As
I've been tinkering away building my little Empire army I've also
been tinkering with their background. I do like to have a story
behind my armies and this one grew in the telling. What I like about
the Empire is that there is such a sense of geography to it: the
grand counties and chartered cities have such a sense of character
that just deciding where the army is from helps you build its
character.
Since
the big game I'm building this for will be The Siege Of Altdorf and
since Tom and Matt's armies are from Nuln and Nordland respectively,
I decided on Reikland just to have some locals in the game. Also,
with the advent of a white spray that actually covers a model the
colour scheme shouldn't be too hard.
So,
here are the detachments that make up my little force and what units
they mighty eventually command:
Thelius
Umbra and the Altdorf All-College Drinking Society
Battle
Wizard Lord, Battle Wizards
The
Drinking Society have been characters in my background for a couple
of years now but this is the first chance I've had to create them for
the tabletop. Thelius Umbra is Patriarch of the Grey College and the
Drinking Society are his most trusted off-the-books agents drawn from
all eight colleges:
Exiled
Bretonnian noblewoman and Bright Wizard Lieutenant the Lady
Desfleuves, Sabifa de Martrand; swordswoman and Light College
exorcist Erza Drescler; bookish Beasts Wizard Fitz Bernhardt; the
mysterious Grey Child Josephine Klein; taciturn Celestial Wizard Dana
Mahler; muscular Gold Wizard Guido “The Big Man” Flieshman;
gun-toting Jade Wizard Viktor Eisner; and part-time accountant,
Amethyst Wizard Andreas Eckermann.
The
Society has one further member, the High Elf Loremaster Korando but
he's not terribly relevant to matters right now.
The
Bogenhafen Longshots
Captain
of the Empire, Crossbowmen, Handgunners, Pistoliers, Steam Tank
The
main detachment of the army hails from the obscenely wealthy
chartered city of Bogenhafen. I love their ridiculously ostentatious
cream and purple uniforms. The Longshots, as you can see, are a rifle
regiment for no better reason than I love Sharpe.
I'll probably have two officers from the Longshots so I can field a
General Of The Empire when I don't feel like using Umbra.
The
Steam Tank in the Empire Bestiary is actually showing Bogenhafen
colours so that's why I've listed the thing here and not with the
other war machines.
The
Captain is, in fact, a Major and the official commander of the army.
The
Reikland Silver Blades
Captain
of the Empire with Battle Standard, Warrior Priest, Haberdiers,
Spearmen, Swordsmen, Free Company Militia
Basically,
all the close combat state troops come from this regiment. As much as
the Bogenhafen colour scheme attracts me I do want something rather
simpler for the larger state units. With white spray in hand a cream
cloth should only take a couple of layers. I've also lumped in the
Warrior Priest as the regimental chaplain.
The
Free Company are irregulars but they're paid through the Silver
Blades.
Markus
Wulfhart and his Hunters
Markus
Wulfhart, Huntsmen
I
have a Markus Wulfhart and ten Huntsmen from when I was planning to
do Stirland Outlaws for a Mordheim campaign that never happened. I'm
not usually one for special characters but I do rather like Wulfhart
and his little band of archers, both in terms of what they do and
their background.
The
Carroburg Greatswords
Greatswords
Pragmatism,
this. The Bogenhafen Captain is the actual army commander but keeping
him with one of his own units would be a magnificent waste of time. I
don't really see a regiment of riflemen and archers maintaining
Greatswords so he'd have to be assigned a bodyguard from another
regiment.
And
the red cloth and black lacquer armour of the Carroburg regiment has
always been my favourite.
The
Black Guard of Morr
Grand
Master, Witch Hunter, Knightly Orders, Demigryph Knights
Death's
own Knightly Order, bane of the undead. I first encountered them in
the Tale Of Four Gamers series that ran from White Dwarf #300 and I
rather like the purple and black colour scheme. I also have a great
idea for giving them albino demgryphs.
Admittedly,
the Witch Hunter can't be mounted but I include him in this
detachment because it makes sense. He'll be lurking off somewhere
else when I field him, possibly with the Huntsmen or in a ranked unit
of his own.
The
Painted Ladies of Nuln
Master
Engineer, Outriders, war machines
Yes,
there's an engineering school in Altdorf but I don't like the Altdorf
colour scheme (quartered red and blue, ugh). Plus, Tom and I have
been talking about linking up his Nuln army and the Society for a
while so having a detachment “from” his army will provide that
link rather nicely.
They're
called The Painted Ladies, incidentally, as a rather crude joke about
the soot stains on their faces and, hopefully, because I'll be able
to convert a female Master Engineer using one of those Statuesque
Heroic Female Heads.
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