Stephen's Songs of the Damned - Post-OWAC V Wrap-Up Musings (1,411 points) - "The Eldar"

I've tasted poison
When I drank the wine of Fate
But fear was in my heart
I realized too late
The house of spirits call

For the Eldar
I'm trapped inside this dream
Of the Eldar's
Song of Doom

Blind Guardian
"The Eldar"
Nightfall In Middle-Earth
Virgin/Century Media 1998


That's A Wrap!

Nerdy, Tired-Eyed, Obsessing Prince of Space Elves, Stephen, 

with his Minimum-Requirements Ulthwé Army

Past the finish line! Somehow, I made it. I was not at all sure I would, and there were times I nearly succumbed to the urge to find a place of rest in yonder Field of Bones. That time will surely come...but not yet.

'Old metal models,' indeed

This is the first time I've participated in any sort of large-scale, long-term painting challenge. I'd already started on "Project: Full Metal Ulthwé" back in early 2021, as my actual time spent playing hams-related games had (for understandable reasons) dropped off precipitously.

For over a year, our hams group was meeting up weekly over Discord to paint and chat for a few hours, which I found to be a real morale booster, to say nothing of the effect such support and encouragement had on me, spurring me on as a hobbyist, seeking improvement, however incremental, every week.

'The Retro Guy' 

I am definitely more of a grognard these days (at the local I'm starting to be recognized as 'the retro guy'), as far as my love for old models and classic painting styles goes - I like to think I keep an eye towards the new, though, and look forward to applying what I've learned over the last six months on my next project, a more modern Biel-Tan force. With plastic models, even. Heh! Man, what a scene!

After finishing up with my last entry, I decided I wanted to throw some classic-looking scenery together for the final display. A hectic weekend later, I had several stacks of rocks, and forest templates with trees ready to go. 

"Maiden world.  Those words!  Imagine the mysteries, the memories that lie waiting..."

I thought I'd be pretty burned out on painting for awhile after the last six months, but if anything, I feel almost eager to get back to painting, like, energized.  

So, at last, here is my completed army for the Old World Army Challenge, a sonorous dirge echoing from an ever more distant past, into an uncertain future.

The warhost moves out through the sun-dappled woodland

Eldrad and Council

Yaisanehtar on the hunt

Scouts, doing what they do best

Autumn's Rage prepare to unleash hell

Bright Shards ready their lasguns for a deadly fusillade

The Storm of Retribution have razor-sharp payback on their minds

The Three Dooms shall fall upon the enemy from afar, tearing reality itself asunder

Ulthwé Warhost Baradlhinni ("The Songs of the Damned")

Eldrad Ulthran w/The Staff of Ulthamar - 220 points

Tenrith Star-Splinter (Warlock Master with Singing Spear) - 152 points

Yrlla the Implacable (Warlock Champion with Force Sword) - 97 points

Tamishar of Eldrion (Warlock Champion with Witchblade) - 97 points

The Bright Shards (8 Guardians with Lasguns) - 88 points

Autumn's Rage (8 Guardians with Shuriken Catapults) - 128 points

Storm of Retribution (8 Guardians with Shuriken Catapults) - 128 points

The Wandering Kin (9 Scouts plus Leader with Power Sword) - 236 points

The Three Dooms (3 Distort Cannons on Anti-Grav Platforms with Crew, 60 points each) - 180 points

Yaisanehtar ["Steel-Slayer"] (Eldar Vyper with Lascannon and Shuriken Cannon) - 85 points

Total: 40 infantry, 3 characters, 3 artillery pieces, 1 vehicle, 1,411 points


(Bonus shot here of the larger army including the models I painted in 2021)

But Wait

I mean, would I paint all of these rad 90's-era metal 40K minis without actually playing a game of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium?

Well, what do you think?

IT'S HAPPENING

The boyz is mustered and spoilin' for a fight

Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, giving his customary pre-battle pep talk to the ladz

Boar Boyz ready to give some weedy gits "da business"

Checks out!

The forces arrayed - 1500 points for each side

The table is set, it's krumpin' time!

No Ghazghkull, no problem - the Orks advance with reckless abandon 

Close combat Guardians follow the implacable march of the Wraithguard

Guardians rush forward to buy time for the Distort Cannon crew

Please, stop roasting my Guardians

This was exactly as crazy a game as you'd expect it to be - from a Guided D-Cannon immediately sending Ghazghkull and his Battlewagon into the Warp (but leaving Makari behind), to a Splatta Kannon tearing through a squad of Wraithguard, to a squad of Storm Guardians getting krumped relentlessly by a Dread that I couldn't even scratch the paint on for some reason...Eldrad and the Ulthwé forces won the day after four turns of incredible slaughter on all sides.

The game didn't make a lot of sense, but it was thematic, fun as hell, and looking back through the lens of over 25 years of playing 40K, getting to play the game I started with again, fielding the army I've always wanted to see in action...it was extremely satisfying, I highly recommend it.

In Closing

I'd like to congratulate my fellow Challengers on completing their forces. It has been a great honor to participate alongside such a company of extremely talented painters, and I am proud to stand among those who completed the Challenge - thanks to one and all for your words of encouragement and praise.

Thanks to Jes Goodwin for his timeless design of the Eldar range and aesthetic - I started with these models in '96, and remain solely an Eldar player and collector to this day, no other faction in the game will ever hold the same appeal to me.  I will continue to Stay Pointy!

Thanks also to Mike McVey and the Citadel 'Eavy Metal studio for the endless font of inspiration that is the 2nd Edition Codex Eldar 'Eavy Metal section - the power of the colors and the skillful application on display baffled me from the start, but remained a constant challenge to improve myself as a hobbyist.

I also want to thank the folks of the FRIENDLY! gaming group, whose encouragement and advice were a huge help in staying on task every month, y'all are great, and I'm very proud to be a part of our group.

Extra-special thanks to our Overlord, Iannick, for welcoming me into the Challenge from the wait list, and for all his hard work and diligence in making possible this presentation of our shared passion to a larger world.

Most of all, I want to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to my partner, Jen - this is by far the most time I've ever consistently dedicated to a hobby project. Her support and understanding has been tremendous, especially in a time that was personally pretty turbulent for me healthwise. She's the best, and I love her forever.

Until we meet again, I wish you all shade and sweet water, long days and pleasant nights.


~Stephen

...


Oh, wait, I almost forgot!


July Playlist (some of the music I've been listening to while making terrain, taking endless photos, and writing this entry)

Blind Guardian - "The Eldar"
Rammstein - "Zeit"
Alice in Chains - "Over Now"
Soundgarden - "Superunknown"
Dream Evil - "Heavy Metal In The Night"
Bolt Thrower - "...For Victory"
Beck - "Lord Only Knows"
Chemlab - "Rivet Head"
Contagion - "Scratch"
Garbage - "Hammering In My Head"

Phew!  Nearly jinxed the whole thing.  😉

Songs Of The Damned - Stephen's Ulthwe' Eldar (Intro Post)

Howdy - my name is Stephen, I'm a rookie participant in the Old World Army Challenge, based in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Writing this intro post in the waning days of the year 2021 is wild - looking back over my 25 years in the hobby (which is not so long in the time of wargamers, to say nothing of elves), I have come to the conclusion that I have been caught by a not-insignificant wave of nostalgia.  This Challenge, in which I am honored to participate, came to my attention just as I'd decided to build and paint the army I always wanted, ever since I cracked open my first Codex in the day - I missed the deadline for OWAC IV, but I am excited to be a part of this next Challenge.

A great deal has changed about the hobby since then, but one thing that has remained a constant for me is my love of the Craftworld Eldar.  I've only ever really been interested in Warhammer 40,000, though I appreciate Warhammer Fantasy and respect that game's players and painters.  The Eldar designs in particular (thanks to the incomparable work of Jes Goodwin) hold the only aesthetic in the entire range that truly appeals to me, from that day to this.  The Eldar are a truly distinct faction in Warhammer 40,000, and although in my time playing competitively I took on the occasional Tau or Dark Eldar allies, my collection of Craftworlds models are the ones that remain in my display cases.

Early on, my focus was on gameplay, and getting models to a 'three-color minimum' to get them on the table.  I would do more than just slop colors on, of course, generally I would try to have a theme for each unit, but my armies would never be something I would call "cohesive."  My stuff looked okay enough, and as time went on, I decided on a Craftworld scheme for my army (Alaitoc), and things got a little better...but it wasn't until recently that I found myself playing regularly with a community that was a bit more casual about gameplay...but much, much better at painting than I was.  

It follows that the last few years has been a lot of me trying to elevate my painting so that I am unashamed to put my models on the table alongside theirs...I'm getting there, but speed remains an issue for me.  

I prefer to emulate box art and codex schemes for my Eldar, as I've never been super-comfortable coming up with my own colors.  I've also rarely encountered many "codex-compliant" Eldar armies at events, so I feel like it's a way for my own models to stand out.  One interesting thing that I've discovered about myself as a hobbyist in this time is that I have a reverence for the Mike McVey/'Eavy Metal studio schemes and methods, and it's a style that I feel like I can get pretty close to approximating (I still don't do a lot of glazing, though).  

So, this army that I'm building is one that I didn't really have the ability to assemble at the time, but it jumped off the page then, and has continued to do so ever since - the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthanash Shelwe', the Song of Ulthanash, Ulthwe' the Damned.  Psychic powerhouses leading their highly-trained and disciplined citizen-soldiers into direct confrontation of the forces of Chaos.  

My goal was to paint up 2000 points of Ulthwe' (by 9th Edition points values) by the end of 2021...but work and real life has me falling well short of that goal.  So, my intent is to finish this army for the Old World Army Challenge.  

Among these units are some of the oldest original models in my collection, and the rest have been sourced over the last five years or so.  Here's what I've finished so far!

A unit of Guardians kitted out for close combat

First Blade (leader of a section of four Guardians)

Second Blade (complete with headband outside the helmet)

Third Blade (VERY METAL)

High Blade and unit specialists (meltagunners, standard-bearer, and a musician so that the unit's spirits can enter the Infinity Circuit to some rad synth-tunes)

Some spooky ghost warriors of the Wraithguard

A much larger and even spookier Dreadnaught

A pair of Vypers (to be re-based in Goblin Green as the gods intended)

To the above, I will be adding the following as my entries to the Challenge (all points based on the 2nd Edition Codex: Eldar):

Leader and Command Group Week

Eldrad Ulthran (220 pts) and a conclave of Warlocks (550 pts)

Rank and File Weeks

Eldar Guardians with Lasguns (88 points), accompanied by a Distort Cannon (60 pts)

Eldar Guardians with Shuriken Catapults (128 points), accompanied by a Distort Cannon (60 pts)

Eldar Guardians with Shuriken Catapults (128 pts), accompanied by a Distort Cannon (60 pts)

Eldar Scouts (236 pts)

Wild Card Week

Vyper with Lascannon and Shuriken Cannon (85 pts)

Total Army Point Value:  1615 points

Last but not least, my offering to the Overlord, a Harlequin Solitaire.

All systems go for the Challenge, looking forward to it!