Jaeckel and the Lost Crusade - Month II (205 points)

Illustration by John Blanche, "The Warrior's Way"

For the second month of the OWAC III, I've followed an easy path: a regiment of only 10 miniatures, the noblemen who decided to join Pieter the Pious's quest.

Among the Citadel F2 Fighters and F5 Paladins ranges, I've tried to pick models with a crusader look, complemented by warrior priests. The only conversion made here is the standard bearer: I've simply replaced the left hand holding the original lamp of Sir Osram by a standard coming from an Empire plastic sprue (can't remember which one) and topped by a Black Templars relic.

For the painting, I have used a very limited palette to unify the models, starting with the flag, borrowed to the Knights Templar. The beige tones are made with a mix of white and VGC Heavy Brown, shaded with VMC Flat Earth and The Army Painter Strong Tone wash, and highlighted with VGC Bone White and VMC Ivory. The black tones are even simpler, with a base of VGC Heavy Charcoil, highlighted with VGC Bone White, and shaded with VGA Black or a mix of VMC Dark Sea Blue and Mahogany Brown. The red tones are more complex, with a mix of VMC, P3 and Andrea references.

To summarize, we have:

• Seven knights (count as Reiksgard): 77 points
• Sir Osram, standard bearer: 22 points
• Bertrand the Red, musician (hornblower): 22 points
• Valdemar the Just, Level 15 Hero, with shield, heavy armour and a useless lantern: 84 points

TOTAL: 205 points

And by order of painting:

Sir Osram

Sir Osram

No name for this one	does anybody know him?
Sir Pression de la Masse	Sir Pression de la Masse
Marauder Fighter F6	Marauder Fighter F6
Bertand the Red	Bertrand the Red
Lackland	Lackland
Valdemar the Just	Valdemar the Just
Tarn Sigmarson	Tarn Sigmarson
Sir Kull of Death	Sir Kull of Death
Sir Errol de Swash	Sir Errol de Swash

And the family shots:

See you next month!

JamesP's Reiksgard unit (251 Pts)

The Sons of Solland were formed by a collection of second sons and offspring of minor nobility. Knowing it was unlikely they would inherit, they set out to make their own fortune. With a strong sense of loyalty to Solland and each other the Sons have collected like-minded soldiers from across the province to form the core of the army. Their leader is Dieter von Krueger with his long-time friend Volker Holdermann acting as the army standard bearer. Each of the Sons have raised a fighting unit from their own funds reflecting their unique fighting styles. Since their forming, the Sons have taken part in many campaigns and have travelled as far as Tilea and Estalia.

The Reiksgard is currently lead by Archibald von Krueger. Archie and his cousins, Dieter and Siegfried, were raised as brothers in Kreutzhofen. At the age of 14, Archie begged his father’s permission to accompany Dieter on his quest for glory and riches. His father agreed on the condition they both look after each other and return safely. Archie was assigned to the first unit raised by The Sons; The Reiksgard, where he was to be trained. The unit took him in and became very fond of him due to his unshakable optimism and joking manner. Even the dour Captain of The Reiksgard took a liking to Archie and upon the discovery of Archie’s musical talent made him the unit musician.  Archie was a fast study and in two short years he was easily the equal of the rest of the unit, and better than most.

The battle of low water was the turning point for Archie. The Sons were hired to guard a river crossing on the main forces flank against a hoard of undead while the knights lead the attack. It was not going well for the Sons when the undead broke through and pushed them back. Archie looked down to see the Reiksgard banner laying next to the bloody remains of the standard bearer, his hand still clutching the pole. The Captain noticed this at the same time and retrieved the banner only to be speared through the shoulder by a skeleton. Archie cut the abomination down and helped the Captain to his feet. The Captain growled “Summon the men to the banner or all will be lost”. Archie sounded his horn and called the Reiksgard to stand firm while defending the Captain from the enemy. Wave after wave of putrid flesh and rattling bones broke against the wall of iron the Reiksgard had become. Archie dashed up and down the line shouting encouragement, sounding his horn and taking part where the fighting was most fierce.

The next night at a feast hosted by their benefactor the captain spoke. “I am stepping down as leader of the Reiksgard. I have spoken to the general and we both agree that Archie should lead the unit.” Everyone looked to Archie in silence as the captain continued. “I will remain as the unit standard bearer to support Archie and to smack him about the head to keep him straight.” The crowd cheered their approval calling for a speech from Archie. Again, the soldiers grew silent as Archie stood. “This is unexpected…I didn’t even kill anyone in the battle.” After the laughter died down Archie turned to his cousin and said “I swear by the Sun and by Sigmar I will do my best to uphold the reputation of the company. If I am half the leader as my successor, I will be twice the man that stands before you tonight. It is my honour to lead men of such iron resolve.” The crowd cheered their approval until the general raised his tankard calling for quiet. “From this night forth The Reiksgard’s title shall be The Ironclads!”

15 Reiksgard – (champion, musician and standard) 217 Pts

Double-Handed Weapon, Heavy Armour

Level 5 hero 34 Pts

Heavy Armour, Shield

Qrab's Empire: Reiksgard (228 points)

My contribution to the first month of the second Old World Army Challenge consists of the Empire's elite infantry unit, 11 Reiksgard who are joined by a Level 10 Hero. Combined, the unit and hero total 228 points.

Over the summer, as I prepared for the second Challenge, I spent a fair amount of time looking through my collection. I've acquired a reasonable amount of the MM65 Marauder Reiksguard and initially considered painting them, but they're just so big that they're difficult to rank up on 20mm bases. Ultimately I decided to select for this unit a handful of models I had originally painted back in the 80s. Those classic models were supplemented with command models from the mid 90s as well as a Marauder Empire Ogre I had picked up somewhere along the way (I'd really like to get more, but the prices are more than I'm willing to spend). Stripped of the old paint jobs and cleaned of mold lines I didn't bother with back in the 80s, the unit is an eclectic mix of characters, which I think is fitting for an elite unit. 

As I started working on the shields, I decided to paint the right side in the colors of Altdorf (red and blue) and paint the left side with different colors to reflect the province from which each individual originated.

Here's a photo of the entire unit.

Empire Reiksgard - +2 Shock Elites.

Because some of the models in the rear ranks are obscured, here are some photos of the individual models. Starting with the unit leader, Sir Kit Breaker from the 1986 Paladins range. For the purposes of the Challenge, he is a Level 10 Hero with heavy armor and shield (59 points). The colors on Baronen Breaker's shield indicate he is from Reikland.

Baronen Sir Kit Breaker, Leader of the Reiksgard.

Next up are two of the Reiksguard command models from the mid 90s.

Reiksgard Musician.

Reiksgard Standard Bearer (banner to be painted later).

Rounding out the front rank is Moritorus, a model from the 1984 Lords of Battle/Fighter range. This guy has a very dynamic pose making him difficult to photograph. He's also got snake motifs on his armor, which is unusual. The colors on Moritorius' shield indicates he's from Middenland.

Moritorus - front side.

Moritorus - back side.

In the second rank is Sir Crispen of Talabheim, released as part of the 1987 F2 Fighters range. 

Sir Crispen of Talabheim.

Also in the second rank is Otto Wolvesbane, another model from the Lords of Battle range. With his fur lined helmet and boots, I imagined Otto as hailing from the northern province of Ostermark, so the colors on his shield are maroon & yellow.

Otto Wolvesbane from Ostermark.

In the back rank we have a paladin based on the same model as Sir Kit Breaker, but with a helmetless head and a different sword arm. I couldn't find him on Stuff of Legends, so for now he is unnamed and carries a black shield.

A mysterious warrior.

The other member of the back rank is Anthony of Averland, also from the F2 Fighters range. This sculpt is a little dodgy; the massive wings on top of the helmet were a tricky to paint and even trickier to photograph!

Anthony of Averland.

The final model in the unit is my personal favorite of the MM41 Marauder Ogres, Ogre with Greatsword. On a 40mm base, he takes up the space of four models. There's a lot of detail packed into this what at first glance appears to be a simple sculpt.

Marauder Ogre - front side.

Marauder Ogre - back side.

So that's it for January. The models are all painted, but the weather isn't warm enough to seal them. rather than have a repeat disaster as I did with my Thugs last year, these models will remain unsealed until the weather is better.

Still trying to decide what to paint next month.