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!