The Army of Averheim!

It looks like there will be a lot of Empire armies in the painting challenge, but they should all be different. My own army will be from the city of Averheim, in Averland. The inspiration comes from my recent visit to the Bavarian city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It's a very well-preserved medieval city, and I couldn't help but think of the Empire while I was there!

The army list will include:

30 halberdiers with 9 free company detachment
25 swordsmen with 9 free company detachment
25 spearmen with 9 free company detachment
12 crossbowmen
10 handgunners
6 knights
5 pistoliers
5 outriders
20 greatswords
1 cannon
1 helstorm rocket battery
General will accompany the greatswords
Lvl 2 wizard will accompany the spearmen
Warrior Priest will accompany the swordsmen
mounted Battle Standard Bearer with the Griffon Standard will accompany the halberdiers

No stank, no popemobile. I'm convinced the Empire army can win with ranked units and clever use of the detachment system. I'm not saying it'll be easy, mind you, just that it's possible.

The city theme should be evident throughout the army. The core is three strong units of State Troops (to man the walls) with some missile fire and artillery to back them up. Three small units of cavalry will provide some mobility within and without the city walls. The Burgomeister (general) will be accompanied by his bodyguard of greatswords to apply force where it is needed.

The total model count will come in at around 173, so I have my work cut out for me. I have tried to break down the painting according to the painting challenge schedule. I won't meet the points requirements of each phase exactly, but it's the only way I've found to have an achievable goal in each phase.The first phase will include 30 halberdiers, 9 free company detachment, the mounted BSB (Ludwig Schwarzhelm model) and the great cannon. That's about 45 models in three weeks. Tough enough to begin with, but it gets harder- I'm being sent to Ft Dix for a week, so I'll only have about 2 weeks to complete this. I've spent the first week doing assembly and modeling (more on this later), so I've really only got one week to lay down all that paint. I may have to go over into phase 2 time to get this done, but as phase 2 is four weeks long, everything should be back on track by the end of phase 2.

Okay, now on to the modeling part. I decided early on to do city bases for the army, but I wasn't sure how to accomplish this. Fellow Dice Dog Tom L. helped out immensely by providing his time and materials to make a mold of some cobblestone bases we made. I have now cast enough plastic bases to get all of the phase 1 models painted.The masters are Citadel bases with Plastruct cobblestone texture on top. It took two nights, but we cut and glued the plastruct down, then applied putty to cover the gaps around the edges.

So the army of Averheim is starting to take shape. I’ll post pictures here as I get some models painted, and I’ll also post a bit more about the fluff concerning the army.