jami's fluff

Despite the lack of decent camera, the forces of Virostania are ready fow war!

”The fine land of Virostania lies between the cities of Erengrad and Middenheim, to north of the Middle Mountains at shore of Sea of Claws. This small providence is ruled by none other than infamous Baron Maxim von Tshanov, or “The Blood Count” as he prefers to be called. This is supposed to terrify his (many) enemies, but the townsfolk see the irony in name; Baron Maxim is always making general nuisance of himself in provinces nearby and picking blood of one’s nose. Still, skilled in arts of intrigue, warfare, politics and rare wines, Baron Maxim is a versatile opponent both in social happenings and in the battlefield.

After the Warlord Archaon’s dreadful incursion to the Old World the Empire was left burned and scarred and its people starving to death with no shelter whatsoever. Luckily, the Province of Virostania didn’t feel the impact of the invasion almost at all, if not counting occasional Beastman rides on swede fields and messengers from other Counts begging help against foul forces of Chaos. Unfortunately, most of the messengers got “lost” or are ambushed or eaten by the Beastmen, which live in the surrounding forests of Virostania´s capital village Tallinburg.

Not too many nights ago, an unexpected visitor arrived at doorsteps of Baron Maxim. The sinister black-hooded man didn’t introduce himself, but was wearing sigils and wards of Sigmar and carrying Imperial Messengers heraldry. Not saying a word, he left a scroll and galloped into the night with haste.

It was sure that this scroll was not ordinary Imperial letter, but a map, written in runes of ancient powers. And as astonishing as it seemed to Baron Maxim, one of the runes resembled a lot of old Virostanian herald and his family´s insignia.

“Darling, it may be a good idea to go to a bed now, it seems that you have important day tomorrow.”, said her wife, Svetlana, who had entered the room suddenly. “It may be so, my love, it may be so.”, answered the Baron thoughtfully. “Servant! Contact Captain Stojkovich, I have a dangerous job of most sinister nature for him.”

And so begins the story of Baron Maxim, the General of my new Empire army. As Anssi had written above, we decided to have a narrative campaign in this Spring and bring our Empire forces to around 2000 points, painted. As the new Empire armybook was released today (13.1.2007) here in Finland, it is perfect opportunity to playtest all the new stuff during the campaign, although I doubt I newer see the lightning bolt horse on battlefield, not to mention my painting desk.

Little about my painting schedule and army composition then, shall we? I have always adored the older metal Empire minis from 5th. edition, and now finally I have acquired enough of them to build a proper army. As the idea of this campaign is to paint as the battles go by, we have agreed to play next week a small 300 p. game, representing two small warbands searching some fallen ruins for powerful artefact. I have already finished one old Greatsword model to be Captain Adrej Stojkovich and few old metal Halberdiers and looking forward to paint some more.

This campaign along with the new Empire book have certainly given me inspiration to do the painting required, and all has gone well until yesterday as I had a tooth extraction. Three different painkillers and eating only cold food was enough to drive me into bed around 19.30, but luckily the pills do their job and I’m back to my feet and finish the painting of my small warband.

- Jami