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Well, I've been playing Tau for a while now, and while I'm not really bored of them, I've just discovered that from here on in, I'm buying nothing but more Crisis Suits for a while. So, since I'm going to be coming in to some money shortly after the 14th, I figured it'd be interesting to start up a Wolves army. The only problem is...I'm not sure what to buy for them.

I want to go with a speedy, assaulty army - basically the exact opposite of my Tau army (Which abuses JSJ and having some FWs and Heavies to blast things from a distance). What should I pick up when I get the chance to do so? And what should I build my army around in terms of units?

Well, the battleforce is actually a pretty solid start. You get a drop pod, 2 packs of 10 Space Wolves, and 5 scouts.

With the 10-man squad of Wolves, you could take 2 plasma guns, a mark of the wulfen (gives one member d6+1 rending attacks) and a powerfist; stick them in the drop pod, and get mobile. Scouts in a Space Wolves army are cool because they can come in on the rear edge of the table. You could have them come in, shoot the enemy artillery in their rear armor with plasma pistols, and then drop a pack of Grey Hunters in. Grey Hunters are absolutely amazing troops in assault and shooting. 10 of them with 2 special weapons, either riding in a rhino or deep striking, will ruin anyone's day.

The battleforce is really good. Start there. After that you can work on getting some 5 man squads of Terminators to drop in more pods. Personally I use a footslogging list with tons of on-foot Wolf Guard Terminators, but I started my army long before the current codex came out.

There are three types of armys that do CC. Mechanised with rhinos and razorbacks. Drop Pods with everything in drop pods. Non Mech. So first off would be to ask which type you want to get.

Common choices of the SW unit types are Rune Priest. Special Characters. Wolf Guard (both in and out of terminator armor) Long Fangs. Dreadnoughts. Grey Hunters.

My army that I'm working on building (using DA as proxys at the moment) is a fast army that assaults. I tend to dislike painting vehicles so I'm going for more of a foot based army.

So first off no matter what army type you decide on in the end. General consensus is that GH are better than bloodclaws. So you will need at least 10 if you want 2 minimum sized troop squads. Generally with assault armys though you want maxed size units. I'm going for swiftclaws and skyclaws as well as the 2 GH squads. Dreadnought with multi melta in drop pod.

So, like the guy before me said. SW battleforce boxed set is a good start. 20 Wolf Guard (power armor of course) or Grey Hunters or Bloodclaws (if you decide to go that route). 5 Wolf scouts (w bolt pistol and CCW). Drop Pod. Units that every SW should have.

Well, I'd prefer Rhinos/Razorbacks to Drop Pods - as much as I would like to be able to drop in those wolves right in an enemy's face, I dislike that the unit can't assault on the turn it comes out (Well, my Tau appreciate that fact ). I know that they can't assault straight out of Rhinos, but at least that can zoom up 12" a turn, wait for a round of enemy shooting, and then have the GHs assault out of the vehicle.

Having played a few proxy games with them, as well as watching another Wolf player at the FLGS, I was thinking that Long Fangs might be a good choice. Even if they aren't assaulty at all, it still provides some nice covering fire at long range. The other unit I was considering was Fenrisian Wolves - they're cheap, come with a marine statline, and are beasts to close the gap quickly. The one other SW player at the FLGS has sworn by them ever since a pair of them took down a Lictor in CC.

A big block of cheese...

Fenrisian Wolves are really just meat shields, and nothing too special. GW doesn't make very good wolf models to serve this purpose, as all you can get are the same Fantasyhammer wolves from ~1993.

A mech list is viable. The only issue is that you won't be able to take a Wolf Guard Pack Leader along with the two free special weapons. Because of this, you'll have lower leadership in your squads. Unless, of course, you take 9 Grey Hunters and a Wolf Guard, in which case you'll only have 1 special weapon. When the second weapon is free, it's too good to pass up.

Yeah. I'd do a squad of long fangs. Not everything can be dealt with in CC. If you don't want to do drop pods then you can skip the Space Wolf battleforce. What I'm doing is using the arms from the space wolf pack set and putting them on the bodies of the other sets where I can. Like assault squads, bikers, etc. Then I put the assault squad arms on the space wolf pack bodies. Makes it so that every model has a little bit of space wolf in them.

One other question: (Or three, as I look back at this after posting) is there a model that would allow me to run a Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf mount? I just love those things, and it seems fitting to see one ride into battle on a mighty wolf steed. I'm not sure if the GW page is not complete, but it doesn't seem to list anything that has the mount under the HQ section.

Also, are some of the models for Wolves just renamed versions of Space Marine ones? Because (Again, looking at the GW page) there doesn't seem to be a kit for Swiftclaws, Skyclaws, Long Fangs, or Fenrisian Wolves.

Oh, and as Ringarin suggested, I think I will give the 'force a pass. As interesting as it would be, I think it'd be very rare for me to ever use a Drop Pod (Though the model itself would make the kit worth it) and I've yet to see a list that includes Scouts over something like, say, Wolf Guard.

Thanks for all the help, guys, you're really making this easier on me

The only official thunderwolf model is one for the canis special character. Long Fangs would use the devestator box. Skyclaws the assault. Swiftclaws the bikes. That's why I'm using the arms from the SW boxes on them and vice versa.

The Space Wolves Pack box comes with lots of bits and extras as well as some minor suggestions on how to convert the vanilla marine kits into their Space Wolf equivalents.

Once you start expanding beyond your required two troops and an HQ you should get some Long Fangs and Scouts.

Max out your Long Fangs with Missile Launchers so they have more utility. Give the Scouts a Meltagun and outflank them behind your opponent. These units coupled with the Grey Hunters moving up will force your opponent to address close, medium, and long range threats all at once.

If its me , i would buy:
SW Battle Force
1 box of Devastator ( long fangs )
1 box of Space Wolf Terminator , and give the left over bits
on AOBR Termies!

Well, I went to the shop yesterday and used some of my remaining birthday money to pick up a squad of Space Wolves, making them into Grey Hunters. I got three done last night, one with power sword/plasma pistol and two with bolt pistol/chainsword (I realized this morning that there actually are some one-handed bolters in there). Now, about that kit...am I crazy, or are there no meltaguns in there? It seems odd to have options to make the Wolves into three different units, but completely leave out two of the three weapon choices for a GH (No flamers in there, either - just two Plasma Guns).

I would use Plasma Guns, honestly, but I prefer to have a gun I can fire and still assault afterwards...plus, since my Hunters are meant to charge up, they're a great unit to carry around a meltagun for some anti-vehicle work.

One other question I had was whether or not there was an actual official Wolf Lord model - although I'm guessing no. So, the Space Marine Commander is my go-to model for making a Wolf Lord?

There is not a designated Wolf Lord model. And no, you're not crazy. There aren't any Flamer's or Meltagun's in the kit. I noticed that when the preview pics of the sprues were released. It sucks but at least the new models look amazing.

Also, you'll want to separate the plasma pistol and power weapon on to two different models. With wound allocation in 5th you'll lose both weapons on one failed armor save.

Wonder why they don't have the special weapons in there (Other than the Plasma Gun). Ah well. What other kits include meltaguns that I could rip off of? To be more specific, what kits could I buy (That include a meltagun) but the model it's made for doesn't need it? Alternately, is there any easy way to convert/model a meltagun using GH parts? Or is there a better kit to buy for it?

Buy the regular SM Tactical squad box (has one of each special weapon), so you can create another squad of 10 Grey Hunters (you'll have more than enough parts left from the SW Pack kit to make them appropriately wolfy). The old Space Wolves accessory frame also has one meltagun in it, as well as other SW gubbinz.

Meltas and plasmas are available as GW bits. Has a space marine hand on it, but as it's going on a marine it won't matter. Will have to do the tactical squad thing though. I need flamers and meltas for my units. Is there one melta and one flamer per tactial squad or are there two of each?

One each. They come on the special sprue frame that has all the bits to make the Tac squad sergeant too

If you do plan on getting the meltaguns from GW I would suggest clipping of the hand and stock thing ( the bit that goes into their shoulder) so that they fit. Apart from that they are great meltaguns.