking a DP as fast slot is not efficient. But that again is very dependent on the list you building.

 

Personally, im gojng for a 6 strong TWC, bikes and skyclaws as fast. Dependent on the ranged options I take, either LF or a unit of typhoon speeders, ill use a CoF with CAD or just CoF.

 

I must be honest though, im seriously enjoying speeders over LF. LF is just not survivable at the moment and the lack of mobility doesnt help. Parking a unit of speeders on ruins or cover terrain + jink gives you a much greater survivable unit. I dont rate a MM speeder though. Its limited range almost guarantees it being dead after its shot once.

[Frater Cornelius]

If you want JP units, wait until BA come out. Maybe they bring nice synergy characters or simply good Jump Pack MSU troops.

[Yoyo ninja]

I'm in a similar position, I'm returning to the game after a few years and I need to make my old force more playable in the new game. One of the things I have been looking at was the Wolf Guard Thunderstrike formation form the CoF book. It's essentially 10 PA WG in a pod and some TDA WG that deep strike at the same time under one reserves roll. My plan was to give all the models a combi-plasma (the 5TDA WG would take advantage of the free SS each aswell) and then alpha strike them (using the drop pod assault rule to allow them to turn up on turn one), plasma spam the hell out of something important and then try and keep them alive long enough to do some damage in CC. One of the special rules you get with the formation is that all shots fired on the turn they arrive are twin linked, so this should negate most of the gets hot rolls from the plasma fire. And if you drop them manage to drop them within 12" of your target you will be putting 30 plasma shots on to it! That is going to kill most things in the game without to much problem.

 

Obviously while that happening you bring the rest of your force up to support/objective grab ASAP.

[Z00Z]

 and then alpha strike them (using the drop pod assault rule to allow them to turn up on turn one), 

 

There's still an outstanding question on whether this is allowed or not. Some of us have written to GW to answer the question in a FAQ. The issue being that you never need to make a reserve roll for a DP entering turn 1. The formation however states that on a successful reserve roll, they both come in. I guess in order to not have a lengthy debate with your opponent, it might be a better idea to bring this formation in after turn 1.