Why I chose The Empire for 2013

I thought I might put up a bit of a post about my thought processes around my choice of The Empire for the 2013 collection.

When I decided to start the project I sat down and looked at the massive list of available miniatures in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB) range. This resulted in a mild depression because I would love to just be able to buy everything, however, as I dont poop $100 bills, that wasnt an option. In the range of WHFB the available armies are:

Orcs and Goblins,
Vampire counts,
Ogre Kingdoms,
Skaven,
The Empire,
High Elves,
Dark Elves,
Wood Elves,
The Empire,
Beastmen,
Bretonnians,
Chaos Daemons,
Dwarfs,
Lizardmen and
Tomb Kings.

I removed the armies that I already had miniatures from as this was a new collection and I didnt want to use stuff that I already had. That took out Orcs and Goblins, Ogre Kingdoms, High Elves, Skaven and Bretonnians. I then took out the armies that I didnt like the look of. That took out Vampire Counts, Dark Elves, Tomb Kings and Chaos Daemons. Then I started to look at minis that I would enjoy painting. After a while, I ended up with The Empire, Beastmen and Wood Elves. The range of Wood Elves available is limited so that ruled them out. The beastmen range is quite varied and would be a lot of fun to work with, however as they mostly resemble cows and other beasts, the range of colours available would be limited.

I ultimately went with The Empire as they are a human race with a high regimental style. Large units of swordsman, archers, halbadiers and other medieval type weaponry with a similar style of uniform. This appealed to me because I could model the units with the same things in mind. Going for a regimental, "If you get out of step ill kill you" style that I enjoyed during my time in the Air Force. The uniformity of it, with slight variations across different units will be the basis of the collection. I am going to have one main contingent being led by Karl Franz on deathclaw, which is one of the best miniatures currently available, in my opinion, he is a general on a large Griffon. As the centrepiece for the army, he is an imposing thing. Then I will have detachments of units under the rule of the captains of the other factions. This will allow me to vary the paint scheme used on each unit to indicate the colours of the respective families.

Im looking forward to getting stuck into it. Should be lots of fun. Im counting down the day till I am putting in the order, 17 days to go. Ill post up next week a list of all the miniatures I plan to buy and what I will be painting them.