While i have not played with him yet(waiting to get the model, i don't like to proxy), i have a lot of love for this here dude because he's on a thunder wolf!!!
Harald is in my opinion, an awesome lord. While i have not ran Harald Specifically, i do have a Wolf Lord on a thunder wolf in every list i play; . For 190 points you receive a very fairly points costed thunder wolf lord with some little extras. Some you will not care about, but some give you some serious options for new tactics and strategies.
STATS:
Harald shares the same strength, toughness and armour save as a generic thunder wolf cavalry model. He has a higher weapon skill, higher ballistic skill, more wounds, higher initiative, more base attacks and a higher leadership. Weapon skill 6, 4 wounds and 5 base attacks? whats not to like so far. This though is just the tip of the iceberg for Harald though(especially when you start comparing his cost to a lords cost with the same war gear).
WARGEAR:
Harald comes stock with the same items as a thunder wolf cavalry member, BUT he has a storm shield and a frost axe. 4 wounds, and a 3+,3++ give Harald some serious staying power. Harald will make it across the table due to this and his speed. The only downside is that his frost axe is unwieldy. I feel though that the unwieldy is a fair trade off though for 5 str 7 ap2 attacks(6 on the charge). If he is in a challenge, he is going to force some invulnerable saves on the opponent(if they even have one). Now when you compare him to a Wolf Lord with the same load out, the points cost is identical. What you don't get with the Wolf Lord though is the added extras that Harald comes with.
SPECIAL RULES AND WARLORD TRAIT:
Like others , he's stock with Acute Senses, ATSKNF, and counter attack(still love this rule). What he brings to the table though is Outflank and Lord of the Wolfkin. Outflank can be either good or bad, and that in my opinion comes down to terrain. If your outflanking against say... Tau, you need to make sure that there is enough terrain to safely hide Harald and his thunder wolf cavalry escort so that they can safely make it to breach the enemies line. If you don't roll the table edge you want to come in on, then acute senses will let you re roll that to help your chances for success. Lord of the Wolfkin is nice because it gives a bubble where all cavalry and beast models can use his leadership as there own. I know its not game breaking, but it can seriously help when your running a fenrisian wolf blob in front. On 2d6, its a statistical average that fenrisian wolves will fail their leadership test; this at least can help mitigate the suckage that is them fleeing. Now on to his Saga. I like this one, the first part is that it gives the unit stubborn; strictly situational but a nice to have. The second part of his saga is that at the beginning of the assault phase, all units within 12'' that consist of only cav or only beasts gain the furious charge special rule. When thunder wolf cavalry hit, they hit hard. Furious charge makes them hit harder. I mean, whats not to like about that! He can also take up to two fenrisian wolves(or extra wounds as i call them) for 8 pts a wolf. This can come in handy when trying to run across the table, and in my experience it does 90% of the time.
HOW I WOULD USE HIM:
I would personally use Harald the same way i use any Wolf Lord. The outflank i would have to play around with though, as it is out of my comfort zone. It's something i really do want to try though because it could be super fun to outflank and thunder wolf unit. I would run him in a full unit of thunder wolves, all with storm shields, 2 with fists and the rests with bolt pistols. There is always debates online about the proper storm shield ratio per thunder wolf unit, but I'm of the belief that if I'm going to go thunder wolves, I'm going all in. I want to mitigate the chances of them making it to the enemy as much in my favour as I can. We'll delve into my thoughts on that though when we get to thunder wolf cavalry.
Hope you enjoyed the read, sorry if it was a bit of a ramble. As you can tell, i love my thunder wolves and have a lot to say about them.
Up Next: The Wolf Lord!!
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