This week we’re celebrating 40 years of Warhammer, and the folks over at Battle Report on Warhammer+ have a real treat in store to mark the occasion – a refight of a classic Battle Report from White Dwarf back in 1993, called Fangs of the Wolf. We caught up with our resident Wolf Lord Simon, who (re)designed the game, to tell us more…
WarCom: What inspired you to recreate this game in particular? Something to do with the Space Wolves, perhaps?
Si: Ha! Actually, yes, to a certain degree. I remember this Battle Report fondly from back in the day. It was so influential to the development of the early lore for the Space Wolves (and the Orks, for that matter) that it was actually featured in its entirety in the second edition Codex: Space Wolves – the very same book I read when I first began my journey into the 41st Millennium. In fact, it’s not only the 40th anniversary of Warhammer, but the 30th anniversary of this particular Battle Report, so it seemed like the perfect game to refight.
WarCom: Where did you start in terms of replicating the original game?
Si: Well, after re-reading the original Battle Report, I thought it’d be fun to try and recreate it as accurately as possible, but with a modern twist. As such, we used a Dark Angels Gladiator instead of a Predator to house the plans that both sides were after. Of course, Ghazghkull Thraka, Ragnar Blackmane, and Ulrik the Slayer have had quite the glow-up since their earlier incarnations, and Njal Stormcaller is now clad in Runic Terminator Armour, so we’d be using their most recent miniatures in each case.
Other than that, we tried to stick as closely as possible to the classic combatants. Warboss Stu from the Warhammer 40,000 team kindly lent us his massive Goff Ork army, enabling us to cover most of Ghazghkull’s horde, bar a few exceptions.
As for my Space Wolves, Nick and I agreed that I’d need to bulk up the five-man units of Blood Claws, Grey Hunters, and Long Fangs into full-sized squads to make it more of a fight – after all, Orks hit A LOT harder than they used to! I also spent most of my spare time leading up to the game painting the four Wolf Guard Terminators who accompanied Ragnar as new miniatures armed with their original wargear!
WarCom: How did the mission itself work?
Si: The sole objective for this mission was to recover the plans from the Dark Angels Gladiator, either by grabbing them from inside with an INFANTRY model and escaping off the board edge, or ideally manning the controls and driving it to safety. Now, Nick would have quite the numerical advantage, but like in the original game, only his Meks would be able to instinctively drive the Gladiator, while as Space Marines first and foremost, any of my models would be able to do so.
WarCom: So, how did the game play out?
It was loads of fun, and full of exciting moments. We actually gave ourselves the additional challenge of matching the deployment and strategy used in the original Battle Report. Could Ghazghkull’s mechanised right hook sweep the Space Wolves aside this time? Would Ragnar’s assault on the Gladiator succeed once again, or would he and his Blood Claws be overwhelmed by the green tide swarming towards them? You’ll have to watch the game and find out!
Thanks, Si! One of the first things you’ll notice about the Battle Report is the incredible suite of custom terrain that was made to help bring the original battlefield to life. We caught up with the Battle Report’s resident artisan James to learn more…
Given that you only had a few photos and maps to work with, how did you go about replicating the terrain used in the original Battle Report?
James: Thankfully things were a little simpler back in those days. Hills were flat green polystyrene domes and buildings were card and foam blocks. It was made to be pure wargaming scenery, and this gave us a lot of freedom in how to recreate them, sort of a blank canvas with the outlines to fill in. Battlefields of yesteryear were big – 4 by 8 feet, to be precise – and scaling that down to 60 inches by 44 inches posed a challenge. The top-down illustrations in White Dwarf proved to be the key to this, we could see where everything was on the battlefield and could scale them appropriately.
WarCom: The vibrant green board and hills really help to capture the nostalgia of the time, yet there’s no flock in sight? How did you recreate that look and feel?
James: We wanted to include the iconic green from the bases everyone remembers from that era of wargaming, and the board was ideal for this – like one giant Goblin Green base. Painting over sand, we tweaked the colours to better compliment a modern Warhammer setting, starting with a base coat of Castellan Green followed by a heavy drybrush of Warboss Green and finishing with a drybrush of Yriel Yellow.
WarCom: How did you make the Gladiator objective?
James: This was relatively simple. We drilled a few holes and used an old pair of clippers to widen the gaps and bend them out. I tried to think of how this mighty battle engine met its demise, imagining the shots strafing its side with the final kill shot just below the turret. As this was a unique objective which needed to move in-game – but not shoot – I damaged all of its weapons and opened up the hatches on the cupolas to show the vehicle was abandoned rather than exploded.
WarCom: What was the most challenging part of building the board for the Battle Report?James: Did we want to update everything to a modern Warhammer aesthetic? Or faithfully recreate the scenery in all its styrofoam and card glory? Once we began down one path, we would be committed. We decided on a faithful recreation with a few tweaks, foam hills, and rock formations, but updated buildings that kept the same layout and were converted to incorporate the exposed gothic window arches that gave the original so much character.
Thanks guys – this project seems like a blast. You can catch the game on Warhammer+ right now. If you’re not already a subscriber, click the button below.
