Wood Elves - Woody Five

Spear & Falconers Core Units

Part Five - Mern's Kindband & Keltoi's Moon Falconers

Well we are right into the core of this Woodelf army now and having shown you three core units last week, this time I have another three to show you. These three are all a little different, two foot troops and a proxy archer unit.

Full Unit - Mern’s Speartooth Kindband

First up we have Mern's, 'the Gardener', Speartooth Kindband. Essentially these are to serve as Eternal Guard in the new The Old World (ToW) rules. However, I have written the unit card as a standard unarmored elf spear unit. I like basic units in the theme of this army, most elves living in the wood are not just going to pile out as some super unit in my head. In addition to that, it really makes the army feel more feral in nature, more natural if you like.

Mern Advances

Mern himself came out really well here and is simply one of the five original Citadel Miniatures from this spear elf set with a hood. The other four original casts are also present in the unit, although they don't have hoods obviously. Other things worth mentioning are, the reuse of mushrooms made from green stuff and toothpicks, and the hand painted banner. Again credit for the original design on the banner goes to master painter Mike McVey, the other unit below is my own design.

Mern and Command

The painting procedure as a whole was: undercoat in a grey then white zenithal, basic block colours of Vajello: Japanese Uniform #117, Olive Green #082, Red Leather #136, Deck Tan #110 for the base of anything white, and Basic Skin Tone #017 for skin. GW Contrast Black, Gore-Grunta Fur, or Aggaros Dunes for hair. All these are applied in really thin layers so much so that the undercoat is still visible. Then I use a Glaze Medium mixed into slightly lighter and lighter tones until I get a really vibrant colour. Metalics are done using a standard dark metal or bronze gold and then shaded with Agrax Earthshade or Nuln Oil and then highlighted the same method as other colours. Below is the unit card for Mern's Kindband. 

Unit Card

Next is Keltoi's Moon Falconers. This if a fully converted unit, except Keltoi, from a range of different manufactures to ensure that each model has a bird of prey. For those of you not aware Falconers were part of the original Woodelf army in the first 3 editions of Warhammer. I think from memory the first dedicated army book was 4th edition and they were not included it that.

Keltoi's Moon Falconers

Side view of the Unit

As can hopefully be seen in the photos there is a wonderful eclectic mix of figures, and they seem to come together alright. I will use this unit as a unit of Archers in a ToW game with just bog standard rules. However, I have added to the unit card rules that diverge slightly to create an adapted version, taken from 2/3rd Ed of Warhammer, which I don't think is too out of lore. The biggest change is the reduced power of the missile hit and the unit has skirmish, and move & fire. Also a rather dodge eagle banner but kind of works, goodness knows how!

Rear view of the Unit

Unit Card

The third unit is 'Meadow Clan Elves'. This unit is just hand weapon and shield, and yet again this diversity is not in ToW so these are unlikely to make it onto the table top. But having a few extra numbers does let me fluctuate numbers in other units to hit points totals if needed. 

Elithor's Meadow Clan

Full Unit

As a unit in their own right they work well, and mostly original 80s elves that I found within my collection. To keep with the theme of the army, I use mainly yellows and greens making the unit feel as one, the whole army really is using the same paints and method as described above. This unit is also the only unit without a formal Champion so no red hood or markings. On a Personal note it’s a shame basic elves like this never made it into modern army lists, I suspect it would expose how over-pointed value they are since 4th edition. In older rules sets Woodelves were very potent and as such I think they have always suffered from fluff. As always I finish with a unit card for this Unit.

Unit Card

Thank you for reading. Have a good weekend everyone.