Archmage Tinwal looked over the battlefield. Across the river he could see regiment after regiment of Druchii warriors and treacherous Ratmen. He hid his fear and self doubts deep inside. Everyone here seemed to think of him to be cold, haughty and aloof anyway, so no one will hopefully notice. He got the job of high general in the best elven fashion. Politics. Truly, who else could possibly hold Elves of Athel Loren, Dwarves and old Nehekharan King together? Not one of them was friendly and forthcoming to the others. But the army at their door was able to make them work together at least for the moment. And he lead them into the battle.
Yet he was a bit uneasy, they were all more experienced generals than he was. At this moment he hated politics. Silent as ghosts, the Phoenix Guard joined him at the front of their joined armies and he felt slightly reasured. He will survive the battle, and so will his men.
Horns and drums sounded from the other side of the river and the enemy moved forward. Druchii Beastmasters cracked their whips and terrible black Hydra moved in front of their advancing troops.We played invasion and quite like my Archmage, I was made the general of Order for the sole advantage of being acceptable for all sides. So we watch Skaven and DE cross the river (I wanted to see what river does in battle - now I know - it makes people angry). "We should advance," I say. "No, not yet." Ok, so we stand and Dwarves shoot cannonballs at the Hydra. "Should we not advance to hold enough parts of the battlefield?" "No, not yet."
So we play. End of fourth turn Wood Elf general announces he has to go home and the Dwarf departs with him.
Now TK control their quarter of the field against rats (with no warmashines by now) and the other seems a bit emtpy with my HE standing against the hated Druchii. But finally I see what I need to do and advance. Four turns later the HE still stand proud and hold other quarter of the field against their dark kin.
The DE player then figuratively throws away his army (gifted it to one of other player). next three hours we hear about how bored he was, how lame it was to place the river across the battlefield and how he did hardly get into close combat (well, he was welcome to charge his Xbows into my WL instead of shooting them from afar

).
I suggest it would perhaps be better to play a few one on one battles to help us new players to get better understanding of our armies. He was offended that we disregard his RPG campaign. Oh well.
After some more discussion we started Mighty Empires campaign, but it proved to be short lived as my friend finally realized he was bored to tears by us and all fantasy WH and started a 40K campaign. I am not falling for the same trick twice.
Sorry for the rant, but this is how I started in Warhammer and I suppose I had to write it up to get rid of the bitter taste.
I will only add the mangled Dark Elf army arrived eventually at my door and now to the models. I hope they will make up for the lenghty intro.
Eagle Claw



Silent Phoenix Guard




"Eagle"

My single finished Dragon Prince



With optional banner, I have yet to decide what to paint onto the banner

Laimar, the BSB in this famed battle. The standard doesn't look like much, but it is ancient.




Adnezar, the Corsair general I painted for the poorly treated DE army. They truly didn't deserve to be manhandled. They are still Elves...



Next time I plan to visit the Shadowlands. But before I venture there, my homage to Lileath.
Touched by the Moon


