Starting Space Wolves!

[Deliverance]

Hi all, I've been a pure Raven Guard player for years, but after seeing Thunderwolf Cavalry in action, (and finding my old Ragnar Blackmane novels in a recent move,) I took the plunge on the Space Wolf Start Collecting box, which has

1 Wolf Lord

10 Grey Hunters

3 Thunderwolf Cavalry

 

I'm not a super competitive player, and neither are most of the folks in my local store, but I was hoping to get some advice from you fine folks in terms of the most effective ways to utilize a normal, thematic and fluffy SW army, as they're quite different from Raven Guard, and I do want to play them differently from the normal gunline, capt/LT combo, etc. Any hints, tips, words of advice would be much appreciated!

[TiguriusX]

Bad news is TWC (and SW...power armor in general) are bad now and the recent SS price change did not help them.

 

However they are still fun.

 

Many of us have to pick between fun/thematic or competitive.

 

The recent ITC change requiring a pure army to score faction points has many of us excited to go 100% SW again (*and an 85 point assassin for ultra competitive).

 

SW can be shooty or melee focus. Our GH basic troop is a jack of all trades.

 

Step 1 is finding what style YOU like and want to play then building around that

 

A shooty list would be long fangs and i always preach for a leviathan

 

Melee lists would be TWC and wulfen and melee oriented HQs etc.

 

It all depends...

[Guest]

Skol!

 

For starters remember that there are 13 companies of the SW's and all are very different. Then you have the lost companies and more recently successor chapters. Simply put the original 12 companies each take from other first foundings and twist the SW DNA into it. RG for example closly symbolized by the Jarl Krakendoom who used many scouts and stealthy techniques. So there is no standard for our chapter, as we adapted everything to our chapter. To give you an idea.

 

UM mass drop pod: Ragnar

BA melee jump pack: the late Jarl Firehowler

Iron hands mass vehicles: the late Jarl Ironwolf

 

 

As for your army, there seems to be a decent cookie cutter for each of these troops.

 

If you can put a jump pack+Thunder Hammer+SS to make a smash jarl (if you need to lower his point make him a smash-Wolf guard pack leader).

 

GH: load them up with a plasma gun and the WGPL (wolf guard pack leader) with a Combi plasma.

 

TWC: not as fierce as 7th edition, but still fierce. Pretty debatable how to load them up since SS are 10 pts for them. I prefer Frost Sword+SS as a anti-infantry unit.

 

Something to note verbage kinda changes with the SW's. Some say wolf lord some say Jarl. It's kinda the mindset of wolfy vs Norse ideology. If you don't understand anything just ask and we can explain. Hopefully that helps.

[Konnavaer]

Hail and well met brother, welcome to the Aett 

 

Although marines and wolves aren't in a good place at the moment regarding competitive builds there are still loads of ways you can build a thematic and fun list, the first place I would suggest looking is around the forum here as many of the brothers have recorded their wisdom and there is a lot of really useful stuff to read here already. I was always drawn to the wolves because of their heroism and individual skill and battle prowess and so build my lists with characters and elites at the forefront but that's just me. You can set a list up anyway you want and it should still be able to do work for you, particular units that appeal to me and can be powerhouses are the already mentioned smash jarl with TH + SS and a jump pack or riding a thunderwolf, wulfen are one of if not our hardest hitting melee units (as always there is the question of how to deliver them but putting them on the hunt which is a strat we can use to effectively deep strike them near a table edge helps a lot), dreads with shields and axes are just way too cool not to take a lot of the time and can be quite tanky and bjorn is worth a particular mention as he is such a beast, as he should be !  Long Fangs are great fire support and have some excellent strats that can help them throw out a lot of firepower and our regular troops are very good at holding objectives or advancing up the board with decent shooting and a good counter attacking threat. 

 

As always the best advice I can give is try to build a list around what excites you and see how it plays then start looking at refining it as you go and see what style suits you, there is so much I have learned by just putting different lists together and seeing how they do on the table, no substitute for experience after all

 

Feel free to ask any of us for anything we can do to help aswell brother if there are any specifics or things you want to know, this forum has always been a great and positive place to hang out, may your arm stay strong and your beer stonger !