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Introduction: There are allready some takes on Drop Pod armys on the boards that had good success in tourneys. Look for Mauleeds and Longshots armylists to see Trait Marines with either a lot of termis, or a lot of Meltaguns. Lets discuss what Space Wolves might ad to a Drop Pod army. Ill try to list some pros and cons of SW and then show an army list to start from.

Space Wolves disadvantages:

- No Librarian (for hood and fear)

- Only one Meltgun per Troop unit.

- Multiple mandatory and often expensive HQs

Space Wolves advantages:

- Venerable Dread as HQ to make you reroll for first turn (which can prevent you from dropping in with no enemy targets)

- Blood Claws: Cheaper then Tacticals, but with 8-12 (!) Powerfistattacks on the charge and countercharge for free. (They kill anything once they get to charge and are very durable to shooting, for they provide many cheap ablative wounds.)

- Wolf Scouts: these can arrive via reserves from the ENEMY board edge  and can charge immediately. (They kill tanks from the rear as well as Devastators, provided the opponent stays near his board edge.)

Summary: Space Wolves main advantage are their cheap troops (Blood Claws) that can walk through almost anything once they get the charge (which is often not easy to accomplish). Besides that they have some tricks of their own, but lack some tricks like "fear" as well.

 

Armylist: Space Wolves 1850 points

As promised, here comes an army list to start from. Since many might not be familiar with SW special rules, ill give you an overview and than the exact list with minor explanations.

2x Ven Dread with AC, HF in Pod

1x Terminators with 2 ACs in Pod

1x OBEL Scouts with Melta and Fist

1x 13 Blood Claws lead by Rune Priest with Stormcaller

3x 8 Marines with 2 Fists and Melta in Pod

2x Landspeeder Tornado

 

Space Wolves 1850 pts in detail:

3x Mandatory HQs:

1. Ven Dread, AC, HF, EA, smoke, in Pod (allows to reroll first turn, +1 Attack, WS5) = 203 pts

2. Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Frost Blade (Str5 Powerweapon), Bolt Pistol, Wolf Pelt (+1 Attack when countercharging)

attached: 4 Terminators with no weapons besides 2 ACs. 2 Runic charms (allows you to reroll the 2+ save(!)) in Pod.

(This unit is compareable to Codex Terminators, but has rerollable 2+ saves and gets 6 str5 ini5 Powerweapon attacks by the Battle Leader. It has no Powerfists or Stormbolters though.)= 284 pts

3. Rune Priest, Frost Blade, Bolt Pistol, Pelt, Storm Caller (Gives 5+ cover save and ini 10 to a unit), (The Rune Pries is footslogging it with the 14 Blood Claws unit.) = 104 pts

2(3)x Elites:

6 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun and 1 Wolf Guard Pack Leader, Powerfist, Boltpistol (operate behind enemy lines)

Ven Dread (Codex Space Marines), AC, HF, EA, smoke in Pod

4x Troops:

13 Blood Claws, 3 Powerfists, Meltagun. (This unit only moves 6", but has ini 10, 5+ cover save, and a lot of 14 point ablative wounds. The reason these guys are walking is to make the opponent stay in his deployment zone, which is important for the Scouts. Also this makes a great bumper against other assault armys, where pure Drop Pods tend to face problems.) = 226 pts

8 Blood Claws, 2 Powerfists, Meltagun in Pod = 174 pts

8 Blood Claws, 2 Powerfists, Meltagun in Pod = 174 pts

8 Grey Hunters, 2 Powerfists, Meltagun, 5 Bolters in Pod (One unit of Grey Hunters is mandatory) = 211 pts

2x Fast:

Tornado Speeder with AC, HB (To grab objectives and provide another mobile Assault Cannon)

Tornado Speeder with AC, HB

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1849 pts, 60 Models, 10 scoring units

Thanks for reading so far. I hope you are not too exhausted to comment^^. Im interested into suggestions for improvement, as well as your opinion if I would fare batter with Codex Marines.

I'd start with a venerable dread, 3 dreads, and then see if your solo characters can have pods to themselves (forget if there's that loophole). Would be pricy, but a good way of protecting those vps.

Sucks to have only 4 bs3 meltaguns as heavy antitank.

My tendency with the cheddar wolves is to say grey hunters are better. They are pricy, but they handle the meltas better, have higher weaponskill, et cetera. And you won't often get the charge with bloodclaws dropping in, so the true grit is pretty cool. a 247 pt squad of blood claws vs. a 202 pt squad of blood claws - seems at least questionable. Bs4 is nice.

You can't have two venerable dreads.

Scouts don't seem to fit well with a drop pod list. A smart opponent will move so that you can't assault the turn you come in (since he has no reason to sit still on round 1), neutralizing them most of the time.

I see that you'll try to use the bloodclaws to counter this, but I can't see it working particularly well. They can only keep one unit busy, after that he's outdeployed you.

More Dreads I tried to build the list around the strength of Space Wolves to cover their deficiencies. 2 Dreads is the maximum if you want Scouts. Scouts are a very strong unit in my experience ( For reasons see below) and they take up 2 elite slots (one for the Battleleader who provides the Powerfist).

Single ICs in Pods will likely cost me any sympathy I got.^^ Besides that I find a better way to use ICs with Space wolves, is to give them a bike (instead of a Pod for the same cost). They gain turboboost, T5 and are easy hidden either behind terrain or troops.

Hunters vs Claws Ive done the math on Hunters versus Claws, and Claws come out on top even when receving a charge, due to their higher numbers (for being cheaper.) On the charge Claws are far beyond most Marine units for obvious reasons. The main thing Hunters have going for them is concentration of force, but thats negated, when people begin to shoot you and kill 18 instead of 14 points per hit.

2 Ven Dreads possible ? The issue with 2 Ven Dreads has been discussed at the Bolter and Chainsword. The consensus there was that, the Space Wolves Ven Dread is a distinct entry and therefore does not violate the restrictions for Codex Ven Dreads. If you still disagree make a threat at the YMDC and Ill try to provide some evidence.

Scouts Im not finally settled on the scouts. From my experience they perform great in 2 of 3 games and are especially good against the "castle formation". When the opponent indeed moves away from his corners I have allready won the option to play a denied flank most of the time (Terrain tends to help the Pods, when people cant sit in their corner). Besides that it brings him closer to the big unit of Blood Claws. The opponent can avoid one, but has to get close to the other, so it should end in him beeing charged either way (unless he can kill the Claws with shooting).

13 Claws The Claws normally cant be dealt with just one unit. They charge and kill things fast, before they head towards the next target.(6 ini10 str5 Powerweapon attacks, 39 init10 str4 attacks followed by 12 Powerfistattacks) If the opponent wants to evade the Souts, he has to move EVERYTHING 12+" away from his edge. And he propably doesnt want to form a line which would ask for denied flank, so he would have to move some models quite far onto the table, which plays into the hands (claws?!) of the Blood Claws.

 

Ok, I see now. You have a space wolf venerable and a vanilla venerable. Seems legal (and smart) to me.

Great as the OBEL scouts normally are, I?m still not convinced about them working here. The big BC pack with the Runepriest is not enough of a threat, IMO, to force your opponent back into the Scouts. Most of my armies are mobile enough to decimate that solo unit in turns one and two (assuming you force me to go first), and then you?re pretty much playing with 330pts fewer than me.

Between the cost of the scouts, the Runepriest, and the big pack you could afford two more units in Pods, even though one of them would be a character with a non-termie retinue. I think going from six to eight Pods, with nothing for your opponent to shoot at on turn one (unless you get an Alpha mission and the speeders are stuck on the table) just makes a better army. You?re not splitting your forces up.

I think Grey Hunters are a better value than you?re giving them credit for, as well. Bolters can do a lot of damage on the drop against the right targets.

Otherwise I think you?re on to a good thing. Even if you disagree with all my opinions, it?d still be neat to see how it works for you.

Grey Hunters are better drop podders, not just because of their bolters. Grey Hunters are BS4 while bloodclaws are BS3...

Let me preface by saying I've only played in local RT tournies, none on a national stage.

RAIDER: I've never hated my opponent, or wanted them to hate me, enough to do an all-pod list (it's considered uber-cheese around here for pick-up games). My scouts are MVP's of many a game in my army. I have a melta gun, 1 power weapon, and a power weapon/meltabomb wolfguard in a 6 man squad. They often are great just to contest a quarter in Clense, they score in opponent's deployment zone mission, and anyone dumb enough to not move a vehicle or move it far enough out of their deploy zone gets slagged.

I've considered a Plasma Gun to give me more range for tank hunting and still enough strength to bust rear armor.

WINTERMAN: I must admit I've NEVER used a boltgun in my army...... Figs were modeled in 2nd edition and of course in 3rd edition pistols were better than bolters if you always moved.

The more I think about it the less I like that walking squad. It's just going to get slaughtered in one or two turns by anyone with a clue, even if you try to hide it.

I am pretty sure bolter/counterattack/true grit grey hunters are the best buy in the drop pod universe, but instead of buying multiple powerfists I'd get a wolf guard with a 4+ attack powerfist that hits on 3s. I'm pretty sure he's a better buy (15+15+10+3, so 58 pts vs 66 pts for more attacks that hit on 3s). But I could be wrong there. And I could be missing some rule about wolf guard not drop podding or something, since I'm no expert on wolf rules.

If they got rid of that ridiculously annoying 3 hq rule and let the hqs get normal command squads, that'd be lovely I'd love awolf army with just a venerable dread as an HQ or something.

I agree with using more Grey Hunters instead of Blood Claws
in a podding list (atleast thats what I will use).
They just seem better at the job to me with their bolters and
BS/WS 4 (and still get two A each if charged.

The second Venerable is something I dont think my gaming group
would allow me to use, but if its legal then maybe I will add one (if
I can convince them).

Otherwise I think its a quite good list even if I would do a few things
different.

I will post my list tomorrow or something I think.

The walking squad: I have to admit that I havent tried it out yet. Im aware that it will not be great against shooty armies. Versus thouse the Drop Pods are such a strong counter though that I hope to get away with it. Ill test it and report back.

Pack Leaders: thouse add 3(4) Powerfistattacks for an additional 28 points, while 2 Fists on Hunters cost 30 points and provide 4(6) attacks.

Update. I tried the army today against Nids. We played Alpha Seak and destroy. He fielded 5 Fexes, Flyrant, 3 Zoans, about 40 Stealers, Broodlord and some Gaunts.

To sum it up, it was a bloodbath for both sides, with me losing in the end.
- For no good reason I gave him first turn, which he used to get closer to the big Blood Claw unit.
- The Blood Claw unit performed well like expected against a close combat army, while the Scouts did nothing at all. (neither wanted to assault Stealers nor Fexes, so I parked them behind a forest for the whole game.)
- I formed a Podwall, that did well at stopping his wave.
- The Venerable Dreads were great speedbumps and absorbed a load of hits.
- His Flyrant jumped over them thogh and killed the terminators in hand to hand.
- The Fexes by themselves were not much of a problem with all the hidden Powerfists, but there were too many Stealers in the end.

Overall the SW Drop Pod army is fun and extremely challanging to play. It includes lots of tools that need to work in concert or die fast.
With perfect play, I might have managed a close win, but I feel that the Nids had an overall advantage.

Allthough the big Blood Claw unit worked nice in combat, it also limited my flexibility, since I had to comit the incoming Pods to support. Without them I would have had the option to drop further away and shoot the Stealers for one more round. Heres a revised list that includes more ACs and less tools.

2x Ven Dread with AC, HF in Pod

2x Terminators with 2 ACs in Pod (one of them lead by Rune Priest)

4x 8 Marines with 2 Fists and Melta in Pod

2x Landspeeder Tornado

 

 

One thing with the Rune Priest you forget is his runic staff is his psychic hood which can be combined with the runic weapon for only 25 points (Im trying to find the source for that) so that gives you a power weapon that can possibly insta-kill a huge opponent and can cancel out psychic powers.