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I heartily suggest taking Bjorn, he soaks up vast quantities of firepower, and with BS6 and an Assault Cannon dishes out a fair bit of return damage. I've never gotten to use him in close combat though, and It's a testament to his tenacity that I've never been able to take advantage of him dying. He's always the last one left... Recently against Necrons even a land raider with a 4+ invulnerable was glanced to death turns earlier than Bjorn, and by taking only a third of the firepower that Bjorn was. Ward of the Primarch indeed...

His other abilities are quite nice too, winning you the roll off to go first is usually productive, and Saga of Majesty has it's uses, although it mostly makes him a contestant against Njal as an HQ choice, which is a hard decision for me.

All in all, if you feel that he's going to die, try and get your assault troops poised and ready to go for when they get Furious Charge. And leave Bjorn in a place where you can easily get the capture points from him. Also, every time I've fielded him I find myself wishing for a Techamrine of some sort, as he keeps getting immobilized, so if your fielding multiple pieces of armour it might be prudent to think about taking one even to just keep Bjorn in shape, although I've never fielded Iron priests before, so can't really say how good they are.

Thanks for that well said advice! I really like Bjorn, and his fluff (especially his article on 1d4chan). I don't know much about the iron priests either, but it would be good to learn.

I was looking through Imperial Armour: Apocalypse, and noticed that Space wolves get their own Contemptor pattern Dreadnought (Usable with base 40k) if your willing to buy from ForgeWorld.

It's a Fleet, 13/12/11 AV with a 5+ invulnerable against shooting and explosions, and a 6+ against close combat attacks. Gets it's own selection of sagas for you to choose from and has a variety of powerful weapon choices, (More-so than normal Dreads.)

Definitely worth looking into.

I was planning on buying the MkIV from FW anyway and using it as Bjorn or generic Ven as suits my needs. I do like the Contemptor pattern Dreads. I'll have to look into this, I like the sounds of it. Maybe even a Contemptor pattern Bjorn!

I typed the last message in haste, and in doing so omitted something rather important. The Contemptor pattern Dreadnought, SpaceWolf and other variants, has the Kheres Assault Cannon which fires 6 shots as opposed to the 4 shots afforded to us by normal Assault Cannons, same range S/AP/ and Rending. And can take as a third shoulder mounted weapon, a Cyclone missile launcher. (Which oddly enough doesn't shoot flak missiles, mores the pitty. Elsewise we would have a very suitable form of AA.)
Also, the models for Contemptors are all the same. So if your facing someone whome you know will bring lots of air, you can easily switch out your Space Wolf Contemptor for an allied Space Marine Contemptor Mortis Pattern. Which is awesome, because even one of these will annihilate flyers in a single shooting phase with dual Kheres and a Cyclone missile Launcher do to it having a Helical Targeting Array (Skyfire if the dreadnought didn't move that turn.) Thats 12 S6 AP4 Rending shots and 2 S8 AP 3 missiles at a BS of 5 about to ruin someones day.
So don't glue your models weapons in, because with the SpaceWolves Contemptor you will invariably be taking a melee weapon...

In regards to getting a FW MkIV I have to agree, the model is spectacular looking and much more detailed (although I have yet to see one in person) than Bjorn's model that GW sells, which I was rather disappointed by when I got mine, It just didn't seem to be made very well, and was hardly so detailed that they needed to fine cast it. However, I have to say that Bjorn comes with a much nicer Close Combat weapon (In my opinion) , so if you can, try and find one for sale on it's own to add to the MkIV sine it doesn't come with it's own.

Wow....I think that's the route I will take. I'll certainly magnetize them. Even if someone has an issue with the IA Contemptor rules, I doubt anyone near me will care if I use the model for Bjorn. I think it would really make him look like a relic truly. I've only started getting into the scene here. I'll have to ask around about the general thoughts of using IA rules. That's too good to just pass up. Think I'll be taking a look at the IA books.

Forgeworld and Forgeworld products are part of GW, most people understand that and won't have a problem with you using them, and with most naysayors being able to pull out your sanctioned rulebook will convince them. Mostly people I've met who are against IA rules, are because they cant be certain wether you are actually using an Apocalypse unit, (Intentionally or not.) It's definetly neccesary to have the unit rules on hand.

I love Dreads, I play DA and they are so versatile. I magnetised the weapons so I can swap them and its the best move I've ever taken. I just wish DA could take Ironclads :(