As we bash on through my ramblings on the new codex; we come across the Wolf Guard Battle Leader. This is another HQ character that i have a lot of love for. What is not to love about the Battle Leader. He's essentially a Wolf Lords little brother; and any of you that have read my review of the Wolf Lord know my feelings on them. Once again, it's another character that gives you freedom of customisation, conversion and flavour. The icing on the cake is you lose little from a wolf lord stat wise, but you do lose a lot when it comes to points cost So lets dive in shall we?
STAT LINE:
So like the Wolf Lord; the Battle Leader fields a stat line higher then the average Grey Hunter/Marine. He is unlike a Wolf Lord in the sense that he loses 1 Weapon Skill, Attack, and Leadership point. He also has 2 less Wounds. At the same time though, the Wolf Guard Battle Leader costs 55 less in terms of points. You may be losing some stats but bare with me. When your list calls for points crunching and you really need something that packs a punch in the same vane as a Wolf Lord, this is your go to guy. Now on to the wargear.
WARGEAR:
So the Battle Leader carries the same gear as a Lord; except he has no Belt of Russ. I have no issue with this because the 4+ invul doesn't matter to me when I always throw a shield on him. That's just my preference though and I'm by no means saying it is a must. Another awesome thing when it comes to wargear is that the Battle Leader can be upgraded with the exact same gear a Wolf Lord can be, relics and all. I feel that the Battle Leader when kitted out for melee(see post about Wolf Lords for the load outs i find work very well); he can be used to good success either on a wolf with your cavalry or in a Storm Wolf with some Grey Hunters or Blood Claws. If you wanted to do something with Wolf Guard Terminators; terminator armour is an upgrade he can take. All in all when it comes to the Battle Leader, the freedom for the points cost is probably some of the best in the codex. You really can't go wrong kitting this guy out.
In the previous post, i stated i wouldn't recommend running a Power Fist and Storm Shield on a Wolf Lord. This remains true for the Wolf Lord. On a Battle Leader though i would be perfectly fine with it (ill explain more in the next section) if i am running him alongside a Wolf Lord and a unit of cavalry. Especially when it comes to taking and making challenges; he packs more punch then a normal pack leader.
SPECIAL RULES:
Good Ol' Acute Senses, ATSKNF, Counter Attack.
HOW I WOULD RUN IT:
I would run him most likely with a fist and shield. I wouldn't hesitate running him with the other load outs i mentioned in the previous write up about Wolf Lords; if he was the only HQ on a thunder wolf. The reason behind this is due to a tactic I find useful late game. When you have a unit making a last minute break for an objective, something scary that needs to be engaged, or even something further away but your units are to pre-occupied dealing with the threats that are at hand; you can break off the Wolf Lord and Battle Leader into there own mini unit. Having a Battle Leader with a fist allows the squad to still have a high strength ap 2 weapon in that mini squad. This way they are free to roam around or go after whatever they need to while still being a threat. Even if you broke them off into their own one man units; your opponent may be hesitant to charge the Lord due to his volume and quality of attacks, and the Battle Leader because of his Power Fist.
I apologise that this was not as long as my Wolf Lord post. There really wasn't much more that could be said due to the immense similarity to the Wolf Lord. I hope you all enjoyed the post though and thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment