Vinush's Empire Updated

[vinush]

In advance of the new army book coming out soon (less than a week to go!) I thought I'd start a plog of my army which has recently been getting a bit of a face lift.

Last year I had 4000 points of Empire painted in red and black uniforms to tie them into Sylvania and link them with my VC army. I then set out to get some of the old monopose Halberdiers and a few other bits and pieces, and decided to paint them as the Stirland Liberation Force. I had always intended them to be led by Witch Hunter characters, but was limited to using Captain or General of the Empire rules for them.

With the inclusion of Witch Hunter rules in the upcoming army book (Woohoo, at long last! I've been waiting for this for 4 editions!) the army becomes viable.

I'll post some pictures of the stuff I have painted along the way, and welcome comments, etc.

Thanks.

My first Witch Hunter character. The old WH Quest model painted up using the washes method.


Witch Hunter number 2 painted the same way.


Stirlander Captain facing off against a Saurus Old Blood... I feel sorry for the poor guy.



THE \/ince

[vinush]

I will take more pictures soon and post them, and then update as I go with other models.

THE \/ince

[GodlessM]

Love it! !

[vinush]

Thanks GodlessM.

Both Witch Hunters were painted rather badly as I had painted them when they first came out, and I stripped them using dettol then repainted them.

THE \/ince

[vinush]

If I have time tonight I'll set my army up and take some pictures of them ranked up while I'm at the games club. I'm playing Vampires vs Dwarfs tonight, so will have to set them up especially.

[vinush]

Stirlander BSB.


Stirland Militiamen, the brave souls who "volunteered" to accompany the Liberation force into Sylvania.


Stirland Halberdier Regiment


Stirland Captain accompanied by his troops.

[vinush]

One more of the Stirlanders.


The representatives of the Imperial Colleges of Magic (Minus an Amber Wizard representative)


The commanders of Sylvania in all their glory


Sylvanian Greatswords and a unit of Swordsmen

[vinush]

A large portion of the Sylvanian troops


The Knights of Castle Drakenhof (still living) led by Warrior Priest on War Zebra (don't ask!)


Sylvanian Crossbowmen and a "liberated" Helblaster Volley Gun


THE \/ince

[Karak Norn Clansman]

Nice army theme. I like the Witch Hunters and wizard conclave. Despite instructions, I have to ask. Why a war zebra? Is it a reference to the "razor" horse in Wheel of time?

[vinush]

No. Me and my friends occasionally come up with some mental ideas for each others armies, and one of the ones I ended up with was a war zebra.

I also have the powder monkey from the Handgunners/Crossbowmen box converted into a monkey knife fighter, and one to paint up as an orangutan so he can be a fire wizard...

A friend of mine had a Bretonnian damsel on horse painted in pink robes so she looked like Polly Pocket.

THE \/ince

Edit: Forgot to say, the in-game justification of the war zebra is that it was stolen from the imperial zoo, along with a Pegasus and a Griffon...

[eldargal]

Love the mix of old and new models.

[vinush]

Thanks Eldargal.

I have around 3000 points of stuff still to paint which is a combination of old and new models.

There's about 30 Halberdiers made from the new state troops bodies and the halberd arms from militia sprues, I have 10 more crossbowmen to paint in Stirland colours (the new ones) 15 Handgunners (militia models with the blunderbuss weapons) another cannon, a helstorm rocket, a griffon and rider (converted from IoB) and assorted other stuff which I can't remember off the top of my head...

THE \/ince

[vinush]

An accurate list of what I have to paint/already painted but not photographed...

To paint:
25 Halberdiers, full command (Stirland, new models with militia arms)
18 Crossbowmen (stirland colours plus 2 need to be repainted from Sylvanian colour scheme to make 2 units of 10)
13 Handgunners (Stirland colours, 12 militia with blunderbuss, 1 new model with Hochland Long Rifle)
20 Greatswords (Stirland colours, knight upper bodies and heads, militia legs and great weapon arms)
Helblaster Volley Gun plus Crew (Stirland colours)
Cannon (Need to find some crew to go with it to paint in Stirland colours)
12 Knights inc full command (Unknown. the colour my original knights were painted no longer exists and hasn't for some time...)
Character on griffon (Stirland colours, converted from IoB plus knights)
Powder Monkey x2 (one converted to be holding knives as a unit champion/monkey knife fighter. The other will be painted with orange fur as a fire wizard)

Painted/Semi painted:
20 Swordsmen (Partially painted in Sylvanian colours, not sure if I should repaint in Stirland colours or not? New State Troops models)
20 Flagellants (fully painted in sack cloth colours)
12 Handgunners (fully painted in Sylvanian colour scheme, militia with blunderbusses)
Pegasus with rider (sylvanian colours. This is a Bretonnian pegasus with fleur de lys removed, metal character from Mordhein and a head I got from one kit or another)

If anyone gets the reference about the magic monkey being orange, I'll give you virtual cookies (unless I've already explained why, in which case shame on you for trying to steal virtual cookies!)

THE \/ince

[vinush]

Oh, and I have an old metal Steam Tank. It's a little small, and I would have trouble thematically fitting it into my army.
There's also about 10-20 Archers somewhere in a box.

And there's still the idea of converting a corpse cart into a war altar, or buying the new one...

THE \/ince

[GodlessM]

I'm very impressed with those Sylvanian Halberdier conversions.

[vinush]

Thank you. I managed a game tonight using new empire vs skaven. I totally smashed the crap out of them. I used what used to be my standard 1000 point army which is now around 1200, and added 300 extra points of stuff.

Full details tomorrow.

[pointyteeth]

Looking great! I think I speak for everyone here when I say that I must see the monkey knife fighter conversion!!

[vinush]

Ask and you shall receive!



So, anyway, the Sylvanian halberdiers were easy enough to do, Bretonnian men at arms with empire heads.

And now on to last night's game. I'd prepared a few 1000 point armies (you'll find them in the army list section) but my opponent rocked up with 1500 points of Skaven, leaving me with the need to boost my army. I remember working out than my normal 1000 point army from the last edition rule book worked out at just short of 1200 now, so I used that as a basis and worked up from it.

I ended up with the following list:

General of the Empire, Full Plate, Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone (134)
Level 2 Fire Wizard (100)
Captain, Full Plate, Shield, BSB< Helm of the Skaven Slayer (118)
Warrior Priest, Heavy Armour, Extra Hand Weapon (69)
Witch Hunter, Armour of Fortune (85)
25 Halberdiers, full command (180)
25 Halberdiers, full command (180)
24 Free Company, Full command (174)
10 Crossbowmen (90)
10 Crossbowmen (90)
10 Archers (70)
Helblaster Volley Gun (120)
Mortar (100)

Comes to exactly 1500 points.

My mortar misfired first turn, then blew up, so I can't even comment on how effective it would be. The helblaster is much more reliable than it used to be, wasting two barrels throughout the entire game.

Due to the scenery I was forced to leave a unit of halberdiers and a unit of crossbowmen unsupported by characters, and did what I never like to do, put two characters in one unit, the General and the Warrior priest as they were directly opposite his unit of rat ogres with warlord on bonebreaker thingumy. This proved to be insanely good, as the priest cast the reroll to wound prayer and the halberdier unit received a charge from the Rogres, passed fear, killed 3 of then causing the rogres to break. This was helped by the fact that the scenery meant his general wasn't in combat and he chose not to make way for fear of my general (right, seriously? The guy sucks!).
An exposed flank on the plague monk unit meant that my unsupported halberdier unit flanked them and broke them from combat having already took out a unit of night runners.
My wizard burned the living snot out of the 45 strong slave unit, killing 15 in the first turn! The dirty rat b*stards passed their panic check though thanks to the general...
They were broken in combat by the BSB, his unit of Free Company and one of the crossbowmen unit (The FC were in the flank).
The Witch Hunter had decided that the rat with a stick (His BSB) was a heretic, and therefore deserved to be cleansed. He valiantly led a unit of archers on a hunting mission, the archers managing to kill 4 storm vermin in a single round of shooting, but the WH totally missed on his sniper shots. The unit then got charged, mostly killed and even the rousing words of the Witch Hunter wouldn't hold them. They fled like girls and were cut down, meaning his magic armour was a massive waste of points.

What would I do differently? Lose the armour of fortune, the helm of the skaven slayer and the dawnstone. This would free up 75 points, if I could get another 25 from somewhere I can get an Arch Lector. I could even replace the Witch Hunter with a second warrior priest, although I love the idea of having a WH in my army... Decisions, decisions.

THE \/ince

[GundamMecha]

Those witch hunters look great!

I always loved that old Quest figure!

[vinush]

Is that you, Elf?

Thank you. I'm really impressed with how they turned out.

THE \/ince