Isle of Blood. High Elves review

Can only review half of it cos I swapped my rat folk out someone elses pointy ears, so i have double the number of elves and no skaven i'd never use. Gonna break it down

Box Set

The artwork on the box is wonderful as is the beginners booklet in there. The dice are still dice, with larger ones for scatter and artillery. Box also features whippy sticks and a set of templates. While they aren't as pretty as the rustic bronze special edition ones you can buy they are very nice. But main useful bit is the mini rule book, saving lugging the massive tome that is the 8th ed rule book around (if you want one theres a few on ebay for about £15 each...)

Models

As all the promo material shows they are gorgeous models. The sprues are packed, made swapping them out a bit of a challenge, and we missed bits when swapping them. Means I have a seaguard without a instrument, and he has a rat ogre without a head.

Griffon

Centre piece of the army this guy looks great (and based on games in store yesterday kicks serious ***). Being click together hes a bit of a paint to build (has to be done in exactly the correct order). The unpainted detail on the wings feathers particularly is wonderful and the pose is also great. Much better than the old griffon model in my opinion. Only critiscism is how ingrained the prince is to the model. His legs and hips are moulded on the halves of the torso as is the arm carrying the lance, the body slots into that, and then his head is part of the back of the seat. Although not a big deal it makes painting them seperatly or converting it to a standalone griffon or another character would be very tricky.

Mage

Again gorgeous model. Torso connects to legs connects to face, similar to the Space Marine captain in Black Reach. The base in particular is of note, its just calling out for some lighting inside it. However it is very flimsy in some places, having broken a bit of it off while pushing the model together

Reavers

10 reavers on the table looks a bit intimidating to me. Love the champion in this group. However another complaint here is the lack of customisabliity. The heads are attached the a throat piece that only fits onto one torso. There no swapping heads or differing one rider horse combo to his brother from the other set. But thats only minor. Also no option for banner or musician...

Infantry

Both the Swordmasters and the sea guard are wonderfully detailed and with there banners with raised details (and the sea guards shields) they are going to be fun to paint. Assembly on them all was very simple, with only 1 arm on the sea guard and nothing at all on the Sword masters, meant i got the entire 2 box worths (minus 2nd mage and griffon) clipped off, cleaned off and assembled inside 3 or so hours.

Picture shows Reavers at the back, with the mage in top right. The 2 squads of swordmasters are on the left (one hiding behind the griffons wings), and one super squad of seaguard (with 2 banners...) are on the right


These guys are now in the holding cycle of my painting list, waiting for a decent day to get them sprayed and started.

Samurai Wraithlord and more High Elves

And the finished article (bar paint of course, but as i type its sitting drying from its base spray). All the weapons, down to the hands are magnetised should they need posing or changing, something i intend to start doing on all models like this. Looking forward to painting him!

Also got this


My newset high elf. The paint scheme definently works on IC's just got to wait and see it on rank and file troops. Gonna have to get better at doing faces now in fantasy, seeing as no helmets to cover faces now!

The High Elves of Corcesceth

So i've decided to start Fantasy in 8th edition. I'm doing High Elves cos I love the models, the rules and generally all things Elvish. But I hate painting in White and Blue so i'm going with something a little different. Written a bit of fan-fluff to explain my colours

Prior to the chaos incursions of dark elves, beasts and deamons that plagued Ulthuan for so long began, before contact with the human civilisations in the Old World, the elves of central Tiranoc lived peacefully off the land in the same way that all of their kin did. This changed during the reign of the Phoenix King Caledor the Second. A massive chaos incursion landed on the coasts in an attempt to avoid the road well travelled and catch their foes unawares, while most of the army was abroad, in battle with the dwarves. After encountering little resistance as expected they came across the army of the Prince Corcesceth waiting for them on the plains of Haedris.
A desperate bloody battle ensued with the Elves fighting heavily outnumbered, buying time for the main armies to mobilise, to reinforce them. However it was a losing battle. The elves were punished heavily. Corcesceth saw his uncle, his brother and his only son killed before his eyes as the battle lines of chaos encroached further across the plain. A flurry of arrows felled his steed from underneath him and dropped him, unceremoniously on the side of the plain. Forces were thin here as an impenetrable forest guarded this flank. As he lay there watching his kin fall, selling their lives dearly on this plain he prayed to Asuryan for deliverance. His prayers were answered with a screech. The forest exploded, near him trees flying and scattering surrounding troops on both sides. But it was not the salvation he had prayed for. Out of the forest strode the Keeper of Secrets, a greater demon of Tzeentch. Corcesceth slumped his head to the ground wondering why his gods had abandoned him on this field when a second deeper screech rang out over the plain. From the black storm clouds advancing over the Chaos lines swept a dragon of jet black scales, burning with an eldritch red glow. As it flew over the lines of battle great gouts of white hot flame erupted from its mouth, immolating the chaos lines, before it swooped in on Corcesceth’s position. The Lord of Change swung his twisted weapon at the dragon only to have it deftly avoided. The dragon lunged in and grabbed the daemons neck in its claws, and in a magically amplified noise, shattered it in two places. It pulled the demons head next to its own, looked into the eyes of the beast and once more unleashed its magical flame into the beasts face. When the dragon released the demon it slumped to the ground, headless and defeated before vanishing back to the warp. Crushed by the loss of the demon and the appearance of the powerful Star Dragon much of the chaos line fled. It was quickly chased down and cut apart by vengeful High Elves.
After the battle the fallen elves were seen to in the respectful manner expected of their kin. The bodies of their enemies were removed, burnt in massive pyres to honour the flame of the dragon that had saved them all. A year later the plains of Haedris, were no longer the green grass they once were, but awash with a new red flower, only growing in places where the dragons breath had cleansed the earth. Prince Corcesceth decided to adopt these colours into his kinsman’s martial uniform as a reminder of the cost of their safety.
However other citizens of Ulthuan regard them with suspicion. Were Corcesceth’s prayers answered by a chaos god before his own? And any elf abandoning the white robes of his race in favour of the blood red of battle must be showing signs of taint mustn’t they? And how did any elf live so long with no signs of ageing? Regardless of these suspicions Corcesceth still rules over the lands, riding into battle astride his saviour, Elarique to keep his lands free, and fought in the great campaign during the reign of Finubar the Seafarer pushing the last great chaos excursion from their lands.



So only one model (2nds underway) at present but I like it personally. Its going to be a while before i'm up to gameplay strength (although the intro box is apparantly High Elves vs Skaven so i'll be getting that probably)