Wood elves definitely don't suck in 8th...

So this is a rather large update - which is fitting since it's the last one for July.  I've been working pretty hard at trying to make my Wood elf army look unique on the battlefield.  At this point and time I've got only a few more things to do before I am ready to start painting.
First off, if you remember I was working on my Warhawk Riders and my Great Eagles.  I was worried that they would be rather flimsy and tip over on the battlefield.  Well... I think I may have gone a little overboard with the magnets on them...

12 Magnets a stand... little did I know that this was akin to just soldering the bases to the stand...

mental note moving forward - 4 is a little excessive with these monster strong magnets.

After doing a bit of pre-measuring and positioning I was able to put the Warhawk Riders half an inch apart (as per skirmisher rules in 8th) and still have them look good.  They now rest on a magnetized base and I can move them all over the battlefield with little or no worry about them tipping over.






Next I wanted to make my Glade Guard unique for this edition.  I currently run with 3 different Glade Guard units.  One unit of 14, one of 13 and one of 11.  The unit of 13 and 11 house 2 heroes.  So I thought and thought and finally it came to me how to make them unique.
Here are the results of some of my conversions:

Here you see the group that will house the Battle Standard Bearer (The Farstriders of Lady Dreamsinger).  I wanted them to have a neat looking standard bearer to compliment their lady so... a crucified Beastman on their own banner seemed fitting!  I also multi-based the Standard Bearer, Musician and 2 normal Glade Guard on a tree stump that rests on a 40mm base.

Here are all 3 Glade Guard units that are in my 2500 point army list.
Left: The Farstriders of Lady Dreamsinger
Middle: The Mage Hunters of Coeth-mara
Right: The Storm Warders of Athel Loren







Next is the update I've been super excited to show off - My DRAGON!

I plan on painting the dragon with Dark Angels Green then highlighting it was Goblin Green and Scorpion Green while the under scales of it's belly will be Desert Yellow with a Bleach Bone highlight.  The armor will be Gold washed with Thrakia Green (similar in how I did my Wild Riders) or I may attempt to do the Non-metallic metal paint method.  We'll see.

So...
I've been bitching about how 8th edition nerfed the shit out of my army, taking it from a top tier to a bottom tier army.  I was doing exactly what everyone on the Warhammer Forums were doing.  Bitching without actually playing.  You would know that the people on the forums are full of shit after playing a single game at a point level above 2000.  Wood Elves in 8th edition are absolutely bad ass.  My goal is to get as good with my Wood Elves as I am with my Eldar.
Today I played a Grand Army battle against Jeremy's Ogre Kingdoms - an army that got a huge boost in 8h edition.  Jeremy had decided to run a unit of 16 Ogre Bulls w/ a BSB and Tyrant.  That is 16 40mm monstrous infantry that are now a Horde.  That is an absolute beatstick unit.  I had roughly 2500 built but managed to squeeze out 3000 points after adding a Treeman, Branchwraith and 8 Archers to the army for 3k total.

We played 3000 points each - and the game went insanely fast.  I think we had just hit the 1 hour and 45 minute mark when Jeremy conceded at the top of turn 5.  I'll do a quick synopsis of the battle along with some pictures of the game.

Game Type: Dawn Attack - Scenerio 2 in the basic rule book.
Player who goes first deploys his entire army first - there are 3 sections of the board where he deploys.  Left corner, right corner and center.  You have to roll to see what unit is placed where.  This is to represent the early morning confusion of an attack at Dawn.
Terrain - 8 pieces (4 Mysterious Terrain were discovered during the game - teehee)
I got the winning role and deployed first.  Here are some pictures of the deployment.

After deploying Jeremy attempted to Steal the Initiative and failed.  I went first.  I moved up all my units and lead the offensive instead of staying in the backfield.  I moved all my units into an intelligent attack formation that essentially picked my opponents battles for him instead of vice versa.

The statue in the bottom left corner was a Mysterious Monument that gave MR2 to all units 6".

Turn 2 - Jeremy had moved his units up in the previous turn and so I moved my Treeman, Treekin and Wild Riders to 1" away in order to prevent Impact hits from his Ogres' charges and also to dig in and ensure that those units would be attacked.  The magic phase is where my army got the upper hand early in the game.  I was able to cast "Amber Spear" which boosted is a S10 bolt thrower magic missile that does D6 wounds.  I removed almost an entire rank from Jeremy's 18 man unit (That's 16 wounds and 15 Str 4 attacks).  The shooting phase was also really, really good.  I managed to knock out another 2 Ogres in his big unit and whittle down his supporting units as well.  The wood elf army is very, very fast and shooting isn't their only recourse as many would think.

The bottom of Turn 2 ended up with Jeremy charging my Dryads with his Slave Giant, my Treekin and Treeman with his Lead Belchers and his block of bulls and my Wild Riders being charged by his Iron Guts.

A grand melee ensued.
Results of Turn 2 combat:
Dryads - 13 hits, no wounds.
Giant - jump up and down result - 1 wound inflicted, 2 stomp attack wounds.
Result: - Dryads roll a 5 and stay in combat

Treekin - 6 wounds on his bulls.
Treeman - 5 wounds from Stand and Shoot Strangleroot attack, 5 wounds in close combat and 5 wounds from Thunder Stomp.
Lead Belchers and Ogre Bulls - they inflict 4 wounds and I remove a Treekin.
Ogres lose combat but they are stubborn and stick with it.

Wild Riders - 4 Wounds, 3 saves from Regen on Ogres.
Ogres - 4 Wounds, 5 ward saves made.
Result: Push

Turn 3 resulted in the further whittling down of the out of combat ogre blocks by shooting with a completely dispelled magic phase.  I had maneuvered my Great Eagles and Warhawk Riders to get flank charges where I could.
Bottom of turn 3 - Scraplauncher kills half a unit of Glade guard.
Combat - Meat Grinder with Treekin/Treeman and Ogres.  Ogres lose combat again but stick with it.
Wild Riders get further reduced down to 5 and stay in combat.
Dryads obliterate the Slave Giant.

Turn 4 - I charge the Scraplauncher with a Great Eagle - I win that combat by 1 and it runs off the table.
I charge the leadbelchers with the other eagle further adding to the already huge meatgrinder in the middle of the table.  Wild Riders get reduced down to 1 member after all of turn 4's combat.
Treeman finally falls and Treekin lose combat and run.
Glade Guard unit fails to stop a charge from Maneaters and flee after losing combat.
I turned into a DRAGON! RAWR!!!

Turn 5 - Jeremy conceded game at the top of turn 5.  He had removed 857 points worth of models and I had removed almost 2000 or so points.

End of the game photo.  As you can see the Wood Elves were in a good position to open fire with everything they had on his remaining Ogres not to mention the captain insano fire dragon that was their Spellweaver.








Reflections:  Wood elves have become the premiere hit and run army with incredible heavy infantry to support their archers.  I don't expect to win a lot but I do except to make every single opponent struggle to get a victory.  The wood elves have now become very durable and at 3k points they are pretty damn brutal.  The only real punch I'm missing from this list at 2.5k is the Treeman who for the first time ever didn't suck!  Treekin are meatgrinders, meatgrinders to the point where I kinda want to take 2 units of 6...
Anyway - the Game was a lot of fun.  Mainly because I won =) but also because it was my first really big game in 8th edition using the crazy terrain rules and everything.
This is a very, very well thought out edition and the rules have seriously streamlined the gameplay.  With the exception of looking up new rules and meandering over what terrain did what - the game went very fast.
I'm now beginning to fade - I need lunch but I wanted to present a "showcase" of the army I played today and you can expect more pictures as I get more games in and paint the models.

Warhammer 8th Edition Battle Reflections.

            So, this last Sunday I played a few 1500 point games with my Wood Elves.  Two of the armies I engaged were Empire and Ogre Kingdoms.  The Wood Elf army has had to seriously change the entire method in which it is used for this edition.  The previous edition you could field a lot of MSU (Multiple Small Units) and pretty much clean up after your archers had softened up a smaller units.  Wood elves had speed, range, mobility and the ability to alter the layout of the battlefield.  In seventh edition this was great since you could hide anywhere and everyone used smaller units in order to field more specialist units.  In eighth edition everything has changed.  True Line of Sight, fighting in two ranks, initiative based combat, changes to Magic, and the most important change - larger units with percentage based slots in the army.
            Wood elves have an expensive army.  The cheapest thing in our book is 12 points and that is our Core selections.  Shooting has improved in 8th edition but all that really changed was that everyone else got a lot better at shooting and the Wood elves gained a 2nd rank for longbow fire.  In order to field a worthwhile unit of Rank and File Core models you need to first purchase a Noble or Highborn (75 base or 145 base) and at least 19 Eternal Guard (12x19 + 30 for command) making a single core selection of S3, T3 5+ armor save almost 450 points.  Beastman can field the same number of models with spears but no armor save for 140 points plus whatever they want for a character for about 120.  Pretty huge difference there for the same results in battle.
            The list I brought for the 1500 point game was rather basic and straight forward.  I wanted to see how certain units would perform with the new rules and where I would need to make changes.
I brought:
Level 4 Spellweaver with Wand of Wych Elm and Lore of Life
18 Glade Guard with Standard Bearer and Musician
18 Glade Guard with Standard Bearer and Musician
10 Dryads
10 Wild Riders with Full Command
10 Waywatchers
1 Great Eagle

The list had a lot of shooting, lot of mobility and with Lore of Life the opportunity to gain some serious toughness.

          Now in both games I made some rather gross mistakes.  Mistakes that I should have known better than to make but being slightly hung over didn't help my thought process.
Against Ogre Kingdoms:
1.  Did not move my Glade Guard at all, I kept them in the backfield instead of moving them up to get their short range bonus.  18 Glade Guard (14 able to move and shoot) at short range yield 50% more wounds than at long range.
2.  Kept my Spellweaver in the backfield.  If I had been able to augment my Wild Riders to T7 they would have done so much better against the monstrous close combat attacks of the Ogres.
3.  Moved my other units too far out of position and within charge range of other units.
Against Empire:
1. Again I did not move my Glade Guard to get into short range.  This is something I will seriously need to do in the future. I'm literally wasting points by keeping them in the backfield.  What good is having 18 shots when you score ONE wound at long range.
2. Again I moved my other units too close to the enemy.  Waywatchers were charnged and wiped out after 2 rounds.  I moved my Wild Riders directly in front of Neil's line hoping to prevent a multi-charge but it happened anyway.
3.  I did move my Spellweaver this turn but I did not augment the correct units.
4.  I went after the Cannon thinking it was a Stone Thrower.  I wasted 2 very, very important unit's shooting to get rid of it when I should have been concentrating on his mainstay units.

I also had absolutely abysmal dice rolls but hey that's part of the game.
Reflections:
1.  Wild Riders need character support. If I am going to use these models, I need to ensure they do enough damage to kill a unit when they charge.  I feel using a character such as a Wild Rider Noble on a Stag with the helm of command (stubborn) and giving the Wild Riders the +1 leadership banner would be great.  Expensive but worthwhile.
2.  Lore of Beasts vs. Lore of Life - Lore of Life adds serious staying power to the army.  Lore of Beasts adds a serious level of ferocity and a quasi-warmachine aspect to the army.  I will continue to playtest both to see which one better fits my playstyle.
3. I am fast, I was in my opponents deployment zone turn 1 and around most of their units.  I need to fully utilize this in the future to my advantage.  Having Wild Riders, 2 Great Eagles, 10 Waywatchers and 3 Warhawk Riders moving as one big assault wing will really help in the future.
4.  Short Range is the key.  Wood elves are still a skirmisher army.  The change however is that they need to be moving the entire game.  Sitting back in my deployment zone shooting is more beneficial to my opponent than to me.

There were a few other notations I made but time is short so.  We'll see how the next few games go. Who knows I may start being successful.

Warhawk Riders and Great Eagles Update no.2

Tonight I decided to flesh out the Warhawk Riders a bit more and I'm very pleased with their progress.  They should be ready for basing and painting very soon.

Here are the pictures from tonight's project:

Warhawk Riders Update and Wild Riders continued conversion!

I'm going to make this a brief update because I'm rather tired and did a lot of work today modelling and converting.  I hammered out 3 Wild Rider conversions in about an hour and followed the same steps I did last time I converted them.  This round went much faster since I had already done this conversion once.
Finished product - ready to be primed and painted.

Next up are my Great Eagles and Warhawk Riders.  Now I have 6 Warhawk Riders but only enough trees to mount 3 of them (also I am only using 3 in my current 2500 list).  I wanted the Warhawk Riders and Great Eagles to have a rather unique look on the battlefield and so I chose to use Trees as their mount!

I plan on putting lead shot or fishing weights in the bottom of the trees to lend weight and then magnets to secure the models to my metal movement trays I will create for them.  This will be very important for the Great Eagles that will require a lot of weight on their base to maintain a stable grounding.

I was originally using copper rod and was told that that just would not do.  To demonstrate further Jeremy showed me just how bendy the copper rods got.  Not good... So I went to True Value next door to Ancient Wonders and secured a new drill bit for my pin vice and 3/32" brass rods.

I plan on adding foliage and leaves to the trees once I have the brass rods secured in the trees.  I will not be permanently affixing the warhawks and eagles to the brass rods in that I have a nice little pluck foam slot already picked out for them.  The brass rods fit snuggly and I have little worry about the models falling off.

I am currently debating on shortening the rod length to reduce the height of the birds above the trees. I'm thinking maybe an inch would suffice but i also don't want the tree leaves to get in the way or crowd the model when being viewed or trying to get it mounted on it's rod. I'm open to suggestions.  I also have the luxury of rotating the warhawks/eagles around in case I like the way they look on another tree or a different facing.  I really tried to get good angles when I was drilling so that I would have dynamic poses and I think I was successful in pulling that off.  Like I said earlier, the only thing bugging me is the length of the rod but I am hesitant to clip it if they look fine at their current height.

Here is Stage 1 of my Warhawk Riders and Great Eagles - more to come as I am able.

Wild Rider Update, 6 of 10 Completed. Wild Rider Champion WIP

I am now done with 6 out of 10 converted Wild Riders.  I have 3 more full conversions to complete and 4 models to paint.  I always wanted to use the Mounted Wood Elf Noble model but I did not want to even attempt to modify the body of the Privateer Press Raptors since it would involve literally shaving and sanding off the bottom torso of the wild rider.  I also did not want to alter the Wood Elf Noble model at all because I liked the way it was designed. So... I got creative and while I'm not 100% happy with the conversion, sometimes you suck it up and say "Works for me!".

Anyway here is a line up of 6 of the 10 painted plus 1 unpainted.

I wanted to match the Raptor models as closely as I could without having to do an insane amount of modification so... I cut and glued some Dryad arms together and pinned them to the metal Wild Rider mount head.  I kinda dig it!

Here you can see that I took some green-stuff and sculpted "fur" as best as I could.  This is really my first  try at sculpting something other than a knee or hiding a seam.  I'm pleased with it and I'm sure it'll look better when it's primed and painted.

This model and it's mount will serve as the Wild Hunter (unit champion for Wild Riders) unless I decide to use him as a Wild Rider Kindred in which he will be a full character.

Hope you guys enjoy my update.  I've got 3 more conversions to perform until I can move on to my Warhawk Riders and Giant Eagles!