Starting up a Space Wolves Army

This post was written with the help of: Christopher A. Bischoff and Paul Misanthrope Packard

             Many beginner Space Wolves players and 40k players in general use the internet to find information or ask questions regarding how to start their armies. Some want ideas, some want exact lists, and some just want encouragement. I believe that my experiences from when I began building my own army will benefit you, my fellow Space Wolves initiate.

            So where should you start? I assume you already got your rulebook, codex, templates and dice. I also assume you have watched a game or two either on youtube or in person. The million dollars question is: What should you buy first? (By the way, if you don’t have any of these items, mentioned above, I would suggest getting them beforehand prior to  your purchase of your first miniatures set.). The answer, unlike other dilemmas in life, is fairly simple. Read on.

            In my opinion, the most important aspect of building your first army is shortening the time it takes to get to actually playing a game. So while optimizing your army’s list is important, I find that “time to your first game” is a much more important consideration. Also, in your early days, I would not be too shy about proxying certain weapons. A good example of such proxy would be the essential, don’t-leave-home-without-it, Melta gun. Unfortunately for us, the Space Wolves Pack set doesn’t come with one. You will soon read that 4 or 5 of these bad boys will be needed in our initial army.

So you read the codex a couple of times. You fell in love with the Space Wolves and now its time to pull the trigger and become a Space Wolves player! Lets go shopping for our first army.  There are several sources for Space Wolves merchandize. I would recommend that you shop at any of the stores advertised on the right (Wayland and Total War Gamer) as they provide 20% discount over Games Workshop’s pricing on its website or, if you got the time (takes about 2 – 3 weeks to get your stuff this way) and you live in the US, you can email me with your shopping list for a 25% discount and free shipping if your order is above $100. Another way to try and get stuff cheap are auction and swap sites like ebay, barter town or dakka dakka. Something to keep in mind though: You will want to get the latest version of the miniatures you’re building. For example Njal has an older (and kind of lame) model going around which pales in comparison to its latest version (in my opinion, Njal is probably the best looking model available for Space Wolves, right now, too bad Njal is not worth the points he costs).

2nd Edition Njal

5th Edition Njal

       The question of what units to buy depends on your budget. For a first army, which has to include units that will eventually serve in your future army lists, I would recommend the following units / Squads / Vehicles:

HQ:
1 x Rune Priest (100 Points)

TROOPS:

2 x 10 men Grey Hunter squads: Mark of the Wulfen, Banner, Power Fist, 2 x Melta Guns. (205 Points each or $410 total)

Vehicles:
2 x Rhinos (35 Points each)

Total points: 580

This unit combination will allow you to play a 500 point game (you will need to play with the equipment on the Grey hunters or let go of some of the upgrades they carry).

Two examples of 500 point lists made with these units alone:

Foot Slogging army list:

1 x Rune Priest (100)
10 x Grey Hunters with 2 x Melta Guns, Power Fist, Mark of the Wulfen (195)
10 x Grey Hunters with 2 x Melta Guns, Power Fist, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard (205)
Total army: 500 points

Armored Vehicle army list:

1 x Rune Priest (100)
2 x Rhinos (70)
7 x Grey Hunters with 1 x Melta Gun, Power Fist, Mark of the Wulfen (150)
10 x Grey Hunters with 2 x Melta Guns, Power Fist (180)
Total army: 500 points

            Please remember, these are two examples out of many lists which can be made from these initial units. These lists are not “optimized” to do anything but get you to play a 500 point game with a friend and get your hands dirty and your heart and mind involved in the game. And that’s the bottom line here: the most important thing for a beginner to do is get involved in playing. Don’t forget that winning is a small part of the war gaming experience. When you start, leave your desire to win (hence, your ego) outside of the gaming room and just play for the experience.

            Now that we know which units we want and where to get them, lets discuss cost. There are two ways to acquire the army mentioned above:

(1)  Buy a package deal like a Space Wolves Battle Force. This option will provide you with a couple of extra units and additional options for your army. For example, the SW Battle Force comes with a drop pod rather than a Rhino and also contains Wolf Scouts.

       (2) Buy each and every unit separately.

                 Something to keep in mind in regards to the Rune Priest: You can buy a Rune Priest model (either with or without Terminator armor) or you can make one. Making a Rune Priest is not as hard as one would think. Look around the web and you will see that most Rune Priest conversions are a Grey Hunter body, Runic weapon (a power sword or Frost axe will do just fine in this role) and a Bolter. Please review the Rune Priests I field. They are just that, a Grey Hunter model with some green stuff work and converted weapons. If you opt to buy a Rune Priest, I find that the older model, the Rune Priest in terminator armour is selling on eBay or through BarterTown or Dakka Dakka for about $8 - $10… look around, you should be able to find those at that price.

This is what I suggest you pay for each of the options I mentioned:

Space Wolves Battle Force: $75 - $80
Space Wolves Pack (you make Grey Hunters from those): $25 - $30
Rune Priest: $8 - $15
Rhino: $25
Melta Guns: $8 (for a pack of 5 metal ones).

Total Cost of your first Army: via Method 1: $116 - $128 (and you get extra units) or via method 2: $116 - $123.

As you can see both methods are fairly similar in cost.

            One final advice on shopping for units: always be on the lookout on the websites I mentioned for someone who is selling a complete army. While you may not get the best optimized army, you will probably get a playable army that could get you started.

            Arming your army: You may want to play around with different weapon options for your first army (what I mentioned above as an option is what I would do if I were to build an army) so lets discuss some of these options: The weapons you will need for Hunters and Scouts are simple but effective. You may choose between: Melta Guns, Flamers, Plasma Guns, Power Fists, Power Weapons, Bolters, Bolt Pistols, and Chain Swords for a more “feral” look. All of these, except for Melta guns which are a Space Wolves staple in my opinion, come in the Battleforce box set or with the Wolf Pack set, and there should be plenty to go around. Follow all Codex rules when assembling. Please note: If you are using the scouts models that come with the Battle Force, some of the weapon options cannot be used by Space Wolves scouts. Also, if you do build a scouts squad, arm one of the with a Melta gun. They can be used for Meltacide missions (as discussed in the blog).

            Common question by beginners is: Wouldn’t the Power Sword be better than a power fist for Hand to Hand Combat? As with most questions in the Warhammer 40K world, the answer is complicated. The power sword will allow you to strike without losing initiative (units with higher initiative strike first and can get first kill before lower initiative units can even respond), but doesn’t give a bonus to Strength, which is necessary for bigger opponents such as enemy HQ’s and vehicles. The Power Fist, on the other hand, doubles your Strength, but makes you strike at Initiative 1 (meaning that the unit armed with a power fist will strike last after all higher initiative units made their move).  However, what power fist lacks in close hand to hand combat, it makes in its armor vehicle destruction ability. While a power sword may scratch the paint of a Rhino, a power fist may damage it or destroy it completely.

            If you get the Battle Force you will also receive a drop pod. My suggestion to you is to get rid of the Drop Pod by either selling it or swapping it for a Rhino. Drop Pods are not the best way to deliver your Grey Hunters, the pods work well with Wolf Guard Terminators but in my experience not so well with Grey Hunters. If you  decide to keep the Drop pod, when you assemble it, I would suggest arming it with the Deathwind Missile Launcher option over the standard Storm Bolter. The Deathwind Missile Launcher can shoot Frag and Krak missiles, which gives it the power it needs against transports and low armor class models as well as infantry units. Given its potential to wreck vehicles the Drop pod armed with a Deathwind Missile Launcher will potentially draw fire from your Grey Hunters as your opponent will realize the danger of letting the pod shoot expensive units, which is a bonus since you need your Hunters alive to win the game. There are pros and cons to any option suggested in this article so make sure you read in the blog about all of them prior to making your decision.

                   The Rune Priest is a Psyker HQ choice with amazing abilities. For its price in points the Rune Priest unit is as badass a unit as you would ever want to have in your army (probably one of the Space Wolves best HQ choices). While Rune Priests may use several options of psychic powers, I have find that Living Lightning and Jaws of the World are the top two options for a Rune Priest. Especially if you are fielding only one Priest. Consider giving your Rune Priest different armor options (Runic or Terminator) but keep in mind their cost in points and also that a unit wearing a terminator armor cannot travel in a Rhino (it can use a drop pod but it takes two places instead of one taken by units in power armor). Very important: never ever give your Rune Priest a fancy shooting weapon ie: a plasma pistol. He will never shoot it, it’s a total waste of points. His strength is in his psychic abilities. His runic weapon can be represented by nearly any number of different weapons, or even make your own! A staff, an axe (this is probably the best choice) or a sword, get creative and see what you can come up with!

As for the arming options on the Rhino, I usually use the Rhinos in their normal, cheap, configuration but sometimes adding a hunter-killer missile upgrade will give it a chance (you can shoot it only once) to kill units at extreme range. You may also want to consider providing your Rhino with extra armor as  It will help keep it moving when it gets a “Crew Shaken” or “Crew Stunned” on the Glancing chart.