Sometimes it can take a lot of time - Dark elf war altar

 I think we´ve all been there. You start a new project and for some reason or other you just can´t get it finished. It gets overtaken by something new and more interesting. That´s just what I experienced with this dark elf war altar. Started back in january 2017 it sat in WIP stage for seven years until I finally got around putting the final touches on the model.

The model is made up of five altar guards one of which is carrying a standard and of the altar itself.

The guards in the front are a crew member from a dark elf repeating bolt thrower and

a Marauder miniatures dark elf warrior.

The guards on the back are two witch elfs and the standard bearer another 

crew member of a repeating bolt thrower. All slightly converted for their new roles.

A closer look at the banner itself and it´s bearer.

I wish I could remember what that demon idol was. It used to be part of a larger model that sawed in half to make it fit that wooden platform used to carry it around. It´s large I know but these are religious fanatics and can manage it.

Animal handlers revisited

This is the 100th published posting in this Vanhaa Vasarointia blog and to celebrate that I wanted to return to one of my favorite subjects - the animal handlers.

I came across this document on the other day and noticed that I had completely forgotten it ever existed. It´s the ´get-you-by´ army lists for 4th edition Warhammer fantasy battle. As you might have noticed I´m not a fan of the great dumbing down othervise known as 4th edition. But this ´get-you-by´ list is well worth looking into as it bears many echoes from 3rd edition that were later removed from the official army books.

 Elven boar handler I painted for this posting. Looks

like he´s really into bench press and bicep curls.

Let´s take a look at skaven, wood elves and dark elves as those were the races that still had animal handlers in the ´get-you-by´ army list.

SKAVEN

That´s a pretty odd profile for a skaven there.  Both WS and BS are 4 compared to normal skave 3 and L7 is full two points higher than what the skaven normally have.

No number for how many pack masters you can take here. Unit name has been changed as they used to be called beast masters. Handler has gained a light armor and with that a point value raise from 9 1/2 to 10. Here we get a number for how many pack beasts a single handler can lead. For some reason giant rats have lost their poisonous bite and gone from costing 2 points to 2 1/2. I my opinion they used to be a pretty good choise in the 3rd edition but like this they´ve certainly become a lot worse.

With WS raise from 3 to 4 the rat ogre is even more fearsome than it used to be. 5 point raise in point value is pretty justified.

Special rules for using Skaven packmasters can be found in the Battle Bestiary p.68. The rules are pretty much the same as in 3rd edition. There is no rule for where to Place the packmaster in the unit but the logical Place would be the back rank.

Check out what I wrote about 3rd edition Clan Moulder beast masters.

Same bulky arms from another direction.

WOOD ELVES

Wow! Wood elf beaster master is a beast himself in this list: S4, T4 and 2 attacks! And the Battle Bestiary includes a beastmaster champion too. This is explained in the Battle Bestiary. Some of the elves have the ability to change form and fight alongside their animal companions. An interesting connection to elven shapechangers here.

Special rules for hand-to-hand fighting, leadership and shooting are pretty clear and in line with earlier edition. Oddly a single beastmaster can only lead one beast. This renders then pretty close to useless.

Bears, Wild hogs, Wild cats and Hunting dogs are listed only here and under the wood elf beastmasters in the Battle Bestiary. That means that bears have lost the cause fear ability and wild cats no longer can leap upon their enemies. Pretty big nerfing of both, especially bear losing the cause fear.

Bears have gained one point of both strenght and toughness but now they cost 30 points vs. 20 points they did in 3rd ed. And as said no fear now.

Wild hogs compared to Boars have better WS and higher T. Costing just 2 points more than before they have become a pretty good choise of troops actually.

Wild cats have gone down 3 points in value losing that leap attack. A big loss and even if they still are quite effective with WS4, S4 and 2 attacks I would propably take two hogs for smaller cost. But as we see that is not possible as you can only have one beast per handler.

Warhounds of the old have become hunting dogs which in my opinion suits the elven style. It´s a very different dog now with higher M, WS, T and A than warhounds. But they are triple the price and as with Wild cats I get the feeling that you are not getting that much bang for buck here.

You can compare editions here.

The elf boar is a really small one compared to

an orc war boar.

DARK ELVES

Number of handers has gone down from 0-8 to 0-6. And now they are called beast masters instead of whelp masters. Points value for handler is the same as in 3rd edition but now you get a light armor for that same amount. Shield option has been removed. War hounds are just the same as in 3rd edition. Chaos hounds have lost a wound and are 7 points cheaper than in 3rd edition.

What is strange is that there are no rules for using beastmasters here or in the Battle Bestiary. But that is not a big problem as you can follow the rules given for skaven and wood elves.

Nothing said about unit size - is it like with wood elves or with skaven?

Want to compare editions youself? Click here for my article on 3rd edition dark elf whelp Masters.

As a conclusion we can see that there has been some thought given to carrying the animal handlers from 3rd to 4th edition but in the end it did not happen at this scale. I sort of like the idea of combining the elf shapechangers with their animal handlers but sadly that was dropped too. The list has clearly been put together quite hastily as it carries multiple confusing details as shown above.

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As the last thing for this posting I want to promote another thing of my interest - the baggage trains. There is a Legacy Crew project going on in the Oldhammer Forum with a baggage train theme. If not a member of that forum yet - please sign in and join the project! Check this posting for inspiration!

Animal handlers in 3rd ed. WFB: Dark Elf Whelp Masters

This part of ´Animal handlers in 3rd ed. WFB´ -series of articles is about Dark Elf Whelp masters. It discusses rules, models, tacktics, pictures, links, pro´s and con´s and everything related to Dark Elf animal handlers. Please click here to find the other arcticles.

As described in the WFB: Armies book you can take 0-8 Whelp masters to a Dark elf army. That is two handlers more than Wood Elves and same number as Chaos and Skaven. Each unit is made up of 1-3 handlers each with 2-6 beasts which they lead. A single beastmaster has a normal elf profile and is armed with a hand weapon. Basic cost includes no armor but there is option for light armor and shield. Whelp Masters may lead  warhounds or chaos hounds. Sets for these were produced by Citadel and Marauder.

Whelp masters were one of the units in WFB: Armies that was originally printed with wrong profile. That was corrected in WD107 with a glue-on-errata.

Goblin Lee discusses Dark Elf Whelp masters in his article where he takes a look into the dark host of Naggaroth. I agree on a lot of what he says there. The whelp masters fit well into the background of a dark elf army and they look good on a battle field. A strange thing that Lee also notes is the absence of cold one warhounds as pack beasts.

Having the maximum of only three handler par pack can be a vulnerability and one should propably either take a large number of beasts or give armor to the handlers to give them some protection aganst missile fire.

Whelp master and chaos hounds set from Citadel´s 1989 winter trade catalogue.

 Another add with color pics of handlers and chaos hounds.

I never knew there was a chaos dwarf handler too.

Add from Dec 1987 flyer.

The Whelp master set is a very nice one in my opinion. The master himself has a good pose with his whip laying low and hand pointing to the direction where he wants his pack to go. I just wish there were more options for a handler model available. On the beast side ten different chaos hounds gives you a lot to choose from.

The dark elf handler seems to be a pretty sought after model. I managed to get one for 6€ and a full set of a handler and four hounds was sold in december 2016 for 23€. When writing this article there was an unopened blister in ebay for 115€ BIN. Single chaos hounds were from 10€ up. No examples of a single handler were on sale.

Marauder MM73/3 Dark Elf Whelp master and warhounds.

The first thing one spots here is that the warhounds are actually monted on 25 x 25mm bases and not on 25 x 50mm as wood elf warhound are. At least the walking dog has had a long slotta tab that has been clipped for this picture. Anyways I believe that these hounds can be mounted on the smaller bases and still rank up nicely.

From this picture it is pretty hard to tell what kind of bases there are inside. I believe that the one that is visible behind the dog in right lower corner is a 20 x 20mm for beastmaster himself. And I believe that there are three 25 x 25mm bases under the grey padding as three cavalry bases would show from beneth the badding. What do you think?

One of the Marauder produced masters seems to be wearing light armor but the other one looks unarmored. One could easily attach a shield to their free hand or back. I´ve never had much love for Marauder dark elves and in my opinion this is one of the worst sets for darkies they did. The poses, clothes and especially the hair just rub me the wrong way.

A set of four hounds was recently sold at ebay for 14€ and a set of a handler with three dogs for 17€. Writing this there was a single handler in ebay for 7€ BIN and a full set for staggering 76€ BIN. Asking price for single doggies seem to be from roughly 10€ to 20€.

Warhounds

Rules

Normal war hound profile here with no special rules. As mentioned before these models do actually fit a 25 x 25 mm base. The Marauder produced models bear some resemblance to the picture above. Don´t know if it´s a good thing or not - the hound in the picture look quite strange IMO. That´s a chaos hound if you ask me.

Tactics

  

Just like wood elf ones, dark elf war hounds can be used for multiple tasks. Threatening enemy flanks, harrassing skirmishers and warmachines, protecting own troops and screening action - they can do them all. But keeping in mind that they are vulnerable and won´t survive long against a stronger enemy. And missile fire can twindle their numbers quickly. Being on a 25 x 25mm base means that they take up a lot less room on a battle field than their wood elf cousins.

Just for 111 points you get a horde of three handlers and eleven hounds.

War hound pack as a part of a Marauder Dark elf army. People

don´t seem to be very fond of the set as it is hard to find painted example of one.

Or of any Dark elf Whelp master team with normal war hounds.

Pro´s

Citadel produced handler is a nice model

A large pack looks good

Good speed

Cheap

25 x 25 mm basing

Many ways to use in a battle

Con´s

Vulnerable 

Not very effective in combat

(Marauder handler models)

 

Chaos hounds

Rules

Once again we meet the basing issue. Rules say 25 x 25mm but models are supplied with 25 x 50mm and propably won´t fit a smaller one less rank up at all on those. The profile is strong for close combat. Chaos attributes can be a curse or a blessing. And in any case should be generated as mentined under GM´s supervision. We don´t want to take the fun away from anyone by some lucky/unluncky rolls before the game has even started.

Tactics

These dogs are deadly in close combat so you want to get them engaged. They are hard to kill with T4 and W2 but will propably draw missile fire as the enemy wants to take out the whelp masters and send the hound on their way to wilderness. You could concider armoring the handlers to cancel some of the hits they receive.

As chaos hounds are pretty valuable I wouldn´t waste them on harrassing skirmishers or war machines. They are a decent alternative for heavy cavalry so a simple staright forward advance followed by a charge should work. But once again - a large pack takes a lot of space. Perhaps you could support the hound pack with some dark riders who can take on enemy flank after the dogs have been committed.

Chaos hounds are valuable: a pack of ten hounds and three handlers with light armor and shield will cost you almost 280 points. With 18 hounds the price goes up to 462 points.

The chaos attributes might affect the way you use the a hound pack. Most of the dominant chaos attributes (rulebook page 207) are quite helpfull but for example enormously fat chaos hounds would be nearly unusable. GM discretion is definately needed here. Don´t break the game before it starts.

A large pack of chaos hounds from Realms of Chaos blog.

Pro´s

Nice models

Look good in large packs

Very powerfull in close combat

Good speed

Strong overall profile

Con´s

Vulnerability of the handlers

Pricey

Evo Von Himmel´s (Dieselmonkey) beastmaster with his chaos hounds.

Back to Animal handlers in 3rd ed. WFB main article.

Animal handlers in 3rd edition WFB

In the comments part of my previous posting LM suggested that I should write about Animal handlers in 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. After doing some research I´ve decided to write not just one but several articles about them. Putting everything in one place would make that single article a very long one. And very time consuming to write. Tackling this beast is better done in smaller steps.

This first posting will discuss the animal handlers in general. The rules, who gets them, pro´s and con´s in general etc. Later on I will look more closely to each army list in WFB: Armies and show you some examples for all the armies that can use animal handlers. And of course look at their strenghts and weaknesses.

The article for Wood Elf Beastmasters is here.
The article for Dark Elf Whelp masters is here.
The article for Chaos Beastmasters is here.
The article for Skaven Beastmasters is here .
The article for Slann animal handlers is here.
The article for Hobgoblin houndmasters is here.
Oddities can be found here.

 Wood Elf animal handler with war hounds. One of the first sets
I painted after discovering Oldhammer and getting back to painting miniatures.

Animal handlers are introduced in the WFB rulebook under the advanced rules part at page 95.  The rules copied here from the rule book are in italic. My thoughts on rules are written below each section.

Some smaller animals may be used in units led and controlled by a single human, or any other intelligent animal handler. Armies permitted to employ beast packs are indicated in Warhammer Armies together with the number of handlers available. Typical examples include wolves used by Goblins and reptilian warhounds used by Slann.

There are five armies in the WFB: Armies book that can take animal handlers: dark elf, wood elf, chaos, skaven and slann. In addition to that Hobgoblin mercenary contingent can have hobhound handlers.

In this opening paragraph we see yet another minor change from the original  rule book to the Armies. Rule book uses goblins with wolves as a typical example, but there are no animal handlers in Orcs & Goblins army list.

1. A pack of beasts must have one or more handler models, one of which is nominated as the unit´s leader.

Well, this is pretty obvious.

2. Beast models must be placed in front of the handlers during movement. A typical beast pack has one or more ranks of beasts in front of one or more handlers. The unit´s leader is placed in the center of the first handler rank.

Again, nothing special here. Just like in the picture above and below- beasts in the front, handler(s) behind them.

A big pack of rat ogres and their handlers by LM.

3. All psychology test are taken using the leader´s profile. If the leader model is slain another handler may take over, and a new leader´s profile is used. The beasts´ profile is not used for psychology unless pack reverts to a wild disposition (see 7 below).

This makes sense to me. It´s the handlers who keep the pack together. If they break and run the pack will do the same. On the other hand it´s the handlers´ will (and whip) that can drive a hesitating pack forward.

4. A pack of beasts may make a single free maneuver during the movement or reserve phase. No additional maneuvers may be attempted.

This rule can be concidered as one of the weaknesses of a beast pack. They are not that maneuverable. You can´t send them on a tricky route that would require multiple wheeling etc.

5. If the unit sustains missile hits the GM must determine whether beasts or handlers are hit. This can only be done fairly by randomizing each hit. For example, if there are 4 handlers and 8 beasts the chance of hitting a beast would be twice that of hitting a handler (eg roll a D6 - 1 or 2 = a handler, 3, 4, 5 or 6 = a beast). If the proportions are not convenient (eg 2 handlers and 7 beasts) always round up the number of beasts to a fraction dividable by a dice roll. This represent the fact that beasts are a more immediate targer and are marginally more likely to be hit.

Another weakness of a beast pack. You can lose the whole unit with some lucky missile shots. For example a unit of three wood elf handlers with total of nine bears is 39 + 180 points when no additional equipment is chosen. Just three (un)lucky shots can take out the whole unit putting the bears to a wild pack mode (see rule 7 below).

Rat ogres lost their handlers to ship company´s arrows and went home.

Picture from High elf vs. Skave battle report.

You can take optional armor for handlers but choosing both shield and light armor will slow you down.
edit.  As brought up by LM in the comments you can add some staying power to a handler team by using animal handler champions as per WFB: Armies page 6.

6. It is likely that a pack´s beasts and handlers have different movement rates. However, we do not wish to seperate handlers from their beasts as this would lead to confusion. Therefore, a pack normally moves at the rate of it´s handlers or beasts whichever is slower. However, a pack charges and pursues at the movement rate of the beasts regardless of whether handlers are faster or slower. This is an exception to the normal movement rules.

edit. I had missed some part of the rules in part 6. This way written they are clear.

7. If all the handlers are slain, beast automatically revert to a wild disposition. Beast models are subsequently moved by the GM towards the nearest table edge. Models leaving the table do not return. A wild pack will fight if attacked, but will not charge of it´s own volition. A pack involved in a combat engagement will not revert to a wild state until the engagement and subsequent pursuit is completed.

This is of course connected to rule n:o 3. If the handlers are no longer there to tell the pack what to do it goes away. In a GM´d game you could concider giving GM some more control over the pack - wild beasts could attack their former masters or the nearest unit - friend of foe.

8. Handlers may not fight in hand-to-hand combat during the first round of an engagement. Handlers may be moved into the front rank during any subsequent round of combat and may fight as normal. An enemy model may choose to strike at beast or handler if in base-to-base contact.

Again a very logical rule. Keep in mind that putting the handlers in the front row will make them vulnerable.

An Animal Handler costs as additional +5 points. This is added after points have been calculated for equipment.

For skavens and hobgoblins the points cost for a model in doubled which seems a bit high. For elves, chaos and slann the raise is about 50%. But as with war altars the beast packs look good on the battlefield and because of that can always be concidered worth taking.

In my opinion the pro´s and con´s for animal handlers and beast packs are:

Pro´s

They look good on the battle field

Not everyone gets them

They add character to an army

Some of the animals are pretty powerful

Con´s

A bit pricey

Not very maneuverable

Somewhat vulnerable

 

In the following posting I will take a look into each army list including animal handlers. The order will be (the list is subject to changes if I so decide):

1. Wood elves
2. Dark elves
3. Chaos
4. Skaven
5. Slann
6. Hobgoblin
7. The Oddities

Please let me know if you want you pictures to be shown in one or more of those. Or if you have a blog link to share. Or any other material you would like me to include.

War altars in 3rd edition WFB

This article is something I have wanted to do since I wrote about baggage trains a few months ago. I´ve been working on it slowly and now I was able to found myself time to finish this.

War altars are another great element that add character to a 3rd edition WFB army. As the WFB: Armies book tells us they are small portable altars carried onto the battlefield and guarded by religious fanatics. Their presence encourages friendly troops meaning that you get special benefits for troop spychology.

As per rules the war altars are carried around by 2-5 religious fanatics called altar guards. They defend the altar with their lives and are immune to all psychology and rout test while within 6" of the altar. Carrying the altar reduced the altar guards movement by half.

There are two nice bonuses that come with a war altar. First, all friendly troop within 12" of the war altar receive +1 bonus to their hand-to-hand combat resolution score. The other benefit is that all friendly troops within 12" of the altar receive +2 bonus to their leadership, up to the maximum of LD10.

But losing a war altar can be a disaster. If a war altar is captured or desecrated all friendly troop within 12" must make an immediate rout test.

Some armeies may mount their war altar on a wagon. A wagon mounted war altar is treated as a wagon but retains it´s psychological effects.

In the WFB: Armies book there are four armies that can field a war altar. They are dark elves, chaos, bretonnia and slann.  In this posting I want to present material regarding war altars for all those four armies. I´ve included only such projects that are clearly for 3rd edition WFB so newer concepts like cauldron of blood and war altar of Sigmar are out.

I´ve looked for both complete sets and WIP projects. And as with the baggage train compendium almost all are not my projects. I´ve added a link to owners blog or site when I´ve managed to find one. Please let me know if you want you pic or blog or whatever added. Or if you don´t like you picture used here.

Dark Elves

Goblin Lee disected the pro´s and con´s for a dark elf war altar in his blog.
This is my list that differs a bit from his:

Pro´s:

Psychological bonuses

Chance to take magical standard and/or instrument

Con´s:

Vulnerability

Slow movement

I don´t think that altar guards having both hatred and frenzy is a problem as the war altar rules state that altar guards are immune all psychology and rout test while within 6" of the altar. Please let me know if you think that my intepretation of the rules is wrong.

Even though it is in WIP stage I wanted to have Willmark´s war altar here as the first one to be presented because of the resemlance between to picture in WFB: Armies and the scratch build altar. Progress of this project and rest of Willmark´s dark elf force can be followed on Oldhammer forum.

This is a war altar/cauldron of blood by Pahvivalmiste. The cauldron itself is scratch build and altar guards are midhammer witch elves. Check out Pahvivalmiste´s gorgeous dark elf army here.

My own humble dark elf war altar project is in a really early WIP stage. The idol itself is painted and I´ve started working on the altar guards but there is still a long way to go.

Chaos

Pro´s:

Psychological bonuses

Heavy armor gives some endurance

Increased mobility and combat ability if mounted on carriage

Chance to take a 100 points magic standard

Con´s:

Normal humans as altar guards are pretty weak in combat

Slow without carriage

Perhaps the grand mother of all chaos war altars. War altar of Nurgle by Ivan Bartleet from WD125.

Wheel of Pain - War altar of Chaos by Bluey Zarzov. For more pictures chech out his blog.

This one is by Asslesman. Presented in this thread at Oldhammer forum.

Bretonnia

Pro´s:

Psychological bonuses

Heavy armor and optional shield gives good protection

Optional halberds boost combat ability

Chance to take a magic standard

Increased mobility and combat ability if mounted on carriage

Con´s:

Normal humans as altar guards are pretty weak in combat

Slow without carriage, superslow if using shield too.

The Round Table of Bretonnia site has this war altar. Another picture on the site.

A very nice carriage mounted war altar by Warhamster. His Bretonnian collection is presented on Oldhammer forum.

Slann

Pro´s:

Psychological bonuses

Warrior priests as altar guards (WS4, S4, T4, A2)

Chance to take a 100 points magic standard

Chance to be placed on litter

Con´s:

Only shields for protection

Just four altar guards
Slow

Again I shall refer to Goblin Lee´s blog. And as with dark elves I don´t fully agree with the frenzy rule here. But again - let me know what you think.

Goblin Lee´s Slann war altar on a litter. Carried by lobotomized humans and guarded by warrior priests. Very nice!


 Hope that you enjoyed reading and perhaps got some inspiration to your army building.