"Hi Kirby & Co, I've been playing my Wolves for a while now and I've found many of your articles to be helpful, informative, and occasionally hilarious. My FLGS generally plays games and runs tournaments at 1850 and I've sort of settled into a rut as far as list-building goes. I've been doing pretty well W/L/D-wise, but I would like you to take a look at my list and tell me what I could improve about it.
One thing I'm not very keen on changing is the Heavy Support. I know it would probably be best to switch the vindicators for dakkapreds or more long fangs, but I like my vindys. Everything else is fair game! I have a lot of other models sitting around...
Rune Priest / Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane
Wolf Guard Pack / x3, 2x Combi-melta, 3x Powerfist (non-combi guy goes with razorback squad)
Dreadnought / Twin-linked Lascannon
Dreadnought / Twin-linked Lascannon
Grey Hunter Pack / x9, Wolf Standard, Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Rhino w/ Dozer Blade
Grey Hunter Pack / x8, Wolf Standard, Meltagun, Power Weapon, Rhino w/ Dozer Blade
Grey Hunter Pack / x5, Wolf Standard, Meltagun, Razorback w/ Twin-linked Lascannon
Land Speeder / Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Speeder / Typhoon Missile Launcher
Thunderhorse Cavalry / x4, Powerfist, Storm Shield, Melta Bombs
Long Fang Pack / x5, 4x Missile Launcher
Vindicator / Dozer Blade
Vindicator / Dozer Blade"
If you're set on Vindis I'd really lean away from Space Wolves and look more at Vanilla Marines (who do better midfield thanks to Tacs and Termies) or Blood Angels who have fast Vindies. The biggest issue with Vindies and SW is TWC. S10 scattering onto your T5 guys sucks. The rest of your list also fits better with Vanilla Marines as you can simply run Troops/Fast Attack the same (flamer/MM/combi Tacs and Typhoons) and replace the TWC with Terminators as a 'Thunderbubble'. Rune Priest is replaced by Libby and you lose some ranged firepower but gain the awesomeness of Null Zone.
If you want to make this list work for SW you have to drop the TWC or use them in a completely counter-assault role (i.e. 1-2 per squad and not outfitted with much). I'd also recommend switching the Grey Hunters to smaller 5 man squads with LasPlas RBacks (or TLLC if you don't want to convert them). Basically with Vindies you don't want to move your stuff forward where if it scatters, it scatters onto your guys. Large GH squads and TWC want to move forward so fixing those aspects allows the Vindies to operate more effectively.
