Black Wolf Overview

(Alternative Title: Why you’re all playing Commonwealth wrong)

The Black Wolves give you access to almost all non-flagship models of the Commonwealth, excluding only the unique units, colossi, and platforms. This is quite a broad set of choices, and the amount of slots you get also lets you bring a variety of options.

Black Wolf Battlefleet by Warcradle Studios

Overall, the Black Wolf Battlefleet offers you Fortunes of War as well as a variety of strong M1 choices to provide damage output or to shore up weaknesses. Other support options are more limited. While Commonwealth generally leans into attrition based gameplay with tough, cheap options and respawning cruisers/frigates, Black Wolf requires you to take some more fragile subs before getting to the fun stuff and loses the respawning mechanic (which can be a double edged sword on killpoint missions), so it’s definitely more focused on aggression.

Since there are quite a few choices to talk about, I'll only be covering what I think are the most interesting options.

Faction: Commonwealth

Minimum Cost: 341 (Deathbringer + 1 Khyzhak Attack Submarine)

Mercenary Ability: Reroll blanks in any action dice pool. Quite a strong ability, this generally amounts to a 1.16 multiplier. You want to get this running for Turn 2 and keep it on. Consider bringing units that can score early.

Flagships

  • Death Bringer

    Role: Assassin, Brawler

    Fortunes of War and cheaper, this is probably going to be your default choice. In combat, it’s a submarauder rammer/assaulter with a bit of torpedoes for fire support. Maybe a bit fragile, but definitely not something you’ll regret bringing.

  • Anastasia

    Role: Support, Sniper

    I don’t think there’s much point to bringing this. You do get SRS 5/3, Magnetic Generator, Unexpected Arrival, and a boosted Cryo Blast (though you can’t fire that on Unexpected Arrival). But unless you need most of that, and already have Fortunes from something else, you can just take the Deathbringer and bring other assets for the parts that you need.

    Note that the usual Unexpected Arrival + Attached Unit trick doesn’t work here, since the Rurik’s Attached (Russian) is not replaced with Attached (Black Wolf).

Submerged Units (1 to 3)

Role: Sniper

While you have three different units to choose from, they basically all fill the same role, torpedo fire support. Piranyas or Khyzhaks are pretty much even in output, so pick whichever you like. I don’t think the Akula brings enough to the table for their cost. While these are in no way bad, their role is very much overshadowed by the beast that is the Stoletov, so other than the mandatory slot I would not suggest taking these.

Skimming Units (0 to 3)

  • Stoletov Ekranoplan Harrier

    Role: Sniper, Skirmisher

    This might be the single most point efficient damage dealer in the game, though its output is split over 3 dice pools and allows defences. You can also take multiples of this unit, it's fast, and it's at the tougher end of M1 as well (A5C12H4). The only real downside is that it turns poorly, and you really want Supply Depot support, which you can't take in the Black Wolf Battlefleet. SRS support is also appreciated for spotter. Since you want to stay at long range and only have one light turret per ship, I would probably suggest sticking with the Rocket Battery (Which can get extreme range and reroll blanks) or Seismic Mortar, but any of the choices are viable (See Dragunov)

  • Dragunov Ekranoplan Brawler

    Role: Skirmisher, Brawler, Objective Holder

    While not as insane as the Stoletov, the Dragunov is a bit more of a general purpose tool, with a defensive boost using Flak Barrage. Each weapon option is viable, just differing in how precisely you plan to use it. As a default I'd probably go for the Railgun for maximum flexibility, or the Gun Battery for closing and point blank work. While the Seismic Mortar is also a solid choice, the Stoletov just fills that role better.

    • Rocket Battery: Closing/Long focus with a little bit of output at Point Blank.
    • Gun Battery: Extremely Closing focus, with good output at Point Blank
    • Seismic Mortar: Even better Closing/Long using Valor, but bad at Point Blank in exchange
    • Railgun: Quite good at all ranges, for a small cost bump (2 points per gun makes this very interesting).

The hovercraft choices really suffer for the price of the weapon upgrades. As such, I'd only run them with the default Gun Battery. For Long Range work, the Stoletov or even Dragunov just overshadow them completely. They are however quite tough, as with most Commonwealth M1's, having the A5C12H4 profile with Ablative on top, and quite high fray as well.

  • Giyena Shockwave Hovercraft

    Role: Brawler

    The Shockwave Generator is quite a strong piece of kit, and the Giyena is one of the two ways you can take it in a Black Wolf Battlefleet. It provides the point blank punch that's missing due to the lack of broadside, so if you're looking for a point blank focused skimmer this is it. While the Krykun is better, due to being cheaper, coming in larger unit sizes, and having the broadside too, you can only take one unit of each, so I think this is the hovercraft most likely to see play.

    It works a little bit different then a normal template weapon: as long as your initial target is within 10”, you can place the template anywhere on the line between it and one model in the firing unit, no arc limit. This lets you hit secondary targets well into closing range. Note that you can only fire one shockwave pulse per unit, you can't split it into multiple shots.

  • Yak Transport Hovercraft

    Role: Objective Holder, Brawler

    As far as Landing Craft goes, this is actually pretty decent, mostly by the fact that it's cheap. Its damage output at Closing is also decent for the cost, as is your Assault potential. You could definitely do worse.

Surface Units (0 to 2)

  • Krykun Shockwave Frigate

    Role: Brawler

    This is your Stoletov equivalent for Point Blank. Extremly high output, though again split over 3 dice pools, at reasonable cost, and tough. I consider these a main draw of playing Black Wolf. Stick with the Gun Battery, it gives you a decent punch at closing and ups your Point Blank even more.

  • Rurik Frigate

    Role: Objective Holder, Brawler

    Cheap, cheerful, and tough. If you want to take a midtable objective, these are a good bet. I'd suggest the Gun Battery, but the Seismic Mortar is also a valid choice.

  • Pravda Support Carrier

    Role: Support

    125 points for a support carrier. What more needs to be said?

  • Morozko Cryo Cruiser

    • Role: Brawler

    A nice boosted cryo blast, if you want to deal with frigates at closing range. Can also bring tri-rails for picking off support ships.

  • Khatanga Cryo Assault Cruiser

    Role: Brawler, Assassin

    Only brings a regular cryo blast, but you do get a very large drill to make things regret coming close. Not my cup of tea, but it's an option.

  • Kutsov Cruiser (and other Frontline Cruisers)

    Role: Brawler, Support, Objective Holder

    If you just want some tough cruisers, you can certainly take that as well. While the output won't be particularly impressive, maybe you don't need that for what you have in mind. The Oleg is also interesting if you want a 60 point generator or objective holder.

Aerial Units (0 to 1)

I would heavily consider deploying these via Low-Level Strike behind terrain to be safer Turn 1, and to be able to position them better. They degrade quite heavily when crippled, so you really want to get off an alpha strike here.

  • Saransk Skyfurnace

    Role: Skirmisher, Support, Brawler

    A very interesting multirole choice. Heavy Escort plus Flak Barrage gives you a good defensive curtain, Katuyusha Salvos give you a long range punch to start with (or longer, if you bring a Supply Depot), and once you're in close Furnace Cascade is one of the strongest “Bomb” options in the game, plus a boosted assault.

  • Tunguska Skycruiser

    Role: Sniper, Skirmisher

    The unique thing the Tunguska brings to the table is popping enemy support ships with tri-rails. While some have tried selling the Tri-Rail as a general purpose weapon, it's really not. Since it supports very poorly, you want to be shooting each Tri-Rail separately as much as possible (Ie. No defensive abilities on the target). Since you're firing separately, crippled is applied immediately for the next shot, and support ships tend to lose armor or citadel to make your life easier. With ignoring LoS due to being Aerial, you will be able to engage most targets on the table without impediment.

    While the Kutsov has the same firepower for 10 points cheaper, you are lacking the ignore LoS ability the Tunguska brings. That said, you only get the one aerial slot, so it'll come down to what you need and want to bring

  • Irkutsk Skydrill

    Role: Assassin

    Cloud Dive at 20” from a priority target, and your opponent will have to shoot these first. I don't think that's worth the cost, but some people seem to really like their giant drills.

List Suggestions

The Deathbringer plus either of the small sub options takes care of your required slots, and then you can go have fun. If you do want to go minimal, I think sticking to the Khyzhak is marginally better, since you don’t give up a victory point there. But it is very very close.

If you're looking for damage there’s two main ways I’d go, either point blank brawling with Kyrkuns and Giyenas or long range fire support with Stoletovs or Dragunovs. You can round that out with a Saransk unit for initial defence or a Tunguska unit to snipe key targets. There’s plenty of slots for both, but it’s definitely not a cheap dip you’re taking here.

Alternatively, you can focus more on holding objectives, bringing along some Ruriks, frontline cruisers, and once Landing Vessels start mattering, Yaks.


Closing

This was written for the Fortune & Glory Release October 2023.


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