Are Fenrisian wolves any good? No. But Fenrisian Wolves become a lot better as soon as you give a character the Saga of the Wolfkin.As soon as you do this, all Fenrisian Wolves in your Space Wolves army get Initiative 5 and Leadership 7. It's certainly worth it for the points of one saga and makes Fenrisian Wolves a great choice if you have a handful of points left over, but don't know what to do with them.
Essentially a Space Wolf without any power armour, slightly higher initiative and slightly lower leadership and the ability to mov 6", fleet of foot and charge 12" -Fenrisian Wolves are an interesting Fast Attack choice in the Space Wolves army that can include 5-15 models and cost from 40 to 120 points.
Their only upgrade is a Cyberwolf to lead them and when you've already paid for an Independant Character to have Saga of the Wolfkin, a Cyberwolf really isn't worth the extra points.
Fenrisian Wolf Pack 1: 80 points
10 Fenrisian Wolves
If you think of Fenrisian Wolves like Kroot or Chaos Daemons in a Chaos Space Marines army, you can see the real value of them. Sadly, they cannot claim objectives, even when taken as Troops under Canis Wolfborn, but this doesn't mean that they can't contest them. Also, with their potential 24" attack range, they can suddenly bound across the battlefield and into close combat, unleashing 30 attacks.
With a healthy number of attacks and high initiative, they should tear apart light infantry with relative ease. Sure, you can take 5 Fenrisian Wolves, but you're giving away an easy kill point and if you take 15 of them, you're investing a lot of points in a relatively squishy unit which would be better spent on more power armoured Space Marines. I think that 10 Fenrisian Wolves is just the right size.
There are many Fast Attack choices in the Space Wolves army that will take priority over a unit of Fenrisian Wolves, but they're not a bad choice and like Thunderwolves, they will punish anyone from venturing more than half way across the board when they arrive from reserve.
But, they do tend to die due to their lack of an armour save. This means you either need to keep them in cover as a defensive unit designed to counter attack with their long charge range or only take on enemy units with low armour values.
Fenrisian Wolves are a really characterful unit that sets the Space Wolves apart from regular Space Marine chapters, so if you've got 80 points to spare and don't fancy taking a Land Speeder, why not give the Fenrisian Wolves a try and see how they fit into your battle plan.
They also a great accessory to give to Independent Characters when you're looking to bulk out a squad. If anyone's going to catch a lascannon round in the face, it's going to be an 8pt Fenrisian Wolf, not a 15pt Space Marine.
I'm going to convert mine from Chaos Hounds because they look suitably ferocious!
7 comments:
January 16, 2010 at 6:22 PM
Hi,
I think with a character with wolfkin and thunderwolves in the army they are a good choice.
I've been playtesting a wolf priest with wolfkin, 5 thunderwolves, and 2 units of wolves (10 & 15). They work well, the wolves give the thunderwolves a cover save, and the sheer number of attacks can bring stuff down.
Rathstar
February 12, 2010 at 11:51 AM
I used a 15 unit of wolves against the new nids and they tore apart all his gargoles,and gaunts, but then he shot them with the devour thing and they took off running(was just shy of being in range of canis). I say they are usefull against horde armies, but against armies that have better armour saves that a 5+ they are useless.
February 16, 2010 at 8:21 PM
I've been using a 15 wolf unit and had great success with them, especially if you have Ragnar Blackmane join them. Yes you loose the 12" assult but with his charge ability ( possiable 3 bonus attacks on the change) and giving furious change and having the 2 wolves on him for wargear. You can have a possiable 100 str 5 int 5 attacks. Just plain devistating.
August 20, 2010 at 12:53 PM
Hi, I've been running an army with a couple of 9 strong squads of Fenrisian wolves and they've been doing just great to rush out and maul anything that comes after my juicy bone or to quickly get across the table (using cover) to hit something that's throwing out to much firepower. I was wondering though if Wolf Scouts might be a better use of points as a unit to die horribly crippling heavy firepower as I already heave blood claws to give hell to anything close. What do people think of this?
March 30, 2011 at 10:31 AM
I agree that Fenrisian wolves aren't really a good choice. But what about a list built entirely around them? Consider that with Canis Wolfborn, you can field wolf packs as troops. So if you play with special characters, you can put 6 units of 15 models down for relatively cheap. Chances are that most of them will be in close combat by turn one, which will give some heavy hitters time to move up. Put in a battle leader with saga of the wolfkin and a rune priest with stormcaller to give them a 5+ save, add some elite wolfguard and heavy support and you've got a decent list. It's mostly fluff and feels like a Tyranid army, but what the hell?
March 30, 2011 at 11:04 AM
How about this list?
2000 pts
Canis Wolfborn (185 pts)
(Makes wolf packs count as troops!)
Rune Priest Terminator (195 pts)
Chooser
Wolf Tail Talisman
Saga of Beastslayer (optional)
Master of Runes
Living Lightning, Storm caller
6 x Wolfpack (720pts)
15 Wolves each
(That's 90 fenrisian wolves!)
2 x Long Fang pack (430 pts)
5 missile launchers
Razorback w/TL Lascannon
Wolf guard pack (462 pts)
WG Terminator SB + PW
WG Terminator SB + PW
WG Terminator 2 Wolf Claws
WG Terminator Thunderhammer + SS
Land Raider
Xtra Armor
Multi-melta
Pintle SB
January 31, 2012 at 5:13 PM
Wolves cannot take objectives. It would be a bloodbath, but you wouldn't be able to win any objective based game.
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