Monday, October 19, 2009

On the Wolf-Wing

Blame this one on Chumbalaya. He got me thinking about it, since if we're going to do Logan-wing, we do it with an eye towards the strengths of the Space Wolves.

With that in mind, I'll walk you through what I've got, with the aim of building a, 1850 list.

Headquarters
Let's start with Logan Grimnar. We kind of have to. He's 275 points off the bat.

Then, let's get a Rune Priest. Psychic Defense IS your friend, and Chooser of the Slain is occasionally a neat piece of kit.

So, we add a Rune Priest w/ Terminator Armor and a Chooser of the Slain. 130 points.

We could get two more choices, but that's probably not really necessary.

Troops
A basic 5-man, heavy-weapon-enabled squad costs us 165 points. We're going to go ahead and add a Cyclone Missile Launcher, to let us get lighter armor at range. 195. Grab a just-in-case chainfist. 210.

Now, let's take 5 of them for a footslogging wing. 5(210) + 275 + 130 = 1455.

Elites
Well...one thing we're missing is the powerfists. Ok. We can try to give everyone a fist; I'm not sure that's a great idea. Let's take Lone Wolves in Terminator Armor with Chainfists and Storm Shields. If the enemy wants to drop our anti-dreads and anti-MC cards, it'll take some serious firepower. I think I'm fine with making the enemy make a decision.

3(85) = 255. Army total, 1710. We have 5x5 Termie Squads, Logan, and psychic defense. We have 140 points remaining.

I think you can go one of three ways here:
1) buy a few more terminators
2) gear up our terminators a bit more
3) buy a pair of MM/HF landspeeders
4) Or, we could re-tool the heavy weapons and go for Drop Pod Wing or something like that.

However, I'm not entirely sure how effective drop pod deathwing would be. But, what the hell. We'd have to drop the Lone Wolves, since they just won't fit. I might break off the idea of 100% terminators to mostly terminators just to make it work a little better. At least we can pass out combi-weapons in the Wolf Guard.

But, here's what the basic list looks like:

Basic Logan-Wing, Foot, 1850
HQ
Logan Grimnar [275]
Rune Priest, Terminator Armor, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning Tempest's Wrath [130]
Elites
Lone Wolf in Termie Armor w/ Chainfist, Storm Shield [85]
Lone Wolf in Termie Armor w/ Chainfist, Storm Shield [85]
Lone Wolf in Termie Armor w/ Chainfist, Storm Shield [85]
Troops
5 Wolf Guard, Termie Armor, Chainfist, Cyclone Missile Launcher [210]
5 Wolf Guard, Termie Armor, Chainfist, Cyclone Missile Launcher [210]
5 Wolf Guard, Termie Armor, Chainfist, Cyclone Missile Launcher [210]
5 Wolf Guard, Termie Armor, Chainfist, Cyclone Missile Launcher [210]
5 Wolf Guard, Termie Armor, Chainfist, Cyclone Missile Launcher [210]

Total: 1710/1850

We could hand out Frost Blades and a pair of combi-meltas to each squad, and that'd put us to 1810. Still 40 points to soak. This would give us a little bit of armor-killing power at point-blank range if we need it, and a little more CC power.

I suppose we could also just roll with the two MM/HF speeders in lieu of all the extras, and just deep-strike them. It makes things a bit simpler, and gives us a 'suprise!' card against heavy armor and/or hordes.

On Logan-Wing in Drop Pods
I'm not going to go in-depth on it, but a few notes:
1) 1-2 squads will be shorted to 4 troops if we want to drop-pod Logan and the Rune Priest in pods. This will cost us heavy weapons in those squads.
2) I'm not so sure we need cyclone missile launchers any more.
3) Range. We still want some.

I would consider the basic drop-podding squad something like:
4 combi-melta
Heavy Flamer
Chainfist
Total: 195 + drop pod.

Basic capabilities are in.

If we want to solve range problems, I'll throw out an alternative solution:
Logan + Lascannon Long Fangs. If you don't go first, hide out of LOS, then Relentless into LOS and start shooting stuff. 6 Fangs with 5 Lascannons runs 215. It's a costly chunk, but it lets us try to gimp mech before it can run away from our guys. 5 S10 Lascannons can usually wreck some things, and if it's overkill we can split the fire.

Figured I'd through that out.

11 comments:

jabberjabber said...

Nice lists! And they look like they could be highly competitive if played well.

Chumbalaya said...

It's fun, isn't it?

I have found that grouping together 2 squads into a big 10 man unit is very useful to get the most out of Logan's buffs. 2 cyclones with tank hunters is a very useful ability, plus with Logan and the RP in there (S8 living lightning!) you have quite the formiddable fighting force.

If I've got points to spare, a single Wolf Claw here and there never hurts, it's only 5 points, and maybe a storm shield for extra protection.

Haven't gotten around to podding them yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll end up different from walking.

Raptor1313 said...

I can definitely see Wolf Claws coming in here and there. At 5 points? I must've missed that.

I suppose combining a squad would be nasty, but largely for the ability to, as you said, give Tank Hunters to four missiles and Living Lightning.

For pods...unless the squads get smaller, I'm iffy about the number of pods. We can always drop empty pods, and we can readily get combi-weapon termies in there, but still. I think I'd sooner do walking Logan-Wing than otherwise.

Dverning said...

An easy way to answer your Droppod quandry? Pack Leaders. Just spin a single guy off to some other squad. Long Fangs, Drop Grey Hunters... (Or Wolf Scouts and Skyclaws if those get FAQ'd right)

Another option is taking 2 guys in power armour rather than being all-Termie.

That being said, I really don't think WolfWing needs to be all-drop. After all, Logan can't use his special abilities if he's not on the board. I think a mixed foot/drop will probably prove the most efficient.

Anonymous said...

Seriously, the more I SW lists I read the less certain I am what I want my army to look like :S

It's like in the IG codex. So many good options, what to take?

Damn xD

Raptor1313 said...

@Anon

It's the mark of a good 'dex. There are just a lotta options.

I think, though, that the Wolf Guard mechanic (plus cavalry-class choices) make SW look at being foot-oriented rather than the mech army.

Anonymous said...

What makes the lascannons s10, aren't they supposed to be 9? (just started 40k so still learning all the rules)

Dverning said...

What makes the lascannons s10, aren't they supposed to be 9?
You are correct, this is just internet shorthand. Logan Grimnar can confer Tank Hunters to his squad. It is S9 for Instant Death or otherwise shooting T-value models... but the +1 on the AP roll is essentially the same as being S9(10). Given that anti-tank is pretty much the main reason to take Lascannons, people often refer to Tank Hunter Lascannons as S10. Make sense?

Raptor1313 said...

Aye. Tank Hunters is defined in the main rulebook, under the Universal Special Rules.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Raptor1313 said...

Not a problem. The only dumb question is the unasked one.