Space Wolves: HQ Characters

Logan Grimnar, The Great Wolf.
I have only used Logan Grimnar once in a battle against Necrons. He died rather shockingly in an assault against some wraiths, with them only landing three wounds, two failed saves later his game was over.

I am hoping to give him further outings once I have completed the Wolf Guard terminators I am currently working on magnetising and painting. I shall report on here all successes and disasters I have with him as and when they happen.



Bjorn the Fell-handed
The old metal model, from around 1995, is one of the oldest models in my collection, as being one of the 40k universe eldest members.

I have never used Bjorn, instead preferring to use the model as a standard dreadnought, drop podding in to the battle to cause as much damage as possible, as quickly as possible.

As with Logan, I will aim to use Bjorn with the aim of reporting successes and disasters back here so that a tactica of some form can be put together.

Njal Stormcaller
Here is a character I have used occasionally. In the group we have house ruled the Lord of the Tempests rules so they work across player turns rather than game turns which, in my opinion, makes more sense than losing half the effects if you happen to be going second.

I always run Njal in runic power armour, meaning I can get him in rhinos with some Grey Hunters. His runic weapon has been invaluable on many occasions, shutting down enemy psychic powers before they have chance to do any damage. Furthermore, his access to all psychic powers and his ability to cast any two per turn on top of the Lord of the Tempests rule make him a dangerous beast when fielded. Of course, this makes him a fire magnet for everything within his range, but if the focus is on Njal, then that means that other units are being left alone and can cause their own damage.

Ragnar Blackmane
Recently I have started using the young Wolf Lord. I have found that sending him against units where he will have the initiative edge, Ragnar will more than likely wipe the floor with them on his own. Even against power weapons his invulnerable save will keep him out of trouble half of the time. However, his lack of eternal warrior has seen him perish at the hands of more than one C'tan, which I suppose is not bad given the demi-god status the C'tan has.

Ragnars furious charge rule along with Insane Bravado, which gives additional bonus attacks on the charge, can lead to some serious amount of attacks. If you link Ragnar with a Grey Hunter squad equipped with a Wolf Standard and Mark of the Wulfen, the volume of attacks, MOTW attacks being rending as well, that can be meted out at initiative 5 and above give this type of unit a real chance of wiping out entire enemy squads before you have to face any attacks back.

As for the best delivery method for him, I would probably go with a Rhino. Ragnar and his squad on the initial charge get so many attacks that having maxed out squads seems a bit over the top. The rhino can be used to shield Ragnar till the start of the turn you want him to assault on, then all hell can be broken loose. Drop pods tend to leave you sitting around to be shot at alot for a turn and Land Raiders leave you investing a lot of points into 2 models which are both going to attract large amount of fire. But then again, if Ragnar/Land Raider are the focus of the firing, then the rest of your army will be free to do whatever they need to do.

Ulrik the Slayer
Another character I am yet to use, but really want to give him a run out to. The cheapest named character in the HQ section, Ulrik is even cheaper than fielding Arjac Rockfist.

To me his rules are looking good for going monstrous creature hunting, with his 3+/4++ giving him the same survivability as Ragnar, but with one less wound. Unfortunately Ulrik doesn't have any psychic defence, with the lack of wolf tail talisman taking away the chance to nullify psychic powers.

Ulrik does appear to be a close combat monster, but I will again have to play test him a few times before returning to this blog to comment on the best ways I have found to use him.