Things that got painted this month

 It´s the month of gnovember but I´ve placed my gnome models in such a secure location that I was unable to lovate them. Well - they´ll turn up eventually. I know I have ten crossbow armed gnomes somewhere. So here are the models I´ve completed this month.

Four chaos hounds that I tried to paint in the old pastel Slaanesh style. 

Need two more for sacred number.

A goblin shaman. This one stood half finished for a very long time.

Elf captain. Just because I haden´t painted anything elvish in a while.

Javelin armed high elves finished

This took longer than I planned as I almost lost motivation to finish the last two models for this unit. Anyway here´s something you don´t see every day. A ten strong unit of javelin armed high elves.

Mostly Jes Goodwin Citadel sculps. Some with small conversions as there

are not that many models with javelin around.

Far left is a Marauder elf and 2nd from left a Harlequin miniatures elf.

Simple weapon swaps here. Swords to javelins.

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.

Contrasty Scarlocs´ Archers

It sure has been a while since I worked on fantasy elves. As you know it´s been all eldar and IG as of lately. But I´ve had these Scarlocs´ archers sitting around in their original box since late 80´s and finally with arrival of those contrast paints I got myself together to actually throw some color on them.

So it´s only ten models now and that leader is not Scarloc himself but an ancient Legolas from a Lord of the Rings box I bought back in the days. Far from the best Scarlocs´ you´ll see around but I´m pleased with them as I wanted to test how fast I can make table top ready models with those contrasts. I wouldn´t hesitate pushing these around on a battle field.

Not going to set myself any deadlines here but I think I´ll have a beginning of a wood elf force here. It´s just 20 more archers and a general to meet the 3rd edition minimas. We´ll see what happens as I have a couple of other project going on too.

 All completed models so far. Some shields are still missing. Will add them later.

A closer look at some of the troopers and the standard.

I general I´m really happy with the way those contrasts work for this kind of mass painting. The result is just good enough for gaming and you can make units quite fast compared to regular paints. Just sprayed base on a few more Scarlocs´, a wardancer and a couple of other elves.

Falconer Standard

In between painting space elves I found some inspiration to finish this small conversion job I´ve had on my table for some time now. As you see it´s a classic Jes Goodwin Elf Wardancer. And the conversion part is just the backbag with standard pole attached to his back. That part came from Elf cavalry Elf6 - mounted elf personalities range ramage pieces and is called eagle standard there. Plannig on using this model as a standard bearer in a unit of falconers. But he can double as a wardancer too.

The banner itself unfortunately brings points out my lackings as a painter. Can´t do pretty much anything free hand. Luckily I did found that eagle transfer that helps a lot.

Same guy from behind. I put the same transfer on his shield too. And here the backbag standard combination is visible.

I think every hunter needs a hunting hound too. And that´s one big doggie if you compare it to the elf.

Not setting any clear goals for myself but I think I´ll start putting together a wood elf force. Will propable aim for something like 1000 points first. And will make sure the army includes falconers, animal handlers and eventually shape changers too.

Flying horse and a hero

As mentioned before I don´t enjoy painting horses. So after completing a unit of silver helms and a warwain I naturally chose to work on a pegasus. The idea came from a plastic bodied dark elf pegasus I had lying in one of the many boxes containing all sorts of bits and bobs. The I think 5th edition era pegasus was in bad shape having lost its head and tail completely. One of it´s wings had broken away from the body too.

I removed also the other wing and scrabbed the mauled plastic body. Having an extra elf horse I did some drilling and pinning and the high elf pegasus was born. From another bits box a suitable rider was discovered and I was ready to prime the whole thing. I would have loved to mount a wizard on the flying horse but did not have a suitable model and went with this hero.

Simple white horse with grayish mane and tail. Hooves are very light pinkish brown. The sculpt of the riders face is pretty flat and with my skills it was difficult to get any life into it.

The rider is an ebay puchase I made before aquiring enough Jes Goodwin elf cavalry to make a unit. It was left unused and I´ve even forgotten it´s origins. I think it´s a Julie Guthrie model but not sure about that. If anyone knows who he is please comment below.

Pegasus is listed as a riding animal both here and in the high elf army list. They can be chosen to be ridden by a character model. What confuses me a bit is the fact that a unicorn is listed as a war beast. And rules for war beasts differ a lot from the rules for riding animals. I think I need to take a look into that some day.

Pegasi are pretty fast and strong and they deliver ´magical´ attacks. Their WS is only 3 and having just one attack means that they are not that effective in close combat. But as flyers they can take that one character model behind enemy lines to wreck havoc there. I will definately use mine one day to do that.

Elven cavalry for July

One of the hobbying goals I set for myself this year was to paint the units in 3rd edition high elf army list I didn´t have yet. This unit of Silver helms is the first one to get completed. Now I just need to get working on Kith, Warwain and Dragonkin. To be honest I might not make it this year but we´ll see.

Released on Jan-Mar 1988 and presented in WD99 these Jes Goodwin sculpted elf knights are simply put my alltime favourite elven cavalry models. The horses are a bit smallish but that is a very minor detail imo.

The blue and white theme is the same as with the rest of my high elf army. The riders were fun to paint but I did struggle with the horses. I wanted the horses to look realistic and I didn´t want to have just white one as modern Citadel elves tend to have. So it´s mostly different browns with dark tail and mane. I did use some white markings on legs and heads but not sure how well I did with them.

The unit leader´s mount has some barding and is less dynamically posed than the rank and file troopers´ mounts. Every model is magnetized so that there is as little contact as possible between the rider model and the horse. This was done to prevent paint chipping and to keep the riders in saddle.

Silver helms are the most hard hitting troops the high elves can have. WS5, S4 and lances are a fearsome combination that can deliver a lot of damage. But they are expensive. My ten elf squadron will easily cost me 500 points if given a standard and a decent leader.

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I´m working on some more elves to complete that Kith unit. And I have some goblins too to boost gobbo horde closer to 50 models. But this july will be very busy and can´t be sure if I can find time to paint and blog.

Boars´n gobz

Oh my! It´s been almost a month from my last posting. I must have been a lazy painter/writer or pretty occupied elsewhere. In truth the RL was quite hectic through the whole may with Finnish baseball season starting (my son plays that) and my job taking it´s time too.

Something has gotten painted despite being preoccupied with other duties. I got a couple of animal handler boars and a new handler for them.

So now the unit stands at two handlers and five boars. Desperately looking for at least three more hogs make it a more usable fighting force. Anyone willing to help?

The handler with standard is a Grenadier Elf standard bearer. Very much in style with the Jes Goodwin sculpted Citadel one. And who says a animal handler unit can´t have a standard?

My previous posting was about my growing goblin horde. At that time they were two short of 40 but no more. I thought I had ran out of gobbos to paint only to discover not one but three of the spear armed Iron Claw ones and that I think 90´s axe wielder. He´ll fit in even if he´s not that oldhammer. I might not keep the duplicate Iron Claw gobbos so if anyones wants to trade for gobbos or elf boars please take contact.

It´s going to be a busy summer but I will publish something more during june I promise. I´ve returned to painting high elves BTW. Creating one of those units I don´t have yet in my army.

One dream come true

When I was in the 9th grade I joined an american football team and ended up playing for 11 seasons all  the way from juniors to men´s team in Finnish championship league. Around the same time as started playing american football I discovered the White Dwarf magazine. The very first issue of WD I read back then was #101 I think. For obvious reasons I soon fell in love with Blood Bowl and 2nd edition was propably the first GW game I ever played. And I played it a LOT back in the days.

My general liking of Jes Goodwin sculpts began with these blood bowl elves. In my opinion these are still by far the best elf players GW has ever released. But I have have to admit that I do like the Dark elves of the same era a lot too.

It was always my dream to have a complete and painted elf team but the young me never had the resources or painting skills to achieve that goal. So I ended up playing with those not-so-gorgeous monopose elves from the Dungeonbowl set. A few of those got painted and I did buy a single blister of metal players and remember painting a thrower and a lineman but those have not survived to see this day.

Almost 30 years after discovering these elves I´ve finally reached the point where I can say that I have a painted playable elf blood bowl team. There´s a fair amount of good luck involved as I was not actively looking for these models. As it happened I scored a job lot that included among other things 8 elf players and that gave me the boost I needed to make this happen.

I painted the 11 models seen here in the same blue and white theme as my high/sea elf army. I tried to achieve a uniform look but so that there would be no two models that are completely alike. I was planning on making the bases astrogranite but made up my mind and chose green flock that in my opinion looks better with blue and white uniforms.

The whole team: a thrower, a blitzer, 6 linemen and 3 catchers.

I like my elves dark haired. Here are the linemen.

And the catchers.

Blitzer and thrower. Not happy with the thrower´s hair.
But he´ll do for now. I have another thrower waiting to be painted.

The team is now packed and ready to come with me to Oldhammer Oulu meet where I´m hoping to get my first game of BB in many years. BTW I´m looking for 2nd blitzer model. If you happen to have one you could part with please contact me. I would prefer the short haired version to complete my collection but the mohican one will do as well.

WIP - New elven guard

If you´ve been reading this blog you´ve propably noticed that I´m a big fan of Jes Goodwin elves. My high elf army is pretty much build around them and in my opinion they are the best elf sculpts Citadel/GW has ever produced. Unfortunately that elf series has some limitations regarding weapon and armor options. For example the models you could use for guards are all spear armed, wear light armor and have tabs for shields. The guard unit I´ve been using clearly has light armor, spears and shields.

If one wanted to have elven guard with heavy armor, shields and spears the melnibonean range is the answer. But what to do if you want to take halberds instead of the spears? And no shield. The high elf infantry in general lacks punch and if you are fighting orcs or dwarfs you would really like to have some troops that can generate those S4 hits.

There are models in the ME-32 Noldor - Deep elf alternatives series that are carrying a very halberd looking spear. But at least in the ebay the prices are horrendous. I´ve managed to get myself just a single model at reasonable cost so far.

For me it was the Black Tree desings that came to rescue. They have an elven royal guard range of models that has a command group and a few different troopers. The sculpts are in my opinion oldhammerish enough even if they stand bit taller than Jes Goodwin elves. The armor can be light or heavy depending on how you look at them and the weapons can pass for a halberd. And the price is very reasonable. Some people have had problems with long delivery times from Black Tree but my package came in about three weeks from the order.

I got models for my unit of 20 a couple of months back but as I was busy with painting orcs I didn´t touch these during the summer. And like I mentioned I was pretty fed up with painting pointy ears. Now I´ve found new energy to work with these and here are the first glimpses.

The very first finished trooper and a couple of WIPs. In my

opinion their weapon will pass for harberd or spear.

WIP  troopers, commander and standard bearer. The commander

has a more elaborately decorated armor than the rank & file.

Commander, standard bearer and a couple of troopers.

Colour theme is the same blue and white as for the rest of the army.

I think there are six different poses for troopers and a three

elf command group including commander, standard and musician (no pic here).

I´m trying to get this unit ready for Oldhammer Oulu meet that will be in 6 weeks (28/10/2017). As these are fairly quick to paint I think I will make it in time.

Where is he now - Elf shapechanger

Introduced in the 3rd edition WFB Rulebook the shapechangers were made available only to wood elves in the WFB: Armies. The shapechangers resemble werecreatures in many ways but there are differences too. Weres in WFB have usually a normal man-form and a half-wolf form. Were characters can turn to full wolf form too. Shapechangers on the other hand have three animal forms in which they will randomly turn to.

Unlike norse ulfwerenar the elf shapechangers are not fielded as seperate units but they are hidden inside normal units a bit like goblin fanatics. Ulfwerenar will get their own article later.

The rules for shapechangers are quite long and it´s worth taking a good look into them here. Rules are presented on the page 99 in the 3rd edition rulebook.

1. Models representing shapechangers are indistinguishable from ordinary members of a unit. The controlling player secrectly allocates each shapechanger to an ordinary unit of its racial type. Up to 20% of any unit may be composed of shapechangers hidden in this way. Each is represented by a normal model of the unit´s type. It is important that the player makes a clear note of shapechanger/unit allocation and shows it to the GM.
   
   So for every four models in a unit you can have one shapechanger hiding there. Wood elf archer (including Lord´s bowmen) units have a maximum unit size of 20 which means you could field 16 archers and 4 shapechangers. With Warrior kinbands you could field 6 shapechangers as the maximum unit size is 30 models. I don´t think it´s stright out forbidden to hide shapechangers in a unit of cavalry but the whole idea of doing that is so strange that I wouldn´t allow it as GM.
   
   
2. If a sheltering unit begins its own turn within 12" of an enemy unit, the controlling player must roll a D6. If the score is 5 or 6, all shapechangers in the unit change shape. If the covering unit is charged in the enemy turn, shapechangers roll to change shape immediately. Shapechangers who enter combat still unchanged may roll at the beginning of each of the following combat rounds (regardless of which side´s turn it is) until they change shape.
   
   It´s a big disadvantage not to have control over your shapechangers. They will change shape on random so you really can´t make plans that depend on them changing.
   
   
3. Roll a D6 to determine which creature the shapechangers change into. All shapechangers from a unit change into the same creature:
   1-2 Giant wolf
   3-4 Boar
   5-6 Bear
   
   More unwanted randomness in my opinion. Bear is a great option with S4, T4, W2 and 3 attacks. And they cause fear. Giant wolves are quite good with high movement, WS4 and 2 attacks. But boars are not worth the 28 points the shapechangers cost. Even with those two attacks they get (see rule 5) and frenzy (see rule 7).
   
   Another disadvantage with shapechangers is the fact that you will need four models for each shapechanger. One for normal for and one for each animal form too. That certaily raises the level for using them.
   
   
4. Shapechangers may not wear armour or carry a shield. They may carry a single weapon - usually a hand weapon.
   No suprises here. Armour would be in the way of shape changing and you have to be able to protect youself in unchanged form too.
   
   
   
5. Shapechangers retain some of their human or elven qualities and are cpable of wileding weapons as well as making animal attacks. They have characteristics equivalent to the animal thay change into, with an additional attack from any held weapon. This additional attack is made with animal´s WS.
   Here we learn that  a shapechangers transformation is not complete to animal form but instead he becomes a sort of hybrid between his original form and the animal he turns into.
   
   
6. Once changed into animal form, the shapechangers must move as fast as possible towards the nearest visible enemy. They are now concidered to be a seperate unit, and the models representing them are removed from their covering unit. The models representing their animal forms are placed on the table and make an initial move that turn. If their covering unit is already in close combat or is being charged, the shapechangers move into the front rank but cannot leave the unit until that engagement is complete.
   
   Upon the shape change the controlling player loses what little control he had over the shapechangers. They will move on their own and as per rule 7 charge when able to do so.
   
   
7. Shapechangers in changed form, must charge the nearest enemy as soon as they are able to do so. They automatically enter frenzy as soon as they engage in hand-to-hand combat.
   
   Frenzy is a powerfull thing. Troops stay frenzied as long as they are in base-to-base contact with the enemy including pursuit. Frenzied troops add +1 to both  ´to hit´ rolls and to ´to wound´ rolls. They also get +1 to any saving throw they make. As shapechangers are unarmoured the last don´t count for them. Unless you want to rule that they get 6+ saing throw while frenzied.
   
   Frenzied troops will always follow-up and pursue. They are immune to psychology effects, don´t take rout tests and can´t be routed. They will either kill the enemy of die trying.
   
   
8. If, at the beginning of their turn, there are no enemies within 12" of the shapechanger unit, they automatically return to their non-animal form. This small unit may then be moved independently, or may be assimilated within any friendly unit of foot models outnumbering it by four to one or more.
   
   When this happens the player actually gets to move the shapechangers by his own will. For ake of cover from missiles it could be a good idea to assimilate them to a friedly unit. There are no rules for how the assimilation is done but I suppose moving to contact with the unit you want to assimilate the changers into would be enough.
   
   
9. When a covering unit takes missile casualties, the chance of a shapechanger being hit is proportional to the number of shapechangers present. The GM may determine this as he sees fit. If a unit has it´s full 1 in 5 allocation, a shapechanger will be hit on th e D10 roll of a 9 or 10, for exmaple.
   
   Compared to goblin fanatics and skaven plague cencer bearers this is a disadvantage. You may lose valuable models to lucky shots.

Shapechangers cost an extra 20 points that is applied after equipment has been added.

In general shapechangers are pretty costly and too random and uncontrollable to field if you just want to get best bang for buck. With some luck they can be a nasty suprise to your opponent but in my opinion it´s too dependant on how you roll.

The overall complexity of rules and random behaviour of shapechangers is propably what led to them being cut from 4th edition.

But they are certainly charasteristic and do fit a wood elf theme very well. And again, no one else gets them and that alone is a good reason to have a few in you wood elf army.

Wood elf shapechangers have weapon options for spears and double-handed weapons. As rules allow only one weapon/model is suppose that the hand weapon is discarded if taking the spear or the two-handed option.  Having a weapon wielding elf-animal-hybrid can create some need for bending the rules a bit. For example as per rules a bear has two claw attacks. If a bear form shapechanger is wielding a two-handed weapon is think it can´t use it´s claws but perhaps does bite attacks instead.

There is not much info to found regarding the shapechangers around the internet but here are couple of blog´s you might want to take a look into:

• Goblin Lee - The wood elf host
• True mini wargamer - Bringing back old units

 If you concider building a shapechanger force for your wood elves and don´t know where to get those animal form models here are some suggestions:

• Midlam miniatures. Good looking boar men. I would remove the skull emblem from belt but othervise I like these.
• C38/27 series has some boar faced beastmen that one might use but they seem to be armoured and too evil looking for my taste.
• C18 Night Horrors has a couple of weremen, wolfmen and a bearman.
• IronWind metals. This series has all three animal form from a single manufacturer. Elvish weapons could be easily added to these.
•  A couple of werebears by Reaper.
• Otherworld miniatures werebear.

 If I were to use wood elf shapechangers I would perhaps use the IronWind ones as they fit together and it would be easy to model some weapons on their hands/paws.

Let me know if you have painted some shapechangers. I would love to see the pictures and if we so agree link them here.

Animal handlers in 3rd ed. WFB: The Oddities and random loose ends

This is the final part of ´Animal handlers in 3rd ed. WFB´ -series of articles. Please click here to find the other arcticles.

In this one I´ve tried to bring forward the more esoteric stuff that really don´t fit under the other part of this series. 

CHAOS DWARF BEAST MASTER

We met this guy earlier in the dark elf part of this series. He is a really odd one as the chaos dwarves of 3rd edition WFB exist only as part of chaos ally contingent or as part of a Khornate army. And there is no chaos dwarf beast master unit to take in either of those.

A chaos dwarf handler with four chaos hounds by LM.

If you have the model and wanted to use it in your chaos army I would just change the profile line on the chaos animal hadler to match that of a chaos dwarf and adjust the points value accordingly.

I´ve been trying to find a full 3rd edition chaos dwarf army list - fan made or something but with no luck.Sound out if you know of one.

Me and LM discussed the chaos dwarf handler model a bit just the other day whem LM had sent me these pictures. He pointed out that there is a certain resemblance in him to the 90´s big hat CD´s. And I have to agree - the face is just the same. Only the hat and beard have grown. Conclusion was that as the big hats are Perry sculpts this guy has to be too.

SEA ELF ANIMAL HANDLERS

Sea elf handlers and their... um... creatures. From

this facebook posting by Richard Irvine.

I usually link my postings to Oldhammer community group on facebook to give them added visibility. One article from this series raised some discussion and the picture above was posted to that discussion thread by Richard Irvine.

Sea elves are mentioned both in the 3rd edition rulebook and WFB: Armies. There is no official army list for sea elves but they are well present (or actually included) in the high elf list in WFB: Armies. High elves don´t have animal handlers in their army list but in true Oldhammer spirit I would see no harm done if someone used them.

But what pack animals for sea elves? As per rules the sea elves can swim. Therefore I would be tempted to look for such creatures that can both swim and move on dry land. A giant crab perhaps? Let´s see what the bestiary can offer us.

A giant leech can swim and move on land but can only survive in tropical conditions and is in every way very unelfy thing. For being unelfy I would not use a giant leech.

A giant frog is an amphibian and a lot more suitable to elven style than a leech. But for some reason it can´t swim as per rulebook. A funny things is that a swarm of frogs can move through water, bogs, swamps etc. with no difficulty. Frogs generally don´t live in salt water but require fresh water instead. For reason mentioned before - no giant frogs for sea elves.

Giant snails live in the forests of Bretonnia. In the real world there are sea snails that live in saltwater and can grow pretty big. A giant snail presented in the bestiary is a pretty worthless piece on a battle field with it´s M2. But they are cheapish and a have a slime attack that will put any enemy not killed by it out of action for D3 turns. Perhaps giant sea snails could be used to tie down a valuable enemy unit in some situation. A giant sea snail could be seen as somewhat seaelfy.

There is no giant crab in WFB 3rd ed. bestiary. If you wanted to create one for your sea elf animal handler I would suggest using a giant scorpion profile as a starting point. Poisoned attack would have to removed and no-negative-bonus for terrain changed to water movement. In my opinion crabs are even better armoured than scorpions so I would perhaps give them a basic saving throw of 3+ to compensate for losing the poisoned attack. Points value would stay the same.

Snakes exist in WFB 3rd edition only in the form of a serpent swarm. A serpent swarm can cross narrow bodies of water and in real world snakes are usually pretty good swimmers. And there are sea snakes too. As we are talking about a fantasy setting I could imagine a giant sea snake that can act on dry land too. One could use a 1st ed WFRP stat line for a giant snake as a starting point to creating one for WFB.

Another creature that could be used and even has a model produced is the dragon turtle. Appearing in the Tragedy of McDeath campaing for 2nd edition WFB a dragon turtle is a powerfull creature. Perhaps a bit too powerfull to be a beast pack animal. Realm of Chaos 80´s blog has nice pictures of a painted one.

You could of course create what ever you wanted with guidelines given in the rulebook. Sea mammals could be interesting to make. Imagine a group of walruses or sea lions!

PAN-TANGIAN TYGER HANDLERS

From the Collecting  Citadel miniatures -site:
"In the mid-1980s, Citadel Miniatures held the license to produce figures based on fantasy author Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series of novels. These figures were nominally produced for use with the STORMBRINGER! fantasy roleplaying game. When Citadel lost the Eternal Champion license, many of the Melnibonean figures were recycled into the Citadel High Elf range and some of the Pan Tangians briefly appeared as part of the Citadel Chaos line. A few of the Melnibonean Personalities figures were recycled into the Empire line."

Part of that Eternal Champion series was this Pan-Tangian Tyger Handlers set we´ve already seen with the Slann. 

In Chaosiums 1991 adventure pack "Sorcerers of Pang Tang" the Pan Tangians are described as being: "...a foul people, of unbridled cruelty and misogynism".

In the city of Hwamgaarl there is a "University of lucid perversity". A name that suggest strong Slaaneshi influence on teaching. Or how about "The Gallery of the Quivering Flesh". How Slaanesh does that sound?

Later on under the headline of people and culture it is clearly told that: "The Pan Tangians have embraced Chaos as the means of their success".

Interesting thing is that there are demonic powers listed in the adventure pack and those power resemble a lot certain chaos attributes.

What is really suprising is that a tiger is described in the encounter tables to be the holy animal on Pan Tang that goes where ever it wants and does what ever it wants. We are told that if a tiger enters a city and eats someone there will be no one to prevent that. So having a handler with a whip and leash to lead a Pan Tangian tiger sounds like something that´s pretty much against that goes-and-does-what-ever-he-want tiger, doesn´t it.

But then the tiger handlers are found in the Pan Tang Digest part of the book. There we learn that the handlers are usually encountered alone. If they are in a band they should have a number of tigers with them. And they should be eager for a fight. As by the book the handlers wear light clothes and move bare footed. The models produced don´t match with this that well.

Under the creatures part the tigers are described as huge orange felines with black stripes. They are never encountered in packs but that propably counts only for wild tigers. Being sacred animals has taught them not to fear humans.

TheOttoVonBismark´s colorful sabre-toothed tigers.

 

So how to use Pan Tangians in WFB 3rd edition? Perhaps just the way Goblin Lee is doing. He is building a chaos army using Citadel´s Pan Tang line of models. Lee seems to planning a seaborne paint theme for his army. Don´t know how Slaaneshi colors would sit on those models but University of Lucid Perversity and The Gallery of the Quivering Flesh would just sort of push me that way.

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But is there a better way to end this article and at the same time this series of articles than with some heavy metal. At least the name of both the band and the song go with the theme. Here is Tygers of Pan Tang: Hellbound

Where is he now - the Wood Elf Falconer

edit. 15/8/2017 added a picture of a falconer unit and a link

Was it lobbying by WEETA (Wood Elves for Ethical Treatment of Animals) that put a stop on using falcons as part of wood elf armies? Or the fact that it takes a long time to train a bird of prey to attack something else than it´s natural catch?

The rules for falconers appeared in the rule book of 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle. In the WFB: Armies the only list to include them was that of wood elves.

The reason for them being cut is propably pretty mundane. General streamlining of rules that came with 4th edition. Not being very sexy. Not fitting into the new look of Warhammer. You know the one with skulls and spikes everywhere.Rules too long and complicated for the 90´s.

 Looking at the profile line for hawk and rules for falconers we see that the hawk is basically a low strenght bow that can help you in close combat too. A falconer cost one point less than a lord´s bowman who´s missile range is 12" more and hits with better strenght. On the other hand the falconer gets that extra WS5 S2 close combat attack.

Goblin Lee has written a very good examination of the WFB: Armies Wood elf army list. His pro´s and con´s for falconers are as follows:

Pro's
The rules for Falconers (WFB page 97) mean that you can have an 

usual missile unit, or light flanking melee unit.
They fit in very well with the design concept of the Wood Elf army, and would look great 

on the table. I have never seen a unit of them used.
As a unit they also have good armour and weapon options.
A small unit size of 5-10 means you don't need many miniatures to field the unit.

Con's
Falconers aren´t very good, with a Strength 2 Falcon attack in either shooting or melee.
They may make for an interesting small units, but the army has already has 

Wardancers/Scouts/Beastmasters for that role.
Still they might be good to add to an army for character.

I agree with Lee´s list. For me the most important thing stand there as the last line: to add character for an army. There are certainly a few units in 3rd edition WFB: Armies that are really not that usable if you just want most bang for a buck. But for me Oldhammer is not about that. It´s about having fun with your friends. Collecting miniatures and assembling an army with background and character. Therefore if I were ever to build a wood elf army I would certainly try to include a falconer unit in it.

It´s a pity that the falconer´s are not listed under the troops that can do skirmishing. Having that choise would suit them and make them more maveuverable and therefore more usable. Perhaps they could be used to secure a flank and to harrash enemy skirmishers in their normal formation.

Citadel did not make models for falconers so what to do if you wanted use them in your army? There are several options available if you are ready do some conversions. There is of course Skaw model himself.

I´m not a fan of Skaw skulpt but paintjob on this one IMO is nice.

From MiniPainting.se site.

Other Citadel products with bird of prey are wood elf captain with hawk and MD4 Elf attack chariot crew member Aesilanan Woodmage. Neither of them look like the falconer pictured in the Armies and are perhaps a bit pricey if you just want the bird.

Perhaps the best alternative could be em4-miniatures 0162 Wood Elf Hero - with hawk model. Being pretty cheap you wouldn´t be in too much pain for cutting of the bird. Or you could use the model as it is. Even though he has a bow in his back and that weapon choise is not available for a falconer in Armies.

eM4-miniatures 0162 Wood Elf Hero

If you are looking for just the birds Dark eldar Razorwing flock or Reaper Miniatures´ Murder of crows set might be just what fullfils your needs.

 Razorwing flock from DakkaDakka forum. Murder of crows by Reaper Miniatures.

Both Marauder MM62 series and July 1985 C46 Villagers had a human falconer in them. The same C46 villager appears in the Blood on the Streets scenario models.

With the arrival of 4th edition the falconers as a unit were cut from the army list. What we got as a replacement was a special character Skaw the Falconer.

Skaw the Falconer as in 4th edition WFB Wood elf army book.

Along with Gruarth the beastmaster he is everything that was left of wood elf animal handlers when moving from 3rd to 4th edition. This form of Skaw was carried over to 5th edition as wood elf army book from 4th edition was not updated for that. Skaw dissappers from the 6th edition army book but makes a return of a sort in 8th edition in the form of Araloth the lord of Talsyn who has a hunting hawk called Skrayn. There is another set of rules for Shaw in Scribd but I have not been able to find out wether it is official or some fanmade stuff. But he sure looks very herohammerish there!

If you liked this article be sure to check out the previous one with the Dwarf Sapper.

Omar Ameer kindly gave permission to use a picture of his painted falconer squad here. More pictures of his beautiful wood elf host can been seen here.

Elf parade

In my previous posting I mentioned the Finnish independence day and the military parade that is an essential part of celebrations. Going through my even older text I noticed that almost exactly one year ago I painted the first model in the blue and white theme that was then chosen for my high elf army. That me made think - let´s see how my army looks today. Elves! Get ready for a parade!

Here´s everyone. Not exactly in a parade formation rather than just arranged on a bookshelf to fit in one picture.

Backrow: Baggare train, Guards, Shore riders with Scouts behind them, a Wizard, a Spectre

Middle row: Merchant company, Archers

Front row: Two Marine bolt batteries, Ship company, Wardancers

That roughly 120 models painted during last 12 months if you count in the war machines and carts too. I´m pleasantly suprised with myself.

Here´s a closer shot of the left wing. The merchant company was the first unit I completed. I had quite a lot of those 4th edition archers and spearmen left and it was nice to practise painting after many years not touching your brushes.

The right wing. Pretty much everything here is old school citadel. A lot of Jes Goodwin sculpts here.

In my opinion the army has a naval expeditionary force feel in it. It´s an infantry strong army with just a small unit of light cavalry in support. Just like something you could expect to land from elven warships and merchant galleys.

I´m hoping to expand my army so that it would eventually have at least one unit of every unit type presented in the WFB: Armies book. That means that I will have to paint a dragon rider, a unit of silver helms, a unit of warrior, kith unit and a chariot. I have a dragon and it´s rider in WIP state and it would be finished quite fast if I took the bull by horns and just painted it. One day...

For kiths I would like to get some rural looking archers. Armed with longbows the kiths could add some firepower to my army with lower points value than the normal +1 missile elite archers. I did buy a chariot a few months ago and I think I will take it on the painting table some day during next spring. As I love Jes Goodwin sculps I will try to get my hands on some more hand weapon armed elf warriors and create a warrior out of them.