Paul M's High Elf Host - Rank and File Month 2 - Archers and Artillery

Damn you February, you nearly broke me!

That is the closest I've ever come to not making it to the monthly deadline and I didn't like it. It did however remind me just how much of a challenge the OWAC really is and that I DID like. I'm really proud of being able to push through and get it done and want to give proper kudos to everyone else who has made it to the end of the month. It looks like we have lost a few more to the field of bones this bleak and frosty February!

I've called this another rank and file month focussing on more archers and beefing up my artillery options... which given an HE army's very limited war machine choices basically means... Mages!

To keep it in the theme of rank and file I have linked these mages to existing units in the army and shown them alongside their units. 

CALEDOR BOLT THROWERS

Now that I have three mainstay units of Caledor themed levy painted up it was obvious that they needed some heavier firepower. Bring on the bolt throwers! 

Apologies to anyone who read 'Caledor themed bolt throwers' in my intro post and was hoping for sculpted dragon heads spitting out massive barbed bolts - I just meant they were going to be red and green! ;)

If only the war machines themselves counted towards the monthly model total I wouldn't have been quite so panicked and rushed for time at the end of the month, but under the rules of the OWAC only the crew count towards the total. All part of the challenge, right!? ;p

SILVER HELMS MAGE

I think I bought this as part of a project to make to get suitable minis for some of my D&D players favourite characters - the mage on foot that came with the set went to a friend to be their D&D mini while the mounted mage bits stayed in my pile of shame.... until now. 

Having just completed a unit of Silver Helms it was an obvious choice to try and match him up, so I selected head and arm options that seemed to fit best (though possibly not my favourite head of the bunch).

I ended up wasting a good hour of quality painting time right near the end on a cloak which I thought went with this model, but after I painted it and offered it up to the rest of the mini I just couldn't get it to sit in a way that looked any good or let the head be attached as it should be. I gave up with the cloak in the end and actually I much prefer the stripped back look for a cavalry mage of relatively junior rank.

WHITE LIONS/CHRACE MAGE

This is a non-GW Chaz Elliott sculpt from the 1990s, still available from RPE. I originally saw him more as a Wood Elf and he has moved back and forth as I decided what to do for OWAC VI. In the end I realised he would be a good fit with the more austere look of the White Lions unit I painted last year.

The colour scheme is therefore incredibly simple and I tried to bring in some colour and echo the autumnal orange tones from the rest of the unit and the basing by inking the folds of the robes. This ended up much more yellow than I wanted, but time ran out on me and it is not too far from what I was after so it will do for now. I can't decide if the similarity of the finger pointing pose between the unit champ and the mage is a good thing or a bad thing, but overall I like how he fits in with the unit.

HOETH MAGE CHAMPION

I believe this is a sculpt from the Isle of Blood box set, although I didn't get my hands on the whole set so I only have bits that I acquired here and there. I really wasn't a fan of the multi part click together sculpt at first, but it has grown on me over time and I quite like the movement it seems to capture.

I decided that the height of the model leant it to matching up with the unit of Sword Masters, and the sculpt plus having Hoeth as a connection means I see him as more senior than the other two 'unit' mages. I painted this month, so I've treated him as a champion.

Matching him up with the Sword Masters gave me my colour scheme, with a deliberately darker blue and bright red gems. I do regret not having flocked the base properly, but again time was the enemy here and as I was painting it in pieces and only assembled it right at the end I wasn't able to pre-flock the base as per my normal technique. Hopefully the swirling purple magic that is levitating him up provides enough interest to get away with it for now.

YVRESSE ARCHER COMMAND

Not a completely traditional Yvresse colour scheme I will grant you, the green 'dragon' scale in honour of King Caledor throws that out a bit, but the blue and white are definitely Yvresse themes while also fitting well with the rest of my army.

I may go back and add some more white to the front of the plume of feathers on the Champion, and some more definition between the shades of blue in the horn, but I simply ran out of time this month so they will have to do for now.

As with the first Caledor themed unit of Archers the runes are Minaith meaning: "Skill in arms, spirituality, the Lost Way" and Senlui meaning: "Swiftness, accuracy" which seems like an apt combination for archers. As I have previously mentioned, in WFB5 both High Elf archers and spearmen have the "Citizen Levy" attribute which lets them shoot/fight with one extra rank. The Minaith rune is a recurring feature of both Spearmen and Archer units to signify this martial philosophy of High Elven citizenry. However this time I have changed the orientation of the runes from horizontal to vertical to show that while the motto is common across HE society the motif is left to specific units/regions. Not entirely happy with the simplistic red arrow heads for an HE banner, but it conveys the right sort of feeling (death from above!).

MONTHLY TOTAL

Repeater Bolt Thrower + 4 crew - 200 pts
Mage on foot - 59 pts
Mage on Horseback - 62 pts 
Mage Champion - 121 pts
Archer command (light armour, bows) x3 (inc. Champion) - 100 pts

Total: 542 pts (11 models, the mounted mage counts as two)

REFURBISHED ARCHER UNIT #2

Of course once the deadline had been met two things happened almost immediately. My painting block lifted and my schedule freed up so I was able to knock out a refurbished Yvresse Archer unit in the first two days of March.

These were never going to count towards the OWAC totals as they were touch ups to existing paint jobs, so it didn't matter that they weren't completed in February itself (as the rest of the minis above were) but I really didn't want them hanging on into March and it made sense to present them along with their brand new command group.

I have a couple of Yvresse themed bolt throwers that are already painted but which now look like they need a brush up to make them match the Yvresse Archer unit a bit better. That might be one for a wildcard month if I don't get it done sooner.

Next month is going to be more rank and file, but a bit more elite... not least because I want a break before going back and painting another 22 archers before the end of the challenge!

Thanks for reading this far. Wishing everyone good fortune for the challenge ahead :)