Bretonnians for sale!

It’s with a less heavy heart than I’d anticipated that I announce that I’m selling the majority of my unloved Bretonnian army.

I decided to jump back in to Warhammer Fantasty Battle in the early days of what would be the final edition of the game.  At the time I had a real struggle chosing an army but the idea of massed ranks of heavy cavalry carving up the table really appealed to me, and I thought that as they’d not been updated for a considerable time that a new Army Book was imminent.  How wrong I was!

After it was clear that this army was not going to make a proper transition to Age of Sigmar, I considered for quite some time keeping the models and using them to practice new painting techniques.  Lets be honest, that was never going to happen.

I also considered whether or not to look into the Oldhammer or Kings of War scene, but I have little enough time for the games I play and armies I collect and starting something new just to keep going what little models I had was not attractive.

So here we are.

Here’s what’s currently on offer on eBay. Click the links below for more details. 

Bretonnian Army

This is the bulk of my force, it contains 12 Men at arms, over 40 Bowmen, a Pegasus Knight and 22 Knights.

Lord with Great Axe

This is the metal version and apparently quite rare.  It’s a shame that he’s not technically legal in the 8th edition rules but it’s still a cool model!

Army Standard Bearer

Again, this is the metal version, I pinned the standard’s arm to the model for added stability.

Grail Knight Champion on Foot

As you can see, this one’s still in its blister pack.  Genuinely forgot I had this one!

Knight of The Realm Hero on foot

Like the previous one, a happy rediscovery.  This chap could potentially find a home in the AoS skirmish or board games.

 

If anyone has questions regarding these, please drop me a line in the comments section or via ramblingsfromthetrenches@virginmedia.com.

 

Age of Sigmar – first sightings

Looks like my local GW, sorry Warhammer shop is gearing up for the launch of the next version of Warhammer Fantasy Battle*.

  
*Yes, yes, I know it might be a one off boxed game and even if it is technically the 9th edition of WFB, it might be called something else. But it’s definitely the start of something…

Getting Back Into The Groove: Warriors of Chaos

I am very pleased to report that, not only have I started painting again but I’ve actually managed to finish something, and in time for Miniature Monday too!

These Warriors of Chaos was part of my sWarmonger Secret Santa and I’m very glad they’re finally finished.

While I’m not intending to start a WoC army, I thought I’d paint them as if I were and since I love painting a a Khorne Berserkers I thought I’d replicate the scheme. Maybe after my Bretonnians are done I’ll revisit these guys as I do want to eventually collect an evil Warhammer Fantasy army.

Is that what I think it is‽

Is it?

YES IT BLOODY IS!!!

After nearly a month and a half, and only five weeks after we moved house, I’m finally painting again 🙂

First off I’m going to finish the Khorne Warriors of Chaos I received as part of my Warmonger Secret Santa and after that hopefully finish my Chaos Marines. It feels so good to finally get back to this!

New Bretonnians Sooner Rather Than Later (or Never)?

A while ago I got all excited by the now-false rumour that GW would be updating my Warhammer Fantasy army of choice.

Recently there has been chatter hinting at the worrying possibility that my beloved knights’ days as a full army may be numbered. I took this with a grain of salt (as one must do with all rumours) but I was worried as no other Fantasy army really appeals to me.

These rumours have been in part fuelled by the recent withdrawal of key models from the GW website, their absence meaning that now new players cannot easily build legal armies.

Today I popped into my local GW during my lunch break to pick up the latest White Dwarf and got talking to one of the staffers about this situation and was told not to worry as the whole Bretonnian range is due for an update ‘soon’. He also hinted that there are new plastic knights on the horizon.

Again, what does ‘soon’ actually mean? We were told for years that the Dark Eldar were coming soon and look how long their second completely new codex took to arrive.

While this doesn’t completely allay my fears, at least it gives me some (hopefully not) false hope that the most noble of all the armies may one day soon bring truth, justice and honour back to the Old World.

2013 In Review (Part 2)

Now that I have a bit of breathing space, it’s a good time for a more personal look at my hobby year.

Compared to 2012, last year was comparatively quiet hobby-wise. This was for the most part due to Real Life getting far too much of a look in. January saw me starting a new post at work which required a significant amount of training and retraining which was bookended by yet another move to an even busier area in November! Alas my pay as remained the same so you can’t have everything, but I’m just grateful I have a job I usually enjoy and am halfway competent at.

Coupled to this was our protracted and somewhat stressful purchase of our first home. After months of prep our offer was accepted in early October but due to legal shenanigans at the seller’s end we were unable to move in until December 20th. Needless to say, we’re still unpacking! Also, I’d like to once again pay tribute to our many wonderful friends who helped us out with the move:

Norma
Ged
Charlie
Martin
Suzy
Tim
Elizabeth
Ben
Richard
Steve

We could not have done it without you.

Right, onto the actual hobby stuff.

For me this was the Year of Chaos. I finally got my Heralds of Desolation into a fighting (but not winning) condition. I’m particularly pleased with how my Chaos Lord and Terminators turned out, and am very pleased with my converted Hellbrute. I’ve wanted to build a Chaos Space Marine army since the release of the second edition’s Codex Chaos in the mid-nineties but I knew I could never do the army justice, while there are thousands of better looking Chaos forces out there, I’m really happy with the progress I’m making with them.

The next army that I’ve been working on, although not nearly as much as I’d hoped, has been my Bretonnian force. Now, I say ‘working on’, I really mean undercoating and gaming with as I participated in a few more rounds of The Rock in The Badlands campaign with my mates. Unfortunately due to more Real Life reasons, the campaign’s on a bit of a hiatus but we’re optimistic that it’ll restart sometime soon (*prod, prod*).

I also, completely by accident, started a Dark Angel allied contingent for my Imperial Guard army. In truth, this was inevitable since I picked up the Dark Vengeance box set upon its release but I admirably kept temptation at bay for almost a year until a slightly drunken perusal of the iPhone eBay app in July. I now have a solid foundation of core units which I hope to paint up soon.

Finally, and as I direct result of the development above, I entered my first painting competition at my local Games Workshop. Even though I only came third (out of three…), I thoroughly enjoyed the process and would love to repeat the experience at least a couple of times this year. I don’t think I’ll ever be worrying the likes of Golden Daemon, but I think such things will help me improve as a painter.

As for my plans for 2014, well I’ll leave that for a later post. I still have so many boxes to unpack!

This Warmonger’s Christmas (including my Warmonger Secret Santa!)

Given that my wife and I have just bought a house (we moved in on Christmas Eve!), our mutual gift giving was a somewhat modest affair.  That said, my beloved did surprise me and as well as getting me the BluRay box set of Dollhouse (mmm, Eliza Dushku… focus, John!),  she also surprised me with a box of Dark Eldar Wyches.  I’ve been really needing to add more of these crazy elfs to my army so as soon as my Hobby Room is complete I’ll get these churned out.

However first I’ll finish part of my lovely Warmonger Secret Santa gift.  I received a set of snap-fit Warriors of Chaos, a clutch of Doctor Who cards and a copy of Legends of The Space Marines.  The Doctor Who cards were last seen being spirited away by my wife no doubt for some nefarious reason and as I already have a copy of the book I gave it to Tim (he of the Reavers Redemptor posts) as he was one of those who kindly helped us move last week.

As for the three Warriors of Chaos, you have no idea how hard it was not to buy the Army book and start a force as the whole range is lovely.  However in a rare moment of strength I resisted and am halfway through painting them as Warriors of Khorne.  I really wanted to get them done before the move but time ran out, hopefully they’ll be done over the next week or so.

 

 

What I have planned for December

Please note, this is called what I have planned for December, what I actually end up doing is another matter entirely.

Right, now with that excuse proviso out of the way let’s get started.  Obviously there are important Real Life matters that annoyingly get in the way like moving house and the whole festive merry-go-round but I’m leaving those off this list and concentrating on the really important stuff.  So, in no particular order I aim to:

• Complete painting my Imperial Bastion
• Complete the last three mutated Chaos Space Marines
• Complete the Khorne Berserker Rhino
• Experiment with some knightly liveries for my Bretonnians
• Finally finish building my Dark Eldar Ravager and Razorwing and get them basecoated
• Paint a couple of Dark Angels to see how they look

See, not extensive and if I can get through a third of that I’ll be really happy.

GW’s schedule through to January 2014

The usually reliable Faeit 212 has posted a list of what to expect over the next seven or so months from our favourite Nottingham overlords.  Here’s the shimmy, just remember your sackful of salt:

August: Lizardmen, Farsight supplement
September: Mystery Box (or Blood Bowl as it’s traditionally called / hoped)
October: Space Marines, White Scars Supplement, possibly another Marine Supplement
November: Dark Elves and another supplement, probably Marines and probably Ultramarines
December: Hobbit
January: Dwarves, and something else.

You can read the full post here.

Aside from my obvious excitement about the possibility of a 21st century iteration of Blood Bowl, what’s really getting my juices flowing is the prospect of some new Dark Elf kits.  Before the release of the current Dark Eldar codex I used parts from Black Ark Corsairs to add variety to my Kabalite Warriors and Wyches, the thought of mixing some new kits with the current Dark Eldar range pleases my inner-Haemonculus immensely.

The possibility of something else in January is intriguing,  there have been wildly speculative rumours for some time that the Imperial Guard might get a sixth edition makeover however I really don’t think they need one as yet, maybe in a year or so. The other 40K option would be a revisit of the derided Tyranid codex and given that these poor extra-galactic critters can’t even ally with anyone now I think they should be shown some love sooner rather than later.

However if you look out with 40K you’ll see an army begging for an update, the noble Bretonnians.  The truth is that a massed heavy cavalry charge just doesn’t work as well as it should in the 8th edition, especially coupled with the fact that every army thus far has received at least one decent large kit.  I’d dearly love to give my pluckly little gallic knights some much-needed oomph in the reasonably near future, especially as I still have a campaign to win 😉

Trenchmates – Sexism in the Warhammer Worlds

This edition of Trenchmates is written by my good friend Elizabeth Corbett (@lizbth_geeks for you Twitter folk). While she’s not a wargamer per se she does paint a mean miniature and is a dedicated roleplayer. Today she’s writing on a subject close to her heart, I’ll leave the rest to her.

I don’t wargame. I’ve never been tempted by it. I like playing games, and I like playing boardgames, and I’ve enjoyed playing WFRP and Dark Heresy, and I’ve even enjoyed playing Space Hulk before – but I don’t field armies on tabletop battlefields, and I don’t think I ever will. It’s not my thing. I don’t like turn-based strategy games on the PC either.

Why am I starting a guest post on a wargaming blog saying I don’t play it? Because I do paint miniatures, and I know a reasonable bit about the background, and I wanted all the readers to understand where I’m coming from before I launch into the real purpose of my writing:

I think Warhammer Fantasy and 40K really need to address the sexism in their games, and I’d like to see more people understand my position. Who knows, it might even encourage more women to play. This sexism can be seen in the miniatures, both historical and current, in the literature surrounding the games, and in the way the games are marketed.

The miniatures tend towards making the women more naked than their male counterparts. Even the otherwise heavily-armed and armoured Sisters of Battle have the Sisters Repentia, walking into battle clothed only in rags “to atone for their crimes”. One the one hand, the miniatures have to be readily recognisable on a battlefield with perhaps a couple of hundred models, and exaggerating secondary sexual characteristics of women is a way to do it; on the other hand, they don’t have to be mostly naked: that was a deliberate choice made by someone. Compare these three female spellcasters from Warhammer Fantasy, one each of the three elven races, to their male equivalents.

High Elves

Wood Elves

Dark Elves

The High Elf is recognisable as female but is at least as fully clothed as her male counterparts. The Wood Elf is less clothed than her male counterpart, although in fairness still wearing more than the War Dancers (the only nearly-naked male figures I have ever seen in this game). The Dark Elf… okay, that was a Finecast, let’s look at the normal model…

Nope, not wearing much at all, is she? Really quite naked, one might say. (Another short rant: I had to compare spellcasters, because they’re the only class which consistently has women. Apparently we’re allowed to cast fireballs from our hands, but not use a morning star.)

Someone, somewhere, made a deliberate choice to make naked women a feature of this game. Leaving aside the impracticalities of being naked on a battlefield, with arrows and swords (or guns and swords), not to mention inclement weather, I would be fine with this if the men were naked too. But they’re not, as a rule. They wear clothes. They don’t have vines artistically draped over one pec and swirling around their thigh.

This implies an expectation of their audience: that the people who play this game will want to see tiny naked women but not tiny naked men. It implies the audience is male, and straight. Statistically, I’m sure the latter is mostly true, but the former implication is part of the thing that keeps women out of the games; when we are only presented as highly-sexualised afterthoughts, we don’t really want to get involved.

And afterthought is a good way to describe the women in these games, which are disproportionately made up of male figures. Okay, in Fantasy, the time period suggests that most women wouldn’t be fighters in the Empire or whatever. But it’s fantasy. The clue’s right there in the name. Even the Elven races, much more classically feminine in style and lines, have many more male units than female. Why? Why does this have to be the case? In 40K, even the “women didn’t fight then” argument falls down. You’re honestly going to tell me that in the dawn of the 41st millennium, with all the technological advances implicit in the game, women are still only allowed to fight if they’re traumatised and indoctrinated orphaned girls? You’re going to tell me that the Space Marine gene cluster only works with a Y-chromosome?

These are choices which the game designers made, and they are choices repeated over six editions of the game. Coming up with a handy backstory to explain why there are no women does not make it any less sexist; if anything, it means that more people have been dragged into being apologists. Similarly, introducing armies like the Sisters of Battle, where they are almost entirely female, just makes it more obvious that the rest of the armies have little to no women in them. It’s the equivalent of saying “I’m not sexist/racist/homophobic, I have female/coloured/gay friends”. If you feel the need to make a big thing about it, your point is already lost.

For me, the worst thing about this whole business isn’t that it makes these games all-male environments where women are tolerated rather than welcomed, as bad as that is. The worst thing is what it does to the children, who are too young to know how to compartmentalise or analyse. Whenever I go into Games Workshop, I see kids. Kids playing and having fun, interacting with adults on an even footing, which is great to see. Mostly boys, but that’s as much symptomatic of the culture which says girls should play with dolls and boys should play with guns as anything else. These little boys are seeing that women are excluded from battle, both on and around the table. They are painting little women who have one tit hanging out and a loincloth whipping over their thighs. They are learning to treat us as irrelevant objects.

I don’t expect Games Workshop to single-handedly change the culture which says to little girls that they can’t like maths and violence, but I can expect them to make their games much better balanced and representative. And I can definitely expect grown men reading this blog to think, just for a second, about how this all looks to a woman, or to a girl. Your hobby could include twice as many people. That’s double the battles! I know that for a lot of people, this is about creating a space outside of their partners and families, and I understand the appeal of tribalism, but you can have this and not exclude all women.

So how could you as a player make a difference? You could mod your armies a little. It doesn’t even need to be much, the armour most of the little people are wearing covers pretty much all detail; you just need to write it into your backgrounds, assuming you do them. The Dark Eldar kits come with male and female heads separate to torsos; they could be added to any elf, with a little bit of extra effort. The Sisters of Battle could be modded and thrown in to a Marine unit, or an Imperial Guard unit. In fact, I’ll even do it for you, if you pay me (I accept any currency, or wine). This hobby encourages creativity and personalisation of your armies. Think outside of the sprues. Encourage your opponents to do the same. Take your non-sexist armies to tournaments. You don’t have to stand and lecture everyone on the evils of the patriarchy and whether all sex is rape; you just have to turn up, with a representative army, play your games, and leave at the end of the day. It shouldn’t be a big thing to have women in your army. It shouldn’t be a big thing to be a woman playing the game.

This whole rant could just as easily have been written from a race-sensitivity point of view as well. Take a look through the books; it’s very hard to find non-white faces. Again, anything which apologises for it is just excusing racism, not addressing the problem.

Please remember, if you’d like to submit an article for Trenchmates, you can find all the information you need here.