Stone Dragons

 

Next up are the Stone Dragons. This force is the least complete of all my new forces, as it currently consists of 3 Reivers, although 3 more should be on the way. 

The Stone Dragons are a bit of a mixed bag. The current lore states that these guys are probably Ultramarine successors but they follow the ways of the Space Wolves. This was because I wanted Space Wolves but without having Space Wolves, which you couldn't do. Now however you can but these guys are not a new chapter, so I can't just rewrite the lore. I could just continue as it is but that leaves another problem, how do you integrate new Ultramarine primaris units into a Space Wolf following chapter? Did they just turn up and go "yeah, that's sounds like a great idea!" Some how I doubt it. Anyway, I'm sure I'll figure a way to bring it all together. 

One thing that hasn't changed about the Dragons however, is the colour scheme. Along with the Knights, the original colour scheme is still in use, as it just fitted and look right straight away. It's Space Wolf enough for it to be obvious they follow the Space Wolves tactics but far enough away that they aren't instantly identified as Wolves. There have been a couple of minor alterations to the scheme and there will probably be some more minor changes to get it to fit with the new models, which I will explain later, but these will be minor. 

The only edits to the current scheme is the loss of the yellow helmet crest and the vox grill on the front being black instead off yellow, both because it hid the eyes to much, turning them from a prominent feature of the helmet in to just another yellow splodge.

The new Dragons will continue the lore of hunters and surgical strikes. This will be continued with the new breed by switching over to Vanguard Marines and exclusively using Phobos pattern armour. The lore will progress to a point where the "new" recruits and upgraded old ones will have integrated to form a coherent fighting force of silent hunters, using shock and awe tactics.  

As such the new for will look something like quite different to the old force, not that it got built! The new list will be lead by either a Librarian or a Lieutenant. I would prefer a Librarian but it depends on what boxsets I manage to pick up. The Vanguard start collecting box has a Lieutenant in, where as the Shadowspear box has all 3 options. A Librarian would also fit in better for when the forces are combined as with the new codex, I believe you can only have 1 Captain and 2 lieutenants in the force, so having a librarian and chaplain (from Dark Guardians) in the mix would be useful. Next up will be Infiltrators or possibly Incursors. Both of the boxsets, Shadowspear and the Vanguard start collecting set, contain Infiltrators but whether these are mono pose, single build models or proper multiparty kits I don't know. I suspect that they are mono pose jobs and so I won't have a choice. Thematically, I would like Incursors with their paired combat blades, it's more Wolfy but Infiltrators would still work. A barrage of bolters followed by an assault, should still be able to do a fair amount of damage. Next up are a small squad of Reivers, these are here for two reasons, partly due to there combat abilities, a unit of 5 can put out 21 attacks on the charge but also there ability to drop on grav chutes can be useful for grabbing back field objectives. The last element of the list is the Eliminators. These will offer some longer range fire power and also some anti-vehicle potential. Granted theses are not lascannons but they can still put out some damage.

All in all I think this is a pretty well rounded list for a 500 point list. These is some combat, some shooting and some long range shooting, plus the ability to snipe out characters. Yes, anti-armour is slightly lacking but at 500 point levels, I can't see many Land Raiders or Repulsars being used.  

As it stands, I have 6 Reivers, so I'm a long way off this list. As mentioned above, the colour scheme may change and this is due to the fact that Phobos armour only has one pauldrons and so I may well paint the top of the left arm yellow as well. I have no doubt there will be other changes, probably to the power packs but until I paint up some of the Reivers I won't really know. 

All that is left now are the Eagle Knights and that could be a long one!

Edit: Well, my plans have been in place for less than a month and already they will have to change! In the last post in this series I spoke about the Dark Guardians and how they were being built around scouts, to form a very narrative force. Only now scouts aren't troops. Yeah, didn't see that one coming! So a rethink is in order, what that rethink will be I don't know but I suspect it will be Phobos shaped.