Old World Army Challenge - Bretonnians

Hi All,

" My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." - Hedley Lamarr (Blazing Saddles)

I have been meaning to post on a variety of topics, but I keep on getting distracted be the next big thing.

The most recent "next big thing" is the Old World Army Challenge. This was dreamed up by Iannick of Marauders and Citadels and Blue of Blue's Marauding Miniatures. Isn't Vermont just New Hampshire for hipsters? ;)

Anyway. The challenge is to fashion an approximately 1000 point army according to 3rd or 4th Edition Warhammer and paint no less than 200 points a month between Nov and April, with one mulligan allowed.

Much like the Analogue Hobbies Challenge, in which Iannick is also a fellow challenger, participants will post their progress in a blog for the world to see and give first publication rights to the blog, ie not post it anywhere else for 24 hours.

Here's my list and figures:

No magic and the General is a Level 15 hero, but I got it to be a rules compliant army with only going over by 16 points. Not bad, but it took me three tries. I like Army Builder because it really lets you play around with things with out having to remember all the rules or do math. The only thing I would like to do is figure out how to make it a little more flexible. A version where you could just use the bestiary from the rule book would be awesome.

Now the figures (in list order):

The 3-man cannon. I will probably paint up the two laborers as well, just because.

The Feudal Levy. (You have the option of using the updated list from White Dwarf in Army Builder.) The 5 metal Bretonnian archers and two plastics I got from my brother. I think he said they came with the Shadow of the Horned Rat video game sequels. I ordered 8 more from Foundry, hence the unit of 15.

Retainers with Crossbows. You may recall that I painted the figure that says Ouch! on the tab a few years ago for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge here. These are the rest. I ordered 16 more from Foundry to make a second unit of 10 when I inevitably expand this army to 1500 points.

9 Retainers with Spears led by a Baron (5th Level hero). Ok, they don't all have spears. The primed and partially painted ones are my originals, the others are ones I purchased from Blue. I am going to paint over the original flesh and metal instead of stripping them. I don't have the citadel flesh any more.

9 Foot Knights led by another, more successful, Baron. I got all of these from Blue. One double had a hand bored out so I will have him hold a banner.

20 Brigands with Standard Bearer and Musician. I won these Conquest Normans an embarrassingly long time ago. I painted the casualties from the set here (same post as Ouch!). I have enough to make 40 but points and only allowing 20 Brigands in the army cut out the second unit. I will probably paint the second 20 as retainers in the future.

4 Noblesse d'Epee led by a Marquis (10th Level Hero). Obsessive hoarding pays off. I bought these sometime around 1990 or 1991. The Bretonnian lord is 1988 and the knights have 1990 on the plastic horses. I started having a panic attack when I couldn't find the knights. I had recently put all my figures in storage bins and thrown them in the garage when my in-laws visited. I searched high and low before finding them under some papers right next to my painting desk. Arrgh!

Lastly the 4 Chevalier d'Honneur led by a Viscomte (15th Level Hero). I can't remember when I picked these up, I think a more recent Ebay purchase. They are dated 1996 so I think may be 5th edition. I considered buying more Foundry Knights, but wanted to try and use as many old figures as possible. I have an Oldhammer buddy who is hooking me up with the three plastic Knights I need to round this force out.

Thanks for looking and I'll try not to wait so ling to post. I have lots of stuff to share, just not the discipline to sit down and write about it.

Before I sign off I'd like to welcome stewart to the blog. I think he has just recently started blogging but I'm not totally sure. Let me know your blog and I'll link it.