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Is Ragnar Blackmane worth taking as the sole HQ choice of a wolves army? If so, what unit type should I attach him to?

He's not bad with 10 PA WG in a LRC and a Wolf Priest but that would invalidate the "sole HQ unit" part of your question.
I wouldn't put him with BC as they already get +2 attacks whereas WG would benefit far more from his +D3 attacks.

Horizon9 wrote:Is Ragnar Blackmane worth taking as the sole HQ choice of a wolves army? If so, what unit type should I attach him to?

What point value? What's the rest of the army like? A bit more info would help.

As for attaching him - I would attach him to someone that would take great advantage of his +D3 attack charge. That said, not Blood Claws. Attach him to WG or Grey Hunters, imo.

He is very choppy, very choppy indeed, and can easily for examply carve his way through an entire squad of terminators, or wot not without taking a scratch. Although he doesnt work too well in low point games, as he isnt really worth the investment in lower point games

I'm playing 1500pts as of now, but should be in the 2000's by march. Just looking for general input, I'm pretty open to all suggestions

Well, very generally speaking IMO, not worth taking.

My all around go to character for SWs is:

Wolflord:
Saga of the Bear
Terminator Armor
Storm Shield
Chainfist
Wolf Tooth Necklace

At 1500 points, the above character or Ragnar are probably to spicy (expensive).

To grossly summarize Ragnar is really great in only 2 situations: versus hordes of lower I guys and adding +D3 attacks to a major assault squad of some kind.

I have run him in a variety of combos, the best I think has been 10 Wolf Guard Terminators with 2 Cyclone Chainfists and 8 plain WG Terminators (power weapon storm Bolter). This massive Juggernaut just walks up the middle of the board daring anyone to charge it!

Problem is a Ragnar Deathstar unit like that is very expensive and can't be everywhere. It's fun to play something so imposing but it can be beat by position and speed.

In 1500 point games my HQ is usually 2 JOTWW Runepriests seasoned to taste. YMMV.

Ragnar rocks with a unit of Grey Hunters or Wolf Guard. They both can bring other power weapons/fists to the party and both benefit largely from his +D3 charge attacks and furious charge.

He can be worth it, just with no eternal warrior you need to be a little bit more careful what you charge and watch out for those hidden P-fists with only a 4+ inv, he could get insta-gibbed somewhat easily.

You just have to play him smart, and a timely use of his howl can greatly turn a CC heavy battle in your favor.

You can make a powerful deathstar unit with Ragnar, but generally no, I would say he's not worth taking. I used to run him in my tournament list but he was either complete overkill or got fisted in combat and died. Either way he wasn't all that useful, really. A cheaper character could have gotten the job done with less points invested.

He is an awesome character, though!

Reecius wrote:You can make a powerful deathstar unit with Ragnar, but generally no, I would say he's not worth taking. I used to run him in my tournament list but he was either complete overkill or got fisted in combat and died. Either way he wasn't all that useful, really. A cheaper character could have gotten the job done with less points invested.

He is an awesome character, though!

So in short.

Take to a Tourniment - he may or may not hurt your chances, it all depends on what is on the other side.

In a friendly for fun game - Hell yeah, take him and just have fun with him.

Yea, very iconic as well, in fun games I play him with Bllod Claws in an LRC, even though I think it's not a very good use of points, but wow, I have killed Orks by the horde that way, pretty neat to throw that kind of volume down once in a while!

@Jayden63
Exactly. I am sure you can make him work in a tournament list, and I am sure there are guys who do, but for me I always found it to be such overkill. He and his squad would obliterate a unit (or units, even when I multi-charged they tended to gut everything) and then stand there and get shot to high hell. If you want a good assault unit, just use a wolf priest and save a ton of points, IMO.

But in fun games? Yeah, all the way! He is so cool, one of my favorite 40K characters. Like Augustus, I have used him in a giant pack of BCs just for laughs to see how many attacks we could generate on the charge. Wolf Priest goes with them just to really make it OTT.

winnertakesall wrote:He is very choppy, very choppy indeed, and can easily for examply carve his way through an entire squad of terminators, or wot not without taking a scratch. Although he doesnt work too well in low point games, as he isnt really worth the investment in lower point games

Not true. 1 Thunder hammer goes in, ragnar's done.