Warhammer Fantasy Revisited

In a rare moment of realisation recently I worked out that I have three painting speeds, and that I need a project in each category so that I can switch between as the mood takes me. With this in mind, and inspired by playing Warhammer Total war, i decided to go looking through my old boxes of minis and put together some alternative armies for Warhammer Fantasy from the ‘spare’ models I had accumulated over the years.

Idea is these will just be quick fun projects done to tabletop standard or as far as the mood takes me at the time.

First up, The Empire…

A quick search (Ok, a long and involved search…) of many boxes yielded an assortment of sprues, blisters and bits, plus some assembled models in various states of disrepair.

Sorting that mess out it became obvious I had in my travels procured quite a few Cult of Ulric character models. Given I also had a large number of cavalry it seemed logical to do this force up as an Army of Middenheim as I could incorporate the Cult of Ulric int the force seamlessly. Plus it would make a nice counterpoint to the Talabecland theme of my main Empire army. A day clipping, cleaning and assembling and I had the following:

A little more progress on the Middenheim front. Added more greenstuff to the miscellaneous cavalry to hide either Sigmar iconography, missing left arms or the back of the horse where the plastic moulding over the rump was shattered on both sides, respectively.

Finally, busy agonizing over what to do about huntsmen (apparently I’m easily bewildered and confused by first world problems 😛  ). I have a box of the old Empire Militia still in the shrinkwrap but I just can’t bring myself to open it. I think because it is the same sprues that were used to make Mordheim warbands and I just can’t let the magic go… I have some Shieldmaiden plastics form Shieldwolf minis KS a couple of years back which would be perfect, bt the poses are so dynamic that they require a 25mm base rather than 20mm, so they will go back to being either chaos marauders or a standalone ‘army of the north’ if I can pick up some more vikings at some stage. So my best bet might end up being one of those Frostgrave warband sets and kitbashing. I’ve been keen to pick up a box to have a look at so this would give me a nice excuse.

A friend of mine who I play against/with has a Bretonnia army which we have both been slowly adding to for a few years now. It’s been an on-going project rather than something new but I figured I’d drop here anyway as it’s one of my current projects I’m cycling through. the next unit on my ‘to do’ list is another block of Knights of the Realm. Will be doing these in the same scheme to give the unit a uniform look – purple and white with an accent colour of perhaps orange or yellow.

The GW models I’ll give to my friend once the project is finished to combine with his force. The Perry foot knights at the centre rear and the Fireforge foot sergeants (centre left rear and centre right rear) I had intended to keep for use in historical forces and swap out for extra support infantry when he was over and we needed more numbers on the tabletop but seeing everything ranked up today made me realise that the Perry’s are too small in scale to incorporate into the Bret army so I’ll find another heavy foot proxy to drop in instead. This also means that the Warlord Landsknechts with Zweihanders that I was hoping to use as proxy Empire Greatswords are going to be a no-go as well. So on a positive note, more historicals 🙂 I’ll have another look at the scale on the Fireforge minis before I make a final call on what to do with those guys.

His army has another 4 or 5 blocks of cavalry plus a tonne of foot and archers (his army can feel a bit Agincourt-y to face, especially if I’m playing squishy elves…) plus trebuchets and flying cavalry, so we pretty much have the main options covered and can go to stupidly large games. Of course as the old saying goes, no WHFB army is ever finished – they just get bigger…

Have gone back to look through a lot of the old WHFB rulebooks, supplements and expansions. Only really scratching the surface to be honest. Plenty of fun ideas for themed armies. And I still haven’t started on the Warhammer fantasy roleplay supplement books, which have a tonne of info on locales etc… If anybody is still messing about with Warhammer Fantasy and hasn’t ever read the General’s Compendium then I would highly recommend tracking a copy down. The build guides for the boats and terrain look a bit dated now but the rest of the optional rules and the campaign system are well worth checking out. Seriously, rules for naval warfare and sacking towns? Awesome 🙂 So now I need ships. See, dangerous tomes… Just like that and the book steals more of your sanity spare time. And going back to the 5th ed rules I even found some nice optional rules for veteran/heroic units, so thinking about how to incorporate something similar there.

Plus there is also the Warhammer Armies Project website – Problem with this one is now I want to use historical minis to do up a force for Estallia, my miscellaneous pirrate minis for a Pirates of Sartosa force and use my Shieldmaidens as the core of a Norse army. Plus maybe another Sigmar themed Empire force for good measure. Or maybe go 30k and do up some armies for the time of the founding of the Empire? Sigh, too many project ideas, not enough spare hands to hold the brushes…

http://warhammerarmiesproject.blogspot.com/

The site really is worth checking out though. Highly professional, and some sensible and thematic rules for each army.

The interweb ate my first update, so here’s the restated abridged version:

1. More progress on the Grand Master of the White Wolf. A little more greenstuffing to go and will then call him done and undercoat the knights.
2. Been 3d printing torsos to combine with bitzbox spares for ‘rank filler’ minis to pad out the spearmen unit. They look bad but will get me above the magic 40 models for the unit.
3. Found more handgunners and parts to kitbash a static mortar emplacement. army is getting shootier than initially intended but thats OK.
4. Considering whether to kitbash or buy proxy Teutogens. Problem for later.
5. Need to find a few proxy hunting dogs/warhounds. I see another search through boxes in my near future…
6. Still need huntsmen – might press gang some of the new handgunners into a more rustic form of service?

A bit more progress today – final greenstuff down on the Grand Master – just need to give it a final rework once it has cured a little more, and put a cloak on my scratchbuilt Teutogen guard test mini (may be press ganged into service in one of the infantry blocks or as Wolf-kin. Also put together a group of 10 huntsmen to accompany Markus Wulfhart as dedicated monster-hunters (although I’m not sure how practical standard bows would prove to be against high toughness monsters, but still, it fits the narrative…).

Army as it presently, or more correctly once I assemble everything, will stand:

• Grand Master Rein Volkhard 165 points
• Markus Wulfhart 140 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, heavy armour 72 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, heavy armour 72 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, heavy armour 72 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, heavy armour 72 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, mounted, heavy armour 84 points
• Warrior Priest of Ulric, mounted, heavy armour 84 points
• 50 Spearmen with shields and full command 330 points
• 10 Handgunners, marksman with long rifle 120 points
• 10 Handgunners, marksman with long rifle 120 points
• 25 Swordsmen with command 205 points
• 25 Halberdiers with command 180 points
• 9 Knights of the White Wolf, command 237 points
• 9 Knights of the White Wolf, command 237 points
• 9 Knights of the White Wolf, Inner circle, command 264 points
• 10 Huntsmen, tracker (Upgraded to Wulfhart’s Hunters) 90 points
• Great cannon 120 points
• Mortar 100 points

So with upgrades sitting somewhere in the 2,800-3,000 point mark.  Thinking I might use some of the Warrior Priest models as Seneschals of the White Wolf (approximate equivalent of a Captain) for a bit of variety. From here, maybe a small unit or 2 of hunting hounds (found some appropriate blister packs in the Frostgrave range) and then maybe the Teutogen guard. I can rope in generic archers and militia from other armies or games systems if I need more archers, huntsmen or some free company detachments for the infantry units (which I probably actually do…). Not sold on the need for a battle wizard (maybe a low level one?) but do think I should add a captain on foot somewhere to represent the overall commander of the Middenheim component of the force.

I started sorting out my High Elves, then got frightened and confused – not looking forward to sorting out the mess that is my chaos themed pile of shame… I’m not really too sure what to do with regard to the High Elves – they are the army that I always wanted to play and I have been working on my force since 5th edition (and before anyone asks, no of course I haven’t finished yet 😛 ). I was taken with the idea of doing a separate themed force for the Everqueen, but I might be better just pushing on with getting everything else painted in the main forces scheme rather than doing different paint schemes for each of the smaller provinces. I guess with the Everqueen I could just go with a different scheme and explain it as her personal retinue when I fielded. Anyhow, getting off topic… In the Storm of Chaos book there was a list for a High elf Sea Patrol list. I originally thought it was a bit dull but the idea is growing on me. So given the chance to do a few naval vessels as well, and maybe later incorporate a deepkin caster model, I figured I’d give it a go. Happy for a different paint scheme here as they would be a different military branch form the standard elf army. So will be using my shadow warrior minis, any remaining sea guard I can get my hands on, and kitbashing some elven marines. Progress so far (Ok, just assembly…)

The merwyrm proxy is a reaper Bones dragon – don’t remember which one off the top of my head. Kind of wish i’d picked up the Dagon mini now as that would have been perfect for this project 🙂

So from here I’ll need a Sea Lord to lead, a Mistweaver, possibly an accompanying regular mage, bolt throwers, and a second unit of Seaguard and/or some kitbashed marines. Might proxy up a Sea Helm and re-jig the Storm of Chaos list (which was a 6th edition supplement if I recall…) to include provisions for a Sea Helm. I’ll need to update the lit to 8th ed regardless so shouldn’t be too much of an imposition.

Also got the first basecoat/primer down on my Middenheim knights before it got too hot. have primed in AP Plate mail – plan is to shade with red inks to get a nice metallic red plate armour and then paint around that.