The Empire's Renaissance - Update: Halberdiers, Halflings

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Heyhey, happy Easter!

For many, many months I've been infatuated with the idea of Warhammer Renaissance. As you know, I played a game of 5th edition last year, and it's exceedingly lovely and all, but the problem about GW games is that it's always bound to 'making an army list', points and all of that. And I'm not sure I love that a lot, at least not in the shape of the 4th/5th edition army lists.

In general, I'm a big fan of keeping GW away from rules and let people who care do that instead, so I'd really like to try out Warhammer Renaissance.



Dark Elves are finished enough for now, to try the rules solo (as I like to do) before subjecting others to them, I need opponents.

Last week I somehow got the idea of going through boxes to check just how little I actually got in terms of Empire figures and how surely it would never be enough to turn it into a playable army. Turns out it's more than I thought, especially once i broke out that box I got second hand off ebay a ton of years ago.

So I got out some reading material and try to cook up some Empire units!




Let's see where this goes!

[Gibby]

Looking forward to seeing what you do! I myself have been similarly infatuated with Warhammer Renaissance in the last few months and have amassed a rather a lot of my favourite WFB figures in that time, much to my own surprise. Majorsmith and I still need to get around to making our "Tale of Two Gamers" thread which we plan on using to chronicle our WHR adventures and post a unit/character a month (where possible). Got a few things to post already!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Looking forward to seeing what you do! I myself have been similarly infatuated with Warhammer Renaissance in the last few months and have amassed a rather a lot of my favourite WFB figures in that time, much to my own surprise. Majorsmith and I still need to get around to making our "Tale of Two Gamers" thread which we plan on using to chronicle our WHR adventures and post a unit/character a month (where possible). Got a few things to post already!

Oh, cool. I love a Tale of

• gamers. Really good motivational tool to get stuff done.

[Thew2]

Looking forward to seeing your progress. The Empire are one of my favourite armies in Warhammer, in part because I've always found the Holy Roman Empire, with it's Electors, Prince Bishops, Robber Knights etc. fascinating, and perfectly suited to a fantasy setting.

[Elbows]

Oh, I'm looking forward to watching this.  While we're not doing Warhammer, my group has been enjoying 'Warhammer' (the setting) a lot lately.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Thew2: Thank you! Yeah, let's see how I progress through that. Empire is great, yeah. I'm way into historical wargaming, and history is always more crazy and often more engaging than fantasy stories, so for fantasy to draw from history is always a good thing in my book.

@Elbows: Yeah, it's funny. When ever my group and I play anything Fantasy, it usually is pretty much based in the Warhammer world anyway, at least in my mind.



Heyhey, here's a snapshot of my desk:

[Gibby]

Those particular Empire State Troops are great, way better than the newest generation which for me lean way too cartoony and weird. I happily have managed to get plenty of those older ones for when I get to my own Empire army. 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Gibby: Oh yeah, I deliberately bought those back then because I'm not a fan of the later plastics either. I built a huge Averland army of those, and I just prefer the late 5th edition plastics over the later plastics. Not enough puff and slash, no faces I enjoy, I'm not a fan of their huge firearms, ....

So here's what I got here now:

Hero on horseback (lance, 6th edition starter box) - painted, but needs rework
Hero on Horseback (sword/shield, 4th edition metal) - done
Engineer with Hochland Long Rifle (6th edition) - done
Engineer with repeating musket (6th edition) - primed
Engineer on horse with repeating pistol (6th edition) - unbuilt
Warrior Priest (6th edition) - painted, might need a bit of work
2-3 Wizards on Foot (Plastic) - unbuilt
Balthasar Gelt on Pegasus - unbuilt
Kurt Helborg (4th edition) - primed
Marius Leitdorf (4th edition) - primed



16 Handgunners (6th Edition starter box) - need some rework
16 Handgunners (5th edition plastics with metal parts) - primed
12 Crossbowmen (5th edition plastics with metal parts) - done
18 Spearmen, Drummer, Champ, Banner (6th edition starter box) -  need some rework
34 +1 (Extrachampion) Halberdiers (5th edition plastics) - not even primed, repairs on 2nd drummer required
6 Knights of the White Wolf (4th edition) - done, except for the standard bearer, who is unbuilt
17 Greatswords (6th edition) - primed

1 Greatcannon (6th edition) - needs some rework
1 Greatcannon OR Mortar (6th edition) - unbuilt


To be added:
.) 12 Knights (6th edition)
.) Ogres (either 5th edition ones and/or MOM Miniature Mercenary Ogres. Open to suggestions. I'm not wild about the faces on the Wargames Atlantic ones to be honest, otherwise they'd be very interesting)
.) Spearmen (Warlord Games)
.) War Wagon (I kinda detest myself for it, but I ordered it off Etsy. That's a first. Let's see how that turns out.)
.) Hellblaster Volley Gun (really liking the MOM Miniatures one)


Of course the dream would be all 4th edition figures, no question there. But I did the "my GW dream army" thing  a long time ago, and 2nd hand prices for old GW stuff are at a historical high in insanity. Also, the above is what I got lying around anyway, which kinda was the idea behind this army to begin with. Apart from the "To be added" articles of course. These are yet to be added.


Phew. I also decided to use variations of the colour scheme for different regiments. Most of the figures which are done are in the Ostland theme as seen above, but I think I'll add some variety with future units.

So what do you think? Also let me know if you wanna get rid of old Empire stuff (5th/4th edition) and don't care for money much.

[leadfool]

Check out the old game AAR on this forum of "Kislev and Rokugan vs. Brettonia, Kings of War. 

I use mostly old GW empire figures. We used the kings of war rules, as they are simple and for really big games we need simple. 

[Elbows]

Those particular Empire State Troops are great, way better than the newest generation which for me lean way too cartoony and weird. I happily have managed to get plenty of those older ones for when I get to my own Empire army. 

Tell me about it...I wasn't familiar with the Empire "latest" troops when I ordered the Empire Battalion - thought I was getting the simpler/nicer 6th(?) edition ones.  I now have like 60 troops I don't want to build or paint...so on eBay I guess. 

[Frugalmax]

Your painting is always so impressive- I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with these classic guys!

I guess I've technically been building the same Empire army since the early 90's. To say the painting has varied greatly is a bit of an understatement, but those old figures still look good enough when all ranked up (and back then they actually could rank up pretty well- amazing!).

I agree on the 5th/6th edition multipose plastics vs the newer (7th? or 8th?) edition state troops. I never liked the newer ones as much and they just weren't as posable, but to be fair the variety of heads was good and the detail on the faces was better- when I get back to the Empire I'm going to kitbash some of the ones I still have laying around. 8th edition archers were a good kit though.

Anyway, can't wait to see more!

[Gibby]

Ogres (either 5th edition ones and/or MOM Miniature Mercenary Ogres. Open to suggestions. I'm not wild about the faces on the Wargames Atlantic ones to be honest, otherwise they'd be very

I have these:

https://www.blackscorpionminiatures.com/product/moorland-ogres/

Which to me are great for Imperial-aligned ogres. Resin is good quality too.

GW have the old metal badlands ogres in their Orcs and Goblins range which also look great but are a tad less civilised and more expensive 

[DivisMal]

Plus ultra, Sigur!

I hadn’t heard about Warhammer Renaissance, but the idea is great. - Just what we all wanted, right?

Is there a quick link to get the rules or are they just shared in a FB group?

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@leadfool: I will, thanks! Yeah, I played Kings of War back in 2015, that was a big Orcs&Goblins and Dark Elves vs. Dwarfs game. The rules seemed really useful, and when I was shopping around for alternative Warhammer rules last year I was rather open to Kings of War, but much to my dismay they started establishing their own little fantasy world, so the formerly handy 1:1 equivalents to Warhammer units are mostly gone, it seems.

@Elbows: Aw, yeah, that's a bit dishhearening. I mean the newer ones (I think that big Empire overhaul was in 7th? Not quite sure.) aren't horrible, just different in style. They look nice, once painted and based. Their big plus was that they had more feathers, I think.

@Frugalmax: Cheers! Hope I find the time to get more done soon. Yeah, the newer ones have more heads, that is true. The faces on the 5th/6th edition plastics were a bit comparable to the plastic catachans of that time - some really good faces, some really not that great ones. Empire plastics faces on the whole were better than the Catachans faces though I think. I actually was in the room for the seminar thing at the Warhammer World Open Day 2009(?) when they revealed the archers and bunch of other things. That was an interesting experience. I built the archers later; they really were nice. I mean all the plastics from that second wave (archers, greatswords, pistoliers, etc) were rather nice really. Somehow the 4th/5th edition pistoliers have always been among my very favourite Empire figures. I guess I always liked horsemen with pistols.

@Gibby: Ooh, thanks for the suggestion! These look nice indeed. I usually don't shop much at Black Scorpion because their figures are so huge compared to regular 28mm ones, but on the Ogres that should be less of a problem. I actually got the badland ogres last year. Only made-to-order figures I got; not even sure why, but the price seemed comparatively sensible.

@DivisMal: Yeah, I haven't played it yet, but the mission goal appeals a lot. Sadly it's only available through their FB group. I sent you a PM with the rules. I hope to put them up somewhere so they're available for download without having to log into that pretty ruddy website of that very silly company.



edit: If anyone else would like to have the Warhammer Renaissance rules, just let me know. The author emphasizes that he wants people to share the rules around, as long as nobody sells them of course. Very much a 'keep circulating the tapes' situation, and that's a notion I'm very fond of.

[DivisMal]

Dankeschön!!!🙏