The Empire's Renaissance

[Rowsdower]

Eep, I got a reply from Zap Rowsdower, the man himself! I've been looking forward to this. :D Big MST3k fan.

Aaanyway, yeah, back in the day I started painting him simply because I liked the models so much. Wanted to use him as a referee/rules lawyer in games on the sideline.

I was originally going to base my Avatar off Dirk Hardpeck from Space Mutiny but the name was unavailable

[Count James]

I adore your army. They look outstanding. There is something that really hits the spot with these older models painted to such a high standard - especially the 6th edition-era multipart plastic and hybrid kits.

One day, when the kids are all grown up and my life consists of nothing but free time and Warhammer, I'd like to able to achieve something like this.

Until then though, I shall continue to look at armies like yours with nothing but awe and respect. Very, very, very well done!

[Sigur]

@Rowsdower: You should have put your faith in Blast Hardcheese. ;)

@Count James: Thanks very much! Yeah, I'd love to get some more work done on that army. Managed to at least prime 36 halbardiers. Not sure if I'll actually paint them next, because I'm kinda eager to dig into those Landsknecht boxes. Or the knights box. But let's see. For now I'm knee-deep in a Stormcast Eternals army I have to finish for a gentleman who wants to play them in his next tournament around the end of the month, and the past two weeks I kinda fell back to getting a giant robot toy painted and whatnot. Gotta get back to Warhammerin'. Actually, a friend of mine invited me to a game of 5th edition tomorrow (featuring his fantastic Empire and O&G armies), but I had to cancel due to other commitments.

[Sigur]

Well, I got stuff done, so I allowed myself to take the weekend off. Originally I had planned to finally try the Warhammer Renaissance rules, but quickly realized that one needs regiment bases to play Warhammer. :D Which I don't for the Empire. So back to square one, and instead I swiftly painted a mortar.



Hope you like the figures!

[Rowsdower]

Mortars are such underrated weapons.

[BK]

Historically mortars got best gunners available (and most well paid ones), then siege artillery, then large field pieces and finally light guns got whatever was left over.
I have considered doing it for my Empire army by making mortar gunners most well dressed and armored, but in the end did not, because that would have needed even more time to find appropriate miniatures.

[Sigur]

@Rowsdower: I talked to a friend a few days ago; he's been an Empire player from 5th through 8th edition, and he told me that mortars were super good (then got nerfed. :D ). They certainly are good fun. I guess they are less popular for having the "stonethrower" label attached to them and simply for being "cheaper than a cannon and less complicated", right?

@BK: Now that I did not know. I wargame a lot of Thirty Years War (in which they didn't really have professional artillery corps at all) and Napoleonics, but to be honest never looked into artillery as much as say infantry. I'll have to read up on that; I thought that foot artillery, no matter the piece they serve, got paid the same. Very interesting.

Got my first game of Warhammer Renaissance on the table last night; an inpromptu thing to counter the Sunday evening blues. :)



I'll see that I get a review and battle report of the rules up on tabletopstories.net soon!

[Rowsdower]

So; how well did those armoured knights do against infantry, armed with crossbows?

[Sigur]

You mean the full-plated, barded-warhors'd, inexplicably-S4 knights with the army's general in their unit being charged by the Repeating Crossbow Dark Elves? Well, that secret shall be unveiled once I manage to write up the battle report.   :biggriin:

[BK]

....I thought that foot artillery, no matter the piece they serve, got paid the same. Very interesting.

Pay varied depending on a lot of factors (and it being late was basically a constant), but mortars needed most skill, hence best gunners being assigned to them. Light field pieces like falconets could be used by relatively low skill gunners, since those were used at close ranges.
Two part vid on development of artillery that does good summary and goes over a lot of interesting details:
https://youtu.be/bAOstmqNc4o?si=hlHCSV3n2NO0QjV7
https://youtu.be/aYTRWw2skWk?si=j72YvPDi7B2XEfpf

[Sigur]

@BK: Cheers!

WIP of a bunch of the Mootland's finest:

[Rowsdower]

So many puns, so little time :biggriin:

[Sigur]

So many puns, so little time :biggriin:

Well, the kickstarter which brought these to be was called the Chickstarter, and The Assault Group showed immense restraint with that already. :D

They're still on sale at The Assault Group, btw. Lovely figures. The halflings are anything but small, and a little rough in places, but in general lovely and they have very good faces. Planning to get a bunch more TAG figures. Especially for Empire players they have a great range, from Imperial Dwarfs to Imperial Halflings and of course imperial humans (great stand-ins for Reiksguard on foot). And a whole Italian Wars range to supplement all of that too!

[Rowsdower]

I just noticed the standard seems to be drunk and the musician has a pint in hand

[Sigur]

They like to have fun. :) They also got sausages, roast chicken legs, bread and vegetables tied to their belts and sticking out of bags. Proper Halflings!

[Sigur]

Heyhey, here's my finished review and battle report of Warhammer Renaissance!

https://tabletopstories.net/language/en/2025/07/warhammer-renaissance-review-and-battle-report/





Hope you like the article!

[Rowsdower]

Wow. Are those the classic Witch Elves from the early 90's?

[Sigur]

Yup, certainly are. Back when I collected DE we only had the early 2000s Juan Diaz ones, and while I softened on them over the decades, they just don't cut it in the hair department. So I got a bunch of the early 90s ones off ebay and painted them two years ago. The new plastic ones have OK hair again, but just not as good as the 90s ones.

[Sigur]

Little update of some upcoming Empire troops I got to work on the past weekend:


Hope ye like them!

[Rowsdower]

I have one of those Witches. She came in a set of Heroquest miniatures. She's somehow survived several house moves, numerous paint jobs and has only lost the tip of a sword

[Sigur]

I have one of those Witches. She came in a set of Heroquest miniatures. She's somehow survived several house moves, numerous paint jobs and has only lost the tip of a sword

Well, if there's one thing that kinda makes sense to change on these is the huge swords anyway. :D

I commenced painting 35 halberdiers over the past 2 weekends (reason why I put the halflings aside for a bit). Kinda feels like work, but it's gotta be done. ;) Slowly getting there.

[Rowsdower]

I also once tried to convert that Witch Elf into a nameless character from an abysmal Roger Corman movie with David Carridine in it

[Archilector_Malaga]

Beautiful work there! Congrats!

[Zygmund]

Love those Halflings! The Mortar is cool too.  :eusa_clap:

-Zyg

[Sigur]

@Rowsdower: Sounds like an undertaking well worth one's time. So the WE never got finished in that version?

@Archilector_Malaga: Thanks very much!

@Zygmund: Cheers! :) Yeah, probably the fanciest figures in my weird little collection. Apart from a few characters (well, two) and the Knights of the White Wolf.


Praise the emperor, they're done. Well, done enough, since they're just for myself.




I bought it ages ago. Classic second-hand plastic: assembled (mostly OK; I only noticed that one of the drums was glued on upside down towards the end of the painting process), heavily primed and painted, not cleaned. I tried to strip them for a few days, but oh well. I gave up and painted over it. That is, after I reattached about 20 halberd heads. The figures look a little nicer in real life; as is often the case, the camera ate the metallic highlights. Highlights in general. That's okay, at least I have photographic proof that they're done. ;)

The flag says "Lambe Taurus", which I hope reads "Lick the bull". I made the flag as usual: took the design, mirrored it, printed it, painted all over it, added lettering and some detail stuff. It struck me as interesting that the bull is standing with its rear towards the enemy, so I thought it was a soldier-y slogan to add to this design. The other side of the flag has the same design, but says "Osterland" in the scroll.

Hope you like them!