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Ok so I recently purchased the new digital codex for the Space Wolves and was looking at the iron wolves formation. Now while I can see this becoming a very expensive army quickly there are a few things that I expect to see if it shows up in tournaments from where I'm at.

First the taxes of mandatory transports will probably bring in the old Razorbaking rushes and an increased amounts of Landspeeders as it's what GW is trying to push.

So I'm wondering what you guys are planning to bring because of this formation as all I know is I'm bringing land speeders as compulsory choice.

Now while I know they're not the best units in this formation they're not only fast but can deliver quite a bit of punishment and survive quite a bit of fire. Sure the standard land speeder isn't the most durable with 10 av all around but the access to jinks as skimmers do its got some staying ability and in this formation is where it really shines. For a max squad you come out just over the cost of an full Grey Hunter squad before upgrades and transport taxing. Personally I will be running them more than the hunters as they can throw more high strength shots and cap objectives far more easily than.

So you have a bunch of speeders and a few Razorbacks transporting min sized Blood Claws or Long Fangs.
And what else? That's not enough firepower to impress anyone and TWCs are not allowed.

I have toyed with the idea of a Deathpack (from the Start Collecting box) combined with Ironwolves and Wolfkin as Aux, but the only meaningfull advantage I would get would be the free weapon upgrades on 4 Speeders, Not really enough to convince me to invest in an inflexible Greatpack. I'm collecting SW for over 20 years and have lots of models, but I'm hard pressed to field the numbers required by the Greatpacks.

I don't need super-competetive lists but I like to win at least 1 out of 5 tournament games and honestly none of the new formations are helping that.

What could be an interesting tactic is a Drop Pod with 8 BCs and a TDAWG supported by a Rhino full of GHs. Rhino drives 12", GHs disembark 6" and so are in range for a counter charge should the BCs get charged (on the end tables of tournaments you often face melee armies )

It's always difficult to find a good use for all those BC tax units, especially for Ironwolves as they are not allowed to take min Swift Claws for fast objective grabbing instead.

You are for sure right that dollar wise if you don't already have a sizable force its intense, and honestly not even worth it. From what I've gathered, and myself included, most of us are sticking with our old SW lists and just throwing in wulfen. The latest supplement gave some cool stuff if you already have forces built up, like all my guys were already slapped with blackmane shoulder pads because I like the novels, and luckily I already play drop pod heavy but honestly its not even super good because of what you are forced to take. Nice from fluff side, but terrible from competitive play side. As said above, the formation from start collecting box is good though. Just need more TWC from there and some options to put iron priests on wolves and youll be able to do a wolf star, but yea not impressed by new formations at all.

12' + Disembark, + Counter Charge supporting Wulfen. Tons of Shooting of the GHs. Because volume of shooting kills. And it's only
5 units and a single character for 55 points of free upgrades on Razors and 30 on Rhinos. Doubling their firepower in each scenario. Double that and you give Fear(Meh) and Furious Charge to everyone in the Detachment. (Which is bonkers on most everyone.)

If you can't control six objectives with an extra 6" flatout and a simpler alpha strike with Vehicles that aren't as Sturdy as Eldar, but definitely cheaper, then what are you doing?

Gunline AM scares that list. Grav is meh, Necrons don't like MSU, Eldar are bad but not unbeatable because you gum up the field. Mobile too, compared to a drop list. A Drop list doesn't suck, because they have to crack your armor, but your boys pile out and waste em. Tau don't like the idea of you in there face with Flamers, Boltguns, Meltas, Plasma, and yeah Riptides might tank it, they won't walk away unscathed. Oh, fliers will probably hurt, but TL Plas, TL Assault Cannons, or just tabling everything else will do nicely.

Not saying it has an answer to everything, or that there might not be an easier list, but IW's are definitely competitive. Blackmanes, less so due to higher unit requirements, and drop pods being scatter, Wolf Scouts aren't so great, and if I want the Great Company Perks I have a Lord(Ragnar) that cost 40 more points then the one I run in my Iron Wolves. (Which is only that way because I kitted him to Egil's specs in the Wulfen book.) Rerolling the BCs/Swift/Sky is nice, but I can't field my Wulfen at any tournament because I need to be at 1850 or less points.

I agree, I just add a Wulfen unit - and don't try for the Counter-Charge detachment boon, not worth the "tax" involved.

Iron Wolves are working out for me though, I've found dual Blood Claws w/ Razorbacks toting Twin-Las (and now with the help of a dakka post, trying flamers on each to 12"+6"+flamer). Putting more pts into them seems inefficient, but having them escort an I.C. seems way cost efficient. When not putting too much weight on their shoulders, they do well for me. 105pt Razorbacks for 55pts, oh yeah - definitely amazing.

85pt Speeders for 50pts, also incredible. S8 x3 via Typhoon/Melta is nice! Double-toughness or Good AV-cracking, ability to 12"+24" movement each turn... verrrrrry nice!

As for the WGBL and Long Fangs, I don't have wonderful opinion of them - putting all those pts into a squishy squad... I keep them unupgraded and keep them as "tax", I personally just don't invest points into them lol! WGBL can be mounted tho

The Long Fangs can give me a 3rd pod tho, that's handy

All in all, my Iron Wolves cost something around 600pts which adds models and table presence and frees up points for other things, which I really like

Ok so I've ran about 5 or 6 games with the Ironwolves Core and I gotta say it's a rather decent all rounder depending on what you bring/tactics.

Myself I like running a Razorback AC spam with a Mix of Landspeeder squads depending on what I'm facing. One thing I found to be stupidly effective is putting a full squad of Heavy Flamers or Multi Melta Landspeeders with the main one taking the Legacy of Glory that negates Deepstrike scatter for a nasty surprise on just about any army, though the flamers were used on one of my friends Tau wings and wiped most of his markerlights.

Woa - nice idea, with the LoG on the speeders!

MekLeN wrote:
Woa - nice idea, with the LoG on the speeders!

Not gonna lie didn't come up with it myself. BolterandChainsword had a guy think that up. I just modified it to me useful, though the Double Flamers tends not to be that great after deepstrike since they're almost required to jink to not die. Though you could just sub an Assualt Cannon instead of the second Flamer if you wanted it to have a chance at doing something after the first turn.