Last time I provided my basic thoughts on the new Space Wolf codex, so this time I want to go into greater depth. Since a number of the Wolf units are just virtual clones of regular Space Marines I won’t discuss every unit, but I will try to concentrate on what’s new and interesting.
HQ and Special Characters
Perhaps the first thing you notice when flipping through the pages on your HQ choices is that Space Wolf special characters are both super nasty and super expensive. Most of them are over two hundred points while none are less than one-hundred and forty. There are also a lot of them – sure, the vanilla Space Marine book has more, but then again it is meant to represent the lion’s share of Marine chapters. Don’t worry though if you are balking at the high prices of the named characters as their generic equivalents are on par cost-wise with those from other chapters.
The second thing you notice upon closer examination (you have to look carefully on page 81) is that Space Wolves can take two characters for every HQ choice. Now, that’s not as nice as it might sound as all Marine characters tend to be pricey, but it does mean that stocking up on powerful individuals would not be out-of-place for this army. So, go for it if that’s your type of force.
As special characters go I think they are all impressive, but for various reasons there are a few standouts. The Great Wolf himself, Logan Grimnar, allows you to take Wolf Guard as troops. Combined with the usual Guard properties this is a killer ability, so much so that I will devote a post to this next time. Canis Wolfborn allows you to take wolves as troops. That’s nice in that it allows you a whole new approach to making your army, but not so nice as Fenrisian wolves can never take objectives.
However, the character I think makes for the most interesting addition is Lukas the Trickster. He’s a 140 point add-on for a Blood Claw pack – as costly as the rest of the squad combined, potentially – but he has a number of powerful uses. One is that he has good stats and a power weapon, meaning that whatever squad he’s with could potentially have three – him, an attached Wolf Guard, and the single trooper who can take one normally. He has some other nice features, but they all pale before his ability to take those who kill him out at the same time he is slain. When he dies all models in base-to-base contact have a roughly 2/3 chance of being removed as well.
So what, you ask? There are surely ways to get around this, right? Maybe, but that’s not really the point as I see it. The fact that Lukas can potentially take out anyone and anything encourages your opponent to have his high-quality units and characters run the other way. For a close-combat army this can be devastating. Imagine a bloodthirster who has to lurk on the sidelines or only go after prey that is beyond the possible charge range of Lukas. Basically, you can force your adversary to react to your movements, thus giving you an advantage in battle. Put another way, Lukas can positively influence the game even if he never actually kills anything.
Elites
The Space Wolves suffer from a problem many other recent army books do as well – too many elites. Or, maybe, it’s more accurate to say that there are enough good choices that some others may never get used.
A good example of this are Wolf Scouts. Even in the last book I had a hard time seeing their use in relation to what else was available. Sadly, that hasn’t changed. They are basically regular Marine scouts with +1 skill that cost a bit more and – far more seriously – take up a precious elite spot. The appeal of regular scouts is that they are tactically flexible and can serve as a cheaper alternative to fill troop slots. Take away that second attribute and suddenly they aren’t all that tempting.
Likewise, neither are Lone Wolves. The idea behind them in flavorful – the last survivor of an otherwise devastated unit looking for revenge. The problem is that they are (a)lone – since they are literally a unit of one the enemy can target them freely. That means that their ability to take all sorts of nifty toys is a likely waste. The more you give them, the higher your opponent will place them on his kill list. Even with Eternal Warrior and Feel No Pain they are still a unit whose effectiveness relies on your enemy ignoring them long enough for them to amble in close and do damage. Good luck with that.
By comparison, the Wolf Guard are pure gold (which I will get to next time). Beyond this there are the always useful Dreadnoughts and Iron Priest (with cyber-wolves in this case). I find either of these two a better choice in most instances than Scouts or Lone Wolves.
Troops
Not much in particular to say here – you have Blood Claws and Grey Hunters, both of which are pretty much what you expect. However, with the aid of detached Wolf Guard and potential extra powers like the Mark of the Wulfen these units can have significantly more close-combat punch than their other Marine equivalents.
Fast Attack
The most interesting unit here are clearly the Thunderwolf Cavalry. Come on, who can’t but be impressed with the notion of Space Marines riding giant wolves? The real question is just how effective they might be. For fifty points base you get a wolf and rider with a charge range of 12”, five strength and toughness, two wounds, four attacks (five if you stick with the default bolt pistol and close-combat weapon), and a 3+ save. That’s pretty darn good. Add in a model with a power weapon and another with the Mark of the Wulfen and you have a unit anyone will be forced to respect. Nevertheless, I’m not sure if they are still worth the points given that you easily spend 300 for just five guys. I suspect they can be nasty if you are smart about how you use them, but a giant waste if you aren’t.
The Skyclaw and Swiftclaw units are just Blood Claws using jump packs or bikes, respectively. Otherwise, they are the near clone of similar Marine squads where you trade in one less point of skill for a break on the points. All the usual ‘Wolf abilities and extras apply, which is good since both of these squads will tend to shine best in close-combat anyway. Oddly, you can give Swiftclaws a Wolf Guard leader, but not Skyclaws – despite Guard being able to take jump packs. I wonder if that isn’t an editing error that will be fixed in some later FAQ.
Finally, you can take packs of Fenrisian Wolves. They have the stats of Space Marines, extra charge range, two or three attacks, counter-attack, poor saves, and poor morale. However, they do have the virtue of being by far the cheapest unit available at a mere eight points a pop. I see them as fast, if disposable one-shot-wonders who tie down the enemy before you can pounce with your beefier units.
Heavy Support
In this category Space Wolves are almost exactly what you get from regular Marines. The one big exception are the Long Fangs who continue to have the ability to split their fire between two targets if their leader does nothing else. I see this as usually only being useful if they are built for anti-vehicle. Note that the squad size is one leader and up to five extra guys, each of which much have a heavy weapon.
Otherwise, you can pick from Predators, Vindicators, Whirlwinds, and all the flavors of Land Raider. Bizarrely, the vanilla LR can only carry ten models, not twelve as like with vanilla Marines. At least you can take the Redeemer now. Too bad that the Executioner has been reassigned to duty only with the Imperial Guard.
More to come…
Once more a Warhammer 40K codex has appeared in your local gaming store and this time it’s the Space Wolves, something which the long suffering – “What, was our codex written in the 19th century?” – Wolf players no doubt appreciate. Yet, just how good is the codex and what does it mean for the rest of us who don’t play space puppies?
The first thing one notices about the codex even after a brief examination is that it certainly has a sufficiently high coolness factors to catch your interest. That is, you flip through the book, read a few choice rules, and say to yourself, “Wow!” That in turn means that you have a reason to dig further and see just what gems you can find.
And, there are certainly some to discover. While there is only two new units – Thunderwolf Cavalry and Lone Wolves (although the latter is more of a technicality) – all the rest tend to have important changes that both make it more interesting and, arguably, more effective. Options are still varied, but more straightforward. You can still take wolves for your characters (even as mounts!), a wide assortment of Viking-styled talismans and weapons, and you can arrange your force as much as always.
All Space Wolves come with Acute Senses, Counter-Attack, and – of course – “And They Shall Know No Fear.” The middle ability is especially nice as it means you get extra attacks whether charging or charged. True Grit is gone, but that’s okay since there are still plenty of ways to make ‘Wolves close-combat monsters. In fact, they are now clearly the best hand-to-hand Marine force around – sorry Blood Angels.
There are still only two troop choices – Blood Claws and Grey Hunters. They are near duplicates of their previous incarnation. The Blood Claws have less skill, but the same old bonus to charging. Likewise, Grey Hunters represent the backbone of any ‘Wolf force. They cannot take any heavy weapons, but can take two special weapons if you take a full sized squad. Both troop choices can take a power weapon and a few other abilities that add close-combat potency. For instance, the Mark of the Wulfen gives you d6+1 rending attacks!
Space Wolves otherwise have much the same units and vehicles as straight Space Marines – minus the Thunderfire cannon and such – but with classic Wolf adjustments that manage to make them different even as they seem the same. The Leman Russ Executioner is gone (big surprise), but all the variations of Land Raiders, Drop Pods, and Razorbacks have been added. One rather odd fact I just don’t understand is that Space Wolf Land Raiders have gone back to only carrying ten models – what, do they buy them at the Dark Angels surplus store? Is GW trying to be annoying? Is this a dumb misprint or can they not make up their minds? Sheesh!
In my opinion the best unit in the codex are the Wolf Guard. There are a bunch of highly effective tactics you can use with them, especially if Logan Grimnar comes along. In fact, the Guard comes with so many interesting possibilities that I want to devote a whole article just to them and how they can be used as an alternative means to play Deathwing.
Speaking of commanders – in this case the special character type – bar none the Space Wolves have largest group of bad asses in the Imperium. Their costs average above 200 points and two of them allow you to alter the design of your army – Logan can let you use World Guard as troops while Canis Wolfborn lets wolves be troops. That allows for two fundamentally different army builds right there. Maybe they are good, maybe they are bad, but at least they are interesting. Regardless, the Space Wolf Characters are just impressive. Expensive also to be sure, but when it comes to Chapter bragging rights it’s more power and skill than some game mechanic that matters. So, if you aren’t playing the new straight Marines or these new wolves your special character marines just became second best. Plus, he fact that Wolves also get Sagas puts them highest on the Imperial power scale (while adding a bit of role-playing).
Generally speaking Space Wolves come off as a close-combat army – really, the best – with a range of the standard Space Marine units to provide proper steel and fire. So, my task next time will be to work through the units within the new codex and go in deeper to just what they can do.
Part two coming soon…
1) I am putting off finishing the English Civil War series so that I can take some time to do a proper investigation of the new Space Wolves Codex. The week I originally picked for the Civil War stuff turned out to be busier than I thought and those History in Gaming articles are harder to do and therefore take more time (I thought the first two were some of my best articles and I want to keep up the level of quality).
Sooooooo, that means...
2) This is now Space Wolf week as I go through the various units, vehicles, and special characters. I also want do a special report on how well you can mimick a Dark Angel Dealthwing using the new Space Wolf Login Grimnar + Wolf Guard rules. I hate to say it, but yet again you can argue that it works better to do Deathwing with another Codexes' rules than the Dark Angel book. <ugh>
I almost forgot to mention it -- 40K Origins has now been alive and kicking for a full year!
In that time there have been 181 postings covering a wide range of topics from modeling, tactics, and -- of course -- work on events for Origins every summer here in Columbus. Last Origins went pretty darn well and we are already well into planning and working on our offerings for next year. I am pleased to say that our efforts have paid off -- we receive over 500 visitors on some days. Best of all we've proved to others and to ourselves that we can keep a blog going with fresh content over the long term.
So, expect even bigger and better things for this upcoming year. Thanks for being along for the ride!
I haven't offered many finished painting pieces recently, concentrating more on conversions or straightforward articles. So, just to prove I haven't put up my brushes here is my latest effort -- a new model for our regular Saturday night D+D game.
He is a Reaper Warlord miniature. Overall I don't think the Reaper does quite as good a job as GW, but they do produce many great models -- and at lower prices. Many of their efforts (especially their Warlord line) are of the same basic scale as Warhammer/40K and could be used as stand-ins for some armies rather easily. The knight above would work well as an Empire or Bretonnian character, for instance. They also have the virtue of providing models for potential ideas that are harder to do using just pure GW.