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OK, so I just finished reading "Horus Rising" and I love the Luna Wolves enough to build a SM army based on them.  From a game standpoint, what SM traits should I give them?  Also, what armor did they wear, MK5?  I know from reading the novel that they had jump packs, drop pods, terminators but I do not think they had librarians.  Any other ideas to help kme flesh out these super space marines?

Thanks in advance,

Darrian

your Chapter Master should have at least one Power Claw.

I had been tinkering with concepts for building "loyalist" versions of the chaos legions for an alternate history project. As far as the Sons of Horus/Luna Wolves went, they were the "ultramarines" of the set with no traits.

SPOILER WARNING!!!!  SPOILER WARNING!!!!  READ THE ALL OF THE HORUS HERESY BOOKS BEFORE READING MY POST!!!!

 

I loved the Luna Wolves as well, hence my name, but I had some trouble with making them into an army:

1. All of the "loyal" Marines were sent to the surface of Istvaan by Horus himself.  The units were picked because Horus knew that they would never turn on the Emperor.  Even the Marines thought that their duty assignments were strange at the time.  The same can also be said for the Emperor's Children and Death Guard.

2. The planet was virus bombed, attacked by Traitor units, and finally bombed from orbit.  The virus bombing was survived by numerous units, hence the need for Angron to personally attack the planet.  If there were any other loyalist Marines left in the fleet, they would have been either discovered and killed, or sent to the surface at this time.  The Traitor assaults were held off, for the most part, by the loyalist marines from the Luna Wolves, Emperor's Children, and Death Guard.  However, they were all betrayed by Lucius, and suffered horrible losses.  Even after the final assault, some Marines yet survived.  Captain Tarvitz and Captain Loken were still alive, even though Captain Loken was almost dead from his encounter with Abaddon.  In the end, the entire planet was bombed from orbit.  Horus had a massive fleet, and had more than enough time to bomb the planet for several days.  Our heroes all seem to die in a defiant last stand.

3.  Cthonia, the Luna Wolves's homeworld, was destroyed after the Heresy.

However, there is still a little hope that some Marines survived the entire ordeal.  For one thing, we know that Captain Iacton Qruze, a Luna Wolf Captain, survives aboard the Eisenstein.  It is "hinted" in the Flight of the Eisenstein book that he and Captain Garro found the Inquisition.  He could have rebuilt the Luna Wolves, but it would be more reasonable that he and Captain Garro create the Grey Knights.

It is possible, but not realistic, that a few Marines survived the planetary bombardment.  The loyalist Marines would know that Horus would bomb the planet.  They might have been able to find cover deep in the planets core.  However, they would have almost no time to find such cover, let alone the means to survive once they found it.  They could go into suspended animation, thanks to their Space Marine gene abilities, but it would be a real limited number of Marines that could survive.

Another problem with the Istvaan survivors is this: Who would rescue them?  We know that Horus was planning the Istvaan V Dropsite Massacre, so any other loyalist help would have been destroyed there.  After the Massacre, there would be no one for a LONG time that could be sent to investigate the planet.  Even if they did return to the planet, how would they find the loyalist survivors?  It is just not that reasonable or believable.

As much as I like the Loken character, I just can't find it in my heart to let him escape his end.  It would be like the entire sacrifice was in vain.  That is why I changed my entire Space Marine army to be linked to Captain Garro.  I will post it here for others to look at.  The have a "purpose".

One last thing.  It may be all you need for your Luna Wolves idea.  In the very first Heresy book, Captain Loken is introduced as the one "telling the story".  Captain Loken always opened his story with "I was there the day the Emperor fell".  Not only this, but the timeline is about 200 years AFTER the Seige of Terra!  How could this be, if Captain Loken died on Istvaan IV?  How could he be "telling the story"?  The only problem: Torgaddon, the eternal jester, was the one that prompted Captain Loken to tell the story.  I found this a little odd, as Torgaddon was beheaded at the end of the 3rd book.  Oh well.  This is 40K.  I guess ANYTHING is possible....

you see, there is one thing you are forgetting... 40k has an easy way to have the heroes escape a doomed situation... The eldar forsaw that the survivors were needed to help destroy chaos, and so nabbed a few of 'em into the webway... god bless the pointy eared ones!

Does the "I was there.." stuff not refer to the opening chapter of Horus Rising?

Posted By jlmb_123 on 05/28/2007 10:13 AM
Does the "I was there.." stuff not refer to the opening chapter of Horus Rising?

I don't think so.  Remember, Captain Loken says, "I was there the day the EMPEROR fell."  If he was talking about Horus, he would have said Horus, and not the Emperor.  That would be like saying, "I was there the day that Jesus fell."  (You may substitute any other deity or remarkable person in the same sentence if you do not want to include Jesus.)  However, the meaning remains the same.  Captain Loken was a strong follower of the Emperor, so to use "His" name instead of Horus would have been a GREAT break of character.  At least, as I see it.

I think the emperor that Loken was refering to was the False Emperor from the system that they were attacking at the time as there were a lor of similarities between their empire and the terran one.

He was using the term Emperor as a tongue in cheek reference.

You know, you may be right. All of the Marines Captain Loken is telling the story to laugh when he says his whole "I was there" line. The author even says that Captain Loken would remain silent after he said it in order for his meaning to sink in. It would also explain how Torgaddon could goad Loken inot telling the story in the first place. It would make more sense. I'll have to go back and read the introduction again.

They are a very aggressive chapter-I'd posit the most akin to stormetroopers. They're not frothing maniacs or technicians-just very good.

Absent skimmers and A cannons...

Combined arms approach (tacs and termies in HR, tacs and jumpmarines in FG). I'd agree with vanilla and a greater weight on tac squads. You might give them the trait for two special weapons for certain squads-as befitting a storm trooper role- but that would be the only trait I'd give them.

Didn't see any librarians (or chaplains but I could have missed that) so would focus IC's on chapter leaders.

Tactically they would be all about the objective, especially if it involves wacking the army commander or such. They are not butchers for butcher's sake.

Librarians wouldn't be in the list. At the time that they where a loyalist Legion, the Emperor had forbidden the use of psychic powers. The Thousand Sons where the only Legion to disobey that order, and look what happened to them for it.

Chaplains where a part of the Legion I believe (at least the Emperors Children had them), so I could see them being concievable.

I'd say go light on the Vehichles, and Dreads. They where not unheard of, but where never described in the battles in the books.

Tac Squad heavy, with Vets, Devestators, and Assualt troops filling out the Elite, Fast, and Heavy rolls, is how I'd see the army played, without using any Traits. For HQ, I'd probably go with a Master with a command squad.

The Thousand Sons were playing with sorcery not pyschic powers per se if you believe what you read in the Heresy books.

The Luna Wolves would be mainly in Mk III armour, but there was some Mk IV about, just not much. Anything after IV is out of your time frame.

There were oodles of Rhinos etc used during the Heresy so that's not a problem. The Epic games was originally based on the Heresy and had loads of vehicles about.

For Terminators technically Storm Bolters are out  as are Assault Cannnons (despite what it says in the Hersy Books). Basically Chaos Marines are are armed as pre-Heresy Terminators (that's where I will be taking their weapons from).

 

It does look as those raptor fulfilled the roll of jump pack marines but in limited amounts, IIRC.

 

in game terms -  a speartip, even a small one, is very fun to use (i speak from experience), if you have access to the imperial armour books, the odd thunderhawk is very in-keeping with the stories, i.e. massed landings from orbit, followed by a footslogging rapid strike.

special weapons in each squad are pretty much mandatory!

if you want to theme the army even more, name your squads in the army list,  and give as many models as you can an oath of moment.

PS your commander should well have a horizontal red crest and a chainsword!!