Over on the 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Facebook Group I've begun a new "Tale of 4th Gamers" Painting Challenge.
As you may assume the format steals heavily from the "Tale of Four Gamers" series that was so popular in White Dwarf and has been replicated a lot in various ways by many bloggers and Facebook groups (and many other platforms I'm not on no doubt). My version is based on 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle and is what the 4th in name refers to.
The premise is to spend an imaginary budget of gold pieces (gp) each month on your army from a costings file (housed in the files section of the 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Facebook Group) which is based upon the GW prices of the time (early to mid 90s) with a little weighting and logical changes to avoid discouraging horde armies. Models can be of any manufacturer or vintage but special smug/cool points can be felt for using miniatures available at the time. The only rules are 1) that you do not exceed your budget and 2) that you have a "legal" army at the close of each month (i.e. the usual rules, you have a General, no more than 50% spent on Characters, at least 25% spent on Rank & File etc....).
The first month you have a budget of 50gp from which you must buy your General (representing you) and your first batch of followers. Then, for the following four months you have a budget of 25gp to spend. You can roll left over budget from one month to the next and you don't even have to spend your whole budget, and this last point was important. In previous Painting Challenges I've had complaints that points requirements mean they can't keep up with the painting schedule. The structure I have put in place here means you can go at your own pace. So, if you want to paint a lot go for cheaper models and max your budget out. If you want a slower pace don't spend all of your budget or go for costly models.
So what new army am I working on? The dastardly Dark Elves! Fellow purveyors of Assassins as my beloved Skaven.
I've wanted to paint a Dark Elf army since I got into Warhammer Fantasy Battle that time in the early 90's where 3rd Edition was ending and 4th Edition swaggered in. It was Kent Martin's 1000 point Dark Elf Army from White Dwarf 144 that planted a seed that took root in some dark corner of my mind and kept nagging at me.
Subsequent Dark Elf ranges came and went, the 4th Edition Dark Elves never gripped me, they were OK, although I really don't like the Witch Elves with their huge weapons, and then the Dark Riders that were added to that range in 5th that rode those god awful Elven Steeds (sorry Trish) added to the "don't like pile meant they were a no no. Then came 6th and those bloody Cold Ones that looked like muppets, I didn't mind the rest of the range, some of them were really nice but the general feel of the whole range was different, somehow Manga like and that meant they were out too as they didn't "feel" right.
I wanted the old Citadel and Marauder Dark Elves that were available in 3rd Ed and most of 4th Ed and now, at last, after years of stock piling a bunch of those models I'm ready to build my Dark Elf raiding party. In keeping with my love of the late 3rd and early 4th stance I'm using the Warhammer Armies White List from the 4th Ed Warhammer Fantasy Battle Starter Box to build my Army, not Warhammer Armies Dark Elves which I feel experienced too much power creep. The White List is more the feel I want.
For my first month I've managed to paint a Lord riding a Cold One and 20 Warriors armed with Crossbows. In terms of Challenge Costings this means of my 50.00 gp budget I've spent:
I've wanted to paint a Dark Elf army since I got into Warhammer Fantasy Battle that time in the early 90's where 3rd Edition was ending and 4th Edition swaggered in. It was Kent Martin's 1000 point Dark Elf Army from White Dwarf 144 that planted a seed that took root in some dark corner of my mind and kept nagging at me.
Subsequent Dark Elf ranges came and went, the 4th Edition Dark Elves never gripped me, they were OK, although I really don't like the Witch Elves with their huge weapons, and then the Dark Riders that were added to that range in 5th that rode those god awful Elven Steeds (sorry Trish) added to the "don't like pile meant they were a no no. Then came 6th and those bloody Cold Ones that looked like muppets, I didn't mind the rest of the range, some of them were really nice but the general feel of the whole range was different, somehow Manga like and that meant they were out too as they didn't "feel" right.
I wanted the old Citadel and Marauder Dark Elves that were available in 3rd Ed and most of 4th Ed and now, at last, after years of stock piling a bunch of those models I'm ready to build my Dark Elf raiding party. In keeping with my love of the late 3rd and early 4th stance I'm using the Warhammer Armies White List from the 4th Ed Warhammer Fantasy Battle Starter Box to build my Army, not Warhammer Armies Dark Elves which I feel experienced too much power creep. The White List is more the feel I want.
For my first month I've managed to paint a Lord riding a Cold One and 20 Warriors armed with Crossbows. In terms of Challenge Costings this means of my 50.00 gp budget I've spent:
- 1 Cold One Mounted Hero = 4.00 gp
- 20 Crossbowmen (5x4) = 22.50 gp
- Total spent = 26.50 gp
- Total unspent = 23.50 gp
This means I can roll 23.50 gp over into next month's budget. I didn't get as much painted as I'd hoped but I'll finish off what I began in a later month.
The narrative I'm building for this army is as follows:
Galeron Daas is the recent "inheritant" of the Lordship of House Daas of the Citadel of Bloody Hell after seizing power from his Brother who was recently found dead in his bed chambers, his sheets slick with blood spilled from his slit throat.
Along with his followers, the guards of House Daas, crossbow armed Dark Elf warriors, he plans to build his forces before sailing to the Old World to raid the coasts of the uncivilised realms of Men for wealth and slaves.
I'll continue this narrative with each successive month, the story of his army building and culminating in a battle I have planned against a Bretonnian army.
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