Space Wolves - A Collection Overview

[Chainsword Cookie]

Greetings fellow Wolf Lords

 

I come before you with a conundrum. How to go about, organize, paint and collect a Space Wolves army?

 

A brief intro. I have been "collecting" Space Wolves in a rather singular way. I bought, traded, exchanged the many Space Wolves models which people in my local area grew tired of or because they were not the hot meta army for the Space Marines. Overall I have something like 300+ infantry, most of the Space Marine Vehicles and tons of bitz ranging from 3rd Edition to the recent 10th Edition. In short I kind of picked the stray dogs from the people who did not want them and in time it grew into a huge collection. Needless to say, most of it is assembled, unpantied or paint stripped and it is high time to sort this army out. 

 

Now the conundrum, how to go about with such a collection? 

 

Namely, with the introduction of the Primaris, the classic Space Wolves theme is hard to apply army wide and it is even harder to categorize which units go where and how each unit should be painted. Between the three Primaris boxsets since 8th I am now running around with more Lieutenants that I can use, a dozen or so Captains, who knows how many Chaplains... well you get the idea... It is confusing. 

 

So help me address the army by slotting the units in their appropriate roles in the VIth Legiones Astartes. 

 

So here we go:

 

Wolf Lord:

- Captain (Phobos, Gravis, Primaris, Firstborn) - how to justify so many Captain models? How to paint them?

 

Priests:

- Techmarines

- Chaplains

- Librarians

- Apothecaries - where does the Apothecary Biologis belong? Should we use Apothecaries?

 

Wolf Guard - Battle Leaders:

- Lieutenants - can we have more of them per Great Company? Does each of them have his own individual yellow and black iconography? Where do they rank? How to justify the dozen or so Lieutenants?

 

Wolf Guard:

- Sternguard - this is new for the Space Wolves, where do we rank the Sternguard? 

- Bladeguard

- Terminators

- Thunderwolf Cavalry

- Pack Leaders (ex baby characters and squad leaders)

 

Grey Hunters:

- Intercessors

- Heavy Intercessors

- Grey Hunters

 

Blood Claws:

- Assault Intercessors

- Blood Claws

- Swiftclaws (SM Bikers)

- Outriders

- Skyclaws - do they exist anymore? Or should we just call them Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs

- Inceptors

- ATV

 

Long Fangs:

- Hellblasters

- Long Fangs

- Eradicators

- Aggressors 

- Infernus Marines - again, do they belong here?

- Suppressors?

 

Wolf Scouts:

- Infiltrators

- Reivers

- Incursors

- Eliminators

- Hounds of Morkai

- Scouts

- Wolf Scouts

- Invictor

 

Special:

- Wulfen

 

Following the above we have the vehicle pool and the dreadnoughts which are all part of the Great Company and share the pack/company markings. 

 

So this leaves me with the huge problem of how to go about to paint a coherent Space Wolves collection. Where do I place the new units like the Company Champions, how can I use the many Ancients? And as an exercise how can I fit all this in the Great Company of Ragnar Blackmane which is one of my favorite characters?

 

From what I recall from the book Dawn of Fire: Wolftime, the Space Wolves were greatly reinforced by the Primaris. Would it be reasonable to have 300+ marines per Great Company? What say you on 50+ Wolf Guard terminators that need a home? Or those 200+ Firstborn marines that need a place in the great order of things?

 

I am limiting the discussion to the Great Company of Rangar Blackmane since if the Space Wolves have any transfers present it is mostly for this Great Company, as well as the shoulder pads and upgrade sprues. 

 

Long story short, how should we order a Space Wolf collection that has been 15+ years in the making and which risks to be obsolete as new Primaris things appear? 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by Chainsword Cookie

[Bouargh]

Hi, 

 

It is dense series of questions. Let see if I can share my views, which are not necessarily correct btw...

 

For the topic of several Lieutnants, I do no see any issue. I see the tradition pf SW are taking some experienced Wolf guards as Battleleader to lead some hunting parties. One, two, three... Any number depending on force scattering. Eventually the numerous Lieutnant can go and be used to build up a Command squad a la Heroes of the Chapter but personalized/Wolfized.

 

Apothecaries, well, still can be Wolf Priests under training?

 

Ancients... Well, put a banner in the Grey hunter squads, used to be a thing with totems, now the tradition can keep on being used, even if without any game impact associated. But still characterful.

 

Assault intercessors are IMO as well able to represent HtH oriented Primarized Hunters as Primarized Blood Claws. Inceptors looks too heavy for being Blood Claw for my taste. Rather Long Fang maybe, even if they do not really fit well

 

Suppressors are usually painted with Grey Hunter squad marks. So I would get rid them out of the Primarized Long Fangs. As for Infernus, the same, go Grey Hunters instead - should you get a Fire Wolves Great Company (or is it the other one with fire breathing wolf totem?) you can get them quite fluffy... Indeed the GH that made a kill with a flammer can go special markings in sign of respect and achievement...

 

Scouts - Infiltrators and Eliminators can be GH related too. Afterall these units are more related to a kind of pack hunting tactic rather than Lone Operatives tactics as SW scouts are supposed to be experts of...

 

I have been concerned in some way by this very same question of yours of giving coherency to a huge collection. But as I decided not to put a dime on Primaris models, this part of the topic can be phased out. My objective was getting a full Great Company - let´s say something as big as twice a Codex Battle Company + independant Arsenal. But based on the Datacards form Epic era. My core is made of 3 x 5 GH squads and 20 Wolf Guards. Everything else is more or less based on the auxiliary cards, such as Predators squads by 3, Dreads by groups of 4, Skyclaws by 25...

 

I sticked to the plan and arranged myself to get everything in a consistant livery.

Yet there were some trouble makers, such as (none limiting list): i) too many Terminators, ii) Wulfen, iii) a lot of redundant models, iv) Horus Heresy 1st Ed...

 

I managed this through a combination of tricks:

- The Wulfen and some sufficient infantry squads have been painted in a distinct 13th Company scheme and fight by my main Company as unexpected and not so trustworthy allied force. I eventually have enough models to field them under CSM rules swapping models and play them as a stand alone force.

- extra models are added up to change squad configuration or use them under other codice rules (smell like 8th Ed) - i.e. I can use some LF units as full force vanilla devastators, trasmform units into tactical squads instead of GH... And than I can field my force under BA rules for example... This is also the same approach to convert the force to a funcionnal HH army extracting some squads and their extra models

- The extra Terminators are fielded as an adjunct Great Wolf Detachment sent to "Supervise" the Great Company. I enjoy Termies, at least as much as Dreadnoughts...

- When I play under former editions rules, the extra models can be used with the datasheet of the time - Conclaves of Psykers, Covenant of Techmarines... But this is now rarely the case as almost no-one plays under 7th Ed or previous Ed anymore in my area. [Insert Sad Face]

 

You can make yourself an idea while looking in my SW gallery. Not everything is depicted but a good part is there for sure. 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by Bouargh

[Chainsword Cookie]

Thank you for your reply. While reading the new codex Space Marines I have found this:

 

 

By the official division we have the following:

 

Command + Veteran = Wolf Guard

Battleline = Grey Hunters 

Close Support = Blood Claws

Fire Support = Long Fangs

 

The so called "Vanguard" units are mostly Phobos units so I think they fit well in the Wolf Scouts role. 

 

Said that I think I will paint my collection with the classic battlefield insignia for the Space Wolves. As I have said I will go for the "Blackmanes" since I love their theme of drop pod assaults and because I always liked the character of Ragnar Blackmane. 

 

The decision is now to paint the army with Space Wolves Grey or with their HH era grey armor. Both are interesting so I have to do some test models first. 

 

I think that the main trick will be to find that many combinations of units heraldry to make each squad unique. 

 

I am very happy though since there is no longer the requisite to match the paints scheme of your army with the army rules you play. At this moment there is no one stopping me to play the new codex detachments as Space Wolves and neither can prevent me to play say a Deathwing army with my many count as "Wolfwing" terminators. 

 

 

[El Ravager]

There is also Wolf Scouts which fall outside that ranking.  I consider Infiltrators and Eliminators fall more in the Wolf Scouts than Grey Hunter or Long Fang respectively.