Land Speeders

Land speeders are cheap. Land speeders are fast. Land speeders can put out a surprising amount of damage. Land speeders are vulnerable to small arms fire.  They are an effective and very points efficient unit that has a tendency to pay for itself many times over.

Weapon choice
The land speeder weapon load out needs to match it's role on the field of play. Anti tank necessitates two multi melta.  Anti infantry requires a pair of heavy bolters or a heavy bolter and assault cannon (if you are going up against harder to kill targets).  Typhoon missile launchers are a half way compromise between anti tank and anti infantry and as a result excel at neither.

Tactics
Land speeders need to keep out of charge range. To get charged tends to be a negative fore gone conclusion with the land speeder being left a burning charred wreck.

Land speeders excel at objective grabbing.  Moving 12" and then moving flat out means that they will be able to reach almost anywhere on the board from a central position.

Stormfang by demon40kpaintservices

I always wanted the blog to act as a platform for members of the space wolf community to present their work.  From demon40kpaintservices presents a article on painting a storm Fang.

First basecoat the stormfang black  ..then base coat with The Fang/BASE..Next i dry brushed a layer of Russ Grey all over model..applying more on flat suffice giving  you a already dirty look..

Next I dry brushed fenrisian grey layer along egde's first .then in cup place's to bring out the colour..this will look a mess at first but will take shape in front of you eyes..

Next I dry brushed fenrisian grey layer along edge's first .then in cup place's to bring out the colour..this will look a mess at first but will take shape in front of you eyes..

After that its down to you to fill in all the other base colours you need on this model golds ect...

So after all additional base colours / wash's you should end up with this..remember to dry brush more if you want a different  shade..always when dry brushing wipe access paint get a better effect with brush slow & layers ..

Felix's wolves....

An article by Felix regarding him painting a full space wolf army for a friend. 

Dear friends of the best hobby in the world,  I am honored by the request to do an article about my Space Wolves.

A short introduction:

My name is Felix and I´m 35. I live in Germany. I started collecting Minis in 2009 and ever since my collecting grew. First there were Orks…lots of Orks. Later I decided to start a Tyranid swarm. Then, after three years the Emperor enlightened me and sent his blessing to me. When I saw the Sangiunary Guard Box I just had to…you know that feeling. 6500 points later finally the Thunderwolf Cavallery came into view. I wanted to have a strong ally in battles to come, so I started collecting Space Wolves.

When I posted my first freehand in a group on Facebook I was overwhelmed by the positive reactions of many painters and collectors.

A week later came Jesse – a guy from Alaska…21 and totally crazy in a very positive way ;)

His enthusiasm was viral -  he so wanted to have this Land Raider.

I had to tell him that it was not for sale, but he kept asking me if I was able to create an army for him. At that time a few of my German friends were selling some old stuff so I was able to start with a few vehicles and troops. Jesse was alright with my idea of making a recycled army from old models to save money and to be able to start a.s.a.p.

Some oft he models were in a real bad shape, but I went on and started the „wolfication“

I put many pelts and shields on the tanks to achieve that special Fenrisian look. I added some bits and tried not to overload the vehicles. The priming was done with „The Fang“ from Citadel and a bit of Wolf Grey from Army Painter.

Soon Jesse came up with the request for a Space Wolves Knight. Form e it was a perfect way to combine my wish to once do a special Knight and making my ideas reality.

I ordered basing material from Scibor Miniatures and started converting the hell out of one Imperial Knight. Jesse flipped around every time I sent him pics and described what sort of adjustment I was thinking about.

I combined the ranged weapons of the right arm by using green stuff fand magnets.  The powerfist was done with some bits from the dreadnoughts and of course – green stuff!

The Base was supposed to be an eye catcher as much as the Knight itself

When it came to painting the Knight we exchanged ideas and I used pen and paper to send results to Jesse.

The results of my work so far: 

This is what I have so far…my own army does not look that great. 

Blood Claw Squad

The humble blood claw received a significant points drop in the current codex moving them from being one of the worst units in the codex to a points efficient and effective unit. 

Blood claws are the assault unit of choice for the space wolves filling a very different role to the Grey Hunter.  While Grey Hunters excel at a shooting range of 12" to allow there special Weapons to have maximum impact before using counter attack to receive a charge.  Blood claws need to charge rather than be charged.  They rely upon volume of attacks to wine in assault. 

Special weapons
The only thing worth considering is a flamer.  The other options do not work well with the Blood Claws BS of3.

Power Weapon
Blood claws are able to take a power weapon on a non character model meaning that the wielder of the power weapon cannot be issued a challenge.  Power fists are usually the best option to make use of the large number of attacks that a single blood claw will make during the first round of assault.  Power axes are also viable if points are tight.

Wolf Guard Leader
Expensive to add to the squad and very vulnerable in a challenge.  Adding upgrades to a wolf guard leader becomes expensive very quickly.  Attaching a rune priest in the squad is a more cost effective method of adding additional AP 2 attacks in assault in addition to providing the opportunity to buff the squad.

Formations
They are made even more effective when they are ran as part of the Blackmanes formation with Ragnar Blackmane.  Rerolling all fair hits in assault for all claw units in the formation is exceptional.

Dedicated Transports
Rhinos and Razor backs tend to be a waste.  They take to long to deliver what Is in effect a assault focused unit to the target area.  As they are not assault vehicles the Blood Claw Unit cannot assault during the turn that they disembark. 

Stormwolves are very hard hitting and provide the ultimate in anti armour hunting in addition to being an assault vehicle.  They are also very expensive and will not arrive on the board until turn 2 at the earliest meaning a turn 3 charge.

Drop Pods are the most cost effective way of delivering a blood claw squad.  Granted they are not a assault vehicle meaning no assaults on the turn that the unit disembark but no time is wasted having to traverse the field of play to reach the opposition.

Grey Hunters

Grey Hunter Squads form the heart of most space wolf armies.  While they are not as good currently as what they were compared to the historic 5th ed codex they still are better than there peers in codex Space Marine.  They will out fight a tactical squad in assault and outshoot them on the move due to the ability to take two special Weapons rather than a special + heavy weapon.  The key is to tailor the load out of the grey Hunter Squad to its role on the battle field.

Special Weapons
Grey Hunter Squads need to be tailored to meet the required role. Against infantry x2 flamers, heavy armour x2 plasma guns (+ plasma pistol) and vehicles x2 melta guns.

Placement of the model in the squad needs to ensure that the special Weapons can deliver maximum damage output but ensure that are not in a position where they can be easily targeted.

Power Weapons
The ability to hide a power weapon on a non character model in a squad is the main reason why the humble Grey Hunter Squad out plays a codex space marine tactical squad. The wielder cannot be challenged in assault and as a result is significantly more survivable than a character armed with a power weapon.  The choice of power weapon again needs to be tailored to the required role.  Against vehicles a power fist is essential but against any other target a power axe is more points effective and better than a power sword.

Wolf Standard
This single item was at the heart of the old 5th edition codex and allowed for some truly broken abuse of the rules. The current version gives +1 attack to any unit within 6" and reroll moral checks within 12". Placement if the model is key.  They need to be protected and placed so that the 6" bubble interacts with as many units in assault as possible.  Placing the wolf standard on the model carrying the power weapon helps to do this.

Wolf Guard Leader
Adding a wolf guard leader to the squad is expensive but does have many merits. They will increase the initial Dana he output of a squad but at a premium.  It suits a drop pod delivery system over other means due to the alpha strike nature of drop pods.  The wolf guard leader allows access to a combi weapon which should always match the others in the squad. Power Weapons are expensive and as the wolf guard leader is a character vulnerable in a challenge meaning that this tends to be a unnecessary outlay .  A melta bomb on the wolf guard leader is a good investment if the squad is likely to go up against vehicles.  If the squad is likely to end up in assault or if you a planning on placing an independent character in the squad a wolf guard leader in terminator armour running a storm shield and combi weapon adds a significant amount of survivability and allows the wolf guard leader to take on unwanted challenges.

Extra Close Combat Weapon
Essential if there is a chance that the Grey Hunter Squad could end up in assault. Combined with the wolf standard a single grey Hunter will make 4 attacks during the first round of assault. This is significantly more than most other troop choices in other codex's.

Dedicated Transports
This depends upon many factors. If the Blackmane formation is being used then the free drop pods are a must take. The same is true if  the Iron Wolves formation is being used then a razorback loaded with every free upgrade is the only real sensible choice (assault cannon or Las cannon).  The razorback will limit the squad size to 5 however. 

If a standard force organisation chart is being used my personal preference is to use a drop pod over a rhino or razorback. 

The combination of objective secured on a AV12 3HP vehicle that delivers your squad to a position without taking a turn or two to get there (whilst being shot at) is to good to turn down. Granted they lack mobility after the initial landing but this can be accounted for in the rest of the army list.  When taken en mass they can restrict the movement of opposing forces and cause the opposition to have to responding a reactive manner.

Rhinos are to fragile and likely to be immobilised leaving the squad to move on foot to its target location.  With only two fire points only two members of the embarked squad can fire.  If the vehicles moves faster than combat speed then these weapons are being snap fired. Damage output is likely to be limited.

Razorbacks while having a greater damage output that ether rhinos or drop pods need to be moving at combat speed to make best use of the large gun that's sat on its roof.  This is a lot of circumstances is in direct conflict to moving the squad in side to its desired location to disembark as quickly as possible.

To sum up.  Dedicated Transports role is to transport a unit to a position on the battle field quickly and safely. The drop pod does this better than other choices. High damage output is best left to other units.  The drop pod does lack the ability to be able to redeploy said unit however meaning that initial deployment us key.

Readers Hobby Blog Contribution - Matthew Whipps

From its humble beginnings this blog was always going to be contribution focused from the online Space Wolves community. The pictures above come from the collection of Matthew Whipps.   Matthew was keen to praise the online painting guides produced by Games Workshop featuring Duncan Rhodes.  

Matthews work makes use of a string colour pallet along to produce a clean and exceptionally tidy paint job.  Weathering is focused and realistic and adds to the overall effect.

If you have anything that you want to share get in contact

Lone Wolves

The most characterfull and best fitting fluff wise unit in the entire codex in my humble opinion.  I modelled and painted these four to try and represent four distinct personalities and styles of combat. The forgeworld space wolf upgrade sprue formed the basis of each model. 

These models attract an insane amount of fire from the opposition and usually make their points back 4 or 5 times over. The most was the last lone wolf taking on and beating a knight in assault before being crushed by said knight as it promptly exploded....