KoW Elves are coming (finally)

Turning to the objective of this project – painting up an Elven army – the hard choices come now. What is the scheme going to be and what do I consider to be the rationale behind the alternative options?

The history of the Elven races is covered in the Mantic book, but I also wanted to personalise it to my own way f thinking, and to see to what extent this will/could influence the armour options for the armies.

In this regards, what would the Elven race look like “now” based on a hypothetical history of (I would assume) rivalries, inter-Elven wars/disputes, family pride and history etc.  Are we to think the Elves were always a homogeneous group, or have they arrived at their current status through wars and internal battles?  I think this is more likely.

To some extent I think there is a dichotomy between the Elves are “seen” by third parties, and the “real” Elven society hidden from prying eyes and “lesser” mortals.  Maybe they are closer to medieval Japan with clan rivalries and decades/hundreds of years of civil war before reaching a state of relative peace, overseen by a type of Emperor/Shogun figure. How might this influence the look of the armies when the Elves do fight as one combined army?

So, I am coming to the conclusion that there are three options on a paint scheme.

Option 1: ALL Elven units are armed and equipped identically (with perhaps “Royal” units having more prestigious armour).  This route requires a solid colour scheme and the “whole” is perhaps more important than the individual unit.  This said, I have seen examples of armour clad Elves in “mental” armour – like medieval Man-at-Arms, ad I do not like the collective look.  So this route would need a softer colour. I also think White is too stark.  After all these are ethereal creatures with imbued magic and creating armour from whatever should be possible.  So some form of “off-white” or pastel colour seems to be the way to go.  Green/Blue come to mind.

Option 2: As above, in that all units have a basic overall colour scheme for the armour, but they can identify their “House/Clan” allegiance through flashes of other colours and perhaps Logos on shields etc. to differentiate their specific allegiance.  This also offers the opportunity to have some “specialisation”, for example Clan “Morrean” may be exceptional archers and their forces would predominantly have a majority of bowman units; or Clan “Ceadar” are renowned horsemen etc.  This also allows for Elf on Elf civil wars in a campaign setting based mainly on the Sengoku period in Japan.

Option 3: Go full on “all colour” armour based around units in medieval Japan or Europe (eg. Wars of the Roses unit colour schemes based on a particular Lord’s ideas).  This allows for full flexibility of paint scheme, but I wonder if this loses some of the overall cohesiveness I’m looking for. (I have a large WoR army already and enjoy the variety of colours they bring to the table, but I’m not sure this is what I’m looking for for the Elves).

My feeling right now is Option 2.  So I’ll make a couple of test runs with different schemes and post these up in the next week and see what they look like.