Call of the Hunt: A Tale of 4 Armies

This journey back into the nostalgia of my Warhammer armies has brought home to me how much I've changed as a collector, gamer and painter.

And no unit has done this more than the final unit for my Wood Elf army: the The Wild Riders.

Yes.

You're right, they're not Wild Riders, they are actually kitbashed from the Glade Rider box. This was a time when money tighter, Glade Riders were rubbish and the metal models were unappealing.

I don't think converting Wild Riders from the Glade Rider kit was an original idea I had, I'm sure I saw it on a forum somewhere, but as the plastic box contained swords, spears and other assorted weaponry, all that was required to 'convert' the Glade Riders into Wild Rain sets was making a few appropriate choices when assembling the models and filling in the holes in their backs where the cloaks (with moulded on quivers) were attached.

The less-than-skillful filling with blu-tac (yes, you read that right) was inexpertly covered with either spears or some of the millions of small blades that came on the different sprues strapped across them.

All in all, they are a passable job that is clearly different from the Glade Riders (especially with the different colour palette) and has never caused any confusion on the table. The only slight problem is that in Warhammer: The Old World someone has had the bright idea to give them shields rather than have them getting extra attacks on the second round of combat, so at some point I'm going to have to find a way to add those.

I'm terms of painting, I did very much the same thing as I did with my Wardancers: softening the orange of the robes, evening out the leather, giving the wood some variation and adding vibrancy to the skin, hair and stitching.

The horses were done the same way as the Glade Riders: darkening the hair and adding a coat of Apothecary White contrast paint over the somewhat scratchy drybrushing I'd done to smooth it out.

As I was doing this it became apparent just how sloppy I was when building these models. Lots of plastic tags needed trimming properly and the mould-line police would have a field day. I was also scruffy with my painting and had left plenty of details unattended.

I think this is because I wasn't yet using magnifying glasses when painting and hadn't quite worked out how bad my eyesight had become. It was blogging and the associated photographs that brought this to my attention and these were done pre-blog.

It's scary to think that I just didn't see the issues; or maybe I was just more chilled about such things then. At tabletop range they looked fine.

Barring a couple more Wild Riders (to turn the one unit of 8 into two units of 5), a kitbashed Spellsinger and my Grenadier dragon, that's they whole army ready for action. I've also got a couple of Great Eagles that were switched over to Lord of the Rings that can come back over to square bases, but I'm going to take a break from The Old World for a bit and leave this army where it is.

Importantly, what I now have is an army that I can use against people outside my regular gaming group as it has the official base sizes.

I'm toying with the idea of trying out a tournament for the first time in many years, although I must admit to being a bit nervous.

I'm the very definition of a casual gamer these days, skipping backwards and forwards between systems and the events I'm more used to are 7TV events where the rules are treated like guidelines at best -and that's by the designers.

Warhammer events are a different kettle of fish. People actually take them seriously and there's league tables, standings and the sort of stuff that makes people act weird.

I might dip my toe in by trying to arrange a game with someone at a FLGS over the Easter holiday and see how I feel going forward.

I'm really pleased with what I've done with my armies, it's been a proper nostalgia hit. However, observant readers will have noticed that in this Tale of 4 Armies, I've only worked on three of them.

The Skaven currently remains untouched for a few reasons. Firstly, I've been busy with the other three, but I also know that Skaven armies are big and will be a lot of work. I'm tempted to move in a different direction with them as I'm tempted to give Age of Sigmar a try with the new edition coming out in the summer. By chance the models I have are almost an exact replica of the units in the current Vanguard box so I know I have a viable force.

In their place I'm considering cobbling together a Chaos Army from the old models I reclaimed. Something in the vein of the weird and wonderful offerings in the original Realms of Chaos books.

Alternatively, of my old armies the only one missing is my Lizardmen army which got sold about a decade ago. I don't really miss them as they were from my 'drown it in ink' phase and so didn't look great. However, I do actually have some 5th edition Lizardmen and Skinks knocking about, so revisiting them could be an option.

Anyway, these are decisions for another day. I need to paint something else for a bit, bring back some variation to my life and actually start lowering that Lead Mountain again.

Acquired: 10
Painted: 216
Lead Mountain: 849

Muster of Malevolents: A Tale of 4 Armies

For some reason, probably laziness, when I originally painted my Treeman (Steve) and Treekin I fairly thickly coated them in Bestial Brown paint, picked out a few details, splashed them with Devlan Mud and pretty much called it a day.

As such, unlike the rest of the army, revisiting them now called for more than just tidying things up. Therefore these four got stripped back to bare metal and started again.

In Steve's case (no, I can't remember why he's called Steve, he just is) he was bought second hand and so was already painted. As was my way at the time, I didn't strip him then and just painted straight over the top of the original paint job, meaning that there was a thick layer of oozing sludge to dispose of this time.

Another side effect of him being bought second hand is that he has the wrong left arm, which not only presents the fact that it's from a different type of tree (if you look closely enough), but also that it doesn't really fit. A fact I've tried to cover with the addition of a few plastic roots from the Wood Elf sprues, which I've also used to cover a few gaps in the metal sculpt.

In terms of painting, I began with a coat of Wyldwood contrast and used drybrushing and other contrast paints to get some other shades into the wood. I'm not sure how successful I've been.

Leaves and moss were picked out and either highlighted (leaves) or washed (moss). A few fungal growths were picked out on his arm and back and then his eye sockets were made glowy green (I think you can just about see them).

He's simply done, but a big improvement, looking much more like actual wood than he ever did.

I'm looking forward to getting him on the table as the changes to cannons (D3 damage rather than D6) and Forest Spirit ward saves (negated by fire rather than magic) should make him somewhat more survivable than in the dark days of 8th edition.

Sadly, ordinary Treemen have lost their ability to cast a bound spell and Treemen Ancients (whilst being wizards) pack a lot less punch than regular Treemen. However, Steve will probably remain the heaviest hitter in my army and something my opponents will be forced to do something about, freeing up my more lightly armed threats.

The Treekin unit were painted much the same as the Treemen except there were many more vines to pick out and, as they are later models they are dripping in Forest Spites and, of course, skulls.

I've gone with blue for the Forest Spites for a few reasons. Firstly, I have a pot of Talassar Blue contrast paint and I like it. It also makes them pop, especially against the orange of the leaves on the base, livening up what can end up being really dull models.

These are the closest unit I have to a regular front line unit, meaning that they will probably spend a lot of their time trying to die as slowly as possible to hold up the enemy advance.

In 8th edition I regretted not having six of them so when the opportunity arises later in the release schedule, I suspect I'll pick up another three, even though I'm not overly keen on them.

I've no just got the Wild Riders to go in order to get my army fully rebased, and I'm hoping this can be achieved before the end of the month. I've enjoyed this process but I'd quite like to turn my attention to actually painting a wider range of models again and start chipping away at the mountain once more.

Acquired: 10
Painted: 208
Lead Mountain: 849

A Cluster of Radiants: A Tale of 4 Armies

I've had a little bit of a hiatus on the process getting my Wood Elf army rebased and polished up for use in Warhammer: The Old World.

Partly this has been down to getting distracted by Five Leagues From The Borderlands, partly down to life always being busy in March and partly down to the weather being terrible and not being able to take photos.

However, some limited progress has been made. Namely, I've got my characters done.

I have no idea if my current crop of characters will cut the mustard in The Old World, however, I did tend to run rather light on them in 6th/7th edition, and I suspect that might still be the case now. Elves are expensive, and so too much investment in characters leaves you somewhat short of Toughness 3 bodies in your army.

With all three, I've focused on brightening them up, treating the initial paint job as a base coat and highlighting up. The spires moulded on two of them have become bright blue rather than dirty green, and I've brought more gold into all three.

Obviously, they've also all been rebased.

The Glade Lord is, in my opinion, the best model in the old range, a really ferocious and heroic looking model. Yes, he's on a tactical tree-stump but that makes sense for Wood Elves.

Back in the old days I would run him on his own as an Alter Kindred, with the Helm of the Hunt, the Amber Pendant and (sometimes, the Hail of Doom Arrow). After firing off his own volley on the first turn he would run about (with M9) slaughtering whatever he came in contact with and breaking units by himself.

Sadly, this role doesn't seem possible in the new rules and there isn't really a unit I own he can join where a great weapon would be a good idea. He might not see action for a while.

My Spellweaver began life as a Waywatcher character that I picked up cheap as he was missing an arm. I improvised a staff from a banner pole and a Dryad's head and he took over as my chief magical support, moving forests about and generally being annoying.

From what I've seen, magic is going to be incredibly important in The Old World and so I expect to get a lot of use out of him. I'm not sure what spells he'll be casting yet, but he'll be invaluable in terms of magic defence.

Finally, the army battle standard bearer (BSB) began life as a High Elf Shadow Warrior and simply got an army swap. Again, I think I picked him up second hand.

BSBs can be invaluable in bolstering the morale of the main line, and even though I never expect my Glade Guard to do much in combat, being able to hold for a turn longer than expected can be crucial.

This character is the most likely to be given a magic bow, allowing him to add to the volleys of the Glade Guard he supports.

And that's it for now. These three were painted last week and I've been waiting for a chance to photograph them. I have more in the pipeline that I finished today, so depending on the weather and the time I get home, you might see them tomorrow.

Acquired: 10

Painted: 204

Lead Mountain: 849

Whirling Death: A Tale of 4 Armies

Progress continues with getting my Wood Elf Army rebased for Warhammer: The Old World with what are, to my mind, the quintessential Warhammer Wood Elf unit: the Wardancers.

I say this in full knowledge of the fact that many will consider Glade Guard or the mighty Treeman to be more iconic. There might even be folk out there that idolise the heady days of the four-horse chariot racing between the trees.

However, Glade Guard (Archers) and Treemen are arguably lifted straight out of the pages of Tolkien (whilst the chariot was a gloriously silly thing), whereas Wardancers have always felt very much a Warhammer concept.

Although I may be wrong about this as almost all of Games Workshop's IP is nicked from somewhere, Wardancers make Warhammer Wood Elves different and are responsible, I think, for pushing the design team in a more tribal direction over time, away from the well used tropes of Middle Earth.

Although I didn't strip these models, they did need fairly extensive work doing. I used my original base coat and wash paint job as a starting point and set about highlighting up pretty much every aspect of the models.

I was somewhat surprised to discover how slack I'd been at trimming flash from these models, and so there was a fair bit of tidying up to do.

The miniatures are from a range of iterations of Wardancers and I think the guy with the spear is the oldest of the bunch.

As well as cleaning up untidy paint jobs, I also took the hair and leaves to brighter yellow and green respectively to give the miniatures a bit more 'pop' on the tabletop.

Simultaneously I calmed down the orange, using Ratskin Flesh, as my Trollslayer Orange had dried up and I'm impatient. Having said that, it gives them a more earthy tone that I like.

I also took the time to get some difference between some of the browns use on the models, something I'd not bothered with previously. This also adds some visual interests.

As I'd used orange on the model, the orange leaves aren't as crucial for this unit, but it does tie the army together well.

I've now actually managed to physically rebase the entire army except for the Treeman and the Treekin as they are currently having layers of sludge removed from them. The characters and cavalry are next in line for the tidying up treatment.

Acquired: 10
Painted: 201
Lead Mountain: 849

Awakening of the Wood: A Tale of 4 Armies

And back to the forest I go for, I believe, the only unit for the Wood Elves that is actually still available on the Games Workshop website: Dryads.

Not that I ever buy direct from GW; that way madness lies.

Dryads are one of those kits that I remember to actually be a bit of a pleasure to both assemble and paint. They used to come in a box of 12 (it's 16 now) and had enough bits and variation to make every model pretty unique looking.

They also had really dynamic poses for the time, and really sinister look, so I can see why they have remained part of the Age of Sigmar range.

In fact, I think that the Dryads might have dictated the direction that the Sylvaneth (that the copywritable name GW gave to Wood Elves) range went in.

On top of that, when it came to painting, a brown base coat with a wash, followed by picking out the leaves and eyes got them looking good very quickly.

So much so that when it came to rebasing this unit, I felt no need to do any repainting at all, except for changing the eye colour.

In fact the only irritating thing about the unit was that they came in a box of 12, but the minimum unit size was 8.

Fortunately, there were enough spare bits on the sprues for me to fashion three extra Dryads emerging from the ground, something that looks much better following the rebase thanks to the Green Stuff World leaves, giving them an ambushing vibe.

I then took my total to 16, and two units by adding the metal special character model Drycha to one of the units as this was still cheaper than buying a second box.

Amusingly, now that Dryads are available as boxes of 16, Warhammer: The Old World allows you to take units of 5...plus ca change...

Drycha serves as the Nymph (unit champion) for the unit, whilst a conveniently placed animal skull identifies the Nymph in the other unit.

You'll notice that Drycha and the second unit have a more yellowish hue than the first. This is to make the units distinguishable on the tabletop (the first unit also have leaves).

Previously I had achieved this by giving them a light drybrush of a bone colour, as I was aiming for a silver birch sort of effect. However, during the rebase I gave them a coat of Skeleton Horde contrast paint to make them less jarring.

Apart from unit numbers, the reason I didn't originally use Drycha as a Branchwraith (a Dryad character) was that I had a plan to convert one of the Juan Diaz Daemonettes.

It's nothing more clever than Dryad bits stuck to the Daemonette body: notably replacing the claw arm with a Dryad arm and having lots of branches protruding from her head and back.

I'm aware that the camera really suggests that over ten years ago I really should have thinned my paints when doing the skin. However I'm leaving this model as it is for three reasons.

Firstly, I didn't want strip the model as I like it and I'm not sure that I would achieve the same effect again. Secondly, adding even more paint could just ruin it. Finally, the overly thick paint gives her skin a 'bark-like' texture which seems appropriate, suggesting that her alluring appearance is an illusion.

I'm only counting eight of these as having been painted, as one unit and the Branchwraith only had their eyes done. Still, it's nice to make some quick progress towards getting the full army done.

Acquired: 10

Painted: 193

Lead Mountain: 849

The Lady's Wrath: A Tale of 4 Armies

We ride to war!

After a furious bout of painting, rebasing and rule reading, I've finally managed to get a game of Warhammer: The Old World.

Pete relented and agreed to give me a game, mainly because he's also being pestered by Mike, and so I saddled up my Bretonnians and prepared for battle.

As this would be a learning game, we decided to keep it simple and only have 1000 points each. In a further bid for simplicity (and less to remember) I also opted to include no magic items.

My army was as follows:

• Duke on Hippogryph
• Paladin with Battle Standard
• Damsel on Bretonnian Warhorse (Lvl 1)
• 8 Knights of the Realm
• 5 Knights Errant
• 3 Pegasus Knights
• 10 Peasant Archers (skirmishers)

My Damsel opted to take The Lady's Gift spell from the Lore of the Lady as this was something she stood a chance of casting successfully and might help the knights weather the storm of shot that was going to inevitably head their way.

It was inevitable because Pete had brought along his Dwarfs, which are the oldest fantasy army he has as far as I know, and he went for what has always seemed a fairly standard set up.

• Dwarf King
• Dwarf Thane
• 15 Longbeards
• 20 Dwarf Warriors
• 10 Thunderers
• 1 Cannon
• 1 Grudge Thrower

Only the King was 'runed-up' with the Master Rune of Skalf Blackhammer and a couple of Runes of Fury, making him somewhat dangerous to face in combat.

Deployment

Due to the small size of the game, we opted to play on a 4'x4' table and used the suggested terrain amount in the rulebook, leaving us with quite an open field.

The Dwarfs opted for a classic castle formation, with the Thunderers and artillery in the centre, with the infantry blocks securing the flanks.

I opted to split my deployment. On my left I put my Knights of the Realm and my Pegasus Knights. I had an idea that I might be able to turn the flank of the Dwarfs if these two units could hit the Dwarf Warriors at the same time.

I also put my skirmishers in amongst the ruins.You won't be seeing much of them in this battle as they did absolutely nothing of note, except not dying.

On my right I put the Knights Errant 25" away from the Thunderers. Their job was to ride onto the jaws of death with the goal of silencing these deadly missiles troops.

My general heroically positioned himself behind the abandoned Grail Chapel. This was a decision driven by piety (what better place to pray to the Lady?) and absolutely nothing to do with hiding from a cannon.

On the subject of praying, I obviously did and so the Dwarfs would take the first turn.

Dwarf Turn 1

In classic Dwarven fashion, Pete opted to slip the command and movement phases and went straight to shooting, and his artillery opened up with roaring fury, ripping into my Knights of the Realm, whose long flank was impossible to hide.

Dwarven aim was true and the Lady seemingly abandoned the Knights as three were blasted from their saddles, reinforcing the sense of urgency required in getting across the battlefield.

Despite the accuracy of the war machines, I was helped by the fact that the cannonball stuck in the ground after disintegrating one Knight, and both of the characters in the unit escaped harm.

Additionally, Pete didn't realise that Thunderers can now move and shoot (with a penalty) and so missed a round of inaccurate shooting with them.

Bretonnia Turn 1

Pete's traditional Dwarven opening volley was met with an equally traditional Bretonnian advance as almost every unit matched forwards.

The only unit that didn't were the Peasants, but the less said about them the better.

I opted to move my general more towards the centre of my army. A decision which had nothing to do with his proximity to a tooled up Dwarf King.

I actually moved my general to give me options on where to send him as I suspected that my depleted Knights might now struggle to break the Dwarf Warriors, even with help from the Pegasus Knights, especially if they took more casualties from Pete's shooting.

Dwarf Turn 2

In a shocking turn of events, the Dwarfs made use of their movement phase. The Longbeards wheeled to threaten the flank of any unit that charged the Thunderers.

In retrospect, this was a moment when the new rules really made a difference, but this wouldn't be apparent until later.

The Dwarf line opened up again, but to much less impact. Whilst the cannon (a much reduced threat in the new rules) took two wounds off the Bretonnian Lord, the Thunderers failed to have any impact on the Knights Errant. The Lady of the Lake had clearly decided that she would intervene today as they made three 6+ ward saves.

To add injury to insult, the Grudge Thrower misfired and destroyed itself, leaving the Bretonnian advance pretty much unscathed.

Bretonnian Turn 2

In move that surprised absolutely nobody, the Bretonnians charged at the first opportunity. The Lord on his Hippogryph led the line and was joined by the Knights of the Realm and Pegasus Knights in piling into the Dwarf Warriors.

It was a lacklustre charge in which saw the Knights Errant narrowly win combat on a technicality and force the Thunderers to give ground, part of the new combat resolution rules.

This drove the Thunderers back 2" and the Knights Errant followed up, narrowly taking them out of the charge arc of the Longbeards.

This was the significance of the Longbeards' move earlier. Unfamiliarity with the new rules meant Pete wasn't factoring in the push back with his positioning, which meant that it would be another turn before he could get this powerful unit into action.

In other news, the Dwarf Warriors were ripped apart, failed their break test and we're run down by the Pegasus Knights (deliberately) and the Knights of the Realm (accidentally)

The general restrained his pursuit and reformed to face the remaining Dwarfs.

This was a very successful turn only marred by the Damsel failing to cast her spell at the beginning of it.

Dwarf & Bretonnian Turn 3

I forgot to take any photos on Dwarf Turn 3, but given that all that happened was that the Longbeards and Cannon repositioned whilst the Thunderers and Knights Errant gently shoved each other, this isn't really a surprise.

However, on the Bretonnian turn there was more action. The Damsel finally managed to successfully cast The Lady's Gift on the Knights of the Realm (which would stay in place until the end of the game).

Then the charging continued. The Pegasus Knights went into the flank of the Thunderers whilst the Lord on his large Hippogryph took advantage of being able see over the combat to charge the Cannon.

Unsurprisingly, the Cannon crew were killed in short order. However, the stalwart Thunderers once again held their ground, killing two of the Knights Errant, leaving the Longbeards and opportunity to finally get into combat.

Dwarf Turn 4

The Longbeards charged, taking them out of the Bretonnian General's charge arc and into the Knights Errant.

However, despite this, the Dwarfs really struggled to penetrate the Bretonnian armour and so the Bretonnians held and only gave ground.

Bretonnian Turn 4 onwards...

The Knights of the Realm came thundering in and blows were exchanged. The Dwarfs took light casualties and were pushed back.

The battle lasted for three full turns and saw both the Thunderers and Knights Errant finally destroyed. The Dwarfs were pushed back, despite the King slaying the Paladin, and their fate was sealed on Bretonnian turn five when the Hippogryph tore apart the rear of the unit and put the rest to flight.

Final Thoughts

After one game, I like it.

This is fundamentally the same game as Warhammer Fantasy Battle 6th/7th edition and seems to have removed everything I disliked about 8th.

I like how the new combat resolution mechanic adds a nuance that wasn't present before which needs to be considered. This left Pete's Longbeards out of the fight a bit too long, and suggests that some old wisdom about deployment needs to be reconsidered.

It's hard to say anything concrete about the new magic system as we had so little, but I did like the fact that Pete could try to dispel my 'remains in play' spell Rach turn.

The game was severely impacted by a couple of issues in the new rules. War machines are less deadly and cavalry charges are more guaranteed, which in a Bretonnia/Dwarf clash is quite significant. Dwarfs might need to put more thought into match blocking and redirection that previously.

For me, the star of the show was the Lord on Hippogryph, who was a force of wanting destruction. Perhaps indicating a return to a world of Herohammer.

I suspect that he might find himself facing more cannon the next time he goes up against the Dwarfs, and he's almost certainly got a somewhat terminal appointment with Pete's High Elf Dragon Prince in his future.

Observant readers will realise that this is a new model for the army, and that he's not actually riding a Hippogryph. The differences between Griffons and Hippogryphs are negligible and there's no chance for confusion in game as only Hippogryphs are available to the Bretonnian army.

I've had the Griffon model knocking around part painted for years and bought a painted Knight of the Realm model at Vapnartak a couple of weeks ago. The colours worn by the Knight just needed highlighting to be more akin to my army and the Griffon needed finishing off.

I'm delighted that he avoided new model syndrome and I'm really pleased with this first foray into Warhammer: The Old World.

Acquired: 10
Painted: 177
Lead Mountain: 849