That's no moon...that's a space station! Part 2

The Wolfstar

Our next unit in the Space Wolf library o' deathstars is the wolfstar. What is the wolfstar?  What makes it a deathstar? How does it work? Is there much of an army left to support it?  Let's find out.

The wolfstar is a 3-5 strong unit of thunderwolf cavalry led by a Wolf Lord mounted on a thunderwolf.  This unit can vary based on the user's tastes, but usually includes a special combat weapon and storm shield wielding model, another storm shield model with ccw, and then finally the remaining models having a plethora of mundance equipment. 

Why the varied equipment? 

#1- Only one model in the unit can take a special close combat weapon.
#2- Wound allocation shenanigans.  Since thunderwolf cav are two wound models and each model can have different equipment, you can allocate wounds across the unit and make it so that the unit never loses a full model until a somewhat large amount of wounds have been taken.  This same trick is done with Ork Nobz.  It makes this unit a real pain.

A wolfstar includes a unit as mentioned above, with the addition of a Wolf Lord toting a ton of equipment and sometimes a saga that makes him outrageously scary.

A Wolfstar that I have found fun is:

Wolf Lord- thunderwolf mount, 2x fenrisian wounds...I mean wolves, wolf claw, storm shield, runic armor, wolf tail talisman, saga of the warrior born- 280pt.
4 Thunderwolf Cav- 1x thunder hammer/storm shield, 1x ccw/storm shield, 1x ccw/storm shield/melta bombs, 1x ccw/pistol- 385pt.

So, as you can see this group of rabid wolves riding wolves totals out to be 665pt. This is somewhere between 1/4 to 1/3 of your army's points depending on the game size. 

It is also really good at denying points since it is so hard to kill. 

What does it have and how does it work?

1) Thunderwolves give S5 and T5 which makes them very tough and insanely good at killing most things.  The thunderwolves also confer cavalry rules and rending as long as the rider doesn't take a special ccw.  Add to that their 4 base attacks and you are looking at truly nightmarish model.  Now compound that by 5 and add in a smattering of special weapons and rock hard saves.

2) This unit will have 27 attacks on the charge at varying initiatives (the thunder hammer) and strengths (again the thunder hammer).  The lord gets to add the number of his previous rounds kills to his attack profile in following turns.  The whole unit has a 3+, 3++ save except the lord who has a 2+, 3++ save.  Everyone is carrying different equipment so you can doll out 7 wounds before you lose a thunderwolf ( thank you fenrisians). 

3) Cavalry are fleet and charge 12".  With average rolling you will go 21" a turn.  That is more than enough to cross the board and be in combat by turn 2. 

4) The thunderwolves are on larger bases than even terminators, so spreading out and multi-assaulting is fairly easy. 

In order to support this unit, you need to build a fairly basic SW army.  You will, of course, need your troop choice minimums, but as usual you will eithersee double melta rhino squads or minimum sized laz/plas razorback squads.  In this case as most, makes sure you get the maximum number of heavy slots filled with your longs fangs.

In such a case as this, you want to have a lot of early pressure applied to your opponent, so that they are forced to deal with your thundewolves or your shooting.  Add to that the imminent arrival of wolf scouts, and you have a fairly overwhelming army.  Here is an example:

Rune priest- chooser, lightning, jaws- 110pt.
Wolf Lord- thunderwolf, 2x fenrisian wolves, runic armor, wolf tail talisman, wolf claw, storm shield, saga of the warrior born- 280pt.

5 wolf scouts- meltaguns- 85pt.
5 wolf scouts- meltaguns- 85pt.
5 wolf guard- 2x combi-melta/power weapon/meltabombs, 3x combi-melta/power weapon- 170pt.

5 grey hunters- meltagun, laz/plas razorback- 155pt.
5 grey hunters- meltagun, laz/plas razorback- 155pt.
5 grey hunters- meltagun, laz/plas razorback- 155pt.

4 thunderwolf cav- th/ss, ccw/ss, ccw/ss/meltabombs, ccw/pistol- 385pt.
Landspeeder- multi-melta, flamer- 70pt

5 long fangs- 4x missiles- 115pt.
5 long fangs- 4x missiles- 115pt.
5 long fangs- 4x missiles- 115pt.

1995pt.

So the basic gist is to shoot, shoot, shoot with the fangs and rune priest while the razorback move and shoot.  The scouts and speeder will either reserve and deepstrike/outflank or infiltrate/move flatout to get into the opponent's face quickly and apply melta pressure.  The Wolfstar will aim at the largest part of the opponent's army and pray that units get de-meched before it gets there to assault them to death.  This list is basically like throwing pebbles at someone to distract them while the wrecking ball swings around from the side. 

Sorry, I didn't do any mathhammer for this one.  It's been a long weekend and I can't fathom pumping out the numbers tonight.  If anyone out there wants to do so for me, I would appreciate it.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks!