Nilfgaard Army

 So after the test piece, here is the beginning of the Nilfgaard army.

The Mini-army plan is four ranks of spearmen and four ranks of archers plus change, with an alternative of a Champion plus change.

There are only five "advancing" poses in the box (one per sprue) but no really advancing spears, these are built using the javelin arms from the Auxiliaries sprues (again there are only one over head arm per sprue)

The five standing spearmen.

The Auxiliaries box contains ten armoured bodies and twenty sets of bow arms..

The bows need a bit more work.

The plan is to use the armoured bodies for the front rank, and the unarmoured bodies for the rear rank.

Fireforge Byzantine Spearmen or the Nilfgaard Empire

 As mentioned previously, I was looking for a Human Army that looked different to my (many) existing (or planned) armies.

I chose to use the Fireforge Byzantine Spearmen and Auxileries as the basis.

Here is the test piece.

After an underocat of Citadel Chaos Black and a further coat of thinned Vallejo Black, the skirt, leggings and helmet skirt were painted with Vallejo Black Grey. The (non standard) boots are Citadel Steel Legion Drab - the main build will be black. The spear is Vallejo Old Wood. The strap is Citadel Mournfang Brown.

The black parts of the figure were dry brushed with Vallejo Black Grey followed by a mix of Vallejo London Grey and Black Grey. All black parts were then washed with Citadel Nuln Oil.

The figure will be fitted with the tear drop shield, not sure how I am going to do the Sunburst mark.

The scale armour does bear a resemblance to the odd Nilfgaard armour form the television series.

Fireforge Byzantine Spearmen and Auxillaries

Though I have yet to complete a human army for Oathmark (I have started many), I am always on the look out for suitable figures for new armies.

My inspiration for this new army is the Army of Nilfgaard from The Witcher. I have never played any of the computer games, and the design of the armour and equipment in the television series is a bit odd.

I wanted something a bit different to the various western medieval figures (including the Oathmark Human Infantry and the Fireforge Northmen) that make up the various factions I have already started.

Having looked through all the ranges available, I decided on the Fireforge Byzantine Spearmen for the infantry and Byzantine Auxillaries for the archers. There are two options for the cavalry.

Each sprue holds five figures. There are five spear arms and two sword arms allowing up to 10 soldiers and fifteen spearmen to be built from the box. There are two full sets of shields, the earlier almost round type and the later teardrop ones. There are eight different heads (same helmets).

The sprue has three unarmoured and two armoured bodies. There are four bow arms, four spear arms and one sling (currently no use in Oathmark). There are eight heads (two bare headed, one with a different style. There are five mini shields plus one shield/spear combination.

The box can build ten armoured archers, ten unarmoured (or up to twenty unarmoured if no armoured archers) and 

My plan is to build ten armoured and ten unarmoured archers from the box and deploy them as two units with the front rank made of the armoured and the second rank made of unarmoured.

Not sure what to do with the rest. This is supposed to be an invasion army so I will need to think about it.

One thing I did notice was the new bases in the box.

They are 20mm x 20mm square but with rounded edges, making them nicer for skirmish style games but still easy for rank style games.