Having done two theory weeks on whole lists, I felt like changing it up. So I thought, what is a unit that I find interesting? I figured that these ladies would be a good choice. I’ll be looking at them only in the context of Devourer’s Host. So here we go, what’s good about them? Who do they like? What do they fear? To answer these questions, we have to see what they are to start. Gogogadget Privateer Press card database!
Targets: On average, with no buffs the Wolf Riders are hitting DEF 14 in melee on 7s (DEF 17 on 10s if they charge) and breaking ARM 19 about 50% of the time (ARM 22 on the charge). At range, and factoring no aiming (because of their low range), they hit DEF 13 and break ARM 19 on 7s. With a low model count unit like this you don’t want to be relying on 50/50s, so I feel that in melee DEF 13 and ARM 17 is closer to their sweet spot, while at range they’d rather see DEF 12. This includes units like Knights Exemplar, Immortals, Dawnguard Sentinels, and almost Forgeguard and Iron Fangs, as well as chaff units like Winter Guard (except everyone can kill them). It can also include Trenchers if they manage to engage a few, as their engaging negates the Dig In bonus that would otherwise skew them away from using these models as prey.
Threats: They are hit by MAT/RAT 8 (9 if the enemy is living and within 1”) and killed by P+S/POW 12 50% of the time. Similar to the above, you want to avoid coinflips on models that are as expensive and as valuable as these. When this is paired with a defensive statline which you should avoid, you see some units you definitely don’t want to take on without buffs/debuffs, like Trollkin Champions under Madrak1, Exemplar Cinerators and Bastions, Man-O-War Shocktroopers and other similarly statted models.
Casters and models who do a lot: Firstly we’ll look at solos. Namely the White Mane, Shaman and Wolf Rider Champion. One helps offensively, one helps defensively, one can affect both. The White Mane provides them with a flat +1 as long as he can get close. Unlike the other Tharn units (except for the Bloodweavers due to Ambush), this unit isn’t always going to be easy to get in his bubble, at least not in its entirety. This is why I didn’t talk about him much in the above section “Targets”. However, if they are forced to hang back due to enemy ranged or melee threat, the scenario or your game plan, he does alter their best targets to be DEF 14 ARM 18. The Wolf Rider Champion gives them Prowl, which is helpful for delivery and with a combination of ranged weapons and Reposition (5), it can also help for hitting and running on the flanks, extending the life of the unit and the duration of their threat. The Shaman provides both a bubble of knockdown and Magic weapons. The issue this model has with supporting this unit is similar to the White Mane, except instead of being able to run to provide his buff he instead needs to be within range to walk and take his action. So he’s worth mentioning, but I believe it is of limited usefulness.
There are numerous casters who can buff either the survival or the damage output of these. Mohsar, Wurmwood and Baldur1 buff their damage and survivability (Mohsar to a lesser extent, but it’s still there). Morv2 can buff their accuracy in melee and help “fix” their damage with rerolls. Not necessarily buff it, but lessen the impact of bad rolls. She can also help their survivability with Fog of War. Krueger1 is a bit odd. I don’t feel like he explicitly buffs their accuracy, damage or survivability, but I feel like he turns their infantry clearing ability up to 11 with lightning tendrils, and that can be fantastic for some lists I imagine (no idea what the list would be and Dev Host may have that well covered, but I wanted to mention it). Morv1 and Iona do it all. Survivability, accuracy and strength. They can really get some solid work out of the girls. Finally, Una2 has Hand of Fate. And it’s Hand of Fate. As a Khador player…. I mean, it’s Hand of Fate. Have I mentioned Hand of Fate yet?
Casters and models who don’t do much: There are several models who don’t do much to buff the Wolf Riders. This may be because they only buff an individual model, or they don’t improve anything that the Wolf Riders need improved. From the models you’re likely to see in theme, the Night Witch provides no direct buffs and, while she could knock an upkeep off a model or something, it isn’t enough for me to consider her as a buff for this unit. The Blood Priestess could give Divine Inspiration to one model, but again that isn’t doing enough for the unit, and in this theme there are going to be many other models that are more deserving of this buff. Finally, before the casters there is the Boil Master and Spirit Cauldron. This is going to be a common minions unit present in the Devourer’s Host theme, but as the Wolf Riders have no corpse mechanic all he provides is puppet strings (if he is even close enough), and again this just isn’t enough. As for the remaining casters, while they may be able to provide one turn of limited survivability buff (Baldur2), a slight MAT/RAT/POW fix that requires too many steps (Tanith1) or are just generally amazing casters (Krueger2), I don’t think any of the ones that I have yet to mention provide enough of a buff to, if not necessitate at least greatly benefit the girls.
So yeah, as per usual I’d love to hear what I have missed. Like why they are actually good into what I think are bad targets, or why they should never ever hunt what I had thought were their prey haha. And please let me know if this was too much, if it was too shallow, or anything like that. Always looking to improve. Thanks for reading!
Bless My Wold 