Adrian's rank & file month 3 - Now you see me, Now you're dead (160 points)

 

Surprising an elf army is nigh impossible. Their territories are patrolled by some of the skilled and silent agents.

The elf seekers or the ranks of the nagarythean Shadow Warriors are the reason almost no enemy can escape the elf inteligence. They search for enemy patrols or columns, locate stashes, or inform of enemy repositioning. But most importantly, they're deadly sharpshooters and warriors eager to strike behind enemy lines.

During the crisis of the fall of Tor Nimtala, regiments of seekers moved behind the lines of the besieging orcs and ratment hordes and killed hundreds of vital reinforcements, supplies. But more importantly for the cohesion of the chaotic hordes, they destroyed or robbed the loot gained from the burnt villages, expanding an aura of mistrust between the attackers.

 They also coordinated with the few defenders of the villages. Creating chokepoints or false routes to overcome the defenders, the ratmen fall under the sudden strike of arrows coming from units of seekers supported by strategically placed bolt throwers.

March suddenly become the trap month, and I still cannot comprehend why. I intended to paint a unit of shadow warriors/seekers, restoring the old plastic elf archers, and then moving to the bolt thrower and some extras that I want to finally include (I have a spare elf warrior militia that I said I'd love to finish converting and panting).

Everything planned failed and I got enough time to paint the bare minimum. Well, not exactly, a unit of seekers plus the bolt thrower and crew.

For the unit, I opted for more muted and greenish or shadow colours that they may use as camouflage. The colours of the clothes are not as bright as other line units. 

I ended including some patterns in the least muted/more contrasting colour as with other clothes of the army, and in the cloaks, as if they were made from some fine cloth. Also, I glazed the cloaks so the pattern dissapear in the shadows, to boost the effect of the embroided fine clothes rather than a printed pattern like in the other fabrics.

 

 

The bolt thrower is supposedly made from some fine reddish wood, so I used the same technique as in the fabric of the cloaks. First, I made the pattern. then, I glazed the wood with a mix of AK laser magenta and hull red.

That's a total of

10x High elf shadow warriors - 110 points

1x High elf repeater bolt thrower - 50 points

Another month, 13 more miniatures finished. Next month I want to paint the swordmasters and the extras that does not fit with the baggage train.

Until then,

Adrian's out.

Adrian's High Elves intro post

 

 

 

It's that time of the year again. 

No, I'm not talking about the one with decorated trees and looped Mariah Carey songs. But there will be plenty of elves. 

It is the time for a new Old World Army Challenge presentation!

 

The last year I completed a new 40k/30k army that has caused more than one raised eyebrow when I played it for the new Age of Darkness setting. However, it also increased my storage problems, so I need to resist the impulse to start a new collection or complete some of the more unfinished projects. 

Instead, some of your last projects gave me the motivation to take it easy, select one of my old armies from the pile of shame old-middlehammer miniatures, and finish it once and for all.

So this year I have selected a bunch of high elves with the 4th edition army list and I will try to get a complete 2000 point army multi-edition ready, with the units I already had painted over the years, for some fantasy love.

The High Elf host of the lost city of Tor Nimtala

 

 

My army general is going to be an old damaged Tyrion that I repared and converted over the amazing 4th ed metal wood elf dragon, which I feel that it is the crown jewel of the elf dragon sculpts after the emperor dragon.

High elf Lord on Great Dragon - 760 points

 

 

My second in command will be a humble elf mage, as it always must be a wizard in a high elf army.

 

High elf mage - 59 points

 

 

 

My rank and file will be distributed over several commont troops

20 High elf spearmen with a champion and command group - 300 points

12 High elf archers with a champion and command group - 217 points

I had these early plastic archers that I started collecting for the Blood Bath at Orcs drift collection that will be used as Shadow Warriors. I am not completely decided if give'm shields as I do not want to hide their quivers and the usual kite shields are a bit too large for these skirmishers (to my liking). 

If I find something appropiate I will give them the shields.

10 High elf Shadow Warriors - 110 points

The other special troops will be 

10 High elf Swordmasters - 224 points

Lastly, I have some warmachines and chariots. I have not finished my baggain train but I will include one for the wildcard/baggain train month.

1 High elf chariot - 72 points

1 High elf reapeater bolt thrower - 50 points

I also have in my box a small unit of high elf militamen/warriors with shields made from a collection of Tim Prow oldies and citadel Middle Earth elves. But, again, I have some troubles the last year by overcommiting some months. So I will play safe this year and depending on how I go with my current troops I will add them later on one or two of my rank and file months.

For now, it is a 1792 point army list, 58 elves, some steads, warmachines and a huge dragon.

More than 1000 points on pure troops and small characters if we do not count the huge point sink of the dragon.

Let see if I can complete another OWAC.

Until January's update, Adrian's out.

Pokrzyw's High Elves - Dragon Cavalry without Dragon - Rank & File #4 (374pts)

 Advancing forces of High Elves is always preceded by mysterious Shadow Warriors. The main forces was reinforced by perfectly armored knights - noble Dragon Princes of Caledor. Enemies has no chance competing with that deadly combination..

Last month of challenge. Really hard due to other activities. I prepared two special units of high elves - Shadow Warriors and Dragon Princes of Caledor.

Shadow warriors are iconic unit of scouts, remnatants of Nagarythe, trying to get revenge on dark cousins. Old miniatures from Marauder range are not very pretty, but it is true classic shape of 4th edition high elf.

Another unit are mighty Dragon Princes of Caledor. The heaviest cavalry unit of high elves. I tried to paint them using classical red-green-white-gold scheme.It was really tiring.. But finally I was able to finish this unit.

Roster:

CHARACTERS

Dragon Prince of Caledor Champion 61 pts

REGIMENTS

4 Dragon Princes of Caledor [banner] 215pts

7 Shadow Warriors [shields,longbows] 98pts

TOTAL: 374pts

Paul's High Elves - Reinforcements have arrived! Rank & File Month 4 (510 pts)

Reinforcements have arrived!

April has been a very busy, but very productive month for me both in terms of the OWAC and Real Life - Boo! On the plus side it is also my birthday month and this gave me full license to indulge in the fine OWAC traditions of 'changing plans mid challenge' and 'buying lots more minis' :p

I'm pleased to say I was able to more than meet my needs from the trading groups rather than resorting to the dreaded evil-bay. My thanks to Lee G, Marc P, Carl H, Ben P, and Gavin M all of whom were a pleasure to deal with and helped me fill in the gaps in my changed OWAC plans at short notice, as well as picking up some Goblin wolf riders for my eldest, and a near mint copy of the 5th Edition Magic supplement - so we even got to play an actual game with my OWAC minis this month! :D

A solid Elven back line is supported by two wings designed to press forward and fall back

The plans was working perfectly, the Lion Warriors moving in for the kill, until...

A bloody great Zombie Dragon and Vampire Lord turned up to ruin everyone's day!

Sadly, shortly after this picture was taken the High Elf Mage had his head ripped off by the Vampire Lord and the game ended in victory for the Forces of Evil.

Right, enough of that embarrassing loss! Let's get to this month's painting.  First up were a handful of reinforcements for my Shadow Warriors, with four more to bring me up to a unit of 12 overall, and another four Swordmasters for a unit of 20 in total.

Apologies, I've just noticed the one at the front is out of focus, but it's too late now!

As a prestige unit my Dragon Princes clearly needed a full command group, not least because it is another chance to do a banner, but also because the DP special rules in WFB 4th /5th Edition mean that they get their standard bearer for free (rather than having to pay double, as you would normally). 

My green stuff skills are a bit lacking, but I was fairly happy with this in the end.

The same rule does not apply to the musician however, and at 86 points I'm not sure many HE players actually bother(ed) to take one for their Dragon Princes in 4/5 edition. That may be why they didn't get a musician model until the much later release of newer Dragon Prince sculpts. I managed to get my hands on one of the horn arms from the newer DP sculpts and do some very ropey metal and putty work to convert an older DP trooper into a musician.

R to L Standard Bearer, Champion, Musician, Trooper

My family are by now well trained in spotting useful bits of junk on the ground to bring home to see if they can be used in junk builds and scenery projects. This time my wife played a blinder by bringing home a scrap of old rubber from a netball, as she thought the dimples made it feel like lizard skin. She was not wrong and it makes an excellent dragon hide banner!

The elven rune is named Caladai 'the symbol of the line of kings, the dragons of flame', which seemed perfect for the haughty Dragon Princes of Caledor. I'm afraid the weather was turning so I didn't get a chance to take a picture with the rest of the unit, but there are 9 of them in total now and I've just managed to acquire the bits to make another horse, so a 10th might be on the cards in the future.

I also added another five Reaver Knights in the same blue and golden yellow colour scheme as those I painted in February. Back then the blue and yellow colour scheme just happened to match the flag of Ukraine. This time it's deliberate and I hope the emblem of the phoenix on their shields is prophetic. It's always an important and sobering moment for a fan of 'war games' of any description to be reminded of the realities of war. My experience however is that most wargamers are actually keen students of history and well aware of the evil and misery of war, and it has been heartening to see the response from the community as we come together to hope for peace. 

I had started to hate painting these, but love how they look as a big group. I've got another 5 waiting, inc. command, but I'm in no rush to paint them quite yet!

Total for the month:

4 Shadow Warriors (12 pts each) - 48pts
4 Sword Masters (16 pts each) - 64pts
5 Reaver Knights (w/ spears, bows, and shields - 33 pts each) - 165pts
4 Dragon Princes (43 pts each) (inc. Champion*, Standard**, and Musician**) - 233 pts

* DP Champion = 61 pts
** DPs have a special rule that means the unit gets the standard bearer for the same price as a standard trooper, however the musician costs double as per normal.

Total: 510 pts

I also managed to rebase an existing unit of Silver Helms, and replace their mostly blank shields with a matching set with horse head design from the WFB4 box set, although looking at them in the photos I think they could 'pop' a bit more so I might look at those again at some point.

They had also been badly missing a banner, so I've added a simple pennant with the elven runes Sethai meaning 'Flight, wind, cry in the far mountains' and Harathoi meaning 'Youth, boundless energy, jealousy' used together here to represent the speed and potency of the young elven nobles that make up the Silver Helm cavalry.

May will hopefully be leader month, although I might yet swap things around and play a wild card before finishing with my leader. We shall have to see how the dreaded 'Real Life' behaves ;)

Thanks for reading and bon courage to all my fellow challengers. The end is in sight! :D

Andrea's Teclis & retinue (219 points)

Hi guys, 

this month has been quite busy but I managed to reach the end!

I am particularly happy because this month includes, among the others, the mighty Teclis (here in disguise as a 1st level mage). It is among the first miniatures I owned and it remained painted with enamel until the last summer (not very simple decoloring...). I opted for the classic colour scheme, which also fits to the other mage of this army (March post). Needless to say, it was a pure joy to paint it: a very fine sculpt with a lot of details and incredibly characterful. I hope you all enjoy the result, as I do!

The retinue of Teclis is made by two nice Shadow Warriors units. Back in the days, when I played the 4th/5th edition, Shadow Warriors were basically ignored by all High Elves players of my gaming club. I never understood why, because I find them very cool (four of them were bought together with Teclis, more than 20 years ago). Now, I own ten of them and divided in two units: after all, they are scouts and scouts work better in small units.

So, here's the first unit (mysteriously known as "the white shields")

And here's the second unit (enigmatically called "the blue shields")

Last but no the least in the Teclis' retinue, a deadly Repeater Bolt Thrower (the second of this army). I selected a different colors for helm feathers, the sash and accessories, to distinguish from the other one (just in case I manage to play a game...).

 Well, this month points: Teclis (as 1st level mage) 59 pts + 10 Shadow Warriors (two units x5 elves each) 110 pts + a Repeater Bolt Thrower 50 pts. Total = 219 points!

 So, the last month is approaching and I prepared a few changes to the original army list, with some replacements and a couple of additions. Stay tuned!

Ciao, Andrea