New Army Ideas

What's Next? 

From WD37 - Artist Unknown

Since finishing the first part of my chaos army, I have been thinking about what some of projects I want to take on next. I do want to do a wood elf army at some point as I have had several attempts and never managed to finish them. But I don't fancy painting up large blocks of archers at this point and my mate Stevie has just finished a high elf army so this likely to be a opponent at some point in future when we can start meeting again 

I recently came across Oakbound Studios Miniatures (oakbound.co.uk) and their range of Fae. These are excellent by the way with loads of character and really nice style. Definitely going on the list. and they also produce a set of skirmish rules.  This led to a rummage through the loft to find these beauties.

White Dwarf 37January 1983  - Cover by Emmanuel

White Dwarf 38 February 38 - Cover by Nicholas Bibby

Writing up this article I noticed that the cover was done by a Nicholas Bibby which is surely the same Nick Bibby who did many of Citadel's excellent dragons and Monsters. Including the dragons shown below.

Nick Bibby Dragons

White Dwarf did a couple of articles on the subject of using Faeries in AD&D along with some nice pictures. They also produced some AD&D rules for the Faeries several of which I plan to use in my army.

Not just tiny Faeries!

Not all goody two shoes

Which set me thinking could I build an army around a Fae theme?  The Fae from folklore are not all goodies and many of the characters are at best morally ambiguous. After a bit of searching on the internet I have found a number of companies who do figures that I think will fit this theme. 

• Oakbound Studios  - Loads of characters and I could build some small units such as Gnomes & Goblins. 
• Games Workshop - Sylaneth. Fits the theme with a variety of Dryad types. As usual GW have produced some excellent figures and the plastic kits give plenty of opportunity for conversion.  But they are not cheap and I don't want to spend several hundred quid on a basic force. Maybe some second hand figures and I don't want to build a GW army.
• Ral Partha Legacy - Ral Partha actually produce both Fae and Dryad armies. Some nice figures in there but the cost of postage puts me of buying a couple to see what they are like. I have been eyeing up the 'Oldhammer' Tom Meier Giant so they may have to wait until I get that mini.
• Reaper Miniatures - Reaper do a few characters. No real figures to build an army but a reasonable price.
• Eureka Miniatures - These also do Fae miniatures in their Fanticide range. Reasonable prices and a good range. Definitely on the list. 
• Ex-Grenadier Miniatures - Some of Mark Copplestone's excellent wood elves (from Fornlorn Hope & others) could provide some nice characters at very reasonable prices. 
• The Others - I did quite a few other manufacturers who produced the odd figure which could end up in the final army. 

I don't plan to paint hundred of miniatures and I don't want ones which necessarily traditionally fit the standard Warhammer army list but perversely could be used as a Warhammer army.  I did originally did look at the Wood Elf army list (WFB 3rd) but couldn't find a way to get it to fit. I have been particularly inspired by the Lizardmen armies being built on the Old World Army Challenge which manage to build a 'legal'  Lizardman army using the Slann list.

So after a bit of lateral thinking and you will have to bear me at this point . I decided to use the undead army list. The undead army is a magically powered army with plenty of powerful spellcasters, mighty heroes, fear causing troops and monsters. Which is just the sort of army i am trying to build with the Fae. 

So Necromancers could become Druids (probably elvish ones), Skeletons can become Dryads  and Mummies can become lesser Tree men (Which are flammable which is a nice coincidence and fits the adopted profile). Other types can be worked on as I build and paint units. The profiles of these troop types fit with how i see the faeries working on the battlefield. 

Time to start working on an army list.

Rob