Warhammer The Old World battlereport: The Sandglass of Ghur

On a cursed desert plateau, known as the Red Mirage, ancient Elven ruins rest in the shifting sands. Time warps between weather-worn obelisks and the winds howl with forgotten voices. In the shadows of a particularly high dune, storms uncover a forgotten barrow. Its looming gate creaks open, revealing Azhag the Slaughter, or rather Azhag the Time Traveler. Guided by prophetic visions (or possibly a concussed brain squig), he has led a rampaging horde through a time portal into the desert. He's searching for a mythical artifact known as the Sandglass of Ghur. According to the whispers in his skull, this relic allows the wielder to change the flow of time itself. Will anything stop the time-warped warlord from getting his green mitts on this great prize? 

Azhag the Time Traveler and his pointy-horned friends fight a bunch of pointy-eared glitterboys and their mercenary friends.

Warhammer The Old World Battlereport(s): Trial by Footslogging

Warhammer The Old World has been released just shy of AoS' tenth birthday (it was released in 2015). That means that, as an early adopter of that system, I haven't played a variant of the old 'square based' original rules for at least nine years. In practice it is a lot longer, my last long string of games was with the (then new) 3rd and 4th editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I tried getting back into fantasy during 8th, but it was a bad experience. Having said that: I'm stoked to get playing with squares again . Not in the least because armies take less space to store on squares. By now I've had the chance to get two games in. Here's a dual battle report (sort of), with running commentary about the differences between Warhammer AoS and TOW a lazy, rule-ignoring greybeard like me experiences. Let's start of with a semi-spectacular snap first.

Important rules to live by: don't get charged in the flank, don't get charged in the rear and don't challenge a High Elf on Gryphon to one-on-one combat with a 'mere' Dwarven Thane. Also bring a  quill, bottle of ink and a book of grudges with lots of empty pages to any battle.

A Sacred Mountain Avatar rolls off the hill to proxy the Spirit of the Mountain

Considering beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I have to admit at least one of my eye stalks is not vibing with the Spirit of the Mountain model GW made for the new High Elf line (also known as the Lumineth Realm Lords). Luckily we live in an age of many alternatives. And as a recent convert to the 3D-printing community I looked and found a more suitable model called the 'Sacred Mountain Avatar' by a gaming company on MyMiniFactory called Ghamak. Here's my painted version.

This Sacred Mountain Avatar makes a nice proxy for the Spirit of the Mountain.

Prince Imrik rides forth again

A while back I found yet another mystery bag in my box of old miniatures. I upended the contents and out rolled an original Prince Imrik. That was a stroke of fortune (well to be honest I was looking for old High Elves to add to my Lumineth, but lets ignore that bit and focus on the sheer surprise ;) ). Long story short (yes I cut and pasted a too long intro that was originally here): Prince Imrik rides forth again. 

"I walk through the Dreaming Halls and I feel change in the wind. In the rhythm of their slumber, I see omens. Minaithnir tells me that he, too, feels his brethren swimming towards consciousness." <- hint hint GW, please make more dragon riding High Elves Lumineth

The Eagles are coming!

 Back in 2017 I got started on rebuilding the Grudge of Drong scenario for a new age. Part of my then attempt was painting up enough High-Elves to have a fully painted army that matched the one in the campaign pack. That meant I needed three Great Eagles. I got them and then never applied a proper paint job. That changed this weekend. So I can finally join Bilbo and Pippin and state: "The Eagles are coming!"

No clue why, but I think a High Elf army cannot call itself complete without adding at least a few Great Eagles.

Sword Masters of Hoeth or Vanari Bladelords? You decide!

New High Elf Lumineth models keep pouring out of GW, and my brand new army book has been rendered obsolete faster than actual play was possible. A new record. Anyway, with the new wave of models a unit called Vanari Bladelords has appeared. I have to admit I'm rather enamored by the new models, but I did have these Sword Masters of Hoeth on the paint station already. So I painted them up anyway. Bladelords or Sword Masters, they've been painted and that's what really counts.

"What are we?" 
"Sword Masters!" "Bladmasters!"
"No Sword Masters!!!" "No not at all!!!!" 
"Just shut up and wave your blades around like you mean it!!!"

Lumineth Realm-Lords Vanari Dawn Riders, Auralan Wardens and classic High-Elves

My last post ended with five Vanari Dawn Riders slowly sinking into the Biostrip-dip. This post, I'm can happily report the same five have been scrubbed, cleaned, primed and painted in more proper colors. I'll start with their new paint job and then give you an overview of a bunch of my new Lumineth models as well as some older High Elf models kicking around in my cabinets. With another unit currently on the paint station I most definitely am in a Asur Lumineth state of mind. 

The sheltering shade of the forest calling come in silence. Accompanied only by the full moon howling of a night wolf....

A few simple Warhammer/AoS terrain pieces: crumbling earthworks and a rickety tower

Testing the Linden Way scenario, the third skirmish that leads up to Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift, is in my foreseeable future. As I had to speedily rearrange my table the last two test games I decided to actually check if I could feature the Linden Way hamlet on a modern table. It took a bit of shuffling with buildings, but it worked. One thing was missing: some crumbling earthworks to cap off the entrance. No worries, I took some coffee stirrers and polystyrene and went to work. Here's the result.

Karl-Franz junior (no relation) was about to empty the 'morning ablutions' bucket when the silent Skaven killer struck...

Lumineth Realm Lords Light of Eltharion

Between work and my oldest turning five and having his first party, I've had a bit of a busy month. Still in the background I am painting a number of different project. One of those are the new High Elves Lumineth Realm Lords. I am not entirely on board with the humongous horn-helmets of other troops. But the spearmen, cavalry and archers look amazing. As does the floating armor called the Light of Eltharion. I decided to ignore the painting example in the book and try something new (for me at least): a galaxy style cloak. 

I forgot to paint the scabbard when I took the picture, but remedied that at a later point (I just painted a few bits black(ish) and picked out a few details in gold to be honest).