Orcs and Elves

More distractions this week… More colourful and pretty things to get me through these dreary dark days of winter... I know, I know... Napoleonics are colourful and pretty too... These I might actually PLAY with some time in the not-to-distant future. 

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

A completed unit of Orcs for Dragon Rampant. I think I’ll field these are Heavy Foot (@4 points) or possibly Offensive Heavy Foot (@6 points).

Only four of these are actually newly painted…. and a couple were recently re-based. I think they are old Citadel pre-slotta fantasy figures. I’ve had them for over 25 years. They’ve been rebased and repainted a few times. Of course there are 14 of them here which is actually more than I need for a Dragon Rampant. Of course I wasn’t thinking of Dragon Rampant when I bought them 25+ years ago… I guess I could just say the musician and standard bearer are just there for show – only the armed ones count as strength points…?

Elf Archers for Dragon Ramapnt – Light Missiles with The Sharpshooter option (6 points).

Nothing newly painted here – these were just recently rebased. I originally painted them eight years ago and based them for Hordes of the Things. Originally it was a unit of three bases of six. So only twelve were used to make this unit. The others ended up as the core of the next unit below.

Beginnings of a second unit of Elf Archers for Dragon Rampant – as above.

These are more of the same I-Kore Celtos Sidhe that were in the re-based unit mentioned above. I’ve partially repainted these to make them a bit distinct from the others above. The Drummer is newly painted and I actually ordered another four from Brigade Models (which now produces the Celtos line) to finish up the unit.

A unit of Elvish Light Foot for Dragon Rampant (3 points)

These are all newly painted. I’d had them sitting aside to become elements of Spear in an Elvish HotT army (with the aforementioned archers above) but when I did my stock taking I decided I didn’t really NEED more than TWO Elvish HotT armies and I’d need to order a bunch more stuff to make a complete HotT army of Celtos Elves, whereas I only needed four to make a complete Warband for Dragon Rampant.

I was trying to make the shields look like leaves, but I’m not totally happy with how they turned out. Despite my dissatisfaction, I can’t be bothered to repaint them.

I do have another, nearly identical unit of Light Foot to paint up for this warband. I’m not sure how to paint them now. I had originally though of just painting them all in purple – to match the existing unit of archers… but then thought that would be too dull. Then I was going to go with all cool colours – greens, blues, purples. The archers would be purple and each of the units of light foot would be green and blue, respectively. But then I got the idea of painting the second unit of archers a different colour to help differentiate them. As I already had (or had planned) units in green, blue and purple, I somehow decided to do the second unit of archers in ORANGE – the OPPOSITE of a cool colour…!? Then once I got painting these Light Foot I decided to do their shields green-ish to look like leaves… Now I’m not sure how to paint the next unit of Light Foot. I was going to do them in green – the cloth they’re wearing, at least, but not sure what to do with their shields… again with the green leaves – then they’ll be all green. Would that clash too much? Then I got the idea of painting them like autumn leaves in browns and red and yellow… but with green cloth? Is that going to look good? Or should I do them with Brown or something else…? GAH!? I don’t know.

Whoever said painting fantasy stuff was less stressful because you never have to hear anyone complain that it’s “historically inaccurate” was wrong. Just WRONG! Or maybe I’m the only one that stresses about the aesthetic coordination of their fantasy elf units…. Anyone else out there cause themselves this much anguish over such things? Share your pain in the comments below!

Elf Wizard for Dragon Rampant. It seems like Wizards are typically fielded as Single Figure Units of Light Foot (3 Points) with the Wizard Option (+4 points).

This guy Is another newly painted model. He wasn’t originally planned as part of the warband. He was originally going to be a standard bearer in the spear unit (because that’s what I thought he was). When I was looking through the Brigade Models site to find myself some archers and got to thinking about adding a mage of some sort, I came across this guy and realized I already HAD a Celtos Sidhe wizard. I didn’t really dig on the look of any of the other witches and wizards so I just decided to stick with this guy.

Elf Warlord for Dragon Rampant – which will be fielded as a Reduced Model Elite Foot unit (6 points). I painted him a few weeks back. Just thought I’d post a picture of him with the rest of his unit – freshly re-based musician and standards (originally from the archer unit above – hence the arrow on the standard). If I ever got playing in a campaign and I came up with a character for this warlord I might come up with a new standard… but for now this will do.

When it’s done (just need to finish the second unit of 12 Light Foot and the 4 Archers when they arrive) the Warband will look like this:

1x Elf Warlord (Elite Foot, Reduced Model Unit) – 6 points

1x Elf Spear (Light Foot) - @3 = 6 points

2x Elf Archers (Light Missiles, Sharpshooters) @6 = 12 points

Option:

1x Elf Wizard (Light Foot, Single Figure Unit, Wizard) 7 points

Unfortunately that wizard just doesn’t fit into the force very nicely, being 7 points… If only he ended up beign 6, I could easily swap out both spear or one of the archer units or have him lead instead of the Warlord… Blast it…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I’d like to say it’s going to be the 21st Battalion, CEF… but I’m kind of feeling like finishing these Elves… and ANOTHER order just arrived – I did place two small orders amid the black-cyber-daze-sales; The aforementioned small order to Brigade Models for the four Celtos Sidhe Archers – and a few 6mm SciFi Polish 6mm SciFi Polish that I thought I might be able to pass off as Epic Imperial Guard, and another small order to Black Tree Design - who had 50% off all infantry – to pick up two packs of Zulus I needed to complete units of 20 for The Men Who Would Be Kings and a few packs of Dwarves to finish up a unit or two for one of the Dwarf Warbands for Dragon Rampant (including a few Dwarf Miners to go with the handful of GW Dwarf miners I already have – there’s a standard bearer I’m going to paint it as an International Brotherhood of Dwarf Mine Workers banner and give them a special rule: Solidarity – this unit will not attack any other unit made up of unionized labourers. Attack being the optimal word there – they’ll defend against them if they have to, but seriously, if the opponent is also fielding unionized labourers, they should also have the Solidarity special rule!) Anyway, I am awfully tempted by the Dwarvsies... Probably more Elves next, though...