HULK SMASH!!! "Cheesy" Characters and why I love them.

As somebody who primarily plays Space Wolves I have found that the biggest draw of them is their focus on characters. The rune priest, wolf lords, and of course Special Characters are what make Space Wolves such a fun army to play. However this does get me some...less than kind...glances and comments from my fellow players. Nobody wants to face 2 200+ point Wolf Lords on Thunder Wolves...which is the basis for my 2000 point list. That being said you have to take a lot of trade-offs when you make list choices like mine. For reference in this article here is a common 2k list for me:

Wolf Lord (Morkai) - 255
- Thunder Wolf
- TH+SS
- Saga of the Bear
- WTT + WTN

Wolf Lord Harald Deathwolf
- Frostblade
- Belt of Russ
-Thunderwolf
- Saga of the Beastslayer
- WTT + WTN + MB

Rune Priest - 115
- Living Lightning + Tempests Wrath
- WTT + Chooser

Troops

(3x) 10x Grey Hunters - 615
- 2x Meltaguns
- 1x MotW
-Rhino

Fast Attack
4x Thunder wolf cav - 260
- 1x SS
- 1x Powerfist
- 1x MB
- 1x Normal

4x Thunder wolf cav - 255
- 1x SS
- 1x Wolf Claw
- 1x MB
- 1x Normal

Heavy Support

(2x) 5x Long Fangs - 250
- 3x Missile Launchers
- 1x Multi-Melta

Imagine this...but 3 times the size...with armor. Would you really like to have to fight two of those?

The trade offs are simple:

1. I have to build my army around my Characters. If I am investing a fourth of my points into ICs than I better damn well be using the rest of my list to support them. If I have Thunder Wolf lords...I HAVE to have Thunder Wolf Cavalry. One could make the argument for having fenris wolves...but really what would you rather have hurtling at your opponent. Similarly if I have Logan Grimnar it only makes sense to support him with Wolfguard...which is the unit he most aids in a game. The same is true for other armies. If I am playing Orks with Ghaz than a Fast moving Truck army benefits less from his rules than a Green Tide or battlewagon list.

2. They take up a lot of points. Well no duh. These are points that could easily be spent diversifying your army. Instead of 2 lords I could have 2 more grey hunter squads and a group of Wolf Guard. However I don't have my two hulking lords that I love so much. Taking 500+ points in the HQ slot automatically means the rest of your army is going to be smaller. That means your opponent will have less targets and you lose the advantage of target saturation.

3. They are targets. One of my lords can easily wipe out an entire squad and one can kill most any tank. This makes a powerful, threatening combo. That means that my opponent is going to be using massive amounts of their power to bring them down. Normally this is not too big of a deal, the lords and the units they are with are made to take fire. However against some armies (Guard) there is simply too much fire being pushed down range. If they can eliminate a 500 point unit before it does anything than what was that units point?

4. They are a morale boost...and when they die you take a morale hit. I am not speaking about the morale rule mechanic in 40k. I am talking about my personal fighting spirit. In my mind if my lords are doing well then the game is going well. However if my lords die without doing anything....than I am screwed. This is not always the case but it is a morale hit to see the lords go down.

Good Night, Good Hunting, and a HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!