As I'm beating my head on the wall (don't worry, the wall is fine) for the last 3 days trying to decide on lists for a tournament, I definitely want to run the Wulvers for this event. Now I'm torn between the 4 or 5 core. Obviously the 5 man would expose WW to an early and costly LT loss which would probably not help with winning. The 4-man wouldn't give me the added +3 BS or needed smoke. I suppose running a Cameronian with them would help somewhat. So would you Vets out there risk WW or play it safe? The mission for this list would be Cap and Protect.
I would go either all in or cheap. Either go for a full 5-man link team with Wallace or trim the fireteam down to 3. If you take one of a kind, you will cover all the range bands nicely and the team will kill anything dead in CC anyway and will klock in at 102 points. This is not a reactive turn ARO fireteam, you will loose little forfeiting 6th Sense...
I always use Wallace with the linked wulvers (Core or haris) the smoke with them is realy good, just put the wulvers covering the flanks and Wallace protected looking behind if you think they could go that way. Dont put him in the line of fire, the smoke is to throw it unoposed, even when you can make it R2 at 20's, try not to force the oposing roll. In my last Tournament (limited insertion) i played a core wulver/wallace in all my games, and wallace just died once (and even win that game) And remember the free coordinated order from wallace if you want something fancy like speculate fire with 3 grenades (and a smoke grenade) at 11's You can re-do the link after, if you need it you. Count it as"only" lose a comand token (not a normal regular order) to do it.
Just for an update, I went with the 5-Man Wulver/Wallace link and it did NOT disappoint! Only played the list once for Capture and Protect Mission vs Tohaa and the Wulvers ate up anything midfield. I ended up losing the game to an entrenched Taquel Officer with bugs and mates protecting the beacon and getting my beacon taken at the last minute by some hidden Clipsos. My opponent played a great game, but my only complaint was the mission itself and the objective. The TO played the objective as silhouette 5 cover until the beacon is taken then it dropped to 25mm base token, which didn't provide cover. That pretty much got most of my Wulvers killed to the Taq Officer on the other side after taking some Symbio bugs love and combi fire. That was tough...stupid play on my part as well. Live and Learn.
Really? The full 5-man link has failed pretty much all of the time for me. On the other hand, the haris version has almost always swung the game in my favour.
Ok I have some recent experience AGAINST wulvers. Had random pickup night at my local gaming store. Ended up playing my Vanilla Ariadna list against CHA. My opponnent took Wulver Haris. Twas brutal. Admiteedly I rolled poorely and he rolled well, but in his 3 Wulver Haris in at the top of turn 2 a mine blast from my Scout caught two wulvers. Shrugged it all off no wounds. Followed up with a Boarding Shotgun again from the scout against team team leader. Wounded him. Then my Scout was crit with T2 shot. A subsequent ARO from a Line Kazak hit one of the othe Wulvers. He did some stuff at the other end of the board and that took us to the bottom of turn 2. Lined up my Vet Kazak with T2 and X-Visor. through 4 orders I got two hits and he armour saved both. So my recent experience is definitely biased because of my garbage rolls and his stellar one. But if I ignore the good and bad rolls and try to be objective. You cannot beat the order efficiency that Haris provides as well as the multiple, capable, multi wound units that are the Wulvers.
They pretty much murdered everything they came close (that is within 24 inches) to, and Wallace smoke-tossing made sure they do get in range. Murder machines they were. Admittedly not even close to HMG Spetsnaz, but who comes even close to the murderbots?!?
You've had much more success with the 5-man Wulver link than me then; IIRC, last time I tried them, they moved up to the middle of the table, (can't remember if I even needed Wallace's smoke), but were then gunned down from well within 24 inches, (sometimes within 8 inches!). A flanking force as a haris, though, tends to sweep round & butcher enemies en masse for me, whilst my Grey+Volunteer Core Link takes out the long-range & tough stuff.
Mirroring what seems to be the trend here, for me Wulvers are more use as a Harris team than core, and with the proper use of smoke from your impetuous units(45th and cameronians) you'll most likely be able to get them far up the table before they encounter any resistance. Using the Harris option also lets you choose much more versatile core teams, like the hmg grey and T2 izzy with volunteers conga line...
The key to success I believe is: gun down CC monsters and enter CC with gunfighters (that is almost everyone on the table). As far as I can see your problems stemmed from firefighting against capable troopers. My advise is next time smoke your way into base contact and kill them in CC! BS 15 (before range and including the fireteam bonus) is not bad at all, but this is not exceptionally high (most opponents clock in at BS12-13) and Wulvers lack the dirty little tricks like ODD or TO camo that would really tilt the odds in their favour. CC21, PH14 with AP CCW ARM3 & 2 wounds make them however more than capable close combat monsters! You are very, very rarely better off entering a firefight than getting intro close combat. When in doubt use smoke irresponsibly!
It was quite a while ago, so the details are hazy, but I *think* I struggled cos of a combination of; Lack of orders. Not able to get into good range. Had to cope with camo in cover. Couldn't get close enough for grenades, let alone CC, (e.g. due to aforementioned lack of orders). Opponent concentrated all of their attacks against them - as they were the biggest threat - so quickly suffered casualties. And, naturally, below average dice rolling . I haven't had a chance to use them recently, (as I'm running Vanilla Ariadna), so may need a refresher with them, but I don't get to play that often.
