"What warriors of men can stand beside the Space Wolves! The Sons of Fenris they are, hardened in the forge of their harsh world, eager for battle and honour. They are the grey warriors, ashen like the wolf, whose greatest joy is to hear the clamour of steel amidst the din of war. None can step before them, they are the first, proud in strength and jealous of their renown. Through the storms of the warp they come, upon the very tides of terror, but are such dangers they are uncaring. They are the Space Wolves, the Undefeated, the bane of the Emperor's foes. "

Space Wolves Special Rules

The Space Wolves are unique amongst the many Space Marine chapters, they are fierce warriors and they have more troops skilled in close combat than other chapters, they also have the benefits of the Space Wolves' Acute Senses to aid them, along with the standard Space Marine special rules for Rapid Fire and Break Tests. When fighting the Thousand Sons, they are also subject to Hatred. You must plan your tactics with these things factored in.

To help you in planning your tactics, I will give a short description of each of the troop types and how they can be used.

Characters

Wolf Lord

At 90 points, the Wolf Lord is a good deal as an army commander. He has a WS 7 and BS 7, and he has a Strategy Rating of 5. As you must take a Wolf Lord, it's nice to know that he's one tough fighter.

Wolf Priest

The Wolf Priest is a very useful character to have for his ability to give your squads rerolls of their Break tests. Also, the Wolf Priest carries a medi-kit, which can come in handy for healing your other characters. They have the rozarius, which gives them a 4+ unmodified save, and the crozius arcanum, a S5 weapon.

Rune Priest

These are some of the best deals for Marine pskers there are! They have their Force Staff already included in their points value. The only drawback is that to have more than one Rune Priest, you must take a Grey Hunter pack for each additional Rune Priest. I never found this to be a problem, because I always use Grey Hunters. A Rune Priest with the right combination of wargear can be a very deadly character. Just cast a couple of strengthening powers on him, and teleport him into combat and watch your opponent groan.

Iron Priest

You must include an Iron Priest in order to take items from the Support section. To have more than one Iron Priest, you must include a Grey Hunter pack for every additional Iron Priest after the first. Iron Priests can also be useful for repairing support weapons and vehicles.

Wolf Guard Champions

These are some of the best Champions you will find in any Space Marine army. They have better WS than Veteran Sergeants of other Space Marine Chapters.

Squads

Grey Hunters

Grey Hunters should form the core of your army that supports your more specialised troops, they can be used both as a Tactical Squad and an Assault Squad, as they combine the abilities of both. The Grey Hunters are great for taking and holding positions and for laying down firepower with their bolt guns, and you can give your sergeant a special weapon to also add to their firepower. In my opinion, Grey Hunters are some of the best supporting troops in the game.

Blood Claws

The Blood Claws are young hot-blooded Space Wolves in which the Wulfen is still strong, they fight in ferocious Blood Claw packs, and they attack with a Berserk charge, which gives them +1 Attack, and as they normally carry two close assault weapons, this means they will have 3 Attacks on a turn in which they charge, however, they may not parry when charging, even if armed with a weapon that would normally allow a parry. Blood Claw packs are especially effective when led by a Wolf Priest or a character such as Ragnar Blackmane. The way I normally use them is in 5-man battle packs, and I usually add a Wolf Guard Champion to one pack and a Wolfpriest to the other (this is when I'm not using named characters, if I am using special characters I will have a battle pack led by Ragnar and a battle pack led by Ulric). I often give jump packs to the battle pack led by the Wolf Priest (or Ulric), this makes a good pack for attacking special targets. I usually give Blood Claws things like the following combinations: power fist and bolt pistol, plasma pistol and bolt pistol, power axe and bolt pistol, or even hand flamer and bolt pistol especially when fighting troops with light armour (ie Flak or Mesh), the reason I arm them this way is they have no parry on their inital charge, and I want them to do maximum possible damage on that first strike. It is a good idea to give a special weapon to sergeants and Wolf Guard Champions if you plan to close assault vehicles with your Blood Claws (or anything with an armour value, such as Wraithguard) (of course, it's not a good idea to destroy Wraithguard when you're standing next to them!).

Long Fangs

The Long Fangs are the Veterans who have developed their confidence and self-control to a legendary level, they are the steadiest of the standard Space Wolf troops and they are the best shots, and with their targeter equipped heavy wepons, they usually hit what they're shooting at. Against the lightly-armoured troops like Orks and IG I usually arm them with two heavy bolters, a heavy plasma, and a missile launcher, against Eldar, Marines, and Chaos Marines I exchange one of the heavy bolters for a lascannon, against Tyranids I usually take one heavy bolter, one heavy plasma, and two lascannons, I also use this combination if I know that my opponent will have Greater Daemons. I often take a second Long Fangs pack, especially when fighting Orks, and against Orks or IG I usually arm the second pack with two heavy bolters and two missile launchers. The Long Fangs should be deployed in such a way as to cover as much of the battlefield as possible, you should try to find a postiton that gives them cover while allowing them to cover the enemy's approach. Also, you should look for good overwatch positions for them, they are very good at taking out skimmers, bikes, War Buggies, tanks, etc. They are also very good at taking out those pesky assault troops. Just remember to give them some support, and don't leave them all alone and exposed to infiltrators and flankers.

Wolf Scouts

The Wolf Scouts are good for setting up ambushes, and harassing your enemy, but always remember they are not full Space Wolves, and they do not have the special abilites, or as good of stats when you deploy them .

Wolf Guard

The Wolf Guard provide the Space Wolves Terminator Squads, but they also provide power armour squads that are very useful. When arming your Wolf Guard Terminators, take into account the opponent you will be facing. Examples: Against Orks and IG one WG with Assault Cannon and power fist, three with stormbolter and a close assault weapon, and one with heavy flamer and a close assault weapon, against other Marines or Chaos, I usually change the heavy flamer or a second Assault Cannon and close assault weapon or Cyclone Missile Launcher and stormbolter. Myself, I like to field packs of Wolf Guard wearing power armour and armed with bolt pistol, bolt gun, an assault weapon, frag and krak grenades, with one or two models exchanging their bolt gun for a special weapon or a heavy weapon, depending on what my enemy is. Don't fall into the pattern of making all your WG Terminators, especially not Terminators that are all armed with heavy weapons, because this will limit your options too much.

Support

For support, I like to take a Predator (armed according to what I'm fighting, if it's Orks I tend to arm the Predator with autocannon and two heavy bolters, against other troops, I will use heavier armament, ie twin lascannon + 2 heavy bolters vs. IG, Marines or Chaos Marines), Razorback (this is probably my favourite APC), the Whirlwind is also very useful. I personally like to use Dreadnoughts, but you must decide if the points are worth it against the opponent you are fighting. Of the smaller support weapons, I like the Tarantula, because of its versatility in armament, you can tailor it to the opponent you have to fight. Bikes are great for mounting such troops as Blood Claws to give them mobility.

Special Characters

Wolf Lord Kyrl Grimblood

As an army commander, I find Wolf Lord Kyrl Grimblood to be the best, as he has the highest strategy rating.

Ragnar Blackmane

I usually take Ragnar Blackmane as an "other" character, and place him with a Blood Claw Pack to take advantage of his special rules.

Ulric the Slayer

Probably my favourite Space Wolves character is Ulric the Slayer. When added to a Blood Claw pack they become devestating.

Njal Stormcaller

Njal Stormcaller, he is a good psyker, with his +1 psychic power card, but you need to reinforce his armour with psychic powers if possible.

Great Wolf Logan Grimnar

If you do take the Great Wolf Logan as your army commander, which he must be, one tactic that can work is have him lead a WG Terminator pack armed with close assault weapons (all but one armed with lightning claws and thunder hammer and storm shild, give the fifth one a heavy flamer and chainfist), and use this as your tactical strike force, you might even teleport them onto the battlefield.

I like both of the WG special characters, and find them both very useful.

Bjorn the Fell-Handed

What can I say about Bjorn the Fell-Handed? He is, in my opinion, the best Dread in the game, and I use him when people will let me.

Tactics

Remember, you should only arm your troops as heavily as they need to be for the opponent you will be fighting, one of the worst mistakes I see players make with Space Wolves is to overarm them for the opponent they are up against (a chainsword is just fine against Orks and IG, you do not need to give all of your troops exspensive weapons when fight these two opponents, if you do, they will outnumber you badly). Against heavily armoured close assault troops, you will need such weapons as power fists, etc., but only for troops that will actuallybe fighting these enemies. Do not try to arm your Space Wolves to make them supertroops, if you do your enemy will take advantage of it, you must maintain a balance in your army, so that you will be able to use flexible tactics and have enough troops to fight effectively. Against Tyranids, and some Chaos armies, you will find that your Long Fangs and Grey Hunters become more effective with their shooting capability than assault troops.

Don't foget the Wolf Priest capabilities, they not only boost morale (Ld rerolls), they are also Medics and can heal wounds, and placing Wolf Guard Champions with packs can also be very useful, just don't overdo it, or you'll eat up your points.

Blood Claws on Bikes make for a very hard-hitting, mobile strike force, but you must keep them behind cover until it is time for them to make their attack, and they are within range to make a hit-and-run attack.

Use Grey Hunters and Long Fangs to support your Assault squads by laying down firepower on the enemy units that you intend to make your assaults upon. You should always concentrate your firepower and destroy the enemy in detail. Do not spread your firepower to the point that it is ineffective. Concentrating on one unit at a time is much more efficient.

These are the basics for the different troop types of the Space Wolves along with some of my opinions as to how they are best employed. I hope the information above will be found to be useful, and that it will help any new Space Wolf players that may read it.