[Usaal]

Hey guys, looking for a bit of help on this force.
I finally broke down and got some space wolves, as I wanted Vikings but didnt want to be the "Bearded" Army, or Cheese if you will.

Anyway, I got the force, and the shiny units I liked the look of. Naturally that failed to just through the pretty units on the board and hope for the best. :crazy:
So now I have this force that is 0/4 and is kind of the joke force of my local gaming group... not fun as I usually host the games
That being said, I have run lists on heresy before and gotten Great advice, so hoping this will hold true for my wolves as well.

Latest list I am thinking of running:
--HQ--
Wolf Lord: 210 (runs with the Swiftclaws)
Thunderwolf, Frost axe, Storm Shield, Runic Armor
Rune Priest: 90
Level 2, Melta Bombs

--Elite--
Venerable Dread: 205
Shield& Axe, Drop pod with locator

--Troops--
Grey Hunters x5: 160
plasma gun, Razorback - Lascannon
Grey Hunters x5: 160
plasma gun, Razorback - Lascannon

--Fast Attack--
Skyclaws x5: 140
Plasma gun x2, Melta bomb, frost sword
Skyclaws x5: 140
Plasma gun x2, Power fist
Swiftclaws x10: 290
Power fist, Melta, Attack bike: Multi-Melta

--Heavy--
Stormfang Gunship: 240
Twin-linked Multi-Meltas

So that brings me to 1635 out of a 1850 list. I am open to making changes on anything as I just want to get a win under my belt with them

my side bar consists of
Vindicator
Stormwolf transport
Terminators - 5 with claws, 5 with hammers
Logan on foot
Bjorn with helfrost
bunch of troops, both grey hunters and blood claws
3 more rune priests on foot
2 more Thunderwolves (I have 3 total right now)
Landraider
Some Rhino's
Long fangs (name a heavy weapon, its in the pile)

Please help me get my hammer on!
oh and most of my opponents are currently rocking, SM Centurians with Grav weapons, or Necrons.

 

[LordOfTheWolves]

Hello my friend!

Cheese, no cheese around here...no...of course not...just the sweat of a mans brow and lots and lots of thunderwolves!

I think we've all been there, where we hit a losing patch and just can't seem to get out of it. Lets see if we can help you out while still keeping the list fun for you to play!

I have just a few questions I want to ask just to get a flavour of what games you play:
1. Is this list purely for your gaming group or do you want it for more competitive arenas as well?
2. What is the meta like in your area? I know you say necrons and centurions, but are they more infantry led? Large amounts of armour?
3. Are the lists you are going up against competitive lists or fun lists?
4. What sort of games do you play? Eternal war or maelstrom missions?
5. Are your losses complete wipeouts or close calls? Can you identify any weak links in your lists?

As for the list at the moment, I like the direction your going, but got a few questions/suggestions to get started with:

1. Where is the rune priest actually going? I see he's on foot so I assume he's with a grey hunter unit. Do you really need him? What actually is his purpose or is he there for rule of cool? I realise you have some points left over if you want to reach 1850pts so I would suggest getting a long fang unit and sticking him with them, going for divination. I find for an all comers list 4 missile launchers are great, but of course depending on meta plasma cannons or lascannons can be more use.

2. For the berserker dread, have you considered sticking smoke launchers and/or extra armour on him? Dropping down and popping smoke will give him a cover save on your side and rear which will give him better staying power. Extra armour stops those annoying crew stunned results leaving you out in the open unable to move

3. What is the actually role of the skyclaws? Do they just jump down and blast into 2+ armour and charge in later if they have the chance?

4. Swiftclaws...see if this was last edition I'd say fair enough as they were the cheaper biker option. But now I'd seriously consider upgrading these guys into wolf guard on bikes.

You lose the ability to take special weapons and attack bikes, but you gain so much more for you points.

Firstly the stats boost up to WS and BS 4, LD 9 and an extra attack base. They are also armed with 2 CCWs, so you are getting 4 attacks on the charge vs the 3 you'd get from the swift claws (thanks to rage). Next you are able to take everything from the melee weapons list, so you could get a couple of storm shields in there to tank any low ap heading their way. Can even go all out and get everyone a wolf claw. Wouldn't recommend it but you could!

So, you could get 10 base wolf guard on bikes for 250pts, 40pts cheaper than the swift claws and have lots of options for upgrades.

But then of course you enter the realms of OVERKILL, if all these guys get in with the wolf lord rocking alongside it might spell problems, hitting a unit too hard and wiping it out, leaving you vulnerable to more shooting.

5. How well does the stormfang perform? Just curious as I've only ever run stormwolves. Has the large blast proved more effective? Seems okay on paper but always found myself preferring the twin-linked everything option of the wolf.

 

[Usaal]

Wow, lots of info wraped up in one response. I love it thanks

1. we use to do the Tournament thing quite heavy in my group, but as we become dads and what not we just do the friendly game Friday nights.
2. Well Necrons we have a Destroyer cult and a harvest type army that could show up, other than that its armor heavy (tanks, APC ect) these days, and we do the points limit with the bonus of "if you own it you can play it" so it tends to have some Forgeworld sprinkled through other lists.
3. They are mostly fun lists, no big deathstar stomp your face lists. Altho they seem to be working on me so far
4. We play Maelstrom missions for the most part, I find they keep the game from being a straight up walk across and kill each other game.
5. Are your losses complete wipeouts or close calls? Can you identify any weak links in your lists? I had one close game and the rest were dam near wipeouts and one was 13-4 objective points
As for weak links... dam Shiny rune covered sweet models! I just love the lore so much I naturally go to what looks cool and thus don't support it properly as I don't take those units ID: Longfangs, also I have 1 Drop pod so its kind of a suicide drop for someone, or in one game I had 14 bloodclaws and a RP in a storm wolf... it got shot down via interceptor and everyone but the RP died... yea that was great, but it was a learning point.


Current list questions:
1. yea, I just love the idea of a Rune priest throwing Chain lightning around but he was going to hunker in a Grey hunters squad. I do like that Long fang idea though, mostly I play CSM Emperor's Children, so I forget about that option as I don't have it usually

2. For the dread I was trying to think of a new plan with this list actually, drop him mid field behind something and Bait people out to take him, then with the locator beacon I cold drop in the sky claws to support him on turn 2. Again, use to playing armies without the Drop pod option so trying to learn how to best use them.

3. I was playing with the option of mobile Plasma guns, never actually charging with them, more of run and gun, something I was playing with in Dawn of War last stand.

4. Never thought the points would be worth it to be honest. and I thought Rage would be a nice thing, but yea those are great points on them and I could spread some special weapons into the mix, use them for more than just a Wolf lord screening unit.

5. I find the Stormfang is my moral victory unit, I may loose the game but she has lasted all but 1 and done some very nice damage before its over. After my one run with the Stormwolf getting shot down badly I was in that "once bitten" frame of mind. I am open to change though if it will help the list over all. As far as the blast goes, I just find it helps to hit things as its not twin linked....altho as Terminators and what not are almost not on the board anymore, I guess the twin-linked focused shot would be nice for those tanks and what not.


Thanks again for the response, love this help and new thoughts I am getting

 

[Usaal]

So taking some of your advice... well mostly all of it

--HQ--
Rune Priest: 100pts
level 2, Rune Sword, Frostfury
Wolf Lord: 210pts
Storm Shield, Frost Axe, Runic Armor, Thunderwolf

--Elite--
Venerable Dread: 220pts
Axe and Shield, Extra Armor, smoke launchers, Drop pod - Locator Beacon, Deathwind
Wolf Guard x10: 345pts
Bikes, 2 Storm shields, 2 Wolf claws, Leader with Fist

--Troops--
Grey Hunters x5: 160pts
Plasma Gun, Razorback - Lascannon
Grey Hunters x5: 160pts
Plasma Gun, Razorback - Lascannon

--Fast Attack--
Skyclaws: 120pts
Plasma Gun x2, Melta bomb (just incase)
Skyclaws: 120pts
Plasma Gun x2, Melta bomb (just incase)

--Heavy Support--
Long Fangs x6: 175pts (wow, cheep for what I get on the board)
Lascannon x2, Missile Launcher x3,
Stormfang Gunship: 240pts
Stormstrike Missiles, Twin-linked Multi-meltas x2

hits 1850pts even, and has a fair amount of anti armor to pop some APC for my bikes to run up on. :good:

 

[LordOfTheWolves]

Wow, lots of info wraped up in one response

Haha, apologies! I end up grouping all my thoughts into one which tends to result in a very garbled response as I jump from one point to the next!

Reason I was asking about your gaming group was just to see what sort of environment you play in, can help when considering lists so that you get a list that can stand up where you play. Maelstrom missions are a lot more fun, actually forces people to think rather than sitting at either end of the table and winning thanks to first blood.

I feel your pain with lore! That's why I fell in love with wolves, each marine can very easily have his own saga as they have so much personality! I have 5 rune priests and 5 lone wolves just cause I love the idea of them, lone wolves running into the thick of the fray to earn a worthy death while the rune priests bring the storm against their foes with lightning. But I end up not fielding most of them because I just can't seem to fit them in to a list that can stand up against the xenos and heretic threat!

or the dread I was trying to think of a new plan with this list actually, drop him mid field behind something and Bait people out to take him, then with the locator beacon I cold drop in the sky claws to support him on turn 2. Again, use to playing armies without the Drop pod option so trying to learn how to best use them

This seems like a good strategy, should keep him alive and kicking. Just be careful he doesn't end up too far out of the way, otherwise he might be a sitting duck for a few turns before he can sink his axe into someone.

I was playing with the option of mobile Plasma guns

Fair dos, plasma is always handy, just wish all claw units weren't plagued by bs3

List is looking pretty good! Seems fairly well rounded for what you want. Just got a couple of suggestions:
1. I'd be tempted to swap the plasma guns on the grey hunters for meltaguns, just to get some melta shots into the list. I feel that you'll struggle with anything AV14, and its always nice to have an ace in the hole just in case.
Another thing you could consider if you went the melta route is to get a wolf guard leader with combi melta (cost you 40pts for 2). Drive up the board under cover from the bikers (they will want that biker unit dead very quickly!), jump out and melta away!

2. I'm really not a fan of mixing weapons on long fangs. It's probably just my OCD kicking which I apologise for. I would be more tempted to split them up into a 3 man and 4 man unit. Gives your opponent another unit he has to deal with and you don't lose all your heavy weapons if one unit bites the dust. If the rune priest is keeping an eye on the long fangs, deploy them close by to each other and he can pass powers from one to other when the need arises.

 

[Usaal]

Yea I also started to model a bunch of the Rune priest when I saw the wolfs unleashed with all the HQ options... may have went a bit over board on that one hehe. I have the Twins (2 RP with swords) a pre build one with the axe and plasma pistol, then naturally one in Terminator armor
Then in game 3 I tried a Wolf lord on a Thunder wolf... just wow! the damage they caused was GREAT. thats the game I lost in objectives, mostly because I was just running around killing everything with him.

I really want to play Bjorn, but the points and the lack of effectiveness in games for me have left me saying "Nope, you stay here and hold the ship for us... its an important job, trust me...."

Back to the list, again I very much appreciate the input on this!
The Grey hunters I plan on moving to an objective and holding it with a Razorback screen/support. I could always drop the sky claws, due to the BS3 shots, and instead look at getting a rhino to push up board with the bikes, in support of the Dread. Put some Meltas into that and call it a day... Could just be that Vikings with jetpacks is just another one of those shiny units I am going to have to get over hehe

The long fangs are a bit of an odd squad for me... as my CSM Havocs have the options of ablative wounds in the squad, where as long fangs are not exactly the same way.

I will take this advise into consideration and play with the list some more, stay tuned for an update

 

[Usaal]

ok, lets see how this goes, made some changes to almost everything lets hope I didn't mess it up but made it better

--HQ--
Rune Priest: 120pts
level 2, Rune Sword, Runic Armour, Psychic Hood
WGBL: 200pts
Storm Shield, Black Death, Runic Armor, Thunderwolf, Digital weapons, Melta Bombs, Helm of Durfast

--Elite--
Venerable Dread: 210pts
Axe and Shield, Extra Armor, smoke launchers, Drop pod -Deathwind Launcher
Wolf Guard x10: 345pts
Bikes, 2 Storm shields, 2 Wolf claws, Leader with Fist

--Troops--
Grey Hunters x5: 120pts
Plasma Gun, Rhino
Grey Hunters x5: 115pts
Melta Gun, Rhino
Grey Hunters x5: 115pts
Melta Gun, Rhino

--Heavy Support--
Long Fangs x5: 195pts
Missile Launcher x3 - Razorback - Las/Plas
Long Fangs x5: 190pts
Lascannon x2 - Razorback - Las/Plas
Stormfang Gunship: 240pts
Twin-Linked Multi-Melta x2

So now my long fang squads have a few marines to soak up hits, and still have some heavy weapons. also supported / blocked by a Razorback each.

Troops now have the rhino rush option to grab objectives and threaten tanks and dreads with the melta guns.

 

[LordOfTheWolves]

Sorry my friend, I thought I had submitted a reply but seems it got lost in the warp!

Yeah, it is so easy to create characters but hard to find exactly what to do with them! I've found that Bjorn can work in conjunction with his formation in the Champions of Fenris book, Him and two dreadnoughts in drop pods coming on the board turn 1 (yes, 5 drop pods would be needed, had to borrow a couple to run it!) with a 5++ on all slides was very fun, but apart from that I've had difficultly getting him into a list.

Really liking the latest list, seems very durable, with an answer to most threats. Can tell you are a chaos player with 'expendable' marines in the long fangs

Best thing I can say is trial the list and see how it fairs on the table. Happy hunting wolf brother!