Warhammer Wood Elves Continue To Stream From The Forest
May 3, 2014 by brennon
Games Workshop has released the rulebook and more for the world of Warhammer Fantasy and the Wood Elves but the second wave is also up for pre-order now. See what you think of the Eternal Guard, Wildwood Rangers, Wild Riders & Sisters of the Thorn!
First up we have the Guard and the Rangers that will be forming the bulwark of on foot infantry facing down your opponents. I think both combinations are some of the coolest looking miniatures out there and the Wildwood Rangers in particular are brilliant. I love those massive two handed blades they're carrying and the axes in hand are a nice twist on the standard Elf.
Next up are some more of their brilliant looking miniatures in the form of this cavalry. The mounts themselves look amazingly fey and with a simple colour change they've tweaked from hardy hunting steeds to mythical beasts. I think the Wild Riders are the better of the two sets and these bodyguards of Orion are very awesome.
It's going to be awesome delving through the new rulebook and seeing what other awesome things can be dug up from this army. Looking at some of the existing models out there for the Wood Elves they fit right in with the new kits and some of them are still brilliant, especially their characters.
Will you be ordering?
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The Eternal Guard remind me of the Mantic elf spears.
That’s a *bit* harsh!
I actually think the Mantic elves are decent minis so it wasn’t an attempt to say the TG aren’t very good. I just think they look a lot alike.
I dont play Warhammer at all but I always imagined Wood Elves as always being skirmishers never fighting as formed troops but engaging in hit and run actions and harassing the enemy
As far as I know someof them can fight in skirmish – not totally on top of what the new rules are like though at the moment.
BoW Ben
I like the models a lot, this Wood Elf release has actually impressed me a lot.
All right, GW fans. Get those fingers ready to mash the ‘Thumbs down’ button. Thoroughly disappointed. This half of the release is even worse than the first. The Sisters of the Thorn look like fairy princesses on goats, and belong at the front end of a Pride parade, while the Wild Riders look like the Jolly Green Giant seduced an acorn. How much time do you think it would take for a Wild Rider, while galloping through the forest at speed, to catch something with those horns on his helmet and get yanked from his trusty stag? And these fellows,… Read more »
You know what, I did hit the thumbs down button. You’re perfectly entitled to not like the miniatures and I never thumbs down someone simply because I disagree with their opinion. However, i found your post a little, shall we say, homophobic.
Not at all homophobic, nor am I. Never even occurred to me that it would be construed that way. Simply a visual comparison. I do want to thank you for your politically correct moral outrage, though.
I’m not outraged, nor am I accusing you of being homophobic. I’m accusing your post of being homophobic. It’s not the same thing. If you want to criticise something for looking like it belongs “at the front end of a Pride parade”, then yes, I consider the fact that that is meant as criticism to be indicative of a slightly homophobic attitude. This is in no way meant to be an attack on you. If someone told me that they thought something I said was offensive, sexist, racist, homophobic or upset them in anyway, my first reaction would be to… Read more »
So, by your reasoning, if I said the figures belonged in the Mardi Gras Parade, I would then be prejudiced against the people of New Orleans?
oh dear. This is the first time I’ve seen someone being accused of being homophobic just because he found GW models slightly silly. Now I can’t take these Fabulous Wild Riders seriously.
In fairness, I think the prices are not too bad. £2.30 (i think?) for a Eternal Guard with some useable extra bits and peaces isn’t terrible. It’s not great but for a unit that is only going to be bought a limited number of times, that’s an ok price don’t you think?
Nobody is accusing anyone of being homophobic. I’m saying that a post in which something is criticised as looking like it belongs on a “Pride march” and later in the same post something is criticised as looking like it belongs in “the Village People” has homophobic undertones. I know I’m stretching it to expect everyone to understand that distinction.
But we all know he was talking about miniatures so why the need to stir up drama? Bored much? Blatant trolling
Now you’re just being ridiculous. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you are intelligent enough to understand the distinction and that you are just trying to play games with logic, rather than admitting you may have inadvertently caused offence.
Let me reiterate, I am not accusing you of being prejudiced. I am not accusing you of being homophobic. I am saying your post was homophobic. I would hope we are all mature enough round here to understand that distinction.
Poor fellow. Awash in a sea of simpletons who don’t understand.
Oh no, far from it. I’m certain that only a tiny number of BoW’s community are simpletons and that most people do understand the distinction I am making.
lol @cpauls1 you’re being “UKIP-ed”
I don’t want to engage in an argument with you on the issues, so I’m just gonna label you homophobic and shut down the argument! woooooooooooo! Throw enough mud and it sticks.
Don’t worry, you’re post is not remotely homophobic, and I find it racist if anyone thinks it is.
Thanks @poosh. I’ve got big shoulders. People can think and say whatever they want. It’s just grandstanding, for whatever reason. As for the price, it’s still steep if you’re not a GW game player. I build company sized units of twelve or more, and that puts these out of reach for bulk battle line buys. The Glade Guard infantry, with 16 in a box, is a good buy, as are the cavalry, the Glade Riders if I’m not mistaken, as there’s eight of those in a box. I only need to buy two of those for a unit. But slowly,… Read more »
You thought his post was homophobic? Thank you, you have given me a good laugh today and thus have extended my life a little bit!
I don’t bother looking at GW prices anymore as I know I will be disappointed. I don’t buy their figures either, so it doesn’t really effect me how much they cost. I think some of your criticism was fair, but perhaps a little too harsh as afterall not many sci-fi / fantasy miniatures are particularly realistic (eg the number of shoulder pads in sci fi). I always try and look at GW figures how I saw them when I was 10. And I think these Wood Elf figures are nice enough to give me a slight feeling of excitement that… Read more »
I see your point… just a little frustration creeping through. At least I can still buy the old cavalry and infantry (I have two of the Glade Guard but only one of the old Glade Riders). I’d still like another box of that cavalry before it disappears. I obviously won’t be buying any of the new stuff.
Don’t get me wrong I can see where your criticisms come from so I also can see your point
Thank you. GW seems to be moving from a ‘miniatures’ aesthetic to a ‘toy’ aesthetic, if that makes sense. So disheartening.
Problem with Mierce is they are awfully overpriced, I’m not buying the “it’s very detailed” cr*p they are shoveling, after all it’s resin and not plastic, moulds have cost almost nothing and as for their sculptors, I’ve seen better. The modularity of plastic kits and shoving out 5(!) models instead of 1 at a smaller price makes GW look cheap! Impossible, but true, lol!
Also, I really like how “the big company” actually has poked my interest back to the (almost forgotten) wood elves 😀
If you’re referring to my post, I was making the comparison to illustrate that stags don’t need to look like something that toddlers rock back and forth on. I wasn’t talking about price. But I’m sure I could find the equivalent of these cheaper and better elsewhere. I’ve even used small pewter moose off of dollar store souvenirs as mounts.
As for resin, I’m told that the reason it’s used is that it holds detail better. At least that’s the story at GW, with their Finecast series, and at Forge World. Has this mantra changed?
Just got the book i can see Eternal guard/rangers used alot. looks like most things have got armour piercing.But most archer units can up grade arrows witch is going to make them expensive game wise. 12pts for basic archer and then add enchanted arrows for between 3-5pts per model
Sisters of the Thorn are … odd looking, but I think it might actually be the painting, I am finding it difficult to judge, but they do look a little too mantic-ish, not really a compliment (though Mantic *do* also make great models). Whatever the case, they and the Wild Riders are rather boring and lack any character to them compared to the older metal Wild Riders.. But they’re nice enough. The Eternal Guard / Wood Elf White Lions are perfectly good models. Again, CAD with no character as is the standard these days, but solid models. So sad GW… Read more »
I’ve enjoyed this release a lot, I see GW get a lot of criticism in the model department these days, not all of it unjustified either but I do genuinely enjoy the new aesthetic, the treeman in particular is wonderful. I’d go as far as to say that, along with maybe the Necrons and Dark Eldar, the Wood Elves are the nicest range of minis that GW produce, I can only imagine how glorious a full force of them look up close and personal. I’ll be looking forward to seeing some finely painted examples appearing in dribs and drabs on… Read more »
£23.50 for 10 elites – that’s £2.30 roughly each? Is that that bad? By GW standards that is actually significant price drop (for them anyway).
Last time I checked Great Swords, old Empire guys, were £25.50… other elites, pretty much identical, are £30 a pop. Is this really so bad ? (again, by GW standards).
not defending GW, but I’m seeing a price drop here.
Perhaps… just seems steep overall for plastic. Maybe their prices are coming down, as you say. But if you compare their prices to Mantic, for instance, then they’re still grossly overpriced. And I don’t think the status of a unit, whether it is ‘elite’ or not, should affect its price. It should still cost the same amount of money to make it.
And I know this post will generate more posts about how GW is superior to Mantic, and in some cases that may be true, but the production costs should be similar.
The status of the troops should absolutely affect the pricing. A standard GW plastic kit cost anything between £10,000 to £30,000 to produce. If the models are Elite Slot troops then their purchases are much less than Troop Slot models thus the increased price to get back that investment and start making profit. You also have the cost of paying the CAD artists etc, I’ll assume more complex kits pay the artist more. I just read Mantic, at least one point, simply made the “greens” of their models then handed them over to a company at the cost of £40,000.… Read more »
This is making my head hurt lol. If the elite units cost less, wouldn’t people buy more of them?
At Salute the Renedra guy was moaning about Ronnie moving production to China /showbiz gossip
Because the number of Elite troops you can use in a game is less than the number of Troop choices.
When I say “Elite” I mean Special and Rare choices. Special choices can only make up 50% of your army, as opposed to troops where, I believe, you HAVE to spend 25% of your points. This means players will have limited Special choices, and much more troop choices, usually.
That being said, GW charge £35 for 10 Witch Elves and put them in Troop choices lol. I blame the drink.
@solar don’t know why you got thumbed down for that wonderful piece of Draaaamaaa lol have a thumbs up because miniature drama is the best drama.
GW sculptors are employees so they won’t get paid any differently depending on the kit. If a complex kit takes more time than a simple one then it’ll effectively cost GW more to have the sculptor produce that kit than another one. GW do all their tooling in house which saves them a lot of expense (thanks, LotR:SBG), but the tooling costs are still such that a mini that doesn’t get used a lot will still cost a lot to sell in plastic. £40k is the figure I heard from “reliable sources” as to the cost of a 10 man… Read more »
Thanks @poosh, have a couple yourself good sir!
@redben I get confused, I see the Perry Twins still model for GW? Or am I mistaken, and I assumed they are just contracted out?
The Perrys are employees of GW. As GW don’t consider historical minis to be competition then their employees are free to do them in their spare time. This is why Rick & Jervis were able to do Black Powder for Warlord. Also why Rick was putting out historical games while he waited out his two year non-compete after he left. In the case of the Perrys, I believe they work Monday-Friday for GW, clock off at 5.30pm, and then head home to work on their own minis in the evenings and weekends. They’ve been doing this since GW stopped doing… Read more »
@redben ah, I see. Thanks for the info. Knowledge is power!
I also assumed that they do pay their designers according to skill etc.
I don’t know the ins and outs of how they pay their sculptors. I’m under the impression that their studio painters are paid a standard wage and I’d be amazed if that didn’t apply to their writers/designers too. GW don’t as a rule put a premium on talent. The only high profile freelancer I can remember them hiring is Aragorn Marks, and in his case he had a lot of experience with plastics which GW were transferring most of their minis to at the time. They don’t give their sculptors much of a public profile, to the extent a lot… Read more »
I’m quite sure plastics cost a lot more than that, 10,000GBP for a plastic kit? I’m positive that a lot of companies would invest in fantasy kits if prices were like that, to my knowledge only 4-5 worldwide have the funds to do so. If I remember correctly Ronnie had stated the skeleton kit had costed more than 50,000GBP, so I wouldn’t be so sure about the 10 to 30 figure. Almost everyone is now moving to China instead of plastic sprue tooling beacuse they cannot compete with GW. This leaves only one really big player, everyone else can only… Read more »
It does strike me as a bit unusual for Wood Elves to have bunched up formations. Then again I haven’t read the rules yet. For all I know, they might have a special rule which makes them ignore terrain impediments to moving or something else that makes them more suited to a guerrilla style of fighting.
@poosh: Now you mention it there does seem to be a little drop in price. Very interesting. 🙂
I haven’t played with or against a Wood Elf army since the 1990s, but back then you had ranked up units of archers and Glade Guard comprising your basic troops.
Tack on that 20% discount from Third Parties and you’re starting to get into territory where you can really afford to build a larger army for a reasonable price. I hope GW re prices all their models accordingly.
Eternal Guard / Wildwood Rangers (10 models, duel kit)
DARK SPHERE: £17.63
TRIPLE HELIX: £17.63
WAYLAND GAMES: £19.98
ELEMENT GAMES: £18.80
*postage varies
I am eager for GW to continue lowering their prices. Just going on their prices for the new releases alone has made me give serious thought to building up my tiny battalion of Wood Elves.
Ok I’m a goof as it took me some time to get it that the eternal guard and the wildwood rangers are the same kit. If it can fool me at first glance thats a good kit. Or the paint job really messed with my mind.
The spearmen look amazing, the guys with the two-handed swords look ok but the mounted miniatures look like bad comic book characters.
You know what’s sort of depressing about these models?
The fact that I was impressed at the relatively realistic body proportions of the Sisters of the Thorn.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see, I just wish is wasn’t an unusual enough sight to warrant comment.