Space Wolves Deployment Tactics

There's a fine art to Space Wolves deployment tactics. When you set up your Space Wolf army you need to be able to play defensively and offensively. In fact, Space Wolves play like a defensive army, because you can only react to what your opponent does. If you try to lead the game from the start, you will get killed.

I played a game against James' cousin Alex who is fine tuning his Blood Angels. Anyway, don't look at his army, look at the set up of my Space Wolves.

Unintentionally I ended up with a symetrical deployment which began with my Long Fangs on the hill, the Razorbacks behind the hill and the Rhinos full of Grey Hunters on the flanks. Then the Landspeeders sort of fitted in alongside the Rhinos.

Alex had won the roll to go first while I had laid out my entire army.
But the point is that you can't reserve a Space Marine army, at least not a Space Wolves army. You need as much on the board as possible from the very start, because the action starts on Turn 1 and anything that doesn't arrive from reserve on Turn 2 will miss out on all the blood shed.

Alex could do one of two things. He could sit back and shoot, or come at me. As this was a Kill Points game, I didn't have to move anywhere.

He stunned and immobilised a few tanks and killed a few guys. In retaliation, his Land Raider died to a close range multimelta blast from a Land Speeder, his Vndicator died to Grey Hunters with melta guns and he lost a few guys to krak missiles, but not that many. I ignored his Baal Predators until they became a priority.

The Space Wolves are Counter-Attack by their very nature. It's what they're designed to do as an army.

As you can see from my set up, my army could go in any direction and the Long Fangs could bring their guns to bear in any direction. So I was able to defend, attack or counter-attack very easily. Anything that came too close would get charged. Anything that stayed away would get shot. If I had to advance, there would be plenty of supporting fire from the back.

This isn't a comprehensive Space Wolves Deployment Tactics article by any means, because your deployment will always vary depending on your own preference, army, the terrain, the mission being played and the army you're playing against. However, there are standard tactics when playing Space Wolves. You have to get them to come to you -if you can!

Often that means sacrificing units, even if they're units you'd rather not sacrifice. I often talk about "the juicy bone" to bait your opponent in and it's so crucial to help your Grey Hunters leap frog from combat to combat through the enemy army.

There's very little that can fight off a Space Wolves squad that's charging or counter charging. And quite often a Grey Hunters pack will hold the enemy up just long enough for another Grey Hunters pack to crash into the enemy, turning the battle into one huge drunken brawl.

The Space Wolves wouldn't have it any other way!

But what if they don't come to you?
Well, you have to go to them and support your advance with firepower to take out targets your Grey Hunters can't easily deal with up close.

There are a lot of tactics to master to get the most out of the Space Wolves: Getting in and out of Rhinos. Target priorities. When to charge in and when to hold your ground. But a good deployment can make all the difference between success and failure.

So go play lots of games, get in a routine for certain deployment tricks for certain missions and set ups and see how you get on. The greatest players only became great through familiarity with the game, their army and the armies they face.

Good hunting and good luck!