2000point tournament Space Wolves list, because reasons

[robomummy]

so I have been looking for a new army to start now for awhile, spending some time making lists but I haven't started any of them yet. Anyway here is another one, a 2000 point space wolves list. This list is built to have a relatively low model count so I don't need to carry around a large bag with me when I travel to a tournament. I have made this list so almost everything in it will get some form of invulnerable save and be generally hard to kill and hard-hitting to MEq. So here it is, let me know what you think

Logan Grimnar

Njal Stormcaller

Wolf Guard (5)- Terminator armor, 3x wolf claws, 4x storm shields, assault cannon, Arjac Rockfist, Drop pod

Wolf Guard (5)- Terminator Armor, 4x Wolf claws, 5x storm shields, assault cannon, drop pod

Grey Hunters (6)- Meltagun

Thunderwolf Cavalry (3)- 2x storm shields, 3x wolf claws

Long Fangs (5)- 4x Missile launchers

Long Fangs (5)- 4x Missile launchers

Aegis Defense line- quad gun

Ok so the plan is to stick Logan Grimnar in the wolf guard squad with Arjac, I will put Njal in the other Wolf guard squad. Once the drop pods land the Independent character will separate from the Wolf guard packs and go off on their own. They will probably act as a large fire magnet and do as much damage as they can before they are killed. The wolf guard units will be taking on MEq units or target scoring units to prevent my opponents seizing any objectives. The grey hunters will work as backfield defenders and also go where they are needed to capture objectives. The Thunderwolves will also become a large fire magnet and rush towards the nearest threatening target. Finally the long fangs will sit behind the aeigis line and deal with vehicles and fliers, if they are needed they can also use frag missiles to take out large groups of GEq units.

[WestRider]

Drop Pods can only hold 5 Terminators, not 6, unfortunately.

Can't say I'm really a fan of the concept in general, either. Very fragile, with only 16 Scoring Models, 10 of which you're planning on hurling directly into your Opponent.

Speaking of which, in the last 2K Tournament I played in, I went up against 2 DeathWing Players who each dropped 20+ Terminators in my face on Turn 1. It got a bit touch and go, but I was able to fend both off, eventually tabling one and nearly tabling the other. And what the IG/SW List I was running back then can do isn't actually particularly impressive compared to what a Tau, Eldar, or Imperial List with good Inquisitorial support can do these days.

Those TWC won't hold up very well, either. I run three plus a tooled up ThunderWolf Lord, and they still end up just dying about half the time to massed S6-7 Firepower. Armies like Eldar, Crons, and Tau just wipe them off the board. I also wouldn't buy them Wolf Claws. They're expensive and a ton of S5 Rending is good enough for most things. Maybe stick in one Thunder Hammer or PowerFist.

Also, just thought of this: 2 Drop Pods is a bad number. One comes in on Turn 1, and then the other has to be rolled for as Reserves. All you're really putting up in your Opponent's face on Turn 1 is 5 Terminators, and even if one of those is Logan, that's not terribly difficult for most good 2K Lists to vaporize.

Sorry.

[robomummy]

Good point, I see how this can probably go horribly wrong for me. I need to rework this list at some point but I am not quite sure how SW are played best. It looks like they have a good base for an assault army yet many of their other units don't seem like they will be able to hold up in assault. Any Ideas on what would be best to use in a SW army while simultaneously keeping the model count down?

[WestRider]

Unfortunately, 6th is kind of rough on low Model-count Armies no matter how you slice it, and the SW Dex is starting to get a bit, well, long in the tooth. Not bad exactly, but it's pretty inflexible these days.

I pretty much only play my SW with IG Allies, to bulk out my Scoring Units and add longer-ranged Firepower. On their own, SW are kind of a hybrid Army. They have Units that are good in Assaults, but not enough of them to really work if they go all-in on the Assault concept. They work best as a midfield army, getting in short-ranged firefights, and then finishing in Assault. Counterattack means that it's really feasible to sit at close-range and trade fire with a lot of Armies, because they're almost as dangerous to Charge as to get Charged by.

The general build is pushing 40-50 Grey Hunters up, supported by Long Fangs, and probably one truly hard Assault Unit, either TWC or WG Termies, to handle the stuff that Grey Hunters can't drop with Bolter or Chainsword. I like to run my Grey Hunters fairly tooled up, with a Wolf Guard Pack Leader, Mark of the Wulfen, and Wolf Standard. There's not a whole lot in the game that they don't have a decent chance against, point-for-point, if they can close with it at that point, but you do need numbers to make it work on the Army level.

Some ideas, without really looking at how the Points would add up:
- Drop Njall for a regular Rune Priest with Chooser of the Slain. Stay flexible with him, he can either drop in a Pod to Jaws things or hang back with the Long Fangs to cast Prescience and man the Quad Gun (he's BS5 when shooting at anything that has LoS to the Chooser, which can be cool).
- Drop the Thunderwolves for a third Podded Terminator Squad. This lets you at least drop two Pods on Turn 1.
- Alternately, buff the Thunderwolves up to full strength, and take a Pod for the Grey Hunters, still letting you push two Pods into the initial drop, and keeping the Hunters safe for a bit longer, to make it more likely they can survive to hold an Objective.
- No matter how you make it happen, you want an odd number of Pods, so that as many as possible are landing on Turn 1.
- Make sure each Terminator Squad has at least one Thunder Hammer/PowerFist/ChainFist. Getting Tarpitted by Dreads or Wriathknights sucks. Probably best to go with Chainfists, you've got almost no answer to truly heavy Armour or big MCs like WraithKnights/Riptides.
- Change one Wolf Guard in each Squad to Power Armour. One will attach to the Grey Hunters (and should probably take a Combi-Melta), freeing up room for Logan in a Pod, the other one frees up room for a PA Rune Priest just by switching to Power Armour, but they still keep the Squads at 5 strong, letting you buy Terminator Heavy Weapons.
- I'd also probably only go with a couple of Storm Shields per Squad. WG Termies pay way more for Assault Terminators than other chapters do, their strength is in the cheap regular ones. Power Axe+Storm Bolter/Combi-Weapon, and maybe Meltabombs is a good deal for 33-43 Points. Especially for the Squad with Logan, since he can Tank pretty well.