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With space wolves, i imagine that they really enjoy blowing up stuff on the battlefield, so why not bring out the big guns! Although you'd think that these guys are really into close combat, they aren't a typical assault kind of army. If you think of the counter-attack rule which all space wolf units have, there isn't all too often that you need to charge in as soon as possible. There are some reasons of course that you want the charge, and that's when your opponent will get a major advantage from charging and you can stop him from getting it. Another reason could be that you wish to take shelter from shooting and know that by the end of your opponents assault phase, you'll be ready to move on to the next thing in line.
Now, i'm not saying that we don't do well in the assault phase, that is completely up to how the army works out as a whole, but if you ask me, i prefer to keep to the mid-ranged shooting weapons and some supporting long range weapons. That way i can have control over 50-70 % of the table without having to move around too much. Space wolves do pretty well as a Gunline army, but we also need to be able to get around to objectives while taking care of threats at the same time. Now, for that to work out properly, you need to make your units co-operate with eachother.
The List
With my example list here, i'll be taking out some toys that might not get used all too much by many players, but it is a list i find quite fun to play and also quite challenging to win with. It always makes for a close game between me and my opponents.
The list goes like this:
HQ: Rune Priest w/ Runic Armor/Terminator Armor, Chooser Of The Slain 130 Pts. (Warlord)
HQ: Wolf Priest w/ Saga Of The Hunter, Combi-Plasma, Melta Bomb 125 Pts.
Troops: Grey Hunters(7) w/ Meltagun, Mark Of The Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Rhino 170 Pts.
Troops: Grey Hunters(7) w/ Meltagun, Mark Of The Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Rhino 170 Pts.
Troops: Grey Hunters(10) w/ 2x Plasmagun, Mark Of The Wulfen, Wolf Standard 185 Pts.
Elites: Wolf Guard(3) w/ 2x Combi-Melta, 1x Combi Plasma 69 Pts.
Elites: Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin-Linked Autocannon 125 Pts.
Elites: Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin-Linked Autocannon 125 Pts.
Heavy Support: Long Fangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers 140 Pts.
Heavy Support: Vindicator w/ Siege Shield 125 Pts.
Heavy Support: Vindicator w/ Siege Shield 125 Pts.
Total: 1489 Pts.
So i have 10 Pts left that i can use on anything i want, i usually have no idea what that should be.
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As you can see, my list looks quite simple. The reason why i have pairs of things is basically saturation. Vindicators are bullet magnets, Long Fangs are bullet magnets, and the dreadnoughts can draw some fire as well. So taking two of the vindicators will mean that most likely at least one of them will do some damage and they will both take fire away from troops and such. If there was something more i would like to put in here, it would have to be more Long Fangs, Grey Hunters and another Rune Priest.If you just had a thought about taking 3 HQ's being illegal, then i can happily share that each FoC slot for HQ's in the space wolves codex let's you take 2 HQ Choices, that means you can have 4 HQ's at point levels up tp 1999, and at 2000 pts you could have an astonishing 8 HQ's, not that i'd recommend it.
List Analysis
With a little recap on last time i'll start with a few questions to myself:
-Do i have enough Ranged Fire?
A: Well, i do have quite some Ranged Firepower in the long fangs, Dreadnoughts and Vindicators
-Do i have something to counter assaults?
A: To be honest, it could be a tad weak against assaults, but space wolves can hold their own for quite some time in close combat because of their power armour. Also, Mark of the Wulfen and Wolf Standards helps your squads perform that much better.
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| Picture taken from GMM Studios |
A: There is plenty of AP2/AP3 with the Vindicators, Long Fangs and the Grey Hunters which have plasma and meltaguns. In CC, there is a model in each Grey Hunter squad with Mark Of The Wulfen which gives bonus attacks and Rending!
-Do i have enough Anti-Tank?
A: Yeah, for 6th edition there should be enough if you play your units well, not too many people bring alot of armor to the party. That said there is enough firepower to deal with quite alot here.
-Do i have enough scoring units?
A: Personally i think it's too little with only 3 scoring units, but i think that they will not be the first priority to take down so it should work out pretty alright.
-Do i have enough Anti-Infantry units?
A: Anti infantry can be covered by all units in this list if you think about it. You have Marines with their bolters, plasma- and meltaguns, there are 2 dreadnoughts with autocannons, there are 5 missile launchers and last but not least: 2 large pieplates that kills anything it hits.
-Do i need Anti Air? How Much?
A: This is the ultimate weakness of the list, there is little that can take out flyers with relative ease. On the other hand I usually don't need to take any anti-air with me to local games, because there are little to no flyers around where i play.
If i were to prepare for flyers with this list, i would change the Wolf Priest for an Aegis defence line or a Bastion, and a Quadgun. I would put my Rune Priest on it and fire away. The Long Fangs would of course not be far off so they could be buffed if need be. There are also 8 twin linked s7 shots from dreadnoughts should i have the need for that.
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-Will my units survive long enough?A: Hard to say, but if i play them well and cling to cover when it's needed, i could keep many of my units intact with armour saves and clever play.
Summary
In shorter terms, this list can deal with most things effectively, but lacks a bit in scoring units, can't take on flyers, possibly lacking assault units and is not very customisable when it comes to how the units are played. That way you are going to need a plan from the start and you will not be forgiven too easily if you make too many tactical errors.
When you think of giving up victory points, the list isn't all too impressive. The Warlord is fairly easy to kill, but the opponent would have to work against that end if he should have a chance at gaining slay the warlord.
Linebreaker is fairly easy to negate with this list since you have a fair deal of units in your own deployment zone at most times of the game. Linebreaker can be achieved fairly easily by outflanking the grey hunter squad with the wolf priest, the only problem you could meet here is if your squad of 12 marines gets wasted. Then again, if all that fire was used to take them out, you should have alot of other units left to deal with many other things.This list gives up First Blood quite easily considering the tin cans that rhinos are. Cover saves or Line of sight blockers are your friends when you deploy your units, use them.
Wrapping it up, like a neat little Tortilla!
Okay, so now you have seen what my last list was when i played my space wolves army, and it performed quite alright, but due to being out of practice with games, i lost. I'm not saying my list is perfect or that it is better than anyone else's, but i like how it plays(when i don't meet Cron-Air). The most obvious reason for my loss was mainly because of bad movement, and me not being able to think on my feet as the game progressed. I am also not a Wargamer-Godlike-General, so i happen to make mistakes now and then.
However, even when losing the game, i still learned a great deal about 6th edition, and i certainly learned alot about grey knights as well. I cannot describe how much easier it is to play games against a codex you know pretty well, so a lesson better learned is to "Know Thy Enemy". It sounds cheesy, but you know it's true.
Now that i'm done talking, i'll pass the microphone to the next one who wishes to throw in their 2 cents. I tend to get a little stuck in my own ways with armylists and such, so i would in fact be very interested in hearing you guys out. Come with the idéas, good or bad, bring 'em all!
Thanks in advance to all of you who keeps on reading.
-Rune
