Dobbsy wrote:
Pack Mentality
Any Space Wolves pack that would otherwise be in a position to lend supporting fire to an assault by another pack may instead make a counter-charge move during the counter-charge phase and fight directly in that Engage action as if they were part of a combined assault (see section 2.1.2 of the main rules). Units in the supporting pack may use either their Close Combat or Fire Fight values as required, but only those units in base contact with enemy units may use close combat attacks. EDIT - Blood Claws must always counter-charge in this supporting role as described in the Unblooded rule.
Is this intended to be mandatory or optional?
I could see it being quite potent on the offense if it is optional. A free after-the-fact choice of combined assault might be too much. It would be almost like getting multiple activations out of certain situations. If it is mandatory, though, it becomes a potential drawback. An opponent could intentionally position near a severely damaged SW formation so that if it were assaulted, the damaged formation would be drawn in, with all of its BMs (and, of course, if the SW formation were broken, a wipeout in the case of the SW losing assault).
Also, is this supposed to be offensive, only when SW use an Engage action, or in all cases? Right now it's written in terms of any assault, so it would work on the defense. That would allow the Space Wolves to pull in defensive support if that is to their benefit.
Defensively, that would, of course, have the same analysis with regards to mandatory/optional. A heavily damaged or broken SW formation would probably be pariah to other SW formations because they would not want to be forced to take on the extra BMs, though there would be some exceptions.
Regardless of the answers it will require a lot of testing. Assaults are so critical that any change to those rules can make a huge difference. If you want to pursue it, this probably needs a separate thread to discuss its effects on offensive combos, clipping strategies and so on.
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On the list structure, I think it looks much better.
The Support Packs probably aren't sufficient to make an armor force by themselves, so you've included a mandatory infantry element as a matter of practicality (and if someone wants to try a Space Wolf armor division or a wave of Fenrisian wolves, they can, but it's up to them to make it work).
You've taken out the zippy, shooty formations from the core selection, so that pushes it back towards a core assault element. It pretty much eliminates un-space-wolf-y popcorn lists unless I'm pretty badly mistaken.
The Grey Hunter formation has options for customization and choice of roles but pushing it too far in any direction is going to get expensive quickly. So, you're going to end up with "a little extra firepower" or "a little extra assault punch" but you're not going to end up with a big ol' crazy formation. It could end up with some oddball vehicular support if min-maxed (LRC, 2 Razorbacks and a Rhino, for instance), but I seem to be in the minority in that bothering me. Certainly other marine lists have similar issues.
The formations seem more focused. You stripped out some extraneous options and added ones that emphasize the character of the formation. Also, they can be larger than Codex SM formations (and the various Blood Claws will always be at least a bit larger) without being huge, so I think you've accomplished that successfully.
In summary, I get a much more SW vibe out of this list than the last iteration. I think I'd like playing against this list.
Are the Bloodclaw packs supposed to still have the +1 to Engage?
I think the thing to watch for balance is going to be air assaults For example, 8 Skyclaws in a Thawk is only 500 and in the initial assault is every bit as good as 2 Assault Marine formations in a Thawk for 550 - same Initiative (the Thawk), same number of units, same CC. They lost some in follow-on turns due to lower FF than Assault Marines. There are also some pretty cheap loads for Landing Craft, which could allow you to drop a heavy hammer (12 CC3+/CC4+ units) for ~750 points and not kill your activation count. +25 points on the aircraft is probably valid.
Drop forces are probably worth checking as well, but Planetfall is probably okay. The potential cheap "deathwind barrage" formations are linked to the number of Great Company formations so more than 3 formations in pods will require either at least one infantry formation on the ground or giving up the Scouts' Teleport ability.
A countercharge special rule could be a way to give the SWs a bit more flavour.
but no worries BL, it's just a working-title right now so it can change 
