HQ:
1 Venerable Dreadnought - plasma cannon, heavy flamer, extra armor, smoke launchers
1 Rune Priest - terminator armor, lightning claws, wolf pelt
4 Wolf Guard (retinue) - 4 terminator armor, 2 assault cannons, 2 bolter/plasma, 2 power weapons (combi guys), 1 chainfist (AC guy), 1 powerfist (other AC guy)
Drop Pod
1 Wolf Guard Battle Leader - frost blade, bolt pistol, wolf pelt, frags
ELITES:
4 Wolf Scouts - 2 power weapons, 1 meltagun, frags
TROOPS:
8 Grey Hunters - 2 powerfists, 1 plasma gun, 1 plasma pistol/ccw
Wolf Guard Leader - power weapon, bolter, wolf pelt
Drop Pod
8 Grey Hunters - 2 powerfists, 1 plasma gun, 1 plasma pistol/ccw, wolf totem
Wolf Guard Leader - power weapon, bolter, wolf pelt
Drop Pod
8 Blood Claws - 1 powerfist, 1 power weapon, 1 flamer
Wolf Guard Leader - power weapon, bolt pistol, wolf pelt, frag grenades
FAST ATTACK:
2 Attack Bikes - 2 multimeltas
HEAVY SUPPORT:
4 Long Fangs - 3 rocket launchers, 1 lascannon
Pack Leader - bolter/ccw
1 Vindicator - power of the machine spirit
The list tries to take advantage of the whole bag of Space Wolves tricks: spring into action, do moderate damage, and hold on tight: venerable dreadnought leader re-rolls for first turn, wolf scouts attack from behind, true grit, the mediocre yet enthusiastic blood claws, no Ld modifiers from being outnumbered, and counterattack, augmented by wolf-pelted squad leaders with power weapons. I will also typically use the drop pods to restructure the battlefield and close bothersome firing lanes.
There's two elements to this force: the ground contingent and the reserves. The ground forces are my heavy weapons, plus a squad of assault buggers in a rhino. I will typically break them down further into pack elements: dreadnought supporting the long fangs, vindicator and bikes supporting the rhino. The blood claws are the only ones in the army I really need to worry about charging, since all the other infantry units perform the same in assault whether they charge or not. Usually I'll try to grab an early objective with them while the rest of the elements take heat.
The drop pod elements (see this old post) are best against light to medium armored foes, and are almost guaranteed to get at least one good round of shooting, but they are always vulnerable to high initiative power weapon (also chainaxe/choppa) attacks. The multiple powerfists have to survive and triumph in the first round of CC or else they're usually finished off before they get a second chance to hit.
The main problems with this list? Low model count, everyone's on the expensive side (especially the Rune Priest's squad - 393!), plasma overheats (ouch), ever-present vunerability to high-initiative power weapons, and the Long Fangs only have one (expensive) buffer before I have to start removing heavy weapons. These are all issues I have to overcome with strategy, since the list includes virtually every Wolf model I own (excepting the land raider and a few others), and I'm pretty loathe to convert or paint any more of them.
A guy I met playing at Funny Papers back in the day hooked me up with a big box of old pewter Wolves models on the cheap, and I augmented that collection over the years with vehicles and bikes, as well as some of the new plastics. It's a mix of model generations - all but two of the bolter models are the new style, and the vehicles are all the old style - but I kinda like it that way. I converted the bolter-plasma guns from storm bolters, and used a catachan sword to turn an older generation terminator powerfist into a wrist-mounted power weapon, and the dreadnought's plasma cannon is actually ex-chaos gear. I actually did a decent job on my Ulrik the Slayer model (not pictured), but I never used him as the special character and I stopped using Wolf Priests after just a couple of games. Without all the special gotchas that other marine chaplains get, I don't really see the point. Rune priests and their cover generation ability are a much better value.
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