6th Edition: Armylist Building Part 2

Hiya! I'm back to continue on the guide to armylist building. If you haven't yet seen the first one, you can just click right here. So, last time i was looking at the rulebook and the events that make up a game of 40K. This time around I was thinking i'd go more into detail about space wolves and how we can use our codex to bring the pain.

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.

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.

Picture taken from GMM Studios

-Do i have enough AP2/AP3?
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.

-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

Allies: What do they bring to the table?

Allies are a great way to fill a hole in your army's abilities. They allow you to grab the best parts of another codex and plug a chink in your army. Some armies work well together like Imperial Guard and everyone or Tau and everyone but Chaos and Tyranids have limited or no choices as who they work with. Each one can offer different abilities and buffs to your Space Wolf force, what works best is dependent on your army list.

What can allies do for you?

What are your needs, what do you want? In general allies can bring speed, a combat edge, ranged fire power, flyers and anti-flyer units. As Rune is telling us all how to build a list you need to take all of the issues into account when building your list. If you are building a list around a certain type of tactic and want to get more units that fit this paradigm or build a backstop if this tactic doesn't hit the mark all the time. Allies can take 2 troops and one of the remaining codex selections.

What do each of the allies give you?

Tau are something I've been looking at for the last while. They give high rates of fire-power, can remove cover saves and do shooting better than almost any army out there. The main units to look at are broadsides, Skyrays and hammerheads for heavy support as they can do serious damage. Broadsides and Skyrays can devastate flyers either by design or with weight of fire. Broadsides can take velocity trackers and get skyfire but I'm not sure it is the best thing to do. Skyrays will kill a flyer, even the Heldrake in a single turn of fire. Broadsides can destroy large numbers of troops with the ion cannon, I don't think the railgun is a great buy as anything with armour 13 or 14 is better killed with melta weapons or something with armourbane. When it comes to fast attack you can grab a few Piranha, take some drones or grab a Pathfinder team. Pathfinders are a great way to boost the rest of the allied detachment. A plethora of drones and a commander with a drone controller can give you a mobile fire platform. Ethereals and Cadre Fireblades can buff gun lines and offer a cheap HQ slot. Firewarriors are great for taking out high toughness units with massed fire-power but Kroot offer you a cheap sniper unit that can outflank.  They have flyers but I don't think they are a great investment of money or points.

Blood Angels can give you some fast or combat orientated units. Chaplains and Librarians will buff combat potential, Sanguinary priests will keep unit's alive longer; in the end your characters here are to ensure that whatever units you take survive to get into combat and massacre the opponents when you do. Stormravens are able to pump out massive amounts of fire-power and can transport large squads for a high points cost. They have some expensive characters that can do interesting things but a tooled out assault force would be far cheaper than a characterful force. Assault squads, Vanguard veterans and Sternguard are all good choices as they can pump out a large amount of fire-power or combat attacks into your enemy. Avoid the flashy units like sanguinary guard as they are too expensive for what you can get out of them.

Space Marines offer solid choices, they can give you access to specialised weapons and firepower. Sternguard and Thunderfire cannons spring to mind as drop pod forces to unleash on enemies. More powerful bike squads and flyers can give you more fast moving units to put on the board. By taking Space Marine squads in drop pods you can have more flexible deployments and have more instant gun lines on the board at the start of your first turn. Techmarines are good choices if you plan on playing long range or defensively and the master of the forge can boost a piece of terrain to make it a real strong-point.

Dark Eldar offer poisoned weapons and fast combat units. They strike hard and fast but are vulnerable to ranged fire. Their units can cover a large portion of the board in very short time and can assault from their transports. They have a fragile nature, poor armour saves but they are a scalpel not a cleaver. Their flyers have lances that can power through any flyers armour and they can deliver exotic bombs and missiles into the heart of the enemy's formation. Incubi and Wytches are difficult to sweep from the board and they can maim HQ units in good order.

Necrons could bring their budget airline to your list. Cron-air cannot mount the same devastation as with a main list but a couple of cheap flyers with a variety of units loaded in can eviscerate large units with ease. Crypteks and deathmark units are lethal, re-rolls and Hunters leave few standing. They can take armour off of units with ease and wraiths can bump up your combat potential by ensuring your enemies hit after your space marines in combat.

Guard are the ultimate allies for space wolves. They have the best anti-flyer flyers, cheap anti-flyer tanks, massive troop choices and ordnance. Vendettas are great for taking down flyers and other big threats, they can drop cheap units on objectives and nail enemy fliers.  For 120 points you can fill the troop and HQ slots. After that you can load up on ranged weapons or just max out on troops and heavy weapons. The volume of guard you can fit in a single allied slot is quite impressive. 150 points buys you two anti-air batteries which can fix any issues you may have with flyers. If you are going for efficacy, a guard blob with a rune priest or Njal is quite a pain to dislodge especially if you have divination to bump up the shooting stats.

The Eldar have a range of interesting builds that can bring a bonus to your army. Their Farseers prove a popular choice, runes of warding will hamper enemy psykers while doom and mindwar can take care of problematic units and monsters. They have anti-armour and anti-monster units in Fire Dragons and have fast and dangerous jet-bikes to harry the enemy. A cheap allied detachment is a Farseer on a jetbike with three Guardian jetbikes. I don't recommend this for anyone building a Rune-priest heavy army but if you want combat heavy HQ choices a Farseer can limit the effects of the enemy witchcraft.

Dark Angels can do a few things but unless you are going with  Deathwing, Ravenwing or flyer choices you'd probably do better going with vanilla space marines. Both the bike and terminator lists are unobtainable as an allied force because the codex requires you to have the Dark Angels as primary detachments but you can still fit in two terminator or biker squads. I think the bikes make a good choice for fast armies though Deathwing assault can compliment a Drop Pod army nicely.

Black Templars are not divergent enough from vanilla space marines to really warrant that much consideration. They have lots of interesting characters and the small differences between most of their units and the vanilla can sometimes be a boon but in general they are just dudes walking around in power armour. Power of the machine spirit is nice on their tanks but since 6th edition came around snap fire has reduced it's impact factor. Watch out for their points cost because once you hit 750 that force must contain an Emperor's Champion.

Grey Knights are a strong combat option terminators with force weapons and a plethora of psychic powers to unleash on your foes. They are an expensive ally but when they recoup their investment you will see their worth. People are still cursing Paladins and psycannon rounds on tanks and dreadnoughts. The assassins are highly effective units, either mauling units with their combat weapons and abilities or long range sniping of important characters.

Orks exist, they can do a few things well. One of them is take a huge blob of boys with a kustom force field on a Big Mek, it's a tough unit to kill and they can be dangerous units on the charge. Their jets are ok but there are far better options out there.

In summary:

There are plenty of options out there for prospective alliances. Within each of the choices you can build a lot of different armies and create novel lists based around fulfilling the needs you see as important. Fire superiority, combat potential, objective holding, etc etc. All of these can be covered by taking the right mix of units. Be wary of taking desperate allies. Orks, Necrons and Dark Eldar can be crippling if your units end up within 6" at the start of the movement phase. Each unit risks being useless for a turn on a roll of a 1.

Make sure you don't starve either force for points. Your primary list needs to stand strong either with or without the allies depending on your plan. If the allies cannot carry out their mission fully then they need to be re-thought or replaced. Try out a few lists that look good to you with friends before you commit to buying a new force. If they list doesn't perform then you have lost nothing.

6th Edition: Armylist Building Part 1

Hiya! Today i was thinking of talking a little bit about building an armylist with Space Wolves in 6th Edition.
I'm going to be making this a "multi-part post kit"(get it?) because i think it would get too long if i were to include all that i wanted. In any case i will be moving on now.

When building an army it's important to ask yourself what kind of an army you want it to be. Fast, Big Guns, Scoring units, Elite? Fluffy? Themed? Furry? Anything goes really. But if you want to play to win, then i guess a simple "Take All Comers" kind of list is the most reasonable.

Whatever the type of list you want to play, there will still be some "rules of thumb" that could help your army perform that little bit better, Why am i saying this? Because when it all comes down to it, you would very much like to win, I can't really say that i've heard of anyone that plays to lose.

Get on with it!
When you want to build an effective army, there are many steps you should think through beforehand. I find that one of the better ways to do this would be to make a list of all the things you should take into consideration.

One thing i see alot is that many players focus only on the codex that they play and don't really think that much about the rulebook itself. How come the Rulebook is relevant? Well, for starters, that is where the game is actually at! Think of the Phases that comes and goes in the event of a game.

-Mission
-Deployment
-Scout/Infiltrate
-Seize The Initiative
-First Turn
-Movement
-Shooting
-Assault
-Reserves

All of these things is something you should keep in mind when building your army, how do you take advantage of these things, or how do you stop your opponent from gaining the advantage from these things? Advantages you have are most likely never the same when you play different opponents, so it's important that the list can be played with a few alterations in deployment and how you move your units, very often, timing is key.

When it comes to missions in 6th Edition, there are some differences that make for an interesting game, You have 6 missions where 5 of them are objective based, and one is kill point based. That means that Troops should be in abundance, if not then you need to have survivable troops that can weather it all throughout the game.

Mission special rules that come into play is sort of important, if you think of night fighting then the first turn may be very eventless with lots of great cover saves. But all in all you shouldn't rely too much on it, afterall there are armies that ignore cover alot or armies that ignore night fighting, such as C:SM and Dark Eldar respectively.

- Big Guns Never Tire and The Scouring: These missions have some extra rules that could be to your advantage just as well as to your disadvantage. In Big Guns the heavy support units become scoring, but gives the enemy a victory point if it gets killed, and in The Scouring it's the same just with Fast Attack Choices. So in "Big Guns" Your long fangs are going to be even more of a fire magnet than usual.

In addition there are secondary objectives, which can have alot to say when the game reaches it's end.

-First Blood! This one can really be a game winner, because only one of the players can achieve it. Making an army with durable units would make First Blood harder to achieve for your opponent. But this is not the only way to thwart your opponents plan. There is something called Deployment, and it's a great tool that you should use to the best of your advantage. Of course, this can also be one of the hardest parts of the game, but keep at it and you should get good at it quite fast.

-Slay The Warlord! This is something you need to think a bit about, but don't let it control you. If you want a warlord that isn't too survivable, then you just need to find a way to protect him, either through supporting units or simply through deployment.

- Linebreaker: As a Space Wolf player you should have a fair chance to achieve linebreaker through having a strong midfield presence. which would also mean that you should have a fair chance of denying your opponent as well. With a Gunline army, i'd say you'd have a hard time achieving Linebreaker, but even easier to deny your opponent. Of course this as well shouldn't control you entirely, but it is nice to keep it in mind from the start of the game instead of turn 3 or 4.

Now that i've gotten your braincells to work a little bit extra, i would like to move on.

Analyze The Meta:

When i talk about the meta, i don't mean all that net list crap. Sure cron air and double heldrakes are a pain in the ass, but i rarely come across them. Heck, i rarely come across any flyers anymore, people around my local area have abandoned them for other things that they'd rather use.

That's why i say you should analyze the local "meta", because that's where most of your games will be taking place. That 100 point Aegis defence line that you have lying around, sprayed black, but not a speck of paint on it? what if you didn't need it anymore? It could be another Rune Priest in your army instead, if there aren't any flyers to be met, you would be better of with him.

Some small and simple things you should try to ask yourself:

-Do i have enough Ranged Fire?
-Do i have something to counter assaults?
-Do i have enough AP2/AP3?
-Do i have enough Anti-Tank?
-Do i have enough scoring units?
-Do i have enough Anti-Infantry units?
-Do i need Anti Air?
-Will my units survive long enough?

Finally when you feel you are pleased with your draft, you can ask yourself two more questions...
-What are my strengths?
-What are my weaknesses?

When these things have been thought through, it is time to put it to the test, play with a friend and see how you do. After the game , you can discuss tactical errors or flaws in the list and see what worked well for you and what didn't work at all. Which unit was highest on your opponents "Takedown- List"?

Analyze the game yourself and see if there was something that didn't fit your style as well, some people are great at playing speed armies that just goes in for the kill with pinpoint target priority. They can be few in numbers, but when in the hands of a master strategist, they can really put the hurt on things.

Don't be afraid to try out new things as well, it helps to develop your own generalship as much as it helps keep the game more interesting, don't be afraid to lose a game now and then. I have been on both sides often enough, and i can say that tabling someone isn't a great feeling, it's just about as bad as being tabled.

Next time i will go a little more in debt with an example list to work with, and tell you what i believe

it's strengths are, maybe i'll even show you some weaknesses as well.

Any thoughts? Anything you want to add to the checklist of armybuilding? I'd love to hear 'em people :-)

6th Edition: Fast Attack

Hiya! I'm back with the last update that i will post on the codex itself for 6th edition, at least for now. I might go through some special characters at a later time, but for now i'd like to leave them out for a little while and give them a more thorough look through playtesting as well as theory. With that said i think it's time to take a look at the Fast Attack section in the Space Wolves Codex.

Let me just say that this is probably the part of the book that gets used the least, and i can see why people tend not to take too much from it. The rest of the book offers up more interesting things at a first glance than the fast attack section, like Long Fangs, Lone Wolves, Vindicators, Wolf Guard, Dreadnoughts and last but not least, a ton of unique characters with tons of wargear and fancy stuff and fur.

Picture Taken from Tartan Paint Studios

However! While i see many units i'd rather like to field, it is my duty not to dismiss these other units, because they all have their place in the grand scheme. Moving on then to a more detailed look at each unit.

Skyclaws:

These guys here are sort of the black sheep in amongst the space wolves chapter, the biggest troublemakers among the bloodclaws. You basically get a man in power armour, prone to frothing and rampaging, a man who is anarchic and semi-uncontrollable... And somewhow the wisest decision you can come up with; you give him a Jump Pack... Is it me or does it smell like carnage and destruction already?

They are subject to all the rules a bloodclaw unit have, the only difference is that they count as Jump Infantry and get the rules stated in the warhammer 40k rulebook that are associated with it's unit type. So if you haven't used your jump pack in the movement phase, you can re-roll your charge distance, and also get hammer of wrath on the charge. That means that all models that are in base contact at initiative step 10 gets an attack at their unmodified strength characteristic at AP-. It's not much, but i could very well thin down some units before the actual combat starts.

I happen to enjoy the way skyclaws play, not that they are extremely good at at what they do for their points, but beacuse i like models with Jump Packs. There is one thing these guys do pretty well, and that is infantry hunting. You can kit them out with some shooting weapons as well, but they only have BS 3. Of course they aren't badass in close combat since they have only WS 3 as well, but it's something that can be mitigated by adding in a Wolf Priest which gives them Fearless and Preferred enemy.

There are some builds that i think are better than others, and so i think i might as well list up one of them and describe how i could see it used.

RAAAGE! GRRRR!
10 Skyclaws w/ Mark Of the Wulfen, Powerfist 220 Pts.

Alright, so these guys can dish out 32 normal attacks, up to 9 Rending attacks(d6+1,+2 from Berserk Charge) and 3 Str 8, AP 2 attacks on a charge.

As i mentioned above a Wolf Priest would actually make quite a good addition for this unit to help them make the most out of their charges. I'd strongly recommend that at least some sort of Independant character to lead them into battle so they don't go attacking what seems to be the best, and with the best i mean the closest target.

Independent Character Builds:

Wolf Priest w/ Jump Pack, Melta Bomb 130 Pts.
Notes: A simple way of dealing with most things on the table, all in all it's not a bad build.

Rune Priest w/ Jump Pack, Melta Bomb 130 Pts.
Notes: With Divination you could get re-rolls from the Primaris Power, re-roll to hit/to wound and saving throws with "Precognition", make the opponent re-roll all successful saving throws with "Misfortune", or perhaps a 4+ Invulnerable save for the whole unit with "Forewarning".

This unit also has the potential to be a fairly durable Linebreaker unit as well. I also think that using the deep strike rule with these guys could put you at a disadvantage, more so than just letting them walk over the board since you have to stand and wait for 1 round and do nothing before you can actually do anything after deep striking. But hey! if you are already fielding Skyclaws, then winning the match most likely isn't your top priority.

Swiftclaw Bikers:

Okay, so bikers in my book are all about the mobility and the possibility to be tank hunters. The greatest strength of the swiftclaw bikers however, are their bikes. It Sounds pretty obvious to you as you read it, but if you compare it to other armies bikes, the swiftclaws have some disadvantages. First of all they are WS 3 and BS 3, which makes them less than good at both shooting and close combat due to the unit not being very big in addition to being less skilled. The other fact that buggers me about them is that they can't be troops like in the Space marine codex. That way they are left to only function as a support role for the rest of the army and looses out to other choice in the army in my book.

If i were to take Bikers in a space wolf army i think it would have to be a versatile unit that can support just about any other part of my army. Let's say the long fangs can't take down that land raider fast enough! Swiftclaws comes up the flank with a multi-melta and a meltagun, led by a wolf guard on a bike with a combi-melta. Pew Pew, there goes the durable land raider into pieces. Let's say that a swarm of Orkz/Nids are running straight towards your lines ready to decimate some of your more valuable units, the swiftclaws comes in and cuts them off before they can reach their destination. Again, Support.

If you get my point, that is how i would play them when it comes to space wolves bikers. In other Armies i'd use them as scoring units that can hold their ground much better due to T5 and mobility as well as being a harassing unit chocked with meltaguns to take out tanks and TEQ units with shooting, and assaulting mostly when i know i'll be coming out of the combat with minor casualties.

I don't really have any Preferred Builds when it comes to Swiftclaw bikers, other than having a wolf guard on a bike with them, but they are most likely the only unit i would kit out to be a "Jack Of All Trades".

Fenrisian Wolves:

I like Fenrisian wolves, but only when taken with a character that has Saga of The Wolfkin. That way they are I5 and Ld 7 instead of their usual profile. It also helps if you have a powerhouse HQ on a Thunderwolf that you wish to deliver into close combat. They are beasts, so they can easily move through terrain and they can be used to bog down other units, and best of all, they only cost 8 points a piece.

"WLDS"
10-15 Fenrisian Wolves 80-120 Pts

I like to call this unit a "WLDS", A Wolf Lord Delivery System. That's basically what I have taken them for in previous lists that i have played, but since i don't use thunderwolves too much because of the meta shift with flyers and all, i can't really say they go as a competitive solution anymore.

However, analyze your meta first before you write them of, because they can put out quite an amount of attacks, and as numbers and dices go, with pure weight of numbers, something is bound to go down.

Thunderwolf Cavalry:


Alright! We have gone through this unit so many times in discussions all over the internet, and i honestly don't feel like saying too much about it since Declan has written up quite the analysis of them a little while back. Sorry, it's my lazyness kicking in :P

However, i will not leave them totally untouched, here's a build that has worked well for me earlier although it does cost alot of points.

Team Jacob
3 Thunderwolf Cavalry w/ 3x Storm Shield, 1x Thunder Hammer 270 Pts.

Alright, so the idea here is that they can hunt anything! There are two guys with S5 and rending and a S10 Thunder hammer guy. You can Instant death some stuff and have a fair chance of getting rending on some of the attacks. With 4 attacks in the profile and 5 attacks on the charge, you can wreck just about anything that doesn't fly. They are also quite durable due to their storm shields that grants them 3+ Invulnerable saves. Add in a badass Thunder-Wolf-Lord and you have your very own deathstar that actually works.

Land Speeders:

Picture Taken From Spellscape Miniatures

I like Land speeders. I've liked them since i saw star wars back when i was a kid, and i don't really see how people can hate speeders at all. So what do land speeders do? well, they can do quite a lot of cool things actually. I thought i might as well list up a few reasons why you should take speeders.

No.1 Land Speeders Are Cool
No.2 Land Speeders Are Versatile
No.3 Land Speeders Are Fast
No.4 Land Speeders Are Fairly Cheap
No.5 If you have some points left, why not?

There Are of course some reasons that might compel you not to take them, like, you don't have the points for them, they are only AV 10 all around and only have 2 Hullpoints, or they don't fit your style. But most of all, i think if you are going to take something from the fast attack section of the FoC, it might as well be Land Speeders. You can fit them to take out most things effectively at a budget rated price tag when it comes to points, maybe not so much when it comes to your wallet.

With the choices between Heavy flamers, Heavy Bolters, Multi-Meltas, Assault Cannons and Typhoon Missile Launchers, you can basically arm yourself for just about anything.

Missile Speeders:

1 Land Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launchers 90 Pts.
1 Land Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launchers 90 Pts.

If you are going first in a game, then deply these guys to help taking out units for First Blood and removing threats that can take them down very fast. In most cases, they should be able to do something that first round unless night fighting is happening. But if you can't shoot your enemy, then your enemy most likely can't shoot you either.

If you happen to go second, you could deploy them in reserves or simply hide them behind terrain or use range limitations of your enemy to negate them giving first blood.

Melta-Speeders:

Picture Taken From Spellscape Miniatures

1x Land Speeder w/ Multi Melta 60 Pts.
1x Land Speeder w/ Multi Melta 60 Pts.

These are some sort of suicide units that can, with the right rolls really mess up your enemy formation and to top it of, it's not that many points that gets blown up should they happen to accomplish very little. They can work as tank hunters and transportation disruptors and the like. I however like the missile variant better despite it's point costs. The difference though is that you could have 3 land speeders with the melta loadout and only 2 with the missiles for the same amount of points.

If you Would like it to hunt transports, i might suggest adding a heavy flamer to the melta variant for some infantry killing power. It could also be a very nice way to kit them out in a TAC-List kind of way.


With that out of the way i think that i've gotten through most of the units in this book, except for the Special Characters.

As usual, I really enjoy hearing of your exploits with the units we all have to work with. How do you play them? how well do they play? What Builds do you find optimal?

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your time.
-Rune