‘Warhammer: The Old World’- Army Showcase: My Bretonnian Exiles Converted Troops
It’s no secret that I love the Old World. I think it’s an amazing game and an amazing hobby. Check out my beloved Bret Exiles minis!
Overall, I think it’s one of the best GW games, and just plain games, out there for hobbyists. The freedom the game allows for some stunning and fun armies. There is so much conversion potential that it’s just a ton of fun hobby-wise. Now I myself love converting models and armies, and did just that for The Old World. I figured I’d show off how I built the army and what’s in it. I’ve already gone over the characters and objectives, so today let’s go over the troops in the army.
The Converted Bretonnian Exiles Army
Back at the end of 8th Edition, I was working on a heavily converted Empire army. The end of Warhammer Fantasy shelved that project, but I kept bits of it around. When ToW started, I read about the Bretonnian Exiles and got very excited. I’d always want to run that kind of Mercenary force, so I started to work on repurposing my old project. The army is very loosely based on the real-life mercenary company known as the White Company, led by Sir John Hawkwood. It’s supposed to represent a force fighting in the Border Princes, while it’s led by Exiled Brttonnians and Empire Nobles, they mostly fight for money. I mostly use them as Bretonnian Exiles, but the army is designed so that I can use them as Empire or Renegade Crowns as well (I’ve been doing a lot of Crowns lately).
Some of the army’s lore from a recent narrative event.
One of the conceits in my own lore is that the Company worships both The Lady and Sigmar, seeing them as the ultimate power couple, so you’ll find icons for both in the ranks. Pretty much every model in the army is converted, with very few exceptions. It’s also all made of GW parts/bits (with the exception of generic hobby bits). I did all the conversions myself and came up with the paint schemes, but a good friend of mine does the painting, as I am not much of a painter myself and kind of hate it. So I don’t want to take any credit for the actual paint job. With that said, let’s look at the army.
The “Gothic” Knights
This was one of the first units I converted for the army. I wanted a more late-period look for my knights. They are converted from Pistoleer horses/legs, Greatsword heads and torsos, and Knight arms and shields. The banner is from the State Troops.
They see a lot of play, normal as Knights of the Realm, but also as whatever heavy cav I need in an Empire/Crowns list. I think they are possibly my favorite unit, as they really do match the image I had in my head. I think they nail the more Gothic Armor look.
More Knights
Of course, one unit of knights wasn’t going to cut it. So I had to make a second unit. These guys are mostly built the same way as the first unit. The main change here is that they have heads from the newer Bret kits, mostly the foot knights.
This ended up working out pretty well. Now, my main reason for using these heads was simply that you only get like 2 of the heads I need for the other knights per 10 Greatswords. So to build a unit of ten knights, I need like… three boxes of Greatswords just to get a few heads. On top of that, when I built these, the Empire stuff hadn’t been released yet, so that wasn’t a real option. Using the other heads does let the unit stand out and leans into the dual nature of the army being made up of Empire and Bret exiles, so it worked out. The champion has a sword from AoS and a shield from the foot knights just to make him stand out a bit more.
Foot Knights
Next up, we have our unit of 30 Knights of the Realm on Foot. These guys are mostly based on the new Bret Foot Knight kit. However, the heads are from the Greatsword kit, to give them a bit more mercenary flair. They’ve also got a lot of Greatsword and Pistoleer weapons mixed in.
I normally run them with great weapons and shields, so they just have a crazy mix of weapons to represent this. The goal was to make them feel like a band of maybe elite troops or knights that have gone mercenary, so slowly their armor has degraded and been replaced with puffy sleeves, and they started to adopt guns and whatever they can/ I also don’t really love the foot knight great weapons, so I did a lot of weapon head swaps with Empire Halberds and cavalry hammers. I think they ended up looking very unique.
Men-At-Arms/Yeomen Guard
The army has two units of Yeomen Guard (or Men-At-Arms/Spearmen), the Reds and the Blues. These units are mostly just built off the Men-At-Arms units. But as they are Yeomen and a little more elite, I wanted to make some changes.
To make them look a little more elite, and jaunty, I gave them heads from the Pistoleers set (and a few from State Troops that are similar). I really like the features, and it helps tell the units apart. Since they are supposed to be hard campaigners, they also got packs from the Pistoleers set to use as bedrolls. They are simple changes, but they really transformed the units.
To add to the idea that they are on a campaign, I also made a little unit filler. Based on a Knight of the Realm horse (since I have tons unused) and various bits, they got a little pack horse. I think it adds a lot.
I also worked with a few guns here and there. These guys will pick up any weapons they can while on the job.
Bowmen
Currently, I only have one unit of peasant bowmen for the army. They were another very simple conversion, just using peasant bowmen and adding non-feathered pistoleer heads. I just wanted them to be a bit different.
Peg Knights
I’ve got two units of Pegasus Knights for the army, though I only rarely use them now (I had two units because NOVA 2024 was 2500 pts.). The first unit is a pretty normal unit that I built in case I ever wanted to run just normal non-exile Brets. All of the heads are from other units, Empire Knights and Foot Knights, and some of the arms are stolen, but it’s not a heavy conversion here.
The 2nd unit is more out there, with a lot of Pistoleer weapons. These lads and lasses don’t quite adhere to the Knightly ideals as much as others and have heavily adopted the use of guns. I actually wish flying pistoleers were a thing!
I ended up really liking the mix of high fantasy Pegasus with baroque guns. It’s a fun unit. Though maybe not for the other player!
Brigands
Last up for the basic troops, I have two units, or 20, Border Prince Brigands. I’m a big fan of how these came out. The bodies are mostly from the Empire Archer set. The capes and a lot of the guns are from the pistoleers, while some of them have Hockland Long Rifles from the Missile Troops set. There are some Free Company weapons thrown in, as well as heads from various sets.
I normally run my brigands with blunderbusses and two-handed weapons, and I think these make a pretty good counts as, even if only a couple have actual blunderbusses. The unit ends up looking very dynamic, and the white capes really pop.
If I’m not running Brigands, I will also sometimes use them as counts as Peasant archers, hence why I only have one unit of those. I think they work well as any kind of skirmishing ranged troops. The only downside is that because I built them a bit haphazardly, I don’t have a way of telling who is in which unit. I really need to build a few more with Hocklands so I can have a unit with those and a unit without. The lesson is: plan ahead!
The Bombards
Last up, we have a pair of Border Prince Bombards. In keeping with the dual theme of the army, one is Empire (Sigmar’s Wrath) and the other is Bret (The Lady’s Mercy). The Bombards themselves are converted from the Cities of Sigmar Ironweld Great Cannons, which make pretty cool bombards. The crews are a big mix of Ironweld crew, Empire state troops, Empire archers, and Men-At-Arms with just a bunch of bits.
I wanted to make these a little more diorama-y, so I used the big round bases that Ironwelds come with. The idea was to make them look dug in for a siege. For one, I used Bret Archer stakes; for the other, wood palisades from a Hobby Lobby kit. This also let me add a few more models onto the bases to flesh them out. The cannons themselves are each slightly different, and one is supposed to be an older model.
To keep everything legal, the cannons themselves are on detachable bases of the right size, as are the actual crew.
This means there is never any question about measuring to the cannon, and I can remove the diorama bases if room is needed or the other player has an issue with it. I did end up with an extra crew member by accident!
He was converted from the Cathay cannon crew, an Empire Archer body, and an Ironweld breach bit. I really like him, and might end up using him as a Border Price Mortar since he is extra! Anyway! That’s it for the army for now. I’m sure I’ll be back with an update when I’ve got another batch added!
Let us know what armies you’ve been converting, down in the comments!
