Pack Mentality

Before I delved into my Space Wolves Army list I wanted to give a rundown of the different wolf packs and how I think they are best used. The following are the organization of the packs that most space wolves will spend their entire lives in.

Blood Claws

For those unfamiliar with the fluff, as soon as a group of initiates can wear power armor they are sent out with the main army as assault troops. The blood claw pack represents the marines they will be with until they die or individuals are selected for special assignments. Blood claws can have pack sizes up to 15 marines to represent the large size of initiate units before they start to take casualties.

I like to take one unit of blood claws as my main assault force. I figure no matter what I do with the rest of my army their is always going to be one unit who hits a line, even on defense. Yes they are easier to hit, yes they shoot like crap, but I am getting an extra 10 hits if I charge. I want to front load as much damage as possible.

I always put mine in a land raider so you can pretty much guarantee the charge. I like the power fist over the power weapon, I figure 3 str 8 hits on the charge are better than 4 str 4 hits. I also give one a flamer, mostly because its free, but its a good way to thin out infantry if I am against a horde army.

Grey Hunters

After a good amount of campaigns under their belt, and some character building casualties, the blood claws pack will graduate to be grey hunters. They are blessed with the holy bolter, and are the main maneuver force for the Wolf Lord. Usually they number 5-10 marines at this point

For my army they are my objective takers, fire support, and decent assault support. Without combat squads I rely on they to be the versatile part of my army. As such they are all essentially armed the same and any one squad can fulfill any number of roles.

I think a good commander needs at least 3 grey hunter squads. I like mine at 5 marines in a razorback, so I can add a wolf guard veteran. My standard load out is power weapon, melta gun, and mark of the wolfen. I do switch out the melta for a flamer every other grey hunter squad. I figure if I am holding objectives they are cheaper, but it can be invaluable against horde armies. I also usually upgrade to the twin-linked lascannon...its so expensive, but its usually the only long range firepower I have.

Long Fangs

As the pack grows older and more experienced, they are eventually entrusted with the company's heavy weapons. They understand the ebb and flow of battle and are expected to be resolute under all battle conditions. At this time the pack is usually down to 2-5 members.

I don't usually use long fangs, I think they are to static and my Space Wolves are based on mobility. If I did I would either go for the cheap 2-3 man tank killing squad (ML or LC), or the bulky 5 man split fire squad. Then I would probably mix lascannons and plasma cannons.

Lone Wolves

This is a new edition in the Space Wolf codex. The lone wolf represents the last man of a pack that was either whittled down by attrition or decimated by casualties. Since a pack never gets new recruits it is on the lone wolf to find a glorious end.

Most of the net traffic has lone wolves in terminator armour with thunder hammer and storm shields. From a fluff perspective I don't like the idea of a non-wolf guard taking terminator armor. I equip mine with nothing but a melta bomb, because it makes them cheap as hell. The idea is simple, he is going to wade into battle and force your opponent to direct some attention to them.

Rix

Space Wolf Review

I will admit that I haven't played with my space wolves very much. The two games I played I won handedly, even prompted the ever elusive RC post. I will focus this post on fluff and what seems to be general playability.

Overall

I like the codex. I think it is a step in the right direction from the no fluff, bland codices of yesteryear. I know everyone is in the OMFG mode right now, but I think they will generally fit in line power wise with the last three codices.

Army Organization

I think they are a good trade off between the tactical flexibility of the codex marines and the strong assault forces you see in other codices. In my mind you trade:

• Combat tactics for counter charge
• Combat squads for either a close combat weapon or a +2 charge bonus
• A heavy weapon for a power weapon

As I build my lists I kept on getting the feeling that I had to rely on assault to make my marks. Assault is a funny thing. If you do it well you can have great success...till you meet someone who does it better than you. Then you have a lot of points sitting in transports. Or worse, someone who is good at taking out vehicles. Then you have a lot of points sitting in the middle of the board trying to leg it to make up their points.

I don't think that they can go pound for pound in a shooting war. Granted I can make a Grey Hunter/Long Fangs/vehicle list that is arguably more cost effective than Codex Space Marines, but the lack of tactical heavy weapons really hurts. I miss being able to add a combat squad of marines to the list of shots from the backfield, while maneuvering a Sgt and 4 other marines under fire to snatch objectives.

Favorite Things from the Codex

Lone Wolf - I think it is a really cool idea, and fits the fluff nicely. I wish they didn't have terminator armour, I don't think it really fits the idea that they come from a non-wolf guard pack

Wolf Scouts - They were always a favorite, I like how they made it fit with the current scout rules.

Sagas/Oaths - Most people like the sagas and hate the oaths. I like having a player a player be somewhat accountable to the fluff without having it be a huge detriment to the game. Rules come and go, we play lots of games, but your damn strait I still make fun of RC for running his Khorne Bezerkers away from Ragnar 8 years ago.

Fenrisian Wolves - Purely from a play perspective I think a cheap outrider choice that can get into close combat is exactly what any space marine army needs.

Dislikes

Thunderwolf Cavalry - I think they are a cool idea, I like the fact that the fluff says they are mythical, but I dislike the fact that they are just a normal unit in the army. In fact, most of the Internet buzz I am hearing right now involves using them. I think they should have been a unique or 0-1 choice. I think they should have been a strong unit but maybe a little less tactical (e.g. less weapon options, headstrong, or maybe some sort of injure yourself roll that has to be passed).

Pack Fluff - There seems to be some inconsistencies on the way they describe the packs in the fluff. Sometimes they talk about packs staying together for life (the way it was in the old codex), sometimes they mention things like individuals getting promoted to Grey Hunter. Its a little annoying, but I am a fluff whore, I make no apologies for it.

No Wolves - There are no less than 6 unit choices that can have or are wolves. There is not one acceptable wolf model in the GW lineup right now. I guess I will have to look cooler because I actually still have two old school dire wolves.

Next post, my sample army list,

Rix

Overpowered?

Recently, I had a heated discussion with Rix about his Space Wolves and how they absolutely destroyed my Thousands Sons in our last two games. I called them "overpowered" and Rix called me a whiner. That got me thinking about when is something overpowered and when is it just sour grapes.

Well, that's a good question and one that I've had a hard time quantifying. Well, obviously something is overpowered if it has an unfair advantage but what does that mean in 40k? When does something become unfair and is there any such thing as a fair advantage?

An army with 2 Land Raiders has an advantage against an army with little to no heavy weaponry but finds itself at a disadvantage against armies with lots of tank busting goodness. So, is the advantage fair because it's balanced out by other army compositions or is it situationally unfair depending on the opponent? What if the Land Raider were mis-costed at fraction of it's current points and simply led to a balanced game against heavy tank busting armies? Would it be unfair then, even though it still led to balanced games against certain armies?

Well, all of this leads to a lot of relational comparisons and leads to nothing more than opinion really. Whereas I might think my Thousand Sons are balanced considering that I've suffered both crushing defeats and stunning victories with them, that's not the way it appears to the poor mech space marine army I just tabled on turn 3 (and it wasn't amazing rolling either). It doesn't make a difference if I tabled them with my "balanced" Thousand Sons or my Army of Space Lazer Doom, he got tabled and it didn't feel like much of a fight. So, obviously the determination of something being "overpowered" is really just a perception that differs by person.

So back to the thing that started it all, my discussion with Rix about his Space Wolves and their trashing of my Thousand Sons. The first game we played was a 2 Land Raider list against my all infantry line up. I knew that the game was going to be a loss simply due to the compositions involved (I have a hard time with armor 14) and the fact that I am troops light. I lost by a good margin and accepted the loss for what it was, a learning experience.

The next game was something else entirely, enter Njal Stormcaller ("Nigel"). Ahriman and his cabal were single handedly shut down by Nigel and to add insult to injury Ahriman's impotence was answered by being inta-killed by Nigel's storm power. This game literally made me angry, I felt like not only my army was raped but so was the fluff behind it. After taking multiple showers I still couldn't get the feeling of violation off me or my plastic army men.

So, I cried foul and made what I thought was the shockingly obvious call that Nigel was "overpowered". Rix simply called me a whiner and told me to man up. This led to the heated debate with both of us trying to quantify why we were right and the other was wrong. Rix ended up agreeing to never play Nigel against me again and I grudgingly accepted the fact that he'd still play a rune priest (which has Nigel's abilities, but watered down a little).

So in the end, it didn't matter whether or not that Njal was overpowered (which he is, btw). It simply mattered that I did not enjoy playing against him and got nothing but frustration from my game against him. Rix, as a good opponent, has agreed to my request never to face him again with my Thousand Sons. However, the jury is still out on whether the rest of the wolves are overpowered as well. If I can't win a game against them with any of my armies, I don't think it will be too long before they too are shelved or Rix needs to find some new opponents.