The Old World is nearly here, so time to resurrect the old blog

 So, the Old World is finally here, and after years of waiting, I’ve dived right in and ordered both the Tomb Kings and Bretonian boxsets, so that I can add to my existing army. Having played Warhammer for nearly 30 years, I’ve got a lot of armies, at various point levels, with the main force being High Elves, which is roughly 5000 points.

I got my Brets, in two parts. Firstly, in 1996, with the 5^th edition boxset. 12 Knights of the Realm and 24 bowmen, painted to various levels of poorness. Then, when in 2004, the 6^th edition force came out, I started again. I got the battalion, a Lord, a BSB, and another box of the Knights of the Realm.

And that’s where I left it. 

The Tomb Kings faired better, my gaming buddies and I had an escalation league, back in 2011, where we would start with 500 points, and then after several games, we would add 250 points. Due to this, I’ve got 2000 points, give or take, for Tomb Kings.  So with these two forces being the main focus, for now, of the Old World. I’m going to start with the Brets. I’ll be writing a blog about my plans for the Tomb Kings box, later.

So, some of the first models I ever saw was the 5^th Edition Brets, in the Friar Lane store, in Nottingham. This was just as they were about to be released. Being history-mad, these instantly captured my attention, and I fell in love
with these pseudo-historical miniatures. Learning about their lore, in White Dwarf, with the mix of medieval history and Arthurian legends, what’s more could a young boy want?

So, a Bret army should have knights, lots of knights. So far, I’ve got 2 units of 8 Knights of the Realm. I’ve got 12 more knights coming in the new starter set, which is boosted by the Grail Knight Command Group.

My next purchases will be more Grail Knights and Knights of the Realm. I wanted to have a core of an army that consists of three units of Knights of the Realm, 12 strong. Joined by a unit of 12 Knights Errant. This will be backed up by a unit of Grail knights. 

The first unit is built, and ready to go.

They’ll be led, initially, by a Lord on Horse, and a BSB. 

Under the preview of the Bretonian Army, they showed that you’ll need at least one unit of men at arms. With the battalion and the new starter set, I have three units of 16. Again, I hope to bump this up to 20.

I’ve also got around 5 units of bowmen. I’ve always run these in units of 10, in days of Warhammer gone by, and will do the same, if the rules allow.

These will be supported by a Trebuchet, possibly a second one as well.

I’ve not discussed the Lord on Pegasus, which is an awesome model, and Pegasus knights. I’ve got the Lord and a unit of 6, and I don’t know how I’m going to incorporate these yet. I’ll need to get some games in and see how the army plays out.

But first to the painting.

With the reissue, GW has taken the sensible approach and changed the background so that the Knights of the Realm take the heraldry of their Lord, this is sensible, as painting 36 Knights of the Realm in individual colours is crazy.

So, of course, I’m going to ignore this, as you can see from the pictures on the side, I’ve already got 2 Knights painted, in different colours. These have been done over the years, and so, it only makes sense to continue with this madness.

Therefore, each knight will have their colours, with the Lord's colours, red and white, on the shield raised on the horse barding. This will make it easier. I’m also thinking about restricting the Red and White, to the Lord and his family (i.e. the nobles), but I probably won’t.

These chaps have been patined for a while. 

I’m also thinking about, how best to plan and paint everything. I don’t want to burn myself painting so many knights in one go. So, I’m going to do, what I did back in 2014, with my High Elf Army. I’m going to paint 200 points a month. So, by the end of the year, I should have a nice force, between, 2000-3000 points.

When writing, I don’t have the Forces of Fantasy or  Ravenous Hordes army books, so I don’t know what the current values are. There are plenty of leaks, now that the influencers are showing off the book, but I’m doing my best to avoid them. 

Having the old Sixth edition army book, I know that a unit of eight Knights of the Realm, with full command, comes to a cost of 230 points. A Lord-level Bretonnian Lord, on a horse with a Lance and a Shield, is going to be 130 points before I add any magic items. So, that should give me, by the end of January, 360 points, to start with.

Next month, I’m going to paint some Peasent Men at Arms, and maybe the Bowmen, to spice up things. See you soon.