We Interrupt Your Scheduled Browsing – The Wolves are coming back !!

Hi,

The last time my wolves went to a tournament it was a 1250 point tournament in Janruary.

Here they are before a pre tournament test game:


To say the Wolves did poorly is an understatement.  The plan was that the Wolf Guard with combi weapons would alpha strike a key enemy unit turn one (arriving by drop pod).  The wolves and thunderwolves would rush towards combat, and by the time the enemy was free of those there would be 30 grey hunters all over the mid field with a small long fangs squad to take pot shots at units of opportunity.  So what went wrong...

Rather than the army working together perfectly they seemed to work in bits, not quite supporting each other.  The wolf guard would likely get killed or ignored after their turn one alpha strike, and with no other drop pods were forced to come in turn one, when key targets were in their transports.

The Thunderwolves and Wolves did ok most games, well the Wolves were always good for their points (albeit with low leadership) while the Thunderwolves seems a bit unreliable with their medicore WS4 and relying on rending.  Also in their rush to get into combat they rushed away from the Grey Hunters and the Grey Hunters were unable to give them much support.

This gave me lots of ideas on what to do as a moved the Wolves up to 1500 and 1750 pts to become a 3rd fully sized army I could use (along side my Dark Eldar & Tau.

I'd decided to add in Canis, and give the Rune Priest a bike (or more likely replace him wuth a cheap Battle Leader on a Thunderwolf now that the Rune Priest has been reduced in effectiveness).  Next I would put two of the Grey Hunters squads in Drop Pods.  I was just repairing and about to start the repainting of a Drop Pod I got from ebay when my surfing uncovered:



Now there was still the uncertainty that the Wolves and Orcs boxset was the new Planetstrike boxset, however more rumours came in to say that this is the new Starter boxset, with the contents of the Starter boxset being given here on Bols.

[Update: It now appears that this is a Veteran/Campaign Boxset, with sprues of existng kits (rather than snap fit models that are normally in starter sets), along with 2 new characters a mini 7th edition rulebook & a campaign book  For further pics of White Dwarf follow the link here]


Other more unsettling rumours (again from Bols linky here):

"The next set of Space Wolves murmurs and rumors are flying... and various sources are saying one Space Wolf isn't coming back...

This set is fresh off the rumor wires coming to us from a set of both known and unknown sources.

- Space Wolves move into the "modern age" with access many of the new Astartes kits and toys:
- The Hunter / Stalker is in
- The Stormraven is in
- The Stormtalon is out...
- Canis goes the way of the Dodo...

Rumor Reliability: Medium-Low"


Now I just wanted to comment on these new rumours:

[Will he be just a generic Thunderwolf Leader/Lord by the time he gets on the battlefield ?]

Canis:  I'll know I'll be in the minority here, but I liked Canis and his rules, however in his absence I'd just use a Wolf Guard Battle Leader with Saga to give Fenrusian Wolves I5 & Ld7.  I'd be really surprised if this rumour is true as normally whether a special character goes or not is based on whether there is a model for the character.  Even Aun'shi who disappeared from the previous Tau codex came back in the one that was recently released.

[Now coming to Space Wolves ?]

Stormraven:  It'll be nice to have the flying brick as an option, and the assault ramp, improved jink and better vehicle damage table in 7th edition could make the stormraven a good assault unit delivery option, however whether it'll be better than a landraider crusader is debatable.  It's main benefit is being a flyer to help with anti-air, however that role is normally better done by ...



Stormtalon:  Not being in the new codex would be a right pain (if true, because it'll just limit sales for GW).  Wolves big weakness at the moment is anti-air, and if I was to pick the top three things I would take from the Space Marine codex to ally with my Space Wolves, a Storm Talon would be up in the top 3 (along with a Stalker & Thunderfire Cannon, with competition from Imperial Fist Devastators with Lascannons).  However again it seems an odd choice for Games Workshop given it would reduce sales (maybe they think we'll just spend our money on other kits, particularly the Stormraven)..


Overall I think some of these rumours are likely to be wrong, and after all the codex is still rumoured to not be with us still Late September.  Well have to wait and see.

For me I will continue to build up my Space Wolves list, including the Drop Pods and Canis.  Luckily I had already decided to magnetise the arms, so I already have a powerfist arm on the painting table along with lightning claws :)

What do you think of the impending Space Wolves & Orks boxset ?  As I have a lot of Wolves on sprues I'll be more interested in the Character and the mini rulebook (although not so essential as last edition as the new 7th edition rulebook is smaller and fits in my army case).  Mainly I think if you are interested in the models this boxset will be great value (whether you're selling off the models you don't want or can split the boxset with a mate who is doing the other army).

In between my last Tau bits (just a Tetra and a couple of weapons, and some Grotesques for my Dark Eldar I'll be slowly increasing my painted Wolves in anticipation of the new codex.  I can't wait for September to get here :)

Rathstar


PS. The current Wolves list I was building towards (comments appreciated) is:

Wolf Guard Battle Leader - 170
  on Thunderwolf, armed with Powerfist & Wolf Claw
  and having the Saga of the Beastslayer

Canis Wolfborn - 205
  on Thunderwolf, armed with twin Wolf Claws
  accompanied by 2 Fenrusian Wolves

[The two characters will go with the thunderwolves and the fenrusian wolves]

6 Wolf Guard - 178
  5 in Power Armour each with a Combi-Plasmagun & Bolt-pistol
  1 in Terminator Armour with a Cyclone Missile Launcher, Power Axe & Stormbolter
Drop Pod - 35

10 Grey Hunters with 2 Plasmaguns - 160
Drop Pod - 35

10 Grey Hunters with 2 Meltaguns - 155
Drop Pod - 35

10 Grey Hunters with 2 Plasmaguns - 160

5 Thunderwolf Cavalry, one with a Powerfist - 275

14 Fenrusian Wolves - 112

5 Long Fangs with 4 Missile Launchers - 115

5 Long Fangs with 4 Missile Launchers - 115

Total: 1750 Points (72 models)


A quick update:

As it's possible that Canis might not be in the next codex and the fact that I do not have a second thunderwolf character model, rather than buy another thunderwolf lord  or Canis model that I may not use after the new codex, I'll just going to reduce the army to 1500 points, and play with that until the new codex is out.

To reduce the points I lost the Wolf Guard Battle Leader on a thunderwolf and the wolf guard terminator.  The last few points were found by swapping Canis' 2 wolves for one normal wolf and switching plasmaguns for meltaguns on the first grey hunter unit.  This makes the list I'll be building towards:


Canis Wolfborn - 185
  on Thunderwolf, armed with twin Wolf Claws
[Canis will go with the Fenrusian wolves]

5 Wolf Guard - 115
  All in Power Armour each with a Combi-Plasmagun & Bolt-pistol
Drop Pod - 35

10 Grey Hunters with 2 Meltaguns - 155
Drop Pod - 35

10 Grey Hunters with 2 Meltaguns - 155
Drop Pod - 35

10 Grey Hunters with 2 Plasmaguns - 160

5 Thunderwolf Cavalry, one with a Powerfist - 275

15 Fenrusian Wolves - 120

5 Long Fangs with 4 Missile Launchers - 115

5 Long Fangs with 4 Missile Launchers - 115

Total: 1500 Points (69 models)