DA + IG 2000 points

I've been toying for a long time with the idea of a Ravenwing army, and actually using it as motivation to paint the 30+ bikers I'd need for it. Right now I'm only down to 7~8 but hopefully I will speed things up this summer. The first thing that comes to mind is that is beautiful, themed army. The second is that it is quite limited from a gaming standpoint, and this is why I'm striving to fix.

Having never played biker armies, my impression is that the tactics are rather one-dimensional (move up and shoot?), with the occasional outflanking depending on the mission and opponent. I also find the backfield scoring a cause for concern, and leaving a combat squadded tactical unit behind doesn't do much for the army does it? it will not shoot much, if anything at all, and if someone gets close they will die rather quick. And last but not least, flyers. Highly mobile twin-linked plasma talons can be a lever, as it is stealing the opponents quad-gun, but I'd feel more confortable with something more reliable. All in all I think a good way to erase this concerns is looking for allies, and unsurprisingly, IG can help in all 3 points. Let's get to it.

A 30-40 man blob is affordable enough and can dish out some S7 love, perfect to crack light transports for the bikers to shoot down its contents. Hiding behind the Aegis are resistant enough with the 2+ save from GTG and then ordered Back to fight!, and armed with some flamers and a power axe or two are a bit more resilient to assaults than a tacticals. Not by much, but enough. This of course doesn't make a blob but is richer tactically - I can have 1 or 4 scoring units, embark a PCS with 4 flamers in a Vendetta for a turn 5 objective clean up and hopefully attract some bullets from the bikers. The ubiquotous Vendetta is a must, and a Manticore is effective as always.

Not in unless you bring a bike!

On the Ravenwing side, obviously we need to make the bikers scoring and I'm leaning towards Sammael for a few reasons. The first and obvious is that he unlocks the RW command squad, without requiring a biker Libby to do that. The second is to tank some wounds in the command squad, and the third is that it has a very long movement range so I can use him to deny objectives in the late game. OK there is another reason, and is that I absolutely love his model - the jetbike is beautiful and tremendously characterful for this army. Azrael has his merits and could very well be leading a blob of death; my impression is that Azrael can potentially make this army stronger but I'd like to keep the Ravenwing theme stronger. Play testing will determine the winner, as soon as I finish all those bikers.

The aforementioned command squad is the lynchpin of the army, carrying the standard of devastation that gives 4 twin-linked bolter shots to every biker. Combined with the grenade launcher it will make mince meat to most foot units. Given I'm already spending a ton of points in this unit, I will pay the apothecary for the FNP. This unit should be having a 2+ or 3+ cover save most of the time, followed by a 5+ FNP. It's only 5 wounds (8 with Sammael) but hard to bring down, and meanwhile lets the scoring bikers live a little longer. If they survive past T3 when the bolter fiesta should be over, they can use their superior maneuvrability and plasma talons to support other units as needed. 8 TL plasma shots can reliably take down most things in this game.

Speaking of the Ravenwing, the core of the army would be 4 units of 6 bikers with meltaguns. Sammel, the plasma talons, manticore and vendetta provide enough Ap2 and I can torrent down Terminators and Sanguinary Guard with massed bolter fire; what this army needs is melta guns to crack those  transports open and ready to salvo to death its juicy contents.

The icing in the cake is a Darkshroud to provide Stealth to nearby units and help protect them in the early turns.

So to recap this is the list

Sammael

1x RW Command Squad
5 Black Knights including RW Champion (<--5 points to make precision shots and a EW? sold), Apothecary and Standard of Devastation

4x Ravenwing Attack Squads
6x Bikers, 3 squads have 2x meltaguns


1x Darkshroud

IG allies:

CCS, 3 meltaguns (<-- to shoot down drop podded dreads, monoliths or any other heavy armour that gets too close)

PCS, 4 flamers (<-- rides in Vendetta or stays back to protect the platoon)

3x Infantry Squads, 2x Autocannons, 2x Flamers

ADL with Quad-Gun

It's an army to likes to go first, turbo-boosting to get a 2++ cover save on the command squad/Darkshroud and 3++ on the bikes. The infantry platoon stays on home objectives and the manticore goes after high toughness/AV objectives. The RW grenade launcher can reduce the toughness of many nasty units to 5 (Wraiths and the like), making them susceptible to insta-death.

The worst match-ups that I can foresee would be going second against very shooty armies like Venom-spams or Tau / IG gunlines. The bikes should be deployed either out of LOS or range, and  reserved / outflanked if I can't protect them reliably.

Flyers... well I have decent AA. Not nearly enough to counter flyer-heavy armies but hopefully we'll be seeing less of those as more AA options are made available. And if come across 6 Scythes, well, at least I will enjoy a fun T1 :)

Not the most competitive of armies but something I'm really keen on fielding. I would appreciate feedback while I'm painting / building this army - any blatant weaknesses or suggestions for improvements?

Space Wolves: are drop pods the way?

Dakka Dakka

One of the most popular army configurations for Space Wolves in this early 6th edition is using lots of grey hunters in drop pods, supported by long fangs, rune priests with divination and combi-weapon toting wolf guards. Is this the best Space Wolves can do without allies? let's take a look!

Setting the ground

Let's begin by understanding what a drop pod SW looks like, and how it works. A base list could be something like this (not necessarily the best version):

Rune priest
Cheap and cheerful. Swaps powers by divination and boosts the long fangs, or protects the area with hurricane, or mans the quad gun. Ocasionnally can be risked and sent vai pod with the Wolf Guard if there is a juicy target T1, like Jaws'ing

8-10x Wolf guard with combi weapons.
These bad boys provide the alpha strike of the army. If there is something that needs to go down T1, leave them the job. Tanks, artillery, MCs, you name it. Not many things will survive 15~20 BS4 S7/8 AP2 shots.

4-5 10x Grey Hunters with double special weapon in drop pods
This is the core of the army. The drop pod takes them where they need to get (i.e. an objective). Whilst they can do some damage when they arrive, only in numbers (i.e. at least 3 pods in T1) you will be able to hit hard enough. 30 bodies with T4 3+(5+ cover) makes them decently durable when the rest of your opponent's army retaliates.

2-3 6x Long Fangs, 5ML
After the GH, these are the bread and butter of most SW armies, and are what makes this army tick. Similar to the Grey Hunters, these are jacks of all trades, able to tackle light/med mech, MCs and hordes. While a missile is not particularly effective against any of those, 15+ missiles per turn (with the possibility of twin-linking some of those via divination) start to pose a serious threat.

1 Aegis with Quad gun
A quad gun is the only AA SW have access on their own, and whilst not cheap, you are likely to come across with Vendettas, Scythes and Storm talons / ravens pretty often. The Aegis can also be used to give cover to the long fangs, which is not always easy when you have some 20 dudes in the backfield and  you want to keep some space between them to better deal with blasts.

How it works

GH in Rhinos = wreck in midfield

This is pretty straightforward, really. One of the main issues with SW is getting them where they need to be (objectives), as their rhinos are likely to be blown out by T2/3. You can always foot slog them, but with the rise of dragons, manticores, plasma cannons, DE venomspam... they will take their toll. Don't get me wrong, foot wolves is a viable army in the right hands; the drop pods enhance it by getting them where you want to be, and providing a certain alpha strike capability to an otherwise resilient but not particularly threatening army.

So the list will sport at least 5 pods, 3 of which will fall T1 in front of your opponent's gunline. The opponent will likely protect their important stuff with cheap infantry / light transports so the army needs to have resources in the toolkit to deal with anything. In other words, the Grey Hunter packs need a combination of plasma, melta and flamers. Something like 2xplasma packs, 2xmelta packs and 1xflamer pack could work. Choose two of these to drop T1 depending on what you are facing. The third pod will be the Wolf Guard, and these should go to the juiciest target - Land Raiders, Thunderfire cannons, MCs, Hammerheads... whatever poses the biggest threat to your army, needs to go down now or it will likely wipe out a Grey Hunter squad per turn.

Some lists include Dreadnoughts (TL Heavy flamers?) to enhance the alpha striking. Given scouts can no longer come out of reserve and charge, I would leave them in the shelf.

The Long Fangs and the Rune priest stay in the backfield, using their 48" range to support the strike wherever needed. The Aegis means you can now put the Long Fangs in cover anywhere, so no need to deploy in ruins as in 5th anymore. Speaking of, a small GH squad or two is needed to take the home objectives. Something like a 5 Grey Hunter squad with a flamer comes at 75 points and is perfect for this job.

Strenghts and Weaknesses

The ability to drop a large number of bodies T1 in any part of the board is not negligible; it provides a certain alpha strike and puts pressure on your opponent from the get go (from deployment actually). It is also flexible as you can select what comes on T1, and where. I.e. if there's infantry they will be flamed/double tapped to death, if there is mech will see some point blank melta, if there are heavy infantry/MCs will be torrented with AP2 weaspons. From there, this many Grey Hunters are difficult to move from objectives via CC (counterattack, wolf standard and the ocasional rending attacks from the Wulfen) unless using specialized melee units, which should be hit when the pods come down.

But for all of that, once the troops are in the ground there is very little mobility. There is a lot of AP3 or better weapons in the boards, including specialized MEQ killers like Dreadknights, Flamers, Wraiths and the like. If the initial strike does not hit hard enough, all of your opponent's army will focus in these 30 bodies and whittle them down fairly quickly.

The army also has issues with mass 2+ saves, that can only be taken down through sheer weight of fire. And a quad-gun is not nearly enough AA - it's a single point of failure that can be destroyed T1.

My version of the list at 2000 points

Rune Priest, Terminator armour, chooser of the slain (Jaws, Murderous Hurricane).
I'm willing to pay the TDA so a) the Rune Priest gets some protection from all these blasts centered on his head and b) if I include him in the pod, he needs to carry some protection. The COTS is there to give BS5 to the priest if manning the quad, and to keep infiltrators at bay (remember the COTS can be placed anywhere in the board).

10x Wolf Guard (1 TDA with heavy flamer and power axe, 1 TDA with CML, storm bolter and power axe,8 power armour with 5 combi-plasmas and 3 combi meltas).
I think it's worth paying the TDA to the guy that will be placed closest to the opponent's guns, and 5-point heavy flamer is too good to pass. The CML stays with the Long Fangs - 17 missiles FTW! As for the combi-weapons, it could be argued that with 2 melta hunter units, they could all be plasmas. 

2x 10x Grey Hunters, double plasma, standard, drop pod.

2x 10x Grey Hunters, double melta, standard, drop pod.

10x Grey Hunters, plasma/meltagun, standard
5x Grey Hunters, flamer

Nothing surprising here. I want some variety in the special weapons to ensure I have an all comers list. The standard is a must, anyone charging the GH will have a hard time (it rerolls all the ones ni the phase, from overwatch to armour saves. Simply phenomenal for 10 points). The small flamer squad takes the home objective, while the foot slogging can take an objective or cover a flank.

3x 6x Long Fangs (5x Missile launchers).
This is a short ranged army list, with very little mobility once in the board so it needs a long range fire support element to ensure I can respond to threats across the board. 

Aegis DL with Quad Gun
The quad gun is the only reasonable AA Space Wolves can get on their own, and whilst nearly not enough to dearl with more than 1 flyer, it feels like a worthy investment.
The Aegis on the other hand... I am not a big fan of fortifications in general but recognize the value of deploying the ADL anywhere in my DZ so I can put my Long Fangs behind it. No more packing them in some ruins with suboptimal visibility!

Conclusion

As far as 6th edition go, this army style seems to better balance the game needs (occupy and keep objectives) with the Space Wolves capabilities. It doubles down on the army strenghts (great troops and devs) and reduces one of their biggest weaknesess (mobility) while providing some alpha-strike. There are some bad match-ups in the likes of Daemons with Fateweaver or Flyerwings, but this is true with any SW army (if not, I would be glad to learn more!). Space Wolves, and most armies for what matters, function better with allies, there's no doubt of that. If for whatever reason you want to run solo Wolves (for example tournaments in my area do not allow allies), this is one of your best shots.

2000 points Space Wolves - Grey Hunter horde!

6th edition has been out for some months now and with the recent launch of Chaos, the metagame is still evolving. We still don't know where it will end but for now there are a few clear indicators:

• Flyers can only countered by other flyers, at least until everybody (if) gets Flakk missiles. At +10 extra points each might not be worth it though.
• Rhino + going second = first blood for your opponent.
• Demons, Necrons and Grey Knights are at the top of the hill.

And what about Space Wolves? well they are certainly faring less well than they did in 5th but are still a competitive army, if yet have no ways outside of allies of dealing with Flyers. So the latest talk is about foot wolves without Logan, a pure Grey Hunters horde that floods midfield and rapid fires things to death. I've never been a big fan of foot lists but admit I wouldn't feel confortable with the 3/4 8 grey hunter in a rhino units we were used to see. Just because the Rhinos are no longer indestructible plasteel shoeboxes and outside of that there's a lot of tesla / rapid fire / barrage guns aiming at you. So with that in mind I came up with the following list:

2000 Points of Space Wolves - foot slogging hunters

Rune Priest (Living Lightning, Jaws, Melta bomb)

Rune Priest (Storm Caller, Jaws)

10 Wolf Guard
2x TDA, storm bolter and power fist
2x TDA, storm bolter, energy weapon
3x PA with combi meltas
2x PA with combiplasmas

2x Lone Wolves, CF/SS

2x 10 Grey Hunters Pack, 2 meltaguns, standard

3x 10 Grey Hunters Pack, 2 plasmaguns, standard

3x Long Fangs Pack, 5 ML

Double rune priest is a problem if you are facing farseers but that match up aside are pretty interesting for a foot army. Double jaws + 60 marines in midfield can be a real pain in the backside for many armies. A more balanced approach would be just one priest and then scrap some points elsewhere to get another 10 Grey Hunters. In my gameplan, one should be going to midfield and give 5+ cover to a couple of units/snipe things with jaws, while the other can guide the missiles with divination or try to get some other boosting spells.

The wolf guard terminators are going to be leading the grey hunters pack, soaking up firepower until they are eventually wittled down. That's the main reason they don't have additional gear save for a couple of powerfists (I had 20 spare points). The power armour guards go with the drop pod and blow something up first turn / alpha strike a monstruous creature. The army is slow and not very mobile so it's important to have something to disrupt the opponent's plan in his own DZ.

The lone wolves go in front of the packs and deal with Land Raiders, Trukkz and other nasties coming your way. They are an important anti-vehicle and anti monstruous creture (remember they repeat to hit against anything with T5 or above), and with 2+/3++, 2W, FNP and eternal warrior can take a hit in the chin and strike back.

Then comes the grey hunter horde, moving to midfield for the objectives. The rune priest goes attached to one of the packs. Grey hunters are 3+/T4 models so are going to be wittled down, what we are trying to do is to populate midfield and try that our opponent does not have time to deal with that many marines.

Last but certainly not least, the long fangs make things easier for the grey hunters. One pack can be guided by divination if need be (and remember that could be up to 5 missiles + 2 missiles from the cyclone + 1d6 LL from the second rune priest), or just shoot things old style. Despite all the noise with vehicles and AP3, Long Fangs are still pretty good at wounding monstruous creatures and dealing with light vehicles.

Possible changes? well as mentioned above removing the second priest and a few points elsewhere grants you a 6th Grey Hunter pack. If anything I would try some disrupting unit aside of the drop pod, for example a Thunderwolf unit without too many toys (just a fist and perhaps a shield) to distract some enemy firepower and become a threat from T2; once they are dealt with the opponent will still have these 60 marines in midfield and not many turns to take them out.

So what do you think - is it viable? would you make any changes?

How to run Stormravens

The Storm Raven is one of the main reasons why I started my Blood Angels army. I love the look of the ship, sort of a baby Thunderhawk and filled with heavy weapons! I think that was GW's intention, to make a smaller Thunderhawk usable in normal 40k games. Despite what the interwebs might say about the model, I enjoyed painting it and will enjoy to wreak havoc with it *feral grin*.

So how to use it? let's take a look at what it actually offers. It's a fast skimmer with AV12, nerfs melta and can move flat out to generate its own cover save. With POTMS it will always be able to  fire a weapon anyway, and there is enought to select from. It also houses an assault ramp so you can move and assault out of it - yummy - and it has a good transport capacity, with 12 units (or 6 terminators/jump packs) and 1 dreadnought. Wow.

It comes with a twin-linked heavy bolter, which can and should be upgraded to a TL multi melta with a 30" threat range. Pretty tasty if you ask me. It also houses a secondary heavy weapon system in the turret, and all the options are good here: TL assault cannon for duality anti infantry/anti tank, TL Plasma cannon to bring down those pesky terminators or a TL lascannon to hunt down vehicles. It comes down to personal preference and what else your list has / is missing. The 'Raven also has 4 one-shot Str8 AP1 missiles, and can get hurricane bolters for some extra points. Being a defensive weapon it can always be shot, but points will be tight enough I'm afraid. On the other hand, extra armor is a must if we plan to carry anything valuable in it... and sure we want as we are paying for it.

So these impressive stats are the main problem for the 'Raven - it's damn good both as a gunboat and as a transport, you're paying for both but you can't play both roles at the same time. As I see it there are better options for the fire support - predators autolasers, riflemen dreads and missile devs come to mind -  and hell, I like to play BA the Sanguinius way - unleashed!

This means I'm going to use the 'Raven to deliver a strong combat unit + a combat dread to the opponents line. We'll need two for saturation and to avoid putting all of our eggs in one basket. In my experience playing SW, I need to dedicate all my firepower to bring down 1 SR/Vendetta in cover; that is, I need 15~20 missiles / living ligthning shots to bring it down. There's always the chance of having both 'Ravens down before they can deliver the cargo, but at least the cargo will be 24" in. Assuming we deliver the cargo and the SR is still moving, we can use it as a gunboat, supporting our assaulting units, and to rapidly reposition units across the battlefield.

This is putting a lot of eggs into one big, juicy basket so alternatively we could tone it down and just run 1 combat unit per 'Raven, But this brings us back to the original problem - we're paying for the ability to transport 2 units per SR and the assault ramp, so we better use it.

So how to run it? 

It has a LOT of weapons

This is pretty straightforward. Load it with combat rocks - assault terminators with a sanguinary priest, uncle Mephiston, death company, furioso dreads - and wisely select your targets. These units should be selected and equiped to deal with different types of threads: hordes, heavy infantry, MCs, etcetera. I would run one dread with blood fists for str10 ID joy (and vehicle smashing) and another with blood talons (aka meat grinder). Since the DC dread has furious charge and 1 more attack, I'd go for blood talons here. During deployment, combine the dreads and infantry in the most appropiate way.

The rest of the army (typically assault marines in razorbacks) should be following behind largely unhindered and ready to go for objectives or help your rocks finish the job. And if they're not, the 'Ravens are. Fine by me! If going first, deploy the 'Ravens as far forward as possible. If the enemy seizes, well trust in the 5+ saves from the Libby. If going second, reserving is a good choice. Alternatively, you could deploy them out of range of the opponent's guns and either move 6" and shot everything or surge forward.

It's not the most balanced of armies, but it's an army I'm looking forward to play. Being a regular SW player, what interests me of playing BA is the ability to play in a very fast and aggressive way.

The list:

Librarian (Shield, Unleash rage or blood lance).
Reclusiarch

1 Sanguinary priest
5 Assault terminators (2xLCs, 3xTH/SS).
1 Furioso Dread (with blood fists).

5 Assault marines, meltagun, LasPlas razorback
5 Assault marines, meltagun, LasPlas razorback
5 Assault marines, meltagun, LasPlas razorback
5 Assault marines, meltagun, rhino
8 DC (1x PF, 1x PW)
DC Dread (with blood talons).

x2 Storm ravens, TL Las cannon, extra armor.

Fly me to the moon
But give me a couple of lighting claws!

This is the core of the list. There are some variations, like running all the assault marines either in razorbacks or in rhinos, replacing the libby and one of the assault units for Mephiston, etcetera.

The libby is the most cost-efficient HQ and can give a 5+cover to both 'Ravens if needed (the aura extends from the wings!). Pretty happy with this choice. There are no points for honour guard and with two mobile TL MMs, we should be fine there.

The reclusiarch is needed if we are to take a certain controversial unit, for the sheer joy of to hit and to wound rerolls. Yes that unit.The Reclusiarch could be swapped by Lemartes for the extra joy when hi loses his first wound.

The not so good part is that our elite slots are already occuplied and I'm forced to take DC to be able to access the DC dread. I'd rather leave them home with their rage but that means we need to take a regular dread, which is nowhere near as good as a furioso or DC dread. Or take 2 Furiosos in Elite and take no sanguinary priests; being the staple unit of the BA codex and giving FnP/FC joy, I just can't leave without them. The Sanguinary Priest will normally hang with the termies to give them durability against small arms fire and to give 2 of them Str5/I5 lightning claws attacks which should be devastating against most units.

What's left out

No shiny boys in the 'Ravens

Unfortunately this type of list doesn't match well with some of my preferred units of the codex, namely sanguinary guard or jump packs. Sanguinary guard are a good beater unit but their limitation in numbers and lack of an invulnerable save make them suboptimal as cargo. Plus, they don't need a SR to get where they want to be. As for assault marines in jump packs, well it's best to go the mech way to saturate with targets, and to access some much needed heavy weapons. I'd also like to take some scouts to camp at home but well, assault marines are more versatile and runnning only 20 of them is already pretty tight.

Final thoughts

This is a rock list, and as such limited in concept - it will have a hard time against certain armies, and some bad dice rolls can ruin its day. On the other hand, it will wreak havoc against some armies as not many things can survive a combined charge of 4 specialist combat units. I once played against a list with a ~900 points super rock containing Dante, a Libby, Lemartes and a lot of DCs with JPs and lots of special weapons. Had it been annihilation it would have autowon, but it was a variation of objectives and it was close to autolose.  I'll be playing it for fun's sake though, happy to leave the 9 rhinos / 15 long fangs home and go head to head with whatever nasties I'm facing. I'm also glad to bring a couple of Dreads, which are characterful and choppy enough. And it's going to look amazing in the tables!

Thunderwolves list!

This is one of the core lists I’m currently running. I first took it to the last AEPDA tournament, finishing 5^th out of 40 which is fantastic for a painter! And surprising given it was my very first time running this type of list.

Anywho I dearly wanted to run Thunderwolves, even though I was pouring way too many points onto them and thus making the rest of my army either less strong. Overall I feel comfortable playing this army, as it is more aggressive than your normal SW list. To me, the wolves play just like the fluff describes them – patient killers that hunt their preys in packs. My game style is more straightforward and I enjoy sending the TWs ahead to the neck of my opponent! They can’t go toe to toe with everything in the game, but can certainly put a dent or 2 in even the worst monstrosities out there and will wipe out any troops they find in their way. 

So the list is:

• Rune Priest, LL & JoTWW, Chooser.
• Rune Priest, LL & Murderous Hurricaine
• Wolf Lord on TW, runic armour, wolf claw, SS, saga of majesty (morale checks rerolls)
• 5 scouts, meltagun
• 5 Wolf Guard (3x combimelta/PF, 1combimelta, 1 CML/Combimelta TDA).
• 8 GHs with meltagun, standard in a drop pod.
• 3x 7 GHs with meltaguns, standard in Rhinos.
• 5GHs with flamer
• 4 Thunderwolves (TH/SS, SS, meltabombs, normal).
• 6LFs, 5ML
• 5LF, 4ML

How this works

The WG are attached to the GH squads. Depending on what’s in the opponent side I might include a PF or just the combimelta guard. The CML can drop pod or just sit in terrain with the Long Fangs and shoot things. The Rune priests are also embedded with the Rhino GH and move midfield shooting LL out of the top hatch. If anything gets to close, it will be melta gunned to death or jaws’ed to… the Fenrisian abyss? I would hardly pod the rune priest to jaws anything, unless someone aligns 3 trygons for me (please?).

The TWs+Lord rush to the opponent’s deployment zone, or can take a different flank. Keep in mind each TWs gear and make sure the hammer, meltabomb and wolf lord are in the right side to take on whatever is needed. You can also detach the wolf lord to take on a different unit by himself, just make sure he detaches once you're in the enemy lines and charges something, or will be torrented to death.

What about the 2 rune priests? well they provide long range dakka through Living Lightning, psychic protection in midfield (there goes your fortitude grey knighs!) and can use jaws / murderous hurricane in specific situations to a good end. Jaws is fantastic for taking on Ork nob bikers or MCs alike, and hurricane loves foot eldar councils and other nasties coming your way.

In a nutshell, this list plays like your normal SW army – GH in Rhinos to midfield, Scouts and drop pod disrupting, Long Fangs pouring missiles – with the addition of TWs that spearhead the assault, or go for an enemy flank and contest it.

Possible changes

The list performs quite soundly, clearly above my expectations of a "funny list that autoloses". There are a few clear improvements that I could do:

The drop pod is tasked with providing a disruption so the rest of the units moves forward, and puts pressure on some armies like IG gunlines. They are however too isolated from the rest of the army and likely dead by turn 2/3. A Rhino would be a safer bet.

The wolf lord is a lot of points for what he does, but provides I5 attacks with rerolls and Ld10 with a reroll. Perhaps adding a Saga of the Warrior Born would spice things a little bit.