Ironclad Dreadnought VS Dreadnought

Which is best? A regular Dreadnought or an Ironclad Dreadnought?

It's a tough decision when it comes to spending as little points as possible whilst squeezing the very best out of your Elite slots.

So I've decided to do a quick run down between the two Space Marine Dreadnoughts and sum up which is best and why.

To set the level of points to be spent, let's start with the more expensive of the two, which is the Ironclad. I'll run through each of the dreadnought variants, which weapons are good, which weapons are awful and which combinations you can't live without.

Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought

The ironclad dreadnought comes with armour 13 front and sides, a seismic hammer with melta gun and a dreadnought close combat arm with storm bolter as well as extra armour and 'move through cover' for a total of 135 points.

While the ironclad lacks the long ranged weaponry of the regular dreadnought, it makes up for it with heavy armour, more attacks, better movement through cover and a more specialised roll for taking out enemy troops with flamers or tanks with its close combat weapons providing its quick enough to catch them.

Weapon options
replace storm bolter with heavy flamer = good
replace melta gun with heavy flamer = good for twin heavy flamer fun against troops
replace combat weapon with hurricane bolters = awful!
replace seismic hammer with chainfist = seismic hammer is better, so no.
take up to 2 hunter kilelr missiles = overpriced, so no.
take ironclad assault launchers = enemy power fists will hit last anyway, so no.

Beyond upgrading the storm bolter to a heavy flamer, I'd leave the ironclad as it is, unless you feel the need for 2 heavy flamers for flushing troops out of woods.

That sets the bar at 145 to 150 points.

Space Marine Dreadnought

The regular space marine dreadnought comes with forward and side armour values of 12, a multimelta and close combat weapon with built in storm bolter for a total of 105 points.

The space marine dreadnought has a massive selection of long ranged weapons to choose from, making it more versatile than the heavily armoured new ironclad model. Lower armour means its more vulnerable to anti-tank weapons, but equally likely to be blown away at close range by a melta gun. However, due to its wide selection of weapons, the standard dreadnought is able to adapt to more versatile battlefield roles.

weapon options
replace storm bolter with heavy flamer = good
replace multimelta with
-twin linked heavy flamer = no
-twin linked heavy bolter = no
-twin linked autocannon = perhaps
-plasma cannon or assault cannon = perhaps
-twin linked lascannon = good, but expensive!
replace close combat weapon with twin linked autocannon or missile launcher = perhaps
Take extra armour = YES!

The space marine dreadnought I would take as an alternative to the Ironclad would come with a multimelta, close combat arm with heavy flamer upgrade and extra armour. That's it! It comes to 130 points, which is 15 to 20 points less than the Ironclad.


The Role of Dreadnoughts in 5th Edition Warhammer 40K
In Warhammer 40k, competitive armies have always been about maximum performance for as few points as possible. Now, I used to swear by a twin linked lascannon and missile launcher for a dreadnought as a walking weapons platform, but now that we need heavy flamers, multimeltas, melta guns and a feircer concentration of tough units capable of close combat, the role of Dreadnoughts has quite dramatically changed -for the Space Marine Dreadnoughts at least. Ork Dreadnoughts were always stuck in a combat role and the Eldar Wraithlord was always incredibly versatile.

So sticking with having a 'versatile' unit, it's a tough choice between the standard Dreadnought with mulitmelta, close combat weapon, heavy flamer and extra armour at 130 points OR the Ironclad Dreadnougyht armed with close combat weapon, heavy flamer, seismic hammer, melta gun, extra armour, move through cover at 145 points.

One is an all-rounder, one is a close combat monster.

Similarities:
Both will tear apart a vehicle in close combat.
Both will decimate a squad in close combat (Ironclad gets +1 attack).
Both have extra armour so they can always move and charge.
Both have heavy flamers.
Both can take Drop Pods.
Both get destroyed by close range melta guns.

Differences:
The Ironclad can 'move through cover'.
The Ironclad has armour 13.
The Dreadnought is marginally cheaper in points.
The Dreadnought has a multimelta for range 24" and 2D6 armour penetration at 12".
The Ironclad has a melta gun for range 12" and 2D6 armour penetration at 6".

CONCLUSION
Both Dreadnoughts are very closely matched. The Space Marine Dreadnought is better at offence due to its versatile nature and longer ranged weapons, meanwhile the Ironclad Dreadnought is better at defence as an objective guardian in your deployment zone due to the short range nature of its armament and its tougher armour.

If they both deployed from Drop Pods, the Ironclad would be more survivable against enemy retaliations, but may find that its melta gun is out or range compared to the Dreadnought's multi melta for when it comes to tank hunting.

It's only in the following turn that either Dreadnought may get into close combat, but if your opponent is daft enough to let you charge his tank, you need to find more experienced opponents!

1 model per night

I'm currently painting my Space Wolves army at a rate of 1 space marine per evening. Is this a good production rate?

Having said that, I am yet to paint on the Space Wolves chapter badge and squad markings. So it's going to take me 13 evenings to paint a 13 man squad (with all weapon options) and then some more when I go back and do the markings.

I have 6 troops choices to paint. 13 x 6 = 78 evenings. That's roughly 11 weeks, or rather, 3 months! Then there's the dreadnoughts, the drop pods, the wolf scouts and any characters.

James warned me about this and suggested dry brushing my army, but I can never bring myself to do it. I'm too much of a perfectionist. But then, persistence and a high standard will always pay off in the long run, as it did with my Tau army.

It's also important to paint your army in manageable, bite size chunks. Even though James can blitz through an entire squad in an evening, he only ever buys 1 boxed set at a time. Meanwhile I'm sat here with loads of assembled and base coated models amongst stacked boxes of unopened drop pods.

I'm suffering for my art now, but when I have a beautiful army of well painted miniatures I'll be smiling.

Now to ponder how to keep my avid Space Wolf readers entertained for the next 3 months as I paint a Space Marine every night.

Keeping it Clean

I've got painting Space Wolves down to a tee now. My method is relatively quick and very clean. Well, quick for my perfectionist standards anyway.

James gave me some great tipis about gluing the bolt gun into the space marine's hands AFTER painting. I've taken a similar philosophy to the back pack, as leaving this off lets me highlight the rear details of the model more comfortably.

Once I've made some more progress with the army I'll do a painting guide for Space Wolves, Dreadnoughts and pretty much all the essentials that are going into this army.

Considering the sheer fear of taking on the drop pod kit, I'll probably do a drop pod assembly and painting guide, as the two very much go hand it hand from what I can see so far.

Back to the Space Wolf I've been painting: I painted the bolt gun and back packs base colours separately, then stuck the components into place before applying the highlights.

You'll notice that I've broken with tradition and painted the bolter the same colour as the Space Wolf armour. I just feel that it's much more uniform, keeps in with the 'legion' feel of the Space Marines and stops the model from looking too colourful.

Now that I'm older I view the Games Workshop ranges as military miniatures, not colourful comic book heroes. While Warhammer 40K falls into both categories, I feel that Games Workshop needs to continue with its more sensible real life inspired colour schemes instead of the circus that 2nd edition armies resembled. This is war after all, not a fashion parade.

Enough for now...back to the painting table.

13 man squads

I'm in the process of organising 13 man squads of Space Wolves. Obviously, the maximum number of models in a Space Wolves pack is 10, but I'd like to make sure that I have all the special weapons options available to me as well as 1 model with a power weapon and 1 model with a power fist.

Obviously, this means I will need to buy a few extra Grey Hunter boxed sets to get the extra bodies. I also need to order the plasma guns and flamers from a Bitz service as you only get a melta gun on the Space Wolves accessory sprue.

I'm also planning to convert a Wolf Guard champion for each and every squad, who will be armed with a power weapon to compliment the power fist in each squad.

Not sure what to arm my Blood Claws with, so I'll take 2 power weapons and 2 power fists for them, on top of the usual 10 models. Plus a guy with a flamer. I would give them a melta gun or plasma gun, but due to their Ballistic Skill of 3, it's probably not worth it. So the Blood Claw squad will actually be a 15 man squad. I've ordered some 'special' bitz for them as well having been inspired by a Space Wolf in the Prosper Burns poster who's armed with a rustic sword and a wooden shield.

I'm currently painting Space Wolves at a rate of 1 model per 4 hours. I need to get faster!

Drop Pod FAQ

Concerning the space marine drop pod rules, I got in touch with Simon Tull, who organises Carnage Events (link) and who has to be one of the firmest people I've ever met when it comes to rulings.

We had a brief discussion on MSN regarding the drop pod rules concerning them being open or closed until he found the Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament FAQ which included a large passage on drop pods. Much to my surprise the Games Workshop official ruling on drop pods is very lax and quite abuseable if you ask me.


Question 44) Drop pod footprint. A standard size would be nice and do they block LOS when they land, especially if you keep some petal doors up and some down?

The new Games Workshop drop pod model will be used for this. Use true line of sight for targeting purposes once the drop pod has descended.

It is perfectly reasonable to keep some of the petal doors up as the occupants receive up to date information on the situation on the ground as they descend, thus enabling them to deploy to their maximum advantage.

Please note that if the petals are up or down, this must be represented on the model.

If the petals are up, the drop pod is still open topped and the drop pod’s weapon cannot shoot as the petals block line of sight from the weapon. If you are using home drop pod, this last point still applies.

Having read this, I'm tempted to seal the whole thing shut.
I feel that the whole thing with the petals being open or closed is just too abusable. It should be all or nothing. Otherwise you can just seal up half of the drop pod and open 2 of the petals for the storm bolter to get a good field of fire while hiding units behind the drop pod.

Now as a tournament player I liked the idea of sealing up my drop pods to block line of sight, so long as I sacrificed the storm bolter firing. Alternatively you can open the drop pod up and the storm bolter has freedom to fire, although your units hiding behind the drop pod are more likely to get spotted.

I'm not low enough to stoop to have some petals open and other closed. So it's back to the choice of all open or all closed for me.

Dreadnought work in progress

My Space Wolves dreadnought is nearly finished, so I thought I'd share some pics. He just needs some shading on the back, the pre-heresy Space Wolves chapter badge on his chest and then he is done!

As before, I kept things relatively quick, clean and simple, using just a base coat and a wash or a basecoat and a highlight. Only the red sensors have 3 shades, which is a base coat of Games Workshop Scab Red, followed by Red Gore and a highlight of Privateer Press Paint Khador Red Base. If it was too bright, I toned it down with some watered down GW Red Gore.

I've made a start on the other two Space Wolves dreadnoughts and will take photos of all three at various stages and put together a how to paint Space Wolves Dreadnoughts painting guide to go with the Dreadnought conversion guide from earlier in the week.

Book Review: Wolf At The Door

Wolf At The Door is taken from the Tales of Heresy compilation and is written by Mike Lee.

Unlike most book reviews online, this review will be completely free of spoilers, because quite frankly, this is one of the finest peices of Space Wolves fiction ever written and I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

While Bill King's Space Wolf trilogy put me to sleep after 8 pages of lengthy description and I am still yet to read it, Mike Lee's Space Wolves story is utter perfection. But enough of my praise. I'll get on with my review.

Tales of Heresy
I've been in love with the Horus Heresy right up until the 3rd book, which seemed rather lacking without Garviel Loken and all of his supporting characters.

From there on, the plot hasn't really progressed from what James tells me (he reads everything), which is a shame as I thought they'd give everyone a little of the lime light as the story of the Heresy came to fruition, but apparently they're going back and covering the same events from every single angle. How tedious.

If you haven't touched the Horus Heresy books yet, Buy the first 3, then leave it for now. While books 1 and 2 are truly exceptional, you need to read the 3rd to finish the story thus far.

The most powerful thing these early books in the series delivered was the depiction of Space Marines, not as super human defenders of humanity, but as real people with conflicting ideals, loyalties and vices.

Wolf At The Door
And so Wolf At The Door continues this trend with the Space Wolves, or more importantly Bulveye, Wolf Lord of the 13th Company, his two closest friends and the difficult situations he is placed in by no fault of his own.

While the story is very predictable, there are a number of twists and a very tragic ending, all told through the very human eyes of the Wolf Lord.

The story begins with scenes of devastation, wrecked vehicles and mutilated corpses. At first you would image that the ruinous powers had caused this much carnage, but soon the Imperial army arrives, led by a stormbird carrying Bulveye and his Wolfguard.

The first twist in the tale comes with Bulveye's mercy as he resists all temptations and even persuasion by his closest Wolfguards to slay the defeated enemy.

Instead he forgives them through a powerful speech and makes preparations for the shattered world to be rebuilt and embraced by the Imperium.

Boarding the stormbird to leave, his serf tells him that Leman Russ has called for the entire Space Wolves legion to converge on Prospero (yes now is the time to get excited about Prospero Burns!).

Furious that the system has not yet been fully claimed, he sends the 13th Company towards Prospero while setting out with his entourage and a small ship to the remaining world in the system.

Having been welcomed by a young nobleman, Bulveye is hopeful that the world will embrace the Imperium willingly. But it is upon meeting the senate that things take a turn for the worse and we are given a picture of what must have happened on the previous world.

Bulveye is a very charismatic character throughout and delivers many stirring speeches while being a fierce and very capable warrior. In many ways the Wolf Lord is an excellent diplomat, wishing for peace and mutual benefit than rather war and subjagation.

But despite his warm welcomes, sincerity and honesty the poor guy is rejected and insulted at every turn. Considering his wolf like temperment and super human strength it takes immense reserve to hold his rage in check and continue to be diplomatic and polite.

Even by the end of the Space Wolves' ordeal Bulveye retains his calm manner and almost pleads for there to be no war. But the decision is beyond his control, concluding this heroic tale with a tragic end.

In despair, Bulveye slumps into the senator's chair, his axe clattering to the floor.

Conclusion
Wolf At The Door is a very powerful story depicting not only the fierce battle prowess of the Space Wolves, but also their very human side and how they are not only defenders of humanity within the Imperium, but defenders of humanity, whoever they may be.

"An age of glory awaits this world. You need only take my hand" - Bulveye

While most Space Marines in the Horus Heresy are keen to go and lay waste to the enemies of the Imperium, Bulveye has a strong humanitarian character about him and he persists in the pursuit of peace and brotherhood right up until the end when he knows that he can do no more. Then the military commander in him takes over and he orders what must be done, then falls into despair afterwards.

Wolf At The Door is the second story in the Tales of Heresy compilation and an essential read for any Space Wolves fan.

As for the other stories in Tales of Heresy, I'm currently falling asleep in the middle of the Word Bearers story, which isn't going anywhere fast. But the story 'Blood Games' by Dan Abnett which focuses on the Adeptus Custodes is very good.

Open or Closed?

Now that I have some drop pods in my possession, I'm a bit worried about putting them together.

This is mostly because of the sheer amount of time required to paint the interior, then build the rest of the pod around it.

It doesn't look like I'll be able to easily get a brush inside the whole thing once it's been built.

Of course, anyone with experience of building drop pods, please enlighten me.

Currently I'm thinking about sealing my drop pods shut and not worrying about it. However, James and Marc have pointed out that this would firstly block line of sight, which they feel is cheesy, and also prevent the storm bolter inside from firing as it cannot see out.

Both very interesting points and considering that I may have up to 12 drop pods in my Space Wolves army, that's a lot of storm bolter shots I would be missing out on.

Basecoating Problems

I spent last night frantically base coating my Space Wolves and hit upon a big problem.

My new pot of Codex Grey, which I used as my Space Wolves grey basecoat was considerably lighter than my previous pot.

Fortunately, James came round to paint some of his Dark Angels (boo, hiss!) and had a pot of his own Codex Grey with him.

So I lined them all up and all 3 of them were different!

My first pot was the darkest, his was a little lighter and my second pot was even lighter than that.

The Space Wolves basecoated in the new Codex Grey looked incredibly light compared to the others, so it was time for some very careful paint mixing to get the correct colour.

If anyone else is thinking of painting their Space Wolves the way that I'm painting mine, you have to be aware of how inconsistent the Games Workshop colours are.

But when adding Chaos Black to any colour you have to be incredibly careful. Just a little too much black and you will never get the colour lighter without a lot of paint.

I kept dropping a little bit of Chaos Black into the pot, sealing it shut, shaking it vigorously, then placing some of the wet paint on the palette, alongside some wet paint from my first pot of Codex Grey.

After a good 20 minutes of careful paint mixing I got the colours to match.

Basecoating 3 dreadnoughts, 3 terminators and over 50 space marines in a single evening is tiring enough without having to mix your own paint.

As you can see from the photo, my Wolfguard champion and melta gun Grey Hunter now have pretty bases. These are basecoated Bestial Brown, drybrushed in Bubonic Brown, then given a final highlight of drybrushed Kommando Khaki. Then the trim of the base is painted in a coat of Graveyard Earth before being given a second, watered down coat for consistency.

I'm not sure if I should add static grass. I'll see if I can borrow some from James the next time he comes round to paint.

Space Wolves Army Building

My Space Wolves army is coming along quite quickly now. I decided to build this Space Wolves army in big batches and so far due to time and funds, the whole army has been divided into 3 loose groups.

The Space Wolves army building plan is to build everything, base coat everything, then go play some games while gradually painting the various units.

Last week I put together the Space Wolves Dreadnoughts and have been gradually building the Grey Hunter squads. But this week, having got used to putting together basic Space Wolves and how to make the most of the Space Wolves accessory sprue, I decided to make the 2 Wolfguard Battle Leaders I had been planning...and then found myself making one more who looks awesome!

I love the idea of Wolf Guard Battle Leaders in a Space Wolves army, because they're not Wolf Lords (and why would a Wolf Lord lead every minor skirmish?), but they have Space Marine Captain stats and can take whatever they like from the armoury, including terminator armour and terminator heavy weapons.

Naturally, I want my Wolf Guard Battle Leaders to be very good at supporting the troops that they join, so I've given them terminator armour, storm bolters, power swords and cyclone missile launchers.

This makes the most of their WS and BS of 5 while the power sword would compliment a squad's powerfist and with a Wolf Pelt they would get +2 to their Counter Charge for a total of 6 attacks. Come charge me if you dare!

I also made a third Wolf Guard Battle Leader based on the original Space Wolves terminator sergeant who really stood out from the crowd with this great big wolf draped over his shoulders (and clogging up the ventilation system in the back of his armour!).

Terminators, plus parts from the Space Wolves accessory sprue and I had my Wolf Guard Battle Leaders, although the guy with the wolf draped across him took considerable more work and a bit of Green Stuff.

I took the wolf pelt torso off the Space Wolves accessory sprue, broke the front legs of the wolf and repositioned them hanging down futher while trimming the pelt to the wolf's head. I did my best to bend the whole thing around the head and shoulders of the Wolf Guard Battle Leader and glued it all in place. Once this was dry I got out the Green Stuff and quickly sculpted more fur running along the top of the terminator body and down the back in the same way as the 2nd edition Space Wolf sergeant. Some scraping/sculpting of a furry effect with the modelling kife and it looked good.

Due to the bending/breaking used on the wolf front legs, I had to green stuff the gaps and sculpt more fur on here as well.

At first I wanted to give my Wolf Guard Battle Leaders bare heads, but it would negate the bonus of wearing terminator armour in the first place. Plus, I have discovered that I can't sculpt beards on human heads to save my life! I may have to call in Joel or Gerard for some help with that.

I've just finished flocking all 42 models in batch 1 (including the Space Wolves Dreadnoughts) and by the end of tomorrow all their bases should be fully dry to begin basecoating while I want for batch 2 to arrive in the post.

Batch 3 may be worked upon at the same time as batch 2 as I bribe James "speed builder" Le Grys with a fine curry to build 11 Drop Pods in a single sitting.

In the meantime, I need to go outside. The glue fumes are giving me a headache.

Space Wolves Dreadnought Conversion

I got my hands on some cheap Space Marine Dreadnoughts from Black Reach and have gone about converting them into Space Wolves Dreadnoughts using parts from the Space Wolves accessories sprue.

As you can see, I'm very pleased with the results and so is Wolfguard "Haggrid" who's about to partake in the time honoured Space Marine traditional of Dreadnought Tipping.

All I did was find a picture of Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought Bjorn the Fell Handed for inspiration, cut 2 wolf tails from the Space Wolves accessory sprue along with the Wolfguard flat symbol (for tanks) and the wolfcloak torso, as well as a flamer for a sly Heavy Flamer conversion.

I got a knife and scraped the detail from the Dreadnought sarcophagus and lost a couple of rivets around the trim. Not to worry, it'll look fine when the Space Wolves dreadnought is painted. I couldn't get all the detail to be perfectly flat, but the edges were clean enough, so I took the Wolfguard symbol and glued it in place of the original.

I then glued the two wolftails in the same position as the ones on Bjorn the Fell Handed. But, because I know they would be likey to break off, get lost and never be found again, I made them both curve inwards slight, resting on the lower half of the Dreadnought sarcophagus while the chain links were attached to the underside of the Dreadnought torso, providing two securing points.

Next was the left Dreadnought arm, which as you can see took a fair bit of work. Because the Black Reach Dreadnought only comes with a storm bolter and I wanted a Heavy Flamer, this required some work. Luckily i had a spare Space Marine flamer. Upon close inspection, the Space Marine storm bolter and flamer aren't too disimilar, so I cut the barrells off the storm bolter, and cut the ridged section of the gunsight off while leave the front part. I also trimmed off the tiny skull icon on the side of the storm bolter.

I took my flamer cut the fuel tank section and the small square it's attache to out of the flamer body and trimmed it until it found snug fit where the ridged gunsight of the storm bolter had been.

I chopped the nozel off the flamer (with a little bit of the two pipes) and glued it in place where the storm bolter barrells had been. Because the Dreadnought power fist is open, you have to move it down a little bit, but it's still quite passable. I then glued the flamer nozzle to the underside of the bottom Dreadnought finger for extra strength.

Modelling purists will probably want to change the Dreadnought's storm bolter magazine feed for proper tubing

Finally, the wolf pelt was made from the Wolfguard torso on the Space Wolves accessory sprue. I simply trimmed off the wolf until I felt it was the right size, then bent the front legs to the point of breaking so that the whole thing would wrap around the Dreadnought's left shoulder. I coated the underside of the entire wolf pelt with glue, then stuck it on best I could and put some more glue in around the edges to secure it. Where plastic glue (polestyrene cement) has failed to melt the broken front legs back together I used a little greeen stuff and continued the fur pattern with a modelling knife.

There you have it, a quick and easy Space Wolves Dreadnought conversion! As you can see, I have three Space Wolves Dreadnoughts made from the Assault on Black Reach Dreadnought.

Because of my paiting method, none of these guys are attached to their bases and still come apart so I can get the brush in where I need it. I really can't wait to paint my Space Wolves Dreadnoughts. They're going to be brilliant.

One thing that is worth mentioning though: I got my hands on 3 Black Reach Dreadnoughts for my Space Wolves army via eBay thinking that I could save money. They cost between 12 and 14 pounds each, which is a good deal less that the RRP.

However, I also bought some twin linked lascannon and assault cannon Dreadnought arms for variable weapons from Bits and Kits which ramped the price up quite considerably. So if you're planning to give your Space Marine Dreadnought every available weapon you're actually better off buying the regular kit.

But if you just want a multimelta and are happy to convert the Dreadnought storm bolter to a heavy flamer, then I whole heartedly recommend the Black Reach Dreadnought.

After blinging it up with Space Wolves accessories, you wouldn't be able to easily tell my converted Space Wolves Dreadnought apart from a regular Space Marine Dreadnought -apart from the static pose of course.

Now to begin planning my Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought conversion.

Battle Metal!

What would your perfect Space Wolves soundtrack include? As a bunch of guys who always have some background music on during our games of Warhammer 40K, we find that music really helps to set the mood of a game and give you greater confidence in formulating your battle plans and rolling the dice.

In fact, I tend to get very distracted if there is no background music, people are watching telly and chatting as well as walking in and out of the room -all while I'm trying to concentrate on my game.

We have a few preferences for music while playing from race specific to generic 'mood music' which includes bands like Noise Unit for some futuristic soothing industrial.

When it's time for the Tau, on goes The Prodigy, Pitch Shifter or Apartment 26.
When James is fielding his Eldar, it's Jamiroquai or Daft Punk (his Eldar are funky).
And whatever Marc is playing, it's Dragonforce. But this does make Marc play faster.

Here's my Space Wolves soundtrack so far, which is mostly Battle Metallesque or has songs with 'wolf' in.

Man O War - Call to Arms
Dragonforce - Through the Fire and the Flames
Primal Fear - Black Sun
MegaDeth - Symphony of Destruction
Blind Guardian - Into The Storm
Metallica - Of Wolf and Man
Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf

Got any more suitable suggestions for the Wolves of Fenris soundtrack? I am seriously thinking of installing speakers inside my drop pods.

Space Wolves Drop Pod Army Roster

A Space Wolves drop pod army is really the only Space Wolves army worth considering right now. I playtested using drop pods and they're not actually as bad as a lot of people seem to think, especially when your entire space marine army is riding in drop pods.

In 4th edition drop pod armies used to arrive from reserve, but in the new space marine codex, drop pod assault divides the army into 2 halves: 1 which arrives first turn, while the other arrives from reserve in the following turns.

What's the big issue? -Your opponent holding everything off the table while making you take the first turn.

Fine by me, select your first wave with defense in mind and sit on the objectives. Meanwhile any attacking units can arrive from reserve and harass his army as they come on with melta guns and flamers.

If your opponent is silly enough to set up his army, then get stuck in with your first wave as your attacking units. Couldn't be simpler!

So with this idea in mind, I've decided that my Space Wolves army will be a drop pod army.

Space Wolves suck at long range firepower while Space Marine mechanised armies are likely to get blown apart (See here if you're not convinced), so to maximise the Space Wolves close range abilities, a Space Wolves drop pod army seems the best option. Then my Space Wolves can all 'fight on foot, the way Russ intended'.

After a careful read of the Space Wolves codex and a number of Space Wolves armies which have been posted online, I've come up with the following. It's bit of a deviation from my usual 1500 points armies, but with 2000 points to play around with, I have plenty of weapons and unit choices to swap around.

Most importantly, and I think this is where drop pod armies might be going wrong, every unit has a particular role. Let's also not forget that if you seal your drop pod models shut (like I'm going to do for easy painting), they block line of sight, providing enough cover for even a Space Marine Dreadnought to hide behind.

Finally, I love Wolf Guard Battle Leaders and hope they keep them in the new codex. They're basically a Space Marine Captain with access to terminators heavy weapons -joy!

Space Wolves Drop Pod Army Plan

Wolf Guard Battle Leader (joins a squad)
terminator armour, storm bolter, power axe, cyclone missile launcher, wolf pelt
(all shots hit on 2+ and he gets 4+1+1 attacks when counter charging -awesome!)

Wolf Guard Battle Leader (joins a squad)
terminator armour, storm bolter, power axe, cyclone missile launcher, wolf pelt

Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought
Assault Cannon, Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon, Storm Bolter
(has lots of shots to maximise his BS 5)
DROP POD

Space Wolves Dreadnought
Twin Linked Lascannon, Dreadnought Close Comabt Weapon, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour
(armed to burn stuff up close or shoot at range)
DROP POD

Space Wolves Dreadnought
Twin Linked Lascannon, Dreadnought Close Comabt Weapon, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour
DROP POD

Space Wolves Dreadnought
Twin Linked Lascannon, Dreadnought Close Comabt Weapon, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour
DROP POD

Grey Hunter Pack
7 Grey Hunters, powerfist, flamer
(designed to get in close, burn people, then smack things)
DROP POD

Grey Hunter Pack
7 Grey Hunters, powerfist, flamer
DROP POD

Grey Hunter Pack
7 Grey Hunters, powerfist, flamer
DROP POD

Grey Hunter Pack
7 Grey Hunters, powerfist, flamer
DROP POD

Grey Hunter Pack
7 Grey Hunters, powerfist, flamer
DROP POD

Grey Hunter Pack
7 Grey Hunters, powerfist, flamer
DROP POD

Total = 2000 points

The list looks very cut and paste right now...and that's because it is! But, I am planning to add a squad of Blood Claws to the mix (you have to really, otherwise it's just not Space Wolves!), some Wolf Scouts and it's worth mentioning that I have ordered most of these units with plenty of spare weapons, like multimeltas for the dreadnoughts, plasma guns for the Grey Hunters and even a selection of arms for the Wolf Guard Battle Leaders.

I also plan to make some Fenrisian wolves from the new Chaos Houmds (with some conversion work). I have no idea if I'll ever field them, but any Space Wolves player worth his ale should have some pet wolves in his collection.

In the meantime, my apartment nears completion. When that's done, real work on my Space Wolves drop pod army can begin.