Least Favorite 9e Units

[Valerian]

It has been like a ghost town here in The Fang for the past few weeks - all of the Great Companies must be out on campaign.

 

To do something a little different than usual, I'm starting a discussion on the subject topic:  What are your least favorite units for Space Wolves in 9e?  Which ones are so inefficient and ineffective to be noteworthy?  Are there units that you've tried over and over again to make work, but just never seem to do any work for you?

 

 

[Lord Blackwood]

The Gutted defensive and post death offensive abilities of  Wulfen really bother me  especially with how lethal everything seems to be. 

[Rune Priest Jbickb]

I am really disappointed by our bespoke reivers, The Hounds of Morkai. Bad**s name, brilliant concept, useless on the table. This is actually generally true of Reivers but it bums me out more on the Hounds due to them being our only special primaris unit. I wish they could have been given power axes or something to make them a decent melee threat and then even better versus psykers. Make payker killing more of a side thing, not the sole purpose as not every army has psykers and those that do don't always lean heavily on them (excepting, thousand sons and greyknights of course). Basically these make me sad because they just fall so flat.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

For me personally I think the most frustrating unit is the Implusor. I'm not a competitive player by any stretch but I struggle to justify them for anything besides bladeguard. It's a pretty big problem if I'm being honest because there are a lot of units that would benefit from an affordable transport. I would love to have a list built around Assault intercessors, and I just don't think a list with 5 or 6 implusors would work.

[CCE1981]

Impulsors really need to have to cary 10 models without the big upgrades and 6 with.

[MegaVolt87]

Over-pointed vehicles, primaris units that cap at 3 models instead of 3-6 which would make more sense. 110 point impulsor that can't carry 10 dudes, why bother. Take an extra 110 points of infantry and walk instead. Even if it could carry 10 dudes its still over pointed. 

[Rune Priest Jbickb]

Vehicles in general are disappointing to me as well. I would love to bring a land raider to a game and have it mean something... but thus is less a wolves problem and more a game problem.

[CrystalSeer]

I second the reivers. I want to love them but can't come up with a single reason to put them in a list.

 

My second one is more of a grudge: I really dislike that drop pods can't take primaris. Ragnar's great company is supposed to be known for drop assault and he can't even ride in one.

[TiguriusX]

if the impulsor had "fly" restored it would be a major boost

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

I don't mind the transport capacity of the impulsor, I haven't had success with 10 man squads in this edition. They just don't have enough crunch and even if they were carrying two five man squads I'm not sure how well they'd play the objective game.

 

Fly would be nice, but I think it would be more of a buff to bladeguard than a reason to take assault intercessors. It's just hard to take transport that's undergunned for a squad that is cheaper than it.

 

I would really like either a significant point drop or for them to make the weapon options substantially better.

[Karhedron]

Most of our vehicles are poor this edition (apart from Dreadnoughts) but Primaris ones seem particularly disappointing. Impulsors are basically Bladeguard-only. Razorbacks are cheap enough to offer some utility and the twin assault cannon can do work.

[Sigvard]

I have to admit I was pretty shocked when I found out that Impulsors could not transport a full squad. The dude at GW seemingly did not know that he recommended them to me..

 

I am also with Rune Priest Jbickb in that the Hounds of Morkai could have been so so much cooler. Power weapons for a few extra points a model would have been epic and really added to the unit.

[Guest Triszin]

I think we can also air potential fixes that would help them

 

 

Hounds of morkai have all the problems reivers have, and are so situational they are rarely used/effective.

 

If hom were troop options, or had better equipment they would be awesome and flavourful

 

Blizzard shield dreads

- make it a 4+ invuln, and offer a 5+ invuln to allied infantry within 6"

 

Wulfen

-decouple the storm shield from the thunder hammer

- they need a buff/better army buff abilities

 

Storm fang

- remove transport cap reduce cost

- helfrost cannon rework

 

Storm wolf

- make a stripped down version with almost no guns an option

- give it assault disembarkation

 

Helfrost

- completely rework this

 

Brain storming helfrost (on everything but destructor)

 

- focused: 1 extra mort wound per Nat 6 to wound against vehicle/monster

 

-dispersed: have it reduce all movement, advance, charge, consolidate by 2" until next shooting phase

 

 

Destructor:

-dispersed: on hit if nat 6, reduce movement by 2", models within 6" of target cannot advanced, charge, or consolidate until next shooting phase

-focused: ever Nat 6 to wound does 1 mortal wound extra. Additionally if vehicle or monster, treat it as operating at one functional tier below until the next shooting phase.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Triszin

[Strasgard]

I loath how helfrost works currently, and I miss having frost weapons be better/different in general (the special issue wargear just isnt the same).

 

It would be neat if they made helfrost or frost weapons ignore damage modifiers. There seems to be an ever increasing array of units now with -1 Damage abilities with no direct counter.

 

Perhaps thats too powerful, to be such a hard counter to DG/Nids/Dreadnoughts/Some Necrons/etc.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

I don't think it would be too powerful of an ability Starsgard. We don't have a lot of platforms for Helfrost so it's not like we could counter army wide -1 dm rules.

[Guest Triszin]

That would be a neat way to make frost work.

 

It wouldnt be over powered either

[DanPesci]

That would be a neat way to make frost work.

 

It wouldnt be over powered either

 

 

Is anyone taking frost weapons these days?

 

Ive been rebuilding my 5th edition list and currently have a frost weapon armed wolf lord leading it up.

On paper he seems pretty nasty/fun

 

Wolf Lord in TDA

2x Lightning claws

Wolfkin + Warrior Born traits (using strat to take 2 WL)

Frost weapon relic

 

= 7-9 (4 base, +2 claws, +d3 wolfkin) WS1+ S5 AP-2 D2 attacks, rerolling wounds, always counts as charging, with fights first  from warrior born (the armour of russ i have elsewhere on a JP WGBL).

[Bulwyf]

So many to name. The nerfs to Wulfen were incredibly painful. They still need the advance and charge rule. It is mind boggling they don't have that rule. 

 

Frost weapons are essentially gone. No one takes them and why should they?

 

All vehicles except for Redemptor dreads are a complete waste of points. When  you toss in how incredibly damaging virtually every codex after ours in early 9th has turned into there is zero reason to take vehicles. 

 

The two wounds for marines. It honestly means nothing because of what I said above.

 

Bolters. Why are bolters 0 AP? I mean....what? The literal description of these weapons is of an automatic RPG that sends a bolt into people that go THROUGH THEM to then explode and take down even more targets. How in the world is that not at least -! AP?  Look at the codexes out now and how their basic troops have better guns than "elite" space marines. 

[yan]

I agree with most above, exept i still like wulfen a lot and i think they’re one of our best units still. Im really disappointed in vehicles aswell. I really love the predators, razorbacks and gunships. But no chance in taking them.

 

I also liked shield dreads(and other dreads) at the beginning of this edition. But now with all the ignoring invuln saves and high damage output there’s no chance for them on the table either.

[Karhedron]

On the subject of Wulfen, yes they have been nerfed but they also got a points drop so I think they are worth looking at again. You can get a lot of Hammer attacks out of a squad for not that many points.

[hengrid]

I really hate the fact we can´t use Apotheracy in any possible way. Why? It doesn´t give any sense.

 

They ruined our Wolf Priest, we are left with ordinary Chaplains so why they omitted us the healers?

 

I think it is a crutial unit for primaris army and important for first born as well.

 

 

I also have a question, how does swiftclaws work, they have headstrong rule, so have to charge the closest, because they don´t have a choice to tak a wolf gurd fir the unit right?

 

Thanks for your reply.

Edited March 23, 2022 by hengrid

[Plague _Lord]

Wulfen that just die in droves when any gun is pointed at them.

[MegaVolt87]

Bring back firstborn wolfguard bikers like the good old days. 

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

I really hate the fact we can´t use Apotheracy in any possible way. Why? It doesn´t give any sense.

 

They ruined our Wolf Priest, we are left with ordinary Chaplains so why they omitted us the healers?

 

I think it is a crutial unit for primaris army and important for first born as well.

 

 

I also have a question, how does swiftclaws work, they have headstrong rule, so have to charge the closest, because they don´t have a choice to tak a wolf gurd fir the unit right?

 

Thanks for your reply.

I do wish that we had gotten some sort of upgrade to make our wolf priests work like healers.

 

As far as the swiftclaws go you are correct. They have to declare the closest unit as one of their targets when you decide to charge. This means you can still charge multiple units so it's not too restrictive when you factor in their move. Really not sure why they didn't get a datasheet.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Jorin Helm-splitter

[Guest Triszin]

Agreed on the apoth.

 

I would rather see a wolf priest get the fnp bubble, keep the strat to heal cost, and get a limited litany (frankly it should be a saga he can select and if they can perform the deed create the bonus)