For the wolf time, for Russ!

I played in a 2 day 5-game GT over the weekend put on by battlefoam (a few batreps forthcoming) and one of the prizes that I won was 5 Thunderwolves from Mr. Dandy.

Returning to the Fang.

So this got me thinking about space wolves. As I have said, space wolves were my first army ever and they got me into this game. I had been eagerly awaiting a new codex for years and when it came out it seemed to be very powerful and popular. I kind of grew disinterested because I don’t like armies that are too good and too powerful (Ironic I know coming from a Draigowing player), and that is the reason why I have put the Grey Knights aside unless I want to really win a tournament.

So the heat from the Space Wolves has died down from them being overpowered now that the Grey Knights are on the scene, and they seem like they have almost completely disappeared so maybe it is time for the re-birth of my wolves.

Building a Space Wolves army

Here is some insight into how I build an army. I take a unit I like (no matter what it is) and I build my army around it. When I was playing my eldar it was the mighty guardians, and with my Grey Knights it was paladins of course.

So what units out of the space wolves’ codex do I want to build my army around? Wolf Scouts!

Now how do I go about building an army around them? Well we start with the wolf scouts. That means I will be taking 2 squads of 10. This is a lot more than your normal 5 scouts with a melta gun.

Why only 2 squads? There are several reasons for it.

#1. Cost: If I take 30 scouts I will not have much in the way of support units.

#2. Randomness: I have to roll to see what table edge they come on, and 2 gives me some redundancy if one squad comes in from the wrong table edge. Three squads are too many if my dice have it in for me.

#3. Effectiveness: That is a lot of eggs in one basket, and my opponent will just set up or move out of 12” from the edge of the table leaving the scouts out in the open and unable to engage, or just have a build that can easily deal with them.

#4. Slots: To make the Scouts more effective you need a wolf guard to add to them to make them more effective and that takes an elite slot.

Troops

So after that we have all of the elites slots filled. So we have to go to troops. This is grey hunters territory and we will just through some in to the mix. It will be a couple of 5-man squads in razorbacks and 1 or 2 squads of 8 in a rhino.

Heavy Support

Really you have to ask this? I will add some long fangs and call it a day.

HQ

Well, to support the scouts and to take them to the next level we need someone with Saga of the Hunter. The only 2 HQs that can take it are Wolf Priests and a Wolf Guard battle leader. I am on the fence about these and both have their pros and cons. The Wolf Priest comes with a power weapon and a 4+ inv save. He also makes the squad fearless, and gives it preferred enemy against a certain unit type. The Wolf Guard Battle Leader is 30 points cheaper and +1 attack and +1 initiative. The Wolf Priest is more like a force multiplier than a combat IC like the WGBL. The WP beefs up the squad but the WGBL can split off and engage units on his own. When comparing the 2 I like what the Priest adds and I think I will go with him and as an added bonus he is rarely seen. Plus I have the limited edition model and I really like it. I think I will need to do some play testing with both to see which one is really better.   

So there you have it, the foundation of the army. So how am I going to make it work?

Find out in Part II