Earlier this week I've played my first game of 8th edition Warhammer in while. It felt like months though it most likely hasn't been that long. I played Bretonnians against Orcs and Goblins. The vast majority of my 8th edition games have been with Chaos so it was rather refreshing to play something different. I didn't get a chance to take a really good look at the Bretonnia book before I made my list and played the game. I had an idea of how I wanted to play Bretonnians and created my list around that. I expected to lose but I actually crushed my opponent. Part of that probably had to do with my friend making a "soft" list and being really lucky with magic. The fewest amount of power dice I had to cast spells were 8. Magic by itself wasn't auto winning the game, but having that much certainly help. I learn a lot about Bretonnians from that game as well as me reading more of their army book. I've recently been thinking about new armies and my new found Bretonnia knowledge will be useful towards that endeavor.
With the release of Age of Sigmar I now have the urge to collect and play armies outside of Chaos. From when I started playing Warhammer Fantasy until recently, Warriors of Chaos was the only army that interest me. Other armies had models that I like but I try to think of ways to convert them for my Chaos army oppose to actually starting a new one. One problem I have with my Chaos army is that I never form an over arching story line with them before I started collecting. At first I just brought random boxes, mainly choosing what was the best dollars to point values. I develop multiple story lines later but they were not based on stuff I own or wanted to pick up. I let my imagination run wild and now I am slowly trying to turn those visions into something on the gaming table. I really don't want to repeat that process with another army.
Fortunately, the story I have crafted with my Chaos forces already has background references that can base new armies on. They are an elven nation, a holy knightly human nation and a goblin force that worships a death angel. The elves are the ones I have developed the least. Storywise I have two chaos characters that are elven maidens (Vanacyr and Zifa Winters) and a future event that involves the Chaos King invading the elves and that's pretty much it for now. I have a general feeling on how I want my elven army to be on the table but at the same time I've never read any of their army books. While I have a box of Mantic archers I got as a present, I think I should probably wait until I've develop more of their story before trying to build their army. In the meantime I can use the archers as practice for potential color schemes. As for the holy nation, that has a stronger case for me starting an army for. There is a lot for it I also need to develop (among which is an actual name), however I have a general idea who they are and where I want to take them. With that as a foundation it will make further development much easier. The holy nation's story is very light for now. They are enemies to the Chaos King and are a threat that my other forces need to keep in mind. Bretonnia is probably the closest play style to what I envision the holy nation to play as. What I will bring to the game table might look weird for a normal Bretonnia list, but I live and die by my themes. The other army option is the goblin one. This idea came about me combining End Times' Lore of Undeath with a pure goblin list filled with wizards. I like the idea as it will be vastly different from what I normally play with Chaos. I have a very rough draft of a short story that explains how the army came about lore wise. When I think about how I want to paint the army up, I find myself with an overwhelming urge to also paint up a "normal" goblin army. I don't know why other than its my ADD trying to take over. Now that I think about it, it could very easily be a non-chaos Arkyrian Cabal force. As attempting as that sounds I will wait on an Arkyrian goblin force for the time being. With that decided, my next step is to work on some Bretonnia, undead and goblin models.
Now you are probably thinking that its crazy to start two separate Warhammer armies at once and you will be correct. I do have two counters to that point. I do plan to go very slow and small on both armies. A single character and a few models here, a single war machine there. I tend to bounce between projects a lot which leaves most of my models partially or unpainted. For these two armies I plan to work on each unit until I completely finish it before moving on to the next unit. Even though this will be a slow process, these armies will be made with both Fantasy and Age of Sigmar in mind. That means I will be able to use completed models as soon as they are done in Age of Sigmar since its playable with a lot less miniatures. And that is just using my own miniatures. My other point is that I have a friend with complete Bretonnia and Goblin armies. While I build up myself force, I can use his stuff to test and play games in the meantime. This is not exactly a perfect option as what I want to do with these armies is quite a bit different from what he owns. For now it will be enough in our practice games. For campaigns and other events I will make an effort to collect the unique elements of my armies ahead of time.
I think I have ramble on enough. I will end on what will be the initial elements of my armies, most of which I already own. For Bretonnia round 1 will a damsel character and a few peasant bowmen. I have a Reaper model that I will use for the damsel. The model, Sarah the Seeress, is perfect for what I need as I plan to have a fair amount of characters on foot. My friend didn't get any damsel characters with his Bretonnia so it is lucky I already had a miniature I could start working on immediately. The bowmen on the other hand might be a while as I will need to purchase them. The peasant bowmen were one of the units I really like from my previous game. Perhaps a lot of that had to do with the fact that I'm use to having nearly no shooting attacks and was really happy to have something to do in a game phase I usually skip on my turn. It probably doesn't that they are even better in Age of Sigmar. What I am not sure of is if I want to pick up the peasant bowmen box or the Bretonnian Battalion box. The Battalion has everything that I want but its a lot more expensive. A single bowmen box is a lot easier for me to purchase. I suppose I can wait on making that decision after I finish work my other round 1 items. Round 1 for Goblins will be three Fanatics and 3 skeleton archers. I have a box of Night Goblin Fanatics already assembled. They just need to be prime and painted. I also have several packs of Reaper's skeleton archers. I will paint up at least one pack of them. I brought a bunch because they were cheap and I plan to use them in two separate armies with very different paint schemes. From here I'm not sure where to go with the Goblins. Unlike Bretonnians, the 8th edition and Age of Sigmar versions of Goblins will be quite a bit different. But I think I can wait on that discuss. No need to consider round 2 options before round 1 is done.
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