Space Wolves Pros and Cons

[gauntinator]

Hi hive,

I haven't been very active in gaming for the past two months or so. I just haven't been in the mood. But I took a look at the current Space Wolves codex and my interest was peaked. I'm not usually a "fan" of any space marine chapter because I find them all to be too similar and bland. However, I found the space wolves fluff and rules to be very interesting. No body plays them at my local store so I'm wondering what their pros and cons are. Are they a competitive army? Are they fun? What makes them different from the average space smurf?

[WestRider]

Are they a competitive Army? Yes, absolutely. SW have won the last two NOVA Opens, and I think the last Adepticon as well.

Pros: Some of the most flexible Troops around with the possibility of two Special Weapons per Squad, cheap and effective Heavy Weapons from Long Fangs, some powerful Psykers (including great Psychic Defense), good Combat Characters, some great Combat units (Wolf Guard and ThunderWolf Cav), Counter-Attack.

Cons: No Heavy Weapons in Troops Units, Squad Leaders aren't automatically included in most Units (and take an Elites Choice to add), no SternGuard or Thunderfire Cannon, TH/SS Terminators are more expensive, lots of options that can make things way too expensive if you're not careful.

Differences from Vanilla Marines: Vanilla Marines tend to be a somewhat longer-ranged Army for the most part, leaving Assaults almost entirely to specialist Units (largely TH/SS Termies). Basically anything in the SW List is willing to tangle with basic Units in Assault, and they often have somewhat better short-ranged Firepower due to the two Special Weapons.

Counter-Attack also means that it's not as important for them to get the Charge, so they're often content sitting in Assault Range and double-tapping with their Bolters, then taking the Charge with 3 Attacks each due to the Pistol/CCW and Counter-Attack.

As a result, they tend to play rather more aggressively than a Vanilla SM Army, but they're not an all-out Assault Army the way a lot of BA builds are. They like to get up in their Opponent's face and shoot, confident in the ability to handle themselves in either a close-range Firefight or an Assault.

Overall, in any given area, there's another Army in the Game that can focus on that, and do it better, but Space Wolves are probably the best in the Game at putting together flexible, take-all-comers Lists that can handle anything that gets thrown at them reasonably well.

(Also, if you became interested in them, your interest was 'piqued'. If you're interest 'peaks', that means you're less interested from there on out. This has been your word for the day.)

[gauntinator]

Thanks for the imput westrider. You have confirmed some of my thoughts and answered a few questions.