Onwards they marched, tracking the Chaos deviant through the dead lands. A litany of woe and a trail of ruin marked the passage of the Cult they still hunted. Always they were too late and never were they welcomed by the local peasantry. Instead, beady eyes, glistening with fear and suspicion, glared out from make shift hovels as the weary throng trudged past the glowing embers of burned out villages.
Well - just the one unit this month. March has been a bit of a grind thanks to various issues at work and I've not been left with a massive amount of motivation, despite an strong early start. Ah well - going to have be busy next month with my last rank and file entry!
Hopes were raised, however, as the troop neared the settlement of Pockendorfen. Remarkably, the small village stood relatively intact and the only smoke to be seen was that which curled slowly and comfortably from the chimneys of the wooden houses that nestled together beneath the louring forest. Camp was struck in a clearing some distance away, so as not to scare the inhabitants and Todeswunsch's soldiers eagerly anticipated the prospect of some home comforts, should the villagers be welcoming.
Die Seuchenopfen are the first of many peasant levies that will be making up this army. Of course I didn't want to just paint up massed ranks of serfs so each will be getting a Hammer horror style twist to fit in to my Evil Empire theme! I guess this lot owe their inspiration to old movies like Plague of the Zombies, but I must admit the Imperial Army from Rogue Trader also played its part - or at least its use of penal troops did anyway. As we know, Kurt Todeswunsch is not amiss to utilising some less than orthodox allies and troop types, so why not herding poor defenceless and plague ridden Sylvanian peasants in to battle as a form of biological warfare!
The sun had sunk behind the mountains and as the light failed and the air chilled, hopes of a warm plate of food and some cheer began to fade. Snakes of mists began to form beneath the bows of the pines and a low susurration became audible from the village. Nervous glances flitted from the darkening treeline to the line of houses, as the guard pickets tried in vain to anticipate where the noise emanated from.
The standard bearer and Chief Plague Doctor are both from the Bruegelberg range and I must thank Filippo so much for helping me procure them from Miniaturicum, as they no longer ship outside of the EU. There'll be a good few more miniatures from that range on their way in future posts so thanks again Filippo!
The feared assault never came in the night, however the morning was not without its horrors. One of the forward pickets had succumbed to some gruesome disease even while they kept watch. The guard sent to relieve them had discovered their pock-marked and bloated corpses and might have suffered the same fate were it not for a quick thinking sergeant.
Chaucer helped me out with the banner once again with a few lines taken from The Pardoner's Tale, along with some excerpts of Thomas Nashe's sonnet, A Litany in time of the Plague. The old motif of the Dance of Death also seemed fitting.
Ther cam a privee theef men clepeth Deeth...
... He hath a thousand slayn this pestilence. Chaucer, The Pardoner's Tale
Adieu, farewell earths blisse,
This world uncertaine is,
Fond are lifes lustful joyes,
Death proves them all but toyes,
None from his darts can flye;
I am sick, I must dye:
Lord, have mercy on us. Thomas Nash - Litany in Time of Plague
Before long the village was ablaze and the Verlorene Haufen took to the road once more. Its bedraggled columns now swollen with a coughing and hacking mass of the infected, herded forwards by the sombre figures of men, whose hardened eyes glinted behind the pitiless glass lenses of their plague masks.
30 Landestrurm - Die Seuchenopfen 344 points
L10 Hero and 2x L5 Heroes - Plague Doctors - Light armour and hand weapons
Standard bearer, musician, hand weapons
3x Plague Censer Bearers - to simulate the virulent and deadly plague this levy carry I will be using the Skaven Plague Censer Bearer rules to represent this on the table top.