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I've gotten a rather specific notion stuck in my head that just won't get out. THUNDER WARRIORS!!! Okay, okay, I know it's a little cliché. That being said, I have been testing out bits combos and I have a pretty good combination of stuff that really looks the part. I was going to have a small squad just as shelf-queens, never seeing the tabletop. But, could they ever counts-as anything else?

The closest thing I can think of is some Primaris unit (even if the rules are a little underwhelming for Thunder Warriors) . Custodes seem a bit overkill, and the weapons don't quite match up. So, what Loyalist Marine Chapter is most likely to be harboring a rogue unit of Thunder Warriors (I'm thinking Dark Angels maybe)?


Another thing I could do, would be to paint a single Thunder warrior up as a Chaos Lord. The rules would fit quite well, and Chaos armies aren't too particular of the "purity" of their leaders, especially when they can splatter you against the wall. I could see a weird, lone survivor TW taking over a small Chaos Marine warband.

Using them as Flesh Tearers could be a good representation. Their 'Fury Within' could represent their blood lust and instability.

The Primaris Stat-Line could represent their bulkiness and the limited options of the Unification Wars. The Auto Bolt Rifle could also be a good representation of their instability with 3 shots and no AP value.

Are thunderwarriors in fluff stronger than the next generation space marines? I dont read the heresy books, but my first idea would be that they are comparable to regular marines rather than primaris. I mean should they not use totaly outdated tech and genetics compared to regulars? And their logistic support should would be nonexisting? Why are they so strong?

Gitdakka wrote:
Are thunderwarriors in fluff stronger than the next generation space marines? I dont read the heresy books, but my first idea would be that they are comparable to regular marines rather than primaris. I mean should they not use totaly outdated tech and genetics compared to regulars? And their logistic support should would be nonexisting? Why are they so strong?

Thunder Warriors are portrayed as stronger than space marines, sometimes significantly so. Because of the different time periods they are active there hasn’t been any interaction between Thunder Warriors and Primaris AFAIK

Space Marines advantages over Thunder Warriors are they are longer lived, more stable, and I believe more efficient to mass produce on the very large scales required for galactic conquest for the Great Crusade as opposed to use only on Terra during the Unification Wars.


For the OP, I think Primaris would make a pretty reasonable approximation for Thunder Warriors. The suggestion above for auto bolt rifles and Flesh Tearers seem reasonable too.

I'd give them

STR 5,
T 4
2 Wounds
4+ armor
2 attacks base, with a chainsword on each model.
They used bolters. So, str 4, ap - rapid fire 1

 Jimbotron wrote:
Using them as Flesh Tearers could be a good representation. Their 'Fury Within' could represent their blood lust and instability.

The Primaris Stat-Line could represent their bulkiness and the limited options of the Unification Wars. The Auto Bolt Rifle could also be a good representation of their instability with 3 shots and no AP value.

I have a MASSIVE 40k collection. Literally the only armies I do not own are Blood Angels and Death Guard. Well, looks like it's going to be just Death Guard now.

Having looked over the Blood Angels rules, here is what I am thinking for a Primaris Flesh Tearers list. Note, this is only partially for effectiveness mostly just for coolness factor of having "Thunderwarriors" and this will be a truly minimum sized force.

HQ's would be Primaris Captains with Auto bolt rifles, bolt pistols, and power swords (relics go here, likely digital weapons, master crafted weapons, and adamantium cloak)

Elite: possibly a Primaris Ancient

Troops: Intercessors with Auto bolt rifles, sergeant with a thunderhammer.

Heavy Support: Vindicator simply because I have bits for one lying around. Maybe a unit of Eliminators.


I think the simplest way to start things would be a Supreme Command or Patrol detachment (likely Patrol as having 3 nearly identical HQ's in SC seems a bit monotonous). Then grow it into a Battalion from there. I'd never field this as a main force, and likely keep it to under 25 total models.

I like the direction. Personally, I would not go with Eliminators.

In the background, Thunder Warriors were brutal. More than likely they were not stealthy. Space Marines were the scalpel, Thunder Warriors were more like a blunt instrument.

The Vindicator could represent an old Siege Tank from the Unification Wars.

I think it is really keeping it simple would be the most effective way to represent them. Converting these guys sounds like a lot of fun.

Ogryn rules seem fitting, I would say?

 Jimbotron wrote:
I like the direction. Personally, I would not go with Eliminators.

In the background, Thunder Warriors were brutal. More than likely they were not stealthy. Space Marines were the scalpel, Thunder Warriors were more like a blunt instrument.

The Vindicator could represent an old Siege Tank from the Unification Wars.

I think it is really keeping it simple would be the most effective way to represent them. Converting these guys sounds like a lot of fun.

My general idea for the conversions are Stormcast legs and torso, Venerable Dreadnought head (for chunkiness), Intercessor arms/guns, Mk3 backpack, Company Champion shoulderpads.

Wulfen might be a good match ruleswise. Tough and strong but slightly more lightly armoured (to represent their cruder power armour). Wulfen can be given a shooting attack via greande launchers to represent crude, early bolters. I would not give them an of the heavy melee weapons but their claw attacks could represent heavy chainswords backed up by Thunderwarriors brutal strength.

What about an army of Ork nobz in eavy armour?

Mark 2 marines who are converted to be true scale/primaris height are defiantly the best modeling option, but if you don't want to do all that conversion work, stormcast eternals with bolters, marine shoulder pads and orlock heads would work almost as well.

Rules wise, I would run them as flesh tears death company intercessors with auto bolt rifles. They should be tougher than normal primaris, since normal marine veterans can take on primaris marines, and thunder warriors don't seem to care if a marine is a veteran or not when fighting them. The good shooting of the intercessor weapons are nice too, since that was not too far removed from the time when bolters were made by the emperor himself, I'd expect them to be better than the bolters of 40k despite the times.

Hellebore wrote:
What about an army of Ork nobz in eavy armour?

I doubt they were that bad at shooting.