Saturday, September 29, 2018

The Black River Landesturm

 In even the Most sheltered portions of the Baron Refn's realm men must always stand ready to help defend their homes and families against marauding enemies.
 Such auxiliary troops usually have little real combat value, and leave the hard fighting to the professionals, serving in transport and other support roles.  In desperate hours, however, they may be forced to fight to in the line alongside the men-at-arms.

 Though generally poorly equipped and largely untrained in battle, such militias can occasionally become formidable if fighting to defend their homes, or inspired by a particularly capable leader.  This impromptu regiment appears to be following some pugnacious spiritual leader of their community.
Nonetheless the lack of military expertise amoung such troops is hard to overemphasize.  This individual appears to be trying to use his spoon for a helmet.
Dealing with the wounded of both sides is an important role for many Landesturm units.  Friendly wounded must be evacuated from the battle and tended to.  Enemy wounded must be located and dispatched, as shown above.

 Musicians are important to inspire the troops and help steady their shaky morale.
 This is one of several projects that came together at around the same time, thanks to some time off that I've had lately.  It was inspired largely by the peasant rebellions in Medieval Germany, which I read a little about this summer.
It will serve to bulk out my Warhammer Empire/Bretonnian army a bit, though it may not be much good for fighting anything other than Snotlings and Skavenslaves.  I'd like to 2 more units and some wizards to that army by the end of this year.

13 comments:

  1. Spoons can make good armour when things get tough, and while your enemy is gazing in wonderment at your exotic headgear you take advantage of his amazement and hit him with a great big club.
    Nice to see something different in a G.W. army.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Vagabond! Honestly I don't even know what goes in a GW army these days. This army is rooted in the 3rd edition army lists which came out in I think 1990 or 91. I lost interest in almost everything they did after little cottage industry GW became MECHA CORPORATE GW which I believe was around 1994 or thereabouts. Most of my armies have a mix of figures. This regiment is made up of a few Citadel minis from the 80s, a lot of Old School Citadel/Wargames Foundry things and a ton of Old Glory's Revolting Peasants.

      Delete
  2. I do like the hilarity of the spoon helmet. I suspect it's like GIs in vietnam, using your helmet to carry something useful like smokes.....or your only item of cutlery. Some great wood cut art in there as well...nice finds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dave. I've been working on this army for years. That's something I've always liked about those old school Citadel minis. They have a lot of earthy, humorous, characterful little touches like a guy marching off to war, axe in one hand, bottle of booze in the other in the other, snotlings scratching their hindquarters or guys stowing their spoons in their hats. If I could just get off my butt and stay focused for a few weeks I could have a playable army by the end of the year. Seems that not how I work, though.

      Delete
    2. Oh man, tell me about it. If I could maintain focus I'd have a bunch of stuff ready to go instead of endless fractionally complete projects.

      Delete
  3. That's a really fun little group. Nicely done!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, amigo. Is my page the only one you subscribe to on your Blogger account? Or are you everybody's buddy?

      Delete
    2. Right now I'm just your buddy. Maybe I'll get some more in the future.

      Delete
  4. Great miniatures and interesting historical facts.

    ReplyDelete