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I am thinking of starting a small Space Wolves army because I have always loved the idea of space vikings. I've never played any Space Marine army before so it will be a different experience than what I normally run (Tyranids). I haven't purchased the codex (yet) so my knowledge on them is limited to what I have read online. I'm just looking for any general advice on the units, tactics to try out, and whatever else a new SW player may need to know before I begin buying units. Thanks

Basic SW List.

Rune Priest, can't think of powers right now, either Twin Link one or take Living Lightning, Jaws, or Murderous Hurricane, depending on what you want him to do.

3 Squads of Grey Hunters x 10, with 2 matching Special Weapon in each squad, banner and maybe Mark of the Wolfen if wanting to get in close. Then transport, either Rhino or Drop pod

2 squads of 6 Long Fangs, with Missile Launcher x 5 in each.

And that's the start! Basically every SW list builds from there. That's roughly 1000 points and will get you started. Others can correct me, but its also considered a competitive core, but there are also more exciting, fluffy/fun units to take.

Hope that helps as a primer! Check out the lists people post and the tactics for more.

The basic core is pretty much what 4TheG8erGood said, but depends also on your game style. You should have Drop Pod or two in there. Rhinos work as well, but I like DP's more.

Besides those, there are few units that could be useful.

a) In bigger games, Terminator squad in LR. Tough thing for enemy to handle if you stay away from meltas.

b) In my experience, not very effective (somewhat medicore for their price), but I think these guys look awesome and are pretty fluffy unit. Thunderwolf Cavalry. Simply awesome-looking and can even be useful in some games.

check the

spacewolvesblogspot site, they got it all down for you to study

For the wolves, you really can't go too far off starting with a Rune priest or 2 and the battleforce
That'll give you 1 HQ, 20 grey hunters, a drop pod, and a few scouts.
To bump that up, I went with another battleforce, then devestators to make long fongs, after that, it's just choosing your toys, ie. termies, tanks, cavalry. Mix to your flavor.

The first thing to remember is that Space Wolves are a Medium Ranged Shooty with excellent Count-Assault abilities.

HQ:
Rune Priest are good, though don’t over look Thunderlord or Wolf Priest.
Also don’t overlook some of the Characters, Logan and Njal can be Game Winners.

Elites:
A Dreadnaught or some Wolf Guard Terminators.
Scouts could be good.

Troops
Grey Hunters, you will need lots of the.
Only take Blood Claws if you want to play around with an Assault Orientated Army.

Fast Attack:
Thunderwolves and Land Speeders are your best choices.

Heavy Support:
Long Fangs are fantastic; just remember they can carry things other than Missile Launchers.
The rest of the choices are good, if you are going for Wolf Guard Terminators you will need Land Raiders.

Also go around and read all of the Tactica out there like mine an Just Dave’s. These are not the end alls, but they will give you an idea of what your Space Wolves are capable of.

As others mentioned basic start would be rune priest and hunters. To expand off of that long fangs, most prefer to have them with x5 missile launchers but you can mix it up if you really want. Once you get that core down just read some of the tacticas as there are some other good units like wolf lords, thunder wolf cavalry, wolf priests, and Wolf guard as well.

If you go with transports for your hunters I have noticed this edition that drop pods are a bit better than rhinos as rhinos are easier to kill and might leave a squad foot slodging the whole board. With the pods you basically get a full strength unit or multiple units in your opponents face making it easier to get first blood and keep you opponent pushed on his end of the table.

Hope this helps!

I've really been turned off from Long Fangs recently. The prevalence of Heldrakes (and now Riptides) in my meta has made them basically useless. They get off a shot or two then they're dead. When you're using missile launchers, 2 turns of shooting barely has an impact.

I have occasionally brought HB LFs. They're cheap and they don't draw a lot of attention. The amount of dakka they put out is surprisingly decent for 115pts, especially against all those annoying horde armies I'm seeing. They actually have a similar impact against AV:11 as the missile launcher, but due to the number of shots it's more consistent. It's not like I'd use MLs to down a high priority target anyway. They're too weak against armour.

 Griddlelol wrote:
I've really been turned off from Long Fangs recently. The prevalence of Heldrakes (and now Riptides) in my meta has made them basically useless. They get off a shot or two then they're dead. When you're using missile launchers, 2 turns of shooting barely has an impact.

I have occasionally brought HB LFs. They're cheap and they don't draw a lot of attention. The amount of dakka they put out is surprisingly decent for 115pts, especially against all those annoying horde armies I'm seeing. They actually have a similar impact against AV:11 as the missile launcher, but due to the number of shots it's more consistent. It's not like I'd use MLs to down a high priority target anyway. They're too weak against armour.

Yes, I believe the Heavy Bolter is overlooked for Long Fangs. I have two Long Fang Packs. I built them by diving into my bits box and seeing that I had and built them from that. One of them ended up with 5x Missile Launchers, the second though ended up with 2 Las-Cannons, 2 Missile Launchers [One of them a Scout Missile Launcher] and a Scout Heavy Bolter.

The second one looked like it was going to be my secondary until I started to use it. I found myself firing in one of two modes. I also usually have my Rune Priest was also attached to it.
Mode-1: The 2 Las-Cannons and the 2 Missile Launchers at something big and the Heavy Bolters into something else.
Mode-2: The 2 Las-Cannons at one big target and the 2 Missile Launchers and the Heavy Bolters into a “Soft Skinned Target” Like a transport or Infantry. With the “Twin-Linked” effect from the Rune Priest it hit what I aim at and usually inflicts real heavy damage with them. Combined with an ADL I usually have little problems with fliers. It has become one of my Go-To units.

4TheG8erGood wrote:Basic SW List.

Rune Priest, can't think of powers right now, either Twin Link one or take Living Lightning, Jaws, or Murderous Hurricane, depending on what you want him to do.

3 Squads of Grey Hunters x 10, with 2 matching Special Weapon in each squad, banner and maybe Mark of the Wolfen if wanting to get in close. Then transport, either Rhino or Drop pod

2 squads of 6 Long Fangs, with Missile Launcher x 5 in each.

And that's the start! Basically every SW list builds from there. That's roughly 1000 points and will get you started. Others can correct me, but its also considered a competitive core, but there are also more exciting, fluffy/fun units to take.

Fairly standard core list right there. By no means absolutely required, but its popular for a reason.

SlyasR wrote:check the

spacewolvesblogspot site, they got it all down for you to study

If you check that place out, so be it. It used to be pretty solid but they have some bad advice on there these days. Especially some of the recent 6th edition articles.

Don't take Blood Claws, take Grey Hunters, Blood Claws haven't been good since 3rd Edition, give Grey Hunters Mark of the Wulfen and the banner thing, and they can pretty much hold their own just as well as Blood Claws can. Another problem with Blood Claws is that they can never fire their bolt pistols, I forget what rule it is, but they have to charge the closest enemy unit if their in range, and, because all pistols (bar infernus pistols and blast pistols) have a 12" range, they can't shoot unless in overwatch. And, if you're ever going to take Blood Claws, stick them in a Land Raider with a Wolf Priest, and they'll do fairly well for themselves. Might not make their points back, but are a great distraction to draw fire away from your more valuable units. Take Long Fangs (split fire is too good to waste), and Thunderwolves (which are absolutely bloody amazing)!!

On the subject of Blood Claws, the are not “Competitive”, but they can be a Game Changer. You just need to conceder a few things.

A] The need a Leader, a Wolf Guard Pack Leader will do but a Wolf Priest is the Best, and not Ulric unless you are fighting Nidzilla of other MC SPAM.
B] Never run them in Packs of less than 15, you will need those two Flamers.
C] Build your list around them not the other way around.
D] Realize their limitations and just enjoy the carnage can do.

I have two Packs that I run, always with a Wolf Priest and always in packs of 15 and they have never failed me except for once. This involves some Vanguard Vets, a Heroic Intervention and a Failed Counter Attack check and massive Fail on my dice Rolls, along with the 5th Edition Fearless Rules.

I gotta say, Blood Claws are very good, but I'd much rather just take a load of Wolf Guard, and have two or three squads of Grey Hunters to use as scoring units, especially considering Wolf Guard are way better than Blood Claws too, and you can take as maaaaany power weapons as you want!

 Griddlelol wrote:
I've really been turned off from Long Fangs recently. The prevalence of Heldrakes (and now Riptides) in my meta has made them basically useless. They get off a shot or two then they're dead. When you're using missile launchers, 2 turns of shooting barely has an impact.

I have occasionally brought HB LFs. They're cheap and they don't draw a lot of attention. The amount of dakka they put out is surprisingly decent for 115pts, especially against all those annoying horde armies I'm seeing. They actually have a similar impact against AV:11 as the missile launcher, but due to the number of shots it's more consistent. It's not like I'd use MLs to down a high priority target anyway. They're too weak against armour.

I think this idea has merit. The HB can never explode AV 11, and it only glances on a "6". However, it has triple the rate of fire of a krak missile.

Let's examine this: a single BS 4 krak rocket should generate 0.44 HP of damage against AV 11. Now this does have the advantage of getting to roll on the vehicle chart on 3/4 of its hits. So this number does not represent the true effectiveness. The heavy bolter should do 0.33 HP of damage to AV 11 with no chance of vehicle damage.

The big difference is the ability of the HB to penetrate 4+ armor out to 32" whereas frag missiles stink up the joint and are only AP 6 and somewhat waste the BS 4.

Unfortunately, the HB is not quite as efficacious as I had hoped. The pricing on heavy weapons for the long fangs I feel really forces the SW into some very dubious payloads. 5 X ML just doesn't cut it against AV 13/AV 14. I guess the plan there is to drop pod GH with meltas? And frag missiles will kill a depressingly small amount of orks or guardsmen, for different reasons. (STR in case of Orks, 5+ armor for the guardsmen) The missile launcher is $$ against Tyranids, many Eldar builds, some Tau builds, Dark Eldar (kind of), but that's all I can think of. That's a small list to me.

I have faced SW many times now and the long fangs have never really been a huge issue for me. It's the fact that they usually drag IG allies and their GH are amazing in HTH. I feel that IG with SW allies are far more potent than SW as the main list. The IG have way nicer heavy support, imo.

Drop podding Wolf Guard and GHs in rhinos or pods fulfil my anti-tank. If I'm running a mech list I bring a predator now, it's pretty decent against AV:13, but the meltas are mandatory in a SW list now.

Let me know how this works. I keep telling SW players they'll never miss the MLs if they dump long fangs and use other anti-tank methods. Preferably ones that don't involve ROF 1 HP stripping.

I've only used it twice in a pure SW list, and it's performed quite well. One game it KO'd a LR demolisher thanks to night fighting giving me a chance to flat out and hit side armour the next turn. The other it popped quantum shielding and a couple of HP allowing me to surround a barge and krak grenade it.
It is destroyed every time, but it makes an impact before it dies. The LFs I found never did much unless my opponent was bringing the few units MLs are awesome against. The best part is that it's freed up my RP to go on the offensive. No longer does he have to sit back and cast prescience like a bitch. He can get forward, stop psychic powers and Jaws like a mad man. Against Necrons that was invaluable. My drop podding hunters and RP took out a DLord and a couple of Wraiths on turn one, plus put some wounds around. Fantastic.

Dropping Grey Hunters is super epic because they don't get a $%^& if they get charged. They are the gold standard that other marines just can't live up to. Sigh. Dropping BA is sub-par at best, at that's using flamers and melta liberally.

Pretty much. Although with interceptor becoming increasingly common, rhinos aren't terrible. The flat-out LOS trick is very nice when sitting in cover. Yeah there's sure as hell a 50% chance of losing first blood, but with a single pod full of Wolf Guard, there's 50% chance of getting first blood too. It's getting more and more common in my meta that everyone has at least one way to ensure FB so bringing rhinos is far less of an issue. The only down side of rhinos is no TDAWGS.
They're the reason drop pods work so well. TDAWG + RP = extremely safe Warlord.

The pods basically teleport the grey hunters exactly where they need to be.

What if where they need to be changes? Rhinos really make a difference there.

I'm only arguing the point for the sake of discussion. I use drop pods almost exclusively.

I agree Rhinos have advantages. Especially b/c grey hunters can pile out, double tap and not care if they end up assaulted. they can potentially get back in too after the assault if necessary.

I actually have two mech lists with BA compared to only one drop list. But SW are better at dropping than BA by far.

 Griddlelol wrote:
What if where they need to be changes? Rhinos really make a difference there.

I'm only arguing the point for the sake of discussion. I use drop pods almost exclusively.

I feel that with space wolves you need to contest or capture your opponents objectives. So you drop pod your hunters close and hold it. Other than that im not sure theres much more moving aside from maybe getting a better kill point or running away.

With rhinos by the time you get to those objectives they are probably blown up, if anything.

What if your opponent doesn't allow you to pod close enough for that? It's not unusual for large bubble wrapping or terrain placement. Or if the GH squad near the 4pts objective is killed and you need to move the GH squad from the 1pt objective to win the match.
Saying you never need to move once you've podded is false in any real game. Things don't go as planned, and dice go awry.

I really disagree that the rhinos will be blown up. Everyone on this forum seems to believe that they''re made of paper with a giant target painted on them. I normally lose one for FB after which they tend to get ignored once my troops are in position which with a 12-18" move doesn't take long. If I abuse the flat out LOS block, my opponent focusses on them, but that's just to my advantage.

In games with FW rhinos have their place. My GHs don't get shot at by sabres, contempor mortis dreads, hyperios batteries, flakk truks or the new necron stuff the instant they arrive. Of course this can be mitigated by marching them into terrain, However many tournaments have rather sparse terrain placement and also it proves my point that once you've podded - you'll need to move.

You could always try a Loganwing, it's the least expensive army to start and can definitely win games.

Logan
20 power armor marines
5 terminators with cyclones/AC


That's like 900 pts worth of space wolves..you can fill in the gaps with some rune priest(s), speeders, lone wolves, whatever else.

I think it's the best way to do space wolves on the cheap.

I agree with the above posts--buy a Rune Priest and Battleforce. Then Logan, Thunderwolves, Drop Pods. Wolves are fun whether you want to be competitive or fluffy as the army lends itself to both well. It actually can often be both fluffy and competitive pretty easily.

Thank you all for the great advice. I am really excited to start SW

wow, everyone is pretty spot on here. Skyclaws, swiftclaws, and bloodclaws are all pretty terrible. SW snipers are way better than any other MEQ scouts though. They ccant have camo cloaks but higher bs for their cost makes them good although they take up an elite slot. Lone wolves in TDA are pretty great, very cheap suicide units. If you get some Wolf Guard in TDA to pod down you can use one model for lone wolf and they are invaluable. With SW its always a fantastic idea to magnetize your termi arms since there are so many options. I always drop four WG in termi with combi plasma and a RP with Jaws of the World Wolf turn one to wipe out enemy HQ and heavy hitters. Also, remember with tau being popular right now that jaws can be fantastic against them. Also, a one shot kill on riptides if they fail the hard to pass roll.

I'm a little surprised that even Dreadnoughts have been mentioned as candidates for the Elites slot yet I've seen no mention of the Lone Wolf.

85pts for a 2 wound, eternal terminator with FNP, a 3++ save and a chainfist is fantastic value. They're a real thorn in your opponents side, and eat more firepower than your opponent wants to throw at them to put them down, meaning that they're good for going forwards, contesting objectives and scoring linebreaker. They'll smash through vehicles like it's going out of style and although they don't put out too much damage too quickly against most infantry based targets, they've excellent in a challenge and if you need a unit tying up, no problem, just hurl a Lone Wolf at it. I run 2 and I don't know what I'd do without them, they add so much.

The way things are going with Space Wolves in the UK is one of 2 directions. The first is to add allies. Yes, Space Wolves are a good army but they're so much better when you add some Imperial Guard into the mix, maybe with a blob or a Manticore. The other direction is a little less popular, but still viable, and revolves around a Drop Podding list, at my local club one of the other Wolf players brought along a list with 9 of the buggers in. You then fill the pods with Grey Hunters, Wolf Guard, etc and smash down and begin thinning the hoard.

 Rampage wrote:
I'm a little surprised that even Dreadnoughts have been mentioned as candidates for the Elites slot yet I've seen no mention of the Lone Wolf.

85pts for a 2 wound, eternal terminator with FNP, a 3++ save and a chainfist is fantastic value. They're a real thorn in your opponents side, and eat more firepower than your opponent wants to throw at them to put them down, meaning that they're good for going forwards, contesting objectives and scoring linebreaker. They'll smash through vehicles like it's going out of style and although they don't put out too much damage too quickly against most infantry based targets, they've excellent in a challenge and if you need a unit tying up, no problem, just hurl a Lone Wolf at it. I run 2 and I don't know what I'd do without them, they add so much.

I also run two [Muzzle and Blitz], but loaded completely different; Power Armor, Mark of the Wolfen, Storm Shield, Close Combat Weapon and a pair of Wolves. What they do best is eliminate small Combat Squad sized in one turn or Tar Pit hoard sized [20+] units. I actually went for the Power Armor for the a ability to perform Sweeping Advances, which has let me chew though hoards a little quicker.
I used to run them nowhere near each other, but with 6th edition and challenges I run them near each other so one can pull off the challenge while the other hit the “Main Body”. Usually the two of the, can finish off most units really quick. The only time I have lost with them is one game were one of the them lived.
Though I have been thinking of making up one more in Terminator Armor Chain Fist and a Wolf Claw.