The Barrow Legion Rises!

 One Page Rules' Age of Fantasy: Regiments is exactly what I am looking for in a rank and flank wargame right now. Maneuvering and deployment are incredibly important, there are tactical decisions to be made, and the rules are clear and concise. This last bit has been especially relevant as I wrap up an escalation league for the Old World where half the game is spent trying to sort out rules! I joined that league to have some pressure to make progress on a fantasy army that would be playable in Old World, Regiments, WHFB 6th, or whatever game captured everyone's attention that month. I was planning on rebuilding my childhood night goblin horde, but seeing how many I'd need to paint to fill an Old World list pushed me to choose Undead instead.

Undead were at their absolute coolest in WHFB 4th edition, before the schism between the brooding Vampire Counts and aesthetically bankrupt Tomb Kings. When mummies, carrion riders, liches, and skull chukkas shared deployment zones. A similar feel is found in the Army of the Lichemaster, a White Dwarf list representing Heinrich Kemmler's forces during the Battle of the Cairns in WHFB 6th. I decided to smoosh these two themes together and create an army raised from the barrows surrounding the Border Princes filled with skeletons and ghosts while the vampires stayed home. So far, the decision has been great in my Regiments games. I can't say the same for TOW!

I stumbled across these skeletons from Wargames Foundry on a clearance shelf while on a weekend getaway. I snatched up two boxes, delighted at the sheer value I walked away with. That enthusiasm waned as soon as I saw the sprues inside. These guys are a million fucking parts! Separate weapons, arms, heads, torsos, legs, FEET! While I love the Clash of the Titans feel their grimacing skull faces have and their posable nature, these were a slog to assemble. You get what you pay for, I guess.

With the quantity of skeletons I'll eventually be fielding, I decided to cut down paint time by priming bone. I followed this with a brown wash, a bone drybrush, then a white drybrush on some areas as a highlight. Weapons were done with a few bronze colors in keeping with the ancient warriors of barrow kings theme. The weathering was done with one of those Citadel technical paints that looks like corrosion. 

The unit of 20 has a full command taken from an older GW kit as well as a crow's cage as a unit filler. I can't recall what line this is from. I picked it up with the intent to use it on another project years ago and my hoarding paid off. This unit has few details left to finish up but they're good enough to serve their necromancer on the tabletop.

No undead horde is complete without some creatures of the night! These bat swarms were a challenge to paint - too many eyes and fangs! In the end, I abandoned the idea of doing it all and made sure all the wings were leathery. No one is getting that close to vampire bats anyway! One of the biggest surprises coming back to the hobby is how far 3D printing has come. These bats are from Wyrd Miniatures and were generously printed by a friend of mine. 

And finally, we have the leaders of this small army - for now. On the left is Mikael the Exiled, a former member of the College of Magic forced to flee from Reikland due to his interest in necromancy. He was taken in by a powerful lich and now stalks the Black Mountains, raising an army from the barrows for his unholy master! Beside him is the barrow king Von the Depraved, risen from his forgotten tomb to lead his men once more. This army is a great home for this classic chaos sorcerer and mummy. Painting them was a lot of fun and its pushed me into more of an oldhammer direction for the army, though it will mostly be recasts and new sculpts in that style rather than the pricey originals.

I have unit of black knights, a terrorgheist, and a barrow king on a chariot in progress for a future update!