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GMort.

As Games Workshop has finally decided to release some Thunderwolf and Fenrisian Wolf models I've decided to do a pure Cavalry Space Wolf List. Any chance of some help?

I'm looking at 2000 points and I want at least 3 units of Thunderwolves and 2 of the ordinary ones (units that is). I'm not looking for the most competitive thing ever I just want to use the models and not get (to use your term) kerb stomped every game.  

Any chance?

Reply :

I've covered this before but I can't find where so I'll give it a fresh look.

Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Cats Wolves.

Thunderwolf Cavalry are fairly resilient to small arms fire but like any middle toughness unit can be torrented to death. They're fast so if you want them in amongst your enemy then they can be there fairly quickly which has the added advantage of avoiding that pesky hail of gunfire I mentioned a moment ago. They're going to be a magnet for heavy weapons which may lead you to the temptation to give them an invulnerable save via Storm Shields but that gets expensive as an 'across the board' upgrade. My advice would be to keep them relatively cheap, add the odd upgrade here and there for 'wound allocation' trickery and just shove them down your enemies throat....

Bullet Shields Fenrisian Wolves.

Low leadership and lack of armour is a bad combination on a unit you want to stay in the fight. I personally see Fenrisian Wolves as a fast moving cover save for the rest of your army that the survival of can be considered a bonus rather than a necessity. Even with Canis they can't hold objectives so you'll still need Grey Hunters which (I'm sure I've mentioned before) makes 'pure' cavalry as good as impossible (If you want to win games at least). As they only become 'Troops' in conjunction with Canis Wolfborn, each unit of Fenrisian Wolves equals one less unit of Thunderwolves. Therefore Canis is going to be essential if you want quantities of both.

Other Riders.
Several standard HQ choices can take Thunderwolf mounts and there's Canis to consider as well in addition to the fact that Iron Priests can take them as well.

Space Wolf HQ's on Thunderwolf mounts get expensive but considering how much damage they can do that's understandable. Chaos players would happily exchange their own crappy HQ choices for the Space Wolves ones in a heartbeat which is probably why the Space Wolf codex is most often the first choice for 'counts-as' with Chaos players.....but I digress.....

Canis is worth considering (and for most builds of this type is essential) if your taking a lot of Fenrisian Wolves as the boosts to their Leadership and Initiative are nice to have and he's fairly handy in a scrap himself. If your going to be taking Iron Priests with Cyber Wolves he'll obviously make those better as well...speaking of Iron Priests.....

An Iron Priest on a Thunderwolf really needs ablative wounds in the form of Cyberwolves as otherwise he's not going to last very long. This also gives you some more scary fast moving targets for your opponent to worry about and it also happens to come with a Thunderhammer and a Servo-Arm ;-)

Lets look at some options then,

HQ's.
If were using three units of Thunderwolves and Fenrisian Wolves then were going to have to take Canis. You can take a 2nd Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf Mount if you wish (and a 3rd and 4th if you like but that might be considered both a points sink and a bit of overkill). Canis's options are limited to a couple of extra wolves, The Wolf Lord is a tad more complicated though.....

As a minimum we need the Wolf Lord (obviously) and his ride (equally obviously) which comes to 145 points. A 'Belt of Russ' for the 4+ invulnerable save is definitely worth 25 points.

Saga's are a debatable point...I like Saga of the Warrior Born for the potential extra attacks as I think that Saga of the Bear (The one that gives you Eternal Warrior) can be done without once you've got the base T5 from the mount but others prefer the piece of mind that comes from having the Eternal Warrior rule. The only other that I'd consider is Saga of the Beastslayer for the useful re-rolls against MC's walkers and other tough bastards you might encounter.

As for your weapon options your (as usual) spoilt for choice. You already have Strength 5 Rending from being on a mount. You lose the Rending if you upgrade to a 'special' weapon of some kind but that's a reasonable sacrifice if you pick the right weapon.

I'm going to use Canis on his own and save the points I would have spent on an additional HQ choice to buy more puppies but I thought I'd list your other options in case you have a different core idea in your head.

Iron Priests.
An Iron Priest on a Thunderwolf Mount with four ablative Cyber Wolves comes to 155 points. A Wolftooth Necklace for the 'always hits on 3's' bonus is worth considering for 10 points.

Fenrisian Wolves.
Fenrisian Wolves cost 8 points each and the only upgrade available isn't worth bothering with. Take as many as you need (5 and 15 are the minimum and maximum). I tend to end up with them in 12's for no particular reason that I can think of currently.....

Thunderwolf Cavalry.
The core of a Thunderwolf Cavalry list, lol. I'd take them in 4's and I'd upgrade three of them so I can be one of those bastards who takes advantage of the 'wound allocation' rules that seem to bother large portions of the internet. I'd go with,

1 Thunderwolf  Cavalry with Mark of the Wulfen,
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry with Melta Bombs,
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry,
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry with Power Fist.

Which comes to 235 points. If you don't approve of such things or just deem them unnecessary then just keep the Power Fist and spend the other 10 points wherever you like.

Troops.
You need scoring units. Take 2 10 man units of Grey Hunters with 2 special weapons. They don't particularly need a transport in a build like this but you can give them  one if you really want.

There now follows a warning for competitive gamers.

Couldn't find an appropriate warning sign....

Thunderwolf Cavalry lists are a gimmick army. You'll steam-roll over some armies, die hideously to others and calling your army balanced will make people laugh their arses off.....but.....you'll probably have a lot of fun and sometimes that's the point ;-)

If you want to run them competitively take a Rune Priest HQ, 5 Wolf Guard with Combi-Melta's, 5 Units of Grey Hunters with a Meltagun in a Rhino (attach Wolf Guard to these), support with 3 units of Missile Launcher Long Fangs and spend the rest of the points on two tooled-up units of Thunderwolf Cavalry to fist-fuck the enemy with.

Where were we...Oh yes...
Now I've got that off my chest here's the lot from the themed bit of this post put into a list.

'Themed' ThunderCav List.

HQ.
Canis Wolfborn (185), Fenrisian Wolves x2 (+20)   (205)

ELITES.
Iron Priest (50), Thunderwolf Mount (+45), Cyberwolves x4 (+60)   (155)
Iron Priest (50), Thunderwolf Mount (+45), Cyberwolves x4 (+60)   (155)
Iron Priest (50), Thunderwolf Mount (+45), Cyberwolves x4 (+60)   (155)

TROOPS.
Grey Hunters x10 (150), Meltaguns x2 (+20)   (170)
Grey Hunters x10 (150), Meltaguns x2 (+20)   (170)
Fenrisian Wolves x15 (120)
Fenrisian Wolves x10 (80)
Fenrisian Wolves x10 (80)

FAST ATTACK.
Thunderwolf Cavalry x4 (200), Mark of the Wulfen (+5), Melta-bomb(+5), Power-Fist (+25)   (235)
Thunderwolf Cavalry x4 (200), Mark of the Wulfen (+5), Melta-bomb(+5), Power-Fist (+25)   (235)
Thunderwolf Cavalry x4 (200), Mark of the Wulfen (+5), Melta-bomb(+5), Power-Fist (+25)   (235)

TOTAL - 1995


It will be fun enough but if you really want to beat face then I'd use a version of the 'competitive' bit I mention just before the list. It is.....what it is.....

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome