The Old World Army Challenge: Brenton's Wood Elves

Greetings from the Antipodes, friends.

I followed the first OWAC with great interest; there's nothing like a Tale of X Armies to get you inspired to paint things. Especially fun, weird older miniatures - Slann! Chaos Dwarves! Jes Goodwin elves! A lot of these miniatures were slightly older when I first got into the hobby (c. 4/5th edition), which just makes it neater.

I'd always been fond of wood elves. In 5th, I had a copy of their Warhammer Armies and spent a lot of time imagining elves who lived in the foothills of the Grey Mountains, racing chariots in the plains and soaring on warhawks and eagles in the mountains themselves. Ambushing dwarves. Tricking knights. Murdering treasure-hunters. I was always disappointed at the lack of a real wild edge in their rules. Light cavalry and ranks of archers were cool, and Great Eagles are awesome, but where were the Beorn-like shapechangers? Or falconers! Skaw was there, sure, but him alone?

Warhammer Armies, p. 134

I learned about the third edition of the wood elves, and that's where everything I wanted was! But the culture of late-90s Australian gaming was that old editions were dead, buried and gone forever. We had to play the new editions, and the newer ones. (Plus, this is well before eBay!) This constant cycle meant that my Empire army got bloated on cheap plastics, the Halflings went into indefinite storage, and I sold my Kislev horse archers (like a fool!). By the time of 8th edition, I was barely in the hobby and then the End Times happened and, well.

But the story ends not there! For lo! a great light shone upon the earth and a voice in the heavens whispered, and what it whispered was this: "Screw the dang editions, just paint cool stuff." And the name of the voice was Oldhammer.

Anyway, so recently I've been collecting a bunch of wood elves! I vaguely wanted to do something I called 'elves with axes', but some of the wardancer miniatures have neat things like claws, or javelins, or weird armour with circles of steel sewn onto leather, so I've branched out.

Fantasy Warlord, p.95

I have a List and a Plan for what I'll build, which unfortunately includes Melnibonean cavalry (not exactly available down the shops), and a lot of the great sculpts we know and love. Thanks to the trading communities and being a bit over-eager on eBay, I've managed to get pretty fair underway. I was hoping to use the OWAC as a means to get started on the project - and here we are! Lucky me! (Less lucky for you, as I talk too much.)

1300 points of elven goodness

Picking out the specifics of what I wanted to paint for the challenge was a little tricky. For one thing, half my beastpacks aren't actually legal units, and part of the challenge is to build a legal army. I only have one bear! One cat! But then again, I only have 29 archers! Troubling. Luckily, the Lords of the Challenge have accepted that you can be slightly under the legal minimum (eg, 30 archers), as those were designed for 3000 points. Okay. But still, let's aim for as legal as possible. The Warhammer Armies guidelines are there, might as well use 'em.

Level 10 Hero + shield + light armour - 91
Level 10 Hero + shield + light armour - 91
Level 5 Hero + battle standard - 98
29 archers - 319
5 glade runners - 80
16 wardancers - 320
Beastmaster + 4 boars - 37
Zoat allied contingent commander, level 15 wizard - 275

That's about 1300ish points, of which 756 points is rank-and-file. I've split it up into monthly groups that will hopefully work to allow me six months of 200-point groups, with an easy month (a single zoat!) if I need a break, and a month I can drop if I need to mulligan, while still meeting 1000 points.

It looks like this:

Warhammer Regiments archers, led by a metal figure

Month 1 - 209

19 archers - 209

These do not have a leader yet. Oh no! For now, Aenur shall serve

Glade Runners:
A mix of Morley's waywatchers and other ranger-y sculpts

Month 2 - 201

10 archers - 110
5 glade runners - 80
Aenur, the Sword of Twilight (as a unit leader - 11 points)

On the left, Aenur. On the right, Kaia Stormwitch as a battle standard bearer

Six wardancers

Month 3 - 218

Battle standard bearer - 98
6 wardancers - 120

The next six wardancers

I want to use this hero as a champion for a unit of spearmen... but can't decide which one.
So, let's paint both!

Month 4 - 211

10 Hero - 91
6 wardancers - 120

Zoats are totally underrated

Month 5 - 275

Zoat

My last four wardancers... for now

Piggies and their buff mate

Month 6/Mulligan-able - 208

10 Hero - 91
4 wardancers - 80
Beastmaster - 13
4 boars - 24

That's it! It is quite a bit of painting, but probably a lot less than some of my companions on this journey. Elves are quite expensive - the wardancers are 20 points a model, and that's without equipment. Then again, I am taking a zoat. Friends, if you think the Zoat Month is cheating, sound off in the comments and I'll paint some more beasts that month as well.

I'm excited! I'm keen! Just one question: how do you paint forest green?