All right everyone, despite my dislike of these norse-furries it’s time to give them a proper narrative review! How many ice/wolf named rules await? Read on to find out!
Current Wolf/Ice counter: 0
Army Special Rules:
Just like your county records office these boys are obsessed with deeds. Any time you level up, instead of gaining an honor you can take a deed. Now there are a lot of options, 14 in total. Sadly you can only have one deed, and you may not duplicate them. However, they are quite useful. You have options to use the fight on death strat for free, gain outflank, get extra experience for performing actions in your opponent’s deployment zone, etc. Some can be fun, allowing you to swap agendas, outflank or teleport. While others are really good at powering up your army netting you -1 to wound in melee or getting 5 exp for killing a unit from an army that destroyed this model previously. Surprisingly, there are no Wolf or Ice named options!
Current Wolf/Ice counter: 0
Agendas and Relics:
The Space Wolves get five agendas. The first is amazing, you get to pick up to 10 different “Boasts” to complete through the mission. If you complete all the ones you select you get that much experience, though if you fail any you get 0 exp. Some are easy, you have to heroically intervene when possible, or be the first unit to charge, some are almost impossible: end with all wounds remaining. It’s a fun agenda that is good, fluffy but also can be challenging. Show them How We Fight gives a unit of Blood Claws 1 exp every time a Wolf Guard unit destroys and enemy unit (while 6″ or less from the Blood Claws). Practical education and fluffy, though not the best agenda. A Worthy Trophy gives units in your army 3 exp each for killing (must be in melee) 1 of the 3 models with the highest wound counts in your opponent’s army (great vs some armies, mediocre against others). Circling Wolves is good, not great giving 2 exp to 3-4 units within 9″ of a different board corner. This is a good choice if you don’t think you can get any other agendas. Finally a Glorious death allows you to sacrifice a Lone Wolf model that dies during the battle from your roster (so long as it was killed by a Vehicle, Character or Monster) and give everyone else 2 exp. Since you can just swap in another datasheet into your roster to replace the old one there isn’t much risk here, but that’s kinda cheesy.
The Wolves get two relics. There are no artificer options which is a little unusual. The Antiquity relic gives you a 4++ and the ability to re-roll 1 hit, wound or damage roll for the bearer per turn, meh. The Spear of Russ gives you an amazing damage and shooting profile but is only use able once per game for one round and thus isn’t worth it. It also makes you -1 to hit during this turn, and illustrates how far power-creep has come for crusade rules.
Current Wolf/Ice counter: 1
Army Traits and Requisitions:
The Space Wolves have 5 tables for their units to choose between when leveling up. The Wolf Priest table gives you either the ability to ignore one failed out of action test (so long as the model wasn’t killed) or get to add 1 to your litanies. Cavalry units get +1 to the damage of their teeth and claws or a 6+++. Beast units get to use the Auspex scan strat for free which is great! The other option allows you to re-roll failed charges against a unit that a beast unit has made a successful charge against. Finally characters can get +1 attack going up to +2 if they are near a Wulfen unit, Another option gives Beast Units the bodyguard rule with they are within 3″ of the character and +1 A (I don’t think this has been FAQed so if you want to argue it still works like the old rules…..) Finally you can get a 4+ save against mortals in the psychic phase.
Lastly there are 5 specific Space Wolf requisitions. One allows you to count the completion of any deeds achieved as a permanent bonus. The second allows you to augment your marked for greatness bonus by giving the unit 2 different buffs including: 5++, one model gets +1 A or +1 S, autopass morale etc. A really good requisition that you can stack. Another option allows you can swap out an infantry squad for a character that gets re-roll hits of a “1” which is also very useful. Finally you can get a unit that gets +1 attack and gets +1 to hit and wound against Dark Angels.
Final Wolf/Ice counter: 3
Conclusion:
All told the Space Wolves have a pretty strong set of crusade rules. Their requisitions allow them to create very powerful units quickly but their strong agendas clash with the strong Space Marine options as well. You have a lot of flexibility to tech your characters one way or another and the rules allow you to role play the army quite well.
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