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So the first question is what do people think of Grey Hunters vs Bloodclaws as a troops choice?

Second is I have 14 terminators to assemble and am not sure what I should equip them with.

General army that I have and am working on building is as follows.

I am creating an assault themed army. No Thunderwolf cavalry for the foreseeable future. No Fenrisian wolves. Skyclaw pack of assault marines. Swiftclaw biker pack. Each led by an HQ.

Troops would have two grey hunters squads. One defensive and one offensive. I was thinking flamers with one and meltas with the other, but I might switch to meltas and plasma. Plasma for the defenders, melta for the assault oriented grey hunters.

I'm not overly fond of vehicles, but will probably get a few drop pods.

So back to my questions. I'm trying to determine if Bloodclaws are worth it, they would fulfill a similar role to the grey hunters in assaulting the enemy. I just don't know if the 3 ws is worth the extra attack on the charge.

The other thing is that I really have no idea what to do with my Wolf Guard terminators. I know what to do with my Deathwing, either assault or shooty. The Wolf Guard are so flexible and I can split them off to lead squads. So do I try to do the taboo mixing of assault and shooty in one squad? Split off some terminators to lead other squads. Get some Long Fangs and put a cyclone terminator with them. Simply outfit terminators for all shooty or all assault like my Deathwing.

3 WS isnt going to work against the Bloodclaws entirely, as they'll still hit WS4 foes on a 4+. It's only on the return that you should be worried about. Furthermore, adding a Wolf Priest, with the Preferred Enemy rerolls helps alleiviate that.

In regards to the Termies, people will tell you that we pay a premium for our 'assault' terminators, because the Wolf Guard are, as you said, so flexible. Depending on how many squads you're running, it might be best to go for a mix of heavy weapon (Cyclone or AC), a couple WCs, a TH/CF and a SS or two for good measure

At the moment I'm thinking wolf guard in a way that they aren't a deathwing army. I already have one of those. But saying that I am not likely to split them up as terminators to lead squads because I give up the sweeping advance ability.

I love the armys with lots of fast attack and assault options. So that's where I'm a bit confused. Maybe I should just give the space wolves more than a couple of games to find out where an all power armor army has weaknesses.

Well, as has been said, I'd only recommend Blood Claws when led by a Wolf Priest, then they can be devastating, particularly with Lukas and/or Landraiders!

However otherwise Grey Hunters are generally better, their WS compensates for a lack of attacks and MotW and Wolf Standards are very very good. I'd consider a Grey Hunter squad w/ Powerfist, MotW and Standard led by Ragnar to be a VERY good unit...

From what you're saying, I'd use melta/rhino Grey Hunters to provide support for your assault unit and act as counter assault (2x melta, MotW, Standard + transport is what I'd consider a standard set up (215pts)). Whilst using your termies to drop pod in as an anvil?

As for your termies, I'd aim for a good mix of firepower and close combat goodness, I wouldnt go too overboard with assault weapons such as wolf claws and TH/SS's as that can really rack up the points, but a couple of these in each squad and maybe a dedicated CC WG squad is good. I'd also consider using PW/SS combo's as that's cheap, combi-weapons and I'd definately model one to represent Arjac.

on another note, I wouldnt actually rate deathwing wolves as that good myself, one of the biggest advantages of Logans ability is that you can field mixed PA/TDA units, giving numbers and durability!

hope that helped. Dave.

Grey Hunters and Wolf Guard (under Logan) are widely considered much better than Blood Claws these days.

Yep, it helps, ty. I have experience with Dark Angels, but not much with Space Wolves. This should help me figure out what kinds to try out.

There is no reason, outside of fluff, to take bloodclaws. Grey Hunters are statistically superior without question.

Sucks, because they were so bad ass last edition.

The only advantage I see for bloodclaws in the codex is that you can take 15 of them as opposed to 10 grey hunters. But the points are the same for less firepower. Can do a bit more in an assault, but you still have to get in there, and I like units that charge when I want them to and not when they are close to the enemy.

As I said, when led by Wolf Priest, Blood Claws are generally better in assault than Grey Hunters, thats why I run them in a LRR to benefit this.
Otherwise Grey Hunters are generally better (as they should be!) and are more versatile.
You may like a large LR-mounted, Priest led Blood Claw squad as a poweful assault squad supported by Grey Hunters? Still maintains firepower, close quarters support, dedicated assault and the ability to capture objectives...

For a 650 point unit, 15 BCs and a Wolf Priest in a Crusader underwhelm me.

The real problem with Bloodclaws I've found is that they're WS3, which really lets them down against units with WS4+. There's a huge shift in the combat when one side hits on 3+ rather than 4+ (or 4+ rather than 3+!).

Then there's the BS3. Not to mention you can't let them out of the pound without a sitter!