Lol cats with pesky elves on top

Hey all,

So the "old skool" readers of my blog/tormented opponents of mine circa Vermintide 2010ish might remember this unit:

Yup that's my old "Lion Princes" unit from back when I thought it would be easier to paint up conversions than tackle the official GW models (ALMOST finished my unit of 10 four years later...).

High Elf playaz have few things in common - some like Swordmasters (odd people - not you Glen), some are dragon nutz (looking at you James Milner), some seem obsessed with the "single viable combat unit tactic" (internet lists)...but what we can all agree on is that Lion Chariots are a massive disappointment...and the old metal Silverhelms are some of the classic GW minis (well, that last part is IMHO).

I was content with having only 1 unit for many years - I never really used Dragon Princes and when I did I had finally finished enough of the official models - but then the new High Elf book dropped and Silverhelms all of a sudden became cool - pity about the models.

Now, refusing to have mis-matched horses in my army, conveniently I managed to acquire 3 more lions and had a Legolas inspired conversion moment resulting in...

BOOM! Meet lion unit #2.

And with the quick re-label, meet my "Lionhelms"

Ready to be my awesome 2+as, s5 charge "chaff".




 

Alarielle the Radiant

Yo yo yo

Just a quick painting update.

Sorry for the not-the-best pic...my ipad cant seem to handle all the white!

Anywho adding my first official (painted) special character to my High Elves. I bought this on release day and it has been floating around my painting table ever since.

I had splashed some base colours down...painted the skin etc etc but something didnt feel "right" until earlier this week when it clicked that I had her colours around the wrong way...green is my High Elf main stay colour with red as the highlight. A quick colour switch-a-roo on her dress and everything made sense again.

In terms of tabletop use...I'll have try out the "Everqueen-star" list at least once! I do think it is a little too convenient that her points + Alith Anar (another Special Character I want to get) = exactly 600pts...Heck I dont think I can have a fluffy game vs Dark Elves without him!

In other news, my second "Lionhelm" unit should be finished this week, so look forward to that and I hope to squeeze in a game vs Will's Ogres next weekend = battle report!

Battle of the Highest Order - High Elves vs Lizards

Yo!

With this sudden upswing in personal excitement for the High Elves now that their evil brethren are in town I figured it was time to invade the new world...but first pit stopping in Lustria to settle some old disputes with the frogs.

I sent over to the land of Mike:

lvl4: Shadow, Golden Crown, Scroll, Ring of Fury
BSB: Armour of Caledor, GW
2x10 Archers: Musician
2x5 Reavers (bows)
2x5 Lionhelms: M (shields)
27 Whitelions: FC - Banner of the World Dragon
25 Phoenix Guard: FC - Razor Standard
Frostie (I believe it was "Swift")
3x1 RBTs

The fluff goes something like:

"The High Elf force landed undisturbed, but observed by the Chameleon scouts. The plan was to launch an attack on Naggaroth from the unguarded south passing though the jungles of Lustria. However one of the archers whilst walking up the pebble beach got a sacred stone stuck in his shoe. This great insult woke a sleeping Slann who gathered his Skink assistants, temple guard, and his 2 pet Ancient Stegs to meet the intruders who dare "steal" the ancient treasures of the old ones."

Mike's army consisted of:

Slann: Loremaster High, keep a dispel dice, re-roll a dispel dice, add extra d6 to a dispel attempt staff
Scarvet: Coldone, ASF sword, 1+ as, charmed shield
2 Beast Skinks  - 1 with dispel scroll
4x10 skink skirmish
2x10 skink cohort
28 skink cohort with 2 Krox
3 Terradons
26 TempleGuard: FC - flame banner
1 Engine Ancient steg - sharpened horns
1 Ancient Steg - sharpened horns

We rolled up Blood and Glory (an appropriate mission given the fluff) and rolled for spells.

...yup perfect roll to get miasma, enfeebling, withering, and pit.

I got table side pick and picked the one with all the forests cos that wasnt a stupid decision given I had 3 RBTs that needed good LOS O_o.

However I also got first turn and my army advanced - and the terradons fled some lionhelms.

I chucked movement miasma on the skinks in front of everything, and pit got scrolled (boo!). Shooting was very exciting...I think I killed 12 skinks!
The lizards moved up to set up lots of fleeing... and magic was a flop

And I responded by failing to take a photo!

Reavers on my right charged a depleted unit of skinks (thanks shooting), took a casuality from S&S, and 1 in combat, but ran them down and (crucially) blocked the cohort...who fled when the Lionhelms charged some skinks against a fence next to them, and run them down.

the Whitelions made 2 units flee and rushed forward 6 inches to take EVERYTHING to the face (very male-gendered elves). The other lionhelms sandwiched some skinks with the Phoenixguard...who wiped them out and reformed to counter charge.

Note how my epic shooting reduced a skirmish unit to a single skink and the Temple Guard got hit by an IF Emfeebling to drop them to s2(3). Oh only 1 RBT hit and it caused a massive single wound to the Engine of the Gods.

So what's a lizard to do (other than sunbathe?). In everything charges...but the "normal" Ancient steg was feeling a little down and didnt quite make it to the party failing an 11 inch charge.

Mike then rolls a 12 dice magic phase. I let him give the Engine back its lost wound to "teach my RBT's a lesson". he then went to firey RIP doom the Phoenix Guard...and failed to cast. He then promptly failed to 5 dice large amber spear on the Phoenix...maybe I shouldnt have let the Engine get its wound back. Combat was exciting. The BSB started by killing the unit champ 3 times, And from 21 attacks the Whitelions managed to kill 4 - yes F.O.U.R. Temple guard...Dont give me that "but the delta for 3 ranks is better than 2 ranks re-rolling" crap when I get results like that! Good thing everything else except impact hits and stomps did nothing - even the Scar vet failed to wound meaning I didnt even get to use the BOWD! However I still lost and held (thank you stubborn).

SO what Happens in return? Lion Helms flank the ancient to hold it up, PhoenixGuard and Frostie flank the TempleGuard . Enfeebling stays up (thank you really poor magic phase rolling and threatening Wither) and I get miasma off...dropping WS by an annoying 1. A few more skinks die to shooting. Combat? well, I could give you an epic run down on how amazing the Phoenix Guard were and how they sliced the Temple Guard up and how that then rallied the Whitelions who remembered how to hit...or I could post a pic of the result:

And yes...it finally happened. "Swift" got caught on my cuff and the clear stand thing broke = I can now either pin it, or do some fancy magnet shenanigans.

Scarvet ran, Engine stubbornly held on. Phoenix Guard pursued 4 inches, Frostie ran the scarvet down and into the flank of the engine.

Silverhelms vs Ancient = Ancient took a wound and held.

Lizard turn = smash up Engine, lionhelms hold and a sneaky Tempest does this:

Ouch! The terradons also drop some rocks on the cohort "blocking" reavors who die a biblical death worthy of the martyrs they are (proof the lizardmen are up themselves as they clearly cast the first stone).

However in return I do this:

(yup Phoenix Guard are beating up skinks again) + the other lionhelm unit ran a unit of skinks down who didnt flee far enough.

AND THIS

Slann took 2 rounds of combat to kill. Steg combat was a fluff of epic epicness (in the combat the lionhelms died and the frostie passed a very nervous break test).. Shooting took the terradons down to 1 wound...

Phoenix Guard reformed face the Ancient Steg...

and promptly flanked and killed it (thank you wither).

the last terradon died to a LOLZ IF ring of fury that rolled double 1 for number of hits and did a single wound hahaha.

Result: Massacre to the High Elves

MVP goes to the lvl4 with some crucial hexes. MVU goes to the Phoenix Guard who twice charged in to get the glory...but didnt let that get in the way of killing skinks!

Gotta say I liked the list. I need to get better with my RBT placement. I think like they are cannons...but they have a crucial difference - they can't simply "shoot" though units and terrain!

Hobby update: Anointed of Asuryan and other elvish thoughts

It's been a while since my last post. I've been distracted by real life things like pretending to be an adult and stuff...

Anywho, my limited recent painting time has resulted in me finishing the Anointed that comes with the Phoenix kit. Here he is hanging with some Phoenix Guard posse I painted up at the same time to keep him company

The beauty of plastering walls is that they provide a convenient white back drop so I can get in some half decent pics!

This isn't my favourite model TBH...I think it screams "over designed" in a way that GW can sometimes be guilty of now that they are using fancy computer designing software stuff. It's the little things like the scarf on the halberd not flowing in any particular direction - when there is also a belt scarf that they could have worked with to give the models some feeling, the pointy things on the shoulder pads etc etc. Sitting next to some Phoenix Guard (who I quite like) he looks a wee bit out of place. 

Oh well, it was fun to paint I guess. I'm getting to that stage where my paint scheme is a little zzzz to paint, but still works so I'm happy with it. 

New Dark Elves

Just a small piece of news for those internet users who like WHFB who dont keep up - the Dark Elves have been released. I bought the ipad ebook thing and I was a little disappointed with the presentation. They combined the fluff for each entry with the model gallery meaning both sections felt a little...empty. Compare that to other army ebooks where the fluff sections are full of amazing artwork with a separate model gallery...heck I even think one (or two) of the pictures were from the High Elf book!

The background fluff was a little "meh" too. It read like a scheming, always frustrated, cartoon bad guy constantly having his schemes ruined by some stoned teenagers in a combi van...while his mum secretly is the real power behind the throne. I was hoping for (having never read Dark Elf fluff before) an entire re-writing of the High Elf fluff from a different perspective (we are the real good guys...this is our story of subtle fall into chaos etc etc)....not a blatant admission that the Dark Elves are the baddies *queue over-emphasising the evilness of everything* With all the daily casual slaughter it's amazing there are any Dark Elves left alive! I always pictured Malekith's downfall to be a little bit like Furion's...

Rules wise I like how it all kinda mirrors what the High Elves do. Warlocks are the new OP and as usual there are cool monsters and stuff. Moving Witch Elves to core is an interesting move that will scare Ogre players, but I suspect they could be a weee bit of a red herring given they have no armour, t3, s3 and frenzy...poison only goes so far. Executioners look awesome...but without stubborn or the Banner of World Dragon I think they are a little vulnerable to fluffed rolls...without any defence to wear the return attacks. ie I would rather pay the extra point for Whitelions. 

For the MSU fans out there the Dark Elf book offers more options there, which is really cool as MSU needs to exist in some form other than "WoC monsters MSU Lolz"

Having read the rules I like the High Elves more cos we got phoenix, and usable new Lord and Hero choices + I think the High Elf troop choices are more exciting not just variations on "lots of s3/4 attacks". 

High Elves vs Dark Elves

Big call here...I think the High Elves take this one out - but only just. After the first round of combat where Dark Elf hatred is awesome, Martial Prowess trumps Murderous Prowess. Dark Elves have few answers to the Phoenix, and none to Phoenix Guard. High Elf shooting should also win the shooting war given its range (and price) advantage. However, Cloak of twilight peg dreadlord, or Character-heavy Warlock bus will cause plenty of problems...so too will careful use of Dark Magic..though I'm unconvinced of its "all comers" application - at least it has more coherency than High Magic which is all over the place.  

Woodies vs Dark Elves

Still a big win to the Woodies. 70shots/turn + dwellers + double treeman + dryads + eagles to catch the frenzy = yawn 20-0 win. I dont care if you have ASF and Murderous Prowess when you need 6's to wound...IF you make it to combat. Vanguarding Warlock bus = s4 shooting comes into play quicker :)

Anywho that's all from me. I have a game with the High Elves vs Mike King's Lizards tomorrow and I'll do up a battle report (I think my first with the new High Elves - only my 3rd game with them at 2400pts too!).