Sky Claws Considered

I've finished painting my skylaws. Unfortunately it has been too soggy outside to get the krylon finish on these guys. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when I was told that I can't bring a wolf guard into my skyclaws. Really, it doesn't make sense to pay for any of the gun upgrade options (flamer, meltagun, plasma pistol) unless you intend to attach an HQ choice to the unit. On top of that the unit is likely to draw some attention which can be a good or a bad thing. My plan is to hide it behind my land raider and/or rhino initially and then position it behind drop pod units or terrain. Ultimately, I hope to see it reinforce the effort of another unit or use it to clear a contested objective. The challenge of using this unit strategically is that they are required to charge and it wouldn't be very thematic to have these guys carefully avoiding conflict until the fifth turn. They are the most inexperienced and reckless characters the space wolves have to offer.

Now that I've pointed out their weaknesses, lets consider some of their strengths. Five mobile marines in power armor with a power weapon and mark of the wulfen is only going to cost 120 points. That sounds reasonable to me. On top of that, this is the one unit where mark of the wulfen is stacked with furious charge for 4-9 rending attacks off of one model on the charge. This is one of those situations where my 120 points are going to clear one enemy unit and then die from one or two units shooting in the following enemy shooting phase. I'm cool with that. I like a game of bloody chess.