E-Mail In : 'Pure' Thunderwolf Cavalry list.

E-Mail In : 

Love the blog, though my Girlfriend gets twitchy if I look at it of a Tuesday ;-). Anyway, I wonder if you could help me. I want to do a Space Wolf list where everything is cavalry or beasts or as near as dammit as I figure having no vehicles is going to screw over people loaded up on anti-tank. It doesn't have to be the most optimised thing ever but I'd still like to win an occasional game with it, lol. I was also considering using the Khorne Juggernaut models to turn it into a mounted World Eater Berzerker sort of deal but not sure if that's a good idea or not.


Hope you have time to reply to this,  You can use it as a blog post if you like. Can you leave my details out of it if you do though.

Reply : 

I've left the E-Mail intact but have removed your name from the bottom, If that's a problem e-mail me again and I'll just delete then whole thing and leave the reply bit.

Okay. You can technically do a 'pure' cavalry list but you'd have to completely table your opponent in objective games as having 'Troop' Fenrisian Wolves via Canis doesn't override their 'Can't hold objectives ever' rule I'm afraid. That tabling is a shaky proposition at best and becomes more unlikely when you add in the constraints of a 'themed' list. Because of that we'll have to have a bit of non-cavalry in the shape of Grey Hunters but I'll leave them on foot as per the 'no vehicles' part of your request.

A friend of mine is currently working on a Juggernaut riders list and several other people have also done them so I can see no issue with it if that's the way you'd like to do it. In fact as there aren't any 'official' Thunderwolf models then that might ironically also be the easiest way to do it. If going down that theme I'd still use Chaos Warhounds as Fenrisian Wolves rather than Flesh Hounds though as otherwise it's going to get really expensive.

Okay then. First lets have a look at what Cavalry/Beasts we can actually take,

Well for a start we can stick our Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf Mount and still equip him in pretty much any way we see fit or we can take Canis Wolfborn who actually comes with a Thunderwolf and as mentioned earlier makes Fenrisian Wolves troops. He also improves the initiative of Fenrisian Wolves and Cyberwolves to five and ups their Leadership to seven because of his Saga of the Wolfkin.
Wolf Guard Battle Leaders can also take Thunderwolf mounts but I can't see why you would want to in preference to a Wolf Lord. The option is there however so I thought I best mention it.

In our Elite slot our only cavalry choice is to put an Iron Priest on a Thunderwolf. He can also take up to 4 Cyberwolves which he'll most likely need as he only has one wound of his own.

The only way to get Cavalry/Beasts in our Troop slots is to take Canis Wolfborn in order to unlock Fenrisian Wolves as a Troop choice rather than a Fast Attack choice. This is only really worth doing if we have a lot of wolves that will be becoming Initiative five but even taking that into account we'll still need some troops that actually score.

Fast Attack is where we find the actual Thunderwolf Cavalry entry and in a list centred around them it's likely we'll be taking three units. That means that if we want to include those Fenrisian Wolves then we have to take Canis.

There are no Cavalry/Beast entries in the Heavy Support section though a couple of units of Long Fangs would help this sort of list out quite a bit. We'll just have to see if our original e-mailer is willing to be a little bit flexible ;-)

So in real terms we have the following choices,

Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf Mount,
Canis Wolfborn,
Wolf  Guard Battle Leader on Thunderwolf Mount,
Iron Priest on Thunderwolf Mount,
Thunderwolf Cavalry,
Fenrisian Wolves

and one essential that I'm afraid were just going to have to deal with if the list is going to win objective games.

Grey Hunters.

With those parameters in place I'd do this,


1750 Pts - Thunderwolf Cavalry

HQ: Canis Wolfborn (1#, 185 pts)
   1 Canis Wolfborn @ 185 pts

Elite: Iron Priest (5#, 155 pts)
   1 Iron Priest @ 155 pts (Thunderwolf Mount; Add Cyberwolves; Rending in CC only)
      1 Servo Arm
      4 Cyberwolf (Counter-attack)

Elite: Iron Priest (5#, 155 pts)
   1 Iron Priest @ 155 pts (Thunderwolf Mount; Add Cyberwolves; Rending in CC only)
      1 Servo Arm
      4 Cyberwolf (Counter-attack)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (10#, 155 pts)
   10 Grey Hunters Pack @ 155 pts (Meltagun; Meltagun)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (10#, 155 pts)
   10 Grey Hunters Pack @ 155 pts (Meltagun; Meltagun)

Troops: Fenrisian Wolf Pack (15#, 120 pts)
   15 Fenrisian Wolf Pack @ 120 pts

Troops: Fenrisian Wolf Pack (15#, 120 pts)
   15 Fenrisian Wolf Pack @ 120 pts

Fast Attack: Thunderwolf Cavalry (4#, 235 pts)
   1 Thunderwolf Cavalry @ 235 pts (Rider w/ Mark of the Wulfen ; Thunderwolf Cavalry; Thunderwolf Cavalry; Thunderwolf Cavalry)
      1 Thunderwolf w/ Mark of the Wulfen
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Melta Bombs)
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Power Fist)

Fast Attack: Thunderwolf Cavalry (4#, 235 pts)
   1 Thunderwolf Cavalry @ 235 pts (Rider w/ Mark of the Wulfen ; Thunderwolf Cavalry; Thunderwolf Cavalry; Thunderwolf Cavalry)
      1 Thunderwolf w/ Mark of the Wulfen
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Melta Bombs)
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Power Fist)

Fast Attack: Thunderwolf Cavalry (4#, 235 pts)
   1 Thunderwolf Cavalry @ 235 pts (Rider w/ Mark of the Wulfen ; Thunderwolf Cavalry; Thunderwolf Cavalry; Thunderwolf Cavalry)
      1 Thunderwolf w/ Mark of the Wulfen
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Power Fist)
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Melta Bombs)

Total Roster Cost: 1750

The Thunderwolf Cavalry are all equipped differently for wound allocation purposes. At 2000 points I'd add in a Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf Mount (if you want to keep true to the theme) who'll set you back 145 points as a start and then arm him however you feel fit there isn't really a definitive 'Best-Of' Wolf Lord set-up. If your willing to compromise the theme a little then adding in a couple of Missile Launcher armed Long Fang Units would be a solid choice.

Well there you go then.

Thoughts and Comments are (as usual) most welcome.