Assault Marines for 30k Space Wolves

Assault Marines in Mark IV armour for the VI Legion.

No surprise here - some more 30k painting to share in this post. Since the spring, I have been on quite the 30k painting jag. With a few exceptions, I have been working on 30k stuff - some new, others things which have been lying around for over a year (or years). I think I have been inspired, in part, by rumours of a new plastic set coming for the Horus Heresy, but it has also just been fun to root around in my pile of 30k stuff and to keep adding to the painted part of the collection. Here are some reinforcements for the VI Legion Astartes, the "Space Wolves". This is an assault squad wearing Mark IV armour. The figures are resin sculpts from Forge World.

Close up view of the squad commander.

Nothing like a huge hammer to sort things out up close!

The assault squad is a classic Space Marine unit - troops equipped with short-range pistols, grenades and close-combat weapons, using their jump packs to "hop" across the battlefield in order to settle matters up close and personal. It's kind of silly - and so it fits very well into the Horus Heresy! I do love it, and it is the sort of tactical approach that suits the "character" of most the the Space Marine Legions in the Horus Heresy setting. Certainly the dreaded Vylka Fenryka of the VI Legion would consider any sort of tactics involving mass use of chain swords to be a worthwhile battlefield application. I had not yet painted an assault squad for any loyalists in my collection, so I thought these guys would do well with The Rout.

Two of the marines - one carrying a plasma pistol. The embossed shoulder pauldrons are from Forge World.

In the GW's "Age of Darkness" rules for the Horus Heresy, the Assault Squad counts as a core troop selection for your detachment. The squads are 10 strong, can be expanded in size, including as many as 20 marines (no half measures in 30k!). The basic assault marine carries a bolt pistol, a chain sword, and grenades. You can also select from limited special weapon options to alter/improve the short range firepower impact (you will see a few plasma pistols mixed in with the group here). The officer also has the option of upgrading his close combat weapon - I opted for a "thunder hammer" for him because...well, I like the look, and it seems like the sort of silly thing a Space Wolf marine would love to use.

Ready for action on the gaming table...hopefully someday soon...

The jump packs worn by the Mark IV marines are pretty large - and yet quite small, almost compact, compared to the other variants out there.

If you are in North America, these figures are very, very hard to find right now. Forge World's supply of the figures has become quite constricted, and most of the Horus Heresy models in Forge World's web store tend to be listed as "out of stock" or even "no longer available". Reasons include supply and production disruptions stemming from anti-COVID health measures (understandable - which industry hasn't been hit hard by these problems?) and also murkier rumours and nonsense tied to the ongoing evolution of the opaque relationship between the Forge World studio and GW itself - which owns Forge World, but sort of...doesn't, or something? Whatever...bottom line, hard to get these in North America, but they are still available in the UK. So my thanks to Jamie M, for helping me get these figures!

Chainswords revving, pistols charged and/or loaded, ready for action!

Thanks for reading! I hope folks are managing to enjoy their summer. I look forward to sharing some more 30k stuff soon - although something new is coming which may knock my brushes back toward historical subjects by the fall...we'll see. Cheers!