Hello Owen here and here is the third part of my deep dives into
the 4th edition army books and this time I am literally wearing
the T-shirt as I present this to you.
So how about you sit back if you're painting, just
concentrate on the flow of the colours and reminisce with me
about Warhammer Armies Dark Elves.
I'm looking at the cover of this book, one of the truly iconic
Warhammer covers, one which wouldn't probably be published
today, but in itself is one of the covers that everyone
remembers. The 4th edition book Warhammer
Army's Dark Elves, published in 1996 and written by none other
than Jervis Johnson. The cover art is by David
Gallagher and the stories are by Jonathan Green.
This cover features 3 Dark Elves in varying states of undress.
The first one at the back is riding a cold one with a face
taken straight from Jurassic Park.
His armour is from head to toe and he carries a massive sword
and a banner on his back. The second one is obviously a
sorceress, she's gone a bit risky.
Big boots, big hair, big cloak. And the third one is practically
naked right at the front with two red blood covered blades and
the hat of Cain the witch King. Hoof.
Yep, I've literally wearing the T-shirt with this on.
One of those iconic images. Now the Dark Elves were a great
race to have in Warhammer. The Dark Elves were a race that
everyone liked, but they were very difficult for a limited
painter like myself. Now as you know, I tend to go
for the Orcs and Goblins, the Beastmen, even the Dwarves
because you can cover a lot of sins with a beard.
But when it came to Dark Elves, they were intricate.
The models were very special indeed and they were very
difficult to make look good with limited painting skills.
So they're an army I've never actually collected or painted,
but that doesn't mean that they don't hold a place in my heart.
That doesn't mean that I used to love playing against them, and
they were one of the finest armies you would ever see on the
table top and always tough to beat.
I think, as with the other books we've looked at, by the time
this 4th edition came around, Games Workshop and Warhammer
were particularly trying and finding their feet when it came
to the background, when it came to the world, when it came to
creating a picture in our head of where our toy soldiers were
fighting and why. And this book, like the others,
does a stellar job of that. I'll wake my way through it.
We turn from the cover and we look inside and we see some a
very evocative images. If you have the book in front of
you, why not look along with me, Read along with me.
I am coming to this blind. I have not looked at this book
for probably almost 30 years, but here it is in my hand.
The first page shows photographs of the model range.
Some amazing scenery. A mighty dark elf horde prepares
for war is the first one with some ranked up units on a hill,
harpies in the background, an old temple and some great
looking monolithic scenery. The second one, a Dark Elf army
mounts a ferocious attack against their arch enemies, the
High Elves, and in this you can clearly see the juxtaposition of
the white gleaming armour of the white gleaming High Elves and
then the dark armour of the Dark Elves opposite them.
But you have the white hair of the Witch Elves as well.
Two polar opposites of the same coin, the High Elves and the
Dark Elves. Even though this this model
range is 30 years old, the figures stand and hold up really
well, The background is deep and varied, and the armies look
absolutely stunning. We move on.
There's a contents page a bit shorter than the other books I
find this one which went up into the 100 pages.
This one is 84 pages, so a little bit shorter, but still
full of incredible art. On the next page we have what
looks like a John Blanche illustration.
Dark elves, Colwyn riders steaming out of a skull shaped
Fort, the air thick with harpies.
Wow. Dark earth warriors in the back
and banners absolutely everywhere.
And then we head to the introduction with text.
So good text, so full of life that I will read it for you
right here. Over 5000 years ago, a great
civil war erupted in the elven lands of Ulthorn.
For decades, the two sides battled against each other,
unleashing a period of anarchy, terror, death and bloodshed on
the Kingdom of the High Elves. The war began when Malekith, the
future which king of Nagarov, attempted to seize the power in
a bloody coup. Malekith and his black hearted
followers forsook the way of the old elven gods and sought out
the forbidden power of dark sorcery.
When their kin attempted to stop Malekith, their elven kingdoms
were plunged into a long and bloody war.
Ultimately the dark elves, as those Renegades were named, were
driven out and banished. They settled in Nagarov in
bitter and resentful exile. Here they established their own
Kingdom amongst the dark mountains and pine forests of
the aptly named Land of Chill. The largest and the oldest of
these cities is Nagarond, with the ancient and undying Witch
King holds court and continues to mastermind the Dark Elves,
never ending war against the High Elves.
Over the millennia, the Dark Elves have been twisted and
corrupted until they have become complete opposites of the noble,
altruistic High Elves. They are a cruel and wicked
race, revelling in the pain and despair of others, completely
untrustworthy, and capable of carrying out the most wanton
acts of depravity and murder. Of all the races in the
Warhammer world, the Dark Elves appear to be the most purely
evil, for they will take pleasure in performing a
malicious act for no other reason than it causes suffering
to others. Like a child that pulls the
wings off a family, a Dark Elf will slowly torture a prisoner
to death simply to see how much pain they inflict before the
victim dies. Not even the followers of the
vile Chaos Gods are so depraved, for while they are perfectly
capable of performing acts of quite unspeakable horror, they
at least do so in the name of their gods and to spread their
unholy religion. The Dark Elves neither have nor
seem to feel the need for such reasons or excuses.
Like all Dark Elves. Like all Elves, sorry, Dark
Elves are lithe and sinuous. Their muscles are strong and
their reactions every bit as quick as their agile minds.
Despite their deathly pallor and cruel faces, they are savagely
beautiful and highly intelligent.
As suits their name, the Dark Elves almost invariably wear
dark and sinister attire. Their helmets and other war gear
are exquisitely well made and highly decorated with
distinctive patterns in black and gold and silver.
All are extremely dangerous fighters, equally adept with
sword, spear or their famous repeater crossbow.
At times of war, almost the entire Dark Elf population can
be called to arms, which means that the Dark Elves are capable
of fielding huge armies, even though the total number of Dark
Elves is very small compared to the other races that inhabit the
Warhammer world. In battle, the Dark Elves prefer
to use guile and cunning to defeat their enemy rather than
pure brute force. Dark Elf armies have large
numbers of the infamous Dark Elf Scouts and Dark Rider cavalry.
These troops range ahead of the main army, spreading fear and
confusion and reporting back with detailed information on the
enemy's deployment. If at all possible, the Dark
Elves will use this information to draw the enemy into a trap or
ambush. Even when forced to fight a
pitch battle, a Dark Elf army will not normally charge the
enemy head on. Instead, the Dark Elves will use
their Repeater Crossbow and Repeater both throwers to wear
down the enemy and goad them into a rash attack.
As the enemy move forward, Dark Rider cavalry will mount hit and
run attacks on their flanks while Dark Elf scouts will
emerge from hiding to unleash flurries of well aimed crossbow
boats before they can be attacked back.
Only when the enemy's advance turns to falter under the
relentless hail of missiles and surprise attacks will the Dark
Elves unleash their cold One Nights and War Hydras to finish
the enemy off. Although the majority of Dark
Elves are warriors by nature and inclination, this is not true
for all of them. The Dark Elves are a race
touched by magic power, and Dark Elf's sorcerers have become the
ultimate masters of Dark Elf's sorcery.
The High Elven mage, they knew of the dark power of magic, but
for long ages they turned their back on its possibilities,
considering it too dangerous to use.
It was Malekith who long ago started experimenting with the
power of dark magic. Many say that in doing so, he
was touched by the very power of Chaos, and it was this that
corrupted his once noble spirit. Be this as it may, Malekith's
experiments revealed a new form of magical energy, of terrifying
power. Once he had mastered its deadly
secrets for himself, Malekith began to teach a small but
growing band of followers how to use dark magic.
Thus were born the Dark Elf sorcerers, and in time, the
entire Dark Elf race. Now that was a mouthful, but
also what a brilliant introduction for a race that you
may be thinking of painting or collecting or putting on the
table top you have given them. The reason why they were born
there is the small part of a story which would run through
all the editions of Warhammer, very much up until the end
times, where Malekith at last seemed to take his crown.
As I said, I loved the Dark Elves, but I found it very
difficult for a limited painter like myself to collect them.
But even now, just reading that, I'm quite inspired.
And on my painting desk, if I can reach across here, is one of
those old miniatures of a dark elf sorceress.
I'll put her there on my painting desk in the hope that
I'll paint her. And maybe what I'll do is I'll
print or put a photograph on the discord so you can see how I get
on. Can I even wear such a good
figure? But maybe I can even make it
look bad. Let's have a look.
I would love the Dark Elf army. I really would.
Anyway, we move on. The history of the Dark elves,
Page 7, the birth of the Dark Elves.
There's lots of information there about how they came to
being. With some lovely pencil art of
some dark elf warriors with huge axes and swords.
We have a piece here on the Bloody Handed God, the Blighted
Isle and the Sword of Cain, the Black Arcs of Nagarov.
Remember, this was around the time of of men at war and man O
war. Sorry, men at wars like Men At
Work, men of man O war, which was when that great game came
out. And some of the best figures of
that were from the Dark Elf Range, including the Black Arcs,
the Underworld Sea, the Boiling Sea, Nagarov, the Land of Chill.
Let's see what they have to say about that.
The Dark Elves were driven from the elven land of Uthron many
centuries ago and now live in the northern regions of the New
World. Their black and unwelcoming
homeland is known as Nagaroth, which translates as the Land of
Chill. The name is an appropriate one
for most of Nagaroth is a harsh wilderness of frozen tundra.
The Nark elves live in six heavily fortified cities, their
innumerable black towers rising like pinnacles of ice from the
cold, Hard Rock of Nagaroth. All these cities are dark and
evil places, steeped in death and agony.
Their black dungeons are crammed with captives whose wailings
fill the air and whose moans seep through the thick walls of
the high towers, saturating the place with pain and despair.
All the tips of these towers soaked with evil and doom.
The sorcerers of Nagaroth cast them a line magic all over the
world. The surrounding landscape is
bleak and forbidding. To the north, the land is flat
and windswept, only broken by outcrops of poor rock and poison
black water streams that Criss cross the landscape.
Further South, the thin soil becomes slightly more fertile
and the temperature rises high enough to support dark,
forbidding pine forests as well as huge plantations where slave
workers are forced to work until they drop dead in their tracks
in order to provide the food for the Dark Elf cities.
Sounds nice, doesn't it? It's a bit like Port Talbot.
I can say that I'm from there. Moving on, we have more
descriptions of the dark elf cities.
Nagaron, the tower of cold, Karondkar, the Tower of despair,
Grand, the north tower, Ha Grief, the dark crag.
That sounds good, Should we have a look at that?
Ha Grief is named after the Dark Crag and all the cities of the
Dark Elves. This one is feared the most, for
no captive man or elf has ever escaped from this place.
It lies at the bottom of a cold, dark valley and is completely
surrounded by mountains of bare Black Rock higher than the
highest walls. No sunlight reaches the city of
Hagrave, and it is surrounded and shrouded in gloom and
shadow. All about the city lie many
mines and quarries, from where the Witch King takes iron and
stone to arm his warriors and build his fortresses.
Thousands of slaves labour in his service.
Chained together, they scrape and hack at the rock, often deep
underground in narrow tunnels and dark in the Witch King's
land. Sounds really, really grim,
doesn't it? Anyway, we move on Ka Karond,
the Tower of Doom. In Ka Karond, untold slaves
labour upon the fleets for the Witch King, for here are his
principal dockyards where the raiding ships are built that
Harry the lands of Uthwan and beyond.
The city is vast and sprawling, and all around is surrounded by
forests of towering Pines, black trees of harbour, few creatures
and cloak the ground beneath so that all is in darkness.
In this, the Forest of Shadows, chained slave gangs work the
forests, cutting and dragging the massive Timbers into the
city of Khakarond, the Tower of Doom, as it is called by men.
I don't think there's anywhere nice in Nagaroth, is there?
Dark, horrible pits and mines and towers and forests full of
shadow and doom. But this is the timeline, and
this is the land which the Dark Elves find themselves.
And this, by giving us the names of these places and what happens
in there, it makes us excited about creating a really
evocative and powerful background for our armies.
No matter how hard they try these days, they never seem to
reach the high levels of these early books.
The Dark Elf timeline comes next starts off at -4461 an Aryan,
the first of the High Elf Phoenix Kings, rescues the witch
Marathi from a slanishy war band.
So there we are some famous characters that go all through
the books of First of all mentioned, I'll go to -2200 The
High Elves take the Blighted Isle.
Kalador does not draw the Sword of Cain, even though it would
give him the power to defeat the Witch King.
On his way home, a great Tempest separates his flagship in Dwar
from the rest of the fleet. Sails torn.
Driven to the very coast of Nagaroth, the ship is
overwhelmed by Dark Elf rivers. Khalidor throws himself into the
sea rather than be captured. It's like some great
Shakespearean tragedy, isn't it? It moves on.
Let's go to a more recent age with the 11125.
The Dark Elves follow up their success and invade the Shadow
Lands in a series of battles. The High Elves are driven back
until all that remains in the Shadow Lands are scattered bands
of shadow warriors fighting a desperate guerrilla war from
hidden camps in the mountains. The year 1783 Dark Elf scouts
discover a way through the underworld which leads to the
High Elf colony of Arnhelm in the New World.
Until now, the High Elf colonists have been shielded
from the Dark Elves by the Black Spine Mountains to the West and
the Impossible Doom Glades in the north.
Caught completely unprepared, many outlying High Elf
farmsteads are destroyed before a proper defence can be
organized and the Dark Elved Scout raiding parties driven
back into their mountain strongholds.
Wow. Let's go to the most recent
entry, 2420 Three 2423 Elfarion, son of Moranion leads a highly
successful raid against Nagarond itself.
It is the first time High Elves have entered Nagarond and
returned alive. The Witch King broods and plots
his vengeance. Bless him, good stuff again.
Then moves on and there comes a short story which is a couple of
pages long before we start to look in detail at the various
things we find in the Dark Elf army.
There on page 15, Dark Elf War machines.
The repeater, both thrower and what a stunning piece this was.
It looked so dangerous and sharp and deadly and often was.
I can always remember taking off buckets full of figures when
these shots just waved through the air.
Multiple shots taking away figure after figure after
figure. It does volleys.
Single shot. There's a range of 48 inches.
Strength 5 -, 1 per rank, whereas multiple shot strength 4
-, 1 per rank. But still, you know, deadly,
absolutely deadly. And then straight in comes the
witchelf cauldron of blood. Can you remember that being
wheeled around on the table top? It always looked a bit full to
me, as if it would spill at any moment.
Maybe they should have just filled it.
Half would have been better. There's lots of rules with that.
And then we go on to talk about Urean Poison blade as a colour
photograph. He must be important, carries a
huge sword and a spear and his shield has got like a red demon
on it holding up the high elf moon.
Nasty looking chap. Let's have a read about him.
Urean Poisonblade was one of the most infamous of all Dark Elf
warriors. He was the Witch King's personal
champion, a mighty fighter of awesome ability, skill and
cunning. It was rumoured that he had been
bred by battle, bred for battle, sorry by the Witch King himself,
to be the destroyer and relentless Slayer of his
enemies. Yurian's cruelty was as
legendary as his skill. His foes said that he had the
heart of a demon, and that if you were captured by him, it was
better to swallow your own tongue.
That's difficult to do and choke to death, then survive and face
the horrors the following hours or days would bring.
When Urean learnt of this, he made sure that in future his
prisoners had no tongue to choke on.
In battle, he was all but unstoppable.
He had been taught by the greatest masters of the fighting
arts in Nagarov. He let his teachers know that he
would slay them once he had learnt all they could from them,
unless they could teach him first.
This they did, slaying each of his teachers in turn.
He outgrew them in skill and ability.
The technique he learnt made him the most deadlier fighters.
It was said that he knew more than 10,000 ways to kill an
opponent and 10,000 more ways to cripple them and leave them at
his mercy. Yeah, I bet 9000 of those were
headlocks. He could kill a bull with one
blow of his bare hands and deflect an arrow in flight with
a sweep of his blade. He was death Incarnate.
With such ability went pride and vanity.
Urien was here to boast that he could slay Cain himself in
single combat. It may be that the blooded
handed God heared this and decided to pay Urien back, which
case his hubris cost him dear, for it was Urian's fate to meet
the one warrior who was greater than himself.
It was at the Battle of the Finvel Plain that Urian met his
nemesis. The Witch King's forces were
poised, expectant a final victory over the hated High Elf
enemies. Urian, as proud and as arrogant
as ever, strode forward and called out a challenge to single
combat. Was there anyone in the High Elf
army who dared fight him? First R Hallion of Ivress and
then Corhane, Iron Glave, captain of the White Lions,
accepted the challenge. Erian cut them down as if they
were children, but then Tyrion stepped forth.
The struggle between these two masters of the warriors craft,
so alike in skill and yet so deeply different in character,
was awesome to behold. For fully an hour the two mighty
heroes fought in grim silence, first one gaining the advantage,
then the other, but neither able to land the final telling blow
before their opponent even the odds.
Then Tyrion slipped and fell heavily to the ground.
Eurion leapt forward, his blade held high, but before he could
land the death blow, Tyrion struck.
A quick thrust of his blade found Irian's heart, and the
fight was over, its end so sudden and abrupt that watchers
could hardly believe that it was finished.
Irian slid slowly to the ground. The simplest of tricks.
He gasped a Tyrion as he fell. You killed me with the simplest
of tricks. And with that, he died,
receiving no answer from Tyrion other than a cold, pitiless
stare. Following that tale, we have
some heavy metal pictures of some of the Dark Elf figure
range. Brilliant figures even to today.
You could feel these warriors even in a modern game of Age of
Sigma, Warhammer, the Old World, etcetera, and they would still
look fantastic. We have a Black blackguard
halberdier, black arc Corsair, another black arc halberdier, a
dark elf champion, a dark elf sorceress who looks very much
like the one on the cover of the book, a dark elf Spearman, the
standard bearer. And then a page with the dark
elf corsairs, all ranked up with a fine looking banner with two
dragon headed beasts. Then the harpy regiment.
I used to love these harpies. Yeah, huge feet and hands, but
great. And then a warrior regiment of
the plastic dark elves. We have a unit of dark elf
crossbow men. Then the black guard of Nagarov,
those huge axes, a city yard regiment crossbow men mixed with
Spears. You could do that if you
remember a dark elf repeater crossbow men.
Again, deadly deadly weapons. I love the small crossbow with
the ammo box on it as well. Fantastic stuff.
Then we have the cold one nights now in this book.
Now I remember the big chunky cold ones, but these had taken a
bit of more of a Jurassic Park turn and they were small Raptor
like crease creatures which they were riding at this point.
I know the cold ones have taken a few turns over the years, but
yeah, nice nasty looking beasts. And then the Dark Rider figures,
absolutely gorgeous figures. A lot of people used to use
these as well. They were a good effective
force, the Dark Riders, because they could run, they could flee.
They were a scouting cavalry that could do that.
Then the witch shelves. Again, this range has changed
many times over the years, but I think this one was my favorite.
The big thick swords, the rock'n'roll, Tina Turner hair,
all that. They look great, absolutely
fantastic, although they were really difficult I think to rank
up in units because the figures were so dynamically posed.
Another Spearman regiment, a warrior regiment.
Then we have some dark Elf shield and banner designs, which
of course in these books they used to do a lot.
These are really intricate and other than cut them from the
books, unless you were really skilled painter, I can't see
anyone managing to do these but how they looked even when you
did cut them from the book. And then we go to the map of
Nagaroth. Nagarond, the land of Chill.
What a map that is as well. Absolutely stunning.
And when you see it, you can see how close it is to the high elf
realm of Othron. Look at it.
The petrified forest, the doom glades, the wraithgate, Kraken
lake, the witch gate, the Titan peaks, peaks, even the jungle of
oh, we're going into Austria there.
Let's stay clear. Although I do like thee lizard
men, the rumbling Isle, the salamander mount, the plain of
dogs. They must have had some fun
making up these areas. The map is great.
It goes into a little bit deeper in the in the mountains there,
the black forests, the altar of ultimate darkness sounds nice on
the summer day Grand, the North tower, the Hex Gate, the
underway, the cold water lakes, the pits of Zardoc and the
Broken Lands. We have pages of this now.
These are all in colour and they seem to have gone onto a more
sort of computer aided design that perhaps was available at
the time here rather than the pencil sketches that we had in
the the previous books. The, the ones I've looked at,
the orcs and goblins and of course the dwarves, which I
think were actually a little nicer than this.
But the standard of the, the naming and the imagery is as
good as ever. We have some pictures of the
witchelves, the witchelf figure range and there's a battle
picture of witchelves make a frenzy attack on a unit of dwarf
warriors. And then we've got a little
description of witchelves with a picture.
And again, like the the story I read earlier on, this is a
colour picture, a lot more colour in this book than we've
seen previously. This is a colour picture of a
witch elf in all her glory there with a big red sword, a huge
mane of hair and not much clothes with the boots up to her
knees. And let's read what it has to
say on Witch Elves, which were one of the most fantastic
imaginative troop types that you would find.
The Witch Elves are called the brides of Cain, the mighty God
of murder. As maiden elves, his servants
were wedded to him in midnight rites of blood sacrifice and
cruel abasement. When the temple fires grew hot
and the nights black and cold, Cain takes new brides and blood
flows in torrents down the steps of his altar.
Only the strongest and most grateful, graceful, sorry are
chosen to honour Cain in this way.
Their cadaverous beauty is legendary even among the fair
elves of Uthwan. Their unblemished skill skin is
pale as milk and their hair is white like ice.
Their disdainful eyes are pale and their full red mouths are
quick to laugh at another's pain.
When their master calls the dark elves to battle, the Witch elves
sharpen their blades. To the brides of Cain, the
battlefield is but another temple, and combat is another
chance to taste the blood of sacrifice.
Mad eyed, they fall upon the enemy.
Howling with lust, they eagerly sate their thirst for slaughter.
They laugh as bones break and flesh is torn.
Their own pale bodies are smeared with the red blood of
battle. When the fighting is done, the
hag Queens lead the whitchelves to the temples of Cain where
they bathe in cauldrons of warm blood and dance naked long into
the night. The witch elves howl with
pleasure to see beating hearts torn from living breasts by the
knives of the cackling hag Queens.
These are the oldest of the witch elves and their ancient
Crone like bodies are vile and bent.
Their laughter is a cackle of madness and withered lust.
As they bathe in the sacrificial blood of their shrivelled
bodies. They are renewed once more, and
they emerge reinvigorated with the power and beauty of youth.
There is a knight put aside for the brides of Cain, called Death
Knight, when the hag Queens lead the which elves through the
streets, breaking into houses and stealing away the people
from within. On Death Night, all doors and
windows are barred, and elves hide in terror from the servants
of the God of Murder, For on this night the God shows no
mercy, not even to his most faithful worshippers.
Hundreds of dark elves are dragged to the altars and
sacrificed, young and old, and their blood fills the cauldron
for the hag Queens to bathe in. Amidst great revelry, the dark
elves feast upon raw flesh and drink blood mixed with wine.
After many hours, intoxicated and exhausted, they dance and
they fall into a stupefied sleep and do not awake for many days.
Pretty grim that, isn't it. Replacement Dark Magic spell
cards, just in case you've lost your previous ones.
The books are keen to give us new ones.
And we have the Dark Hand of Destruction, the Power of Chaos,
the Death Spasm, the Blood Banner, the Amber Amulet, the
Circuit of Iron, the Whip of Agony, the Executioner's Act Axe
and the Witch King's armour. And then we have more colour
pictures taken of the beautiful figure range.
The Blackguard of Nagaroth engage as a unit of savage ork
ball boys. Dark elf warriors charge a pair
of scave and warp fire throwers. Throwers and witchell
sorceresses use dark magic against the forces of Chaos.
We have some slannishy figures doing battle against some dark
elves there. And we come to the bestry Dark
Elf warriors. Movement 5.
Weapons Skill 4. Bow Skill 4.
Strength 3. Toughness 3.
Wound 6. Initiative 6.
Attacks one. Leadership 8.
The dark shadow of the High Elves.
Exactly the same, but much more evil.
They come with a hate. High Elves ruled Dark Elves hate
their ancient enemies, the High Elves, so intensely that they
will often fight them to the death rather than to run away.
When fighting High Elves, Dark Elves are affected by the rules
for hatred as described in the Warhammer rule book.
Now that would make games between those two armies very
interesting indeed. As the hark, the Dark Elves were
often forced to charge, but then could reroll attacks and things
like that. Dark Elf obedience tests are
here. Oh I can't remember this, let's
have a read. Dark Elf troops are normally
extremely disciplined, obeying orders promptly and efficiently.
However, when fighting against High Elves, the thousands of
years of bitter enmity between the two races can affect even
the iron discipline of a Dark Elf army.
Ancient hatreds bubble forth, threatening to overwhelm the
Dark Elves with a desire for revenge, a need to get to grips
with their despised opponents and tear them to pieces in
bloody conflict. Under such circumstances, the
leaders of Dark Elf regiments have to struggle to keep the
warriors under their command from acting impetuously and
disrupting the army's generals carefully conceived battle plan.
Because of this, a Dark Elf regiment that adds a High Elf
unit to the front and within 24 inches at the start of their
turn must take an obedience test.
Note the tests are only taken for regiments, characters, war
engines, or indeed anything else other than a regiment does not
have to test. Roll AD 6 for each Dark Elf unit
that has to take an obedience test in the compulsory movement
part of the movement phase. On a roll of two to six, the
unit remains under control and they may move normally this
turn. On a roll of one, however, the
unit is disobedient. A unit acting disobediently must
charge the nearest High Elf unit if they are within reach.
If no High Elves are within reach, the unit must move as
quickly as possible, marching if it's allowed to do so, directly
towards the nearest High Elf unit it can see.
Units that act disobediently on one turn are not forced to do so
again on their next turn. Unless of course, you roll
another one. Note that regiments of harpies
do not hate High Elves in the same way as Dark Elves, and do
not have to take the obedience tests.
Very much like animosity, isn't it?
And I mean, their leadership was quite high at leadership 8.
But look at this, it's on a one to six.
They'd have to make that move. I can't remember this in work,
but it surely must have been a nightmare for Dark elf generals,
and perhaps that's why it wasn't used as much in future editions.
We have the dark elf sorcerers there they have the stats, the
black R Corsairs and they're they have the sea dragon cloak
as well there the dark riders, the ones I loved so much, never
had a unit, never had a figure. And I'm still I'm reading this
off APDF as well where all these books have gone.
I probably stole them for pennies going back in the years.
Which elves? The really 80s looking?
Which elf clambering down some stairs with A2 weapons movement
5 weapons 4. The same as the dark elf profile
there but with frenzy and poisoned weapons.
There's a little bit of a story that goes to this one I'll read.
Fear was not a common emotion amongst the inhabitants of
Grand. Dark Elves were more familiar
with inflicting pain than experiencing suffering
themselves. One night was different, though.
On Death Night, they were all rendered equal by the knowledge
that death could strike any one of them at any time, and
equality of dread unified the city in no way in in a way that
no other event ever could. The inevitability of Death,
Night hungover, the life of grand like a blot, a pall of
blood and cruelty that stained the soul of all the elves living
there. Even the architecture of the
city reflected this time of darkness.
Doors were thick and barred with bands of iron windows and such
tiny slits that no intruder could ever climb through them.
For 10 sleepless hours the dark elves would cower in their homes
listening to the screams of the witch elves dragging their
captives away. The following morning, those who
would survive this lottery of death would celebrate their
escape in the time honoured fashion.
Each family would sacrifice one of their own household, use your
slave or an elderly elderly relative as thanks to the Lord
of Murder for sparing the lives of them and their children.
I don't know about you, but I think perhaps banning death
night would be a good thing. I don't know what the benefits
of it are, I really don't. Anyway, moving on, we have
executioners. These have got weapons skill 5
so they're slightly more skilful and have the expert axman rule.
Then the dark of scouts who have a bow skill of five and a
special deployment. We have another story that comes
up there which we will move through.
We have dark alpha assassins weapons, skill 9 bow, skill 9
initiative 10/2 attacks yes, these were hidden in dark elf
units where they were sort of like sort of posh goblin
fanatics really incredibly powerful when they came out.
Then we've got the cold ones, the harpies, the dark elf war
hydra. I used to have a beautiful war
hydra sort of in my my case here.
I wonder if I've still got it. I'll have a look when I finished
here. The dark elf city guard another
story. And then we move.
Ah, full page pencil drawing of Malekith the witch king.
What a fantastic he's in his chariot being pulled by two cold
ones here, lightning coming from his hands.
Nice looking chap. Then we go into the army list.
Now, of course, the army lists were very similar for all the
the warrior, the the armies of this time.
So we have the introductory thing for a few pages.
The characters, the Dark of General, the battle standard,
the dark of heroes, sorcerers, etcetera.
And then we move on to the regiments.
Coal, Sorry. The core units, the dark Elf
Spearman, the crossbowmen, the regiments, the Cold 1 Knights,
the executioners, the Dark riders, the Black guard of
Nagarov, the Dark Elf City guard, the Witch elves, the
scouts, the blackout Corsairs are good a mix of of troops as
well. Missile troops, cavalry,
infantry, war machines, scouting units, powerful characters give
a really good balanced army that could take on anything really.
Then we have the the obligatory list of monsters that people can
have in these days, where you could just have random monsters
like a gigantic spider or a Wyvern or a dark Pegasus.
I've got a Dark Elf on a Dark Pegasus painted by me rather
poorly. I'll see if I can find it later
on. Then we move to some special
characters. Of course leading them at 350
points was the Witch King of Nagarov with his Circle of Iron
plus 50 points, a Witch King's Armour plus 60 points, a Spell
Shield plus 50 points, the Destroyer plus 75 points and the
Black Chariot plus 90 points. So he would cost you over 500
points if you took all his gear there and you had the option of
taking some and not the others. I, I don't understand that.
Would he just be oh, I've forgotten my my circlet of Iron
and this week. Damn, should I go back and get
it? No, it cost me 50 points.
We have rules for all his gear there.
Then we have the beast Lord Rakrath of Carac of Caron Car
with his whip of agony. Don't want to read that.
Morathi the hag sorceress Crone Helbron the hag queen Kuran,
captain of the Black Guard. Really nice characters.
Here we have a repeated picture which you don't often see in
this book often, but we've got a another picture of a dark elf
executioner beating a high elf which you've seen earlier on.
I believe I might be incorrect, but there we go.
And then we have some some more story.
Then we have a couple of pages on battle tactics.
Now again, this is what we don't see in in in in the newer books
I'll read. I won't read it all, but I'll
just read a bit of it. The Dark Elf army is a tough one
for any opponent to defeat. Just about all the troops in the
army have good fighting abilities, above average
leadership values and have access to excellent weapons and
armour. The rank of file are backed by a
powerful selection of heroes and Wizards and supported by the
awesome Dark Elf repeater boat thrower.
This being said, the Dark Elves have a number of weaknesses that
can be exploited by a competent army general.
They are expensive in terms of points for a start, which means
that a Dark Elf army will tend to be rather small.
This is not helped by the fact that the Dark Elves are not all
that tough, nor at least compared to Dwarves or Orcs.
These two factors mean that a Dark Elf army is very vulnerable
to attrition and can start to melt away, even if they are
subject to quite low strength attacks.
The purpose of this tactic session is to help new Dark Elf
generals downplay their weaknesses and maximise their
strengths. There's a piece then about
missile fire, then they talk about shock troops, light troops
and and scouts, assassins, and then a conclusion.
The Dark Elf army has access to a wide variety of excellent
troop types. However, in order to do well,
all of the different types of troops need to be used as a
combined force that emphasizes the special abilities of each of
the different elements. I tend to think of this as a
hammer and unveil attack. The Dark Elf missile troops form
a solid immovable anvil, against which the enemy is smashed by
hammer blows from the Dark Elf shock troops.
Meanwhile, the Dark Elves light troops disrupt the enemy's
attack, harrying the opponent's flanks and slowing up his troops
so that the main hammer and anvil tactic is even more
effective. Ah, so that's interesting.
It gives you a beginner in Warhammer, a way to have a look
and best use your army I suppose.
And then following that, we have a sample army called Curl
Vraneth's Raiders, and it gives you a sample army that someone
would take with a total army points value of 1990.
So it's a 2000 point army essentially.
Lots of different things there. Some more Dark Earth banners,
this time in black and white that you can cut up.
And then this just showing us the range of other books
available, Citadel miniatures ranges.
And then the collecting the Dark Elf army obligatory little list
as well, which shows you what to get of 1000 point army and then
maybe expand upon, look at those metal miniatures there black and
white. And then it gives us stats for
that sample army as well that you can use and shows you how
you could possibly expand it. And then a roster list.
And then a blank roster list. And then the Dark Elf reference
guide with all the stats for everything that's appeared in
the book so far. And that leads us to a final
photographic wonder, which shows us an unstoppable Dark Elf army
marches forth against the desperate forces of the Empire.
Lovely image, like an old keep in the background, mountains
made from polystyrene and then some buildings in front which
have been occupied by the dark elves who are taking advantage
of their numbers. Here the empire has a steam
tank, has a war wagon, has unit of dwarves all facing up.
But maybe on the way to shore death, I'm not sure.
Well my friends, I've really enjoyed having a look through
this Dark elf book, a book I haven't looked through for many
years. As I've said, I never collected
a Dark Elf army, but I wish I had.
As a pledge to you, the listener, I will paint this dark
elf that's on my desk here, and I will.
I will put the photograph on the Crown of Command Discord, you
can have a look at it. Her staff has unfortunately
snapped so she'll have to do without that, but I'm sure she
won't mind. Having spent probably about 30
years unpainted in my range in my desk.
I'm still wearing the T-shirt and I still wish that one day I
would become a Dark Elf general on March 4th.
My name is Owen Staton, I hope you're enjoying this number of
deep dives. If you're painting your armies,
I hope it's something you get a lot of fulfilment from and help
to relax just listening to somebody waffle on about an old
book that he still holds very dear to his heart.
I have a podcast, it's called Time Between Times.
It's a storytelling podcast where I tell old ghost stories,
myths and legends. Would be ideal painting
listening as well. If you were to do that and if
you were to support me and perhaps leave a review wherever
you get your podcasts for that pod, for that podcast, I'll say
the word podcast a few more times, then that would mean a
great deal to me because it's quite a lonely thing sometimes
talking into this mic, not hearing much back.
I am here on Discord if anyone wants to ask me any questions in
the count of command, you're more than welcome to.
So thank you ever so much for listening.
Diolc and Vauer and Grando. Take care, my friends.