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...The catch is; no wolves. (Also no primaris because I'm going to be using 30k minis) I love converting minis, and want to give this army some flair, and make it unique from the other Marine projects I variously have on the go/have stored away in my fantastic brain plans that I'm too poor and busy to ever do. So I settled on using Space Wolf rules, to make them play differently, and hopefully in a way that is really unique from my other armies.

Hi all!

So, I've been chewing over this daft wee idea (Joseon/Imjin War Korean Marines!) for a long old while, and I think I'm pretty close to having all the details sorted in my plan.
I already have a notion of the minis I want to use, but I'd really like some second opinions, and to hear any tasty combos that people know of, or any units that people consider indisposible.

Please forgive my ignorance when it comes to nomenclature! I've never faced off against SW, and am only really familiar with the more codex-adherent Space Marines.

So, please tell me your thoughts on the following!

Wolfguard Terminators - I love me some termies. While I'm thinking of using a few armor marks here, I'm planning on using them all as your standard indomitus patterns as far as rules are concerned. Now, I really like the idea of them being able to take combi-weapons, and think that plasma-toting termies would be really fun, but it seems very expensive, and I kinda want to make use of storm shields on them, for more survivability. Anyone got any solid loadouts?

Wolf Priest - I just love chaplains.

Captains - I don't know what these are called in Space Wolf, but I also love 'em.

Wolf Scouts - this one is really a little sillier, but essentially, I've always really liked the sniper scout models, but as a Black Templar player, obviously think that anything that hides and shoots is cowardly. I think they'd fit the theme of this army quite nicely, but I know they can take special weapons, too, unlike their codex-adherent bretheren. Does anyone use wolf scouts much, and to what effect?

Stormwolf Gunship - the Black Templar in me is profoundly jealous of this model. I love the hard, crisp lines of that front, I love the brutality of it just plowing into the foe and having marines spill out, and I ADORE how mean and muzzle-like the shape is. Very tempted to only use these as transports, and make some kind of hellish airborne force.

Troops - I've got almost no idea for this, as there are so many different flavors of your basic infantry box squad, but I know you also have elites and maybe jump-pack boyos for the fast attack slot in it. I'm probably not actually going to use all that many actual Space Wolf kits (heresy, I know. Or whatever SW call it, I guess.) but I'd like to know how you all make up the bulk of your infantry, and what is decently punch-y.

All in all, I'm looking for a smaller, fun army, that's really more of a modelling project than anything else, but that I can also play semi-casually, but not get slapped about with. I know this selection of minis is a bit eclectic, but I'm willing to be flexible for most stuff, especially loadouts! I might tag them in alongside other imperial armies I have on the go (admech, my not-guard inquisition, possibly other marines, etc etc) If you think there are any units, HQ or characters I should include, please let me know! I'd love to hear some tips from you longfangs! Take care!

I can tell you what I run in my normal wolf list.

I run a squad of terms with storm bolters and storm shields, 5 of them. Sometimes I put a single cyclone missile launcher in there to give them added punch. But a bare min squad of bolter and shield runs only 135 and puts out 20 bolter shots on the move, they are a pretty effective screen killer.

For the wolf guard I usually also run a single squad and outflank them. I put a wolf guard battle leader with them, give them 2 plasma guns and two plasma pistols. When they come in t2 or 3 their footprint is small enough to get into small holes in your opponents screens, normally within 12" of a vehicle that i don't like, and I overcharge and blow something up. Normally an effective unit for just over 100 pts.

Finally troops. I love grey hunters. I run 2 big squads of 10 with maxed out plasma (so 3 plasma guns and a plasma pistol) and outflank them with the strat. I also outflank a wolf lord (normally Krom, it's become a thing where krom and his boys come in and mess some stuff up) for reroll 1's.

Another trick I have used to great effect is taking 3 squads of 5 blood claws, give the srg a power fist and leave everyone else with their basic load out, stick them in a storm wolf and fly it straight towards the enemy's line. Once the storm wolf is there if it gets shot it doesn't matter, those blood claws pouring out of the wolf will seriously be a real threat to any force. The down side to this trick is if you don't go 1st that storm wolf is a serious target . If you lose it and end up having your blood claws sitting around with no way to get to the other side of the table everything becomes a huge waste.

Finally I like to take advantage of the fact that we have access to killshot. 3 predators all with autocannons and heavy bolters, using killshot, will make any vehicles life miserable. If you don't go first use prepared positions to try to keep all 3 alive. If you do go first use njal and stormcaller + the 3cp strat to make them -1 to hit. Finally a wolf lord and wolf guard battle leader hang out to give rerolls. Quite a nasty combo and can distract from the storm wolf if your lucky.


Space wolves are definitely one of the few marine armies that just don't care about primaris, they can run fine using older marine stuff. They are not meta defining but can be a blast to play.

Wolf Guard Terminators with Combi-plas are really good. Use them with "Keen Senses" (ignore penalties to-Hit) so you can fire both barrels and "Fury of Champions" (+1 to Hit) for a lot of overcharging plasma that will not overheat and kill the users. Add a roughly 50:50 mix of Storm Shields (to protect against heavy weapons) and Chainfists (very efficient in melee) for a very killy unit. Possibly add a Wolf Lord (Space Wolf Captain) to reroll 1s and this squad will almost never miss.

Wolf Priests are good, particularly when combined with our hard-hitting melee units like Wulfen or Thunderwolves. Best taken with a Jump Pack to ensure that they can keep up.

Wolf Lords (Captains). Very solid HW choice. Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield is a very solid choice. Armour of Russ is a very popular relic for slowing down opponents in melee.

Space Wolves cannot take sniper Scouts (our Scout entry is far worse than the codex equivalents for no good reason). If you want Snipers, the only option is Primaris Eliminators (who are very good but don't quite fit your stated theme).

Our gunship comes in 2 flavours, both are pretty good but work differently. Stormwolf has massive 16 Tranport capacity but lighter guns. It is great for Wulfen. The Stormfang only has 6 Transport but bigger guns and is boosted by the new "Stormstrike" stratagem. There are guides online for how to magnetise this so you can switch between variants if you want.

Grey Hunters are our standard Troop choice and I rate them very highly. A good built is a squad of 5 with a Plasma gun, a plasma pistol on the leader and a Wolf Guard pack leader with a combi-plas and your choice of melee weapon. This gives you a fairly cheap 6-man squad which hits reasonably hard and can fit in a Razorback (if you wish) or in your Gunship.

Blood Claws hit hard in melee for a Troop unit but need building around to get the most mileage from. They are worth considering if you want to build an all-out melee army but I prefer a more balanced approach.

Another unit worth considering is Long Fangs. They are like Space Marine Devastators but better.

I think this is a cool idea, but personally if you were cutting the wolf out of space wolves I think I'd go for Blood Angel rules, maybe Grey Knights?

Mechanically, they're slightly better (in terms of the chapter tactic), and you have access to some cool elite units like Sanguinary Guard that would work really well as some neat variant dreadnoughts. I know relatively little about the Imjin war, but when I've seen pictures of korean medieval heroes they always have long spears or...sword-on-a-spear polearm type things.

If the core of the army structure would be lightly armored peasant infantry out front, elite noble infantry or cavalry behind, then you could have like a troop core of blood angels close combat scouts representing peasant spearmen, scouts with boltguns or sniper rifles representing bowmen, and Sanguinary Guard as the noble soldiers, with maybe a librarian dreadnought holding one of those polearms as a legendary hero.

@Azuza001 and @Karhedron - these are some really tasty bits of information - thanks very much! I'm already looking at sourcing some storm sheilds. Will think very hard about throwing in some Blood Claw squads with my Grey Hunters, and I'm very please to hear that the Storm Wolf is a reasonable choice, too. Might have to work out what I want my distraction carnifex to be, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it! Also, plasma all round! Sounds like standard logic for 40k imperials! Good to know my instincts still work!

Talking of instincts - what say you to pure melee termies?

@the scotsman thanks for the suggestion - unfortunately 1. I'm already painting up some Blood Angels for the local hobby shop (and I love the blood angels aesthetic too much to deviate from it!).

The part of the Imjin war that's the most exciting to me is after the Korean army was defeated, but pockets of them began harrassing and ambushing the Japanese in a guerilla campaign that's equal parts swashbuckling derring-do, and "they must have had HUGE balls to even think of trying that" (look up admiral Lee Sun Shin if you want a cracking read). I feel like the space wolves kind of fit the long-campaign grizzled hunters thing reasonably nicely. Also, it would suit the terrain for like korean highlands.

My actual plan, to be totally up front, is to take the 30k white scars infantry (listen, I know it's barmy, and I already have some marine bikers, and it's not that exciting) and remove most of the legion insignia, throw a few more fur cloaks and tassles about, and then run them as a more ground-assault oriented group of skirmishers. Having lived in the wilderness so long, they've become themselves a little wild, but I think it fits the visuals of daring strikes out of nowhere.

Anyways, cheers for stopping by, gentlemen! Take care, and if anyone has any afterthoughts, or additional tips, I'd love to hear them!

If your bypassing dreadnaughts and tanks (which is a very smart thing to do actually, the best way to make an opponents expensive anti tank weapon become worthless is to not give them anything to shoot at of value) then another thing to think about would be long fangs. I have had a lot of success with them in a max squad of 7 guys (4 missile launchers, 1 extra bolter, term srg with storm shield). It is a cp sink to use them but they can be quite effective at dealing with any one single big target between their natural "pick a unit and they get to reroll 1's vs it", the cp to ignore penitlties, and the cp to reroll failed wounds.

Also I have had huge success running triple rune priest in term armor. Give them as many damage dealing spells as they can have, deep strike them t2 on a flank, and use the strat for living lightning do d6 dmg on something that's got a great chance of dying... pure gold.

Another incredibly nasty trick i don't see many ever use is the phobos rune priest + term rune priest. Outflank the rune priest (trust me on this), deep strike the term priest.

Outflank has a range of 6" from a board edge and 9" from an enemy (not too bad). Tremors curse has an 18" range, does a mortal, and halves a units movement. Term casts jaws of the world wolf, which has a range of 18". Neither spell targets the closest model, so they can target a chr hiding behind people. 6" + 18" = 24", and as a table is 6'x4'.... this means you have almost full range to do what you want where you want and will probably be able to easily get your hands on that enemy warlord. As most hqs have a movement of 6" what your looking at is 1+(2d6-3) mortal wounds on the enemy hq, all but the hartiest warlords will fall to that easily.

But the big thing with all this outflanking nonsense is this. Your opponent will have to do 1 of 2 things, they will either have to screen out their entire area to deny you because they are afraid of what this combination can do or they will put their most vulnerable stuff outside that 24" from any table edge threat range which means its all in the center of the table, so your dictating where your opponent will want to go.

I don't suggest you do all of this mind you, but its quite hard for an opponent to screen out all spaces for just 2 models vs its easy to protect vs large squads like the 10 man / 7 plasma shots grey hunter teams. And the phobos / term trick has better threat range.

Oooh, I like the sound of some of that! The triple termie priests sounds like just the kind of silly, high-risk shenanigans that I enjoy, very very tempting. Just out of curiosity, how do you kit out these dudes?

If nothing else, if I paired it with the stormwolf air cav idea, it would make for a very fast army, with a lot of threats for the opponent to have to simultaneously have to counter around turn 2?