PaulM - Mórr's Wild Hunt - OWAC VII intro post

 Hello my OWAC people!

Back again for a second crack of the whip. I've had the idea of a Wood Elf army kicking around for a while and have been picking up bits here and there for several years.

In my 30-ish years of playing war dollies I have at one point owned a Wood Elf army, during 6th edition in fact, but it was half-inched by some unscupulous sort about a decade ago and I am now sans Woodies, so this year's event seemed the perfect opportunity to rectify that and get the savage tree-hippies back on the table.

The plan, originally, was to do, one for one, the Mórr's Wild Hunt sample list [above] as presented in the 4th edition Army Book; but, and those who followed my last OWAC attempt will know this, doing the complete list is probably a tad optimistic for the arch-procrastinator that I am. As such I've decided on a paired back list, that is likely more achievable.

That list consists of the following:

10 Archers 

5 Dryads

5 Scouts - with Standard and Musician

5 Glade Riders

5 Warhawk Riders

Treeman

General, Scout Hero & Mage on Great Eagle.

Wildcard - Elven Way Stones

The army is mostly made up of Mark Copplestone sculpted ex-Grenadier figs, with the odd 3rd and 4th/5th edition GW sculpt thrown in, and a Harlequin Treeman (that I'm likely to replace with one of the Harrrowhyrst/Trish Carden ones). I have some 3rd edition archers somewhere that need adding in too, to mix up the archers a little. 

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted that there are 10 Wardancers present too, they will get dropped in dependant on progress, though even the least observant reader will notice that my pre-OWAC prep has resulted in precisely zero progress, so I've already set myself a mountain to climb!

All a bit if fun though innit? Onward for Athel Loren! 

Adrian's dwarfs - June last rank & file reinforcements (430 points)

Rank & File Month

 Who need a dragon when you have an entire Dragon Company.

Ulther: We will be eternally in debt for your kind help and guiding our company in such a dangerous adventure.

Snow White: I accept your gratitude and there is no need to worry about the perils of our journey. I am very happy to help my friends, your brave companions… and abandon such a boring fest. You know, I love my husband but do not expect me not to run away after four days of such boring court fests.

Ulther: Well, lucky we were there during the fests when the news about the orc advance reached the castle. Without your assistance, we didn’t know this path to the valley and probably won't reach our friend Lord Kazador in time. 

...About your friends… we will avenge those seven brave engineers, my lady.

Snow White: Do not worry also for my friends, if I am also showing you this path is because maybe we need to reach fast and help king Kazador even more than my friends. Specially if they have deployed one of their… how to say, creative solutions. 

Remember that story when my stepmother tried to poison me?, my friends chased her along the valley and in the end a rock fell by accident over her... Let’s say that I knew very well our home deep in the forest and I do not remember having a trebuchet in the garden before I fell asleep.

 
Ulther: Do you think that they may have repelled the mighty and unglorious orc warlord Gorfang?

Snow White: I suspect more than you want to know. I hope there is still a mine shaft and not a giant crater instead when we arrive there.

...

King Kazador: We must start to retreat to our lines. We can barely resist their massive waves.

“Doc”: My lord, but if we retreat now we cannot bring with us the part of the treasure that has not been sealed in the lower levels.

King Kazador: And what exactly do you expect me to do in order to stop these filthy orcs? Bring a dragon to burn ‘em all??

[bang bang bang]

A dragon! A Dragon!

King Kazador: Well, Doc, that’s your dragon. Now let start loading that frigging gold and run away from this damned hill.

Ulther! My friend! Your help is more than welcomed! Now show those beasts how does a proper dwarf shieldwall work!

 
The last month requires a final bang before saying goodbye to the current edition of the OWAC. And this unit was the perfect candidate for such an honour.

Thanks to Mariano, this unit was my introduction to the oldhammer community. It has travelled (almost) all around the world before settling into my desk. Probably 5?Even more years ago? Unfortunately , they were still in their box, untouched, eager to be deployed.

Let’s finish the OWAC with a regiment of renown.

Besides of the legendary miniatures, the Dragon Company awesomeness allows me to completely break my previous painting scheme, like I did with the Jes Goodwin's eldar pirates from the last year.
I will probably follow this strategy in order to not getting burned during a challenge/painting schedule.

I got catch by The Lost and the Damned painting of the Dragon Company and tried to replicate the approach to the shieldwall heraldry, but with a not-so-small twist. Adding an patterns to their imperial dwarf tabards and armour styles too, so almost every dwarf is unique.

I loved the opportunity to paint checkers, halved patterns, etc. and bring out their armour. The repeated sculpts are not so easily recognisable and therefore not a problem at all in the final result.
So, less talk and show you the migh of:

Prince Ulther (dwarf hero) and 14x Dragon Company with full command (count as Iron Breakers) - 430 points

Yes, yes, the last month I was 100% legal and didn’t claim the slayer hero because I didn’t paint him in the leader month. But Ulther needed to be with his fellas, doesn’t he? I am not cheating, did I?

I am not totally proud of the banner because at this point I was running out of time as I needed to finish everything one week ago!!

Probably I will touch it again in the future. Improve the dragon and add several motifs.

At least I had spare time to bring to the ranks this little friend that was magically recovered when me and his proud seller thought it has been lost in the UK mail system. Two months later it pops up, returned to the sender! So I wanted it anyways and in time before the challenge ends.

Also, there is now Seven Dwarfs without Snow White. Another year, another great idea by Lissane in the comments that I NEEDED to include in the army. I had this civilian laying around and thought, spot on for the cause!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the freehand on my dwarf warrior banner, a personal shame that I should finish when I improve the Dragon Company banner or else take the slayer oath!

And with those words, let’s see you in the recap.
Until then, 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

Ian McMurray's Goblins - Trolls (Rank and File 4 - 325 points)

 «Do feed the Trolls!»

                - Grom, pointing at those white skin bastards

This is it, the last obligatory painting entry for the OWAC V challenge! Two Stone Trolls and 3 River Trolls to add to my mostly swift army. They will probably be too stupid to do anything worthy on the battlefield but I don't care, they are big, fun to paint and cost a lot of points. If they get their big dirty hands on the enemy, ripping limbs or generously vomiting on them could be quite interesting.

What's next for June? I hope to make all the banners for my army, retouch a few of the miniatures I am not entirely satisfied with and maybe add a few extra miniatures... I have 3 Goblin Fanatics almost done and so many more miniatures in my pile of green shame! We'll see.

Here's the (complete?) army at the end of May:

• Grom and Niblet in chariot: 257 points
• 10 goblin wolf riders with bow: 100 points
• 10 goblin wolf riders with spear and shield: 110 points
• 2 goblin chariots with scythed wheels: 180 points 
• 20 Night Goblins: 60 points
• 5 Trolls: 325 points

TOTAL: 1032 points

See you at the end of June to wrap this first (and hopefully not the last) OWAC experience for me!

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

Ian McMurray's Goblins - Night Goblin Unit (Rank and File 3 - 60 points)

"The darkest side of the night
Burns like a fire
For the wasted lives"

    - Metropolis, The Darkest Side of the Night

In April I painted a unit of 20 Night Goblins with various weapons. They are 2 1/2 points each!!! I add 1/2 point because some of them have spear and/or shields. Almost a whole month of painting... for 60 points! Still no banner though! I hope I will be able to do all the banners in June. I love those Kev Adams sculpts (who doesn't?). They have so much details and characters. My painting skills didn't do them all the honour and old school feel they merit but I'm quite happy with my work. Here's some close-up of all of them:

Now the good news is that I only have 3 goblin fanatics left to paint and then no more goblins! Next month is 5 trolls and I can't wait to start on them! It will be a nice change from all those green skins.

Here's the army at the end of April:

• Grom and Niblet in chariot: 257 points
• 10 goblin wolf riders with bow: 100 points
• 10 goblin wolf riders with spear and shield: 110 points
• 2 goblin chariots with scythed wheels: 180 points 
• 20 Night Goblins: 60 points

TOTAL: 707 points