Hiya people! As you might have guessed i am a big fan of Xeno races as well as a fan of Space Wolves. The new kids on the block these days are of course the Eldar; and i have chosen to aquire said book. I started with just browsing in between the pages of the book and I really liked the feel of it. It is also the first 6th Edition codex that i have bought, so the hardback and colours was indeed refreshing. However, I'm not here to talk about the codex in itself, because i don't really feel i'm up for such a big task. What i want to talk about today is how two relatively similar units perform when put up against eachother.They cost around the same and they should be able to do the same thing to a certain extent. I'll not bore you with math-hammer as i'm not too big with those kinds of numbers...No, i'm going to do it with DICES! Yup, i'm not going to give you the exact average, because usually you don't get the exact average on your dices when you play. Tough luck number-crunchers!
A Warrior And His Weapons
I believe that a short summary of what the units have are in order, and since we are playing space wolves we get to go first.
5 Wolf Guard Terminators w/ Power weapons and Storm Bolters 165 Pts.
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| An Awesome Paint job. Picture taken from kotaminipainting.com |
Special Rules: Counter-Charge, And They Shall Know No Fear, Acute Senses, Bulky.
Already we see something that is interesting, we can choose to have different kinds of power weapons as Axes/Swords/Mauls/Lances are all available. In this case we could go with Power Swords on 3 of them and Power Axes on 2 of them as it helps out in general against most armies.
This means that 2 of us will be striking at I1 and will have S5 AP 2 while 3 will be striking at I4 with S4 AP3. In either Case, the wolves will bypass the wraith-units' armour save. I took different weapons on these guys because usually you'd like some AP2 in there if your planning on assaulting with them.
If we're thinking realistically there would most likely be a powerfist/chainfist in there somewhere and some other shooting weapons, but let's try to keep the points as close to eachother as possible.
5 Wraithguard w/ 5 Wraithcannons 160 Pts.
WS4, BS4, S5, T6, W1, I4, A1, Ld10, Sv3+
Special Rules: Ancient Doom, Fearless, Bulky.
The Guns of these guys are S10 AP1, so if they get to shoot first we might be in for a bit of trouble,
but other than that they don't seem all too scary.
5 Wraithblades w/ Wraithaxes and Forceshields
WS4, BS4, S5, T6, W1, I4, A1, Ld10, Sv3+/4++
Special Rules: Ancient Doom, Fearless, Bulky.
The Wraithaxe is a +2 Strength, AP2, Melee, unwieldy weapon so it is a bit scary but strikes at I1(note that they only have 1 attack in their profile). They also have the option to take a pair of Wraithblades which are +1 Str and AP3, Melee. I was thinking of at least giving these guys a fighting chance against terminators, so i gave them all axes.
The real problem however with the wraithblade unit, is that they have no means of transportation that let's them assault unless they are footslogging across the table.
I guess i could go on and on about these units, but i think it's time we moved on.
Rules Of Engagement
What are the rules then?
1. Each Unit starts about 12 inches from eachother. In that way both units can use their guns and will in addition most likely be able to assault without any problems if that is their desire.
2. I will give each unit one round where they are the attackers, and one round where they are defenders. Already as a space wolves player, we have an advantage as we have Counter-Charge.
Fight 1: Terminator Vs Wraithguard!Space Wolves moves up 6" and let's their storm bolters fire away at the Wraithguard Unit
After firing of 10 Shots, they did 1 Wound. Wraithguards saves it.
Space Wolves decides to Assault and wraithguard fires overwatch and hits with 1 shot and wounds, Space Wolves lose one terminator.
2 Power sword wielding terminators strike with 6 attacks and amazingly enough doesn't wound a single time because of the high toughness on the wraithguard unit.Wraithguard fails to do any damage and the axe wielders throw in their 6 attacks as well, but only takes one down, again due to high toughness.
Swords-Nators hits but fails to wound. Wraithguards strike again and does 2 wounds but they are saved.
Axe-Nators hits three times, but fails to wound!
Sword-Nators hits three times but no wounds,Wraithguard hits twice and wounds both times but the terminators still stand at 4 men! Axe-Nators hits and wounds, another wraithguard goes down!
There are now 4 Wolves vs 3 Wraithguard left. Next round will be the last.
Sword-Nators hits three times and does 2 wounds while, wraithguard inflicts 1 wound at the same time, but this time the terminator armour fails and a brother goes down as well. Axe-Nators hits twice and wounds once, the last wraithguard goes down and the count is now 2 Dead Terminators and 5 dead Wraithguard.
Space Wolves victory! In the end that seemed to come down to who had the better armour save, and i must say i was surprised that the wraithguard held out that long, but then again it's hard to shift T6 models.
Round 2:
Wraithguard moves up 6 inches and fires their Wraithcannons and hits with 3 times and wounds twice, one of the wolf guard makes his 5++ save and is still a happy camper. Normally i'd expect to lose 2-3 terminator from these guys, but the dice decides! The Wraithguard charges, but the storm bolters are just as effective as they were earlier. Leadership is passed and the charge is met like a true space wolf does!
Wraithguard hits 4 times and does 3 wounds, but the terminator armour doesn't fail the wolves. Sword-Nators hits 4 times but only puts 1 wound on them while the Axe-nators hits 5 times but fails to wound, a bit of bad luck from both sides so far.
As you can see, unless the shooting goes well for the Wraithguard unit, they will most likely loose should they be assaulted by something that are bringing Anti-MEQ/TEQ weapons.
FIGHT 2: Wolf Guard Terminators vs Wraithblades
Space Wolves shoots but nothing happens and they choose to assault.
Sword-Nators dish out 9 attacks and hits with 5 but only wounds with 1, wraithblade fail 4++ and dies.
Wraithblades attack and hit's three times and wounds on all, but one terminator makes his 5++ while the Axe-nators hits 4 times but only wounds once. Wraithblade fail it's 4++ and another goes down!
The score is now 2-2!
The single Swordnator hits once but fails to wound. The Axe-nators hits twice but fails to wound as well while the wraithblades hits twice, wounds on both and two more terminators fail their invulnerable saves.
The Score is now 2-4 in favor of the wraithblades.
The wraithblades hit twice and wounds once while the wolf brother hits once and fails to wound. Not too surprisingly the single wolf guard fails his 5++ and throws in the towel.
Wraithblades are Victorious. Hmm... I thought beforehand that the wolves would do much better than this,even against the wraithblades.
Round 2: Wraithblades Charge!
Wraithblades assault and gets shot at by overwatch, but it all just bounces of.
Space wolves gets their counter charge again and enjoys the extra attacks as well.
Sword-Nators attack first and hits 6 times but only put out 1 wound and the wraithblade fails his 4++.
Wraitblade hits 4 times out of 8 and wounds 3 times, but the wolves are lucky and makes two 5++ saves.
The Axe nators hits twice but fails to wound.
The Score is now 1-1
Sword- Nators hit 3 out of 4 times but no wounds. Wraitblades hits 2 out of 4 times and wounds twice, this time around the wolf guard aren't that lucky and 2 more go down, leaving only the 2 axe men who hits three times without wounding.
The score is now 3-1 in favor of the Wraithblades.
Wratihblades hits 2 out of 4 times here and put on 2 more wound but one of the wolf guard makes his 5++. Meantime the two axe-nators hits twice but fails to wound yet again with snake eyes...
The score is now 4-1.
Last round here and and the 4 wraithblades take down the last wolf guard, but he refuses to go down without a fight and takes one with to meet the world wolf!
The Score ended quite tragically for the wolves with a 5-2 defeat. Wolf guard are usually kitted out with some more fancy wargear, but due to points costs they only had room for regular power weapons. With that in mind, i think the score would be very even should there be I think that the Wraithblades are quite effective in close combat for only 160 pts. while the wolf guard
What If?Just out of curiosity, i'll try it like this:
Wolf guard gets 3 combi meltas and a chainfist while the wraithblades gets 1 more model to even out the scores The wolfguard now costs 195 Pts while the Wraithblades unit cost 192 Pts.
Round 1:
Wolf guard shoots: Hits with 2 melta shots and 2 bolter shots, only the meltas wound, but the wraithblade unit only makes one save! Great, now they are down to just as many models.
2 Sword-Nators hits 3 out 6 times but fails to wound. Wraithblades hit twice and wounds twice but one terminator makes his save while the chainfist hits and wounds taking down another wraithblade. The Axe-Nators fails to wound but things are already looking alot better for the wolf guard.
2-1 in favor of the Wolf guard.
The lone sword man strikes but fails to make a difference. Wraithblades hits twice but only wounds once and the wolf guard makes his 5++ save. This time around the chainfist misses completely, but the axe nators actually wounds twice! Wraithblades save 1 of the wounds with their 4++ Forceshield.
3-1 In favor of the wolf guard!
Sword-Nator fails to make a difference again, while the chainfist hits but fails to wound. Axe-Nators hits and wounds once but this time the forceshields are strong. 3 remaining wraithblades puts out 2 wounds and none pass their 5++ saves and we lose a sword wielder and an Axe-wielder.
3-3... Interesting.
Chainfist hits twice and brings down 2 more while the axe wielding terminators do no damage. The wraithblades hit once and wounds but another 5++ was made. Saves are really hot for the wolves this time.
5-3 In Favor of the Wolf guard.
This is going better due to some hot saves for the wolves but no saves for the wraithblades were made, which could of course be very different some other time around.
It ended in a victory for the Space Wolves all thanks to the chainfist being able to wound at a more frequent pace than the other power weapons.
Round 2: Wraithblades Charge
Wraithblades charge and gets shot at from the overwatch, a bolter hits and fails to wound while a melta shot hits but the forceshield take the hit. Wolf Guard does not get the counter charge this time around.
Sword-Nators fail to do any damage.
The Charging Wraithblades put 5 Wounds on the wolf guard and only two invulnerable saves are passed which means the Sword-Nators are gone along with an Axe-Nator! Chainfist puts a wound on the wraithblade unit and it hits home taking down one of them. Axes fail to do anything. Wolf guard passes morale.
Ouch! That means the score is 3-1 in favor of the wraithblades.
Wraithblades hits once and takes down the axe guy and the wolf guard altogether fails to hit.
4-1, still standing though!
The Wraithblades puts three wounds on the lone Chainfist and he goes down taking a wraithblade with him.
This round the wolves didn't get their counter charge and that hurt them a bit since it diminished their number of attacks by 5 the first round.
It ended with a 5-2 victory in favor of the wraithblades. Due to having little attacks the main output of the wraithblades were on the charge and they struggle to take down things if the combat drags on while the wolf guard can hang in there longer with fewer numbers. All in all it wasn't too surprising that it ended like this.
The Verdict
In the end the wraithblade unit can only do one thing, and that is assaults, while wolf guard are more versatile for a bit more points than the Wraithblades. If i were to even out their hitting power a bit i'd be looking at 3 combi-meltas, 2 combi-plasmas and a chainfist for a total of 205 Pts. In that way they could do both the wraithguard and wraithblades jobs to a certain extent.
In the end I think that the wolf guard terminators are the best unit on paper since they have more means of transportation and when not paired up against T6 units, will outperform the wraithblades by a mile due to more attacks.
Well, i guess i could have done some number crunching on this one, but it's more fun to play with miniatures and throw dices to see what happens. What surprised me was how hard it was for the wolf guard to wound these guys without the power-/chainfist.
I hope this was a interesting enough read and i realize you might not meet these guys all too often on the battlefield, but if you do, you'll know that they can be quite difficult to take care of should they get close enough to do something.
Thanks again for reading, and have a nice day :)
-Rune
