Saturday 3 March 2012

Dual Land Raider Space Wolves - Good Idea or Pipe Dream?

On the UK scene Wolves are coming a rarity and their last "effective" build being Razorback spam has been surpassed by Blood Angels and Grey Knights - mainly GK razor/acolyte spam backed up with Psyflemen dreads who work out better than Long Fangs.

In response most Blood Angels players have gone towards a dual land raider build backed up razorbacks or assault squads in rhinos. But people forget the main strengths of the SW codex, grey hunters, flexibility, that we have very, very, few bad match ups and the fact they still have access to regular vanilla Marine units as well as our own unique units or twists. But yet no one has tried this with SW so here's my first try at such a thing with wolves:


HQ:
Rune Priest = 100 (or Wolf Priest/Lord/Battle Leader but nowadays psychic defence is a must IMO)

Elites:
Wolf Guard:
4x Power fist + combi melta
5x Terminator Armour + 5 combi plasma, 3 power weapons, 1 wolf claw, 1 chain fist = 382

Troops:
8 Grey Hunters, Melta Gun, Wolf Banner = 135
Rhino = 35

8 Grey Hunters, Melta Gun, Wolf Banner = 135
Rhino = 35

8 Grey Hunters, Melta Gun, Wolf Banner = 135
Rhino = 35

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Melta Guns, Plasma Pistol, Wolf Banner, Power weapon, Mark of the Wulfen = 210

Heavy Support:
Land Raider, Extra Armour = 265 (or dedicated transport for the Wolf Guard)
(Terminator WG here)

Land Raider Redeemer, Extra Armour, Multi Melta = 265
(10 man GH unit, +1 Wolf Guard and Rune priest here)

1732

Now it's only a idea at the time, but like the similar BA build GK shooting becomes harder as they lack melta, AP1, or natural St9+ at range in their more traditional builds.

The maxed out 10 man unit of Grey Hunters with the priest (or character of your choice) and a power fist wolf guard can do terrible damage on the charge or counter charge and like all GH units their shooting is not to be sniffed at as they can unleash 3 melta shots, 1 plasma, and what ever psychic powers you like (Jaws, Living lightning, Murderous hurricane, fury of the wolf spirits is you want more ap2 shots) as well as rapid fire bolters or bolt pistols depending on your choice of target and if you are willing to take a charge or not (ie vs Blood Angels or GK with their grenades).

Then there are the terminators who with 10 rapid fire combi plasma shots followed up with power weapons (thanks relentless) can make a mess of even large GK units (except paladins IMO) or Mephiston!

So what do you think a good idea? Something Different? Or better of doing it as Blood Angels?

3 comments:

  1. I don't know if 2 is the way to go. I have a buddy that ran with 2 for a long time (he came 2nd in one tourney) and his performance averaged out over a long time. While he made shite out of GK he struggled with cheap melta (Guard, Wolves, BA) and Lance-heavy lists (DE). I haven't seem him use it against Necrons but I imagine that Overlords in Barges would give him fits and Sisters would have something to say with all of the meltas aswell.

    One might be enough: 10 GH with 2 Meltas, a Banner and ARJAC! It's expensive but fuck it, it'll mangle just about anything in the game. Arjac with a Wolf Banner is hilarious (2+ re-rolled and a 3+ Inv re-rolling 1/2 of the fails). You can then use the points to bulk out the list with the things that make the Wolves so good: lots of GH and Fangs with other support units.

    Hell, even a regular WG with Chainfist & Combi-Melta in place of Arjac is enough to see of most vehicles/units in the game without sinking too many points and the extra 100 points almost gets you a unit of Long Fangs to support your advance.

    Just a thought.

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  2. I honestly dont think Space Wolves need landraiders I think they're much more reliable with Grey Hunters in Rhinos backed by the Long Fangs fire support, landraiders are best used to deliver a deathstar or 5 marines to objective grab.

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  3. Forgive me if I am missing something, but I fail to see how Psyfleman dreadnoughts are better than long fangs. For roughly the same points as a Psyfleman you get 5 missile launcher fangs + sergeant; 5 missile launchers: between three and 4 hits, Psyfleman; 4 TL autocannon shots: between 3 and 4 hits (Close to the middle both times, maybe an extra quarter of a hit) both wound on the same value, Missile is ap3 while autocannons are ap4, missiles can split fire and/or fire blasts instead of single shots. Psyfleman dreadnoughts are vehicles, and subject to the rules for that, but are susceptible to suppression (apart from fortitude) and potentially taken out with a single shot. Yes Psyfleman dreads are good, but long fangs are at worst just as good; also don't forget we can take regular riflemen too.

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