Thursday 25 April 2013

A place that my armies can call home.......


A place that my armies can call home.......

I have spent some time building new armies and planning future projects but then I had a thought....just the one thought though, life is too complicated to have too many!  What about the big picture.  Where do my little men (and women) fit in the world?  Gaj and I have started to play/plan a loose narrative campaign and I really enjoy the story telling element, especially that the actions taken now can have repercussions later on.  So our campaign will start to define a small part of the Border Princes but what about the surrounding land.  In particular “The Empire” up north.

Now what does this empire look like in my mind.  Let me invite you into my head and you can see for yourself.  No don’t go there!  That is for my eyes only.  Anyway here it is “The Empire” in its glory, a large powerful but politically and religiously divided state.  Having played WFRP 1st edition in my youth my vision is based on this.  I will set my games at the conclusion of the “Empire in Flames” scenario which finished the “Enemy Within” campaign.  Here is a quick rundown of what has happened based on my memory.  If you are actually playing this role-play campaign, look away now.

At the end of “Empire in Flames” a great many things have happened.  Emperor Karl Franz (who was a blithering weak idiot) is dead.  His heir (who was revealed to be a chaos mutant) is dead.  Boris Todbringer is dead and his illegitimate son Henry Todbringer is the new emperor (and also revealed to be a direct blood relative of Sigmar).  There are many opportunities for the player’s characters, for example if you have a competent wizard they could become the new head of Imperial College of Magic in Middenheim.  Basically at the end all is well....or is it? I can see a different and more interesting future. 

Let us look at the new emperor.  His position has to be a worry for some of the other Elector Counts who prefer a weak and ineffective emperor.  Basically a man who is unlikely to meddle in their internal affairs.  Henry Todbringer (Emperor and the new Prince of Altdorf) is a strong charismatic man whose own sister is now the ruler of Middenheim, and he has married the Countess Emanuelle (I think that was her name...) of Nuln.  The Countess of Nuln also holds power over Wissenland. This makes him very powerful indeed.  I would have thought that this would challenge the ‘old order’ a fair bit.  I think there is scope for some Byzantine politics here.   Then what about the wounds, both physical and psychological, that have resulted from recent the civil war (yes that happened to) and the religious persecution of Sigmarites and Ulricans by each other.  Would this just be forgotten, I don’t think so.  And what about the cult of the “Purple Hand” who had such a large part to play in the recent events....would they just give up?  There are a lot of questions to be answered here.

I want my Empire to be based on this.....in chaos with conflicts and assassinations a plenty.  Thus wide open for unrestricted narrative campaigning.  

What do you think?  Do you have a version of Warhammer that you set your projects in or do you not bother with such things?
 
Regards
 
Andre

Friday 12 April 2013

Goblins are green. And sometimes trolls are too...

A little while ago I mentioned that I had descended into madness, because my obsession to paint goblins had interrupted my well formed plans for the undead and now my high elves.

I've made some progress. Now some might look at this progress, look at the date of this post and the date of the starting point, and then challenge my use of the term obsession. About as obsessed a drug dealer with his tax return, you might suggest. Or as obsessed as an eight year old with a spinach smoothie.

Okay.

You got me there.

But still. They're painted miniatures. Unfortunately, I was unable to stage my existing goblin force with these ones, but that'll come someday. Perhaps when I've finished some more goblins.

Just look at the pictures already:





























Regards
Gaj

Sunday 7 April 2013

Fuck. Me. Sideways.

It's not often you'll see me employ heavy duty expletives around here, especially in the title of the post. I try only swear for emphasis. Know, then, that what you are about to see will be difficult to absorb. I suggest you sit down.



So I've been pottering about with this 3rd edition warhammer malarkey for around two years now.

I started late, so I've had the misfortune of watching the The Great OOP eBay Inflation erode the collectors ability to, well, collect.

Even so, I've been quite pleased with the things I've collected so far. Given the financial, spacial and marital constraints under which I must work, having four OOP oldhammer armies (mostly unpainted, but you already knew that so don't ask!) which all feel as if they have enough figures to be playable armies.

Perhaps your story is similar? Perhaps you're thinking - given the age, rarity and cost of these things, actually, I'm a credible member of that bizarre 80's Citadel Only sub-culture that exists within Oldhammer.

Yeah. that's what I was thought too.

I've come across other sites where the collections are impressive. I know that there are some prolific collectors out there, but so far I've never had any real there's-no-point-in-continuing-because-I'll-never-match-that moments.

Until now.

Go! Go and see. I'll wait for you. Absorb the whole blog. It'll take you 10 minutes. I can wait.

Back?

Need a hug? Cleaned up your ejaculant?

There, there. You can still be a collecter, even if you have one OOP figure. It's not the size of the collection that counts.

But, if you want to be a collector, just know that, unless you commit murder*, your chances of owning 600 painted OOP 80s goblins are basically nil**. Owning that AND a fully-armed-and-operational painted Slann army? That is nil.

When I think of my own paltry goblin related efforts, progress of which I was planning to stage tomorrow, my mind is torn clean in half by the enormity of the fact that even when complete, they will only represent 10% of what I have just seen.

I'm going to go and sit in a corner, hold my knees and rock gently for a while. There will be incoherent mumbling.


*Not an advocate of this, by the way. Murder is a big no-no nowadays.

**And having just said that, I suppose a veritable legion of wealthy-beyond-my-wildest-dreams collectors shall come forth to prove me wrong and further shred my already tortured mind with their division strength collections...