A Tale of Two Witches – A Hobby Project
| A Tale of Two Witches - A Hobby Project |
| Northmen and Living Dead Recruited From Fireforge Games |
| Smallhammer Lists for a Tale of Two Witches |
Quick Intro
What follows is the first instalment of a series following an oldhammer hobby project. If you like warhammer, if you like oldhammer, then stay a while friend and let me tell you a tale of two witches…
The Find
Some time ago I picked up these two lovely ladies from ebay. They are both Games Workshop models from yesteryear which were made for Warhammer Fantasy Battles. On the right is a model of Morgiana Le Fay on her unicorn steed named Silvaron. I believe the one on the left is a mounted version of a vampiress called Neferata.
Ebay is the world’s greatest source of oldhammer treasures, find your own treasures here.
The Inspiration
Somewhat like Neferata I have an interest in raising the dead. The dead I like raising is oldhammer. It is why I chose to become a dealer in old minis and books and also later a commission painter. Picking up these two models helped crystallise a latent desire to raise two opposing warhammer armies each lead by a witch, one from the light and one from the dark.
The Aim
Around each of these two witches I will muster an army. The aesthetic and composition will be guided by the Warhammer Fantasy Battles game and lore, particularly the later editions (though obviously pre End Times). Morgiana will lead a Bretonnian Army and Neferata will have an undead army drawn from the Vampire Book.
Morgiana, The Fay Enchantress
Morgiana’s force will be fairly classic canon with a bit of an influence from the Total War Warhammer version of the game.
Morgiana’s Forces – Carcassone and the Grail Knights
The army will be drawn from either the official Bretonnia army book released for the 6th edition of the game or the unofficial Bretonnia army book for the 8th edition created by the Warhammer Armies project.
I expect Carcassonne heraldy will feature prominently as a nod to the Total War Warhammer where Morgiana is the Carcassonne faction leader. I do not think this is strictly canon for the tabletop game though.
It will be a peasant heavy list, lots of bowmen. For knights I will go heavy on the Grail knights and light on the rest.
I happen to have a Green Knight model too if I can sneak him in the list.
Malfleur (played by Neferata)
I want to keep the opposing army of death within the same theatre of war
as that of Morgiana. Naturally this suggests the vampire army could be based out of Mousillon, the Bretonnian province notorious for the taint of undeath.
I looked into the lore of Mousillon for a character to lead the army, particularly looking for a vampiress. The closest fit was a lady by the name of Malfleur who was the mysterious consort to Maldred, the last Duke of Mousillon.
Both Maldred and Malfleur allegedly perished centuries ago in the Affair of the False Grail but if Malfleur was a vampiress then that death would not necessarily be the last of her. Indeed she likely could have turned Maldred too or raised him as a wight.
Malfleur and Maldred will make for particularly appropriate antagonists to Morgiana too given the events of the Affair of the False Grail.
Malfleur’s Forces – Mousillon and Maldred
Malfleur’s force will drawn from the Vampire army book for 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
As she is ruling Mousillon through Maldred, Mousillon heraldry will predominate.
I would expect a Mousillon list to have plenty of undead knights and peasants but not so much of the larger monsters.
Malfeur will be a wizard focused vampire but Maldred could either be a combat focused vampire or a wight king. Likely Maldred will also be Battle Standard bearer to keep the number of characters down.
Sourcing the Troops
I am not overly purist about using only oldhammer warhammer models for this project. Indeed they do not necessarily have to be Games Workshop models either. If they fit the aesthetic and are of the right size they will do, be they old or new and whoever is the manufacturer.
Vampire Counts and Undead
Suitable models for the Vampire army are easy enough to find. Games Workshop still stocks much of the line they produced for the old warhammer world. Also a number of other companies produce undead lines some of which are consciously produced as alternatives to GW models. Mantic for example has a great selection of undead.
Bretonnia
The difficulties come in when sourcing for the Bretonnian list. This is mainly because GW has discontinued the entire range. Official GW Bretonnians are still to be found in the pre-owned market but demand for them outstrips the supply which affects the price.
One might think that since a Bretonnian list is predominantly medieval humans one could just use historical miniatures as alternatives. Unfortunately GW minis do not tend to sit well next to historical miniature lines due to their strange proportions and warped interpretation of scale. This is something we will examine in later installments.
Alternative Bretonnians – Forgotten World
In the next instalment we will be taking a close look at some new fantasy themed miniatures from Fireforge Games which I hope will make for good alternative Bretonnians. These are their Northmen line for their Forgotten World kickstarter for which I was a backer.
If anyone has some other suggestions for alternative Bretonnians do please leave it in the comments below.
| A Tale of Two Witches - A Hobby Project |
| Northmen and Living Dead Recruited From Fireforge Games |
| Smallhammer Lists for a Tale of Two Witches |