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Brother Ranulf - strongest of Wolves


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Hi All. I don't have a copy of the 2nd ed Space Wolf codex. Unfortunately the firewall at work blocks access to 40k Lexicanum and the presence of a member of this forum named Lord Ranulf has rather hindered my search for information so I turn to you, confident that someone will be familiar with the relevant fluff.

 

In second edition there was a Space Wolf special character called Brother Ranulf who had legendary strength and his last stand was so ferocious that when the orks finally overpowered him they built a shrine around his body and worshipped him as a god of war. I am building a LoganWing army and would like to add Ranulf as a character as he would make for an interesting modelling project.

 

My fluff is set at a nicely vague time during the (long) reign of Logan Grimnar but prior to the "present" so that I can introduce characters/plot devices of my own such as a rivalry with a Wolf Lord who is no longer around by the time of the list presented in the codex.

 

1. Was Ranulf around during the time of Logan Grimnar or was he an "historical" character from further back in the timeline?

2. Was he mentioned as being connected to any particular Wolf Lord or can I fluffily include him in Grimnar's Wolf Guard?

3. Was he known for any particular weaponry? I am thinking of Frost Axe and Stormbolter with the Frost Axe representing a Power Axe driven by the mighty strength of Ranulf.

Yeah I have his stats in my fluff book (I put a downloaded copy of the codex in front with various bits of fluffy characters and army useage advice in the back, ALL in document protectors to keep it relatively safe). But I dont have it here at work and lack a scanner that I can use easilily.

Codex Space Wolves 2nd Edition, England, Wayne, Gallagher, Dave, Gibbons, Mark, Goodwin, Jes. Page 67, 1994

"

Wolf Guard Ranulf

If your army includes a unit of at least five Wolf Guard it may also inlcude Ranulf. Ranulf is a character, and he always leads the Wolf Guard.

 

Ranulf is said to be the largest warrior of all the Space Wolves, Larger in girth and mightier of arm than even Leman Russ. His terminator armour now stands in the Hall of Heroes, towering over all who look upon it. Ranulf perfromed many feats of strenght. Once, when his squad was trapped by a river of lava Ranulf pushed the wreckage of a land raider into the molten stream so that his pack could cross.

 

The story of Ranulf's death is told at great lenght in his saga. The Space Wolves were retreating over a narrow mountain pass following a rare defeat at the hands of the Orks. When the orks caught up with the end of the Space Wolves' column, Ranulf and a handful of Wolf Guard made a gallant stand agasint the entire Ork army in a narrow gap in the pass. While the few warriors held back thousands of Orks, the remaining Space Wolves made it back to safety. ALthough they greatly outnumbered the defenders, the Orks were unable to bring more than a handful of troops into combat at any one time due to the narrowness and shape of the defile. Before many hours were past there was a pile of Ork bodies as high as a wall. But even the giant Space Wolves warrior could not hold out forever. One by one his wolf guard fell, until only Ranulf was left. Though the Orks overcame him in the end, even those creatures could not bring themselves to desecrate his body. When the Space Wolves recovered the pass they found Ranulf and his dead companions seated in a hastily constructed shrine surrounded by an immense pile of Ork wargear. To the Space Wolves Ranulf was a great Champion- but to his enemies he had become ntohgin less than a god.

 

Weapons: Ranulf carries standard Terminator armament of storm bolter and power fist.

 

Wargear: Ranulf may have up to one wargear card chosen freely from the Wargear cards in the normal manner

 

Special: Ranulf only fights as the leader of the Wolf Guard.

 

Special Rules: Great Strenght: Ranulf is amazingly strong even for a space marine. in hand-to-hand combat Ranulf may roll one attack dice at S10 in place of his two normal attacks.

 

Ws-6

Bs-5

S-7

T-5

W-3

I-5

A-2

Ld-9"

 

so probably the best bet we could make is a Wolf Guard Battle Leader (as ranulf is the only one who can command his squad) with termie armour(true scale termie armour would be mandatory) a storm bolter and a powerfist.

Seems to be a few parallels (to many to ignore) between Ranulf & Arjac Rockfist. Even the fluff is similar. Ranulf had his heroic stand AS a WG and died. Arjac had his as an unaltered Fenrisian Warrior but lived to become a WG.

 

I had noticed that myself and briefly considered making him a 'Counts As' Arjac. However, the throwing thunder hammer was rather irrelevant to Ranulf's fluff. I believe that Arjac was a space marine when he had his heroic stand, he was an Iron Priest which means that he is still a space marine and part of the chapter it's just that the Iron Priests (techmarines) have their own island(s) on Fenris where their forges are housed.

 

The Betrayed Spacewolf - thanks for that. That's perfect. I agree that the stats given there suggest Wolf Guard Battle Leader but mine may be a slightly younger rank-and-file Wolfguard Terminator version of Ranulf.

he wasnt a tech marine. he was being trained to be a potential tech marine but he was still a servant to the iron men when the attack happened.

 

The Iron Priests of Fenris do not train aspirants. They test them. They allow master smiths to come into their vault and take the test of iron hand. If the smith can still make a sword of masterwork quality, then they are changed into a space wolf.

Fairly certain a normal Fenrisian couldn't lift a thunder hammer, let alone hold off a swarm of kraken spawn single handedly.

For a game I played against Orks I used a friends excellently built model to represent Ranulf, wasn't too long ago either...

 

Used him as a Wolf Lord with a Forst Blade, Runic Armour, Wolftooth Necklace, Belt of Russ, Thunderwolf Mount and Saga of the Bear.

 

Stat line was WS6, BS5, S6, T5, W3, I5, A5, Ld10....... Was an Eternal Warrior as well. Beat serious face in that game but I wish he was a Special Character in the codex.....

Does anyone think that they could have reintroduced Ranulf instead of Arjack?

Not instead, he's dead and Arjacks alive. But having him as a historic charcter would have been nice.

 

That doesn't matter; there are, and have been, plenty of characters in codices that are dead in the fluff. In addition to Ranulf, Durfast of Mordrak and Kjarl Grimblood were dead. From other books we've got Tycho, Lysander, and Eldrad. Being deceased never stopped GW from making someone a playable special character.

 

V

For a game I played against Orks I used a friends excellently built model to represent Ranulf, wasn't too long ago either...

 

Used him as a Wolf Lord with a Forst Blade, Runic Armour, Wolftooth Necklace, Belt of Russ, Thunderwolf Mount and Saga of the Bear.

 

Stat line was WS6, BS5, S6, T5, W3, I5, A5, Ld10....... Was an Eternal Warrior as well. Beat serious face in that game but I wish he was a Special Character in the codex.....

 

I like this idea of using him as a Wolf Lord. Keeps the pummeling factor up in your army. :lol:

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