Maciek's classic undead

Hello everybody,

My name is Maciek and this is my first OWAC - I am very happy to be joining this collective madness. I was first exposed to the "grim and perilous" Old Word through Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), back in 1994 when it was published in Poland. My first experience of battles in the Old World was through the WFRP perspective in "Lichemaster". It was a brilliant WFRP supplement, where player characters fought a series of desperate, atmospheric - and highly enjoyable - skirmishes against a growing army of the undead. 

Lichemaster, PL edition, AD 1994. That cover art meant the book was an instant buy for me back in the day. The art from the book will be an inspiration for this army. A little challenge: try to pronounce that title :-)

To reflect this early experience in "Old World battles" my first entry to OWAC will be the undead - a classic force led by a necromancer and composed of skeletons, zombies and ghouls. A necromancer who wants to succeed where Heinrich Kemmler failed. More pragmatic reason for this choice is that it is an army I hope to actually be able to paint in 6 months - my normal painting speed is glacial so I decided to start of easy - painting many skeletons should be a breeze... (or so I think...) Secondly, I need an army of darkness as an adversary for my painted Bretonnians. When putting together the army I was driven by one rule - "Thou shalt paint what thou already have". Well, mostly...

Without further ado, here is my force: 

 - Level 20 Necromancer acting as the army general and a Level 5 vampire (240+330=570 points). The necromancer was among the first Warhammer figures I bought - owned him for about 25 years. 

- 20 Skeleton warriors, with spears, light armour, shields and full command. Led by Level 5 undead hero. Total 343 points. There are nine new plastic skeletons in the back two ranks. My puny excuse is: they are great models (just remove the excess helmet decorations). I will also "oldify" them by retrograding them with 90s shields.

 

- 10 Death Riders, with heavy armour, lances and shields. Led by Level 10 undead hero. Total 287 points.

- 20 Zombies, costing 80 points. Mostly Heresy Miniatures sculpts. Led by a dancing halfling "Mikael Hackson" and ready to bring the thrill to unsuspecting citizens of the Empire. :-)

- 10 Ghouls, costing 80 points.

- One screaming skull catapult, costing 85 points.

Altogether it should clock in at 1445 points. If painting goes well, I will be adding a couple of things (army standard, mounted wight king...), if not I may need to descope the zombies. 

As an offering for our benevolent Overlord, I present this skeleton warrior with old-school freehand design on the shield. I really enjoyed that shield painting but will only be doing that for heroes!

It is my first attempt at such focused army painting and also my first blog post, ever. So many first time experiences and I'm really looking forward to the challenge. Roll on 1st of January 2021!

Cheers, Maciek