A rustle in the forest

I forced myself to slog on with the wood elf army and managed to paint 6 more wardancers. Compared to previous efforts on the army, it seems quite paltry, but I'm pleased with this effort. Why? Because my enthusiasm for the wood elves has waned as I switch most of my efforts to the ork army, the very fact that I could temporarily divert to crank these out is a good sign. The last time I put the orks to one side, for example, it was over a year before I came back to them! I am determined not to make that mistake again with the wood elf army, so while 6 wardancers seems like a drop in the ocean, it does spur me on. Little acorns and all that......

The other rustle in the forest was made this week by my first encounter with the new beastmen army. My regular opponent has collected and played beasts since we first gamed together, so I was looking forward to seeing how his army got on with the new rules. First thing I noticed was that it had shrank......his 2000 point force seemed considerably smaller than previous armies. It seems that most units have experienced a points raise, especially the characters. Next thing I noticed was that they were all huddled together in more compact units, not running wild and free (i.e. skirmishing) like the old army. Some units can still ambush, though in a slightly different fashion to the previous version.

After the game, against my "weakest" fantasy army of Ogre Kingdoms, we decided it was roughly a draw and discussed the changes to the beastmen list. In summary, they have become less manouverable, remained about the same in shooting capability (that's virtually none still then), have possibly gained a little in combat effectiveness, lost considerably in magic due to their magic users being far more expensive and with more expensive casting rolls, suffered a little in psychology as base leadership of leaders is lower, seen a price rise on most units and ......well we had to stop and sob into our hands at this point.

Of course, it's quite ridiculous to make a sensible judgement based on one game and we have not given up hope just yet. The beastmen still have to face my dwarfs, my high elves and my upcoming wood elves, not to mention the chaos army, after which we will have a better idea, though I shudder to think how they will cope with these more effective armies. Unless we are missing something, it does seem that the book was thrown together with little thought to effectiveness or even background. Perhaps the upcoming 8th edition will address some of these concerns, but if they do then I think we can look forward to some fairly radical changes to the way the game plays!

Anyway, let's end the post on a diffferent note. A dozen brightly garbed elves leaping for joy at the castration of their enemies (oops, sorry beastmen players).