Lion Rampant Retinue (17)

Next six sergeants done.

So that just leaves the six Men At Arms to paint up and then I have a finished force.
Bar the basing.
Thanks to Steve I have a precious pot of Bestial Brown, so I can base as planned (Bestial, Bubonic, Bleached - an old 'eavy Metal favourite). I am considering getting some tufts for these boys. Any suggestions on the best (non ebay) suppliers of static grass tufts?

First Game of Lion Rampant

In the hiatus before the start of our Warhammer campaign Steve and I convened for a game of Lion Rampant.
As my retinue is still not finished Steve provided all the models and terrain in the North Notts Palais des Jeux. I bought some beer.
Steve has an extensive collection of medievals with a distinctly WotR flavour as he's spent over fifteen years collecting WotR models without ever finding some appropriate rules. So although many of the models had seen previous service in Bretonnian, Empire or even Norman armies, this would be their first proper outing in a broadly historical context.
We used some scenery pieces to cover up most of the skull pits on the GW board and give us a vaguely historical looking battlefield.
Steve had prepared two retinues that covered most of the troop types.
We diced to see who had what and I got the retinue containing three archers (one Elite), a unit of sergeants and a unit of mounted Men at Arms. Steve's had two units of archers, two of sergeants (one elite) and a unit of foot men at arms.
We went with the basic bloodbath scenario and as the attacker I got the first turn.

 Steve's retinue

 My archers

The flower of chivalry

I started by pushing my mounted men at arms forward, then my spears. Then my leadership deserted me and it was the end of my turn.
Fortunately Steve failed his first activation and it was my turn again.
Oh how we laughed.

Eventually I got my left flank archers advancing and Steve pushed his men at arms and billmen forward to meet them.
My spearmen became entangled in a wood and the knights decided to take time off from doing any moving for a while.

 Unleash the arrow storm!

 Let's just sit a while

Steady sergeants

Suddenly the enemy were bearing down on my left flank and a combination of failed tests and poor shooting put me in quite some danger.

 Here they come

 Closer...

Crikey!

Fortunately the elite archers were able to take some toll on the billmen, and despite falling back were whittling them down with bow fire.
Meanwhile the foot men at arms carved a hole through one of the other bowman units.

Over on the right the enemy sergeants formed  a schiltron and engaged in a face-off with my knights.

Hedgehog of doom!

I was fast losing men in the centre, but fortunately the elite archers pushed the billmen back and the men at arms switched their attentions from the much reduced unit of archers to the remaining intact unit.
Desperately I redeployed the spearmen to sure up my crumbling flank.

Finally the knights put spur to horse and charged home, breaking the schiltron. This fight ground on for a couple of rounds before the knights were able to throw back the spearmen and charge the much less dangerous archers.

 Crump!

Help us!

Mmmm. Squishy

The elite archers finally dispatched the billmen unit and the arrival of the spearmen saw the men at arms begin to run out of steam (and bodies).

There's only two of 'em!

On the right flank the knights were forced once more to fight the sergeants, but despite being reduced to only three themselves, it was the sergeants who failed their courage test and routed.

 The sergeants close in on the bowmen

Lurking in the forest

Ride them down!

A flurry of arrows felled the final men at arms, and although the remains of Steve's force passed their courage tests, the game was up and I emerged triumphant!

This was a fun and quick game.
We got the hang of the rules pretty quickly and despite a few early order failures were soon into the action.
The combat and morale rules are simplicity itself, but the C&C uncertainty of the activation role means the game remeains nicely balanced and exciting with failures at crucial moments allowing the tide to turn.

Looking forward to trying out some of the other scenarios and maybe the campaign as well.

Lion Rampant Retinue (16)

Despite my mounting excitement for my Empire army I remain quite enamoured of my Lion Rampant retinue.
So instead of spending the evening glueing old Citadel plastics together I instead spent my time slapping some basecoats on the remaining six Claymore Castings billmen.

Hoping to get some time over lunch to do the leather bits (and the bill blade I've missed) so that they're pretty much ready for some washes.

Warhammer Campaign Empire Army (2)

Reader I have ventured to the very farthest reaches of the cold and desolate realm know as Miloft.
And I have returned with treasures undreamed of by mortal man.
Or, a load of slightly ropy old plastic and metal.

Here's the haul in all it's shabby glory (and a very old Citadel Mail Order box)

Oooh, precious things from The Loft!

But what are the individual bits?

A bearded man on a horse with a floppy hat and MASSIVE hammer.

An Empire general. Made from bits from the sixth edition starter set several years ago, and given a big hammer to fit my (then) Middenheim obsession.

A mortar. The barrel isn't attached as I think I was planing on being able to switch it with the cannon barrel for some double use however....

This old metal great cannon that I found assembled means that won't be necessary.

Eight more mates reside in the box

Handgunners I found 20 of, all assembled and stuck to bases. But I stuck to my plan and only bought twelve down to the light.

On the sprue front I located four pairs of knightly legs, horses, lances and the like. But with only three torsos. However as I only need two at this stage that's no matter.

Seven spearmen and three command were also retrieved, so I can build the spearmen up to thirty.

 Four more are on another sprue

I also located the box of old, old plastic wizards.
However disaster struck as the Amethyst wizard was not amongst them. Clearly at some point in the past I'd snipped him out with a view to painting him up, but alas and alack he's now lost!
Intriguingly however I had two of the plastic Bright Wizard. One of which was still in the plastic bag he arrived in sellotaped the the front of White Dwarf around half a lifetime ago! So that's the one I'll be painting.

Finally free from his zip-lock prison!

So tonight will see some snipping and glueing and preparation, and later this week I'll get a-spaying!

I also had a look through the rest of my Empire stash - and it's pretty substantial. More of that in future posts I think....

Warhammer Campaign Empire Army

Stevo has decreed that we'll be playing a campaign in the first few months of 2015.
Initially I was tempted by the dark powers of Chaos, especially with End Times allowing me to combine my Daemons with some mortal warriors.
However on the drive home from the North Notts Gaming Hut I remembered my extensive supply of Empire models and sprues and decided that perhaps it was at last time for me to tackle an Empire army.
I already have a bit of a start with the models I painted for the Sigmar's Blood campaign we played last year. So that gives me eight knights and 20 militia.
I also painted 20 spearmen last year on a sojourn in sunny Swindon.

The "army" so far. Apologies for the slightly shonky shot.

So with that as a start what else do I want in my army?
I've always wanted to do a "polyglot" Empire army with troops present from the various different provinces. I know the single province theme has become the dominant way of showing Empire armies in recent years, but I hark back to the days of the first Empire book when armies were always formed from a mix of provinces - Reiklanders alongside Nordlanders and Averlanders standing shoulder to shoulder with Middenheimers. So that's the type of army I'll be aiming for. Hopefully some consistent basing will tie it all together and stop it looking too garish.

The first 1000 points.

The spearmen unit needs expanding. Eventually I'd like a horde of 40-50, but I think for my initial army 30 will be about right - so I need another ten of those, including command.
The eight knights is a silly number, so two more of those will also be needed.
The militia will be just fine at 20 models.
I need a general. I think I assembled a plastic one on horseback several years ago, so he'll be in if I can find him.
I want a wizard. I have the old, old box of single pose plastic wizards somewhere, so if I can find them I'll do one of those. I've always wanted an Amethyst wizard after a pivotal role one played in a very early WD batle report, so hopefully I can locate that model.
So a large-ish unit of infantry, a smaller supporting unit and a unit of cavalry along with a couple of characters
I think I'll need some firepower. Fortunately I have many of the single piece handgunner models that were in the 6th edition starter set along with the spearmen, so a unit of 10-12 of those will make a good start. Probably in Hochland colours, so that when I add the inevitable long-rifle it feels right at home.
And finally, it wouldn't be an empire army without a warmachine or two. I suspect I can only squeeze one in at a thousand points so the question is, which one? As the other two armies in the campaign are puny T3 Bretonnians and Elves I'm tempted by a mortar, but then again a cannon will plough a nice straight line through those units of knights. If I paint both up and do a single set of crew I can maybe experiment with both, and add the second one in next month!.
That will probably take me up to the 1025 points I'm allowed at first, so seems a good force to aim for.

Future plans

Many years ago I painted up a small unit of Averland greatswords in lovely yellow and black. I sold them to my then boss for his Empire army, but I'd like to recreate that unit for this army too, so 20 or so yellow and black greatswords should do it.
I have an assembled Steam Tank, so I'd like to paint that at some point.
Taking the spearmen up to horde size would be marvelous.
I've got a small unit of the old metal Flagellants half painted somewhere, so I could finish them off
I've always wanted to do a Middenheim unit of Swordsmen but armed with hammers.
I also have rather a lot of Kislevites hanging around that would make a great allied force.
I hate pistoliers when they're used against me, so I need some of them.
More wizards, warrior priests, more knights, crossbowmen, halflings....

All of this, of course runs counter to my rant about just painting what you like. So don't expect me to stick to this plan.
:)

Meanwhile Stevo has raced ahead and posted some background for his army. Best get my thinking cap (and cape of double entendres) on and sort out something similar for my force.

Lion Rampant Retinue (15)

Managed to get the highlighting and details finished off on these, so these just need basing (I'm going to do the whole retinue at once) and they're finished.

So that's 30 models (24 archers and 6 sergeants) done, with just 12 more (6 more sergeants and 6 men at arms) to go.

Lion Rampant Retinue (14)

I finally got a little time to spend on my Claymore Castings sergeants with bills.
They are lovely models, but after the simplicity of the Perry Bretonnian archers I'm afraid I found them a little fiddly and I'm not sure my painting skills will really do them justice. That's not a criticism of the models in any way, they're lovely I just think as I get older my ability to paint detail is fast disappearing!
Anyway, here's the first six with basecoats and washes applied. I'm pretty happy with them so far.
Hopefully I'll get the highlights done tomorrow and then be able to start the next six.