The Wolf Brothers by Patrick Eibel
Warhammer 40K is a fluid game with rules and codices updated all the time.  In general, this is a good thing, as it keeps the game from becoming stagnant, but it can leave players with armies that need a new codex with a quandary.  You can leave your army on the shelf until a new codex comes out, you can sell off your army and collect a new one, you can play with the existing rules at a disadvantage, or you can try to adapt your army to a newer codex.  

Such is the situation with my very large Space Wolf army.  The boys in blue-gray have been sitting on the shelf for two years waiting for a codex update.  When the last Space Marine codex came out, I looked at using those rules, but the army ended up lacking the flavor of the Space Wolves. Likewise, when the previous Chaos codex came out, I thought there might be options there, but that codex was so complex that I just didn’t care to go to the trouble.  Over the Counter Offensive weekend, I decided to revisit the Chaos option using the newly revised Codex: Chaos Space Marines.  I found that I could come up with a force I really liked and that represented what I liked about the Space Wolves (ferocious close combat) as well.

Army Background
The army is based on the Wolf Brothers, the Space Wolf offshoot that got a little too wolfy and was eradicated.  I wanted to avoid the ubiquitous explanation of the army hiding in the Warp because this plot device has been used so often it is almost a cliché.  Instead, I postulate that some of the Wolf Brothers were away on a mission and received word from a survivor that the Chapter was under Expurgation.  They laid low on a remote planet, biding their time by recruiting to increase their ranks and fermenting their hatred for the Inquisition that expurgated them.  The warband now seeks to avenge the rest of their Chapter and hunts Inquisition forces whenever possible.

Army List
I have written up a 4,000-point force that uses most of the models I already have.  I will have to get a few things to fill out the army, but I can take my time, as I don’t play 4,000 point games too often and I have enough to get me by until then. I will list the units in my final list and describe what Space Wolf units will represent them.  

HQ

• Chaos Lord w/Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Bloodfeeder daemon weapon, and meltabombs. I could have used my Ragnar figure as a Chaos Lord, but All-Around Good Guy Bryan Layton gave me a Juggernaut, so I just had to use it.

• Eight Possessed Space Marines with an Icon of Khorne and a Rhino.
• Ten Chosen, including an Icon of Khorne, two power fists, and a melta gun, plus an Aspiring Champion with lightning claws.  The squad does not get a Rhino, so that they can Infiltrate.
• Ten Chosen as above, except flamer instead of melta gun, and the Aspiring Champion has a power weapon.  I am using the old wolf-looking Space Wolf Sergeant as the Aspiring Champion.

• Four squads of 10 Chaos Space Marines each. All squads have an Icon of Khorne and a Rhino with extra armor.  Two squads have two flamers each and two squads have two melta guns each.  Each squad has an Aspiring Champion with a power fist.  
• Two squads of 16 Berserkers each, including Skull Champions with power fists.  The Berserkers will hang out with the Lord to form a big killing unit.  Yeah, it’s slow, but when it gets into close combat, it will unleash much carnage.
• One unit of 16 Lesser Daemons.  I am including this squad here because they count as Troops, even if they don’t take up a slot.  I am planning on using Fantasy Chaos Hounds as my Lesser Daemons for a really feral wolf look.

Heavy Support

• Predator Destructor with lascannon sponsons
• Predator Annihilator
• Vindicator

Modeling and Painting
Since most of the army will do double duty as loyal Space Wolves, I didn’t want them to look too Chaosy, and they use the same color scheme as my Space Wolf army.  For the Icon bearers in the Chaos Space Marine squads, I use the skull-on-a-chain bit from the Berserker sprue (no one says the icon has to be a banner.)  This is generic enough that in non-Chaos games, it will be an interesting accessory item. I am using plastic Blood Claw figures to represent the regular Chaos Marines, so in order to make the Chosen look a little more “special,” I am using the metal Blood Claw figures that have a lot of detail.  I happen to have two plastic Chaos icon bits, so I will give them to the Chosen since they are the Elite unit.  

Games Workshop produced some excellent Wulfen figures for the 13th Company army in the Eye of Terror campaign, and they will be perfect as Possessed Marines.  I am using regular Khorne Berserkers for the Berserker unit, but I am swapping the front torso for a Space Wolf torso to keep with the theme of the army.  While the Wolfen will be painted in the same colors as the regular Marines, I think I will use a different scheme for the Berserkers.  I think the traditional red and brass would look really garish with the army, so I am thinking of using Chaos Black with Burnished Gold accents.  I might try doing a fade from Shadow Gray to Chaos Black on the armor, but I generally don’t like doing complex techniques on large squads as it is hard to maintain consistency.

Using the Army
Let’s face it, using a Khorne army is not rocket science.  The idea is to get into close combat as soon as you can.  The Berserkers and Lord will unleash a sick amount of attacks when charging (the daemon weapon alone guarantees that), and with Furious Charge, there will be plenty of wounds to go around.  The Chosen and regular Chaos Marines will provide a more tactical role; with Icons of Khorne, they are almost as good in hand-to-hand combat as the Berserkers, but they also have flamers and meltaguns if things need to be thinned out first.  

The Heavy Support choices are purely for tank hunting.  I could have taken Long Fangs as Havocs, but I felt that a “Devastator” unit would not really fit with a crazed assault army. I already have all three tanks, so that makes the decision all the more easy.  

You may notice that I do not use Terminators in my list.  It’s not that I don’t have suitable models: I have a unit with a heavy flamer and three combi-flamers that would work fine. It’s that I wanted to keep my list to one detachment and I like the Elite choices above better.  If I ever get into a super-large game, I could add a Terminator squad and a Land Raider to carry them.

Conclusion
I have already had a few chances to try the army out, and it works pretty well.  The Icons of Khorne really come in handy by adding attacks to the basic Marines.  One unit of Chaos Space Marines was able to rebuff the charge of a squad of Seraphim with a Canoness.  Go Khorne!  It was really a lot of fun to take the army out of mothballs and onto the table.  I can’t wait to get them into action again, but first I’ve got to buy more Berserkers….

Posted October 2008
 

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