Are wolf riders any good?

[calmacil]

I've bought an Orc army off a friend, and i now have 10 units of painted wolf riders. I've tried to use them in a few games, and they've failed every time i've used them. Now when i write an army list out i don't include them.



Am i doing something wrong? or are they just not worth taking? it seems a shame to have unused models.

If you do use wolf riders, what do you do with them? do you harass the enemies flanks?

[captPiett]

It's hard to know if you're doing something wrong without more detail than "they've failed...", but:

They can be quite effective in the harassment role you mention. Get them close to the enemy and you can either make ordering more difficult or draw more important units into a trap (i.e. knights charge wolf riders and win, but then are within charge range of your boar riders). They are cheap and fast, so use them hard but assume you're going to lose 'em.

A thought occurs: the trap thing I mention is a fairly old trick; I'm not up on the state of tactics in the wider community. Does anyone use that successfully anymore?

[Lex]

Should still work, and they are very nice to lure of mandatory charge units.

As an alternative, go Green Kislev Horde !

[calmacil]

Get them close to the enemy and you can either make ordering more difficult or draw more important units into a trap (i.e. knights charge wolf riders and win, but then are within charge range of your boar riders). They are cheap and fast, so use them hard but assume you're going to lose 'em.

The trap would work against one of my opponents, he has bretonnians. His knights would have to move by initiative. 

[BlackEd]

Wold Riders have a 15cm shooting attack if I recall.  And they can shoot all around.

They can use this to shoot at a line of infantry that would support another line of infantry, and thus force it to move away.  This will remove support from an infantry unit that is in combat.

They are not particulary robust, and you will lose them.  But attacking flanks, warmachines and infantry in the open should go your way.

[Haranin]

Using their move you can use them to block off retreats and generally annoy the enemy.

Building up a goblin army and plan on using alot of them.

Pile enough crap together and even bad units start to look good. 

[jchaos79]

Yep I agree with haranin as  regular warmaster opponent says " the quality of the quantity"

[David Wasilewski]

The short answer to your question is "no, they're not very good."

However they can be used strategically if you're playing on a big enough and open enough board to tie up or threaten flanks and rears. Very useful especially in larger games. Throw them out to lurk, harrass and give the enemy that -1 command penalty. Try to ride behind enemy formations to block off retreats in anticipation of the Orc Infantry/Boar Boyz charge.

They are useful in penny packets in a combined arms approach, to lure out enemy heavy units, to threaten war machines or to ride out on suicide "hey everybody fire at me, I'm the closest unit" missions in order to screen your main body advance.

Use them like a napoleonic light cavalry screen and they will pay for themselves. Use them in a shock role and watch them melt away!!!

My two penneth.

Dave

[Claus]

They have their value if you see them in context with the whole army.

Bring them in the back or edge of a brigade and charge the front with you ordinary Orc Warriors.
Shoot at the units supporting the first rank...you only need to inflict 1 succesfull hit and you cancel the support they would have given.

Combined with Boar riders they can support to kill knight units. Satturate the fron of knights with Boar riders and go with the Wolf riders in the edge.

Try to kill nast artillery with shooting or Kamikaze-Charges....Wolfriders are cheep unit to do this.

As others said allready....there are different options to use them but one thing is almost shure.....they are not good to do single charges themselves allone unless they do so on single vulnerable enemy units.

Regards
Claus