15 replies to this topic

[DanPesci]

Reyt,

thought id get a little discussion going about Lone Wolves, who uses them and how,
ive seen a couple of army lists on here recently, where people are running lone wolves with wolf claws, however i dont really see the point in this.

For me a lone wolf is there for one reason..to find the biggest, meanest thing in the opponents army, and to try and smash it to bits,
For this, wolf claws just dont cut it, i run my lone wolves with Storm Shields, and then either a thunder hammer or chainfist (if i have two in my army, ill run one with each), and some wolves if i have the spare points.

The reason i dont get taking them with wolf claws is this...with beastslayer and eternal warrior rules, theyre great for tying up (or even taking down) tough enemies, monstrous creatures and independent characters, hwoever with only a standard marines initiative, against most of these (unless carnifex hunting) your generally going to be up against things with a higher initiative than you, so why take a power weapon over something thats doubling your strength, as your generally hitting last anyway.

If youre charging them against medium sized infantry units and thats why they have wolf claws, youd be better off gettinga small grey hunter squad for around the same points?

So yeah, lone wolves, what are peoples thoughts..i really liek them, and always try to fit at least one, if not two into larger points lists. In annihilation games they become even better too, as yuor opponent has to decide wether to gun them down (losing them a kill point) or leave them be, whereby they should end up walking right up to the nearest tank/MC and battering it with hammers/CFist

[vanguardwolf]

i love the lone wolf fluff and i play them most of the time( 1 or 2 of the following).

lone wolf 1
TDA
frost spear
stom shield
melta bombs
2 fenrisian wolves

lone wolf 2
TDA
thunderhamer
stom shield
2 fenrisian wolves

lone wolf 3
TDA
wolf claws
melta- bombs
2 fenrisian wolves

and just send them on their way.
i use them to keep a large unit busy, go in and kill some thing big.
of just use them as a fire magnet and/or to give pressure on a unit of location

and just for the fun of it

also the moddeling part of a lone wolf is great fun.
give him weapons and wargear you like build some pet wolves for him
great fun!!


and my in game experience:
my 2 wolves killed alot and got kulled alot
but the fun and epic moments were great, i.e. a lone wolf bashing a valkyrie out of the sky.
exploxding it, and killing the whole squad inside and killing 2 guards in the exposion

greets

Edited by vanguardwolf, 30 January 2012 - 05:38 PM.

[Wysten]

Generally speaking, they are likeable and are deceptively tough units. Between feel no pain and 2+ armour can take a lot of damage, largely related to the fact they don't offer a kill point unless left alone.


To me, it's not their toughness that is in question, but their mobilty and range. They have plenty of toughness and grunt but are flexable as a brick, rather that you chuck it towards the general direction and hope it lasts long enough to hit them in the face.

Personally, I am not inclined with going the full stormsheild/chain fist, but I like the idea of just either leaving him in armour with a power fist, or Termie armour with a chain fist and combi-melta and sending him on his way. Dangerious enough to do considerable damage, tough enough to shrug off small arms fire almost entirely and cheap enough to not worry too much about sending him off on his way or watching him die without hurting anything.

I like him, just I also like scouts, that makes it hard for me to chose really, better tactical flexability or a pair of rather expensive but punchy bricks.

[DanPesci]

Generally speaking, they are likeable and are deceptively tough units. Between feel no pain and 2+ armour can take a lot of damage, largely related to the fact they don't offer a kill point unless left alone.

is it feel no pain they get? I always thought it was eternal warrior?

agreed bout their flexibility/lack of any tactics rather than just 'walk towards the enemy' but thats fine with me, its one less unit in my army i have to worry about 'if im playing them right this game", and i dont have any scouts at the moment so i dont need to make that choice can be annoying having them take up two elite slots though when you run two of them.

For my fluff, i run two lone wolves, modelwise they both had the same head when i got them second hand...so for me, theyre twin brothers that ended up both being the surviving members of their own wolf guard squads, and theyre now in competition with each other (as they have been since birth) to be the first to die a glorious death

Will have to try running one with frostblade or wolf claws rather than as a monster/tank killer

what i would have really liked is if you could take a bigger selection of wargear...so for example, say i had a game where i had a squad of long fangs, and they all got killed except one guy who made a heroic last stand...it be ace to be able to take him as a lone wolf, just as a normal marine by himself with a heavy weapon.
Probably one option too far in a codex already filled with plenty of options though

Edited by DanPesci, 31 January 2012 - 02:08 PM.

[DanPesci]

i love the lone wolf fluff and i play them most of the time( 1 or 2 of the following).

lone wolf 1
TDA
frost spear

what do you use for the frost spear by the way? grey knights lance?

[vanguardwolf]

grey kights tda lance old metal one, cut off the blade, take the runesword of the GH set and a wolf tail from the plasmagun.

ill post pic tomorrow


greets

[Russ Brother 92]

my usual route is either:

Lone Wolf 1 - Power Armour, Frost Axe and Melta Bombs only 50 Points - he can shrug off AP3 with FNP and has Eternal Warrior so he often soaks up a lot of firepower keeping my other units alive for longer, plus in CC with I4 2/3A at S5 he's pretty beastly - I give him the Melta Bombs so he can take on enemy armour - thus he's a threat against all units across the board.

Lone Wolf 2 - TDA, Twin WC's - more pricey at 65 points but I've used him vs both Nid/Ork Hordes and a Nid MC army - where he works brilliantly, tying up often more than one mob of gaunts/ork boys for much of the game (often slaughtering many before dying due to mass-saves) and where the MC's are concerned he's pretty good - getting his re-roll hits for Beastslayer and re-roll wounds for WC's so before now he's managed to take out a Trygon and a Carnifex in one match - admittedly it was with some extremely lucky rolling on my part and bad rolling on my opponents.

Just some to have a think about.

[Wysten]

Generally speaking, they are likeable and are deceptively tough units. Between feel no pain and 2+ armour can take a lot of damage, largely related to the fact they don't offer a kill point unless left alone.

is it feel no pain they get? I always thought it was eternal warrior?

agreed bout their flexibility/lack of any tactics rather than just 'walk towards the enemy' but thats fine with me, its one less unit in my army i have to worry about 'if im playing them right this game", and i dont have any scouts at the moment so i dont need to make that choice can be annoying having them take up two elite slots though when you run two of them.

For my fluff, i run two lone wolves, modelwise they both had the same head when i got them second hand...so for me, theyre twin brothers that ended up both being the surviving members of their own wolf guard squads, and theyre now in competition with each other (as they have been since birth) to be the first to die a glorious death

Will have to try running one with frostblade or wolf claws rather than as a monster/tank killer

what i would have really liked is if you could take a bigger selection of wargear...so for example, say i had a game where i had a squad of long fangs, and they all got killed except one guy who made a heroic last stand...it be ace to be able to take him as a lone wolf, just as a normal marine by himself with a heavy weapon.
Probably one option too far in a codex already filled with plenty of options though

They have access to both in their special ability, so they can't ever be killed in a single attack and are quite tough against normal attacks. Nothing quite like watching normal attacks bounce off the 2+ armour, the attacks that best that have to then bypass two 4+ saves typically before they even wound him.

The key thing is that they are not really a deathstar, but rather they are unexpectably tough. They are inherently low value targets, but if one gets in CC in support of another grey hunter pack then they are really hard to terminate (I mean, the only weapon in most marine armies likely to damage a Lone Wolf is a power fist. MEQ units don't have the ability to do any meaningful damage at all, unless they hit him with a power fist (+4) defeat his inval save (++3 or ++5) then since he can't be killed they have to roll above 2 to wound.) so if they ignore him on the way in, when he gets to CC his legendary toughness can keep them tied up for hours and unlike termies don't have the huge +200 price tag typically assoiated with such a unit.

I think I have managed to somehow convince myself that a storm sheild is worth it, strange how hearing sagas of them standing against gigantic demons and squads of some of the toughest squads on the planet and either do serious damage or delay them. It's largely why I am inclined to not take anything short of a power fist. Since they are so tough, the ability to have a definate instant kill on the end of that fist is a great temptation, easpically when it's affordable at only 10 or 15 points more to upgrade the power weapon into either.

Sounds like fun fluff. I am still working on that part, just got most of my interest invested in Dungions and dragons right now.


I do have one tooled out, with a Thunder Hammer and Stormsheild in power armour. I might give him a spin sometime, perhaps lend him a Rhino from the spare wolf guard squad so he can keep up, or get ahead of the rest of my army.

[Ghent]

I like using them to draw fire while other things work their way up. I've also had success running them up behind Rhinos/Razorbacks and creating tar pits.

I think my favorite is TDA, SS, MotW. Not really economical, but they can hold up a unit of troops for a while.

[MeatGrinder]

I have one nicknamed 'Tank' with a CF/SS combo who just marches up midfield to draw attention from my transports. He usually survives too. Then he holds units in combat or cuts open tanks.

[DanPesci]

awesome, cheers for the feedback guys (and for pointing out that they also get feel no pain!)

Writing up a new list this weekend where ill be having a couple of lone wolves in, might well go for the power armour frost blade/SS combo on one of them and see how he holds up

[Muntatron]

This thread has really made me want to run a lone wolf. Was thinking of running a PA with frost blade/plasma pistol setup. Any thoughts? Also noob question I know, but plasma pistol still confers plus one attack for extra weapon right?

[Wysten]

awesome, cheers for the feedback guys (and for pointing out that they also get feel no pain!)

Writing up a new list this weekend where ill be having a couple of lone wolves in, might well go for the power armour frost blade/SS combo on one of them and see how he holds up

Let us know how you get on with that. And no problem, we all need a little reminding somethimes. Heheh.


Also, yeah, plasma pistols do allow you the extra attack, though 15 points seems kind of steep of what it offers. Feel free to give it a spin though.

[Stormbrow II]

I ran a pair of them with CF/SS/TDA for a while but found they were a bit slow-moving but having become frustrated with the unreliability of Scouts I'm thinking of squeezing a pair of the Loners back in. As long as they don't seperate too much from the rest of your force they can remain in support for when you to get stuck in and they go a long way to helping out Grey Hunters swing combats. Plus, they beauty of them is that once they're in combat they only way they leave is by dying. We've been playing lots of tiered objective games (Primary, Secondary) and with KP being a part of every 2nd game guaranteed, having something that forces your opponent to divert attention to a unit with its killing potential takes the pressure off the rest of your grunts and vehicles that are now free to get into position. Plus, you get a KP back when they die so you can use that to force the enemy into a corner where he then has no choice but to deal with him.

I was tempted to run one with Power Armour but they are so much more durable with TDA and FNP that its well worth the opportunity cost of being unable to jack a transport and get a lift somewhere. The CF is also better vs vehicles & walkers than the TH but I have enough guns & Jaws to deal with those.

[vanguardwolf]

This thread has really made me want to run a lone wolf. Was thinking of running a PA with frost blade/plasma pistol setup. Any thoughts? Also noob question I know, but plasma pistol still confers plus one attack for extra weapon right?

keep the boltpistol, plasma is to highrisk for a expensive model and it does not add anything,
a lone wolf gets uplclose and personal where he belongs

a storm shield is a better option and or take 2 fenrisian wolves

i use these
wolves
for the lone wolves i have added some bits as if they are packed with the lonewolves gear

greets

[Muntatron]

Makes sense... Lucky I haven't glued him up then haha. Just seems you really wanna make him as dangerous as possible. I know it's 60 points but being able to a fire a strength 7 ap2 shot just before you assault seems like it would really turn the tide against a standalone character or MC. Plus I don't want to take away the whole 3 attacks with pistol included.

Ehh, I'll give him a go, if he's awful, I've learnt my lesson hahaha

Also, I still have a heap of unused chaos hounds from my WoC fantasy army, I think they'll do nicely for fenrisans

Edited by Muntatron, 09 February 2012 - 03:43 PM.