More High Elves and preparing for an 8th ed event

Howdy doody. I'm back with another hobby update as I'm beavering away on my High Elves. I did pivot and work on Wood Elves in the lead up to Snake Eyes, but honestly I didn't quite finish any of the things I was frantically trying to get done there, so I won't showcase them here until I get around to finishing them properly. Which will totally happen. Don't look at me like that...

Anyway, my main focus at the moment is High Elves, so it was with that in mind that I decided I'd be using High Elves in the upcoming Bendigo Besieged 8th edition tournament. Yes, there are still 8th ed events. No, they're not common. No, I don't think I've actually played 8th ed since the last time I went to Bendigo Besieged. Oh gosh, it was 3 years ago. My aching bones...

So. I've never really used High Elves in 8th edition. Near as I can tell, I didn't use them in 7th edition either, but I think that ship has sailed. I feel like I'm really playing catch up with an army that I have been neglecting since relatively early in 6th edition (even if much of my revival effort is taking place in Old World). So, I get to use the 8th ed book. My focus then became using things that I'm not necessarily using in Old World (elite infantry being high on the list), a Frostheart Phoenix (I don't think I've ever used one at all, despite having painted 2), and then things that will help me keep making hobby progress. This then is my list:

• Prince on Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed with Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield, Giant Blade, Talisman of Endurance 
• Loremaster of Hoeth with Armour of Caledor, Great Weapon
• Mage (Level 2, Lore of Metal) with Opal Amulet
• Noble (Battle Standard Bearer) on Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed with Shield, Lance, Armour of Fortune
• 13 Silver Helms with Shields, Full Command
• 30 Spearman with Full Command
• 5 Dragon Princes of Caledor with Full Command
• 15 Phoenix Guard with Full Command, War Banner
• 15 Sword Masters of Hoeth with Full Command
• Frostheart Phoenix

It's not a very carefully thought out list. And the infantry units look hilariously cute on the table with their Old World base adapters removed. But anyway, so long as I can get everything ready in time, I'll be happy to be fielding what I have here.

Hobby-wise, this has meant a bit of work (whilst trying to avoid crushing myself, as the push for the last couple of events has felt heavy).

Ah, Prince Tyrion. How many times have I painted thee? The answer is too many, although most of those efforts were either painting over (or stripping and repainting) my original copy of him as a teenager. This guy is a more recently acquired one with an unbroken sword, and a mostly more modern steed.

Snake Eyes 2026 - Part 5

This is the fifth and final part of my report of the recent Old World tournament, Snake Eyes. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 5 - Aus Team
Travis Cramb - Grand Cathay
Upon the Field of Glory

• Shugengan Lord (General, Level 4 Illusion) with  Lore of Yang, Heavy Armour, The Monkey King's Wisdom, Learned Feng Shi Bo, Potion of Speed
• Supreme Astromancer (Level 3, Elementalism) with Lore of Yin, Cloak of Po Mei, Ruby Ring of Ruin
• 20 Jade Warriors with Shields, Stubborn, Jade Officer, Standard Bearer, The Jade Banner
• 20 Jade Warriors with Shields, Stubborn, Jade Officer, Standard Bearer, War Banner
• 12 Peasant Levy with Warbows, Skirmishers, Ambushers
• 12 Peasant Levy with Warbows, Skirmishers, Ambushers
• Cathayan Grand Cannon with Ogre Loader
• Cathayan Grand Cannon with Ogre Loader
• 4 Crane Gunner Team with Ambushers, Reserve Move
• 5 Iron Hail Gunners
• 6 Jade Lancer with Ambushers, Stubborn, Jade Lancer Officer, Ring of Jet
• Sky Lantern with Iron Hail Guns and Dragon Fire Bombs

So we had made it to the final round, and found ourselves against a team of guys who are part of the team representing Australia at the ETC this year.

I missed taking a photo of my deployment, so you'll just have to imagine how brilliant it was. I did shield the Treeman behind cover so the Grand Cannons couldn't just pick him off before I moved, but then I got the first turn and I decided that I couldn't hide forever if I wanted to reach the enemy (because Wood Elves are a bloodthirsty race who love close combat more than anything), so I took the other approach of simply exposing myself to everyone and hoping for the best.

Snake Eyes 2026 - Part 4

This is the fourth part of my report of the recent Old World tournament, Snake Eyes. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

The Saturday night saw a pizza dinner (with one of the largest piles of pizzas I've ever seen arriving on the tables), and Warhammer trivia. As per the previous year, there were some pretty silly questions, and it was fun. Unlike last year, we didn't win the trivia. Very sad. Oh well, next time.

Game 4 - Age of Sigmar Died For This? II
Ryan Kirby - Minotaur Blood Herd
Upon the Field of Glory

• Doombull (General) with Great weapon, Heavy armour, Shield, Bedazzling Helm, Talisman of Protection, Slug-skin
• Gorebull (BSB) with Full Plate Chaos Armour, Gnarled Hide, Shield, Enchanting Aura, The Soiled Tapestry
• 7 Minotaur Herd with Light armour, 3 Great weapons, 4 Shields, Full Command, Scimitar of Skultar, Manbane Standard
• 4 Minotaur Herd with Light armour, 3 Additional hand weapons, 1 Shield, Standard Bearer, Musician
• 10 Ungor Herd with Shortbows, Musician
• 1 Razorgor
• 1 Razorgor
• 1 Razorgor
• 4 Dragon Ogres with Great weapons, Heavy armour
• Dragon Ogre Shaggoth with Great weapon, Heavy armour, Chalice of Dark Rain

Ryan throws up the Minotaur horns as we complete deployment.

Snake Eyes 2026 - Part 3

This is the third part of my report of the recent Old World tournament, Snake Eyes. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 3 - Optimised Jank
Ben Hannan - Beastmen Brayherds
Upon the Field of Glory

• Great Bray-Shaman (General, Level 3, Elementalism) with Braystaff
• Great Bray-Shaman (Level 3, Elementalism) with Braystaff, Hagtree Fetish
• Bray-Shaman (Level 1, Dark Magic) with Braystaff
• Bray-Shaman (Level 1, Dark Magic) with Braystaff
• Bray-Shaman (Level 1, Dark Magic) with Braystaff
• Wargor (BSB) with Great weapon, Heavy armour, Shield, Slug-skin
• 33 Gor Herd with Hand weapons, Shields, True-horn (Great weapon), Standard bearer (Banner of Swirling Wind), Musician
• Tuskgor Chariot
• Tuskgor Chariot
• 13 Ungor Herd with Hand weapons, Shields, Half-horn, Musician
• 3 Dragon Ogres with Great weapons, Heavy armour
• Herdstone
• 5 Harpies
• Gigantic Spawn of Nurgle
• Dragon Ogre Shaggoth with Great weapon, Heavy armour, Chalice of Dark Rain

We had played Optimised Jank at last year's Snake Eyes, and they had made the trek down from NSW again. I had also ended up playing Ben's Beastmen last time, but the addition of the Herdstone and the loss of magic restrictions seemed to have taken over his mind and that of his list. 5 copies of Viletide, hey? Well... What could go wrong?

I deployed wide, including the unusual (foolish?) move of putting my Glade Guard over on the flank with a wall of terrain cutting them off from the rest of the field. I might have done this after the Dragon Ogres were deployed. I know the big Gor Herd unit went down afterward. I think I had decided I wasn't going to get clear shots on that key unit, so would concentrate on controlling a flank instead. I probably made life hard for myself by putting my forest where I did - just gave Ben more places to hide things.

Snake Eyes 2026 - Part 2

This is the second part of my report of the recent Old World tournament, Snake Eyes. You can find the previous part here.

Game 2 - Hungry Hungry Host
David Hauser - Orc & Goblin Tribes
Drawn Battlelines (3 Strategic locations, Baggage train)

• Black Orc Warboss (General) on Wyvern with Additional Hand Weapon, Trollhide Trousers, Talisman Of Protection
• Night Goblin Oddgit (Level 1, Illusion)
• Night Goblin Oddgit (Level 1, Illusion)
• Orc Bigboss (BSB) on War Boar with Heavy Armour, Shield, Da Banner of Butchery, Spelleater Axe, 'Eadbuttin'At
• 18 Black Orcs with Stubborn, Veteran, Full Command, War Banner, Great Weapons, 14 Shields
• 35 Night Goblins with Shields, Full Command, 3 Fanatics
• 35 Night Goblins with Shields, Full Command, 3 Fanatics
• 8 Night Goblin Squig Hoppers with Boss
• 13 Orc Boar Boys with Cavalry Spear, Heavy Armour, Shield, Big Un's, Full Command, Da Thinkin’ Orc’s ’At, The Big Red Raggedy Flag
• Doom Diver Catapult
• Goblin Rock Lobber

Ah, Mr Hauser. We meet again! It had been barely a month since our last meeting, and David's list was quite similar to the previous time. Of course my list was very different, so it was unlikely to be the same game.

I started my deployment, and only after I'd placed my bonus forest did I really process where the deep points of my angled zone were. Oh well. Good thing I'm a professional... 

Snake Eyes 2026 - Part 1

Another tournament is done and dusted. This time it's the second running of Snake Eyes, a team event with 4 players per team. Last year it was 3. Goodness knows what it will look like next year.

Army selection was a bit different from normal. The previous year there had been a cap on magic levels across the whole team. That was gone this time, but in addition to using the Grand Melee and Combined Arms limits, the following rules applied:

• Each player must use a different race
• All magic items (including extremely common) are unique and may not be taken
• more than once across the entire team
• Characters capped at 33%
• Flying and Ethereal units combined capped at 33%
• Undead cannot take Battle Standard Bearers
• No more than 2 of the same war machine from Special, and no duplicates from Rare
• No duplicate Behemoths (not counting mounts)

This all added up to make the army and list selection slightly headache-inducing, but eventually I decided I could field a semi-capable Wood Elf army with a couple of levers to pull, depending on what I found myself facing. 

Wood Elf Grand Army (2000 points)
Glade Lord (General) on Great Stag with Light armour, Shield, Orion's Favour, Dragon Slaying Sword, Sword of Might, An Annoyance of Netlings, Wild Rider Kindred
Spellweaver (Level 4, Lore of the Wilds) on Unicorn with Heartwood Pendant, Oaken Stave, Potion of Foolhardiness, Glamour Weave Kindred
23 Glade Guard with Fire & Flee, Swiftshiver Shards, Full Command, Razor Standard
12 Dryads with Nymph
10 Deepwood Scouts with Arcane Bodkins
5 Sisters of the Thorn with Handmaiden of the Thorn, Standard bearer
5 Wild Riders with Hunting spears, Light armour, Shields, Full Command
4 Warhawk Riders with Trueflight Arrows
Treeman with A Befuddlement of Mischiefs

No doubt this is far from the perfect Wood Elf army I could have chosen, but it included a few elements that amused me. Firstly, I liked the look of the Spellweaver. The Oaken Stave gave me some serious anti-magic ability, but her main party trick was going to be getting Dhurthu's Wrath and wailing on unsuspecting units that tried to get past her forest. That was the plan, anyway. Maybe not a perfect plan...

My general was also a bit of a question mark. I decided I needed the ability to kill something hard like a dragon, and he was my only hope. Of course, he was frenzied with 360 degree vision, so trying to steer him in the right direction could be a problem. I'd deal with that when it came up.

The heart of the army was the Glade Guard with multiple shots and the Razor Standard. They'd be rolling a ton of dice, and could potentially put a lot of hurt on something. That was exciting. The Scouts offered a little backup in terms of firepower, but it was going to be mainly about the Glade Guard.

Overall, I was a bit concerned that this army might end up needing a bit of finesse to use properly, and I really didn't have much in the way of practice with it. This was not a great combination, but it was the situation I had put myself in.

Each round, our team of 4 would be lined up against one of the other teams of 4. Then an some sort of intricate mating dance would take place in order to determine which army was facing which. Only 2 of the 4 tables had a scenario and objectives in play - the others were just playing Upon the Field of Glory. 

Game 1 - The Order of Questionable Chivalry
Matthew Soltys-Klein - High Elves
Upon the Field of Glory
Prince (General) on Star Dragon with Full plate armour, Shield, Opal Amulet, Seed of Rebirth, Sword of Might, Blood of Caledor
Archmage (Level 3 Battle Magic) with Silvery Wand, Sea Guard
6 Silver Helms with Lances, Heavy armour, Barding, Shields, Full Command, Ring of Fury
6 Elven Archers with Longbows
21 Lothern Sea Guard with Thrusting spears, Warbows, Light armour, Shields, Full Command
8 Dragon Princes with Lances, Full plate armour, Shields, Barding, Full Command, The Loremaster's Cloak
9 Sisters of Avelorn with Bows of Avelorn, Light armour, High Sister, Ruby Ring of Ruin
10 Sisters of Avelorn with Bows of Avelorn, Light armour, High Sister, Bow of the Seafarer
Lothern Skycutter with Cavalry spears, Shortbows
Too much of my attention during deployment was spent on trying to work out how to address the threat of the Sisters of Avelorn. I had to finish deployment before my opponent, and made the mistake of putting my Glade Lord pretty hard on the right flank. Naturally Matthew then placed his Star Dragon far, far away. I would get the first turn, but my ability to threaten the Star Dragon would be very limited. 

High Elf Hobby Update

It's been a while since I posted a hobby update, and my focus has been pretty firmly on my High Elves. I have decided that they will be my main focus for a while, because the army needs attention. Ensuring I make them my main focus in terms of events should help keep my hobby efforts similarly focused.

Basically everything I'm showing here has actually already appeared in my tournament reports, but I haven't had a chance to actually try to show them properly. So I'm playing catch-up.

This is the Blood of Caledor mage I put together for a tournament a couple of months ago. It's essentially a kitbash of the High Elf commander set and maybe a head and staff top from either the mage set or the dragon one.