Topic: Fancy New Elfs Are Out ...

[Victor]

The fancy new Elves are up for sale on the GW-Website.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/New-Exclusive

I had to laugh out loud when I saw the prices .... £105 or €130 for MC Hammer-Teclis with the silly winged cat monster. I think we have hit a new low .. or high. (The € prices are even more of a joke, considering the current exchange rate.)

[GamesPoet]

   And the head human head with the horns on the birdcat, sheesh ... it looks terrible.  Not worth the funds ... $135? Eeek!

The headdress on the lady wizard looks awkward.  As does the pose for the other floating dude, although suppose it does look like an ethereal.

The archers have 3 strings on their bows.

However, I'm ok with the spearmen.

Glad I have the elves from the 8th edition starter set, and some of the ones put out by a different company.  They've been posting links to their kickstarters here, although spacing the name at the moment.

[Warlord]

The sphinx looks fine - except the head which looks terrible.

The spearmen are great, and the archers are... what they are.

It kinda annoys me though - I feel like they have invaded my head canon for elves with that. I always interpreted Elves to be more Egyptian than Greek.

Prices, as usual, impossible.

[Jmash]

Archers and spearmen are the best of the lot for me here - just unsure on the heads, the jury is still out on the fishtail helmet plumes and the archers ones are just a bit meh.

Personally I think they'd look pretty ace with the old style helmets, possibly the dark elf shorter ones with traditional HE feathers and crests etc... Archer helmets minus the plumes might make for some interesting tilean/estalian conversions perhaps? Might be one for the back burner in a few years maybe (among everything else!).

Either way they're still 1000% better than the underwater seamonkey elves (sorry, AElves)! 

[Gankom]

As a separate somewhat lore based note, they mentioned in an earlier post that the big cow monsters are actually a kind of golem. Those bodies are constructed to hold mountain spirits, and thats why they look weird. The spirits "require" built in mountains apparently.

I actually kind of like the idea of spirit golems, I just wish the hammer elves didn't have the giant bull helmets. I quite like them otherwise, but I don't feel like hacking the horns off and green stuffing the top of every helmet.

Also them prices. No *surprise*, just disappointment. I like Teclis and I think his sphinx would look good with different painting, but for 200 Canadian bucks I could get two Get Started sets.

[Jmash]

I just read the model focus for the Avalenor Stoneheart King of the mountain goats.

As a concept I think it kinda works, mountain spirit embedded into a golem-esq body but I can't help but feel that if it's got a teeny tiny mountain range on it's back to appease the mountain spirits, it's a little bit tokenistic of these new elves! "We'll take you out of this MOUNTAIN and give you a small rock and a bonsai tree to keep you happy!" 

Now I totally understand that these have to be marketable and have a function in the game, but could you imagine if these were much more fitting of their mountainous nature and were the size of a 40k titan rather than a poxy 20ish feet tall? Now that would be impressive... 

[Gankom]

Super impressive! Although not nearly as big and impassive as the price would surely be on it.

[GamesPoet]

An "impassive" price ... hadn't heard them referred to as that before.

[Gankom]

Because no matter how you look at it, it sure is hard to wrap your head around! AND they sure are hard to deal with.

[Old Stonebeard]

Now I totally understand that these have to be marketable and have a function in the game, but could you imagine if these were much more fitting of their mountainous nature and were the size of a 40k titan rather than a poxy 20ish feet tall? Now that would be impressive...

Can only imagine they didn't go that route because the new Sons of Behemat gargants appear to be the size of 40k Knights, and they don't want anything competing with 'em. (I'm aware you said Titan, but still). I do expect they'll be the size of the current Greater Daemons / Verminlords, though.

I must concede that, as High Elves were my first WHFB army, I did buy into Lumineth and they've provided me with a great reason to use my Citadel purples, which I've only ever had on hand for spot colors before. Still blocking in colors though:



Alex

[GamesPoet]

Those look like they are coming along well.  Don't forget to come back and share more!

[Artobans Ghost]

Awesome work! Love the spear men and the cavalry the best. You just gave me inspiration for a colour scheme with the white. Please keep an update

[Gankom]

Love that purple colour.

[Old Stonebeard]

Thanks guys. I've just blocked in the metallics and they're puuurdy. Will post an update once this batch is done, as my WIP models are ugly as sin.

Speaking of ugly as sin, a word on archers...

The archers have 3 strings on their bows.

Hear me out: that's not actually the problem. When I saw some of the early teaser art, which showed only half the bow, I thought to myself "huh, leaf spring bows. That's neat." My problem with them is that it's not a leaf spring all the way through: the lower half changes to a normal shortbow, and the 3 strings come down to 1 point. Everything about it just looks awkward, and it looks awkward because it would never work. That's where suspension of disbelief breaks down even in a fantasy setting with giant mountain yak monsters carrying sledgehammers. I would have much preferred if they'd made the whole thing a leaf spring bow OR simply gone with the asymmetrical Japanese yumi, and made the top half aesthetically match the bottom.

Fortunately, it looks like it may be simple enough to clip off the tops and bottoms and swap them around, but since these aren't 2-in-1 build kits, I'll end up with 10 of one type bow and 10 of the other...
https://twitter.com/philkellywords/status/1305572905028288515?s=20

Regardless, if you like the look of big pike blocks (on rounds or squares) definitely take a look at Phil Kelly's feature on Warhammer-Community:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/09/11/march-of-the-vanari-phil-kellys-lumineth-realm-lords/

Alex

[GamesPoet]

A good catch on the link to the High Elf pikes.

Yep, GW can talk till they are yellow in the face regarding whatever they are calling them.  Look like High Elfs to me.

[Gankom]

I'll stick this here as it seems like this is the Lumineth thread. There's a picture going round one of my discord servers of some of the new hammer elves with the giant bull horns cut off the helmets. Instead they've taken plumes off the custode 40k models and glued them on. looks much better in my opinion.

[Artobans Ghost]

That makes a huge difference. I really like them.

[Warlord]

That makes a huge difference. I really like them.

Agree! Much, much better!

[Gankom]

I'm a huge fan of this converted look. I like the idea of hammer elves, it was just the dumb hat that threw me off. There's also some good discussion about replacing the hammer head with a phoenix guard halberd from folks who dont like hammers. I think that would look good as well.

[Warlord]

Yeah, I would likely do that if I had the space $1000 to buy a box of 10, or however much GWs prices are nowadays.

Hammers feel more Dwarfy than Elfy to me, regardless of how decorative they are.

[GamesPoet]

Good riddens to the horns.  Not a fan of the hammer.  Give 'em blades like two handed swords or halberds.

[kingoftheempire12]

Yup those prices are pretty much the definition of exaggerated.

[Old Stonebeard]

Good riddens to the horns.  Not a fan of the hammer.  Give 'em blades like two handed swords or halberds.

Like this?



I maintain that Lumineth are, literally, half an army at best. The Alarith (the hammer lads) are one (mountain) of four elemental temples, the other three (water, air, and light) are not represented. Furthermore, the Battletome talks about how the other four Great Nations are dedicated to Tyrion and martial perfection, and it even references chariots and war machines.

That picture is one of the warbands from the new Underworlds starter, and it wouldn't surprise me if that's a Light temple mage + a Tyrionic swordmaster.

Alex

[Gankom]

I'm not super fond of the stances myself. I like hammer and sword, but the mage and archer I'm a bit more meh on.

I'm with you though on the Lumineth being a quarter of an army. Seems weird to rush out just one temple, and barely mention the others.

[Rowsdower]

The bow with 3 strings reminds me of Robin Hood Men in tights