His stats reflect this combat focus. He has WS of 5 but a lowly BS of 2, not that it matters since he doesn't carry a gun! Thanks to his wolf mount Fangir he was S5, T5, 5 attacks and a decent 3 wounds. Importantly he also has I5. His high toughness, couple with a power armour save, makes him pretty resilient. Terminator armour may have a better save but most weapons will have to roll high to wound him in the first place.
He gets the standard batch of skills: Acute Senses, ATSKNF & Counter Attack and also thanks to Fangir he has Rending. Not that is makes much difference since he has power weapons but it will give him a better chance of wrecking vehicles even being able to glance upto AV14. However, if you're putting him up against vehicles you're probably wasting his talents. His special rules mean that to make the most of him you need to have some fen wolves in your army as any within 12" can use Canis' leadership. It may only be 8 but that means the creatures will have the same Ld as a Space Marine making them harder to shift.
Wrath of the Savage is an interesting one, if you're in base contact with more than 5 models (i.e. his base attacks) then you can swap this characteristic for the number of models in base contact. GW does stipulate that you can't mount him on a bigger base but the one he comes with is a decent size. Not sure what the maximum is but I'm pretty convinced it wouldn't be much more than 8. Mind you that'll mean he has 10 attacks on the charge! To be honest this is only really going to be useful against Orks, Nids, etc. little else is likely to end up that densely packed around him.
This sort of highlights the problem with him. Against most opponents he's unlikely to wind up being any better than Logan or Ragnar. However, the obvious advantage though is that he only costs 185pts. I think that's actually a bargain for what you get. Equipment wise he comes with a Wolftooth necklace, Wolf tail talisman and a pair of wolf claws. Against most things then he'll be hitting and wounding on 3s (wounds on 2 against T3) and then he'll re-roll either set. Saga of the Wolfkin is also nice as it means any fen wolves have I5 and Ld 7 and the Wolf King ability makes them Troops (although remember they can't claim objectives). Speaking of which you can give him a pair of fen wolves as some handy ablative wounds. This can go some way to compensating for his lack of an invulnerable save.
So how should you use him? He could used solo with a pair of fen wolves. Launch him at a mob of orks or a suitably hefty target and let him cleave through them. Bear in mind thanks to him being cavalry he can charge a maximum of 24" (minimum 19") so you shouldn't struggle to get him in close. He's a pretty big model so he's sure to draw some attention. This might mean that your opponent unloads a lot of fire his way which can go some way to protecting your transports.
To me a better idea would be to have him in a squad of TWC. If you're short on points they could be just a couple but make sure one of them has a storm shield to give them an invuln save. This will make a very nasty proposition for any enemy to deal with. Give them a squad of fen wolves as a screening cover save and you're almost guaranteed to get them in. Any opponent is going to worry about that little lot coming towards his lines and distraction is always handy in 40K.
Writing this makes me want to use the model in my next battle. I've had the box for a while now but I've never found any motivation to build him up. This is partly because large metal models never seem to fit together right but also because I'm waiting until I've got some TWC to make the most of him. He certainly seems like fun though!
Right, one last post in this series to go and it's a double on with both Arjac and Lukas. Once they're done I'll summarise all this stuff so you can make your decision about with SC will accompany your army. We demonstrated at Freebootaz that SCs are underused and can be really powerful. Mind you I'll be surprised if many have the guts to use them instead of the bog standard Rune Priests. Hopefully I've inspired someone though....
I tried him in a unit of 10 Fenrisian Wolves and that worked pretty well. The model fits together pretty well but you'll still need a fair amount of time, patience and superglue!
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