Boar Boyz

After fielding the orcs and goblins in a recent game, I realised that I had never got round to assembling boar boyz. I picked up some metal figures on ebay maybe a year ago, which I stripped this week. Add in a few plastic bits and the job was easier than I expected - I spent just a couple of hours bashing these together. Not sure why I waited so long, I guess there's always something else to spend hobby time on. I love the guy with the banner, with his hook for a hand. The boss has a trophy rack, just in case you are trying to make out the silver blob in the centre of the picture!

Mad as a March Hare

I made a pledge to myself earlier in the year that I would stop buying stuff and try to make an impression on the piles of soldiers I already have. For a couple of months I held steady, but then GW released pictures of the Ork killa kans and I knew I would have to have them. But, I reassured myself, I can have them for my birthday later in the year, so that doesn't count, so I have stuck to my pledge.

Then I made the mistake of browsing ebay. I spotted some lovely old ogre models that I have always liked and managed to snap them up. They have already been stripped and will most likely be allocated a place in the Chaos army, with maybe a couple of them making it to my Ogre Kingdoms army as maneaters. I convinced myself that this wasn't too bad of a slip, because I picked them up quite cheaply and they will be used in two armies.

Then I made my second mistake. Though most of my collection is GW, I periodically take a look around all the mini manufacturer sites, just to see what else is going on. And I spotted something I really like. I never thought I would go for this particular thing, but they were just so nice. An idea started to form in my head. I would need a few extra bits, which I will have to pick up from ebay, but it should allow me to collect (yet another) army at a fairly low cost. I won't say what it is yet, just in case I come to my senses and abandon the project.

I suppose after nearly twenty years of collecting, selling off, then re-collecting armies, I should have known better. But then, Monogarmy has never appealed to me!

Springing Forwards Again

Another unit of glade guard added to the wood elf army. And I think I can use the term army now, it's starting to shape up quite nicely. At the moment, it comprises 2 units each of glade guard and wardancers, a unit apiece of dryads and waywatchers/scouts and a single character in the spellsinger. That's about 750 points I reckon.

Next to be painted will be 2  more units of dryads and a treeman. That will bump up the value considerably. After that, I have to decide if I want to add glade riders or convert them to wildriders. Add in another couple of characters and maybe one more unit of glade guard and the army will be complete.

First game with the Wood Elves

I played my first game with the wood elves last night, a 2k pitched battle against their arch enemies, the beastmen. I was a bit apprehensive about the army, it looked very small and weak compared to the big blocks of muscle and horn across the table. Things started quite badly with some abysmal dice in the shooting phase - 30 Glade Guard shots and just 4 chaos hounds dead. The next turn was similarly disappointing, my dice really letting me down - even the Hail of Doom Arrow failed to cause a single wound. I was starting to think that my pre-game thoughts on the power of shooting (or lack of) would turn out to be true.

By turn 3 combat had started. Dryads were torn apart by minotaurs, but the doombull failed to make an impact on the wardancers thanks to their shadows coil dance. A second wardancer troupe led by a noble leapt in and sliced the mighty beast to pieces. The wardancers went on to rashly charge a full unit of bestigors in the front, thinking it was suicide, but caused massive casualties and eventually defeated them, with a little help from some dryads.

Towards the end of the game the one surviving unit of glade guard finally found their aim, felling a giant and a tuskgor chariot. There were quite a few dead elves around, but even more beasts. A solid victory for the wood elves in their first outing.

Looking back at the game, I played the elves reasonably well but was far too cautious. My treeman ancient spent most of the game hiding in a wood, worried about bestigor axes. The wild riders defeated a tuskgor chariot but then were defeated by a unit of bestigor, even though they managed to get the flank charge. I learned some lessons for my next game, was pleased with their debut but doubt they would have such an easy ride next time.

I'm still puzzled by the beastmen. The lack of skirmish troops really hurt them in this game, it was reasonably straight forward to neutralise the slow blocks, deal with the fast troops, then turn back to pick off the infantry units at leisure. Maybe I'm missing something, but they still look poor at the moment.

Ork Warboss reboot

Just a quick update. Most of my painting time at the moment is going into the elf army, but I did recently finish the ork warboss and took some decent photos. There are still a few rough bits here but he will probably stay in this form for a good while. Of course, just as he was finished I discovered the benefits of using a Big Mek so he's not actually seen action yet!

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).