Will Wolves Be Pretty

Some new rumors about the wolves codex update found their way through warseer to BOLS last week. Taken together with the rumored 5th edition rule updates, they have significant implications for my own wolves army. But you don’t have to take my word for it.

Reading Rainbow sound

Running seems to be the biggest rules change of all, but I think it will affect the game in so many different ways it’s hard to consider all the implications without repeated playtesting. It would be useful for the grey hunters or blood claws to keep up forward movement behind cover of the Rhinos once the smoke launchers have been used up.

In the rumored ruleset that I’ve seen, locked models (those outside of 2” from a model in BTB) can still be hit by attacks, even if engaged models are removed before their initiative step. My wolves’ powerfists will still get to attack as long as they were close enough to be engaged at the beginning of the phase, even if noone’s in BTB anymore by the time they get to swing. However, they’ll only get a single attack if charged, two attacks max on the charge themselves. That’s a bummer, but hey, they’re still power fists and counter-attack should make sure they’re always in place to contribute to the fight.

Reduced power fist attacks and blood claws getting furious charge could send at least one if not both of my two blood claw fisters over to a power weapon to simulate a frost blade on the charge. It might even be better to run an IC with them armed with a power fist. Sure, you lose the I5 benefit of a character, but it’s the only way you’re gonna a decent number of power fist attacks anymore, and at WS 5, that means more will hit, too. Of course, the rumor is that the claws’ squad size will be set at a minimum of 10, so an IC won’t be able to ridealong in a rhino if that does indeed come to pass. Some slight shifting will be inevitable. Now, if I’m able to equip characters or wolf guard with double powerfists, then things will really be cooking. Surely Magnar isn’t the only ambidextrous marine in the galaxy.

You no longer have to have a model in BTB to perform a sweeping advance. And now every consolidate is a massacre.

Grenades will work only if the majority of models have them – that means I’ll have to split my HQs from my hunter squads when they assault so they count as two separate units assaulting in order for the ICs to strike simultaneously. That’s assuming I’ll still want to run HQ choices on foot joined up with hunter squads.

Grey hunters will supposedly be equipped with a bolter, a bolt pistol and chainsword, a la chaos marines. It’s a fucking great replacement for true grit if true. This will go a long way to bringing wolves up to speed.

There does not appear to be any morale test modifiers for being outnumbered in CC, only -1 for being below 50% and -1 for every wound by which your unit lost the combat. So either they’re going to have to ditch the “against all odds” special rule from the wolves codex completely, or replace it with something else, maybe something negating one or both of the other two modifiers (the latter would be the better choice).

No WS5/BS5 venerable dreadnought? Yeesh. At least give them WS5 for chrissakes. I thought we were talking about the oldest, most seasoned dreadnoughts in the imperium. If Baal dreadnoughts can have furious charge, then it should be no problem giving wolves WS5 dreads. If they do bring Bjorn back with WS5 and maybe a couple of other cool abilities, I will most likely use him. That being said, I am very much not in love with all these special “named” characters being required (and therefore almost always taken) in order to access decent units or army special rules. It sort of “dates” an army and takes away from the imaginative part of the game. How are you supposed to flesh out a story for a game in your mind when you’re paired against someone fielding the same character? Not to mention many of them are broken as fuck, e.g. Shrike, Eldrad, etc.

I’ve heard rumors about squads of wulfen led by Wolf Priests, like the wolves version of the death company. And yes, I will field this if given the chance. Where wolves? Right behind you.

Long Fangs will remain the same but maybe getting the pistol/ccw/main weapon treatment as well. Whatever, I probably won’t use them anyways. I think they should get tank hunters too, now that it might be included as a USR, and maybe stealth too, while they’re at it. Not for being stealthy as much as able to take advantage of cover well.

Wolf Scouts from any table edge, oh my. Definitely needed to bring them in line with Boss Snikrot. Hopefully I can still give them the same weapon loadout and wolf guard sergeant, but I’m not holding my breath.

If the rumored mission types hold and I don’t make too many major changes to my current list, I should be pretty set as far as troops go with three solid 10-man wolves units able to secure and control objectives on those missions that use them. I think I like the idea of victory points only being used in a draw, but I’m not 100% sure how that will play out. One thing that’s confusing from the rumored ruleset I’ve seen is deployment order. Unless I read it wrong, players take turns deploying their whole force all at once for every deployment type other than dawn of war. I can see how this would definitely balance out the choice of deployment zone (and accompanying cover) versus the benefit of knowing where your opponent is deployed. I thought it was rather clever of them to make the long table edge deployment zones start 12” from the center line rather than from the edge. I’ve played several games where units that should have started 24” away from each other were too close to one another.

Seeing as how I like to use transports for all my infantry (which may change if I can put jump packs on the blood claws more easily and effectively), I’m paying close attention to the rumored changes in vehicle damage and the effects on passengers. One thing I noticed was that dedicated transports appear to double the value of a unit in the annihilation scenarios, regardless of their usually small relative point cost. Smoke launchers appear to be even better; vehicles using them will get where they're going nearly invulnerable to explosions or being pinned. However, melta weapons pose a greater threat now in this department. And I like that you don't have to worry about those ridiculous 1" moves after assaulting a vehicle either. Altogether I'm very curious how it will all play out and it will be a long two months until July. It's perfect timing to shake things up a bit I think.

Space Wolves: the Bully Way

Compared to most modern codices, the Space Wolves book is fairly weak and outdated. Specifically, no litanies of hate, no rites of battle, and no Ld 10 psykers puts them at a distinct disadvantage against their vanilla counterparts as well as almost every other race. Nonetheless, the sons of Russ still have access to a great set of special rules: no matter the odds, counter-attack, wolf pelts, frost blades, Storm Caller, and the ability to put up to two power fists in each squad, not counting any attached Wolf Guard. Together, they mean that almost every Space Wolf model will have the advantage in close combat against anything but specialized assault troops. Even then, however, the packs will fight to the last man, and that last man has probably been waving his power fist around for at least two or three phases, hopefully long enough to bring their opponents below scoring as well. The main liabilities of the army list (high point cost and low model count) must be countered by tactical deployments that concentrate their own strength while diluting the enemy’s, as well as wise micromanagement to maximize objective-taking and minimize casualties. To this end, my general strategy with Space Wolves is to make a coordinated assault on just enough objectives to put me ahead and use the units in the best combination to hold on for dear life. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's always entertaining if I can just remember all the special rules. I wrote up a few thoughts on the application of the various units I currently use or have used in the past.

Grey Hunters

I choose to put my Grey Hunters in drop pods for a couple of reasons. Without access to jump packs, using them in a pure assault role is less attractive and it would waste true grit besides. Instead, I prefer to give them a lot of bolters and plasma for an initial burst of shooting, and count on their special rules and multiple power fists to defend their location from counter-assaults. Pods are great for Hunters because they aren’t destroyed by scattering into enemy formations, and you can usually place them in fairly cramped quarters, ensuring at least one round of double-tap shooting from which the enemy cannot hide. If possible, I try to deploy the Hunters in cover and screen out the worst angles of enemy fire with the pod itself. Still, they don’t last very long isolated by themselves, so I usually try to place them near another friendly unit and reinforce the position as soon as I’m able. As far as target priority goes, I usually try to inflict the most casualties on the nearest, most dangerous assault unit.

Battle Leader, Rune Priest, and Blood Claws in a Land Raider

With a potential 20-inch charge and 12 frost blade, 24 normal, and 8 power fist attacks all striking first, this pack has the potential to make quite an impact. It’s taken me loads of games to figure out the best ways to use it without losing their scoring capacity in the process. Transport is the first issue. The time delay and potential exposure associated with drop pods makes them a poor choice for transporting a pure assault unit, and Rhinos are not that much better for basically the same reasons. Biker Claws are just too expensive and giving them jump packs instead just makes you pay for the +1 T and 24-inch turbo boost without actually getting it, not to mention you can’t send the characters along with them. For these reasons, I’ve become resigned to deploying my Claws in a Land Raider. Raiders are a big point sink, and their fat ass usually hangs out of both sides of any terrain they might be hiding behind, but they look impressive on the battlefield, are better anti-tank than a Long Fangs squad of equal cost, and the assault ramp makes for a very long charge range.

Ever since the last book came out, I’ve always dreamed about that ideal 20-inch Storm Caller-enhanced Blood Claws charge from the assault ramp of a fast moving Land Raider. Honestly, though, I don’t even remember the last time I was able to get their charge bonus. It’s hard to find someone who will sit still long enough for the Blood Claws to charge them, even with an assault ramp transport, so they’re usually charged themselves and only fight with two attacks. Their WS3 at I4 means several of them are probably going to die before their 4 power fist attacks strike back, and half of those usually miss anyway.

Recently, I replaced the Wolf Guard Leader from my Blood Claws squad with an HQ Wolf Guard Battle Leader. Even if the unit is charged themselves, the two HQ models will counter-attack and strike with 12 WS5 S5 power weapon attacks at I5, and since they’re in base-to-base (BTB) contact, at least one or two enemy models will usually be forced to attack the independent characters, meaning less attacks go into the Blood Claws, hopefully keeping the squad at scoring size for a bit longer. Maneuvering to actually get that counter-attack is a little tricky and can depend on your understanding of the following rules:

• Assault (p. 38): Once a model is in base-to-base contact, or within two inches of a model from its own unit in BTB contact, with an enemy model, it is said to be engaged. The unit that the models belong to is then said to be locked.


• Characters in assault (p. 51): Characters are treated as a separate unit when resolving close combats, following the normal rules for multiple combats on page 45. If the unit they have joined is locked in combat with the enemy, the character is locked with them.


• Counter-attack (p. 74): Unengaged models from a unit that has been charged by the enemy must move up to 6” to get into BTB contact with the enemy, taking terrain into account as normal.

So let’s say you have a unit of 8 Blood Claws and two HQ units with wolf pelts (Rune Priest, Wolf Priest, Wolf Lord, whatever) that just jumped out of a Land Raider. They’re too far away to charge anything but most likely are in range to get charged themselves. So long as you’re not pinned, this is not as bad a situation as it could be. The main objective is to minimize the chances of an enemy model being able to actually get into BTB contact with your HQ units, because when the unit is charged, the HQs will be locked but never engaged unless they actually come into BTB, since they count as a separate unit in close combat. As long as they’re not touching, they’re not engaged, and as such can make a counter-attack as described, not to mention getting that lovely 6th attack from their wolf pelt. Most of the time I’ll form up a single or double line with the Blood Claws spaced less than one inch apart, curving back away from the approaching enemy at the ends, with the HQs tucked away in the middle behind the line.

This leads to a subtle advantage that ICs have over a Wolf Guard “sergeant” in leading Blood Claws. Since the 30-point Wolf Guard leaders count as part of the same unit in assault, and can therefore be engaged if models within two inches of them are touched by an enemy model, it’s quite easy to deny them their counter-attack move and wolf pelt bonus unless they’re way in the back and the enemy barely made their charge distance. However, if you can pull it off, i.e., keep the Wolf Guard more than 2" away from any of his squadmates that have been touched in BTB by an enemy assault, he can earn the counterattack move and wolf pelt bonus, and thereby get 4 attacks - getting that wolf pelt bonus is the only way 4 attacks is possible for a bolter Wolf Guard "sergeant" because of true grit!

With such a big block of points tied up in such a fat (albeit strongly armored) vehicle, I will usually drive them toward an objective first rather than go balls-out toward the enemy line, and deploy either the squad or smoke launchers, if I’ve bought them. In my mind, it’s better to deploy riders too early and head them on foot toward cover than risk getting pinned, exposed to enemy fire, and out of their element (assault) even longer. I’ve never made points back from stranded Blood Claws – they are almost always shot up and destroyed having made no impact on the game whatsoever.

About the Rune Priest specifically... I'm surprised that I haven't run into any players who object to the idea that a squad with Storm Caller will strike at I 10 just like normal units in cover who are charged themselves, but then again like I said I rarely get to charge with the squad anyway. And not that the rule isn't very clear, which, to me it very much is, especially when taken with the statements in the codex FAQ, but it's still a pretty interesting effect that I expect will be translated into something new in the next codex, like Eldar Banshee mask rules or something. The Ld 9 is pretty weak, and besides Storm Caller farting every once in a while, his psychic hood (is also less effective. Still, he's just as good a fighter as the battle leader (himself a two-wound version of the overpriced Lord), and his Chooser of the Slain has helped the pack on many occasions.

Wolf Guard Terminators

Another very points-heavy unit that can inflict a good amount of damage, but cannot be left alone for long. In fact, since they have better range than the Grey Hunters I’m more likely to deploy their drop pod farther away from the enemy to avoid the Terminators being charged. If possible, I’ll put them into 4+ cover and try to get as many turns of shooting with the assault cannons as I can. Since my Land Speeders carry multimeltas, I switched my attack bikes to heavy bolters and used the points to make the AC’s master-crafted. A little dickish, maybe, but a) I’m paying out the ass for them and b) I wanted to milk the 4th edition rending rules a little bit more before they disappear this summer. I usually keep the Terminators in the same formation as the Blood Claws: a line curved away from the nearest enemy, the Battle Leader tucked behind with enough space for him to get out and around with counter-attack.

Wolf Scouts

The recent BFG hobby tournament inspired me to get off my ass and sharpen my wolf scouts squad. I had made a trade for some plastic space marine scouts so I assembled and painted up two of them, gave them plasma pistols and assorted space wolf icons, and added them to the four I'd been using. I've already seen an improvement in this squad's game effect in the 6 games I've had with them so far. Haven't lost one yet to a plasma overheat, so I guess I'm due for that, but those extra wounds in the squad let the power weapons stick around for longer and make more of an impact. Also they're not such a one hit wonder against vehicles - the plasma pistols took out a rhino full of noise marines last week, killing several and pinning the rest, after the meltagun trooper had missed. I give them frags since the static rear guard units that they're so good at attacking are usually hiding in cover.

Vindicator

I’m going to take a break from my cousin Vinnie for a while. Half of my games it’s been destroyed in the first couple of turns, and when it does survive longer, it rarely inflicts enough casualties to warrant the points. I might bring it back into a 2500 point army, but for my 2000 I’m going to replace it with a couple of melta/flamer Land Speeders instead. I think they’ll do as much or more damage than the single tank and be much better at objective management.

Long Fangs

Abandon all victory points ye who enter here. Just too freakin expensive. Split fire is just not that special in a numbers game and that stupid pack leader costs way too much. Maybe I'd bring them back in to a 2500 point list for more "wolfy" flavor if I was especially concerned with fluff, but otherwise forget em.

Leman Russ Exterminator

Could this be my next experiment? I could convert one up from a standard Russ using guard autocannons easily enough. Talking to Jay at the tournament on Sunday, I realized that I had almost all of their little tricks represented except for the quintessential Wolves tank. If I switched this in for my Land Raider and gave the Blood Claws a Rhino instead, I'd be taking away those bad ass lascannons, but then I could switch multimeltas back in on the Attack Bikes to try and make up for it. Then again, I do really like my Land Raider model... Maybe I should wait for the codex update to make sure it's even going to be available. Anyone have any rumors in that regard?

Scattershot

I inked up my tyranids this week. Initially I tried using Tamiya flat base matte medium mixed in with the ink and water, but after it dried it left a pale white stain in all the crevices and I had to go over the 7 or 8 miniatures I had completed with another coat of simply ink and water. This resulted in both of my big carnifexes, one squad of genestealers, and half my warriors looking a little "extra crispy." No worries, it's nice to be one step closer to completing the army's paint job, and I look forward to a few games with it in the weeks to come before I continue with the next color step.

BOLS has been posting a series of 5th edition "rumor" collections over the last few weeks. I'd be inclined to pooh them off completely if BOLS' prophetic clips from Warseer haven't come true so often (as long as I can remember). I've gone back and forth on how I feel about the suggested changes. At first I was worried that they would make it a more complicated and slow game, but the more I think about it, it's probably time for some changes about now anyways. At the very least they won't be reverting to a 3rd edition-style revamp, where all the old codexes are void and the new rulebook includes basic (read: crappy) versions of the army lists. The cover saves for vehicles sounds like a good deal. Maybe the nerf for SMF will be mitigated by skimmers being able to hide easier in cover, firing from cover saves more easily than other vehicles. All the other vehicle rule changes (defensive weapons, movement and firing options) are too complicated for me to their really grasp their implications just yet. The scattering blasts will take some getting used to, especially the way multiple blasts will be scattered. At least we can forget about partials and centering the blast over a single model. Still though, I agree with one of the commenters on the BOLS article in that many of these rule changes seem made for the sake of themselves rather than directly focusing on improving the 4th edition set. They do seem to fit well with the style and nuances of the most recent codices (eldar, chaos, orks).

After dusting off the Space Wolves last week, I'm really eager for them to release their updated codex, White Dwarf version or no. Hopefully I won't have to break, convert, or paint too many models to update my army lists. I'm keeping my ears wide open for any rumors about the new shit.

Lion El'Johnson Hutz, Rulz Lawyer

I got linked to this PDF of 2007 Grand Tournament house rules and I was surprised at some of the answers to disputed questions I’ve come across in the past. Problem is, these are still specific tournament house rules and GW hasn’t answered these in a more definitive FAQ on their website. I’ll get back to that in a sec. The ones that really mattered to me were:

- You only make one armor save for a Gets Hot!, even if you shot twice and rolled two 1’s or 2’s. Now that I go back and read it, this does seem to be spelled out in the RAW, I just never realized it. Sweet!

- You must try to remove whole models that suffer instant death wounds before removing already wounded models. Since I personally don’t play with units of multiple wound creatures in any of my armies outside of Nids (and those are generally high T anyway), this sounds great to me!

- Passengers of a vehicle that has been wrecked or blown up can disembark into the wreck or crater. What?! Bullshit! I hate it when people do this. Most if not all vehicle models are not made to be stood upon by a bunch of little round bases. And then when people complicate it further by saying “oh, I don’t want to scratch my model so I’m going to line them up around the wreck, but they still count as being in cover...” Come on, their transport is dead, if they aren’t behind it, they’re out in the fucking open, get over it. They had to jump out of a burning vehicle for chrissakes! Bah, I disagree with this. By the way, when a vehicle is annihilated, that’s a 6 on an ordnance penetrating hit and I believe all passengers are automatically killed. They probably meant to say explodes, but it’s still an unnecessary typo that could just lead to more confusion.

- An IC in a retinue or otherwise joined with a squad returns to being an IC immediately after the last squad member was killed, and is not compelled to take an ensuing leadership test at -1. I thought he would test at -1 for shooting casualties taken THAT turn but would test Ld as normal on the following turn. I’ve suggested the opposite in past games, but honestly I could go either way with this one. At least they realized it was important enough to clarify for the tournament.

- The short 12” edges of a long board edge deployment zone count as deployment zone board edges. This might make a critical difference in determining direction of a fallback move.

- Deep-striking jump infantry have to take dangerous terrain tests when landing in cover. Meh, I could go either way, in any case, nice that they at least thought out an answer.

- Psycannons don’t ignore cover saves, and neither does Mind War! W00t!

- Eldar bikes may not move the extra 6” in the assault phase after turboboosting.

While I don’t agree with all of these particular rulings, the main thing that hacks me off is how GW seemingly refuses to acknowledge around 50% of the most unclear and thus most heavily disputed rules conflicts in any kind of official capacity. It’s such a tease to read these and get clear answers, when they count for pretty much zippo outside of these events. I think the online FAQs and errata did a relatively good job of clearing up many old issues; why don’t they consider adding some of these little gems to those documents?

Whoever Pelt It, Dealt It

As I poked the embers of my old Space Wolves army, I noticed a rule nuance that bears mentioning, something I know I’ve played wrong in the past. It has weighty consequences on the use of a particular piece of wargear, namely, the wolf pelt. Fellow sons of Russ know this as a cheap way to give a character or wolf guard +1 attack when the squad gets charged. Maybe I’m just the last to know, but after I reviewed the specific counter-attack rules as written in the USR section of the rulebook, it appears that wolf pelts might be a little harder to use than I previously thought, especially for a drop-pod force like mine.

First of all, according to the counter-attack USR, only unengaged models from a unit that has been charged can move the 6” to get into BTB with an enemy model. “Engaged” models are defined as those being either in BTB or 2” away from a friendly model in BTB with an enemy. So a model with a wolf pelt would not be able to counter-attack, and thus get the +1 attack, unless it was farther than 2” away from an amigo in BTB. Unless you’re getting charged by only a few models, which seems like a foolhardy thing for anyone to do against space wolves, it will be difficult to keep your pelted model from being immediately engaged and having their wargear short-circuited, wasting *gasp* all of 3 points, but more importantly, an extra attack with a power weapon/fist. In previous games I was just moving characters/wolf guard into BTB and granting myself the +1 attack just as long as he was not personally brought into BTB by the initial assault (which, I now realize, was actually illegal).

It doesn’t say that you actually have to make it into BTB with your counterattack move to get the +1 attack, so it appears the main issue is to keep a pelted model more than 2” away from anyone in the squad who would come into BTB with an enemy assault. This might be a simple matter with a big spread-out foot squad of blood claws, but with a drop pod you only have so much deployment space to begin with, and keeping your choppy pelted guy far enough away to counterattack could be a problem. Taken with the fact that an IC has to be personally in BTB to even join the combat, and that he only gets a 6” move to do it, it appears that you have to be pretty tricky to actually benefit from the pelt.

Example 1 – A squad of asscan/boltplas terminators led by some kind of pelted character, in this case a Wolf Priest. I don’t see how you can ever keep the character unengaged by an enemy assault, pretty much regardless of size. Even if you put him on the end of the line, around the drop pod and possibly out of range/LOS for his shooting, he’s easily going to be within 2” of a friend in BTB when an enemy assaults them and therefore missing out on the +1 A. You really need to spread them all out 2” away from each other around the pod, with the character as far away from a charging enemy as possible, and your assault cannons and powerfists closest to the character. The larger terminator bases will help. Now I’m starting to think that I should drop my potion pouring, plasma pistol waving Wolf Priest that I had been running with my terminators and bring back my old black helmed WGBL with lightning claws. If he’s not going to be in LOS to shoot, he might as well be able to reroll wounds when he comes running around the other side of that pod (plus he’s much cheaper!).

Example 2 – A 10-strong squad of grey hunters led by a pelted wolf guard. Placing the guard on the farthest side of the drop pod from a nearby enemy might put him far enough away to stay unengaged in the oncoming assault, but that leaves him and possibly several other models out of range for shooting. Again I see folly in giving him anything other than a bolt pistol for a gun if I want to get the pelt love on the counterattack. I had given the Grey Hunters’ wolf guard a plasma pistol for one more AP2 zinger (to make a total of 5 plasma shots from the squad). The question is: what’s more important, +1 attack with a power weapon/fist if and when they do get charged, or an additional plasma shot (that costs 15 points and might overheat and kill him anyway)? My instinct tells me trying to get the extra counterattack is better.

Example 3 – A squad on foot. As I stated before, it might be simpler to keep the character/squad leader out of engagement range if they’re part of a big spread out squad. But against any hack shooting army on a board with 25% cover, this seems like suicide. I changed my wolves to be more mechanized for a reason: they were constantly getting caught out in the open and mowed down before they could have any effect on the game’s outcome. As it is, if I consolidate all the elements into one big push, I can sometimes hit real hard FTW, but any halfway mobile army can just stay out of the big push’s way and pick off squads at their leisure.

I haven’t actually played with my wolves in ages, but having gotten a little burnt out on Witch Hunters (except for my assassins, I still love you guys!), I think I’m ready to pick them up again. I need to really rethink my general strategy, retool some wargear loadouts, and I’ll definitely have to take a moment to think before placing anyone with a pelt in order to give them the best chance of actually using it. I’ll report back on my experiences as soon as I get a few games in.