"Should I just do it?" Topic

I haven't played a game of Warhammer since 2003 or so. I have two fully painted armies: a pre VC/TK Undead army and a large Orc and Goblin Horde that became my main army after the Undead schism. Neither one of them is close to legal under the new rules, or so I would imagine. I'm not driving 50 miles to play a game, and there are no longer any gaming stores in my area. None of my friends play anymore, either.

Which brings me to my point: I also have a decent quantity of unpainted high elves. Certainly enough to start a small force. I've been thinking more and more lately about just shelling out the dough for Isle of Blood and adding the Elves therein to my current collection, and painting them all up to form a new High Elf Army. I never got to play them, you see…and I bought them so long ago. It weighs upon me.

The trouble is should I do this, I likely will never play this army. The last version of the rules that I own was a boxed set that came with Lizardmen and Brettonians (both of which I sold off). Also, as I'm sure many of you do, I have a ton of unpainted metal lying around already, from various sources for various games. I'm also painting up miniatures for a steady AD&D campaign. So there are lots of reasons why starting a new WFB army doesn't make sense.

On the other hand, I can't stop thinking about it.

So what should I do?

Paint the figures and use them for something else. Singly based 28s are pretty flexible.

Just paint them, it will do you good. :-)

Fons
MMPS

Download the free Basic Impetus Fantasy rules and build armies from the figures you have.

link

My Fantasy armies are mainly my abandoned Warhammer collections plus figures that I liked from PP Hordes, Reaper, Gamezone, Mag Ego's etc. Given the free format of the rules and army builder you can "theme" an army however you want.
My Wood Elf army has Satyrs, Feral Elves, Treemen, were creatures and such.

Just DO IT!. . .

8)

If you are in it for the enjoyment of painting, do it.

Isle of Blood is a good deal. The figures in it are great. It will compliment an army you have already started. The Skaven can be sold, traded off, or used as a seed for another army down the road. The Skaven could even be painted up for you AD&D campaign, though I don't remember ratmen in AD&D.

As for the rules, maybe you will like them. I think they are the best set of Warhammer fantasy rules in years – YMMV. Otherwise, there is a good number of other fantasy rule sets out there. Of course, if you don't play it doesn't matter. Still you have enough armies to invite a friend over for a causal game and supply the figures. I've found it easy to get opponents for fantasy games if I supply both sides.

If you are still undecided, sell off your unpainted elves. Then it won't weight on your mind so much.

If you can't stop thinking about it, I say go with the creative urge and do it! You could always sell them later or use them for skirmish games if not WFB.

The present WFB is probably the least liked in a long time. But they're good figs and can be used for many games including the next iteration of WFB. Paint em!

Don't do it! You likely have unpainted opponents for your elves in the pile, yes? Paint both sides, and do small skirmish!

Wave of the future, less expense, and less lead in the heap!

Unlike a few other have said, if you want to have your High Elf army to look similar, I would NOT buy the Island of Blood set. I took the calipers to them and they are significantly larger than anything that you would have in your High Elf Inventory both in height, width, depth etc. I knew this ahead of time when I saw that none of the IOB troops match up with anything that I currently have. The only model that looks fine is the Prince on a Griffon. I will point out that everything in the battallion that GW sells is compatible with just about everything that you would have from the time period that you are referring to.

Personally I would just paint up what you have, and if you really want to see the new rules, I would buy a BRB from E-Bay. I will warn you that rules are nothing close to what you are accustomed to from the edition that you were mentioning.

Have a look at the mantic website, they have a free to download wargame which works very well with warhammer figures.

Phil

the elves in the island of blood box are really nice figures

I would NOT buy the Island of Blood set. I took the calipers to them and they are significantly larger than anything that you would have in your High Elf Inventory both in height, width, depth etc.

You wouldn't have a picture showing the difference, would you? It's not something I'd find on GW's site, that's for sure.

I will point out that everything in the battallion that GW sells is compatible with just about everything that you would have from the time period that you are referring to.

I noticed the battalion, too, but I already have most of the troop types contained therein. Plus, I was kinda hoping to recoup some of the cost by selling off the unused Skaven in IOB, thus making it a smaller outlay for me in the long run for an army I likely will never play. For this reason I don't really care about the IOB rules, since I won't be using them. This was just a way to garner some cheap GW High Elf units all at once.

This all started because I was looking for an old blind Eltharion model to use as an NPC in my AD&D game. I actually managed to find one ON THE SHELF in a store with lots of GW backstock, so I bought him. The more I looked at him the more I thought about all those High Elves I still have in storage. I think I have a regiment of spearmen, a regiment of silver helms, and the old High Elf hunting Party, which includes some Reavers, a Chariot, and I think some Archers, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I appreciate all the help, guys. I'll let you know if I proceed with this. Opinions still welcome as I haven't made up my mind yet, but the scale issue is something I was unaware of and may influence my decision.

I will see if I can make some figure comparison pics this weekend.

Thanks. That would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Angry Piper

I can't help but think that the fact that you've even asked the question suggests that you want to paint them.

Looking at your set of miniatures, it sounds like you've got a lovely range of what would now be considered 'old-school' warhammer. And, unlike popular opinion might dictate, you don't need to play Warhammer 8th edition, just because that's the one that GW is selling. If you were playing in 4th ed, go onto ebay, find those rules and try and get your friends interested in those. There is a small contingent of people who are actively looking to play warhammer (i.e. not necessarily pick a whole different game system), but also not be bullied into buying the latest version from GW.

Tiny Legions (who has been providing stirling advice up until now) has a super discussion about this on his blog.

Check it out:

link

One of the biggest advantages of playing older versions of warhammer is that every book and rule has already been published and can'tbe messed with. You can actually be in complete control of YOUR game and what YOU want to do.

So – do it!

I have a new post on my blog that has the comparison shots.

tinylegions.blogspot.com

Take a look Angry Piper and see what you think.

Thanks for taking the time to post those comparision shots. There is indeed a substantial difference in scale, especially in the spearmen. The IOB miniatures look great, however.
My main O&G army was made up of a mix of old citadel orcs, 3rd edition orcs and the ones that came in the box set along with the empire,so I had a varying size degree for most of my units. However this theme seems to work better with Orcs and Goblins rather than hoity toity elves. I'll have to consider it more.

You likely have unpainted opponents for your elves in the pile, yes? Paint both sides, and do small skirmish!

Wave of the future, less expense, and less lead in the heap!

Sounds like a great idea.

Don't get me wrong, they are great looking models. My hang up is the size differences with these guys. I have made the decision over the past few months, that any new armies that I put together, would be useable in both WAB and WFB, and likewise will try to match as best as I can the older GW models from the 90's. So I am looking for the opposite of what GW is manufacturing now-a-days.

You might want to reconsider painting old models if they are the static plastic spear and bow pose that was out years ago. I have several regiments of them, some painted, and compared to the newer multi-pose models they fall short. The look of a spear block with each figure slightly different is much more appealing to me than the old 21 identical and 3 command look of my older regiments. Considering the painting time will be about the same, I would go for some newer models.
But, if you have a lot of the older metal figs, they have some variety and look good as well.

Screw it. I'm doing it.

Here's my current stock of HE models. They're all circa 2001 or so, so they're not the static spear-elves that came in the box with the static spear-goblins in the mid-90s.

High Elf Cavalry Patrol box. This rarity, so I'm told, includes an all-cavalry force of 5 silver helms, 5 ellyrian reavers, a tiranoc chariot, a mounted high elf hero, and an elf waystone, which I assume has no use other than to pretty up the terrain.

I also have a 2001 multi-pose regiment box of silver helms and one of high elf warriors.

Oh, and now I have blind Eltharion, too, although I wasn't planning on using him for this.

So, At present, I have 13 silver helms, 5 Ellyrian reavers, and 16 Warriors, plus an old, horse-pulled chariot. If I were to pick up IOB, I'd add 5 reavers to make 10 total, plus a small unit of 10 sea guard and a small unit of 10 swordmasters. Plus the hero on the griffon and the mage. I'm not big on characters riding monsters, but what the hell. I'll paint it up nice. it's a small force, but flexible enough for skirmishes, and I'll have fun painting it.

As far as the size difference goes, I'll keep the Sea Guard a separate unit to avoid integration, and the swordmasters should be burly from toting around those zweihanders all day. As Tiny Legions was so kind to point out on his blog, the difference in cavalry models doesn't seem to be much of a factor, so my reavers should all play nice together, even if they look a little different.

Seems a little weak on long-range to me. High Elves used to be one of the shootiest armies out there, at least back when I was playing regularly. Maybe I need some archers, as the 10 sea guard aren't gonna make much difference…

For anyone interested, I posted an update to this thread on my blog. I talk about just how insane I must be. I suspect I'm not alone.

angrypiper.com/gaming/?p=34

As always, comments welcome.

It looks like you have a great army starting up according to the blog post. Keep it up!

What games do your freinds play now?

Could you induce them to play something like Hordes of the Things which requires only a bout 36 figures per army and can be played in about an hour?

I've taught many non-gamers or board gamers how to play and all have started collecting/playing.

Its got lots of old Warhammer armies out of the closet.

Current Warhammer edition has some serious issues even for us old time WH players. Not the greatest re-entry point.

TomT

Thanks Tiny Legions. With your permission, I'd like to link to your blog. It's great stuff!

TomT, I've been trying to get my RPG group into miniatures games, but since I'm the only one with any desire to play, I also have to be the one to buy/paint all the miniatures and make all the terrain. It's time consuming, but I hope it wil pay off.

I've tried some basic pulp gaming with a friend using .45 Adventure, and I'm looking forward to testing out War Rocket. I have all the necessary miniatures for those. Also, I'm working on a zombie table so I can play All Things Zombie. All the miniatures are painted, just working on terrain. Lastly, I'm incorporating miniatures in a big way into my AD&D campaign, so I'm hoping they find them interesting enough to want to wargame as well.

As far as Warhammer, I've heard nothing but really bad things about the current ruleset. Convincing someone to start playing GW games is tough enough considering the cost, so a crap rule system isn't going to help. I'll just have to use my armies and my old edition if I can convince someone to play.