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WFB Empire Army Showcase

Today's post is brought to you by a desire to have a photo of my entire Empire collection, since until today no such photo existed. As concepts for posts go that's verging on the anaemic, but I like seeing photos of other people's armies, so, er, I'll just go ahead and flop mine out on the table for everyone to see.


I call this a collection rather than an army because there are more characters in it than would be practical for use in a single game, even if I were using the whole army. I have six wizards because it's fun to have options, and I have a battle standard bearer for both the Middenheimers and the Hochlanders (although if I'm desperate to use Ms Thiele whilst also having Kurt hanging out with his greatswords, I designed her so that the banner could be removed from her base).

With no characters included, the units weigh in at about 3,500 points (in 8th ed Warhammer Fantasy). There's then 14 characters, but since you'd never take all of them this equates to a usable army of 4,500 points. So far. Am I done with the Empire? Noooooope. There are no monsters in this army, and I don't have any engineers, and I could probably do with more halberdiers, and I don't have a steam tank, and, and... yeah. 

The Middenheim army; spot the sneaky shadow wizard in the background.

The Middenheim army was where my obsession began, about... ten years ago? Ye gods. When 8th edition came along the state troops were bulked out, and the greatswords and mortar were added. I also threw in a few troops from the neighbouring state of Nordland because reasons.

The tiny Nordland contingent. Maybe one day I'll flesh it out.

Then, in 2012, we started the Beard Bunker blog, and with it a new wave of fantasy armies. The notion that I'd paint something other than Empire was obviously preposterous, and so began the Hochland project. Here's how it looks today...

The Hochland army. I really need to enlarge that block of knights.

Weirdly, the two halves of the army follow a very similar format:
  • One block of 30-35 state troops plus 15-man detachment.
  • One block of 20 state troops.
  • A chunk of missile troops.
  • A unit of zippy distracty types (pistoliers/archers)
  • One unit of knights.
  • One unit of elite infantry.
  • Two artillery pieces.

This really isn't by design, and obviously there are differences, but it's only putting them all on the table that's made me realise how much I've repeated myself. Oh well.

I should also offer props to Mark, who lent me bonus lighting. One of the reasons I've not done many wide shots like this before is insufficient illumination. The experience also taught me that if I want to take prettier photos, I need to invest in a sexier camera. My current compact job is only just better than my mobile in most conditions, and sometimes it's worse - the picture of the Hochlanders was taken on my mobile, since that one came out better than my camera's attempt.

Everyone knows you need a tripod and the ability to mess with the exposure, shutter speed etc, but I am both lazy and cheap, and my current camera is designed for ease of use and only gives me access to some but not all of the relevant settings. It's fine for taking shots of individual minis, but struggles at wider angles - just another reason we don't do many battle reports on this blog.

Anyway, self-indulgence over. I'd better go and tidy up the mess I made... 

Mannslieb and Morrslieb were shining with uncommon enthusiasm.

Comments

  1. I’ve only recently discovered your blog and am catching up with your backlog (currently in 2012). I love to see whole army shots especially when the army is as fantastic as this. I really like the muted tones, they make the army look more like an Empire army should - dark and gritty. What I find most encouraging though is that there are still forces being built with 8th edition in mind. Keep up the excellent work!

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    1. Thank you very much, Mr Williams! It's most gratifying to hear that the vibe I was going for comes across in these photos. Enjoy 2012 :)

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  2. Flipping awesome flopping on the table and clearing up your mess XD My favourite thing of WFB was massed units like this, it looks great. Self indulge anytime, we like seeing other people’s collections in full technicolour glory!

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    1. Thanks Siph! Your timing is uncanny, I finished tidying up about ten minutes before you left this comment :D

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    2. Haha! My wedge from a few years ago... must get it out again with the reinforcements I’ve done since: https://weemen.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/relictors-battle-company-on-parade-all.html

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    3. OK when you have a full battle company or Relictors PLUS a heap of the 1st company and all the support vehicles you, sir, have won at hobby.

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  3. Bloody brilliant! I also love big army shots and the terrain also looks awesome! I currently have about 6000 points of (8th edition) ogres and about to start another summer campaign with chaos warriors so could end up with another 5000 points or so of those before the end of the year 😀

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    1. 5k of Chaos in a year?! Holy twin-tailed comet balls! Now that I'd like to see. Have you taken shots of your ogre army?

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    2. No army shots unfortunately. Hoping to book some time at a studio in the summer. I have about 25 days to knock out 1800pts of Chaos from a standing start before the first game on the 4th of March!!

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    3. Blood hell, Riot, I'd have more luck brewing tea in a caesium teapot. Godspeed!

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  4. Really great to see the army complete. I rember back in the time it was the campaign story of the Empire that makes me hook with your blog. Strangely enough I don't remember the Hochland army...
    Do you still continue to play 8th Ed or have you switched to another game system?

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    1. Thanks Major! We're still playing 8th edition, albeit with some house rules. I should probably post those house rules on this blog, come to think of it...

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  5. Out of curiosity, in the first picture, where did you get the second and third characters from the left in the line of six at the front?

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    1. Hi Scott! Both these ladies are conversions of miniatures from hfminis.co.uk. You can see them in more detail in these two posts:

      https://beardbunker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/empire-battle-wizards-now-with-bangles.html

      https://beardbunker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/empire-battle-wizards-now-with.html

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