Sons Of Northern Darkness

Whilst ruminating in my private reflection chamber/loft, upon which race I was going to throw my lot in with for this project, it was clear to me from the start that I was playing purely for fluff. I’ve no tactical agenda dictating my allegiances, I’m just not that type of guy. My decisions were based upon which army appealed to me most aesthetically and reflected my personal tastes in terms of character and motivation. Initially I was drawn to Wood Elves. I’ve always appreciated the reverence for nature and ecological themes that define the Asrai and form the foundations for their fluff. The obvious influences of celtic paganism, horned gods etc along with fond memories of owning the Scarlocs Wood Elves Regiment of Renown as a youngster made for an obvious choice so I purchased the Wood Elves batallion box, popped on some Fauna and set about getting busy.


It was at this early juncture that the first glitch in proceedings manifested itself. Turns out Wood Elves models are spindly little swines and try as I might I could not get them to fit together properly. I’m used to banging bulky Space Wolves kits together quick smart, but it soon became apparent that Wood Elves require a patient hand and steady demeanour. Neither of which I possess. And it drove me absolutely nuts. Every night the stack of virgin plastic would taunt me from the box on the edge of my gaming table. Sneering at me, thinking they were better than me. And as the hours turned into days my nostalgic fondness for the Asrai began to wither on the vine. An icey chill crept along my veins and into my heart and sure as night follows day, love did indeed turn to hate or disinterest and so I flogged the Wood Elves onto Paul for his army, turned up my collar and wandered off the path from the sun dappled forests and oaken groves of the old world into darker, colder reaches. I had arrived back in a place I’d exiled myself from many moons ago, when the lure of trying to talk to girls and sing in a punk band had proven too hard to resist… the grim and frostbitten kingdom of Naggaroth.

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First army I collected as a kid was Dark Elves OG Mengil Manhide era, plus I’ve had this Mallus Darkblade model courtesy of Mike Carver knocking about on my shelf for a while. Why Druchii? They ride about on dinosaurs, worship the god of murder, probably stand about on the sides of mountains listening to Immortal all day, and are, for the most part, absolute dicks to everyone, what’s not to like? Looking at this project from a financial perspective, I had not been aiming to spend a great deal of cash so it was starting to look like I’d have to trawl eBay for the bargains. Thankfully the Corehammer bro network came to my rescue in the form of Ark Of The Covenant bass master and UKHC rabble rouser Owain Cooke, who sold me a load of old GW Dark Elves for mates rates as he was having a clear out. Perfect. Couldn’t get those off him until he’s up my neck of the woods though with his band and I wanted to get started so I had a peep at what GW’s current range of Dark Elves looked like. Damn. Those are some uninspiring models. I then looked around the nerd to see what some of the smaller companies were producing and was blown away by the sculpts and ideas on offer from Raging Heroes, Gamezone and Mantic

I briefly toyed with the idea of making an entire proxy Dark Elf army and just jibbing off GW altogether, however that means I’d be taking myself out of the running for the round robin at WHW and thus turning this whole endeavor into an even grander exercise in futility. Regardless, I still ordered a Manticore and some Witch Elves from Raging and a knight riding about on a blag Cold One from Gamezone simply because I liked the models, watch out for product reviews once they turn up and please take a minute to look at Raging Heroes Kickstarter for their upcoming Dark Elf army, if it’s on a par with their other sculpts I can only imagine it will be absolutely insane. Good companies giving the community what they want at a reasonable price, backed 100%. In the meantime I grabbed a box of Drucchi spearmen from a local model shop to be getting on with. Decent enough kit even if one of the head options on the sprue looks like it’s wearing some whacky Dame Edna sunglasses. Swerved those and replaced them with some of the bald Dark Eldar heads courtesy of John Marsden, looks much better and adds some character amongst the rank and file troops. Next installment will actually have some relevant content regarding unit selection, paint scheme and a breakdown of my haul from Owain.
Until then watch this to help you get in the zone: