island of blood reccomendations?

Discuss your tactics for the 8th Ed army book here.

Moderators: The Heralds, The Loremasters

Post Reply
Message
Author
shahryar
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:21 pm

island of blood reccomendations?

#1 Post by shahryar »

is the high elf stuff from island of blood recommended as a good place to start, anything good or not good with it? and any recommendations for things to buy for 500 and 1000 point armies?(I play escalation leagues)
Jimmy
Centurion
Posts: 3307
Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2004 12:55 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: island of blood reccomendations?

#2 Post by Jimmy »

I would certainly recommend a box or two and swap out with someone else for more elves with the skaven. The models are great, what you don't use you can put on eBay to fund other units. Although not an optimal core choice the sea guard can be used as counts as spearelves.
Nec Sorte Nec Fato - Neither By Chance Nor Fate

X-wing Blog
User avatar
John Rainbow
Posts: 3550
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:47 am
Location: PA, USA

Re: island of blood reccomendations?

#3 Post by John Rainbow »

Yeah it's a good option. You'll probably find you use most/all of the models. I even converted an extra Griffon into an eagle of sorts by cutting off the rider and using green stuff. Looks pretty good. The models are also IMHO some of GWs best, at least in the HE range. You can get the sets cheap on eBay too.
User avatar
Elessehta of Yvresse
Well played Sir
Posts: 7811
Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2010 1:46 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia
Contact:

Re: island of blood reccomendations?

#4 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

If you drop the Griffon Prince the IoB makes a decent 600point list to learn the game with.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
[quote="Narrin’Tim"]These may be the last days of the Asur, but if we are to leave this world let us do it as the heroes of old, sword raised against evil![/quote]
Jedra
Posts: 469
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2010 9:05 am
Location: UK

Re: island of blood reccomendations?

#5 Post by Jedra »

I have to disagree...

The only units that are in the IoB boxed set that I would ever use are the mage and the sword masters - and I should add that these are not an easy unit to use well. Others disagree about whether Lothern seaguard are any good, but it is a contentious issue - personally I find they are only good in a defensive list.

As for ellyrian reavers and griffons... they rarely, if ever, make it into a really good, competitive list. I always want to use reavers, but the are just too expensive for what you can do with them. The griffon is a beautiful model, but a) characters on monsters are pretty vulnerable considering how many points they are worth and b) dragons are just better at it.

I would spend your money instead on a box of archers (suggestion: I prefer to use Wood Elf glade guard than the ugly HE models...) OR a box of spears, some DPs (fantastic model with so much potential), and one of the HE mages from the IoB set off ebay (it is a lovely model, and you should easily be able to snap one up for under £5 as there are so many people selling them from the IoB set). The archers will be better in the smaller games, the spears are a better point to build off for making a goodsized core unit at a later date. For the record, every model I have listed here would be in basically any army build I might make these days.

It IS more expensive (£40 for what I've listed, but its fewer pts than 2 IoBs)... especially counting the rulebook you may have to buy. There's no denying you make a savings on the IoB if you swap the skaven. But really, I would be surprised if many of the people who seriously get into the game keep using the IoB models (except as stand ins) in their final armies.
dabber
Tactician
Posts: 3037
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:21 pm
Location: USA

Re: island of blood reccomendations?

#6 Post by dabber »

Jedra wrote:The only units that are in the IoB boxed set that I would ever use are the mage and the sword masters - and I should add that these are not an easy unit to use well. Others disagree about whether Lothern seaguard are any good, but it is a contentious issue - personally I find they are only good in a defensive list.
But it is quite easy to use the sea guard as spears, and not that difficult to use them as archers.
Although more of a stretch, you can also use the Griffon as an Eagle.
BorkBork
Posts: 246
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:56 pm

Re: island of blood reccomendations?

#7 Post by BorkBork »

Have to agree with Jedra.
I love the models from the iob, but from a game point of view its only the swordmasters and mage that you will use regularly.

for the rest:

I intend to use the sea guard as spearmen.
and i love the reaver models so i will try to fit them in somehow.
You will hardly use the gryphon after the first few learning games.

There are a few conversion options. the gryph can be turned into eagle.
Also somebody here on the forum created dragon princes by taking the torso of the sword masters and put them on top dragon prince horses.
It looked really good and perhaps if you have a double iob set you could try something similiar with the reavers to turn them into silver helms or dp's. Maybe you can even manage to swap the torsos if you cut clean enough and create some armored archers or scouts.
Last edited by BorkBork on Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
[color=#00FF40][b]BORKS WAAAGH ON DA WARPATH[/b][/color]
[url]http://z3.invisionfree.com/Orc__Goblin_Warpath/index.php?showtopic=25246[/url]
Joelatron
Posts: 118
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:44 am

Re: island of blood reccomendations?

#8 Post by Joelatron »

Bought 2 IoB box sets and 2 Battalion box sets when I started my Helf army (JUST before the price rise/shipping embargo and with the Fantastic NZ dollar at the time = for less than the NZ price for 1 IOB and 1 Battalion...sigh). Meet instant army.

From the IoB set I use 5 reavers in pretty much every game (local comp stops 4 eagles). I've converted the Griffons into "eagles" and use the swordmasters + 1 of the mages. I've since bought a 3rd griffon off a friend so I can have a "noble on an eagle" to keep theme (and of course, use lion calv as DP's and wlions).

I havnt used the Sea guard-mainly as I only have a unit of 17 from the 2 starter sets (still need to pick up some more as they are such nice models... I WANT a finished unit even just to display!) + all the spears and archers from the battalion sets are just as good core. The spare Reavers were colour scheme tester models (very, very handy if want to try doing something a little different!).

So I guess I've found the IoB stuff very useful-but I think you at least need to get a Battalion box set as well to give you spears, archers, RBT and a chariot of awesome.
Post Reply