Preparing for Axemaster

Axemaster is now only a bit over a week away, so I finally had to submit my army list the other day. General opinion seemed split as to whether I should take Wood Elves or Orcs and Goblins, but in the end the decisive factor was that the Orcs were going to be a bit too much work to get ready in time. After fidgeting with Wood Elf lists for a while, this is what I eventually submitted:

• Highborn on Great Eagle with Longbow, Light Armour, Shield, Helm of the Hunt, Stone of the Crystal Mere, Ogre Blade, Potion of Foolhardiness
• Glamourweave Spellweaver (Level 4, Lore of Beasts) on Unicorn with Longbow, Dragonbane Gem
• Noble (Battle Standard) with Asyendi's Bane, Hail of Doom Arrow
• Branchwraith
• Branchwraith
• Branchwraith with Cluster of Radiants
• 10 Glade Guard with Standard, Musician, Banner of the Eternal Flame
• 10 Glade Guard with Standard, Musician
• 16 Dryads
• 15 Dryads
• 12 Wild Riders with Standard, Musician, Gleaming Pendant
• Treeman
• Treeman
• Great Eagle

Total Army Cost: 2599

The list above may well confuse some people. It's a bizarre combination of relatively competitive choices and silliness. I'll try to explain some of it for you. The worst decision in the army is the level 4 mage. Putting her on a Unicorn (and consequently upgrading her to Glamourweave kindred) costs 85 points and really just makes it harder to protect her. But I converted a model for her years ago, and she's one of my favourite conversions. She was one of the reasons I decided to use Wood Elves. 

Now what?

I made a resolution at the start of the year that I would use an army other than Empire at at least one tournament this year. There are a number of events coming up in Melbourne, however with my resolution not to go overboard with tournaments this year, I am only really expecting to enter one of them - Axemaster. That being the case, it seems to be crunch time if I am going to follow through on my resolution.

Axemaster is a 2600 point tournament running on the 7th-8th of September. The player pack can be found here. It's a well-established event and traditionally tends to be one of the largest on the Victorian calendar. I'm actually the defending champion from last year, but given I have no intention of trying to win anything this year, I expect someone else will take the title. All I need to worry about is what I want to use instead of Empire...