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Hey Dakkadakka

So as the thread title states this Space Wolf list is specifically tailored to fluffly accommodate a samurai themed army.
That means plenty of swords plus I thought it would be cool to fill out each Grey Hunter squad with a Wolf Guard to represent an elite samurai officer.
I feel Lone Wolves also fill a suitable role in playing powerful Ronin warriors.

Please note this is the first serious list I've ever tried to put together and I've finally managed to assemble a list that I feel good about.
I kept the cost as low as possible while equipping them in a way that was suitable to my theme and then fleshed out the list with the remaining points.

From what I hear CC has taken a performance hit however it's just how I wanna play the game and so tried to create a balanced mid-range/CC army



I don't know if that's an acceptable layout for an army list but eh... I'm sure you can see what I was trying to accomplish.
I need help in figuring out if I've built a weak army. Despite being a mostly fluff army I still would like a chance of winning

Problems.

- Your Wolflord need a 2+ Armor save. Try find the pts for a runic armor;
- Get rid of all the Frost weapons, swords or axes .. power weapons (swords or axes with the option of Mauls) are equally good and cheaper;
- you'll may have the second free weapon for the Grey Hunters only IF the team is completed with 10 models. The "Wolf Guard add-in phase" come AFTER the built of the Grey Hunters team. So, if no with 10 GREY HUNTERS models, no second free weapon;
- Special weapons (Frost Blades, TH, etc) on models equipped with Mark of the Wulfen are completly useless. In fact they will be ignored as per Mark of the Wulfen rules;

To finish, CC could truly be played effectively but not with Space Wolves, not anymore..
The more necessary thing in facts is the "delivery service" of all the CC goodness a list can show and the Space Wolves don't have anything enough solid to do this job (apart Land Raiders.. ).
So, 1st Space Wolves couldn't really be considered a CC army list, 2nd if you're looking for a low-count models list, full of power/special weapons with actually the tools to keep competitive levels nowadays look at Grey Knights.

Between Deathcult Assassins, Crusader Acolytes, all the Grey Knights and particulary the (still very good in 6th ed.) Paladins you'll have all the swords/power weapons you'll may ever needs..


PS:
when posting lists, don't mind noting every and each point cost. Just write the unit composition and the upgrades in line. Eventually with just the total per unit, something like this:
TR - 10x Grey Hunters - Flamer - Plasmagun - Power Axe - MOTW - Standard. 190

I seem to hear mixed opinions on if SWs are still decent at CC.
Though as I understand they're more of a mid-range army.
edit:
Thanks for the advice.
I'll also be sure to better organise my lists in the future. It was simply laid out the way it was for my own convenience.

First, get rid of the individual point costs from the wargear options. Its against forum rules.

Second, your Grey Hunters are illegal. You only get two Special Weapons if you have 10 Grey Hunters in a Pack. You have 9. Before you argue about it:

Wolf Guard don't join Grey Hunters until Deployment; in your army list they are still an Elite unit taking up an Elite slot. You don't even have to split them up if you don't want to.

Even if Wolf Guard joined Grey Hunters on the Army List instead of during Deployment they are Wolf Guard, not Grey Hunters.

The FAQ explicitly tells you that you don't get a second free weapon for 9 Grey Hunters + 1 Wolf Guard.

Wolf Lord really needs a 2+ armor save. Runic Armor is worth its point cost and will keep him alive a lot longer than you'd expect. He'd also be better served with an AP 2 weapon, but I get you got a theme and are sticking to it. Just know that you are going to really wish you were AP 2 quite often. I would have left the Bolt Pistol on him as well or replaced the Belt of Russ with a Storm Shield. Again, I get it. A shield would "ruin" the theme most likely, but since you already are giving him a combi-weapon...

I wouldn't bother with the Dozer Blades on the Rhinos.

Drop the Mark of the Wulfen from the Lone Wolves or the Frost Blade. Re-read Mark of the Wulfen. If a model has it, it ignores any weapons it has and only uses its hands/claws and thus does Rending attacks. Keep in mind, for a themed army you can still do something and represent the Mark of the Wulfen with fancy swords or something. D6+1 Rending Attacks is more Katana like than the +1 Strength IMO. Frost Blades evoke the image of two handed Claymores to me.


This is a decent start, but yes. You are building a weak army. You have no ranged fire support of any kind and next to know high strength/low AP ranged weaponry. You are also purposely choosing Power Swords on models that are better served with any other kind of weapon, or that have one option that is generally considered "optimal" (for good reason).

At this point level I'd personally drop the Wolf Guard. Minimally, drop the Lone Wolves and take some Long Fangs or Land Speeder Typhoons and you'll mostly be okay.

 cowmonaut wrote:
First, get rid of the individual point costs from the wargear options. Its against forum rules.

Done and noted

 cowmonaut wrote:
Second, your Grey Hunters are illegal. You only get two Special Weapons if you have 10 Grey Hunters in a Pack. You have 9. Before you argue about it:

Wolf Guard don't join Grey Hunters until Deployment; in your army list they are still an Elite unit taking up an Elite slot. You don't even have to split them up if you don't want to.

Even if Wolf Guard joined Grey Hunters on the Army List instead of during Deployment they are Wolf Guard, not Grey Hunters.

The FAQ explicitly tells you that you don't get a second free weapon for 9 Grey Hunters + 1 Wolf Guard.

Never planned on arguing about it
I do, on the other hand, appreciate you pointing that out for me. I did expect there to be a mistake or two and as it seems my interpretation of the rules in this case was wrong.
You are correct. The FAQ does indeed state that this is not a legal formation and thus will be amended.

 cowmonaut wrote:
Wolf Lord really needs a 2+ armor save. Runic Armor is worth its point cost and will keep him alive a lot longer than you'd expect. He'd also be better served with an AP 2 weapon, but I get you got a theme and are sticking to it. Just know that you are going to really wish you were AP 2 quite often. I would have left the Bolt Pistol on him as well or replaced the Belt of Russ with a Storm Shield. Again, I get it. A shield would "ruin" the theme most likely, but since you already are giving him a combi-weapon...

Probs give him Runic Armour like you said, especially if I'm going to have to reorganise the list anyway. Shouldn't be a problem to fit in.
I'm aware that Power Axes are the best option in regards to power weapons unfortunately I have nothing to represent them as since historically they didn't use war/battle axes... Hang on a second... What's that over there behind that spoiler button?

Probably more Chinese in design but maybe.... maybe....
Certainly would fit the aesthetic.

As for Combi-weapons I was actually planning on representing them as a regular bolter and a small shoulder mounted 1-shot turret. I've seen people do something similar but with servo skulls

 cowmonaut wrote:
I wouldn't bother with the Dozer Blades on the Rhinos.

noted.
Any recommended upgrades I should consider for the rhinos?

 cowmonaut wrote:
Drop the Mark of the Wulfen from the Lone Wolves or the Frost Blade. Re-read Mark of the Wulfen. If a model has it, it ignores any weapons it has and only uses its hands/claws and thus does Rending attacks. Keep in mind, for a themed army you can still do something and represent the Mark of the Wulfen with fancy swords or something. D6+1 Rending Attacks is more Katana like than the +1 Strength IMO. Frost Blades evoke the image of two handed Claymores to me.

re-read MotW, thanks for the heads up. I understand the rule much better now.
I was originally going to portray Frost Blades as long Nodachi (the size up from Tachi which are the average sized katana) But MotW might be cool to represent as a Marine with two samurai swords to convey his abilities.

 cowmonaut wrote:
At this point level I'd personally drop the Wolf Guard. Minimally, drop the Lone Wolves and take some Long Fangs or Land Speeder Typhoons and you'll mostly be okay.

Consider them dropped. If I can't take two special weapons and them in a GH pack I don't really want them hanging around... for now.
I might come back to them if I get the army up to the 1000pt mark and wish to keep it growing.

I feel I should state how I plan to represent certain weapons.
Basically all unspecified CCW will be either regular looking Tachi (samurai swords) or Wakizashi (small, dagger-like katana)
PS will more than likely be the Vibro Katana from Kromlech: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kromlech-Vibro-Katanas-/160980404645?pt=Games_US
PM (Probably only if I ever convert a Wolf Priest) will be a modified Tetsubo:
TH will be a modified Ōtsuchi:
:EDIT:
Turns out some Samurai did wield axes however these weapons are considered very rare and thus will remain to be few in my list.
PA represented as a modified "Ono":

I'll post again once I've made suitable alterations to the list.
In the meantime anyone may feel free to add their thoughts ideas and opinions about any aspect of what I'm attempting to create here. The more I talk it out with people the more I feel I'm able to achieve my goal.

Peace out

I love the idea, it sounds like this will be a good fit for Spacewolves, I would reccomend some of the heads from their battle force, the ones with the wild hair could be sculpted to a more samurai feel.

Space wolves are a stuck in the middle army, you either dedicate to be decent at CC (with MOTW and using Logan Grimnar's abilities) but it ends up eating points because you need special characters and abilities.

They can also be decent at shooting, fielding cheap(ish) squads of 10 with a huge barrage of shots as well as plasma or melta mixed in, devistators who can split fire, and psychic shooting powers with no range so you can effectivley avoid the abhor the psyker rolls.

I would love to see your take on Samurai Thunder Wolf Calvary.

Thinking about ways that I could add some more heavy support to my list. Long Fangs are great and everything but I was thinking about supporting my Samurai with IG allies.

I've heard this is good combination and in terms of fluff it effectively represents the heavy presence of firearms in late Edo period warfare.
It also serves to give the SW samurai a more heroic and powerful feeling by standing out as the strongest units (I hope)

So being unfamiliar with IG I ask, what unit selections would work well to compliment my samurai themed SWs?

Peace

Anyone able to lend a hand? I'm stumped when it comes to IG.
My experience so far is exclusively SM.