Skaven defeeeat! (and silly mistakes...)

Image Credit: "Shame" by Grey World on Flickr (CC by 2.0)

No self-respecting warlord should ever admit defeat...

(after all, any sign of weakness is bound to hasten your demise or encourage thoughts of rebellion) but that was the undeniable result of a recent game against a combined Warriors of Chaos/ High Elf force, in which Squeek's clan was almost completely wiped-out!

Why was this? 

A simple, horrible, completely amateur deployment error - one that I am almost too embarrassed to admit to in public. 

DISCLAIMER: Now, before I share this error with you, let me say that the opposing commanders definitely led their troops better than me, and they most-certainly deserved to win! 

With that out of the way, what did I do?

Well (hangs head in shame) I placed my Hellpit Abomination and my Doomwheel too close together...

Remember kids...

...Doomwheel  ZZZzap + Multi-wound monster = Disaster.

So of course, first turn, 3 ZZzzap shots from my Doomwheel leave my HPA with only 1 wound, which he immediately loses to a charge. My Doomwheel then gets crushed by  a combination of Chaos cavalry and infantry, so "BOOM!", almost a 1/4 of my army gone on Turn 1 (and arguably my most powerful 2 units).

...and I forgot that I could fire my ZZZZapp in close combat.

.

Never mind! I fought on, and my slaves, plague monks and core did OK, but not well enough to claw back any significant points...

Here are a few shots of this humiliating defeat:

From top: G. Rats, Skaven Slaves, Clanrats, Slaves, Clanrats
Plague Monks, HPA, Doomwheel, Warp Lightning Cannon

High Elves and Chaos (from top): Bolt Thrower, Chaos Cav, High Elf Cav.
Chaos Chariot, Chaos Warlord, Chaos Warriors, White Lions (counts as),
Chaos Chariot, Archers, Silver Helms, Bolt Thrower.

Plague monks fail to drive off Chaos Warriors (even after using the
Plague Banner) and take a Chaos Cav charge in the flank.

My Goblin slave (counts as Skaven Slaves) grind it out with
High Elf Cav, while Clanrats attack a Chaos chariot (at rear)

Another Skaven Slaves unit attacks (counts as) White Lions and
a mage, but couldn't quite destroy the unit by the end of the game.

A hard lesson learned...

...but I will have my revenge! (shakes clenched paw at the sky!)

High Elf beat down!

Awesome!

Simply the only word to describe the High Elf v. High Elf rumble that happened the other week. We had arranged to fight with 2,000 points of "whatever you want to bring" and guess who turned up?

Some other traitorous High Elf faction!

This was my second time out with my "Purple Sons" army. Here is my list:

The Purple Sons of Xereus (1,999pts)

+ Lords (545pts) +

x1 Archmage (285pts) [Lore of Shadow, Level 4,  Book of Hoeth, Golden Crown of Atrazar]

x1 Prince (260pts) [Light Armour, Shield, Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed, Armour of Destiny, BRB - Ogre Blade]

+ Heroes (289pts) +

Mage (135pts) [High Magic, Wizard Level 1, Khaine's Ring of Fury, Dispel Scroll]

Noble (154pts) [Battle Standard Bearer, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Lion cloak, Shield, Talisman of Preservation]

+ Core (672pts) +

x18 Archers (208pts) [Musician, Light Armour]

x5 Ellyrian Reavers (125pts) [Full command, Bows and Spears]

x5 Ellyrian Reavers (125pts) [Full command, Bows and Spears]

x8 Silver Helms (214pts) [Full command with Shields]

+ Special (353pts) +

x21 White Lions of Chrace (353pts) [Full command +Banner of the World Dragon]

+ Rare (140pts) +

x1 Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower (70pts)

x1 Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower (70pts)

Magic was Shadow on the level 4:
Melkoth's mystifying Miasma
Penumbral
Okham's Mindrazor
Withering

...and Lore of Light on the level 1:
Fiery convocation.

My opponent:

++ High Elves 8th Ed (Standard) (1998pts) ++

+ Lords (800pts) +

Archmage (310pts) [High Magic, Level 4, Book of Hoeth,  Ironcurse Icon, Talisman of Endurance]

Eltharion the Grim (490pts) [Heavy Armor, Longbow, Stormwing (and Lance), Talisman of Hoeth, The Fangsword of Eltharion, The Helm of Yvresse]

+ Core (500pts) +

x22 Archers (200pts) [Longbow],

x22 Archers (220pts) [Longbow]

x5 Ellyrian Reavers (80pts) [Elven Steed, Light Armor, Spear Only]

+ Special (698pts) +

x5 Dragon Princes of Caledor (145pts) [Dragon Armor, Elven Steed, Ithilmar Barding, Lance, Shield]

x5 Dragon Princes of Caledor (145pts) [Dragon Armor, Elven Steed, Ithilmar Barding, Lance, Shield]

x26 Sword Masters of Hoeth (408pts) [Great Weapon, Heavy Armor, Musician, Standard Bearer Banner of the World Dragon]

Magic: Lore of Life
Throne of Vines, Regrowth, and others!

What you will notice is that neither of us really bought a lot of High Elf "Toys" with us. Our group is quite casual, and so it is quite common for people to just use stuff that isn't very "popular" for a laugh.
Case in point when looking at the lists above:
1.) No Frostheart Phoenix in these lists.
2.) No super-hard characters. As you can see above, Eltharion isn't really tooled up too heavily.
(Yes, we both brought Banners of the World Dragon and Books of Hoeth but hey, who wouldn't these days! )

In my group, we are pretty casual players, so I was happy to play an opponent who has a lot more experience than me and is happy to share his wisdom (as this was my second time using High Elves). Of course, this also benefits him in the long run, as he will get a better game each time, but still, I appreciate it!

Key moments in the Battle:

Deployment:

The Purple Sons:

A couple of things helped me later in the game.

a.) I got the side of the board with the watchtower, allowing me to move my level 4 and archers into the building:

b.) I put my two bolt throwers on opposite sides, meaning he would either have to divert some forces to deal with the opposite flank, OR take some finely-crafted, character/ monster/ cavalry-killing bolts of Elven death throughout the game...

Opposing Deployment

NOTE: A level 4 Life wizard is nestled in those Swordmasters...

Lots of archers, and a big block of Sword Masters in the centre with a Level 4. At the bottom of the photo above, you can see the two blocks of cavalry that are hoping to make short work of my bolt thrower across the board.

Key moments in the game:

Reaver Redirection:
While learning to use my Reavers for the first time (hey, Skaven don't have fast cav right?) I managed to divert the incoming cavalry that would have toasted one of my Bolt Throwers. It took my opponent several turns to deal with that flank, diverting his forces from the main battle at the centre.

Swordmaster Slaughter:
In the centre, the first part of the battle turned on the Swordmaster v. Silver Helms and White Lions throw down. There was a ton of bloodshed, augmented by magic buffs on both sides, but in the end, the Swordmasters, despite their bravery, couldn't beat the White Lions and Heavy Cav.
Winning this netted me 718 points, because his Wizard was in this unit as well..

.
Eltharion takes a Tumble:
Previously mounted on Stormwing, the Elf Prince has to walk into battle after his trusty steed suffers some unlucky hits and dies. This severely limited his mobility on the right flank as he sought shelter in a block of archers, meaning my Bolt thrower was now threatened by only his Cav.

Eltharion, at centre, stands alone on the right flank.

Eltharion takes shelter in a
block of archers.

His Revenge
After losing his main block, my opponent gamely fought on, bringing his archers forward into combat and moving his remaining cavalry in en masse. My Silver Helms and Prince took care of the first block of archers, but then found themselves way in front of my White Lions when they chased the archers, and now faced by Eltharion, a full block of archers, and two (regenerated) blocks of Dragon Princes...

The Prince and Silver Helms quickly cut down the archers...

...but will soon find themselves flanked and surrounded...

Eltharion and his archers face the oncoming Silver Helms

The White Lions look on in horror, knowing they are too far away to help.

Without the White Lions, the Silver Helms quickly get cut down.

Finale
In the end though, the White Lions come up and finally, finally, Eltharion goes down. I can't remember if that was to the Silver Helms or the Lions, but he had survived (with a truly awe inspiring set of saving throws) massed bolt thrower fire (again and again and again), magic, and hand-to-hand combat!

Result? Victory to the Sons of Xereus!

Lessons:

1. Shadow magic is pretty good. Miasma and Ockham's mindrazor helped me at key stages in the battle, and the Withering really helps High Elves by weakening opponents.
2. It sucks to face Life magic. Regenerating Dragon Prince units anyone? This meant that I just couldn't kill enough of them to get them off the board and out of the way...need to stop these spells if I possibly can.
3. Reavers. Keep them cheap and specialized (Bows or spears) and use to redirect. I like my eagles (because I think they look great) but these guys could be my chaff of choice now.
4. Bolt Thrower placement. I only had two, so opposite ends of the board made my opponent face some difficult choices. No-one likes to be needled by bolts in your face every turn...
5. Silver Helms performed just as I had read online. Overall good performance, but after the first round of combat they get bogged-down and can't grind out a win.
6. Shooting with bows? Don't expect to do anything major in terms of wounds.

This was a fun battle, in which I learned a lot from the experience of just using the army and the opposing general. Next time, I have a feeling his list will be a little more...

...hard core!

:-)

Cheers!

Finished High Elf Noble on Elven Steed

Finished off the base for this model today, so feel that this Elven Noble on steed is ready for the gaming table.

I'm quite pleased with the results. 
In these photos it isn't easy to see, but I put quite a bit of effort in that I think paid off:

• For the white robes, I layered up from gray, rather than using a wash.
• I picked out each scale on the scale-mail individually. After a base of Dwarf Bronze and then a wash, I added a small highlight of Auric Gold to the bottom of each scale. 
• For the base, I am pleased with how the flock looks around the broken statuary.
• After multiple failed attempts, I finally manage to get the eyes right on a model!
• To match some of my other models, I added a tuft of grass to the base.

Thanks for looking. Come the weekend and bit more time (and some better lighting) I will take some more photos and close ups.

As usual, feel free to share any feedback!

Thanks.

#tabletopwargaming #highelves #gamesworkshop #tabletopminiatures

Finished High Elf Ellyrian Reavers

High Elf Ellyrian Reavers

Keeping my painting focused on expanding my High Elves, I've been slowly continuing with models that add flexibility and power to the small core that I previously finished. This week I completed two units of x5 Ellyrian Reavers - fast cavalry that can be armed with spears and or bows.

Champion

Champion

Ellyrian Reavers won't add hitting power (that is why I am also painting a Noble on steed), but they should add some flexibility. Being fast cav, I can use them (combined with my Great Eagles) to hunt enemy warmachines and harrass other units, possibly also piling into the side of other combats too.

That's the plan anyway. 

In terms of painting, they were quite fiddly. Lots of small details (the alternating gems on the horse's armour), but I did enjoy adding some small touches. The single purple feather in the helmet plumes matches the colour of my High Elf army, the Purple Sons. Although these horsemen are from Ellyrian, I imagined that they might make this small concession to the force that they were joining for battle.

To be honest, I think the further you get away from my painting, the better it looks - just like on the tabletop - so I have included some pictures from a longer distance too...

All comment and criticism gratefully received. Thanks for looking.

Cheers!

Hobby update - High Elves and Templars

"Artists Paint Brushes adapted with Photoshop" by Si Griffiths.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update on what has been on my workbench (ahem, "Kitchen Table") this month.

High Elf Ellyrion Reavers. (50% done)

Ellyrion Reaver

Ellyrion Reaver Champion

I've been continuing to beef up my High Elves, and thought a good project would be to knock out x10 Ellyrion Reavers. I thought they would be quick - what a mistake! For some reason these are taking ages! They are just very, very detailed, and quite challenging to paint once assembled (I received them this way).

I've got most of the basecoats down, so should be able to start on washes and highlights this week.

Mounted High Elf Prince/ Noble (30% done)

High Elf Noble (mounted)

As I have 8 Silver Helms painted up, I thought I should tackle this guy as he will add a fair amount of hitting power, and bring the unit up to nine (apparently taking them in a 3 x 3 formation works quite well.) Not sure if I will add a banner to him yet.

Black Templar Space Marines page update.

Noting that I hadn't updated the page for a while, I added pictures of the Stormtalon (I'd had the vehicle painted for a while, but stalled on the base until last week) and also two Whirlwinds I painted up a while ago. I think the page is up to date now.

Hopefully I'll have the High Elves done this week.

Cheers,

White Lions of Chrace - finished!

White Lion Champion, standard bearer, and musician

Continuing with my attempt to expand the small High Elf army I started a year or two ago, I just finished up a unit of White Lions of Chrace. Although my experience with them is very limited, in any High Elf army at the moment, you will probably see a unit of White Lions (very choppy!) or Phoenix Guard (an amazing anvil unit by all accounts). 

White Lions guard the entrance to the Purple Tower.

Simply put, White Lions are about as hard core as it gets when it comes to High Elf hammer units. Sure, Swordmasters put out the hurt, but Lions have a 3+ save against missile attacks, +2 strength and are stubborn too.

I quickly got these guys up to scratch over the last couple of weeks to play a game, but spent some time adding a bit more detail the last few days and thought they were ready to post.

• Completed the green gems on the command models (Champion, standard bearer, musician)
• Painted on a few more details and highlights.
• Painted gloss varnish ("'ard coat") onto every gem on each model outside the command unit.

The gloss varnish was a bit of experiment, but I think it came out ok. If you are looking to save time, then focusing on the command unit or first row and making compromises on the other models can save you a lot of time. It was much faster just to have a nice Dark Angels Green basecoat on each gem and then varnish it, rather than do the four steps and have the steady hand that gems usually take (base coat, lighter basecoats x2, white dot).

Does it look as good as painted gems? No, because it doesn't "pop" as much. It does provide a basic gleam though!

A few compromises at the moment, as this unit came from a big HElf eBay purchase a while back:

1. There are only 19 of them at the moment (but my usual opponents don't mind if I proxy a couple of Spearmen to bring the unit up to 21)
2. The unit champion doesn't have the correct arm! Look closely and you will see that he uses an Archer champion arm, which doesn't have the correct pauldron (but it is at least pointing at the enemy.)

Coming from painting Skaven, it was quite refreshing to have a complete unit at 19 models!

More pics below.

White Lion champion

Standard bearer

Standard Bearer

Musician

Three White lions. Gems here were just gloss varnish over a dark green.

Next up? 

I'd like to go to a single model (probably a Prince) and then 1 or 2 mounted heroes (a Prince and a Mage). This is because I have 8 Silver Helms done from my first attempt at the army. From what I hear running these 3 x 3 is a good balance of offence and size, while still allowing me to push a mounted hero in the 2nd file (protecting them from attacks back). It will be fun to run a unit of cavalry for the first time next time I field this army!

Cheers,

*Squeek*