Some initial Saturday morning bathtub thoughts:
HQs:
1. Rune priests. You're going to want at least 1 in your list almost no matter what. The power to give units cover saves, and the strategem to make units -1 to hit are very powerful and give
SW some significant durability. They also rely somewhat heavily on the first turn. Vs knights with missiles, it's not a bad idea to have a rhino to put this guy inside as they are going to be the most obvious target. I can see taking more than 1
RP to use the lightning power and strat, and Njal seems like a good pick for one of them.
2. Ragnar seems good if you don't have any Wulfen to give your stuff charge rerolls. You'll need a rhino for him, so I can see putting him in a time with 8 blood claws and a rune priest. He is a wolf Lord, so he also gives you rerolls of 1s. His sword is pretty decent. The wolves seem okay to me but not required. He synergies well with another
HQ carrying the Wulfen Stone.
3. Canis only seems good if you are using a lot of fun wolves because they need his leadership. He is a
WGBL so he gives rerolls to wound. He rerolls his charges but no one else's.
4. Arjack is good if you have
TWC (which are WOLF GUARD) or normal wolf guard units to give +1 attack. Note he doesn't buff the pack leaders in
GH or
BC etc squads. He lets you reroll wounds.
5. Bjorn seems solid if you need a source of rerolls of 1s to hit. The only thing I don't like about him is he might have some trouble keeping up with faster units, and he doesn't synergize with long fangs that well since they already reroll 1s to hit against their chosen targets.
6. I think I'd only ever take a wolf priest with Wulfen or
TWC, since they have no shooting, usually hit on 3s with hammers, and the heal might be useful. I think the best option is the index bike. Ulric is cool, but the chances of him killing a character or monster seem small. And he needs a rhino to keep up unless you outflank him with some Wulfen.
7. Wolf Lords are solid. Jump pack seems like the obvious choice, but
TWC seems okay as well, though it trades speed and mobility for durability. Blood angels still do it sightly better, due to the ignore overwatch relic and mobility strategems.
8.
WGBL are decent. They now have 1 less than a Lord, and mathematically the two buffs (reroll ones to hit vs wound) are the same damage increase, but they cost a little less than Lords do. I think a lot of what goes into bringing Lords and
WGBLs is what other buffs you're getting from the named
HQs, as about half of them are Lords or
WGBLs. It seems worth having a naked
WGBL babysit 3 long fang squads if you bring that many. If you bring less than 3 the reroll wounds strategem seems good enough so I'd pass.
8. I don't see any reason to take Krom, Harold, or iron priests.
Other units:
1. Troops seem like a bit of a problem area for us. We don't have scouts so all of our options are pretty expensive. I've been considering 1 rhino with 6-8 blood claws in it to hide some
HQs, and then two 5 man squads in another rhino. I can't really justify spending points on a 3rd rhino, or too many
CP on outflanking troops, but those are options if you want to go more troop heavy. I'm not fond of razorbacks unless I have full re-rolls to hit (Santa sleigh time?) to counter act the movement penalty to hit, and bring able to pop smoke on rhinos is nice.
The troop unit loadouts I've been toying with are:
5 blood claws, power fist. Probably x2 in a rhino. Not as effective as having a
WG with a hammer, but cheaper and you can fit two in a rhino. I only like the power fist because you get three attacks on the charge and hit on 3s.
5 grey hunters, plasmagun, plasma pistol. Like a bad
tac squad, but almost twice as good in close combat. Same reasons as above for no
WG.
5-9 Blood claws, power fist,
WG with hammer. Possible Combi plasma on the
WG. They'd need their own rhino/razorback, and only take 1 troop slot, but they are better than the 5 man squad above. Also a possible candidate for outflank, in which case the squad is probably better off at 6 men, or 15 if you also do something wild like outflank Ragnar or some Wulfen along with them for the charge reroll.
5 grey hunters, wolf guard, all the plasma. Im not sure a thunder hammer is worth it on a model that only gets 2 attacks, even if you are hitting on 3s, so I've been leaving it off.
5 intercessors. I don't like this option much as they don't really synergize with anything else
SW want to do.
In my current list building I'm torn between whether to try to get a second battillion, as the
CP are nice and I find myself wanting at least 4
HQs, but can't find too many ways to like the troop units enough to bring 6 of them.
2. The real damage units.
It seems to me that Wulfen and
TWC are pretty solid units. I think the most obvious choice of the two are the Wulfen, as they are about as fast or faster, do more damage, you can outflank them, and they have their aura buffs. I do however think
TWC become about as good when you have Arjac, Ragnar, and the Wulfen Stone all together (and Ragnar + Wulfen Stone is better for things like blood claws because you get both rerolls to charge and the extra attacks), and
TWC benefit more from the cover save psychic ability since they come with a 3+ armor save.
TWC and Wulfen are about as durable as each other, though they each like getting shot by some weapons more then the other.
Outside of that long fangs seem okay to me, so I can see bringing 1-2 squads to make use of all the strategems. If you bring 3 I'd spring for an ancient and
WGBL.
The
SW fliers also seem decent, especially the frostfang, which has pretty good synergy with the rune priest intercept strategem with so many shots.
I like that the Wulfen dreads can reroll their charges without any help, I like the wolf claw weapon, and the shield is nice, and it's actually a fairly cheap unit. I could see bringing 2 in a list with some
TWC or some other scary shooting target. Their durability also goes way up with a rune priest around, which is probably why they lost the 3++.
I don't see too much use in the traditional/primaris space marine units, though I do think reivers could be decent if they drop in near +1 attack buffs and charge rerolls, and aggressors might be okay outflanking in a back feild.
The skyclaws and Swiftclaws just seem too expensive to me.
Wolf guard also seem pricey when you start loading them up with too many items, but I imagine some kind of Arjac bomb is possible.
All of the warlord traits are pretty meh
IMO, so I don't see making
SW the warlord if you have another faction allied in. Otherwise wolfkin, hunter, and beastslayer all seem okay depending on the matchup.
I'm sure I left out some units but that likely means I didn't find them very interesting.
Overall I think the rules and strategems are flavorful and pretty good, but it suffers from most of the issues other Marine books do, and lots of stuff costs more than it should. I think it is likely on a similar level to
DW and
DA competitively, but perhaps a bit less reliant on allies and better in a more casual mono faction setting.
I'm not sure how good of allies they are, though perhaps long fangs, Wulfen, rune priests, and stormfangs will make some showings.
Automatically Appended Next Post: KnightScion wrote:I have an over abundance of Fenrisian wolves (70). Is there a viable way to actually field the wolves with the new book? I know they can fill a Brigade spot and are great screens but I loved a mass of wolves on the table protecting my TWolf Calvary. Please tell me there is a way to play them again!!!!
You pretty much have to bring canis along with them or they will die to leadership. The only alternative would be a wolf Lord and be willing to blow 2
CP each turn for the auto pass bubble strategem.