Steve's Punitive Expedition by which that parlous state of Sylvania might be purged of workers that do harmful magick - OWAC V Introductory Post

“Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?

Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?"

Nope - the Cult hasn't got them yet (well not all of them!), but where indeed are they one might ask and my answer would be that they reside in numbers amongst my lead pile, waiting to meet this year's Old World Army Challenge. I may need to think of a snappier name for the army... Perhaps Todeswunch's Verlorene Haufen (Forlorn Hope).

After a very successful OWAC last year in more ways than one, I am very excited to be participating again. It really is a huge motivating factor in getting stuff painted for me and whilst I no longer have the luxury of time that being furloughed last year afforded me, I look forward to getting stuck in once more, although I fear I may have got carried away with my army list again!

So what will be the theme for my entry this time? I'll let Theoden finish reciting his Lament for the Rohirrim to give you the flavour of this year's army,

"Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?

Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?

They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;

The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.

Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning,

Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?"

Yes - it's another cheery, upbeat theme with absolutely no existential angst, pathetic aesthetic, doomsday foreboding or Liebestod... Only joking! 

There ain't no getting away from it!

I should also say it isn't a LOTR theme either - I just felt the elegiac tone of the poem about everything declining fit quite well with the mood and setting for this year's project as well as the narrative behind the army.

What I aim to create is an army of the Empire as a bit of a companion piece to my Cult of the New Colossus, which will share much of the same narrative. I'm afraid there'll be no bright, colourful red period 4th edition stylings (not that there's anything wrong with that!) to be found here. This Empire army is going to be even more evil than the Cult that it pursues!

In a similar way to my Chaos collection, I've ended up over the years with a large tub of Empire type miniatures. I've never really gone hard at collecting Empire stuff, but have been picking up bits and pieces here and there in a rather desultory fashion for some time now. They're lovely minis but I've always wanted to do something a bit different with them other than picking an Empire State and painting them up in those colours. I think the strong theme and narrative of Jaeckel's beautiful Lost Crusade had a lot to do with this as well as being a big influence (as I've previously mentioned!) on the Cult of the New Colossus - really inspiring stuff! What with the narrative that saw the Cult end up in Sylvania, I think I have my way in to this project.

Hooray, praise be and celebrate!

The army will be an expeditionary force sent in to Sylvania by the Elector Count of Ostermark, concerned at reports of Cult activity in that blighted county. The general, Kurt Todeswunsch, is an unpopular and feared ex-mercenary, who has risen through the ranks and been grudgingly granted a small fiefdom in Ostermark for his previous services to the Empire. He has, however,  made many political enemies through both his swift rise to power that the many successes his less than orthodox and ruthless methods have brought him and of course his less than noble pedigree. The punitive expedition in to Sylvania is not viewed with any hopes of success by his political masters - more a cynical exercise in getting rid of Todeswunsch and perhaps injecting a little cash flow in to their state coffers from the raising of his army. 

The narrative picks up from the disastrous ambush of the Cult by Kurt's army - where indeed are those horse and riders! Bloodied and burnt by the intercession of Gorice and his Dragon, Kurt Todeswunsch is forced to withdraw and somehow rebuild his tattered army amidst the ruin and degradation of Sylvania, beset by enemies both back home and in the field...

In a setting like Sylvania, I couldn't not go down the road of the likes of Witchhunter General. Along with Blood on Satan's Claw, the Wickerman and A Field in England, these will be the main sources of inspiration in terms of flavour. 

In fact I've ended up going down this rabbit hole so far that much of the Empire stuff I collected will remain in the tub, in favour of some of the more horror related ideas I've had and have bought new miniatures for! I'll perhaps aim to get the units of swordsmen, spearmen and other more regular troops painted up after the challenge is over.

Among Todeswunsch's questionable methods are his willingness to use troops that would at best be frowned upon and at worst be considered heretical. Cue dubious Sylvanian allies who have an aversion to sunlight, penal mutant troops (that sounds a bit wrong...), Peasants who think of themselves as beasts and perhaps even the Dead themselves...

I aim to include a baggage train and a few other fun pieces that should add to the character of the army for my Wildcard Month and I have a few other ideas up my sleeve, time permitting, which I'll keep under wraps for now...

The army list diverges a little from the rules but I think I've come up with some good workarounds that don't make it too over-powered. I'll go in to more detail with these as I paint each unit up.

Always come to an amicable agreement with your opponent when using home-brewed rules!

The more eagle eyed among you may notice slight discrepancies between the numbers in the list and shown in the photos - I am awaiting a few more additions from a Kickstarter pre-order and am looking in to ways of smuggling some other miniatures in to Brexit Britain as this particular EU stockist no longer ships here...

Army List

Kurt Todeswunch                                                    120 points

L20 Hero, Heavy armour, double handed weapon, barded warhorse

Matthias Hopekein, Witchfinder General            65 points                                                   

L10 Hero, light armour, pistol, hand weapon, warhorse

Kaarle Dechste Schutzling                                       66 points

L5 Wizard, hand weapon, warhorse

Josef Kurwen                                                            161 points

L15 Wizard, hand weapon, warhorse

14 Temple Ritterbruden     623 points

L10 Hero

Heavy armour, shields, lances, hand weapons, standard, musician, barded warhorses

24 Knights of the Cleansing Flame        418 points

L10 Hero, L 5 Hero champion 

Heavy armour, shields, spears, musician and standard

18 Hakbutscutzen - Das Todeskommando                    198 points             

L10 Hero - light armour, arquebus, pistol, hand weapon

 Arquebus, hand weapons

30 Landesturm - Peasant Levy - Die Wilde         133 points 

L10 Hero - Light armour, hand weapon

Hand weapons, musician and standard

25 Landesturm - Peasant Levy - Die Befallen (Plague Victims) 324 points

L10 Hero and L5 Hero - Plague Doctor "handlers" - Light armour, hand weapons

Improvised weapons, musician and standard

Unit includes 4 Plague Super-Spreaders (Counts as Plague Censor Bearers)

20 Penal Mutants with 10 handlers - Die Sünderinnen        240 points

L10 Hero and 9 Handlers - Light armour, hand weapons

Erzatzsolder but with D6-4 dominant Chaos attributes, hand weapons, musician, standard

25 Zombies - Die Schale             512 points

L10 Vampire Hero, light armour, hand weapon

Spears, musician and standard

2 Reiks Kanone Batterien             170 points

6 crew plus 1 L5 Bomabardier

Baggage Train                                Free

Total - 3045 points

Finally there's the obligatory offering to our great and powerful Overlord, Iannick Martin, in thanks for facilitating and managing our suffering over the next six months!

This cuddly chap was originally intended to be part of my Chaos Hound pack for the Cult of the New Colossus but they never got painted. With our Overlord's penchant for pink, I couldn't resist reassigning him. I just need to get a certain theme tune out of my head now!

So that's the plan and hopefully I can stay out of time's clutches and avoid the Field of Bones!