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OK, so I know this is a tactics thread. But in an attempt to make use of the wolves unleashed detachment special rules I've come up with this list....
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/610711.page#7123316
Let me know how you think it'll fair tactically.

I was thinking of putting a Lone Wolf with a Blood Claw/Grey Hunter unit mounted in a pod. Charge the Lone Wolf first so he eats up all of the overwatch. From what I understand from the rules this is perfectly fine, as long as the unit does not include an IC or Wolf Pack Leader.

You can't put two units in one transport, I'm afraid. The idea of using the LW to eat overwatch is sound, but you can't do the pod bit.

My main issue with Lone Wolves is that they now give up VP when killed. They are basically easy First Blood if you're not careful, and that's a VP that can only be earned by one side.

So reading through the codex again:

Can Rune/wolf preist take a Thunderwolf?

I ask as it doesnt show it as a choice for the unit entry but under the specialist gear list it does.

Seemed confusing to me.

 Uriels_Flame wrote:
So reading through the codex again:

Can Rune/wolf preist take a Thunderwolf?

I ask as it doesnt show it as a choice for the unit entry but under the specialist gear list it does.

Seemed confusing to me.

No they can't. Look at the wolf Lord, wolf guard battle leader and iron priest options. If they can take a Thunderwolf it specifically states it.

If one is put on a bike can they join a TWC unit?

Yep, there are no restrictions on joining thunderwolves anymore.

So finished my first battle, a few things I noticed:
-Wolf Banner got nerfed pretty bad, but the 1 unit that can take it got a huge buff if it gets into assault.
-Ulrik is freaking AWESOME. 6+ FNP is not amazing, but it's at such a sweet point that you don't expect it to ever work, but whenever it does you're going to feel amazing. I got 2 FNP rolls off in a row and I felt like a god as my opponent angrily caused 0 wounds on me.
-The Black Death just shreds through units, possibly even too much. I was running Wolf Lord + Runic Armour + Storm Shield + Black Death + Wulfen Stone and annihilated a Tyrannofex, a unit of 20 Devilgaunts and some Zoanthropes without even suffering a wound (yeah, not that impressive, but I can imagine the weapon being just as fearsome for anything else short of an EW).
-That said, the Wulfen Stone is better than I expected. I thought 40pts for Furious Charge and Rage was probably overcosted, but if you can get +1S on a large unit of Grey Hunters with a banner, you can be a legitimate threat to almost anything.
-Tempestus powers are kind of meh, I'm probably going to dabble with Biomancy and Divination in the future.
-The Wolves Unleashed detachment (or whatever it's called) is pretty cool, the lack of Objective Secured wasn't a deal-breaker for me by any means. Being able to take extra HQs seems to be worthwhile (of course, I don't particularly like being able to take unlimited detachments so YMMV depending on your house rulings).

All-in-all, I was mostly playing a "fun" game to see how my old units changed, so I don't mind that I lost. I'm happy with the new book, although I'll have to fiddle some more to see how I want to play it.

Yeah, I took a read through the psychic powers, and I think biomancy is the discipline for me. There isn't really a bad power in that tree.

Played my first game with Njal under the new codex. First tempest power (living lightning) got perils. Is that a good sign?

I played a maelstrom of war mission and noticed that fenrisian wolves are an awesome tool now. 40 points for a 12" move unit that can score now. They can net you a VP each turn with securing objectives if you place them right during deployment. And it was hardly worth my opponents time to shoot at them as they were no real threat to his units

FNP doesn't confer to guard either...

 Khaine's Wrath wrote:
Yeah, I took a read through the psychic powers, and I think biomancy is the discipline for me. There isn't really a bad power in that tree.

Yeah, I am confident that an RP with helm of durfast with ML2 biomancy will be a solid unit choice. Re-roll hits in CC and shooting, and you get ignore cover on smite and life leech. Have him on a bike leading some TWC, or bike/jump dudes and you should have a decent unit.

 gwarsh41 wrote:

 Khaine's Wrath wrote:
Yeah, I took a read through the psychic powers, and I think biomancy is the discipline for me. There isn't really a bad power in that tree.

Yeah, I am confident that an RP with helm of durfast with ML2 biomancy will be a solid unit choice. Re-roll hits in CC and shooting, and you get ignore cover on smite and life leech. Have him on a bike leading some TWC, or bike/jump dudes and you should have a decent unit.

Wow, do his psychic attacks benefit from ignores cover too? I may have to squeeze some points from somewhere.....

Yeah, the helm is re-roll hits and ignores cover. Re-roll hits is pretty all encompassing. I want to try one with tempestus, I know it wont be optimal, but it might be fun.

Assuming for a moment you can take multiple relics (how in playing it) would it be any good to run the Helm with Black Death on a Thunderlord? He's hitting 7 attacks on the charge, re-rolling those could be pretty handy for hacking up... Well, anything really.

 Paradigm wrote:
Assuming for a moment you can take multiple relics (how in playing it) would it be any good to run the Helm with Black Death on a Thunderlord? He's hitting 7 attacks on the charge, re-rolling those could be pretty handy for hacking up... Well, anything really.

Haha, imagine that alongside the Wulfen stone? Rage and furious charge thrown in the mix?

 Khaine's Wrath wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
Assuming for a moment you can take multiple relics (how in playing it) would it be any good to run the Helm with Black Death on a Thunderlord? He's hitting 7 attacks on the charge, re-rolling those could be pretty handy for hacking up... Well, anything really.

Haha, imagine that alongside the Wulfen stone? Rage and furious charge thrown in the mix?

With a Thunderwolf bodyguard? SOLD! I know what's going in my next list...

Side note, do Rage and Black Death stack? I can't see why they wouldn't, and 9 attacks on the charge sounds pretty fething awesome.

9 S8 ap2 attacks on the charge? I would gladly pay the same price in points for my bloodthirster to have that marines statline!

 Paradigm wrote:

 Khaine's Wrath wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
Assuming for a moment you can take multiple relics (how in playing it) would it be any good to run the Helm with Black Death on a Thunderlord? He's hitting 7 attacks on the charge, re-rolling those could be pretty handy for hacking up... Well, anything really.

Haha, imagine that alongside the Wulfen stone? Rage and furious charge thrown in the mix?

With a Thunderwolf bodyguard? SOLD! I know what's going in my next list...

Side note, do Rage and Black Death stack? I can't see why they wouldn't, and 9 attacks on the charge sounds pretty fething awesome.

They should do. I can't imagine a reason they wouldn't.

Wolf Lord with Thunderwolves Mount, Helm of Durfast, The Wulfenstone, Black Death, Runic Armour and a Storm Shield comes to 275 points. Throw in 5 Thunderwolf Cavalry for 200 points. On the charge, it will put out 30 S6 Rending attacks and 9 S8 AP2 attacks on the charge, the latter re-rolling hits. Not a lot can stand up against that.

What about Morkai's Claws plus Fellclaw's Teeth?

Get D3 extra attacks for having two weapons, shred and reroll all hits.

 Paradigm wrote:
Wolf Lord with Thunderwolves Mount, Helm of Durfast, The Wulfenstone, Black Death, Runic Armour and a Storm Shield comes to 275 points. Throw in 5 Thunderwolf Cavalry for 200 points. On the charge, it will put out 30 S6 Rending attacks and 9 S8 AP2 attacks on the charge, the latter re-rolling hits. Not a lot can stand up against that.

If you didn't take the shield (a conversation you and I have had many a time) and instead took a pistol.... It's 10 attacks. Hence my Lord has the black death and the Wulfen stone. If you wanted to go mental, you could give him the armour of russ and be striking most challenges at the same time... But I feel that a waste of points.

I am personally taking a wolf guard battle leader on wolf with armor of russ and a pair of wolf claws. I am gaining a 4+ invul and a -5 init in challenge for 10 more points that I would be spending on the 2+ save anyway. I like that he can challenge, go before almost all enemies and even if they are save 2+ I got rending with shred the rest of the squad can put the hurt on and hopefully bleed over. If not most of the things I need to worry about are save 3+ or worse anyway.

Khaine's Wrath wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
Wolf Lord with Thunderwolves Mount, Helm of Durfast, The Wulfenstone, Black Death, Runic Armour and a Storm Shield comes to 275 points. Throw in 5 Thunderwolf Cavalry for 200 points. On the charge, it will put out 30 S6 Rending attacks and 9 S8 AP2 attacks on the charge, the latter re-rolling hits. Not a lot can stand up against that.

If you didn't take the shield (a conversation you and I have had many a time) and instead took a pistol.... It's 10 attacks. Hence my Lord has the black death and the Wulfen stone. If you wanted to go mental, you could give him the armour of russ and be striking most challenges at the same time... But I feel that a waste of points.

It would almost be worth it, just to max out in attacks for the hell of it. But as you know I swear by the shield and I'm pretty sure what 9 S8 AP2 attacks won't kill, 10 won't do much better.

Leth wrote:I am personally taking a wolf guard battle leader on wolf with armor of russ and a pair of wolf claws. I am gaining a 4+ invul and a -5 init in challenge for 10 more points that I would be spending on the 2+ save anyway. I like that he can challenge, go before almost all enemies and even if they are save 2+ I got rending with shred the rest of the squad can put the hurt on and hopefully bleed over. If not most of the things I need to worry about are save 3+ or worse anyway.

Sounds like a good use of the armour, making sure you swing first. Out of interest why a WGBL rather than a Wolf Lord? Just points?

Points, but mainly efficiency on returns.

So lets say for a wolf guard you go from 2 wounds to 3, that is a 50% increase. However for a wolf lord it is a 25% increase. Same deal for attacks. Basically for the points you are investing you are getting a reduced return(assuming that they are pointed correctly for their initial points)

Also if I am using the armor of russ I am getting the 2+(which costs 25) so I am only spending 10 points for a 4+ invul as well as a the initiative mechanic. Once again these are things that are factored into the cost of the lord that I would not be getting a benefit from.

So for 50 points with a lord I am getting +1 atk, wound, ld and weapon skill. Not worth it IMO. for those points I can get another thunderwolf with storm shield.

Which would you rather have? Wolf lord or wolf guard battle leader and a thunderwolf with storm shield?

So right now my WGBL and a thunderwolf with storm shield 220 points. A wolf lord with the same equipment is 220 points

So thats a total of 5 wounds versus 4. 2 of which are at 3+ invul
Thats a total of 5 wolf claw attacks and 4 regular attacks versus 6 wolf claw attacks

actually......now that I am thinking about it, it would make sense to just have him with one wolf claw and then put wolf claw stormshield on a second thunderwolf for the extra 10 points.....

Interesting, and certainly valid. I'd never looked at it like that before. Honestly, I'd still go with the Lord as I like the more concentrated wounds and killing power, and also because, as I'm not taking the Relic Armour, I'm not paying for a 4++ that's not getting used. But I can certainly see where you're coming from.

It is the same reason that a single lightning claw is good on a person with more attacks per point than buying two lightning claws.....Which means it probably makes more sense to have something else with the claws instead of a pair.

All with thunderwolf other builds I am considering:

WGBL - Russ, two claws
WGBL - Russ, Death
WGBL - Runic, Claw/shield

Its probably what I will end up going with, but I want to try the armor and see if the challenge mechanic is worth giving up the 3+ invul for about the same points. Also I forgot wolf lords get runic armor for 5 points cheaper.

I think the main reason for the WGBL is that the wolf lord does not have a way to get eternal warrior, and thus against a lot of the targets I am worried about the extra wound is not going to get me very far if that makes sense.

Also, keep in mind that any WGBL and TWC Pack Leaders get PE when part of a CoF detachment. and TWC get +1 WS.

 pretre wrote:
Also, keep in mind that any WGBL and TWC Pack Leaders get PE when part of a CoF detachment. and TWC get +1 WS.

Only when in a challenge for PE, or when part of that specific detachment, not a general detachment from the book.

Although the krakenbone being at init ap2 is very tempting.... STR 6 on a thunderwolf, rerolling 1 miss always(which most of the time might as well be 1 extra attack) re-rolling 1s from preferred enemy in a challenge...

I might have to look at that, considering the only thing I am losing is the armor of russ as a option that I would take.

So lets see, 35 points for the kraken instead of the black death. You are getting 1 attack(from master crafted) instead of D3 attacks, You are one less strength, but at initiative. Man that is a tough call.