"G'day Kirby,
More Wolf questions and ideas.
Tyranids. They do the multi-unit screen thing.
Gants screen Venomthropes, who give them 5+ cover.
The Venomthropes or any other large Infantry, then give MC a 50% cover save.
ThunderLord hangs out with FenWolf pack.
Ld 10 and ATSKNF. Nice.
Behind them is the TWC.
The FenWolves give 4+ cover to the TWC.
The TWC give the FenWolves a re-roll on Morale tests.
33/36 = 91.67% then re-rolled gives 99.3%. Nice.
But nothing protects the screening Fenwolves. Boo.
How about a Rune Priest with *Storm caller* to give them a 5+ cover save?
The Priest will probably be in a Rhino with Greys.
T1 he casts it. Fenwolves cover 7-12"
T2 he casts it [if in doubt]. Fenwolves cover 14-24" but they probably cover 12+7" = 19"
When you add the 12" assault range, they can hit something within 31" inches of their deployment location, they'll often be able to hide into mêlée 'cover'
I know dropping a turn of LL reduces suppression, which allows the enemy to move and shoot, which incurs more loses, which balance out the extra saves, perhaps.
15 Fenwolves with 5+ cover shouldn't fall too quickly to small arms fire.
10 Bolter shots. 6.6 hit. 3.3 wound. 2.2 fail saves.
20 shots kills 4.4.
Or a Dakka Pred. 6 HB + 2AC
= 4 hits + 1.33 hits
= 2.67 wounds + 1.11 wounds
= 3.78 wounds
= 2.52 failed saves.
I figure that the bigger the Fenwolves pack is, the more units will fire at them. Thus making *Storm caller* more viable.
A 5 Wolf unit will get smoked.
10 can be dealt with by a unit or two.
15 should take 3 units, at least.
More shooting makes *Storm caller* better, as in, you getting better value from the spell because it is covering more guys.
If the Fenwolves are likely to get the charge off on T2, the Priest can caste LL instead.
The Lord makes the Fenwolves deadly in combat, and they are not too shabby in that regard in the first place.
People wont ignore the Fenwolves because they are so visible. Ace. More chances for *Storm caller* to work.
What do you think?"
Tyranids do this very differently. Cover is generally pretty easy to get for a spread out unit like Termagants/Puppies. What the whole layering for Tyranids does is provide cover for MCs which are a lot harder to get cover for. Venomthropes provide the guaranteed 5+ cover and the bonus of defensive grenades and dangerous terrain, etc. Suddenly being assaulted by the Tyranids and assaulting the Tyranids are unattractive propositions. Space Wolves w/TWC don't really need this as everything is basically an infantry sub-set. Let's take a look at how you would do it though.
Wolf Lords in Puppy squads is nice for making the squad deadly and providing a lot of attacks cheaply but you need to use Canis to run it properly as they get moved to Troops. You do not want to be losing FA slots to Puppies when you want TWC. You also lose unit-wide T5 and the unit doesn't really crush face of other super units so is more easily tarpitted by say a Dreadnought. This then becomes very expensive if you want a high Ld for the Puppies as Canis is a noobular Ld8 so you need a RP, WL on TWC, Canis, TWC x3, GH + Puppies...ya you'd be struggling. Rather, just run normal TWC and Iron Priests on TWC w/cyberwolves. The priests can screen the TWC and plop unwanted wounds on the Cyberwolves and a Wolf Lord w/Pups can join as well if needed. This can provide the 4+ screen for the TWC whilst most likely getting a cover save themselves from intervening terrain and if they don't, the puppies are ablative wounds.
Remember as well, a Tyranid army which has its cover setup disrupted can become very vulnerable to long-ranged shooting as it is more important for a Tyranid army to get cover for their MCs early game and if your Wolves run this too rigidly, your opponent will be able to take advantage of it. A slow run move can screw up your whole battle plan if you don't leave the appropriate avenues. Basically though, Space Wolves don't need interlaced screening as much as Tyranids and can do it a lot more efficiently than what was suggested.
