Mercian Knights on the Conquest Trail

‘Sinistre Dexter, Sinistre Dexter’ , echoed through the Spartan office that had been his home for the past year , the noise accompanied the thump of boots on the cobbles of the parade square , sometimes almost in time to the gravely voice shouting the time.

Jahnus Waynicus  Imperial Tribune , Commander of tbe Burnt Buzzard Legions, Marshal of River Wolf……… (3 hours of honours later) and thoroughly good egg, stared out of the window at the motley group of militia being drilled outside . It was a scene he mused that he had seen before hundreds of times in hundreds of wor.. stop it …..he was reliving his strange dreams of funny hats , seven shooting gon’s , useless marines , and for some reason the word  ‘get of your milk and drink your horse stuck in his mind! 

Damn it he thought,he should be dreaming of Winning wars, of burning maidens, screaming villages , killing babies and saving evil men, or some variant of that, he was never good at the details. As long as it involved heroic charges , lots of dashing sword play and gratuitous violence   with  of course some heroic posing  for the ladies.

His musing was rudely broken by the sound reminiscent of a battering ram crashing through a gate, but he knew it was the sound of Centurion Cratered, knocking on his door, he quickly drew him self together and stood all of his 6ft height (with 4″  platforms in bis armored boots).

‘Enter’ he squeaked, the sound coming out like chicken having is neck wrung.

He checked himself, drew deep breath and said ‘ Come……In Pigrim’ ,  this time in a deep drawl , an accent he had perfected it sounded manly even  if it completely confused the nobility of the provinces,  they never could place where it came from.  Which they wouldn’t as it was a product of his strange dreams ( a flash of a foul black liquid called coffin , a plate of strange yellow seeds in a pan his mind and a place called Tex’s Ass became images in his mind)

A Huge walking chest of steel entered the room and he stared up at the helmeted head that only showed the eyes of the Centurion.  He hoped it was the Centurion,  it was his armour at least, he’d never seen any of the faces of the Cohort of Steel Legion that had been assigned to him as escort.

Hunking warriors of Steel, Legionaries of Legend, the smallest nicknamed ‘Tich’ was 6ft 4″” , Cratered was at least 6’6″ , and he was not the tallest. A man who loved to tell him on the march to Crosse Lebeauf how ,

‘They were only small men, now if you want to see big lads you ought to see those Nord’s , now they were big  lad’s and then theres their giants’, He only stopped  him  going to greater detail by  giving the centurion a sideways withering stare.

From somewhere in the armour a gruff voice shouted ( a voice that immediately made you want to stand to attention)

‘Lads are all ready for the march , and Captain Forgeinson, is waiting outside Sir’

‘Lads’ Waynicus mused thinking of the walking steel walls in his command,   he suddenly had a malicious thought that inside all that armour was a little ‘man’who looked like Captain Parsnips batman Nobby Nobbs*

*( No attempt a rename here,  every armed force in the world has a Nobby Nobbs, its a universal constant, all talk with husky  sandpaper of  a voice  , all  an  accent from the Eastend of somewhere,  a vaguely human form, and even on worlds without a tobacco derivative, seemed to have a something smouldering perched on one ear . No matter the reality all have  a name in their respective language  that equates to Nobby Nobbs)

who worked the armour with a set of fiendish strings and levers.

‘Send him in’ he carefully said ( his real squeaky voice was always  trying to sneak out) and steeled himself for the vision that would enter,

Captain Forgeinson was impressive, not by any measure was he a normal member of the watch. As tall as Cratered in his stocking feet, built like  ( Cratered’s words )’ a shit brickhouse’, and the face of the Kings of Legend ( the ones not mad, deranged ,homicidal murderers,  or pedophiles) a Killer of monsters etc. He had muscles in places he didn’t even  have places.

‘AH Captain are your men ready for the march to the De Grasse county’

Having heard them in the parade ground ‘march’ was perhaps stretching it a bit.

‘And how are you after your accident yesterday? You seem all healed up’

How the man was standing up amazed him, one of his idiot militia bowmen had managed to hit him with an arrow during target practice, and  he was standing behind them! (pity would have been a good shot if aimed) Hit him in the stomach, the man should be dead never mind standing, but he merely pulled out the arrow and got the blacksmith to quarterise it, never made a squeak at either like the mythical Golem , plus he could have sworn he heard a clang when it hit and he man wasn’t even wearing his armour! Must have had a secret protective!

‘Ya!  It vas just a scratch Zir, Ze men  still are a  bit ruff round the edges, but Feldwebel  Grimsdike believes he vill have them ready by ze time ve reach ower destination. ‘

Funny Jahnus mused, the Captain spoke as if Imperial was his 2nd language, he had a bit of a Dweghorn accent.

‘ As long as your men are ready to face the Gerries…er Spires’

Damn he thought he’d picked up that strange nickname the Steel Legion used for the Spires, ‘ Gourdeheads’ thir normal nickname  he understood it fitted their helmets but why ‘Gerries’?

‘‘Yah mine Commander they vill be and Ven we have terminated all the spire  ve’ll be back!’ slight pause ‘ to defend sis city again.’

It’ s like he’s practiced that phrase Jahnus thought as hegrabbed his helmet and followed the two men out of the office.

Well my avid readers may wonder was all that about…. Its time for an update on how I’m getting on with my building of Milestone 2, and thought I’d begin with a bit of narrative about my band of ‘eroes’.

This may give you an idea of who I painted 1st in the upgrade

I actually started with the Imperial Officer our Jahnus Waynicus , certain aspects of his armour and the the history of the Old Dominion gave me a somehow Roman feel to their legions with kit updated for late medieval/early renaissance .

So here he his , fairly easy paint job with contrasts mainly with only his face being picked out.

His armour was the gun metal paint from the starter set , with an thin overcoat of Contrast Basilicum Grey

I also did 4 more Men at arms to beef unit to 20 and the Veteran.So far only the 1st 4 of the Noble Lords Retinue as Intend to convert the lst 4 into a command group as you didn’t get the standard option with the original 2 player starter set .

I again darkened their Armour with Basilicum grey to get a darker metallic to match his nibs.

I have also started on the two regiments, that will make up the bulk of the 2nd Milestone,with 6 Steel Legion , again a mix of contrast over the base corax white and gun metal as above .

I then had a go at the militia  archers, pretty much copied  Johns idea but used a blue for the tunics as opposed to the red he used, though I’m using  that for the pole armed militia . I did a bit more detail on the faces and finished off with a thinned down GW Agrax Earthshade wash, about 50/50 water to get  a bit more definition over the contrast paints. Bow strings were done with UHU glue , its normally difficult to stop it stringing but in this case with a bit of care it can work for you.