Graeme's OWAC V Introduction post: Wood Elves - Forenrond’s Last Stand

Graeme's OWAC V Introduction post: Wood Elves - Forenrond’s Last Stand

In the early ’90’s a few of my friends and I decided to hold a small Warhammer 3rd edition tournament between ourselves, over a summer holiday, with 3000 point armies. We bought one or two of the Fantasy Regiments boxes between us, to help build up the core armies. One of my friends took the Goblins and Orcs, another took the Dwarves, and I took the Elves and Skaven.

I managed to built up the Skaven army quite a bit (as you might have noticed from OWAC III), but just didn’t have enough models to field a full 3000 points, due to the low points cost per model. So I resorted to my second-choice army - Wood Elves. A small, flexible, well-equipped, archer-heavy army, with a wealth of heroes and wizards. The lovely Jes Goodwin sculpts were a huge factor in choosing them. Thus, they became my first ever Warhammer army.

A plastic bag of second-hand Elf stuff bought from my friend’s younger brother provided me with a cavalry unit and some Wardancers. I then built up a few more units of archers, and a unit of spearmen. I also invested in the newly-released Marauder Dragon, Treeman, and Unicorn, for some serious muscle, with a slightly different style.

I've only been able to find one photo of my army at the time. Here it is in action in the tournament, held on the dining room table at my parent's house, around '93 or '94, I think... :

The bright-red Dragon really should practice his sneak-attacks...

In the end I was third in our summer tournament. I got off to a promising start, decimating an infantry-heavy Dwarf army with a Treeman and Dragon-mounted champion. I suspect the picture above is from that game.

However, I was trounced by the Orc and Goblin army (helped in no small amount by my opponent rolling the ‘invisibility’ Chaos Attribute for his army general’s Wyvern - yes, it was as bad as you imagine… ). The one highlight of this game was attacking a unit of Chaos Warrior allies in the flank, on my first turn, with my Eagle-mounted hero with magical blade. They promptly routed off the table, never to return... all 500 points of them… 

There was also a meat-grinder confrontation between my Cavalry, Wardancers and Spearmen against a unit of Skeletons, Skeleton Chariot and a Corpse Cart (where pushing back the undead caused instability which, due to the Corpse Cart in the vicinity, proceeded to increase the size of the enemy units and/or make them invulnerable to wounds the next turn…). A shortage of magical weapons meant it did not end well…

Despite the ignominious defeats, the Wood Elf army remained my favourite - let's say they were the moral champions! 😀

After going to University, I followed the usual path of losing touch with my friends and the hobby. Luckily, I kept all of my minis in storage, so a good chunk of the stuff you see here are from my original collection, which I’ve just been adding to over the last 20 or so years.

I’ve spent the last few months stripping the majority of my Wood Elf collection, to give me fuel for the OWAC. I suspect I have enough models for multiple challenges. I first considered re-creating my original army, but decided to go for something a bit different:

Forenrond’s Last Stand!

I always wanted to play this battle when I got the 3rd Edition rulebook, but never had enough models (from either side). After many years of collecting, this is no longer an issue… It also gives me an excuse (as if I really needed one) to put together another big group of Jes Goodwin sculpts.

There are no points costs mentioned in the scenario in the rulebook, so below is an overview of the force with points taken, or inferred, from Warhammer Armies for 3rd edition:

CHARACTERS

• Corma Lightmantle (leader of 1st Elven cavalry)
  General - Level 15 Elf Hero
  Lance, hand weapon, shield, light armour, barded warhorse
  143 pts
  
  
• Atlanta
  Level 5 Elf Wizard
  Hand weapon, warhorse
   184 pts
  
  
• Philander (leader of 2nd Elven cavalry)
  Lieutenant - Level 10 Elf Hero
  Spear, hand weapon, shield, horse
  93 pts
  
  
• Labriele (leader of elite Elven archers)
  Level 10 Elf Hero
  Hand weapon, longbow, light armour
  93 pts
  
  
• Sola Brighthelm (leader of Elven archers)
  Level 10 Elf Hero
  Hand weapon, longbow
  91 pts

Character total: 604 pts

RANK & FILE

• 1st Elven Cavalry
  10 mounted lancers, with standard bearer and musician
  Lance, hand weapon, shield, horse
  264 pts
  
  
  
  Yup, still some prep work needed for these...
  
  
  
• 2nd Elven Cavalry
  10 mounted lancers, with standard bearer and musician
  Spear, hand weapon, shield, horse
  220 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 3rd Elven Cavalry
  10 mounted archers
  Hand weapon, longbow, light armour
  240 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Elite Elven Archers
  9 archers (+1 missile elite), with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, longbow, light armour
  143 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Elven Archers
  9 archers, with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, longbow
  121 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  

Rank & File total: 988 pts

Total points:        1592

Bonus ideas

Out of the rest of my Wood Elf collection, I’ve got a long list of potential ‘bonus’ and ‘super-duper bonus’ units.

The ‘bonus’ units are my fall-back to give me a change of pace from the archers and cavalry.

Bonus

• 10 Warhounds
  40 pts
  
• 2 Warhound beast masters
  26 pts
  
  
  
  
  
• 4 Bears
  80 pts
  
• 1 Bear beast master
  13 pts
  
  
  
  
  

Allies:

• Zoat Wizard
  Hand weapon
  275 pts
  
  
  

Realistically, I won’t get round to the ‘super-duper bonus’ stack, but I’m including them to reflect the good chance that my focus will drift and I’ll pick up something random and shiny near my painting desk and start working on it.

• Dragon Lord (Lvl 10 Hero, on Dragon 1, winged)
  Hand weapon, spear, light armour, shield
  392 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Wain Lord Chariot
  128 pts
  
  
  
  
  
• Treeman
  280 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 23 Spearmen, with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, spear
  225 pts
  
  
  
  I'm quite happy with my rescue-job on the leader
  
  
  
• 23 Warrior Kindred, with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, light armour, shield
  275 pts
  
  
  
  
  

This gives me plenty of options, and the freedom to paint what I feel like during the challenge, and it shouldn’t be a tall order to meet the points requirements.

One last thing - and it’s still just an idea - for a Wildcard month (if I suddenly find lots of spare time) I’m tempted to build the scenery for the battle, so that when I complete the Orcs and Goblins part of the scenario, I have something to play it on…

Finally, the Overlord’s Offering! I picked an Elven Wardancer from my Wood Elf army, with Iannick’s favourite colours - which are usually outside my normal palette. For the first time, I used a hobby magnifying lamp while painting, and realised how bad my eyesight is… I really noticed the difference and was able to pick out a lot more detail than normal. This is too slow a process for the main challenge, but I may just use it when painting the leaders... It gives a taste of how I'm planning to paint my army.

Hope you like it Iannick!