Building my First Army since 6Ed-Wow a lot has changed!

[Grimwolf45]

Hi,

 

I used to be a regular Wolf player from third through Sixth edition. Now that my kids are not toddlers anymore, I'n committed to coming back. I've made the purchases, but am struggling with loadouts. Specifically for the intercessors. I have one 5 man squad with an auz grenade launcher, chainsword Pack Leader and Bolt rifles, but that was made last summer for kill team before I got the codex and Saga of the Beast.

 

I have two Impulsors to build and wanted opinions on the "best" options.  For the two squads getting out of the impulsors and looking for combat, I plan on both leaders have a Power fist. Am I correctly thinking that if I plan on charging and moving aggressively with them that Auto Bolt Rifles would be a good choice? Also, I saw a lot of older lists use the Aux launcher, but don't see it as common anymore.

 

So what's the math on the bolt rifle vs auto bolt rife. Please let me know if I'm understanding this right and what do you use for your intercessors.

 

1. If role is to be shooty and get in CC when needed go Bolt Rifle

2. If you plan on the old Rhino Rush tactic with Impulsors, go Auto Bolt Rifles 

3. Do you see this changing with the new CC Intercessors? 

 

Thanks in advance, I'm looking forward to being back. 

[Debauchery101]

Auto bolters for rushing. Because you can move and advance with auto bolters. plus get full range. There is a warlord saga that can let marines advance and shoot. Also theres a stratagem to let auto-bolters,auto hit if enemies

At half range.

 

Bolt rifles are good too. With a wolf lord nearby they're a bit better than auto-bolters

 

Personally I take one squad of each, sgts with thunderhammer and inside impulsors.

 

As for impulsor loudout..i find the best option is the shield dome.

[.Torch.]

If you are planning on rushing forward, then maybe holding out for the Assault Intercessor squads would be a better idea. They should drop with 9th edition, and they are only a few gubbinz away from looking very Space Wolf.

[Valerian]

Grimwolf, welcome back to the hobby!

As you may already be aware, the new edition of 40k (9th edition, or #New40k) is just around the corner, so a lot more is going to change soon.  So, there are a lot of unknowns, which makes it difficult to give really good advice, but there are some things we do already know, and quite a bit that we can probably comfortably anticipate.  With that in mind, here are my thoughts:

 

For your two Impulsors, you definitely want the Shield Dome upgrade most of all.  The Invulnerable Save is super important, and I don't see that changes as we transition to 9e.  You, might, however, want to go ahead and build out and paint the sub-assemblies for the other options, too, though, so that you have what you need to swap things out years in the future, as things inevitably change.

 

The best units to put in those two Impulsors are very likely going to be either the new Bladeguard Veterans, or the new Assault Intercessors (or a combination of both, of course).  And you're going to want to throw a couple Characters in there to ride along with them.  Space Wolves want to get into melee, and 9e is supposed to be quite a bit more melee friendly, so take advantage of the incredible attributes of the best transport in the game to get those close-combat focused units in the right spot to launch an assault.

 

For Intercessor units not riding in Impulsors, Auto Bolt Rifles are probably the best way to go for the packs that you're going to have operating in the mid-field, securing central board objectives.  These will likely be in range of targets, and generally the additional shot per weapon outweighs the AP advantage of regular Bolt Rifles.

 

For Intercessor units that will be further back in your deployment zone, securing home-field objectives, or protecting/screening your important units that stay in the backfield, you'd probably want regular Bolt Rifles, to take advantage of the extra range (and now also the AP).

 

I'm building my 'tactical' Intercessor Packs so that I can swap between Bolt Rifle options, so I have some flexibility in load out to "future-proof" them.

 

Regarding the Pack Leaders, I like Thunder hammers - you just can't beat that Flat 3 damage.  They're more expensive than Power Fists, and other options, but I find them to be worthwhile, particularly with the "forward" packs that I definitely expect to get into melee.  If you need to shave some points somewhere, then Power Fists are probably just fine for those Packs that you expect to operate in the mid-field or back-field.  

As for the new Assault Intercessors, we know that they'll come equipped with Heavy Bolt Pistols and Astartes Chainswords (I expect these will become AP-1, which is very nice).  I also expect that the Pack Leader will have the same option to upgrade the Chainsword to any of the other special close combat weapons, so definitely a Thunder Hammer for them (it would be really weird for the 'tactical' Intercessors to have better melee weapon choices than the Assault Intercessors).

 

If you have any additional questions, definitely don't hesitate to ask, but best approach right now is mostly wait a month or two and see how 9e pans out.  From everything the Frontline Gaming guys, that were part of the play-testing team, said 9e is mostly a lot of small changes and tweaks, but makes the game overall play completely differently than 8e.

[Grimwolf45]

Thanks for pointers. Feels great to be back.