Warhammer 3rd Edition - Empire Army

I'm undertaking a fairly large project at the moment: painting my first Warhammer army. Yes, I have posted a small solo game with Empire facing Skaven before, but since then I have convinced a buddy that Warhammer 3rd Edition is where the action is and we are both preparing for our first game. It has also reminded me that it has been many, many years since I have played a game where each player provided their own army. Most of the time one person has supplied both sides or the games have just been small skirmishes or DBA. In fact the last time I had my own army playing against someone else's was playing Man O'War in my teens. Craziness!

So I am pretty psyched about this upcoming game. The date is still to be determined, mainly as I need to paint my army and buy some wooden boards for a 'proper' 6x4 table. It's pretty cool to feel excited in this way about the hobby again, it definitely has the feeling of recapturing something of my youth.

Skaven were my first choice of army, but the amount of painting for a 2000 point army was a bit daunting, so I decided to expand my Empire force, my other favourite army. Here is the work I am facing:

• General and 9 Temple Knights
• Champion and 14 Halberdiers
• Champion and 14 Halberdiers
• 14 City Knights
• 10 Handgunners (including champion, musician, banner)
• 10 Handgunners
• 10 Crossbows
• 12 Crossbows
• 9 Foresters
• 2 Cannon

That little lot comes to 1997 points. It actually looks a lot less typed up than it does in my notepad and it certainly looks a lot less in any written form than it does in physical form waiting to be painted!

I've decided to post progress on my blog as a form of motivation and you can look forward to hopefully regular updates. So far I have nothing on that list completed, although I am only 4 halberdiers away from completing one unit! I have a cannon done too. Hurrah!

So, I want to really work hard and get this done. I have an army of elves to beat!

Battle At the Hamlet

I have finally had a chance to play my first game of Warhammer 3rd Edition. The resulting battle report has been written up sing Comic Life, my first attempt at using this software properly. I hope you enjoy the results! (Note: I do find the default display of pictures in Blogger to be not so good for these style of reports. If anyone knows of a way to change the display setting, please let me know!)

[Edit: I have now resized some of the text boxes and corrected a couple of typos. Hopefully it will be easier to read.]

Small Armies

Well, it appears my new painting routine is finally proving to be a good idea. I have actually managed to paint two small armies (i.e. 300-400 points and definitely not 'legal' under the rules) for Warhammer 3rd Edition. Hurrah!

First up, the retinue of Baron Gustav. He rules over a small and somewhat embarrassing barony, even his three knights are on loan from a relative. But still, he is prepared to defend his property to the death, which may well occur this Saturday...

All of these figures are actually plastics from the old Battle Masters game by MB Games. The only exception is Baron Gustav, who is the Imperial Noble hero figure from Warhammer Quest.

So far Gustav has seen little threat to his domain. After all, it isn't really worth fighting over. But that is all about to change...

Skreelulz, the runt of his litter, has got a rather large chip on his shoulder and a sack load of the Skaven equivalent of teenage angst. Mocked all his life for his small size and poor constitution, he has finally had enough. Fortunately for him, he is not altogether unintelligent and can command some respect from those who are not related to him. As such, he has built up a small force and intends to use it to prove himself. One night, he sneaks into the clan armoury and steals some armour and a hefty looking weapon (which he can just about lift). Thus equipped, Skreelulz leads his army towards a foe he believes will not prove too much to handle, and whose death will not bring the might of the Empire down on his head...

The giant rats and Skaven Clanrats are plastics from the Warhammer Quest game. The rest are older GW figures, most of which I have had for years but not got round to painting until now...

I hope to play a battle on Saturday and then get back to the grindstone, adding to each force for a followup game.

Incidentally, I should give some credit to Gaj, whose blog has really inspired me to get stuck in to the whole old school Warhammer thing. You can check it out here.

Evidence!

So, dear readers, you may recall that I suggested in a previous post that I was going to focus on the figures I have and not buy any more. Well, I am still living up to that promise! And what's more I am being somewhat more productive and motivated than normal. Here's a picture to prove it:

On the left you can see my 'production line'. Raw figures go in at the front in groups of three and by the time they emerge they are fully painted! It's amazing! Currently it is mostly occupied by Empire troops as I have come on quite well with my Skaven, which you can see to the right.

As with all painting, it is a long and arduous process for me, but I thought it might motivate me further to show you where I am at with things. The Skaven in the middle are waiting to be glossed and have their bases flocked. Then they will be done! The six Empire soldiers at the end of the production line are waiting arrival of a fresh green paint so I can finish their bases.

Given I only started this process a week or two ago and don't have a lot of free time at the moment, I'm pretty pleased with how things are going. I hope to be able to report on my first Warhammer 3rd Edition skirmish soon.