Hi Everyone! Jake here, with the start of the new year I wanted to start a new article series, namely an army blog. Basically this will track my trials and tribulations as I create a new army. Years ago, I had a pretty active blog, tracking my process making a WFB Greenskins army, which can be found here.
I loved how regular posting helped keep me motivated, and allowed me to track and follow my own progress. With 3rd edition having just released, what better time then now to give this another try (hopefully i can do better then my hobby challenge on here months ago).
My rough plan/goals, I want to have a newly painted army, that is able to be used within the end of the year. I want it to have a a firm theme, that evokes a narrative just thru appearance. Ideally, I would love this to be ready for Vanguard GT and Unplugged GT the last weekend of April and first weekend of May, this may be a bit optimistic, but lets see! I also plan to post an update on here roughly once every week, most likely Fridays.
After writing my Undead 3rd Edition army review I found myself really wanting to try the army with the changes, the only problem was a lot of what I wanted to try I didn’t have painted. Numerous army lists later, I concluded it would just be easier to create an entirely new army!
The idea for my army has been inspired by the lore of the Blood Knight vampires from WFB, and specifically one piece of epic artwork from the 5th (6th?) edition Vampire Counts book.
My last Undead army relied heavily on Surge shenanigans to win, so it was relatively slow, and nearly everything hit on 4s. For the Brotherhood of Blood, I wanted a harder hitting list, that still was able to put a lot of drops on the board. I also wanted a cursed knight feel to the army, so everything had to feel like it was coming from a medieval fiefdom.
Finally, I wanted to try to use mostly models that I already owned. In this hobby we tend to accumulate a LOT of access projects. I recently moved and was reminded just how much crap I have. So rather then buying new, I wanted to use what I had. I was particularly interested in breathing new life into the pieces from a failed Bretonnian project I tried about a year before Warhammer ended. The Men at Arms and Knights I painted for that were some of the things I was most proud of, but never really saw the table, so hopefully this project could fix that!
The Project Begins
In an attempt to not waste any time, I have created an army list, which I am building towards. This list emphasizes a look I want, as well as the minis I want to use, while still offering something that I think will be fun on the tabletop.
Unplugged Gt is 2,000 points, and Vanguard 2250, so I design my core list, and then have two potential options to mix in for Vanguard.
The List:
x3 Skeleton Spearmen Regiments 315 Points (Undead Footmen)
x2 Soul Reaver Infantry Regiments 500 Points (Vampire Knights)
1 Soul Reaver Cavalry Regiment 250 (Mounted Vamps)
x3 Ghoul Troops 210 Points (Awesome Heresy Miniatures Ghouls)
Vampire Lord on Foot 165 Points (Mounted is probably better, but I like the minis I have on foot)
Vampire Lord on Foot 165 Points
Ghoul Gast with Wings 135 Points (Need some Warmachine Protection, plus an answer to flying)
x2 Troops of Skeleton Archers 140 Points (I wanted more drops, had good models for them, I also never used these in my old army)
1 Balefire Catapult 95 Points (Lending me a bit of ranged punch, and counter battery fire, plus I have a mini for it).
This is my 2k list, it has 25 points to play around with for items. To get it to 2250 I will add either, i’ll have to decide once I get closer to the goal:
x3 Death Pack 225 Points (More chaff, and wolves would fit the theme)
OR
Morgoth (I have a great model for it, and he compliments the playstyle)
My First Step
The first step for any army is to figure out what it will look like, the aesthetic, the basing, and the colors. I figured since I wanted to revitalize parts of an old army I would stick with those colors (for the most part), and since this was supposed to be an Undead fiefdom perhaps the land was actually vibrant, rather then the drab colors usually associated with Undead armies, so I based in a blend of different greens and foliage.
The first unit I started working on was a regiment of skeleton spearmen:
I painted pale skin and blue eyes on the model, to pop against the browns and reds of their clothing, and to give the model a dead-ish appearance. I figured if I converted some, and left others like this it would give an Undead “kingdom” feel, rather then this appearing to be just a mishmash or raised dead.
Part of this testing period was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the large, flat surface of the men at arms shields. I knew I wanted to put freehand there, and decided on a pattern, but couldn’t figure out a color.
Initially I tried yellow, but in addition to being a pain to paint, I didn’t like how it looked. It complimented the color palette too much.
So, I repainted over this shield, but tried a different color, a color I find myself frequently falling back on… blue; and I loved it! It popped and it was an easier color to work with.
From there I began to really get excited with the project, and began batch “updating” the minis, painting them in groups of 5, first converting a few with undead parts, then changing skin colors, adding to the shields, and painting the newly added undead parts. I also finished the base, since once models went on it would be almost impossible to do well.
After about another week of work, I had the first finished unit of my new army!
I am now beginning to work on the first unit of Soul Reaver Infantry, which I am using plastic Dark Elf Blackguard for. I think they manage to have a suitable evil look, while also looking lithe and dangerous. While I doubt I will finish them by next week, I am certain that I will have some progress to show off :D.
Until next week, I will leave you with this first, WIP shot:
Absolutely love fluffy Armies and this one looks like it’s going to be exceptional.
Thanks for sharing.