Graeme's OWAC V Introduction post: Wood Elves - Forenrond’s Last Stand

Graeme's OWAC V Introduction post: Wood Elves - Forenrond’s Last Stand

In the early ’90’s a few of my friends and I decided to hold a small Warhammer 3rd edition tournament between ourselves, over a summer holiday, with 3000 point armies. We bought one or two of the Fantasy Regiments boxes between us, to help build up the core armies. One of my friends took the Goblins and Orcs, another took the Dwarves, and I took the Elves and Skaven.

I managed to built up the Skaven army quite a bit (as you might have noticed from OWAC III), but just didn’t have enough models to field a full 3000 points, due to the low points cost per model. So I resorted to my second-choice army - Wood Elves. A small, flexible, well-equipped, archer-heavy army, with a wealth of heroes and wizards. The lovely Jes Goodwin sculpts were a huge factor in choosing them. Thus, they became my first ever Warhammer army.

A plastic bag of second-hand Elf stuff bought from my friend’s younger brother provided me with a cavalry unit and some Wardancers. I then built up a few more units of archers, and a unit of spearmen. I also invested in the newly-released Marauder Dragon, Treeman, and Unicorn, for some serious muscle, with a slightly different style.

I've only been able to find one photo of my army at the time. Here it is in action in the tournament, held on the dining room table at my parent's house, around '93 or '94, I think... :

The bright-red Dragon really should practice his sneak-attacks...

In the end I was third in our summer tournament. I got off to a promising start, decimating an infantry-heavy Dwarf army with a Treeman and Dragon-mounted champion. I suspect the picture above is from that game.

However, I was trounced by the Orc and Goblin army (helped in no small amount by my opponent rolling the ‘invisibility’ Chaos Attribute for his army general’s Wyvern - yes, it was as bad as you imagine… ). The one highlight of this game was attacking a unit of Chaos Warrior allies in the flank, on my first turn, with my Eagle-mounted hero with magical blade. They promptly routed off the table, never to return... all 500 points of them… 

There was also a meat-grinder confrontation between my Cavalry, Wardancers and Spearmen against a unit of Skeletons, Skeleton Chariot and a Corpse Cart (where pushing back the undead caused instability which, due to the Corpse Cart in the vicinity, proceeded to increase the size of the enemy units and/or make them invulnerable to wounds the next turn…). A shortage of magical weapons meant it did not end well…

Despite the ignominious defeats, the Wood Elf army remained my favourite - let's say they were the moral champions! 😀

After going to University, I followed the usual path of losing touch with my friends and the hobby. Luckily, I kept all of my minis in storage, so a good chunk of the stuff you see here are from my original collection, which I’ve just been adding to over the last 20 or so years.

I’ve spent the last few months stripping the majority of my Wood Elf collection, to give me fuel for the OWAC. I suspect I have enough models for multiple challenges. I first considered re-creating my original army, but decided to go for something a bit different:

Forenrond’s Last Stand!

I always wanted to play this battle when I got the 3rd Edition rulebook, but never had enough models (from either side). After many years of collecting, this is no longer an issue… It also gives me an excuse (as if I really needed one) to put together another big group of Jes Goodwin sculpts.

There are no points costs mentioned in the scenario in the rulebook, so below is an overview of the force with points taken, or inferred, from Warhammer Armies for 3rd edition:

CHARACTERS

• Corma Lightmantle (leader of 1st Elven cavalry)
  General - Level 15 Elf Hero
  Lance, hand weapon, shield, light armour, barded warhorse
  143 pts
  
  
• Atlanta
  Level 5 Elf Wizard
  Hand weapon, warhorse
   184 pts
  
  
• Philander (leader of 2nd Elven cavalry)
  Lieutenant - Level 10 Elf Hero
  Spear, hand weapon, shield, horse
  93 pts
  
  
• Labriele (leader of elite Elven archers)
  Level 10 Elf Hero
  Hand weapon, longbow, light armour
  93 pts
  
  
• Sola Brighthelm (leader of Elven archers)
  Level 10 Elf Hero
  Hand weapon, longbow
  91 pts

Character total: 604 pts

RANK & FILE

• 1st Elven Cavalry
  10 mounted lancers, with standard bearer and musician
  Lance, hand weapon, shield, horse
  264 pts
  
  
  
  Yup, still some prep work needed for these...
  
  
  
• 2nd Elven Cavalry
  10 mounted lancers, with standard bearer and musician
  Spear, hand weapon, shield, horse
  220 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 3rd Elven Cavalry
  10 mounted archers
  Hand weapon, longbow, light armour
  240 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Elite Elven Archers
  9 archers (+1 missile elite), with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, longbow, light armour
  143 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Elven Archers
  9 archers, with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, longbow
  121 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  

Rank & File total: 988 pts

Total points:        1592

Bonus ideas

Out of the rest of my Wood Elf collection, I’ve got a long list of potential ‘bonus’ and ‘super-duper bonus’ units.

The ‘bonus’ units are my fall-back to give me a change of pace from the archers and cavalry.

Bonus

• 10 Warhounds
  40 pts
  
• 2 Warhound beast masters
  26 pts
  
  
  
  
  
• 4 Bears
  80 pts
  
• 1 Bear beast master
  13 pts
  
  
  
  
  

Allies:

• Zoat Wizard
  Hand weapon
  275 pts
  
  
  

Realistically, I won’t get round to the ‘super-duper bonus’ stack, but I’m including them to reflect the good chance that my focus will drift and I’ll pick up something random and shiny near my painting desk and start working on it.

• Dragon Lord (Lvl 10 Hero, on Dragon 1, winged)
  Hand weapon, spear, light armour, shield
  392 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Wain Lord Chariot
  128 pts
  
  
  
  
  
• Treeman
  280 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 23 Spearmen, with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, spear
  225 pts
  
  
  
  I'm quite happy with my rescue-job on the leader
  
  
  
• 23 Warrior Kindred, with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, light armour, shield
  275 pts
  
  
  
  
  

This gives me plenty of options, and the freedom to paint what I feel like during the challenge, and it shouldn’t be a tall order to meet the points requirements.

One last thing - and it’s still just an idea - for a Wildcard month (if I suddenly find lots of spare time) I’m tempted to build the scenery for the battle, so that when I complete the Orcs and Goblins part of the scenario, I have something to play it on…

Finally, the Overlord’s Offering! I picked an Elven Wardancer from my Wood Elf army, with Iannick’s favourite colours - which are usually outside my normal palette. For the first time, I used a hobby magnifying lamp while painting, and realised how bad my eyesight is… I really noticed the difference and was able to pick out a lot more detail than normal. This is too slow a process for the main challenge, but I may just use it when painting the leaders... It gives a taste of how I'm planning to paint my army.

Hope you like it Iannick!

Graeme's Formidable Fimir

"The Fimir haunt bogs, fens, and desolate moorlands throughout the northern and western Old World. Their strongholds take the form of forbidding, craggy piles of rock, crudely built in the semblance of human castles. All Fimir settlements are wreathed in thick mist, a miasma which is magically generated by the Fimir, in order to shield themselves from sunlight. Indeed, when forced to travel beyond their fortresses, they surround themselves in an enchanted mist that moves with them."

Back for my second OWAC!

My Fimir collection has grown slowly and steadily over many years, as I picked them up here and there on eBay. I was originally thinking of putting together an ally contingent for my Skaven army. However, the cheapest Fimir costs 32 points in 3rd edition, so once you’ve got a unit of 5 or 6 troops, with a couple of characters, you’re already passed the 500 point mark, which is a bit much for an ally contingent… So you might as well go the whole hog and build an army, right? Okay, that’s just me then…

Since OWAC had been lacking in the Fimir department up to now, I was resolved to make a Fimir army. Using the army list in White Dwarf 102, I came up with the following list for OWAC4:

Meargh (level 15 Wizard), with hand weapon:                                                    195 pts

Dirach (level 5 Wizard), with hand weapon:                                                         75 pts

Finmor (level 10 Hero), with hand weapon and light armour:                            140 pts

Fian (level 5 Hero), with hand weapon and light armour:                                     82 pts

6 Fianna Fimm (+3 Shock Elite), with hand weapon and light armour:              258 pts

8 Fimm Warriors, with hand weapon:                                                                 256 pts

Total:                                                                                                                 1006 pts

With the new minimum model requirements that were introduced by our benevolent overlord, I should paint at least 5 Fimir a month (since they use 40mm bases). 

I’m left with a good number of unused Fimir warrior and noble models. Since I have a shortage of heads and tails, I'm going to have to do some sculpting and conversions to a good portion of these - which might be a bit optimistic, but we’ll see - to give some variation and add some numbers to the army.

The army list in WD102 is an early version of the format (June 1988), so doesn’t mention any Allies, Mercenaries, or Hosts. This makes it a little ‘flat’, with only Fimir and just two types of warriors. So I decided to use Warhammer Armies and some White Dwarf lists of some of the Fimir allies to pad out the Fimir list and give me some more options. I wanted to bring a Fomorian feel to the army, reflecting the description of them roaming the swamps and wildernesses. Using the Dark Elf, Skaven, Orc & Goblin, Norse and Chaos army lists as inspiration, I came up with these Allies, Mercenaries, and Hosts:

< Allies >

Chaos Allies Skaven Dark Elves

Undead Orcs and Goblins

< Mercenaries >

Giants Hobgoblins Ogres

Orcs and Goblins Norse

Out of these lists, I’ve picked the potential reinforcements, which I can bulk out the army with, and add some variety to the models.

Mercenaries:

Giant         : 250 pts

Allies:

8 Orc Boyz          : 76 pts
Hand weapon, light armour, bow

8 Orc Boyz         : 76 pts
Spear, light armour, shield

8 Orcs Boyz         : 68 pts
Hand weapon, light armour, shield

Chaotic Host:

8 Chaos hounds         : 184 pts

Jabberwock         : 200 pts

Monstrous Host:

8 Boars                 : 48 pts

8 Warhounds         : 32 pts

Total                                                : 934 pts

Now, this gives me plenty of options, and the freedom to paint what I feel like during the challenge, and the chance to hit the monthly figure targets with some easier models...

So here are the models so far:

Fimir Meargh and Dirachs

Fimir Fimm and Warlords

Fianna Fimm

Fimm Warriors

Orc Archers

Orc Command

Orc Spears

Orc Warriors

Giant and Jabberwock

Boars

Chaos Hounds

Warhounds

And something a bit special, if I have time...

Now, I’m already worried about how far behind schedule I am

 with preparation for this challenge. There's no chance I'll paint all of this stuff. In fact, I’m just hoping to avoid a very rapid trip to the Field of Bones. Hopefully, I'll be able to put together a formidable little force, centered around the Fimir models, but with some extra character from the options I've got.

In any case, many thanks to Iannick for organizing another OWAC! And here's my Overlord Offering:

It's an RT601 Squat Engineer, the first-ever Squat I've painted, and the first 40k figure in 30 years. I'll be honest, I enjoyed painting it a lot. Not enough to tempt me to switch to 40k yet, though... maybe next OWAC...  :-)

Good luck to the rest of the challengers! There are some great looking armies lined up this year. Hope everyone has a healthy and productive 2021!