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.

For The Lady! New Bretonnians this year?

 

I can barely type I’m so excited but there’s a chance that my beloved Gallic Knights might be getting a new army book and models this year!  This evening Bigred posted this on the Bell of Lost Souls forum:

Viewing a retailer order sheet, Bretonnians are no longer able to be ordered from Games Workshop at this present moment. Following the usual cycle , this indicates that there is a new rulebook on the horizon with some new models to come. We assume this would be in the November/December release slot after the Inquisition Skirmish game is announced in October at Gamesday UK.  

Distributor sources verify the upcoming WHFB release shipment, described only as “a human race”, with but would not confirm a release dates.

While this in nothing concrete (i.e. take with the implied truck-full of salt), this army is crying out for an update because they just don’t work in the 8th edition.

You can find the whole thread here, I’m keeping my fingers crossed 🙂

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 😉

Bretonnian Knights of The Realm WIP

I change of pace for me this week as I’m taking part in a six player, two sided Warhammer Fantasy battle next weekend.

Unfortunately I’ll never have all 1,750 points fully painted but provided I can get these knights finished for next Sunday I’ll be a happy man.

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.

The Paladin Sir Ectorde – WIP

I’ve never shown a work in progress before but given that this is the first model I’ve needed to pin since 19-bleeding-95 I think I’ll go ahead.

If you’ve been following my progress in The Rock in The Badlands campaign then you’ll know that this model will soon represent Sir Ectorde, the youngest son of Sir Redemonde of Parravon.

Hopefully he’ll be fully painted by next week.

Chaos Rising

The tubes have been alive with whisperings from The Warp of late and after much speculation GW has today released this:

Other sites have been somewhat more forthcoming with The One Ring releasing this image apparently showing what shiny whatnots will  be released next month.

The general consensus is that a new Chaos Codex is due in August/September with sites like Bell of Lost Souls gleefully disseminating potential details.

I can’t wait, my Chaos Marines force has been slowly stagnating in various to-do piles for the better part of two years.  Indeed my only post thus far has been my first ever one where I sketched out some of their basic background, and quite a bit of it has changed since then!
Let’s hope that the first 6th Edition Codex sets a good standard for the rest to follow.

 

The Rock in The Badlands – Eleonore’s Second Letter

Excerpt from the records of the Dukedom of Parravon. Correspondence dated c1550 (2528 Imperial) to Sir Redemond of Parravon, from Eleonore (a damsel of The Lady, attached to the court of Sir Redemond).

 

My Noble Lord,

 

Since our last correspondence our fortunes have been mixed. Sir Ectorde and his retinue arrived safely some four days ago, they are battered and weary from their arduous journey yet their spirits remain high and have uplifted us all.

En route to our camp, Sir Ectorde encountered an insensible man of indeterminate breeding, by your nephew’s account he was on the precipice of death. In his dying moments he told that his settlement was attacked by a horde of rat men who put all they could find to the sword.

As you know all too well, these fell creatures are drawn to sources of Warp Stone so upon hearing Ectorde’s report I immediately assembled a scouting party and sought out this place.

Upon our arrival we found the village in ruins, half-eaten bodies lay everywhere and I pray to The Lady that the poor wretches were dead before the feasting began. Of the Skaven however we saw no sign until it was far too late.

Seemingly from nowhere our foes appeared in numbers far exceeding our own. Almost immediately Sir Michael called a charge and his fellowship sallied into the waiting blades of the enemy’s most capable warriors. I believe Imperial scholars refer to these creatures as ‘Stormvermin’. At the same time, Sir Hugues took his knights round our left flank and overran a wretched unit of sickly looking creatures who did more damage to their benighted kin as they scrambled from the field.

Alas, this early success was not to last and before my eyes our knights were immersed in a seemingly unending tide of greasy fur and sharp claws. From my place within Sir Michael’s Fellowship I saw our indentured bowmen suffer horrendous casualties and while our nobles faired far better I knew it was only a matter of time before the sheer number of these vile creatures would be the end of us.

Knowing this, I ordered the retreat and quit the field. The Lady was kind to us that day and, while many of Bretonnia’s noble sons were injured, all were able to fight again.

That night as I slept I had a vision of a blighted forest which restless dead had claimed as their own. I was certain that somewhere among the trees would be a quantity of the rock we seek and that other forces were marshalling for the same purpose.

At sunrise I reviewed the latest reports from our yeomen scouts and after meditating further I knew where we needed to go. The forest in question was a two day march from the camp so we had no time to loose.

Our journey was for the most part uneventful however as we drew ever closer to our destination I began to sense a malevolent, familiar, presence and I was certain that the necromantic horde we encountered before was intent on claiming the forest’s prize.

As we entered the tree line I observed pockets of etheric vapour drifting throughout the forest, wherever they went any creature caught within exhibited strange and unpredictable behaviour. Some even succumbed to the foulness. This hindered our progress significantly and too soon our scouts sighted elements of the undead force we had encountered before.

Unlike our first encounter I detected a change in the balance of power between myself and the enemy’s foul mage, where before I found his presence near unbearable I felt the power of The Lady swell within me, I felt certain of victory.

Immediately I ordered our battle line to form, my wariness of the prowling mists proved correct as it soon touched a unit of bowmen forcing them to withdraw from their position.

Soon the vile corpse army made themselves known; unlike our previous encounter I ordered our cavalry to hold while our bowmen unleashed torrents of arrows into the enemy’s midst. Before too long I felt the enemy necromancer’s dark magics building and was certain he was about to attempt to augment his forces, I attempted to counter this but was too late and to my despair I saw those we had felled rise and resume their places in the foe’s ranks.

Here The Lady made her presence known. Just as I thought all was lost we saw the deadly mists move towards the enemy’s lines and cause untold damage. After a further volley of arrows I ordered Sir Michael’s men to charge the unit of skeletons approaching our left flank, I joined them as they headed to glory.

The combat was long and arduous, we inflicted heavy losses on them but like all such creatures they did not break. Only my magics kept us from harm but I knew that this was unlikely to last since unlike us they could replenish their number, or so I thought.

As the battle progressed I felt the winds of magic more strongly than I have ever before, whenever my foe attempted to conjure reinforcements I easily blocked his attempts and the times were I was unable to he was unable to complete his incantations. Thanks to this we were able to see off their heavy infantry and, with Sir Hugues and his knights we rounded on the remaining enemy forces and drive them from the woods.

After the last of the creatures had made their escape we uncovered what they coveted, in a clearing was a crater fully ten metres across and in that we found ten sizeable rocks of the purest warpstone I have ever encountered. Returning it to our camp cost the lives of three mules and five peasants, as I’m sure you’ll agree my lord these were nescessary losses.

There is much more of this rock out there my lord and I am more convinced than ever that the situation in the Badlands needs more attention. I petition you to send whatever you can spare from the northern front to aid us for I fear that in spite of this victory far darker times lie ahead.

I am your humble servant,

 

Eleonore

The Rock in The Badlands – Eleonore’s First Letter

Excerpt from the records of the Dukedom of Parravon. Correspondence dated c1550 (2528 Imperial) to Sir Redemond of Parravon, from Eleonore (a damsel of The Lady, attached to the court of Sir Redemond).

 

 

My Noble Lord,

 

I write to you with heavy heart, for events have not been kind to your kin. We entered the Badlands ahead of schedule and accordingly made camp at the foot of the Dragonback Mountains. From there I took a small detachment of knights and men and proceeded towards the area highlighted in The Lady Madeline’s prophecy. We were however not the first to arrive in this benighted realm.

 

On the third day we encountered a small force of undead ransacking a small settlement. I took advice from your nephew, Sir Eldred, who claimed that these creatures posed no threat to those whose cause was just and carried The Lady’s blessing. How wrong we were. Unbeknownst to us they were lead by a Wraith of considerable power, no matter what casualties we inflicted by blade or by arrow, his magics continued to swell the enemy’s ranks. We were overcome and, to my everlasting shame, had no choice but to leave the field.

 

If only this was all I had to report. That night we made camp about half a league from the site of battle. While I slumbered a vision of The Lady came to me, imploring me to return to the village to make amends for my failure. Had only I known what was awaiting me there I would have fallen on my sword and spared you and the Kingdom further shame.

 

We returned at first light and found the village deserted, of the undead we encountered the day before, nothing remained bar the stench of evil and decay. As we were making preparations to advance towards our objective I fell to the ground as a wave of pure malevolence swept through the aether.

 

As I was returned to my mount I saw creatures of pure evil coalescing on the village boundary. Quickly we formed a battle line to meet this dire threat however once again we were cruelly outmatched. The daemons outmanoeuvred our forces with merciless ease and we had no choice but to retreat. As we were disengaging I saw in the distance that a unit of bowmen had been cut off by the vile creatures. I am proud to report that they sold their lives dearly, taking many of these aberrations with them on their final journey.

 

We marched at speed back to our camp to resupply and two days later we again set out to our objective. This time I decided to guide our forces through a forested area farther south to our original fateful route and, for a time, the fates were kind to us. On the fifth day our outriders reported a small force of armed men who were also heading, albeit on a different trajectory, to our destination. After hearing the scouts’ description of their livery, Sir Hugues (who as you no doubt recall has spent must time with our Imperial neighbours) concluded that they were most likely members of the Averland State Army.

 

While I was sorely tempted to parlay with the Imperial troops, as our armies drew closer I senses a disquieting presence emanating from within their ranks. This person or thing within their army was shielding himself from me, I could not ascertain his intentions and with the deepest regret I ordered our forces to make ready for battle.

 

To my dying day I will never forget the ferocity of what followed. Battle was joined in earnest with both sides trading missiles of arrow and shot while our respective warriors manoeuvred for position. Our Knights struck first and inflicted a terrible toll on the servants of Karl Franz all the while our bowmen mercilessly cut down all that their arrows could find.

 

The men of Averland did not stand idly by met our charge with a steely resolve one cannot help but admire. We were evenly matched; all it would take would be one singular moment or individual to break this bloody deadlock. 

 

It was at this point that a unit of spearmen appeared led by formidable warrior, evidently the man in command of the army. Our Knights and I charged this unit and each side inflicted terrible casualties, all of a sudden your nephew was thrown from his horse by this captain and before I could draw breath I was fighting him for my very life.

 

With one stroke of his sword he broke my blade and as he prepared to strike again I made myself ready to meet The Lady. However death did not find me today, he turned his blade at the last moment and instead delivered a blow to my head with the side of his blade and I fell into darkness.

 

I woke in the Imperial camp to find my wounds dressed and my body unsullied. At my bedside was the warrior who bested me who introduced himself as Captain Helmut Gerstein. He told me that he and his men had respected our code of honour and those Knights who survived the battle had been treated for their wounds and were residing in the tent next to mine.

 

Captain Gerstein told me that he and his men were here at the behest of a mage called Emmanuel Gant who is travelling with them, I am certain that this Gant is the source of the presence I sensed just before the bloodbath. The Captain proceeded to tell me that once I felt strong enough he would escort our survivors back to our camp under a flag of truce, seeing true honour in his heart I accepted.

 

Three days later, as good as his word, we were taken back to our camp. It pains me to tell you that of the knights that I left with only Sir Hugues of Quenelles, Sir Jacques or Lyonesse, Sir Aldebald of Montfort and Sir Hrodbert of Carcassonne survive.

 

Upon the return to our camp I received news that your son has encountered difficulty on his journey to meet us. Sir Aymeric reports that upon entering the Forest of Loren they encountered a sizeable force of Beastmen intent on pillaging the realm. Honour bound to assist he dispatched your younger son, Sir Ectorde, with your standard, thirty brave knights and as many men as could be spared to continue the journey to meet us. Once the Beastmen are vanquished, Sir Aymeric and the rest of his force will complete their journey.

 

I pray to The Lady that they are not too late

 

 

I am your humble servant,

 

Eleonore

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parravon Expeditionary Force Men-At-Arms

The first round of The Rock in The Badlands was played at the weekend, more or that in a later post.  Anyway, while I hadn’t got the whole army ready in time I had at least managed to get some of my peasant scum ready.

I chose to keep the colours fairly simple by sticking to colours available in the middle ages, mainly dark green and brown for the clothes with red and yellow used for the Lord’s livery.  Thus far I’m really happy with how these are turning out, hopefully I’ll have more for you next week.