SW Rune Priests

Hi guys, Long time reader and fan of the BOLS articles and forums, but a very rare poster tbh..... :)

My mate has decided that toys aren't suitable for grown men (at the grand old age of 38), so he decided to sell his Sapce Wolves army. Although it's a relatively small force (1500 odd) and a bit of a 4th ed army list, I decided to buy the army because the majority is really nicely painted. Despite the fact I hate SMurfs.... besides, the 'mate's rates' of £100 for the majority was too good to turn down.

Anyway, I've had a few games with them, and have stuck to mostly playing 2 squads of GH's with 2 meltas, a pack of blood claws (even if they're a bit crap in 5th/6th), swiftclaw biker pack (which may get dropped soon shnazzle frazzle), Land Raider, Speeder, Dreadie (Las or AC, dependant on loadout) and a squad of WG.It's taking some getting used to as I'm a Necron and Eldar player by 'trade', but the real thing that's surprising me is the insistence of people on the forums to go for Rune Priests.

I've always been gonig for Wolf Lords because of the increased stats..... why do people tend to lean towards the Rune Priests.....? Are the psychics THAT good?

Forgive my ignorance here if this is obvious, as I'm relatively new to my Space Pups and tend to play in restricted circles to avoid WAAC gamers.... any friendly advice would be appreciated.

Mental note to self, when posting, try and post it in the right forum section..... heh.

Psykers are good, JoTW is an amazing power :)

Hmmmm, it does look like a great power but they seemed so expensive in comparison to Wolf Lords that I kinda overlooked them in my first few games.... This is probably due to my previous experiences shining through tbh, whenever I've used psychics in the past it's been with my Eldar (so more buffing than agreesive spell casting) so maybe it's something I need to look into exploiting a bit better.

Hmmmm, Rune Priest on a bike with the Swiftclaw biker pack could be interesting and could push me to not drop them as they've been kind of underperforming and I've been looking at the Thunderwolves boxsets with a lustful look in my eyes..... or is it better to keep them on foot with multiple foot troops and avoid spending loads of points on them?

Is there a particular load out I should be considering, or a cchoice of load outs?

i am not overly up on space pup tactics but in playing against a friend of mine who is a huge space wolf player i can not tell you much about there run of the mill rune priest but i did end up facing Njal Stormcaller (whom i have now dubbed ooggy boggy) and i will tell you that that IC is evil. EVIL i say he killed 2 of my sqds before i could get to him to deal with him (and since i play death wing that is kinda saying something) so as my advice is with everything i say play with it see if it fits your play stile and if you like it.

i have had space puppys ( as people seem to like calling them ) for quite awhile now. i used to play like you did till i was shown the error of my ways. rune priest are so awesome. mine is RP 100pts Chooser 10pts done and surprisingly effective. no joke he has bullyed tanks and troops alike.

Thanks for the feedback chaps.... I had a bit of a further look into the codex last night, and I gotta admit that the lesser combat efficiency is offset quite considerably by the JotW spell (do you really get no armous/cover save?!!? I didn't realise that previously, that's hideously strong....), and a few other little bonuses that you get included for the 100pts.

The added value of having the 4+ psychic powers nullifier, along with the added value bits like having a power weapon, does seem to offset the CC ability, and I can imagine that a rune priest ob a bike with JotW would be quite nifty. I think I need to resist the urge to properly upgrade them or they'll get expensiv and eat into the troops/elites points consumption....

I'm going to give them a go for a few games, and I'll come back to let you know if I stick with them long term. Might require me to change my tactiics slightly, (less of a CHAAAAAAAARGE and more of a hang back, hang back, CHAAAAAAARGE required methinketh) but thanks for the input.

Thanks again chaps. If anyone has any advice regarding specific Rune Priest loadouts then I'd be all ears, but otherwise a bit of game testing will hopefully show me the best way forward, but thanks very much all.

Rune Priests aren't going to wipe out units, they provide utility for a low cost. They have one of the best psychic defenses in the game (4+ to nullify anything is HUGE compared to Deny the Witch or similar defenses). They have access to two of the best sets of powers around. The main SW powers are Living Lightning (D6 S7 shots with infinite range, hello), Murderous Hurricane (slowing units down), Jaws (snipe models, kill low I enemies reliably), Tempest's Wrath (scare off skimmers/jumpers) and Storm Caller (extra cover never hurts). Diviniation from the main rulebook brings a lot to the table, even the primaris power is amazing.

Rune Priests are a bargain support HQ that makes the rest of your army that much better.