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Thunderwolf Cavalry Tactica Thread


gmaleron

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Hey guys, as a few of you know I am planning on running an army that almost completely made up of Thunderwolf Cavalry and have seen mentioned several different ideas to kit out the squad, how big they should be ect. I figured instead of discussing it on a few threads why not pool all the discussion regarding the Thunderwolf Squad and how they should be kitted out into one thread! Now I have seen several ideas posted on here in regards to the best way to run them and I have a few ideas myself which ill post below. Feel free to join the discussion and lets see if we can make the nastiest Thunderwolf Cavalry Squad possible!

 

Now personally I am liking the look of this kind of squadron:

 

-Thunderwolf Cavalry Pack Master

*w/ Power Fist, Storm Shield

 

-x4 Thunderwolf Cavalry

*w/ Chainswords, Bolt Pistols, Melta Bombs

 

-x1 Thunderwolf Cavalry

*w/ x2 Wolf Claws, Melta Bombs

 

Have yet to test it but from looking at it get a really good mix of options that make it very universal. You have the heavy hitting Pack Master with his Powerfist with the Storm Shield to Keep him alive. Then you have a solid group of guys kitted out with lots of Rending goodness and a few Melta Bombs to get the job done. Also by not spamming Storm Shields or other Wargear it allows you to take more with your army such as a Flyer if you need it for your local Meta.

 

Also I am kind of curious has anyone ever run an MSU style approach with Thunderwolves? Spamming x3 Wolf teams each with an Iron Priest and/or Wolf Guard Lord/Battle Leader?

I've been running my TWC packs with a PL with WC/SS, one WC/SS, one BP/CCW, one BP/PF and an attached IP with 4 cyber wolves. It's worked out well for me so far. I have been running three packs with a knight. I'm going to experiment with the librarius conclave on bikes accompanied by 5 WG bikers.

I have run a Group with a wolf lord IP and 3 thunderwolves.

I keep them in a tight unit for safe keeping initially, but having three units that can stand in their own well if they need to split off helps also.

 

if you know they will get charged you can keep them together if you need to or split them to force your opponent into a multipule charge to stop the other units getting around him.

 

if they charge with one unit you can them counter charge or go off into other units.

 

Also great for breaking up to score those back field objective and line breaker.

I do the same as Spazmonkey. For load outs, love the Krakenbone And SS on the Lord, CW's with the IP, and the TWC normally take two SS and a PF. TWC PL gets the PF most often, so the other two can take saves when needed without risking its loss. The PL is not normally taking a challenges, but is a bit risky if splitting up the force. This is my best guess to keep things the most points efficient as of now, but not a lot of experience with them yet.

I actually really like that tactic, would go a long way in helping you against Overwatch as well, especially against Tau and their Support Fire.

 

that got fixed. Take the new Skyhammer Annihilation Force, drop them down turn 1. allows you to stop up to 4 unit overwatching, basically giving your wolf star time to come up the board free from most of the armies fire, the most dangerous ones if you play it right will be in CQC, not able to overwatch or even forced to go to ground. Still have enough point left over for a Storm Grr or knight or some tac marines to cover those objectives....

 

 

 

 

I actually really like that tactic, would go a long way in helping you against Overwatch as well, especially against Tau and their Support Fire.

 

that got fixed. Take the new Skyhammer Annihilation Force, drop them down turn 1. allows you to stop up to 4 unit overwatching, basically giving your wolf star time to come up the board free from most of the armies fire, the most dangerous ones if you play it right will be in CQC, not able to overwatch or even forced to go to ground. Still have enough point left over for a Storm Grr or knight or some tac marines to cover those objectives....

 

 

 

 

 

If you were combining the SAF with TWC, would you not want the SAF coming down on turn 2? Its unlikely the TWC will get a charge off on turn 1 (unless the opponent has advanced towards them), so if you dropped the SAF turn 1, likelihood is the TWC wont benefit from the 'no overwatch' effects by the time they get a charge off.

 

Very good viable hammer/anvil tactic though. (except if facing tau who've also taken a lot of things with interceptor).

 

My ideal pack of TWC would be

 

TWC - WC

TWC - SS

TWC - SS

TWC - melta bomb

TWC - metla bomb

I.Priest - 4xCW

 

Keeps them 'relatively cheap' as not sure the powerfist is needed when you have the servo arm attacks in there (but melta bomb is there as vehicle killing backup).

 

Add a lord with SS and krakanborne sword for super giggles.

I tend to use packs of 3 TWC, each with a WC/SS and meltabomb. I'm curious how people can run the larger units effectively, becuase it seems like major overkill most of the time. For me, 2 3-man units are better than 1 6-man unit, and if I need more FA slots, I usually just figure out how to get another detachment in the army.

I never give my pack leader the fist. I always hide it in a regular guy that can't get challenged out and murdered before initiative 1. The packleader can take a wolf claw if you want to give him a chance in challenges.

 

I give it to the Pack Leader because he is essentially hidden with all those other challenge takers (the lord, the IP, his CW's), but can be thrown into the challenge to free up the others if it seems tactically advantageous to do so. If I was running a second pure TWC unit, I would not.

 

There is also a nice supper cheddar TWC list here: http://space-wolves-grey.blogspot.com/2015/06/thunderwolves-2000pts-army-list.html

I fielded an squad of 5 thunderwolves, all with SS three with power fists and 2 with power mauls.

 

They were pretty effective im not going to lie, the invulns really helped making it up the field.

 

For yhe price of a SS tho, i could get a cyber wolf out front to soak up a wound if decided to have an iron priest in the mix. 

 

So what im wondering, is the SS worth it in that case, and how do people find the vanilla BP/CCW thunder wolf fare?

 

 

I actually really like that tactic, would go a long way in helping you against Overwatch as well, especially against Tau and their Support Fire.

 

that got fixed. Take the new Skyhammer Annihilation Force, drop them down turn 1. allows you to stop up to 4 unit overwatching, basically giving your wolf star time to come up the board free from most of the armies fire, the most dangerous ones if you play it right will be in CQC, not able to overwatch or even forced to go to ground. Still have enough point left over for a Storm Grr or knight or some tac marines to cover those objectives....

 

 

 

 

 

If you were combining the SAF with TWC, would you not want the SAF coming down on turn 2? Its unlikely the TWC will get a charge off on turn 1 (unless the opponent has advanced towards them), so if you dropped the SAF turn 1, likelihood is the TWC wont benefit from the 'no overwatch' effects by the time they get a charge off.

 

Very good viable hammer/anvil tactic though. (except if facing tau who've also taken a lot of things with interceptor).

 

My ideal pack of TWC would be

 

TWC - WC

TWC - SS

TWC - SS

TWC - melta bomb

TWC - metla bomb

I.Priest - 4xCW

 

Keeps them 'relatively cheap' as not sure the powerfist is needed when you have the servo arm attacks in there (but melta bomb is there as vehicle killing backup).

 

Add a lord with SS and krakanborne sword for super giggles.

 

 

 

I guess the reason I would go turn 1 is that the assault squads get into CC not so much to kill the unit but to tie it up for the shooting phase in turn 2.

The Devs try to get units to go to ground where possible. This limits the fire power they have. they now have to choose to shoot their remaining units at the wolfstar of the Devs who will try to pin or smash units again their next turn.

 

Or they can split fire against the two units.

 

This means a good portion of the Tau army say, are then unable to come to bear on your army charging across the board for some turn 2 assault goodness.

 

you could come down turn 2 but then you have the full force of a complete tau list getting a full turn of fire at you.

i guess i think most of the time you can reduce the overall fire power they can bring to bear, while minimizing the losses to yours and the units trying to get into CQC.

Some very good ideas and interesting builds guys!  The biggest issue I am having with designing my army so far is actually how many SS should I put into a squad, currently I have only x1 of them, is it recommended I put more into the squad? And how viable are Melta Bombs compared to Rending attacks? Seems like both would be useful, granted in regards to how the squad is kitted out.

Honestly I take storm shields on every model if I can.

It just makes then so much tougher.

I dont bother with any other upgrades other than a PF or TH one the pack leader / lord / battle leader.

Chainswords with 6 attacks rending on the charge is honestly amazing. You really dont need to give them more.

 

The only other time I would not take all storm shields would be if i am taking several units of thunderwolves and dont have the point so would rather share the love around the units, so they all have some storm shields.

 

But this is also where Iron priests are good. taking 4 cyberwolves gives you ablative wounds.

Very true, SS are just so expensive that it adds up the total of the unit insanely fast, currently I am planning on running x3 per unit as I want to keep my Stormfang Gunship since there is an infestation of Tyranid players at my store that love Flyrants.

Think on it this way as well with storm shields.

It does also depend greatly on your meta and list your playing against.

 

If the majority of the shooting you will face gives a 3+ armour save, then from you opponents perspective they dont care if you take an armour save or in invuln save, a 3+ is a 3+

Massed low ap fire is in fact better than high ap because its cheaper and they can send more your way.

Because an IP is half the cost of a kitted out wolf lord.

it is and elite which means fills a requirement in you champs of fenris requiremnts.

And they get something like 4-5 rending S10 attacks on the charge.

Plus they give you access to the x4 cyberwolves.

 

Why would you not you take them....

Because an IP is half the cost of a kitted out wolf lord.

it is and elite which means fills a requirement in you champs of fenris requiremnts.

And they get something like 4-5 rending S10 attacks on the charge.

Plus they give you access to the x4 cyberwolves.

 

Why would you not you take them....

 

You can also choose between those S10 rending hits being either AP2 Concussive (using the hammer) or AP1 (using the servo arm). The AP1 when hitting vehicles is very handy. Ive actually taken to not running much melta anymore, and my IP are there as my anti armour.

 

Oh and they come with 2+ save, which is handy to drop into a squad of TWC ( can do this with a lord of course, but its more points)

 

Not saying they are the be all and end all, a wolf lord can certainly be awesome, but at a lower points cost IP can be a nice choice.

Ok, i Can see using them in a cavalry focused army to avoid shelling out tons of pointa for termies. But do you need to run the CoF detacent to gain access to the relics in that codex?

 

As far as i know yes.

 

P.s. you could also just take servitors as a dirt cheap elite slot filler. But if you are running a cavalry force anyway IP mesh nicely.

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