Planning a Thunder Warrior Project

[BassWave]

I could use some help ladies and gentlemen. I'm prepping to make a playable thunder warrior army that can be used in both 40k and 30k. However I have a few questions.

 

1. Which army would best represent TWs in 30k? My first instinct is black shields with the T5 upgrade.

 

2. Aside from some remote lab having a bunch of TWs in stasis, what is a possible reason for them being around in 40k?

 

3. I'm challenging myself to only use GW/FW products. I'm planning to use stormcast eternals as a base model. However I'm having trouble with what to do with the shoulder pads, back packs. For the packs I'd like to use something big and bulky. Maybe modified devastator packs?

 

Any and all info/inspiration is greatly appreciated.

[helterskelter]

Consider the new reivers as a base? They're taller and appear less heavily armoured as fluff implies TW and mk1 armour to be, then you need some funky heads.

[Charlo]

Here is one very fun alternative in terms of rules...

 

You could go Militia & Cults and get the provinces:

• 1) Survivors of the Dark Age
• 2) Feral Warriors OR Abhuman Helots

Then you can have up to four big squads of Ogryns as your Thunder Warriors.

 

With provinces these will all be monsters with 3+ Save, T6 and access to Boarding shields, Power Axes and you can even for fun give a squad all Heavy Bolters that become an 18" Assault 3 weapon (albeit at their silly BS2).

 

Then you shove them into Auxillia Gorgon Heavy Transporters to plow them up the field.

 

HQ/ Troops are things like random other regiments from the Emperor's army, that will be T4 with the extra rules that mean you can get some nice sort of "line thunder warriors" with 3+ save grenadier for Proto-Astartes.

[Fenbain]

I'm not sure what to suggest ruleswise, but I like both of the options suggested so far.

 

As far as modelling goes, may I humbly suggest checking out the 'War in the Sol System' album on my FB page. That's where all my Thunder Warriors are. If you think they'll do the trick, there should be full bits lists for how I made them :-)

 

https://www.facebook.com/FenpyrianForge/

Edited July 25, 2017 by Fenbain

[Skalpynock]

Backpack-wise, the new Death Guard have some pretty apocalyptic variants that wouldn't look out of place during Unity. Might also be a source of helmets, if you have the patience to de-nurglify them.

[Lord_Ikka]

Hmm. Well, during the HH novel The Outcast Dead, Arik Taranis was working on a way to stop the "burn-out" of Thunder Warriors like himself. He managed to make a copy of a progenoid gland and implant it into both himself and his subordinate Ghota. We don't know what happened to them beyond that. I would say make that your starting point- Taranis and Ghota survive the burn-out and escaped Terra. They have been creating Thunder Warriors for the last ten thousand years and have finally emerged from the shadows to reclaim their glory.

 

Rulewise- I'd use Custodes rules. The Guardian spear can represent the combination of the TW's archaic early bolters/power weapons.

 

This might work for a couple of reasons-

A. Treating the creation of Thunder Warriors as extremely difficult/resource intensive makes the long timeline work better.

B. The Thunder Warriors were more powerful than normal Space Marines; Ghota fights off 5 SM and kills one without dying, the cull of the Thunder Warriors by the War Hounds had something like a 4/5 to 1 kill ratio in favor of the TW, and Taranis himself had a psychic aura similar to a Primarch when viewed by a Thousand Son pysker. A smaller complement of Thunder Warriors makes sense in this fashion.

[Walter Payton]

Here is one very fun alternative in terms of rules...

 

You could go Militia & Cults and get the provinces:

• 1) Survivors of the Dark Age
• 2) Feral Warriors OR Abhuman Helots

 

I think that Gene-Crafted (+1S and T, no FNP of any kind) and Warrior Elite (+1Ld, no Levy as Compulsory troops, which doesn't matter with SOTDA) would also fit.  I agree that Survivors of the Dark Age is a must.

 

 

2. Aside from some remote lab having a bunch of TWs in stasis, what is a possible reason for them being around in 40k?

 

Fabius Bile been up to his old tricks again?

[b1soul]

For your visual reference...

 

http://pre11.deviantart.net/ee49/th/pre/i/2013/154/f/e/last_thunder_warrior_by_diamondaectann-d67nfva.jpg

 

http://orig09.deviantart.net/446c/f/2015/303/b/8/arik_taranis_by_d1sarmon1a-d9ewm4m.jpg

[BassWave]

Thanks for all the ideas so far guys. For rules I'm looking for T5, 3+ save and multiple wounds. Which is why when I run them in 40k games I'll be using aggressor rules. 30k has been trickier. I'm avoiding using Custode rules as they have a 2+ save. The ogryn idea is neat. I may have to try that. I was already planning on making an imperial army force so that works.

 

Im on a phone so I can't post pictures but the stormcast eternal vanguard hunters will be my base. https://www.games-workshop.com/en-NL/Stormcast-Eternals-Vanguard-Hunters-2017

 

Green stuffing a visor should be simple enough. The problems are what to use for shoulder pads and what to use for a back pack. I like the Iron Hand gorgon terminator pads but There doesn't seem a way to get those separately. For the back pack I'm thinking of something that looks more of a battery rather than a reactor.

[~Drakzilla~]

Master Crafted Minis has a set of shoulder pads that have that Mk.I segmented armor look: https://mastercrafted.co.uk/shop/infantry-components/shoulder-pads/spiked-rows-veteran-shoulderpads/

 

They do have spikes on them, but those could probably be taken off without too much worry.

[bluntblade]

I suggest primitive materials be present too. MoM mentions the Emperor wearing armour that was as much baked leather and bronze as ceramite at Maullamd Sen.

 

They should be much slower than Astartes - Mk I armour lacked power for the legs.

[AndyNoMore]

Chymeria (gene-bulked) Blackshields are also a possibility, with chain axes. Slow, but tough and hit hard. The Blackshield Marauder squad is really customizable.

Edited July 30, 2017 by AndyNoMore

[bluntblade]

Plenty of partially exposed faces too, to emphasise the lack of sealed armour.

[Gorgoff]

That http://i.imgur.com/RV7NHSg.jpg

[Ryltar Thamior]

Modelling Thunder Warriors, you say ... :P 

here's our efforts: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/336006-vox-stellarum-the-unification-wars/

Admittedly, we've gone for a scale that's rather substantially in excess of what you might get from the Stormcast; but I think it's paid off rather handily. Although YMMV as to whether buying this many Primarchs is a feasible idea - since we Truescaled all our Astartes etc. it seemed like the only feasible thing to do for the real sense of 'scale' and 'transhuman dread' that ought be integral to any Thunder Warrior force.

Now, having said that, if you WEREN'T going to that OTT level, I'd be recommending you take a look at the various champions of khorne from teh Age of Sigmar range. You get an array of 'armoured but not *power* armoured legs', and really big muscular beyond-human-limits torsos to do interestin gthings about [presumably, building up plates of semi-powered armour over the top of. Obviously, ther'll be quite some 'de-chaosification' required on them, whether in termsof removing mutations and skin-marks or chaos dangly bits and iconography. Heads will be another interesting area. [incidentally, if you go down this path, you might like to check KrautScientist's rendition of Angron made from a Slaughterpriest for potential inspiration]

Weapon-wise, what I think we're gonna wind up using for primitive bolteres is going to be the drum-mag shootaz from the Ork Boyz kit; and I don't think we've quite settled on powerpacks yet [beyond the use of some Primarch ones where appropriate] - although there's a range of potential ones, including stuff from the Orkz [i think it's the flash gitz ones?], and material based off Imperial Guard voxcasters an the like. 

Shoulderpads could come from a variety of sources, dependent upon which 'pattern' you'd be going for. I've seen art effecs that could be replicated by using terminator shoulderpads from teh Cataphractii, for instance if you're oging for that loricum segmentum look; and i've also contemplated using the two--piece tarteroi shoulders for something that's more 'rounded'. Something we're about to try [at some point in the rather near future - Adamanticores have got the priority atm], is utilizing the terminator pads from Iron Hands Gorgons , becasue the yhave that 'banded' effect you see in much of the art-work. If you can get ahold of 'em, there's also the Raptor of Unity shoulder-pads that FW put out as a thing not so long ago iirc. [oh and that's another point - iconography wise, raptors rather than double-headed eagles]

[oh, and as for why we've put this much thought into using the Khorne range if we're already using the Primarchs as base-figs ... well, 'Firstborn' / 'Proto-Astartes' is all I'll say on that :P ]

There are a few other possibilities out there - like using Krell, perhaps; or, as one chap on here did most successfully, building some rather 'truescale' looking ones out of Putrid Blightkings [iirc]. That'd be another work-heavy approach, becasue you'd be cleaning up a LOT of mutations and things, and not all the torsos and legs would even be useable - but on the other hand, you'd have a readymade excuse to keep on all the tumours and what not because late-stage Thunder Warriors who're fighting their own ongoing battle with death. 

Personally, though, while I can see why some folk find the Stormcast route appealing, I'd be staying away from it myself - the miniatures are too 'refined' in many regards for how I picture Thunder Warriors. The ydon't really do 'techno-barbarian' even when substantively converted, particularly in the elegantly countoured legs etc. And due to the 'iconicness' of the Stormcast, I find it difficult to look upon one without basically seeing .. well .. a 40k'ified Stormcast instead of a whatever the converted mini is supposed to be. 

Whereas hte Khorne figures definitely do "Techno-Barbarian" a lot better; and some of  theother figures also have looks that lend htemselves quite well to what you're quite possibly after. 

Further, if you're running on a limited number of seriously powerful warriors, then the cost-issues associated with procuring character minis etc. are not so significant.

Now, in terms of fluff ... well, one possibility as to why they might turn up in *40k* is that Cawl and his tinkering to produce the Primaris means that he either wound up creating another batch of them for evaluation purposes , or even that some of the originals were kept in stasis for the last eleven thousand years or whatever [after all, he kept Heresy-era Marines around like that].