Wulfen Dreadnought

This article contains something which makes absolutely no logical sense, such as Nazi Zombie Mercenaries, Fucking Space Orangutans, anything written by a certain Irish leper or Robin Crud-ace, or Wizards of the Coast hiring the fucking Pinkertons over a children’s card game. If you proceed, consider yourself warned.

No one can escape the grimdark fate of turning into a fursona. NO ONE!

A werewolf Dreadnought. We wish we were joking, but this is exactly what the Wulfen Dreadnought is. This piece of unit is one walking chunk of contradictions and just plain Wat. The Space Wolves have their heads shoved so up the ass on canid fetishes that even in death, the Wulfen curse gets a hold on some of them and transform them into a furry. No, we are not making this shit up, it is as sad as one can imagine.

Wait? What! How!?

Yeah. So apparently the whole 'conquering the beast within you' schtick of the Canis Helix is all Bullshit. When a Space Wolf initiate successfully subdues the curse on becoming a four legged yiffer, they theoretically conquer it permanently even when entombed in a Dreadnought. But for some...incompetent Space Wolves, the Canis Helix within them was not permanently resisted; instead, these Wolves temporarily made these genes dormant. So when their body becomes too weak to sustain the injuries and are entombed in a sarcophagus...all Hell breaks loose.

How and why this happens...we have no idea. But it is pretty damned embarrassing, especially when you consider that the Wulfen is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Space Wolves, so having one of your Venerable Dreadnoughts suddenly go up running on all fours to shag the nearest lamp post is gonna create a ton of questions. How the Space Wolves excuse this blatant heresy when one of their giant METHUL BAWKS starts to growl at the nearest Inquisitor, we have no fucking clue. Most likely they put the pilots in a medically induced coma or disconnect the life support pod from the dreadnought when they're not in battle.

So when a Dreadnought loses its shit, the Iron Priests "have to" refit the machine to better reflect its new condition and, more importantly, sell you additional models. Because of this, their typical weaponry is replaced with close-range weapons, such as Fenrisian axes and Great Wolf Claws.

Tl;dr, the Space Wolves version of the Blood Angels Death Company Dreadnought.

Tabletop

The Furioso Dreadnoughts aren't the only melee specialist dreads now. Only has a single storm bolter or heavy flamer as standard, but its paired axe and wolf claw make it a death machine in melee and it can re-roll failed charges. Going for single-wound infantry? Flamer and axe, since he gets to swing eight times with it. Going for anything else? Flamer and claw, since you re-roll failed to-wounds and always deal 3 damage in assault.

Be careful about which armies you pit him against. He's not that good compared to the Forgeworld Dreadnoughts. While the axe is a more expensive Power Fist. His save isn't that great either. Save points for Murderfang or a Chaplain Dread if you want a melee monster.