Paul & Tom's OWAC 8 Dark(ish) Elf and Undead Wrap-up post

Vor'Lach, Lord of Daggerpoint still, sat atop his foul smelling steed , high on the crags above the Valley of the Sisters. His hubris was filling his mind with visions of venom and stone, fire and blood. Soon these filthy blood traitors would find out where the true power lay in this region of Naggarythe. Yes, the Blood Dragon would find out there were real monsters in the wilds this far from Ulthuan. The Gorgo-hydra had deliberately been left hungry and would no doubt devour the very next unfortunates to enter the sisters' domain, after the sisters petrified them first.

Movement at the far end of the valley caught his eye, among the many broken statues that were the sacrificial victims of the sisters. He sneered as he caught sight of the Blood Dragon's emblem on the shield of the haughty cavalry officer. His scouts careful manoeuvrings of the interloper forces was about to deliver them into the trap.

His sneer turned to a confused scowl as the next thing he saw was a group of orc prisoners being driven into the valley by a troupe of raiders bearing the emblem of a nearby dungeon dwelling rival. Had the Blood Dragon already made allies in the region, or were these just scum working for gold? 

"Dear sisters!" called Tomax, or was it Xamot? "The Blood Dragon understands you have been left wanting by the miserable wretch who claims to serve you! He withheld your due sacrifice as a ploy to set you against us!"

The treacherous elf gestured sharply and the mercenary Dark Elves pushed the orc slaves forward towards the writhing shadows and undulating threat of the gorgons' lair.

"The Blood Dragon bids you accept these gifts as a token of our new friendship. Venom and stone. Fire and blood."

He turned his horse and started away, having no desire to risk getting caught up in what happened next.

Atop the cliffs Vor'Lach spat bile as he realised he had been outplayed yet again.

It is mission accomplished for El Ocho! Having already painted everything on my original list I have been able to add a few extras that have been hinted at in the background story throughout my posts.

The Dark Elf escorts are a handful of left overs from a batch that I bought pre-painted and with a pre-existing choice of shield and design. I gave these a glow up and added a couple of damaged models with weapon swaps to the unit, having fun trying to replicate the colour scheme.

This small group will mostly serve in dungeon crawl type games, and at one point they were in the running to be the inspiration for my main Dark Elf unit in this project, so it felt appropriate to use them here as a small force of rival Dark Elves, recently brought under the control of the Blood Dragon escorting a band of Orc slaves, who have also been rebased and given a quick polish for future dungeon bashing.

While the 4th Edition Warhammer Battle Bestiary does have an entry for Gorgons (page 80), describing them in fairly traditional terms with basic fear and petrification abilities, the format of the book means it doesn't give a points value. Annoying, but at least this is confirmation that Gorgons exist in the world and it gives me some licence to think about how they might be developed. 

The idea of the three crone sisters is obviously taken from Greek mythology, and I like the idea of them being most powerful together, but their power diminishing when one or more of them die. Maybe they count as a level 4 magic user when you have all three, two level 2 magic users when one dies, and finally just a level 1 sorceress when the last sister is on her own? That idea would need some work but I like the idea of having a special character for this army.

When searching for Gorgon sculpts on Etsy I came across this absolute horror from The Dragon Trappers Lodge and instantly realised that my Dark Elves were missing a Hydra proxy and that this fit the concept for the Cult of the Gorgon perfectly and shut up and take my money...

I know I could have taken the paintjob further, but the heat wave set in here and my paints were so claggy I was doing more harm than good, so I called it a day. I might go back and work on the eyes and fangs at some point.

It's obviously not Warhammer but I think it fits this army and it's surrounding lore really well. 

My two main reflections this year have been how much I enjoyed painting bad elves (especially subverting 'good' elves), and how rewarding it was to develop the background story and a sense of the geography and to paint and base the army accordingly. This is fundamental old school warhammering, I know, but it was great to be reminded of what that feels like in practice. 

Grand Total:

Rank and file month 1

36 Dark Elf Crossbowmen - 468 pts

Rank and file month 2

24 Dark Elf City Guard - 288 pts

Rank and file month 3

5 Dark(ish) Riders inc Champion - 157 pts
10 Dark(ish) Elf Spearmen inc full command - 180 pts

Rank and file month 4

28 Dark Elf Swordsmen, inc. Musician and standard bearer (Light Armour, Swords, Shields) - 330 pts
Dark Elf Champion  (Light Armour, Sword, Shield) - 51pts
Dark Elf Sorceress - 59pts

Leader Month

Dark Elf General w/ heavy armour and shield, mounted on Cold One - 174 pts
Dark(ish) Elf Hero w/ light armour, shield mounted on Elven Steed w/ barding - 114 pts

Wild Card Month 

2 Repeater Bolt Throwers - 200 pts
7 Dark(ish) Elf Scouts - 91 pts
5 Harpies - 75 pts
3 Assassins - 168 pts
Witch Elf Champion - 62pts
Giant Scorpion - 50 pts
Manticore - 200pts

Total: 3495 pts
137 models or equivalent by OWAC counting

And once you add in the Blood Dragon itself we are easily at 4000 pts before even looking at magic items, or any proxy options for the Gorgons and basilisk etc. I'm pretty chuffed with that, and yet again there is no way I would have painted all that without the motivation of the OWAC!

As I say, I've enjoyed developing the basing theme for this army over the course of the OWAC and I've let that enthusiasm carry over into re-basing some of my old orcs and goblins this last month. 

I say 'old' orcs and goblins as I have some 'new' old orcs and even a few goblins lined up to be my entry for OWAC IX. 

Congratulations to all those who made it, and a hearty cheer to all those challengers who made a brave attempt and are looking forward to making a come back. Here's to next year! :D

Toms Bony Bit

I'm really proud of what I have painted this OWAC even though I had to change plans and decided to paint my Wight lord instead of painting one of the two vampires I had lined up. 

I kept with the colour scheme again with the skeleton horde and red fade, you can see I used this almost every month or I tried my best at least! 

This is a good example as you can see the red fade on their clothing and the sack with the skulls in (there's a few dark elf ones in their too).

Grand Total:

Rank and file month 1

20 Ghouls - 160 pts

Rank and file month 2

10 Skeleton Crossbowmen inc musician and standard bearer- 144 pts

Rank and file month 3

10 Skeleton Archers inc musician and standard bearer- 120 pts

Rank and file month 4

5 Wights on skeleton steeds inc. standard bearer - 234 pts

Wild Card Month 

Screaming Skull Catapult - 74 pts
3 Skeleton Beastmen, with shields, one with a spear - 28 pts

Leader Month

Wight Lord with spear on skeleton steed - 68 pts

Total: 828 pts
58 models or equivalent by OWAC counting

I know that's slightly under the 1000 points target, and I could just count my leader as a Vampire to bring the total up over the 1000 pts, but that didn't feel right and I still have two vampires to paint in the future as my undead horde continues to grow!

This is a photo of (almost) all the units I have painted in the last two OWACs and a few extras! I love how it all looks when it comes together, one of my favourite units is the first batch of steeds I did last OWAC which you can see in right of the photo.

It was only after we took the pictures we realised that we forgot the carrion but here they are on their own.

I'd like to say thank you for all the support the community have showed me the past two OWACs it really means a lot and I've loved being apart of the community, I hope everyone's OWACs have gone well and I hope everyone has a lovely summer!! ;)