Take a look a look at the newest army in Warhammer: the Old World, the Renegade Crowns. Get your Empire out of my Bretonnia!
In the next couple of weeks we will see the release of Arcane Journal: War of Settra’s Fury. This is the final announced Old World product we’ve been waiting for, so we don’t know what’s coming after it. Now this book has a fair bit of stuff of in it, which I will cover. However the most interesting feature is that is actually secretly adds a brand new army into the game. Now GW was a bit cagey about this army in the lead up. For instance the big summer preview which teased the list called it the a Border Princes army of Infamy. Meanwhile the more recent designer commentary did call it by the proper name, Renegade Crowns, but implied that it was an Empire Army of Infamy.
Neither of these is really correct however. Renegade Crowns is effectively its own army list, that is called an Army of Infamy, but isn’t one for an existing faction. Most of it’s units are unique to it, and while it does draw on a couple Empire units, it actually includes more Bretonnian units. So today lets take a quick look at what this army is and how it works.
What Are the Renegade Crowns?
The Renegade Crowns are effectively the amies of lords and commanders who have been forced from their homelands and fight in the Border Princes and Vaults. They include not just exiled or out of power lords, but also mercenary hosts and outlaws. There is a lot of overlap between them and Brettonian Exiles, but the Crowns have a bit more Empire and also Tilean flavor to them. This army is a converters dream as there are not actually any models produced for it currently. Instead it is a mish-mash of Empire, Bretonnia, and other models as you see fit.
Renegade Crown Characters
As is pretty common the army can take 50% of it comp in characters and this is a mixed bag. You get a lot of cool customization here, but this is also really the armies weakest part. To fill out your options you get to chose from just three options.
You can take 0-1 Renegade Princes per 1000 pts, and then unlimited Renegade Captains and Outcast Wizards. However in matched play you are also limited to 3 of each.
Renegade Princes are basically Empire Generals, while Captains are pretty much Empire Captains (though they do have better WS). While they can take a verity of normal weapon and armor upgrades they don’t get anything too crazy. They are also, base, locked to just common magic items from the rule book. What this means is that really the best combat character you can get is a 3 attack dude on a horse. It’s pretty limiting. They also have low LD, but this is helped with warband.
Outcast wizards come from the Bretonnia Exiles list, and as such can take Bret items as well. They are get a good range of spells to pick from, but are capped at lvl 3 and don’t have any special signatures. All of this means you don’t have any really good characters, just some decent ones.
Infamous Origins
The characters are given more flexibility with Infamous Origins. Any of your Outcast Wizards or Renegade Lords/Captains can take these, and you can double or triple up to your hearts content. The upgrades costs wither 20 or 25 pts depending on the option.
Each upgrade starts off by buffing the stats of the character, these are nice, but sadly no attack buff is on the table. They then also give the character some special rules and options. For instance one unlocks Empire items for purchase, another Bret items. One gives you Stubborn, and lets you pass it on to a unit, another lets you buy Scouts of Ambushers. One gives you half a rule that we’ll need an FAQ to see what it actually says!
On top of all that each of these rules interacts with one of the units in your army. For each character you have with one of these rules you get the option to upgrade a corresponding unit, such as buying Hireling Outriders Ambush. This can be pretty cool, but it is also the only army special rule(s) you get.
This all does give you a lot of flexibility, but it also adds a lot of cost. Characters might seem cheap at first, but once you start adding on 20 pts to allow you to spend 10 pts to get scouts, and then another 10 pts to upgrade a unit to ambush, and suddenly you are throwing 30-40 pts onto characters on top of items.
Renegade Crown Core – Infantry
Core is really where this army shines, takes to some brand new units. To start off with you can take Empire Archers and Free Company in the list as core. That’s neat. However the main selling points is the new units. The army has two new infantry units – Sellsword Infantry, of which you can take as many as you want, and Veteran Sellswords, which you get 0-1 per 1000 pts.
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These are basically a good version of Empire State Troops. They cost 4 pts a model, with hand weapon and light armor, have normal human stats (though low LD at 5/6 for champ) and have close order, detachment, horde, regimental unit, and warband for rules. Veterans are a point more and get WS4 and Veteran.
This unit is however super flexible. The units can all upgrade to take one of spears, halberds, great weapons, crossbows or handguns. Basically letting you build a version or any state troops, missel troops or even bad great swords. Th units can also take shields and/or heavy army and veterans can take full plate, get drilled and a magic flag.
This lets you build some really interesting things. If you just want to go cheap you can take 6 point crossbows that are 2 pts less than State Missiles troops with light armor for the same effect. Or you can go crazy and give them shields and heavy armor, for unit of crossbows that also rocks a 3+ save in combat! Want to go full plate and spears and shields, for 3+ save spearmen? Go for it! You can really get a lot of fun combos here and the flexibility lets you build some of the best light and medium infantry around.
Renegade Crown Core-Cavalry
You’ve also got a pair of Cavalry options in core, letting you take a fully mounted army if you wanted. Hireling Outriders are a light cav unit. Like the Sellswords they start off super cheap with very basic stats and just a hand weapon, though they do have fast cav, fire and flee, open order, skirmishers and swiftstride. However they can also take a wide verity of upgrades, from spears, to bows and pistols, light and heavy armor, shields and a several special rules. Basically they can be a version of Wolf Rider, or Elyerian Reavers or Pistoleers. I don’t think any of these builds are super amazing, but you can do some tricks here.
Freeblade Knights are the other core Cav choice and you know the drill here. These start off as stripped down Empire Knights, hand weapons, heavy armor (no barding) but can buy a verity of options to turn them into pretty normal Empire Knights. They don’t get any real special rules or cool things and are a little disappointing. I guess the cool thing here is you could run them pretty cheap and fragile?
Renegade Crown Specials
The army can spend 33% of its point of Special choice, of which it has two. You can take 0-2 Border Prince Mortars per 1000 pts. This basically an Empire Mortar. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these played, and but given the limits here you might want to squeeze one in.
The second option is Veteran Freeblades. This is the upgrade version of the heavy cav. For 4 extra points they got from S3 to S4 and gain Veteran. They also get the option to buy a magic flag and full plate. I get what they are going for here, but its ultimately a little disappointing. You can use this unit to build what basically an Empire Inner Circle Knight. And its the hardest hitting unit you can make with this army. But its still not very good or exciting. To do it will cost you 31 pts a model. That’s a point more than Inner Circle Knights, without gaining drilled or the Inner Circle re-roll. You also can’t buy stubborn for the unit.
For some reason you also can’t buy magic items for the champion, even though the veteran infantry can. It just kind of sucks that this is the best offensive unit you can build and its just a worse and more expensive version of an already mid unit!
Renegade Crown Rare Units
Per normal 25% of the army can be spent on rare units, and here you have a couple choices. You can take the Border Prince Brigands (from the Exiles list). This is a pretty cool and flexible unit. I really wish it was in special and not rare here. It feels like it fits there a bit better, but oh well. I’ve used it a lot and do like it.
You can also take 0-1 per 1000 pts of either Border Princes Organ Guns or Border Princes Bombards. Bombards are from the Exiles list also, while Organ Guns are just those, from the BRB. Since They suck and Bombards are great, I think you’ll pretty much see every list run two Bombards and ignore Organ Guns. But it is kind of thematic.
Mercenaries
Lastly you can take up to 33% Mercenaries in the list. These can be chosen from any unit that has the ‘Dogs Of War’ rule. There are a few units out there and this is a category that is likely to expand over time, giving you some interesting options. Ogres and Doom Seekers are probably the most obviously options, but you could also be cheeky and throw in a Bonegrinder Giant!
Final Thoughts On the Army
Overall I think this a very thematic army and one that is great for converters and narrative players. It’s one I look to forward to building and playing with in fun games. It’s not an army that feels particularly competitive (and not every army has to be!). The army does have pretty good basic and mid tier infantry. It’s got OK artillery. However its cavalry is a little lack luster and its characters are very limits and mid. It lacks a real punchy unit and some of the things feel just a bit too toned down.
There are also a few misses, like with Veteran Freeblade champions not being able to take magic items. It’s also a bit odd that neither Hans von Löwenhacke (the mercenary general!) nor Sir Cecil Gastonne (mentioned several times in the book as commanding mercenary armies in the region) can be taken with the army.
The army does have a ton of flexibility and cool conversion options. However outside of the infantry it feels a lot like worse Empire and the charecters are lacking. That said I think playing in an event that was made up entirely of Renegade Crowns would be super fun! This is a very vanilla, but flexible, warhammer army. It feels like one that’s kind of built for the game the designers play rather than the game in the wild. There just isn’t really anything crazy here and its a list you’ll win more with tactics and skills then raw power.
Happy Gaming!
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Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.
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