From square bases to round bases: Iron Wolves army build project

In the Company of Iron Wolves - Part 1

What army to play?

My first foray into the gaming world of round bases has been a long and time-consuming process.  First, I had to determine which force I wanted to model, paint and play.  For me this is a decision that has a lot of factors associated with it.



 I just can't pick an army because they look cool or I really like the background or they are the latest, greatest flavor of the month...it has to be a combination of all these factors plus something more, jumping right in doesn't work for me.

Figuring this out takes time and a lot of reading, looking at pictures, browsing the internet and my favorite..daydreaming!  One of the greatest things about this hobby is the amount of time you can waste just thinking about it.  I happen to have a vast collection of books, magazines, Codexes, long defunct publications and things I can't even classify, devoted to the hobby that help me down the path of wasting time.  So, I can't even tell you how many hours I've spent figuring out which army I want to do..but I have finally picked the army, bought all of the models I need for now (since it will inevitably grow in scope) and written the list that I intend to play.  So, how'd I pick it?

Nah...not how I did it.

Unlike most of you guys that read this blog, I've never actually finished a 40K army and played it.  A couple years ago I bought all the models that I needed to do a Thousand Sons army and then decided to bag the whole project when I realized it wasn't going to be what I wanted.

So, to get the desire to do a Chaos army out of my system I built a Warriors of Chaos army for Fantasy and spent the past year playing that with some success (Don't be humble, he won SEVERAL GT's and almost every local RTT he entered! - Duke).  It was such a success that it led me to quit playing WHFB a couple months ago...terminal boredom had set in.

Since most of the guys I hang out with (The FoB gang) are strictly 40K players and I wanted to start something new and get excited again about the hobby, 40K was definitely the way to go.  Initially, I had the idea to do a World Eater's army for a couple reasons.  Although there isn't a ton of background for the Khorne worshippers there is enough if you dig for it; the GW models and the Codex are definitely dated but Forge World has some tasty models that would be fun to paint and I've had a lot of practice doing Khorne based armies lately.  The two things that decided me against Angron's boys were the weakness of the Codex (the way I wanted to play the army) and the aforementioned fact that I'd already spent a year painting a LOT of Khorne worshippers.  So, I'll put the World Eater's to the side until the rumored Chaos Legion's Codex makes an appearance and I can hopefully do the army some justice.  So, I went with my second pick:

Yeah..Space wolves..you're probably saying *Yawn..'seen it before my friend' and knowing how popular this army is you would be correct.  The things that drew me to this army though were

1. the ability to build a number of  lists that all play a bit different (This is really important to me when picking an army..nothing worse than having only one competitive build in my book),

2.  the fact that the book is competitive and that I don't have to field a 'net list' to at least have a shot at winning eventually and

3. the fact that I would enjoy modeling and painting the army.

So, I knew going in that I wanted to do an Armored army with lots of tanks in it.  I've been wanting to try out a bunch of different painting techniques that I've seen lately, especially on Armored vehicles, so I want to cram as many vehicles as plausible into the list and still follow some type of fluff.  One of the great things about the Space Wolves is the various Great Companies all have their own 'fluff' background.  Egil Ironwolf and his Great Company seemed to fit the mold of what I wanted to do, so after digging through as much background material as I could find and rewriting lists a couple hundred times..this is what I came up with to at least form the 'core' of the company:

Rune Priest (Chooser of Slain, Melta Bombs, Wolf Tail, Saga of Beastslayer)    130 pts
Wolf Guard Pack (Combi-Melta, Power Fist) x 3
   Land Raider Reedemer ( Multi Melta, Xtra Armor)                              394 pts
Grey Hunters 10 (Wulfen, PW, Std, Melta, Plasma)
   Razorback (TL Lascannon)                                                                  270 pts
Grey Hunters 9 (Wulfen, PW, Std, Melta)
   Rhino                                                                                                    215 pts
Grey Hunters 8 (Wulfen, PW, Std, Melta)           
   Rhino                                                                                                    200 pts
Grey Hunter 5 (Melta)
   Razorback (TL Lascannon)                                                                 155 pts
Grey Hunter 5 (Melta)
   Razorback (TL Lascannon)                                                                  155 pts
Land Speeder Typhoon x 2 (w Hvy Flamers)                                         180 pts
Predator (Autocannon, Hvy Bolter Sponsons, Dozer Blade)                   90 pts
Predator (Autocannon, Hvy Bolter Sponsons)                                         85 pts
Vindicator (Seige Shield)                                                                        125 pts


                                                                                                                   Total:  1999 pts

In order for me to get the vehicles that I wanted in this list I will be deploying the 10 man Grey Hunter squad (with 1 Wolf Guard) on foot and embarking on the Land Raider Reedemer turn 1 if practical.  Wolf Guard will be deployed in each of the large Grey Hunter Squads and the Rune Priest in one of the Rhino GH squads.  This list is different for Wolves..no Long Fangs and no Thunderwolves.  Neither of them fit into an Armored Assault company like the Ironwolves in my opinion, and I am trying to build a themed list here.  I perfectly understand that this may mean the list isn't 'optimised', but it's a chance I'll take.  The basic truth is..even though we have a very competent, experienced group here to play with, it's going to be awhile before I'm really competitive.

In the meantime, I know I can compete for 'Best-painted/Player's-choice' type of awards and think this army will give me a chance.  Also, I know I'll continue to add models and different types of builds as time goes on with this army.  So, I've already painted up 1 squad of Grey Hunters and plan to go into how I'm physically building and painting the Iron Wolves in Part 2.

So that is basically the beginning of my transition from Square bases to round ones.  Hopefully you guys will follow along and give me some feedback/ support on getting this army up to where my Fantasy armies were.  Thoughts and Comments?  What do you think of the list and the general army idea? 


- Quinn