Allies: Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love Thunderwolf Cavalry

One of the more dramatic changes in 6th edition has been the inclusion of Allies as legitimate additions to your army. While my knee-jerk reaction to this was a fear of seeing Imperial Guard gunlines supplemented with Long Fangs and Rune Priests and whatnot, I then settled down a bit and considered how I could use these rules to get more dinosaurs on the table.








Right now my Cold One Bikers and Stegafire Cannon are the only prehistoric creatures accompanying my Space Marines on the table. I just couldn't justify to myself using a Biker Captain profile for my Carnosaur, so the model rested on a shelf for nearly four years.  But now, with Allies, I've found a decent unit to represent it in my games. I'm talking, of course, about Thunderwolf Cavalry!

A Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf with Storm Shield and Power Weapon (a Lance, considering the model's halberd) is pricey but the stats suit the dinosaur-riding Veteran quite well. The Allies rules, however, require a minimum one HQ and Troops choice from the auxiliary codex. So for Troops I'll be using my bolter-wielding Veterans as Grey Hunters.

The Lascannon would have to stay at home, obviously

6th edition has given both these units, which haven't seen action for years, a new chance to shine on the tabletop. This, in my opinion, is the best thing about a new rulesset. You see old miniatures or unpopular units suddenly surging back to life. The Allies rules allow you to expand the scope of counts-as units as well. Already I'm thinking about what else I could add from the Space Wolf codex in revamped dinosaur form. Raptors as Fenrisian Wolf packs? And I still need to find a place for those Terradons...