Email in: Help with SW army for 1850 tourny

Greetings Will!

My name is Nasir Hafez Al-Asad. I am a big fan of your "Blood Rodeo" army. I am writing to you because while I am collecting the models need for the rodeo, I want to play my Space Wolves in a upcoming tournament. I have been using the following:1 Logan Grimnar, The Great Wolf @ 275 pts

1 Rune Priest @ 120 pts (...in Power Armour)
1 Rune Priest in Power Armour (Chooser of the Slain; Living Lightning; Murderous Hurricane; Saga of the Beastslayer)

3 X of the WG like so..
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour (Chain Fist; Cyclone Missile Launcher)
1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour (Chain Fist; Cyclone Missile Launcher)

and then this unit....

1 Wolf Guard Pack @ 507 pts (Wolf Guard in Power Armour; Wolf Guard in Power Armour; Wolf Guard in Power Armour; Wolf Guard in Power Armour; Wolf Guard in Power Armour; Wolf Guard in Power Armour; Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour; Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour; Arjac Rockfist, The Anvil of Fenris; Drop Pod)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour (Melta Bombs; Wolf Claw; Wolf Claw; Cyclone Missile Launcher)
1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour (Storm Shield; Thunder Hammer)
1 Arjac Rockfist, The Anvil of Fenris
1 Drop Pod

This is 2000 points. I add Arjac to LF and Logan too. I have been doing ok but I feel that something is missing here. Maybe some dedicated fighters maybe? I don't know I am asking you now! Lol! How can I make this better and also make it for 1850 points? I appreciate the time you take to look at this and respond to me. Thank you and your blog is wonderful. Please continue the good work.

Yours Truly,

N. Hafez Al-asad

Hey Nasir, good to see another fan of the Blood Rodeo (should I [& Curly] get a patent on that thing lol; maybe I’ll get raged at for “ruining” 40k like Darkwynn’s “mighty” leaftblower). Would love to hear progress on it. Glad you like the blog as well. Anyway, onto the list. I’m assuming your tournament is 1850 from your request...oh yes it is, good job to me on reading the e-mail subject. I think what you are trying to do is a Logan styled army, which is fine though you’ve done it in an odd way I think, Wolf Guard aren't really built for combat and you haven't spammed a lot of firepower either. I don’t have the codex on me so don’t know if your points are right, but you mention LF (long fangs) yet there are none in your list. From the output I’ve been given this is what you have:

Logan
RP w/LL, Beastslayer, Hurricane, Chooser
3x10x WG w/2 TDA w/chainfist, CML
8x WG w/2 TDA 1w/mbombs, Wolf Claw x2, CML, 1w/SS, TH & Arjac + Drop Pod

Honestly, that’s not much and seems under 2k (I think it's like 1850 or something) but as I said, no codex on me and don’t know all the wolf guard upgrade costs :P. So let’s see if we can’t make you a Loganwing missile spam army (I’m again assuming with your use of CMLs + mention of LFs you don’t have a problem with this, if so let me know and I’ll work something else out). First things first, Logan & a Rune Priest. Your RP setup is spot on so we’ll leave those 2 as they are leaving us with 1455 points to play with. With loganwing you don’t really want combat prowess though you can mix up your armor styles nicely to be somewhat decent in combat. It’s all about missiles. So we want 5 men WG w/CMLs. If my memory is correct these are 135 pts a pop so let’s take 6 for giggles. We’ve got 6 mobile Troops capable of putting out 12 missiles on the move and 645 pts left. Not bad. Now let’s add in those Long Fangs. 3 squads w/4 ML each is 115 so we’re at 1550 total now with 24 missiles (I like that...).

Problem so far is a complete lack of S9+ or 2D6 penetration weapons, AV14 is going to give this army fits. Now we can add combi-meltas to our WG which is certainly a good addition and Logan can give one squad Tank Hunters (essentially S9) but let’s try something a little different. IIRC Lascannons are 35 pts, 25 more than the MLs in Long Fangs so let’s give each LF pack a new lascannoner and upgrade an ML to a lascannon (so 3 MLs 2 LCs). This is 75 pts per squad so takes up all but 75 points of our allowance, maybe not a great idea. What we’ll do then is upgrade one squad to have 2 LCs and put Logan in that squad and then grab 2 speeders. These can be MM/HF or Typhoons and we’ll go for Typhoons to get side shots w/S8. This leaves us with 45 pts to put combi-meltas on the Wolf Guard (pretty sure they are 10pts?). So let’s look at what we have:

Logan
Rune Priest w/LL, Hurricane, Chooser, Beastslayer
2x 5x WG w/CML, combi-melta
4x 5x WG w/CML
2x Typhoon
6x LF w/3x ML, 2x LC
2x 5x LF w/4x ML

Totals: 1995pts
Vehicles: 2
48 infantry

That’s a decent base on which to build assuming this is what you were after. It puts out a lot of firepower at range and is still semi-decent in close combat w/Logan (remember his +1 A ability) and 7 power weapons + standard counter-attack Wolfiness. Chumbalaya & MagicJuggler love Missile spam Loganwing so they might weigh in with some thoughts as well.

So Nasir, was that what you were after? Or were you after a more combat oriented Space Wolves list? If you want to go that route I would veer away from Logan really and look more at Thunderwolf Calvary, Lone Wolves, Canis, etc. as that is really in your face and killy. Wolf Guard kitted out for combat get expensive fast but do shooting well and cheap (ironically).