Project Basecoat (Snowpacalypse!!)

[hodge]

Hey gang. I decided to start a thread to document my new project. Like most people in the hobby I have a hard time sticking to one project at a time. I'm hoping that my new approach will help me get something done. I never write this much in a post, I feel a bit like Joe Sleboda. *Shudder* (J/K Joe, if you're out there lurking in cyberspace) Please bear with me though. I promise the forthcoming posts will not be nearly as long as this first one.

Getting a new army on the table is daunting. If you're like me it always starts out great. You get a few models done, play a couple games, and work your butt off for about two and half weeks. Suddenly, you burnt yourself out and you take "a break". Which means you don't touch the stuff until you decide to pack it up two months later to make room for your next project.

What makes it even harder is if you have a fully painted army that you love and adore already. For me that's my HE. Unfortunately people are very familiar with my elves, which means people are less impressed at tourneys and they are more accustomed to my tactics. Even though there are still a few folks from time to time who say "Hey, those are some wonderful Dark Elves." So it's time to change. Hopefully I can break the cycle with my new project.

A friend of mine recently inspired me to complete an army. He told me to just base coat my units, get them done to a tourney minimum and then head back and add the layers and highlights over time. What a great idea. I'm going to break some of my big painting rules, but obviously my big painting rules haven't helped me be all that productive. I have a two minis done to my "usual" standard, which you'll see below, I hope they help me keep things in perspective and remind me that eventually I'll get everything to that standard.

Well, I'm only the third person to start an Empire army within these forums, sorry for the repetition, but it's what I've got. My goal is to get 3k of Empire base coated. That way I can assemble a 2200 or 2400 point list that is fairly competitive for either Core Comp or some other local tourneys. It's going to kill me, but I don't plan on bringing them to A-Con until they are totally done. Perhaps I'll be ready for the 2012 small game on Friday, but at the speed I move they won't see the championships for another two years. I'm slow.

I chose the province of Wissenland primarily because I like the color scheme. The gray, brown, and red is considerably different from the cream, purple, and turquoise of my elves. When it comes to fluff, Wissenland is also in a good location. Plenty of other forces nearby as a result of being one of the provinces on the outskirts of the Empire. If you enjoy reading fantasy novels, outside of Black Library, check out Steven Erikson. The third novel in his series focuses on a mercenary army called the Grey Swords. I liked the imagery presented in that novel and thought that it could be closely tied to the grey suits of Wissenland. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Typically fluff motivates me more than the thought of smashing my opponent. Although, I enjoy handing out a good smashing from time to time. ;D

Onto the nuts and bolts. How am I going to get this done. I had already started about two weeks ago and have implemented my "schedule" successfully. I have drawn out a time line over the next six months laying out what I should get done and by when. I'm a teacher, I like to organize my "plans". My fiance laughed. But what does she know about painting an entire Warhammer army from scratch? Each week I will base coat 5 models using the GW foundation paints and a couple of metallic mixes that I have made. If I get a week's goal done early, I plan on waiting til next week to work on the following step, to avoid the aforementioned "burn out". Once the entire army is fully base coated, I will go back five at a time and bring them up to standard. This may take a while because I will need to complete a 1K force over the summer and fall for next year's Adepticon team tourney. Unfortunately, it will not be Empire, but Beastmen. Ho hum.

Finally, Pics!

[hodge]

Here we go.

The first two are my "completed" minis.

My General of the Empire on foot. He doesn't have a name yet...



His back.



Handgunner.



Now, here is what I have base coated thus far. The first, 20 Swordsmen out of a unit of 30.



Ten Handgunners with Repeater Handgun.



Five Handgunners w/Hochland Long Rifle.



Lastly, "The Box", much of the contents within "The Box" will not be used. Currently it's being used as storage for all of my Empire models.

[hodge]

Like I said. Much of "The Box" will not be included in the model count that will make up the initial 3K of my base coat project. The bulk of the unpainted models within "The Box" are free company. I do not plan on using them, they're an absolute nightmare to rank up. The knights may come eventually, but I'd rather get some Knights of the White Wolf assembled. The knights I have came from the battalion set, guess what, no White Wolf sprue. Grr. What made the list of models to be completed you ask?

2 units of 30 Swordsmen, with full command.
1 unit of 10 Handgunners with Hochland Long Rifle.
1 unit of 10 Handgunners with Repeater handgun.
1 unit of 5 Outriders (Hello Vanguard move!).
1 Great Cannon.
1 Battle Wizard (Fire or Shadow, haven't decided yet.)

What needs to be assembled to get to 2200?

40 Greatswords with full command.
2 units of 5 Pistoliers.
1 Helstorm Rocket Battery.
1 BsB.
1 Wizard Lord (Life. Duh.).

What needs to be assembled to get to 3000?

1 Steam Tank.
20 Halberdiers with full command (gotta have a unit that can go in the tower before the game starts).
The last 150 odd points could be spent on characters, I haven't really made up my mind yet.

So that's the plan. This week's goal is already finished. I base coated five swordsmen which brought that unit up to twenty. Next week I'll finish up the handgunners.

PEACE!

[Erik Lindley]

That is great Brian! I look forward to seeing this thread mature :>

No one knows about being slow like I do. It stinks in some ways that we have to plan our armies out in terms of years, but so it goes. That is also a little bit of the fun

-Erik

[Tom McClure]

Suh-weet! Project basecoat is a go! Seeing this is great inspiration, like having a workout partner. Time to break a sweat!

[Chris M.]

As one of the other Empire starters I'd like to say I feel your pain. I wrote out my tournament list the other day and holy crap are there a lot of models in it. I actually have more models in my Empire army than I do in my Orc army..... I also decided on a similar way to go with my painting but I still have around 80 models to assemble... out of 200 that is. I'll be watching your progress with interest. I've decided on Reikland, I had to go and pick difficult colors didnt I damn red and white....


Good luck on your painting,

Chris

[retroalias]

Looking forward to seeing how it comes together.

[steveb]

Could definitely see me doing this with my VC.

[hodge]

Updates:

Nothing huge. Here's an updated photo of "The Box"



There are a few changes in regard to the contents of "The Box", the Outriders' bases were painted and drybrushed as well as the remaining models in the Swordsmen unit. I also took out most of the models that I do not plan on using in my 3K list. Lastly I finished assembling 20 Greatswords.

Side projects!

Over the summer I started making my own terrain prior to the new edition coming out. I had a blast. Here are a few pics of my completed terrain.

Graveyard:


Forests:


Earthworks:


Here's what I'm working on currently, when I haven't been assembling or painting Empire. An Empire Ale House, I have named it "The Leaning Priest". I hope that someday it will be the centerpiece of my display board. It is still a WiP for sure. I need to finish the roof, putty and sculpt the chimney, and finally add some details. Over the last two days I worked on the roof, the chimney, and the rivets on the door.

Check it! The front:


The back:


That's it for tonight, just wanted to share what I completed over the last couple of days. Santa brought plenty of goodies to help out the Project Basecoat cause. I'll share later.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

PEACE!

[retroalias]

Terrain is fantastic.

[geitmeise]

Terrain is mind-blowing!

[hodge]

Small update.

I've completed my weekly goal for Project Basecoat, the remaining five handgunners are done. That makes two fully base coated units. Both units of ten handgunners. Next unit to be finished will be the first unit of 30 swordsmen.

Here's an absolutely hideous picture of the five new handgunners to join the "painted" army.



I have completed a few other things for the army outside of painting. Here's an updated photo of "The Box".



Changes to the contents of "The Box" include ten newly assembled Greatswords and a new movement tray for the second unit of 30 Swordsmen as well as the movement tray for the unit of Pistoliers that still needs to be assembled.

Santa brought goodies!



Between the Christmas gifts I received and a few trades I have yet to make with Mr. Walker, I should have all I need for a good while when it comes to Empire models.

Finally, here's what's scheduled to be worked on next.
Five more Swordsmen to be base coated.
5 Pistoliers to be assembled.
1 Helstorm Rocket Battery.

That's it for now.

PEACE!

[murphy]

Looking good Brian, nice progress! Was hoping to see them on the table last night in the battle, but I am sure they will be brought out soon enough. Looking forward to it!

[hodge]

Thanks Jake. I'm hoping to have them at the bunker starting next week to drop some dice and get a feel for the list.

As of yesterday the 2200 list is assembled, sanded, and primed. I can focus on base coating again since most of my holiday break I spent cleaning mold lines and getting stuff assembled.

"The Box"


Stuff that's been assembled and primed since last update:
Chassis and crew for the Helstorm Rocket Battery (I'm hoping to paint this in pieces so I'll be playing with "Ghost Rockets" for a bit.)
5 Pistoliers with musician
10 Huntsmen

I decided I'd get more mileage out of the Huntsmen rather than 10 more Greatswords to bring the unit up to 40. I'll try them out and if I think the bigger unit of Greatswords would be worth it then I'll go that route.

The mini in the plastic baggie in the corner is the Limited Edition BsB with the buzz cut. I won him off of eBay and was pretty psyched to pick him up. I absolutely hate the Empire General plastic kit, he's just way too bulky. I know my current general came from that box, but I'm still not a huge fan.

Right now I'm debating which route I want to take with my Core Comp list. Do I want to take a massive unit of Halberdiers or a big unit of Knights with calvary hammers? Not sure. Guess I'll have to test it out once I get the models. I'm leaning towards Knights, mostly because I want to create my own order.

Oh well, thanks for all the comments guys. I hope to keep up with this in the new year.

Peace.

[hodge]

Last night I was able to get a game in against Chris Walker. It was my first battle with the Empire and his first battle using his all (mostly) Goblin army. We played out six turns in his garage testing out one of the ACon scenarios. I think it was an updated version of magic flux. We used the typical ACon terrain set up, two hills, two trees, one building, and something else. We decided to add a bit more magical influence to the game by using the Arcane Ruins on the center line as the something else.

His list was:
1 Goblin lord on foot
1 Goblin lord shaman lvl 4
1 Goblin hero shaman lvl 2 (one of them had the staff of sneaky stealing)
1 Goblin hero bsb
1 Goblin hero on giant cave squig
1 Goblin hero on giant spider

1 unit of 40 Night Goblins with nets, full command, 2x fanatics, and spears/shield
1 unit of 30ish Night Goblins with same kit as above
1 unit of 30 Night Goblin Archers with full command
1 Squig herd with 20 or so squigs
1 unit of Squig hoppers 10 strong
1 unit of 6 Stone trolls
2 Rock Lobbas
1 Doom Diver

I'm not sure of the characters kit because the goblins did not see much combat and Chris let it slip that they were geared up to fight against units with my characters, so I decided to feed them units of normal troops. Which ended up doing better than I thought.

I'm terrible at remembering all of my moves and such so I'll give you the highlights.

First Turn:
Cannon takes out a rock lobba, Helstorm misfires leading to two rounds of missed shooting. Outriders move up and try to pepper the spider riding hero, but missed epically.
Trolls advance, squig hoppers get into my pistoliers which I moved up too close, generals unit squabbles and sits in the middle, Goblin magic almost sees off the Outriders from an IF Foot of Gork.

Turn Two:
Huntsmen charge the Spider Rider, forcing a push for two rounds of combat.
Squig hoppers continue their rampage up the field into a unit of hangunners who stand and shoot dealing only one wound. Hoppers paste the unit and then run off the board. Wizard Lord gets off Dwellers on the larger unit of Night Goblins, doing close to 20 wounds but missing both characters inside. They make their panic check.

Turn Three:
Trolls charge my general's unit, squig herd squabbles in front of my unit of greatswords, Spider Rider defeats the huntsmen and runs them down, Outriders are magic'd off the table, and the cannon is charged by the hopper on a rampage. Trolls do a bunch of damage in combat but fail to break the General's unit, now they have the second unit of swords staring them in the flank. Helstorm can now fire, dropping the pie plate directly on the General and BSB's unit of Goblins killing 12 of the buggers. The hangunners in the middle open up on the squabbling squig herd killing four or five of their number. Overall good turn for the humies.

Turn four:
Combat with the trolls continues but they are now flanked by the second unit of swords. The Wizard Lord casts flesh to stone on the generals unit, making them tough 5. The handgunners pepper the herd that squabbled once more in front of the greatswords. The greatswords and squig herd are now separated by a line of swirling fanatics. Helstorm unleashes its final volley before being charged by the spider rider, the salvo scatters and lands on the squig herd dealing a swath of wounds leaving four squigs and one herder alive.

The trolls once again win combat but neither unit of swordsmen break, thankfully the second unit of swordsmen have terrain blocking their exposed flank to deny a charge from the second unit of night goblins. Combat during Chris' turn sees the trolls beaten by three, the trolls break and are ran down by the swordsmen without a character. They overrun into the smaller unit of goblins that have been joined by the general and bsb. The hopper on a rampage sees off the cannon crew and lines up to take out the last unit of hangunners.

The lobba hits home and causes a decent amount of damage to the greatswords. The doom diver continues to miss.

Turn five:
Greatswords charge the herd, the fanatics have either died or have moved far enough away to pose little threat. Greatswords paste the unit and set up to cast magic at the rest of the goblin army on turn six. Swordsmen engaged with the goblin general's unit fight like demons slaying several goblins and passing many of their parry saves. It also helped that they had shield of thorns on them. Goblins still win combat but the swords are unphased. By the bottom of five the goblin character on giant cave squig has gotten around the ruins and is able to charge the engaged unit in the rear. Chris forgot to dispel shield of thorns but it did no wounds to the hero and only a few to the goblins. Even though they are outnumbered the Swordsmen hold one more turn.

The giant spider takes out the helstorm and overruns into the last unit of handgunners. The lone squig hopper finally dies to a handgunner in combat. The gunners break, but avoid being run down.

Turn Six:
The unit of swordsmen engaged with the generals unit finally breaks but not before they manage to kill the remaining goblins in the general's unit, leaving only the characters. The giant spider finishes off the handgunners.

End Result:
Draw.

I had enough points left in my greatswords, my second unit of swordsmen, and my characters to keep it in the draw category. It seemed a little dismal for me at the end but after tallying up points it was a draw slightly in my favor.

Well, that was my unorganized battle report. I'll post comments and planned changes to my list a little later.