Elf doggos and keepers

 Animal keepers are one of those more obscure unit types of 3rd edition WFB. And close to my heart. I had paited a keeper and four warhound back in the day. Finally I found time and motivation to expand that unit with another set of four hounds and a keeper.

Animal keepers: to the left is an original warhound keeper.

The other model is a wood elf champion but with that wolf hat of his

he is IMO a perfect animal keeper.

Would love to have a few more doggos to make it

a more efficient unit.

Wood Elf Falconers

 It´s more that five years since I wrote an article about one of the lost units of WFB - the wood elf falconers. Yesterday I finished the fifth and final model for my unit of five falconers. I used Jes Goodwin sculpts and added modern resin birds to models as there really aren´t good falconer models to work with. Enjoy!

Please link your falconers in comments! Would love to see what models others have used in theit units.

Gnovember posting

 Dug out these three little warriors and slapped some paint on them. As I don´t think I have any unpainted gnomes left they will be my gnovember contributin this year. Perhaps I´ll get me some more for next year.

They will join my small warband sowly painted over the years.

Starting to have hard time with such tiny faces. My eyes aren´t getting any younger I´m afraid.

Three javelin elves more

Hi all! Finished three more of the javelin armed high elves. So it´s only two models left to get this unit ready. 

 Citadel elf warriors: Lun, converted Gwyddion and converted Babd.

Showing their shields.

All eight finished models.

Guest Editor: LM on Playing pickup games with WFB 3rd edition

Hi everyone! Here are some thoughts by my regular gaming opponent LM about pickup games. Enjoy and be sure to check out his wondelful models @flankingmaneuvers 

Playing pickup games with WFB 3rd edition

In my opinion Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3^rd edition is best enjoyed playing pre-made scenarios with an Umpire, but sometimes you just want to design your own army list for a points-based game with your opponent. Here are some general thoughts and house rules on how we do it.

 

Army Selection

We’ve been playing games mainly at 3000 points which seems to give you enough room to field some of the more interesting units, but it still forces choice in which units you leave home. Other than magic (see below) we’ve used the lists from Warhammer Armies as printed.

 

The army lists have worked fine, but it must be noted that nobody’s been really trying to break the system and we like to change our army composition from game to game. Undoubtedly we could’ve found min-maxed killer armies had we wanted to.

 

Magic

Although wizards are quite pricy and their magic points are limited, we’ve decided to limit the maximum spell level to 3. We also reroll the following spells: B2.14 Vortex of Chaos and B3.15 Vorpal Hurricane of Chaos. Maybe the vortex spells are not too strong in a big game, but we don’t like how they affect the game.

 

Terrain

The table system given in the Advanced Rules section of the rulebook is fun if you have the time to do it and I’d recommend trying it out atleast once. But to be honest usually we just throw something interesting on the table and dice for table edges.

 

Deployment Rules

The same goes for the deployment rules in the Advanced Rules section. Fun every once in while if you have the time.

 

Game Length

Games are played until one (or both!) of the armies are broken (see below).

 

Army break-point

We play our games until one of the armies reaches 50% of their units dead or routing. We calculate this as full units and add characters separately to the total. So for example, in a 3000 point game, 1500 points of forces dead/routing will cause an army to break and the game to end.

 

We finish the game at the end of a player turn, so theoretically it is possible for both armies to break at the same time and the game could end up in a draw.

 

For a shorter or a longer game the break point could be set at some other level. For example, a quick 2000 point game could end at the loss of 750 points.

 

Baggage

Since we’re not playing with Victory Points as per rulebook, we decided to add a new incentive into fielding a baggage train. For an army that brings a baggage on to the battlefield, a 5% bonus is added to their break-point. But if the baggage is lost, it counts as a loss double its value!

 

 

Table size

While a 3000 game will fit on a 6x4’ table, we’ve found that a 8x4’ table gives more opportunities for cavalry and skirmishers to use their advantages and flank marches will not be as accurate. For a 2000 point game, 6x4’ seems to be fine.

 

Conclusion

The main motivation for this article was to write down what we’ve been doing for the past 5 or so years. Maybe it is of interest to other oldhammerers still playing with the orange rulebook! I would also be interested in hearing how others organize their games of WFB3.

Some progress with Kith band

 Finished three more models for javelin armed high elf kith band. I´m now out of suitable models and constantly looking for more the get this unit finished eventually. So anyone out there with Marauder Miniatures MM80 series WE23 or WE2 you are willing to part with please hail out. Or some damaged mini I could convert a bit.

Left to right: Jes Goodwin Elf Warriors Lun and Taran, MM80 Elf (snapped dagger replaced with javelin tip), C08 Elf Two Spear and convered Jes Goodwin elven animal keeper.

Kith band in making

 Had to scroll all the way back to 4.4.2020 to see when was the last time I painted some fantasy elves. It was some Scarloc´s archers then. And I can´t remember when it was and who it was that suggested getting a unit of Kith armed with javelins. After a few years of thinking doing it I found myself in a situation where I didn´t have much motivation to move forward with more chaos or epic eldar. So I dug out a couple of Jes Goodwin sculpts and threw some paint on them.

There are not too many javelin armed elf sculpts that look

like ´ordinary´ elves and not like wardancer.

As these are ´citizen soldiers´ I don´t want them to look

too uniformed but still keep the blue and white color

scheme of my high elf army.

With javelins these will cost 10 points each. Looking to build

a unit of 6-10 depending on how many models I can get my

hands on. Will be fielding these as skirmishers.

Bretons vs. Chaos and Skaven Battle Report

After a long break I finally got a chance to play some 3rd ed. WFB with my friends. Initially I suggested a 2000 pt game as I had just completed enough Slaaneshian chaos for that but LM suggested we´d go bigger and agreed on 4000 pt game. So eventually we had 4000 pts of Bretons facing 2000 pts of chaos and another 2000 pts of skaven. This will not be a full battle report as I don´t have all the army lists and didn´t make notes during the game. More like a picture dump and some comments on what happened there. It might be that I don´t remember all the units and details right but you´ll get the general idea on how it all went.

Pics by me and LM.

General view of the battle field from Breton side of table. On Broten right flank you can see some skirmishing crossbow men and a bound dragon behind them. Then a cannon and three blocks of infantry next to them. The baggage with wagons and camp followers sits behind the right flank troops.

Facing the Bretons on this flank are most of the skavens. Far left are two units of skirmishers and three beastmasters with six rat ogres. Infantry blocks from left to right are stromvermins, clan rats, more clan rats and slaves. Between the blocks there are two warp fire throwers and a couple of poison wind globadiers. Two jezzails are just out of picture to the right. Across the field there a large unit of knights, war altar, mounted wizard and another smaller unit of crack elite knights.

Breton left. To the right, next to elite knights stands a cannon. I the treeline there´s skirmishing archers. The far left is made up of two units of mounted crossbow men and a big block of pike armed mercenaries. They face the chaos component of the evil coalition.

Top right are six mounted chaos thugs with six chaos hounds and their two beastmasters behind them. The main body of chaos contingent is a 30 strong unit of beastmen led by a lvl20 hero. At bottom left corner there the chaos war alter and it´s guards. In front of them stand six minotaurs including chaos general. The last chaos bits are a unit of 12 arrer thugs and a chaos sorcerer just of of picture to the left.

Some spells were cast before the first turn by both sides. A magical mist appeared on Breton right flank cannon and on the two skaven jezzails too. The mist engulfing the Breton cannon prevented the infantry block from moving causing a big traffick jam that would have a big effect on battle.

In the first turn pretty much everyone on both sides moved forward looking for opportunity to make the first charges. The was some missile fire in which a coupe of knights were killed and eventually three minotaurs too. They were forced to test for panic but general´s LD10 held.

First close combat erupted in the flank where light cavalry clashed. Humans were no match for mounted chaos thugs who despite losing one of their number to missile fire routed their opponets. Panic spread and while pike mercenaries held the other light cavalry unit lost their nerve and left the battle field. Threatened from multiple sides now it started to look grim for mercs.

Advancing in the middle was the minotaur general and his now diminished retinue. The Breton elite knights had carefully positioned themselves to charge the minotaurs next turn. Little did they know that the chaos sorcerer had an ace up his/her sleeves. A magical bog appeared in the knights´ position and they were lost until they could find their way back (roll D6 each magic turn. 1-4 remains lost, 5 opponent places unit back on field, 6 player places unit back). Suddenly the minotaurs seemed to be awfully close to that cannon and those archers.

On the skaven side of the table Bretons knights had charged the skaven slaves. Some blague cencer bearers were released but they failed to cause serioues damage. Slaves died in droves but their big numbers meant that they didn´t have to test for rout yet even if they lost the combat and were pushed back. The knight would need to take care of them fast as other skaven units were moving in to help their brethren.

Stormvermin were pushing towards Breton right flank. This was made possible by the fact that the magically bound dragon was there no more. The skave seer had raised an undead hero that charged to dragon. Against all odds the dragon lost it´s nerve and headed for home. All that stood between stormvermin and the Breton baggage was some skirmishers now. Still the magic mist hindered Breton movement and prevented the infantry from coming to help.

Mercenary pikemen got their hand on the chaos hounds. That suited the chaos general well as they were now engaged and could not threaten the beastmen advancing towards middle of the field. Mounted thugs can be seen manouvering in the back.

Surviving a cannon ball hit the minotaur general led his retinue in a charge against the arrers and the cannon crew. The skirmishing arrers knew what was best for them and fled. In a sudden burst of bravery (rolled douple 1s) the cannon crew stood and fought. Let´s just say that the minotaur general didn´t break a sweat taking care of them.

Meanwhile the magic mist had dissipated but the skaven were there and Broton infantry was hard pressed. Camp follewers nervously cluthed their improvised weapons as they anticipated stormvermin charge.

The elite knights found their way out of the magic bog and got into a melee with beastmen. Perhaps they could save the day for the Bretons...

But it was not to be. Skaven slaves managed to hold their nerve and when clan rats flanked the knights it was all over. Their routed and with the Bretons having lost more than half of their initial points value we called it a day. At this point the Breton war altar was running amok. Having been shot at with jezzails the altar guards had been thrown overboard and killed. With some luck the altar wagon ended up crashing into skaven slaves.

Magic played very crucial part in this game. Magic mist kept one of the Breton cannons silent and caused the huge infantry traffinc jam that prevented them from affecing the battle outcome. Magical bog took out the best Breton unit just as they could have engaged the minotaurs and were lost long enought that it was all over when they got back.

There was some good luck for evil guys too. Skaven slaves rolled 4 the one time they had to test for panic and passed. Despite being hit by cannon the minotaur general suffered just one wound. Panic spreading to second light cavalry unit in the early game helped chaos a lot on that flank. And so on.

Good Job Thugs! Not killing anyone, not loosing anyone. Shoud have advanced with them to be able to shoot at the cannon crew. They did however provide cover for the chaos wizard for couple of turns.

Some gutter runners sneaking up on the skaven left flank. They might have been in big trouble had the dragon stayed and not fled.

A moment before the war altar was hit causing the animals to run amok and charge into skaven slaves. Only one altar guard survived initially but he was later killed by the chaos sorcerer in melee.

All in all it was three turns and roughly four hours of fun. Hoping to play again soon!