Oh hello there!
I'm sorry to say I think Grugknuckle missing the boat on a few points in your post here. I'd love to take a moment and throw in my two pennies.
1q. You don't really need the MotW because like he said, you'll want to shoot instead of charge. You'll also have a hard time getting close to the enemy anyway because that unit will have to walk. As for the wolf standard, you're already re-rolling 1's toHit and toWound against infantry if the wolf priest is there. So the standard doesn't give you much more - not enough to justify 10 points.
1a. Pretty wrong here. Sorry to come out both barrels hot on this, but it's the first point in Grug's reply - Wolf Standards are not mini one-off Wolf Priests, in fact, Wolf Standards and Wolf Priests, specifically with the load-out mentioned above, really share nothing in common. Wolf Standards are a one use per game item that allows ALL rolls of 1 to be re-rolled in your Assault Phase, this means To Hit, To Wound, Saves, Etc. EVERY SINGLE ONE throughout the entirety of the Assault phase for that Unit. It's not only *worth* 10 points, it's practically a mortal sin at 10 points.
That being said - where do Wolf Priests get to re-roll ones on plasma guns? I think you might be mistaken here.
2q. This brings up the second point. You don't want to spend a lot of points on characters. Just because you can take 2 characters doesn't mean you have to. Consider bringing JUST the Rune Priest or JUST the Wolf Priest. Those dudes are expensive.
2a. Put simply, there are not a lot of points on Characters here. A Rune Priest and a Wolf Priest are not only inexpensive for the tools they can bring, their point cost makes them among the best choices for an
HQ in the entire game for the tools they can bring. If a specific
HQ takes Saga of the Hunter and offers you a part of your strategy, build your list and enjoy it. Now if you include all of your
WG in
TDA here ... but that's for another point later in this reply.
3q. That said, if you keep the wolf priest, then he should take a combi-plasma instead of the combi-melta ... OR ... just keep the bolt pistol. The reason is that you'll have to shoot at the same thing that the GH squad is shooting at - which is MEQ or TEQ and not high AV tanks.
3a. This is actually a really great point. Combi-weapons being a one-off and getting a single shot out of a combi-weapon in a sub-10 man
GH Unit sounds like a good decision if you have the points available for it.
4q. Similarly, if you'd rather have the Rune Priest, you may want to consider leaving him back with the Long Fangs. Rune Priests suck in close combat and even though the "Drop Pod - Jaws of the World Wolf" trick can be nice to execute the enemy's warlord, most people are ready for that and after you've played your little tactic the RP is likely to die. If you leave him back with the Long Fangs, he can spit Living Lightning every turn or use Prescience to give the LF's re-rolls to hit. Either way, he can stay useful while not exposing himself to reprisals.
4a. Ok - this is going to be a tough one, but follow me here: Yes, leaving your Rune Priest back to sit with your Long Fangs is a great idea if you're going to take Divination out of the
BRB Psy powers. Presciense, the Primaris Divination Power, is a blessing that will effectively Twin Link all of your shots for a Unit within 12". I've been using a Rune Priest for this tactic to great effect when firing snap shots against
FMCs or full shots against
MCs or better, blasts into troop choices. Simply put, this makes Long Fangs a DEADLY serious threat and is incredibly worthwhile.
Second - Rune Priests can NOT, repeat NOT take Living Lightning and Prescience. You have the choice of powers from either Codex or Rulebook, not both. So if you're going to be sticking your Rune Priest into a Pod and throwing Jaws at units to blow them up in a sweet Alpha Strike, take
JotWW and
LL, it's great. If not, take Divination and have fun smashing missiles into things.
5q. Your wolf guard will struggle to justify the points you're paying for them. They're just way over priced with all the toys you've given them. Consider that you have 5 models there who provide only a marginal boost to your firepower, but you're paying 240 points for them. For that price you could get a whole other 10 man GH squad completely kitted out with meltaguns, MotW, wolf Standard and drop pod and still have 20 points to spare. If you DO decide to do away with the wolf guard, then be sure to make all of your GH squads full strength (ie...10 men).
5a. Here's where I'm going to go on from experience. I've been using
WG in
TDA and splitting them off to be WGPL for a few games now and I'm going to remove that option.
WG in
TDA will give you two things - you now roll your Units
Ld at the WGPLs Leadership, which is great, but it's still only Ld9 at best and you have a 2+ save in front of your unit to soak bullets for a little while, but the chances of you rolling 1's on saves is too high to make them worthwhile. They'll also give you the opportunity to put one in the pack of
ML LFs and give you one unit which will launch 7 Twin Linked Missiles at targets. SEVEN.
So if you choose to stick with your Terminators, use them as a mop up squad, use your Drop Pod
GH Units to eliminate units as much as possible and then follow in with the Terminators to finish the unit off. The only real problem with Terminators is you can't Sweeping Advance with them and catch your enemy Unit if they run away after a losing Assault ... but that can be a good thing too.
I love Space Wolves, I absolutely LOVE them, but they are NOT good against many things in this edition. They're just not. The strength of Space Wolves was their ability to be an army that can shoot great weapons with really unique, incredible Assault options. They're built to shoot into units, then get into
CC and rip their opponents apart and they used to be remarkably effective at this before the dawn of Riptides, Heldrakes and the best Gun Lines in
40k (in my opinion) in Tau and Eldar. Can they succeed in this environment? Absolutely. You can build an All Commers list that can do really well if you're aware of how to play to your strengths. Grey Hunters, Rune Priests, Long Fangs, Lone Wolves and Thunderwolf Cavalry and Wolf Guard are the most effective choices in Space Wolves now and Wolf Guard aren't really worth their points unless you're building a list around them with Logan Grimmnar to make them troops and tossing down a full list of combi-weapons and Drop Pods and smashing your opponents teeth in with your first strike.
My feedback on your list, it looks really neat. I can see it doing a whole lot of great things, but I feel as if you're good ideas are spread too thin. Much like my fun lists are at 1,500 plus, playing a lot of options, not being particularly focused with any of them.
I'd move the
CML into the
LF pack with the
MLs, slip the Rune Priest into that with Divination for Prescience for Twin Linked madness. Strip the CotS off the
RP you have, drop the
SS on the 2
TDA and move a few points here and there to get another 100 points to drop a second Rune Priest (a third
HQ) with
LL and
JotWW to slap in that Drop Pod and do some Alpha Striking bad assery.
And get those Long Fangs more Missile Launchers! See if your
FLGS will allow you to play them as proxy and have some fun until you can
WYSIWYG.
Most of all, have fun and good luck in your matches! Enjoy Wolves! And keep your fingers crossed that Wolves will get a 6th Edition Codex sooner than later!
2500 pts
