Preparing for The Old World – Games with G.I. Geo

Like every other 40-ish wargamer out there, I’m beyond excited for Warhammer: The Old World.

The games I played in the Gobbocon 2015 Tournament were probably the last games I ever played of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I’ve dabbled in Age of Sigmar since, and enjoyed the games I’ve had, but it never hooked me quite like Warhammer Fantasy did.

It’s time to (literally as well as figuratively) dust off the old models and take stock of where we are in preparation for The Old World. I thought it would be good to go through my entire roster of High Elves and see where things are at.

Perhaps the elephant in the room is base sizes, but my current plan is to use adaptor/conversion trays from Back-2-Base-ix.

I’m notoriously bad at finishing tasks (thanks ADHD), but I’ve found that list-writing is the most effective method for me to actually complete something, and I’ll try and put some science into it by quantifying how close to completion everything is. I’m pleasantly surprised that things look pretty nice, but when I look closely, I can see I’ve not quite put the final finishing touches on most of my models. In the past, I was almost always painting to a tournament deadline. Let’s do the internet content creator thing of ranking them into tiers. It’s worth noting that me calling something S tier is definitely tongue-in-cheek. I’m not going to win any painting awards and I’ve made my peace with that. I enjoy the hobby and I’m proud of my work, but it is just a hobby.

S	“Best of my ability”	Fully completed.
A	“High tabletop standard”	Missing some details and final highlights, probably gems and faces.
B	“Tabletop standard”	Several highlights and details still required.
C	“3 colour minimum”	Base coats and washes.
D	“Better than grey plastic…”	Base coats only.
F	“Built”	Not yet started.

Characters

Prince on Dragon (B)

Starting things off, we’ve got the Lord on a Dragon. Overall it looks pretty good, but there’s some nicer highlighting that I could do on the dragon itself, and the gems haven’t been completed. (A spoiler warning for the rest of the blog… This is not the last time you’ll hear me say that I’ve not completed the gems.)

Noble on Griffon (A)

Next up, we’ve got my High Elf Lord on Griffon from the Island of Blood starter set. Despite being one of the very first things I painted after getting back into the hobby, I’m really proud of this. The snow-tiger striping is really effective and I’m cautiously optimistic that it’ll be stronger in this edition of the game with the changes to character mounts. There are a few gems I’ve missed, but I reckon there’s only 15 minutes work left in this guy.

Prince on Barded Elven Steed (A), Noble on White Lion (S) and Mage on Elven Steed (A)

These three round out my mounted character selections. The Prince and the Mage have a few gems and face details to improve but the character on the White Lion is one of the last things I painted. I had this guy as a unit-filler for my block of 20 White Lions but I think for this edition he’ll be re-invented as a mounted Battle Standard Bearer and his lion can have the rules for a Barded Elven Steed. Despite giving him an S-ranking, when I go to re-base him for The Old World, (which I’ll have to do as he’s on a weird 40x80mm base), I might try and green stuff the connection point of the banner to the spear because it looks a bit strange. Some lazy kit-bashing several years ago.

Noble Battle Standard Bearer (S), Handmaiden of the Everqueen (F), Anointed of Asuryan (S)

We’re headed into characters on foot, starting with a Noble Battle Standard Bearer conversion. I’m really happy with the paint job on this guy and he was in, if not literally every game I’ve ever played, then very nearly every game I’ve ever played. A Battle Standard Bearer was an absolute must for high leadership armies to smooth out the odd unlucky roll, and it seems like that will be even more important in The Old World with the Step-Up rule having been removed. As for the model, I wish I’d hunted around for a slightly more interesting standard, but this one is a big canvas for some freehand when I get the confidence up.

The handmaiden is obviously not started and may be the next thing I paint after the Lothern Sea Guard I’m working on. Finishing batch-painting a unit of 35 models means I’m due something a bit more fun and free-flowing and she might be just the ticket.

The Anointed is a neatly painted model and I might find a way to magnetise him onto my Frostheart Phoenix base, because it seems like that might be the new best mount for a killy character. We’ll see.

Archmage (S), Mage (A), Archmage (A), Loremaster (S)

Rounding out my character selection, we have the mages. I’ve got the Island of Blood Archmage who might no longer be a nightmare to rank up, one of the coolest old-school mages on foot, throwing up the devil’s horns, the Alarielle model before she took off to a new realm to ride giant beetles, and my absolute favourite, the Loremaster of Hoeth. I think all of these will probably get a run in the new edition, depending on how I want to kit them out. I quite like the marriage of simplicity and depth you get by using Elven Honours to differentiate between the character types and allow for the continued use of named-character models. As for painting, the Mage and Alarielle need a few gems highlighted, but still look nice.

Core

16 Archers (A), 16 Archers (B)

Moving onto core, we’ll start with the backbone of my 8th edition army which sadly might not get as much of a run this edition due to the changes to Shooting; specifically the removal of Fire in Two Ranks in favour of Volley Fire, and the changes to Martial Prowess. My first block of 16 (mostly run as 15 without a champion) looks pretty nice but could use some touches on gems and faces. The second unit has the champion model on a unit filler, which looks nice, but are missing some highlights on the sashes, a few details and faces/gems.

10 Lothern Seaguard (A), 25 Lothern Seaguard (B)

Next we’ve got Lothern Seaguard. I started with the unit of 10 from the Island of Blood and added another 7 models which were base coated, then added another 18 models. This is actually what’s on my hobby desk at the moment. I’m aiming to get both units all the way up to fully completed. There’s not much to be done for the unit of 10, but I need to get some washes and highlights on the next group. I didn’t think it was likely that I’d run a block of 35 in this edition, so I made a second command set.

3x 5 Ellyrian Reavers (A)

Reavers Next. I’m not sure they’ll be as good this edition as last, with the changes to Fast Cavalry, but we’ll see. Being able to upgrade them to Scouts and/or Skirmishers is cool, though!

10 Silver Helms (B), 10 Silver Helms (C)

Probably my least favourite models in the army, just because they’re a bit chonky. I recently decided to have two sets of command because it seemed unlikely I’d run a block of 15 again. The block of 10 looks halfway decent but the next group of 5 still has some bare plastic after the command changes.

Special

20 White Lions of Chrace (A)

I’m following the book order here, so the first of the three elite High Elf Infantry choices are the White Lions. These are one of those models that are going to look so much better on the bigger footprint. They’re sort of a mess of plumes, great axes and cloaks. I’ve got a few gems to finish off but they’re looking pretty good. I’m not sure how good they’ll be in the new edition. The jury is very much still out on which of the three infantry units are the go-to, which I think is great. Hopefully they’ll all have a role to play.

33 Swordmasters of Hoeth (S)*

I’ve put the asterisk here because, as you can see, I’ve got two command sets, so I can run them with full command in two groups. These models are finished, but I could probably darken some eyes and mouths to really polish them off. I’m super proud of these ones, I think they look absolutely ace.

30 Phoenix Guard (S/F)*

Here we’ve got 30 Phoenix Guard with a split rank. I finished four models completely as a test, and I’m really happy with them, but because I bought these late in the life of 8th edition, I don’t think I ever fielded them and so had no cause to paint them either. As with some of my other models, I recently changed them up to have a second set of command because I figured it was more likely that I ran two blocks than one giant one; especially for Phoenix Guard who, as heavy infantry, now only have to be 4 wide to gain a rank bonus.

9 Shadow Warriors (A)

A slightly strange number of models in this unit. I think I ran 9 of them in tournament and cut the corner on painting the 10th, which has since become part of a diorama my daughter painted as a 5-year old. I don’t want to pull the model out and ruin her creation, so if I decide I do need a 10th for something, I might have to go digging around. There’s a few final details here but otherwise they look nice.

2x Tiranoc Chariots (F)

I got excited about magnetising these so that I could switch between Tiranoc and White Lion Chariots and then never ran either in a game. One day I’ll paint them, but they’re not a particularly exciting unit. Maybe they’ve got a role, but I seem them as less maneuverable than an eagle, less powerful than a small unit of Silver Helms, so I’m not sure what they’re for. They are nice models though.

2x 5 Dragon Princes of Caledor (S/F)

Another split rank here for my Dragon Princes. I’m really happy with the unit that is painted but the other unit is just primed yellow, and even has some bare plastic after a recent change of mind to run a second command group. These were strong in the last edition if you played them well, and I think it might be the same again. The armour save is down across the board, which makes them slightly more susceptible to small-arms fire, so you’ve really got to get them in quick.

Rare

Frostheart Phoenix (S)

The first model here in Rare is the Frostheart Phoenix. An absolute mainstay of my army in 8th edition, which I hope can find a home in the new rules. This conversion was relatively straight forward, but I’m so happy with it. The pose was inspired by the White Ninja Falconzord in the Power Rangers movie, specifically this absolutely epic moment. It’s worth checking out the intended assembly of this thing too, it’s so much less cool.

2x Great Eagles (S)

More big, blue flyers. These were the models from The Lord of thr Rings because they were plastic rather than the awful metal sculpts that I think are still the official high elf choice. These champs have redirected many a charge and hunted many a war machine, so I hope they can still play that role well in The Old World.

4x Repeater Bolt Thrower (A)

Now I called the Frostheart Phoenix a mainstay of my army. The real first thing in every list was four of these bad boys. An absolutely devastating amount of shooting for a relatively small investment. The changes this edition (D3+3 shots instead of 6) and -1 to hit with multishot mean that they’ve had the wind taken out of their sails a little bit, but single bolts not having to kill a model to penetrate through to the next rank is pretty amazing. The really numbers-focused players have already decided that Sisters of Avelorn are “strictly better”, but I have a real soft spot for these.

Allies – Wood Elves

Spellsinger (D), Glade Lord (D), Glade Captain (D)

28 Glade Guard (D)*

I don’t think I’m very likely to run these as allies, but a friend was quitting the game and gave me this handful of Wood Elf models. I’ve put a few colours on and based them nicely, but there’s a lot left to do.

So where does that leave us in the end?

Prince on Dragon	B
Nobleon Gryphon	A
Prince on Barded Elven Steed	A
Noble on White Lion	S
Mage on Elven Steed	A
Noble Battle Standard Bearer	S
Handmaiden	F
Anointed of Asuryan	S
Archmage	S
Mage	A
Archmage (Alarielle)	A
Loremaster	S

Archers (2x full command)	A/B
Seaguard (2x full command)	A/B
Ellyrian Reavers (3x musician)	A
Silver Helms (1 Full Command)	B/C

White Lions (1x full command)	A
Swordmasters (2x full command)	S
Phoenix Guard (2x full command)	S/F
Shadow Warriors	A
Tiranoc Chariots	F
Dragon Princes (1x full command)	S/F

Frostheart Phoenix	S
Great Eagles	S
Repeater Bolt Throwers	A

So it looks like we have mostly S and A, with a few further down, particularly for units where I’ve later expanded. A lot left to do, but this is a nice snapshot of where we are at at the start of 2024. When I place them all out like this, it’s quite a pretty sight!

High Elven Realms