Tuesday 17 January 2017

From GregB: Warmaster Halberdiers, Crossbowmen and Knights (60 points)

Empire troops from GW's Warmaster game

My second submission today is a kind of after-effect from my earlier one.  Inspired by the fantasy stuff from Iannick and Jamie, I went digging into my horde for some fantasy figures of my own.  There was not a lot to find, other than the Empire Engineers in my first post earlier today. The overall interest in fantasy among our group has been on the wane for many years, so there is not much fantasy stuff among my hobby hoardings.  But I did make one exciting discovery of a long-lost "I'll get to this next week project" - Warmaster!

Remember these fantastic rules?

Crossbow regiment in front, Halberdiers in the middle, and the Knights at the back (will counter-charge when these lads are run over...)

Yes, Warmaster, GW's ridiculously fantastic set of macro-level fantasy combat rules.  Remember Warmaster? The rules alone were fantastic, serving as the inspiration/basis for many subsequent sets of rules to follow.  But it was more than great rules. I also recall the figures - 10 to 12mm collections - that GW released to support these rules were also just tremendous. They had lots of character and variety. Warmaster was a lot of fun and there were many games played among our group back in its time.

I just loved the sculpts GW released to support this game...they captured the setting perfectly, with tons of variety and character - a (rare) example of GW getting something right

Great rules, and great figures...sounds like a recipe for success, right? Enter #lolGW. Warmaster was around for several years, but ultimately succumbed to GW's gold-into-coal black touch along with the rest of what were then called "specialist" games.  The prices for the models entered the stratosphere, so they didn't sell, so GW cancelled the game as it wouldn't sell.

Really basic paint job on these Knights - hope to get more colourful and less grim with the subsequent units

When Warmaster first came out, I collected and painted a small Empire force. In 2010, I resolved to re-paint it up to a higher standard, and re-base some of the models. This effort lasted through some Knights and some characters and artillery pieces, but not much more. Back into storage they went! Meanwhile, GW killed off the Specialist games.  So many Warmaster units I had hoped to collect - Kislev, or the super neat figures representing Araby! I settled for grabbing a few more units from Ebay (and have purchased a few more here and there since then) but in classic wargamer fashion, I have hardly touched the models. We moved to a new house, but these figures stayed in the box, gathering dust, or still in their blister packs, with the plastic turning yellow :)

My updated Empire forces, with these new units added...
Having encountered this little stash of models once again last week, I figured it's the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - when would be a better time to take another crack at this?  So I dove in, and have been sawing away with the brushes for several days. I painted a unit of halberdiers and a unit crossbowmen, a did a touch up on an old unit of Knights. I have also spent some time re-basing models I had already touched up, so I can have a sense of coherency among figures which have a seven-to-ten-year interval between painting!

The Knights take their place...and a wizard is on hand
That Crossbow regiment is a little lonely - will need at least one more for the basic Empire force requirements
Empire hero on a griffon - he'll finally have a force to command after almost 10 years!
Various heroes and officers, ready to lead the Empire army to battle!

This submission includes 60 foot models and 12 mounted models in 10mm.  However, the Knights were a touch-up job, not a real paint job and don't count. This submission should score 60 points.

Another five or six regiments and this will be a fine 2,000 point Empire force, fit for a good-sized game of Warmaster with the group...

See you next week

Alan and Paul: It is great to see neglected armies finally getting some paint love thanks to the Challenge. Gosh these are nice, and yet another indictment of GW's kamikaze approach to supporting their products. 60 points to you sir!

33 comments:

  1. These look tremendous Greg! Such clean paintwork. They have that wonderful renaissance feel about them.

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  2. What a terrific army! Great work, Greg!

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  3. Awesome! Really good stuff! Inspiring. cheers

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  4. I love the slightly impressionistic technique you've used to make these figures so colourful. Definitely landsknecht as seen through a fantasy lens. This is a wonderful entry, and so nice to see old fantasy figures getting love. Try Dragon Rampant with these guys -- we won't tell GW we are using their figures with other rules. :)

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  5. Lovely miniatures and I always enjoy hear you ranting about GW. You just gave me another reason to wargame with the Winnipeg folks this Summer.

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  6. These are fabulous Greg, kudos to you!

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  7. I had NO idea these were just 10mm, cracking work on these

    Ian

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  8. Great work, hard to believe they're 10mm.

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  9. Lovely looking empire figures, brilliant work on 10mm, they look great.
    Best Iain

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  10. Lovely jubly. very nice to see some 10mm in the challenge and these are Very Nice.

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  11. Great work Greg! It's really a shame that Warmaster got killed of by GW. One of their best rulesets. Simple and balanced. Plus some of the best 10mm minis I've seen. Plenty of character and variety in them. Too bad nowadays they seem to be worth more than their cost in gold and most minis from other manufacturers aren't as good loking

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  12. That's a great looking army!! I especially like the knights, they look so good en masse. I missed Warmaster unfortunately and I always regretted it.

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  13. Nice work Greg. It's a really lovely looking army.

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  14. wow, what a great job on these little fellas! Very nice job on the details. It's one of the games I never got into for some reason and the figures are as rare and expensive as hen's teeth now so I shall have to wait for them to re-release "AoSMaster" instead :)

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    1. The re-release would change the scale too, something odd and useless so it couldn't work with anything else, with 9mm or 14mm size figures - complete with a three year arc between an announcement of the re-release and any actual figures appearing for sale...

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    2. "Make 14mm Scale great again"

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    3. I would bet on 12-13mm Greg, just like Epic is coming back at 8mm. The GW cronies have to find scales that are different enough from any other product out there that they ensure they have sole access to your pocket book. That and with the WM rule writers all gone (well ALL good rule writers) from GW they would almost complexly screw up one of GW's best and cleanest rules systems ever.

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    4. Explain to me why you even bother with GW. I've never fallen victim to their spell so am completely mystified. What exactly is the lemming like lure to these folks?

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    5. I bother as they once did fabulous things, and only bother with them now to the extent they still do things I genuinely enjoy (like the Horus Heresy). The fact that, as a publicly-traded company, it is run like 10 pounds of sh*t in a four pound bag doesn't take away from the enjoyment of original products like Rogue Trader or Warhammer Fantasy...

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    6. @Peter: I agree with Greg, there was/is no 'lemming lure' involved. When GW hits it, they can hit it out of the park. Epic, Warmaster, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Bloodbowl, Mordheim, LotR (I'm sure I'm missing some), all excellent designs and often ground-breaking at the time. So many mechanics of rulesets *you* enjoy today (Black Powder, Pike and Shotte Chain of Command, etc.) are modifications of GW core designs. Our primary complaint is that GW has absolutely no consistency, vision or corporate loyalty to support their own well-regarded products.

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    7. So I guess Tony Blair should have privatized GW when he had a chance?

      I know they've done some good stuff along the way and likely will again, that was part of my point. But it was never in my interest area. To me a big draw is historical research, so system as regimented and Codexed as GWs were non-starters.

      However, GW keeps doing what bugs you because people keep buying it (much like people buy Leafs tickets). The griping us understandable, but also pretty darn amusing to watch.

      As for the rules you mentioned Curt, yes there may be elements common with GW stuff but they also feel very old school to me. They remind me if sets I played in the late 70s and early 80.

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    8. Scratch privatized and replace with nationalized!

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    9. Sooo, you've answered your own question then. Excellent. :)

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  15. I LOVED Warmaster it was the major release when I was a GW Manager and I love the game as it felt like the hstorical games I played as a kid. I had a big Empire army and several others. Great painting on as you say fine models

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  16. Lovely paint job on these Greg. I am assuming we will see another faction done soon so that we can use them one Thursday night? Or maybe you still have your pointy eared elves around?

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    1. Thanks Byron. I do have some bad guys in the hoard...might be a while before I get to them, but I've got some Orcs and Chaos stuff too.

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    2. I should bring my Undead army to Winnipeg some time so you can blow them apart with your gun line. Also, I think Dallas has a fairly large Dwarf army (which I know you'd love to turn into pink mist, Greg).

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    3. That would be awesome! We could use the Dwarves as a "blocking force" *cough*...

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  17. Ooooh, these are absolutely gorgeous! Great job. Warmaster came out during a fallow period in my miniatures gaming hobby, and I've always regretted missing that train. Your post has only stirred up these sad and regretful memories, and for that I thank you! ;)

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  18. Always nice to see someone finally getting back to that old project of his and giving it such a great make over!

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