Sören Serpentkillers Great Company (Cate)

[Cate]

First of all I must introduce myself. I have been playing 40k since Rogue trader came out, My army then was Imperial guard, but since -99 I have been a Chaos Player, pure EC till 4th edition Chaos dex and from then I have been building up my pure Slaanesh warband Brotherhood of Innocence (roughly 6k points worth). Now when the new rules came out I got bored with Chaos and wanted to start over again. I have always been attracted to Space wolves and the more feral ways of warfaring they have (Hate the viking Stitch they been potrayed to be having.) So now I have been starting to write the Saga of Sören Serpentkiller and bought me my first boxes of packs and the codex. I am more of a writer and painter then a player nowdays.

Here is my test mini (yes the boltpistol is not drilled out, the picture is a bit blurry and the painting is not the best, but is just a test mini.) Does it feel like a Space wolf?



I will keep my Space wolves more like the pre-heresy ones, I am not really a fan of the blue.

My Space wolves will be biker heavy and the fluff will be set in the 38th millenia instead of the usual one, just so I cant write the Saga of Sören without breaking any of the codex or other recent fluff.

Cheers
/Cate

[Pall Ironbear]

I like it, and sounds like some more good bits to follow. Only c&c would be, he needs a bolter on him somewhere, but thats just my preference ;)

[bob10182]

If you like the pre-heresy and chaos theme, you should check out http://space-wolves-grey.blogspot.com/sear...bel/conversions , he does some really good pre-heresy conversions with chaos warriors and space wolves. The dark grey looks great and welcome to the group. I think a lot of us would like to hear some of your fluff stories.

[greendestiny]

Welcome back.

[Cate]

Thanks for all the positive comments.

So now I am starting to flesh out my force a bit and I am almost done with my first Grey hunter squad minus the rhino, with some spare bits I also managed to create a Runepriest. As an old Chaos player knowing all the chaos sprues by heart I really must say that the Space wolf PA sprue is awesome, I just miss a flamer on it. For me it doesn't really matter as I have loads of extra special weapons in my bit box, but for a new player it could be fun to have the different special weapons as extra choices. Now you might wonder why I need flamers, it is kinda of easy to explain. If I play a game, which happens maybe two or three times a year, it is almost always against greenskins and always in city fight. Plasma might be good, but flamers are still the best weapons against orcs, and even better now with the snap shot rules. :eek

My plan is to build a force around Sören Serpentkiller, the great wolf of the 4th company during parts of the 38th millennia.

Sören Serpentkiller was a sour and grumpy wolf, when he was not on his bike racing over windswept steppes or roaming streets at neck breaking speeds through cities hunting the enemies of the Imperium. Around him he built his company with many Swiftclaws and several Wolf guard squads who also liked bikes. He was no fool, so his armoury had of course several terminator dreadnought armour, it was even happened that he used one at times, changing from his beloved runic armour. Of course he had both Grey hunters and Long Fangs who always rode in Rhinos or Razorbacks.

Serpentkiller had never been a grey hunter, he had been a swiftclaw till he was inducted to the previous great wolfs Wolf guard, where he had fought for roughly 80 years when he himself was made the great wolf. Under the Serpentkillers leadership, the 4th became a fast hitting company, who stubbornly never gave up.

Serpentkiller himself was killed in a daemonic Incurison on the planet Merwar. Serpentkiller, his Wolf guard and several soldiers from the Imperial Guard where surrounded on city square by thousands of daemonettes, and human followers of chaos. They fought for hours, knowing that they where doomed, at the end there was only Six wolf guard, two Imperial guard and Sepentkiller. At this time the real threat appeared, the daemon prince Kat'Rien Sar'vamr'thes and a Keeper of Secret, greater daemon of Slaanesh. Serpentkiller threw himself up on his bike and throttled it, charging through the gibbering hordes of daemons, his wolf guard following him. He rammed the Keeper at a tremendous speed firing his combi-melta. The daemon reared in pain as he smashed into it, it was wounded but not down, it managed to sear the wolfs arm from his body. Knowing he was dying, Serpentkiller rose his thunder hammer, cursing the daemon, and managed to smash it into its body. The saemon started to fade back to the hell where it came from, with a smile Serpentkiller fell down to his knees turning around seeing his guard lying dead or dying around him, he knew his saga was soon to end when a shadow began towering over him. The daemon prince lifted his broken body by the neck, it opened his mouth as it was about to devourer him. Suddenly its body exploded, the daemon had forgotten about the Imperial guards who had managed to follow the wolves in their wake, and one very brave Commissar had sneaked up behind it and now pounded it with her powerfist.

The last thing the Serpentkiller saw and heard before he died was the Commissars face, who looked down on him; "I will tell your story to your lord and I will see that you and your men get that appropriate care your bodies need." She held that promise true, only an hour later Serpentkiller and his dead Guard got their geenseed harvested by Space wolf reinforcements, their bodies where brought back to Fenris.

This is a rough draft how the Story ends for Wolf Lord Sören Serpentkiller, I am writing a longer and better version, which will be proof read by someone who knows English better than me. English is not my first language.

On the gaming board Serpentkiller is a Wolf lord with runic armour wolftooth necklace , thunder hammer on a bike. The combibolter on the bike is changed to a combimelta (Yes I know it you can't do that, but as we mostly play narrative games I don't care if we break the rules just a little it is not like it is gamebreaking much.) Serpentkiller has the Saga of the Warrior born.

Alternative he can have TDA, with Thunder hammer, Storm Shield and Wolf tooth necklace.

If Serpentkiller is on a bike there must be at least one Wolf guard pack on bikes. Before any other Fast attack choice is taken one Swiftclaw pack must be taken. All foot slogging packs must take a dedicated vehicle. The first special weapon taken in a grey hunter pack must always be a flamer.

As allies only Imperial Guards can be taken, as long as they do not have any psykers. All Ig must be in a dedicated vehicle if Sören Serpentkiller is on a bike.

Yes I know that the rules I have set up for myself, probably sucks according to some of you, but if I play for fun and the story and not for table my opponent on the second round.

This is how my Grey hunters will look, it is what I call table top standard for me. The only thing missing is the company badge on the left shoulder which will be the wolf standing on its hind legs.

Any questions, suggestions and constructive critique will much appreciated.

Cheers

/C

[hendrik]

those are some of the best painted SW i've seen lately! my hat of to you sir!

[Russ Brother 92]

brilliant fluff, loving how your friends and local gamers are happy to build the story through the armies (been a long while since I saw someone dedicated to it sadly) and as hendrik says, some very nicely painted wolves ;) can't wait for more fluff and to see Soren in both forms hehe

[Cate]

Thanks for the kind words.

 

I have always thought it was a good idea to write some fluff behind your army of little men, as you get a feel for it and I usually dedicate a couple of hours to think about how my armies should work and what is the drive behind them. Playing pick up games can be fun, but if there is a story behind it the fun multiplies ten folded. I could have taken Logan or Ragnar as my lords, but special characters tends to become bland when I play with them, and I can't get any feeling into the games. BTW, I have been a roleplayer since 1979 so I have some experience writing fluff. :P

 

I have also been a hardcore tournament player, but that was years ago. I stopped playing tournaments when I started to feel bored with my Daemonbomb army, it was almost unbeatable, and even more bored with the unpainted min/max players who I met to often, who many times raged when I won over them, calling me a munchkin etc. etc..

 

A couple of times during the last couple of years the games I have been playing have been extremely unfair, according to some players. Me on one side with 3k+ chaos marines against four other players with 1,5K+ points each, but the games have been narrative and I have been some sort of GM it still have been a blast. Many people forget that this is game where everyone should have fun between friends, but luckily for me I have met some awesome people who want to play as I want. We have also created other strange games based around the rules of 40k. Like, 40k the drinking game or some kind of strange mission like carnage with 8 players who plays a random list who someone else created.

 

Ladies and gentlemen always remember to have fun playing a game.

 

/C

[Blacksad]

40k the drinking game huh? wouldn't happen to have those rules still lying around somewhere? *interested*

 

btw: nicely painted figurines, and interesting fluff. I like.

[Cate]

I haven't had any time to write any more fluff but I have some time to paint some minis.

Here is Sören Serpentkiller in TDA

Front




Plus a grey hunter with bolter.




I can upload bigger pictures, but it is better to go to the flickr account they all are uploaded to.

Cates 40k stuff on Flickr

[Cate]

Baah when comparing the pictures I get kind of disappointed with the light on the last ones, the colours have been kind of strange, the red is to bright and the grey is now blueish. They are grey not blue!! The guy who photograph them always changes how he takes the pictures, experimenting with lights and he the tries to change the colours more or less to what they look like in real life in Lightroom. Baah need to retake the photos. :D

[Russ Brother 92]

haha idk I rather like them like that, they have a certain 13th Company, more grim-dark feel, also loving the detailing on Soren's hammer - that blue and white highlighting is lovely -_- and the red is quite nice bright, it brings life into the figure and stops it being too dark imho.

[Cate]

So here is the deal, three weeks from now I am going to play my first game with Serpentkiller and his merry bunch, which have expanded quite rapidly, no new photos yet cause my photographer have gone on a business trip to Tokyo. It is the first time I play with the Wolves and also our first 6th edition game.

 

I am meeting a foot slogging Ork Army and we are aiming for a 2000 point battle. The battlefield will be packed with buildings and ruins.

 

What I have today is roughly 1700 points.

 

HQ

Wolflord in TDA TH and SS (can be fielded as WL, WGBL or LW)

Runepriest in PA

Wolflord on bike (will field him either as WL or WGBL)

 

Elites

8 WG in TDA

 

Troops

3 10 man pack GH

 

Fast

5 Swiftclaws with an Attack bike

 

Heavy

Long Fang pack 2 HB, ML, 2 LC plus Razorback

 

What I am asking you are, what do you think I should get to my little band? I am thinking either speeders, Scouts or rhinos. As an old Chaos player, I have no idea if speeders or Scouts are worth it, rhinos will be blockers or be there so my GH can snatch up some objectives more quickly. Getting into hand to hand with Orks is not a tactic I really like, 20+ mobs of boys hurt a lot. :(

I thought a while about getting a LRC, but the risk of a vehicle getting stuck is to high.

So what do you think? What should I get or maybe take away? (The Swiftclaws are staying no matter what. :) )

 

/C

[-Volsung-]

Since 99??

 

Did you fight in the Eye of Terror, old brother?

 

EDIT- The official GW campaign that is...

[Cate]

I was active in that campaign, very active on the official forums, and even had some contact with the guys in the Triad who managed to crack the code so Chaos managed to steam roll the Imperials for a couple of days.

[Wulfebane]

Flamers, Murderous Hurricane, and any other templates you can get a hold of... except I'd probably say heavy bolters and assault cannons would be more beneficial than missile launchers and cml against orks.

 

On overwatch, assuming you let him charge you, you're gunna love flamers.. D3 auto hits, along with whatever else manages to hit.. and remember, those in the front die first, so if you pick off enough to cause his assault charge to fall short of reaching you, he fails the charge and is wide open to your shooting phase.

 

Unless they're sniper scouts forcing him to roll pin checks, I don't think I'd bother. The more standard scout loadout is too geared toward melee... and against orks, you'd probably prefer a root canal.

 

Speeders might be decent. Relatively cheap and make for good, mobile gun turrets. Orks' BS + speeders' "jink" rule may keep them alive for a good while, and with the range on a heavy bolter, you can pretty much stay out of their gun range for the whole game.

 

Last game I had against Orks was in 5E, but I brought 3 TWC (I know.. not very tactically sound) with 1 SS and the other two were stock and I charged them up a flank to take out a mob of 20+ grots/gretchen? then swung into midfield to take out 3 biker nobs and maybe 15 boyz before dying. So long as you keep them in melee and/or behind cover from enemy fire, they're devastating, I've found.

[Cate]

Keeping away from Hth with Ork is something I have learned the hard way, stupid Knobs with powerclaws. :yes: Gearing up with flamers against orks is something always do, especially when fighting in densly packed terrain with lot of cover. Flamers are my favourite weapons, I can be somewhat of a pyromania sometimes, even against MeQ it works, sooner or later those armour saves will fail, and if I am not completly wrong, cover saves still do not work against flamers in 6th ed. The lascans are for those few vehicles that might surface or the stupid shokkattack gun mek who have a tendency to roll double fives or sixes most of the time. ;)

 

/C

[Blacksad]

a couple of Whirlwinds or Vindicators are nice when facing Orcs... specialy those whirlwinds imo

[Cate]

Ok, when I sat down and read your advice, I had an epiphany, why not build my Great company as I intended from the beginning, a fast and hard hitting unit. So tanks are more or less out, even if I love the vindicator. So I am going to try out Wulfbanes advice on speeders adding two or three of them.

 

I am wondering something, how big is a Great company, and how much gear do they have. Sure they have a ship, I must invent an awesome name for the ship, and loads of gear probably most of the stuff that is in the codex, but do they have 10, 20 or less TDA? Or is it so that the Great companies varies in size?

 

I visualise that Serpentkillers Great company is built something like this. (It is for fluff reason I am writing this.).

 

Serpentkiller with his 15 Wolf Guard, roughly half of them can be in TDA, all can have bikes.

 

A small scout group of 10.

 

Roughly 60 Grey hunters

 

30 or so Bloodclaws, 2/3 can use bikes.

 

6 Speeders of various designs.

 

17 Long fangs

 

In the armoury the Company has 3 Land raiders. 5 razorbacks, 12 rhinos, 4 predators, 3 Whirlwinds and 5 vindicators.

 

Attached to the company there are 1 Rune priest, 2 wolf priests and 2 Iron priests.

 

As you can see will not be able to field Dreadnoughts, any sort of wolf squads or any Jump packs. (Hey Russ fought with his feet on the ground.)

 

When I go for larger games, above 2000, I will start to filed some IG, which fluff is firmly set. The Merwar 4th regiment. Visually they are based on the British army in the late 19th century, (Pretorian models are not easy to come by so they will be Cadians), red coats, blue trousers and white helmets. They are completely the opposite the wolves culturally, hive worlders with a strong and old noble class, the officers are well educated in administration, art, poetry and literature. They have commissars wherever they can. But that is for when I finished the fluff.

 

Do you feel that the Great company is to big or maybe to small, is there anything missing?

 

/C

[Bearingtheword]

Very much liking your work, Cate!

 

Keep them coming, can't wait to see more. Your Wolf Lord is stunning!

 

~BtW

[Cate]

This is the Intro to my first battle with my wolves and the list. It is a 2k battle against Orks in the City of Lamdyria, and the mission is the Emperor’s Will. We will have a referee who will help us with rules and other problems who might arise, he will also make dinner for us. Next week I will write a full battle report and hopefully have some pictures. We have both hinted what we will bring, but not everything. Constructive criticism is always welcome. The prologue is just fluff and what the scout has seen might not be accurate, but I have added things which I know will be brought to the battlefield, stupid Orls on bikes.

 

 

Prolouge

 

Sören Serpentkiller leaned on the shaft on his thunderhammer, and looked out over the ruined city. He had no idea who had lived here before, and frankly he did not care. It did look like an old Imperial City, but with some xeno ruins mixed in, probably Tau but he was not certain.

He heard how his trusted advisors moved behind him; he could identify them by how they moved around. Eskil, the long fang pack leader, was behind him to the left, his limp made the walk sound uneven, and the discharges from his faulty shoulder guard was echoing in Serpentkillers ears. Rune priest Sigvard was standing a couple of meters behind Eskil, Sigvard himself was completely silent, but his creepy bird was picking something from its feathers. Just behind him to the right was Hönir standing, one of Serpentkillers oldest friends, they had been in the same pack since they had become Bloodclaws, and when Sören was elevated to Wolf Lord he had made Hönir to one of his Wolf guards. Hönir breathed loudly through one of his nostrils, something he had been doing since an Ork had head butted him and broken the nose so badly only one nostril worked properly. The only advisor he could not hear was Rinr, but that did not surprise him, the old scout was as always standing somewhere in the shadows completely silent.

 

“So it looks like we will have some green skins to get rid of.” It was not a question or directed at anyone, but he heard how the others grunted or spat when he finished. He looked over at Rinr his Scout, the closest the solitary scouts could say was their leader.

“Indeed we have. What my boys have gathered is that we have a fairly large group of Orks from the Bad moon tribe; they are protecting something of value in a larger industrial building in the west part of the city. The orks seem to have several kans and dreads protecting that building and the grots and smaller orks are hauling great loads of scrap metal into that building, it also seem that they are stripping down their vehicles for whatever they are creating in there.” Rinr said as he came out of the shadows.

“Anything else?”

“Yes of course. We are talking about orks. They seem to have more bikes than customary to a non Speed freak mob. We identified the Warlord who is on a bike and he has a retinue of 15 or more. And the last thing you might want to know is that we also saw that Mek that managed to slip out of our grasp on Taladuria.”

Hönir growled loudly when Taladuria came up, it was there his nose had been ruined.

 

Serpentkiller thought in silence for a while.

“The main objective we have is to stop whatever they are building. We also need to keep our dropsite clear from orks so we can get some reinforcements with the Thunderhawks.” He sighed when he thought about the broken launch-bays so either Thunderhawks or drop pods could be used at the moment.

“I will join up with the Swiftclaws and will try to take care of those pesky bikers with the support of two of the grey hunter squads. One of the other grey hunter squads will take care of the ordinary boys, and Högir you will be in charge of them. Eskil, you and your pack will have to soften up as much as possible. “

He paused for a couple of seconds so he could let the others to get his orders.

“Rinr, you will have to harass the orks from one flank, but be careful, if it gets to hard try to slip away.”

“Like that is ever going to happen, my boys are really feeling the blood boiling at the moment.” Rinr answered with a crocked smile.

“Sigvard you are staying with me as I have the feeling that we might hit the hardest spot in the orks line.” He saw how Sigvard nodded in agreement.

“Here at the dropsite Eskil and Nidur will take care of the defence, dig yourself in as well as you can, at least there are a lot of ruins to use as cover.”

Nidur was the Wolf priest who had just been appointed to Serpentkillers Company, Nidur had been too serious and had kept to himself during the travel from Fenris. Sigvard had told Serpentkiller that he felt that a big shadow loomed over the young Wolf priest and it might be so that he had not grown into the ways of Serpentkillers pack yet. This was also Nidurs first battle since he had joined. Serpentkiller saw this as a test for the Wolf priest, he had pondered if he had wanted him close on a bike, but Nidur had explained earlier that he could drive a bike, but he was not as good as most of Serpentkillers pack. It would be better if he stayed with the Grey hunters and kept their moral up, also it would be good if things did not go so well that he could bring home the precious geneseed. Eskil had been talking a lot with Nidur during transit. Serpentkiller understood why as they both came from the same tribe back on Fenris, so it would be good for the Wolf Priest to have some support by the ancient Long fang pack leader.

He hoped that the Iron priest would be able to repair the launch bays soon so he could be joined by his Wolf Guard and the rest of the company. They who were here on the ground would have to manage against the green tide that would hit them soon.

“Then it is time to kill some green skins then if no one has any questions.” Serpentkiller walked down the stairs in the ruin and head for his bike. On the way there he slapped Vaftrudne on his shoulder.

“This might be your day, we have loads of Orks hiding in the city and Rinr claims that there is a War boss here. So you might want to head out and find him, before I do.”

Vaftudne looked turned awkwardly in his Terminator armour, and for the first time in a long time Serpentkiller saw how he smiled.

“It is a good day to die!”

The lone wolf had had a death wish for years now, but sadly he had been good fighter and had not managed to get killed yet, but an Ork warboss could be the death of him.

He banged his power axe on his shield and howled up at the sky, and his raggedy wolves joined him in his howl, the trio of man and canine started to walk into the city towards the sound of roaring engines and screams of Orks working up their battlelust.

Serpentkiller sighed as he watched Vaftrudne vanish around a corner.

“This might be a good day to die on, but I hope you are wrong my friend, the Allfather still needs us in the battles to come. I swear by Russ I will not die here, and if I can help it so will not you either.”

Rising his hammer into the air, so the whole pack could see him.

"For Russ and the Allfather"

A chorus of howls answered him.

The wolves had come to Lamdyria,

 

Serpentkillers Great Company during the battle of Lamdyria (2000 points)

 

HQ

Wolf Lord Sören Serpentkiller

Thunder Hammer, Bike, Wolftooth necklace, Saga of the warrior born

 

Runepriest Sigvard

Bike, Jaws of the world wolf, Living Lightning.

 

Wolf Priest Nidur

Plasma Pistol

 

Wolf Guard Battle Leader Högir

Power Axe

 

Elite

Wolf Scouts pack (Rinrs Pack)

2 Power Axes, Heavy Bolter, Mark of the wulfen.

 

Lone wolf Vaftrudne

TDA, Power axe, Storm shield, 2 Fenrisian Wolves

 

Troops

9 Grey hunters

Flamer, Power fist, Rhino

 

10 Grey Hunters

Power Axe, 2 flamers, Wolf Standard.

 

10 Grey Hunters

Power Axe, 2 flamers, Wolf Standard.

 

10 Grey Hunters

Power Axe, 2 flamers, Wolf Standard.

 

Fast

5 Swiftcalws

Attack bike, Flamer

 

Landspeeder Tornado

Heavy bolter

 

Landspeeder Tornado

Heavy bolter

 

Heavy

6 Long Fangs (Eskils Pack)

2 Heavy bolters, 2 las cannons, Rocket launcher, Razorback with twin linked assault cannon.

 

 

/C

[Cate]

As always when I have a plan, everything broke apart the second I saw my friends list, stupid stupid flyer. I had no way to take care of that except lucky shots. My Lone wolf got ignored most of the game, he only managed to kill 3 orks. The ork warboss on a bike is still my worst fear, he is so resilient it is not even funny, T6 with fnp and 4+/5+ save and a 4+ cover save. He and the nob bikers ate through my grey hunters, like they were not there, but if we did everything correctly, I doubt it, he was lost when he got hit by jaws of the world wolf as was most of the biker squad.

 

I looks like it was a draw, if we had gone for one more turn I might have won, the only thing left on the battlefield was one Gh squad with the wolfpriest holding my side of the board, Three of the bikes plus Rune priest and wolf lord, lined up for a charge on the ork objective with only 12 orks plus big mek. The long fangs survived standing in a ruined building, one of them will be promoted to wolf guard after a couple of lucky rolls, he destroyed both the flyer and the dread.

 

I got "slay the warlord" and Linebreaker. The ork got First blood and the long fang was still alive. 2vp each

 

What have i learned from this game?

 

I love Long Fangs, will always have at least one group in every SW game. Flamers still rock in games with lot of cover. That my friend has become a better player and he had read his codex. He never fielded Warbosses with cybork body and a painboy before. Ork flyers are made of paper and that rolling a 6 is not that hard. Use power swords instead of axes against orks. My wgbl went down in a challenge, ok he shouldn't stand a chance against a warboss, and he would probably not be able to hurt the :unsure: even if he had a power sword instead of the axe. Speeders are fun by the way, I am not used to fast moving skimmers, but they were fun harassing one of the orks flanks.

 

We probably forgot loads of stuff, but we had extremely fun.

[Cate]

I have hit the same wall as I always do when I paint minis, and that is what colour I should have on the gun casings and the chainswords. Pure black, always seem to look flat, metallic seem to shiny and the other two colours I have thought about is red and yellow. Red casings probably will make grey hunters look red instead of grey, and I am not sure about grey as I want my Space wolves look a little gritty.

Anyhow here are some more pictures of what I have done, I have loads of Space wolves to paint, nut at the moment I do not have all the time in the world. Some of them are still WIP. As my standard photographer is a lazy git I had to take the pictures myself, that can be the reason some stuff is not in focus.

Just a basic group picture.

Hödir WGBL

Wolfpriest Nidur.

Rune priest Sigvard.

Eskil The Long Fang Leader.

Long Fangs minus one heavy bolter

Group shot of Wolf guards in TDA and my Lone wolf with TH and SS in the middle.

Wolf Guard with Heavy flamer

And last, but not least, a Grey hunter with meltagun.

/C

[Rift Blade]

I like your fluff a lot Cate. Well thought out. In the dex, they say Ragnar's Great Company numbers almost 200 warriors so you have lots of room to play with there. You have very good looking models. Nice contrast & very wolfy. Liked the layout for your 2000 pt list but thought the WGBL was extra. I would have spent the points elsewhere--maybe dished out some plasma pistols to various packs or maybe upgraded the Landspeeders to Typhoons. I find the 2 missiles & the Hvy Bolter on them very versatile & you can keep them out of harm's way alot with the range of the missiles & still be a major nuisance. But that's just me. Keep it up & good luck with your futur games.

[greysquigg]

Lovely stuff Cate!

 

Might be stealing your idea for the wolf priest.. I like it allot.

 

 

 

GS