My Review of the Space Wolves Codex: Dark Angels vs Space Wolves

I’ve been at this hobby for a while now, and most of that time I’ve played as Dark Angels. So when all the new stuff for Space Wolves began to surface my lips snarled like a good little Dark Angel. Much of this review will be slanted from my experience with Dark Angel and their particular view of things.

As the title indicates, the temptation was too great this past weekend, and I broke down and got a copy of the Space Wolves Codex. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and now, I swing from being pissed off at Games Workshop for not updating the Dark Angels to 5th edition to jealousy over all the cool things about the Space Wolves.

I’m not going to gripe about updating the Space Wolves. They deserved an update and new models, so amend my statement about anger. I’m actually just really jealous, and thinking of getting some Space Wolves of my own.

What’s so cool about them? They live up to their mid and close range combat doctrine. The average Attack value for most of the Space Wolves is a 3. On top of that, many of them have the special rule of Berserk Charge where they get a +2 to Attack instead of the standard +1 if they charge. Their Devastator Squad has the ablity to split fire making them an essential unit for most missions. Most squads have a long list of options and weapons load out, and finally, the Space Wolves don’t exactly eschew from any particular unit of vehicle like most chapters.

Let’s ignore the tactical aspects of the Space Wolves and just go by concept and aesthetics. They’re big, burly, Vikings, barbarians in space. They have units that ride wolves. Let me say that again. They have units that ride freakin’ wolves. They also have units that are just wolves. What’s better than seeing an opposing squad being mauled by a pack of wolves. They have the background that reads like a Norse myth with each and every marine looking to become the next Beowulf. When compared to my chapter full of anti-social emo marines, the Space Wolves drip with awsomeness.

However, there are a few draw backs. Even though the Space Wolves rock at close combat, they are, in my eyes, a generic army. You must take two tactical squads as troop chooces. There are no cool specialized companies like Deathwing or Ravenwing in the Space Wolves army. Which means, you deploy and then slog your way to the enemy in order to reach you maximum potential, which is mid to close range combat. Your enemy has a turn or so to pick you off from a distance. They are also sloppy. A Space Wolf would much rather blindly run in and cleave an enemy in two than make a tactical strike. The way I see this unfolding is with objective and victory points. There are rules and abilities, especially with the sagas, that force a Space Wolf player into combat even when it might be better to fall back.

Even with these short comings, I think the Space Wolves are a worthy army to collect, and I’m going to begin forming my own army. This doesn’t mean I’m abandoning my Dark Angels. The way I figure is that I like Space Marines, and I’m familiar with them. The Space Wolves are just different enough to cause me to learn a different style of playing and different tactics.