Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm hoping to start a Space Wolf army and was wondering how to field and use Thunderwolf Cavalry. They seem like a really cool unit to me, but I'm not sure I'd be able to justify their points cost. Anyone have any hints?

In general I'm looking to start a Space Wolf Army, so any tips/tricks would be most appreciated!

I use my Thunderwolves predominately as a counter assault element/speed bump for super nasty assault units. With that said, here is my preferred setup:

3x Thunderwolves
Thunderhammer/Storm Shield, Storm Shield, Naked -240

Thunderhammer has a hay day with any kind of armor, the 2 Storm Shields make them extremely difficult to put down and they are already setup to abuse wound allocation. Another nice feature is that they make a great retinue for Thunderwolf Lords. What I mean by this is take a Thunderwolf lord and toss him in with these 3 guys and you have about a 500 point unit that in most cases will walk though some of the toughest Close Combat forces and still keep kicking.

These are just ideas that I have so you really have to decide if you want a Thunderwolf-centric army or more of a balanced force as to which route you go.

You should always stnad them in the open and never move them. Then they are balanced

Unholy is correct. I've seen some people just use them as a steamroller and they run them alone. This works sometimes, but most of the time they'd get singled out before they get anywhere and they just get whittled down from concentrated firepower.

Sometimes you can have your TWC move up along with a fleet of Rhinos/Razorbacks and then jump out when you feel the time is right for a charge; this can work very well.

There are occasionally instances where you'd actually want them out on their own running straight at the enemy, like if you are getting shot up and your troops are getting singles out, so you can detach your TWC/Lord and force the enemy to either shoot at your other units or take them down first. The aforementioned 3 TWC and Lord can take a good deal of punishment so this is no easy task. Think of them as a good "off-tank" for your army in that if you absolutely have to you can send them straight at the enemy and draw their fire; they'll do quite well at this.

Thanks for the responses and the move the the proper Forum, I appreciate it.

Any advice as to what are good units other than Long Fangs?

I'm also wondering what people use to make their Thunderwolves.

Google "Mr Dandy" and he makes resin models. They're really cool looking.

TWC are good but hard to use effectively against a good player, but when you do they're great.

Razorbacks are good for us. wolf Scouts are great most of the time, and wolf guard as an addition to a squad are a great idea as well.

Rune Priests are fantastic. Search for "Just Dave" and he has a great Space Wolf tactica where he lists the units and how good they are.

Thanks Stormcrow. Do you put snipers on the wolf scouts or just keep them base? Not sure I really understand what makes them great.

Give them a melta gun only. Some suggest melta bombs as well, which are great but cost somewhere around 30 points.

Anyway, they can outflank and more often than not you can come in on any table edge you want (Wolf Scouts can come in from the enemy's deployment edge). I think it's on a roll of a 3 up you can choose which table edge to come off of. It's either that or a 4 up. Either way, suddenly the enemy has one or two scout squads coming in right behind them with a melta gun!

This also forces them to move away from their table edge which brings them closer to your units

lol, so basically they get sacrificed to crack open some transports or kill some MCs. I haven't seen any of the Space Wolves around here do that. Most just seem to use a ton of Gray Wolves in rhino's and razorbacks, which seems to be how most marines play.

Yeah-sometimes they are just a sacrificial lamb, but popping transports and some MCs will pay off dividends late game, and if you pop a tank or any IG parking lot that's gonna make up their points. Also, if you pop a transport, you can assault what's inside and scouts are good enough to most likely tie up what's inside the average troop transport for a turn or two. This may force them to go handle them.

Also, you can just infiltrate into cover and that's a 12 inch area of melta gun that you can use as area denial or fire support. what's really fun, though, is coming in behind an IG parking lot and whiffing. Wheee!

lol...Yea, that's my luck! Any other unit's you, or anyone, would recommend?