More Thunderwolves madness

So as you have seen in Andy's blog our fearless leader has got a bit strict with us this week and has set assignments.

It falls to me to continue to preach about Thunderwolves this time in a more tactical sense.

I have to say its been like cutting off a leg writing lists that don't contain a Squad of Thunderwolves for the club challenge. I use them as I believe they were intended to be. I ride them up to whats nastiest in my enemies army and I take chunks out of it.

The big issue with Thunderwolves (beside their lack of models which I have discussed here) is their expense. You can't get around the fact that they are expensive points wise. 50 base + what you need to make sure they are unique. Are there other things that can do the job while not quite as well but for a lot less points? Maybe, Sky claws and bikers both fit the bill but there is nothing like the fear that Thunderwolves cause in your opponents its the moment of 'No one really takes these, what do they do again? How many attacks do they have?'.

First off I take a Wolf Lord with my Wolves although I do wish you could take either of the Priests on a Thunderwolf although that would be overpowered I believe.

I used to take my Thunderlord quite minimalistic, Storm Shield and a wolf claw but no more than that.

That was until I came up against a Tau Army, because they are toughness 5 there aren't a lot of things that will instant kill a thunderwolf however the one army that has a lot of strength ten hits is a Tau army. So easy solution, add saga of the bear. Suddenly my Lord has eternal warrior and he isn't worrying about those nasty high strength hits. I also decided to add a Thunder hammer, 6 Strength ten hits on the charge. Sounds good to me. The storm shield remained so I finally added 2 fenrisian wolves for ablative wounds. That's a hefty points total but also a very very scary character. 4 wounds + 2 fenrisian wolves that I take off if we have any heavy shooting before I get him into combat and 6 strength ten attacks on the charge (or of course the counter charge) and that oh so important leadership 10.

So where with my other Thunderwolves? I always take them in a squad of 5 including the lord so that leaves me with 4 that I have to make unique. 1 is just a naked wolf, even a wolf with no upgrades can still cause issues. The second has meltabombs for 5 points, not often that I use them but its a cheap upgrade for wound allocation. Another has a storm shield. Always a nice idea to shove in an extra 3 up invulnerable save. So that leaves me with one and the clear addition is a power weapon of some sort but what? I already have one member of the unit attacking at I 1 and he is made purely to take anything thrown at him and dish it out so I want to make sure my remaining wolf is striking at initiative. That leaves me with three options, a power sword, a wolf claw or a frost blade. Now these have been mathammered to death so I am not going to do that, instead I will just share my feelings.

The power sword is of course cheapest. It also gives you +1 attack for having 2 close combat weapons but it gives no other advantages.
The Frostblade also gives the extra attack for two close combat weapons and also plus one to your strength which means MEQ's are dying on 2's but of course you have to hit your opponents first.
The final option is a wolf claw. Rerolls on your to hits or to wounds sounds good but no additional attack for two close combat weapons.

Personally I go with the wolf claw.
1. Because I love the look of Lightening claws.
2. Because I like the knowledge of that I have the reroll (if only you could put wolf standards on thunderwolves)

However that is purely down to personal opinion.
Happy hunting