I'm really angry with my pictures... photography is not my strongest suit. And this is very frustrating
Anymay, here you have the
Altdorf army for the battle:
Note there is only
strictly state troops from Altdorf. No cavalry, no militia, no flagellants, no wizards... this is why it seems a little bit small.
I painted some months ago most of them, war machines some weeks ago, and then, both characters and the Steam Tank. And finally, I painted the banners. I specially focus my attention on them because I understand them as a very important part of any army, not only at a visual level but also regarding barckground and personality.
So, here a little explanation about them:
This combination of elements in the banners deserves an explanation. Obviously the first thing to note are the colors of the city in the bottom: blue and red. After looking for information about the usual elements in the banners and shields of Aldorf, I found that most of them reflect elements of the current era of Warhammer, that is, C2525. As you know, at this time the emperor is Karl Franz, born in Altdorf, and this circumstance is clearly reflected on many signs of this city.
But at the time of
Magnus, Altdorf was not the capital of the Empire, and there was not an emperor unanimously recognized by all the provinces. Thus the elements relating to the power of the emperor (the
crown, the
two-tailed comet) or other symbols of power associated with the great emperors (
Sigmar's hammer, or
Magnus' gryphon, for obvious reasons), made no sense on an altdorf banner. Instead, there were two elements that also appeared and that could be used: the skull and the laurel crown. The first one does not refer to the soldiers as the bearers of death, as it could believe, but represents the perishable human condition: human life inevitably ends with death; to carry a skull as a symbol in the battle is a demonstration that they bearers are not afraid to face the death; its bearers, therefore, will fight until the end of their forces in the battle. On the other hand, the laurel crown is reserved for those people or cities who have carried out acts of value on the battlefield. Thus, these two elements evoke courage and determination and could apply to our standards.
You can see some letters and numbers in the upper left of the banners. Letters are the acronym for unit type. But not in English, fools! in reikspiel! (that is, in German). So:
·
MS: Musketenschützen
·
ST: Staatstruppen
On the other side of the banner, to better distinguish between units, I decided to incorporate a shield or icon with the type of weapons of each unit, as well as the type of troop with the unabbreviated name.
Finally, it should be noted that at the top of the banners is also an element that reflects the type of unit (shooting or close combat): arrows for firing units, skull or other symbols for close combat units.
You can find a little step to step tutorial on the blog, if you are interested:
http://thegatesofkislev.blogspot.com.es/2017/10/la-hueste-de-altdorf-altdorf-host.htmlAny suggestion will be appreciated, seriously. Soon I will paint Ostermark banners I want to make them better. Any picture o idea will be welcome.