So last weekend I emailed Goatboy at BoLS and asked him if he would take a look at my 1500 space wolves list as I find we generally field similar styled units. Goatboy politely accepted and I promptly sent him my 1500 list (1500 Space Wolves). This is the reply that I received.
“Hey there – no prob in reviewing lists. It is always fun.
I think the double rune priest is kinda redundant. You could just use one. You could then drop a GH squad to help beef up all 3. From there look at getting a Wolf Guard Battle Leader to help out your TWC and give you a nice bit of punch to your counter assault. I think from there that would help a lot.
HQ: Rune Priest, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane – 100pts
HQ: Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Saga of the Warrior Borne, Thunder Wolf, Storm Shield, Frost Axe – 205pts
Elites: WG X 3, Powerfist X 2, Combi-Melta X 3 – 109pts
Troops: GH X 5, Meltagun, Razorback, TL Las/Plasma – 155pts
Troops: GH X 8, Meltagun, Rhino – 170pts
Troops: GH X 8, Meltagun, Rhino – 170pts
FA: Thunder Wolves X 3, Powerfist, Storm Shield – 205pts
Heavy: Long Fangs X 5, ML X 4, Razorback, TL Las/Plasma – 190pts
Heavy: Long Fangs X 5, ML X 4, Razorback, TL Las/Plasma – 190pts
Basically you have a better counter assault unit, you still have all your movement and 3 scoring troops. Plus you fit into the 3 set up and lose only points for 1 extra heavy and 1 extra HQ.”
First off, thanks for the help Goatboy! So lets take a look at what we have here. I agree that the double rune priest is in some ways redundant as you can only ever use one of your runic weapons to stop a psychic power. The WG Battle Leader would also help to add a bit more of a CC punch to my army. However, for a WGBL to be effective and join the Thunderwolves, I would be looking at an increased cost of 105 points… Meaning I would need to drop points from somewhere… probably grey hunters which I feel I am already lacking. Also, I really don’t want to lose JotWW, its a pretty good deterrent even if its not a super effective power. I’ll still playtest one but I think we can add a bit more of a CC punch by just upping the TWC unit size. My 2000 point list includes a Wolf Lord on a thunderwolf though. The other big change Goatboy suggesting was dropping my grey hunter squads from 4 down to 3 bigger ones. This is something I’ve toyed with in the past and ultimately think is a good idea. 5 grey hunters isn’t much of a threat in CC so I think I’d rather have larger squads of em… plus it makes the wolf standard that much more effective. So, here’s what I’ve come up with:
HQ: Rune Priest – Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf
HQ: Rune Priest – Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane
Elite: 3x Wolf Guard – Power Fists and Combi-Meltas
Troop: 8x Grey Hunters – Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Rhino
Troop: 8x Grey Hunters – Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Rhino
Troop: 5x Grey Hunters – Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Razorback (TL Las/Plasma)
Fast Attack: 4x Thunder Wolves – Power Fist, Storm Shield, Bolter
Heavy: 5x Long Fangs – 4 Missile Launchers, Razorback (TL Las/Plasma)
Heavy: 5x Long Fangs – 4 Missile Launchers, Razorback (TL Las/Plasma)
Army Composition – 18/20
Total: 1499
Scoring units: 3
Model Count: 40 Space Wolves and 5 AV11 transports
ALL OUTTA BUBBLEGUM 