From MikeW - 33 x Classic Warhammer Empire Stirland Halbardiers, Spearmen & Musketeers (167 Points)

In Challenge IX, I tackled my Warhammer Green-skin plastic mountain, it seemed logical that this time around I would shift focus to address the Empire troops that I've have lying around in various bags and boxes for too many years!

Contents of an Empire bag emptied on my workbench...
.. three knights will be the subject of a later post

When I say 'Classic' Warhammer Empire, I am of course, in this case, talking about the original Empire troops, Spearmen and Musketeers that came with what I think was the 3rd Edition Boxed Set in the early 1990s.

At the time, I was taken by the Landsknecht visual references and enjoyed the whole 'warring states' environment set-up in the Empire world. I plumped for the Stirland forces for two reasons - their ongoing fight against the Undead and their colour scheme - Green and Yellow - this matched the colours of my local football club and Manchester United's original club colours way back when!

Officer and Standard Bearer, need to sort out a musician and another
standard bearer to get things just right for this regiment.

So these particular models I got from eBay as a job lot some years back but I never got round to doing anything with them. I'd painted up a Regiment of Stirland Spearmen about 10 years ago and these models were obtained to boost their numbers.

What I hadn't realised is that they had been converted to Halbardiers by their former enterprising owner, so they didn't didn't in with the existing spearmen models - so I stopped that project...

... fast forward and I have them out of their bag, fixed a few halbards back on their poles and started painting.

16 Halbardier Figures and one guy with a spear - can you see him?

White undercoat, followed by random, halves or quarters in yellow, followed by green, with a few white leggings and blue or lack hats where required. Most of the musketeers have a leather jack and all the halbardiers have armour.

Figures were shaded with Army Painter dip and then finished with matt varnish before the bases were worked on, in my usual manner.

The central Halbardier Block with Command Figures

To meet my OCD cravings on unit organisation, the regiments are supposed to be a central block of halbardiers, spearmen etc - including command, flanked by two wings of musketeers, archers or crossbowmen.

The 14 Musketeers, in a variety of Green and Yellow

The observant of you out there may notice there is not quite enough figures to achieve this in this batch - but when combined with some more figures I have found then the optimal 8 musketeers per wing can be achieved! Hopefully subject of a future post here.

The completed Regiment of 30 figures plus 3 spares for an existing Regiment

Which reminds me the flag was taken from the internet, each regiment should have two flags (in my world), one the Stirland State flag as shown here and the second a Colonel's flag, typically green and yellow with a family or town crest.

POINTS
2 x 28mm Command Figures@ 5 Points each = 10 Points
14 x 28mm Musketeers @ 5 Points each = 70 Points
17 x 28mm Halbardiers @ 5 Points each = 85 Points
TOTAL POINTS 10 + 70 + 85 = 165 Points

Cracking job on these, love the colour scheme. Trying to work out the football team - Norwich? An extra couple for the really cool flag and minus 4000 for the many Utd reference.