Tales of Instahammer: January

Greetings!

The first month of the Tales of Instahammer community event is nearing its end, meaning that it is now time to show off what I have accomplished so far.

The first month was all about getting your warband started, hence the theme Making an Impact. My impact was a unit of 10 Ulgumgi Trappers, a unit of 10 Ulgumgi Hirdmen and one of the army's heroes, an Ulgumgi Thegn!

That easily checks out the minimm requirement of one unit and one hero. I also completed the Secret Challenge for January by painting a standard bearer and taking a groupshot of the lot by the end of month.

Here they are in all their glory!




The Trappers are the protectors of the tribe's lands, laying ambushes and harassing any trespassers to prevent them from finding the scattered Ulgumgi settlements. They also take down game for food and crafting materian, as well as defeat the feral beasts of Ulgu that are too much for regular huntsmen to ward off.

The Hirdmen are just regular tribesmen, living their lives as carpenters, smiths, bakers, herders, farmers and thatchers behind the palisade walls of the settlements. Whenever one of the settlements is under threat, though, the local Thegns quickly issue the call to arms and assemble the town's hird: a vengeful host of men who only want to preserve their families and their way of life.

At the head of these hirds stroll the Thegns, a class of low nobility that acts as the decisionmakers and war-time leaders of the Ulgumgi. Many of the Thegns trace their heritage back to the men who survived the Battle of Twinpoints, represented by their gear of war: rusted mail and battered plate cover the bodies of these warlords, many of them family heirlooms passed down from father to son.

This beardyboy here is Hafr Geraldsson, Thegn of the Myrkrvollr settlement. The Hirdmen in the picture above are under his command, carrying a banner with the three-branched alder on a brown field: the symbol and coat of arms of their settlement.

You may have noticed that despite clear allegiances and hierarchies in and between different Ulgumgi settlements, they are all clad in clothes of earthen tones rather than bright liveries. This has a simple explanation: in the dark woodlands of the Realm of Shadow, bright colours only work to get you killed. Colors are muted and often indiscernable in the forests the Ulgumgi live in, hence they have no use for colours but only simple symbols to depict their allegiance.

Here are some more pics of the Hirdmen, including a couple of WIPs. More to come on February as the army will get some added punch!