There's Forty Schillings On The Drum, A Nordland Empire Log

The Empire is a large and diverse nation, home not only to men but to Dwarfs, Halflings, Ogres and more. Though many great rivers run through the Empire the only coastline is to be found in the Grand Barony of Nordland. It is here, in Nordland, that the brave men of the northern Empire fight daily to keep their nation free from marine invaders.

Ostensibly one of the Empire's poorer provinces the fortunes of Nordland are not quite as they seem. The Coastal Road running to Marienburg brings much gold into Nordland by way of wary merchants not willing to brave the Drakwald. Countless tollbooths straddle this thoroughfare and each toll-keeper will have his due. Hundreds of Imperial Crowns are collected each day along the Coastal Road, though precious few of them seem to make it to the Imperial tax collectors.

It is this money that keeps Nordland, and thus the Empire, safe. With it Count Gausser maintains the large state army of Nordland as well as employing numerous mercenaries, acquiring the latest technology from the Imperial School of Engineers and keeping up his dues with the Colleges of Magic. As the Nordlanders often fight those tainted by Chaos the Church of Sigmar is only too happy to lend its aid to the troops of Nordland.

Once more I am taking part in a play by post Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game and once again it has ignited my passion for Warhammer. Like the last time we started playing WFRP I have been inspired to start an Empire army. However, unlike last time, I have managed to get a cracking deal on eBay for a decent sized army, mostly still on the sprues, comprising of the lovely 6th Ed. minis.

I spent this afternoon cleaning up some assembled Handgunners as well as some Pirazzo's Lost Legion, which I intend on using as crossbowmen. I've had the Legionnaries since I first started in this hobby over a decade ago, and so the little paint that is on them was applied with gumption and good intentions but no skill. My skill hasn't improved much since then, so this army will primarily be getting dipped. Not dunked, but washed with Army Painter's Strong Tone. This will allow me to have a nice looking army that I can play with, as playing with unpainted minis is unconscionable.

Fernando Pirazzo had once thought he would never live to see his beloved Tilea again. He had signed up on an expedition to Lustria with some merchants from Tobaro. It was here that he and his Legionnaire's quickly learned to fight with a mixture of crossbows and pikes, the surest defence against the vicious denizens of that benighted continent. Now in the employ of Count Gausser the Lost Legion has discarded their pikes in favour of being exclusively armed with crossbows, reasoning that they are better suited to naval warfare. Once more Fernando wonders if he will ever return home to Tilea.

Now I'm sure a lot of people only post fluff with their models once they're fully painted, but as I only started working on them today that's not possible. That, and I have an overactive imagination and love writing these little snippets even if they don't get read. I know I'm guilty of just flicking through logs for pictures at times. I'm afraid the pictures aren't the best as it was taken with my HTC Desire, which takes lovely distance shots but doesn't have a macro function for closer up work. I do however have a proper camera, it is just in need of batteries currently.



These look rather shiny as they had just been washed to remove any grease and much that they've accumulated over the last decade. It was quite a bit, let me tell you! The plan with these is to paint them in a scheme similar to the one shown on the GW website, but using blue and yellow as spot colours on sashes and feathers etc. In the army they will simply be fielded as Crossbowmen, though whether they will have the Full Command or not is currently up in the air. They will be getting a banner made for them, but I'm not sure what is going on there yet.

Handgunners form an important part of the army of Nordland, the damage they can do to invaders and their ships in invaluable. Whilst not as powerful as some of the larger contraptions from the Imperial College of Engineers the handgun does a mighty service to the safety and security of Nordland.



Again, not the best picture I'm afraid, but it gets the idea across. I'm a big fan of these 6th Ed. plastics, they're just more my cup of tea than the newer State Troop plastics. That isn't to say that the new plastics won't be integrated at some point, but for I'm going to try to stick to 6th Ed. as far as possible.

Now, just for funzies, is a comparison shot between a Lost Legionnaire and a Handgunner. There must be something in the water in Nordland as the Hadgunner is a good bit bigger than the Tilean, either that or Tileans are just midgets.



Below is the list of all the models I have currently to build and paint, colour coded to show status.

Red - Unbuilt
Blue - Built
Orange - Painting in Progress
Green - Complete

Warrior Priests of Sigmar - w. Great Weapon
Grey Wizard
Amber Wizard
Jade Wizard
Engineer
10 Handgunners
Captain on Foot
20 Swordsmen
Templar Grand Master
Warrior Priest of Sigmar - w. Two Hand Weapons
20 Spearmen
20 Handgunners
20 Free Company
2 Cannon/Mortar
6 Pistoliers
8 Knights

Gah! You evil git! Teasing us with fluff and brief glimpses of miniatures!

Still, its nice to see some people using the old Dogs of War minis. But give us more!

Good luck mate, looking forward to seeing more of this army.

Those crossbowmen are my favorite Unit! I wish they had done more with those helmets, even though I found a company that makes them in resin so I may have some more units with them soon!

I decided to FINISH everything for my empire army this year. Some have been laying in boxes for aeons. Well, I still have some of the first plastics ever put out waiting on the sprue!

Good luck maybe we can race?

Lovely Tilean troops. I have them also in my "never-to-be-finished" Empire army... Eldorado themed, of course.

Can't wait your progress on them, hopefully it will much faster than mine. Actually should post an update, got recently some pikemen for them.

And bit more off-topic, praetorian13, could you provide a link to those resin helmets? Or do you peharps mean the Micro Art Studio's products?

Cheers,

LvK

Thanks for the comments and encouragement guys, its always nice to know that there's someone out there watching your work.

I ordered some Army Painter Demon Yellow spray from Maelstrom on Sunday so that should be arriving soon. Thinking of spraying with that, doing the blue in Cygnar Blue Highlight (Formula P3), details and wash. This is, however, based on the assumption that it will ever stop raining here in Aberdeen.

I have more Dogs of War models that I can show you Anarnaxe, I have Mydas the Mean with Sheikh Yadosh as well as the coveted Birdmen of Catrazza. I'm somewhat recalcitrant to strip and repaint these though as they were the very first models I got when I started out and painted them with my Grandpa.

I agree praetorian13, these are some of the coolest helmets GW make. Depending on how they work out in game I may well buy another unit of them or perhaps just bulk this one out. Only problem I have is the banner in this unit looks a bit dodgy as the line I drilled isn't the best, but its not noticeable from a distance. A race sounds good, I'm committed to a 'Tale of' style thing on the WFRP forum I'm playing on so I can happily collate the two. Currently aiming to paint a unit of 20 Swordsmen this month.

Thanks Lucius, I'll have to go have a look for your Empire. Are they up on here too? I'm not too sure my progress will be all that hot, I have the attention span of a hyperactive puppy most of the time. Took me a good hour to write that first post in here.

So, the plan for this week is to prime the Swordsmen and start on the blue. They will look rather shoogly as the last time I painted seriously was when I worked for GW nearly four years ago now. Shoogly as they'll be though I need to get back into painted and hopefully the dipping should cover up some of my sins.

Here's link to my Project "el Dorado"

Heh, having the attention span of hyperactive sounds way too familiar... I'm always starting projects that just delay other projects Of course, none get ever ready!

Lucky you if it's only raining over there, here it's -20C so I won't be basecoating my minis quite soon unless with brush.

So the Tileans will have the same colours as the Nordlanders? Or are they more "show-off" with their colours?

Darn, now I hope there would be more hours in a day so I could still base my pikemen!

-20? We had that before Christmas here, so glad we've had a milder Winter since Christmas.

I can't quite make my mind up on the Tileans. On one hand I would like to do them in the Nordland colours, but on the other I'd like to do them in a scheme similar to their own one but using yellow and blue as spot colours to tie them into the force. I suppose it'd be more realistic having them in green with Nordland colours on sashes etc. Easy to imagine them not being issued anything other than a token of the uniform to identify them in battle.

I based these guys, along with the Swordsmen and characters on foot tonight. Now I have a dilemma and as I'm getting the most feedback here I'll ask for advice here.

In the deal I got off eBay there were 20 assembled Swordsmen along with 20 unassembled old Soldiers of the Empire, which can be assembled as Swordsmen or Halberdiers as well as 20 Spearmen from the old Warhammer boxed game. There are no shields for the assmbled Swordsmen, and no shields for the unassmbled ones either. There are shields for the Spearmen. Now, do I assemble the extra Soldiers as more Swordsmen and have myself a Horde of Swordsmen, and have 20 Spearmen. Have 40 Swords and 20 converted Halberds or do I have 20 Swordsmen, 20 Spearmen and 20 Halberdiers and order enough shields to finish things off?

How are the said minis lookswise? The 20 spearmen differ from the rest 40?

Those all are core troops, IIRC, so that offers you nice starting blocks for three units. Depends of course also how you plan to play the game, what does your fluff say (are your Nordlanders more sword wielding bunch than halberd wielding state troops etc).

Somehow the horde of spearmen appeal to me but then again I'm biased as I hope to have two hordes of pikemen myself.

The Nordland green sashes on Tileans sounds very good plan, ties them with the rest of the army and gives the Tileans the feel of specialised unit.

LvK

I suppose as Mariners they are less likely to be running around with great unwieldy Halberds, swords and boards make more sense for ship to ship combat.

The Spearmen are the ones with the lion shields from the old 6th Ed. boxed set, been suggested on Warhammer Empire that I sell them and get more Swordsmen, run a Horde of them with some ranged detachments.

I think I have some of those Spearmen and also Handgunners in my bits boxes. Happy to give them away if you want them to bolster your ranks?

Horde of swordsmen sounds like a plan, especially if they are protected with ranged detachments as suggested. That's the role I was planning for my arquebusiers as well.

LvK

edit: found only seven Handgunners (6th ed). Happy to send them over if you need them.

I think thematically the SwordHorde with Handgunner detachments works well for a force that often fights at sea as well as on land. Ooh! I need to have a unit armed with tridents! Yes! They can be used as either spears or halberds too I reckon.

More Handgunners is always good, I'll send you a PM Lucius.

Military forks / tridents are very fitting

Besides tridents you could give them... now whatchamacallits... sort of like bill-hooks / glaive-guisarmes? Polearms that could be used by your Nordlanders to both hack the opponents and pull small boats next to their own so that others can board the said vessel?

LvK

Billhooks are an awesome idea, I think I may need to ransack the Dark Elf Corsair sprues for hooks on chains and other such nautical nonsense.

I had put the Spearmen up for sale on Warhammer Empire but I may rescind that and convert them into bill wielders, most likely using the Bretonnian Men at Arms sprues.

They'll not get built until after I've painted everything else then, especially if I need to buy more boxes to build them up.

And after the minis are ready, next step is to make a ship or two for them, right?

LvK

Nah I'm not going to bother with ships for them.








Landships on the other hand...

Landships you say? So something that substitutes Steam tank or maybe Empire war altar?

How many points are you aiming at? Just curious to know as I haven't played the game for ages... is 2000pts still the common thing to go for?

Oh, and any progress with painting your swordsmen?

LvK

I might make one of each. It all depends on whether Forgeworld release the Marienburg Landship seen at GDUK last year or not. If they do I'll buy one and use their rules for it, if they don't I'll build my own and run it as a Steam Tank/War Altar. Plan is to use two Warhammer Watchtowers to represent the forecastle and aftcastle on the ship, basing it off a medieval ship, and use a toy ship to fill in between.

The collection I've got is currently around 2,500 if you count the characters without any extra gear. I'd like to have 2,000 without characters, should give me lots to play about with.

Nothing on the Swordsmen yet, its not stopped raining at all this week, hopefully I'll get them primed this weekend then I can start work on them. I have the painting bug currently, something that doesn't often happen, plus I need to get them painted by the end of the month for my Tale of on my WFRP forum.

Double post, but there's been a day since the last one so I reckon its allowable.


After seeing Lucius von Kalteisen's 'Project El Dorado' I decided I wanted some of that Ogre goodness and so went and faffed around on eBay. I didn't get Golfag and co. like LvK, but I did get Golgfag and co. There is a difference. One unit has an extra 'g' in it, and is about 15 years younger I'd reckon.

Anyway, picture.



Now, that’s Golgfag, Skaff and three of their closest drinking buddies. I’ve also got a sixth Ogre, meaning I can run them in two ranks, but he’s not in this picture. What I need to decide with these guys is whether I am running them as Golgfag’s Mercenary Ogres to get access to a slightly better sergeant type model, or as Bulls from the Ogre Kingdoms book to get access to Bull Charge. Any ideas?

Oh, good stuff! Well if you ask me, of course mercenary ogres but then I might be biased a bit. But honestly, gamewise, I can't say a thing or two since I have never played Ogres from OK book nor against them.

Gotta start basing my Ogres now

LvK

I honestly can't make my mind up.

Using them as Golgfag's Ogres gives me a hidden Hero basically - Golgfag's stats are that good. However their rules are so out of date I don't know if they'd really gel in my Empire army.

Using them as Bulls I get access to the Bull Charge for Impact Hits and nobody can say they're not Monstrous Infantry and deny them their Stomp hits either.

Its looking like Bulls to me.

Or...or, this might be a little crazy, but hear me out... Most famous Ogres in the Old World... Travel about, made their mark as mercenaries and are the epitome of Ogrekind.

They're perfect for Maneaters!

Ooh, I'd not even thought about that. S'tempting is that, they have better stats after all. They'll also be a bigger points sink too.

They may well find themselves painted up in a way that allows me to field them as a coherent unit at times, as well as unit fillers from time to time too.

Maneaters? Does ring the bell somehow but not completely :/ Gol(g)fags Ogres do take up points quite nicely at least.

Maneaters are Ogre mencenaries who have travelled the world for years, earning a living fighting various armies. When they return to the Ogre Kingdoms they have a wealth of experience, scars and stories about the different races they've met, what they tasted like and if they gave them indigestion.

I don't have the army book with me, but if I can remember correctly, they had access to a lot of weapons and gear that weren't available to "ordinary" Ogres, and unlike the rest of the army list they could be fielded as one Ogre units.

Those sure do sound like a nasty bunch! Pointswise (not asking exact points) a huge difference with good old Golfags? And are they a lot more efficient as well? Just trying to hone the possible list choices.

Cheers,

LvK