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I was just wondering what the 7th edition book bought for the space wolves? Are they a fairly decent army to play? Expensive to buy?

They're probably the least expensive "special marine" army to make look good. The space wolf box contains a TON of extra bits, including heads for scouts, Long Fang (Devastators) and allows you to make blood claws, grey hunters, or wolf guard.

The new book brought buffs to their dreadnought troops , giving them the excellent power axe/storm shield dread, buffed Bjorn and a new named Dread character. (All conveniently found in the new space wolf dreadnought kit).

The dominant lists right now are either Thunderwolf-based, which I guess wouldn't be terribly expensive at a base cost of 120 points per box, or drop pod based, which do get a little pricy as you pay a buck a point for pods.

Yes they can be both a fun and good army to play.

They're not that expensive to buy, but to play they are marines with no chapter tactics and less equipment and nowhere near as many cool artifacts. If you want to play for fun they are great, though they are probably the most bland new codex to come out.

oz of the north wrote:
They're not that expensive to buy, but to play they are marines with no chapter tactics and less equipment and nowhere near as many cool artifacts. If you want to play for fun they are great, though they are probably the most bland new codex to come out.

We don't have "Chapter Tactics", but we do have Counter-Assault.
We may not have the toys, but we have a lot of Unique things.
As for Cool Relics of the Fang, that is a mater of opinion.

Look at my Space Wolf Synergy Thread to get some ideas of what Space Wolves are all about.

We have counter attack, but in an edition where assault is less than favorable compared to shooting, counter attack does little. For unique equipment we really only have frost weapons, hellfrost cannons and wolf claws, where both wolf claws and frost weapons are the same as their space marine counter parts with just more strength. Unique model wise we have thunderwolves, which are great, but if you play in a meta with vindicators or demolisher leman russes they are a gamble at best, the flyer which is ugly as sin and dreadnoughts, which can easily be outclassed by IH dreds.

So they aren't in that good of a place. Are you better off just playing space marines?

It comes down to do you want to be competitive/ win often, then yes marines. Do you want to have fun then that really comes down to your own preference.

We are in a good place. We are not Tau or Eldar, but we are a strong Codex with a lot of options.

Here is another good place to look: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/609597.page

 Andy140491 wrote:
So they aren't in that good of a place. Are you better off just playing space marines?

I don't know where all the SW hate is coming from, because the new codex is awesome. You can have fun AND be at least semi-competitive with the book because its internal balance is amazing. Nearly every unit is viable.

Tbh I'm not bothered about winning all the time at all. Here's my problem.

I want an army that's not entirely reliant on the ally chart. I just want an army with one codex that I can enjoy

My friend collects tau. He seems to have an answer for any army I ever want to collect. It's really off putting whenever I decide on an army and he says "well ill just do this" and it really winds me up...

I'd prefer an elitish army.. by that I mean avoiding hordes if possible as I'm not the most persistent painter. And I really want to have an army I'm proud of.

I'm not overly keen on vanilla marines or eldar..

That's it really :/

Space wolves will have a tough time with tau dependent on how your friend plays. Wolves have a tough time with riptides, we really do not have anything that great against monstrous creatures, that cannot be done by vanilla. Other than hellfrost that can only be taken on either the flyer or dreadnought which most likely will die before being of great use

 Andy140491 wrote:
Tbh I'm not bothered about winning all the time at all. Here's my problem.

I want an army that's not entirely reliant on the ally chart. I just want an army with one codex that I can enjoy

My friend collects tau. He seems to have an answer for any army I ever want to collect. It's really off putting whenever I decide on an army and he says "well ill just do this" and it really winds me up...

I'd prefer an elitish army.. by that I mean avoiding hordes if possible as I'm not the most persistent painter. And I really want to have an army I'm proud of.

I'm not overly keen on vanilla marines or eldar..

That's it really :/

oz of the north wrote:
Space wolves will have a tough time with tau dependent on how your friend plays. Wolves have a tough time with riptides, we really do not have anything that great against monstrous creatures, that cannot be done by vanilla. Other than hellfrost that can only be taken on either the flyer or dreadnought which most likely will die before being of great use

I disagree! I ran pure SW vs Tau twice in a local tournament and crushed them in both games. One list was Triptide Farsight Enclaves, and I nearly tabled him. TWC just shred Tau if they can get into assault with them, and with some threat overload it shouldn't be too difficult. Rhinos are also great for forcing morale checks since Tau are a cowardly lot!

I have also faced tri-tide and brought multiple different lists and if your opponent knows what they are doing then they will crush your TWC with massed ion accelerator and their base gun of tau firewarriors wounds them on a 4+ and the best save that a TWC can have is a 3+ either invun or armor.

oz of the north wrote:
I have also faced tri-tide and brought multiple different lists and if your opponent knows what they are doing then they will crush your TWC with massed ion accelerator and their base gun of tau firewarriors wounds them on a 4+ and the best save that a TWC can have is a 3+ either invun or armor.

That is what Pod Wolves are for is to take care of those pesky Firewarriors.


Remember Wolf are not just TWC, we have to many viable builds, to many I my opinion and all of them are good.

Well, if your friend is a standard cheesy tau player I'd say that a Hefrost Riptidedunker, drop podding axe/shield dread, charging invuln save toting wolf riders and other wolfy shenanigans are just what the doctor ordered. Helfrost is an absolute beauty for dealing with Battlesuit spam, which is kind of what Tau are, and there is literally no tau infantry unit that can deal with TWC and drop podding hunters.

Plus, he's playing pansy ass wanna be anime mecha guys with all of one sword in the entire codex, and you have space Vikings. You win a moral victory EVERY GAME.

and, if you ever decided you wanted to use allies... The space wolves have the trolltastic pleasure of fast attack slot drop pods. Which meeeeeeans you can take any imperial unit, be it flamer toting sisters or, oh, say three grav gun rocking space marine centurions and send them to Logan Grimnar's Discount Drop Pod Emporium.

Allying in vanilla marines would be a great idea, putting cents in a drop pod seems just a silly idea.

oz of the north wrote:
Allying in vanilla marines would be a great idea, putting cents in a drop pod seems just a silly idea.

Silly, but Brutal.
The common trick is 3 Grav-Cents a Pod with a Psyker, though I have been thinking about 5 Assault-Centurions in a Stormwolf with a Chappy.

 Anpu42 wrote:

oz of the north wrote:
Allying in vanilla marines would be a great idea, putting cents in a drop pod seems just a silly idea.

Silly, but Brutal.
The common trick is 3 Grav-Cents a Pod with a Psyker, though I have been thinking about 5 Assault-Centurions in a Stormwolf with a Chappy.

That would just be brutal and very unkind...DO IT

oz of the north wrote:

 Anpu42 wrote:

oz of the north wrote:
Allying in vanilla marines would be a great idea, putting cents in a drop pod seems just a silly idea.

Silly, but Brutal.
The common trick is 3 Grav-Cents a Pod with a Psyker, though I have been thinking about 5 Assault-Centurions in a Stormwolf with a Chappy.

That would just be brutal and very unkind...DO IT

I just need 5 Centurions now, though I can come up with some proxies for now.

Good idea but I don't want to ally with anyone :(

 Andy140491 wrote:
Good idea but I don't want to ally with anyone :(

I normally don't my self.

Basically You want to build a good solid "Core". For everyone you will find it is different.
For Me it is:
HQ: Rune Priest
HQ :Wolf Priest [Usually Ulrik]
Troop: Grey Hunters
Troop: Blood Claws [With a Stormwolf and Wolf Priest]
Fast Attack: 3x Land Speeder Typhoons
Heavy Support: Long Fangs [1x Las-Cannon, 4x Missile Launchers]

I build most of my list off these Units. It gives me a good solid base and familiarity.

A lot of people don't think Familiarity is important, but it can be. I have used this now for a few years and I know what each unit is capably and helps a lot in games.

Once you figure out your core you can easily add units as feel you want to and fill gaps.

oz of the north wrote:
They're not that expensive to buy, but to play they are marines with no chapter tactics and less equipment and nowhere near as many cool artifacts. If you want to play for fun they are great, though they are probably the most bland new codex to come out.

We have counter attack and acute senses, those are our chapter tactics. Who cares about chapter tactics anyway. I've just recently converted all my vanilla's into SW. Fun army, we have so many options now Murderface (aka Murderfang) in CC he will rape squads and he can get hull points back. TWC is better and they can take more items. I just play the codex and figuring things out and I have had fun. Sure we lost some cool stuff, but its great. The most expensive thing I believe is the TWC, but I believe other stores make their own and sell them for a little bit cheaper. But SW have the most variety in their box sets. The standard GH/BC/WG box set, the Dreadnought box allows you to make 3-4 different dreads with magnetizing.

I usually do

1 Wolf Lord
1 Rune Priest

2-4 squads of Grey Hunters

1-2 squads of Long Fangs

1 Squad of Thunder Wolf Calvary

Drop Pods... Drop Pods everywhere

Then I add what ever I need more.

Even though the flyer looks like a shoe. How good is it?

I haven't used but from my buddy that does he has mixed feelings with it.

It's just I've heard that's one of the wolves weaknesses. Not being able to deal with flyers very well.

 Anpu42 wrote:

oz of the north wrote:
I have also faced tri-tide and brought multiple different lists and if your opponent knows what they are doing then they will crush your TWC with massed ion accelerator and their base gun of tau firewarriors wounds them on a 4+ and the best save that a TWC can have is a 3+ either invun or armor.

That is what Pod Wolves are for is to take care of those pesky Firewarriors.


Remember Wolf are not just TWC, we have to many viable builds, to many I my opinion and all of them are good.

Then how come drop pod melta and TWC are the only ones that ever do well at tournaments or have a chance against tau and eldar?

Toofast wrote:

 Anpu42 wrote:

oz of the north wrote:
I have also faced tri-tide and brought multiple different lists and if your opponent knows what they are doing then they will crush your TWC with massed ion accelerator and their base gun of tau firewarriors wounds them on a 4+ and the best save that a TWC can have is a 3+ either invun or armor.

That is what Pod Wolves are for is to take care of those pesky Firewarriors.


Remember Wolf are not just TWC, we have to many viable builds, to many I my opinion and all of them are good.

Then how come drop pod melta and TWC are the only ones that ever do well at tournaments or have a chance against tau and eldar?

I my opinion...People latched on to those builds and look at nothing else.
We are also looking at the Tournament Circuit, those list are different from the Competitive TAC List tou see at your LFGS and different that just friendly Game list.

Toofast wrote:

 Anpu42 wrote:

oz of the north wrote:
I have also faced tri-tide and brought multiple different lists and if your opponent knows what they are doing then they will crush your TWC with massed ion accelerator and their base gun of tau firewarriors wounds them on a 4+ and the best save that a TWC can have is a 3+ either invun or armor.

That is what Pod Wolves are for is to take care of those pesky Firewarriors.


Remember Wolf are not just TWC, we have to many viable builds, to many I my opinion and all of them are good.

Then how come drop pod melta and TWC are the only ones that ever do well at tournaments or have a chance against tau and eldar?

Because those are the easiest builds to win with. Unless I'm playing in a tournament, I never look at tournament builds. In my opinion, tournament builds are boring to play with and against.

For friendly... general play. Without getting into a huge argument about what plays well and what is the 'lolroflstomp' lists....

I was only asking how the space wolves play? I kinda like the idea of prod podding marines in, shooting... taking objectives and if i get charged i have the counter attack rule?

I find vanilla marines boring. I prefer the different chapters because i think it takes the ideas of generic marines and adds some flavour. Im not bothered what does better in tournaments...

I just wanted to know how they played? are they an army that doesnt require allies to do well.

Can they deal with most situations provided i tailor an army to do so (i.E, Flyers, MC, FMC, 2+ armour)

Are they expensive to buy? I was looking at orks. But with them being so... so expensive..and alot of models to paint.. i think id hate the, for the same reason i did before. A horde of black or grey models.

I'll be fairly new to 40k. Orks are (from what i've heard)... are a 50/50 army. Fairly difficult to play.

Tau/eldar/IG, and maybe IK will be my enemies. I dont want to table them every Game. i dont mind losing every single game i play. As long as i have fun doing so... and its a fairly close game i couldnt care less. I just didnt want to play orks. have my vehicles popped instantly but the tau. and then get mowed down in overwatch.

I've heard a number of reasons why 'elitist' Space wolf players are mad. point increases. Flavour of the old dex lost. and some reasons by other people. 'acute senses is a waste of points' 'lack of answers to flyers' 'in online battle reports space wolves never do well' 'you're gimping yourself by playing space wolves over other chapters' 'Space wolves are the worst performing army' 'the guy who wrote the book really messed up' ---- while all these comments might not be true. when reading them, trying to get a sense of what the army is like... is quite disheartening. The same way it is having my tau friend saying he'll deny my armour saves and F$%K me up if i play space wolves.

I love the idea of having a shorter ranged, elite(ish) army, thats fairly reasonable if push comes to shove. If anyone can answer those questions or points, without mentioning tournament winning lists and whats better then what. I'd really appreciate it