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So, a new army in the making. I haven't actually used Space Wolves with the new codex yet, so this is all a little theoretical just now... So if the list looks a little noob-ish, that would be why.

I say 'tournament-ish' because the army will be an army for using in tournaments, but I'm not aiming for an ultra-optimised tournament-style list with 17 identical units. Fair game to those who like playing like that, but I don't... armies like that aren't particularly exciting to use, and more important for me, not as fun to build.

So I'm aiming for a bit of a compromise, and trying to make a list that will function reasonably well on the table, but is still at least a little bit interesting to put together.


So, onto the list:

Wolf Guard Battle Leader - Frost Axe, Runic Armour - 115

Wolf Priest - Saga of the Warrior Born - 135

Rune Priest - Jaws of the World Wolf, Tempest's Wrath - 100

Rune Priest - Living Lightning, Tempest's Wrath, Runic Armour - 120


Wolf Scouts (5) - Meltagun x1, Plasma Pistol x2 - 115

Dreadnought - Plasma Cannon, Extra Armour - 130


Bloodclaws (9) - Powerfist x1, Rhino - 195

Grey Hunters (5) - Flamer x1, Powerfist x1, Wolf Standard, Razorback (Las/Plas, Extra Armour) - 200

Grey Hunters (7) - Meltagun x1 - 110

Grey Hunters (7) - Meltagun x1 - 110


Thunderwolves (5) - Plasma Pistol x5 - 325

Landspeeder - Multimelta x2 - 80


Long Fangs (5) - Missile Launcher x4 - 115


Total 1850 neat.


Rough plan in my head was to use the Bloodclaws with Wolf Priest and Razorback-mounted Hunters with WGBL as the spearhead and forward objective-grabbers, backed up by the Thunderwolves and Scouts. The other two Hunters units with Rune Priests attached would serve to grab closer objectives and help the Long Fangs and Dreadnought with fire support.

Although I'm wondering if it would be better to drop the 'speeder or scouts in favour of more warm bodies in the Hunter units.


Any suggestions or feedback welcome.


Edit - Edited out the 'extra' LF missile launcher... They only have 4

Aaah how nice it is to see an original/unique Space Wolf army! Thank you insaniak! I think that with how forgiving the Space Wolf Codex is, it's easy to make an unconventional, yet competitive, army list, so I reckon you're in luck!

Nonetheless, I can identify several flaws in your list IMHO, which I'll try to highlight and briefly explain why:

- I believe you have too many points wrapped up in your HQ choices; 4 HQ choices is typically unnecessary whilst WGBL's are typically a sub-par choice (an still expensive), whilst I'd imagine your Wolf Priest would be unlikely to justify the cost of his Saga. I would recommend dropping the Wolf Guard Battle Leader or a Rune Priest tbh; to save points and in the WGBL's case, he's also a quite weak choice. 3 HQ's is easily enough man.

- Your Dreadnought doesn't really need extra armour IMHO; it's a costly upgrade that adds little to the unit. You may consider a HF for some template/blast goodness, and/or swapping the Plasma Cannon for a Lascannon to better synchronise with the Long Fangs. At the very least, I'd drop extra armour as I can't imagine it helping much. The same would definitely go for extra armour on a Razorback too. I have to say, I'd only say it's really worth it on a Land Raider, or on some dreadnoughts...

- Your Blood Claws are pretty good, however a rhino doesn't really help them much. I'd typically recommend one of two ways to run Blood Claws: in a Land Raider (with a Wolf Priest), or on foot (with a Wolf Priest with Saga of the Hunter).

- I reckon you have too much in one Grey Hunter squad, then too little in the others! A Powerfist and Standard is unlikely to add much to a long-ranged, 5-man unit who are unlikely to get to use either to full effect. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, I don't see why your Grey Hunters are only 7-men strong and naked; at 10-men you get the all important meltagun, whilst a Wolf Standard really improves larger squads and a rhino would complement their range and abilities.

- I'm not convinced by the build of your Thunderwolves; I struggle to see what plasma pistols add here except for 75 additional points! Thunderwolves wouldn't exactly struggle against tanks or termies (which Plasma Pistols excel against), whilst a couple of Storm Shields and a Powerfist would help them much more against these targets and to survive the inevitable barrage of shooting that comes in their direction. Would only cost 10pts more too!

- Finally, as a pack leader cannot take a ML, your Long Fangs are actually either equipped with 4 ML's, are 6-men strong, or are illegal! I'd imagine from the points cost, it's the former.

-------

Ultimately, i think the list could be made more competitive whilst loosing little of its flavour, by changing it to something like this:

- Wolf Priest
- Rune Priest
- Rune Priest

- Wolf Scouts
- Dreadnought

- Blood Claws - Power Fist - Land Raider (Redeemer?) or Saga of the Hunter for their Wolf Priest.
- 5 Grey Hunters - Flamer, Las/plas Razorback.
- 10 Grey Hunters - 2x Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino
- 10 Grey Hunters - 2x Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino

- 5 Thunderwolves - 2 Storm Shields, 1 Powerfist.
- 2 Land Speeders - 2 Multimeltas

- Long Fangs

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Food for thought. Hope that helps man. Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback And yes, the Long Fangs should have been 4 MLs...


So, you got me thinking about Land Raiders. I had initially discarded a LR as an option due to the points expense. In retrospect, it does seem more useful to have the Blood Claws in an assault vehicle, and the Land Raider would provide more reliable fire support then the Speeder...

So, I ruthlessly culled a bit, and wound up with the following:

Wolf Priest - Saga of the Warrior Born, Wolftail Talisman - 140

Rune Priest - Jaws of the World Wolf, Tempest's Wrath - 100

Rune Priest - Living Lightning, Tempest's Wrath, Runic Armour - 120


Wolf Scouts (5) - Meltagun x1, Plasma Pistol x2 - 115

Dreadnought - Plasma Cannon - 115


Bloodclaws (9) - Powerfist x1 - 160

Grey Hunters (6) - Flamer x1, Powerfist x1, Wolf Standard, Razorback (Las/Plas) - 200

Grey Hunters (8) - Meltagun x1 - 125

Grey Hunters (8) - Meltagun x1 - 125


Thunderwolves (5) - Powerfist x1 - 275

Landspeeder - Multimelta x2 - 80


Long Fangs (5) - Missile Launcher x4 - 115

Land Raider - 250

Total 1850.


The basic gameplan remains the same, except the Bloodclaws now have an assault vehicle, and said vehicle is a little more survivable than both the Rhino and Landspeeder it replaces.

The Thunderwolves focus a little less on shooting (which they really shouldn't have been worried about anyway) the Dread and 'back lose extra armour, each Grey Hunter squad gains an extra body and the WGBL is history.

I do remain a little unsure about the two Rune Priests at this point, but purely for aesthetic reasons. It seems a little odd to have the army include a Wolf Priest and two Rune Priests as HQ... but the Rune Priests do appear to be a more efficient use of points than a Wolf Lord.

I have left the Wolf Standard and powerfist in the mounted Hunter unit for now, since they're still intended as a secondary assault unit... I'll see how that pans out.

SO, sat down to sort out some models last night, and realised that I suck at basic addition. The revised list actually came out to 1920.

So, hacked at it again, and wound up with this:

Wolf Priest - Saga of the Warrior Born, Wolftail Talisman - 140

Rune Priest - Jaws of the World Wolf, Tempest's Wrath - 100

Rune Priest - Living Lightning, Tempest's Wrath, Runic Armour - 120


Wolf Scouts (5) - Meltagun x1, Plasma Pistol x2 - 115

Dreadnought - Plasma Cannon - 115


Bloodclaws (9) - Powerfist x1 - 160

Grey Hunters (6) - Flamer x1, Powerfist x1, Wolf Standard, Razorback (Las/Plas) - 200

Grey Hunters (9) - Meltagun x1 - 140

Grey Hunters (9) - Plasmagun x1 - 145


Thunderwolves (5) - 250

Long Fangs (5) - Missile Launcher x4 - 115

Land Raider - 250

Total 1850.


To summarise: dropped the Landspeeder. Also dropped the powerfist from the Twolves... more for aesthetic reasons than anything. I've been running them in Combat Patrol games, and they've been doing fine without the power weapon thanks to Rending and a bucketload of attacks, and I would like to try to avoid anything that looks as silly as Canis perched up on his wolf with his little stubby, inefectual arms...

Swapped the melta in the 3rd Hunters unit for a plasmagun (just because... and to give them a little extra range) and added one more body to each of the larger Hunter units.

insaniak wrote:
I do remain a little unsure about the two Rune Priests at this point, but purely for aesthetic reasons. It seems a little odd to have the army include a Wolf Priest and two Rune Priests as HQ... but the Rune Priests do appear to be a more efficient use of points than a Wolf Lord.

Wolf Priest - Saga of the Warrior Born, Wolftail Talisman - 140

Rune Priest - Jaws of the World Wolf, Tempest's Wrath - 100

Rune Priest - Living Lightning, Tempest's Wrath, Runic Armour - 120

Right, well as I see it you have a slight issue with the rune priests, they need to have a chooser of the slain each, that makes their psyker shooting abilities better with the extra BS point. Drop the runic armour and you can pay for that straight off. I'd drop tempest's wrath unless you have lots of deepstriking units in your meta game, might be a better idea to go with murderous hurricane as it offers about the same effect but also may help take out hordes, I have lots of orks in my gaming club it helps a lot. To make sure they are both unique give one a bolter.

I am never a fan of wolf priests, if you are going to be using thunderwolves maybe a thunderwolf lord might be an idea, the ideal load out on one of them is runic armour, wolf tooth necklace, storm sheild and wolf claw. I think that's 230 points, it is a lump of points but he makes your cavalry a lot more hard hitting and you can stick either saga of the warrior born or beastslayer on him and make him a hard hitting CC monster.

The wolf priest and the blood claws in a redeemer works for some people but I find it is a lot of points for a unit that can never bring it's real potential to bear, maybe a unit of grey hunters with motw and a wolf standard if you really want the priest.

insaniak wrote:

Wolf Scouts (5) - Meltagun x1, Plasma Pistol x2 - 115

Dreadnought - Plasma Cannon - 115

Hmm... A couple of good points in there that got me thinking. After another look at the Wolf Guard, who I had initially ignored, it seems a little crazy to not include them given the slight points break that you get as a result.

I also think on reflection that there's enough other stuff in there for popping vehicles that I can do without the Land Raider's Lascannons, and the Redeemer does give some nice oomph against hordes, while also being a slight points-break.

And I think I had either misread Tempest's Wrath, or was over-estimating the effectiveness of disrupting Deep Strike specifically...

So, the revised revised revised list looks like this:


Wolf Priest - Saga of the Warrior Born, Wolftail Talisman - 140

Rune Priest - Jaws of the World Wolf, Murderous Hurricane - 100

Rune Priest - Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane, Runic Armour, Chooser of the Slain - 130


Wolf Guard (4) - 2 x Powerfists, 1 x Combi-melta, 1 x Storm Bolter - 120

Wolf Scouts (5) - Meltagun x1 - 85

Dreadnought - Plasma Cannon, Wolftail Talisman - 120


Bloodclaws (9) - 135

Grey Hunters (5) - Flamer x1, Wolf Standard, Razorback (Las/Plas) - 160

Grey Hunters (8) - Meltagun x1 - 125

Grey Hunters (8) - Plasmagun x1 - 130


Thunderwolves (5) - 250

Long Fangs (5) - Missile Launcher x4 - 115

Land Raider Redeemer - 240

Total 1850.


The Bloodclaws have to stay, simply because I don't want an entire cookie-cutter army of Grey Hunters. They'll be in the Redeemer with the Wolf Priest and one of the powerfist Wolf Guard.
The second powerfist Wolf Guard goes into the Hunter squad in the Razorback, to shadow the Thunderwolves.
The combi-melta Wolf Guard goes with one of the Runepriests into the plasmagun Hunter squad, and the stormboler WG and other Runepriest into the other Hunter squad.

The dreadnought gains a Talisman, giving everyone except the Scouts, Long Fangs and Thunderwolves some measure of Psychic protection.