Old but New to 40k - Space Wolves

[Danny Swain]

Hi there, Ive been a avid fan of 40k for nearly 20yrs, and now Im free and single away from my heretic wife (lol) I want to get back into the game. But it has changed so much I dunno where to start.
I have a small Space Wolf army which i have collected over the years and I had a theme in mind but duuno if its enough to start playing under the new rules and changes.
It follows as Listed:
1 x Wolf Lord and 4 terminator body guards
1 x Wolf priest
10 x Tactical marines ( cant remeber space wolves names lol)
25 x Blood claws
1 x Predator annilator
3 x Space marine Bikes
6x Scouts

Any advice on what to add or if that army is playable will be welcome.
And Ill be moving to West Drayton in a week or so and will be looking into getting rule books, codex etc then. But am looking for a local GW or 40k club to join that will accept a noob into the game

[Deadlift]

Don't know much about Space Wolves, but just wanted to say Hi and welcome to the forums. You certainly have enough wolves for an army. I guess you will find as you play which units work for you and where you need back up. What I do know of wolves is despite looking like an in your face close combat army, they work really well at range.
Long Fangs can be brutal, especially with Missile Launchers and the odd Lascannon. There's also a brilliant psychic power your priest will have access to called Jaws of the World Wolf which is nasty. As a wolf player you don't have any flyers unless you take an allied detachment like marines so you can grab a storm talon or Storm raven.

Once welcome to BoLs :D

[knas ser]

I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of advice either, but I just wanted to say welcome back to the game. I'm in the same boat (barring your wife) having just returned after about twenty years. Much has changed but with the odd exception (you place fortifications before terrain?!!?) the sixth edition is pretty cool. I haven't got a game yet as still getting my Eldar army in shape. But I'm looking forward to getting back into it. Seems love of the game never really fades, eh? :D

[Tyrendian]

what you have looks like a solid core for an army, although you probably have a few too many blood claws, since those are not the very best of units if you ask me... then again, except for repainting the shoulder guard if you want to precisely keep to standard paint schemes, models should be rather easily interchangable to be Grey Hunters (our Wolfy Tacs), which are much better than Blood Claws imho...

As for what would be good additions to your current force, Deadlift mentioned the two things that probably have the highest priority: a Rune Priest and a squad of Long Fangs.
After that, another pack of Grey Hunters might be good - which brings you up to 3 full squads if you remake 10 of your Blood Claws (and with that box you also get easily enough bits to wolfify the Devastator Marines you got to make your Long Fangs!
which I'd say is the ideal number since 15 Blood Claws plus Wolf Priest (which you already have) in a Land Raider Crusader (always a good buy I'd say...) are one quite effective distraction for your opponent...
then there's the always awesome Thunderwolf Cav - those lovely guys can beat the living snot out of most things and are very fast on top of that - but they are expensive...

oh, and as other people already said - a big welcome back to the hobby!

[biffster666]

Welcome back to the 40kverse. The Wolves are my favorite Legion, and the first army I built. I have a Great Company (Grimmnar). Tyrendian provided a good blueprint IMO. You definitely want to convert Blood Claws to Grey Hunters, I have one Squad of Blood Claws and Sky Claws and those were hold overs from back in the day. Avoid them both along with anymore bikes. You're going to hear a lot about bikes being awesome in 6th, and they are, just never with WS/BS 3. Hopefully in the new codex (next year sometime) we won't have three different units with WS/BS 3, but I digress...

Long Fangs and Thunderwolves are awesome. I would suggest adding both ASAP. Add some additional Wolf Guard and definitely a Land Raider or two. You'll also want to grab Drop pods, Drop pods, and more Drop pods IMO. Combo those with Outflanking Thunderwolves to create a glorious mess of your opponents lines.

We're currently the only chapter with zero ground AA other than Fortifications and the only flyers we have access to (without Allies) are both Forge World models so that can be tricky. Supposedly we'll be getting a flyer or flyers in the 6th Edition codex, but I expect them to suck like the DA ones so I won't be bummed when they do.

Last but definitely not least is a Runepriest or two, or three, or four...I'm a big fan of Psykers :D. As was pointed out JWW is feared, but then it drops off fast and hard. I'm more of a fan of Divination/Biomancy myself. By not jumping on the JWW bandwagon now, you won't be bummed when it's 'nerfed' in the 6th edition codex. Oh, and the Saga's are pretty freaking awesome IMO.

In a nutshell...

Add Long Fangs, Thunderwolves (Wolflords and Wolfguard battle leaders love these by the way), Land Raiders, Runepriests, and Drop Pods. If you connect with a group that uses FW models (I definitely would) I also suggest a Storm Eagle, a couple Lucius Pattern Drop Pods (Dreadnaught Drop Pods), and at least one Contemptor.

Stay away from Blood Claws, Sky Claws, Swiftclaw Bikers

Hope that helps.

[lattd]

I'm one of the few people who likes the claw units, they offer a big distraction, plus a wolf lord in power armour frost weapon jump pack and saga of the warrior born is great in a sky claw pack.

[BrotherHoratio]

Welcome back Danny! Here's some things to think about when making a space wolf list:

-Long Fangs and Dreadnoughts with Two Twin-Linked autocannons are great choices for firepower and you shouldn't leave home without them. I bring two of each. The twin-linked autocannon dreads are particularly awesome because they're about the only thing in the Space Wolf codex that can kinda-sorta deal with flyers!

-Thunderwolf cavalry, in particular thunderwolf mounted wolf lords, are awesome units, and will thrash a lot of things in assault.

-Grey Hunters remain one of the best troop choices in the game. Wolf Standards are great, double assault weapons are great on the cheap are great, if you get them in Rhinos or my favorite, Drop Pods, they will tackle many challenges the game throws at you.

-Wolf Scouts have lost some utility because they can no longer charge when they sneak onto the backfield, but they still have their uses. They can bring a surprising amount of plasma fire to the table, and so are pretty good at taking rear-armored pot shots at tanks. Unfortunately, they're expensive and squishy for what they do, use with caution.

-Blood claw bikers are a little expensive but not bad at all with the number of attacks they get, nice support fire for the thunderwolf cavalry.

-Here's a fun trick for that lord with the terminator squad: take a hero who's not wearing terminator armor, like a wolf priest, and give him the Saga of the Hunter. Have him join the terminator squad. Have the terminator squad take a Land Raider as a dedicated transport. He will give that dedicated transport the outflank ability, so now, you have outflanking terminators in a Land Raider Redeemer! Great fun, just watch the Tau player's face when you roll that on the board...

[jonsgot]

You have enough to play a game. You can build 5 troop choices from your 25 Blood claws and 10 Tac Grey Hunters.

I agree with everything above but if you can afford it I would get a Land raider or 2 next. It will give you a much needed transport for some blood claws and a second heavy support option. If you loose your predator you will be a sitting duck for well armoured units. You Blood claws are going to spend a lot of the game crawling over cover trying to get in range without a transport. Land raiders are very tough to destroy, with a few exceptions.

Getting a devastator box set and painting them as long fangs is a good idea if your don't want to spend £45 right away. Only don't stick the heads on too well, you will want to swap them for real Space Wolves heads as soon as you can afford a box of Space Wolves. If you can get both at the same time so much the better.

I always play my wolves with lots of transports, as most of your units are short ranged I'd be looking for some rhinos or drop pods if you don't get a couple of land raiders. I wouldn't be looking for a priest as an urgent purchase. I have 3 painted and I don't feel they make a big difference to my games.

In my opinion Sixth edition has a lot more to do with fire-power than any other version of 40k. With the addition of random charge lengths and BS1 over watch against charges, Close combat armies are harder to play with; Although I think they are a lot more fun.

[Danny Swain]

I started the army with a theme in mind, which is a fast close combat army of 2-3 massive squads of Blood Claws, which would be mounted on some transports, 3-4 squads of Grey Wolves for fire support, and 2-3 Predators for a rolling artillary. Then to top it of Id have 1-2 squads of terminators with a wolf Lord marching straight across the field hehe.
The reason behind the bikes was I was going to build a max squad of them and sit them in front of the preds as closer targets, or they would support another model I just found hanging about, Cains Wolfborn to form an independant squad.
I know there arent many games where I could field my whole army, but I would enjoy the challenge if I joined a gamer club of facing 3-4 players to match up army points and see how it would work out.
That sound any better now you all know my general army plan?

[Rough Touch]

Welcome back, I just started again after about 20 years...new rules are hard to get your head around and your first game you will only prob get to turn 2 but being older you will just be happy you Actually to play! after a few arguments and tweeking your army lists you will get to the end of a game and personally I think the 6th edition rules are really good! they have not forgot about the old game. BS and shooting is strange at first but after a while you realise it makes the game so much quicker and the ONLY 1 saving throw rule make impiral guard hide behind cover and space marines and termis just walk across the battle field (like they should)

don't get me wrong I miss the days of loading a whirlwind with full vortex missiles and making a 24" monster vortex. or having a assassin pop out of a squad and chuck a vortex in to the squad he was just part of, ...but as you know buddy life moves on!

[Cactus]

Again, welcome back! Wolves are a solid army and you've got a great start.

I like Blood Claws too but a lot of guys field 9 Grey hunters with a melta gun, riding in a rhino, joined by a wolf guard armed with a combi-melta and power fist.

Or, 10 Grey Hunters sitting around with 2 plasma guns hiding behind a defense line.

For your next purchase, I'd recommend getting some long fangs (space wolf devastators.) I like to field 4 missile launchers, 1 las cannon and a sergeant (which can allow the unit to split fire between two targets.) Long Fangs are considered one of the best heavy choices in the game because they have average than large size of a heavy weapon squad and they can split fire.

Land Raiders are great too- Crusaders are handy for moving those termies into close combat. Stock Land Raiders are good at just putting holes into the bad guys.

Good hunting with your old/new army!

[Denzark]

Thoughts - transport needed.

Don't listen to criticism about the Bloodclaws. There is a tactic I have seen referred to as 'The Blood Claws Wet Dream'. It is 15 Bloodclaws (or maybe 14 and a Wolf Guard) in a Land Raider Crusader with a Wolf Priest. They get 4 attacks each on the charge, and the WP can give them preferred enemy. Can be very hard hitting and tasty - is rightly a fire magnet.