The Night's Watch - Search for the First Wulfen

The Fenrisians were my personal Civil War project for the year, started right after the Horus Heresy No Retreat VI. The army is a bit of an antithesis in a way, as I've felt many interpretations (including some of the official ones) often kind of miss the point of the legion and lean entirely on the wolf theme. I consciously left all wolf logos, icons and details out of the entire army and tried to focus on the essence of vikings/pagans/pillagers that would represent various Fenrisian cultures.

In the Civil War list I wanted to include multiple small units that would each add to the patrol's narrative but also be fun and dynamic to play. The VI are quite rapid with their run + charge which felt neat especially in the patrol scale.

The beauty of Civil War is in its scale, with mini projects like this finding a meaning as the threshold for thematic army building becomes delightfully low - also a great thing for beginner hobbyists who feel a fully painted, event-sized army is still far in the horizon.

The Grey Stalkers were a perfect unit for a hobby project as there's so many differing roles within the squad - it's fun to plan what kind of distinct characters the maul/sword/spearmen or a heavy weapon gunner would be! I approached each mini as an individual, converting the army list roles one by one to match the vision for the unit.

The Grey Stalker Huscarl was armed with a traditional Fenrisian hunting spear, the shield is just a decorative piece. Instead of the usual heraldic colours I played with forest green and purple, which was also used as an undertone in the entire army. As it was very much about experimenting I didn't have the stones to really push the effect in such a tight project timeframe, so it's very subtle - still a fun nuance especially in the basing.

A Fenrisian pillager with his sack of looted relics. I'll shoot some additional angles later to show some of the details on the models!

Pair of rotor cannons. Splendid to model and fun to play, although not that effective.

I imagined the fur details on the models being blackbear hides, once again consciously steering away from having anything wolf related on the models.

Grey Stalker Berserker with a trophy taken from a slain Fenrisian Frost Giant. I found that WHFB Dwarf bits often make better Space Wolf parts than actual Space Wolf parts, very fitting in the style of ornamentation and the bits are often a bit smaller which makes them easier to incorporate to conversions.

Fenrisian power spear and some wild charging momentum, one of my favourite Marines in the Grey Stalker unit. The black feather decorations (here hanging off the spear) are a repeating detail within the squad.

Prosperine Veteran, a survival of the grand planetary siege. The warrior possesses a couple of pillaged artifacts in the form of a master-crafted Boltgun and a Thousand Sons' ceremonial dagger. The bolter's beak ornamentation funnily adds to the bird theme of the squad.

The Envoy of Feathers is the symbolic leader of the warband. He's been carrying out a quest for the Lord of Fenris for the last three hundred years - travelling the planet's vast wilderness in search of the First Wulfen. The rest of the Grey Stalkers are his hand-picked crew, who have joined the old one on his long journey. Having used a head and a shaman drum from the old zombie kit I thought it would be funny to include as many zombie parts as possible - some parts are a bit off scale but otherwise fit the vibe. He even has some guts hanging off his belt (on the back side) for ritual purposes. Birds are very prominent in viking culture and stories and therefore were used as one of the thematic details in the patrol force.

The strange Wayfarer was a last minute addition to the patrol army — I was left with a couple of hobby hours to spare so I painted up a counter model for the Grey Stalkers. The Wayfarer's presence is to mark when the unit has the Heart of the Legion benefit, as the fellow traveller arrives to aid the Astartes with healing balms and to motivate them with cited sagas whenever the Marines stand on an objective. Fun way to add to the narrative and increase the patrol's display footprint a bit!

The Næturvár, a Fenrisian Tarantula Battery, three Frontier Idols with concealed Heavy Bolters. These are erected on the borders of settlements to keep outsiders and rival tribes away - the frightening figures are usually enough to scare off mundane threats, while the automated gunfire takes care of the rest. The slates used for these and the army basing were collected from the banks of fjords in Northern Norway, where actual viking ships might have sailed back in the days. I felt it was pretty cool little feature, adding to the army's essence!

Asaheim Attack Bike, a custom variant for long-range operations and extended patrolling. These would be used as forward scouts as well as hauling stowage, munitions and rations for the forces deployed to the wilderness. Attack Bikes felt like a cool and rather rare unit to include in the Civil War force and were my favourite unit to play. Mobile firepower and a fighting chance in a headlong charge, what's not to love! The conversion is essentially a combination of a Marine Bike and Mechanicus Kataphron Destroyer tracks. I went for a bit of a "snowmobile" look to emphasize the all-terrain capability they would have to have in the Fenrisian tactica.

Asaheim Attack Bike II, a hunting partner for the chain lancer. This warrior single-handedly drove off @fellfyre Sons of Horus Tactical Squad and only barely fell short of sweeping them out - a true patrol shock assault!

Sabre Strike Tank, the centerpiece for the patrol. Armed purely according to the rule of cool, as I liked the opportunity to mix some WWII bits in and also because I didn't want to have any energy weapons in the army's narrative theme or colour palette. It has a magnetized base for display, but was often played without it to be able to navigate our dense terrain a bit easier.

Sabre side armour. Most of the stowage is the new Rogal Dorn tank kit and Tamiya vehicle accessories with some other bits in the mix. The small runes are the Green Stuff World etched brass Dwarven runes that were used on some of the infantry models too.

On patrol.

The First Wulfen, Apex Hunter of the Wild Frontier, was the central figure for the patrol's narrative. Part of the Fenrisian folkore and The Fang's legends, the ancient being had now emerged from its exile after centuries. This was a bit of a special request from other participating players, as I played him as a Scout squad accompanied by a flock of raven minis. Basically he was the sergeant model and narratively speaking the birds of prey would follow in the Hunter's wake - kind of like wound counters for this force of nature. Everybody was onboard with the idea and it played exactly as a Scout unit would have, just a bit of a visual difference to make the concept possible. The base model was the Blade-slave Gal Vorbak for some added stature with all kinds of fantasy bits and green stuff clothing added.

So that's another project in the books - a Space Wolf patrol roster with zero wolf references. In a way it's exciting to pick a Legion you're really not that fond of and try to interpret its essence in a personally interesting way. Exploring this particular theme felt rather rewarding and it wouldn't be hard to line up a couple of reinforcing unit projects - it would just require an external incentive in the form of an event or a similar deadline!