Tilean Mercenaries

So, been working hard and long on some ideas for a Tilean mercenary warband. I will be useing them as Reiklanders, as both the Leader Skill upgrade and BS increase of the Marksmen fit Tileans perfectly (maybe even more so than Raiklanders...).

I have converted some models, and just begun painting them. Heres a sample of my Captain (Centurion) and his Champion (Phalanx).

My Tilean Mercs:


The Centurion (Mercenary Captain)
Consists of Slayer Hairdoo, Marauder Arms, Chaos warrior helm (w. cut away chaos marks), hand & weapon (cut away the guard to make it more like a Gladius), body of an Imperial Swordsman, and Shield of a Swordsman Champion. The cloak is from the Mordheim mercenary sprue.


Group Shot


The Phalanx (Champion)
Consists of a Chaos warrior shield (cut away the marks of Chaor), an Imperial Swordsman body, marauder Arms, chaos hand, and spear made form a bannerpole (which makes it into a longspear, or pike) with a Goblin banner speartip. The head is form a marauder, with cut away horns and Chaos marks, and a green rosary added.

I will post more and more pics as the warband grows.

COOL Neo Classic look to the Lads. Using them as Reiklanders also makes sense to moi...with the increase in BS in particular. VERY WELL DONE!

Thanks a lot! They aren't fully painted yet, though.

I think the horns on the helmet of the centurion feels slightly off. I would cut 'em off, give him a shorter sword or a spear and a round shield instead of a kite shield... His comb looks just great though.

Popmouth wrote:

I think the horns on the helmet of the centurion feels slightly off. I would cut 'em off, give him a shorter sword or a spear and a round shield instead of a kite shield... His comb looks just great though.

The Horns were actually added, as I found a cool looking real centurion helmet w. horns, that I wanted to copy. Also, I want use the horns to paint spot-color (bleached or white). I also decided not to use a spear, as my Champion allready has one, a youngblood will also use one, and a sword just feels more in line with what he would carry. A round shield will be problematic, as I really have none. Well, I have the old Skeleton Regoment shields, but they are used by other models. I still believe the helmet and gold details is enough to give that Roman Centurion feel, but still keep it level-headed and in line with Tilea and the rest of the Warhammer world. BUT: that doesen't mean I disagree with you. Had I more bits fitting the idea, I would go ahead and create more options, such as the one you describe

Hey, nice idea !
You can find some great shields from Hasslefree :


And from Maxmini :



Hope it can inspire you

hehe, being a shitty painter, I feel queezy just looking at those. but yeah, I have researched a lot, pics and stuff, even traditional wargear used by roman/south european soldiers. I will have to look into some post-order sites if they can provide me with some stuff like this.

@ Ryssyll: WOW! Those are awesome, thanks for the heads up those helms are freaking awesome and I can not bring myself to not go out and buy them.

If you're going for a Roman feel to your War Band, which you apparently are, the shield you're using is right on...a round shield would be Greek. LOOKIN' GOOD!

Thx!!! *whew* I thought I was going to have to cut and glue it apart and together again. he he.

Didn't the empire standard troops have round shields a couple of generations back? Round with lions on I believe...

I think so too, and the lion iconography is still present too. Thats why I love the Empire, its a bowl of all manner of late medieval and imperialistic styles, inspired by all of europe and beyond. Something for everyone. Especially if you consider the fact that Sylvania was a part of the Empire too

Popmouth wrote:

Didn't the empire standard troops have round shields a couple of generations back? Round with lions on I believe...

Yup, in the boxed set with the Orcs, Empire, & Rules Book, the Empire Spearmen had round shields with a lion's head device...I still have some kicking around somewhere or other.

I actually found old old old empire round shields in my bits box, with eagle head insignias on them. I will use them for my Swordsmen (roundshield/buckler and Gladius/Shortsword (sword). Also, I have some Tilean marksmen ready, from the new Empire Crossbowmen box.

Also, I have listened to the opinions here, and I actually tried to giove the Centurion a Roundshield, as well as taking away the horns. He doesn't look as feroucious, but it also toned down the Chaos look, which is good. The Round shield will be made from a Marauder shield, with cut away chaos insignias, and some added pieces of flare (a minimum of 12 though, *wink wink, nudge nudge*-catch my drift, eh?)

The warband is coming along nicely, and I have pretty much one question though... hos usual are Bows for tileans, as I figure them being all about crossbows, right? And blackpowder weapons too for that matter. Any advice?

Looks cool! Perfect for Remasans. Not to derail your idea or anything here, because I agree that Reiklanders fit pretty well, but did you know about the Tilean mercenary lists? They're in TC 14, and there are three different groups, just like the original Empire mercs. Generally speaking I've always felt like they're not really anything too special, but for fluff reasons they'd be fun to play. Check 'em out if you want to, but by no means should you feel compelled to switch from your original idea of playing Reiklanders.

Your improvements sounds great!

I got all TC on my computer wo I'll check it out. If I dont like it, I can allways tweak it a little (I allways tend to make a warband a little bit less "good" and more fluffy, as I think fluff is more important than how good the warband is).

Popmouth: Thx! I will paint as many as I can and upload some more photos.

So, I looked into TC 14. Must say, the difference from the normal Merc isn't big enough for me to switch. Both because the bonuses for each Tilean warband doesen't feel... right (or natural or whatever) but also the duelists seem very very very unfluffy. I mean, the cloak count as a SHIELD of all things!? If anything, they could start with the "Step aside" special rule, or why not the normal Expert Swordsman??? Oh yeah, cuz if they had Expert Swordsman, then the warband would be an exact copy of the merc warbands. I think they work for lustria though, with some tweaking, but I could definetley tweak it a bit.

For starters, the "Marigliano"-warband is obviously considered as the marksmen of the three (Reiklanders). Now, instead of giving them the Ld bonus of a Reiklander warband, and keep them focused on ranged combat, id first of remove the +1 to hit with their heroes if using crossbows. Just give the marksmen +1 Bs, and the "Move and fire" ability, constituting the use of crossbows. Now, this could make them too good, BUT, as it only applies to marksmen, I think it could work very wella ctually.

The "Remasen"-warbands special rules are far too limited compared to the Mariglianos, though. Re-rolling one rout test against dark elves is far too limited. And the Ld rule I cant quite get to gruips with. It says they allways have one point higher Ld, no matter who they are fighting, implying they will have one more Ld than the enemies they are fighting (A remasen vs a Fanatic w ld 10, I think, would give the remasen a temporary Ld of 11???). That cant be right. Therefore, I would interpret this as if the Remasen heroes have +1 Ld (also to their max stats). That is all ell and good, but if you remove the anti-dark elf rule, you have a warband with good Ld heroes. I like this, as i allways thought of Tileans as well diciplined, and relying on their captain to keep them in line. Therefore, i'd rather tweak the anti-dark elf rule a bit, making it:

"As long as the Captain is not taken OOA, your warband may add +1 to the captains Ld for purposes of taking rout tests. If the capotain is taken OOA, the Ld used by the next in line will instead be at -1".

That way, we have aw arband with high Ld that will stay in the fight for long, and a strong leader character that keeps his men diciplined.
NOTE: If the captain is taken OOA and a rout test is taken, the -1 ld for the next in line (probably a hero) makes that warriors Ld become as other heroes Ld, as they start with +1 Ld, then looses that bonus when rolling rout tests. The men are courageous fighters, but their ability to lead is not any better than any other warbands heroes, making the Captain really stand out as a leader.

Lastly, the Trantios are marienburgers straight off. And I like marienburgers. I love them actually. though nothing says the Trantios warband get +1 when trying to find rare items, and I reckon the author just forgot to put it in there.

How bout that instead?

Like I said, it's not anything that I would derail a good project for - Reiklanders fit perfectly well. Just thought I'd bring 'em up since you're interested in Tileans.

Personally I would only play them if I really wanted to play Tileans "by the book," but they're not different enough from Empire mercenaries to justify playing them for variety of gameplay.

Myntokk wrote:

Like I said, it's not anything that I would derail a good project for - Reiklanders fit perfectly well. Just thought I'd bring 'em up since you're interested in Tileans.

Personally I would only play them if I really wanted to play Tileans "by the book," but they're not different enough from Empire mercenaries to justify playing them for variety of gameplay.

Hey, I didn't mean to critisize you in any way, though! I really appreciate it, y'know. And its a good article in general. And I agree, if one were to play in a Tilean setting (see TC 28) these rules would fit much better.

Now, dont be discouraged by me being a mean douche, plz keep posting any material youve got on the subject

Here they are, my new version of my Centurion and also my finished Phalanx. I have several more models with this look on the way, but these will have to do until then.

Also, I must add, I am not a great painter, mostly because of being quite a stressed out individual, but painting keeps me calm. I am getting there though, and I am much better than I was a year or so ago, and even then, I have been doing this for... eight years I think
So please, bear with me ...

As someone who has a somewhat stressful life myself, I can indentify...we're lucky to have a relaxing hobby for some mental health time. The Lads are looking good...EXCELLENT theme AND NICELY DONE!

Some more:

Champion 2
Shortsword and Halberd



Youngblood 1:
Crossbow and Sword



I am always amazed how the models turn out when taking photos. At first, I think I have for once done a really good job, then, when the photos are taken, all I see is a smudgy mess Anyhoo, as I said before, im getting there.

Hey no worries, no offense taken at all. I really am not a huge fan of the Tilean rules, not because there's anything wrong with them but just because they don't stand out enough from normal mercs for me, but I thought that an enthusiast might want to know about the warband rules.

You've got some nice looking models here. The centurion looks really good with the round shield, imo, and the phalanx is going to look really cool alongside his buddies! Excited to see what's up next.

Opheliate wrote:

I am always amazed how the models turn out when taking photos. At first, I think I have for once done a really good job, then, when the photos are taken, all I see is a smudgy mess Anyhoo, as I said before, im getting there.

Haha, I can sympathize! Shooting minis is a lot tougher than I ever would have thought. My best advice is to get other sources of direct lighting on the model, like a reading lamp or something, and shoot without your flash. This tends to give you pictures that look more the way the figure does "to the naked eye."