Songs Of The Damned - Stephen's Ulthwe' Eldar (Intro Post)

Howdy - my name is Stephen, I'm a rookie participant in the Old World Army Challenge, based in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Writing this intro post in the waning days of the year 2021 is wild - looking back over my 25 years in the hobby (which is not so long in the time of wargamers, to say nothing of elves), I have come to the conclusion that I have been caught by a not-insignificant wave of nostalgia.  This Challenge, in which I am honored to participate, came to my attention just as I'd decided to build and paint the army I always wanted, ever since I cracked open my first Codex in the day - I missed the deadline for OWAC IV, but I am excited to be a part of this next Challenge.

A great deal has changed about the hobby since then, but one thing that has remained a constant for me is my love of the Craftworld Eldar.  I've only ever really been interested in Warhammer 40,000, though I appreciate Warhammer Fantasy and respect that game's players and painters.  The Eldar designs in particular (thanks to the incomparable work of Jes Goodwin) hold the only aesthetic in the entire range that truly appeals to me, from that day to this.  The Eldar are a truly distinct faction in Warhammer 40,000, and although in my time playing competitively I took on the occasional Tau or Dark Eldar allies, my collection of Craftworlds models are the ones that remain in my display cases.

Early on, my focus was on gameplay, and getting models to a 'three-color minimum' to get them on the table.  I would do more than just slop colors on, of course, generally I would try to have a theme for each unit, but my armies would never be something I would call "cohesive."  My stuff looked okay enough, and as time went on, I decided on a Craftworld scheme for my army (Alaitoc), and things got a little better...but it wasn't until recently that I found myself playing regularly with a community that was a bit more casual about gameplay...but much, much better at painting than I was.  

It follows that the last few years has been a lot of me trying to elevate my painting so that I am unashamed to put my models on the table alongside theirs...I'm getting there, but speed remains an issue for me.  

I prefer to emulate box art and codex schemes for my Eldar, as I've never been super-comfortable coming up with my own colors.  I've also rarely encountered many "codex-compliant" Eldar armies at events, so I feel like it's a way for my own models to stand out.  One interesting thing that I've discovered about myself as a hobbyist in this time is that I have a reverence for the Mike McVey/'Eavy Metal studio schemes and methods, and it's a style that I feel like I can get pretty close to approximating (I still don't do a lot of glazing, though).  

So, this army that I'm building is one that I didn't really have the ability to assemble at the time, but it jumped off the page then, and has continued to do so ever since - the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthanash Shelwe', the Song of Ulthanash, Ulthwe' the Damned.  Psychic powerhouses leading their highly-trained and disciplined citizen-soldiers into direct confrontation of the forces of Chaos.  

My goal was to paint up 2000 points of Ulthwe' (by 9th Edition points values) by the end of 2021...but work and real life has me falling well short of that goal.  So, my intent is to finish this army for the Old World Army Challenge.  

Among these units are some of the oldest original models in my collection, and the rest have been sourced over the last five years or so.  Here's what I've finished so far!

A unit of Guardians kitted out for close combat

First Blade (leader of a section of four Guardians)

Second Blade (complete with headband outside the helmet)

Third Blade (VERY METAL)

High Blade and unit specialists (meltagunners, standard-bearer, and a musician so that the unit's spirits can enter the Infinity Circuit to some rad synth-tunes)

Some spooky ghost warriors of the Wraithguard

A much larger and even spookier Dreadnaught

A pair of Vypers (to be re-based in Goblin Green as the gods intended)

To the above, I will be adding the following as my entries to the Challenge (all points based on the 2nd Edition Codex: Eldar):

Leader and Command Group Week

Eldrad Ulthran (220 pts) and a conclave of Warlocks (550 pts)

Rank and File Weeks

Eldar Guardians with Lasguns (88 points), accompanied by a Distort Cannon (60 pts)

Eldar Guardians with Shuriken Catapults (128 points), accompanied by a Distort Cannon (60 pts)

Eldar Guardians with Shuriken Catapults (128 pts), accompanied by a Distort Cannon (60 pts)

Eldar Scouts (236 pts)

Wild Card Week

Vyper with Lascannon and Shuriken Cannon (85 pts)

Total Army Point Value:  1615 points

Last but not least, my offering to the Overlord, a Harlequin Solitaire.

All systems go for the Challenge, looking forward to it!