Thunderwolf Idea

I don't have any Thunderwolves yet.  Come to think of it, I don't have any Fenrisian wolves either.  I think that both of these are important to the fluff, and important to the overall theme of a Space Wolf army (go figure).  I was planning to get some Thunderwolves and model them up like normal, but I started to think hard about it.  I stumbled across some forum threads from before there were models back in 5th ed, and listened to the points people made about Space Marines riding wolves. 

I tended to side with the people who thought it was a little over the top to have SM riding wolves.  Not because of realism or because it was ridiculous looking, but because I am a dog lover, and I feel like these warriors are too.  They have their pet wolves accompany them into battle, and they jump in front of bullets, and lay down their lives for their masters.  These wolves are not saddled and ridden, they are comrades, and fellow warriors, and hunters.  They probably live with the marines and eat with them.  I wouldn't saddle my friend.  But I'd go to war with him...

As I thought of how I was going to model them up, I came across some Space Wolves riding Chaos Knight steeds.  This conversion was born out of the lack of models for a unit in the 5th ed. codex.  Take a look:

These look amazing to me.  Don't get me wrong, I love the wolf model of the Thunderwolves, I just don't like a marine riding it.  I was going to field just the wolves alone, and maybe a few guys along side the base or something, but then how would they keep up? But if hey are on a horse, it's obvious how they keep up. 

I plan on getting a box of Chaos Knights, which has 5 horses, and a box or 2 of the Wolf Cav, and fitting the wolf riders onto the horses.  All the models will represent TWC but it will look like a marine unleashed his giant wolves and is following them in the hunt.  This is way more interesting to me.  The stat line of the TWC represents the rider and the wolf both attacking the target.  I feel like it would be impossible to hit something while riding an agile canine who happens to be mauling your target.  But to let the wolf maul some guy and you ride up beside it and smash it, that's more like it!

There are two main themes of a Space Wolf army, space Vikings, and warewolves.  I tend to lean more toward the Viking aspect and don't get too heavy on the warewolves.  I like Bran, so I may make an exception for him, but that's it.  These models scream Viking to me.  Throw in some axes and shields, and you got yourself some real space Vikings.

Here's to some sweet TWC conversions, cheers!



Update on Special Weapons

This is the first time that I am going to put the guns on after I paint the torsos.  I keep hearing how it is basically cheating, but usually I'm in too big a hurry to get them on the table.  I don't have a problem playing with plastic or basecoated models most of the time.

I gave a chainsword to one of the meltagunners because... hes a viking.  'Nuff said.

Since I used some Black Reach Terminators to make Wolf Guard, I am short several sets of Terminator shoulder pads.  My local FLGS carries Scibor so I am going to pick up a few of these:

These are the Celtic #2 set for Terminators 

These are the ones for regular Power Armor.  

I want to put these on my special weapons for some added uniqueness.  I forgot how fun these models are to put together.  The wolf models have so much more opportunity for customization compared to the codex marines.

Hopefully more progress to come!

I had 12 Space Wolves new on the sprue from when I started this army.  I wanted to keep some guys in case I needed some new options. I have taken the opportunity to start building my Grey hunter special weapons to fill in some gaps in my infantry choices.  I had built four wolves with melta guns in 5th ed.  One for each pack, since the pack leader wasn't an upgrade, and he didn't count towards the unit to get the second weapon.  In 7th ed that has changed.  I can now take six in my three squads.  I would also like the option of bringing some plasma guns.  I am building four to start.  That will give me up to two packs with dual plasma guns, and one with melta for some mid field tank hunting.

I think the plasma are a little more fluffy since the Space Wolves are supposed to be the Space Marines that kill other Space Marines when the need arises.  AP 2 here we come!

This also got me thinking about these guys:

I have all my turrets built as twin-linked lascannons.  This add-on looks great, and  I am a huge fan of kitting my Wolves out to the max (just look at my Wolf Guard).  They also have some great claymores that I want to kit out some more infantry with.

These look amazing.  They really have a future greatsword/claymore  feel to them.  While poking around I also stumbled accross these:

I'm not a fan of all of them, but one handed axes are not as easy to come by as I would have hoped.  I have also thought about cutting the upper hand off the 2h axe that comes in the SW sprue.  I will give it a shot and see how it looks.

Pictures to follow.

Made it to Adepticon

Adepticon has come and gone, and it was a great weekend.  I was lucky enough to snag a quick game with Jon from The Overlords Podcast.

It was me vs. Jon and my friend.  They both brought 750 of AM each.  I can't remember the entire army list but they had a Vendetta and a Valkyrie, some heavy weapons squads, and several veterans.  I want to say Sgt. Harker made an appearance and possibly Strakken.

I brought a pretty competitive Tyranids list that I have been working on over the last year and a half.  I had the usual two Flyrants with TLDwBW to start.  That was accompanied by my brand new Hive Crone to round out the flying monstrous creatures.  My troops were two squads of termagants, and I had a Dakkafex, which finishes off the CAD I brought.  The remaining points were invested into the Living Artillery formation, which is comprised of an Exocrine, three Biovores, and 3 Warriors.  They all may re-roll their scatter dice if they are within 12" of the Warriors.

We played the mission with two objectives, one per side, and I won by first blood on turn five.  We called it because Jon had another game to attend, but had it went on the Nids would have eaten everything.  It was way too harsh a list on my part. SORRY JON!

I ended up playing two more game on Saturday, and two more on Sunday for a five game weekend. Not too bad considering I commuted and didn't stay in the hotel.  Next year will be different.  I'm going all out.