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So I have a bit of a convoluted, rambling question. I am not totally up on the latest Heresy fluff since it became fully supported as a wargame- I've been out of the game for awhile since pre-6th edition.

Lately, I was gifted a pretty huge collection of Space Marines that were assembled to be a Space Wolves 13th company back in 3rd/4th edition during the Eye of Terror campaign. We're talking 15 of the metal Wolfen, 40 space marines with a scattering of special weapons, and 5 bikers, plus assorted metal characters.

Shortly after this all the FW models started to come out, and then the Battle of Calth set. God knows I do not need to paint more Space Marines (I already have three large space marine forces) besides the above listed), but those easily accessible Cataphractii and Contemptors are really getting my mouth watering.

And then I got thinking...does anyone know for certain in the fluff when the 13th company first got it's start? As far as I can remember, I thought the old fluff was that they were charged by Russ to chase the traitors back to the Eye of Terror after the battle of Terra. Because if it was in the latter days of the Heresy or even the Scourging, they would more likely have both Cataphractii-pattern suits and Contemptors than their 40k Space Wolf counterparts, even though the obvious logistical reasons of the 40k-era 13th company would have them disappear in the many, many years between the two settings until they show up again.

So I started thinking about how by not including the Wolfen, all the normal Space Marines I have would make for a really cool Space Wolves Heresy-era force if they existed in the right spot in the timeline- but then I got thinking, "Crap, now what about all the frigging Aquilas on many of their chests...."

So that's basically my pondering. Would all those things together clash with the fluff? It would basically be set up mechanically as what I gather is a vanilla Space Marine Heresy force (I do not have any of the force books, but it would be tactical marines, a squad of Cataphractii terminators, the bikers, a pair of 5-man heavy weapon teams, and a Contemptor), it's just the visuals that make it distinct. I thought of making it a survivors of Istvaan force, but all the Space Wolf stylings coupled with lots of replacement armor parts that have such easily recognizable baroque Chaos detail, really trademarks it as 13th company.

Because I would like to dip my toe into Heresy gaming, but I don't want to use my ubiquitous Ultramarines (my first force 20 years ago, unsurprisingly), and my other force is a large Legion of the Damned army, so that's obviously right out!

Perfectly acceptable. The old fluff even notes that the 13th company had to scavenge what they could to keep their armor repaired, even from dead traitors. It wouldn't be out of the question that their armors would be a mixbag of different patterns, maybe even on the same marine.

If you were to try and make them back during the Heresy, then it could be iffy. But in present day, there's nothing that would say they wouldn't have a wildly different mix of armor patterns within their ranks.

Well, see that's the thing. I'm thinking it'd be fun to theme them as a Heresy or Scouring -era force of Space Wolves, because I think the Cataphractii and commander from Calth would make a great Wolf Lord and Wolf Guard retinue. It's be in the time where they are chasing traitors at the behest of Russ (mostly Black Legion with my paint scheme), but haven't entered the Eye of Terror yet so they are still working off a supply of Terminator suits and a dreadnought (I really liked the character of the Death Guard Dreadnought in the short time he existed in the book Flight of the Eisenstein).

The Aquilas on the Mk VII armor I can ignore, but the fluff junkie in me wonders if the force would fit the setting.

The only other idea I had is that the models I have are the older Space Wolves models that were quite a bit more understated in the Wolf totems and the like as they were just an accessory kit. Mostly just the occasional wolf cloak or tail talisman is seen in my force. At the risk of making them sound like the mother of all Mary Sues, I could do a riff on the wolf-tails and make them be a far-flung company of Sons of Horus (so were not at Isstvaan), and stayed loyal to the Emperor, repainting themselves back to the original Luna Wolves scheme and make it a point to hunt down Black Legion bretheren. They use primarily pieces of armor taken from fallen Black Legion not only for repair, but as a taunt against other Black Legion.

If you want to make a force from the time of the Scouring, the MkVII "Aquila" is totally fine, as it was developed by the loyalists in the final years of the Heresy, just before the Battle of Terra.
Also, 30k Space Wolves, from what I have seen so far did not nearly use as much "wolfy" stuff as do their counterparts 10,000 years later. So you are fine in that area too.
The problem however is with the obviously Chaos and Black Legion stuff. The Black Legion did not exist yet (and wouldn't until long after the Scouring ended) and the traitor forces were not yet corrupted by the Warp, so they still looked mostly indistinguishable from the loyalists. No large spikes, horns and chaos stars yet.

You could however just add the Cataphractii and Contemptor to the 40k force. They still have their armour and weapons working after all this time in the Warp, so no reason why a Contemptor and few Terminator suits could not have survived the stay in the Warp also, right?

Yeah, that was the other rub, was the Chaos stylings. I wasn't sure if in the expanded Heresy fluff any of the traitor legions had any of it to a great extent.

I'm not likely to be playing any true 30k games well, ever, most likely given my area's lack of good groups. I was just pondering it as a "would be cool if I ever did" scenario.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
Yeah, that was the other rub, was the Chaos stylings. I wasn't sure if in the expanded Heresy fluff any of the traitor legions had any of it to a great extent.

I'm not likely to be playing any true 30k games well, ever, most likely given my area's lack of good groups. I was just pondering it as a "would be cool if I ever did" scenario.

I don't think anyone is going to have an issue with it if you use them for a Heresy force. You could even fluff up some sort of excuse for why your guys have spikes etc. on them if you feel that is necessary. It is not like people are going to refuse to play games against you or anything because of such details.