Games with G.I. Geo

Joining in on the Warhammer Fantasy Escalation over on Wargaming for Fun

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by

George
in

So I’ve decided that the Skaven aren’t really what I want to be working on next. I’ll hang onto my army but I’m not excited about the prospect of a few hundred rats and then static-combat res-ing people to death.

With that in mind, I was thinking about what else to play! I’ll walk through my decision process but let’s start with the full list…

  • The Empire
  • Dwarfs
  • Bretonnia
  • Lizardmen
  • High Elves
  • Wood Elves
  • Dark Elves
  • Warriors of Chaos
  • Daemons of Chaos
  • Beastmen
  • Orcs & Goblins
  • Skaven
  • Vampire Counts
  • Tomb Kings
  • Ogre Kingdoms
  • Chaos Dwarfs
A segue to start us off; in Magic: the Gathering they find that Blue is the colour and Jace the planeswalker that most players say that they identify themselves with. This is likely because it is seen as the colour of knowledge, intelligence etc. and typically those qualities (or self attribution of those qualities) associate strongly with the kinds of people who like to play games. How does that relate to Warhammer? Elves. I like Elves. In most games I’ve always liked smart, athletic characters and not been that bothered by the fact that they’re often weaker. The Rogue and the Sorcerer in Diablo, the Amazon and Sorceress in Diablo II (and the Druid in the expansion!), Then there’s Shaman and Druids in World of Warcraft (I mained a Hunter first and then a Priest for years but that was originally because I couldn’t play a Shaman on alliance…).

Anyway, I could go on and on about my character/race/class preferences in games in general but Elves is where it’s at, yo. Obviously my first army is High Elves. The other two elf armies are interesting but they are aesthetically all a bit similar. The Wood Elves are quite out of date from a rules perspective and the Dark Elves are far too powerful at the moment and will likely see a nerf or big change in their next release.

  • The Empire
  • Dwarfs
  • Bretonnia
  • Lizardmen
  • High Elves
  • Wood Elves
  • Dark Elves
  • Warriors of Chaos
  • Daemons of Chaos
  • Beastmen
  • Orcs & Goblins
  • Skaven
  • Vampire Counts
  • Tomb Kings
  • Ogre Kingdoms
  • Chaos Dwarfs

Next up is the fact that I don’t really like playing “the baddies”. I’m not going to expand on that any further, suffice it to say that I don’t like them aesthetically nor morally. Not that I’m getting all pious about Warhammer, it’s just not my thing. That quickly ruled out Warriors of Chaos, Daemons of Chaos and Beastmen. Vampire Counts sits in this pile too.

  • The Empire
  • Dwarfs
  • Bretonnia
  • Lizardmen
  • High Elves
  • Wood Elves
  • Dark Elves
  • Warriors of Chaos
  • Daemons of Chaos
  • Beastmen
  • Orcs & Goblins
  • Skaven
  • Vampire Counts
  • Tomb Kings
  • Ogre Kingdoms
  • Chaos Dwarfs

I’m also not a fan of human armies as I see them as a sort of “vanilla” despite the fact that neither Bretonnians nor The Empire really are vanilla in Warhammer…

  • The Empire
  • Dwarfs
  • Bretonnia
  • Lizardmen
  • High Elves
  • Wood Elves
  • Dark Elves
  • Warriors of Chaos
  • Daemons of Chaos
  • Beastmen
  • Orcs & Goblins
  • Skaven
  • Vampire Counts
  • Tomb Kings
  • Ogre Kingdoms
  • Chaos Dwarfs

What about some of the other neutral armies? Tomb Kings & Ogres. Tomb Kings are interesting, I do like the Egyptian aesthetic but skeleton models can often look a bit silly. Ogres have potential to be very cool but I find that stereotypical Nordic/Tundra setting a bit bland. Orcs & Goblins are pretty cool both in terms of rules and aesthetics but they just don’t quite tickle my fancy. Also,for whatever reason I view them as the “vanilla” baddies. Obviously in the Warhammer world, it’s a little bit different but for whatever reason, I wasn’t that keen.

  • The Empire
  • Dwarfs
  • Bretonnia
  • Lizardmen
  • High Elves
  • Wood Elves
  • Dark Elves
  • Warriors of Chaos
  • Daemons of Chaos
  • Beastmen
  • Orcs & Goblins
  • Skaven
  • Vampire Counts
  • Tomb Kings
  • Ogre Kingdoms
  • Chaos Dwarfs

Dwarves and Chaos Dwarves are pretty exciting but there are a couple of problems here; firstly Dwarves are a bit out of date with their book and the playstyle can be boring for both players. Chaos Dwarves solve a few of those problems but being a Forge World army sit in the f**king expensive category. They’re also evil and some of the models look silly.

  • The Empire
  • Dwarfs
  • Bretonnia
  • Lizardmen
  • High Elves
  • Wood Elves
  • Dark Elves
  • Warriors of Chaos
  • Daemons of Chaos
  • Beastmen
  • Orcs & Goblins
  • Skaven
  • Vampire Counts
  • Tomb Kings
  • Ogre Kingdoms
  • Chaos Dwarfs
So what’s left? Lizardmen! In truth, this entire exercise was me just justifying the fact that I’ve always thought Lizardmen were awesome aesthetically and having played a few practice games with them, I liked their playstyle too. In their current incarnation they were another high leadership magic and shooting army which felt simiar to the High Elves.


There’s a new book though! It’s 8th edition time and everything is getting rejigged and the game balance is shifting in many different directions and Lizardmen are the latest to receive that treatment. It looks like the army has maintained a lot of that feel but having had their magic power toned done a bit and been given some cool new dinosaurs!


To spare my wallet and try to avoid the problem of acquiring masses of stuff and then never getting around to assembling and painting it, I’ve decided to join in on the Warhammer Fantasy Escalation series that they’re doing over at my favourite YouTube battle report channel – Wargaming for Fun.

Basically, these guys were in a similar boat, wanting to start a new army but not sure where to start off. Adrian was torn between Daemons of Chaos and Vampire Counts and Andy between Wood Elves and Dwarves. After a YouTube poll, they decided to go with Daemons of Chaos and Wood Elves which were my votes! I’ve not really seen either army be played and so I’m keen to watch some of their new battle reports!


With their new armies chosen, they picked an amount to spend to try and reach a 1,600 point army in 6 months. They’ve gone with £200 which is roughly AU$335 at time of writing. They’re spending £50 the first month then £30 for the remaining months so I’m going to try and go for $350 spending $100, then $50 each month. This accounts for the fact that everything is more expensive over here, haha.


Here’s what I wrote down over on their forums:

Hey guys,
Thought I’d join in seeing as I was hoping to start up a new army about this time anyway! I’m relatively new to the hobby, returning to the game as an adult from my dabbling as a young teenager.
At the moment I have about 3,500 points of both High Elves and Skaven. The Skaven I picked up second hand predominantly assembled but none painted at all. I’m not that excited by the prospect of painting a few hundred rats though!
I’ve decided to join in with Lizardmen. They’ve always aesthetically been one of my favourite armies and what better time to start than after a new book release!
I’m in Australia which means that I’ll need to convert the costs to AUD and then probably add a little wiggle room due to increased costs of models over here. I’ll likely aim to spend about AU$350 over the course of the six months, split into $100, $50, $50, $50, $50, $50.
1600 points seems like a good starting point. I’m mostly wanting to pick up models I like the look of and then later expand it to a competitive list if it tickles my fancy.
My first outing, I intend to play a predominantly skink & monster army, though I may stretch this to include Temple Guard.
My first expense was a bit larger than intended at $118 but for that I picked up the new plastic Skink Priest model, a box of Skinks (24 models) and a box of Terradon Riders.
I’ve also jumped the gun a bit on my second month’s expense, picking up Tetto’Eko to use as my Slann. I really like the model but think it’s unlikely I’ll want to run him as the special character very often. To give myself the option, I intend to create a miniature “movement tray” for the base so that I can switch between him being based on 40mmx40mm and 50mmx50mm.
I’ve been checking out pictures of poisonous frogs as inspiration for the colour schemes for the frogs. I plan to make this army my hobby army, spending more time than I might otherwise on basing and trying to make it visually captivating. I also hope to test out the airbrush on the Skinks as I will likely end up picking up lots, lots more of them!