Paul's High Elf Light Cavalry - Rank and File Month Two (165 pts)

February is my second 'Rank and File' month and also my second cavalry month. This time it is the light cavalry of the Ellyrian Reavers.

"In the time of Caledor, the Phoenix King called for brave young horsemen t ride the troubled land, for in those days all Ulthuan was in turmoil and the armies of Malekith roamed freely, destroying and slaying at will. Many answered his call, but the greatest in number by far came from Ellyrion, a land renowned for its fine horses and skilled riders. During the long and bitter war that ended in the Sundering these riders served Caledor well, travelling quickly and secretly across the land, taking messages and soliciting support from amongst the Elven lands, shadowing the enemy's forces, ambushing patrols, and intercepting raiders." 
High Elf Bestiary - Games Workshop

The first thing to say is how much I enjoyed painting these minis. I love the sculpts of these older versions of the Reavers but didn't expect to enjoy painting them as much as I did - that might be partly down to an ongoing choice about 'gems' on High Elf minis that I may discuss in a later post. I opted for a golden yellow and a bright blue, deliberately lighter than I've used in some of my existing units. 

The 'eagle eyed' among you (not even sorry :p ) will have noticed all five of these are actually the standard bearer sculpt. I'm not entirely sure how or why I ended up with 5 standard bearers, but the eagle topped banner poles add great character to the unit and I've taken the opportunity to add more foil streamers after being happy with how they looked on the Dragon Princes from last month.

I realised that, as with many High Elf sculpts, I'd painted a lot of detail that was going to end up covered by their shields, so I took a few pictures before adding the shields, and was in two minds as to whether I would, as I was quite happy with the paint jobs.

As with the Dragon Princes though, I really wanted to use some of the 4th Edition plastic HE shield designs to tie in with the character of the unit, and I'm glad I did.

So here's my output in points for month two:

5 x Ellyrian Reavers, with Bows, Spears, and Shields (33 pts each) - 165 pts

Total for the month: 165 pts
(a little under target of 200 pts per month, but on course in terms of numbers of minis, and still ahead on points on average over the two months)

I also rebased and touched up an existing unit of Sword Masters of Hoeth this month, finally getting round to adding a simple banner.

According to the High Elf Army book, the 'P' rune is named Ceyl and stands for 'Law, order, justice, passion, sword that draws blood.' The 'h' rune is named Lacoi and stands for 'Might, glory, fear of death.' Taken together I'm intending them to mean something along the lines of 'mighty swords of justice' which seems apt for a unit of Sword Masters.

I was just admiring my completed unit and going to put them back on the shelf when I realised I was one short...

The sneaky bastard musician had ended up lumped in with a unit of archers so cost me another few days of waiting for PVA and sand mix to dry in the middle of three back to back storms before I could get him finished. 

There always bloody one, isn't there!

Even that's not the unit completed as I've decided I want four more to make a unit of 20. Not sure I'll get those done before the end of the challenge, but we'll see. Anyway, here are the Reavers and Sword Masters together, getting ready to repel Dark Elf raiders in the late winter sun :) 

February was also the month I decided I was going to bite the bullet and try and build, paint or update my entire High Elf army this year. Yikes! So more second hand minis went in the dip and more hideous primary colour monopose spearmen got the flocking they've been so badly in need of since 1994.

Next month promises a big unit of Lion Warriors of Chrace and possibly some other stuff too. Bon courage to my fellow OWAC challengers, and thanks for reading! :)