Although Goonhammer’s own Cyle “Naramyth” Thompson won the 2020 Wheat City Open last week, players around the internet were (justifiably) less interested in hearing the tale of how Cyle heroically won by switching to Iron Hands and more interested in the 5-1 Space Wolves list that only lost to Cyle’s. In an act of well-deserved contrition, we had Cyle interview this bold Space Wolves player about his list and experience. Meet Jon Kilcullen.

Cyle: Hi Jon, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. Let’s start with your list. What made you decide to play Space Wolves, and what went into building this list?

If I’m being honest, Mitch Pelham gave me the idea to delve into wolves originally and helped me along the way when I was looking to mix them in with guard and knights. It wasn’t until marines showed up that I had to put the guard on the shelf. I’m not Brandon Grant, so I can’t make that work. So I went off to find some answer to this meta. I found it in the oddest place. The space wolves book.

Months of work went into making this list. I’ve thought about this book and this list since October. I do a list building exercise every night. I share my lists with my team and anyone that will really listen including Cyle here. I get feedback and then I adjust based on what I’m seeing. This went on for months until I hit on this concept of characters behind ultra durable fast moving screens.

The small changes that ended up netting big results was forsure the change from stalker rifles to the basic bolt rifle. The rapid fire weapon was an all star for me and no question about it helped me win my game vs orks.

Jon’s Space Wolves List

Space Wolves Battalion

HQ: Wolf Lord w/Jump Pack, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer, Warlord: Saga of the Beastslayer

HQ: Wolf Lord w/Jump Pack, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer, Relic: The Wulfen Stone

Troops: 5x Intercessors, Power Fist on Sgt.

Troops: 5x Intercessors, Power Fist on Sgt.

Troops: 5x Intercessors, Power Fist on Sgt.

DT: Impulsor w/Shield Dome, Ironhail heavy stubber

DT: Impulsor w/Shield Dome, Ironhail heavy stubber

DT: Impulsor w/Shield Dome, Ironhail heavy stubber

Space Wolves Battalion

HQ: Rune Priest w/Jump Pack, psychic hood, runic armour, runic staff

HQ: Wolf Guard Battle Leader w/Jump Pack, Thunder hammer, storm shield

Troops: 6x Blood Claws w/Chainsword, Wolf Guard Pack Leader w/Storm Shield

Troops: 5x Intercessors, Power Fist on Sgt.

Troops: 5x Intercessors, Power Fist on Sgt.

Elites: 10x Wolf Gurd w/Jump pack, thunder hammer, storm shield

Smash Wolf Guard Battle Leader

DT: Impulsor w/Shield Dome, Ironhail heavy stubber

DT: Impulsor w/Shield Dome, Ironhail heavy stubber

Cyle: The question we get from everyone is “How does this play?” What’s your strategy with this list, and how did you get to five wins? What are the Stratagems you’re using in a typical game?

This is a loaded question. There’s a lot to unpack here so I will try my best to not ramble. (Editor’s Note: At Goonhammer, we encourage rambling)

This list is basically a modern day rhino rush. It suits my style of play almost perfectly. On paper It doesn’t look like it would be challenging at all. It’s when you start to try and pick secondaries against it that it starts to come together. I’ve found that a lot of my opponents struggle with the third secondary choice vs me.

The list is dynamic and every unit at some point will need to fill multiple rolls if I’m going to go deep into an event. When playing a book like this I needed to squeeze as much efficiency as possible out of every single model. This was clear in my final game vs blood angels. Which I’m sure we will get to later.

The list depending on my opponent, the terrain, the mission and the secondaries we chose, will function differently. Sometimes it’s a denial list that will just sit mid and not really do much for a couple turns until I’m ready to pull the trigger on an opening i see my opponent gave me. Sometimes the list is fully aggressive and advances across the table turn 1 to get in position to charge.

This list completely relies on getting as much as possible out of the movement phase and charge phase/ combat phase. Deployment is critical with this list. Typically you will null deploy all the infantry and only have 5 impulsors and the characters on the table. The deployment is an impulsor castle. Every one of them is usually trying to touch terrain and be obscured by an L or a building. Having a woods or crater in your deployment is a trolly way to mess with combat armies. You deploy the entire army on it and are now -4 to charge. The idea is to have your impulsors circle the characters and still leave room so that they can jump out and heroically intervene if necessary.

A lot of people have asked me why I don’t use an inquisitor to deny Overwatch or to stay in combat but to be honest, I tried Hector Rex since he can Deep Strike for free and get into the correct positions when needed to use this ability, but at the end of the day I can’t have dead weight in combat in this list. [Taking Hector Rex] pushes me up to 5 characters, making it easier to take Head Hunter against me and so my impulsors are actually the deny Overwatch tool. They are always charging and always double or tri-pointing units.

The impulsor is my Swiss Army knife. It does it all.

How did I get to 5 wins?

It was by far the hardest route I have had so far in my 2 years playing this game. Tho I am playing space wolves so every game always feels like a struggle. It’s part of why I like the army. I love intense tight games.

Game 1: Lawrence Hill’s Asuryani

It was a list style I’ve had a lot of experience with so this helped me a lot pregame and during deployment.