Braganza's Besiegers and Axemaster list

Axemaster is in 2 days, and I'm happy to say that I'm pretty well on track in terms of my preparations. My list is settled, painting is almost done, and I've already come to terms with how badly I might lose some of my games!

Braganza's Besiegers are now ready for the table, which means all I have left to paint now is a Lookout Gnoblar to put on one of my unit standards. In some ways this unit felt a bit like a salvage project. They were rummaging around in bags, missing bits, some with rough undercoat/removed paint on them. I obviously picked them up second-hand back in the day, when my Empire army was really just formed up as a way to use my Dogs of War.

10 Besiegers, painted up to go with the purple and white of my core Empire "mercenary" army. I stuck with the rough design of the shields used in the original GW studio photos, even though I changed the colours from red and green.

They really don't rank up very well. It's not what they're made to do.

This probably more like their natural formation, with a front wall of pavises.

Luca Braganza, the commander of the regiment, complete with improvised crossbow arm. If I ever had the original, it has long since disappeared. I did look a few times.

Again, the unit standard is improvised. I was missing the top of the banner pole. I 3D printed a tiny Chess rook to put on the top of the pole, the banner (which is much smaller than the paper original) is plasticard with green stuff around the pole. The design needs work. I want some variant of the unit's original symbol in the centre, involving a snake, sword and crossbow bolts. Right now I settled for a simple background to mimic the pavises. Time is a factor.

I only had 9 Besieger models (which is a really weird number). This guy is a Magori 3D print, with a cloned Besieger shield and a piece of wire holding it up (the rest have a similar support built into the model). 

Here you can see the work of patching the unit together. They're not exactly a work of art, but it's nice to have them ready to field on the table.

I do hope I can make myself go back and fill out the banner design later. It's one of the weaknesses of my Empire army - the banners are too plain. In truth I think I will need to expand this unit later. 10 models is such a small unit that they wouldn't even make it onto the table in a larger game, which seems a bit sad. I think I will print more models, clone more shields using the press mould I made to tie them together, and round the unit out to 20. That's the eventual plan, anyway. We'll see...

As for my list for the weekend, here it is. 2250 points of "Mercenary Ogres":

• Tyrant with Heavy Armour, Luck Gnoblar, Tenderiser, Wyrdstone Necklace
• Bruiser with Battle Standard, Heavy Armour, Luck Gnoblar, Sword of Might, Talisman of Protection
• Butcher with 2 Dispel Scrolls
• 6 Ogre Bulls with Light Armour, Iron Fists, Standard Bearer, Crusher
• 3 Ironguts with Standard Bearer, Look-Out Gnoblar, Great Weapons, Heavy Armour
• 3 Ironguts with Great Weapons, Heavy Armour
• 2 Leadbelchers with Light Armour
• 20 Ricco's Republican Guard (Regiment of Renown)
• 10 Braganza's Besiegers (Regiment of Renown)
• 6 Voland's Venators (Regiment of Renown)
• 1 Bull Rhinox Rider with Heavy Armour, Iron Fist

This is definitely not a strong list. The Tyrant and Bull Rhinox are respectable, and the rest of them are... also there. Hopefully I can win one of my games, but it will depend what I run into. At least it should look the business laid out on the table, as a pretty coherent force despite being full of Dogs of War. I'm sure looking good on the battlefield is more important than victory (or even survival), right?