Njal Stormcaller

I've had a bit to say about Njal, having used him for about half the games I've played with my Wolves.

Njal belongs in a Rhino with Grey Hunters, at the centre of your advance. The mobility afforded by a transport is important for making the most of Lord of Tempests, and you definitely want those fire points. His ability to cast two psychic powers means that you can always cast Storm Caller, which is a nice pseudo-KFF for mech armies. His 3+ to cancel psychic powers is the best anti-psychic ability in the game - 67% to cancel versus Runes of Warding's 50% chance to make the psyker fail at Ld10 - but of course doesn't increase perils chances like the runes do.

Njal is a useful character to take (specifically, instead of two rune priests, because their costs are similar) because he knows every psychic power, and there are a few Space Wolf psychic powers that are extremely situational but very good in those situations. If you, like me, dislike tailoring lists to fight certain opponents, that's really valuable, especially in tournaments. I played one game in a tourney where I was up against Chaos Daemons in Dawn of War where I won first turn, and was able to put Njal in the direct centre of the table and cast Tempest's Wrath, which ended up costing him an immobilised Soul Grinder, about five bloodletters, a wound on his Bloodthirster (battle report here).

Lord of Tempests is also amazing. By the time your opponent is getting ready to assault, you've a good chance to make everything within 24" difficult terrain to infantry, which messes with assault infantry royally, as you can imagine. In the late game Njal is literally shooting lightning without even thinking about it, which is especially great in Annihilation because you can rack up kill points without even trying.

Psychic powers and special rules aside, Njal is decent in combat but nothing to write home about, and he's not terribly durable with 2 wounds, a 3+ save, and no invulnerable. Essentially your strategy should be to keep him out of combat.

1500 points of Space Wolves

I've spent a while tinkering around with 1500 point SW lists and I quickly discovered that my preferred list (Rune Priest or Njal, lots of Grey Hunters, and Vindicators) suffered primarily from a lack of long-range firepower. My original lists looked something like this:

105 rune priest / wolf tail talisman
175 grey hunter pack / x9, mark of the wulfen, power weapon, wolf standard, flamer
 40 rhino / dozer blade
180 grey hunter pack / x10, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard, 2x meltagun
 40 rhino / dozer blade
180 grey hunter pack / x10, power weapon, wolf standard, 2x meltagun
 40 rhino / dozer blade
120 vindicator / dozer blade
120 vindicator / dozer blade
----
1000 TOTAL

This plays pretty similarly to the manner in which a friend's CSM lists work: full squads of troops which are competant at CC or shooting, with double meltas, in Rhinos. He played Predators; I prefer Vindicators. He plays a Daemon prince; I played a Rune Priest.

Since the list doesn't have a whole lot in the way of speed or range (compared to CSM's TL lascannons and flying Daemon Prince) It became obvious that more ranged shooting was necessary. Luckily for me, Space Wolves have access to two more excellent ranged anti-tank options: Long Fangs and Land Speeders. My current 1500 list looks like this:

120 rune priest / wolf tail talisman, saga of the beastslayer, melta bombs
      (murderous hurricane, living lightning)
115 rune priest / wolf tail talisman, chooser of the slain
      (living lightning, storm caller)
233 grey hunter pack / x8, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard, meltagun,
      wolf guard w/ powerfist and combi-melta,
      rhino w/ dozer blade
233 grey hunter pack / x8, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard, meltagun,
      wolf guard w/ powerfist and combi-melta,
      rhino w/ dozer blade
238 grey hunter pack / x5, power weapon, wolf standard, meltagun,
      wolf guard w/ powerfist and combi-melta,
      razorback w/ twin-linked lascannon, dozer blade, storm bolter
 90 land speeder / typhoon launcher
 90 land speeder / typhoon launcher
140 long fang pack / x6, 5x missile launcher
120 vindicator / dozer blade
120 vindicator / dozer blade
----
1499 TOTAL

This list still features three tough scoring units with potent CC abilities and double melta shots, two rune priests for psychic cancel and extra anti-tank shots, and beside the two Vindicators (which I love!) I can throw out nine krak missiles and a twinlinked lascannon. To expand the list to 1850 all I have to do is drop some wargear on the Rune Priests and add two venerable dreads with TL-lascannons, for more ranged anti-tank and additional armour saturation. If I was really smart I'd add a fourth squad and a TDA Wolf Guard with cyclone launcher to the Long Fangs, but I can only stand to paint so many Marines.

Commissions!

I am now accepting commissions! I've added a page for explaining how my commissions work. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. Here's a photo of some nob bikers I just finished (sans bases) for a friend of mine.