My final tribute to the Old World, a Bretonnia project (part 1)

This post took me way longer to type up than it should’ve been. Having been distracted by playing Dark Souls every day trying to progress against the grind, and enjoying how rewarding the game is each time I finally beat a boss. Painting my models has been a lot slower than usual because of my time devoted to playing Dark Souls.

But I did eventually get a good sizeable batch of units painted in the last three weeks.

Lately I’ve been feeling very nostalgic about Warhammer, more specifically Warhammer Fantasy Battles and the years I’ve been experiencing it from 2009 to its last days. Looking through old rule books from 7th and 8th edition, Blood in the Badlands supplement and Storms of Magic supplement. It was a very different time and place back then, how things have changed since.

I’ve been keen to re-establish my mind with the Old World, reading books I’ve read before, and new ones I haven’t read. Recently, I got the novella, Dreadfleet, by Phil Kelly, which was a released alongside the standalone box game back in 2011. So far I’m really enjoying this book for its ‘straight to the action’ opening, and paces pretty well from chapter to chapter. Oh, and I found out in the book that Sigmarite existed before AoS!

Back to the subject.

The one thing I didn’t get to do was to paint a full army collection for WHFB, by the time AoS came around all of my WHFB collections were converted over to AoS. Although I still have a Dark Elves army painted, it’s counted as an AoS army as they’re all on circle bases and use the legacy rules.

I realised that I still have many spare square bases and movement trays, which I haven’t used since 2015. Then, a couple of weeks ago I found out that my local charity shop were selling boxes of historical model kits. An idea formed in my head.

Why not build a 7th/ 8th edition army? A Bretonnia army was something I’ve always wanted to do, well when an updated army book for 8th edition (but alas they were killed in the End Times before they could receive their book). So previous editions would have to do.

That’s if I can ever find myself a second hand copy of Bretonnia, as it’s kinda hard to find a second hand copy these days. So I’m relying on information from wiki, White Dwarf issues and anything relating to Bretonnia lore and rules.

Since GW have gotten ride of the Bretonnia range, I’ve tried other ways of building this army. I’ve used various kits from historical miniature companies, mostly from Hät miniatures. For more fantasy like models, I’ve gone for Wizkids D&D miniatures range for mystical beasts.

Below is my list that I’m working on for this project, which will change over the next few weeks as I’m working on the project.

Lords–

• Bretonnian Lord

Hero’s-

• Nobel Champion
• Nobel Champion
• Damsel

Core-

• 20x Men at arms
• 20x Men at arms
• 10x Peasant Bowmen
• Knights Errant

Special-

• 40x Peasant Battle Pilgrim

• 10x Mounted Yeomen

Rare-

• Holy Grail Knights

Storm of magic-

• Owl Bear (substituting Gryphon warscroll)

Great Stag

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Now onto the good stuff! I’ve already painted a few units for this project, and surprisingly I did a few units of 20x models! I tend to get really unmotivated to paint big block units when it comes to an army project, but this project was different. It was actually fun painting block units………..

This is my first unit of two blocks of 20x Men at arms, I thought these were a good looking unit as semi armoured peasants. Slightly better looking, but not as extravagant and stoic as the nobles of Bretonnia. I have a second unit already painted, but it looks the exact same but blue shields instead.

Next up, I have an Owl Bear as substitute for a Gryphon warscroll. I’d imagine Owl Bears are fierce but loyal creatures to the knightly order, who fight alongside the knights when a Damsel binds these creatures in times of great need.

For my Hero options, I’ve gone for two Knight champions to be added in my units of peasants.

Finally, the Bretonnia Lord who will lead this army.

There’s still a lot of work to do with this collection, all my models have now been undercoat primed and ready to be painted. I’m hoping in time I can get my Peasant Bowmen painted soon as my third painted core unit.

I’m just hoping Dark Souls doesn’t derail my project by a long delay…..

-Bjorn