Paul's High Elves - Reinforcements have arrived! Rank & File Month 4 (510 pts)

Reinforcements have arrived!

April has been a very busy, but very productive month for me both in terms of the OWAC and Real Life - Boo! On the plus side it is also my birthday month and this gave me full license to indulge in the fine OWAC traditions of 'changing plans mid challenge' and 'buying lots more minis' :p

I'm pleased to say I was able to more than meet my needs from the trading groups rather than resorting to the dreaded evil-bay. My thanks to Lee G, Marc P, Carl H, Ben P, and Gavin M all of whom were a pleasure to deal with and helped me fill in the gaps in my changed OWAC plans at short notice, as well as picking up some Goblin wolf riders for my eldest, and a near mint copy of the 5th Edition Magic supplement - so we even got to play an actual game with my OWAC minis this month! :D

A solid Elven back line is supported by two wings designed to press forward and fall back

The plans was working perfectly, the Lion Warriors moving in for the kill, until...

A bloody great Zombie Dragon and Vampire Lord turned up to ruin everyone's day!

Sadly, shortly after this picture was taken the High Elf Mage had his head ripped off by the Vampire Lord and the game ended in victory for the Forces of Evil.

Right, enough of that embarrassing loss! Let's get to this month's painting.  First up were a handful of reinforcements for my Shadow Warriors, with four more to bring me up to a unit of 12 overall, and another four Swordmasters for a unit of 20 in total.

Apologies, I've just noticed the one at the front is out of focus, but it's too late now!

As a prestige unit my Dragon Princes clearly needed a full command group, not least because it is another chance to do a banner, but also because the DP special rules in WFB 4th /5th Edition mean that they get their standard bearer for free (rather than having to pay double, as you would normally). 

My green stuff skills are a bit lacking, but I was fairly happy with this in the end.

The same rule does not apply to the musician however, and at 86 points I'm not sure many HE players actually bother(ed) to take one for their Dragon Princes in 4/5 edition. That may be why they didn't get a musician model until the much later release of newer Dragon Prince sculpts. I managed to get my hands on one of the horn arms from the newer DP sculpts and do some very ropey metal and putty work to convert an older DP trooper into a musician.

R to L Standard Bearer, Champion, Musician, Trooper

My family are by now well trained in spotting useful bits of junk on the ground to bring home to see if they can be used in junk builds and scenery projects. This time my wife played a blinder by bringing home a scrap of old rubber from a netball, as she thought the dimples made it feel like lizard skin. She was not wrong and it makes an excellent dragon hide banner!

The elven rune is named Caladai 'the symbol of the line of kings, the dragons of flame', which seemed perfect for the haughty Dragon Princes of Caledor. I'm afraid the weather was turning so I didn't get a chance to take a picture with the rest of the unit, but there are 9 of them in total now and I've just managed to acquire the bits to make another horse, so a 10th might be on the cards in the future.

I also added another five Reaver Knights in the same blue and golden yellow colour scheme as those I painted in February. Back then the blue and yellow colour scheme just happened to match the flag of Ukraine. This time it's deliberate and I hope the emblem of the phoenix on their shields is prophetic. It's always an important and sobering moment for a fan of 'war games' of any description to be reminded of the realities of war. My experience however is that most wargamers are actually keen students of history and well aware of the evil and misery of war, and it has been heartening to see the response from the community as we come together to hope for peace. 

I had started to hate painting these, but love how they look as a big group. I've got another 5 waiting, inc. command, but I'm in no rush to paint them quite yet!

Total for the month:

4 Shadow Warriors (12 pts each) - 48pts
4 Sword Masters (16 pts each) - 64pts
5 Reaver Knights (w/ spears, bows, and shields - 33 pts each) - 165pts
4 Dragon Princes (43 pts each) (inc. Champion*, Standard**, and Musician**) - 233 pts

* DP Champion = 61 pts
** DPs have a special rule that means the unit gets the standard bearer for the same price as a standard trooper, however the musician costs double as per normal.

Total: 510 pts

I also managed to rebase an existing unit of Silver Helms, and replace their mostly blank shields with a matching set with horse head design from the WFB4 box set, although looking at them in the photos I think they could 'pop' a bit more so I might look at those again at some point.

They had also been badly missing a banner, so I've added a simple pennant with the elven runes Sethai meaning 'Flight, wind, cry in the far mountains' and Harathoi meaning 'Youth, boundless energy, jealousy' used together here to represent the speed and potency of the young elven nobles that make up the Silver Helm cavalry.

May will hopefully be leader month, although I might yet swap things around and play a wild card before finishing with my leader. We shall have to see how the dreaded 'Real Life' behaves ;)

Thanks for reading and bon courage to all my fellow challengers. The end is in sight! :D