Storm Wolves - Heroes of the Chapter

A description of some of the leading heroes within the Storm Wolves,

Jurgen Guderian - The Sleeping Chapter Master

Nothing about the Storm Wolves is particularly simple.  Neither is their chain of command.

Jurgen Gudarian is considered the Chapter Master of the Storm Wolves when awake - he is currently over 6000 years old, and the only remaining member of the original (Space Wolf ceded) Storm Wolves.

As the original Storm Wolves succumbed to the geneseed curse, Rune Master Heinz Manheim had a powerful prophesy.  Ragnarok would be a key battle point for a future war that would decide the fate of the Empire. At that point, the only hope would be that current Chapter Master Gudarian was on hand to lead the Space Marine forces, otherwise all hope would be lost.  At this point, Manheim succumbed to the curse and fell dead at the Chapter Master's feet.

Fearing this prophecy, Gudarian set up a the Storm Wolves II who would succeed them, and then had built a cryogenic capsule, where he would sleep for whole decades at a time.  However unlike the Sleeping 300, Gudarian is regularly awakened, brought up to speed on current developments within the Storm Wolves and reviews their current readiness.  He is also known to take part in combat actions.

Over the years he has picked up some awesome relics of the time of the Emperor, as his body has succumbed to the ravage of time, and he has become increasingly cybernetic, but his will is unbended.

Jurgen is a clone of Calgar for gaming purposes from the Space Marines Codex.

Albert Donitz - Acting Chapter Master

Donitz is one of the many veterans of the War Of The Deep Dark, where he was Prowler Group Captain.  During this time he was horrifically injured by a Chaos heavy flamer during on of the numerous battles.

Chief Apocathary Muller and Master of the Force Oppenheimer worked to keep their leader alive, but at a cost.  Donitz's Terminator armour now functions as a complex life-support unit, using some technology salvaged from  Dreadnaughts.  Donitz is already in many respects a dead man walking.

Donitz has a reputation of being brutal in his pursuit of victory, giving no quarter to those who stand in his way.

As Acting Chapter Master, Donitz functions as the Storm Wolves Chapter Master whilst Gudarian is in cryogenic sleep.

As with many of the veterans of the War Of the Deep Dark, Donitz's loyalty has been questioned at times.  It is known that he and Gudarian do not see eye-to-eye on many issues, and Gudarian is careful to have a hand-picked group of honour guard watch over his sleeping cryogenic form, such is the distrust between the two men.  However because of his glorious victories and the fact he led his forces to salvation during the War Of The Deep Dark, Donitz is considered a hero to many.

Rules - Chapter Master in Terminator Armour.  Temperament - think Darth Vader on a bad day.


Karl Rommel - The Caretaker At Mitguard

Rommel is a loyal officer to Acting Chapter Master Donitz.  The position of "Caretaker at Mitguard" is second only to Donitz, and means he is in charge of the Chapters fortress, and tasked with it's defence.

Rules - Captain with Power Weapon.


Marcus Stauffenberg - Prowler Captain

Stauffenberg is current captain of the Prowler Group, and known critic of Donitz.  Some pro-Gudarians feel this is why Donitz assigned him to Prowler Captaincy.

Rules - Captain with Thunder Hammer.

Erwin Planck - The Sleeping Watchman

The title of "Sleeping Watchman" means that Captain Planck is in charge of the fortress at Neiflheim, watching over not only the Sleeping 300, but also the Sleeping Chapter Master himself (when in cryogenics).  For this duty, he was hand picked by Chapter Master Gudarian.

He is a known ally and friend to Stauffenberg, and one of the few Storm Wolves to hail from a Muspell tribe to make it to rank of Captain.

Rules - Captain 

Gottfried Merkel - Captain Of The Hellion Guard

The son of a powerful Hellion family, no-one is sure about Gottfried's loyalty - he seems to be on everyone's side, and no-ones.

As Captain of the Hellion Guard, his duty is the defence of planet Helle in the event of invasion, leading one of the smaller companies in the Storm Wolves.  However Merkel has never been known to complain about this posting.

Rules - Captain in Terminator Armour with Power Weapon

Nikolaus Luthor - Voice Of The Emperor

Chaplain Luthor is in charge of the spiritual wellbeing of the chapter.  His past is somewhat mysterious, being one of the oldest members of the order, however he never talks of himself and his past, being a zealot to the cause of the Emperor.

He is an ally of Gudarian, and known critic of the survivors of the War Of The Deep Dark, who he suspects of the worst form of heresy.

Rules - Chaplain

Peter Rosenberg - Chief Librarian

Rosenberg is the Storm Wolves Chief Librarian.  He is a close friend to Chaplain Luthor, and shares his passionate zeal towards the Codex Astartes, which he believes the Storm Wolves do not take seriously enough.

Walther Becker - Librarian

Personal student of Rosenberg, who shows utter devotion to his former teacher.  Becker originally came from the Ice Folk of the planet Nifflheim, where one of the Shamans proclaimed him to have "the gift".  At 11 he was given at tribute to the "Star Guardians" (the Ice Folk's name for the Storm Wolves), to be put on a path to greatness.

Tobias Kolman - Librarian

Kolman has a difficult reputation as being utterly ruthless and brutal in his pursuit of victory and the purging of anyone he feels is in his way.  A natural telepath has been known for slaying civilians who he felt were guilty of thought crimes against the empire.

Kolman grew up on the harsh Jotunheim satellite of Hefring, a volcanic world with a large smelting plant on it.  His family were killed in gang wars, leaving him the only survivor.  He survived as best he could scavenging and thieving for his survival, a troubled child disturbed by his psychic abilities.

He was caught as a 13 year old boy, and his psychic abilities soon discovered by the Inquisitor Karl Mayer who caught him, adopted and later trained him.  When tragedy struck again with the slaying of Mayer by the Talon syndicate, Kolman extracted a heavy revenge, seeking out and killing anyone who was implicated in the death of his master.

Aged 17 he volunteered for the Storm Wolves.  He has lost too many families in his life, he will not lose his battle brothers without retribution.

Gerold Muller - Chief Apocathary

A veteran of The War Of The Deep Dark, Mullers practices are considered heretical.  He learned to copy much of his Ork Mad Dok's experimental procedures as he sought to make use of every casualty. He is known for reanimating dead scouts and marines as servitors to continue the battle, with some of these servitor squads continuing to fight long after their original host had expired.  He is responsible for the continued survival of Donitz in his Terminator armour which now functions as his life support suit. Along with many of the battered survivors of that deadly war.

Freidrich Oppenheimer - Master of the Forge, Keeper of the Iron Armour

Another veteran of The War Of The Deep Dark, Oppenheimer like Muller faced difficult choices in that campaign, choosing to compromise and salvage material and equipment even from the hated Chaos vehicles that littered the battlefields of that war.

Oppenheimer was born on the Jotunheim moon of Skaldig, where his mother worked as a mechanic at the Bifrost spaceport.  She taught him how to service the many ships and station systems she worked on.

A young man with a sense of adventure, he signed up to join the Storm Wolves after his mothers death in a shuttle collision, vowing never to return to Skaldig.  He fared well as a scout marine, known for his cunning, outsmarting his enemy.  During his initiation, he actually killed his Ork opponent by synthesising an explosive projectile against him - a never before seen solution in Storm Wolf initiation (and since infamous).

The War Of The Deep Dark was not kind to him though.  He lost his left arm when it was ripped off by the Ork Big Mek known as Mr Green.  Even though Mr Green is still alive, Oppenheimer is known to use an electric cattle prod on him just "because it amuses me".

Worse was to come - in one battle, Oppenheimer was possessed for a time by Chaos psyker.  Together with the stress of the campaign in tortured space, this seems to have broken his mind.  Oppenheimer is somewhat distrusted, and known to sometimes babble to himself.  He has particular affection to the improvised looted wagon/Predator tank hybrid he built called Loki's Guile, which he refuses to dismantle.  He is known to talk and even sing to it, which other marines have found disturbing.  In battle, he will often rush to repair this vehicle before any other.

Oppenheimer is stationed at the Storm Wolves mechanical works known as The Weiss Vergar Forge around Jotunheim.

Ludo von Braun - Master of the Forge, Keeper of the Sleeping Mists

Von Brauns background is a stark contrast to Oppenheimers, growing up as a child of a privileged Helion family surrounded by luxury.  After Ludo's older brother Oscar was convicted and executed for conspiring with Tau forces to attempt a coup-de-tat of the Helion government, it was left to Ludo to redeem the family name, which he attempted to do by joining the Storm Wolves.

Von Braun showed an aptitude towards mechanics, and still talks in awe of his time of study at the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars.  He works steadfastly on restoring some of the older relics of the chapter which date back to the original Space Wolf seeded Storm Wolves, and has contempt for the corrupted creations of Oppenheimer.

Von Braun is stationed on the ice world of Neiflheim, where he maintains the cryogenic units of the Sleeping 300, Gudarian and the sleeping Dreadnoughts.

Daryl Rainer - Scout Sgt

Brought up as a child in a tribe on Mitguard, Daryl's father was slain by a gang of feral Orks that roam the planet when he was 6, an event which would shape his hatred of the greenskins, and he and his brother Arno would take to hunting them using their crossbows to defend their family.

At 13, Daryl and Arno helped to rescue the crew of a crashed landspeeder, one of whom was future captain Gottfried Merkel.  For their assistance, Merkel supplied the tribe with autorifles and ammunition as tribute, and promised the two boys a place in the Storm Wolves should they ever consider it.

Daryl and Arno we close brothers until Daryl turned 17, and they both fell in love with the same woman, Inga.  She ended up choosing Arno, and in a rage, Daryl attacked Arno in a brutal fight where knives were drawn.  Though neither were killed, Daryl left in disgust at what he'd done, leaving for the Storm Wolves.

Daryl's background made him a natural scout - silent, hidden, deadly.  He technically passed his initiation killing an Ork, however refused to treat his fallen foe with the respect deserved.

Although known and respected for his skill, he has had a troubled time in the Storm Wolves, being a natural rebel against authority.  He has been known to go absent without leave to return to his tribe when they are in need - he has since repaired his friendship with Arno.  He has been put on court martial several times for this, although his friendship with Captain Merkel has helped him.  His place in the tribe has also had the noticeable effect of increasing the recruitment from that tribe.

Theodor Putz - Scout Sgt

A veteran of The War Of The Deep Dark, Theodor was badly injured in a missile attack.  His battered body was due to be turned into a servitor reserve until Apocathary Muller noticed slight signs of life.  Theodor is alive but only through the use of extensive cybernetics.

For reasons not fully understood, Sgt Putz is now mute.  Muller knows no medical reason for this, and Librarian Rosenberg has commented that "Sgt Putz is a keeper of a terrible secret which he will not speak of until the time is ready".

Despite this, through hand signs and gestures, Theodor is a capable leader of his scout group, who have to learn to almost read their Sgts mind and anticipate him - traits that build good scouts.

Johann Reiner - Scout Sgt

A member of the noble house Ravenor in Hellion, Johann was a spoiled, rich playboy and philanderer, causing many a score.  In the noble culture of Helle, such disputes were often settled by pistol duals, and Johann sent many a rival or wronged husband to an early grave.

However when House Ravenor was implicated in intrigue with a Tau attempt to gain a foothold in Ragnarok, many of it's assets were seized in retribution by the Hellion Committee.   However a young Reiner had made too many enemies with his antics and dualing, and found himself joining the Storm Wolves to get away from the many vendettas he'd caused.

Sgt Reiner has a troubled relationship with Captain Merkel, whose house was one of the many he caused a vendetta with.  He has a better relationship with Master of the Forge von Braun whose family was also implicated in the same Tau conspiracy.

Johann continues to investigate the Tau conspiracy for which he feels House Ravenor was framed, suspecting the involvement of the Talon.

Marlon Landau - Sgt Bike Troops

One of the Ice Folk of Nifflheim, he grew up learning to ride and service snow bikes from an early age.

The Storm Wolves - The War Of The Deep Dark

No single event has shaped the Storm Wolves like the War Of The Deep Dark.  This was a 200 year accidental war that caught up a Prowler group in it's clutches.

Origins

Three hundred years ago, the 300-strong Prowler group was setting out to support a neighbouring world of Cadia in it's fight against Chaos.  Unfortunately due to erratic Warp Storms, the task force found themselves trapped in the outer edge of the Eye Of Terror.

Two hundred years would pass for the outside world as the Prowler Group faught its way in one battle after another.   In the end a mere 57 marines survived their journey to exit (although for them, less than 200 years had passed).

It was a war of desperation that shaped the lives of many of the survivors.  It saw a desperate alliance with the Meen Chompas Ork warband who were similarly trapped within the Eye of Terror. 

Ork and Space Marine banded together against a common foe, aiming to seek a way out.  Orks were ferried within Storm Wolf craft as they saught a way out.

Desperate Measures

As the campaign raged, equipment dwindled, and numbers fell, sometimes catastrophically.

However, Master of the Forge Freidrich Oppenheimer and Chief Apocathary Gerold Muller began to notice the behaviour of their Big Mek and Mad Doc counterparts.  The Orks lacked the Storm Wolves reluctance to scavenge parts, and so their number of Looted Wagons and walking wounded never dwindled to the same extent.

Both Oppenheimer and Muller worked closer and closer with their opposite numbers, and with it a change of thinking occured.  After battle, Chaos weapons, tanks. armour would be looted for spare parts, never mind it's heretical origins.  This was not about purity, it was about pragmatism.  Many Storm Wolf vehicles still contain remnants from this looting.

Most famous of all is the looted-wagon-turned-predator that Oppenheimer would call Loki's Guile.

Even after the War Of The Deep Dark, Oppenheimer would refuse to scrap this vehicle, which he considered to have a "strong machine spirit".

Muller, meanwhile, worked to reanimate dead marines into servitors, a practice considered with distaste by other chapters.

These pragmatic practices combined with the alliances with Orks serves as a reminder to many other chapters that the Storm Wolves are borderline heretical, and have potentially been tainted by their time in the Eye of Terror to become more like Chaos than they would accept.

The End Of The War

As the Warp Storm subsided, the task force finally made it back into the real universe some 200 years later.  Knowing how quickly their former allies would turn, the Storm Wolves massacred many of the Meen Chompas, with two exceptions.

Their dead allies were treated in death with respect, in line with Storm Wolf culture.  With their time as allies, the Storm Wolves recognised the Orks as a brutal and undisciplined tribe, but a warrior race worthy of some measure of respect.

The two Ork survivors are held to this day.  The Ork Big Mek code named "Mr Green" is held in Mitguard as a prisoner, and occasionally allowed to build devices from scrap, which Master of the Force Oppenheimer analyses.

The Mad Dok code named "Doctor Jade" is a more willing captive, he is allowed to experiment on captured Ork specimens, and the results analysed by Muller.

As a result, Storm Wolves are considered one of the leading experts of Ork technology and physiology.

The Storm Wolves - chapter culture

The Storm Wolves, although played as a variant of the Ultramarines from which they share their geneseed, have a unique history.

They are drawn from the Germanic peoples of the Ragnarok star system, and have a fundamental respect for the "old tales and legends".  By flesh they are Ultramarines, but in their heart they think back to the Space Wolf ways of their first chapter.  However in their minds there is something uniquely pragmatic about the Storm Wolves.  Unfortunately that pragmatism is seen are borderline heresy by some other chapters.

Here is the timeline of the regular initiation of a Storm Wolf candidate ...

Scout Initiation

The Ragnarok system has no major Imperial Guard unit, although Hellion employs a small private army.  This dates back to the Hellion Rebellion of two thousand years which the Storm Wolves brutally put down.

To combat this lack of man-power, the Storm Wolves encourages men throughout the star system to enlist.  Compared to other chapters the entry conditions are relatively lax, hence many are initiated as scouts, and receive initial geneseed.

This is seen as another form of heresy by other chapters, as they see the geneseed being wasted on the less worthy.  However the Storm Wolves see it as a necessity - they require a larger than 1000 marine chapter to function in their many duties.  It is unfortunate so many scouts die due to geneseed rejection, however the Storm Wolves aim to make good use of every candidate on the battlefield before this happens.  And even those who die often can provide extra geneseed before their premature demise.

Prowler Duty

The Storm Wolves main duty is to guard the resource worlds of Ragnarok.  However, guard duty does not make for glory.  Like the Viking longships of old, Ragnarok battleships prowl star systems looking for a fight in the name of the Emperor.

Typically three companies are kept "prowling" whilst the remainder of the chapter is kept peace keeping in Ragnarok.  This is why the chapter aims to keep their numbers above the standard thousand troops when possible.

This Prowler Duty is seen as the ideal test of combat, and duty lasts for ten years, with a mix of veterans and rookie scouts.

The Fate of the Fallen

The Storm Wolves have what is considered a ghoulish fate for fallen scouts.  Many have their geneseed carefully removed, and are then reanimated where possible as servitors, the mechanical servants of the machine spirit.  Hence even the fallen continue to serve in their own way.

It is a brutal reminder to many that service to the Emperor goes even beyond death.

Initiation

After a scout has completed a ten year Prowler tour-of-duty he can apply to become a full marine and earn his powered armour.

Due to it's infestation from a previous invasion, Muspell is unusual in that it "farms" Orks.  The Storm Wolf initiation has an unarmed scout placed in a combat zone with one of the young Ork Boyz. The prospective Storm Wolf needs to defeat and kill this Ork to find his place.

Whilst the Storm Wolves like many other chapters have no sympathy for Orks, and will kill them without a second thought, they also have a great respect for the powerful warriors Orks are.  This has been formed from several uneasy alliances with Orks against greater foes.

Hence when a Storm Wolf comes victorious from slaying an Ork, it is his duty to watch over the body overnight, and tell it tales of his deeds as a scout, and the life before being a scout in Ragnarok.  It is considered to be the last day he will talk of his childhood, sharing his secrets with a fallen foe.  When the morning comes, the Storm Wolf will cremate the body before the rising sun, and salute a fallen warrior.

This procedure is overseen by either the Chaplain or Captain of the Storm Wolves.  In addition, most Scout Sergeants feel obliged to be present, however none can intervene in the combat, however by this point most scouts are trained to the point that an Ork soldier presents little obstacle to them.

Golding of the armour

Storm Wolves use a silver piping for soldiers.  However when a marine is invited (after 50 years service) to join the Veterans, or if he makes officer, he is allowed to gold his armour.

For the love of conversion ...

I was originally a Warhammer 40,000 player in the 80s, but like many, sold my collection when I got older (truth be told I was more a role player than wargamer anyway).

About 7 years ago my son started to get into Warhammer, and I ended up joining in with him, as we built up our armies from scratch.  We were helped in this by picking up a few sets on eBay, and also my friend Steve needing to pass on all the pieces he'd played in the 90s and had no further use for.

I concentrated on Space Marines, with a small Ork army.  My son Cameron has focused on Imperial Guard and Tau.

Both of us have built up our own armies (and colour schemes) and developed the back-story which for us explains our army.  For myself, I have a Space Marine army which is a bit of the old and the new.  Including (heresy) the occasional thing I've bought and found it has a Chaos hatch.  Rather than feel limited by this, I'm forever trying to develop the history of the Storm Wolves to make this fit in with where they've been.

I play them as a standard Ultramarine army codex "vanilla Space Marines", but someone has suggested I could (with their back story) easily play them as Dark Angels ... we shall see.

What we are forever trying to do though is create armies with a unique look.  And play around with other model kits.  I love bits boxes to just rummage through and go "eureka!".  We're also trying to do our armies on a budget (Games Workshop is never cheap but here in New Zealand, it's crippling), so we buy a lot of stuff second hand and improvise - oh the people who when a new tank/flier comes out and go "we'll take 10".

So here is a walk through of some of our fun conversions ...

Imperial Guard Tank

This was a 1:35 M41 Walker Buldog tank that we then went to town on, adding Imperial Guard weaponry (a cannon, las cannon and various flamers and rocket launchers).  The result is simply amazing, and looks to be honest like a superb hybrid between a Leman Russ and a Baneblade.

My son will sometimes play this at home as an extra Leman Russ.  I love the way he adds graffiti to his tanks, naming them.

Predator Tank - The Shermanator

This one was a lot of fun to put together.  It's the unholy cross between a 1:48 Sherman tank, armed with a spare twin-linked lascannon from a Razorback kit (I used the heavy bolter instead).

The Ravaged Land Raider

This was a Land Raider I managed to pick up cheap, but ... the left lascannon was damaged.  I was thinking of replacing it, but had an idea to make it look battle damaged.

This has be a bit concerned - some purist players, esp under "what you see is what you get" can be a bit unpleasant over this.  Hence my Land Raider appearing to have a damaged left lascannon they might say "well that lascannon has to be gone".  I try as much as possible NOT to play with such people if I can avoid it (it's supposed to be fun).

My son has some fabulous figures done (he just needs to paint) showing instead of "parade condition" troops and tanks, tanks you can see are "in the middle of fighting a battle".

Hence I've added a couple of genestealers to the side, doing their best to damage the tank even further.  Again, purists might point out a genestealer can't damage a Land Raiders, but yeah, it looks good ...

Master of the Forge and his Servitors

Unfortunately I bought this Master of the Forge from a Games Workshop, and they didn't make it clear he's a Chaos (Iron Warriors) chapter.  Ooops.  But I really love him, so have tried to downplay the Chaos nature of him.

I've also last weekend found some spare old Space Marine scout parts.  I have a load of scouts already so thought it might be nice to try out something a bit different for them.  I thought it would be nice to give my Master of the Forge some Servitors.

I found genestealer claws together with a platemail arm from some old Warhammer kit made a half decent robot arm.  I then used a craft knife to shape the scout's head, cutting out a quarter of it, which I substituted Borg-style with part of an old plastic Necron.  The end result didn't look too bad, although it was fiddly as hell ...

Talking of scouts

I inherited from Steve about two sets of the old-school scouts with Mohawks.  They don't look too bad, but a whole set looks too much the same.  So sadly I had many of them decapitated, and used some Imperial Guard style helmets for them, which again makes them look unique.

Two of the sergeants I've made look unique.  The first sergeant is based on Daryl from the Walking Dead, so I gave him not only a power weapon, but a "kills silently" crossbow.  [No, he doesn't have special rules, he's just there to look cool]

The other sergeant is a part cyborg relic of bits and pieces - he's a survivor of multiple campaigns ...

Did someone call a doctor?

What do you do when you've a missile launcher marine without a missile launcher and a spare Sentinel close-combat weapon?

If you have a devious mind like mine, you probably think you can made up a medic who "grants feel no pain".  Seriously - the cure looks worse than the ailment!

[There's a similar version of this guy in my Ork army as a mad dok, but he needs painting]