I’ve recently started rebasing a lot of my fantasy models and as part of that this fella popped into the queue that I thought would be a perfect candidate to be an example for the first months slow-grow challenge.

Lore

Morgan was born and raised in the imperial city of Nuln, famed for its Gunnery School, Master Engineers, and all things gunpowder. The city was a paradise for many, but for Morgan, it was a banal and unchanging city, mired in conduct and blinded by its own decadence. Being the eldest son in his family, he was sent away to the officers’ academy, as was the custom for the city.

He spent four long years learning the intricacies of battle, swordsmanship, and, of course, artillery. The long studying of formations and artillery bored him senseless and he gained a reputation as an exceptional, yet troublesome student, as he failed to show up for most classes, feeling that his skills were outpacing the curriculum.

For Bernhardt, it was the Cavalry where his true passions lay, he was said to be able to outride even the Reiksguard knights whenever they passed the great city and was well known for goading his fellow nobles into races and other such events where horses and wagers were involved.

His disregard for the rules, reckless behaviour and lust for adventure eventually got him expelled from the academy, much to Bernhardt’s relief, though this would haunt him for years to come, as he was denied entry from every knightly order in the Empire he attempted to join, even the Pistoliers would have nothing to do with his insubordination (much to the delight of his former peers and teachers).

This is how Morgan Bernhardt got the Grudgebringer. A young Morgan Bernhardt had failed several times to become part of the Empire’s knightly orders and went to drown his sorrows in an inn. After some drunken back and forth with the patrons of the bar, Morgan gave an inspiring speech about forming an army better than knightly order.

This impressed the patrons that they offered to be the first soldiers of the Grudgebringers company. An eccentric old Bright wizard (a wizard skilled in the Lore of Fire) then comes and declares his admiration, since he’s too old to join and fight he gives Bernhardt his magical sword, the Grudgebringer and tells him to make good use of it.

Morgan’s mercenaries have enjoyed a properous first year of operation, commanding an unsullied respect on their home turf in the Imperial probvince of the Reikland. The Grudgebringers have since marched to the troubled Border Princes where they hope to join a major campaign to prove themselves worthy of greater fortunes. The Grudgebringers are composed primarily of both cavalry, led by Morgan, and heavy infantry led by Lieutenant Schepke.

Morgan Bernhardt

Grudgebringer

Really, I’d like a magic weapon to reflect the sword he has in the campaigns of Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omens. I think this is something that would have to be homebrewed and then checked with opponents before using it in a game.

Firstly, it was a sword, and he also owned a shield, so it would be classed as a hand weapon.

Its main ability was being able to shoot fireballs at enemy once it had enough magical energy built up. So we’d need to include some kind of magic missile profile that could be used in the shooting phase.

There are two profiles from the Core Book and Forces of Fantasy that we can base this upon.

So, the Burning Blades profile looks almost perfect for what I want. It just misses the target slightly on not having the ranged attack. The Burning Blade, in this case, could also somehow be linked the Fireball spell.

So I think we would need to write. Special Rule for the Grudgebringer Sword in this case:

Grudgebringer Sword

A sword with a hidden past. The bearer is able to strike down their foes in flame.

The Wielder of this Sword can cast the Fireball spell from the Lore of Battle Magic (page 321) as a Bound spell, with a power level of 2.

Points

With the 5 points for Burning Blade, we need to accommodate the Fireball spell as a bound item.

Luckily, the Ruby Ring of Ruin does just that. So we’ll take the Burning Blade cost and rules and add those to that of the Ruby Ring of Ruin. This’ll create the 35-point Grudgebringer Sword magic weapon.

So, with that done, we can complete our unit profile for Commander Morgan Bernhardt.

Of course, if you wanted it to be a totally legal build without opponent consent, yous just take a Ruby Ring of Ruin and Burning Blade as the magic items and head cannon it as the Grudgebringer Sword, but where’s the fun in that?!