High Elves - Part II (Infantry)

This week it's the High Elf infantry! 

I love the notion of each region of Ulthuan providing unique troops to the larger High Elf army. It made for a diverse force that is still cohesive because of the armor and weapon aesthetics. While the mounted troops of the High Elves are great, the infantry are where the elves shine. The stalwart Spearmen and Sea Guard, keen eyed archers, terrifying Phoenix Guard, vengeful Shadow Warriors, brave White Lions and whirling Sword Masters made the High Elf army elite.

The Swordmasters of Hoeth were super cool and my favorite unit. For the Storm of Chaos worldwide campaign in 2004, one of the events that the local shop ran was to bring a single unit with a lord character in it. There was no points limit of the unit, so I brought a 20-man Swordmasters unit with a lord. The unit had some banner that made them stubborn and the lord was fully kitted out. I just remember them completely surrounded by hundreds of Nurgle Daemons killing everything until the last of them (the standard bearer) was pulled down. The lord took down a couple of Nurgle heralds before taking a charge of some Nurgle beasts alone, it was epic! The highlight of the event was a Daemon Slayer fighting Archaon for three full turns before being struck down, what a mighty doom! He even brought the Lord of the End Times down to his last wound... well Archaon's sword helped the Dwarf out too. The Chaos forces won handily as they had almost twice the players as the good side, but we on the good side agreed to play it out as fighting against overwhelming numbers made perfect sense.

Anyways, I had some good times with the pointy eared elves. In truth this whole project can be summed up as pure nostalgia. However it is a fun break to paint up some gaudy elves instead of drab historical miniatures all the time. 

Next up to paint, thirty White Lions!

The full army again.

Man, do I ever miss seeing huge 28mm formations on the board.

A High Elf Repeating Bolt Thrower

Plastic Swordmasters of Hoeth.

The are one piece plastics, but amazing quality.

I saw that the starter box these came in have been re-released, a great deal.

Plastic Lothern Sea Guard, also great miniatures.

I always liked the Lothern Sea Guard.

Older metal Shadow Warriors.

I bought a ton of these on Ebay for very little.

I have a mountain of these old plastic Archers, but they are boring to paint.

 I also have a lot of plastic Spearmen, that seem like a chore to paint, still a WIP.

But I still like these better than the most recent multi-part plastics.

Phoenix Guard, I have 15 more of them to paint.

High Elves - Part I (Cavalry)

Throughout my life I've made some poor decisions, one of those decisions involved a High Elf army. 

Way back in the day, when I first went to England in 2002, I was a young foolish lad. I had a great time and was amazed at all the wargame stores and gaming. So I thought, "I want to get in on this" and 4,000 miles from home I bought almost and entire High Elf army! Spent a lot of money and carried all that heavy metal crap around in my suitcase for a week. When I got back to the states I painted everything up and hitched a ride to the closest game store to play my first game of Warhammer! I showed up and got a few games and had fun, but I noticed that right there in the store, close to home, were all the High Elf mini's that I had toted all over the UK...

However none of that kept me from enjoying Warhammer Fantasy for a while. I latter shifted into playing the Empire and had a blast during the Storm of Chaos worldwide campaign. Over the years those High Elves gathered dust in my closest before I traded some of them and used many of the remaining for various bits. However I still loved the lore and books of the Warhammer Old World.

When Games Workshop decided to blow up the planet and restart with Age of Sigmar I had been long gone from the game (except for one 8th edition game I posted abut here). For some reason it still made me really sad how they did things, destroying the entire universe? I really liked the rich history of the Old World and all the nations and races. So it would seem like a really weird time to get back into painting up the now extinct High Elves. But I pulled my old minis out and picked up many new plastics for almost nothing on Ebay and my oldest miniature wargaming army began a new life!

It has still been years of slow painting to get things where they are now and I still have much more remaining to paint. But the upcoming release of Warhammer: Total War II has really rekindled some interest in my High Elves. Long live the Old World!

Almost the entire High Elf army.

Sword Masters, Dragon Princes and the Prince on Griffin.

These are the old metal Dragon Princes.

These are the miniatures that first attracted me to the High Elves many years ago.

Picked these up on Ebay a few years ago unpainted for next to nothing.

But they have tons of character.

My Ellyrian Reavers with a custom standard bearer and spear throwing guy.

These are more miniatures I bought for nothing.

The newer plastic Dragon Princes.

These guys cost more than the old metal ones!

A couple of Tiranoc Chariots.

I feel the need to work on these guys as they seem to be lacking a little.

More old school miniatures, this time Silver Helms.

I based these for Kings of War, as Warhammer Fantasy died a sad death.

Again, these guys are great!

Warhammer Fantasy returns - High Elves

The High Elves were my first miniature wargames army over a decade ago, I even bought them with I was traveling though Nottingham on vacation. Probably should have waited till I got back to the states to buy miniatures, since they took up a ton of room in my suitcase, but I was young. After playing Warhammer (both Fantasy and 40k) for years I really struggled with the counter intuitive rules and the lack of variety in the armies. For example, how is it that a Leman Russ battle tank can get a cover save behind a line of little guardsmen on foot? As for the variety issues, GW has helped that with the new HE book, by moving more units to core.

Then there is the fact that Flames of War came along and won me over completely, so I sold most of my Warhammer and 40k armies. However I am first and foremost a modeler and painter so when the 8th Edition came along and I saw the new High Elf plastics in the starter box I began to quietly pick them up on ebay and trade for some, just to paint.

Recently while playing FOW someone came in asking if anyone played Warhammer and I let it slip that I could put together a High Elf list in a pinch. So we meet up last week and I got in my first Warhammer game in almost a decade. Long story short, it was tortuously long. Both of us were rusty, but in four hours I got in one turn, one turn. In the words of a great fellow Alabamian, "And that's all I'm going to say about that."

I'm going to be positive. I liked a lot of the changes in the 8th Edition and I see how it could be a great game for campaigns, but the game length was killer. The random elements of the 8th edition really appeal to me as story driven gamer. Not an auspicious return to Warhammer but I will give it another shot, since both of us had not played in a long time.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the game...

My opponents Chaos army, they were Nurgle warriors.

Just a few very powerful units.

Shamefully my army was not fully painted...

Chaos Knights.

The board setup.

Shadow Warriors in the backfield.

Chaos forces maneuvering.

I got three units in combat with the Chaos Knights and broke them.

The Noble on griffon was in there too.

This is how it ended, broke the knights and hit his warriors. Those Nurgle guys are tough.

The Elves of Ulthuan (WHF)

So like most miniature gamers I was first pulled into the hobby by Games Workshop and specifically Warhammer Fantasy. Back in the uncertain days when Y2K was supposed to end civilization I was frantically painting up my High Elves for Warhammer. I bought most of those High Elves on a trip to England after I stumbled across a White Dwarf magazine in the airport, I've been  hooked on miniature gaming since.

Over the years those fragile elves gave way to slightly less fragile humans from the Empire and then Warhammer gave way to Flames of War and the Elves were sold off to support my new purchases.
Flash forward to modern times and I acquired some of the new High Elves from the starter box in a trade. They were such nice models and I couldn't help but pick up a few more from the Warstore.

So now here I am with far more miniatures than I had planned with no intention of ever playing Warhammer Fantasy again, but they sure do look nice...

Ellyrion Reavers, I converted most the carry spears.

And added a banner bearer.

Oh GW what beautiful minis you make.

The Champ

My favorite since I was a kid, Swordmasters of Hoeth.

Banner

Command group.

A hybrid chariot, old crew and chariot, new horses.

 These elves were also my first attempt a painting armor without metallic paints just highlights on flat colors.
I do stubbornly refuse to buy more from GW minis at full price, so unless I find some really good sales or trade for them this will be it.