Phoenix Guard, FOW and TYW Swedes

Flipping around between projects over the last couple of weeks - starting with a batch of 2nd hand and refurbished High Elf Phoenix Guard - these are old GW metals that I stripped and repainted.

 

Then I made a start on a mid-war FOW project - a company of 15mm Battlefront Grenadiers for a mid-war infantry company I am putting together to play 4th edition:

And finally in the last week I took on a job to paint some TYW Swedes and Imperials for a friend - there are very familiar Warlord 28mm models - same plastics as the ECW troops with some different helmets, command and some metal foot figures.

Bit of this and that

This week I worked on some fantasy stuff that was hiding in the cupboard and some modern Soviet microarmour that I obtained in a swap and have been restoring. I added some GW high elves to my army in anticipation of trying out Kings of War next week:

A lovely Citadel dragon that might feature in my Elven army:

I even found this weird wizard drgon rider dude - I think he was by Grenadier and came with an undead dragon I painted some time ago

And BTR-80s, BMPs, T-80s and some mobile artillery:

WHFB generals

I finished two major characters over the weekend. First there is a winged vampire lord to lead my VC army, I think he is a very cool model:


And also Teclis who will be running my High Elf army specifically for dates against overpowered opponents (i.e. Daemons). He is probably the most powerful spellcaster in WHFB. I reckon if he survives 2 turns with decent winds of magic we stand a good chance of winning.

Bretonnian beat-down

Mark brought his Bretonnians over for another round of WHFB this afternoon and it was a bloodbath. I'm not sure if the lady abandoned him or his army list is paper to my elven scissors.



My list featured a lvl 4 High Magic and lvl 2 Metal wizards, tooled up with book of Hoeth, banner of sorcery and the annulian crystal. Nasty magic phases. I am starting to like High Magic as a lore, all the spells are useful, they are easily cast, and the list is versatile. Metal is a killer against Brets though, and Mark was horrified in game 1 when Final Transmutation went off and he lost 4 knights and a prophetess turned to gold on the first turn. Very deadly spell.

We replayed the game, and the second time around it went a little better for him since Final Transmutation only killed knights, but the speedy elven cavalry got behind his lances and shredded his bows, while his knight were afraid to charge
swordmasters and were pummeled by magic.

Brets really need Life magic to buff and save knights, but he also doesn't have any special or rare units to play around with either. Big blocks of knights are juicy targets for smug elven mages carrying around the book of Hoeth. Lore of Metal is like krytonite against knights as well. Feeling better about facing Daemons next, now that I am getting the hang of these pointy ears and dirty tricks.

First blood for High Elves

We finally pulled on out tonight, knowing that Mark was bringing a Bretonnian army that featured two huge units of knights, I went for a counter-attack style of play and tried to distract one unit of knights with my fast Ellyrian Reavers and bomb the other one with metal and high magic until I could draw it onto a spearblock and kill it with a flanking lion chariot.

Well, the plan didn't go as hoped, the Reavers drew a unit of knights away from the board centre, then promptly failed to rally on a 9 and fled off the board. Fortunately the second larger knight block spent a couple of turns battling my swordmasters and the spears faced the first knights, pumped full of confidence after routing my Reavers. While chasing my Reavers I also managed to slip a unit of Dragon Princes past his knight who then overran the Bretonnian rear and collected the scalps of 40 archers.

When his knights finally hit my spearblock, they held fighting in 4 ranks, and the lion chariot pounced on their flank the following turn. Game over. The dice gods were not too capricious this game, although my bolt thrower fired a "1" every turn either to hit or to wound, today elven steel (and the always strikes first rule) and the plague of rust spell combined to bring down the brave Bretonnians.

On the workbench: my last unit of Scottish ECW cavalry.

I just finished my last unpainted High Elves, a Tiranoc chariot, which has less punch but is cheaper, faster and can shoot in comparison to the lion chariot And a second mage bearing the Annulian Crystal, a very useful arcane item that will likely feature in my next list: Mark of Bretonnia had to bail on today's rematch since it is his 20th wedding anniversary- what a lame excuse!

More Warhamburger High Elves

This week I finished a unit of Ellyrian Reavers, these are Elven fast cavalry for Warhamster, armed with bows and spears and very fast- ideally hard to catch. Good for hunting lone mages, warmachines, redirecting charges, and generally getting in the opponents rear and being a pain in the arse:

The way things are going, they will die before achieving very much, but they'll look good doing it! We'll see, Mark of Brettonia brings his lucky dice back to my house this weekend.

High Elves ready to go!

This week finished off enough of my High Elves to field a decent army, I did a Lion Chariot, which is just a great model and can kick ass:



And a repeater bolt thrower, which is important for bringing down big things, but can also open rapid fire whup-ass on big groups of little things.

Another very purdy model:


I also did some more spearelves to fill out the core units, so here is what I have painted arrayed for battle (Scott ... look closely...)






Up next: I dunno. Really.

Dragon Princes of Caledor

This week I finished a unit of GW High Elf Dragon Princes. They are very detailed models and make up a very punchy unit, they have dragon armour (heavy armour with a 2+ ward save against fire) on a barded horse with lance and 2 attacks each. So they will hit hard, but with only 5 bodies likely not last long if they caught stuck in for too long. They will be useful for clearing out those pesky flamers and salamanders.




Next up: some miscellaneous reinforcements (more swordmasters and spear) plus a bolt thrower and lion chariot to round out my High Elf core army. I have also had an urge to go back to my ECW stuff and maybe flesh out the Covenanters, plus an Egyptian DBA army calls...Mark is coming by later on to give my Early Achaemenids a chance to roll some more 1s, so my motivation to paint those Egyptians depends on how the fortunes of DBA war favour us today.

Island of Blood Elves completed

This week I finished off the IoB High Elves, the remaining elements were the swordmasters:


The swordmasters are formidable (2 attacks with great weapons that always strike first) but fragile, T3 with heavy armour.

There is also a prince of griffon who I might run as Eltharion on Stormwing, a formidable heroic warrior with spellcasting to boot:



In other news, I managed to lose 4 games of DBA this week, 3 losses came after my general went down in an even fight (4:4) which can only happen if I roll a 1 to my oppenents 6. THREE TIMES it happened. I am a population geneticist, I do math and probability for a living, and I can tell you it's pretty goddam unlikely...the only scientific explanation must be that I need new dice.

Next up: Dragon Princes

More High Elves

Some progress on the Island of Blood High Elves this week, I finished the Lothern Sea Guard and the Mage. Very nice models, quite time-consuming to paint




I also managed a game pitting my Brets against Daemons of Chaos at Scott's place on Saturday. I played an army featuring the Fay Enchantress who had a good day. By the end of turn 2 my pegasus knights buffed by flesh to stone had destroyed a unit of flamers, a tzeentch mage and a unit of bloodletters, plus the lady inflicted dwellers below on a unit of horrors.

Now working on a Mighty Empires campaign map and the next batch of IOB elves.

Finished a unit of 16 High Elf spearmen for WHFB. I acquired these from Bob in a trade and they were in bad shape when I got them. I used Simple Green to strip them, and was really pleased with how well it worked. I have in the past used Pine-Sol but it is very strong and the missus hates the way it smells. Simple Green works just as well, perhaps better, is less toxic and with only a slight and not unpleasant odour. It just takes a bit longer- I let them steep for about 10 days before using an old toothbrush on them to take them down to bare plastic.




High Elf spearmen are not a game-winner, unless perhaps the unit is very large, but it provides a safe place for mages to hang out while they cast their magic. So you have really got to have some. I would like to pick up some more, but GW charges $42 for a box of 16....sheesh...

Next up: 15mm Legio Heroica Seljuks for DBA are assembled and primed.