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Enter the Wolf

The Wolf padded softly through the snow, tongue lolling to one side, breath showing as clouds of steam in the frigid air, he had exerted himself to escape the hunters, running blindly through the forest after the arrow had struck his haunches. He stopped and sniffed the air, he could not smell any of the humans anymore, he turned his head to look at the arrow that had pierced him, it was small, and hung weakly from his fur, it had barely scratched his hide and yet, now after his mad run, the wolf felt tired and dizzy, he squeezed under a fir tree and curled up to rest.

This is where the Hunter found him a few minutes later, fast asleep. The Hunter bound his mouth and paws and set off to re-join his fellows with the young wolf slung over his shoulders, the drugged animal heading off to the Hunters village to join its kin already there, helping to swell the numbers of the Varangur Army.

Waay back when, Trollette started playing Kings of War, she decided that she liked the look of the Herd list, in the Herd List then was a very nice troop type called the “Beast Pack”, a precursor of the Gur Panthers pack now present in Herd. She used a lot of these as they suited Trollettes style of play (Run across the table and smash face) and luckily for her, during my employment at Games Workshop I had a Space Wolf 13th Company Army, consequently I had a lot of GW Wolf Models hanging around that could be repurposed into Beast Packs for the Herd.

The Herd list changed in 3rd edition and the Beast Packs disappeared along with Stampedes and other things, Trollette had no need for the Beast packs and they Languished in a box for a long time.

Then came the Northern Alliance with their “Tundra Wolves” and the BeerTroll dug out the Beast Packs and stripped the models in preparation for re use (BeerTroll even found an unopened box of the little blighters ! lurking in the storage) However the intention was to make the Northern Alliance 100% mantic and so the Tundra Wolves were put to one side as Mantic make some of their own models and these would be needed for the Mantic content of the army.

Roll on to the revamping of BeerTrolls Varangur Army, as this army is intended to be made up of Old models and salvage, the GW Wolves became an attractive proposition once more and so the stripped models were dug out again and plans made to base them up.

The BeerTroll decided that his usual formula of black undercoat and grey drybrush was not going to make the cut for the new, exciting Varangur and so a couple of Youtube videos were watched and some new techniques tried. The results can be seen in the accompanying pictures. I opted for two colours, a grey, using the new Army painter double triad of greys and a more space wolf grey using several Scale 75 colours. I like the way they turned out and hope that subsequent batches are as good or better as I refine the techniques learned by video.

The bases were made in the, now, standard way with layers of XPS foam sculpted over MDF with sand and gravel glued over the top, scenic handles and stones are added and then the whole is sprayed black, drybrushed and any ice effects painted blue in preparation for resin. Then I use AK’s Pacific Blue resin effect to make the ice and once all is dry I add the snow effects in patches. The models are then superglued over the top after they have been varnished separately.

With this first lot of Wolves I have based them as a Regiment as my KoW Guru (Darklord Dan) says the regiments are best, however the second batch will be based as two troops with bases matched to make a regiment base, purely for flexibility in the future. If I have enough models left over I will make an extra Troop base for larger games.

The wolves will add an extra bit of speed to the army in replacement of the Chimera Lord, for the 320 points he cost I have put in a Regiment of Tundra Wolves and a Snow Troll Prime. The Tundra Wolves have an 18” charge range so they can outpace most knight or heavy cavalry they oppose (something the Mounted Sons struggle with) and their height 2 mean that a supporting combi charge from behind with Mounted Sons is easier to perform. They have 18 attacks on 3+ with Thunderous Charge 1 and are Nimble with native Pathfinder. Although they are only Def 4+ with 13/15 Nerve they are not destined to be a grind unit and so this should not be too much of a hindrance.

The Snow Troll Prime replaces the Inspiring lost on the Chimera Lord and provides another Nimble Height 3 scoring Character with 5 attacks at 3+ and Crushing Strength 2, working in concert with the Thegns on Frostfang to pick up flanks and block charges, hopefully his 13/16 Nerve and Regeneration 5+ will help to keep him useful for the majority of the game.


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