Heffengen

I realised during last week that we were about to enter December and I really hadn't gotten the ball rolling in terms of this year's "big game". It seems to have become an annual event now, and I see no particular reason to break the pattern. Anyway, all the End Times stuff has thrown whatever plans I might have had into something of a spin, so I've decided to embrace it and use some of the material from the Nagash book. This year (well, technically it looks like it will happen on January 1st next year) we shall recreate the Battle of Heffengen.

For those who don't know (and without giving too much away for anyone who is worried about spoilers at this point), Heffengen saw a large Empire army led by Karl Franz intercept a Chaos invasion that had burst through the human defences to the north. As things started to look grim on the Empire flank, an Undead army led by Vlad von Carstein intervened.

The battle is actually covered by 3 separate scenarios in the End Times: Nagash book. I have decided we'll roll the scenarios together into a single large game involving 8 players.

The players are lined up and I'm starting to gather a list of the forces we have available so that I can determine the final size of the battle. My suspicions are that the limiting factor will be the Empire side, so of course I am doing what I can to bolster that side of things. I'm finally adding a third "region" to my own Empire army - something I've been planning to do for a long time.

10 Handgunners in the black and red of "Ostland" (shhh, don't tell the proper Ostland players. They will point out my scheme is wrong)...

In my mind this third faction is from Ostland, however my force will be red and black with the occasional white accent, rather than the traditional white and black. This decision stems from a couple of factors. Firstly, I want the new units to really add more visual variety to my arrayed forces, and black/white is not different enough from purple/white. Secondly, I wanted a scheme that I could imagine being quick for me to paint. Any elements in this colour scheme will simply be adding to an already large army, so they're only really adding bulk for big games. Being pretty is less important than looking finished on the table. And I'm sick of painting white. I paint with a black undercoat, so black it is!

Realistically, I don't know how much stuff I can get painted in the next month. I need to ensure I also get Deathclaw and Valten painted during that time - they're essential for the game, whereas these other units are just to add bulk. Still, I need more handgunners anyway and the Empire army is meant to have a whole flank packed with missile troops and artillery, so the more I get done, the better. One can never have too many of these things.

The rest of the unit of Handgunners, awaiting paint. I plan to break my Handgunners up into units of 20, with command.

Here are 2 more units of 20, in need of slightly more TLC. One unit will likely be red and black, whilst the other will be purple and white. I have a couple of units of the more recent models waiting to go as well, but they will be slower to paint, and won't be in these schemes.

Some more things getting undercoated. The makings are here of a regiment of 60 Ostland Halberdiers. Here's hoping that colour scheme really is quick to paint.