Great Companies

[Ragner Blackmane]

Hello fellow warriors of the Fang, as many may know I was planning on producing a Ragnar Blackmane army although I feel that since I want a battered army, eg partly seperated from the rest of the army, that I should do another Warlords army. I know what your going to say, 13th Company but I don't understand the idea of designing, playing, using, and buying them. So I searched on the internet and found this link :-

 

http://www.gobiel.com/sonsofruss/warlord.htm

 

Also this may help fellow undecided Blood claws.

 

So I question my great, old and wise brothers before me :-

 

1) Which of the surviving warlords on the link is the oldest?

 

2) Which symbol would you say is the easiest markind?

 

3) Can you explain how you use the 13th company?

 

4) What information on thm is their, eg symbol, notable characters, colour sceme ect ?

 

THANX in advance

 

Ragner Blackmane :D

[JEFF4i]

1) Oldest is Logan. His personal symbol is the Night Runner, the last listed.

2) Easiest marking is usually Logan's since it is normally just on a regular grey background, not yellow.

3) No idea, never fielded 13th.

4) Besides Ragnar and the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar, there isn't much in the way of fluff of the other Wolf Lords. So it is totally up to you, which is what I love. The vast majority of my force is Bjorn Stormwolf's with the Thunderwolf, and he is my Wolf Lord with twin lightning claws, why? Lightning, Thunder, Storm, it all just works. So go with what ya like!

 

Honestly, don't compromise. If you go with what is easiest to model, you'll almost always had wished you went with what tickled your fancy the most. I have a couple Ragnar Company and while I really like the 'pup Lord, I'm partial to the design and customizability of Bjorn's Great Company. So even if its a little harder, or the transfers don't come on the sheet (Harald Deathwolf anyone? My next Wolves will be Harald's) just be patient, especially since many people always stick with the Wolves, this is a lil more permanent army.

[muzzyman1981]

1) Well firstly they are Wolf Lords, not Warlords. Second, one of the Rune Priests of the site will have to decide which Wolf Lord is the oldest....my own thought is the current Great Wolf Logan Grimnar (which is also by Space Wolf definition a Wolf Lord as well, as he controls his own Great Company.

 

2) Well it depends on how detailed you want it, if you are looking for basic "slap some paint down" I'd say most of them are fairly easy (it's kind of hard to be specific when we don't know your skill at freehand painting)

 

3) One of the expansion books has the 13th Co rules but be advised that 13th Co is not a tourney legal army (unless otherwise specified by the tourney leader), it is however a darned cool army.

 

4) Well honestly another Rune Priest question but one I think even they might have difficulty answering as I've not found any detailed information as to specifics on Great Companies. Most of them are basically whatever color you feel like painting, outside the names of current Great Company Wolf Lords you can make practically any "noteable" characters you want.

[Dark Bjoern]

1) The oldest is easy. It´s Logan Grimnar, over 800 years old.

2) The easiest to paint? Depends on your painting skill.

3)

4) Just take a look at our codex. That´s all aviable characters with actual rules. And all GC uses the same basic color. Even that each GC is an more or less independent army we are still a Chapter. Each WL can choose a GC color and personal symbol shown on the left shoulder pad (right shoulder pad in case of terminator armour). And what symbols are existing you can see when you click your own link.

[Commissar Molotov]

Grey Hunter states that Egil Ironwolf is older than Logan Grimnar - is there a canon source to disprove this?

[Durfast Spiritwolf]

1. The Wolf Lord of the 13th Company is the oldest as he has commanded his Great Company for 10,000 years but his symbol is left blank on the annulus. Now whether this is Joran Bloodfang or Bulveye is open to discussion but recent fluff seems to indicate the latter.

 

2. The easiest symbol is any of those that come on the transfer with the boxed sets:

 

Great, blackmane, thunder, Morkai, the two-headed wolf, and night runner.

 

3. It's the other way round, they are tournament legal unless specifically excluded by the organisers.

 

Less the bikers, the whole army deploys as scouts. So you can either take the free move prior to turn 1 or deploy reserves from the flanks in subsequent turns. As you don't have anything truly heavy, a Rune Priest is a must to move a pack of meltgun armed Long Fangs via the gate within close range of high payoff enemy targets. The PL is great because you can split your fire if there are two good targets in range.

 

You must take a Wolf Lord, so if you go above 1500 pts you must take one each of the Wolf Lord, Rune Priest and Wolf Priest. The Wolf Priest is a good choice to lead a large pack of Wulfen as he can chose to subdue their animal rage with wolves making cheap and fast moving ablative armour for any vulnerable units.

 

I've a work in progress 13th Company Force myself so we can exchange notes as we go along if you like.

 

4. They wear the pre-heresy colour scheme - so are dark grey rather than SW grey - but have had, through necessity, to replace damaged armour and weapons with items won on the battlefield. It's worth buying "Wolf's Honour" as Bulveye, axman of Russ, Torvald the Reaver, his Rune Priest, and the rest of his warband feature towards the end and he also appears in the latest HH book "Tales of Heresy" as one of Russ's original warband on Fenris prior to the arrival of the Emperor.

[Blackmoor]

1. Right, see above

 

2. Right, see above (I am surprised no one else said that)

 

3. See below

 

4. Right, see above

 

You will be very, very hard pressed to find anyone that will allow 13th company into a tournament, and there are a few reasons for it.

 

#1. They are not allowed at any official GW tournaments, and most tournaments follow GWs lead.

#2. The fact that they stopped publishing their rules years ago, so most people do not have access to them.

#3. They were made an edition or two ago and GW have stopped supporting them so they have not had FAQ updates to make their army 5th edition compatible.

 

But if you wanted to play then you can just use the Space Wolf codex and just do not take any vehicles, and take a lot of bikes.

[Durfast Spiritwolf]

You will be very, very hard pressed to find anyone that will allow 13th company into a tournament, and there are a few reasons for it.

 

#1. They are not allowed at any official GW tournaments, and most tournaments follow GWs lead.

#2. The fact that they stopped publishing their rules years ago, so most people do not have access to them.

#3. They were made an edition or two ago and GW have stopped supporting them so they have not had FAQ updates to make their army 5th edition compatible.

 

But if you wanted to play then you can just use the Space Wolf codex and just do not take any vehicles, and take a lot of bikes.

 

They're allowed in events held at the HQ in Nottingham so I think it would be difficult to claim that they are not allowed at any!

 

Still, it all be moot in September anyway.