Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi guys, so me and my mate played our first game against each other the other day, my crons vs his wolves. He ran two 3x man TWC w/ SS & TH's, I ran a D/Lord and 3 wraiths w/ coils, and some scarabs, Warriors and immortals etc. he didn't worry about psychic stuff at all and had no characters in the TWC's. Now my squad of 4 scarabs tied one TWC up for the whole game, eventually he killed them off, lost one wolf in combat but then got drowned out by a whole lotta gauss next round (I subsequently have realised that they doubled the toughness of them by a lot so they should have been ID'ing them, so would have been out of combat sooner. My wraiths and D/Lord went toe to toe with the other one, I charged in some immortals first, then the wraiths. I forgot about preferred enemy first turn, (rolled like 6 1's), and took a few turns to finish them off with my voidreaper. Basically going into the game I was pretty scared of his cavalry's, but they folded pretty easily against me robots.

My mate was understandably also quite unimpressed by them. I was wondering, what are the things that make them scary? He wasn't using the concussive special rule, but attacking on the same initiative step wouldn't increase their lethality. I was in a CAD so my RP wasn't 4+ and was failing when he did get wounds through.

Was it just hot rolling on my part and lacklustre on his? Or does psychically buffing them or having a lord in there make them scary? Or less TH & SS and more harder hitting ones?

You run TWC as a giant Deathstar with storm shields and characters (like Iron Priests for 2+ armor), not as two measly 3 man units.

Usually it's a rune priest or 2 on bike, iron priest on mount, Lord on mount then 5 thundercav with chainswords and storm shields and the sarge with a thunderhammer and stormshield.

The priests roll for invis, then roll for endurance if they get invis, though some like to roll everything on biomancy, depends on players preference.

Either way, sounds like hot dice from you and cold dice from your opponent as they usually blend whatever they touch. Something is definately off if 3 thunderhammer cav is in combat with 4 scarab bases for more than 2 assault phases. They are str 10 AP2, so will be causing instant death against anything in your army that's not a C'tan with only a 6+++ RP "save" and should be hitting anything that's not a HQ or a C'Tan on 3's and wounding on 2's.

Yea I agree we stuffed up, forgot about the instant death rule. They would have eaten through everything except my d/lord immediately-ish, (he did roll really badly)

So from what I'm gathering it's not so much the wolves themselves that are scary it's when they are super buffed? 3+ saves don't mean as much as 2+ saves, I faced that afterwards on his terminators and even when drowned in shots takes a long time to whittle them down.

So from what you guys are saying they do sound a lot scarier when buffed.

What is the best way for me to take care of that?

Retribution phalanx with a large scarab base to tar pit them for the entire game? Whenever they kill them them just get them back for free next round to go back in?

He should run a WS Librarius Conclave on bikes to access Hit and Run so he's not tied down by scarabs.

I have played them a lot, and can come up with some good advice for you:

~ Initiative 4 is solid enough, at least striking along with others... Wolf Claws seem the way to go, get your models to S6 and reroll wounds is pretty much monster hunter.

~ Going the Company of the Great Wolf detachment found in Champions of Fenris another awesome way to go, lets you field 4 HQ choices to add in Iron Priests a lot, and gives your TWC WS5.

~ If you want Thunder Hammers, just throw in Iron Priests as they are sooo awesome!

~ Add in Fenrisian wolves if you are putting a WGBL/Lord in the unit, or Cyberwolves if you are throwing in Iron Priests, as you will be able to Look Out Sir any nasty S10 shots that'd instant death your Wolves. Keep your characters at the front/closest to the shooting units you have any concern of hurting them. 2+ LoS from Independant Characters will help you redirect those instant death shots to the puppies, and spread the wounds accross the entire unit of 2W's each, keeping them alive all game long - been there done that so many times haha

~ Don't throw more than half of them with Storm Shields, however put them on the characters (especially if going CotGW, cuz you MUST challenge) so that you can LoS with less fear of rolling under and taking the wounds.

~ Seems to me, loading them up with cost-effective wargear (like wolf claws on all, and a SS on each character) does all the damage you really need. no need, personally, for a pack larger than 4 if you include some puppies.

~ Don't deny yourself the reroll charge by going the route of adding in bikes.

~ Consider their best target to assault - then also consider who they are most vulnerable to via shooting. Place them so that they'll have SS's facing that squad, and try to always get them into CC each turn when possible. use the rest of your force, fielding units in particular to counter-balance this if needed, to deal with those other units that hurt TWC so badly. say for example: playing a land raider with AV14, if it's possible in a game, focus priority on the stuff able to take it out if there's few of it, so that it can now rampage unchallenged the entire battle.

~ I think going the AP2 sword relic on a wolf lord/wgbl is amazing, as it lets you strike at i5 - which is seriously an advantage!

Hope this all helps!

Guys, I need help. I have 3 TWC, all with SS. 1 with CCW, one with Frost Axe and one with with Wolf Claw. If I get another box and make one Wolf Lord, what do I do with the other ones?

Turn the unit to 5 with a wolf lord.

Should I take an Iron Priest? Add a Wolf Claw?

A nice load out is 6 wolves, with attached lord and iron priests. Usually a good build, also throw some ss on the wolves and if you want claws, or pf.

 Matthew wrote:
Guys, I need help. I have 3 TWC, all with SS. 1 with CCW, one with Frost Axe and one with with Wolf Claw. If I get another box and make one Wolf Lord, what do I do with the other ones?

Always always always make sure 1 TWC has either a fist or a hammer. S10 will keep everything afraid of TWC. Even wraithknights and knight titans will fear TWC if you have a hidden powerfist in there. Keep the champion light, so he can soak up challenges, while the other dudes do the heavy lifting. I really like wolf claws on them. Shred with rending is just great! Plus, then you are S6!

I'm thinking about having 1 Bolt Pistol, 1 Fist and 3 Wolf Claws. But that's a lot of points...

I would say for the entire unit, either use just one special weapon, or attach an IC for that. Otherwise the points start racking up quick.

So leader and one more with Claw, one Power Fist the rest Pistols?

Sqeeze a shield in as well. I also like my TWC to be somewhat cheap. Giving them all shelds and fists is too expensive for my taste. Here is my go-to for standard cad games.

4TWC

sgt - claw/shield
claw/pistol
shield/pistol
fist/pistol

Gives you 2 shields, 2 claws and a fist. It's a little pricy, but it will murderize anything and 2 shields will help weather even tau firepower. Some local guys scoff that they don't all have shields, but rarely does it matter.

Thunderwolf Cavalry are awesome! Those models are the reason I kept playing Space Wolves as long as I have.

I played at a tournament a couple months back and took this loadout:

Harald Deathwolf
- Fenrisian Wolf

Thunderwolf Cavalry * 6
- Storm Shields *6
- Power fist (not on Character)

Battle Leader
- Armor of Russ
- Storm Shield
- Thunderwolf mount
- Wolf Claw

It did pretty good for me. It charged through Soul Grinders, Chaos Cultists and Marines, chewed through an Imperial Guard tank list, and tore through a Tervigon. Normally I would throw in a Wolf Claw on the unit character, but that model was playing the Battle Leader for the day

Outflank and Furious Charge from Harald really helped out against the Guard list. S7 Wolf Claws on the charge make quick work of Chimeras and Leman Russes. Sure, he strikes at I1, but the other two characters can take the Challenges first as needed.

I like to put Storm Shields on all of the Thunderwolves, since I have had trust issues with my models when I don't equip them with the same loadout. It keeps me from worrying about what I charge into. Especially if you Outflank the Thunderwolves, the Storm Shields give equal survivability to all the models, so you can just focus on get the models into position to charge and not worry about positioning models for the Storm Shields to tank the AP3 or better shots.