Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Space Wolves (section)

===Fast Attack===
*'''Cyberwolves:''' Like Fenrisian Wolves, only cheaper since you only need 1 model. They've lost their T5 but in exchange have two wounds. Buffing the 4+ armour save with cover would make them surprisingly durable on their trip up the table.
**These guys are the cheapest Fast Attack option ''in the game'', and an absolutely phenomenal choice of anchor for your drops, and/or hiding in LOW-blocking cover on an objective in small games.
*'''Fenrisian Wolves:''' Fast and do some damage now that they fight at AP-1, but still die to a stiff breeze. Very cheap FA slot filler, although not as cheap as a Cyberwolf. They gain more leadership the more wolves you have in a unit, but it's still pretty crappy. If you want them to get into combat and do some damage you'll need a wolf priest to shepherd them, otherwise leave them as fodder.
** These guys are basically our only good screening option if you don't want to ally with another Imperium faction. A unit of 10 or 15 dogs is cheap and make for a fairly decent screen to help us against smite and mortal wound spam. Consider taking them if you have a hole to fill in your list. These guys have AWFUL leadership though, and you are very likely to lose just as many models to moral as you are to shooting, which is not what you want from a screen. Don't expect these to be as effective as a conscript conga.
*'''Inceptor Squad:''' The Deadly offspring of a Devastator Squad and a Seraphim Squad that can be taken in squads of 3-6. The mortal wound caused by their pseudo-HoW might look good on paper (on a 6+ does it though?) but when you only have a few models in the unit and no melee weapons CC may not be the most efficient use of them. Instead, take a page from the Seraphim's book and use your improved manoeuvrability to fire off strafing runs, courtesy of your Assault Bolters- effectively Assault 3 Heavy Bolters. They can also take 18" assault plasma cannons to wipe out MEQs/TEQS and put more hurt on vehicles now, because that shit was easy to make into two hand-held guns apparently. Like Assault Marines with Jump Packs, Inceptors have the FLY keyword, with all the strengths and weaknesses that entails. (On the other hand, that does mean you can be a very good distraction if you force an enemy flyer into melee...) 
**Conversely, assaulting with this unit can be a strategic choice. Charging a unit that is weak in CC will allow the Inceptors to avoid getting shot or to tie up the enemy unit for the next turn. Since the Inceptors have the Fly keyword, they can disengage next turn with no penalty and resume shooting. This is a tactical decision and will vary greatly depending on the enemy army.
**A note on their melee capability: because their squad size is so small, the fact that their sergeant does not pay additional points for his +1A has a great opportunity to shine.  More importantly, mortal wounds can be used to bypass otherwise durable targets.  Nine min-sized Assault Squads with Jump Packs cost as much as five Inceptor Squads; the number of attacks in each is 99 and 35 + 2.5 mortal wounds (when charging), respectively.  Doing the math for you, that means the Inceptors deal more damage per point on the charge against any target which is either T8+ and Sv 2 or Sv 3 (such as a Land Raider), or T5+ and Sv2+.  Neither unit will do well in those situations, so you should avoid it, but it's worth noting.  Against anything in the game, you're ''way'' better off with the Inceptor's guns.

*'''Suppressor Squad:''' Three-man squad only, functionally a long-ranged version of an Inceptor since they come with AP-2 autocannons.  Can {{WH40Kkeyword|FLY}} and Deep Strike but lack the Inceptor's T5 or mortal-wounds-when-charging. They can, however, chuck out smoke grenades, and if they make a kill in the shooting phase, that unit cannot fire overwatch in your charge phase. This unit is all but purpose built to wreck Tau face, allowing you to shut down their obnoxious For the Greater Good rule and flood their gunlines with Assault Marines, Terminators and melee Dreads, as the Emperor fully fucking intended.
*'''Land Speeders:''' Land speeders are now, for all intents and purposes, slightly bigger, faster, and more heavily armed attack bikes. The key difference here is that land speeders have the FLY keyword, which means if they do manage to survive the combat they'll occasionally find themselves in, they can just move on and shoot as normal (albeit with the penalty for moving with heavy weapons). Missile launchers got great (although overcosted) in this edition, which makes them a very solid option, but be cautious as these are also expensive, and whilst the land speeder is very resilient to small arms fire, a good shot from a dedicated anti-tank weapon will see it explode rather swiftly.

*'''Skyclaws:''' Skyclaws are essentially Blood Claws with jump packs; their shooting is sub-par (if you're going to give them special weapons, go with flamers) but their extra attack when charging gives them an edge over other versions of Assault Marines. This means they might just be worth it, especially if babysat by a jump-pack Character.
**Skyclaws also pay the least "taxes" on getting special weapons into the squad - 2 every 5, as opposed to 1 every 3 with Swiftclaws. They should ideally be given flamers, since they're not affected by their BS, and their movement stat means they'll get in range to use them.
**The sergeant can also take a special weapon, and the wolfgaurd can take a combi. That's four flamers on a deepstriking unit that ignores cover movement penalties for 125 points. Watch your opponent kiss their GEQ blobs goodbye on turn one.
*'''Swiftclaws:''' Blood Claws on bikes. In 8E bikes are very fast and quite durable. With BS 4+, using them as special weapon delivery systems is a bad idea, except for flamers, which is a ''great'' idea. Replace their bolt pistols with chainswords and get 3 attacks per model on the charge for cheap (by bike standards); otherwise, get Wolf Guard bikers instead.
**'''Swiftclaw Attack Bikes''' If these move, they hit on a 5+, while paying full price for the bike and weapons. Always avoid, even as filler.

*'''Thunderwolf Cavalry:''' Don't really have the punch they used to, and slower than bikes to boot, with fewer weapon options. The 3 extra S5, AP-1 attacks per model from the mount does help clear out light infantry, but to really bring the pain like they used to they need to be in proximity to Arjac and/or Wulfen for the bonus attacks. Having to pay 10pts per model for Storm Shields really hurts as well, on top of an already pricey unit, but if you give them a personal Wolf Priest with Jump Pack, they become a lot more survivable.  Wolf Claws are an ''excellent'' way to give them very good melee output without breaking the bank like some of their other choices. The 8th codex has basically left these guys in the dust, no longer starting at STR 5, losing 2 inches of base movement, and worst of all, the rider himself (which is where all your war gear is going) only comes with 2 attacks, so your points spent are WAY less efficient than in 7th. Also, these infamous "fast" charging units are no longer fleet, so good luck getting into combat without Wulfen around. Basically, GW doesn't like people buying this model anymore for some reason. butt hurt much?

*'''Scout Bikes:''' Stuffed to the gills with weapons; twin boltgun, astartes shotgun, bolt pistol, combat knife, and grenades. Up to three can replace their twin boltguns with grenade launchers. They have the same outflank ability as their walking brethren, but have more damage output, damage resistance, and manoeuvrability. Makes a good escort for Harald Deathwolf, since they can keep up after screening him once they arrive. 

==== {{anchor|Fast Attack Forge World}} Forge World ====
*'''Tarantula Sentry Guns:''' Whoooo boy, these suckers got a huge buff in 8th edition. They ended up gaining a whopping +1 BS, along with Toughness 5 and 4 wounds, which makes them fairly sturdy for a 10 point model. The only really significant downside is that they're M0 and can't deep strike, so they'll sit in your deployment zone the entire game.  Tarantulas can be equipped with the following loadouts:
**Twin Heavy Bolters: These are the default weapons. Good against infantry, but comes with the caveat that it MUST target the nearest INFANTRY model, or else the nearest non-INFANTRY.  A steal at 17 points, but restrictive.
**Twin Assault Cannons: Hands down the best option. Tarantulas with dual assault cannons lose their targeting restrictions entirely and gain a whopping 12 shots each. These can be a goddamn steal for what they do and can be considered practically mandatory.  Like the THB option, cheaper than two of the base gun at only 35 points.
***Mathhammer:  It costs 27 points to field 6 shots at S5 AP-1 D1 restricted and 45 points to field 12 shots at S6 AP-1 D1 unrestricted, which means the latter would be the better choice even if you didn't also gain the benefit of lifting the restriction.  This is so good you even beat the AM version of these things, which cost 24 points for the THB variant.
**Twin Lascannons: The other default, good against tanks. Also comes with a restriction that it MUST target the nearest enemy non-INFANTRY, or else the nearest INFANTRY.  Notably ''not'' a steal, since you pay the same cost two lascannons would cost (50 points), but still good.
**Multi-melta: Same deal as the lascannons, but mathematically worse (carrying two guns is better than carrying one). However, it does unlock your targeting restrictions, so a multi-melta equipped tarantula can fire at anything you want..  Very expensive at 27 points.
***Mathhammer:  The Twin Lascannons have twice the rate of fire and twice the range as the Multimelta, at 60 points rather than 47, with similar performance against the same targets for the rest of the statline, but the targeting restrictions on them can be quite aggravating, since they will happily target things like BEASTS or SWARMS that you don't care about.  As for the Multi-Melta, 47 points is two points ''more'' than the Assault Cannon variant and you generally won't get into Melta range since you'd have to rely on the enemy to do it for you, so it's only better against medium and heavy vehicles, who are generally fast and/or well-armed enough to deal with turrets handily, which is why neither heavy option is remotely as compelling as the twin assault cannons.
*'''Tarantula Air Defense Battery:''' As above, but stuck with S8 AP-2 D3 D anti-air missiles that get +1 to hit against flyers and -1 against everything else. MUST target the nearest enemy flyer, and otherwise the nearest enemy non-flyer, but you were probably already planning to do that when you took this unit. 
*'''Land Speeder Tempest:''' A tiny drop in movement (well, sort of; see below) from the vanilla type, but has better T and Ld (not that the latter usually matters). Each one is equipped with an Assault Cannon and two Tempest Salvo Launchers (36" Heavy 1d3 S6 AP-3 D2; at only 10 points each, ''drastically'' better as a pair than a Typhoon Missile Launcher against anything at all, but the Tempest itself is a good deal more expensive than a vanilla). When Advancing, they must move between 20" and 35"; they also impose a -1 to hit against them in the next Shooting phase and prevents units without the FLY keyword from charging (or being charged by) them. 
**Relative movement:  These guys don't have Anti-grav Upwash, so a unit of 3 of them is 5" slower than a unit of 3 vanillas, rather than 1", when not Advancing.  When Advancing, they are ''much'' faster, regardless of unit size, since they can go their choice of 20-35" (no need to roll), instead of 16-21 for a small unit or 21-26 for a large unit of vanillas.  Unfortunately, there's no option to take Assault weapons on them of any stripe.
*'''Deathstorm Drop Pod:''' A Drop Pod full of automated guns; it can choose either an 18" 2-shot gun with S8 AP-2 D3 D or a 12" 6-shot S6 AP-1 1 D gun. In either case, it must make 1 full shooting attack against anything in range (except for CHARACTERS, who still can only be shot at if they're the closest unit in range).