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A friend of mine showed me his SW army I didn't know he had, and although I'm still a definite CSM player through and through, he had me intrigued.

One of the cool things he pointed out was that he could use 4 HQs instead of just 2.

I've been perusing the Codex, and trying to read tactic blogs, but it's all foreign language to me, though some similarities between the two armies do exist, not enough for me to make definite decisions before I end up building my second army out of furry men next to my spiky guys.

Any tips on where to start for a solid SW army? Good HQs (really want to give 4 HQs a try, looks fun)? Right troops? Vehicles? Never played loyalist SM either so don't know if there are any vehicles from their lists I should look out for.

Space wolves Codex is typically a sledehammer codex.

Most of their stuff is cheap and pretty straightforward, no room for subtlety. What they dont really need in a straight fight, they basically throw away. Counterattack adds extra potency to their generally choppy army.

C:SW is a brute force army. Their doctrine is pretty much reflected in their units: Greyhunters, Thunderwolf Cavalry and Long Fangs. If you played Red Alert, they are the Soviet army. Cheap units, maximum direct impact.

Greyhunters are cheap, why?

-They don't have a sergeant that gives Ld 9, and neither a heavy weapon the Tacs enjoy. Because they dont have these, they are costed at 15 points per model. Cheap straightforwardness over versatility.

-Greyhunters prefer to wield 2 special weapons, and all of them have BP+CCW: This means that they basically outshoot/outfight any other troops choice from other codices.

Longfangs are one of the most feared Heavy weapon slots in C:SW arsenal. Why? because of their cost. What makes them cheap?

-No Ablative wounds. Unlike in other codices where devastator squads rely on ablative wounds for survivability, Long fangs throw this survivability out the window, in exchange for cheaper weapons and Ld 9 for every member.

Basically, these 2 units define what and how C:SW is.

Regarding 4 HQs:

C:SW is HQ-centric. They can take 4 HQs, but only if they have varying combinations of wargears. To make their HQ even more potent, they can get sagas - upgrades that other marine codices do not enjoy. This is possible because the rest of the entire codex is dirt cheap for what they can do: This is why C:SW is one the best armies out there.

The best way to start with C:SW is to get these 2 units listed above.
Build an army fielded with just Grey hunters and Long fangs, add in some transports (rhinos or razorbacks, go to town). This is enough to give you a feel of how space wolves is played. You'll be surprised on how much you will win with just these 2 units. You can then add other units like TWC, Wolf Guard, Wolf scouts, and their 4 HQs later if you decide to commit.


Enjoy.

Lorgar Grimnar and Njal Stormcaller are two very powerful HQ choices. Lorgar is arguably better than Abaddon, since the Axe Morkai can be use both it's profiles at the same time. In addition Lorgar makes the very customizable Wolf Guards become available as a troop choice, allowing you to field entire biker armies, Veteran Jump packs or full on Death Wing-style terminator armies. Njal is also rather attractive due to his Lord of the Tempest ability and superior Terminator Armor. Another good one is Bjorn. He does not give you access to anything nor supports your units well, but he is an absolute death star. He armor like a predator and is deadly accurate with a plasma cannon (with only a 1 inch deviation on average). However the prohibitly high costs of these characters means you wont be able to take full advantage of the extra HQ choices rule, but like Yuber said the customizable HQs are not too shabby either. Canis is also a good cheaper alternative, as his special rules makes him fantastic at dealing with super-hordes.

Some of the other perks to Space Wolves are their weaponry. Frost Blades are much better than Relic blades, in that you can get the +1 attack for having a second CCW. Wolf Claws are also better than their counterpart, since you can choose between what you wanna reroll. Finally their Rune Priests are better than Chaplains, as you can simply declare whatever the majority of the enemy's army is for his special rule, and you will permanently get rerolls against them (which will help out immensely if you know how to drag out combat so that it always ends just before your turn starts). And check out Arjac Rockfist. the guy is an absolute beast.

They don't have a sergeant that gives Ld 9

Right, they get a Wolf Guard, which is better.

Personally I'm not a fan of the big points SW HQs, especially when they can take such nice, cheap Runepriests and Wolfpriests.

It's not so much that the more expensive guys are BAD, it's just that they're costed a bit high for what they can do.

If you're going to have 4 HQs, some of these guys are a must, otherwise you're out of points. From there, stock up on some Grey Hunters with Wolf Guard, you need to take Troops and they're the ones to take.

As has been mentioned, Long Fangs are nice. People say they lack ablaitive wounds, but I'd call a guy with a 5 point HBolter pretty well expenable. Two HBolters, two MLaunchers is a nice setup for them. Not too expensive, but you can still split its fire, so the shots aren't wasted on targets they're not suitable for.

Thunderwolves are pretty strong. People often forget the 12" charge.

The rest of the Codex is a lot like vanilla Marines, in a lot of ways, so you can take your Vindicators, Landspeeders, Predators, etc.

Although i agree that SW can be very CC oriented, they can also be very defensive and shooty, bringing lots of grey hunters in rhinos, long fangs, and razorbacks.

As for HQs:

Rune Priests are GREAT. you will almost always take one. Their spells are great. The Psykic defense is invaluable (all spells within 24 inches are nullified on a 4+).

Wolf Priests are not as good...they give a nice bonus with their re rolls to hit in CC, but unless you are taking large groups of troops in a land raider (which i personally would never do), i wouldn't bother with them.

Wolf Lords can be great, especially on a thunder wolf mount. Give him a storm shield, wolf claw and saga of the warrior born and he will tear things apart. He also costs 250 points, but he owns.

The named HQs are usually OK, but expensive. I'd say Logan is probably the most useful, mainly because he opens up the Wolf Guards-as-troops options.

As for what would be a solid start, at around 1500 I've been running something like:

Rune Priest w/ Living Lighting (d6 S7 attacks), Jaws of the World Wolf (so Tyranid players hate my )

Wolf Guard x4 w/ 4 Combi meltas, 3 Power Fists, 1 Thunderhammer (the TH goes with the scouts, the PFs go to the Grey Hunters)

5 Scouts w/ 1 Meltagun (These guys have a 66% chance to come in behind your enemy, which usually equals a dead enemy tank)

5 Grey Hunters w/ 1 meltagun, rhino
5 Grey Hunters w/ 1 meltagun, rhino
5 Grey Hunters w/ 1 meltagun, rhino

(these quads are small and primarally used for their meltagun shooting, but with the Wolf Guard and Counter attack they are surprisingly durable in CC, and the hidden powerfist makes them pretty formidable.)

3 TWC. 1 with SS and TH, 1 with Melta bombs (these will kill tanks with a S10 TH, and eat small units in CC)

5 Long Fangs w/ 4 Missile Launchers, Las/Plas Razorback
5 Long Fangs w/ 4 Missile Launchers, Las/Plas Razorback
5 Long Fangs w/ 4 Missile Launchers, Las/Plas Razorback (these shoot the crap out of everything.)

So, basically, this is a defensive / shooty SW list, where you basically move everything forward together and shoot things to death with missiles, melta, and las/plas. So far this list and it's 2000 point version (basically add 5 more GH, a TWC Wolf Lord, and another TWC. To make it 1000 points, take out a LF squad, 2 of the 3 razorbacks, the scouts, and 2 TWC models, making it much more bare-bones, but still very playable) have worked very well for me lately, though im sure there are some things i could optimize. Basically, the plan is to shoot the enemy to death, and then mop up whatever is left using assault.

If you wanted to make it more assault oriented army, I would make the GH squads larger, and give them Mark of the Wulfen and maybe power weapons at the cost of the long fangs, razorbacks or the scouts, and add in some more TWC, or a TWC Lord.

Other fun close combat units to play around with are Lone Wolves, though for me they usually compete with the WG and scouts for the Elite Slot.

So, basically what was said before; Rune Priest + Grey Hunters + Long Fangs will probably make up your core, it's just up to you how big to make the GH squads, whether or not to give them WG leaders, and to what else you want to add in to the Elite and Fast attack slots.

You might like this thread:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/320211.page

Also, please use the search function before posting a new thread. Chances are you will find a topic is already being discussed.

I will leave this thread open thanks to the excellent contributions it already has.