Let me start off with I am probably not the target audience for this book. I hate Space Marines. No I really do. They were the last army I ever considered collecting. However, having said that, I love Space Wolves. No seriously. Loved them ever since 2nd edition. They were Space Marines, but not. They had their own units, their own style, their own rules, their own look (Da Beards!!). That Norse Viking feel really came though in 5th edition, since then they have been getting a few new units, but other units seem to have fallen aside, and I realize that I've been out of the game since 6th edition but this new codex will probably keep my wolves on the shelf until the next redo, or I play older editions.
I am greatly disappointed in this codex. It seems like its little more than a supplement to the big marine dex and if that is what GW wanted to do, then it spits in the face of SW players and their collections for the last 30 years. Do you know there isn't a single plasma gun or melta gun in any of the presented units? Do you know there is only one place that you could get a Thunder Hammer if you wanted one? There isn't a high strength long range weapon of any kind, that isn't located on a Dreadnaught. Every single SW infantry unit listed is HTH focused with next to no harder hitting ranged weaponry, and even the HTH weapons aren't overly impressive. There is no sticky objective units, the detachments (while fluffy) probably wont win out over the basic Astartes if your looking for something competitive. It insults my SW brain to no end that I cannot field a fully competitive army without having to take generic SM units/characters (I give non-specialized vehicles a pass because all SM armies pull from the same motor pool and have for years). We used to field full armies of SWs, that were competitive, fluffy, and above all were not just light blue colored Ultramarines.
Now, having said all that, the new models look fire. I love them all, and some units are genuinely probably too good for their points. But its not enough to make a full army out of them. I'm looking at trying a full Dread Mob style list with Iron Priests as backup, and I really want to field those new terminators but I just can't figure out how to make them work. If you have any real ideas, please tell.
So what was GW thinking? Or am I just getting addled in my old age and I just can't look past the last 30 years of Bearded goodness.
|