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Hunting Wolves Guide
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How to be a Hunting Wolf

TJHairball

Zerkova’s Hunting Wolves theme force is a viable way to play a Zerkova list. It might not be the most singularly competitive list, but it has many useful tools. Here’s your toolkit:

She’s restricted to using non-character warjacks with ranged attacks, Marauders, and Vanguards. This means you can’t use Juggernauts, Berserkers, Kodiaks, Black Ivan, Torch, Drago, or Behemoth. Conquest is allowed, which is fantastic

Any keys to using this right?

Use your rolling cloud cover in the early phases of the game. This is not as useful against melee armies, but messing up LOS for the enemy is never a bad idea.

Upkeeps require thinking ahead. You have two of them. Both are defensive upkeeps, both are generally useful.

Zerkova has a strong magical ability and can kill enemy warnouns dead with multiple Razor Winds. She’s not the best assassination caster, but four Razor Winds can do the trick on lower-ARM warcasters. How do we kill a warnoun when the kill is absolutely critical and has become a do-or-die affair?

  1. Clear all necessary firing lanes, using forced movement effects if you can.
  1. Bulldoze is automatic. Just make sure to aim carefully.
  2. Combo Smite can clear LOS by slamming things out of the way, and also by knocking them down as collateral damage.
  3. Don’t forget, Vanguards can use a normal slam attack, and have 6” base SPD.
  4. Sometimes, you will have to just kill things to get them out of the way.
  1. Next, apply Gorman to the face. Black Oil is incredible. Against an enemy colossal or heavy warjack, Rust Bomb can be useful, but Black Oil is a very good go-to. As an added plus, if you don’t succeed, it’s at least blinded next turn - a blinded enemy warnoun is an enemy warnoun that is unlikely to kill you back in revenge.
  2. Ice Cages are the next step. Three of them will render the model stationary, but even 1-2 will raise the odds of hitting substantially. A warnoun that is stationary is likely to shake the effect the next turn.
  1. If the enemy’s effective DEF score vs ranged/magic attacks is 10 or lower, you do not need further Ice Cages. Blast the target with Frost Bite instead, it’s POW 12 and will probably deal some damage.
  1. If you have things which apply knockdown effects - Conquest’s hat gun with Critical Devastate, Marauder’s Combo Smite - and the side effects will not cause you trouble, and the target’s DEF is still above 10 vs ranged/magic attacks, apply those effects now.
  1. Conquest may still want to fire its nipple guns first, especially if the range is just barely 12” from Conquest’s position. While a knocked down target is easier to hit, an out of range knocked down target tends not to take much damage.
  2. Combo Smite is most useful as a knockdown effect when the primary target of the assassination is hit as collateral damage, rather than directly. If you can reach and hit the target directly with a Marauder, remember that a failed Combo Smite means the target is now in melee with the Marauder, which may increase its DEF substantially.
  3. If you want to be especially tricky, you can run a model behind the target, so that if the target is blasted back 1d6”, it blocks it.
  1. Activate Zerkova.
  1. If you managed to screw up step 4, Force Blast can be used to push the now-prone target back into range/LOS of the rest of your force, if you can put a friendly warjack behind the target.
  2. If the target is hard to reach/see, you will only get one Razor Wind, as you will need need to use Ghost Stone or Lens of Tarvodh. Boost damage on your one spell.
  3. If the target is easy to reach, you can fire up to four Razor Winds. Boosting damage is worthwhile if the target has high ARM, or if you need to boost to hit.
  4. Zerkova should feat at this point if she has it available and the target is not dead. Just in case.
  1. Apply any remaining ranged attacks, except Widowmakers.
  2. Estimate the target number needed by Widowmakers, if you have any.
  1. If it will be high after engaging the target in melee, use the Widowmakers now.
  2. If it will be low advance/charge/etc melee models first, then fire Widowmakers.
  3. If Widowmakers are the last models attacking the target, and it has few boxes left, or a key system is very near crippled, keep Sniper in mind.

One small note on melee: If Kayazy are already engaged, use Frostbites and blast AOEs after the Kayazy activate. If the Kayazy aren’t already engaged, use the Frostbites and blast AOEs first.

A couple words on Zerkova’s feat, Howling Wind. If you’re not sure whether or not you should use Zerkova’s feat, you probably should. It’s a defensive feat, and it’s better to err on the side of early rather than later with defensive feats. It is one of the stronger defensive feats in the game, eliminating orders, special attacks, initial ranged attacks, and special actions.

Opponents can buy additional ranged attacks using fury/focus; their warcasters can cast spells; their warcaster can feat; they can make a normal advance and normal melee initial attacks; and that’s all a typical enemy list can do with its affected models. That includes everything from ✭ attacks/actions to Shield Wall.

My experience is that opponents often do not quite understand how much is barred by Howling Wind, and often try to perform special attacks, special actions, and orders; they usually remember the bit about not being able to run or charge, but there’s a lot more to it than that. And it doesn’t matter if the model exits Zerkova’s control area partway through its turn; all that matters is that they start in it.

Weaknesses

Zerkova’s list does not include much high P+S aside from warjacks. You can get some P+S 15+3d6 hits out of a charging pair of Kayazy Eliminators with Gang and Combo Strike. Regular Kayazy Assassins reach 12+4d6 if you can charge and get Backstab, but that’s even more difficult. With a Rust Bomb from Gorman plus a bunch of Kayazy, you can theoretically crack some high-ARM targets without using your warjacks, but it’s difficult.

Since many of the most efficient warjacks for cracking high-ARM targets - Juggernaut, Beast, Behemoth - are not available, Hunting Wolves tends to struggle with high-ARM targets. This has changed somewhat with the introduction of Conquest, which hits very hard in melee; between Shield Guard and Banishing Ward, Conquest can be very difficult to debuff.

High-ARM/focus-camping warcasters are actually fairly hard to assassinate with Hunting Wolves because you have to rely on warjacks for high-P+S attacks, and the list doesn’t include Eiryss to strip off camped focus.

The tiers

One of the nice things about the Hunting Wolves theme force is that it pulls you in; each new tier looks attractive from the previous tier. I nearly always run Hunting Wolves at Tier 4 outside of Mangled Metal matches.

Another nice thing about theme forces in general, and Zerkova’s in particular, is that they’re light on characters. Gorman di Wulfe and Zerkova herself are your only character models; so in a multi-list format with character restriction, making one list a Hunting Wolves theme force makes building your other list or lists easier.

Tier 1 Hunting Wolves:

There are two good reasons to play a Tier 1 Zerkova Hunting Wolves list.

First, you’re playing a Mangled Metal match, and you would like to include a Vanguard. You’re giving up character jacks, Berserkers, and Kodiaks for this, but that’s sometimes worthwhile.

Second, you intend to use a Kayazy skew list. Zerkova can field two Underbosses and three pairs of Eliminators. The maximum she can field is 37 points of Kayazy, but you won’t want more than 29 - Kayazy Assassins without the underboss are much less exciting. By comparison, a normal “Kayazy-heavy” list would field one maximum unit of Assassins, plus the UA, plus two pairs of Eliminators - 16 points.

If you’re trying to do anything else, you should meet the Tier 2 requirements.

Tier 2 Hunting Wolves:

There’s one good reason to run a Tier 2 Hunting Wolves list: You want Vanguards, and you’re playing a low-point match that isn’t a Mangled Metal match. Other than that, you’re either getting very little out of the tier benefits, or should be running a higher tier.

The Tier 2 requirement is that you have Gorman di Wulfe and a Greylord Ternion. This is a very good 6 point toolkit, and it merits inclusion in most lists. The tier benefit is a free 1-round cloud effect per Ternion at the start of the game, which usually doesn’t do much.

Tier 3 Hunting Wolves:

As far as I know, there’s one good reason to run a Tier 3 Hunting Wolves list: You want to run a Kayazy heavy list with one warjack, and are willing to throw in the six point toolbox module. A Greylord heavy list with one warjack could also be Tier 3, though I have doubts that taking 4 ternions is worthwhile.

A Tier 3 Hunting Wolves list is very unlikely to have a Vanguard in it - if you run one Vanguard and no other warjack, you’re not using Zerkova’s full warjack allowance. If you run two warjacks, you can almost always find the two points necessary to add a third warjack, at which point you bump up to Tier 4.

The tier requirement - which is very easy to meet - is a unit of Kayazy Assassins. The benefit is +2” on your deployment zone. This is a noticeable benefit, and a tier requirement you’re very likely to want to meet, which is why Tier 2 lists are especially unattractive.

Since the Underboss is amazing for making the Kayazy more effective, you’ll almost always want to include him, as well; but a minimum unit of Kayazy + UA, one ternion, and Gorman only add up to 13 points together. Easy to do even at 35 points.

Tier 4 Hunting Wolves:

The requirement for this tier is that you have three warjacks in Zerkova’s battlegroup; the benefit is that you get a one point discount on all warjacks. Combined with the availability of Vanguards, and the fact that Vanguards are one of the main reasons for going with Hunting Wolves, this makes Tier 4 very attractive.

If you already have two warjacks, you can add a Vanguard, and get back three points from the Tier 4 discount, for a marginal or net cost of 2 points. Very few 2 point models can compete with a Vanguard. If you’re running just one warjack, you can add two Vanguards for seven points, which is still a bargain.

A good Tier 4 list will almost always include Vanguards; Vanguards are a steal at 4 points each. You can do a lot with a Vanguard using no focus or one focus, so investing in multiple Vanguards isn’t actually that bad.

Living Warriors:

Gorman di Wulfe

List design: Gorman is good and a basic Tier 2 requirement. Take Gorman, period.

Tactics: Black Oil is amazing. Keep Gorman safe until he can use it on something critical. Once in a while, you’ll want to use a rust bomb on an enemy warjack or a corrosion bomb, but Black Oil is key. I am usually willing to sacrifice Gorman to disable two enemy heavies on a key turn, disable an enemy colossal on a key turn, or drop it on a warcaster/warlock to try to kill them.

Gorman can automatically hit targeted models a lot of the time with the scatter, so always use him first if you can - he’ll make Ice Cages and other debuffs easier to land. You will always clip the original model rolling a 2 or less on scatter. Otherwise:

I’ve had good luck with scattering onto targets out of range of Gorman, but don’t count on it.

Kayazy

List design: Assassins are a core unit and having at least one of them is the requirement for Tier 3. Please run them with the Underboss UA. I would rather run a minimum unit with the UA than a maximum unit without the UA, frankly. +2 DEF in melee makes Kayazy much more effective, and the minifeat is amazing. One unit of Kayazy Assassins is a Tier 3 requirement.

It’s possible to run more than one unit of Assassins effectively, especially since the theme force lets you take a second Underboss; but I don’t recommend it for a general-purpose list, and I would recommend adding Eliminators before adding the second unit of Assassins. Eliminators are the only 3 point option - worth special note when trying to get that last point out of your list.

Tactics: Assassins are your only serious tarpit. Put clouds on either them or Vanguards to block enemy LOS lines; if your opponent doesn’t have a good method of dealing with them, put them in his face. Backstab is a nice ability but you rarely get to use it.

Eliminators make nice flanking pieces and move very quickly; also, with Combo Strike and Gang together, they are your highest P+S models. They can actually put a hurt on some heavy models.

Greylords

List design: My recommendation is that you should take one ternion and, if you can fit it in, a Koldun Lord; but the Koldun Lord has competition as a two point solo, and won’t make it into all lists. The FA on Greylords is increased, but they aren’t that strong of a unit overall; you could run a Greylord skew list, but it doesn’t seem good. Having one ternion is a Tier 2 requirement.

Tactics: Situationally, Greylord Ternion can be very strong, but the trio of wizards die very easily. They are very much glass cannons - one Ternion can destroy ten, twenty points of models in a single turn, but similarly can die to a single two point solo. Their defensive stat line - 13/13 - means that “typical” RAT 6 shooters will hit all three of them with five shots, and they will die to nearly every shot that hits. Blast damage presents a serious threat.

The Koldun Lord is not much more durable; he will sometimes take two hits to kill. He is not there for giving Greylords Battle Wizard and an extra Ice Cage as much as for Power Booster for Tier 4 lists; Zerkova has a lot of focus, but she can usually find plenty of things to spend it on, and with three warjacks, focus is in high demand.

The Koldun Lord is a jack marshal. Be aware you can’t marshal Vanguards with the Koldun Lord, and that any marshaled jack doesn’t count towards the three-in-battlegroup requirement. However, you do get the one point discount on marshaled jacks at tier 4, and the Koldun Lord gets bonus armor when B2B with warjacks he controls. Situationally, this can make him harder to kill, but don’t expose him unnecessarily.

Widowmakers

List design: Widowmakers are good, and are your only long-range shooting unit. I take both them and the Widowmaker Marksman fairly often.

Tactics: Widowmakers are especially good at taking out high ARM single-wound infantry. They have Camouflage, which means they get along well with Blizzards, but you usually want to put them in and around forests, since they have Pathfinder, advanced deployment, and the ability to run 12” in a turn. They have high enough RAT to hit normal targets after moving.

Note that the Marksman grants Swift Hunter, which lets Widowmakers move 2” after killing a model. The Marksman has Stealth, but the Widowmakers themselves do not - keep this in mind, and be wary of models that ignore concealment or have very high RAT scores.

With a little DEF debuff from Gorman or Greylords, Widowmakers can reliably hit warcasters They can guarantee a single box, but against ARM under 16, it’s often worth rolling damage.

Warjacks

Colossal: Conquest

List design: It’s expensive to take within the theme force. It takes 31 points to take a Conquest and meet the bare minimum requirements for Tier 4. Two Conquests at Tier 4 requires a minimum of 45 points. Conquest is viable at 35 points, and two Conquests at 50 points.

The theme force has limited options overall - with a total of 63 points of available non-warjack models - so at 50 points, you’re likely to start stretching into inefficient choices if you don’t take a Conquest, and at 75 points, taking two starts looking pretty good. The only reason not to take one is that you can’t hide it behind clouds.

Tactics: The only thing missing from Hunting Wolves, as far as Conquest is concerned, are Battle Mechaniks. In spite of the lack of repair support, I feel that Hunting Wolves is a good environment for Conquest; and Conquest is conversely a good piece to put in Hunting Wolves.

Conquest provides a high-P+S presence you simply can’t manage any other way. Between Banishing Ward and Vanguards, you can prevent a lot of the debuffing that is used to take down colossals.

Conquest works OK with Watcher - it can’t move, but you can shoot a fully boosted shot and have up to a ~44% chance of getting a Critical Devastation hit, knocking them away d6”. Just try not to hit Zerkova with that shot. Another thing you can do: Put Zerkova right behind the Conquest. Watcher will trigger on non-reach models coming in for an attack on the Conquest.

Conquest is also the only warjack available to you with Pathfinder, making it the only warjack that can comfortably keep up with Zerkova running through the woods; however, note that Conquest cannot hide behind woods. Or cloud effects.

Light: Vanguard

List design: Unless you’re running a Kayazy skew list - and even sometimes then - you should have at least one Vanguard on hand. You should feel free to run more - two is quite common. The Vanguard is one of the major reasons for taking Zerkova’s list. I ran a seven Vanguard list at 35 points once, and didn’t feel like I was starved for focus. You usually don’t want to give them more than one focus each anyway, and at 4 points each in Tier 4, they are a rock solid model whether or not they have focus.

Tactics: It runs well with only one focus; it has Assault, and can strike across the board quickly. It has a good stat line, and Shield Guard lets it protect Zerkova from getting shot in the head, or Conquest from getting on-hit debuffs.

“Vanguard” means “in the lead,” and you should feel free to put them in harm’s way - they’re tough and meant to take hits. They should be your primary Blizzard targets; this makes them DEF 15 against ranged attacks, but more importantly, they’re harder to kill than individual Kayazy, so the clouds won’t be lifted prematurely.

Heavy: Spriggan

List design: The Spriggan is the basic go-to non-character heavy warjack for Khador, and it serves the same role in a Hunting Wolves list. Take one if you can afford it; it’s a point more than most of the other heavies, but is very widely useful.

Tactics: The Spriggan does almost everything. It’s tied with the Decimator for the second-highest repeatable P+S attack available, below only Conquest..

The Spriggan’s flares add extra anti-stealth capabilities. Hunting Wolves has a limited number of ranged attacks, and Zerkova can already make one anti-stealth attack, but flares don’t require any focus and can make Widowmakers much more effective. Flares and Widowmakers together can really help in whittling down higher-ARM and blast-immune Stealth models. You don’t want to wait for Bane Thralls and Satyxis Raiders to come hit you in melee, do you?

Bulldoze is crucial. It’s great for opening up firing lanes, freeing ranged models from melee, allowing Zerkova to run away, cleaning up objectives and setting up for even more forced movement with Force Blast, et cetera.

Once in a while, the regular grenades are useful - but don’t hold your breath waiting for it. The Spriggan has Reach and Powerful Charge, giving a 9” threat with one focus, and hits pretty hard on the charge; and the grenades’ POW is exceptionally low.

Heavy: Marauder

List design: The Marauder is 2-3 points cheaper than the other heavy warjacks, and 2 points more expensive than the Vanguard. It’s also a specialist that brings unique abilities to the table. It also wants to have 1-2 focus per turn, so be careful with taking too many warjacks with Marauders.

Its main problem is that it’s competing with an even cheaper alternative - the Vanguard. For just two more points, it’s a tempting hard hitter, especially if you don’t have room for a Conquest.

Tactics: Hunting Wolves loves board control, there are no other melee specialist warjacks available, it’s the cheapest available heavy warjack, and it can do a lot - which is to say Combo Smite - with fairly little focus. Cheap is important when you’re trying to pack three warjacks into a list, and the one-point-per-warjack discount matters proportionately more on lower-cost warjacks.

Combo Smite is great. It’s a star attack, so you can use it on a charge, but you usually just want to boost to hit with it to make sure it lands. Being able to slam without having to move at least 3” in a straight line makes it much easier to pull off and much easier to aim; and it’s P+S 20 on top of that, making it a pretty lethal hit - 20+4d6+knockdown if you boost damage and manage to knock the target into something its size or larger.

Heavy: Demolisher

The Demolisher - the newer Clamjack - has ranged weapons and thus is available in Hunting Wolves.. High ARM until it starts unloading on people, and Bulldoze for board control.

The Demolisher is able to take advantage of Watcher, but bear in mind that doing so opens the shell, and as with the Conquest, be wary of putting boosted blast damage on Zerkova. This is probably worth it if you’re about to get assassinated. Girded is a nice touch, too, allowing you to make life harder for other people using blast damage. It looks like the better choice between the two of them within the Hunting Wolves list.

I’ll readily admit I don’t have experience with clamjacks in Hunting Wolves. The Demolisher looks like an interesting piece; I’m just not sold on it being more useful than a Spriggan.

Heavy: Decimator/Destroyer

List construction: Both the Decimator and Destroyer want at least 2 focus to function well, and they’re not especially cheap in terms of points. I feel that these are not very good choices.

The Destroyer/Decimator you should probably only take when using the Koldun Lord as a ‘jack marshal. They have the misfortune

Decimator tactics: Beatback gives you an inch of forced movement on a hit; making the Decimator a reasonably nice choice for Watcher; its ranged attack could put someone out of position. Its melee capabilities are on par with the Spriggan’s - Sustained Attack instead of Reach lets you deal a little more damage, but you’re a little less likely to be able to get to apply that damage.

Destroyer tactics: I feel like the Destroyer is a good choice for a marshaled warjack under the Koldun Lord; but otherwise not a great choice. While the Destroyer brings a nice long-range Arcing Fire gun to the table, it has very little utility outside of that gun.

Sample lists:

The following are examples of lists that take advantage of the Hunting Wolves theme force options and benefits available at their tier. They have been color-coded for your convenience - gold for Gorman, grey for Greylords, brown for Kayazy, and green for Widowmakers.

35 points

Basic list - Tier 4

Conquest - Tier 4

Kayazy skew list - Tier 1

Vanguard skew list - Tier 4

50 points

Basic list - Tier 4

Double Conquest - Tier 4

Kayazy heavy list - Tier 3

75 points

Blizzard-Vanguard rolling cloud list - Tier 4

100 points

Basic list - Tier 4