Meh

So after a month of living, breathing, tweaking, and playing my space wolves I am officially bored with them. I have struggled to figure out why. Here are my best reasons:

• I always thought I loved Assault lists (my first love), but after playing all different types of armies I finally figured out that assault armies are pretty one dimensional.
• I settled very quickly into what I believe is the best list possible (given my already painted units)
• Allocating ICs and Wolf Guard between a mech list is confusing and annoying
• Lysander drop podded into my heart

More on the last later. But overall I have been very pleased with the way my wolves performed, very content with the viability of my list, and very bored playing it. I used to love setting up my Space Wolves for battle, they sat on my side of the table mocking my opponents "Do what you want, but my wolves are coming across to whop your ass!!" Now when I set up I feel like I am on the losing side of a battle of wits. My opponent has all kinds of tools at his disposal (reserve forces, combat squading, deep striking) and I am just looking to meet him in the middle without losing to many transports.

On another positive note, I like my list. I have a healthy number troops and some real punch in close combat without having to spend 750 points in HQ choices. The units all fit into my great company scheme (one of these days I'll get around to finishing that). But that cut out one of my favorite parts of the game, critically thinking about the list and doing some hard core tweaking.

Lastly, I do really like the ability to attach wolf guard. It's a poor man's combat squad. But trying to figure out between 4 squads which 3 should get a leader, which of those should get the special weapons, and then try and figure out which should get ICs, oh and also some are in razorbacks and some are in rhinos.....it all gets pretty confusing. I always end up just throwing some units together and deploying them haphazardly, which in turn I feel like I am always screwing up deployment.

For all of these reasons, I am Meh on my puppies and have shelved them for now.

Rix

The Burning of Prospero

Had my second round of matches with my Space Wolf force. This time I think my force was pretty close to final form. I am liking the direction it is heading.

My first two matches (a month or so ago) were strictly trial forces. I wanted to get the feel for the different units and characters. Both times I played against RC's Thousand Son force. The first was a two Land Raider army that hit you like a truck using The Great Wolf. I packed Blood Claws in one LR and Wolf Guard termies into the second. It was effective but very one dimensional and very light on the troops. My second was more of a medium infantry force with Grey Hunters in Razorbacks, some Blood Claw assaulters, and Njal. Best result from the game....making RC cry as Njal wtfpwnd Ahriman. While I learned I like the medium infantry army, I did admit that Njal is a little overpowered if he can beat Tzeentch's Champion so handedly.

I took the month to work on the list and update some of the painting on my older units. My list looked like this going into this weekend:

Rune Priest (Chooser of the Slain, Saga of the Beastslayer, Living Lightning, Wolf Spirits)
Wolf Guard Battle Leader (Wolf Claws, Saga of the hunter, wolves x2)
Wolf Guard x4 (Thunder Hammer x2, Combi-meltas x2, Power Weapons x2)
Lone Wolf (Melta bomb)
Wolf Scouts x5 (Meltgun, Plasma Pistol x2)
Blood Claws x10 (Power Fist, Flamer)
Grey Hunters x5 (Power Weapon, Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Razorback w/ TL Las)
Grey Hunters x5 (Power Weapon, Flamer, Mark of the Wulfen, Razorback w/ TL Las)
Grey Hunters x5 (Power Weapon, Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Rhino)
Land Raider Crusader (Meltagun)

First Game was an annihilation against the Thousand Sons. RC was attempting to move away from the heavy weapon prevalence in his army and add some more troops. We both felt that it did little to help him, as he had less capability to deal with transports and the massed troops was no match for the incoming of the Space Wolf fury. He called it after he had killed my Battle Leader, Scouts, Lone Wolf, a squad of Grey Hunters, and 3 vehicles. I had the advantage as I had killed most of his force and was wading around with about two turns to dish out some more punishment.

Lessons for the Game: Battle Leader with scouts moving behind enemy lines is cool, but you are not going to make up the points of losing your character after a turn or two. Also, the Lone Wolf seemed to suck.

Second Game was take and hold against a mech Dark Angel force. We rolled dawn of war. Night fighting came in handy....but I really sucked it up on my deployment. It was the first time in 10 years I didn't deploy my Space Wolves all together to charge the field. It threw off the rest of my game as I could never amass enough forces to push in his territory. I ended up fighting a tactically loosing battle as I couldn't even come close to his objective and he was all over mine. Good news was that my army was able to assault its way into re-securing my objective.

Lessons for the Game: My Lone Wolf sucks (and shall be removed). Living Lightning is an amazing vehicle killer. I could use a tinny bit more stand off firepower.

I am working on updating the list now. I am looking at dropping the Lone Wolf, Swapping the LR Crusader for a regular LR, somehow adding a three man Long Fang squad.

Cheers,

Rix

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

Wolves on a Leash

I hate my camera...the pictures look like crap. To make maters worse I can't even get the SD card to read in my computer so I don't have any pictures to accompany this post....will work on it for next time.

My wolves are on a leash right now, at least till I get a new codex. I have a lot of changes to the force to make them viable in 5th edition, but just can't justify changing weapon and vehicle load outs till I am sure they will match the new codex. I do have some fleeting hope it will be out soon.

I went through a lot to finally get around to painting the army. I started it around 1996 and finished around 2001. But to be honest, I had a lot of drinking to do back then so its understandable. In my mind they were the quintessential 4th edition rush army. They picked a spot on the board and made everything there its bitch. They also had a smattering of other units to handle everything not in the "making-or-bitches" zone.

The army generally consisted of:

• Terminators in a Land Raider Crusader - They were mostly CC but did have an assault cannon and cyclone missile launcher
• Blood Claws in a Rhino - Three power fists and used the rhino rush, they were monsters on the charge
• Rune Priest - Interpretations vary but no-one ever convinced me that using storm caller on the charge did not let me assault first. It was game changing.
• Wolf Guard Battle Leader - Needed an extra HQ so he got termie armor and lightning claws and ran with the terminators. He has a lot of extra punch for them though.
• Grey Hunters in a Razorback - These guys were uber useful, typically they were kitted out to be a shooting force. I would run them at something outside the area of destruction (typically the enemies counter charge force) and would unload with a melta gun, 2 plasma pistols and a multi-melta from the razorback. I would then proceed to charge in. This would inevitably take that unit out for the rest of the game
• Wolf Scouts - Ah these boys were great, the enemy always forgot about them. They handled the guys that were on the opposite side of the board where I was rushing. They averaged one long range vehicle a game, well worth the 82 points
• Predator/Leman Russ Exterminator - Mildly useful as a column head or as a supporting fire base.

It was a really fun army to play.

Rix

Flavors of Heroin

So since this blog is mostly about MY addiction I guess I should start off with my armies. I currently have 3 playable 40k armies and another under development. I think that is pretty respectable....problem is that I have an eye to expand them all to much larger forces.

Space Wolves

This was my first love. Back when I was in high school I worked in a store that sold gaming products (D&D, MTG, Warhammer and others). During downtime the boss actually encouraged us to read the material so we could sell it better (man! he was a great boss). I loved 40k the moment I started reading the fluff. But the army I most liked was Space Wolves. A bunch of drunken bad asses, with fangs tearing through the galaxy tearing peoples faces off.....whats not to like? I currently have about 3k points, but unfortunately they are all kitted out with 3rd and 4th edition wargear. I have a goal to expand to a great company, but I don't think I will be doing to much with them till I see a new codex (btw).

Alpha Legion

Remember that awsome Chaos Space Marine codex where you had to pick which of the legions you were going to play as? I do to. I spent damn near a month deciding which of the legions I wanted to play. Death Guard (I do love pappa nurgle), Word Bearers (faith based initiatives), Night Lords (terror as a weapon...yes please). I decided on Alpha Legion, hell I even painted an ass load of cultists. The new codex is an epic fail but I still enjoy my purple monsters (oh and WTF GW, changing the damn color scheme....don't get me started). I have about 3k of them to and are the current focus of expansion.

Tomorrow, my other two armies.....................

Rix