Sludge-The Conciliarchy of Cephvn (Royalists)

[PineyPhantom]

I was immediately captivated by Sludge when Sean Sutter released it in 2020 but had no budget or time, but now I've finally been able to build up and paint an army. I love kitbashing and used the opportunity to go wild here, including my first foray into greenstuff. Just simple details like chainmail masks and cloaks. Visually I was very much inspired by Dishonored and the whaling ships of the 19th century, as well as the battlefield of Ypres. I still haven't built an army leader, my Fen Graf, as the Conciliarchy calls them, or my battle kites. I've got several schematics kicking around and am actively hunting for materials to make those visions a reality. I hope you won't have to wait two years to see those. Lastly, I apologize for the potato photography. My old Android really just isn't up to the job of capturing fine details, and if any project has highlighted the need for a better camera for me, it's this one.

[Ogrob]

Very nice! Saw the backstory on facebook, very cool.

[fred]

Great stuff - always good to see another Sludge force.

I really like the style you have gone with, not seen tricorns for sludge yet, and they work great!

I’d perhaps suggest highlighting the bases a little more - its hard with dark muddy bases, I used them a lot for me WWI troops, to not end up with it all looking a bit dark.

[PineyPhantom]

I agree on base highlights completely. With the dark uniforms and the mud-coloured cloaks the models sort of sink into the bases too much.

[eilif]

Good Stuff. I have no room for another project, but I find sludge very appealing.

[PineyPhantom]

Well obviously you need to drop se other project and build the Sludge community!

[Bearwoodman]

Very cool - those crossbowmen on mechanical stilts and the small cannon mounted on the back of the enormous crocodile inject (to my mind at least) a little bit of welcome whimsy to the muddy Sludge grimness.

[PineyPhantom]

Very cool - those crossbowmen on mechanical stilts and the small cannon mounted on the back of the enormous crocodile inject (to my mind at least) a little bit of welcome whimsy to the muddy Sludge grimness.

I really appreciate that! I feel like they drag the game a little more in the Turnip28 direction without going too far in.

[commissarmoody]

Very cool, I tracked down your post on FB. You should add the background here. 

[PineyPhantom]

Very cool, I tracked down your post on FB. You should add the background here. 

Why not?

"The Conciliarchy of Cephvn is ruled by the Serene Merchant Council, each the ruler of a Deme (originally a neighborhood of Cephvn but now more akin to colonia administered from the city centre). The council of demarchs funds an arcanists guild that builds music boxes which attract the great sky whales, called ceteans, towards the city's ark fleets. The Conciliarchy ships then attack, their knights boarding the enormous beasts as though they were rival ships to harvest their oil, ambergris, and meat. While they are aggressively expanding, the citizenry of Cephvn is rapidly becoming divided between the old Church of the Great Tree and the new arcanist-run Cult of the Song, who replaced Yggdrasil as the life-giving force in the world with the majesty of the cetean shoals. Cephvn regiments can be distinguished by their choice of instrument: Churchmen march to the steady beat of the tree, while Songers prefer the sonorous trumpet.
Cephvn itself is a chilly, windy swamp of a plane. Once a grand city, it is now slowly sinking into the mire of its surface. The nobility chooses to ignore this fact, building opulently upwards as the poor scramble to find their way into a job in the Merchant Guard or a whaling ark. Due to its marshy surrounding, Cephvn eschews cavalry and traditional gun carriages that would sink into the mud in favor of howdah-mounted cannons on the backs of Grand Crocodilians. Similarly, jaegers (Iztari) roam about on stilts to avoid sinking into the mire, scouting the fens for threats to the city.
Generals who have proven their skill in repelling invaders are called Fen Grafs (or Fen Counts in the city's parlance). Line infantry who sign a contract to fight in a Fen Graf’s Merchant Guard are issued a string of ten chits kept on their musket’s sling. For each battle they survive, one is removed. When the tenth is removed they are given privileges like the option of knightly training, induction into the Iztari, or arcanist training. The luckiest get to guard a merchant lord’s home.
Sorcery is explicitly outlawed in the city and its colonia. Sorcerers are seen as living embodiments of the Decay Sky, the prophesied sky that holds only dead ceteans."

[commissarmoody]

Marvelous! 

[fred]

Very cool back ground!