To Ostland!

[Astraeos]

Sigh, I'm at it again.

Even though this past year I have been assembling a Skaven army (1000-ish points, unpainted before you ask), recently the Empire seems to be getting my attention.
I tried to stick to my Skaven, after all it's the army I've wanted since I first began but always got sidetracked by other things. However I just couldn't help but seek out Empire plogs here on Warseer, It was just to whet my appetite while I work away on Skrut's Verminhost initially, but....

There's some good stuff here, Dark Apostle, Lord Dan, Boreas_NL, The Yak (to name a few) and others have been producing some amazing logs here with some truly fantastic stuff popping up.
And now I hope to add my name to that list! I've finally succumbed to the lure so here we go!

After looking at the colour section of the Empire book I decided to go for Ostland. I liked the description of their troops being amongst the toughest and most stubborn you could find in the Empire, and their colour scheme looks easy enough to work with.

I did some further research and found that there's a large number of Ogres in Ostland, huntsmen are often called from there and apparently they like firepower. There's also talk of inbreeding and a common joke is that an Ostlander is usually his own Uncle!
It's also nestled amongst the Forest of Shadows and right next to the Middle mountains. They've also had trouble with that Doom Lord Necromancer, Dieter somebody-or-other.
Kislev is nearby too, which could be another avenue to explore and I've always liked the Ice Queen of Kislev, maybe I could dig out that Kislev booklet and use her in some friendly games?

But enough blabber, so far I only have one picture to show but hopefully I'll get to go into town tomorrow so I may have a bit more to show later.
Also my birthday's this Thursday (and for some reason I started my Space Wolves plog near my birthday, weird) so there may be some gold going into Ostland's coffers!
Here's the one picture I have so far, a Battle Wizard and a Warrior Priestess-




I don't plan for this army to get too big really, after all I have those Skaven waiting for me!

Also if anyone has any other background info on Ostland I'd love to hear it!

One question before I go, what language are the names from the Empire usually derived from? Isn't it German (or an older version of it)?

[Caelas]

Just finishing up an Ostland pike unit for my own Empire army, and my advice would be to watch the contrast of black and white, I found that the white can be quite overwhelming. If the white looks too bright for your taste, give it a glaze of codex or fortress grey. Good luck, look forward to seeing your progress!

[Astraeos]

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep that in mind! I was thinking of using Dheneb stone for the white.

[Lord Dan]

Dheneb stone is an excellent idea. I use that for all of the tan/grey colors in my army, and I think it looks great. So is that going to be a fire wizard, or a metal wizard?

To Ostland!

[Astraeos]

Your Lordship!

Thanks for the advice on Dheneb stone. The wizard is going to be a Fire Wizard, he doesn't have a name yet but there is some nuggets of backstory lined up for him!

In his early childhood his home was set alight, either by design or accident he does not remember. The flames burned his face severely and many could not bare to look upon him due to his disfigurements.

Such a calamity would cause many to cry in despair and take their lives, but the child instead learnt to respect fire. As he got older he began to admire the flames, after all they were capable of so much! They cook food, provide heat and can destroy or create (when used in a forge, or glass blowing I suppose) and his admiration soon became obsession.
As soon as he was of age, the youth left Ostland and travelled to Altdorf and successfully enrolled in the Bright College of Magic.

Years of hard study passed and eventually the youth became a young man. He eventually left Altdorf as a very capable Fire Wizard and returned to Ostland where he joined the Elector Count's armies.
He hides his horribly burnt face with a mask.

That's just his backstory in the rough!

[Lord Dan]

The Pyromancer of the Opera. I love it.

I'm looking forward to more!

[Astraeos]

Glad you like it Lord Dan!

Recruitment update, I've bought a box of State Troops and some Archers so once I'm done with my lunch (cheese and crackers if you must know) It'll be inspection and drills for them!
Well, clipping, cleaning and glueing to you and me!

And if I receive some money, I may buy a bit more on my Birthday! I'm also eyeing up the Kislev Ranger and Duellists blisters to use as champions for my Huntsmen, Swordsmen and Handgunners. Along with the Priestess that'll be my first 500 points. Ok it's 33 points shy of 500, but it seems to be enough to start with.

What language do Games Workshop use for the Empire? Is it some sort of Historical German?

[Boreas_NL]

To Ostland!

Nice to see you starting a log here, definatly something I'm going to keep an eye on. Cool to see Bertha incorporated into an Empire army. It's such a nice model, a shame it's so rare.

GW used Reikspiel for The Empire. It's basically English with some German and Dutch influences (I reckon)... Which is cool, because I'm Dutch, too... In Marienburg there are a lot of placed which bear Dutch names (which makes sense, as it's loosely based on Amsterdam).

Looking forward to the next update!

For The Empire!

[Astraeos]

Hey, glad you could make it Boreas!

Yeah, she is a lovely model and was a real pain to get hold of. I had to enter three eBay auctions just to track her down, one of which was for a full warband featuring her and that bid went for somewhere over 50 pounds I think.

I had to get mine of Canadian eBay, waited a month to get her and had to pay £10 to receive it!

Reikspiel you say? I'll have a look into that later and maybe those two up there will have names soon!

Edit- I found a name for my Priestess, she'll be called Hildegarde. No surname yet though!

[DeathCat147]

Looking forward to seeing more Astraeos .

[Astraeos]

That's good to hear DeathCat147!

Wow, less than 24 hours and this log has already gained some good attention! I'd better get on with it!

[Superdan21]

Huzzah, another empire plog

Liking the idea of a themed army always fun, where is that female warrior priest model from, i'd guess it was a sister of sigmar from mordheim but i can't see that specific model? My army makes use of a lot of warrior priests would like to find one for myself

with regards to background I couldn't find a huge amount that you havn't found out already other than (according to uniforms and heraldry book) They favour stripes checks and diamonds and the primary symbol for the state is the bull "stubborn and dependable, like the people of ostland themselves"

they also have a famous handgunner regiment called the Fireloques of Ferlangen who apparently decorate themselves with bones, with regards to languages Boreas is pretty much spot on I'd imagine judging by some of the colours and names of empire things you could argue possibilty of eastern european influences too

[Astraeos]

Wow, there's such a sense of camaraderie and pride amongst you (us) Empire players!

You are indeed right, she is a Sister of Sigmar. But not just any old one, she's a special character called Bertha Bestraufrung. If you find one on eBay, be prepared to fight bitterly for it, she's quite popular.

Checks and diamonds, they're going to be tricky.

[Boreas_NL]

We happy few, we band of brothers (that's us, the Empire players), should stick together It's always good to check out the other Empire plogs and the addition of another promising thread is always nice! Expect a lot of traffic here...

Hey, glad you could make it Boreas!

Yeah, she is a lovely model and was a real pain to get hold of. I had to enter three eBay auctions just to track her down, one of which was for a full warband featuring her and that bid went for somewhere over 50 pounds I think.

I had to get mine of Canadian eBay, waited a month to get her and had to pay £10 to receive it!

Reikspiel you say? I'll have a look into that later and maybe those two up there will have names soon!

Edit- I found a name for my Priestess, she'll be called Hildegarde. No surname yet though!

That might have been me... I searched far and wide for enough Sisters for this:

A horde of Sisters, including an Augur and Bertha... Awesome models! I managed to find two large sets, enough for this big unit!

Looking forward to more updates!

[Astraeos]

Lol, may have been! That one set I tried to bid on also had the Augur besides Ms Bestraufrung!

It's annoying GW took the Augur off the site too, it wouldn't be so bad but the Mordheim rulebook says the Augur has a specific look!

The sisters regiment looks great, what are you using them as? Flagellants maybe?

So far I have assembled three Swordsmen! When I have a test model done I'll see to painting the rest. Now I'm off to put together some more.

[Gargobot]

First off: Happy birthday! Sent you a PM.

Yup, some of the Sisters are hard to come by these days. There's a couple of Mordheim releases that are even harder to come by though. One of these would be the Ostlander warband, which could make a fine addition to an Ostland army.

I'm looking forward to those swordsmen.

[Astraeos]

Thanks Gargobot!

That Ostlander warband looks very nice, It'd be great to get some at a price that isn't ridiculous. That guy with the two handed sword would make a fine unit champion for some Greatswords.

I now have 5 Swordsmen assembled, they're just awaiting basing and an undercoat.
My Nan also filled Ostland's Coffers with 30 gold coins, so soon I may be going on a recruitment drive!

[Sully]

Wow, forty metal models in one place, that unit must be heavy! Reminds me of my Blood Knights, if I was to throw them at someone it'd probably result in injuries.

Still, I see an excellent idea here. Are you, by any chance, planning an all-metal army, like in the old days?

[Astraeos]

That's Boreas' regiment, not mine! I'm planning to make full use of the plastic range as I love working with that material.
A retro all metal army would be quite prohibitively expensive, not to mention time consuming as I'll have to track everything down through eBay.

[Astraeos]

Okay! I have built the first ten Swordsmen, there's nothing too special so far but I did find three Mordheim mercenary (nowadays Free Company) heads to do a l'il bit of kit bashing.

While cleaning these guys up I noticed how much stuff they carry on them, I get some of it but why do they need the hourglasses!? Also the crotches were a bit off putting, and taking my modelling knife near those areas made me wince.

Next up will be basing these guys and doing a test model. I'm wondering how I'll go about painting white using Dheneb stone as a base. Do I drybrush skull white over or shall I just highlight with bleached bone folowed by Skull White?
I'm also putting together a Huntsmen unit, things seem to be rolling so far!

Also today I put the gold my Nan donated to Ostland's coffers and went on a recruitment drive. I bought my second State Troops box and a Crossbowmen/Handgunners box.

I also did a bit of reading on Lexicanum and Ostlanders like to drink a lot. So it seems I'll be building an army of inebriated inbreds then. Yipe, I never even once thought I'll be typing that!

Now look at the pictures people and see you next time!