Many in the Imperium view the Space Marines as angelic figures possessed of boundless grace and honour bestowed by the God-Emperor Himself, and in most cases their belief is understandable – but not for the warriors of their bitingly cold homeworld of Fenris. Their savagery and boisterousness is matched only by their dedication to the Imperium and, for all their eccentricities, they are regarded as some of the greatest defenders of Humanity.

They are the Space Wolves, the sons of the Primarch Leman Russ, and among the deadliest warriors in the galaxy. For all their outward brutality and harsh mien, they are honourable and cunning champions, chasing down the enemy’s greatest leaders before slaying them in close combat. 

Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these bestial berserkers.

Space Wolves 101

The Space Wolves are a unique Chapter who field a blend of regular Space Marines alongside exclusive characters and units. We recommend reading Starting a Space Marine Army to understand the core options available to a Space Wolves jarl. 

Space Wolves Explained

As one of the nine Space Marine Legions that remained loyal to the Emperor of Mankind during the Horus Heresy, the Space Wolves are a Space Marine Chapter of legendary repute, whose martial legacy stretches back 10,000 years. Their Primarch, Leman Russ, was found amidst the snow-covered wilds of a frozen death world. His upbringing among the tribal societies of Fenris shaped his future Legion into a brash and unconventional force that puts great stock in personal glory, while teaching its warriors to shield the less fortunate at all times.

Those who take the Space Wolves at face value may disregard them as arrogant and boastful brutes, but beneath the savage facade lies honourable hearts with unwavering loyalty to the Imperium and its people. The stories of their heroism are too numerous to count, and untold thousands of faltering battles have been saved by the sudden arrival of their blue-grey landing craft.

As their name suggests, the Space Wolves honour the massive wolves of their home world in all things, adorning themselves in pelts and lupine totems while training larger specimens to fight alongside their elite forces. A mutation in their gene-seed – the genetic legacy passed down from their Primarch that is used to create more Space Marines – means that their own canine teeth lengthen as they grow older, giving them the appearance of a snarling canid and contributing to the fearful impression they exude.

The Space Wolves care not for the thoughts of outsiders, however. They only live for battle, seeing each journey out into the void as an opportunity for glorious adventure. Every Space Wolf seeks to forge his legend in a saga – an oral account of his battle record that is accorded only to the worthiest of warriors.

Despite their feral appearance, the sons of Russ are still Space Marines, as intelligent and tactically gifted as any of their fellow Chapters. They overwhelmingly prefer the bone-crushing arena of close combat, where they can better forge a legend born of dramatic duels and victories over enemy champions, but still maintain finely drilled skills with all manner of ranged weapons for when the Chapter needs their enemies slain from afar.

The sagas of the Space Wolves are a vital link to their past and the legacy of their lost Primarch – who disappeared from Imperial space shortly after the Horus Heresy, leaving only a cryptic message that he would return to his sons at the time of their direst need. One of the most prominent sagas tells of their unending rivalry with the Thousand Sons, a traitorous legion of Chaos Space Marines. The Thousand Sons’ home world was utterly destroyed by the Space Wolves in an event known as the Burning of Prospero, earning them the eternal enmity of their Daemon Primarch, Magnus the Red.

Magnus has since attacked Fenris itself on a number of occasions, laying waste to wide swathes of the world yet falling short of wiping out the sons of Russ entirely. On the most recent occasion, a force of Dark Angels Space Marines – ancestral rivals of the Space Wolves since a confrontation between their Primarchs – was caught on Fenris and forced to begrudgingly join forces against Magnus’ daemonic hordes until the Space Wolves’ High King, Logan Grimnar, cut down the Daemon Primarch and sealed the warp rifts through which the daemons surged.

On the battlefield the Space Wolves are close combat masters, arming all of their basic troops with vicious chainswords while deploying veteran brotherhoods that wield masterwork power swords and axes. Their elite Wolf Guard are each the equal of many factions’ greatest champions, whether holding the line in nigh-indestructible Terminator armour or hunting down enemy leaders in a unit of Headtakers. They hold true to their tribal roots, decorating their armour with trophies, while Wolf Priests tend to their brothers’ spiritual wellbeing and embolden them in battle. 

In addition to specialised units like massed hordes of novitiate Blood Claws and coolly disciplined Grey Hunters, the Space Wolves also maintain access to the full armoury of a regular Space Marine Chapter. Furious infantry charges are supported by heavy firepower from tanks and aircraft, while richly decorated Dreadnoughts thunder through enemy lines, adding to their sagas even after death.

A Space Wolves army is perfect for players who want to hurl powerful fighters into the thick of the melee and watch them slay everything they reach, to earn a great legacy. Despite their preference for close combat, the extensive range of Space Marines miniatures still provides a Space Wolves army unparalleled flexibility, with loads of excellent options to take your force in whatever direction you like best – so long as it’s pointed at a worthy foe.

Combat Patrol

Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced, balanced games. The Space Wolves lean into what they know best – savage close combat – by mixing fast melee troops with durable Terminators to make sure enemies big and small are met with the full martial might of Fenris.

Askar’s Wolfpack is led by Fyrri Askar, a ferocious Wolf Guard Battle Leader who joins a unit of 10 Blood Claws to drive deep into the heart of enemy lines. With them, a pack of five vicious Wulfen flank their prey with superior speed, constantly on the edge of a berserk rage brought on by their bestial curse.

Five Wolf Guard Terminators are your anvil, soaking up extreme amounts of firepower as they trudge across the battlefield looking for heretics to smash. They are as deadly as their provenance would suggest, and thick Terminator armour, combined with their natural stubbornness, makes them astoundingly difficult to kill.

All you need to deploy Askar’s Wolfpack is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!

Painting

The Space Wolves wear the pale blue-grey of their power armour proudly, and it’s all-but inconceivable that one would turn their back on mother Fenris by covering up his legendary heraldry. With that being said, the warriors of Fenris are lifted from tribal societies that place great meaning in markings and insignia, and it is a rare Space Wolf that doesn’t have some manner of intricate detailing about his person.

To help ease your miniatures onto the battlefield with a simple, achievable colour scheme that works across a wide variety of units, the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints for the Space Wolves found in the Combat Patrol box. 

This is by no means an exhaustive primer, however, and you’re fully encouraged to come up with your own Space Wolves colour schemes. Try experimenting with the unique heraldries of the Great Companies – found in Codex Supplement: Space Wolves – and see if any tickle your fancy.

Next Steps

Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to bury your axe deep into some heretic skulls, you might be wondering where to go next. 

Your first stop is Codex Supplement: Space Wolves – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and a showcase of gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 20 different units. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.

The Combat Patrol provides a good mix of elite units and basic infantry with a strong bias towards close combat, so adding a dependable squad of Grey Hunters will give you some much needed firepower and  supply troops that can hold down objectives while your army advances into melee range. The Grey Hunters are also perfectly capable of getting stuck into close combat – with each one carrying a chainsword – so you’ll be able to react no matter who your opponent sends to dislodge them.

When hunting down enemy Characters and warlords, look no further than the Wolf Guard Headtakers – a subset of the chapter’s veterans who eschew bulky Terminator armour for lighter MK X Tacticus suits to chase down and assassinate leaders in glorious single combat. Though often impulsive and impetuous, they are dedicated fighters able to duel some of the deadliest foes in the 41st Millennium and emerge unbowed.

Wolf Priests are an important part of the Chapter’s spiritual and physical wellbeing, serving as both the Chaplains and Apothecaries of the Space Wolves, salving wounds with potent tribal remedies even as they exhort their brothers to acts of extreme bravery and righteous rage. They make excellent Leaders for your Wolf Guard Headtakers, keeping the squad fighting fit as they hunt down the deadliest enemies.

The Space Wolves are known as much for the legendary characters that lead them as they are for their wild yet honourable warriors, and they don’t come much more renowned than Logan Grimnar – the High King of Fenris. His immense experience and peerless martial prowess have seen him claim victory on hundreds of battlefields, always flanked by a pair of Fenrisian Wolves that leap to his every command.

Often the High King isn’t required to step onto the battlefield, and Captains like the inimitable Ragnar Blackmane lead their pack brothers into battle with unmatched ferocity and a wicked sword arm. 

Finally, though they distrust psychic powers in all forms, the Space Wolves make use of unique runic magic derived from the power of mother Fenris herself – or so they say. Njal Stormcaller is one of the greatest practitioners of this art, and his wisdom reaches even the ears of the High King, while his abilities strip flesh from bone.

Your army can be reinforced with units from Codex: Space Marines. For ideas on what to add to your existing troops, we recommend our guide to starting a Space Marine army. 

Fiction

As one of the oldest and most distinctive Space Marine Chapters, the Space Wolves have many legends attributed to their greatest heroes – helped by their love of spinning great sagas from their accomplishments. Accordingly, there are a wide assortment of Black Library novels about their exploits.

One of the most famous Wolf Lords in recent memory is the inimitable Ragnar Blackmane. Most notable for carving the head from Ghazghkull Thraka (he got better), Ragnar has won countless victories across the galaxy. He wasn’t always the legendary leader of today, though, and the story of his rise begins in Space Wolf by William King, which finds Ragnar as a fresh initiate thrown into an unforgiving war against Chaos.

His saga continues in Ragnar’s Claw, as he and his squad of Blood Claws are sent on a near-suicidal mission to retrieve a blessed amulet from a plague-ridden world, and in Grey Hunter, where Ragnar must track down a stolen relic from his Chapter’s past – the spear of Leman Russ himself. These three novels can also be read together as part of the Space Wolf Omnibus.

The tale of the embattled Járnhamar pack is told across three novels collected in Legends of the Wolf: The Omnibus by Chris Wraight, in which warriors reunited after a decades-long absence find that long-forgotten grievances rise to the surface once more as they battle the Death Guard. Their adventures continue as they clash with the forces of Chaos, only for their internecine tensions to drive a worrying wedge in the pack’s unity.

The Space Wolves also come to the forefront of the Dawn of Fire series in The Wolftime by Gav Thorpe – the third book in the series that defines the modern history of Warhammer 40,000. A massive Ork horde threatens to extinguish Fenris itself as the Space Wolves are stretched thin by the demands of the Indomitus Crusade, and High King Logan Grimnar must make a fateful decision and throw aside old rivalries for the sake of his Chapter, or go down fighting.

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