What are you doing today hobbywise?

kitbashed some squires for my brets out of Fireforge Northern Warriors, Men at Arms, Frostgrave and Free company bits.

 

Been doing some bases for all the mounts for my Wood elf army (stags and horses)
I had a lot of old herbal tea sachets that I will never drink so ground some up and mixed them and used this on my woodland bases. Undercoated black and dry brushed. I think it works. Also made up about 6 unit fillers with trees, imps, standing stones and fallen branches.

 

Oh, nice! I've been meaning to tinker with those. Picked up a box of Fireforge Northmen cavalry because I needed the legs for Rough Rider conversions, but haven't actually built anything with them yet.

...also been resisting the urge to buy Fireforge Mongol Armored cavalry and convert them into Oglah Khan's Hobgoblin Wolf Riders since it wouldn't take much to convert them...

 

yea I really like using the Fireforge stuff for Bret and DOW conversions. I kit bashed a unit of DOW crossbowmen/Border Prince Brigands today out of Bret men at arms, Fireforge warriors and free company bits.

 

Been considering using their Byzantine range to create a Warhammer Fantasy version of the Byzantine. Managed to talk myself out of it, because money and my mountain of other projects I'd rather resolve first.

Might have to reignite the idea if TOW actually gets a Dogs of War expansion.

 

hoo, yeah, the Byzantines are tempting as well. I do like a good Cataphract.

 

I played a game of Mordheim!!! Hope to manage to make it into a campaign.

 

A DOW list won't work because it would be oriented around Renaissance Italy and just how boring it is . Pikemen, light cavalry and cheesy 'I stab-a-you-in-a-da-back' Borgia stereotype aristocrats aplenty, but wouldn't be right for Byzantines. Not to mention that I really hope TOW just doesn't go there. I couldn't take it seriously if my opponent showed up with a load of random mercenary units and called it an 'army'.

Given that the Fireforge Byzantine range is mostly cavalry along with some light-medium infantry, it could work well as the basis for a Bretonnian force:

• Koursores: Knights of the Realm/Knights Errant
• Cataphracts: Grail Knights
• Horse Archers: Mounted Yeomen
• Auxiliaries: Men-at-Arms and Peasant Bowmen
• Spearmen: Could work as Foot Knights if you gave them all hand weapons instead
• Varangian Guard (which you could use the plastic Scandinavian Infantry for if you're not fond of the resin Varangian Guard figures): Foot Knights with Great Weapons

And then go wild in Byzantifying the Pegasus units and use a Roman-style Onager model as a Trebuchet, and job done

Alternatively, if you think the rules themselves still wouldn't feel right for a Warhammer Byzantine army, one could always consider writing a fan-made Byzantine-oriented retcon of the Border Princes, which as-is, alongside Tilea, is pretty crap lore...

 

As a former Dogs of War player, ouch, so much hate. I liked fielding blocks of pikemen and crossbows, but then I was also theming it as a Tilean-themed defense force, fighting against who-ever was invading. The idea was, merchants would sponsor units since the "government" of the city-states farmed out such things to merchants instead of nobles like in the Empire or Bretonnia. Often this was the Tomb Kings and Dark Elves (I figure the TK came looking for missing relics or to expand their territory, and the Dark Elves were looking for possible slaves).

 

Ask him about the Vampire Counts next!

 

Honestly, never understood why the Empire is never depicted with pikemen instead of spearmen. Pikes are the ultimate in anti-cavalry frell-you. And in every other regard, the Empire has taken from the Landsknecht doctrine of waging warfare, so why ignore the pikes, which were, more so than the zweihander, the Landsknecht weapon of choice.

From a model perspective, I understand, a long thin length of plastic? Snap central right there. But I don't recall hearing of the Empire making use of pikes even in the fluff, where it could have easily been justified as "yes, the models look like they have spears, but in the narrative, those are actually pikes; we just wanted to spare you the dozen snapped pikes".

 

In the novel Riders Of The Dead, by Dan Abnett, the Empire's main military strength is said to be blocks of pikemen.

Side note, if I can get Jade Warriors to fit on 20 mm bases, I plan on converting the halberds to pikes by trimming off the blades. Yes they will be short for pikes but that will just make them easier to store.

 

Ah, I shall have to keep an eye out for that novel then. Dan Abnett does seem to consistently produce high-quality works.

 

Marienburg, didn't do that well but didn't do bad either.
None of my warband died and one got immune to fear, so that's a win in my books.

I need to play 2 or 3 more games, and then it would be the longest I have play one warband.

 

Kitbashed another squire and a few sergeant at arms for my brets.

 

Nice! Big fan of Marienburg. Original models, 3d print, or proxy?