Mech Wolves Engage!

[RedsandRoyals]

With only the last box of long fangs outstanding, I have a good idea of the shape of my Space Wolf collection. This is the "Everything ever" list, with upgrades handed out willy nilly. The real goal is to have a toolbox I can use to build lists that range from 500-2k that are decent. This is pretty much WYSIWYG, but some of it either isn't modeled (such as Psyker mastery upgrades) or look enough like cheaper counterparts that I can use them as something else. I did try for a level of uniqueness to each weapon type, though, with the power weapons looking distinct from the rune weapons, etc.

Wolf Claw Strike Force

Wyrdstorm Brotherhood
Rune Priest
Runic Axe, Helm of Durfast, Mastery Level 2

Rune Priest
Wizard's Staff Runic Stave, Psychic Hood, Mastery Level 2

Rune Priest
Runic Sword, Psychic Hood, Mastery Level 2

Lord of the Fang
Wolf Priest
Runic Armor, Cozius, Bolt Pistol

Greatpack
Wolf Lord
Runic Armor, Storm Shield, Black Death, Thunderwolf Mount

Lone Wolf
Storm Shield, Power Lance, Meltabombs

Lone Wolf
Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer

Blood Claws
x14 with two Flamers and Power Sword, Wolf Guard Pack Leader with Power Fist.

Grey Hunters
x4 with meltagun, power fist, and x3 CCWs, Wolf Guard Pack Leader with power sword
Rhino with Extra Armor

Grey Hunters
x4 with meltagun, power fist, and x3 CCWs, Wolf Guard Pack Leader with power sword
Rhino with Extra Armor

Grey Hunters
x4 with plasma gun, plasma pistol, and x4 CCWs, Wolf Guard Pack Leader bolt pistol and combi-plas
Rhino with Extra Armor

Land Speeder
Typhoon missile launcher and heavy bolter

Thunderwolf Cav
x2 with Storm Shield and CCW, x2 w/Storm Shield and Power Sword, Pack leader with x2 Wolf Claws

Long Fangs
Ancient, x4 Long Fangs with Lascannons

Long Fangs
Ancient, x4 Long Fangs with Missile Launchers, Flakk Missiles

Spear of Russ
Iron Priest
Hellfrost Pistol, Tempest Hammer

Predator Tank
TL Lascannon, Las sponsons

BULLET BOX OF DOOM Land Raider Crusader
Extra Armor, Multimelta

Total: 2790pts

The basic idea should be pretty obvious. Everything but the Pred, Long Fangs, and Land Speeder run forward screaming and home to give the enemy too many scary things to shoot before everything arrives. The fire support is there to crack vehicles as needed. There are some neat tricks here. First, with the rune priests, they can ride around with the Hunters shooting brain lighting out of the top hatch. Thanks to a special rule for the Great Pack, this gives each Grey Hunter squad a 50/50 chance to outflank. One of them can also drop a power that puts out 4d6 Str 7 shots a turn (as long as the other two are still alive), and gain additional wounds off successful ones, which seems fun. I threw the Helm of Durfast on one of them to act as the main brain conduit, and to blast away at skimmers with the power. Wolf Priest goes in the bullet box with the Blood Claws. They also have that same 50/50 chance to gain outflank. The Lone Wolves can either jog behind the tanks for grins, or help protect the long fangs and vehicles in the back against flankers. They don't need to kill the enemy, just speed bump them for a turn.My favorite combo is the wolf priest and predator, though. If I tuck him behind the tank, out of sight, he can give it Monster Hunter, Preferred Enemy, Precision Shots, or Tank Hunter each turn. He has a ridiculous amount of wargear to be doing just that, I admit, but he can be another safety unit to guard the rear zone.

I'm considering swapping one of the Grey Hunter squads to a plasma gun and combi-plas, to give me something with a little more reach and versatility that can camp the back field in lower point games.

Thoughts?

Edit: Forgot to mention. The Wolf Claw Strike Force gives you the ability charge an enemy unit that's locked in combat with your own units during the opponent's assault phase. That's nice, but situational at best, I think.

[nutty]

Looks good, between the Bulletbox and the thunderwolves you have two big scary targets that should distract/murder your opponent.

A single squad of wolves with plasma could be helpfull. A bit more range and rate of fire can make a difference. But you will probably be fine with just the meltaguns.

[RedsandRoyals]

Yeah, you're right. I'll make the swaps after work today. I'm a bit scooby-dubious of putting anything with Gets Hot! on the pack leader, but I may as well.

I'm also considering picking up a pack of Fenrisian Wolves, and handing out two apiece to the lone wolves and one to the wolf lord for ablative wounds, but that may be a while in coming. They're not something I WANT to build, per say, so I may just add them to my order if/when plastic sisters drop.

[nutty]

The Fenrisian wolves are a pain in the behind to deal with... a few of my regular opponets that play wolves use them along with their Thunderwolves. So there is a big scary space viking on a big wolf tanking shots with his stormshield, and everytime an Instant Death shot comes their way a smaller wolf jumps in front of it.

Under the current rules plasma isn't that bad on marines: you still get to make an armor save, and FNP if you have it.

[RedsandRoyals]

Updated to reflect the new wargear on the Grey Hunter squad.

nutty: Yeah, that's sort of another reason I don't want to get any. It's bad enough that I'm running Thunderwolves already. Do I need to make this list even more annoying?

[nutty]

Well.. atleast there isn't a wolfpriest on a bike to give em all FNP...

Annoying as they might be, the unit has a certain visual appeal. So I can understand people fielding small wolves along their wolves on big wolves.

They could be a fun part of the 'toolbox' though. You could use them as a posse for the wolflord in games where a unit of Thunder Wolves would not make sense.

[RedsandRoyals]

That's a good point. I'm done spending on GW for the rest of the month, but they may sneak into my next order.