Space Wolves Madness - Bjorn and the Trickster!

Nick speaking,

I know it's been a while since my fellow blogger Fritz 40k posted his Space Wolves Madness! post, but this post did stick in my mind, and now that I am getting my Space Wolves army up together, it was time to revisit his question....

"Why aren’t you guys playing Bjorn and Lukas the Trickster?"

If you don't want to click the link above, this is what Fritz's had to say...

"Here is what I’m thinking and seeing with the two…

Wolves like to get up close and go to town. While the army can have the full complement of ranged support, the codex encourages in your face play, as it should, for Russ’ sake being Space Wolves and all. However, the meta game of 40K as always conflicts with the fluff in the codexes. Your space barbarian horde is not going to arrive intact on the other side of the table unless you have a way to crack open transports on the way in so your hunters and claws can assault the heck out of them.

Bjorn with a las cannon fits in perfectly- twin linked 2+, AV 13, and a 5+ invul save alone is worth the price of admission. Put him in cover and plink away, and then when your opponent closes counter attack with his dreadnought close combat arm, insane attacks and AV 13/5+ invul save.

Oh, and on top of that uberness you get to re-roll to see who goes first. Now, it is a self serving question, but I fully know why most ‘wolf players (any?) don’t take him. They look at the points and say that he will never make them back before he dies. Guys, stop thinking of 40K as a war game about killing models! Look at what Bjorn can do outside of killy! He can auto-create a freaking objective marker! And in a game where two of the three standard missions, and even at tournaments, that is HUGE. I don’t want to give everything away, but consider this…

Capture and Control mission. Your objective on one side, your opponent’s on the other. Break it down real simple- you are going to send out X units to take/contest your opponent’s and they are going to try and do the same to you. The actual mechanics of how you are going to do this doesn’t matter- skimmers, infiltrators, brick in the face, etc.

Well, what if you just camped everything on your objective- your entire army defending against the percent that your opponent has decided to send out to capture/contest your objective. I personally like those odds! My entire army vs. a smaller portion of my opponent’s. Well, with Bjorn in the mix, and getting him killed by turn four, when he “dies” he becomes an objective. Now I have two on my side, (Bjorn is chilling in my back ranks and plinking away with the las cannon) that I’m camping on- how can you really loose? Seize ground gets even sillier. How are Space Wolf players not abusing this? How has GW not FAQ’ed it?

Lukas the Trickster.

I’m playing this guy just so I can say “You just got punked by the Trickster!” to my gaming friend. With everything else being at a super reduced point cost in the codex- Grey Hunters, Razorbacks, etc. the Trickster upgrade is nothing. Take the Trickster and put him in a small squad of claws and ram him right into your opponent’s uber unit and watch him get killed. Then it is a dice off to make those base to base units go poof. A dice off none the less, but I like those odds, and the fact that an aware opponent caught up in mix/max point values will be running his uber point cost unit away from the Trickster afraid of what could be."

So as I am still working on my Space Wolves ideas, I thought I would give both Bjorn and Lukas a go and see what sort of list I could come up with. Please bear in mind that I only have three Razorbacks and one Rhino to work with currently, and I have had to base it around that...

This is the list as it stands at the moment:

1 x Wolf Lord/Frost Blade/Storm Shield/Runic Armour/Warrior Born/Thunderwolf

2x Fenrisian Wolves

(275)

4 x Thunderwolf Cavalry

1x Pistol

1x Storm Shield/1x Pistol

1x Boltgun

1x Storm Shield/Frost Blade

(285)

1 x Bjorn/Lascannon

(290)

5 x Blood Claws

1 x Lukas the Trickster

1 x Rhino/Extra Armour

(280)

5 x Grey Hunters/Power Weapon/Meltagun

1 x Razorback/Las-Twin Plasma

(170)

5 x Grey Hunters/Power Weapon/Meltagun

1 x Razorback/Las-Twin Plasma

(170)

5 x Grey Hunters/Power Weapon

1 x Razorback/Las-Twin Plasma

(165)

5 x Long Fangs/4x Missile Launcher/1x Pack Leader

(115)

Points 1750

The basic concept (capture and control/seize ground) would be to lay down the Las/Missiles whilst potentially sending out the Lord, Calvary and Lukas Rhino to make it look as if I am attacking/moving out for objectives. They will be my main distraction units, with some fun from Lukas and his last laugh, who knows they may even end up contesting if still alive as well. I will then make Bjorn and his Lascannon a threat to try and get him killed for the extra objective on my side, mid game. Ignoring my opponents objective, Grey Hunters stay inside the Razors using chaining, terrain, smoke, and parking lot to stay up best as poss, waiting to grab/contest!

I originally wanted to get a unit of Scouts in there as well, but to get them in would mean a reduction in points on the Thunderworf unit somehow? In the end, even though I know the power of the Scout unit, I figured that if I am not actually making a real play towards my opponents objective, the scouts could be a waste of points anyway?

So what do you think?