The armies in 3rd edition Fantasy Battle that can utilize Dwarf Mercenaries are much what one would expect: The Empire and Bretonnia. High Elves are too snooty to use mercenaries and Wood Elves do not employ mercenaries at all. All the rest either do not employ mercenaries or are "evil" and thus the Dwarfs would not hire out to them. Oddly the Norse Army list (as featured in White Dwarf 107) does not allow for Dwarf mercenaries either. Now of course it is not like I am breaking any rules for an edition and it is usually just Willmark Jr and I playing but I could see them used for Norse. It is also odd that the Dwarf Army itself cannot hire them. Personally I would hand waive that one if the battle called for it.
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| The Entire Dwarf Mercenary Contingent |
Looking at the backlog of minis on my painting desk I have made a conscious effort to complete and clear it. I took stock and noticed I still had a lot of Dwarfs to paint. And this was after painting 8,000 points of Chaos Dwarfs! So with that in mind and my plan to have separate minis for each ally and mercenary contingent in the 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Army book, I got to work.
My Warhammer Fantasy Battle Dwarf army grew out of the need for me to be my own ally. By my own ally I mean as I have noted on the blog before everyone in the gaming group back in our 3rd edition days already had all the "evil armies" picked. That left me to start with the Empire. So when we played really big battles like Jeff's Orcs and Goblins and Dave's Skaven versus my Empire I needed allies.
As a result I had to purchase and then paint a lot of minis. I bought some of Dave's dwarf crossbowmen and that was the nucleus of my Dwarf army that is now probably close to 5,000 points.
So rather than keep adding to that army I decided to use the minis for a dedicated Dwarf Mercenary contingent. I get that the Army Rule book was designed so that the Allies and Mercenary contingents could be used by just allocating minis from the main army one might already have. I also think it was a strategy to sell minis for armies that a player might not otherwise buy. With this in mind I have set out to create Ally and Mercenary contingents for all of them listed! A tall order I know.
Back to the Dwarf Mercenaries. The minis themselves are mainly from the awesome Battle for Skull Pass boxed set which I had bought two of between 2008 and 2010. Mainly these were for my 5th through 8th Edition Chaos Dwarfs. I also got a great deal on a Dwarf box set at Games Day 2008. Thus between these two sets I had enough left over to utilize for the mercenary force even after being used for four units of Chaos Dwarfs. This accomplished another part of my goal: clearing the painting table.
As I assembled the mercs I realized I had everything I needed to fill out all units listed from odds and ends.
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| Dwarf Mercenary Warriors & Command |
The Dwarf Mercenary Force
- 1 Dwarf Mercenary Commander (I used a leftover metal Hammerer model I had lying around)
- 6 Mercenary Dwarf Sappers (Battle for Skull Pass miners. These guys obviously fit perfectly.)
- 19 Dwarf Mercenary Warriors (Battle for Skull Pass warriors)
- 1 Dwarf Mercenary Artillery (a cannon from the Milton Bradley set)
While a separate force from my Dwarf army, one thing I did consider was the color scheme. My larger Dwarf War Host is primarily green and yellow. I decided to do the same with the mercenary force so if I wanted to use them as part of the larger force I easily could do so. Despite being a separate force I like the flexibility. In fact with almost all of my armies and contingents I make them so they can span multiple editions as much as possible.
I have talked about it on Chaos Dwarfs Online before about how sometimes units "fight" you and the painting can be a pain or a chore. That was definitely the case with the crossbowmen. They were also originally assembled as Chaos Dwarf crossbowmen. So not only did I have to modify them, but I had to do a bunch of green stuffing and scrounge up enough pieces to make a unit. The painting was painful and seemed to take forever.
In contrast the dwarf warrior unit went together easily from assembly to painting, likewise with the miners who function as sappers and the cannon and its crew. All of these guys were enjoyable to paint.
Because of this, in practical terms it is not the most useful mercenary or ally contingent on the tabletop in terms of utilization, but one I wanted to complete to clear the desk.
Further afield I have now a fairly large Old Worlder Mercenary contingent (using some Old Glory minis, do not tell GW!) that is nearly complete in terms of collecting the minis. Likewise the Old Worlder Ally Contingent is rounding into form. Dwarf Allies, Dark Elf Ally and High Elf Ally are all likewise underway.