Claws- Any good?

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck either Sky, swift of Blood claws? I've nto used them since the last codex came out, but have been thinking of maybe giving Blood or skyclaws a try, has anyone found good uses for them and good wargear combos? I'm presuming just use flamers on the special weapons :P

[Donkalleone]

BC: A popular opinion is using 15 BC with 2 Flamer and a hidden PF with Ulrick/WP in a Crusader/Stormwolf.

      A Cheap tax for more Pods in a Null Deployment and ObjSec.

      A theoritical use could be a konga line.

 

Sky: 5 man with 2 Flamers is a good and fast build, some but in a Powerweapon

 

Swift: Since WGBikers dont have Special Weapons some people take Swift to get...u guesses right... a Meltagun or an Attackbike with MM.

[Hellios]

Swiftclaws are okay. As Donkalleone pointed out they can be equipped for hunting things down with melta, but due to their poor BS I don't trust them. Funnily enough, I've probably had the most success using them against DE. Dark Eldar can kill them easily, but they generally ignore my small unit of Swiftclaws (focusing on more dangerous units); this has allowed me to throw some spanners in the works now and again. I find they I like to use them to get close and quickly kill soft units, or to engage tougher units that I want to stop shooting me.

 

I've never used Skyclaws, but I've long supported the use of Assault Marines. Now many people will say that Assault Marines are not very good, and sure in combat they aren't that much better than normal marines, and they have less dakka to boot. But I like to use small units with two flamers as counter-assault units, supporting another unit. Try and stay out of the way, and jump out to soften the enemy up with two flamers before another squad engages, or send them ahead to clear weak units out of cover, possibly clearing an objective for another squad to take, or again you can lock up small squads in combat to keep them from shooting.

[Yoyo ninja]

I love my sky claws. use them for loads of different things, if Im playing against someone who I know is likely to outflank I keep them back to deal with the threat. If there is a unit likely to bog down my more powerful units I make sure the Skyclaws get there first and take the punishment. I sometimes send them tank hunting(sneaky PF for the win). And if they are alive at the end of the game I use them to grab or deny objectives. they got loads better in this dex too as they don't need a babysitter now so you can trust them to do what. I don't spend to many points on them, usualy just the u it, if I'm feeling flush some flamers, if they are tank hunting they need a power fist.

[tjdudey]

Ten Skyclaws with a meltagun and a powerfist with a WP with Jump pack are autoinclude in my lists.

 

Sometimes I deep strike them to use the melta straightaway on a nasty piece of enemy armour. Or sometimes I deploy them right on the edge of no mans land and leap the forward for an assault as early as I can in the game.

 

I also enjoy my bloodclaws, 15 in a stormwolf with 2x plasma is good for a large point game, accompanied by a WP of course.

 

I dont have any swiftclaws, but I have a couple of HQs on bikes, so I am planning to add some swiftclaws to back them up.

[Nadir]

5 Skyclaws with 2flamers. Cheap and easy deepstrike unit. Very resilent against enemy charge (2d3 auto hits +3 overwatch shoots), and good when charging. Remwmber to keep it simple, keep it cheap.

 

Swiftclaws are nice for harrasing enemy light units on 24". Especially with h.bolter. Unfortunatelly for them, biker Wolf Guards are lot better with higher stats and weapon options.

 

Normal Claws: I love 15 men blob, claded in power armour. Foot sloging their will drag ALOT of enemys fire. While charging from LRCrusader they will eat almost every unit they hit

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Does anyone bother with Wolf Guard pack leaders for them? I was thinking maybe plasma pistol and frost sword could be pretty good as it gives the squad a bit more punch, especially after the charge, maybe something to only do if I take a ten strong pack?
Are power fists any good on them? I'm proberbly going to take them off my Grey hunters as 25pts for at most two attacks on the charge does not seem that great, but rage and the squads target of close combat makes it seem like a good idea, maybe have one guy carrying a flamer and power fist?

[Nadir]

I dont think that squad leaders are very usefull for BC. Same share number of attacks, maybe an additional hidden fist or axe should be enough. But still I will not add a leader or special weapon to small squads- to easy to be shoot down before they charge anything.

[sn33r]

Sky claws depending on tournaments most big gt's are very objective based, so 75 pts for a fast 5 man squad hidden and slowly moved up to pounce last turn is amazing, the only prob is they take a fast slot where my twc comes from.. so (bloods x5 in a storm wolf) x2 a lot of points but that's 4 last turn objective grabbers.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I'm thinking of trying a large squad in 1500pts, 10 or 9 strong pack with two flamers led by Wolf priest with jump pack, whilst I love the fluff and idea of Wolf guard pack leader, they do seem fairly points heavy, has anyone had luck with them?
Also, is it possible to give a skyclaw a flamer and a power fist? If I can put them both on the same model it helps reduces the attacks lost for the special weapon.

[DanPesci]

I'm thinking of trying a large squad in 1500pts, 10 or 9 strong pack with two flamers led by Wolf priest with jump pack, whilst I love the fluff and idea of Wolf guard pack leader, they do seem fairly points heavy, has anyone had luck with them?

Also, is it possible to give a skyclaw a flamer and a power fist? If I can put them both on the same model it helps reduces the attacks lost for the special weapon.

 

Its possible to put the flamer and powerfist on the same model yes, as the flamer replaces the bolt pistol, and the powerfist replaces the chainsword.

 

However you still only get the one attack (3 on the charge) with the powerfist, as its a specialist weapon, the flamer doesnt count as a CCW (as its replaced the pistol, which did), and even it it did, would  need to be a melee weapon with the 'specialist weapon' rule for you to still get the +1 attack when combined with the powerfist  ie. you need to have two melee weapons with the 'specialist weapon' rule.

 

off the top of my head - that includes: wolf claw, powerfist, thunder hammer, chaifist, servo arm, and the dreadnought axe).

 

 

Because of that, id leave the powefist on a different guy, when assaulting, your most likely to put the flamers up front in order to best utilise the template, so their most likely to die first to overwatch/higher initiative attacks than the I1 powerfist would get, so keep the powerfist hidden in back.

 

 

 

On the wider topic, aye,

Swiftclaws -  as people have mentioned, 5 skyclaws with 2 with flamers are a nice cheapunit to objective hop, help against deepstrike/outflanking, or support other assaulting units where needed - especially if you havent already filled out your fast slots with thunderwolves and land speeders.

I sometime run a bigger pack of them in large points games, but your talking 2000+ points for me to do that as they become quite a points sink once theyve got a jump wolf priest attached. I really wish you could run packs of 15!!

 

Bloodclaws - id take either 5 man packs in stormwolves for objective secured flyers, or the full 15 in a landraider

Swiftclaws - unfortunately i just dont see why you'd ever take them over taking wolf guard bikers. DIfferent slot maybe but the WG statline, points cost, and wargear option just make them a much better choice for me.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Has anyone ever run a Rune priest with them? I'm thinking tempestas or Biomancy could be good.

[Karack Blackstone]

Has anyone ever run a Rune priest with them? I'm thinking tempestas or Biomancy could be good.

 

I have not, however, interesting thought.

 

Do you think that running a RP with access to either Tempestas and/or Biomancy can reliably compete with a WP and their PE?

 

If so, I think the overall direction of bettering ourselves as Generals can greatly benefit from thinking outside the box; that box currently being the WP + 'Claws.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Biomancy has a fair few nice powers, both buffs like endurance, maledictions like enfeeble, and low ap shooting to aid them in taking care of terminators/marines.
Tempestas could be good due to the the shrouding and it's close range fitting with the skyclaws speed, but yeah, Biomancy or even divination would be better.

[Rift Blade]

As much as these units are more appealing now especially BC's with their pt drop(long overdue), I still hardly ever touch these guys although admittedly, I consider them quite often in this edition of the codex. BC's 2 main advantages in the current codex is their price(5 man backfield objective holder with enough bite to keep your opponent honest) & their pack size. 15 murderous Marines with Rage? That's got potential. I guess I've used GH's so long now that I just don't find them credible yet.

 

Sky Claws-I do have a 6 strong pack of these guys who even see the table top every blue moon or so(OK, usually once a year when I play Apoc over the XMAS holidays with a military buddy of mine when he's home). I just don't seem to have any luck with these guys. Maybe I need to make the pack bigger?

 

Swift Claws-Again, I have a 6 strong pack of these guys plus the attack bike but Land Speeders & TWC so outshine these guys. And having tried WG bikers lately, I cannot see me going back to Swift Claws. 6 WG bikers did way more damage in 2 games then my Swift Claws ever did.